L-K CISD trustees vote to accept District of Innovation plan

By Ben Woods
bwoods@casscountynow.com

Linden-Kildare CISD Board of Trustees at its April 17 monthly meeting voted to accept and initiate the District of Innovation Plan. 
District of Innovation plans give local school districts more flexibility in some areas in exchange for meeting certain criteria.
The L-K CISD plan has four strategic action goals: teacher certification, a uniform school start date, teacher employment contracts, and minimum minutes of instruction. 
The teacher certification strategy will allow seventh through 12th grade principals to submit a request for local certification that will allow a certified teacher to teach a subject in a related field in which the teacher is not certified.
Also, whenever possible, lesson plans for the uncertified teacher will be created in partnership with a certified teacher in the same field of study.
The uniform school start date strategy will allow the district to move the start date up, to the third Monday in August. This will allow more flexibility in the school calendar for more opportunities to schedule timely and meaningful staff development, provide additional days of instruction before state assessments and improve balance between the number of instructional days in semesters one and two.
The teacher employment contract strategy will allow a probationary contract to be issued up to two years from the last date of district employment. 
This differs from the previous code that only allowed the district to issue up to one probationary year if the person has been employed as a teacher in public education for at least five of the previous eight years.
The second year will provide the campus principal time to continue to evaluate the teacher’s performance. 
When they determine if a teacher will be allowed to receive a second year probationary contract the district will review recent evaluations, an employee’s record of attendance and district staffing patterns and needs. 
The minimum minutes of instruction strategy will provide the opportunity to be exempt from the 420-minute school day requirement. 
This will provide the school district the opportunity to provide each campus with greater flexibility in creating a schedule that will better serve the students and staff. 
The term of the District of Innovation plan is five years beginning in April 2017 and extending to April 2022, unless otherwise terminated or amended by the L-K Board of Trustees. 
House Bill 1842 passed during the 84th legislative session allows districts to become Districts of Innovation and obtain exemptions from certain provisions of the Texas Education Code.