The Outlook for San Angelo ISD is Excellent, Says School Board President

Lanny Layman, President of the San Angelo ISD Board of Trustees, spoke about the state of San Angelo’s school district yesterday. The SAISD is the academic home of 14,300 students, Layman said. The annual presentation is a tradition with the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce noontime luncheons. This year, Rio Concho Catering provided a well-received lunch of fajitas at the clubhouse at Rio Concho West. About 200 were in attendance.

Layman explained the district’s operating philosophy as a tension between “tight” standards that are coupled with “loose” execution, to allow flexibility that will foment innovation at the individual schools. Tight accountability is required in the adherence to curriculum and achieving district performance benchmarks. The district maintains standards through a variety of enforcement mechanisms such as classroom walkthroughs, assessments, and a standardized professional development program for teachers and administrators.

To allow for campus innovations, principles are given some budget allowances, the ability to choose professional development resources, set their campus-wide schedules, and to develop localized campus processes.

The administration closely monitors the status and progress of each campus with the goal of identifying areas that may make the campus “at-risk” and intervene with additional resources and staffing changes as necessary, Layman said. “Before the state tells us we need to improve, we’re already making improvements on those campuses,” he said.

The Tight vs. Loose management system is working, Layman said. “We currently have no schools recognized by the state as needing improvement,” he said. Among the benchmark districts, Layman said only Amarillo’s school district is in the same untroubled waters.

The dropout rate is one percent, and high school student SAT and ACT college entrance exam scores are above the state and national averages, he said. In addition, Lee Middle School is recognized as a Johns Hopkins/UT Showcase School and Santa Rita Elementary is the district’s first ever Blue Ribbon School.

Layman noted that the school board decided to reopen an alternative campus for young mothers and others who don’t fit the traditional classroom model. It’s called PAYS, and it serves 80-100 students each year. This May, the re-opened PAYS campus will graduate its 500^th student, since re-opening several years ago.

Dual Credit

SAISD is heavily involved in early college education and is ramping up vocational training opportunities for its students, Layman said. They include:

• 965 Howard College enrollees
• 62 Angelo State University enrollees

 “Howard has been a huge part of our district,” Layman said. He added that the district is working with ASU to ramp up more of ASU’s class offerings for district students.

On the vocational training side, this year 567 students have graduated with some sort of technical certification. In addition, oil and gas vocational training is being added soon, along with the opportunity for students to graduate from high school with a certification to be an LVN.

Spending Money

Layman said that the 2008 $117 million bond program is complete where 11 schools were significantly improved, including Central High School’s new construction. The district’s website reports that the money has been spent on the projects, leaving just $1,750 in the fund.

The district is spending millions in upgrades outside of the need to ask for another bond and a bond’s accompanying tax hike. Layman noted that the field house at the San Angelo Stadium and Central High’s new swimming pool were accomplished without a bond election.

Other non-bond projects in the works include renovations to Glenn Middle School, the Central High tennis courts, Lake View High and Central High tennis dressing rooms and the Central High band hall.

Layman lauded the Central High School band program, gymnastics, the football programs, UIL academics competitions, and various other winning extracurricular activities that are proof that the district’s motto, “In pursuit of excellence”.

Politics

On the political front, Layman said the current board has an excellent synergy and is highly experienced. He said he is thankful that the three board members, including him, up for re-election May 9 are running unopposed.

Superintendent Carol Ann Bonds announced her retirement earlier this year and will be leaving the district in August. That has the school board seeking a new superintendent. Layman said that Bonds hired a very strong management team and the board is comfortable with hiring from within the district. As of today, the board is interviewing three finalists, but Layman did not reveal who they were.

Expect an appointment April 20 to take over in May, he said.

In light of the successes at the district, Layman warned that this is not a time to let down the guard. “When you’re striving for excellence, excellence is a goal that you’ll never get to, so we’re working daily to get there,” he said.