Skidmore ISD approached one our Churches and ask if it could use a bus and pick up students on their property. The Church was happy to help anyone. Our School Superintendent and a school board member went to the church and said there was a legal problem and they should not allow another school to use their parking lot. Skidmore ISD had to change and use the Walmart parking lot. I guess legal problems only apply to churches. If a church went to a school and asked for changes in a class or book that was anti-religious the school official would immedately claim separation of church and state. School officials that do not like how a church affect their school easily apply pressure against the church. This is legal but it does not seem fair to me. Separation of church and state only goes one way. We know that Beeville High school is failing while Skidmore is doing very well. The Superintendent wants to stop the loss of her students to a good school.

We have one of the best county libraries that I have seen.
When something is good we need to fund and increase funding for their success. I am not for a public funded organization like our school board taxing us then donating school money to another public organization like the Library. The school board cut our teachers by 90,000 dollars and now they have passed an agreement to give the Library 40,000 dollars. Their reasoning is that the school children used the library and programs. The school children also use McDonalds should we also give them money to use their play area. The school is a failing organization and should fix their problems before helping others fix their problems.

I attended a local citizens meeting as we were discussing Government funding of local schools, a very decent and smart person wanted to close the National Education Association funding and send money directly to the states for school funding. Several people agreed with this concept, but I did not give a good explanation of the problems with this approach. The federal government currently provides approximately 10% of the funding for all the U.S. schools. They use politics and patronage to give out this money. This 10% is given to our schools with strings attached to set rule or requirement the government wants. Some of these rules are confusing and just plain dumb. I want the Federal government to stop taking the money through taxes from us. I would like the state and local government to control rules and requirements of our local school so we as citizen can hold them responsible.
NormanD

I met with the school superintendent on May 6th. I had read an article to the school board on teaching math at high school which emphasized the teaching of core math topics. In our meeting she said that she disagreed and felt that using teaching materials that emphasized mostly the TAKS test was the best approach. She said that St Mary’s uses this approach and does well. I strongly disagree. We need to teach the students the whole math course then review for the TAKS test. Teaching the test is not good for our students. Our students need to know their math, not just how to pass the TAKS test. If they know their math they will pass the test.
NormanD

I met with the School superintendent on Wednesday the day after the June 5 school board meeting. I was unhappy with the schools performance on the math portion of the TAKS test. She explained that the past superintendent had left her in a deep hole and she was currently digging the school out. She also explained that the teachers were not performing to standards and she was moving teacher to different positions and considering firing some staff members. She then explained that the Garza prison had brought students into the area and these students were below Beeville students. This sounded to me like blame the previous superintendent, blame the teachers, then blame the students. I feel that there is only one person in charge and that person deserves the blame for the schools poor performance.

The school board had a special meeting July 5. They had no public forum for the public to speak. They immediately went into closed session where the public is not informed on the specific subject. They also discussed regular school board topics at this special meeting. First was workers compensation insurance. They changed from Midwest Employers to Texas Mutual insurance. They also approved the 2011-2012 school calendars. Why do they cover regular meeting subjects at special meeting? I find it difficult to find out what the school board and superintendent is doing since a lot of it is done behind closed doors at special meetings.

The school board meeting started at 5:00 pm with a public session. I have been attending about every other school board meeting for the last year and a half. They first had a public hearing on the Opitional Flexible School Day Program which allows good students to reduce their school year by up to 10 days. The public session lasted 10 minutes, then they went into closed session or as I call it their secret meeting. They reconvened the school board meeting at 6:00 pm with the school board president giving the rules for public forum. You are not to ask questions directly to the board and they will not answer any questions asked of them. You can talk, but they are not required to listen. One lady asked the board what type history is taught at the High School and then explained a problem her grandchild is having at school. She was told to make an appointment with the administration. I stood and asked why the school board never asked the superintendent during the school board meeting in public how we are doing on preparing for the TAKS test. I then complimented Velma when last year she had questioned the superintendent regarding the school improvement plan. (Last year the school board unanimously voted to accept a very poor school improvement plan.) I then read a teacher response from a TAKS website explaining a way to prepare for the TAKS test. They never acknowledged me or responded in any way.
The board then started their agenda. In my opinion it appeared they overloaded this meeting's agenda so they could filibuster and the public would not see the poor TAKS testing results through all the extra clutter. The public is given 1 to 2 typed pages with the agenda, while the school board has a booklet about one third inch thick containing all the information about the meeting. The public is mostly in the dark not knowing what is actually being discussed as they refer to page and paragraph in the booklet the public can't see. They voted to increase of the cost of the school lunch by 5 cents. They voted for a lot of consent items but with no book it impossible to know what they are voting on. There were 3 school employees in the audience and the president allowed them to speak at different times. In over a year and a half of watching, their votes have always been unanimous while I am in attendance. No one on the board ever votes “no”. It suggests the school board has privately discussed and come to a decision before the "open" meeting.
The Superintendent finally gave the preliminary results of the TAKS test. Without going over every item the best way to explain the results is by comparison. Two years ago the school was an “F” Last year they improved to a “D”. This year they stayed the same or went down a little but they are still a “D”. The superintendent was explaining how they were going to improve but it seems like whitewash or fluff and I asked out loud why wasn’t this done last year.
Nick, the president told me I could not speak from the audience. The superintendent made a comment about me making an appointment to come to her office, but I explained quickly that despite several requests,she had not given me an appointment. I don’t think the superintendent looked good and I felt I was forced to be rude. My biggest problem with the school board is they make excuses and pretend the results are not that bad. If the school board will not admit there is a problem how can you fix anything. The meeting covered so much, that I can give you only parts of the rest of the meeting because so much of the information was hidden in prep book which I did not see.
They passed a flexible year program. This allows the school to release students from school up to 10 days a year. They went through some explanation that the students will do better if they they know they be rewarded with days out of school. They would not permit students that are failing their classes to take the days, only the "good" students may have these days. I am at a lost to understand this. As a retired teacher it makes no since not to teach students as many days as possible. The good students only get better. From my experience the poorer students need the good students to interact with them. When the best students are released from attending, then most of the poorer students will skip and stay home also. This is not a winning plan to improve the school. The school also increased the number of extracurricular days from 17 to 20. Let me add this up for students - 10 sick days, 10 flexible days, 20 extracurricular days. This is a total of 40 days the good student can be excused from class in a 180 day school year. No wonder that our best students only rank as average students on tests when compared to good schools. How can you teach and challenge a student if the student is not in class?
The school board voted to save $90,000 by eliminating 5 sick/personal days from the Professional Staff or Teachers. I might have voted for this, but there was no one to represent the teachers side of the cuts. During this next year some teacher will be hurt very badly by this reduction because of an illness or accident over which they have no control. There was no discussion of alternative plans or ideas. The Beeville Picayune reporter asked them to confirm the $90,000. I then learned that the press could talk to the school board from the audience, but not a regular citizen like me. The school board also voted to freeze the salary of all the professional staff. I retired 2 years ago from teaching in Europe and have not taught in Texas for 12 years. My salary increase from step increase was about $1000. If you count the number of teachers in the district this could be several hundred thousand dollars. I am not saying the board voted wrong, I am saying that there was no one to give the teachers side of the debate. This was a one-sided discussion. The Board also voted to reduce the number of days a coach can work with his team before school starts from 15 days to 10 days. This reduces the coaches salary. I am a math teacher and definitely not a supporter of coaches, but there was no one to discuss the coaches point view at the meeting. In the school board meeting the superintendents were not asked to give up any of their high salaries. The nonprofessional staff and janitorial staff was not ask to give up some of their small salaries. The school board wants to balance on the backs of only the professional staff or teachers. The president and superintendent only give a one sided discussions and their results may be right or may be wrong. But when we are given a grade like the TAKS by the state it seems that the school board is not doing the right thing.
When the school board meeting was over I was so frustrated by their actions that I ask the new school board member if he was proud of his votes. I was rude to him and will appoligize the next time I see him. He is new and has no idea that he is being manulipted. The school board is like a mother duck (the superintendent) and 7 little ducks following her all in a row.
n smith - ndsgespol@yahoo.com

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On May the 3rd I ask the Superintendent to be placed on the agenda for the May 17 school board meeting. Although they had not finalized the agenda "by their words" they decided that they would not allow me to speak. The secretary said that I would be placed on the June 21 meeting agenda and promised she personally would notify me. I called on June 13 and was told that they did not have time for me on June 21. I recieved no call from the secretary, so much for personal promises. I had wanted to cover some ideals to improve our test scores but it appears they are not interested in the public ideas or opinions. There is a public meeting at 5:00 before the school board meeting and is scheduled for 15 minutes to discuss the district TAKS test scores. I don't see how this could be covered in 15 minutes, but I will be there. Please come to the school board meeting on June 21. Norman Smith

I have been attending some of the school board meetings for the last year and half. I have explained to the board that we are not preparing our children for the future. Last year the students TAKS score came up from a below standers to meets standers, This is equivalent to going from a grade of “F” to a grade of “D”. This is not acceptable if we expect our students to compete with other students in our country. I tried to get the school board to emphasize academic achievement but they seemed to kiss me off as other thing in the school were more important like new bleachers or social achievements. I have never heard even one school board ask the superintendent how thing were improving in academics. They may be talking outside the school board meeting but very little is discussed about academics during the school board meeting. If the Beeville TAKS scored improve to Recognized or a grade of “C” this I will apologize to the school board but if we do not improve then the School Board and Superintendent need to be held accountable. These are our children and their future is at risk. The School board will discuss the new results at their meeting on Tuesday, Jun 21. Please meet me there on Tuesday to learn the new results. Show the school board that our students education is important to us all !!!

The students of Beeville are below state average on testing, Texas is below the national average, and the United States is behind European students on testing. What is the future if we do not determine why we are failing and correct the problem.
I am Norman Smith, a Bee County resident and tax payer and I want to find out why. I think I am uniquely qualified to ask why and investigate. I am a retired Math and Science Teacher. I have taught in several Texas schools. I have taught in Hawaiian Schools, and I have taught in European schools. I have a masters degree in Management with an emphasis in Business and Economics. I have a Masters of Science Degree and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry with a minor in Physics and Math.