Several administrative recommendations were approved at the Dimmitt ISD board of trustees meeting on Monday.
The board approved an additional cost for Lakeshore IT technology equipment. Mike Huseman was on-hand to provide information and explain the additional costs. Lakeshore is a company that provides, networking, IT software, memory, systems/servers and storage devices.
In other action, trustees approved a list of teacher appraisers who have been trained in the T-TESS (Texas Teachers Evaluation and Support System) that is the recommended appraisal instrument for Texas teachers. Dimmitt ISD appraisers approved were Maritssa Flores, Tiffany Seaton, Jennifer Sullivan, Tiffany Thomas, Carla Olmos and Jason Hamlin.
Additionally, a teacher appraisal calendar was approved before evaluations and summative conferences could place. The proposed calendar allows evaluations to take place during the regular school calendar year with the exception of the first two weeks of school; prohibits observations on the first day of instruction before or after an official school holiday; and excludes the last two weeks of school.
Texas AgriLIFE Extension requested that DISD recognize the Castro County 4-H organization as an extracurricular program and to add Felice Acker, county extension agent, as an adjunct faculty member. The board gave its approval.
The DISD cross country parents donated $1,257 to the program. No approval was needed from the board.
With DISD required to have an oversight team in place to evaluate any student with a concussion injury and approve a student’s eligibility to return to participate in any athletic event, the trustees approved Mitchell Brockman and Bret Bethke to the DISD Concussion Oversight Team.
In other business, trustees approved insurance renewals for property and worker’s compensation insurance with PCAT for the 2022-2023 school year. According to Superintendent Jill Millican, the school is in a 3-year contract with PCAT for property and liability insurance that has a rate increase limit of 10% per year. The rates increased between 8-9% but due to property value increase, the net premium increased about 12% or $25,000 the past year. Part of the increase was also due to the increased cybersecurity insurance coverage from $100,000 to $1 million. She said the worker’s comp insurance is about the same as last year.
The school board also approved the joint election agreement with Castro County for the uniform election on Nov. 8 had a public meeting on the 2022-23 DISD budget and proposed tax rate, and possible action to adopt a resolution setting the tax rate for the that period.