Marshall ISD trustees recently approved a resolution that will seek “District of Innovation” status from the Texas Education Agency, which would give the district more local control.
Marshall ISD Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Anika Perkins said the District of Innovation, which other Harrison county districts have been granted in recent years, will give the district more flexibility in several areas.
“The trustees approved sending our Innovation Plan to the TEA for monitoring and we don’t have a timetable on when we will hear back from them,” Perkins said. “We hope to have District of Innovation status by the start of the 2020-21 school year.”
According to the TEA, House Bill 1842 from the 84th state legislative session amended the Texas Education Code to create Districts of Innovations, which allow qualifying districts certain exemptions from the code.
“Technically, the TEA won’t approve the plan, they will just make sure our exemptions are allowable,” Perkins said. “One of the things you have to show is that the district has shown growth and the TEA will then monitor to make sure that every exemption you applied for will help meet the needs of the district.”
Some of the local flexibility the District of Innovation designation allows districts is to decide their first day of instruction. According to the Texas Education Code, districts must begin the school year on the fourth Monday in August but Districts of Innovation can opt to start their school year earlier.
“If we could start the first day of instruction earlier, it would allow us more instructional days before state testing begins,” Perkins said. “It gives us more flexibility in our instructional calendar.”
Another exemption the district sought was to allow the district to hire for certain CTE (Career and Technology Education) teachers or teacher interns and allow them to work on earning their teacher certification while they work at the district.
“We can look at getting a local permit to work for someone who has the job experience or experience in the CTE field of study until they can earn their teacher certification,” Perkins said.
Another exemption in the district’s plan would allow the district to not immediately seek class size waivers when a class size fluctuates beyond the 22 students per one teacher ratio required in the Texas Education Code.
“We are a district of high mobility,” Perkins said. “We have kindergarten through fourth grade elementary students moving in and out of the district at all times and especially in our bilingual classes which are only at certain campuses. We don’t want our class sizes larger than 22 students but those areas are hard to meet that cap at all times throughout the year. This exemption wouldn’t require us to have to apply for a waiver every time a class size hits over 22 students.”
Another exemption would also allow teachers to use one of their teacher conference periods each week to meet for Professional Learning Communities.
A PLC requires educators to meet regularly to share experiences and work collaboratively on lesson plans.
“One of our initiatives as a district is PLC instruction,” Perkins said. “Under the Texas Education Code, teachers must meet so many minutes each week for conference period and this exemption would allow them to use one of those conference periods each week for PLC support.”
The resolution submitted to TEA will explain why the district seeks District of Innovation status and how it will use its exemptions.
“Different things work for different districts and this will allow us more flexibility to plan based on our own needs,” Perkins said.