February 01, 2010 -This week is an important week that dictates a great deal of our student travel for the next two school years. On Monday, February 1, 2010 the UIL Realignment was revealed. Jeff Pannell, Athletic Director and I went to San Angelo for the announcement and Tony Taylor, Girls Coordinator and High School Principal, Harper Stewart went to Waco to receive the announcement. We positioned ourselves in these two locations, because for the first time ever San Saba ISD could be classified as a 1A school district. If we were to drop in classification, we did not have any idea as to the direction our district play would take us, thus we wanted to be able to correspond with the districts in either service center area that might be named to be in our district. The outcome as most of you probably know by now is as follows: Football – San Saba, Coleman, Ozona, Sonora, Harper and Junction. For the first time we have a different set of schools for basketball competition – San Saba, Bangs, Coleman, Comanche, Dublin, Early, Hamilton and Hico. San Saba ISD did remain a 2A school district, falling in the small school 2A division, which is a new division in 2A. The alignment for all remaining sports and for academics will be revealed later in the spring.

Planning for the next school year is in high gear. Calendar options have been sent to the campuses for consideration; the Trustees will be looking at options at the February meeting and will adopt a calendar in March. The ISD basically considers the following options when looking at a calendar: 1. Option I - 180 day student instructional day/187 teacher calendar – No waivers from the state will be sought, no additional staff development for teachers, basically this calendar would consist of 180 student days and 7 teacher prep/professional development days. 2. Option 2 - Professional development approach – 177 to 178 day student instructional day calendar with 187 teacher days. This type of calendar provide for 9 to10 teacher professional development/work/prep days, or 3. Option 3 - Optional Flexible Year Calendar which provides up to 10 days release time for students meeting or passing benchmark targets and state assessments. This calendar approach provides for 10 days of in-depth tutoring/instruction for students who need to meet the benchmarks/assessment passing standards. This approach provides for 7 teacher prep/professional development days. The District does not have to use 10 days for extra tutoring, but it can use up to the 10 day maximum. This is an innovative approach that is gaining support throughout the state because it provides specific time for students to get additional assistance from teachers and rewards students who are doing exceptionally well.

As always, thanks so much for your support of all San Saba campuses and programs. We are always open to your visit, your calls and of your willingness to volunteer! As well, please remember we have our next round of substitute orientation on February 4, 2010 at 2:00 pm in the Elementary Cafeteria.

Please visit www.san-saba.net to view events and find information you need to know about SSISD. If you have any question about this article or any other question about school happenings please contact me at 325/372-3144 or email me at lglaze@san-saba.net . We are San Saba! We are together!