Edcouch-Elsa ISD reports enrollment dip, truancy court results and midyear HB3 reading checks

EDCOUCH-ELSA ISD, Texas — Superintendent Dr. Benavides told the Edcouch-Elsa ISD Board of Trustees on March 12 that the district is down about 30 students compared with the same time last year and that average daily attendance is roughly 4 percentage points lower than last year.

Those figures formed the backdrop to a longer superintendent's report that included the results of two truancy-court sessions, midyear progress monitoring under House Bill 3 requirements and a presentation of the district’s federal results-driven accountability report.

The truancy-court presentation, given by district attendance staff (presenter identified in the record as Miss Rachel), said that across the first two courts the judge decided on 79 cases. Of those, 16 failed to appear, 22 resulted in fines, and 79 received mandated interventions. The district said it will hold a third hearing at 1:30 p.m. March 3 and another session in April at 9:30 a.m. The presenters said collected fines are processed by Hidalgo County; the county retains and then forwards any amounts to the district on a monthly or quarterly basis depending on the county accounting process.

District staff also presented the Texas Education Agency federal “results-driven accountability” (RDA) reports and a midyear reading progress update required by HB 3. The RDA presentation described three domains for multiple student groups (emergent bilinguals, special education and other special populations) and the district’s current performance levels by subject and grade group. For example, district presenters reported first-grade MAP performance rising from about 24% meeting expected growth at the beginning of the year to about 36% at midyear; the board-adopted end-of-year goal for first grade was 50%.

On HB 3 middle-of-year reading monitoring, staff described the district’s campus-by-campus targets and the interventions in place to reach them: increased phonics and fluency practice, structured academic conversations and small-group instruction, expanded after-school and Saturday tutorials, and targeted use of reading interventionists and support staff. Presenters noted some campuses had already met adopted goals for certain grade bands while others remained behind and would continue receiving targeted supports.

The meeting also included brief recognition and student presentations: Sofia Ramos, a senior representative on the superintendent’s advisory council, led the pledge of allegiance; two adult-education graduates from the district’s College Career Center — Esperanza Jaramillo and Jacob Valdez — spoke about returning to school and career plans. District staff said the College Career Center currently lists 14 students enrolled; two students attended the meeting and others have completed coursework.

The board asked questions about the format and coloring in the presentation slides, and district leaders acknowledged opportunities to improve the visual display so green/red indicators match the intended meaning. Several trustees emphasized student safety, the need to continue interventions and the importance of returning students to good attendance and graduation paths.

No formal board action on the HB3 monitoring slides was recorded in the transcript; the presentation was a staff report and discussion.

Provenance: transcript excerpts beginning with the superintendent's report and midyear monitoring presentation and ending with the HB3 and student-presentation discussion are recorded in the meeting transcript.