The Goodrich school board met Thursday to discuss athletic facilities, finances and testing at their regular meeting for September in the administration building.
Athletic construction on campus has been slowed a bit by rain over the past few weeks. The construction includes a new track, fieldhouse, and drainage on the field.
“They were at the point they kind of finished the dirt work on the pad, and they were about to start the plumbing, and then it soaked everything,” Goodrich Superintendent Daniel Barton explained. “That kind of eliminates their ability to do plumbing work until it dries back up some.”
The district has waited to put in a new track on the athletic field until drainage was installed. Barton, not satisfied with the numbers received, put the job out once more for bids.
“I wasn’t satisfied with the price. So, I asked him to put it out for bid again, I gave him some names. One of those names that I gave him was Proscape Development. This time, Proscape came back with $154,000.”
The Cleveland company will handle the drainage and crown the field. Barton is hopeful the district will never have to worry about it again.
“There’s no good way to say it other than you can’t put a track in and not have the drainage. (If not,) it’s going to destroy what we’re doing.”
Finance Manager Sarah Bacica said the district should have around $700,000 in the fund balance.
“When we looked at the numbers, we had about $400,000 left that we didn’t spend,” Bacica said. “We had about $160,000 brought in revenue, more like investments, our interest, that kind of stuff.”
Bacica said the district is also still owed over $100,000, bringing the total to somewhere around $700,000.
“That’s not a concrete total, because my auditor still has to come and make adjustments,” she said.
The board discussed goals pertaining to the STAAR tests, where Goodrich ISD has shown steady improvement. In 2022, 28% achieved the “meets” level on the STAAR in math. Since then, the number has improved each year to 32%, 36%, 40%, and now 44% in 2026. They have a target of 56% in 2031. For reading, the number was 23% in 2022. That has also improved each year to 28%, 33%, 38%, and 42% in 2026. There is a goal of 56% in 2031.
Goodrich superintendent Daniel Barton said there have been issues with buses, calling them general repairs. The latest is an air conditioning issue with a line that has a leak.
“Minor stuff, but very aggravating just the same, every time we turn around,” Barton said. “But, we’ve run through quite a few bus repairs this past month.”
Barton also talked about an electrical issue in the cafeteria that has yet to be solved.
“The weekend before last, on Saturday, for some reason, the main breaker threw on the cafeteria in the middle of the night,” he said. “I looked it up on camera, I can actually hear it when it trips. It was just random in the middle of the night on Saturday morning. And then, the generator kicks on. Nobody found it until Sunday or Monday morning, when the janitor came in. Then, we didn’t think much of it. He just reset the breaker and we moved on.
“But then, this past weekend, we come in, it was running again. I went back and looked and it was randomly at about 2 a.m., on Sunday night, just ran randomly. So, we’re going to give it one more shot over the weekend. If it does it again, then I’m going to get an electrician to come over and see if we can diagnose. It may just be the breaker, but it’s strange that it happens in the middle of the night and nobody’s here.”
Teachers and administrators are working toward teaching politeness, kindness and respect. There is a competition involved and students are participating to earn credits toward that competition.
One administrator shared a story of how she was in a third-grade classroom to say hello to a teacher’s aide and students she had not seen since the summer. She was asked to step out, shut the door, and come in again. Upon returning to the room, one of the third-grade students stood up and welcomed her to the class, saying with direct eye contact, “Good morning, welcome to our classroom. How are you?”
The same administrator said several eighth-grade students also welcomed her and asked how she was.
A class size waiver was approved, just as the district does each year. In kindergarten through fourth grade, Texas classrooms are allowed 22 students per teacher unless a waiver is submitted. Each of the classes that is over the limit has a paraprofessional at some point of the day to help. First grade has 24 students, third grade 27, and fourth grade 25.
