Dew ISD will be adding an additional eleven minutes to the school day as discussed during their monthly School Board meeting on Monday, June 22, 2020 6:00 p.m.

The additional time allows the District to bank (or save up) 5695 minutes, which equals almost twelve days. The first bell will ring at 7:45 a.m. and the final bell at 3:35 p.m.

School Districts are required for students to attend so many hours per school year, as opposed to days per year.

These are days that can be used in case of emergencies, similar to what was seen with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Texas Education Association (TEA) salary schedule prescribed a step raise for teachers, who will receive the TEA schedule plus $1000.

A step raise is similar to a planned annual raise that is required by the TEA guidelines.

Other professional employees will receive a 3% raise, and custodians and bus drivers will receive a $.50 per hour raise. The Custodial Supervisor will receive a $1.00 per hour raise.

The district saw a fluctuation in preliminary property values, while real estate values did increase $6.7 million, the minerals and utilities decreased $29 million.

Meaning the district is seeing a decrease of $23 million in preliminary values. Local revenue will go down, but the District is anticipating state revenue to replace the missing revenue.

The board approved the 2020-2021 Emergency Operations Plan, which is the plans for any emergency that might happen in the upcoming school year.

The plan is available to read online on the dewisd.org website under the board minutes.

A waiver for low attendance days was approved. This was related to children absent from school due to influenza or strep earlier in the school year.

If a district falls 10% under it’s normal attendance rate, they can apply for a waiver to help offset the monies lost.

Additional items discussed included:

–Summer projects are completed except for ongoing floor waxing.

–First part of roofer’s bill for the replacement of the school roof, in the amount of $350,000 was paid, with $250,000 to be paid in next two months.

–A waiver was approved for testing that seventh grade students were unable to take due to the COVID-19 school closures at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

Next meeting is planned for Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.