New CCISD Trustees Arturo Sanchez, left, and Chris Reed.
By Mary Alys Cherry
The Clear Creek ISD Board of Trustees welcomed two new faces at its May meeting after Chris Reed, representing District 2, and Arturo Sanchez, representing District 3, were sworn in before the start of the meeting.
Reed ran unopposed for the District 2 seat formerly occupied by Win Weber, who chose not to seek reelection. Sanchez won the District 3 seat in a race with incumbent Ken Baliker.
Earlier, trustees elected new officers for the coming year with Dr. Laura DuPont passing the gavel to new President Page Rander, who formerly served as vice president. Dr. DuPont was elected vice president and Jay Cunningham secretary.
Much of the meeting was devoted to shining the spotlight on outstanding students such as the several dozen who are Robonauts and who won Second Place in the World in the 2017 FIRST World Championship after taking First Place in the Texas FIRST competition for the second year in a row.
Others included Clear Lake High student Nicholas Glaze, who earned a perfect score on his ACT Test; Clear Creek High’s Isabel Hu took first place in the Letters About Literature state writing competition; artwork by Jeffrey Lin and Dominic Nguyen were selected for display in the offices of Congressmen Brian Babin and Randy Weber; and Izyan Maredia of Ed White Elementary earned first place in the Robots of the Future Contest.
In other action, trustees:
- Increased the price of school lunches for the coming year from $2.25 to $2.35;
- Approved a number of capital projects including $2.7 million for renovations at Clear Path Alternative School; $30,000 for asbestos abatement and flooring in the Clear Lake Intermediate art rooms; $221,000 for renovation of the Spring Sports Building and Band Hall foundation at Clear Creek High;
- Renewed contracts totaling $700,000 with a number of air conditioning and heating contractors;
- OK’d expenditure of $69,400 for the renewal of the contract for the GPS system for school buses;
- Agreed to spend $3.5 million for 2017 instruction materials, such as new, replacement and used textbooks, workbooks, digital and hardcopy textbooks and other related materials;
- Voted to spend $284,200 to contract with the Harris County Education Department to provide services at Academic and Behavior Schools for students with disabilities, to meet the significant needs of the most behaviorally involved students;
- Awarded to a $62,000 contract with Whitley Penn LLP for the annual financial audit and a $60,000 contract to SouthWaste Disposal for Grease Trap Cleaning services;
- Voted to spend $615,000 for repairs to the Education Support Center, and to replace windows and install waterproofing;
- Approved a $178,000 contract with Generocity Services to construct a Spark Park behind Wedgewood Elementary using Spark Park grant funds, PTA donations and those from other fundraising efforts;
- OK’d several architectural contracts for renovations and repairs listed in the 2017 bond referendum including $260,000 to IBI Group for work at Armand Bayou Elementary and $507,000 for work at Clear Lake Intermediate; $842,000 to Joiner Architects for work at Clear Lake City Elementary; $19,500 to PBK Architects to improve security systems at all schools and $439,000 for surveillance cameras; $4.3 million to VLK Architects for three projects — construction of the new elementary school, the rebuild of League City Elementary and additions and renovations to Stewart Elementary in Clear Lake Shores.
The Clear Creek ISD Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution in opposition of the new A-F rating system of schools in Texas because they think it creates a false impression about students, ignores the unique strengths of each school and unfairly reduces each student’s worth to the school’s assigned grade.
