This month in Lone Star Governance
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Welcome to This Month in Lone Star Governance. These emails highlight current events in the LSG initiative, answer frequently asked questions, and celebrate LSG successes from around the state. If there is a topic you would like to see addressed in an edition of This Month in Lone Star Governance, please let us know by emailing lsg@tea.texas.gov.
If you missed a previous issue of This Month in Lone Star Governance, you can get it on the TEA website here.
Vanguard Academy, located in the Rio Grande Valley, is one of the state's highest performing Texas school systems, with over 97% of students graduating college, career, or military ready. Vanguard is achieving these amazing student results with a student population that is 99% Hispanic and 73% economically disadvantaged.
Vanguard Academy applied for and is included in the Lone Star Governance 2021-2022 Exemplar Cohort. Vanguard Academy's School Board President, Dr. Luzelma Canales says, "Our school board has always been data driven, and since Lone Star Governance requires school boards and systems to be data driven, it was a perfect fit for Vanguard Academy. As a result of Lone Star Governance, the School Board established 3rd Grade Student Outcome Goals and goal progress measures. Our continuous review of these 3rd grade goals resulted in our School Board rapidly identifying troubled spots and putting more specialized tutors into 1st and 2nd grade classrooms.
The data shines a flashlight on where we need to focus." Vanguard Academy is laser focused on graduating students that are workforce ready, and as a result of Lone Star Governance, adopted a constraint that requires the continued monitoring and addition of industry based certifications programs. As a result of Lone Star Governance and many other efforts, Vanguard Academy outperforms all nearby local school systems in CCMR. Dr. Garcia, Vanguard Academy's Superintendent, says, "My focus is on building a workforce for our community and that starts with ensuring every student graduates with an industry based certification or an associate's degree. Lone Star Governance helps me work with the School Board to monitor programs on our CCMR efforts."
Kara Belew is Vanguard Academy's Lone Star Governance Coach. She says, "What I enjoy most about the work with Vanguard Academy is working directly with the school principals and leadership team on preparing monitoring reports for the Vanguard Academy School Board. As a result of these monitoring reports, principals are interacting with the school board in a meaningful way at each meeting and reviewing data effectively." Vanguard Academy is starting its community engagement efforts. During the month of April 2022, school board members and the principal will be meeting with parents at each campus system. School Board Vice-Chair Dr. Alda Benavides says, "One thing we are thinking hard about is how to engage parents in our work. We are going to ask parents to review and provide feedback on your non-negotiable value statements."
HB 690, passed by the 87th Texas Legislature in 2021, added a new section to state law (Texas Education Code, §11.159(b-1)) requiring the State Board of Education (SBOE) to develop a training on school safety for school board trustees in coordination with the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University. In November of 2021, the State Board of Education (SBOE) approved the school safety course for trustees.
At its April 2022 meeting, the State Board of Education approved the rules governing the training. Trustees must complete the training every two years by taking the SBOE-approved school safety training, available on TEA Learn at this link.
Please direct any questions regarding the new school safety training for trustees to schoolgovernance@tea.texas.gov.
In last month's Lone Star Governance newsletter, you featured a video in which trustees from Frankston ISD give their impression of the Lone Star Governance workshop. What do superintendents who have recently experienced Lone Star Governance have to say?
The Lone Star Governance workshop is for governance teams—boards and their superintendents. Recently, Kenedy ISD experienced a Lone Star Governance workshop. Following the workshop, the superintendent, Dr. Diana Barrera Ugarte, recorded a video in which she calls Lone Star Governance 'the best professional development I have received as a superintendent.' Check about the video here.
If you have not had the opportunity to watch the Frankston ISD video referenced above, see it here.
Learn more at http://tea.texas.gov/lsg
See more frequently asked questions at the link below.
Join us for the next episode of This Month in Lone Star Governance to stay informed of all things Lone Star Governance.
Thank you for subscribing to the LSG news bulletin
and for your commitment to serving Texas students.
lsg@tea.texas.gov
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