Sunday Sitdown

MICHAEL WOODARD

SUPERINTENDENT, LATEXO ISD

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

The Messenger continues its Sunday Sitdown reports where we speak with our local pastors, educators, local businesspeople, students and interesting people of all walks of life in Houston County. To see the full video interview, click on the link below. The Messenger would like to thank Cutshaw Chevrolet in Grapeland for sponsoring this week’s edition.

How did the new multi-use sports facility and other renovations come about?

“It was actually kind of crazy. Before I got here, they had tried to pass bonds a couple of times, and came close, but never quite crossed the finish line. Of all the times to try to pass it – this was during COVID and then a presidential election. COVID shut us down the first time we tried to call for an election, so we had to push it back to the November presidential election. That was crazy. But we did a good job of going out and selling it and getting the community support. The big thing for us was that it wasn’t for a increase in taxes. It was good timing as our elementary bond was just paying off and the selling point was taxes would not be going up. It took $5 million. That’s what we needed to build this. We went forward and built the gym or multipurpose facility and remodeled the cafeteria at the elementary. We got the backing of the community so we’re proud of it, absolutely.”

How is the district been able to compete so well in academics and sports?

“Coaches are one thing – getting the right people in place. Or coaching math, can I start there? Mrs. Cravens – she’s a math guru, winning 10 years straight. We are planning on winning an eleventh year in UIL math. She’s doing a great job here for our kids. They love her. The same thing in athletics now. We are a small school, 138 total students in our high school. So these kids do everything. Mrs. Cravens has one of our softball girls on her math team. We have softball girls doing the One Act Play. A lot of these kids do several different things but they’re very good at everything they do – we’re very blessed.”

How has the Latexo ISD Police Department working?

“That was another dream of mine but it is a long process. It took about six months to even start working on it. There is a whole process of applying to the state and do all that paperwork. Then the come in and look at the office, look at your facilities and security. And then, of course, posting the job and then hiring. We are very happy with Chief Martin and now we have a two-man crew for our two campuses. Our board definitely wanted that so our teachers and kids feel safer. They do a great job and I feel better.”

How has the four-day week worked for Latexo ISD?

“It’s going great. This was a dream of mine for a long time, about 10 years ago. Next year will be our fourth year doing this. I think if I tried to do away with it, I’ll probably get fired or the teachers will run me off, for sure. It was a game changer for us. At that time when we started it, we were having trouble – like everybody else – recruiting teachers. That’s why you see everybody else doing this now. Just all the demands the state puts on us and we compete with each other on teachers, of course. But the four day week helps us get that extra day of rest. ‘I will come back refreshed on Monday.’ Almost every school in the county is doing it right now. It’s difficult anytime you start something new – the unknown scares everybody. The biggest thing is the child daycare of course on Fridays. ‘What we do with the kids when we have to work?” I did my research. We started this and everyone said this kind of works itself out. You can offer different choices for parents and we did. But it’s going great now and it worked itself out.”

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]