Belton ISD is expanding efforts to include multiple voices in planning for the future of the school district.

At its regular meeting on Monday, the Board of Trustees approved the commissioning of a long-range facilities planning team. The team will establish a partnership of staff, parents and community members who serve as advisors to district administrators as they continue planning to address fast growth and aging facilities in Belton ISD.

Team members will meet about five times a year to analyze data, evaluate potential solutions and then make recommendations to administrators. The planning team will also contribute to the development and refinement of the district's long-range facilities master plan through focus groups.

In the first-ever department spotlight, we are highlighting our custodial services and grounds crew teams. Although their roles are mostly behind-the-scenes, their contributions to the Big Red Community are huge. This group of men and women have worked especially hard this summer preparing our facilities for the new school year.

The custodial staff, led by Maria Garcia, includes 131 employees. They are responsible for 63 buildings across the district which includes cleaning more than 2.2 million square feet.

The grounds crew, led by Patrick Crosby, consists of 14 employees who are split into four crews — North Crew, South Crew, Athletic Crew and Landscape Crew. These crews are responsible for almost 324 acres of turf. The team also includes a licensed integrated pest management specialist and an irrigation technician.

Thank you to these employees for their hard work and dedication to keeping our facilities clean and well-kept so Belton ISD can provide exceptional learning experiences for almost 14,000 students.

The Board heard updates on facility projects at Belton New Tech @Waskow that will enable the campus to better serve students when it opens in August as a stand-alone school of choice. As part of the change, students will be able to choose from more than a dozen new course offerings at the school.

Updates include the gym being painted and the floor refinished to support the additions of physical education and athletics programs. Renovated classroom and shop spaces in an area previously used for storage will now house the unmanned drone and robotics programs. Another space has been remodeled for use as two art classrooms with a kiln room. Classrooms for a state-of-the-art maker space, library, and Career and Technical Education legal pathway, with a mock courtroom, have also been designated using existing campus spaces. The new theater program will use the Pittenger Fine Arts Center and a portable classroom. A second portable will be used to support two additional core classes until permanent homes can be found.

The Board approved the hiring of three assistant principals — Timothy Jones at Belton High School, Nicole Suman at Belton Middle School and Rana Allbritton at North Belton Middle School.

Jones has worked in education for eight years, including as a teacher at Lake Belton Middle School and Belton High School. He most recently served as an instructional coach at BHS.

Jones holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and a Master of Education in Education Administration from Texas A&M University.

Suman has worked in education for seven years, including six years as a teacher in Killeen ISD. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Armstrong State University and a Master of Arts from Lamar University.

Allbritton has worked in education for 10 years as a middle school teacher, instructional coach and secondary mathematics coordinator. Her positions have spanned multiple school districts, including Elgin ISD, Austin ISD, Pflugerville ISD and most recently Belton ISD. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas and a Master of Education in educational leadership and administration from Concordia University.

We are recognizing students from two different music ensembles tonight who have demonstrated the collaboration competency from the district’s Journey of a Graduate. The Lake Belton High School and North Belton Middle School wind ensembles are state qualifiers for the Association of Texas Small School Bands Outstanding Performance Series. The LBHS group’s march “Algeria” placed first in the area competition while the concert selection “Blue and Green Music” placed third. The NBMS ensemble’s march “Mighty Mite” placed second. In the state round of the competition on July 21, the NBMS march finished in fifth place. The Stampede's march finished ninth and the group's concert piece finished 12th.

Congratulations to these students and their directors — Bobby Yerigan from LBHS and Dane Wurman from NBMS.

Policy: The policy committee did not meet in July.

Facilities: The facilities committee did not meet in July

We are proud to recognize an outstanding leader and World-Class Employee in Belton ISD who has earned state recognition for his contributions to our school district.

Timothy Goodridge, who served as an assistant principal at Belton High School last year, was recently named the Region 12 Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals. The organization recognizes outstanding principals and assistant principals each year from 20 regions in the state.

Principal Ben Smith said Goodridge has been instrumental in leading the transformation of BHS into a learning environment and culture the entire community can be proud of.

• Dr. Smith updated Trustees on progress made toward each of the district's five goals. Two have been fully completed while work is in progress on the others.
• Administrators have spent time together this month learning and planning for the upcoming school year.

Each year Project Apple Tree supports hundreds of students in Belton ISD by providing qualified families school supplies at the beginning of the new school year.

Jeannette Kelley, a former school board member and elementary school principal in Belton ISD, started Project Apple Tree 23 years ago with the goal of ensuring that all students, no matter their economic circumstances, have a great first day of school. Helping Hands Ministry and a strong team of volunteers are continuing this important community effort to support our students and families. Project Apple Tree is currently underway and you can sponsor a student's school supplies, backpack and shoes or become a volunteer through their website at helpinghandsbelton.org.

• Unaudited financial report for the month ending June 30, 2022
• Budget amendment #9 for 2021-2022
• Gifts, grants and bequests
• Expenditures over $50,000 (including contract renewal with Integrated System Corporation for database hosting services and with Raba Kistner Consultants for construction materials testing services for Elementary School #12)
• Memorandums of Understanding for dual credit renewals with Temple College, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and OnRamps with the University of Texas
• Afterschool childcare agreement with Armed Services YMCA Killeen

To review Belton ISD board meeting agendas and full packet materials, click here.

Many people and community groups supported Belton ISD during and after our crisis situation at Belton High School in May.

Bella’s Buddies/Golden Rules Retrievers, Alpha Leader K9 and RaeAnn Flor — by offering us their therapy dogs — provided emotional support to our students and staff. The therapy dogs were available all day to those in need and provided a huge level of comfort to our campus. The dogs were uplifting and helped to alleviate the anguish of the event.

Many mental health professionals such as Dr. Elaine McFarlane, Will Wheat, Dennette Gardner, Jamie Jones and the Central County Service Crisis Team and members of Lakewood Counseling were instrumental in providing essential emotional support as well. These trained professionals ensured our campus had resources to work through the tragedy and provided tools to begin the healing.

Fort Hood sent soldiers, whose presence provided comfort to our students, staff and parents.

They were helpful in managing student movement, as well as providing extra supervision throughout the day. We also appreciate that these soldiers participated in our graduation ceremony, which was amazing and well received by our students.

We are beyond grateful for the support these groups provided to Belton High School and the demonstration of one of our core values — community engagement. The learning experience of our students truly is enhanced through the engagement of our community.