Godley ISD school board trustees held a regular monthly meeting on November 18, 2024, at Godley High School.

The board heard the annual Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) report.  The primary goal of FIRST is to achieve quality performance in the management of school districts’ financial resources, a goal made more significant due to the complexity of accounting associated with Texas’ school finance system.  Including twenty indicators, FIRST ensures that Texas public schools are held accountable for the quality of their fiscal management practices and that they improve those practices. The FIRST report is one of several fiscal accountability tools, which also include an annual financial audit.

After a third and final review, the board adopted the district improvement plan, which includes a comprehensive needs assessment and other data to determine goals, projects and resources for the school district.  The district plan is based on the Community-Based Accountability System (CBAS) pillars.  

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Airemy Caudle presented the second review of campus improvement plans, which set out goals and objectives based on the CBAS pillars as well as district goals.  The administration will continue work on these plans and present final recommendations to the board at a future meeting.  In conjunction with the school academic plans, campus principals outlined first-quarter signaling for three CBAS pillars centered on student learning and progress, community engagement, and safety and well-being.

Board members tabled action on a District of Innovation amendment regarding the hiring of retired school employees.  The amendment would give the district flexibility negotiating salaries that may be below the Texas Education Agency’s minimum pay scale, while still covering the required surcharges with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

Before considering casting votes for the appraisal district boards for Johnson and Tarrant Counties, trustees heard a summary of an analysis by Omar Garcia, a school finance expert with BOK Financial Securities, made at a recent meeting of the Johnson County board.  Following extensive discussion, the school board cast all its votes for James Cockrell in Johnson County and for Fred Campos in Tarrant County to serve on those respective boards.

Additional reports to the board included:

• Facility progress for Phase 2 high school projects including The WILD and GHS Arena was discussed.  Dr. Nikki Nix reported on the current status of these projects as well as “punch list” items needed to be addressed for project completion.
• ESL Coordinator Bailey Lee presented the annual emergent bilingual report.  This student population is 12.21% of district enrollment, and the program helps students to demonstrate at least one year’s progress in the four language domains of listening, speaking, reading and writing.  The goal is for students to reclassify after becoming proficient in English.
• Superintendent Dr. Rich Dear reviewed current and historical student enrollment data.  There are currently about 3,190 students in the district, with enrollment up 223 or around 7% above last school year.  Dear also presented attendance averages for the year, which currently is about 94.97% for the district as a whole.
• Chief Financial Officer Spencer Davis provided an extensive financial report.  Because of higher attendance, the district will be able to provide Christmas stipends for all employees, and those checks will be distributed at the end of the semester.

The board approved minutes from recent meetings as well as financial reports and budget amendments.  

School trustees will hold their next regularly scheduled board meeting on Monday, Dec. 16.