A crowded Dublin ISD Board Room was the scene of Monday, May 13 school board meeting as many year-end awards were presented for students and teachers alike.
For those awards see pages A8 and A10.
As part of those awards, the board unanimously approved a resolution recognizing five students who earned their Associated Degree from Ranger College before graduating high school. These students included: Dane Lewis, Sydney Master, Karina Ortega, Mariana Ortiz and Madison Turley.
Though there was no school board election, the certificate of election, the statement of elected officers and the oath of office was given to returning DISD School Board trustees James Moore and Bob Cervetto. Board member Raymond Salinas was not present for the meeting and will be sworn in at a later date.
The board unanimously approved to re-elected the same officers for the board including President Bob Cervetto, Vice President Raymond Salinas and Secretary Anjelica Salyer.
Superintendent Melissa Summers read off Community Service hours for all four classes.
Just for this school year, the senior class has earned 1,795.75 hours and 3,644.50 for all four years of high school. Thirty seven seniors will receive Community Service stoles for at least 40 hours of community service.
Freshmen class members have earned 253.5 hours, sophomores 318.5 and juniors 1,293.5 for a combined grand total of 3,661.25 hours for 202324 school year.
There have been 751 dual credit hours earned by 67 student this year, Summers said.
The board briefly discussed the FY 2023-24 budget as well as the 2024-25 budget.
Kassie Eads said next year’s budget will be tight but the district shouldn’t have to cut significantly or approved a significant deficit budget.
The district will be looking at completing a couple of capital projects including replacing original carpet in the high school with new tiles and outfitting all classroom doors for card readers so they automatically lock for security reasons.
During public comments on non-agenda items, fifth grade teacher Clara Dowers presented a proposed change to the employee dress code in the handbook, stating that visible tattoos that meet certain criteria should be permitted.
Dowers presented the board with a survey completed by 76 DISD employees.
In the survey, it was found that 57.9% of employees had tattoos.
“They don’t carry the stigma they used to and rather are an expression of being artistic,” Dowers said. Dowers was accompanied by many educators who agreed with the change in the policy.
The survey defined tattoos that were not acceptable as those including weapons, drug/ tobacco depictions, explicit language or sexually explicit material.
Also, in the survey 72% were OK with appropriate tattoos being shown and 76% stated they were not uncomfortable working with someone who has tattoos. More than 67% of those polled said they believe tattoos are not a distraction to student learning.
75% of those polled stated that if the teacher/ staff dress code policy was changed to allow tattoos that they would support it.
Dowers also presented a list of nearby districts and what their policies state. Granbury ISD, Mineral Wells ISD, Stephenville ISD and Lingleville ISD all permit appropriate tattoos.
Since the item was not on the agenda, the school board could not address the item.
Next month’s school board meeting will be held at noon, June 17, so the school board can participate in mandated Team of Eight training.
All school board meetings are open to the public and held at the DISD Administration office board room.