Breckenridge Texan

A packed house was on hand at Monday night’s Breckenridge Independent School District’s Board of Trustees meeting as students made presentations to the trustees for National School Board Appreciation Month. Also during the meeting, trustees voted to extend Superintendent Tim Seymore’s contract by a year and approved a contract with a West Texas food-service cooperatives for 2019-2020.

School Board Appreciation Month

Fourth grader Kadynce Kennedy and sixth grader Miley Roberts read poems to the BISD Board of Trustees at Monday’s meeting. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/ Breckenridge Texan)

In honor of National School Board Appreciation Month, students from the district made presentations to the board members.

The theme of School Board Appreciation Month is “Planting the Seeds of Success,” so East Elementary gave each of the board members a potted plant. A couple of South Elementary students read a letter of appreciation written to the school board members and presented them with candy.

Breckenridge Junior High students drew portraits of the school board members and presented them at the meeting. The high school presented the board with plaques made by the students in the woodworking class.

North Elementary is planning to host a lunch for the school board members on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Breckenridge Junior High School students present BISD board members with portraits that they drew of each board member for National School Board Appreciation Month. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Superintendent’s evaluation and contract extension

BISD Superintendent Tim Seymore

The BISD trustees performed Superintendent Tim Seymore’s annual performance evaluation during executive session at the meeting and voted to extended his contract by a year when they came back into regular session during Monday night’s meeting.

His current contract was set to run through June 30, 2020, and the board extended until June 30, 2021.

Seymore said he appreciates the support of the board and thinks the district is heading in the right direction.

He said he plans to continue with the things they’ve been doing and the changes they’ve been making.

Contract with West Texas Food Service Cooperative

Trustees also approved a contract with the West Texas Food Service Cooperative for the 2019-2020 school year.  Seymore said BISD participates in the cooperative, which allows the district to purchase cafeteria food at a negotiated rate. He said the district is not obligated to use the cooperative, so, if during the middle of the school year they find a cheaper source, they can buy the food elsewhere.

“It’s rare that that happens because this food cooperative is huge,”  he said.  “Basically everybody west of Fort Worth is in it.”

BISD receives perfect FIRST rating for 2017-2018

During a public hearing on the Financial Integrity Reporting System of Texas (FIRST) rating for BISD’s 2017-2018 school year, Seymore told trustees that BISD received a perfect score of 100. He said he was proud of the rating because it was the first time he had ever received a perfect score at any district.

“This is kind of a special one for me because in all the years I’ve been doing this, always school finance is sort of been my thing, and people come to me with school finance issues all the time,” he said. “I’m proud to say every school I’ve been at has been in better financial shape when I left than when I got there. This is the first time in all the years I’ve been doing this that I have a perfect score. I’m pretty proud of that, but it also means that the board has helped us make good decisions which helped us do things to get our finances in good shape.”

Seymore said BISD received a 98 last year and a 96 the year before that.

Other Business

Seymore said the district hired Caleb Spoon, a 2014 Breckenridge High School graduate, as a math teacher at the high school. Seymore said Spoon finished his student teaching at the school and started teaching full time this semester.

He also said there were two resignations at the end of the fall semester. South Elementary teacher Diane Bayles and high school teacher Kayla Woods resigned effective December 20, 2018.

The trustees voted to change the employee handbook so that employees who are on workers’ compensation can use their personal sick leave in order to get full pay.

Trustees also voted to move their March meeting to March 25 because of Spring Break.

Students of the Month

Awards were also presented at the meeting for January students of the month at the three elementary schools and Breckenridge Junior High School.

Kindergarten student Jocelyn Rodriguez was the student of the month at East Elementary; Paisley Herring was the North student of the month; Luke Carey was student of the month at South Elementary; and, Kameron Isbell was the Breckenridge Junior High student of the month.

Kindergarten Jocelyn Rodriguez was presented with the Student of the Month certificate by East Elementary Principal Barbara Collinsworth and teacher Christy Calsoncin. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Paisley Herring was awarded the North Elementary Student of the Month certificate by Principal Jennifer Gillard and Eduardo San Lucas, an instructional paraprofessional at the school. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Luke Carey was presented with the Student of the Month by South Elementary Principal Kenna Rainey. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Kameron Isbell received the Breckenridge Junior High School Student of the Month certificate from Principal Mary Perkins. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

BISD School Board members Jeff Dooley and Paul Lippe look at their personalized plaques that were created by the Breckenridge High School woodworking students for National School Board Appreciation Month. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Cutline, top photo: East Elementary students Joselyn Acosta, Siler Morehart, Dominic Reyes and Kelyn Collinsworth presented potted plants to the BISD Board of Trustees at Monday night’s meeting in honor of National School Board Appreciation Month. The theme of the recognition month is “Planting the Seeds of Success.” (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Story by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan