Archives for August 2009

A groundbreaking for the new Donley County Activity Center will be held today at 2 p.m. one mile north of Clarendon on Hwy. 70.

Larry Gray with the Friends of Donley County said some dirt work has already been done on the project and that construction will begin right away and should be completed in 60 days.

“We’ll be pouring concrete next week, and the prefabricated building will be here August 20,” Gray said.
Volunteers will be enlisted to do much of the interior work, Gray said, and some interior items will come from the old Lakeview school.

The building was originally planned as a 17,400 square foot facility, but that plan has been enlarged to 18,000 square feet to accommodate shower facilities in the bathrooms.

“We added showers so that the building could be used for people to go for emergency shelter in case of a disaster,” Gray said.

The building will feature a 9,000 square foot open area and will also include a smaller meeting room, restrooms, a concession area, and office space for the County Extension service.

The facility will be built by Claudell Wright Construction Co. of Amarillo at a cost of $408,000.

“That gets us about 90 percent done,” Gray said. “We’re still taking donations to do the interior work.”

To contribute to this project or to get more information, call Gray at 874-2095 or by mail to the Friends of Donley County, PO Box 661, Clarendon, TX 79226.

The state’s accountability system has once again rated the Clarendon Independent School District as Academically Acceptable this year.

Clarendon Elementary was rated Exemplary, up from Recognized from the previous five years. Clarendon Junior High went up from Academically Acceptable to Recognized. Clarendon High School maintained its level as Academically Acceptable for the third year in a row.
The ratings are partly based on Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills (TAKS) scores.

“I thought we were going to be recognized for sure, but when they put our scores in the new state measures, it jumped us up to Exemplary,” Clarendon Elementary Principal Mike Word said. “We’re really proud of our scores, and we’re going to try our hardest to keep the levels going up.”

On the TAKS test across the district, Clarendon had 97 percent of students pass the reading/English language arts portion of the test, the same as last year; 98 percent in writing, up from 95 percent from the previous two years; 90 percent in social studies, down from 92 percent last year; 77 percent in math, down from 82 percent from the past two years; and 85 percent in science, up from 81 percent.

“We have some exceptional scores on all three campuses, but we recognize that we have to continue to improve our math scores,” CISD Counselor John Taylor said. “We look forward to implementing several new initiatives to improve those math scores.”

Clarendon Junior High Principal Marvin Elam also believes that it is imperative math scores be raised.
“We’re still going to have to concentrate on math. The math TAKS test is much more difficult than any other test, but it’s just something that we’ll have to continue working on.” Elam said.

Results of each test section is examined by the state based on the school’s performance as a whole and is based on results of different population categories, such as African American, Hispanic, White, and Economically Disadvantaged.

For each subpopulation, test scores must be at or above 75 percent to achieve TEA’s Recognized status. As a district, CISD fell short of that score in two subpopulation groups in mathematics.

Standards for the TAKS continue to get to get higher and the tests themselves keep getting tougher each year.
“I think the TAKS test has progressively gotten harder,” CHS Principal Larry Jeffers said. “Our teachers and students have worked very hard to keep up with those challenges, and we will continue to try to improve our scores with teacher training.”

CISD TAKS results for each campus are as follows: Clarendon Elementary – reading 97 percent, writing 97 percent, mathematics 86 percent, science 94 percent; Clarendon Junior High – reading/English language arts 98 percent, writing 99 percent, social studies 88 percent, mathematics 80 percent, science 93 percent; Clarendon High School – reading/English language arts 95 percent, social studies 90 percent, mathematics 66 percent, and science 77 percent.

Hedley Independent School District was rated Recognized for the second year in a row.

Student’s TAKS scores across Hedley’s district are as follows: 95 percent in reading/ English language arts, up from 94 percent last year, 100 percent in writing, up from 99 percent the previous two years, 83 percent in social studies, down from 91 percent last year, 78 percent in mathematics, down from 83 percent, and 74 percent in science, down from 75 percent last year.

Hedley ISD has named Eric Hough as the lone finalist to be the school’s next superintendent.

Hough is currently the elementary principal in the Tom Bean School District, where he has worked since 2002.
Interim Superintendent Jimmy Hoyle said Hough previously held principal positions at Cleburne and Palmer and was a computer technology teacher in Cedar Hill prior to that.

“This will be his first experience as superintendent, but he appears to be a very capable young man,” Hoyle said. “He intends to be in Hedley August 13 and 14, move that weekend, and be on the job on August 17.”
Hoyle said he will stay with the district for about a week after Hough starts to ease the transition.
Hough holds a Bachelor of Science degree from

Tarleton State University and a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Tyler. He brings with him a wife and three children.

HISD had about 20 applicants for the superintendent’s position, Hoyle said. That field was narrowed to about seven, and the board interviewed three on July 16, 17, and 18.

In other Hedley school news, Bonnie Walsh resigned as a member of the Board of Trustees, and her daughter Kari Lindsey was hired as a computer teacher. The school also hired Aaron Marks to coach basketball and Adam Kline to teach science.

Hoyle reported that former superintendent Bryan Hill has taken a principal’s position in Adrian, and Hill’s wife, Debbie, resigned as a teacher at Hedley.
Work on the budget for the coming fiscal year continues at HISD, Hoyle said.

“It’s going to be smaller than it was, but we’re working to keep it balanced and keep standards high,” he said.
The board will meet in called session this Saturday at 9 a.m. for a budget workshop and to discuss other business.