The Goodrich school board met for March’s regular gathering to discuss testing, maintenance and compensation plans.
With unopposed candidates, the district’s May 2 election has been cancelled. Rigoberto Reyes and Lidia Merino in Positions 1 and 2 will have another three-year term.
The board approved a one percent raise for all returning staff, after a large salary hike last year. The new raise for all returning staff will bring a total cost of $26,963.
From the legislative session, non-certified teachers that are hired from first year through the fourth year cannot make the same amount of money as a certified teacher. Non-certified teachers will start out $300 less per year. Certified teachers in their first year will earn $57,440.
The past four weeks, each of the campuses have prepped for the STAAR test with after-school tutorials.
“In the past, we’ve done two days at the secondary and we’ve done three days a week at the elementary. This year, we did three days all the way across. It’s going good; pretty good attendance. We’re down a little bit this week on the high school, we’ll be making phone calls again tomorrow morning, but elementary, middle school – really good attendance rates, so that’s always good to see.”
Testing is also underway for Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), which is the standardized test for students who are learning English as a second language. It tests where students’ proficiency is coming into school for second through 12th grade, which includes listening, speaking, reading and writing.
In the finance report, manager Sarah Bacica said the school gained $48,000 this quarter in interest. She said interest rates have dropped a bit, but that the district is performing well.
Staff have attempted to receive quotes to update the sign on the highway, where panels have fallen off. The frame is said to be rotten. While the posts are supporting the sign, it needs reframing. After opening three bids from sign companies, the cheapest was around $12,000.
“So, we’re working on plan Z, which is, we’re hoping that we can get just a regular local contractor, that’s not a sign company, to remove the signage,” Goodrich Superintendent Daniel Barton said. “They’re just screwed on. Just remove it, rebuild the frame, and then screw it back up. I think that’s going to be our cheapest path.”
Goodrich ISD will start researching quotes for restriping and sealing the parking lots. Barton said the last quotes received were in the $30,000 range. He expects it to be a summer project.
Upon opening bid packets for the athletic renovations, Barton said price tags were “way above” what the district had hoped to see.
“We were looking at about a $2 million project max,” he said of the renovations. “They were way over that, like $3.5 (million). So, I've been working, trying to get it down. We’re not going to accept any of those bids, and we’re going to have to get it re-bid and focus on the track, and then the fieldhouse. One of the problems that we run into was that they were saying that the new portion that we were going to add on, the add-on for the fieldhouse, it was like $380,000 for that. But then the reno was almost a million dollars. So, obviously that makes no sense. We’ve got to figure something else out. So, we’re going back to the drawing board.”
Barton said the district would like to see a quality fieldhouse, a new track, and lighting. Later, tennis court improvements are a goal.
