January 22, 2018 -- The Board recognized Mellessa Denny, speech and debate teacher at Amarillo High School, who received the UIL’s Sponsor Excellence Award. Trustees were joined by Archie McAfee from the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP) in recognizing Tascosa High School Associate Principal Drew Daniel for being named the Assistant Principal of the Year for the State of Texas.
In her Superintendent’s Report, Dr. West presented a “State of the District” video and she updated the Board on the North Heights community engagement process. She said a Board and staff committee has been meeting about the concept of a neighborhood school in the North Heights area and will be expanding the committee to encompass parents and community members. Dr. West also introduced West Texas A&M University President Dr. Wendler, who presented information about new programs and initiatives at WT.
After an hour of public comments on both sides of the issue, the Board voted to officially change the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary School to Lee Elementary School. The name change will take effect with the 2018-19 school year and will involve changing signage, at an estimated cost of $3,000 - $4,000.
In other business, trustees approved four architect firms - Lavin Architects, Dekker Perich Sabatini Architects, Shiver Megert & Associates, and Parkhill Smith & Cooper Architects – to each serve as project architect to design a portion of the bond projects authorized by voters in the November 2017 bond election.
The Board heard a report from Doug Loomis, Chief Human Resources Officer, regarding the Cultivating Our Rising Educators (CORE) program, which has a goal of recruiting at least 20 AISD high school seniors each year to pursue a degree in education and then hire those individuals to come back to Amarillo to teach after they graduate.
Trustees accepted gifts and donations totaling $10,610, given to various schools this month from the Women’s Banking Association, Michael and Sophia Balderamos, the VA Hospital, Happy State Bank, the Gilliland Family Foundation (David and Robin Gilliland Weir), Bell Helicopter, the Amarillo Association of Realtors, Polk Street United Methodist Church, Lizzie Mason and Tascosa Road Fellowship Church.
The Board also hired Chad Dunnam as the new athletic coordinator/head football coach at Amarillo High School.
Additional settings for Safari Browser.
