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Belton ISD Receives Perfect Score for Financial Accountability
During a public hearing at this month's school board meeting, Belton ISD trustees reviewed the 2016 School Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) Report. Belton ISD received a perfect score on the report and a "Superior Achievement" rating, which is the highest available.
The 2016 School FIRST Report is issued by the Texas Education Agency and based on data from the 2015-2016 school year. It evaluates school districts based on 15 indicators, which include the findings of external auditors, cash-on hand, debt and staffing levels.
Using those indicators, school districts are scored on a 100-point scale. Belton ISD received all 100 points possible.
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Heart of Texas BEST Robotics Competition
On Oct. 29, robotics teams from Belton New Tech High School @ Waskow and Belton High School competed in the 2016 Heart of Texas BEST Robotics Competition. The New Tech team won second place in three of the competition categories: team interview and exhibit, marketing, and engineering notebook. The BHS team won first place in marketing and third place in team interview and exhibit. The BHS robot also advanced to the semi-final round of the competition taking fourth place and qualifying them for the first ever BEST Robotics Texas UIL State Competition, which will be held in December.
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The Roadmap to BISD 2025
Belton ISD is currently projected to have 14,736 students enrolled for the 2026-2027 school year. According to the updated demographic report presented to the school board, 6,643 of those students will be in its elementary schools, 3,566 in middle schools and 4,526 in high schools.
As a result of that fast growth, Belton ISD's elementary and middle schools are projected to be at or near capacity in 2019 and high schools in 2021.
To address the need for additional capacity through 2025, the school board has adopted the Roadmap to BISD 2025. This plan is the result of three years of study and extensive input from parents, educators and other community members. It calls for building a new elementary school to open in 2019 and a new comprehensive high school to open in 2020 or 2021. It would also repurpose Bhs9, which is currently part of the Belton High School campus, to serve as a middle school again.
To fund construction of the new schools, Belton ISD will need to ask voters to approve issuing bonds. A bond election will likely take place in 2017.
During this month's meeting, the architects designing the new high school presented three potential bond scenarios to the board. The scenarios ranged from $99.2 million to $150 million. Each included a new elementary school with space for 800 students. The capacity of the new high school varied in each scenario ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 students.
The school board will continue studying options for the new high school at their December meeting and will likely approve a program and budget for the new high school in January.
Looking further into the future, the community and its schools are expected to keep growing. This is a great place to live, work and raise a family. The district benefits from the region's strong economy and available land for new housing. People also report choosing the community for its schools.
While it is more difficult to project what that long-term growth will look like, if it continues at a similar rate, Belton ISD could have more than 10,000 elementary students, 6,600 middle school students and 8,200 high school students by 2045.
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Middle School All-Region Orchestra
On Oct. 22, middle school orchestra students participated in auditions for the Texas Music Educators Association All-Region Middle School Orchestra, and 12 students earned positions in the orchestra setting a new district record.
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Superintendent's Report
Snapshot Data
The official snapshot date was October 28, and Belton ISD had 11,119 students on that date. Demographically, 45% qualified for free or reduced-price school meals; 8% are from military connected families; 9% are in the gifted and talented program; and 11% are in the special education program. By ethnicity, the district's students are 54% White, 33% Hispanic, 7% African American, 2% Asian, and 4% listed two or more races.
Academic UIL
At the Regional Student Congress Contest, Tyree Ransom took third place and advanced to the state competition to be held January 9-11 in Austin. Sarah Batson placed fifth and has earned a spot as an alternate for the same event. The UIL team also competed in Pflugerville where Kayden Utley and Jacob Kyle placed first and second in accounting respectively. Several other students also finished in the top six places for events including copy editing, calculator apps and literary criticism.
Food Truck Update
The B-Town Express Cafe has been in use for about six weeks now. On Mondays the bus alternates between the three middle schools. On Tuesdays, it is at Belton New Tech High School @ Waskow. On Wednesdays, it is at Bhs9, and on Thursday and Friday, it is at the Belton High School main campus. More than 3,700 meals have been served from the bus resulting in an overall increase of about 100 additional meals served per week.
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