The Italy School Board of Trustees approved the issuance of $1,505,000 Series 2011 Refunding Bonds at its monthly meeting Monday evening.

Jim Brooks with Southwest Securities of Dallas presented the board with a bond package that will ultimately save the district a total of $303,955 in interest payments from a previous bond package approved in 2000.

Under the new package, the district will realize between $300 to $5,000 savings per year. The final payment, originally set for 2025, is eliminated with this package and the 2024 payment is reduced from $150,400 to $36,400.

The average interest rate for the new refunding bonds equal 3.06 percent.

Brooks explained the district should realize a 14.288 percent savings with the refunding bonds.

He said the Standard and Poor’s has assigned an initial bond rating for Italy ISD at A+. Much of this, he explained, is due to the fund balance currently in place.

The district’s current fund balance sits at $2,165,832.

Brooks said with the state’s financial shortfall, many schools expect to face financial challenges in 2011-2012. He told board members, “You are well prepared for the next two years. In the coming years, you will probably have to use some of the fund balance.”

Charles Williams, interim superintendent, said school districts have faced financial concerns in the past but said he does not worry too much until the legislature acts. “This is, however, the most serious financial situation I have seen the state in during my years in education. The state is projecting up to $9.8 billion cuts in education. It’s not a pretty picture.”

Williams continued, “We are only spending what we absolutely have to for the remainder of the year without cutting personnel.”

Larry Eubanks, board member, asked Williams to pass the financial urgency on to all district employees.

“Let every employee here know the seriousness of what’s coming. Even a small savings, done diligently over the course of the school year, could save a job,” Eubanks added.

Williams said he expects a $94,000 shortfall from the state based on average daily attendance.

Refined average daily attendance is currently at 96.24 percent of the student population of 583 students.

Tanya Parker, high school principal, said the high school is working on bringing up attendance. She said the district took 12 students to truancy court last month and plan on bringing 14 more to court this month. “Out intent is to get them in school,” she added.

In other business, Octavia Dorazil, fourth grade teacher at Stafford Elementary, addressed the board during the public forum. She said the school board wants teachers held accountable for poor TAKS scores.

Dorazil said the challenges teachers are facing now is that a third grade student, for example, can fail two TAKS tests yet still be promoted to the fourth grade if their class scores are at 70 or above.

When they get to the fourth grade, she said these students, who have not yet mastered the third grade work, find it a challenge to learn fourth grade materials.

“The students are being set up to fail,” she explained.

She said that TAKS accountability would not improve until the students want to learn. She said some school districts require students to attend summer school if they do not pass TAKS tests.

The board also heard proposed changes to the ranking of students for graduation.

Parker said, in addition to the changes, the TEA urged the district to have a policy in place should there ever again be a tie for valedictorian.

The tiebreakers could include which student took the most level two classes. If there was a tie there, it could revert to which student scored higher on the ACT/SATs.

Other changes were mentioned that would affect the rankings of students who enroll in the district during their senior year or if they are transfer students.

The board approved some of the mentioned changes in 2007 but they never got included in the policy manual.

Parker said she would get the discussed changes made and bring back to the board for approval in February.

Before the meeting started, the district provided board members with a meal in conjunction with School Board Appreciation Month.

Sharan Farmer and seven students served board members with dinner. During the meeting, each student – Barbara Barnhart, Justin Buchanan, Shelbi Gilley, Paul Harris, Imke Klindworth, Brett Kirton and Amber Mitchell — recognized board members for their hard work and dedication.

In other business, board members approves minutes of the December meeting and financial reports. Williams named Delaine Meeks, special education teacher at Stafford Elementary, teacher of the month. She was unable to be at the board meeting.

Williams told board members that Tina Haight donated $9,950 to the baseball organization and $700 to the boys basketball team as they prepare for the playoffs. Williams said he appreciated everything the Haights do for the school district.

The board convened into executive session at 8:40 p.m. to discuss the superintendent search with Rick Cohagan. They reconvened into session at 10:47 p.m. They tentatively scheduled superintendent interviews during the week of March 22-25.

Prior to the meeting, the board held a public meeting to discuss the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report for the 2009-2010 school year.

Williams said the district, although ranked academically acceptable, saw most grade levels making significant gains from the year before. He stressed that the district is not where it needs to be but hopes to see the same kind of gain in scores this year.

He said the eighth grade science and math scores hurt the district last year but noted that many of the reading and writing scores are above the state average. Williams said the district needs improvement in commended performance and ACT/SAT scores.

Williams said all the scores and breakdowns will be posted to the school’s website within the week.