Allison Drew was sworn in as Fort Bend ISD trustee for Position 5 at the May 13 board meeting.

Jim Rice, re-elected to Position 3, was also sworn in. Dave Rosenthal, who was re-elected for Position 7, was not at the meeting and will be sworn in this week, board President Jason Burdine said.

FBISD also set the date of June 3 to conduct a public budget meeting for the proposed 2019-20 school district budget and tax rates. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the board room of the Fort Bend ISD Administration Building at 16431 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land.

On June 3, the board of trustees will discuss the proposed budget and proposed tax rates to provide taxpayers with an opportunity to offer input on the proposed budget and maintenance tax rate and operation and debt service tax rate.

As part of the meeting’s consent agenda, the board passed $56.6 million in purchases and agreements.

Purchases of note include contracting with a vendor who provides teacher recruitment services; expanding the Educators Dedicated to Growing Excellence instructional model to nine campuses within the Thurgood Marshall High School and Willowridge High School feeder patterns; hiring 107 new district positions; continuing the purchase of property, terrorism and equipment breakdown insurance; and retaining Gibson Consulting Group to perform internal audit services to the district.

The board also approved a locally developed social studies standard for identified grade levels related to local history associated with the Sugar Land 95 and convict leasing.

The standard will help students understand how historians use information acquired from a variety of sources to interpret local history while applying critical thinking skills, according to the district.

Now that the standard is approved, the curriculum team will integrate it into the written curriculum and develop student learning experiences in grade levels that include fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, as well as grades learning U.S. history. Grades four to seven address Texas history, while eighth grade and those learning U.S. history focus on American history.