School Approves Student Trip
The GCISD school board voted April 14 to pay for an educational student trip for sixth graders to San Antonio and Austin. The trip would use three school days, May 8, 9 and 10, and would include 10 adults. A chartered bus with driver will be hired. Apparently, the board is giving consideration to expanding such trips in the future to include other grade levels and destinations.
There was also discussion of whether having a prom is of interest to enough students to warrant the expense. Underage drinking and driving before the prom and school liability also entered into the discussion. Counselor/Testing Coordinator Misty Kinnibrugh recommended dropping the prom and doing a major educational trip during school time instead. She suggested offering the junior class the option of a trip or a prom.
Optional Flexible-Year Program Discussed
Kinnibrugh also offered an optional, flexible year program for the board’s consideration, and said it will be an action item on the May agenda. Such a program would target students who are 1) failing a course with a 74 or below or would otherwise not be promoted to the next grade level 2) have failed any portion of the TAKS test or other assessment (ITBS) 3) have missed 10 or more days of instruction (not including extracurricular activities.)
Within such a program, GCISD would provide intensive instruction for at-risk students on 10 specific school days. Other students would not attend school on those days. Tentatively, those 10 days would be specified Mondays during the spring semester. All teachers would be at school during those days to work with any student in grades K – 12 who meets one of the criteria above.
Strict penalties would face students who are supposed to attend these special school days but do not. Failing students who do not attend a Monday assignment would have the absence counted as unexcused and all work missed that day will be a zero in the teachers’ gradebook. For those who must attend due to TAKS scores, a missed Monday would require Saturday school from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at a cost of $80. If that student doesn’t attend Saturday, he or she will be assigned a week of in-school suspension the following week. For those who have 10 or more absences and do not attend the Monday school, he or she will be assigned Saturday school, with failure to attend resulting in a week of ISS.
The school’s March investment report shows $11 million in cash and certificates of deposit.