District Leaders recognized for National Principal Appreciation Month

During the October meeting of the Montgomery ISD school board, trustees approved the guaranteed maximum price of $14.6M for renovations at the MISD Athletic Complex. Prop B, approved in the 2022 bond, will fund the scope of work on the football stadium including flipping the home and visitors sides while adding 2,838 seats and a press box to the new home side. Prop B also adds new concession stands, restrooms, ticket areas, fencing, and an elevator to the home side and replaces the field turf.  

To address other needs outside of the football stadium such as parking and traffic flow, work will be completed to add almost 400 parking spaces while widening and paving the exit road to Lone Star Parkway. Additionally, student-athletes will benefit from renovations to the existing locker rooms and the construction of a new locker room. Safety net upgrades will also be completed at the MHS baseball and softball fields.  

Montgomery ISD Chief Operations Officer Brad Mansfield shared that work at the Athletic Complex will begin at the conclusion of football season and is expected to be complete by the opening of the 2025 football season. PBK Architects created the design for the project, and Stewart Builders will oversee the construction.      

 “We are thrilled that our team was able to develop a plan that is reasonable and conservative while meeting the current and growing needs of our student programs and community,” Board President Matt Fuller said. “The continued emphasis placed on sound fiscal management and scope of work, has continued to allow us to deliver on the projects in the 2022 bond.”  

Mansfield also provided an update on other projects funded by the district’s 2022 bond program. The Phase Two addition at Lake Creek High School and construction of Creekside Elementary are complete with the exception of a few punch list items.  “We are grateful to our partners at Huckabee Architects and Pogue Construction for the thoughtful design and construction of these projects, and to our community for their patience during the construction period,” Mansfield said. “We recognize that this work brought about some temporary challenges and inconvenience, so we appreciate the Creekside and Lake Creek communities for their understanding and flexibility while construction was taking place.” 

Progress at the district’s Career & Technical Education and Ag-Science Center and renovations at Montgomery High School are proceeding on schedule.  Work to modernize the fueling station at Liberty Transportation Center is set to begin this fall.    

Trustees also voted to authorize the purchase of attendance credits should the district be required to pay recapture dollars for the 2024-2025 school year. Each fall, school districts receive notice of whether they owe recapture dollars to the state for the previous school year.  Purchasing attendance credits from the state serves as the mechanism for making a recapture payment. 

School districts that choose not to pay their recapture obligation are subject to the state detaching commercial properties from the district and annexing those properties to neighboring districts, effectively lowering the tax base for a district subject to recapture.   

“Even though the district was not assessed a recapture payment for the 2023-24 school year, discussions around recapture and public school funding are alive and well in Montgomery ISD,” Matt Fuller said.  “In addition to asking our MISD community to consider Prop A to increase our Maintenance & Operations budget on the November ballot, our state lawmakers are returning to Austin for the 89th Legislative Session in January 2025. We are doing everything in our power to encourage legislative action that will impact school funding. This includes addressing the significant disparity in funding MISD receives per-student versus the state average and increasing the basic per-student allotment to match the current rate of inflation. Our MISD families are dealing with rising costs at every turn, yet the state has not increased the per-student basic allotment since 2019, with a more than $30B state budget surplus.” 

 Trustees also heard a report from MISD Bilingual/ESL Specialist Jennifer DeHart, regarding MISD Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students in 2023-2024. The number of emergent bilingual students enrolled in MISD increased by 14 percent during the 23-24 school year. Emergent bilingual students in MISD continue to make progress in developing English language proficiency, with more students eligible to transition out of the LEP program at the end of the 23-24 school year, compared to years prior. 

“The increase in the number of students able to exit our growing LEP program is a credit to our people, Superintendent Dr. Mark Ruffin said. “We are fortunate to have remarkable ESL educators who are committed to developing a student’s understanding of English in speaking, reading and writing.”   

Trustees also recognized National Principals Month, thanking MISD’s campus principals for their leadership on campuses and commitment to the district.  

 “As a school board, we love to celebrate our principals,” Trustee Eddie Winn said.  “We are grateful to each of them, for being such impactful leaders, and motivating our students to strive for success. They set a positive tone on every MISD campus, and create a great example for our students, families, teachers and staff members.”