Dublin High School students will have a leg up into Tarleton State University thanks to a new agreement between the university and the school district.
At the Monday, April 18 school board meeting, the board unanimously approved a memo of understanding between Tarleton and DISD that would allow students to take a combined Algebra II/ College Algebra class instead of having to take college algebra once they have started college. School board members James Moore and Blanca Martineau were absent from the meeting.
“Those passing the class will get automatic admission into Tarleton as a student after they graduate,” Superintendent Melissa Summers said.
Though the single class is the only joint one with Tarleton currently, the school district still has several others that students can take with Ranger College.
“This is a great benefit to students,” Summers said.
The board also approved a resolution in opposition to school vouchers and/ or educational savings accounts that would privatize public schools.
The move comes about in response to several items moving through the Texas Legislature including a proposal in the Texas Senate. If passed it would give families up to $8,000 in taxpayer money, per student, to pay for private schooling through an education savings account, called an ESA.
“That money will be taken away from public education,” Summers said.
“We are totally opposed to any kind of vouchers,” School Board President Bob Cervetto said.
The superintendent asked what happens if a parent accepts the $8,000 and after six weeks no longer wishes to home school their child and puts them back in public school.
“There is no financial or educational accountability,” Summers said.
The school board also received the board’s training hours in a report presented by Cervetto.
Each board member is required to complete the following training: local district orientation, orientation to the Texas Educational Code, Post-Legislative Update to the Texas Educational Code, team building, evaluating student academic performance and setting goals and identifying and reporting abuse, trafficking and other maltreatment of children.
All board members had completed local district orientation, orientation to the Texas Ed. Code, team building and evaluating student academic performance and setting goals.
Both School board trustees Bill Rodriguez and Raymond Salinas still needed to complete post legislative update to the Texas educational code and the identifying abuse class.
Each school board member is also required to have at least five hours of continuing education classes in addition to the required classes above.
Cervetto met his requirements and has taken 17.5 hours, an excess of 12.5 hours.
Pat Leatherwood met his requirements and has taken 16 hours, an excess of 11 hours.
Blanca Martineau met her requirement of ten hours (as a new board member, the hour requirement was higher), and has taken 33 hours, an excess of 23 hours.
Rodriguez met his requirements and has taken a total of 22 hours, an excess of 17 hours.
Anjelica Salyer met her requirement, and has taken 12 hours, an excess of 7 hours.
Moore is deficient in his continuing education hours by five hours.
Salinas is deficient in his continuing education hours by two hours.