SUBMITTED REPORT
The Hays CISD Board of Trustees last week approved a $146.5 million budget for school year 2010-11, which represents an increase of about $5 million over last year. The board also approved a tax rate ($1.4613 per $100 valuation) to support the budget, which represents no increase from last year’s tax rate.
District enrollment neared the 15,130-student mark, according to Carter Scherff, deputy superintendent, reflecting an increase of 611 students over the same day last year.
David Castro, the district’s new executive director for assessment and accountability, walked the school board through student accountability data, offering a unique perspective to the annual report.
“The numbers surrounding accountability don’t happen once a year,” he told the School Board. “It happens daily. My vision is that is where we’re moving with the data.”
Castro noted that with both state and federal accountability systems, the target is not static.
“By state and federal standards, it really is not about hitting targets, it’s about improving,” he said.
He highlighted some of the district’s areas of growth, including closing the achievement gap between students from the lower-income households and other student groups.
“In this last year, that gap has shrunk dramatically across the district and I think that’s reason for celebration,” he said.
Castro addressed the Texas Performance Measure (TPM), which “is adding significantly to our numbers,” by saying the measure gauges “how strong the system is at supporting students, the system’s attempt to match students’ strengths.”
He said campuses in 2010-11 will be targeting math and science with a focus on commended performance and an eye for dropout prevention and completion rates.
Elsa Hinojosa, new executive director for high school performance, followed Castro with a report on 2010 Project HOPE, a plan for improving the district’s high school completion rate and for dropout prevention efforts.
“In K[indergarten] through 12, we should all be graduation coaches,” Hinojosa told the school board.
She described a “care” team effort by teachers, counselors, administrators and community members to “whittle down the dropout numbers until they are zero,” which includes home visits, mentoring and counseling.
An equally important component of Project HOPE, she said, is dropout prevention.
“If we really want to be graduation coaches, it is imperative that we put together a system that prevents kids from dropping out,” she said. “That’s the way we’re going to get our kids to their lofty goals.”
