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RECOGNITIONS

The Board of Trustees recognized the following students and staff members for their achievements:

• Cypress Ridge High School students who won first- and second-place awards in the Texas Forensic Association State Meet. Nick Cugini won first place in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking and Brett Gray and Bradley Rheinboldt won second place in Duet Acting; and

• Cypress Ridge High School student Nick Cugini , for winning first place in Persuasive Speaking in the Texas State University Interscholastic League competition. Cugini was also named the UIL State Persuasive Speaking Champion, an additional award that was presented as a surprise to Cugini.

The superintendent recognized a group of students and staff members for honors and achievements earned in recent weeks. Congratulations were extended to the following:

• Alumni who competed in the summer Olympics in Beijing. Former Cy-Fair High School graduate Jonathan Horton participated on the USA men’s gymnastics team, helping lead the team to a bronze medal with the top score in four of his five routines, then earning an individual silver medal in the Horizontal Bar competition. Cypress Springs High School alum Catherine “Cat” Osterman helped the USA women’s softball team win a silver medal. Cat had previously won a gold medal for her pitching in the 2004 Olympics;

• The Cypress Woods High School varsity volleyball team, for recently receiving the American Volleyball Coaches Association “Team Academic Award.” The award honors teams in high school and college that have high academic standards, and according to Cypress Woods coach Ashley Ahlfinger, academics are “the most important thing” for her athletes. To be nominated for this award, every team member had to have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale;

• Two debate students from Cypress Falls High School who placed in the National Forensic League’s point list. Sara Meghji ranks at No. 41 and Saif Kazim ranks at No. 110 among more than 1 million students in the league nationally;

• Sampson and Yeager elementary schools, for making the Texas Business and Education Coalition’s honor roll for 2008. The schools earned this honor based on three years of consistent, high performance in all subjects. They also had the highest percentage of students rated as “commended” in all subjects. Of the more than 8,000 Texas public schools, less than 4 percent receive this honor. An awards presentation will be held in San Antonio in November; and

• CFISD, for receiving the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO), respectively. CFISD has received this award for several years now, and Dr. Anthony thanked the Business Department for reaching this standard of excellence. Under the leadership of Stuart Snow, the Business Office has faced new requirements, implemented new programs, and initiated business with more vendors, and continues to meet the high standards of the GFOA. This award recognizes that CFISD has chosen to go beyond TEA’s financial reporting requirements to meet higher standards. Dr. Anthony also said that the district’s high bond ratings reflect this standard of excellence. He additionally recognized Becky Knight, Diane Grein, Marcy Moran, Mable Isles and Bonni Brown for their diligence and effort in preparing the CAFR.

BOND UPDATE

The Board approved construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractors as follows: Package T-2008, Schiel Road Improvements and Package C-2008, Renovations to Langham Creek.

The Board authorized the superintendent to enter into miscellaneous professional service contracts related to the following projects up to the amounts listed below:

• Package T-2008 Schiel Road Improvements
• Material Testing Services: up to $50,000
• Package C-2008 Renovations to Langham Creek High School
• Material Testing Services: up to $150,000 and HVAC System Testing and Balance: up to $225,000

The Board approved the site, architect and opening date for Elementary No. 51. The school, designed by PBK Architects, will be located at Round Robin Drive and Holly Hock Drive and is scheduled for an opening date of August 2010.

ATTENDANCE BOUNDARY PROCESS

The Board approved the process for establishing attendance boundaries. The following factors will be considered when developing recommendations for attendance boundary changes: (a) the geographical proximity of students to schools, and will make efforts to minimize driving time and driving distance; (b) the school feeder systems, and will make efforts to reduce the number of schools that a school feeds into; (c) school capacities; (d) the enrollment projections over the next five years, and will make efforts to maximize the time before schools reach enrollment capacity; (e) the use of thoroughfares, creeks, easements and other structures for delineating changes in attendance areas; and (f) input from the community, including email and written correspondence. The recommendations should not be based on any singular issue, but should be based on all relevant information.

The district administration will work with a demographic consultant and jointly develop options for attendance boundaries. Special-called Board meetings will be held in October and in November to discuss attendance boundary options, which will include a review of public input.

The boundary options will be made public via school newsletters, newspapers and the district website. The public will be informed of opportunities to give input regarding the boundary options, which will include email and written correspondence. After studying residential development and student enrollments, recommendations may be made for attendance boundary changes for schools unrelated to the opening of new schools.

Recommendations for attendance boundaries and for student transfers related to boundary changes will be presented at a school Board meeting no later than January 2009, when the Board of Trustees will make the final decisions.

SUPERINTENDENT’S BRIEFING

As of September 2, 2008, the district’s student enrollment was100,141. This figure represents a growth of 4,003 students when compared to last year’s post-Labor Day enrollment figures.

The Cy-Fair Chamber of Commerce will host a general membership luncheon on Tuesday, Sept. 16, where Dr. Anthony will present the “State of the District” to business and community members. The meeting is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Houston-Brookhollow. Those who would like to attend may contact the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce at 281-373-1390or staff@cyfairchamber.com .

All CFISD 10th-grade students will be taking the PSAT on Wednesday, Oct. 15.The time of the test is approximately 2 1/2 hours. The district believes that this new initiative is a critical step in continued focus on developing high school students’ academic skills. Students benefit from this testing as it provides practice for the SAT and information about college readiness.

The Tenth Annual Salute to the Stars Gala will be held at the Berry Center on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008 at 7 p.m. The event will honor the district’s Spotlight Teachers. Salute to the Stars is hosted by the Cypress-Fairbanks Educational Foundation and the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District to recognize teachers of excellence from each of the district’s schools. The community’s sponsorship and support of the gala allows the Educational Foundation to providegrants for teacher training and instructional initiatives as well as scholarships for students.

Two new elementary schools opened last month and will hold dedications on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008. The dedication of John Edward Hemmenway Elementary School will begin at 1 p.m.The school is located at 20400 West Little York Road. The dedication of Marie Williams Robinson Elementary School will begin at 4 p.m. also on Sunday, Oct. 19.The school is located at 4321 Westfield Village Drive.

A total of 104 volunteers (including 32 community volunteers and 72 staff members) operated a phone bank at the Instructional Support Center on Sept. 2-3. From the initial batch of 1,614 “no-show” students, the phone bank’s efforts were able to recover 380 students, greatly streamlining the contact list for the district’s first Reach Out to Dropouts Walk. On Sept. 6, more than 470volunteers came together to show their support for Cypress-Fairbanks students by participating in the district’s Reach Out to Dropouts Walk. CFISD had 106 community members and business partners, along with 384 CFISD employees, who “took it to the streets” and visited the homes of 734 students who had not returned to school when school began on Aug. 25. Organizers report that, as a result of the Walk, 15of these students enrolled at school on the day of the Walk. Another eight students expressed an interest to enroll back at school on Monday. Information brought back from the 124 visitation teams helped the district recover an additional 164 students. The “Learn More, Earn More” slogan unique to CFISD appeared on participants’ t-shirts, along with the names and logos of 26 Cy-Fair area businesses underwriting the initiative.

The Trustee Elections will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4 for Trustee positions 1 and 2.

AGENDA ITEMS

In other action, the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Board of Trustees:

• approved bids and contracts to the recommended vendors;
• approved tax refunds of $500 or greater for Cypress-Fairbanks ISD and/or Harris County Education District;
• approved on second reading additions, deletions or revisions to district policies:
• DEC (LOCAL) COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS: Leaves and Absences
• FNAB (LOCAL) STUDENT EXPRESSION: Use of School Facilities for Nonschool Purposes
• GE (LOCAL) RELATIONS WITH PARENT ORGANIZATIONS
• approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Houston-Galveston Area Council for the funding of replacement bus engines;
• canceled the committee-of-the-whole meeting scheduled for June 4, 2009; and
• approved on first reading additions, deletions or revisions to district policies:
  • DEA (LOCAL) COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS: Salaries and Wages .