Rusk will hold combo election
Election will be held May 12
BY GLORIA JENNINGS

The Rusk City and Rusk ISD elections both will be held May 12 at the Rusk ISD administration building on North Henderson Street. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Members of the Rusk School Board approved the combined election Monday night. The city council approved the site location at noon Tuesday.

The city and school district will each be responsible for their own elections.

Houston White will be election judge for the school election and Donald Woodard, the election judge alternate. Early voting will be from April 30 to May 8. The school district early voting will be at the administration building and the city early voting will be at city hall.

In other matters the school board voted to change the March board meeting from the second Monday to the third Monday, March 19, due to spring break scheduled for the second week.

The May meeting was changed from May 14 to May 21. The May 12 election will be canvassed and the board reorganized at that meeting.

The board will be involved in board training the week of June 14-16.

Barbara McCreight, food service manager, presented a report to the board. This was the first of several department reports that will be presented at board meetings.

Mrs. McCreight reported to the board that the district has 825 students eligible for free lunches and 222 eligible for reduced meals. There is 53 percent of the student enrollment eligible for free or reduced lunches and 47 paying students. Rusk ISD has an enrollment of 1,970 students.

During January, 10,371 free lunches were served. There were 2,463 reduced meals served and 7,243 meals were paid. An average daily participation for free meals totaled 648; 154 for reduced and 453 were paid. An average of 1,255 meals were served daily.

All students are allowed free breakfasts. During January 15,301 breakfasts were served with an average of 956 per day.

"The Grab 'N Go breakfast program was implemented at the junior high in 2004 and fully implemented district-wide in 2005. The program provides breakfast to all students at no charge. Research has shown that students that are not hungry have a longer attention span and less discipline problems. This is the basis of this program. The free and reduced revenue covers the cost of providing breakfast to paying students at no charge. The program basically breaks even financially. Principals have commented that the program has enhanced the overall instructional program at Rusk ISD," Mrs. McCreight said.

There are 28 staff members in the food service department. Of that, six are at the high school; six at the junior high; four at the intermediate; four at the elementary; five at the primary; and three in the department office.

Each manager works seven hours per day. Other campus staff members work six hours per day. The staff receives training each year to comply with all local, state and federal requirements. When staff members took the county food handlers test they scored higher than any group on the test.

The district will apply for a Tech Prep Grant this year. Last year Rusk ISD received $1,115.

A bad weather make-up day was scheduled for April 9, a staff development day. Students will attend classes on that day and May 29 will be scheduled as a staff day. The board approved the school calendar for 2007-08. The first day of instruction is scheduled for Aug. 27. Staff development is planned for Aug. 21-23. Teachers will be off on Aug. 24. There will be no holiday for Labor Day.

Holidays scheduled include Thanksgiving, Nov. 21-23; Christmas break, Dec. 24- Jan. 4, 2008; Martin Luther King birthday, Jan. 21, 2008; spring break, March 17-21, 2008; Easter, March 24, 2008; Memorial Day, May 26, 2008. Bad weather days are March 24, 2008 and April 18, 2008. Inservice days will be Aug. 21-23, 2008; Oct. 8,2008, Jan. 22, 2008 April 18, 2008 or May 26, 2008 and June 6, 2008. Graduation will be June 6, 2008.

The board approved an optional flexible year program which will allow students six additional days off if they pass the TAKS test with a score of 110 percent over the minimum score on all four tests. Students will be given days off on Nov. 19-20 and April 8-11. The days will be used for tutoring students who have not passed the test.

Following an executive session contracts were extended for one year for Sandra Lenard, Jan Evans, Carlene Clayton, John Burkhalter, Ricky Hassell, Kathy Guidry, Wayne Mahaffey, Gary Robbins, Betty Collins and Harriet Page. Approved for two year administrative contracts were former probationary administrators, Scott Schwartz and Kathleen Glidewell. The retirement of Wayne Larson, teacher/coach was approved for the end of the school year.

The next meeting of the board will be at 6 p.m. March 19.

Attending the meeting were Mike Ross, president; David Fulton, vice-president; Frances Long, secretary; Ray Cavazoz, Rodney Hugghins, Britt Patterson and Dr. Anthony Holcomb.