By Daniel Piotrowski
editor@jacksonvilleprogress.com
The Bullard Independent School District Board of Directors voted 5-2 to change the interdistrict transfer policy at its regular monthly meeting Monday at the BISD administration office.
The changes open the door for parents who own property in the district, are members of the Bullard Education Foundation or nonresidents to apply for transfers with the tuition to be set by the BISD board. The previous rules allowed employees' children to transfer and attend tuition-free while children of parents building homes in the district could transfer in but pay tuition set by the trustees.
Board members Sam Smith and Michael Roy voted against the policy changes. Trustees Karen Padrucco, Tony Johnson, John Alexander, Gary Roberts and Brian Whatley voted for them.
Smith said he opposed letting people buy property in the district so their kids could attend and said he totally opposed letting nonresidents attend. Roy said he disagreed with letting nonresidents in and said “we should concentrate on what we have here.”
BISD Superintendent Keith Bryant said he approved of the former rules allowing employees' children and people building homes in the district to transfer their kids. He said the change allowing parents who own property in the district to transfer their children is seldom used and affects few people.
“If it will never be used, why are we putting it in there?” Roy said.
As for the changes, Bryant said he would enforce what the board decides.
The board voted unanimously to provide additional cameras, valued at $21,977, for the high school from TCR Security Systems. Bryant said the staff is comfortable with TCR, which did work for them at the elementary school.
In his report, Bryant said workers are laying sod on the baseball and softball fields, though they are behind schedule due to October's 24 inches of rain. He said they are checking on replacing the football scoreboard but need to hear from the insurance company and construction people. Also, he said Joe Phillips is working on the repairs to the track so it will be ready for the upcoming season.
The trustees voted unanimously to purchase a 28-foot baseball scoreboard and a 24-foot softball scoreboard at a total cost of $43,000. Bryant said they should be able to pay for them by selling advertising space, which he said should bring in $60,000 over five years. He said they already have some commitments for the space.
