WISD plans 'field of dreams' for Wildcats
BY SUZANNE LOUDAMY Staff writer

The trustees for Whitehouse ISD were immortalized in this caricature created by WHS seniors Jon Harvell and Salomon Ortiz in honor of School Board Appreciation Month. The trustees are portrayed as super heroes for the children of WISD.

The trustees of Whitehouse ISD were honored during Monday night's meeting. Each campus had a special gift for the men who serve the students of the district.

The most unique was a drawing by high school seniors Jon Harvell and Salomon Ortiz. They rendered a caricature of the board members. It was the hit of the evening.

Following board recognition was a presentation by Raquel Hamons of Brown Elementary. Mrs. Hamons is the STAR class teacher. Each year her family has a Christmas breakfast for her class which includes a special guest reader. She asked for the class' input this year and it was decided they wanted to invite President and Mrs. Bush to attend.

Mrs. Hamons delicately explained to the children how that probably would not come to pass, but they encouraged her, as she does them, "Don't give up before you even try." Taking their advice, she wrote to the White House inviting the First Lady and President to attend.

Members of the Whitehouse ISD school board are (front) Jason Wade, Randall Robinson, Darrell Crymes, (back) Vince Primo, Kevin Cashion, Howard Patterson and Frank Cuca.

The week of the breakfast, a call came from the office of the President expressing their regrets that they would not be able to attend but thanking the class for the invitation and the class received a very nice gift package for each child in the class. They decided the call was the next best thing to a real visit.

Hamons was also proud to announce that her STAR class, at the mid-year evaluation, is showing marked improvement in their reading levels. Ninetythree percent have improved their level with 86 percent of them increasing by an entire grade level.

During the superintendent's business report the financial audit was approved, Region VIII ESC resolution and interlocal agreement for commodity processing and energy consumption reduction plan resolution were all approved as presented.

A report on the progress at the new elementary school indicated that construction is on schedule. Joe Denson reported that the building would be "in the dry" this week and that the completion date was still expected to be by mid-July.

The biggest item on the table for the board's consideration was the approval of capital construction projects including work at Brown Elementary and Wildcat Stadium.

Brown's project would include plumbing to provide water to three classrooms, reworking the front office and a classroom at the front of the school to provide a better safety-net at the entrance and adding a façade to the front of the building to improve the overall aesthetics. Denson estimated the cost of this project to be approximately $400,000 and take three to four months. Funding for this work will likely come from the contingency fund of the current bond issue.

Wildcat Stadium will see an update with the addition of artificial turf, increased seating and a two-story press box. Denson said the increase in seating to both the home and visitors' side plus the addition of elevated stands in the north end of the stadium for the Whitehouse band and drill team will increase the seating capacity to approximately 7000. This will add about 2235 seats to the cramped quarters that now seat crowds for several games a week during football season as well as hosting soccer, track and band.

Funding for this estimated $2 million project will come from surplus funds in construction accounts from prior years. It will not come from the current bond money.

In discussion of a new scoreboard, Supt. Dennis Miller said they are in conversation with Dectronics who is the company who did the new electronic boards at Brown and at the high school. Miller said the company will come to Whitehouse and evaluate how the business community would support the undertaking of an electronic video board with replay potential that would be located at the south end of the field. The scoreboard will be an entirely separate issue and was not an action item at this time.

The annual State of School report was distributed to the board and presented via a PowerPoint visual. Miller said this is always a great tool for the district as well as the community.

In policy matters approval was given for the Employee Transfer Policy (LOCAL) FDB. Additional regulations are still in draft form and could change several times before their final approval, but as of this time, state the following (in part):

"For children of district employees - Resident elementary campus employees may designate their children to be assigned to the campus at which they are employed or to the attendance zone in which they reside. All other resident employee children shall attend school in the attendance zone in which they reside or may request placement of their children by the district into available spaces."

"For children of nonresident district employees - Employees who reside outside the district may transfer their children into the district in accordance with FDA (LOCAL). Non-resident elementary campus employees may designate their children to be assigned to the campus at which they are employed or placed by the district to a campus where space is available. All other non-resident employee children shall be placed by the district to a campus where space is available."

The regulations go on to clarify that the district will determine how many spaces are available for transfer at each campus by June 1 of each year.

Miller stated that many many hours had been spent in research and development of these regulations and they would continue to tweak them to make them as fair and amiable as possible for the district's employees.

Following an executive session, trustees approved the purchase of property from Nancy Coats along Brown Elementary's rear drive area and FM 346.

Also, approval was granted for the hiring of a second grade teacher Marcy McLeod, sixth grade teacher Kate Iglesias and an assistant choir director at the high school, Joy Brooks.