During Monday’s meeting of the Brownwood ISD Board of Trustees, a portion of the Instructional Focus was dedicated to the redesign of STAAR testing.

“It’s been the assessment system the state has used for the past several years but it’s going through a re-do this year,” said Brownwood ISD Superintendent Dr. Joe Young. “They’ve moved everything online and when they did that they changed a lot of the answer choices and the way things are presented to kids as far as multiple choice not being more than 70 percent of the test. So there’s a lot of fill in the blank, some drag and drop, some individual responses you type in. There’s lot of things online that students are not used to doing when we just did paper and pencil, but the kids are a lot more adept at changing to that than adults are, so we feel good about how the kids are handling that situation. It still takes a little bit of time so we’re doing a good job to make sure we have Chromebooks and iPads accessible to kids on a daily basis so that they can do those things at school so when it comes time for the assessment, it really does assess what they know and what they are learning.”

Practice STAAR test questions will soon be available on the Brownwood ISD website soon for both parents and students to see what changes are in store.

House 3 Bill goals were discussed, which regard third grade reading and math. An update was provided on where the school district currently stands, and with the STAAR redesign a hard reset is also expected, according to Young.

The following reports were also presented by Young:

Technology Report

The BISD Technology Department currently supports approximately 5,600 computing devices in addition to approximately 1,000 other devices. The department, working with principals in grades PreK-8th, have

developed a roadmap to provide each core testing subject with 1 to 1 ratio of classroom sets of Chromebook (3rd-8th) or iPad (PreK-2nd).

School Safety Report

Security measures enacted prior to the start of the current school year include:

• Summer Targeted Partial Safety Audit

• Building access control

• Visitor procedures

• Law enforcement presence

• Staff training of safety protocols

• Monitoring and surveillance

• Exterior door safety audit

• Summer meeting of the BISD Safety and Security Committee. Reviewed the multi-hazard emergency operations plan (EOP) and, as a component of the EOP, the active threat plan

• Trained campus staff (including substitutes) on safety procedures, protocols; Scheduled all mandatory drills for the school year

• Ensured all threat assessment team members trained

• Reviewed access control procedures for each campus

• Created and implemented and exterior door audit form for campus administrators.

• CRASE (Civilian Response to Active Shooter Event ) training Part I conducted in August with BISD staff.

Ongoing and Other District-Wide Safety and Security Measures include:

• Fall meeting of the BISD Safety and Security Committee. Reviewed revisions to current

• Emergency Operations Plan and active threat plan

• Exterior door audits conducted weekly at each campus

• Safety protocol training conducted during all substitute orientations.

• Interior classroom doors being replaced at East Elementary (Original Wing)

• STOPit anonymous reporting system in place on all campuses.

• Reunification Plan training provided to campus administrators and staff responsible for implementing the plan.

• Emergency Operations Plan reviewed by the Texas School Safety Center. Revisions to the plan currently in process.

• Security cameras and card access door entry points at Northwest Elementary currently in progress.

• CRASE training Part II (Scenario-Based) conducted in September with BISD staff.

• Campus exterior door maps provided to City of Brownwood first responders.

Campus safety drills conducted.

• Continuation of the Raptor Visitor Management System, which screens for sex offenders, alerts

staff of custody violations, and provides everything schools need to screen persons during check-in.

• Implementation of the Raptor Emergency Alert System, which will expedite and streamline emergency response by allowing users to initiate emergency protocols.

• Continuation of the Watch DOGS program across the district, PreK-6th.

Gifted and Talented Program Report

There are 103 members of the Gifted and Talented Program in grades K-6th, and 171 members in grades 7th-12th. The GT Showcase is scheduled for April 24-25. This will be a come and go event from 4:30 to 6 p.m. that celebrates and showcases the efforts of gifted and talented students in the district’s pull-out program. Students will be standing with their projects – Last name ending A-M on April 24, last name ending N-Z on April 25.

Teacher Incentive Allotment Report

Progress was given on the BISD Teacher Incentive Allotment Timeline, as capture is ongoing this school to be presented to Texas Tech in November of 2023. Final approval notification should be received in February 2024, and final designations and initial payouts should be received in September 2024.

The Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) is state funding given to districts for the purpose of teacher performance-based compensation. The intent of the TIA is to attract and keep effective educators in the classroom, allow districts to identify their most effective educators, and provide incentives for teachers to teach at the most challenging campuses.

The amount of state TIA Funding that Brownwood ISD will receive is determined each year by three funding factors:

• Teacher Designation Levels (Recognized, Exemplary, or Master),

• Socio-Economic Level of the students on the campus,

• The rural status of the campus. Due to these funding factors changing each year, the amount of TIA that a designated teacher receives will vary each year based on the new TIA funding amounts

Items passed on the consent agenda were:

• Targeted Improvement Plan Approvals – East

• NIMS Resolution

• Resolution regarding the Region 15 Regional Day School Program for the Deaf Shared Services Arrangement Agreement

• October 3, 2022 Board Meeting Minutes

The board book, with additional data presented during the meeting, can be found at the following link: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/988?meeting=555822