Pleasant Grove schools see small decline in enrollment

TEXARKANA, Texas — Pleasant Grove Independent School District Board of Trustees approved its district and campus performance objectives and a budget amendment during a regular meeting on Tuesday.

Some of the primary goals of the annual district plans included keeping well-maintained facilities, expanding the district’s technological infrastructure, optimizing the budget and improving enrollment.

Director of Learning Services Julie McClurg said she is proud of how aligned the plans are across the district for every campus.

“We’re really building our shared knowledge about goal-setting and what the research says about how it improves learning and how it improves the outcome,” McClurg said. “We went through the process starting in the summer, and we started with the board goals. Then we went down to the district level to make sure we reflected your goals, and then to the campus level. And they created their goals aligned with ours.”

The topic of student enrollment improvement was brought up by Superintendent Chad Pirtle during his district updates, as he reported that enrollment is at 94.34% for PGISD at the moment. Last month, he reported that enrollment was at 2,323.

“This past month as a district, we’ve been at 95.24%, so we’re growing and steadily climbing,” Pirtle said.

Pirtle told the board that student enrollment is down throughout the region and is not a district-specific issue.

The board approved a budget amendment for the purchase of vehicles at a price of $208,765. Six vehicles were purchased — four for maintenance, one for general usage and one for special education.

The board postponed the addition of a construction manager for a high school Career & Technical Education addition until next month, as the interview process is still underway.