Clear Creek ISD hires 5 new police officers, discusses personalized learning

Five new school liaison officers were added to Clear Creek ISD to increase the daily presence of police at elementary schools following the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde.

The CCISD board of trustees unanimously approved the amendment adding the officers at a regular July 25 board meeting. The additional officers are estimated to cost $425,000 per year, and the training process for the five new officers will take four to five months, board President Jay Cunningham said.

The district now has access to 46 officers. Officers assigned to CCISD intermediate schools also patrol the district’s 27 elementary schools, and this expansion ensures that officers are assigned to support a maximum of two elementary campuses instead of the previous maximum of four schools.

Additionally, the board approved spending $200,000 of capital projects funds on five new vehicles for the new school liaison officers and their equipment. This action and the hiring of new officers were key recommendations proposed by the Safe and Secure Schools committee at a July 11 workshop.

The board also received an overview of the district’s work in personalized learning from the 2021-22 school year, where 10 elementary schools received personalized learning programs, which will continue at these schools in 2022-23.

In the upcoming 2022-23 school year, the district's 17 remaining elementary schools will start implementing personalized learning along with the original 10, said Robert Bayard, deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

Personalized learning is a system for giving students the ability to customize their education to suit their needs through technology. This is accomplished through a variety of means, such as student-made checklists that lay out individual learning goals for a week period. The program was conceived in 2013 but became more of a focus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The July 25 meeting is the first where interim Superintendent Karen Engle publicly attended a meeting in the role following Eric Williams announcing his resignation July 11 after 1 1/2 years as superintendent.