TISD board honored for service during January meeting

On Thursday, Jan. 13, Thorndale ISD held two meetings.

The first meeting was a Board Appreciation Dinner hosted by the Thorndale FCCLA organization.  

Groups from all three campuses presented letters of thanks assorted treats to the board to thank them for their service.  

One group of middle school band students performed the school song prior to dinner.

 The regular meeting was then called to order. 

The first item on the agenda was the recognition of THS Senior Roy Moody and Junior Alyssa Pachl for their first place finish in the Milam County Moot Court competition. County Judge Steve Young was present to talk about the moot court competition. He complemented Roy and Alyssa for their excellent preparation and performance.  

Administrative reports were up next and principals and directors were present to answer questions. 

Middle School Principal Scott Frei talked about the recent middle school UIL academic results.  The board praised the middle school and Elementary for making big gains in participation and scores this year.

Frei also talked about the recent sixth grade field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the Rameses exhibit. 

High School Principal Jennifer Parnham talked about an upcoming incentive trip and an On Ramps trip in April to explore the University of Texas. 

Instructional Technologist Lindsay Franklin talked about a grant that was recently awarded that would bring more than $70,000 to the district to purchase new teacher computers and student Chromebooks. She also talked about an initiative to use social media to highlight seniors several times per week.  

She praised junior Samantha Sanders for putting the information together and preparing the slides for publishing.  

Superintendent Adam Ivy talked about several items.  

He reported that the new roof on the high school had been completed and that the city manager had contacted him about partnering to fix Gibson Street which runs behind the administration.  

He reported that COVID numbers remain manageable and that student attendance has stayed above 92 percent.  

Ivy also talked to the board about rising enrollment numbers at the elementary that may require the purchase of portable buildings for the 2022-23 school year. 

Business Manager Rebecca Peel asked the board to approve the annual finance and compliance report that was presented to the board back in December.  The board voted 7-0 to approve.  

Ivy brought the third reading of board policy update 118 to the board.  He reminded the board that they had read through and discussed this update in November and in December. He explained that the only change would be to policy EHAA local. 

Ivy had discussed this policy previously and had asked for it to be revised to allow more flexibility in the selection of certain health related curricula.  The board voted 7-0 to approve the update and amend EHAA local.

Peel presented a budget amendment to authorize the funds to process the technology order that will eventually be funded by the aforementioned technology grant.  She explained that the vendors would be billing the grant provider directly for their portion of the expense but that a purchase order for the full amount was required to process the order.  The board voted 7-0 to approve the amendment. 

The board discussed upcoming Team of 8 training and selected a few dates to try to schedule that training.  

The board went into closed session to discuss the superintendent’s annual evaluation and contract.  They returned to open session and voted 7-0 to approve the contract.