BAYTOWN - Around mid-day on November 18, 2020, Baytown EMS responded to the Memorial High School in Baytown in what appeared to first to be a fight. According to a school official for GCCISD, she said; "A student had a medical emergency and EMS was called."
So, it is unconfirmed that there was a fight but dispatch did put out a call of a fight, and a staff member was waiting at the front for EMS arrival.
City Council approved the proposed ordinance that authorizes an Earnest Money Contract with Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District ("GCCISD") concerning approximately 2.17 acres along Market Street, which is depicted as follows: There are some environmental conditions at the site due to the site's previous uses, which resulted in chemical and petroleum releases. GCCISD has agreed to do all of the necessary remediation work, which is expected to be in the range of approximately $235,992 to $291,977. The property to be conveyed, including the rights-of-way, is valued at $240,000, based upon the appraisal attached to this item. Therefore, the consideration for the conveyance is GCCISD's remediation of the site and GCCISD's releasing the City from all associated liability.
GCCISD Sterling High School has been undergoing major renovations that were presented on September 24th, by the Citizens Bond Oversite Committee presentation for the MEP Package #1.
According to a GCCISD official, “The project has moved into Phase 2 work that will continue through December 2020. Phase 2 includes replacing the air handler, air ductwork, and fire sprinklers and controls. This is for the first-floor southwest corner and affects 14 classrooms. Roof replacement continues at the main building,” and she continued; “Over the summer, work was completed on the central plant, replacing the chilled water pumps and hot water pumps. The old cafeteria was built out as 11 classrooms.”
The Making Connections course sequence serves students who have an autism spectrum disorder or a related disorder such as social (pragmatic)
communication disorder which causes them to have difficulty with social
skills. The courses also assist the students with developing and generalizing appropriate and beneficial social skills and in turn increases that student’s postsecondary outcome. The curriculum focuses on disability awareness, personal growth and development, social awareness in the community, and futures planning. Students in these courses require social skills instruction as well as assistance generalizing those skills across settings. These courses will increase students’ postsecondary outcomes. These courses also allow the district to offer state credit in place of local credit for social skills instruction.
GCCISD Approve the application for an Optional Flexible School Day Program for the Peter E. Hyland Center, IMPACT Early College High School, and Stuart Career Tech High School.
Peter E. Hyland Center, IMPACT Early College High School, and Stuart Career Tech High School will utilize an Optional Flexible School Day to provide at-risk high school students and high school dropouts opportunities to earn credit and complete graduation requirements without the constraints of a traditional schedule.
The district will receive funding for all students attending the program based on the Optional Flexible School Day formula.
On Monday, October 05, 2020, the school board approved an order authorizing the issuance of GCCISD Unlimited Tax School Refunding Bonds, Series 2020. With today’s lower interest rates, a refunding can save the District approximately $14 million dollars in present value savings. The interest cost savings and/or bond payments will be reflected in future
Interest and Sinking Fund budget amendment.
Early Thursday morning at 1:13 a.m., the GCCISD Board voted for Renaming Robert E. Lee High School. The motion has failed to rename the high school after a heated dispute among the trustees on the approval to Form a Committee to Investigate the Possible Renaming of Current Educational and Auxiliary Campuses.
The trustees were talking over each other including the President of the Board, Ms. Woods to attempt, "to table" forming the committee to investigate the Possible Renaming of Current Educational and Auxiliary Campuses agenda item. The committee will look into the problem and investigate it.
Trustees Loredo and Cottar were in the spotlight in the first couple of hours in the board meeting on Wednesday, due to accusations of ethics violations and was requested to recuse the vote to rename the school.
The minimal cost on the low end to change the name of the high school, get new uniforms, slap new paint on the walls, replace the logos, get a new marquee for the signs outside of the school will cost the taxpayers $150,000.00. The cheerleaders for REL would need to use up their own money to get new uniforms.
Trustee Clem said; "We need to start to looking into the positive of the name more now then focusing on the negative.
BAYTOWN - First day of virtual learning started early Tuesday morning on September 08, 2020. The first day or even the first week of school always has been chaotic, but this morning, a lot of students were logging onto the GCCISD website at the same time which resulted in a website outage.
The website was quickly fixed around 7:30 a.m. I contacted GCCISD, but they declined to comment on the website outage.
While this is an unusual start to the school year, we want you to know that we are committed to supporting your student’s learning as well as his or her safety.
This letter outlines the procedures our campuses will have in place to prevent or mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and to respond if a positive case is identified. We know that you have now decided about continuing with virtual learning or beginning face-to-face instruction September 28. Remember that you will have the opportunity to change your child’s model of instruction at the end of a grading period.
The virus that causes COVID-19 can infect people of all ages, but research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), among others, has found that while children do get infected by COVID-19 and some severe outcomes have been reported in children, relatively few children with COVID-19 are hospitalized or have severe symptoms. For many children, there are distinct benefits to attending school in person, including instructional, social and safety benefits. For these reasons, the American Academy of Pediatrics has made a statement supporting on-campus instruction for students in the coming year.
While it is not possible to eliminate all risk of furthering the spread of COVID-19, the current science suggests there are many steps schools can take to significantly reduce the risks to students, teachers, staff and their families. The Goose Creek strategy for opening and operating is outlined below. More detailed information can be found in our Parent Guide for the 2020-2021 Safe Return to School Plan on our website at www.gccisd.net.
Prevention
To prevent COVID-positive individuals from entering our campuses, your student’s school will have the following COVID-19 symptom screening procedures in place:
COVID-19 Self-Health Assessment
Do you or your child have any of the symptoms/conditions listed below?
If the answer is YES to any of the above, your child should remain home. Additionally, it is recommended you consult with your primary care physician.
Information collected in these screens will not be retained if the screening is passed. If a parent indicates that a student is demonstrating COVID-19 symptoms, the school will retain that information until the student meets the criteria for return to school.
Criteria for Return to School
These are the conditions for return to school after an individual shows symptoms or gets a positive test result.
Either:
Or:
Or:
Mitigation:
Our district will take the following steps across each of our campuses to mitigate the spread of COVID-19:
Response:
In the event of a COVID-positive case on campus, the campus will take the following steps:
We hope that this information gives you confidence in our systems and in our ability to stop the spread of COVID-19 on our campuses. As you know, this is a fluid event, and we will update protocols as needed. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your student’s campus or visit our website at www.gccisd.net.
While this will be a challenging start to the school year, we believe that together we can make it a great year! We look forward to supporting your student in his or her learning journey.
Sincerely,
Dr. Randal O’Brien
Superintendent of Schools
BAYTOWN - Earlier today, a fire alarm sounded at the GCCISD Administration Building.
A spokesperson from the school district shortly released an statement; "some water got behind a coil in the Tax Office set off the alarm."
Baytown Fire Department Station 7 responded to the fire alarm. No one was injured in this incident.
BAYTOWN - On Wednesday, the Fire Department roughly around 3:32 a.m. responded to a fire alarm located at the Robert E Lee High School.
According to the fire communications, the alarm was sounding in front of the girl's gym. The fire department investigated the incident and found no signs of smoke or fire.
A spokesperson from GCCISD said in a statement; "It was a false alarm. Alarms were coming from the cafeteria. A Baytown Police officer arrived just before the Baytown Fire Department. They issued an “all clear” for the building at 4:03 a.m."
Currently schools are not open for the public, however, Lee High School is without a principal.
The fire department was called back out an hour later for another false alarm. The alarm was reset in both fire events.
BAYTOWN - Thursday Morning the Baytown Fire Department and CenterPoint responded to Sterling High School in reference to a gas leak. CenterPoint quickly found the leak and fixed the problem.
"At approximately 10:30 a.m., a contractor cut a high-pressure gas line just outside the fenced property at Ross S. Sterling High School. Contract and Goose Creek CISD employees safely evacuated the area. The line was capped at approximately 1:30 p.m., and an “all clear” was issued by the Baytown Fire Department," said a GCCISD spokesperson.
No injured were reported.
On July 13, 2020, at 5:23 P.M., a tweet was sent out by Dr. McCall that he started a job with GCCISD. Dr. McCall will be the deputy superintendent for administrative services, and his office is at the Administration Building.
The GCCISD came back on July 14, 2020, and welcomed Dr. McCall to the team. GCCISD also said in another tweet; "We look forward to working with you!"
ABOUT Dr. McCall
Demetrius McCall Ed.D, was the Assistant Superintendent of Administration in Sheldon ISD. Dr. McCall earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Western Michigan University, a Master’s Degree from the University of Houston – Clear Lake, and a Doctorate of Educational Leadership from Lamar University. Devoted to Texas public schools for 15 years, he has served in many roles such as a Teacher, Assistant Principal, Associate Principal, Curriculum and Instruction Principal, and last but not least the Principal of C.E. King High School. He was the most proud of the academic growth of C.E. King High School achieved and it’s recovery efforts from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. (SOURCE: EHCEC)
Dr. McCall was also Associate Principal for Dayton Independent School District between January 2010 – March 2013.
Skills are the following; Curriculum Design, Educational Leadership, and Curriculum Development
The board did not make a quick decision on Monday night which did end up going into an executive session. During the executive session, the board was not allowed to vote for this item. The executive session lasted over an hour. The board came back into an open session around 10:00 p.m. to voted unanimously (7-0) in favor of this item.
The school year will not start until September 8, 2020. At the start of the school year, all students will do 3-week virtual learning, The hybrid model will come into play, however, the virtual learning will remain available.
Now, if the student is enrolled in virtual learning, he or she will need to turn in their homework on time and must log in each day to received instruction from the teacher.
The board also approved .the superintendent to make any changes as needed to comply with any changes with the state-level.
The District recommends the implementation of the hybrid model to support students with face to face instruction. Currently, the state is mandating face to face instruction be offered, although they are recommending all day every day. GCCISD does not believe that the model will assist with the safety and well-being of our staff and students. The district will comply with state regulations but would like to implement the hybrid model as an option for our community
GCCISD Board Approved the purchase of three properties totaling +/- 7 acres located at 131 W. Cedar Bayou Lynchburg currently previously owned by Linda Neal Baker, 203 W. Cedar Bayou Lynchburg previously owned by Paula Selensky, and 207 W. Cedar Bayou Lynchburg previously owned by Dolores Selensky Beauchamp.
The purchase of land will accommodate continued growth and allow for
the addition of District facilities to support student education
Approve the purchase of approximately 3.7 acres of land located on 129 W. Cedar Bayou Lynchburg. in Baytown, which was previously owned by
Estate of Jerry Young. The land will accommodate continued growth and allow for the addition of District facilities to support student education.
The GCCISD Board approved the purchase of the 0.36511 acres of land located at 2810 Market Street. The land was owned by Khalid Khan.
According to GCCISD, the land will be utilized for the construction of the new San Jacinto Elementary.
The students that are doing the virtual learning will be allowed to do Extracurricular Activities that GCCISD offers.
The LEAs will develop a local policy that would exclude students who are learning remotely from all extracurricular activities. The policy can apply to all remote students or solely to non-resident remote students (who transfer in from outside of the LEA’s geographic boundaries). If the LEA decides to allow non-resident remote students to participate in extracurricular activities, the residency requirements for UIL activities still apply. Any exclusion policy must be applied equally to all students and equally to all extracurricular activities.
At the July 6th board meeting, the Goose Creek CISD Board of Trustees discussed the option of all students receiving virtual instruction at the start of the school as well as implementing a hybrid model. The hybrid model, which includes face to face instruction, will provide modified instructional days. The model will also limit class sizes to no more than 15 students. Since the safety of our students and staff is our priority, campuses will provide social distancing, ensure campuses are cleaned frequently and enforce the use of masks. The proposed hybrid model for the grade levels will be posted on the district webpage for you to review.
If you prefer for your child/children to receive instruction virtually at home, you will need to register by logging in to the Parent Portal and selecting the student you want to register for 100% Virtual At-Home Learning. You will see the campus message tab for the individual student and campus. Select the link for Registration for 100% Virtual At-Home Learning and fill out the form. Each campus has its own form to track student needs, so you will need to repeat this process for each student you would like to register for 100% virtual At-Home Learning. If you choose to register your child for 100% Virtual At-Home Learning, the child must complete the first six weeks before changing the method of instruction. We need to collect the data to create schedules and communicate clearly to families, so we ask that you register your child by Friday, July 10th.
We appreciate your patience as we work to provide a safe return to school.
On Monday night, the GCCISD Board of Trustees met to discuss the upcoming school year. No decision has been made, however, they were weighing in more into Virtual Learning more the face-2-face. But also there were discussions of having the parents to decide rather on having the child attend the face-2-face instruction or virtual learning.
A decision will be made later on this month in the next Board of Trustees board meeting.
