By V. Hugh Lewis II, publisher
Without question Edmond Ray Schellinger was known as “Mr. Bulldog.” And Tuesday night’s JISD School Board meeting showed what Jefferson has lost with his passing, as the Board moved to name the High School baseball field “Schellinger Field.”
Schellinger passed away on November 9, 2019. He was well known to be an avid supporter of the Jefferson Bulldogs. His patronage to his home team began while attending Jefferson High School in the early 1940’s when he was a two-year letterman wearing jersey #1 for the football team.
Baseball coach Tyler Foster made the request to honor Schellinger and formally unveil the name during Baseball Alumni Weekend February 7-8.
“I asked around to students, fans, and alumni, and the first words out of everyone’s mouth was ‘That’s Mr. Bulldog’,” Foster said, “and that’s exactly who he was to me and to a lot of players in Jefferson. He’s who all Bulldog fans should want to be like. Naming the field after Mr. Schellinger is an honor, but it’s also the epitome of what a true Bulldog fan is.”
According to Foster, during the Alumni Weekend, Schellinger’s son Tommy will throw out the first pitch and start the 2020 Bulldog Baseball Season. Tommy was a member of the first baseball team at Jefferson High School.
Foster went on to say that 46 students have signed up to play baseball this year so there will be both Junior Varsity and Varsity teams.
The Board also amended the budget to add an additional $8,000 to the baseball budget for this year. The addition was due to the increased number of players, and replacing and adding equipment for the players.
Signage will be placed on top of the scoreboard and a memorial plaque will be adjacent to the field.
Band Trip
Director of Bands Shannon Hensley discussed the planned annual band trip during the meeting. This year, a trip to Branson, Missouri, has been proposed. The trip is scheduled for May 27-30, 2020, and is partly funded by the band boosters.
“The Booster Club has agreed to pay for one day and one night for every band student,” Hensley said, “so that made it possible to make this a 4 day, 3 night trip, instead of the usual 3 day, 2 night trip.”
The trip is only available to students who meet academic requirements and are active members of the band for both the fall and spring semesters. Each student attending is responsible to pay $300 towards the trip. Students can earn credit towards the total for community service work and various activities approved through the booster club.
The band will have a performance at Silver Dollar City on the second day of the trip and then will spend the remainder of the day at SDC. Other activities include attending “Dolly Parton’s World Famous Stampede”, Clay Cooper Theater for the “Hagoods Show,” as well as time shopping and exploring parts of Branson.
Approximately 10 chaperones are needed for the trip, and all chaperones must pay their own way, at full rate, and pass all background checks. Hensley said he has identified at least eight so far and should not have problems finding enough chaperones. The Band Booster Club is not providing funding for any chaperones.
The Board approved the trip, as along as enough chaperones were identified and they all passed background checks.
Traumatic Injury Response Protocol
District Nurse Debbie Hall presented the District’s Traumatic Injury Response Protocol during Tuesday’s meeting.
The protocol is required under state HB496 and must be in place by January 1, 2020.
“We have Traumatic Injury Response Kits at every campus as well as one or two for Officer Cox to have in his vehicle,” Hall said. “This protocol states that we have to have 7-12 graders offered Stop the Bleed training as well as training our staff. January 7 we will train staff on this procedure. Champion EMS will provide the training. We have until the end of the year to train our students. That will be a big task, but Officer Cox and I went to an instructors class in November and are now instructors.”
According to Hall, training must be done every year. Each kits is a “Stop the Bleed” kit which provides eight individual packets and are approximately $900 per kit.
Marion County Appraisal Board Appointment
Jason Bonner, Kevin Godfrey, and Bob Sanders were re-appointed to the Marion County Appraisal District Board of Directors. These appointees represent the school district in the operations of the Marion County Appraisal District.
Vantage Points update from TASB
The Board reviewed the latest updates from TASB based on the 2019 Texas Legislative Session. The update focused on local policy changes recommended by TASB. The document is at the end of this article outlining the recommended changes. The Board approved the changes as part of their Consent Agenda items.
Audit Report & School First Rating
TEA approved CPA firm Knuckols, Duvall, Hallum, & Company, presented their findings to the Board on their audit of the 2018-2019 school year finances. The district passed their audit without any problems.
District Financial officer Mike Woods also presented TEA’s School First Rating Report for the 2018-2019 school year. JISD received a Superior rating with a score of 100. Woods noted that the criteria would be changing next year but did not expect the districts rating to change. A brief Public Hearing was held on the School First Rating, but no one in attendance offered any comments on the rating.
Teacher Incentive Pay
Superintendent Rob Barnwell discussed and showed portions of a video from the Commissioner of Education and TEA’s website about the newly formed Teacher Incentive Pay program approved during the last Texas Legislative Session. The video was “HB 3 in 30” and can be found here.
Barnwell stated he had a “lot of questions” about the program which were still not answered by TEA. He also felt the program would “die quickly” due to various issues with the program – the least of which was the state’s continued funding of the program.
“School districts are not required to participated in it. Bu this is one of those deals that if we don’t participate in it we’ll be chasing the others,” Barnwell said. “The good news is that the funding is supposed to be provided by the state. I think this will die in 3-4 years but in that 3-4 years it’s going to be a lot of keeping up with the Jones’.”
Under the program, a district can receive anywhere from $3-32,000 per teacher based on the teacher’s designation (Recognized, Exemplary, or Master) as well as the districts soci-economic status of each student, and the districts designation as rural or non-rural. The funds are tied to the teacher, and not the position, district, or campus. Each district is tasked with implementing a designation program for teachers and must include teacher observation and the performance of a teacher’s students. TEA and Texas Tech will be reviewing each districts program for approval.
More information on this program can be found on the TEA website.
Video & Documents
The full video of the meeting can be found below:
A copy of the Board’s meeting packet follows: