Crockett ISD Redraws Board Member Districts
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – The Crockett Independent School District (CISD) held its monthly board meeting Monday, Dec. 12 and voted to restructure the voting districts for the school board.
Troy Bolen from the Powell Law Firm present the board with the current districts which have too much of a variation in population between them, which is a violation of state law.
CISD Superintendent John Emerich said every ten years every district must check and make sure the districts are aligned with where the voters actually live.
“After every census, districts in the state are required to look at their numbers and make sure the variance in population between those districts is not greater than 10%,” Emerich said. “The thought behind that is to keep representation equal among the districts.”
The proposal also tried to align the racial aspect of each district and worked to balance the demographics in the new alignment and keep minority-majority districts. This must conform to the 1965 Civil Rights Act and after the CISD was sued many years ago.
“The district was sued in 1992 and the lawyers and demographers who did this took that into consideration, too,” Emerich told The Messenger. “They made sure we maintained a certain number that were ‘minority-majority’ and made sure that balance was still there.”
CISD School Board President Garner thanked the district’s law team for all of their hard work in adjusting the voting districts to get them compliant with relevant laws. He said he knew this was a lot of work, but was worth it, since they want to make sure every vote and every voter counts. The board approved the new districts unanimously.
Emerich told the board the district must reinforce its campuses for safety reasons, either by fencing in the entire area of the schools or installing special glass in all first floor windows. Not seeing fencing as a viable option, Emerich asked the board for approval to get bids to reinforce the schools’ windows with glass that is both unbreakable and bulletproof. The board gave Emerich their approval.
Emerich noted January is “School Board Appreciation Month” and invited the board for a dinner with no meeting and no school talk in order to thank them for their service. The board accepted gracefully.
The CISD board had approved recruitment and retainment stipends for teachers in April of this year and Emerich noted teachers would be receiving their second yearly bonus this week, with another coming before the end of the year. $1,000 will be paid to professionals and $500 to non-professionals working for the district.
CISD Director of Special Projects Margaret Tuggle presented the board with her committee’s choice for a plan for sex eduction for the district. Texas state law requires abstinence to be taught in school sex-ed curriculums and Tuggle said the new plan, “Big Decisions” will not only teach abstinence, but also contraception. She noted the program is designed for 8-12 graders but can be adapted for seventh graders, too.
“The number of underage pregnancies in the country is at about 15%,” Tuggle said. “The number in Texas is about 22%. The number in Houston County is 31%. We wanted to find a program that teaches abstinence, but also took into account some of the issues we face and cover contraception, too.”
Emerich finished the meeting by asking for permission from the board to get architectural plans to improve the technology center and other CISD improvements. He told the board these would be just drawings, plans and ideas – and would return with recommendations in the next meeting. This was approved unanimously.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
