Two Monday meetings to focus on state sanctions, options
With a Thursday deadline looming, Snyder ISD officials scheduled community meetings for Monday in an attempt to make sure Snyder Junior High School parents have every opportunity to sign one of two petitions that will be sent to Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath.
Through Friday, the school district said roughly 200 parents have signed one of the two petitions that outline what they would like the TEA sanctions to be in December. The school district is facing state sanctions because the junior high school has been rated improvement required for five consecutive years.
Parents may sign a petition saying the current board of trustees should be replaced with a board of managers or to close the junior high school campus. Superintendent Dr. Eddie Bland said Friday that only five parents have signed the board of managers’ petition.
“We are not sharing the one that we want. We have them both out there,” he said of the petitions. “The important thing is the people need to be heard. We want to hear from you.”
Petitions are available at each Snyder ISD campus, the administration office and online at www.snyderisd.net.
Bland said school officials are encouraging the parents of the current 585 junior high school students to sign one of the petitions to show TEA officials there is parental involvement and support for one of the options.
“Not signing one of the them is saying ‘Let TEA do whatever,’” he said.
By Thursday’s deadline, Bland said the district will need to submit at least 293 petitions signed by parents.
In addition, the district is accepting petitions from the entire Snyder community that support closing Snyder Junior High School and reopening the campus with second through eighth grades realigned.
The grade-level realignment option is preferred by school district officials because it leaves them with at least a measure of local control over how Snyder ISD responds to the sanctions, but it could also entail the most radical changes.
Under preliminary plans outlined during previous meetings, the high school, kindergarten and first grade would remain basically unchanged, while pre-kindergarten and other early childhood instruction would be grouped together at Stanfield Early Childhood Center.
Instruction in second through eighth grades, meanwhile, would be restructured along two pathways — the first would focus on academic rigor and growth and college and career preparation while being conducted in a more traditional classroom setting, while the second pathway would emphasize college and career readiness training through service learning and hands-on projects, commonly known as inquiry-based learning.
The first community meeting on Monday will be held at noon at the Colonial Hill Baptist Church Family Life Center. The second will be at 6 p.m. at the Snyder Junior High School cafetorium. A light grab-and-go meal will be provided prior to the evening meeting, while quantities last.