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VIDOR ISD reviews state compensatory and ESL programs; district adds Summit K12 resource
Summary
The board received the annual state compensatory education and ESL program reviews. Staff said the district spends the majority of state compensatory funds on personnel and summer school; ESL staff reported fewer waiver teachers and new resources (Papaya tutoring and Summit K12) to support emergent bilingual students.
VIDOR ISD presented annual reviews of its state compensatory education and ESL programs at the Oct. 13 meeting, outlining how the district targets supplemental funding and teaching resources to support at-risk and emergent bilingual students.
Miss Waters explained that state compensatory education funding is intended for supplemental services for students at risk of academic failure and that the district spends the majority of those funds on personnel and summer-school programming; she said the district exceeds the 55% required allocation for at-risk programs. The district also contracted with outside services to prepare documentation and used funds for summer-school transportation this year.
The ESL coordinator reviewed program models (content-based instruction and pull-out models), campus-by-campus counts (district total roughly 115 emergent bilingual students), and staffing efforts to reduce the number of teachers requiring waivers. She cited a drop in ESL-waiver teachers from 11 to 7 compared with last year and described targeted professional development and testing supports for teachers to obtain certification.
The coordinator highlighted two supplemental supports piloted or expanded this year: Papaya, an hourly bilingual-tutoring service that currently serves 28 students (some receiving up to four sessions weekly), and Summit K12, a districtwide online program licensed for all students in grades 1–12 and offered with complimentary family passes. The coordinator reported measurable growth among participating students and said 7 students reclassified (meeting language and academic criteria) at the end of last year.
Board members asked how the district would respond if any grade-level language group hits the TEA threshold (20 students speaking the same language in a grade) that would trigger bilingual-program considerations. The coordinator said staff are monitoring numbers and would bring a bilingual-program plan to the board if thresholds are met.
Trustees thanked staff for the report and approved the district and campus improvement plans by unanimous vote during the meeting.
