SISD approves staff pay during downtimes

It was either pay their staff for the 4  days missed this school year so far or have them all come back in June to make them up, and Shiner ISD board members opted for that first option on Monday.

Staff lost a few days this school year already. This first day and a half came as part of the state championship football playoffs. It was the school’s second appearance there — and win — in as many years.

The next day lost came in January, when an outbreak of the latest COVID variant swept through the students and staff in Shiner.

The final two days lost came as part of winter storms in February. Thankfully, they were nothing close to the wintry blast that blew down that same month the year before, but they were still cold enough to make any time spent outdoors rather unpleasant and many roads unsafe to traverse.

As superintendent Alex Remschel reported, one of the neighboring districts opted for the reverse option just days prior to SISD’s April 18 vote, cutting into summer vacation for most faculty and staff.

“They about had a mutiny on their hands,” he quipped. Shiner wasted no time voting to support the payments. The measure passed unanimously.

In a related measure, Shiner board members also approved a state waiver that permits them to count minutes spent in staff development days toward overall attendance records with the Texas Education Agency, the rubric by which school’s now receive state funding.

Remschel said he planned to seek back credit for two development days in the current school year (Jan. 3 and Feb. 21), as well as seek approval for those same days next year (which fall on Jan. 3, 2023, and Feb. 20, 2023). In other business:

•The school board approved an agreement with a Seguin education firm to provide age-appropriate sex education curriculum to students in Grades 5-12.

  According to the agreement presented by school nurse Debra Aman, Shiner’s program will focus on abstinence as the primary means of avoiding early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the basic biological changes that boys and girls will experience as they go through puberty and adolescence.

Also included in the curriculum are cautionary lessons about issues like bullying, peer pressure, social media, sexting and human trafficking. For the older students, classes will also provide information about various birth control methods available. None of the curriculum is geared toward gender identification or LGBQT concerns. As Nurse Aman said, instructors will be taught to defer such questions to parents.

The Seguin firm will provide teacher instruction on the courses prior to the school year, along with a parent informational session and they will be available to field any questions about the program.

Unlike prior years, where parents were given opportunity to opt out of said programs, every parent will now need to opt in to any such instruction given by the school. Those who choose not to take part will have alternative educational programs while those classes are offered.

“We believe this is the best option available, and it stays away from the issues that most of us read about in other places,” superintendent Remschel told his board. The measure also passed unanimously.

•With two online testing sessions now completed so far this school year, everything had gone smoothly, Remschel reported. Plans are already in place to tackle how students can improve in the new testing environment, but Remschel said he felt Shiner’s students and broadband capabilities were proving quite able for when all testing moves to the online format next school year.

• Board members discussed plans for the upcoming Shiner High School commencement exercises on Friday, May 27.

• The board reviewed its upcoming board training hours and opportunities in coming months. May will have both Region III training on May 18, the school’s annual “team building” training on May 23, and the state trainings offered through the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) in June.