Recap of Tonight's Board Meeting

Our Board held its regular monthly meeting tonight.  Here's a recap of the issues discussed and actions taken on tonight's Agenda.

We had the honor of having State Representative Jim Murphy in attendance at our meeting tonight.

We had five special presentations this evening.  First, our February 2008 Employee of the Month is Elizabeth Phillipi, the Library Systems Administrator at the Spring Branch Education Center.

Our February 2008 Volunteer of the Month is Frostwood Elementary's PTA.

Our third special presentation a recognition of Black History Month that included a speech by Landrum Middle School 8th Grader, Shun Minor entitled "Honoring Our Heroes."

The next special presentation recognized National School Counseling Week.

Our final special presentation recognized Spring Branch Students who have been selected for All-State Orchestra and All-State Choir. (Click here for more information).

We then had Citizens Participation during which no one spoke.

Next on our agenda were our Board Member Liaison Reports followed by an update on the 2007 Bond that included We also received an update on the 2007 Bond, including updates on Hollibrook, Westwood, Sherwood, Nottingham, Buffalo Creek, Cedar Brook, and Treasure Forest.

We then received the Quarterly Energy Report - October - December 2007.

Our first action items on the Agenda were the approval of two policies, FFAC (Local) Wellness and Health Services: Medical Treatment and DCB (Local) Employment Practices: Educator Term Contracts.

We approved the Budget Status Summary and the Facility Improvement Program Monthly Status Report.  As we do in every monthly meeting, we also approved the awarding of a variety of contracts.

Our election for School Board Trustees is May 10, 2008.  We approved the Election Officials for the election tonight.

As part of the 2007 Bond Election, we are required to authorize the issuance of the bonds approved by our voters.  Tonight we approved the first issuance of bonds in the amount of $200 million. 

We then considered two key components of the budget process.  First we looked at the projected enrollment for 2008-2009.  The District has done a great job of predicting enrollment as evidenced by the fact that this year's prediction was within 17 students (out of 32,000+) of being exact.  We also considered two alternative staffing guidelines (version A and version B).  In recognition of the bleak budgetary times we face as a result of the Legislature's passage of House Bill 1 and Robin Hood, we approved version B which increases the secondary student teacher ratio by 0.75.

We concluded the meeting by approving revised employment contracts, revisions to our Board Operating Procedures #30, 31, and 42, and approval of our Consent Agenda (Part 1 and Part 2).