CCISD School board to vote on purchases tonight

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press 

Several budgeted purchases that are more than $25,000 will be up for a vote tonight at the monthly meeting of the Copperas Cove Independent School District board of trustees. 

The first is the purchase of 390 SSD hard drives for student computer labs at a cost of $34,827. The purchase of 180 student laptops for $107,017.20 is on the agenda. The purchase is for six carts which have 30 laptops each and will be for House Creek Elementary, Fairview/Jewell Elementary, Williams/Ledger Elementary and S.C. Lee Junior High.

The third budgeted item over $25,000 is for contractual acquisition costs and incidental costs for transfer of water rights for the district’s new transportation facility from Kempner Water Supply Corporation to the City of Copperas Cove.

One out-of-state trip is up for approval tonight, that of travel to the FFA National Convention which takes place October 23-29 in Indianapolis, Ind. 

The board is also being requested to take action on a contract with Schools by Design/CRSS, a group which works with schools across the country to help design school schedules. This $30,000 contract would provide help with alternative scheduling services for the district’s junior high and high school campuses. 

The board is being asked to approve the notice of election for the November 7 election for three school board trustees. 

After the roof repair and replacement projects for CCISD, the board is being asked to take action this evening on accepting the work by Honey’s Roofing and authorize the final payment due for the project. 

The board will also act on nominating one to five individuals to the board of directors of the Coryell Central Appraisal District. Presently, current board members are Justin Carothers, Teresa Johnson, Jay Manning, Tim McGinnis, and one CCISD trustee, Bob Weiss. The board is also being asked to nominate one individual to the board of directors for the Bell County Tax Appraisal District. 

Several CCISD classrooms have present enrollments over the 22:1 teacher ratio, so this evening CCISD administration is requesting a class size waiver for these classes within 30 days of the class size being exceeded. At this time, one kindergarten class, two first grade classes, seven second grade classes, six third grade classes, and six fourth grade classes have enrollment higher than 22. 

For report items, the board will receive the Monthly Financial Report, the CCISD Financial Report as of August 31, the student Enrollment Report as of September 8, along with the annual reports for the district’s Gifted/Talented Program, Advanced Placement/Dual Credit Programs, the Career and Technology Education Programs, as well as the updated student performance report (STARR).

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the CCISD administration board room, located at 703 W. Ave. D.

Also at tonight’s meeting, CCISD will recognize Brigida Alvarado, a cook for House Creek Elementary, who is retiring after 10 years of service. CCISD is also recognizing groups and individuals who helped with the recent Convocation and supported the Stuff the Bus weekend.