Friday, May 17, 2024
Gatesville Independent School District had plenty to celebrate during the 2022-23 school year with academic, athletic, musical and career and technical education successes, and Superintendent Barrett Pollard is looking to build on those accomplishments for 2023-24.
"We will continue to focus on the big three priorities - school safety, academics and attendance/enrollment," Pollard said. "With safety, we cannot become complacent. Making sure we take care of safety first enables us to then focus on the priority of education."
The end of school enrollment for the previous school year was 2,642, and Pollard said expectations are for about the same number heading into the new school year.
Future growth in the area would have a positive impact on the district.
"I spoke with Scott Albert (Gatesville's new city manager) about the importance of having new businesses and opportunities - things to attract more people to Gatesville," Pollard said.
One of the uncertainties the district faces is what the Texas Legislature will do with school funding. While property tax cuts have been a priority for the state, Texas leaders have also indicated that schools will not lose funding as a result.
"Gov. Abbott has announced a third special session (of the Legislature) for October on school choice, and we've heard they are going to try to tie it in with teacher pay raises," Pollard said.
The district has already taken some steps to increase employee salaries.
"Locally, we gave pay raises for staff and substitutes," Pollard said, referring to across the board increases which the GISD Board of Trustees approved in June.
With the departure of Shane Webb, who served as assistant superintendent for academics and is now the superintendent for the Oglesby school district, GISD is shuffling some administrative responsibilities.
"Scott Harper (who was assistant superintendent of administrative services) will be over academics, curriculum and instruction," Pollard said. "Yancey Sanderson (executive director of testing and federal programs) will retain most of his current duties and take on what had been Scott's (human resources) role."
Darrell Frazier, the district's director of finance, has announced plans to retire in August 2024, Pollard said. LeighAnn Goodwin, executive director of special services, who oversees special education for the district, will spend the next year working closely with Frazier so she can step into the finance director role upon his departure.
"That job is so unique and hard to fill," Pollard said. "LeighAnn, who has a background in finance and engineering, will be learning all of the things about the finance director position."
Looking ahead to the school year, there are some special events planned for the district and community.
"We will have the second annual homecoming festival on September 7, along with the bonfire," Pollard said. "The theme is 'Hornets Through the Decades,' so we'll have some nostalgic-type games like a hula hoop contest and different games. At the homecoming game, alumni band members can sign up to play with our current students."
The district's fall dance will be Oct. 28.
Next spring, as a total eclipse shadows the community on April 8, 2024, GISD will give students and staff the day off and participate in the festivities.
"We are working with Cheri Shepherd (the city's eclipse coordinator) and will sell tickets to the stadium as a fundraiser," Pollard said. "We will have concessions, restrooms open and lots of parking. We could have a lot of visitors to the community for the eclipses. We'll have our police officers on duty to make sure everything is safe and secure."
Looking ahead to the future, Pollard said renovations of the junior high campus and the athletic fieldhouse are long-term priorities.
"We are looking at renovating and adding on to the junior high like we did to the high school," he said. "The junior high will be 60 years old in 2026, so we're looking at making improvements there in the next three years.
"It's like an old battleship - the skeleton is great, but we need to get rid of portable buildings and make some changes to the main building. We also need to add sixth grade back to the junior high. We will also add a classroom for band, choir and Ag and enhance security.
"We'll also ask voters about renovating the fieldhouse - it really is in poor shape and needs updates. That work is still two, three or more years away."
The district is welcoming 25 new professional staff members for the upcoming school year.
"It's a pretty modest number - we did quite well on our hiring," Pollard said.
Some of the district's changes include:
