SISD school board discusses district improvement plan

Shiner ISD school board members discussed information regarding the district’s improvement plan for the 2023-24 school year at the Oct. 16th school board meeting.
“There are several primary additions that we have for the improvement plan,” Superintendent Alex Remschel said. “They include implementing a school resource officer and the guardian program for added safety and security in the district. We also will be developing a continuous safety maintenance monitoring system. That was a continuation of the improvement plan from last year.”
Attendance was another major goal for the improvement plan.
“Attendance has been down across the state. The problem is getting kids consistently back into school,” Remschel said. “Our principals are doing a good job on sending out those notices. We have some parents complaining that they’re getting these letters because they’re not bringing them into school, but that’s the law. We have to give notices for people not being in school. We’re hoping we can have an increase in our attendance rate, but it’s been down across the state. If we get more people into school, then our funding for a SRO will increase.”
The district has also been facing some tobacco use offenses.
“That’s primarily our vape issues, we have had ten (offenses) last year and we’re hoping to go down to zero,” Remschel said. “We have only had one offense this year. It was also considered a drug offence because it was a Delta 8 pen. This is sold over the counter in all vape shops and it’s considered synthetic THC (marijuana).”
Another goal is to decrease incidences of violence on campus. The district hasn’t had issues with this lately.
“We have a good positive culture on campus,” Remschel said. “Our principals are doing a good job of continuing that positive campus culture.”
Other goals for the district include improving student performance. The school district is also still waiting for STAAR scores.
“We’re still working with the kids on how they can improve STAAR scores,” Remschel said.
Other items on the agenda included:
• Shiner ISD approved the yearly renewal of membership in Walsh Gallegos’ Retainer Program.
• The district approved a GKG policy which enables them to have school volunteers to serve as chaplains on campus.
• There were several donations for band equipment, a real mower from Wrangler Trucking, and a donation for the Elementary campus from the Shiner First United Methodist Church. The district also ordered four additional sousaphones for the band students.
• Enrollment numbers show the district is at 698 students. One student was added in 9th grade and another student was added in 5th grade.