As the school year begins to wind down, school board meetings have shortened, but both Taylor and Hutto Independent School District board meetings presented big plans for the upcoming school year.
Hutto ISD school trustees met Thursday, April 24, and they granted approval for new Emergency Responder Communication Enhancement Systems, specifically for Hutto Elementary and Nadine Johnson Elementary.
Assistant superintendent of operations Dustin Barton presented this proposal to the board and explained the ERCES had already been added to other schools in the district to improve radio infrastructure.
“Many of our buildings are metal and cell phones don’t always work inside,” Barton said. “The ERCES is designed to improve or enhance communication between emergency responders inside and outside our buildings.”
The Taylor Independent School District board met on Monday, April 28. Jodi Witt, director of school improvement, for TISD introduced the Multi-Tiered Support Systems program aimed at helping academically struggling elementaryaged students find the support they need to succeed. Through bi-monthly meetings involving all special education resources, specialists and interventionists solid plans have been put into place for each student.
Witt still described their plans and paperwork as “living, breathing documents” subject to be tweaked and adapted to a particular student or need, but she presented numbers showing overall academic growth for children in this year’s program.
“Early intervention is the best intervention,” Witt said, as she unveiled TISD’s new Kindergarten Summer Enrichment Packs.
Designed for incoming kindergarteners and their parents, these packets will be handed out at kindergarten registration. Available in both English and Spanish, they provide education resources and kindergarten- ready goals to be achieved over the summer. The students will keep their packs, which will be added to, throughout the school year and parents will be able to track their child’s progress in information kept inside.
Both Taylor and Hutto school districts are preparing for big changes for the 202526 school year with new buildings opening or renovation projects being completed.
Aaron Mullins of Rice & Gardner Consultants, Inc. presented the bond update at the Taylor board meeting with the two remaining bond projects at 93% and 99% complete, projected finishing time is the end of May.
Hutto will open the Lee Martinez Elementary School this fall and has spent the past few board meetings approving staff for the new school and the district.
Both Hutto and Taylor boards heard preliminary estimates of property values for current and proposed new properties. Jina Self, chief financial officer of TISD, said Taylor has a 75% increase of interest and sinking values, which are annual and monthly temporary savings.
“This is great for the school district and largely due to Samsung. Taylor ISD is in great financial shape,” Self said.
