Board of Trustees will hear Redistricting Committee's proposed recommendations
The San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees will consider a full agenda with items related to its own formal structure, finance and bond-related construction during its regular scheduled meeting set to begin promptly at 6 p.m. Monday in the Criminal Justice Classroom- 11, San Marcos High School, 2601 Rattler Road.
A public comment period is scheduled immediately after the start of the meeting and anyone wishing to address the board may do so at this time.
After public comment, SMCISD Superintendent Michael A. Cardona will present his regular report to the board including student recognition.
Following his presentation, the board will hear from members of the SMCISD Redistricting Committee, formed in Fall 2021, who are scheduled to present an update based on the work undertaken by these individuals to draft a revised structural format for the board of trustees.
The committee is recommending that the board consider moving to a design that would consist of an organizational model with seven members, each holding office as a single-member district representation for San Marcos.
Committee Chair Eduardo Rios stated in a previously published Daily Record article that the plan would allow for everyone in the district to have a single representative on the school board of trustees, addressing concerns brought forward in a lawsuit from the 1990s, which sought to establish better representation of the community's minority groups through the structure associated with members of the board.
At that time, the lawsuit spurred the current structure for the board of five single-district members with two at-large members.
Rios stated that it is the hope of the committee that their proposed changes would also have the effect of increasing voter turnout.
Also on this lengthy agenda, the board will consider acceptance of the No-New-Revenue Rate and the Voter Approval Tax Rate 5 and take under consideration the ordinance setting the 2023 Tax Rate.
The board of trustees will take up a series of resolutions with respect to the nomination of candidates for the boards of directors for Caldwell County Appraisal District 2, Guadalupe County Appraisal District 3 and Hays County Appraisal District 4, as well as consider a resolution nominating a candidate to fill a vacancy on the Hays Central Appraisal District Board of Directors.
The trustees are also set to consider acceptance of the Certified Appraisal Rolls and Supplemental Appraisal Roll for San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District 2. Following this, the board will be apprised of information related to the Texas Association of School Board Policy Update 121, noting that the TASB will also be sending out Update 122 packets to districts in late October, which will include information related to legislative changes associated with the Regular Session of the 88th Texas Legislature earlier this year. Topics forthcoming include cybersecurity, employment of bus drivers, threat assessments, safety and security and school records.
The board is set to discuss the extracurricular status of 4-H and approve adjunct faculty.
Much of the agenda also concerns a series of contractual measures connected in large part to 2023 Bond items for both elementary and middle school construction.
The board is set to go into closed session to discuss technology, including the district’s Cybersecurity Plan.
