EDUCATION BRIEFS
News from Hutto & P ugerville ISDs
COMPILED BY CARSON GANONG
P ugerville ISD board of trustees will meet March 16 at 7 p.m. 1401 W. Pecan St., P ugerville 512-594-0000 www.p sd.net Hutto ISD board of trustees will meet March 9 and 23 at 6 p.m. 200 College St., Hutto 512-759-3771 www.hipponation.org MEETINGS WE COVER HIGHLIGHTS PFLUGERVILLE ISD At a Feb. 23 meeting, PfISD trustees approved the use of $930,555 to install 75 miles of new ber internet cables across the district. Chief Operations O cer Victor Valdez said the district’s existing ber cables have been in use since 2001 and are di cult to maintain. HUTTO ISD The Hutto ISD Police Department presented yearly data points at a Feb. 9 board meeting. The data shows the possession of drug paraphernalia as the most common crime incident in the district with 60 cases occurring in 2022. The next most common incidents were the possession of tobacco or e-cigarettes at 56 occurrences and criminal trespass warnings at 18.
Students improving through middle of school year
PFLUGERVILLE ISD District o cials will compensate P ugerville ISD sta for four days missed in early February due to winter weather closures. At a Feb. 23 meeting, trustees approved a resolution to compensate all district sta for Jan. 31-Feb. 3. Human Resources Director Willie Watson said the resolution will have no additional cost to the district as it had already budgeted to pay sta for those days. Trustees also approved the use of banked instructional minutes to cover two of the missed days. For the remaining two days, the district will apply for a waiver from the Texas Education Agency. Chief Financial O cer Jennifer Land said PfISD does not anticipate needing bad-weather makeup days if the TEA waivers are approved. PfISD approves sta compensation for winter storm closure
Enrollment still down, but stabilizing
ENROLLMENT TRENDS Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, P ugerville ISD’s enrollment was steadily growing, but the pandemic destabilized the district’s enrollment. 2018-19 25,400 2019-20 26,400 2020-21 25,436 2021-22 25,486 2022-23 25,445 SOURCE: PFLUGERVILLE ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
PFLUGERVILLE ISD Enrollment levels at P ugerville ISD remain stable compared to previous school years, according to a Feb. 23 presentation. District documents show PfISD’s total enrollment for the 2022-23 school year is 25,445. That number is down 41 from last school year, but Chief Operations O cer Victor Valdez said the smaller drop is a
HUTTO ISD Elementary school student outcomes at Hutto ISD have improved across almost all subjects during the 2022-23 school year, with at least one exception being perfor- mance in the district's dual-language Spanish program, according to mid- year academic data. The data—which measures elementary students’ academic performance at the middle of the school year compared to the beginning—was presented to Hutto ISD trustees for review at a Feb. 9 board meeting. One area where the district identi ed a need for improvement is within the HISD dual-language Spanish program. Only 39.3% of native English- speaking fourth-graders met benchmarks in the Spanish program at the school year’s midway point. While the number is a substantial increase from 25.9% at the beginning of the school year, Associate Superintendent for Instruction and Innovation Robert
welcome change from a 964-student loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-21 school year. Further, the presentation shows attendance rates on the rise this school year. In the fourth six-week period of the 2022-23 school year, the district saw a 93.24% average daily attendance, compared to 88.3% in the fourth six-week period of the 2021-22 school year.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT Although fourth-grade performance in the Hutto ISD dual-language Spanish program has increased
Beginning of year
Middle of year
Hutto ISD fourth-grade Spanish students Need urgent intervention On watch
Need intervention 20% 21.8%
18.8% 14.1%
16.3% 11.5%
SOURCE: HUTTO ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT during the 2022-23 school year, district o cials said improvement is still needed.
third graders, 64.1% of students met or exceeded reading benchmarks at the middle of the school year, compared to 54.8% at the beginning of the year. In third-grade math, the report shows 78.8% of students met or exceeded benchmarks at the middle of the school year, up from 68.6% at the beginning. Sormani said improving math scores is an ongoing priority. Midyear academic data for HISD middle and high schools will be available in March, according to district materials.
Sormani said additional support will be necessary to improve student outcomes in that area. He said sta ng shortages have played a role in poor performance among dual-language students. “At least one position is being covered by a bilingual sta member who is not fully certi ed,” he said. However, across most subjects and demographics, more students were meeting or exceeding grade- level benchmarks at the midway point of the 2022-23 school year than at the beginning. For example, among Hutto ISD
New middle school will take in 1,200 students
FUTURE MIDDLE SCHOOL SITE
HUTTO ISD Construction is underway on Gus Almquist Middle School, which will be a two-story, 160,000-square-foot facility that will accommodate 1,200 students in grades six through eight. The expected cost of the project is $67.7 million, and funding comes from a 2019 bond. Hutto ISD held a groundbreaking
event for the new school Jan. 27. The campus, which is adjacent to Kerley Elementary School in north- west Hutto, will feature a centralized outdoor courtyard, separate class- room wings for each grade level, and a dedicated career and technical education area. Gus Almquist Middle School is planned to open in May 2024.
GUS ALMQUIST MIDDLE SCHOOL
130 TOLL
GREEN PASTURE
79
N
ROUND ROCK 201 University Oaks Blvd (512) 341-9066
GEORGETOWN 1013 W University Ave (512) 868-6696
ARBORETUM 10515 N Mopac Expressway (512) 342-6893
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