Wednesday's Internet Edition, September 08, 2010.
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| Hampton Inn officially open.... Van Horn Mayor Ben Flanagan (left), Hampton Inn General Manager Maggie Clayton (center) and Hampton Inn owner Tom Desai (right) officially cut the ribbon signifying that Van Horn’s Hampton Inn is officially open. The event took place last Thursday at noon. Following the ribbon cutting, the Hampton Inn served lunch to those well wishers in attendance and provided a tour of the new motel. |
- School district trustees met Monday evening for their April session and, following a behind-closed-doors meeting, they voted to accept High School Principal Mike Barrandey’s resignation effective at the end of the present school year.
Barrandey, who has had some health problems lately, noted in his letter of resignation that it was time for him to slow down.
Trustees very reluctantly accepted the resignation knowing that the high school is at a critical point as Barrandey inherited an “Academically Unacceptable” campus and he has been working all year to correct the situation. And, this week was TAKS test time that will determine the outcome for next year.
Principal’s John Fabela of the Junior High, and Mike Barrandey of the high school, provided good reports on their respective campuses. Fabela noted that early TAKS test results from the elementary campus and his campus were good with commendable levels up.
Barrandey also noted on his campus that all the sporting teams for the spring have players or team members advancing to Area and Regionals.
Trustees then turned their attention to the summer school program for this year. Summer school, for those not passing the TAKS tests, will run from June 8th through July 2nd.
Summer school hours will be daily from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. And, it was noted, that the cafeteria will be doing the summer lunch program again this year. Students will have from 12:30 p.m. until 1 p.m. for their lunch period.
Dr. Guillermo Mancha, Superintendent, addressed the board’s development of long range board goals and objectives for the district. He noted that the process would involve board members as well as himself as together they developed those long range goals and objectives which Mancha would then implement through shorter range goals and objectives.
He suggested that the board consider the services of Dr. Sullivan, from Sul Ross State University, to help the board and himself stay focused. Dr. Sullivan would come up here for travel and lodging.
Trustee John Clark noted that “I don’t think we need somebody to come up here and tell us what our goals are or ought to be just so we have them written down.” He went on to say, “I think we should involve teachers, parents, and students as we collectively look at what long range objectives we have for our school and the education of our kids.”
Trustee Omar Ortega rebutted by saying, “What I hear folks saying is that is what you’re there to do. We don’t need to be involved.”
In the end, trustees opted to utilize the services of Dr. Sullivan to help them stay focused on their long range goals and objectives. The vote on that decision was 4 to 1 with Clark being the lone nay vote. Voting for it were trustees Cottrell, Gonzalez, Ortega and Ramirez.
And then trustees looked at stipends and salaries for district teachers. Trustee Lisa Cottrell and John Clark seemed to be in agreement that the district might need to look at what we pay teachers since beginning teacher salaries in other district’s are more than ours.
Superintendent Mancha reported that our stipends are about in line with what other district’s pay with the exception of math, science, social studies and English. He recommended that these stipends be increased by $1,000.
As discussion progressed, it became apparent that trustees wanted to see a comparison of our salaries and other school districts. Superintendent Mancha recommended that the district utilize the services of the Texas Association of School Board’s (TASB) to provide this data. “It will cost the district $7,000 plus but it will be well worth it in the long run,” noted Mancha.
Trustee Clark said, “It would seem that we could do this in house for a lot less. We don’t need to pay another consulting agency to do what we can do ourselves.”
Trustees, following the discussion, voted to engage the services of TASB to provide the data with Dr. Mancha saying he’d make sure there was enough money budgeted for this.
The vote was 4 to 1, again Clark was the lone nay vote.
With regard to other agenda items considered by the trustees, the following actions were taken:
* Trustees heard Dr. Mancha report on the district recruiting of math and science teachers at UTEP, NMSU and Sul Ross State University. Mancha noted that the district would look into hiring teachers from Mexico if they can get visas and can speak good enough.
* Trustees approved summer hours of operation for the district as follows: Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. The time period for these hours will be June 8th through July 31st.
* Trustees approved the monthly financial reports as presented as well as a listing of financial institutions to get depository contract bids.
* Before adjourning, trustees tabled action on the adoption of TASB Policy Update 85 and opted to take no action concerning the superintendents salary and compensation package.
Column One
By Dawn Simpson
Just as we were sending this issue to the printer, Jose Salinas, school district Athletic Director, called the office to report that all U.I.L. activities (Regionals, play-off games, warm-up games, etc.) have been postponed until at least May 11th. This postponement is caused by the swiine flu scare. That means that everywhere you read about regional competitions of bi-district or warm up games in this issue are not going to happen until May 11th or after. We’re sorry for this inconvenience.
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I really appreciated Gilda Morales’ Letter to the Editor in last week’s paper. What a touching and appropriate remainder of our privilege of voting. Each generation seems to take it less serious and that’s not good. Lots of people have fought and died to give you that privilege. Please don’t take it lightly!
Hope you all are give serious thought to the best people to hold office in our upcoming school board and city council elections. They are both very crucial elections and Early Voting has begun. Think about it long and hard, ask questions if necessary, and then go out and exercise your right to vote as an American citizen.
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Volunteers seldom get the recognition they deserve. Here’s a great big THANK YOU to one of those. Grace Mata had a real desire to see Girl Scouting in Van Horn. Through the years it’s been off and on and it seems like more off due to the lack of someone to take the time and effort to keep it going. Grace has taken it on, almost alone, and the benefit will be for those young girls who are learning valuable lessons that scouting offers.
The girls not only participated in the Clean-up on Saturday, collecting almost 8,000 pounds of junk, but have already cleaned up their assigned area for trash pick-up. Good for them! And no doubt Grace was a big motivator to the young girls. What an important lesson to learn in life - “Just Get It Done”. And of course they are enjoying a little extra money in their budget as a result.
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And how about those 4-H members - another great bunch of kids! They did some real heavy duty junk collecting on Saturday, to the tune of some 22,640 pounds. They too have cleaned trash from their assigned area.
But not all groups involved in helping clean up Van Horn are kids. Womens Service League, Lions Club, American Legion, Christian Shelter and I’m sure others that I’m not aware of have all ‘pitched in’. Thanks to everyone!
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Thought for the Week.... “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all problems men face.” Ronald Reagan
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
April 30th - Nothing scheduled at press time.
May 1st - Van Horn Eagle regional qualifiers run in the Regional Track Meet in Levelland.
May 2nd - Van Horn Eagle regional qualifiers run in the Regional Track Meet in Levelland. The Van Horn Lady Eagle softball team will play Junction in Crane today in a bi-district round playoff. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
May 3rd - Attend the church of your choice.
May 4th - The Van Horn Eagle baseball team will play a playoff warm up game against Forsan in Ft. Stockton today beginnig at 4 p.m.
May 5th - Members of the Van Horn Rotary Club are slated to meet today at noon at Chuy’s Restaurant. The Van Horn City Council is scheduled to meet this evening at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
May 6th - Nothing scheduled at press time.