The Liberty-Eylau Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a reduced tax rate and recognized four staff members for helping weld 30 hand-sanitizing stands from raw materials in a board meeting Thursday night.
The meeting opened with the recognition of teachers from the Career Tech Education department - Ray Howell, Rodney Fellers, Daniel Mitchell and Bryan Scheu - for fabricating 30 hand-sanitizing stations from raw materials and painting them in the CTE auto body shop, after the district's supplier told them they could not provide them with any more stations.
"They worked during our back-to-school week for teachers to get all of these ready for the campuses," Director of Communications Matt Fry said. "It started with Mr. Howell, who took one we had purchased and said we need something like this. And they didn't build something like this - they build the exact same thing. The exciting thing about this for our school is that these guys will be doing this same stuff with our kids."
Following the teachers' recognition, an open forum was held, where Johnathon Boyce, president of Brighter Tomorrow Foundation, requested to be put on the agenda for the board regarding concerns about students who are virtual learners not being able to participate in extracurricular activities
"I don't think that children should be punished because the parent chooses to not send their child to school," Boyce said. "Because we know the child can still participate in extracurricular activities within their district when homeschooling. And I understand it's not a University Interscholastic League (UIL) rule, but it is up to the school district to choose if the child participates in extracurricular activities, if they choose virtual (learning)."
Boyce also advocated for hazard pay for teachers and administration, due to the dangers of working and teaching during a pandemic.
The board is not allowed to address the concerns in open sessions during board meetings, but Board President Trevelyan Hodge said Boyce's concerns will be discussed in house.
Business Manager Frank Rougeau presented the preview and consideration of an ordinance for setting the 2020-2021 tax rate, which was approved, to drop the rate from $1.268 to $1.254
In other news from the meeting, a nomination for board member James Keeton to be a member of the National School Board Association Advocacy Institute was presented by Superintendent Ronnie Thompson, and was approved.
In reports from Thompson, he announced that enrollment numbers for students were at 2,291, with 895 learning virtually and 1,396 on campus.