College Station ISD received updates at its April 21 board meeting on student wellness efforts and growing special education services.
About SHAC
The district's School Health Advisory Council, or SHAC, reported a year of expanded collaboration between parents, educators and community members.
SHAC operated with 22 members, including a majority of nondistrict employees, and met six times throughout the school year while reviewing the CSISD's wellness plan, campus safety efforts, nutrition programs and active transportation initiatives.
Included in SHAC's key recommendations:
- Support for adding a floating nurse position to improve coverage when school nurses are out and expanding partnerships to build a stronger nurse pool
- Participation in National Walk and Roll to School Day, Oct. 7
- Creating a subcommittee on active transportation
- Create another subcommittee for a future Healthy Families Expo, to be held in the spring of 2027
The council said it continues to operate under a "whole school, whole community, whole child" model to emphasize student health as part of academic success.
Also on the agenda
Trustees also received an extensive update on the district's special education department, which reported increasing evaluation requests and ongoing program improvements.
As of April, the district had completed 675 initial special education evaluations, continuing a trend of rising demand.
Blaire Grande, executive director of special services, highlighted several program success, including:
- Student participation in Special Olympics competitions
- A transition-focused "pop-up market," allowing post-high school students to sell goods to the community
- Strong reading growth among kindergarten through third-grade students receiving services
One more thing
A major operational change will return central office instructional coaches to campus teaching roles while restructuring caseloads for specialized facilitators.
Grande said the move places staff directly in classrooms where they interact daily with students while reducing reliance on contracted services. She said this will generate an estimated $300,000 in savings.
Students exiting special education programs are performing at levels comparable to their typical education peers, Grande said, which signals positive academic outcomes.
