By Ryan Rerich

Schulenburg Sticker Intern

School officials looking for more input after poor response to survey, tours

The June meeting for the Schulenburg ISD Board of Trustees was conducted briskly and within an hour and a half open session was complete.

Numerous items were discussed, but highlighted in the meeting was again the long-term strategic planning update.

Schulenburg ISD has been working vigorously to get the Schulenburg community feedback on the facility updates, with a survey and tours being offered to the public.

“I have been making the presentations for the facilities and we have not been having very good turnouts,” said Superintendent Lisa Meysembourg.

Overall there were three staff members, two board members and one community member that attended the three sessions combined, she said.

Concerning the survey, all of the staff at the school have taken the survey and results were tallied.

As of Monday, June 22, only six others completed the survey who were not school staff and three of those surveys were not completed entirely. Only two individuals provided comments.

Meysembourg, along with the support of her board and staff at Schulenburg ISD, urges the public and the community to take a very serious approach to the facility issues and provide input that will aid in enhancing the complete facility.

“People don’t come and make their voices heard,” said Meysembourg. “I have done my best and have made 13 or 14 presentations to different organizations and community groups, plus the open houses here.”

She suggested having a large group of different people involved in a “facility task force.”

Meysembourg plans to get a team of at least 40 or 50 people who they (herself and the board) think could be influential on the facility committee. Everyone is welcome to be part of the task force, and attendance from others in the public is wanted, but invitations will be sent out to those 40 or 50 individuals throughout the community.

The week of July 13 is planned as the week of gathering for the task force, and phone calls will be made within the next week to reach those that are wanted in the community.

Shannon McBride, president of the school board, identified a unique perspective to finding people in the community who need to be heard.

“There are always people that jump to the forefront, but they are involved in everything. We are going to have to reach the people who are very silent that have a big opinion and can influence a lot of people. Those are the people that we are missing,” McBride said.

The school board seeks to have cultural diversity in the facility committee and all means to accomplish that will be attempted in the near future.

Meysembourg can be heard on Tuesday, June 30 on the radio with Gary Dusek regarding recent information, the facility reports and other news within the school district.

Other information items and discussion items were also addressed during the school board meeting.

Informative items, such as the trip to the summer leadership convention in San Antonio hosted by TASB  (Texas Association of School Boards) that members on the board attended, were discussed at the beginning of the meeting.

Ideas and suggestions were offered and numerous sessions at the convention informed the board members on how to better their school district.

A new elective service for students was brought up by Meysembourg called “EDynamic Learning.”

“One of the challenges that we have been facing is making sure that we have good course electives for students to choose from,” said Meysembourg.

New courses normally come with new or additional teachers, but this service would give students the opportunity to learn in the learning lab with a proctor watching over them.

This proctor would keep track of the students’ grades just like a normal class, but there could hypothetically be 20 students in the class taking 20 different electives for an entire semester such as Philosophy, Forensic Science, Digital Photography, Health Science, Law & Order and Sports Marketing just to name a few.

This gives the student the opportunity to choose their main interest and still get a local elective credit for that one study of their choice per semester.

The preliminary budget was also discussed, but no figures are yet to be set in stone.

Projected revenues and expenditures wereboth  estimated at over $6.4 million.

Increased funding of $78,159 was not included in the projected revenue.

All local legal updates involved in Policy Update 102 were passed unanimously.

The board also approved unanimously to extend and renew their Risk Management Fund through TASB.

The last item of business discussed in the open session was the continuance of school transportation of students across US Highway 77, Interstate 10 and US Highway 90.

This motion also passed unanimously once again, and Schulenburg ISD will continue to transport students across the dangerous and highly populated roads instead of students hazardously having to walk across.

The board then went into closed session and these items below were discussed and approved.

The Board ratified the resignations of Robin Trojcak, administrator, and Tucker Smolik, secondary teacher.

The Board approved one-year probationary contracts for:

• Wm. Brock Ramsey, secondary teacher/coach;

• Mary Billeck, behavior specialist teacher;

• Robert Pohl, secondary (1/2 time)  teacher;

• Rebecca Kubala, Fayette Gonzales Coop teacher;

• Stacy Fogle, Elementary Teacher.

Adjournment was at 8:29 p.m. and the next meeting will be held on Monday, July 27 at 6 p.m.