Wednesday, 01-18-17, Buckholts ISD:
Despite a very short meeting notice, over 120 of Buckholts' community leaders, parents, students, teachers and school administrators gathered in the BISD Cafetorium to make known to the local school board how the community wanted to respond to the impending closing of Buckholts schools.
And, in the audience making a surprise visit was our State Representative Terry Wilson.
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District 20 Texas State Representative, Terry Wilson, listened intently to the speakers and audience at the second Save Our School meeting in Buckholts on January 18th.
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School Superintendent Nancy Sandlin opened the meeting and explained the latest communications from TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. School Board President Adam Losoya then took the reins of the meeting.
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| BISD School Board President Adam Losoya solicits input from the community regarding formulating a response to TEA regarding the impending closure of Buckholts schools. |
School Board members Ricky McCall and David Meinardus told the audience how the school board had changed in response to TEA's rating of the schools, including dismissal of the previous superintendent and hiring Mrs. Sandlin to straighten things up. Students are being held accountable for their grades and actions. Students are learning and teachers are teaching, with extreme focus on core subjects. Student benchmarks are on the rise. Teachers are encouraged to attend school board meetings. A new PTO has been formed. These things were sorely missing the past four school years.
Current school board members expressed concern that the TEA has not received accurate reports of administrative improvements. Students, parents and community members expressed negative impacts they would suffer from the closure of the school system.
Understanding it is an uphill and costly battle, the community told the school board to fight the school closure in court.
Representative Wilson sat quietly and listened earnestly to the speakers and community response. Only after being asked to do so by meeting attendees, Rep. Wilson took the floor.
With no bravado and no wild promises, Rep. Wilson said he would speak with his State colleagues and contact TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. Our Representative said he is aware of the Commissioner's anguish in deciding to order closure of the school, but perhaps he did not know all the details of the school's recent commitment to improvement. Rep. Wilson encouraged the Buckholts community to write and call their senator and the Commissioner. In closing, Rep. Wilson laid the responsibility of improving student scores squarely in the laps of the parents.
This IS a dire situation. Closing the school means killing the town. It could mean our students being sent to unsafe and uncaring school environments. It could mean unrecoverable economic impact on our local families. The final nail in the coffin has NOT been driven, but the hammer is hoisted. The local school community has expressed their desire to fight the closure. This cannot be a one-man stand. You can't leave it up to the next person. YOU have to get involved in a positive manner NOW! More importantly, if you are in this, you HAVE to be in for the long haul. If somehow the school remains open, it will require continuous intense commitment from EVERYONE.
