News see more »

By John Hallowell

The Llano ISD board held its first meeting of the new school year on Monday night, and much of the evening was spent celebrating the district’s Exemplary status and detailing plans to solidify gains and make further improvements.

Board President Ronnie Rudd opened a public hearing which preceded the meeting with comments on the school’s unchanged tax rate. "The disclosures published in the papers may make it look like we’re raising taxes," he said. "Bur we’re not. The rate is the same as last year, but (since Llano ISD is considered a "rich" district) any extra Maintenance & Operation funds due to increased property valuations are taken by the state’s "Robin Hood" plan. He added that the "Interest and Sinking Fund" portion of the property tax has benefited the district, but that the board has used all of that extra money to retire debt.

Chief Financial Officer Jill Minshew presented the budget for the new year, pointing out that the tax rate had not changed. It is still $1.05 per $100 valuation for Maintenance and Operations, plus $.175 for Interest and Sinking Fund, for a total rate of $1.215 per $100 of assessed property value.

Superintendent Dennis Hill pointed out that most school districts in the state are operating this year on a deficit budget, and said, "We’re doing very well" financially.

To open the regular meeting, Assistant Superintendent Tim Glover told the board that the district had made "tremendous improvement" in state assessment tests this past year, including double-digit gains among groups that had been lagging in previous years (mainly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged "sub-populations"). He then called on the principals of each campus to report on their progress and explain plans for future improvement.

Principal James Scott, of Llano High School, told the board that, while his campus had missed Exemplary status by three math students, "those who didn’t succeed showed good improvement." Almost every group had a success rate of more than 90 percent, and all were above the state average on last year’s tests.

Principal Nicole Smith, of Llano Junior High School, acknowledged that there were areas that needed improvement despite her campus’s Exemplary rating, and detailed plans to give extra help to those lagging behind.

Principal Keeva Frazier, of Llano Elementary School, told of "success stories" in helping students who had done very poorly in previous years, and told the board that, instead of just passing the tests, she would focus on having students reach the "Commended" level to make sure that Llano Elementary School would keep its Exemplary status. She was especially proud of the 96.5 percent attendance rate at Llano Elementary, the best of the district’s four campuses.

New principal Dale Mason, of Packsaddle Elementary, told the board that "we have a very strong base," and that good parental involvement (including some parents who are themselves taking English-as-a-Second-Language classes) and one-on-one tutorials will help despite the nearly 70 percent of his students who are classified as "economically disadvantaged."

The board voted for an early payoff of $750,000 of 1998 bonds and reviewed the district’s stated goals before going into a closed session to discuss personnel matters. After returning to open session, board members voted to accept the resignation of accused sex offender Joshua Scott Sol, who had been hired to teach at Llano Junior High School before his August 9 arrest. He never actually taught at the school. The board also approved the hire of Julie Lusby as a Language Arts teacher at Llano Junior High and Elizabeth Woodard as a 3rd-grade teacher at Llano Elementary.