June’s meeting of the Livingston ISD Board of Trustees Monday approved hires at the junior high, a salary bump for employees, reviewed STAAR results, and honored some achievements over the past academic year.
The board entered a second closed session. Upon reconvening the meeting, they approved the hiring of Christy Elwell as the associate principal, and Caitlin Ward as the junior high assistant principal.
The board also approved the 2026-2027 compensation plan, which includes a salary increase equal to 3% of the midpoint for all LISD employees. The superintendent contract was also revised, with a 3% increase to his base salary.
Opening the meeting was a celebration video of student excellence, highlighting student achievements at district-level competitions and above.
Livingston Junior High Band Director Jesse Albert shared that the Livingston Junior High Symphonic Band (Varsity) earned first place in Region 10 of the ATSSB Outstanding Performance Series Competition, advancing to the area level for the first time in school history.
The competition allows directors the opportunity to submit professional recordings of their bands to be judged and ranked amongst other bands within their region. Recordings that rank high enough in their categories at the region level can advance to the area and state levels throughout the summer.
Albert submitted the recording of Plaza de Toros by Michael Story, which was designated as first place in the Region 10 for their concert category. The area round will be certified by June 20, where their first-place region recording will be ranked amongst other bands. The top three recordings in this round will advance to state.
Livingston High School Choir Director Renee Vore recognized seven LHS students who advanced to the UIL State Solo & Ensemble competition. With seven state competitors, this was the largest group competing at the state level in the last five years. Cameron Ivory and Xela Williams were outstanding performers.
Lilliyn Reily, Olivia Dodge, Dailyn Vallejos, Jordyn Howell were silver medal finalists, while Mia McGregor was a bronze finalist.
The outstanding performer award is one of the highest individual honors a high school musician can achieve. Out of approximately 100,000 regional competitors, only the top 2-3% who earn a superior Division I rating on a highly advanced Class 1 solo receive the distinguished award.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Marley Morris presented a report on the STAAR raw data released by the state. The 2026 academic data showed broad gains at the high school level. Final data will arrive in several weeks. The high school continues to lead the district in growth. Notably, biology EOC “meets” scores jumped 20%, rising from 49% in 2025 to 69% in 2026.
High School algebra I also showed exceptional improvement, advancing 18% in both “approaches” and “meets” categories. Seventh-grade math showed a 15% surge in foundational approaches. Fifth-grade reading and language arts remains a district strength, characterized by high “master” percentages across all three campuses. Timber Creek Elementary reached a 42% mastery rate, up from 30% in 2025.
Creekside Elementary has demonstrated systemic improvement across nearly all metrics, reversing previous downward trends.
Fourth grade has district-wide struggles in both math and reading and language arts. The “approaches” score at Cedar Grove fell from 92% to 83%.
Eighth-grade social studies represents the sharpest single-subject decline in the district. “Approaches” scores plummeted from 58% to 42%, necessitating immediate curriculum review.
Another sharp drop was in reading and language arts for third and fourth grades at Cedar Grove and Timber Creek.
Athletic director Tucker Carter presented his report, giving an update on the summer activities.
“We are currently in Week 3 of our summer strength and speed program,” the coach said. “We are averaging about 60-80 girls and about 80-120 boys on a daily basis. I feel great about where we are from a programming standpoint, both in the weight room and the movement aspects of the program. We are not just throwing a run and lift together and working kids out. This has been very well thought out and fits together nicely. Also, we have had a ton of coaches there pouring into our kids. Our new coaches have really stepped up and bought into what we have going on in Livingston athletics.”
The athletic camps give kids the opportunity to participate in activities several times throughout the summer.
“Most importantly, the activities get the community involved and excited about our programs. So far, we have had our Future Lion football camp and our Kindergarten through third grade soccer camp. We had about 50 at football camp and about 40 at soccer camp. Coach Fabian Cuevas is currently hosting his fourth through sixth-grade soccer camp tonight.”
Upcoming camps include softball June 22-23, basketball July 8-9, volleyball July 13-14, volleyball freshmen July 15, and baseball July 15-16.
Graduating senior Brayden Akers was named to the THSCA Super Elite Golf Team. He was one of five kids in Class 4A on that team in the state.
Caden Jehnzen, Aaron Solis, and Luis Trevino all participated in the SETX Senior Showcase for soccer. Brooke Anderson in softball, Rudy Marquez for baseball, and Ziekus Garner in basketball all played in the Showcase. Jaykwon Farr and Isaiah Frank played in football. Frank was honored as the Defensive MVP for the West team.
Last year, athletic postseason appearances grew from 14 to 17. District awards last year were 58, compared to this year’s 83, plus 11 district champions. Academic awards increased from 92 to 180. Last year, there were 26 regional qualifiers, which grew to 40 this year, and 10 team qualifiers. There were three state qualifiers last year, and six, plus a state champion this year.
In action items, character education curriculum The Positivity Project was purchased for $29,811. The curriculum will be used as instruction in positive character traits and personal skills with age-appropriate teaching strategies for students in Pre-Kindergarten through 12th-grade.
Also approved was the 2026-2027 student code of conduct, donations of used Chromebooks to Grapeland ISD instead of a recycling company, donation of used band uniforms to the band boosters for memorabilia purposes. A purchase of online resources was approved to be used at all three elementary campuses for TIA and student assessments in the amount of $103,119. Online courseware was purchased for student test preparation in LHS credit recovery in the amount of $53,906.
The purchase of tier one instruction training for all campuses was made in the amount of $161,360.
Molly Abele with Carr, Riggs, and Ingram (CRI) presented the reissued 2025 Audit Report to the board. After the LISD Audit report was presented in 2025 and approved by the LISD Board of Trustees, the state notified its office in Lufkin had not properly renewed its license at that office. The state asked that CRI reissue the LISD audit report with the new date after the reissuance had been settled. The CPAs brought the audit back to the board to reapprove, with financials unchanged.
The only difference was subsequent events that were required of the audit to update for June 2026. The reissued audit was approved.
The LISD Special Education Audit by Stetson and Associates was presented by Cyndi Short. Beginning in the fall of 2026, Stetson and Associates conducted an evaluation of services for students with disabilities. The audit focused on six areas of quality standards, which include leadership, instruction, staffing, capacity building, family engagement, and compliance. They conducted faculty surveys, parent surveys, interviews with district leaders, a comparison study of similar districts, a review of LISD documents, structured observations of classroom practices, an eligibility folder review, and focus groups.
LISD enrollment of students with disabilities is approximately 794, or 19.9% of the total student population. That number is higher than the national average (15%), the state average (15.3%), the Region 6 average (15.7%), and the averages for five of the six comparable districts.
LISD was found to possess many foundational strengths, including committed leadership, collaborative staff, and a strong philosophical commitment to students with disabilities.
The district’s next phase of growth will require strengthening consistency, instructional rigor, MTSS implementation, and equitable service delivery to ensure that the vision for inclusive, high-quality services is implemented effectively across all campuses and grade levels.
