April 1999

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS

• Toshiba International was recognized for its most recent donation of $14,900 for the continued implementation of calculator-based labs in junior high school science classes.  
• As part of National Volunteer Month, the Board recognized all individuals in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD who volunteer their services for students and staff.  A partial reporting of 177,409.45 volunteer hours indicate that district volunteers will easily surpass the volunteer hours that were documented last year.  Based on the National Association of Partners in Education and Points of Light, the 177,409.45 hours donated in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD are conservatively worth $2,377,286.63.
• Owens Elementary School was recognized for its selection as a 1997-98 Title 1 Distinguished School.  The award is given to Title 1 campuses that achieved an exemplary accountability record in 1997-98 and either an exemplary or recognized accountability record in 1995-96 and 1996-97.  Owens Elementary was the only Cypress-Fairbanks ISD campus to receive the honor and one of the only 31 campuses in the Region IV area.
• Cypress Falls High School swimmer Liz Hoffman was congratulated for winning the state championship in the 500 meter freestyle, and Cypress Creek High School swimmer Jamie Miller was congratulated for winning the state championship in the 100 meter butterfly.
• The Board recognized the following students for winning gold and silver medals at the Texas Science Olympiad:
  _ Bleyl Middle School:  George Argel, Josh Menk, and Stuart Sutton
  _ Campbell Middle School:  Glen de los Santos, Daniel Grysen, Enrique Culebro, Grant Oladipo, Greg Oladip, Marie de los Santos, Michael Grysen, Minh Nguyen, Sylvia Szafarczk, and Vanessa Velasquez
  _ Dean Middle School:  Arthur Nguyen, Justin Butterfras, and Ralph Gillamac
  _ Hamilton Middle School:  Daniel Jacobson, Josh Brantley, Kent Kaminski, Nathan Tabb, Nikita Khetan, Patrick Timmons, and Zack Abernathy
  _ Labay Middle School:  Daniel Wang, David Wechsler, Jeff Chan, Jodi VanReet, Jonahan Menger, Marc Maziarz, Tess Kroeger, Zachary Thompson, and Zeena Husain
  _ Watkins Middle School:  Deborah Bell, Denee McKay, Heath McKay, and Katie Johnson
  _ Jersey Village High School:  Simha Reddy, Tam Dang, Andrew Klein, Jigar Rathod, J.R. Hancock, and Deepy Mann
  _ Cypress Springs High School:  Brett Sutton and Brian Johnson
  _ Langham Creek:  Vikram Maheshri, Jonathan McAlister, Asha Munroe, Vickie Nguyen, William Postcavage, and Ahsun Yousefi
  _ Cy-Fair High School:  Josh Harper, Kenny Marek, Angela Au, Charity Sissom, and Ryan Gerlich
  _ Cypress Falls High School:  Keith Lawler, Janagi Thirugnansampanthan, Tiffany Lai, Robert Lee, Wendy Logan, Cynthia Lu, Shao-Ang (Kevin) Wei, Sachin Grover, Atul Wadhwa, Brian Merritt, Taylor Ehrlich, Samit Soni, Vinay Sarda, Joydeep (Bobby) Basak, and Dominic Sung
  In addition, to students winning individual honors, the following teams earned distinction:
  _ Campbell Middle School won second.  Team members are Enrique Culebro, Glen de los Santos, Marie de los Santos, Krystal Doebbler, Ryan Duncan, Daniel Grysen, Michael Grysen, Russell McCarthy, Minh Nguyen, Grant Oladipo, Greg Oladipo, and Sylvia Szafarczyk; alternates Elizabeth Holdcroft and Amber Peard; and coaches Jennifer Couvillion, Misty Duncan, Charlotte Hiltabrand, Kathleen Hooten, Karen Jacobs, Karen Mazzola, Andi Rathbern, David Spears, Cathy Sullivan, and Linda Waddell.
  _ Langham Creek High School won first.  Team members are Jimmy Bogard, Randy Bogard, Einsteins Do, Mustafa Dohadwala, Markus Fleisch, Ryan Keedy, Vikram Maheshri, Jon McAlister, Asha Munroe, Vickie Nguyen, Manny Obmaces, William Potscavage, and Ahsun Yousefi; alternates Theresa Nguyen and Christine Perea; and coaches Dave Herlinger, Bobbi McAndrews, Becky Mitchell, Jan Needham, Margaret Rittmann, Wenonah Sockwell, David Wallace, and Hobart Williamson.
  _ Cypress Falls High School won second.  Team members are Joydeep (Bobby) Basak, Taylor Ehrlich, Sachin Grover, Tiffany Lai, Keith Lawler, Robert Lee, Sara-Ann Logan, Wendy Logan, Cynthia Lu, Brian Merritt, Elizabeth Sanders, Vinay Sarda, Samit Soni, Dominic Sung, Janagi Thirugnanasampanthan, Atul Wadhwa, and Shao-Ang (Kevin) Wei; coaches David Amadio, Carol Gilley, Shanen Hajdik, Jennifer Jeffers, Lee Joiner, Kristal LaBerge, Kaye Miller, Marcus Ostrowski, Tim Sampson, Tanya Schultz, Mary-Jo Sentner, Deborah Turner, Jennifer Wuellner; and volunteers Ted Kesler and Cloyce Miller.
  

HIGH SCHOOL SWIM TEAM PRACTICE LOCATIONS

The Board discussed the use of district pools by high school swim teams.   Currently, Cypress Creek High School swimmers use the pool at Bleyl Middle School, Cy-Fair High School swimmers use the pool at Arnold Middle School, Jersey Village High School swimmers use the pool at Dean Middle School, Cypress Falls High School was built with a practice pool, and Langham Creek High School swimmers share the pool at Cypress Springs High School.  Since the number of swimmers on the Cypress Springs team is expected to increase next year, several options to alleviate crowding in the Cypress Springs pool for the upcoming year were discussed, including:
 continuing to share the Cypress Springs pool, with one team swimming in the morning and the other in the afternoon;
 having the Langham Creek swimmers use the pool at Campbell Middle School; or
 having the Langham Creek swimmers use the pool at Watkins Middle School.
The Board approved the administration's recommendation to form a group composed of Langham Creek and Cypress Springs swim team parents and the principals and coaches at the two schools to discuss the options before making a decision for next year.  Short-term and long-term recommendations will be offered to the Board next month.

INCENTIVE PLAN FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT

The administration reported on a proposed compensation plan for staff development activities.  There are currently 10 days of staff development included in the District's academic calendar, but more time is needed for in-depth learning in areas like TEKS implementation and the development of instructional skills.  In order to avoid the loss of instructional time during the regular school day, the compensation plan provides incentives for staff members to enroll in staff development activities during personal time -- after school, on Saturdays, and in the summer.  Under the proposed plan, teachers enrolling in district-approved staff development activities, separate and apart from time equivalency hours, would be compensated as per the following:
 Each clock hour activity -- up to a maximum of 45 hours -- will earn $10 per hour.
 Each college hour -- up to a maximum of 6 hours -- will earn $75 per hour.
 The payment will be made annually on September 30 for hours earned from June 1 through May 31.
 A combination of clock and college hours will be awarded up to a maximum of $450.

SUMMER SCHOOL FOR BILINGUAL AND ESL STUDENTS

In an effort to close the achievement gap and strengthen the curriculum for special programs, additional summer opportunities will be offered for bilingual and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) students in grades 1-5.  The tuition-free three-week summer school program for the 2,915 students enrolled in both programs will cost the District approximately $451,000 in teachers' salaries and bus services.   However, it is expected that some of the students will not be able to participate.

AUCTION OF SURPLUS EQUIPMENT

An auction of district-owned surplus equipment will be held May 15, 1999.  Items to be auctioned include desks, furniture, computers, etc.

PORTABLE BUILDINGS

The Board approved the purchase of 18 additional portable buildings, plus the relocation of eight existing portables from seven schools throughout the District.   The committee responsible for evaluating portable building requests approved only those requests that were considered the highest priority in order to provide as much money as possible for salary increases.  Decisions were also based upon equal allocation of portables.

ELEMENTARY #31

The Board approved the District's recommendation to award the construction contract for Elementary #31 to Purcell Construction.  Purcell's bid of $7,896,700 is $53,300 under budget.

ELEMENTARY #32

The Board approved the District's recommendation to award the construction contract for Elementary #32 to Mission Bufete Constructors, Inc. in the amount of $7,739,900.  The bid is $210,100 under budget.

ELEMENTARY #34

The Board approved the District's recommendation to award the construction contract for Elementary #34 to ICI Constructors, Inc.  ICI's bid of $7,818,000 is $132,000 under budget.

BOUNDARY CHANGES

The Board approved changes to the attendance boundaries of Hancock, Matzke, and Yeager Elementary Schools.  The Mandolin Apartments and the Mandolin Village subdivision will be rezoned from Matzke to Hancock, and the Gables at Raveneaux Apartments will be rezoned from Yeager to Hancock.  The change will impact only two students, both of whom live in the Mandolin Apartments.  The boundary change is expected to relieve future overcrowding at Yeager and Matzke.