June 21 - New Braunfels ISD

A Premier District
Board of Trustees Meeting Highlights from June 21, 2010
Across the Board
One Student at a Time
Trustees explore plans for a 9th grade center
Bond election to pave the way to alleviate overcrowding at NBHS
ecognizing the need to explore options
to alleviate overcrowding at New
RBraunfels High School, board members
looked over plans at the regular board meeting
on June 21 to create a 9th grade center at the
current New Braunfels Middle School campus.
The idea of a 9th grade center was born after
several years of research and study of the district’s
facilities planning committee. Funds for
the project will come from a successful bond
referendum on November 2, 2010.
“The main reason that is driving our facility
issues is the fact that our high school is overcrowded,”
said Assistant Superintendent
Victoria Pursch, adding the high school campus
is landlocked prohibiting the expansion of buildings
or parking lots.
The $45 million bond referendum will include:
•New middle school to be built to eventually
be the location of a future high school.
The school will be built on district land off Klein
Road in the Legend Pond Subdivision. In the
future, it is the plan of the district for this middle
school to evolve into the district's second high
school.
Total cost: $37.7 million
•District-wide campus improvements.
Campuses throughout the district will receive
needed improvements and repairs. Funds will
also be spent to prepare New Braunfels Middle
School to evolve into the district's 9th grade
center.
Total cost: $5.2 million
•New transportation building on Klein
Road district site. Funds will be spent on a
new transportation building on the current
transportation satellite site, located adjacent to
Klein Road Elementary. This site will house the
entire district's transportation operation to help
free up space for parking at New Braunfels
High School.
Total cost: $2.2 million
Crowding at NBHS
New Braunfels High School currently exceeds
its capacity, but with an enrollment of more than
2,000 students there are not enough students
to mandate a second high school at this time.
“To cost-effectively and academically effectively
open a second high school you have to
have enough students when you split so that
you have between 1,500 and 1,800 students in
each school,” said Pursch. “If you have fewer
than that you really limit your academic opportunities.
If you don’t have at least 15 students
per class you basically put yourself in the poor
house trying to provide staff.”
Pursch told board members that demographers
predict that New Braunfels ISD is
between eight and 10 years away before there
will be a need for a second high school.
“In a 1,500-student high school it gets you to
the amount of money you need based on student
ADA (average daily attendance) to pay for
the infrastructure of a high school,” Pursch
said.
Currently, high school classes are exceeding
the district’s optimal secondary student-teacher
ratio of 25 students to one teacher.
“We already at the high school have 71 core
classes that have between 27 and 28 students
in the class,” Pursch said. “We have 53 core
classes that have between 29 and 35 students.
We are already packing our classrooms.”
Other spaces are affected by the large number
of students such as elective class spaces
and common areas such as the cafeteria.
Portable buildings are being installed to serve
as classrooms next school year so the district
can meet Texas Education Agency standards
for science lab space.
9th Grade Center
A successful bond election in November will
pave the way to build a new middle school to
house students currently zoned for New
Braunfels Middle School. The new school could
be ready in the fall of 2012 allowing NBISD
freshmen to attend class at the current NBMS
site, located on Guenther Avenue.
During a workshop session in June, trustees
asked for details on how NBMS could be prepared
to be a freshman center.
“We’re not saying a 9th grade center is the
world’s best thing, but we’re saying it’s the
world’s best transition option right now,” Pursch
told trustees as she explained options for the
freshman center.
In 2012 the anticipated NBISD freshman population
will be around 700 students. The current
NBMS campus can accommodate 850 to
950 students. Plans for the 9th grade center
include:
1. Eighteen classrooms are available throughout
the main building and the 300-wing to
accommodate up to six classes each of core
content areas of math, social studies and language
arts.
2. The first floor main entrance and west hallway
has space to renovate:
a. to provide two high-quality biology labs,
one chemistry/biology lab and three to four science
classrooms.
b. to provide for Career and Technology
Education (CTE) courses such as Consumer
Family Science with a small kitchen, bathrooms
and two classroom spaces.
3. The 500-600 wings have space for band,
choir, visual arts, theatre arts and two computer
labs. Freshmen who participate in junior varsity
or varsity fine arts will be shuttled to NBHS as
appropriate.
4. The cafeteria has a stage and can easily
accommodate the needs of the 9th grade population.
Acoustical upgrades are recommended.
5. The library, clinic, teacher’s lounge, workrooms,
counseling and administrative offices
are adequate but may need minor upgrades.
6. The 400-building can be used to house
See next page, 9TH GRADE

Service to Schools Award
Across the Board
Board of Trustees Meeting Highlights from June 21, 2010
The Wal-Mart Transportation Department was honored with the Board’s Service to
Schools Award for awarding more than $2,800 in grants to New Braunfels Middle
School and helping with the school’s Earth Day beautification project. Presenting
the award was Trustee Joe Hassmann.
Consent Agenda
Consent agenda: Items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and
are enacted by one motion.
•Approved appointment of professional personnel for the 2010-11 school year:
Lisa Aguirre – Walnut Springs Elementary kindergarten teacher
Merry Balcar – Walnut Springs Elementary first grade teacher
Kim Balstad – Walnut Springs Elementary fourth grade teacher
Milenka Billicich – Memorial Elementary first grade dual language teacher
Randall Boles – County Line Elementary special education resource teacher
Jenny Burton – Klein Road Elementary art teacher
Chelsea Callahan – NBMS math teacher
William Clements – ORMS band teacher
Kristin Contreras – County Line Elementary fourth grade teacher
Tracy Cox – NBHS chemistry teacher
Camilla Davis – ORMS social studies teacher
Joshua Davis – ORMS math teacher
Misti Dunlap – Seele fourth grade teacher
Brenda Dunn – County Line Elementary fourth grade teacher
Kaci Gibbons – Klein Road Elementary third grade teacher
Tamra Hansen – Walnut Springs Elementary 5th grade teacher
Colleen Harmon – Seele Elementary kindergarten teacher
Rachel Harris – NBHS science teacher
Michelle Harwood – Walnut Springs Elementary fifth grade teacher
Katrina Heefner – County Line Elementary first grade teacher
Melanie Jaramillo – ORMS English teacher
Stacy Kell – NBHS Family & Consumer Science teacher
Blakely Lepski – NBHS English teacher
John Luby – NBHS English teacher
Barbara Marques – NBMS math teacher
Kenneth McMullen – Math Peer Coach/Project Coordinator
Samantha Neubauer – Lamar Elementary first grade teacher
Barbara Ott-Slaven – Lone Star Elementary librarian
Meredith Patterson – NBHS Health Science CTEC teacher
Brian Pfeiffer – NBMS math teacher
Melissa Porch – NBHS English and journalism teacher
Margaret Smith – ORMS science teacher
Amber Thompson-Adams – NBISD migrant and bilingual coordinator
Edna Tolento – ORMS math teacher
Shelley Turpin – ORMS math teacher
Rosa Villarreal – NBHS chemistry teacher
Melissa White – Walnut Springs Elementary Life Skills Teacher
9th GRADE
Continued from page 1
the district’s School of Choice campus which is currently located on
West San Antonio Street with the discipline alternative education placement
school.
7. Freshmen athletics will have more practice space with their own
practice fields and two gyms and locker rooms. Additional HVAC for the
small gym and locker rooms is also part of the November bond budget.
Official games can still be played at NBHS and participants in track,
softball, tennis and other sports could be shuttled to the high school.
Academics
TAKS scores presented to trustees
Based on preliminary data, all NBISD campuses rated under the 2010
accountability system are at or above the Recognized levels of achievement,
Assistant Superintendent Victoria Pursch reported to board members.
“Over half of our schools are expected to earn an Exemplary rating,” she
said, adding the district is waiting for additional information on New Braunfels
High School, School of Choice and NBISD completer rates and refined
Commended percentages which will be released later in the summer. Official
state ratings and AYP federal ratings are expected in August.
“We were particularly pleased with the performance of our juniors – those are
the exiting kids who will be seniors who have that cloud over their heads if they
don’t pass that first round of TAKS. The lowest percentage we had was 95 percent,”
she said. “We have a huge group of seniors who do not have to sweat an
entire senior year.”
While completer rates may keep NBISD from being a Recognized district,
Pursch said students are continually performing better academically. (A completion
rate is the percentage of students from a class of ninth graders or seventh
graders who complete their high school programs by their anticipated graduation
dates).
“What we know is how much better our kids are performing this year as compared
to the last five to six years. We are definitely going in the right direction
and hopefully we will get the titles that the kids deserve to get but in any case
we know that we have a lot more kids who are being a lot more successful. We
have an awesome staff that gets things done for kids,” Pursch said.
For a complete list of scores, link to the June 21, 2010 school board agenda
on the NBISD website.
Results presented on 5th and 8th grade technology assessments
Current fifth and eighth graders took an online assessment to demonstrate
proficiencies in the technology TEKS, per Texas Education Agency requirements.
For the past three years 8th graders have taken the Learning.Com electronic
assessment. This year 5th grade students participated in the test.
Out of the 557 NBMS and ORMS eighth graders tested, 442 (79 percent) met
the proficiency standard, which is up from last year’s rate of 63 percent. Fifth
graders had a passing rate of 69 percent, with 386 students meeting proficiency
out of the 562 tested. Results from the test show that both grade levels are
above the “state” average.
“However, we would like to achieve 100 percent proficiency,” said Assistant
Superintendent Victoria Pursch.
NBISD technology integration specialists are developing a vertically-aligned
district curriculum framework to address all TEKS and focus on identified areas
of concern.
“This current form of evaluation is a great tool to help the integration of the
technology TEKS into all subject areas across the grade levels,” said Pursch.
“The goal is to seamlessly integrate technology into every student’s learning and
this will help track our progress.”
All students not meeting proficiency standards at their respective grade level
are required to take a technology applications course during middle school or
during their ninth grade year.
Ice machine donation
Board members accepted a $2,000 donation from the New Braunfels High
School Band Boosters to partially fund the purchase of an ice machine. The
total cost of the ice machine from Insco Distributing is $3,560.43.
The Unicorn Band utilizes 12 to 15 large ice-chests for ice and water at
football games during the fall. Similar quantities are used throughout the year
for band activities. The Band Boosters have limited access to the ice
machine in the NBHS food service area and purchase ice at other times.
NBISD will fund the $1,560.43 balance of the ice machine and provide
materials and labor required for installation through the maintenance department.