Texarkana Independent School District's Board of Trustees approved resolutions to join a purchasing cooperative and improvements to the Texas High School track during their regular meeting March 19.
The district will join OMNIA Partners, which recently acquired the BuyBoard Purchasing Cooperative and National IPA Cooperative with whom TISD has worked with in previous years. This resolution will allow the district to collaborate on certain aspects of their spending in order to generate leverage and better value for their money.
The board approved a proposal for improvements to Tiger Drive and the THS track. The bid for the project was awarded to Contech for $304,319. Work will include the extension of Tiger Drive off of Summerhill Road to the THS track, baseball and softball fields.
In other business, trustees approved the instructional materials allotment and TEKS certification for the 2019-20 school year. Texas Education Code requires each school district's board of trustees to certify annually that the instructional materials selections transmitted through the state Educational Materials System have been approved for use in their district. These selections may include textbooks, technology and other instructional resources. The certification also states that the district's instructional materials allotment from the state will be used only for expenses allowed by the Texas Education Code and that the instructional materials will cover all elements of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills of the required curriculum.
The Texas Middle School Program of Studies and Course Description Guide for 2019-20 was also approved during the meeting. New courses include coding for grade 8, synergistic tech for grade 8, water sports for grades 6-7 and bowling for grades 6-8. Texas Middle School offers 151 courses for students with 36 pre-AP courses available.
Also approved was an amendment to Policy FD (LOCA-Admissions. TISD has a waiver in place with the Texas Education Agency to limit the number of foreign exchange students to six. Policy FD (LOCAL) requires updating to match the current district waiver and revised administrative regulation guidelines.
Trustees also voted to cancel the May 4 trustee election as District 3's Wanda Boyette and District 5's Bryan DePriest both ran unopposed.
An online program management agreement with eSchool Texas LLC was also approved to assist in operating a statewide online high-quality virtual school serving grades 3-12. The five-year agreement will begin the 2019-20 school year and serve grades 5 through 11 with expansion to the other grades in following years. TISD will incur no additional expenditures for the program except for the housing of online educational staff and technology needs. Contract clauses allow TISD to exit the relationship due to academic and/or financial viability.
The next regular meeting will be held Tuesday, April 16.