Check out what our trustees and administration have been doing this summer to get ready for a great school year for our students and teachers!

1) Balanced GCISD budget

2) Teacher & staff pay raises

4) Policy in the making

5) BACKPACK DRIVE!!

6) Invitation to Facebook "Open Forum"

7) Visit our website

On June 20, 2022, four trustees (out of 7) voted to pass a balanced budget in GCISD.

What does this mean for our district?

• GCISD will be starting its year off with a balanced budget
• Any future expenditures will require approval from the board
• The board can be flexible with where to target additional funding
• Our district is financially protected from the recession
• All taxpayers know their money is being spent as efficiently as possible

Which trustees were in favor of this budget?

• Trustees Casey Ford, Shannon Braun, Kathy Spradley, and Tammy Nakamura were all in favor of this budget

What does this mean for teachers?

• Starting teacher pay is now raised to $57,000
• This year's additional teacher raises will keep their pay at a competitive market level
• At the time of the vote, teacher pay was at 100% of market (including special education teachers)
• Two separate raises were required to reach "market level" because their pay was much lower than market before

What does this mean for all other GCISD employees?

• All other GCISD employees received a 1% pay raise from the market "midpoint" for this school year AFTER receiving 2 raises last year
• The GCISD leadership team worked collaboratively with the trustees to make sure that every staff member received a competitive raise

What does this mean for GCISD academics?

• The curriculum will be tightly aligned with the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills)
• It will follow state law as per SB 3 (which prohibits Critical Race Theory ideology)
• It will give teachers the freedom to design lessons within well-defined guidelines
• Tighter alignment with TEKS will help focus classrooms on academics

What does this mean for the community?

• The district will provide documents online so that anyone can see what is being taught (including whole year summaries & unit summaries)
• This will increase transparency over what is being taught
• Anyone in the community can see these documents

After revision and legal review, the board of trustees will have the option later this year to "vote in" this policy for the district.

What does the policy look like?

--The policy has sections on proper use of instructional resources, which currently include all mediums (in-class textbooks, library books, electronic resources, etc.)

--It directly addresses prohibiting Critical Race Theory and any other systemic discrimination ideology

--It prohibits teaching, instructing, training, etc. of gender fluidity (or any type of gender theory)

--It removes all potentially pornographic materials from schools

What does this mean for teachers & classrooms?

--Teachers will have clear guidelines about controversial topics and how to approach them without worrying about whether or not they are violating policy or law

--They will be protected by this policy (which reflects and is derived from state law) from having to teach controversial topics

--Classrooms can shift their culture back toward the center

What does this mean for students?

--Students will gain enhanced critical thinking skills without biased instruction

--The level of divisiveness and toxicity in our nation will stop spilling into our classrooms

--School can be about learning academic content and skills again

--All of our children will be protected by a policy that reflects community values

Economic realities are hitting members of our GCISD community hard this year and we want to make sure our kids get their school supplies no matter what.

• GCISD Parents is collecting funds to purchase backpacks at wholesale cost
• Backpacks are usually the most expensive school supply purchase for families
• Our goals is to buy a minimum of 100 backpacks for our kids
• Until our bank account is set up, a parent volunteer will be collecting funds via Venmo

• This group is an open forum to hear about common topics of interest in our schools
• Learn about opportunities to get involved in our district
• Share your thoughts in a respectful, polite manner