Month: June 2015

Board Meeting Last Night

Last night the Eustace ISD Board of Trustees held their regular monthly meeting. The meeting started at 7:00 PM and was held in the High School library.

The Board presented Robyn Wheeler of The Monitor with a certificate for being named to the TASB Media Honor Roll.

The Board heard the following reports:

  • RevTrak Report
  • 2015-2016 Perkins Planning Amounts
  • 2016 Van Zandt CAD Proposed Budget
  • Henderson CAD 2015 Amended Budget
  • Henderson CAD 2016 Proposed Budget
  • Henderson CAD 2015 Preliminary Appraisal Values
  • TVCC Letter Regarding Tuition
  • STAAR/EOC Results
  • TEA Letter Regarding Chapter 41 Status
  • Bond Refunding Summary
  • Update on Attendance and Enrollment

The Board took the following actions at last night’s meeting:

  • Approved the minutes of previous meetings.
  • Approved the financial reports as presented.
  • Extended the Depository Contract with Prosperity Bank through August 31, 2017.
  • Approved the Contract with Henderson County for 2015-2016 Tax Collections
  • Approved changes to FFG(Local) Exhibit as presented.
  • Directed that the Superintendent seek proposals for replacing the Expedition with a similar 2016 model from both Ford and Chevrolet.
  • Approved Texas Kid’s First as the Student Accident Provider for the 2015-2016 school year.
  • Approved the Three Year Proposal Submitted by Texas Schools Cooperative for Liability Insurance, Property Insurance, and Vehicular Insurance.
  • Reviewed Plans for New Ag Science Building and made modifications to be submitted to the District’s architect and engineer.
  • Approved a five year contract with Coca Cola as the vending supplier for the District.
  • Reviewed and Approved the District’s Investment Policy with no changes.
  • Accepted the Resignations of the following personnel: Carolyn Davis, Josh Truitt, and Bill Mohon.
  • Approved the Employment of the following personnel: Sarah Pickett, Primary Aide; Christina Hicks, HS English Teacher; Justin Huff, HS Social Studies Teacher and Coach; Carrie Martin, HS Chemistry Teacher; Samantha Harris, HS Math Teacher and Coach; and, Julie Estes, PS 1st Grade Teacher.
  • Approved the Salary Recommendations for 2015-2016 as presented.
  • Accepted recommendations for transfer approvals and transfer denials as presented.
  • Adjourned

 

 

Thanks for a Great Year

It’s hard to believe that we are already in the month of June. It is even harder to believe that today is the last day of the 2014-2015 school year! Our students, from PK to seniors, have enjoyed many successes this year. These successes are not random, but a culmination of hard work and dedication by students, staff members, parents, and community supporters. It absolutely takes everyone working together to ensure the success of our students.

Special recognition goes out to the following people

School Board – The members of the EISD School Board volunteer to spend hours looking after the welfare of our students and our district. Our Board members include: Gary Walsh, President; Ashley McKee, Vice President; Bobby Ashton, Secretary; Cotton Walker, Member; Sonny Hodge, Member; Steven Bell, Member; and, Jimmy Kirkhart, Member.

Staff Members – All of our staff members work to provide our students with a world-class education. It takes everyone from bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, maintenance workers, technology support, aides and office workers, counselors, speech therapists, visual specialists, diagnosticians, administrators, and teachers all working together to make EISD the best it can be.

Parents and Family Members – From getting your children to early morning practices (or picking your children up late at night after a long trip), to reading with your children, to helping your students prepare for a big test, parents and other family members put in countless hours helping their children get the best education possible. We could not do it without you!

Community Members – We are blessed with overwhelming community support for our district. This is shown in many ways – the FFA Auction, scholarships, support at athletic events, and donations of time, money, and materials – are just a few.

As I look back on the 2014-2015 school year, I thank everyone who had a part in making this a great year. I look forward to continued success in the 2015-2016 school year.

I hope everyone has a great summer!

Help! I Can't Open my Office Documents in Google Drive!

via Technology Tidbits by Twyla Felty

Yes, unless you own a Chromebook that awesomely and automatically updates, then this can happen to you. Don’t panic! Check the following to make sure you have exactly what you need to open those Office products in your Google drive without changing their format.

1. If you can usually open Office documents in your Google drive without an issue on your computer, make sure you are logged into your Chrome browser so that all of your extensions are ready to go.

2. If this is all new to you, then we probably just need to add the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides extension to your Chrome browser. Don’t worry! It’s easy, and you should only have to do it once!

  • Click the blue button to “add to Chrome”
  • You will have to give it permission to access all kinds of stuff, but just close your eyes and do it!
  • Once it finishes adding itself to your Chrome browser, try to open your Office document again.
  • Now, the Office document  should open. The extension can clearly be seen in the URL 
  • When you open the Word document, you can also see that the extension is working by clicking on “File” and seeing the words, “Office Compatibility Mode”.

You are good to go!

Converting Office Documents to Google Docs

via Technology Tidbits by Twyla Felty

You have an Office document safely backed up in your Google Drive, and now you need to share it with your team. But, wait! You can’t share documents saved in their original Office format.
No worries. Let’s  convert that document to a Google doc,. “Convert” really creates a new copy, so you even get to keep your original just the way it is!

To convert:

  • Double-click to open the original Word document in your Google drive that you wish to convert
  • The Word document will open in a new tab, and the tab will have the big “W” for “Word” at the top.
  • Now for the conversion part:
  • Go to “File”  ,”Save as Google Doc” or 
  • Go to “Share”, and the pop-up will  give you the option to convert
  • The Google doc version will now open in a new tab with the Google doc icon at the tab-top
  • Your Google Drive will now have two version of this document: one in the original Office format and one in Google doc format
This process is so simple and easy, that pretty soon you will become a real “convert” and create everything in Google Drive!



Confused by the duplicate documents? Look at the icons!

As you start converting Office documents to Google docs, slides, and sheets (and you will!), you can easily tell the two products apart by their icons. Seems silly, but it helps when the drive gets crowded.

Limitations of Office Documents in Google Drive

via Technology Tidbits by Twyla Felty

So, you have backed-up your Office documents to Google Drive! Good job! Now you can:

  • Open and view your Office documents
  • Open and do some editing
  • Download your documents from Google Drive

However,  there are a few caveats that you need to be aware of as you work with these Office documents from within your Google Drive.

1. Office documents do not share all the wonderful magic of Google docs, but have three limitations:

  • Editing is somewhat limited
  • They do not save automatically
  • They can not be shared at all. You must convert first!

These limitations are immediately noticeable if you are accustomed to working with Google docs.

2. NEVER insert Office documents from your Google drive into Google Classroom !!

 Because the Office format can’t be shared, these Office documents really get messy on the student end if shared for editing or as a template in a Google Classroom assignment.
If you must do this ….insert as “read only”!

Graduation and This Week

Congratulations to the Class of 2015! The graduation ceremony was held this past Saturday at the E. L. Kirk Gym. There was a great crowd on hand in spite of the rain. I want to thank everyone who came out to support this year’s seniors. A special thank you to Alan Sifford, EISD Director of Maintenance, and all of his staff for the great job they did in getting the gym ready for graduation!

It is had to believe that we are starting the last week of the 2014-2015 school year. It’s also hard to believe that this is June 1! A reminder to everyone that we will be having school this Friday because of days missed to bad weather.

Thursday and Friday will be early release days. Buses will run at 1:30 each day. Saturday will be a workday for staff.

Summer school will start Monday, June 8. That will also be the first day of our summer feeding program. Our summer feeding program will be as it has been in the past: anyone 18 years of age or younger may eat breakfast and lunch at no charge. No paperwork is required to participate in this program.  I have attached more information about our summer school program at the bottom of this post.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Summer Feeding Program Information
Summer Feeding Program Information