LTISD selected as finalist for HEB Excellence in Education award

Dear LTISD Colleagues,

It gives me great satisfaction to inform you that Lake Travis ISD has been selected as one of three statewide finalists in the ‘Small District Award’ category as part of HEB’s 2017 Excellence in Education Awards program!

HEB launched the Excellence in Education Awards program in cooperation with the Texas Association of School Administrators in 2002 as a way to support public education in Texas.  According to HEB, the awards program has become the largest monetary initiative for educators in the state, spotlighting best practices and celebrating the passion and creativity of Texas educators.  Each year HEB recognizes teachers, principals, school districts, school boards, and early childhood centers who go the extra mile each and every day to serve their students and their communities.

Specifically, the District Award recognizes school districts for 1) a commitment to student achievement through innovative programs; 2) parent/community involvement; and professional development opportunities for teachers and administrators.  The two other finalists in the ‘Small District Award’ category are Alamo Heights ISD (San Antonio) and Hutto ISD.  The winner will be announced at the HEB Excellence in Education Awards ceremony on May 7.

A group of 11 judges spent the day yesterday visiting with student and campus leaders at Hudson Bend Middle School and Lake Travis High School.  The comprehensive visit also included meetings with district administrators, parents, and community members.  While winning the award would be a wonderful compliment for our district, the mere fact that Lake Travis ISD has been named a finalist is a unique and tremendous honor in itself.  The awards process and onsite visits were great opportunities for us to showcase the amazing teaching and learning occurring in our schools every day.  This was a very rewarding process.  I am very proud and honored to serve as your superintendent!

With sincere appreciation and thanks,

Brad

Brad Lancaster, Ed.D. | Superintendent of Schools | Phone: 512.533.6020

Lake Travis Independent School District | 3322 Ranch Road 620 South| Austin, TX 78738 | http://www.ltisdschools.org

Honored to be chosen as LTHS School Board Member of the Year

Cavalier Caller (Parent Edition)

Your weekly update for all things LTHS Vol. 17

Short Week Alert!

Parents,

Isn’t it amazing how three day weekends come just when we need them? I hope you and your student are enjoying the time away from school. Everyone needs a little break from school to catch their breath.

i need your help. We want to promote the opportunities that are waiting for our seniors next year; whether that is college, career, a trade school, or the military. How you can help? We are asking members of the Class of 2017 to share a copy of their college or trade school acceptance letters( no more than two please), job offers, or letters from the military confirming their enlistment. We are going to use these letters to celebrate the accomplishments of your students and inspire our underclassmen about the different paths post high school. Your student can drop a copy of their letter in my office throughout the spring.

Thank you for the continued feedback in person, by email, phone call or just chatting in HEB! We are truly committed to learning and growing to meet the demands of our community.

Have a great short week!

Gordon Butler, Principal

 

School Board Recognition Month

January is School Board Member Appreciation Month. Please take a minute a to reach out to our school board members to thank them for their service. Our school board members serve without payment and work in conjunction with the superintendent to chart the course of LTISD. Each January, during School Board Appreciation Month, every school in LTISD is given the opportunity to uniquely honor a school board member. This year LTHS will be honoring Bob Dorsett.Here are some fun facts about Bob:

  • Bob, is an LTHS alum class of 19_____ (yes, this is blank on purpose)
  • Standout football and baseball player at LTHS (take note Coach Carter and Rogers!)
  • Is proud husband to Tanya, father to Hannah, a Jr. at LTHS, and Trey, a 7th grader at HBMS
  • Voted Class Clown his senior year of high school….not shocking
  • Is the king of parades for LTHS
  • Served in the Army and Navy reserves
  • Went to law school at the age of 30

Thank you Bob for your service to the families of LTISD. Your commitment to education is appreciated and you truly are an “All Star” board member!

 

Lake Travis State Championship Team “Send-off.”

LAKE TRAVIS CAVALIER STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SEND OFF- (Please share)
All, the team “send-off” will begin at 2:00 pm this Friday (12/16/16). The buses will depart the school under police escort and proceed to the Hill Country Galleria, where the team will offload the buses and walk from Dillards to Bee Cave City Hall. The team, coaches and trainers will then re-load the buses and proceed north on Highway 620 on their way to Dallas. Please plan to participate at the Galleria or any location on highway 620!

LTISD School Board Meeting: 5.17.16

LTISD School Board Meeting
5-17-16

“THIS BLOG REFLECTS ONLY MY VIEW AND DOES NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE BOARD, OTHER BOARD MEMBERS OR THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION.   SEE THE MEETING MINUTES FOR COMPLETE DISCUSSION.”

Recognitions:
Duke Talent Identification State Qualifiers

2016 Top 10 Academic Scholars

Acknowledgment of Coach Mike Rogers’ 600th baseball win

District community service awards;
All-Star Burger

LT High Five awards

2016 Teachers of the Year

Jason Buddin recognized for his 9 years of service on the School Board. Standing ovation.

Election results canvass
John Aoueille
Alex Alexander
Kim Flasch
Bob

Oath of Office of the Trustees

Advertising update:
Video board at high school paid off this year and $115,000.00 of incoming ad fees.

2017 Bond issues:
For Board discussion-
In 2017, because of bond refinancing since 2012, the District can take out up to a 220 million dollar bond w/out raising taxes;
We have the option to seek a community vote for 2 million dollar tax swap that will not raise taxes. 2 cents are not subject to recapture; Our current robin hood is 38%; next year it goes up to 45% and we lose 4 million in current state funding in 2017. The tax swap would make up approximately $2,000,000.00 of that loss.
Two elementary schools and a middle school are needed now.
It is not time to talk about a new high school or equivalent yet; probably 2021-2022.

Financial Reports:
4.7 million outstanding in tax collections. Compared to last year at the exact same for this time frame and finished last year at 98%
About 10.6 million left from the 2012 bond; The wastewater treatment plant (796k) at the middle school will be finished and there is a technology project (1.2 million).
*
As a matter of information, we lose 11.9 million having our 20% homestead election annually. That would be subject to recapture.

Senate Bill 507- special education law. Generically referred to as the “cameras in special education classrooms.” This is an unfunded legislative mandate leaving the question of how we will pay for this technology. Requests for this technology have already been made, but there isn’t any specific timing set out in the bill as to the timing of implementation.

Facilities Condition Assessment for Technology- As we work toward a 2017 bond program, we will need to identify the Districts current state of technology, capital replacement costs, alignment with best practices, program deficiencies, etc.

2016-17 Salary and Benefits adjustments:
Looking to recommend a 1.5% increase in salary without increase in benefits.
This adds 750k to the District’s bottom line. This will be voted on in June.

RFP for fuel- approved with RKA Petroleum
RFP for PA/AV- Data Projections, Inc was approved to complete the turnkey replacement of campus-wide overhead paging systems, classroom audio visual equipment and infrastructure cabling.

Why Am I Qualified for the LTISD School Board?? Answer here:

  1. Please list your previous involvement and service to Lake Travis ISD:     Co-Coordinator of all 5 state championship parades. Member of the 2011 school bond committee; I resolved multiple legal issues between parents/students and the school district utilizing a community approach in efforts to avoid litigation.  Member of the 2014-2015 LT CLASS Project. Volunteer at Lakeway Elementary annual carnival, volunteer chaperone for various Lakeway Elementary trips, volunteer at Lakeway Elementary track and field day (2006-2013), speaker at Bee Cave Elementary career day (2005).    Coordinator and volunteer teaching mock trial to the Lake Travis High School Honors Debate class (2008-2011).   I hire Lake Travis High School interns at my law firm each summer since 2009 in efforts to teach the practice of law.   Coordinated fundraising project for Coach Ron Saucedo’s children after he passed away. 
  1. Please list any other community involvement: Bee Cave City Council 2009-2013; Attorney for the LTYA in the “lightning strike” matter (2014-2015); Founding member of the Lake Travis Indian Princesses- a group focused on building and strengthening father/daughter relationships under principals developed through the YMCA in 1940.  I was the group leader for the first two years (2007, 2008) and the group continues today.  Indian Princesses is a national organization that focuses on developing the father-daughter relationships during the formative of years of the daughter, 6-10 years of age.  Founding President of the Lake Travis Pop Warner Association (2012-2014); LTYA volunteer coach for multiple soccer, baseball, basketball and football seasons; President of the Spillman Ranch Homeowners’ Association Steering Committee (2005-2009); Member of the 2008 LCRA wastewater impact fee advisory committee.
  1. Why do you want to serve on the Lake Travis ISD Board of Trustees? I believe there are difficult times ahead for the Board in regards to community growth (which I managed regularly as a member of the Bee Cave City Council), regular change in community leadership and the approaching school bond.

 

School Board Meeting 3/22/16

I attended the School Board meeting last night and felt like I was brought up to speed on several key issues you will all deem important:
 
1) The District has $4,000,000.00 in requests for additional staff and only $2,3000,000.00 to fund. There will be another budget shortfall. 85% of our budget is payroll.
 
2) We are struggling to keep up with the growth of the number of students in the district. We anticipate 14,500 additional students in the District over the next 15 years.
 
3) There is approximately 12.5 million left from the 2012 bond fund, which will be consumed over the course of this next year. There will be a bond committee forming for a November, 2017 election. (Tanya and I were both on the 2012 committee and it was great to participate in determining how the District grows). In the meantime, drawings are underway for a new elementary school and middle school so that a year can be shaved off the construction process.
 
4) Next year’s school start and end times are:
7:40-2:50 Elementary
8:45-3:55 middle
8:40-3:50 HS
 
5) There was an excellent presentation on Schoology. Many of you and your kids already use the application. However, I personally did not understand the full capacity of the app. My summary of Bill McClendon’s presentation:
 
Schoology is a digital backpack for a digital world. It is a learning management program to gather available resources and put them in to one backpack for the kids. This helps get everyone get organized and on the same page. It is about communication. With Schoology a teacher knows what the student is working on in the backpack and the student and teacher can communicate back and forth. Teachers, students, parents, principals can all interact. A parent can click on the calendar and see all of their child’s classes. It is a great resource for teachers also. They can communicate with all the teachers in the same grade, not to mention the 25k other teachers who use the app.

Community Impact article addresses continued growth in LTISD

This article appeared in the Community Impact February 10, 2016 edition.   It speaks broadly to many of the issues the school board will face.    Much like my time on the Bee Cave City Council, this Board’s job is to manage the community growth constructively.  Dr. Lancaster and the current Board have done a great job thus far.  My experience will assist in maintaining this success going forward.

By

Community Impact

Lake Travis ISD enrollment has increased 57 percent in the past 10 years, Superintendent Brad Lancaster said.

“We’re growing every single year,” he said. “The state considers you to be fast-growth if you grow 2 percent in each of the last two years. We grow 5 to 7 percent a year—extremely fast growth compared to the state of Texas.”

Lancaster said about 80 fast-growth school districts exist in the state. These school districts account for about 80 percent of the growth in the Texas districts, he said.

LTISD has about 9,000 students and is expected to grow to 14,500 students in 10 years, Lancaster said.

“We expect our trends to continue,” he said. “With these growth estimates, we’re going to need more schools.”

Lancaster said a November 2017 bond election for the school district is a possibility and may include funding for two additional elementary schools as well as a third middle school.