YISD calendar: 4 days every other week

• In the public comments time, Tabitha Bolten spoke first to the Yorktown school board outlining her opposition to the four-day week and describing multiple other ways to attract teachers to the district. (Staff Photo)

Virginia S. Gilstrap, Reporter

The elderly custodian sat on the back row of the Yorktown ISD School Board Meeting last week, waiting for the event to be over so he could take the audience chairs back to the classrooms.

On the front row, three retired teachers quietly took notes and consulted each other, while in the middle a couple fanned themselves because the air conditioning wasn’t working.

“We’re hot!” JoAnne Henry called out in between agenda items.

The board president and superintendent tried to adjust the wall mounted air conditioning to no effect.

But the audience was hot in more ways than one. The hot-button item on the agenda was the 2024-2025 school calendar. Officially, the calendar approved at the meeting is not a four-day week. Unofficially, with 12 added Mondays off, almost every other week is four days.

Not on the agenda, except for public comment, was the upcoming bond proposal.

At the top of the meeting, outstanding students were recognized, including Wildcats of the Month, the Devon Energy STEM Challenge team and their Crayon Canyon project, as well as the Academic UIL competitors moving on to regional. YISD UIL students finished first in copy editing, news writing, number sense, science and social studies.

Three people spoke in the public comments, two opposing the fourday week and one in cautious support of the bond proposal.

“We’ll be watching,” Gene Henry told the board, regarding how the bond money would be spent. “Don’t waste it.” Miranda Rohan, who spoke in opposition to the four-day week, had wanted to weigh in on the bond proposal, but her five-minute limit was up. During the executive session, she said she had a lot of questions about the bond proposal that have not been addressed. Rohan would have liked to see a citizen bond committee have a voice in determining the proposal.

The top priority of the bond proposal, as stated in district information, is capital improvements for student safety and security.

Region III LSG Coach Debbie Sexton reviewed the board’s Lone Star Governance goals and reports, focusing on student outcomes. To summarize the benchmarks leading up to STARR tests, Dr. Ashley Chandler and Secondary Principal Shannon Cupp reported that in most subject areas, students have been meeting the state standards. However, 9th grade math students struggled to meet standards and extra measures, such as tutorials, were put in place.

Sexton reported on feedback in regard to attendance, which averages 95%.

“Your district is rare in maintaining that,” Sexton said.

In the board evaluation section, there were comments about negativity on social media and each member having differing opinions.

“Unity is extremely important to student outcomes,” Sexton said.

Other LSG items covered were accountability, systems, energy and teamwork.

In the information report, Dr. Chandler said studies show that students who take calculus in high school do better in college. So the district is overlapping middle school math instruction, combining 6th/ 7th grade instruction and 7th/ 8th grade to help as many students as possible qualify for advanced math in high school.

The college-ready TSI exam has been administered to 10-12th grades.

As for STARR results, the district will get early reports at the beginning of June, and families will receive a report a week later. Final results will post in July.

After the executive session, the board approved the hiring of teachers and continued principal contracts, then adjourned.

Mr. Pruitt could finally get the chairs back in classes for students.