Five Llano High School Seniors hit the wall of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) mathematics test this year and, for three of them, even completion of all their course credits was not enough to carry them across the stage at graduation.

The Llano Independent School District Board of Trustees were split Thursday night on the decision to exclude all five from graduation exercises, but the final vote did not fall in their favor.

Lisa Simpson spoke on their behalf, saying that she had found only four in ten local districts that did not make a concession for students who had only to pass the state-mandated TAKS on a final try in mid-July.

“Mason even puts a certificate of completion in a diploma binder for those students,” said Simpson.

She submitted a citizen petition. Another from the LHS 2008 Senior Class was submitted by Class President Valerie Hoerster and on Friday night during her graduation speech she led the class in honoring its absent members.

“It is pretty heartbreaking to think students that have been with us since kindergarten will not graduate with us,” Hoerster said.

Students have their first chance to pass the exam in the spring of their junior year and they have special classes and tutorials to carry them through four additional attempts, but Hoerster suggested that failure at the tests lies as much with LISD as with the students.

“If they were not prepared for the TAKS test, the district should have done a better job,” she said.

“The TAKS test is a high stakes test,” said Ronnie Rudd, president of the board. “It is designed to test the minimum amount of education, not the optimum amount. If you fail the TAKS, you probably should have failed some other tests, not the other way around.”

Superintendent Dennis Hill made a further case for withholding graduation ceremony privileges. At least in his history with LISD since 1984, it has been the practice to include only students who fulfill all their requirements for graduation and he could recall only one other situation in which TAKS had stood in the way.

“If we ... rescind this, I predict a number of students will not try as hard to pass the test,” he said. “More students will graduate by keeping this policy in place.”

He lamented the current “one-size-fits-all” approach, with tests growing more challenging every year. But, he explained that the district would have no incentive but a diploma to compel 18-year-olds to return and complete requirements.

Interim Llano High Principal Charles Baker agreed.

“If we change the policy, it is not ‘graduation’ any more,” he said.

On Monday he reported that arrangements were being made for tutoring students aiming at the July TAKS and that a couple of spaces remained for the computer guided PLATO program for high school credits.

“A student could go online with a university like Texas Tech (for missing high school credits),” he said. “They do that in Marble Falls.”

He noted also during the meeting that new LHS Principal Daniel Vera, reporting for duty from Bangs High School by June 18, has experience with a General Educational Development (GED) program that he hopes to bring to Llano at no additional instructional cost.

In the final vote on a motion to allow students to participate in graduation, Bob Bender was joined by Becky Robinson and Norm Long, but they were opposed by Rudd, Gerald Kasper, Coni Milliorn and J. Preston Mason. The policy stayed in place and the students did not march across the stage with classmates.

The board of trustees adopted a new dress code and it is slightly more restrictive than the previous one.

Elizabeth Lively and Susan Griffith, teachers from Packsaddle Elementary School, represented the Site Based Decision Making (SBDM) Committee that recommended the changes,

“We have progressed from a homogeneous community to a heterogeneous community,” Lively said of the need for four lengthy SBDM deliberations over attire. “Most felt we have a code but we haven’t enforced it to the level they would like.”

Parents and students familiar with the “Dress for Success” code will find changes in the length of shorts and a requirement that sleeveless shirts and blouses have straps no less than three inches wide.

Students participating in extra-curricular activities will have more restrictive dress and grooming requirements.

For back-to-school shoppers, the new dress code in its entirety is posted on the LISD website: www.llano.k12.tx.us. Links to it are found under any of six headings: About Llano ISD, Schools, Downloads, for Parents, for Students and for Staff.

Heather Zellers represented Margaret Franklin, chair of the School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) to present a strategic plan emphasizing the connection between health and learning and the schools’ recess policy.

As in other schools across the nation, a recommendation for a minimum of 60 minutes of unstructured recess delivered in two blocks of time has fallen by the wayside in the LISD in the wake of growing curriculum demands.

“We are recommending in kindergarten through second grade, two blocks of unstructured recess of a least 20 minutes,” she said. “Currently they have 20 to 15 minutes. First grade falls short at Packsaddle Elementary because it takes five minutes to get there (to the playground).”

In third through fifth grades a 20-minute block currently falls at lunchtime. The SHAC recommended squeezing dining time if necessary and splitting that recess to equal blocks before and after lunch. In addition, SHAC is developing grade-specific resources for teachers to offer “Take 9” breaks, short periods in the day to “get the wiggles out,” she said.

“We believe no child should be punished by taking away recess,” Zellers added. “Behavior problems can be tied to needing to release energy.”

As an alternative measure for misbehaving students, they suggested walking laps around the playground for half of a play period.

“Students muscles and ligaments are vulnerable because of their point in life,” she said. “Instead of restricting their energy, channel that energy.

“Exercise is important to brain function. It regenerates cells in the brain. Students are academically energized.”

Moreover, Zeller noted that 54 percent of the student population in America is overweight and 15 percent of students are morbidly obese and the SHAC prescription to help alleviate that condition is activity at any time students have to stand and wait in line or wait in the classroom.

Dean Sharp of Owner’s Building Resource told the board bids would be opened this week on bond projects at Packsaddle and Llano Elementary Schools.

“Movers will come to remove contents of portable buildings to get them relocated from the construction areas next week,” he said, noting that escalating prices were producing bids that are good for only 10 days and he expected work to begin immediately.