Crockett ISD Plans New Construction, Plans CISD Police Department
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – The Crockett Independent School District (CISD) held its regular board of trustees meeting Thursday, Jan. 26 at the CISD administration building. The school board met to discuss a construction project for their technology suite, hear 2021-2022 financial audit report and finalize plans to form a district police department.
The board heard the financial audit of the district for 2021-2022 receiving stellar marks for their handling and reporting of CISD funds.
CISD Superintendent John Emerich was pleased with the positive report.
“The report showed the financial management of the district is in great shape,” Emerich noted. “That is something I am very proud of.”
The board also improved construction and renovations to the district which although they are scheduled to cost somewhere around $3.5 million dollars, will come from the district budget and will not involve any tax increases to residents. Goodwin-Lasiter Inc. won the bid to do the project.
“We will be able to move our technology suite from across the street back into our campus,” Emerich explained. “We will also be able to add a cosmetology program.”
Like other area districts, CISD has made the decision for form their own district police department and the board approved acquiring a police vehicle for that purpose. The district has been working through an agreement with Crockett Police Department (CPD) to provide school resource officers but both sides saw the need for the district to form their own department.
“We hired Jimmy Fisher to be our chief of police once our police department is officially formed. We felt this was the best way to give us the type of coverage we needed for our kids,” Emerich explained. “We have a great relationship with our local police department but they also felt this was the best way to move forward. We look forward to having a great relationship with our other local law enforcement but we will soon have our own police department.”
Schools have adopted this method of ensuring campus safety since it gives a school district more flexibility in making district specific decisions and the district police department still works in an integral way with all other law enforcement in the area. The new department should be official in a couple of months once all of the paperwork and coordination is completed.
Emerich himself was the subject of the CISD board’s closed executive session portion of the meeting. It was his yearly superintendent review. While these parts of the meetings are closed to the public and the press, the board must have been happy with his performance as Emerich’s contract was renewed for another year by a 7-0 vote.
“I really feel we are working well as a team of eight,” Emerich said. “Everyone is working in the same direction to make to make things as good as possible for the kids of Crockett. I am very pleased in their confidence in me and the job my team and I are doing.”
The CISD also confirmed elections will be held May 6, 2023 with more information on voting locations to be announced at the meeting next month.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
