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Former Hermleigh head football coach Clarence Spieker (left) thanked the Hermleigh school board and administration at Tuesday’s school board meeting for their role in renaming Cardinal Stadium in his honor. Also pictured are board president (l-r) Larry Don Nachlinger, Superintendent Cassie Petty, board member Joe Taylor and Hermleigh Principal Nathan Pettigrew.
At Tuesday’s Hermleigh ISD school board meeting, Superintendent Cassie Petty updated board members on the district’s evolving plan for re-opening school in the fall — a plan which still involves a good deal of uncertainty.
A lack of information from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) or Governor Greg Abbott drives much of that uncertainty, Petty said.
“I think everyone will agree that everything is up in the air with COVID,” Petty said. “A lot of it’s going to come down to local decisions. We know we’re still governed by TEA and of course our governor of Texas, but then it’s going to be driven by local cases here in Hermleigh. Our decisions are going to be driven by Scurry County and what our local health officials are telling us, or advising us, to do. As you know, those cases have risen over the last week or two.”
During the meeting, Petty passed out a draft of a plan for the fall. The final plan must be submitted to TEA a week before the start of school.
“This is our first stab at this. It is very loosely written, and it is missing a few things. I need to insert some things, but it’s not time to do that yet,” Petty said. “If you’re asking the community if we’re going to start school the answer tonight would be ‘yes,’ and we’re going to start on time with in-person learning. Because the commissioner has mandated it, we do have to offer remote learning.”
Petty said much of the draft is almost verbatim taken from directives from the state.
The district posted a survey on Facebook and also mailed it out to gauge parents’ opinions of how the opening should proceed.
She said 41.9 percent of the parents said they were concerned while 58.1 percent said they were not.
Petty said 81.9 percent of parents prefer in-person classes while, 18.1 percent do no.
She said the 18.1 percent who don’t want their kids to attend school in person represents about 28 kids, spread from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
Petty said district staff will continue to work on the plan and present a more finalized version at the August school board meeting.
In other business, the board approved moving forward with repairs to the school’s roof.
Petty said the school has been plagued with roof leaks for years and that the district’s insurance provider approved funds to repair a leak on one building caused by a hail storm two years ago, but not another leak caused by the same storm on a nearby building.
The estimate for the repair approved by the board is $22,769.
Former Hermleigh coach Clarence Spieker thanked district administration and trustees for honoring him in June by naming the Hermleigh football stadium in his honor.
“I just wanted to come by and thank all of you for the decision y’all made at the last board meeting,” he said. “I’m very thankful, to begin with, and then, after I thought about it, it’s a great honor. It really is. But for me, personally, it’s very humbling to have something like this happen to me. I just want you all to know how much I appreciate it.”
Petty said the district’s 2020-21 budget had not been completed because the district has not yet received an estimate of tax revenue from Scurry County.
The trustees also approved increasing the price of adult lunch meals by 25 cents for the upcoming school year, while leaving the price of student meals the same as 2019-20.