LHS athletes ask board for more classes

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

Student class schedules were the primary focus of concern during a brief meeting of the Lockhart ISD Board of Trustees on Monday evening.

Although consideration of class schedules was not on the agenda, parents and students came forward to ask the board to consider adding class periods for the tennis and cheerleading te

ams, in an effort to make those teams more competitive with other schools in UIL District 17-4A.

“I have a petition signed by 36 students that said they would take the tennis class if it was available,” said LHS student Jonathan Coster. “We are one of two schools in the district that doesn’t have a tennis class, and if we had one, we would be able to play tennis year-round, and be more competitive with other schools that do offer a tennis class.”

In addition to a tennis class, several parents asked the board to consider adding a cheer class to the schedule.

Offering such classes, all agreed, would offer students the opportunity to work on their skills with their teams during the school day, and free up evening time currently spent practicing for studying or other extracurricular activities.
Although the board could not take any official action on the idea, they asked Superintendent Jose Parra to look into the situation and bring back a recommendation in the near future.

The idea of adding an eighth period to the school day in an effort to encourage students to participate in elective programs was discussed earlier this year, and may be a key element to the addition of these classes, if the board decides to go that direction.

In other business, the board approved a recent, unsolicited donation from a local business, which would provide new scoreboards for Lion’s Stadium and the Lady Lion Softball Field.

In exchange for building the scoreboards, which will cost just over $60,000, the business asked for exclusive advertising rights on the scoreboards. Although they sent out a request for proposal offering other local businesses the opportunity to engage in a similar advertising arrangement, Parra reported no other business responded to the request.
The board opted to accept the donation and grant the advertising rights to First-Lockhart National Bank.

In brief news:
The trustees recognized the accomplishments of several LISD athletes who participated in and excelled in spring sports, including the members of the Lion and Lady Lion Soccer Teams, the Lion and Lady Lion Powerlifting Teams and the LHS Competitive Cheer Team.

The board approved an addendum to the ARAMARK food service contract that included the costs for food service for this year. Under the original contract, the district should have had a $12,000 surplus in the food service budget next year. Because of pricing increases, that surplus was reduced to $10,000.

They approved the purchase of a new HVAC unit for Plum Creek Elementary, at the cost of around $640,000.

The next meeting of the LISD Board of Trustees will be a budget workshop on May 11, 2009. Their next regular meeting will be held in the Lockhart High School Conference Center at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 18, 2009.