The overview
During the July 18 meeting, Deputy Superintendent Bethany Medford gave a presentation and update on student discipline, including adding staff and updating campuses to accommodate overcrowding issues. Here are a few changes the district made this year:
- Added a total of 33 new assistant principals and 21 counselors across elementary, junior and high school campuses
- Added an additional teacher for the 2023-24 school year to the short-term Disciplinary Alternative Education Program Placement, opening up 30 seats
- Added a new long-term DAEP wing at Washington School with 40 seats and four teaching units
- The long-term DAEP will include 30-, 45- and 60-day placements as needed
- Included 30 special education teachers and 30 paraprofessionals for special education
“This is, at least in my years here, by far the largest expansion [of DAEP] ever,” Superintendent Curtis Null said. “I can't remembering growing at all. So to grow by five teaching units, I don't know that we will outgrow it before Washington gets reconfigured.”
Also on the agenda
The July 18 meeting also included an update on capital improvement projects.
- The board of trustees approved an application to extend its virtual school waiver for two years.
- The waiver will allow the district to be able to continue offering virtual instruction options through the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
- Three new schools will open in August: Hines Elementary, Veterans Memorial Intermediate and Moorhead Junior High schools.
- Conroe High School renovations are expected to be complete in December 2025.
