Lovelady ISD Discusses Campus Action Plans

LOVELADY - The Lovelady Independent School District Board of Trustees met in a relatively short meeting on Monday, Dec. 12. The board was short three members due to prior commitments, but a quorum was reached.

Highlighting the meeting were presentations of the campus action plans presented by Curriculum and Special Programs Director Mark Parker and Elementary Principal Debbie Harrelson.

We have already made a lot of improvements and we haven’t even started on the plan,” Parker continued. “One of the key things we want to focus on is inclusion. Our special ed kids will be in the mainstream classes with a special ed teacher and/or an aide, receiving regular classroom instruction. If help is needed, that kid has help available. We are giving teachers as much training as we can. We don’t want to just say, ‘Let’s do inclusion’ and start doing it and make a mess of it. Ideally, we won’t even have a special ed class in a few years. All the kids will be mainstreamed. They will have resources and a resource class they can go to, but every kid in the school will be able to go to that. It will be a learning center.”

Harrelson presented the elementary action plan to the board.

“What I would like to say about the special ed students Mr. Parker was just talking about is we get them when they first get here,” she said. “If we can keep them from getting a bigger and bigger gap, maybe we can prevent them from having so many in junior high and high school. Our first option is going to be to put them in a regular classroom with a regular teacher, but modify and give them the accommodations they need to be successful. This is where we’re headed and I think we’re doing pretty well. We’ve already started at the elementary and if we do well, you’ll see it work it’s way up to the junior high and high school.”

After the presentations were given, the board unanimously approved the action plans for the campuses.

In other business, Lovelady ISD Superintendent Dr. Micah Dyer provided the board with an update on renovations to the locker room.

“We have purchased all new sinks and hardware. They cleaned up all the showers and fixed the leaks that were in there and re-painted the shower floor. Over the Christmas break, they are going to finish renovating the boy’s locker room,” he said.

Dr. Dyer also informed the board the basketball is off to a good start and that the girls’ team had recently beaten the girls no. one ranked Neches team. He also informed the trustees that the UIL team from the elementary had won district for the fifth year in a row.

In other board related matters:

• the board cast 620 votes for John Larue for the Houston County Appraisal District Board of Directors;

• TASB Policy Update 92 concerning Reduction in Force procedures was approved;

• a mineral rights contract with Navidad Resources concerning land parcels in the Austonio area was approved;

• the consent agenda items were approved; and

• the district action plan was tabled and will be discussed at the next board meeting.

Will Johnson may be reached via e-mail at wjohnson@messenger-news.com