The holiday season is officially here. You can tell by the cooler temperatures, changing leaves, and busy school calendars. It was busy at the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees meeting last night as well, and here are a few of the highlights.
West Elementary sixth grader Nya Tucker started the meeting by leading everyone in the pledges of allegiance. Nya did an outstanding job.
After the pledges was the perfect student performance with Veteran’s Day coming up next week. Students from Wood Elementary presented a rousing flag routine set to John Philip Sousa’s march “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” under the direction of music teacher Kelly Crump. It was a great way to honor the flag and veterans.
Then the trustees honored two incredible students. First, it was November’s student of the month, Giovanni Roman, a senior at Arlington Collegiate High School. Giovanni has already earned multiple scholarships for college and plans to pursue a career in the medical field. He has an extremely bright future. Congrats, Giovanni!
Then the board honored Martin High School senior Kerragan Johnson, a star track athlete who represented Team USA at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India, last month. Arlington ISD is so proud of Kerragan and looking forward to her spring track season.
After the honors, the board heard a number of updates and reports. One was about the idea of moving sixth grade from elementary schools to junior high schools. The board is going to form a stakeholder committee to explore the potential benefits and challenges of transitioning from the current 7–8 junior high model to a 6–8 configuration.
The board also received an update from the Academic Calendar Committee, which is developing next year’s calendar. We appreciate the careful planning the committee is putting into this.
Later, the trustees considered and approved Targeted Improvement Plans for several campuses and then considered and approved the district’s 2025-2026 internal audit plan.
Finally, the board amended the composition of the new Capital Needs Steering Committee that was just recently formed to include a representative from the Arlington Council of PTAs.
Those are just a few of the highlights from a very full agenda. If you would like more details on any of these, or any of the items not covered in this Board Brief, please click here to watch the entire meeting.