The Levelland ISD School Board held their regular meeting this month to go over a few updates from department heads including, the possible addition of a third resource officer and the revision of the meeting schedule for the coming new year.
Steps have continued to be taken as the possible addition of a third school resource officer is an option the school district would like to have for the future.
The board took a look at their School Resource Officer contract with the City of Levelland at the meeting. LISD Superintendent Becky McCutchen explained that the last time the contract was updated was back in 2013.
Currently, LISD has a contract with the city for two SRO’s which means both officers have to float between six campuses which could cause issues in difficult circumstances.
In a City Council meeting earlier this month, the Levelland Police Department asked for approval in amending this contract to add space for a third officer, which council approved.
The board asked principals of all six campuses about the impact of their current SRO’s covering their schools and multiple added that when called for assistance the officers responded quickly, spent time with students and were well all liked by staff.
The board unanimously agreed to expand the contract to include a third officer.
As school safety and security has become a big topic across the state of Texas, McCutchen has made previous comments talking about how the safety of students and staff will benefit everyone involved.
Transportation Director Randi Bullard gave a report on how things are going for her department this year. Earlier this year transportation agreements were sent home with students to go over with their parents or guardians.
The agreement lines out the proper behavior when on schoolprovided transportation, and what behavior will not be tolerated. This puts parents, students and faculty all on the same page moving forward.
Being one of the busiest departments, as they service every single campus on a daily basis, some statistics were given to show just how much work gets done. There are 12 regular routes, and 5 specialized routes the busses take to get students to and from school daily.
The district currently has 18 certified CDL drivers and 8 aides. Since August this year, the Transportation dept. has taken students on 202 field trips spanning more than 50,000 miles. 88,000 miles were navigated on regular routes and more than 112,000 miles on specialized routes with 519 regular students transported, and 107 special students transported.
Bus evacuation drills were also held this year, to prepare the district in the event of an emergency, and will be held annually going forward.
Adam Olivas, the new Maintenance Director for LISD was present to give his first address and report to the board. He began by going over some of the projects the department has completed since October which include Carver’s cafeteria floor and sewer line repairs, intermediates roof and gas line repairs, as well as several potholes throughout the district. He then gave his detailed analysis of how things are going, and where he’d like to see the department.
Currently there’s a significant amount of contracted work being done for the district, which has its pro’s and con’s. Contractors, according to Olivas, have more knowledge and skills than the dept, as well as more equipment and resources, however they also are quite costly and offer no training or development to his workers.
In the short term, urgent needs will be assessed, and a plan will be developed t tackle them. In the long term, the dept. will be developing a 10 year plan for facilities, as well as implementing an energy efficiency plan.
A reduction of contracted services, an increase of staffing and growing the over all skills and knowledge of the department are a top priority for Olivas as they move on.
With a slight change to the established schedule, the board moved their regular meetings to the second Wednesday of each month, so as not to be in conflict with school functions and sports. This will be the normal meeting time starting in January. The board closed the meeting by retiring to executive session with no action to follow.