L-EISD attains perfect financial accountability score for 2016

The high school choir is slated to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City this spring

Trustees of Liberty-Eylau Independent School District held a public hearing Thursday on the school’s state accountability financial rating for 2016.

Susie Byrd, the district’s business manager said the school’s finances are in top shape.

“We had a perfect score of 100, which we have had for the past five years and that results in a superior rating,” she said.

The Texas Education Agency evaluates districts each year to determine their financial accountability and help schools better manage their financial resources.

The board also heard an update on the various construction projects in the district. Scott Hughes of Buford Thompson Construction, the company managing the job sites, said all the projects are on schedule for time and cost. Crews will be working to complete the CTE building at the high school, and finishing framing, drywall, painting, power and air systems, along with the ceiling, millwork and flooring. That project is set to be complete by mid-October.

Hughes said concrete will be poured next week for the safety shelter portion of the new Primary School. Currently, they are renovating the campus’s existing classroom building and have completed some of the plumbing for the new building. He added that they had completed the new parking lot on the north side of the Pre-K building.

The board also discussed partnering with the Salvation Army to begin a Boys and Girls Club program at the C.K. Bender campus, which will be empty next year, because the students currently attending classes there will be relocated to the Primary campus, which will be complete in August 2018.

“We’re excited about that moving forward,” Superintendent Ronnie Thompson said, adding that there are details to be worked out for the agreement, and that the partnership will be an asset to the community.

Trustees also approved campus and district improvement plans. Thompson explained that they are working documents and they will change as they receive new data throughout the school year.

He pointed out that because Liberty-Eylau Elementary is on the improvement list and they included some targeted elements in the plan to address that.

“Basically, they deal with the instruction happening in the classroom and the professional learning communities going on at that campus to help improve the curriculum instruction and the learning environment,” Thompson said. He said that they are sending an appeal to the state on the rating, stating they believe a student was not counted when the data was calculated.

“We have to go through the process until we hear back from them, he said. “We feel pretty confident that we’ll hear back positively about that.” He said a response is expected by mid-November.

In other business, the board approved three field trips for the high school. In the spring, the choir will take a trip to New York City and perform at Carnegie Hall, with the band performing in the 2018 National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C. Congressman John Ratcliffe nominated the band to perform in the parade. The High School Interact/ HOSA club will also take a trip to Florida.