Consultants give AISD a positive progress report
Advances made with teachers' technological training
BY MICAH BATEMAN

The Alto Independent School District Board of Trustees received a progress report from educational consultants Donni Cook and Lisa Krumm of C.I.T. Consultants Monday night at its regular meeting. The two were assigned to the school district by the Texas Education Agency after AISD was found academically unacceptable in the 2005-06 accountability ratings. The prognosis they gave for the recently ended and upcoming terms, however, was positive. After an academically acceptable 2006-07 school year, Ms. Cook said, AISD is well on the way to getting back on track.

"We need to be in long enough for you to have two academic years acceptable," she said. "Next year at this time, you're going to be cheering to get us out of here."

Ms. Cook said one major area of improvement for the district came in technological training for the teachers, primarily in the area of data collection and management. She said data management is critical for teachers to pinpoint precise areas of concern, so that teachers may work more effectively with their students on problem areas.

Another improvement, she said, was Superintendent Dr. Ray DeSpain's initiative to lengthen the school day by half an hour. The focus for next year, she said, will be to move to an eight-period day, allowing time for TAKS remediation and targeted tutorials.

She also looks forward to furthering an incentive program for the next school year that was implemented in the fifth six-weeks of the last school term. "We felt it was important that high school kids were still motivated," she said. Part of the targeted incentive program for next year will be high school allotment funds from the state for high school completion.

According to Ms. Cook, one of the biggest tangible accomplishments of the past school year was the acquisition of new instructional materials, including the new computer lab at the high school, the purchase of advanced Texas Instrument calculators and new curriculum alignment materials for mathematics, the district's problem area.

Ms. Krumm emphasized the importance of AISD's faculty working on poverty training, due to the district's high "disadvantaged" population.

"They have a different language than middle class kids," Ms. Cook said. "They respond differently. We see things from a middle class world, but we need to see how they communicate."

Finally the consultants stressed the importance of continual benchmark assessments and progress monitoring, stemming from the faculty's training in data management. It is important, they said, to see problems as they arise and not wait until the last minute to address them.

Other business

In other business, Superintendent Dr. DeSpain discussed summer maintenance tasks, such as cleaning and painting projects, recarpeting and reflooring the high school library and paving areas of the grounds and parking lots. The district is still receiving bids for many of the projects, but Dr. DeSpain said they should be "in high gear" during the last two weeks of July.

The board also voted to house officials and vehicles from the city of Kountze, roughly two hours south of Alto, in the case of emergencies like Hurricane Katrina. In total, the board volunteered space for 15 city vehicles (such as patrol cars and fire engines) and 20 city personnel for a time frame of less than one day. The board voted to volunteer this space as an effort to manage exactly who would be allowed on school grounds in case of such an emergency.

Finally, the board approved the hiring of Alice Hunt to teach high school science, Brandy Reeves for middle school social studies, Sharon Delgado for middle school language arts and Doug Peters, high school mathematics.

The next board of trustees meeting will be moved to Monday, July 23.