TASB commends SISD board’s resolution

The Sealy school board spoke about the need to better prepare students for college, and the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) heard.

The Sealy school board submitted an advocacy resolution to the state organization, spelling out ways it would like to see TASB support its mission of raising college readiness, in line with the Academic Excellence (AE) program.

“The resolution you have submitted is a terrific resolution,” TASB Director of Public Relations Jackie Lang said.

The three TASB representatives present at the meeting, including Lang, Dax Gonzalez and Wesley Duncan, announced they will recommend it to the TASB board, who will then approve it and send it before the full board of directors. If the board of directors approves it, the resolution will then go before the TASB delegate assembly in September.

The Sealy school board submitted the resolution to help assist it with implementing the AE program, a one-of-a-kind program designed by board members that will increase the rigor in academic classes, offer study halls and tutorial sessions built into the regular school day and help students prepare for every possible aspect of college life by offering college-readiness classes.

Board president Dr. William Hermann urged the board to design a program to ensure the success of Sealy High School graduates at the college level.

“This is the essence of education we’re talking about,” Sealy school board president Dr. William Hermann said. “We need to address this head on, rather than worrying about the nuts and bolts of school.”

The Sealy school board’s resolution is one of about 120 that was submitted for consideration and backing by TASB this year.

“Every time a board develops a resolution, it helps us during the legislative session and lets us know how to either promote legislation or to work on legislation,” Lang said.

The process of getting the resolution passed and incorporated into a law will not be easy, Duncan said.

“The founding fathers made it like this on purpose,” he said. “They wanted people to come to the table and talk and compromise.

"It’s not easy to pass a piece of legislation. It requires a lot of people to come to the table and talk and a lot of input from folks.”

The Sealy Independent School District does have the strength of its representatives on its side, though, with Rep. Lois Kolkhorst serving on the education subcommittee.

“Because of her position, Sealy has a great opportunity to really influence debate and advocate not only on behalf of your school district, but for a lot of others,” Duncan said.

TASB Advocacy Resolution

Editor's note: The following was submitted by the Sealy Independent School District Board of Trustees to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) after being approved during a board meeting June 18.

Whereas, college readiness is at an all time low in Texas, as evidenced by the state’s 47th place standing in average SAT/ACT scores, the 49th place standing of the TAKS test with respect to rigor and college readiness, the complaints from our universities regarding the number of students requiring remedial courses, and

Whereas, incoming freshmen are unprepared for the rigor of higher education, as evidenced by the exceptionally high rate of drop outs in the freshman and sophomore years of college in Texas,

So be it resolved that TASB supports making college readiness, in general, and the new curriculum proposed, the highest priority, and

TASB intends to actively explore new and significant means to raise the overall college readiness of our high school graduates throughout all levels of the state’s schools to include active high school curriculum assessment, and

TASB intends to work with TEA and other state teacher organizations to provide the schools with a formal, centrally processed measurement tool to serve as a non-accountable benchmark to assess progress made toward college readiness and the end-of-course examinations. The tool/exam should be designed to be administered in December with individual student results available by mid-February.

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