TEXARKANA, Texas - Construction is on schedule and about to progress quickly at the Margaret Fischer Davis Elementary School in the Pleasant Grove Independent School District.
The concrete slab is about to be poured for the administration and media center portion of the building, representatives from Nabholz Construction told the board of trustees at Thursday's meeting.
The slab for the cafeteria will be poured two weeks after that, steel will be delivered the week of Sept. 23 and the first set of metal buildings will soon be delivered to the site.
Overall, school's construction is a $14.4 million project.
Construction officials also said with cooler weather, they will add more man hours to the project, which is staying in line with the master schedule.
Superintendent Chad Pirtle said the trustees would consider doing a walk through of the project some time during the middle of October.
The school, being constructed at Galleria Oaks and Christus Drive, is expected to be complete by July 3, 2020.
It is funded through a $19.9 million bond voters approved in 2018 for the school and updated security and technology district-wide.
In other business, District Director of Business Derick Sibley told the board that the district ended the month of September with $17.7 million in general fund revenue and expenditures were $17.3 million, which aligned with the budget.
He said that the district had collected 100% of tax revenue for the year, for which the levy was $13 million. With late penalties, the final amount was $13.3 million, he said.
The financial report also shows the district has $18.135 million remaining in bond funds.
The board also heard a report on the A rating they received from the Texas Education Agency in August. The letter grade is a result of many factors, including state test scores, college and career readiness and closing the gaps between the school's highest and lowest achieving students.
Pirtle said he was proud of the district's ranking and that it was a result of hard work by both teachers and students.
"We absolutely have some of the best STAAR scores in the state of Texas and we're proud of this," he said. "However, I will tell you that our administrative team including me, is not satisfied with these results. We've studied the results and created plans of intervention and we will continue to do that."
Pirtle said they are putting systems in place to improve the scores and support students, teachers, staff and administrators.
"These systems will bring consistency, attention, awareness, strategy, support and improvement to how we do school in Pleasant Grove ISD and I look forward to the impact of the implementation of these systems that we are putting in place," he said. "I feel confident that improvement is in our future."
He also said that while the test scores are a reflection of academic success, that they don't show the entire picture of what students are learning.
"We are proud of of our results, but I believe as a group, we are more proud of what happens outside these test scores," he said. "Pleasant Grove ISD is so much more than a test score. Our district is a world-class operation that provides successful opportunities for our students in so many areasTest scores are great, but the overall experiences our students have inside the walls of our schools is what we should really be proud of."
The board also approved several committees, including the district educational improvement, campus-level planning and decision-making, campus attendance, library materials review, language proficiency assessment, the school health advisory, Title I advisory and instructional materials.
In other business, the board also passed a resolution to nominate former Trustee Robert Sheppard to be nominated as a director on the Bowie Central Appraisal District.