Published: August 18, 2007 02:57 am      

Trustees approve dividing $140,000

The Texas Educator Excellence Grant 2 award — a $140,000 grant — will be divided among teachers and staff at Huntsville Intermediate School that participate in an academic achievement program during the 2007-08 school year.

HISD trustees on Thursday night approved the disbursement of the funds, which the teachers and staff involved will receive after meeting required standards by the end of the school year.

In addition, trustees also approved the hiring of 23 teachers for the upcoming school year.

“It really is an honor for the campuses that receive this grant,” said Cherie Meroney, Huntsville ISD director of elementary instruction. “This is just one of those good things that happen because our staff does good things for kids.”

Meroney said the amount of their award will vary depending on their level of direct involvement with the students, and the awards will be given to participating teachers and staff after the conclusion of the school year.

“We had a planning team that decided how to divide up the money,” she said. “The team decided that every employee who touches kids needs to be a part of this plan.”

According to board president David Standlee, the 23 teachers hired filled the rest of the district’s remaining empty teaching positions.

“With these hirings, all 426 professional teaching positions are full,” he said. “That’s very encouraging for us.”

Those hired to the staff of Huntsville High School included science teacher Dawna Rosvold, cosmetology teacher Vanessa Tindall, English teacher Wendy Baecke, social studies teacher Jana Rodriquez, math teacher David Hill and math teacher Susan Doherty.

Math and science teacher Emily Brock, language arts teacher Karin Kornegay, language arts teacher Janet McMillan and math teacher Jana Ermis were hired at Huntsville Intermediate School.

Ann Grigsby, Zaachaeus Young and Christal Wilson were hired at Mance Park Middle School, and Catherine Southworth and Christina Campos were hired at the Huntsville Transitional Discipline Academy.

Also, Amanda Baker and Dawn Megahan were hired at Sam Houston Elementary, Roxanne Brosig, Brooke Burns and Stacie Castleberry were hired at Scott Johnson Elementary and Marilyn Hinton was hired at Estella Stewart Elementary.

Also, Dusty Stoughton was hired at Gibbs Elementary and Shara Surratt was hired at Huntsville Elementary School.

In other action, the board:

• approved the consent agenda;

• approved the agreement with the Boys and Girls Club of Walker County for the 2007-2008 School Year;

• approved the Local Policy for Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act;

• approved the Huntsville Independent School District’s Coordinated School Health (PK-5);

• approved an amendment to Board Policy DNA (Local);

• and heard reports regarding the District Professional Development Plan, 2006-07 State Accountability Ratings, July 2007 Exit Level TAKS, June 2007 TAKS Grades 3 and 5 Reading and Grade 5 Mathematics Retest and the Stanford Achievement Test, Tenth Edition.