Construction to Begin at Sudderth Elementary
    By Myrtleann Anderson, Staff Writer ~~ The Monahans News, September 22, 2006

The Monahans-Wickett-Pyote ISD Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, September 12 at 7:30 pm.  Present at the meeting were President Larry "Bear" Bryant, Kay Rankin, Dave Poynor, Patsy Carrasco, Donna Garcia, and Superintendent Keith Richardson.  Bo Rose and Bill Clayton were not present for the meeting.

Architect Monty Hunter Handed out a summary of the information concerning the construction phase at Sudderth Elementary.  According to Hunter, proposals were accepted from subcontractors and suppliers for the project, and asbestos abatement was completed.

"Everything is on the schedule," Hunter said, "as for the financial side, you are a half million under budget.

I've also made adjustments in the plans for the field house and will get with Coach Owens next week.

We have set up a survey crew for the turf at the stadium.  Jeff Bresee will help us with that."

 "When are you going to start on the Walker Jr. High track?"  Poyner asked Hunter.

"We will probably do one in the winter  and the other in the summer," Hunter replied.  "We will work out the details.  We don't need to be working on both at one time in case something goes wrong."

In other business, Richardson told the board, "Enrollment is up a little bit with a total enrollment of 1,912, but it's still down 84 students from last year.  We looked at the transfers, and there wasn't any place in particular the students transferred to."

Principals Kellye Riley, Carla Tucker, Chad Smith and Daryl Skinner give updates on how their campuses are working to meet the district's strategic goal of meeting state and national educational performance measures and standards by the year 2014.

"We're real excited to have everyone here this evening.  This is the biggest crowd we've had at a meeting in 14 years," laughed Bryant.

MHS principal Kellye Riley highlighted items from the "Life Track Survey," given to graduating seniors each year in May.  The school began taking the survey in 2003.  According to Riley,  the senior 2006 survey showed that 90 percent of the students answered they could easily find a job that would support them after high school; 83 percent  wanted to increase their education; 95 percent stated they had a positive learning experience at high school; 98.3 percent said they were in a safe learning environment, and 77 percent believed the school had a drug free environment.

Riley addressed the issue of a drug free environment.  "Although we have the drug dog and drug screening, numbers aren't quite what we want them to be," Riley said.  "Not only as a school, but as a community the possibility of drugs are out there, and we need to do something about it.  We are going to do what we can to provide a drug free environment for our students."

Riley concluded, "We appreciate you putting money into technology.  It helps us prepare our students for their goals after high school.

"The numbers from the survey are impressive," Rankin told Riley at the conclusion of her report.

Cullender principal Chad Smith gave an overall view of how his school was working to achieve district goals.

"We started a math and science lab at kindergarten this year to help us attain goal one.  Half the students go to creative writing, while the other half go to math and science where they do hands on experiments, then they switch out.  We are addressing these issues at the earliest level and are aligning ourselves with the rest of the school system," said Smith.

Smith concluded his presentation by telling the board the attendance is up at Cullender.  He and the rest of his rest of his staff are working together to keep attendance up, and they are encouraging parents to get involved in their child's education.

In her report, Carla Tucker, principal at Edwards Elementary, talked about the addition of the third grade classes at Edwards.  "Although the school is more crowded this year, it has been a fun year," she reported.

"We are working with a three tier reading program and teaching 90 minutes of language arts instruction."

"We are trying to meet the students' needs inside the classroom, trying to reduce the number of referrals to Special Ed programs," Tucker explained.

"We are also working on improving our dyslexia program by improving our identification process.  We are not identifying as many as we should."

In conclusion, Tucker said she and her staff were working on attendance through phone calls and home visits, rewarding students who are attending school, open door policy  for parent involvement and making the school safe and drug free.

Monahans Education Center principal Daryl Skinner said the Centers' enrollment was up, and he and his staff are striving to achieve the highest rating possible.

"Right now we have a shortage of personnel, so we have a time from 2:45-3:45 pm where student can get some one-on-one time with the teachers.  We have a 94.5 percent attendance record and are working on parental involvement  through our annual Thanksgiving and Christmas luncheons," Skinner told the board.

"As for a safe environment for the students, we haven't had a drug problem on the campus for the past five or six years I have been there, and we haven't taken any contraband off any student.

"MEC obtained funds through Senator Madla's office to purchase computers.  We are scheduled to get five of the computer this month and five more at a later date.

"We are doing great," Skinner concluded.

"I view MEC as an accomplishment. Our students are not out on the street, and they are getting an education.  I don't know how many we are going to graduate but we are doing some good things. It's hands up and it's working."

In other business, board trustees approved a bid for $70,700 to purchase a new yellow bus and a bid of $33,627.10 to purchase a new Suburban.

The school received only one bid for both the bus and the suburban.

Ward County Agricultural Extension Services Agents Derek Scasta and Abigail Pritchard were appointed as adjunct staff members for the 2006-2007 school year in accordance with State Board of Education 19 TAC129.21(k) (1), requirements for students attendance for state funding purposes.

"We appoint the agents as adjunct staff members in case a student has to be out of school with them, they won't be counted absent."

The board approved a bid of $2,000 for Billy Spruill for property located in Tract 2 of J& J Subdivision and a bid of $1,000 from Vicky Kelley for .36 acres located in the Westover Tract, 516 W. 14th Street.  A bid of $410 from Bob & Sue Rice for Lot 1, Blk. 2, Fred Gibson Addition, 500 W. Sixth Street was not approved.

The board entered executive session, and after reconvening, and after reconvening, accepted the resignation of Colleen Smith as principal of Sudderth/Tatom Elementary.

Keyed by Alvin Porras, Senior '07 and Chance Helmers, Junior '07