Long Gets Salary Increase
At its regular meeting Jan. 12 (Tibby Niehues absent), the GCISD board spent four hours in closed session discussing Superintendent Steve Long’s performance before voting unanimously to approve his evaluation and to increase his salary by $2,500, making it total $82,000. No contract extension was mentioned.
The board appointed a bond committee to recommend and prioritize what capital improvements the school should make if a bond issue is presented to and passed by voters in the spring. Those appointed are: Jaime Walker, Christy Seidenberger, Mitchell Jansa, Denis Calverley, Brad Avery, Karla Hoelscher, Tony Gomez, Carl Hoelscher, Andy Wheeler, Misty Kinnibrugh, Randy Gartman and Brent Kirkland.
The last date to call for a May bond election is March 9. A representative from Southwest Financial will be at the Feb. 9 board meeting to explain the bond process and options.
High School Gets Bronze Rating from National Magazine
Secondary School Principal Misty Kinnibrugh announced that GCHS recently received a bronze medal in U.S News and World Report’s list of America’s Best High Schools 2009. The recognition was based on last year’s data.
According to a letter from the magazine, the list recognizes three categories of distinction, gold, silver and bronze based on
• standardized test performance • proficiency rates of all students, including the least advantaged and • a challenging college-ready curriculum. The bronze medal recognizes high schools that met the first two criteria, but not the third. According to the letter, these schools have demonstrated commendable performance on state tests but did not perform well enough on the college readiness index to merit identification as a top-performing high school.
Kinnibrugh said she feels strongly that the magazine “… got it wrong about our college-ready curriculum.”
Kinnibrugh also announced that Technology Coordinator Jerry Cannon has received an award from the state UIL for sponsor excellence.
Teachers Complete Laptop Training
Both Kinnibrugh and Elementary School Principal Randy Gartman reported that teachers have completed Phase I training on the new laptop computers. A second phase of training will be held in the fall. School board members were each given a wireless-equipped laptop like the teachers’ to take home for their personal use. All of them also have email addresses on the school’s server.
The board approved the annual audit presented by Tracy Tarter, CPA. He said all the financials look good, and the district has a strong financial base.