I hope everyone had a great summer. We’re gearing up for what we feel will be a fantastic 2008-09 school year. I want to focus this article on our academic program, because I could not be more proud of our students, our teachers and faculty members, and our parents and other caregivers for their efforts during last year’s school term. The 2007-08 school year will go down as one of the most successful academic years the school district has ever completed. The results of the TAKS test we received from Austin this summer show Marble Falls ISD students making gains on almost every single indicator, and these are across the board gains from every group of students the state tests. We will have three campuses - Marble Falls Elementary School, Highland Lakes Elementary School, and Spicewood Elementary School - that will be rated as “Recognized” by the Texas Education Agency, and the other campuses made significant gains in their scores that place them right at the line of being Recognized as well. As I said, I am so proud of our kids, our school staff, and our supporters. We all have very high expectations for MFISD, and we are going to continue to improve our district to make it one of the very best learning institutions in Texas.

For those who are interested in getting more detail about how our kids performed on the state’s mandated assessment exam - the TAKS - let me break down the tests. Our students are tested in grades three through eleven. There are five different versions of the TAKS which are Reading/Language Arts (grades 3 through 11), Writing (grades 4 and 7), Social Studies (grades 8, 10, and 11), Mathematics (grades 3 through 11), and Science (grades 5, 8, 10, and 11). For reporting purposes, all Texas students are divided into separate subgroups whose performance is reported by the state. The state groups students into an “All Students” subgroup, an “African American” subgroup, a “Hispanic” subgroup, a “White” subgroup, and an “Economically Disadvantaged” subgroup. For MFISD, the rating system is judged on the following subgroups - All Students, Hispanic, White, and Economically Disadvantaged.

1.Reading/Language Arts TAKS:

*“All Students” subgroup - 93% of the students passed. This was an improvement of four percentage points over *“Hispanic” subgroup - 89% of our Hispanic students passed. This was an improvement of six percentage points from last year.
*“White” subgroup - 95% of the students passed. This was an improvement of two percentage points from last year.
*Economically Disadvantaged” subgroup - 90% of the students passed. This was an improvement of six percentage points from last year.

2.Writing TAKS:

*“All Students” subgroup - 94% of the students passed. This was an improvement of one percentage point over last year’s score.
*“Hispanic” subgroup - 95% of our Hispanic students passed. This was an improvement of four percentage points from last year.
*“White” subgroup - 94% of the students passed. This was a one point drop from last year.
*“Economically Disadvantaged” subgroup - 94% of the students passed. This was an improvement of three percentage points from last year.

3.Social Studies TAKS:

*All Students” subgroup - 93% of the students passed. This was an improvement of six percentage points over last year’s score.
*“Hispanic” subgroup - 89% of our Hispanic students passed. This was an improvement of ten percentage points from last year.
*“White” subgroup - 96% of the students passed. This was an improvement of five percentage points from last year.
*“Economically Disadvantaged” subgroup - 89% of the students passed. This was an improvement of eleven percentage points from last year.

4.Mathematics TAKS:

*“All Students” subgroup - 82% of the students passed. This was an improvement of two percentage points over last year’s score.
*“Hispanic” subgroup - 76% of our Hispanic students passed. This was an improvement of three percentage points from last year.
*“White” subgroup - 86% of the students passed. This was an improvement of two percentage points from last year.
*“Economically Disadvantaged” subgroup - 76% of the students passed. This was an improvement of one percentage point from last year.

5.Science TAKS:

*“All Students” subgroup - 76% of the students passed. This was an improvement of seven percentage points over last year’s score.
*“Hispanic” subgroup - 62% of our Hispanic students passed. This was an improvement of thirteen percentage points from last year.
*“White” subgroup - 84% of the students passed. This was an improvement of four percentage points from last year.
*“Economically Disadvantaged” subgroup - 65% of the students passed. This was an improvement of eleven percentage points from last year.

As you can see, our students gained much ground this year on the assessment tests. We will be targeting our math and science more this year, because we want to make sure we have more student improvement in those areas, but I could not be more proud of everyone involved.

Turning to another very important issue of the school district, we’ve had a great summer with the MFISD Building Program. As most the district’s stakeholders are aware, our voters approved a $62.3 million bond in November of 2006, and the projects are right on schedule. We have five of the original seven projects up and running and as I stated, those projects are on track to be completed by the beginning of the 2009-10 school year. The five projects that are underway at this time include: (1) expansion and renovation of MF Elementary School, (2) expansion and renovation of MF Middle School, (3) creation of new Colt Elementary School, (4) expansion of MF High School and field house, and (5) creation of new Mustang Stadium. The last two projects on tap from the bond are the expansion of Highland Lakes Elementary School and the renovation of the old Colt Elementary School into the new Falls Career High School and Central Administration Building. Our school board will be reviewing and possibly approving the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for Highland Lakes Elementary during the regular August meeting, so that project will start very soon, and the renovation of the old Colt will begin as soon as the new Colt Elementary is completed.

I hope this information is helpful, and I will be writing several articles at the beginning of this school year, because we have so much to discuss. My next article, which will come out very soon, will focus on the proposed budget for the 2008-09 school year. We’ve been working very hard on the budget, and I will provide all of the numbers as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued support, and please call me if you have any questions or comments (693-4357).