In session on Monday, October 5, the Brownwood School Board heard the monthly report from BISD Superintendent, Dr. Joe Young.
Dr. Young noted that the district applied and has been accepted into the Resilient School Support Program through Texas Education Agency (TEA). The program matches the district with a highly qualified district support organization and, in partnership with the regional Education Service Center, will help BISD continuously improve the remote learning programs during the school year.
Brownwood ISD is beginning a phased-in approach to the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA), which was part of House Bill 3. TIA provides additional funding to districts with teachers designated as Recognized, Exemplary, or Master. Though TIA will not be fully implemented at BISD for another two years, phase one of the BISD approach will include discussions on creating a unified district plan for how the money will be utilized with the state requiring 90% be used as compensation at the applicable campus. An initial discussion regarding TIA will be brought to the Site-based Decision-Making Committee at the upcoming meeting scheduled for October 15, 2020.
Dr. Young will be meeting with the Superintendent Student Advisory Cabinet on Thursday, October 8. The group is made up of students from grades 6-12 and will meet to provide student input on various school-related topics.
With students continuing to move back to face-to-face learning, the district still has 498 enrolled in remote learning, down from 672 at the beginning of the year. Overall, BISD enrollment has increased, indicating students are not dropping out but are moving back into classroom instruction. Current grades and assessments indicate that BISD remote instruction programs need to improve, and though remote instruction remains an option, many students are learning more effectively face-to-face.
With parents concerned about COVID-19 at school, BISD has been transparent with reporting each case, and continues working closely with the health department on contact tracing. The number of students and staff being quarantined has dropped significantly due to the effective use of social distancing, masks, and other preventative measures, and no confirmed student cases were traced back to transmission at school.