Plainview ISD board approves 2025–2030 District of Innovation plan

Plainview ISD’s Board of Trustees approved a renewal of the district’s District of Innovation (DOI) plan at its April 15, 2025 meeting, a move district staff said will grant local exemptions to parts of the Texas Education Code and allow the district to submit the plan to the state for approval.

District presenter Ms. Carrasco told trustees the renewal would run from April 15, 2025, through April 14, 2030 under authority created by House Bill 1842. “Using House Bill 1842, [it] allow[s] us to create a district of innovation to give us some exemptions from the Texas Education Code,” she said.

The plan lists several specific exemptions district staff proposed: certification and parental-notification provisions in Chapter 21 to allow hiring of instructors with industry expertise for career and technical education (CTE); a reduction in the district’s minimum staff service days from 187 to 181 to accommodate fall and winter breaks; calendar flexibility under Chapter 25 to set uniform first and last school days in August and May; class-size rules allowing a 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio with the ability to shift students between campuses when one campus is full; and an interdistrict-transfer exemption (Chapter 25.036) permitting the district to return a transfer student to the home district for attendance, grading or discipline issues.

Ms. Carrasco said the Education Improvement Committee (EIC) reviewed the proposal and recommended it move forward. She emphasized CTE hiring flexibility as a key provision, noting it would let the district hire professionals—such as welding or culinary instructors—who have industry training but not necessarily a four-year teacher certification.

A board member asked a question about the 22-to-1 class-size threshold and whether the state standard differs; Ms. Carrasco replied that the exemption would allow the district to transfer students to another campus zone to maintain the 22-to-1 target when a classroom at one campus is full.

A motion to approve the District of Innovation Plan was made during the meeting. The board approved the plan; the transcript records that the motion carried but does not record a roll-call vote or tally by name. The district indicated the plan will be submitted to the state as the next step.

After the vote, the board scheduled a 15-minute executive session on personnel matters under Texas Government Code Section 551.074.

The DOI renewal restores the district’s local flexibility on staffing, calendar and transfers that district leaders said had expired in March and that the district wants reinstated for the 2025–2030 period.