Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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| Robot entered in competition.... These Van Horn High School Robotics students have recently completed their Robot to be entered in a statewide competition in Houston on March 22nd. The Robot has already been picked up and shipped to Houston. These students, all senior save one, have worked on the Robot for some time with the able help of instructor/sponsors Ben Flanagan and Kurt Nemeth of Blue Origin, who furnished the Robot kit. The students will be doing various fund raising efforts in the coming weeks to raise money to make the trip to Houston for the stiff competition. |
- It’s official! Culberson County-Allamoore Independent School District trustees have hired Dr. Guillermo Mancha to be the district’s new superintendent.
The action came in last Thursday’s meeting of trustees. According to trustees, Dr. Mancha received a 3 year contract to commence on Monday, March 10th. He will be compensated in the amount of $84,000 per year.
Dr. Mancha comes to Van Horn from the Fort Bend Independent School District where he has been serving as principal of the Hodges Bend Middle School.
Dr. Mancha, an educator since 1997, received his Bachelors degree in Physical Education and Special Education from Southwest Texas State University.
He earned his Master’s degree in Educational Management at New Mexico State University, and earned his Doctor of Education degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
He hails from Eagle Pass, Texas where his father was also an educator as well as a county commissioner. His wife is from Las Cruces, New Mexico and the couple have two young children.
Dr. Mancha has taught and served in various administrative positions in San Marcus, Seguin, Las Cruces and Fort Bend ISD.
At his most recent assignment, Dr. Mancha had more students and more staff than we have in our whole district.
Dr. Mancha was present at Thursday’s meeting and immediately signed the contract. He told the Advocate, “We’re excited about relocating to Van Horn. We think we’re up to the challenges and it gets us closer to home. We sure won’t miss the humidity and mosquitos!”
After trustees hired Dr. Mancha, interim district superintendent Fred Liner proceeded to give trustees what he called “Fred’s Two Cents Worth.” Liner reminded trustees that “when you hired me, you asked me to provide you with a list of recommendations looking forward once you hire a new superintendent.”
Liner went on to state, “These recommendations are the result of my meetings with faculty and staff, students from the district, and community members as recommended by you.”
Liner’s recommendations are shown in another article in this issue, and will not be reprinted here. Liner did emphasize that “these recommendations were for trustees and the community!”
With regard to other agenda items considered by trustees during the Thursday meeting, the following actions were taken:
* With regard to the contract to erect the canopy cover over at Clark Field, Superintendent Liner reported that a question had been raised concerning a possible conflict of interest and that none exists.
* Trustees called an election for Saturday, May 10, 2008 to elect two full-term trustees to the school board. Trustees whose terms are up include Lupe Alvarado and the vacant seat formerly held by Ruben Robledo.
* Upon the recommendation of Superintendent Liner, trustees approved hiring the law firm of Ray, Wood and Bonilla to represent the district regarding any property value appeals.
* Trustees approved federal program budgets for the fiscal year because there was no record of them ever being formally approved. At the same time, they approved budget amendments as presented by Superintendent Liner and talked about deleting surplus property within the district.
* Trustees approved moving the March board meeting to March 27th so as not to conflict with Spring Break and also scheduled a special meeting for tonight, February 28th, to receive the audit report for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2007.
* Trustees opted to take no action regarding principal contracts to give Dr. Mancha an opportunity to have input.
* And, following a behind-closed-doors executive session, trustees approved having administrator begin looking at possible reductions in staff as recommended by Superintendent Liner.
Liner offers his "Two Cents Worth" to trustees & community
During last Thursday nights school board session, Interim Superintendent Fred Liner presented some recommendations to trustees and the community of Van Horn. Trustees had asked Liner to prepare these for presentation as the board looked at hiring a new superintendent.
These recommendations are the result of Liner’s meeting with faculty and staff members, students, and community members.
Shown below are these recommendations as well as the rationale behind them.
“Fred’s Two Cents Worth”
Recommendations to the Culberson County – Allamoore Independent School District
and the community of Van Horn
Selecting, Retaining and Developing a High Quality Staff
1. Designate a minimum of $100,000 (all Title II, Part A funds and some Title I, Part A funds) to
attract, recruit, retain and/or develop teaching staff with priority given to critical shortage areas.
2. Work to become the “employer of choice” by building a great place to work and compensating a reduced staff as well as possible.
3. Use Gallup’s Teacher Insight and Principal Insight products (or similar research based tools) to identify and select the best teachers and principals from candidate pools.
4. Expect high quality work from students, teachers and other staff and support all in their work.
Financial, Operational and Organizational
1. Reduce staffing numbers to meet the two indicator ratios (Student to Teacher and Student to Total Staff) in the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas by using anticipated enrollment figures for 08-09 and 09-10 school years.
2. Close the Delaware School except for the use of the gym.
3. End the self funded insurance plan for employee health coverage and join TRS Active Care.
4. Switch to a once a month payroll.
5. Deposit rent money into a separate designated account to be used for future repairs and upgrades to the units.
Curriculum and Instruction
1. Expand to the elementary and high schools, the short term (triage) process (begun by the middle school) using frequent skill check assessments coupled with immediate and timely instructional
intervention and correction.
2. Consider acquiring (and customizing) the CSCOPE systemic curriculum as a long term and proactive initiative to align curriculum and instruction in order to reduce the need for expensive “after the fact” remediation.
3. Raise the level of rigor in teaching and learning.
4. Continue and enhance the quality and use of instructional technology in order to economically expand offerings and support students in learning and teachers in teaching.
Governance and the Community
1. Immediately stop the “metete” a.k.a the historical practice of electing school board members with the expectation that they cater to individual agendas (and that they employ staff who are expected to cater to individual agendas) instead of looking out for the best interest of the educational
community as a whole.
2. Immediately start expecting the school board and district staff to look out for the best interest of all education stakeholders by holding them accountable for their actions in not giving in to the individual agendas previously referenced and making decisions in the best interest of the educational community as a whole.
3. Delegate employment authority for all personnel to the Superintendent.
4. Begin using TASB’s Policy-on-Line service.
5. Resurrect “Delaware Ball” in the evenings from April to August. Encourage 5th -11th grade students to attend with veijos and viejas from the community.
RATIONALE
Selecting, Retaining and Developing a High Quality Staff
1. Designate a minimum of $100,000 (all Title II, Part A funds and some Title I, Part A funds) to attract, recruit, retain and/or develop teaching staff with priority given to critical shortage areas.
PROS: You will be able to compete with other districts for teachers in high demand areas. There are three parts to this recommendation.
The first should be to pay a significant stipend to high quality teachers that already possess full certification and teach a full class load in critical need areas such as 8-12 Mathematics, Composite HS Science, Composite HS Social Studies and Composite HS English. Teachers that have these certifications provide great flexibility in scheduling to meet student needs, i.e. they can teach any subject in their field.
The second one should be to pay for additional certification preparation and testing for currently employed teachers willing to gain certification in the critical need area.
The third would be to pay the alternative certification costs for teachers in approved programs that are seeking the above mentioned certifications.
CONS: Expect teachers without these certifications or unwilling to pursue these certifications to voice displeasure or claim that other areas are not as important. Importance is not the issue but supply and demand for this certification is the issue.
2. Work to become the “employer of choice” by building a great place to work and compensating a reduced staff as well as possible.
PROS: There are many “non compensable” factors that make a great place to work. Beginning and strengthening these areas to attract and retain people not only create good working conditions but they improve the whole atmosphere of
the school which increases student learning and productivity.
CONS: Some current staff will feel
uncomfortable with the attraction and retention of a high quality staff due to the fact that it can expose them.
3. Use Gallup’s Teacher Insight and Principal Insight products (or similar research based tools) to identify and select the best teachers and principals from candidate pools.
PROS: It identifies candidates in the pool with the characteristics needed to teach and administrate. This leads to employees being offered positions based on merit instead of politics and influence.
CONS: Many community members and current employees will not like the fact that candidates
will be chosen on merit and not politics and influence. Many of them like to play this game.
4. Expect high quality work from students, teachers and other staff and support.
Everyone lives up or down to the level of expectations. I think most are working hard but more interested in the amount of work than the quality of work.
Financial, Operational and Organizational
1. Reduce staffing numbers to meet the two indicator ratios (Student to Teacher and Student
to Total Staff) in the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas using anticipated enrollment numbers for 08-09 and 09-10 school years.
I recommend reducing the teaching staff to 48 total teachers and 86 total staff members.
2. Close the Delaware School except for the use of the gym.
The AEP can be placed in the old home economics area of the high school. Other staff can relocate to vacated areas at the three campuses due to the reduced number of teachers using classrooms.
3. End the self insurance plan for employee health coverage and join TRS Active Care.
The self insured fund has worked well for CCAISD but how long will it last? It is cost effective right now but how long will it be? I just feel the exposure is not worth the savings and risks. Even though you have stop losses the premiums will increase proportionately with the number of times you hit it or come close to it. This is similar to the teacherage issue but there is little options for getting out of the teacher housing business.
4. Switch to a once a month payroll.
This takes an inordinate amount of time for the business manager. If you had a payroll clerk then it would not take time away from the read duties that need to be done by a business manager. While reducing staff around the district, you do not want to “staff up” in the business office just to maintain twice a month payroll. Several times a year the employees go three weeks between pay periods. Going four with twice the amount shouldn’t be that big a transition. I recommend beginning it in September and paying the 15th of every month. This is the ideal transition time.
5. Deposit rent money into a separate designated account to be used for future repairs and upgrades to the units.
Even though you don’t want to be in the real estate business, you are. This money should not be relied on as revenue and should be used to maintain your investment.
Increase in rent should be done as upgrades and renovations are completed.
Curriculum and Instruction
1. Expand to the elementary and high schools, the short term (triage) process (begun by the middle school) using frequent skill check assessments coupled with immediate and timely instructional intervention and correction.
PROS: This system is a proven short term fix for school improvement and has a place in long term plans as well.
CONS: Some staff members hate it because it uses “non emotional” data to point out deficiencies.
2. Consider acquiring (and customizing) the CSCOPE systemic curriculum as a long term and proactive initiative to align curriculum and instruction in order to reduce the need for
expensive “after the fact” remediation.
Teachers should be required to teach curriculum…not develop it. PROS: CCAISD does not have the financial or human resources to carry out proper curriculum development and revision. This product can be customized to the needs of the district thus eliminating the expense of curriculum development from the ground up. It can assist new teachers, teachers not overly versed in content and struggling teachers by providing model recommended lessons designed by expert teachers. It is also electronically housed.
CONS: Some staff will claim it is too prescriptive but the lessons they are referring to are “recommended” lessons.
3. Raise the rigor in teaching and learning.
As stated previously, this is very delicate. I did not think the parents, community and staff were ready for this. However, the meeting with the community and parents last week made me go ahead and make this recommendation. The comment was “some parents will never be ready but we need to move forward because it is best for students in the long run.” From what I can surmise, parents are removing their children from CCAISD and sending them to neighboring districts or home schooling them for one of two reasons. One group feels the academic expectations are not rigorous enough and the behavioral expectations are too lax. The others feel the academic and behavioral expectations are too rigorous and severe. Reaching consensus on this will be very difficult.
4. Continue and enhance the quality and use of instructional technology in order to economically expand offerings and support students in learning and teachers in teaching.
This will be one of the few ways the district can afford to expand the curriculum in an economic manner…especially for the highly motivated student. It will also assist the struggling student but this student will also need additional human interaction.
Governance and the Community
1. Immediately stop the “metete” a.k.a the historical practice of electing school board members with the expectation that they cater to individual agendas (and that they employ staff who are expected to cater to individual agendas) instead of looking out for the best interest of the educational community as a whole.
2. Immediately start expecting the school board and district staff to look out for the best interest of all stakeholders by holding them accountable in looking out for the best interest
of the educational community as a whole and for not giving in to the individual agendas previously referenced.
3. Begin using TASB’s Policy-on-Line service.
4. Resurrect “Delaware Ball” in the evenings from April to August. Encourage 5th -11th grade students to attend with veijos and viejas from the community.