By Toni Garrard Clay/AISD Communications Specialist
The Athens ISD Board of Trustees took action on several items during Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting. One of the most notable was authorization for the district to refinance the 2005 series bonds in order to reduce interest costs and annual debt service through the 2020 maturity date. The net savings is projected to fall between $75,000 and $100,000 on each of the bond’s annual payments beginning August 2016 and continuing through 2020.
“It’s an all around win-win for the school district,” said Chief Financial Officer Randy Jones, who noted that the savings only affects the debt-service side of the district’s budget and cannot be rerouted to the operations side.
A presentation was made by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Janie Sims, Director of Operations Barry Choate and Jones regarding a new food services contract for the district. The current contract expires at the end of this school year. In preparation, the district issued a request for proposals and received three in response. One of the proposals was submitted by Chartwells, the current contract holder. Upon the panel’s recommendation, the board voted that the district again contract with Chartwells for the upcoming school year, with the option of extending the agreement for a one-year period up to four times. Board member David Freeman cast a dissenting vote.
“For us, it’s all about quality, variety and consistency,” said Jones. “Chartwells has a new division president from the retail world, and they want to focus on what can be done to enhance the school dining experience, instead of focusing on the limits imposed by regulations (on food preparation).” The district has recently acquired a new director of dining service through Chartwells, Zach Thayer.
“They’re looking to refresh the recipes and improve the presentation of food,” said Jones. “We should see incremental changes over the next several months, with full implementation in the new school year.”
Board members unanimously approved a two-year extension (through June 2017) on a contract with Prosperity Bank for the provision of depository services. It is the final extension available under the current agreement, which began in July 2011.
At the recommendation of Superintendent Blake Stiles, the board adopted a resolution urging stage legislators to expand the state’s investment in pre-kindergarten education and fund full-day participation. Though the state only funds a half day of pre-K instruction, Athens ISD offers the community a full day, making up the difference by absorbing the additional costs.
Stiles also spoke to the board about the need to hire more bilingual teachers at the elementary level and the challenges that have come along with previous recruitment initiatives in Spain and Mexico, as well as locally. The Mexico initiative through the Region IV Education Service Center proved to be successful, but is no longer viable, Stiles said, because of travel concerns due to instability in that country and costs and difficulties associated with visas.
The Region IV Service Center has now established a recruitment initiative with Puerto Rico. Because the island is a territory of the United States, all prospective candidates would speak fluent English and are American citizens.
The board authorized Assistant Superintendent Sims to participate in the initiative in early April to attend a teacher job fair and offer up to seven employment contracts at the event if she encounters qualified and desirable candidates.
In closed session, board members approved one- and two-year continuing contracts for all AISD administrators, except the superintendent, whose contract was extended in January.
Also recognized at the meeting were the teachers and employee of the month for March. They are Dawn Andress at Bel Air, Deborah Fleming at South Athens, Moises Sanchez at Athens Intermediate, Lisa Pearson at Athens Middle School, Rose Riley at Athens High School, Jennifer Gorell with the high school’s Career and Technology Education program, and Athens Middle School custodian Maria Robledo.