The Pampa Independent School District Board of Trustees met Monday evening for a regularly-scheduled meeting.
During the meeting, the Board received their financial audit report from Brown and Company.
“In the end we added money to our fund balance and from a financial stand-point we are in good standing,” Pampa ISD Superintendent Hugh Piatt said.
The Board received a presentation on the Targeted Improvement Plans for the campuses and the District. Almost all of the campuses had additions or changes to their leadership teams over the summer. These improvement plans focus on defining the roles and additional support.
“We are making sure we have clearly defined roles for leadership and in that communication piece we are sharing the same message with everyone,” Piatt said. “I like the consistency because it helps across the district. All of the staff has instructional coaching through Engage to Learn. Everybody needs a coach and we look to another lens or perspective on how to improve.”
The Board approved a compensation plan revision in regards to bus drivers.
“The two areas we fight the most are bus drivers and the CDL drivers, they’re just not out there,” Piatt said. “We felt like we needed to retain the ones we have and recruit others. So we upped their pay-scale.”
Starting CDL drivers will make $15/hour from $11.99 and stipend for teachers driving from $8,500 to $10,250. They also upped the substitute pay from $70/day to $90/day (non-degreed), $95/day (degreed) and $100 (certified) and $135 for long-term.
The Board discussed the configuration of the elementary schools.
“We are looking to go to grade-level schools rather than neighborhood schools,” Piatt said. “The discussion has been going on for many years. The ‘why’ behind it is we want everyone to be Harvesters, so to do that, kids need to start school together and not be defined by the elementary school you attend.”
Piatt said this is a lengthy process and nothing has been decided or approved yet.
The enrollment report showed down 21 students from this time last year, but he is worried about the attendance being down five percent (350 students a day not coming to school).
The Board also approved the following items:
• Contractor for PISD roofing project ACR Roofing Commercial Roofing Company out of Lubbock for the PISD Roofing Project.
• Cast votes for Gray County Appraisal Board of Directors. 2,137 total: Matt Brock 1,069 and Peter Denny 1,068.
• Submission of a Bilingual Exception & ESL Waiver application requests for the 2021-2022 year to the Texas Education Agency. Bilingual teachers are hard to find and PISD is trying to make every teacher Bilingual or ESL certified. Not all of them are, so the waivers are to the State to create exceptions.
Consent Agenda
• Board minutes for September 27, 2021
• Monthly financial reports
• Annual financial and investment report and review the Pampa ISD investment policy CDA(LOCAL): Other revenues and investments
• Quarterly financial and investment report
• Instructional Materials Selection Committee
• Adjunct faculty agreement with the Hutchinson County Extension Office
• Hutchinson County Texas 4H Organization as eligible for extracurricular status under 19 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 76.1
• Sale of delinquent tax property
