School board receives bond program monthly update, extends superintendent contract

The Gonzales ISD School Board met for a special called meeting Monday, Jan. 22 at the GISD Administration Building.

The board had two main agenda items that were discussed during the meeting: the 2023 Bond Program Monthly Update and the TASB Human Resources Review.

2023 Bond Program Monthly Update

The board invited Casey Sledge, of Region XIII/Sledge Industries, to give the monthly 2023 Bond Program update.

“So tonight is our first kind of official monthly board update, and we’ll be doing these every month as Dr. A referenced. We're coming out of the gate pretty strong; there's not a whole lot of things, photowise, to show you,” Sledge said. “So tonight, I want to talk a lot about organization and what you'll be seeing moving forward.”

One of the main goals for the monthly updates for the Bond Program is transparency, and Sledge said they want to help the district be proactively transparent as the bond projects begin.

“These are the key items that will let us focus on transparency: number one, public meetings, starting in February at the board meeting where we do a board update in February, we're going to host an open public meeting — think town hall style, anyone can come. This would not be a board quorum,” Sledge said.

Secondly, Sledge will have a public Dropbox link so GISD residents can look at all documents and other things involved in GISD’s bond project.

“It’ll have all the project documents that are relevant and important. All accounting, we’ll have every check written on there, that we organized by folder, approved contracts, bids, drawings, etc.,” Sledge said. “We will be mindful of safety and security items. We’re hesitant to put things like detailed floor plans on the public side, so we'll be tactful about that.”

Sledge added they’ll have their contact information if the community has questions about the projects.

This was not an action item the board voted on.

TASB HR Resources Review

The board had Karen Dooley, the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) assistant director of HR, as a guest speaker to go over the HR Review.

“One of my tasks that was given to me several months ago by the board was to review our human resources department and, you know, provide information on that review, and then start making it better,” Gonzales Superintendent Dr. Elmer Avellaneda said.

“I conducted the HR review for the district. And you know, it's not just going into the HR department, it's also talking to individuals throughout the district that are customers of HR. So it's broad in that I not only met with the HR staff, but also worked with the supervisors across the district in the different departments and the different campuses as well,” Dooley said.

The review consists of data collection from HR staff and supervisors and campus principals filled out questionnaires to Dooley.

This was not an action the board voted on.

In other business, the board came out of closed session to vote unanimously to add an additional year to Dr. Avellaneda’s current contract to 2028 as the superintendent of GISD.