Hays CISD budget workshop this Thursday
The Board of Trustees of Hays CISD will hold a budget workshop on March 7 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the administration offices located at 21003 Interstate 35 in Kyle. The meeting is expected to last for two hours. It is not anticipated the Board will adjourn to closed session for this meeting.
School board election update
Friday was the last day to file for the Hays CISD Board of Trustees positions for Single-Member-District 4 and Single-Member-District 5. In Single-Member-District 4, current board vice president Merideth Keller was the only candidate to file; that race is uncontested. Two candidates filed for Single-Member-District 5 – current board member Marty Kanetzky and Debbie Munoz, the wife of former Hays CISD board member Joe Munoz. The election will be Saturday, May 11. Early voting begins April 29 at the following locations: Buda Elementary School, Hays CISD Central Administration Office and Kyle City Hall. Visit www.hayscisd.net and click on the District tab, then Board of Trustees and School Board Elections for more information on voting.
TEA asks U.S. Department of Education for waivers
Commissioner of Education Michael L. Williams announced Friday that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has formally requested a waiver to specific provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), commonly known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.
According to a TEA statement, Williams requested the waiver to provide additional flexibility while reducing duplication between state and federal accountability systems.
“School districts across Texas are forced to operate within two, often conflicting, accountability and intervention systems while taking valuable resources and time away from focusing on improving student achievement,” he said. “The federal requirements and guidelines of ESEA have become an obsolete system that does not adequately reflect the performance of the state’s schools.”
Williams requested the following:
Waiver of the federal Accountability Performance Targets/Standards Setting Procedures to allow TEA to replace the current Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) calculations
and performance targets with the state’s robust accountability rating system.
Waiver to create a single system of interventions based on accountability results.
Waiver to allow TEA to rely solely on the state’s rigorous teacher certification
standards, which are supported by the state’s educator evaluation system.
Waiver to allow school districts or charters to implement school-wide interventions
in any of its support, focus, or priority schools, even if those schools do not have a poverty percentage of 40 percent or more.
Williams is seeking the waivers under Secretary Duncan’s general authority to waive specific NCLB requirements rather than the provisional waiver offered to states by the U.S. Department of Education. No timeline has been provided for a final decision.
