By KREIG KOHL
Special to the PRESS
Dec. 12 saw the regularly scheduled meeting of the Point Isabel Independent School District School Board. The meeting opened with the presentation of the first ever Tarpon Award to Desiree Vidaurri. She was given this award for performing the Heimlich Maneuver on one of her fellow classmates, saving their life in the process.
Followng this award, the school board recognized their student-athletes for their contributions to the school. The first group up was the girls cross country team, who have qualified for regionals. The team gets to the school and begins training at six in the morning to run upwards of three miles. Coach Harper, one of the coaches for both teams, next recognized the boys cross country team. Of the work both teams accomplished this year he said, “They worked their tails off every morning, like the coach said. And being an old runner myself, being able to run in one season is one thing, but to be able to do it while you’re doing another sport, which alot these kids participate in band, and dance, and tennis, and football, – that’s a real accomplishment.”
The next team to be called up was the volleyball team, who had two Rio Grande Valley All Star Players this year.
The football team came into the room, carrying with them a number of large trophies. One of the trophies, awarded to t he team last year, named them the best team in the state of Texas.
With the different sports teams’ recognitions finished, four students were recognized for their submissions to the Point Isabel ISD Christmas card. The submissions included a picture of Santa Claus, a recreation of an iconic scene from Nightmare Before Christmas, and the winner, third grade student Jasmine Medino’s drawing of a Christmas tree complete with a bright star on top.
Concluding this, the board moved onto their regular business, beginning with a presentation on where they currently sit with their safety audit. The audit tests how quickly schools can recognize an intruder and intercept them, as well as determining if the school has implemented its multi-hazard safety plan. These audits happen unannounced to ensure the safety plan is tested properly.
In Sept., the school board was made aware that an inspection would be happening within the next month. No findings were documented by the inspector during their audit of the high school. At the next inspection, at Garriga Elementary, zero findings were documented as well. A number of safety programs have been implemented at the many campuses, though, due to safety concerns, many of them will not be mentioned in public.
Following this was an update on the district’s bonds. Voters passed the 9.5 million dollar bonds during the election in Nov. and now the district is looking at the sale for funds of the bonds. The bonds themselves will be priced on March 8, which will allow investors to purchase the bonds. After the bonds have sold, it will take 30 days to close the sale, making April 6 the projected date of closing.
The next presentation was an overview of the investment policies of the district. This presentation is a mandatory review of the investment policy and strategy as well as a chance for the board to adopt a rule, code, ordinance or resolution for their investment policy as required by law. Once adopted, these must be reviewed annually, in addition to the quarterly report, the investment officer must submit to the board.
The current policies of the board, and what they approved at the meeting, are that they must have two investment officers, a chief financial officer and an accounting budget officer. They are only allowed to use two investment instruments, public funds investing pools and certificates of deposit. The district’s investments must also have sufficient liquidity to meet anticipated cash flow requirements.
The following presentation was on the updates to the baseball and softball fields, as well as the tennis courts. All dugout work should be finished by Jan. 10, which will be the final completion date for the field.
The softball field is seeing similar dates for the same updates and is expected to be done by Jan. 10 at the latest. The tennis court is expected to take the longest, with its final completion date being Jan. 27. The court is still requiring external concrete be poured around the courts, fence installation and the court surfacing, which takes the longest, as any wet weather can cause the latex surface to fail.
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