Board Highlights

• The Board recognized the following high school students who participated in the seventh annual Board Shadowing Project: Amy Gray and Jeff Loeffert, Cy Fair; Meagan Stangle and Will Thompson, Cypress Creek; Jason Ravin and Teresa Strong, Cypress Falls; Jennifer Cohen and Danny Puckett, Cypress Springs; Brandon McGaughey and Nicolle Stanley, Jersey Village; Michelle Martinez and Jessica Sanchez, Langham Creek; and Bre-Ann Edie and Krystle Haney, Windfern.
• The Board recognized Mr. Dan Talley, chairman of the Board for Gulf Coast Education That Works/WKMC Architects, who presented the Gulf Coast Tech Prep and School- to-Careers Partnership 1999-2000 Regional Tech Prep Award to Cypress-Fairbanks ISD.
• The Board recognized Arnold teacher Alexia Bieniek for being selected the Texas Earth Science Teacher’s Association Outstanding Member for 2000.
• The Board recognized Bleyl Middle School students Laura Trujillo, Elizabeth Tschirhart, Phillip Ofili, and Luke Jordan for being selected as a regional winning team in the Toshiba/ NSTA Exploration Awards contests. Teacher Beth Muyskens was also recognized.
• The Board recognized the following middle school students who won 1st and/or 2nd place at the Texas Science Olympiad: Arnold student Wesley Bray; Bleyl students Ryan Murphy, Peter Wooten, Emily Simpson, and Laura Trujillo; Campbell students Iman Datta, Holly Doebbler, Feras Moussa, Nicole Packman, and Amber Peard; Dean students Chris Cha, Chris Ford, Matt Hart, Brian Ngo, Thuy Truong, and Ryan Yep; Hamilton MS students Brian Alvarado, Sean Dailey, Nikita Khetan, Rahul Khetan, Julia Lorenz, Brian Patterson, Jessica Pollio, Amartyu Sengupta, and Joseph Wozny; Labay students Martin Dickson, Tammay Gokhale, Michael Gray, Tanveer Khan, Angela Mao, Thomas Munn, Sam Thompson, Emily Walker, Andrew Word, Alice Yang, and Shane Young; Truitt students Ankit Garg and Abed Haque; and Watkins students Nathan Piper and Tabatha Tufts.
• The Board recognized the following high school students who won 1st or 2nd place at the Texas Science Olympiad: Cy-Fair students Joe Chen, Josh Harper, Doug Marek, and Kenny Marek; Cypress Creek students Glen De Los Santos, Kevin Emr, Grant Oladipo, and Vanessa Velasquez; Cypress Falls students Andrea Balogh, Matt Bell, Thomas Hargrave, Kyle Huang, Rachel Lai, Jody Lee, Brian Merritt, Christina Ramirez, Beth Sanders, Bijal Shah, Sapan Shukla, Sylvia Szafarczyk, Frank Truong, and Atul Wadhwa; Cypress Springs students Zhibo Chen, Cindy Chin, Jennifer Fitch, William Lo, and Adam Wood; Langham Creek students Randy Bogard, Michael Chrien, Kevin Cinq-Mars, Joon Hao Chuah, Stephen Daspit, Katie Goloby, Anna Lisa Gradassi, Meghan Jewitt, David McMann, Travis Markham, Jonathan Menger, Vickie Nguyen, Jody Van Reet, Daniel Soudek, and Zachary Thompson.
• The Board recognized members of the District’s television studio staff Denise Walker, Richard Silva, and John Taylor for receiving statewide recognition at the Texas School Public Relations Association conference in Austin in February. Denise and Richard received Best of Category for Channel 16 shows FUNdamentals 2000 and the Big Ticket 2000. Richard also won a Gold Star Award for Homework Hotline. John received a Gold Star Award for video for National Association of Partners in Education (N.A.P.E.) and Recognized 2000.
• The Board recognized the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Volunteers in Public Schools for their dedication and service to staff and students.

• Diane Grein, assistant director of finance, has been promoted to director of financial  services.
• Pat Smith, coordinator for elementary reading and language arts, has been promoted to  a new position, director of elementary special programs and services.
• Mary Jadloski, coordinator for secondary math, has been promoted to a new position, director of secondary special programs and services.
• Dawn Triska, principal of Copeland Elementary, was named director of personnel management and personnel relations, replacing Betty Rennell who will assume Richard Swain’s position when he retires at the end of the school year.
• Tony Barcelona, associate principal at Cy-Fair HS, has been promoted to a new position, senior director of school services. He will be responsible for food service, transportation, maintenance, and operations.
• Debbie Emery, principal of Truitt, has been named assistant to the superintendent, replacing Kelli Durham who has been promoted to assistant superintendent for communication.
• Bob Warner, principal of Labay, will be the new principal of Cy-Fair High School, replacing Jodie Smith who will assume a new position of assistant superintendent for secondary school administration.
• Ralph Funk, principal of Caney Creek High School in the Conroe ISD, will be the new principal of Jersey Village High School. He is replacing Dan Troxell who will assume the role of assistant superintendent for school and community relations.

Dr. Robert Stein, dean for the School of Social Sciences and professor of political science at Rice University, presented the results of a 200l survey conducted with registered voters in the District. Respondents were asked to evaluate the District’s personnel, policies, current operations, as well as support for a bond issue and include an overall rating of the District’s performance.

The District received positive ratings from an overwhelming majority of respondents with favorable ratings of the District increasing in every category since the last surveys in 1999 and 1997.

• 88% of registered voters rated the District’s overall performance as either excellent or good, an increase of 18-percentage points since the 1997 survey.
• 70% of those interviewed gave a positive rating to the District’s teaching staff, quality of educational services, buildings and facilities, administrators, and school safety. This rating is largely unchanged from the 1999 survey; however, it is a 10-15 percentage point increase since the 1997 survey.
• 72% of those surveyed indicated that they would support a bond issue of $350 million, which would cost the owner of a house appraised at $100,000 about $13 in additional taxes per year.
• 46% of the respondents mentioned growth as the biggest problem facing the District.

The Board approved the updated Site-based Decision-making Plan. The plan identifies district and campus roles and responsibilities in the following areas as required by Texas Education Code 11.251: 1) planning and goal-setting, 2) curriculum and instruction, 3) budgeting and finance, 4) staffing patterns and staff development, and 5) school organization. The main purpose of the plan is to establish rules, roles, and responsibilities necessary for smooth operation of a large organization and for facilitating each school’s accomplishing its mission of providing all students with an excellent education and improving student achievement.

The Board approved external auditors, Deloitte & Touche, to perform the second audit of the District’s financial statements for the fiscal years ending August 31, 2001, and August 31, 2002.

The Board approved resolutions to participate in four interlocal cooperative purchasing programs: General Services, Texas Local Government Statewide Purchasing Cooperative (through the Texas Association of School Boards), Texas Cooperative Purchasing Network (through Region IV), and the Harris County Department of Education Purchasing Cooperative.

The Board approved on second reading policy GKD (LOCAL) Community Relations: Use of School Facilities.

The Board approved a resolution and order to declare unopposed board candidates Al Martinez, Jr. and Terry Newcomer elected to the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees, position l and 2 respectively. This resolution will eliminate the need for a board election on May 5. Martinez and Terry Newcomer were unopposed at the end of the filing date on March 21 and for the deadline for write in candidates on March 26.

Texas Education Code--Subchapter C: Election of Unopposed Candidates and Section 2.052 Certification of unopposed status states if the secretary of the Board provides a certificate that there were no opposing candidates and there was no proposition on the ballot, candidates who have filed for candidacy within the designated filing period will be determined winners.

Never before in the history of the school district has the District canceled a board election, due to no opposing candidates signing up for positions on the Board. The District will save $35,000, which includes the cost of the election, paying for judges, ballots, and publicizing the election by a special edition of the District newspaper, plus postage and mailing. A copy of the resolution and order will be posted at each polling place that would have been used in the election.

District schools will hold graduation ceremonies on the following dates/times:

• May 11: Carlton Pre-Vocational Center-1 p.m. (at Carlton)
• May 24: Windfern HS---------- 7:00 p.m. (Metropolitan Baptist Church)
• *May 26: Cypress Springs------ 10:00 a.m.

Cy-Fair---------------- 1:00 p.m.

Cypress Creek-------- 4:00 p.m.

Langham Creek------- 7:00 p.m.

• *May 27: Jersey Village--------- 1:30 p.m.

Cypress Falls---------- 4:30 p.m.

Cypress Falls HS Auditorium, 7 p.m. for:

Cypress Falls, Langham Creek, and Cypress Spring

Cypress Creek HS Auditorium, 7 p.m. for:

Cypress Creek, Cy-Fair, Jersey Village, and Windfern

The Board approved an Earnest Money Contract for the purchase of a 20-acre site of land located on Skinner Road (south of Spring Cypress and north of Jarvis Road) for the purchase price of $490,000.00. The site is an addition to and adjacent to the 162-acre multi-campus site purchased by the District in May 2000.