5 teachers hired, scores reviewed

By Melinda L. Lucas

The hiring of several new staff members and acceptance of one resignation came toward the end of the June 21 meeting of the Albany ISD school board.

The trustees also went over the preliminary EOC and STAAR results for 2021 and talked about the spending plan for a federal grant application.

Personnel Changes

Supt. Jonathan Scott reported that he had already offered contracts to three teachers, based on the authority given him by the board at the May meeting.

Jennifer Marshall accepted an offer to teach at the secondary level, along with some training responsibilities, according to Scott.

Brittney Harmon will serve as the new elementary interventionist, and Shelby Coffee will take the third grade math and science position.

Presented to the board at Monday’s meeting were recommendations to hire Elizabeth Howe for the pre-kindergarten class and Erica Landeros for first grade. Both were approved.

Third grade teacher Heather McClure submitted her resignation, which was accepted.

Test Results

The board went over the results for this year’s STAAR and end-of-course (EOC) tests, many of which are still preliminary.

TEA won’t “count” the 2021 testing, Scott said.

As expected because of the 2020 “gap” in learning because of COVID, scores in several areas are lower, but administrators are especially concerned about “closing the gap” in some specific areas, including junior high math, with a voluntary “math camp” established this summer.

The new “interventionist” educators will also be working to help students who are behind due to time and instruction missed during the pandemic.

ESSER Grant

Scott presented a spending plan for the first two-thirds of a $756,563 Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Grant III (ESSER III), 20% of which must be spent to remediate for learning loss due to the pandemic.

Salaries for the interventionists are part of the plan, along with computer purchases and several new learning programs.