The Texas Education Agency has given Midlothian ISD its financial report card, and there was some very good news: The district has achieved a Superior rating from the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) program for the 22nd year in a row.

During a public hearing on the School FIRST program at Monday’s regular monthly meeting, Dr. Rebecca Metzger, assistant superintendent of business and operations, informed MISD trustees that the district received a score of 94 out of a possible 100 in its latest evaluation, which involved the 2022-2023 school year.

All school districts in the state are rated in 21 areas of school finances. Metzger said a number of categories are pass-fail, meaning if districts failed the area, they either failed the entire rating or were docked up to as much as 30 points. Of course, MISD passed all of these areas.

The only areas where the district was dinged were in assets-to-liabilities ratio, where MISD slipped under the 3-to-1 recommended ratio and earned only six of a possible 10 points; and in correlation between future debt requirements and the district’s assessed property value, where MISD was given eight of 10 points.

The district also met all School FIRST disclosure requirements, Metzger said.

At the conclusion of the meeting, board president Gary Vineyard remarked on how extraordinary the 22-year MISD streak of being rated Superior is.

“That doesn’t just happen,” Vineyard said. “I want to give credit to our admin, our boards over the years. It’s a combination of the hard work that we do here at the board, the hard work that our admin has done and has done over the last 22 years to put us in this position. It’s a very, very big deal, and I hope we can continue that trend moving forward.”

All board members except Richard Peña were present at the regular meeting. All trustees were present at a special meeting earlier Monday, where the board canvassed and certified the votes in the Nov. 5 tax referendum and adopted the tax rate of $1.0769 per $100 taxable valuation.

Other items

• The board recognized the 29 College Board Recognition Scholar Award winners from MISD; five National Merit Commended Students; members of the Midlothian High School Panther Regiment for qualifying for state and placing second at the area competition; State Fair of Texas agricultural mechanics winners from the Heritage High School FFA; and Eagle Scout Bricen Glover, a junior at Heritage, whose project was tied to the Library of Congress Veterans Project and included video interviews of 10 local veterans.
• Trustees approved a resolution recognizing the veterans of the Armed Forces, and a proclamation recognizing the contribution of A.H. Meadows Library as a joint city-school venture from 1984 to this week.
• The approved consent agenda included previous meeting minutes; gifts and/or donations; renewal of the TIRZ Third Alignment Agreement; and a request for remote homebound waiver from the Texas Education Agency.
• District chief human capital officer Dr. Aaron Williams gave a report on the district’s “balanced scorecard” regarding MISD staff attrition, in-district advancement and benefits compensation. The district remains on track in terms of its comprehensive benefits package and in-district advancement, Williams said, but staff satisfaction with benefits, compensation and professional development is lagging.
• The board voted to assign 834 of its votes to Dani Muckleroy and 123 votes to David Hurst for the Ellis Appraisal District Board of Directors.
• Dr. Vanessa Colón, the district’s bilingual/ESL program coordinator, gave an update on the program. MISD has about 662 students enrolled in the program, the majority of which are Spanish speakers. However, there are over 30 languages spoken by these students and their families, including French, Vietnamese and Akan (a language spoken in Ghana). The board also approved a TEA waiver request for the program.