Quitman School Board made changes to the current school calendar Monday in light of state regulations regarding student attendance in career and technical education (CTE) classes.

The board had approved a staff development waiver in September that it thought would address the issue but learned on Oct. 27 that the waiver would not satisfy the CTE requirement.

As a result, early release days on Nov. 17 and Dec. 20 were removed from the calendar, as students were not meeting the required minutes on those days.

The master class schedules at the junior high and high school were also adjusted to include the required minutes, lengthening class periods from 45 to 46 minutes.

Teachers took time during the student showcase to let the board know that they are continually working on bringing reading engagement to junior high. To this end, they have brought in more books and encouraged “book talk” presentations rather than traditional book reports.

“We’re not teaching reading, we’re teaching a love for reading, and we have great scores because of that,” said English language arts 8 teacher Lana Clark. 

This phenomenal work is being done across the department, not just in junior high. Clark said the community should be prepared for the best: “You’re going to see a lot more kids with books,” she said.

During open forum, Sally Attaway took a few minutes to thank the board and a few of its individual members for the QISD Veterans Day program. 

“It was superior. We’re losing our veterans so fast, as you know, but as long as there’s one veteran left in Wood County…. I think this is so important,” she said. 

There was some discussion regarding potentially implementing a better sound system in the QISD administration building so that community and board members can better understand what’s being said during meetings.

As part of the superintendent’s report, QISD Principal Bryan Hurst spoke regarding how QISD has been making excellent progress toward their goals for literacy and math scores. Their goals were to have 75% of students meeting grade level by 2028; as of November 2023, they are already hovering around 70% for both categories.

Several inroads are being made in the QISD facilities, including heat being installed in the wood shop last week. Playground mulch has also been delivered to the elementary school playground: Mason said kids will “be able to bounce off stuff by the time we come back from Thanksgiving.”

Quitman expects to remain in Class 3A for UIL competition, with high school enrollment at 352 on snapshot day in late October.

Brittany Emerson, a health science teacher at QISD, asked the board to approve her request for new health science supplies. She plans to purchase new arms for students to practice phlebotomy, an adult mannequin and geriatric simulators.

Emerson says that this will help health science-interested kids to be able to graduate and go into a health-focused career. 

The board set the following days as closed business days for the purpose of complying with HB 3033 regarding public information requests: Nov. 20-22, Dec. 21, 22, 26-29 and Jan. 2.

Those days will not count against the 10-day requirement for fulfilling such requests.

The district will be purchasing five new HVAC units, some of which are from 2002, for a total of $33,750. They will also be purchasing a new bus, which will have seat belts and air conditioning, for $135,754. It may be up to 12 months before the company is able to deliver the bus.

The public hearing for the state financial rating was rescheduled for next month.