The Board of Trustees recognized
the following students and staff members for their achievements:
· Thirteen middle and high school students participated in the National
History Day Competition in College Park, Md., this month after receiving first
or second place at the Texas State History Day competition earlier this year.
Those students were Katherine Unverferth, Alyssa Coleman, Heather Scherrer and
Katie Tucker of Goodson Middle School; Brian Bentson and Jason Harbin of Thornton
Middle School; Rebecca Baird of Cypress Springs High School; Dake Weng of Cypress
Falls High School; and Laura Mengheang, Sara Franco, Melanie Aston, Linda Martino
and Tara Grigg of Jersey Village High School.
· Cy-Fair High School track and field athlete Antoine Washington jumped
nearly 25 feet to win this year's state title for the long jump competition.
He is coached by Jimmy Reese.
· Cypress Springs High School student Richard Lam won a first place award
in the UIL state biology competition in May. He is the first Cypress Springs
student to win a first place UIL academic award at the state level and only
the third student in district history to earn this honor for biology.
· Students and coaches from Hamilton Elementary were recognized for winning
first place at the Destination ImagiNation state competition and second place
at the global competition. The winning group included Erin Duhon, Phillip Wozny,
Bryna Gray, Patrick Davis, Kelsey Sallade, Danielle Colson, and Libby Runde.
The students were coached by Becky Sallade and Mary Duhon.
· Seven individuals who earned first or second place honors at the state
journalism conference were recognized. Those students were Heath Crawford, Allen
Cernosek and Jodie Gee of Jersey Village; and Brent Bunger, Jason Peart, Valerie
Measame and Rachel Perryman of Cypress Falls. Additionally, the Cypress Falls
Yearbook Staff earned second place in the yearbook theme selection and development
category.
· Hamilton Middle School teacher Candace Tannous received the 2002 Teacher
Excellence Award from the Anti-Defamation League.
· Sadie Woodard, senior director of the district's guidance and counseling
department, was awarded the Texas Counseling Association's Presidential Award
for outstanding service and leadership to the association.
Additionally, the superintendent recognized students and staff members for
honors and achievements earned in recent weeks. Congratulations were extended
for the following:
· Congressmen Gene Green and Kevin Brady joined the American Volunteer
Scholarships Awards program in recognizing several CFISD high school students
for their contributions in public service. Those students are Emily Allen, Sara
Bartel, Gregory Hall, Courtney McNair, Kyle Phillips and David See of Cy-Fair;
Aaron Blackmor, Shelby Chilliion, John Gray, Meghan Jackson, Lauren Randoph
and Sarah Williams from Cypress Creek; Clara Arris, Claudia Balderas, Matthew
T. Bell, Quynn Phan, Sandra Saldana, Rocio Sotelo and Elizabeth Woodward of
Cypress Falls; Mustansir Abba, Ashish Chavda, Shannon Franklin, William Lo,
Melanie Merkey, Denise Parret, Andy Vaselaar and Lyndsay Weber of Cypress Springs;
The-Anh Bui, Aamir Laasi, Soraira Pacheco, Shela Patel, Becky Weirich and Angela
Zavala of Jersey Village; and George A. Ballew, Amanda Benard, Ericka Gonzalez,
Sadia Hasan, Nicole Hoffman, Heather McLaurin, Vickie Nguyen and Thao Pham of
Langham Creek.
· Students placing third or fourth at the Texas State History Day competition
included R.G. Beriones, Kanwar Singh, Samuel Lee, Rayn Merz, Asim Bhegani, Michael
Wu, Meagan Barnhart, Laura Waltz, Dawn Rendall and Melissa Hoffman of Jersey
Village. Students earning honorable mention included Alex Wendeborn of Thornton;
Lauren Baker of Goodson; and Jennifer Stephenson, Kacie Walch, Amanda Cegon
and Adam Cegon of Cy-Fair; Michael Scarborough, Gavin Lymberopoulos, Mark Mattingly,
Jeff Mandel, Chris Hengst and Ryan Kellogg of Jersey Village.
· Two high school students represented the district on the winning team
in NASA Johnson Space Center's 4th Annual Mars Settlement Design Competition,
in which students developed a design and operating proposal for a human base
on Mars. Those students were Curtis Riddle from Cy-Fair and Joshua Davidson
from Langham Creek.
· Molly Moodt, John Patterson and Joe Mabile from Cypress Falls received
third place in the Junior Achievement's TITAN-School Edition competition.
· Several district students won first place overall in the annual Hospitality
Convention at the University of Houston, Conrad Hilton College. Those students
are Christina Roberson from Cy-Fair; Derrick Johnson and Walter Rodriguez from
Cypress Creek; Tashania Gamble, Dinhy Lopez and Jennifer Sharp from Cypress
Falls; James Hale from Cypress Springs; Jenny Snow from Jersey Village; and
Lindsey Balistrire, Luis Chavarria and Lamar Harris from Langham Creek.
· Cypress Springs High student Katie Manton received a third place award
for editorial writing in the Interscholastic League Press Conference.
· Jennifer Martin and Greg Shipman from Cypress Creek qualified for the
State Citizen Bee contest. Martin finished third in the state for the second
consecutive year. The students are coached by George Villamagna.
· The Cy-Fair Lady Bobcats softball team finished the season following
a win in the regional semi-final championship. The Cypress Falls High School
baseball team also completed an outstanding season after winning the area championship.
· Two Cypress Falls baseball players were selected in the first round
of this year's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Scott Kazmir was
drafted by the New York Mets and Clint Everts was drafted by the Montreal Expos.
This occasion marked the first time that teammates from a Texas high school
have been drafted in the first round.
· Several students were recognized for their entries in the Houston Chronicle's
annual fiction contest for young Texas writers. Shawnee Johnson from Walker
Elementary received third place while honorable mention in the elementary competition
went to Randy Balcerek of Matzke, Kathryn Braddick of Emmott, Jared Brown and
Caroline Guerrero of Fiest, Megan Bullock of Hamilton, Ashley Elizabeth Greco
Ellis of Lamkin, Victoria Moreaux of Sheridan, and Shane O'Neal from Post. Receiving
honorable mention in the middle school competition were Melissa Adams, Roni
Ingraham, Rachel Leonard, Savanna Lott, Vivian Nguyen, Keith Prestridge, Amartya
Sengupta and Katie Smith of Hamilton; Chris Barcus, Jasmine Reed and Trang Truong
of Dean; and Rachel Gaddie and Blake Miller of Aragon. In the high school competition,
Megan Palagi, Julia Reina and Leslie Smith of Jersey Village each received honorable
mention.
· An article written by Sadie Woodard and Benny Malone in the guidance
and counseling department has been published in the book, Implementing Comprehensive
School Guidance Programs, Critical Leadership Issues and Successful Responses.
Their article, chapter 14 in the book, is entitled "Accountability for
Comprehensive Guidance Program Templates."
Trustees approved the addition of two new employee benefits that are designed to improve attendance and increase retention, and authorized contracts with vendors to provide these benefit programs to the district.
The first new benefits plan enhances the district's existing benefit of payment for unused sick days. The district currently pays a maximum of $125 per day for a maximum of 150 days. Because the lump-sum payment of this benefit is subject to federal income taxes upon retirement, an employee maximizing unused sick pay at $18,750 stands to lose a significant portion of his or her earnings in tax payment. Through this new plan, the district would allow retirees with accrued leave greater than $1,000 to direct payment for these unused sick days into a retirement annuity plan, IRA or some other personally managed account with scheduled distribution of retirement funds in an effort to reduce the tax impact of receiving such a large, one-time payment.
The second new benefit is a retirement savings plan in which the district will make matching contributions if the employee participates in a 457(b) or 403(b) and makes an annual contribution of at least 1 percent of his/her salary. The district's contributions increase with excellent (defined as no more than three absences from duty) and perfect attendance. Should an employee leave the district for any reason after enrolling in the plan, a graduated percent of the vested earnings could be redirected into an IRA or privately managed account after three years of enrollment.
The Board received a report and reviewed a draft of the district's 2002-03 operating budget, which was developed with the projected increase of the maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate to $1.50 per $100,000 valuation. The district would reach the state-mandated M&O tax cap should the budget and the $1.50 tax rate be approved in August.
Projected revenue for the 2002-03 school year is approximately $416.7 million while projected expenses total nearly $415.3 million. These figures do not include the employee salary increases totaling $7.4 million that were approved by the Board. Through wise investments and conservative budgeting practices in previous years, the district has built a fund balance of about $64 million- a portion of which will be used to offset the salary increases in the budget. The fund balance at the end of the 2002-03 school year is projected to be about $58 million.
The budget includes new expenditures mandated by the state and federal government as well as those created in the hiring of new teachers and other positions necessitated by student enrollment increases. Expenditures for at-risk campuses, TAAS-related costs as well as increases to security and safety were also included in the budget.
Payroll and benefits will consume approximately 89.7 percent of the total operating budget while 6.2 percent will be spent on contracted goods and services, 3 percent on supplies and materials, 0.7 percent on other operating expenses, and 0.4 for capital outlay.
Trustees approved the superintendent's recommendation for employee salaries and stipends for the 2002-03 school year. For teachers and nurses, the recommendation included a starting salary of $35,000 for those with a bachelor's degree and no experience, a 3-percent of midpoint salary increase, and a 1-percent structure adjustment of the salary schedule. The approved increase will provide a $1,232-raise for each full-time teacher and nurse.
All other district employees will receive a 2.5-percent of midpoint salary increase, which includes a 1-percent salary schedule adjustment for all respective pay grades. Employees at or above their maximum salary scale will receive a 1.25-percent of midpoint salary increase. According to Board policy, those employees who have received an unsatisfactory evaluation are ineligible for a salary increase.
In personnel transactions, Barbara Crook was named as the new principal of Thornton Middle School for the 2002-03 school year. Ms. Crook will replace Jim Wells, who was named as the new principal for Cypress Creek High School during the May Board meeting.
The Board reviewed and discussed information related to the locations and the opening dates for the Educational Support Center (ESC) and a new athletic stadium that were approved by voters in the December 2001 Bond Election.
The district currently owns two lots of real property- one at Barker-Cypress and West and another near the intersection of Jarvis and Skinner, at which either of these projects may be built. Advantages and disadvantages of building either facility at one of the two sites were presented and discussed, including the costs associated with building central utilities and maintenance plants.
Trustees heard reports from consulting engineers and architects and reviewed aerial photographs, charts and maps of the two properties. Existing thoroughfares and future roadway construction projects were also considered in the discussion.
Superintendent Berry said that he would continue to research and evaluate all factors associated with building the ESC and the athletic stadium prior to making a final recommendation to the Board. Based on the district's timeline for construction of bond projects, the Board must make a decision on the location of these two support facilities by September to reach the targeted dates for completion. The ESC has a projected completion date of May 2006 and the athletic stadium is scheduled to open with the 2006-07 school year.
In other action, the Cypress-Fairbanks
ISD Board of Trustees:
· approved the list of students participating in off-campus physical
education for the school years beginning 2002 and ending in 2005;
· received a written report on legislative issues and the activities
of the State Board of Education, Texas School Alliance and the Fast Growth School
Coalition;
· received a written report on changes to the alternative accountability
system for Windfern High School and how the district will report on this accountability
system for the 2001-02 school year;
· received a report on the review of the district's human resources'
selection, hiring and retention practices;
· received a five-year summary report of the district's TAAS results
for grades 3-8 and exit-level and a summary of SDAA results for students in
grades 3-8;
· approved a request to apply for a Texas Education Agency waiver to
use state funds to purchase an AP Astronomy textbook that is not on the state-approved
list;
· ratified an instrument to follow (ITF) document with Reliant Energy
to provide permanent electrical service for elementary school no. 38;
· ratified an interconnect easement agreement between Cypress-Fairbanks
ISD and the Chimney Hill Municipal Utility District to provide future water
interconnect service for Cypress Ridge High School;
· authorized a contract for the collection of delinquent taxes;
· approved a request to apply for a Texas Education Agency expedited
waiver to modify the schedule of classes on TAKS testing days during the 2002-03
school year;
· approved bids and contracts from recommended vendors for goods and
services;
· authorized a contract with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's
Office for one additional officer to provide police services to the district;
· approved on first reading two local policy revisions regarding admissions/attendance
and student activities as well as the deletion of two local policies related
to purchasing authority and competitive bidding;
· adopted the district's Student Code of Conduct for the 2002-03 school
year;
· approved on second reading two local policy revisions regarding investments
and student conduct, respectively;
· selected CFISD Board members Al Martinez and Alton Frailey to serve
as delegate and alternate delegate, respectively, for the Texas Association
of School Boards annual delegate assembly;
· considered the donation of property from the American General Insurance
Company;
· authorized tax refunds of $500 or greater for Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
and/or the Harris County Education District in the amount of $426,758.43; and
· approved 401 personnel recommendations, resignations, retirements,
promotions, terminations and discharges.
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