Bryan school board members plan to skip the middleman and save some money making major repairs to three relatively new schools. BISD Trustees were told it could cost over $400,000 to repair gouged walls in hallways at Rudder, Davila, and Bonham.
The architect on the original construction asked to be hired for seven and half percent of whatever the final repair cost. That would be a minimum of $30,000. Trustees directed staff to seek bids without the architect, covering the sheet rock walls with glazed tile and black grout.
Superintendent Mike Cargill expected the cost to be covered with unspent bond money.
Board members asked staff to press those hired to oversee and build the new schools to contribute towards the repair cost given the buildings are only three years old.
Following a 40 minute executive session, two assistant principals were promoted. Lane Buban was named principal at Sam Rayburn Middle School. Paul Hord is taking another BISD administrative position. And taking over at Mary Branch Elementary will be Jason Puente, who was an assistant at Jane Long. Current principal David Ogden is retiring after 34 years with the district.
BISD Trustees heard what teachers, counselors, and administrators are doing to about school bullies. Students at all grade levels are taught about character development and their in-school behavior is monitored.
Online bullying by students and parents has been noted.
The superintendent said every case is different, all are addressed, 90 percent of the time the right call is made on how to address the individual situation, and quoting Cargill: “When you hear the school did nothing, that’s wrong.”
Trustees were told the most serious incident this year was at a secondary school and involved police. The victim was transferred to another building. Otherwise, there are no statistics, according to Cargill, because it is difficult to define and therefore hard to count.
The board was told principals, counselors, and teachers are on constant watch for friction. Trustees were also interested in monitoring online behavior, though they were told some parents have complained about their children’s constitutional rights to free speech when posting on social networking sites.