Irion County ISD July 8 2026
- Jul 9
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting
A. Agenda Analysis
Bond update, item 3: This is Supt. Heath's second meeting, and he is here during peak construction of the new elementary school.
Administration reports, item 4: Everything here is important. I am following the TIA item at 4B. See my meeting review for the Oct 8 2025 meeting at B3. In short, this program gets higher salaries for teachers if they meet certain performance goals. It is highly structured and worth the attention.
Hiring and resignation, 6A and 6B: I always pay attention to the comings and goings. It is generally easy to learn about new contract approvals, but resignations can be firings. They are often hard to get info on without an PIA request after the meeting.
Approval of minutes, item 7D: I missed the last meeting, though I've received an update on it from President Carlile. I anticipate doing a PIA request on some matters related to it and covering it later, but the 765 kV cases are taking up my extra time.
Miscellaneous: There are a few things about this agenda that are unique and worth knowing more about. At the beginning of Dr. Moore's tenure I publicly dinged her on some things on her agendas. I learned some things from that approach, and I won't be handling it just the same way here.
B. Meeting Review
Bond update, item 3: The folks at Gallagher provided the Board with some bidding updates, as well as flood detention construction work. The flood work on 2nd St. between Fayette and Juanita is nearing construction. (Photos are being posted here at the City Council meeting page.) The project on 4th between Fleming and Juanita is seeing delays because it isn't passing certain tests. I will be exploring this soon.
Administrative Reports, item 4: a. Principal Parker gave an update on student progress on the state tests; I will be exploring this more after reviewing the meeting documents. The District has met "meets and masters" (the State target, which is above passing) in every single area except for elementary math, secondary math and RLA growth targets. See my Commentary below at C2
b. Teacher Incentive Allotment, item 4b: According to Principal Parker, progress continues towards getting certified. This is a multi-year project. This current year is considered the data collection year, and if certified teachers won't receive funds until Aug 2028. Here is the TEA site on the program. Whether teachers get extra funds in part is based on 60% student growth and 40% teacher evaluation. The Board will approve the spending plan on 10% of the funds awarded to the District. (90% of the funds go to teacher, 10% goes to the District to allocate within the TIA program.) During the discussion it was apparent that Supt. Heath is as supportive as Supt. Moore was when she initiated the program during her tenure. c. Business report - close to $8 million will be returned to the state for the current year. Watch for several budget amendments at the next board meeting. Budget docs to be posted here soon.
d. Supt. report: Supt. Heath gave an update on ramp sales, damage to auditorium stage, classroom carpet replacement and auditorium lighting system/sound system evaluation. Campus updates: 9 students were awarded the Lonestar Degree in FFA. This is the highest degree the State awards. (I am not surprised by this - this is a really good program at the District.) Mr. Green and Principal Parker received Honorary Lonestar degrees. Campus Security - Guardians received training in June, will finish up in July.
Hiring, item 6a: Put off until a fter Executive session. (Afterwards, President Carlile advised me they approved 3 new hires, meaning the District is fully staffed.
Consent agenda: all approved. Watch for my document update on meeting documents.
Previous meeting: My regular readers might have noticed I did not write up a page on the Board's June 3 meeting. I missed that meeting but am in the progress of doing a PIA request for those documents. President Carlile has advised me of the following:
We went over policy update local/legal 127.
Approved 2 bids for the bond. One was for work on the retention pond on 2nd St below the band hall and ag shop. That project was all coordinated and approved by the city. The 2nd bid was to remove all the plumbing and electrical for 2 of the portables that we were able to get a few teachers out of.
We approved some teacher/coaching contracts to replace the coaches that have either left or retired. I believe Head Boys BB is all that we’re lacking.
There were 2 ladies that spoke in open forum wanting us to consider adding volleyball for the girls.
Then the usual consent agenda items.
C. Commentary
765 kV cases: I have added a new page, 765 kV Documents. If you’ve noticed some delays on my posts, well these cases are the reason.
Administrative Reports, Principal student data: My general approach has been to not address academic performance at ICISD in this blog. However, the community doesn't have parent advocates attending the board meetings, while at the same time it experiences regular superintendent roll overs every few years. The community, even those of us who don't have children at the school, has a stake in District's academic performance. I want these students to receive a better than an average education because that benefits the community at large. An educated community creates diversity of thought and greater opportunity.
Prayer - at Item 1. No need to write a treatise here. The law makes it virtually impossible to have prayer at school board meetings, as it should be in my opinion. President Carlile passed on the opening ceremonies for this meeting, which is often the case during summertime, so there was no prayer.
More on the football field and Hellas: Also attention worthy at this meeting was the football field treatment for fire ants and harvester ants. Do a search on this site for "Hellas" to get my background here. Briefly, one of the problems with the previous field was, like most artificial turf fields, the rubberized material to soften the field retained heat. When Hellas pitched their field to the Board, a key selling point was that it would not burn the kids by overheating. What they failed to disclose was their organic pellets they use are basically ant food. Ants love the stuff! Supt. Heath advised at this meeting that the District would be paying about $2,200 a year for ant treatment. This isn't a huge amount when you consider their budget is over $20 million. But, this ant extermination effort is putting pesticides into our ecostystem (Spring Creek is less than a 1/2 mile away) and exposing the kids to the treatment. I’m keeping my opinion that grass is better than artificial turf.
Copyright 2026 G. Noelke
