Board Briefing

A special thanks to County Judge Honorable Christopher Boedeker, who administered the Oath of Office for re-elected Board members Tom Head and Perry Burnett. Head and Burnett won re-election after not having an opponent in the May election. After the swearing in, the Board elected officers and all three positions remained the same with Head serving as President, Burnett serving as Vice President and Hector Velazquez serving as Secretary.

Cashan Clark, a 2000 graduate of Alvarado High School, has been named the school district's next police chief. Clark will assume the duties on June 21, after Chief Timothy Payovich's last day. After spending much of his time in law enforcement before becoming an educator, Clark received his Masters degree in Criminal Justice in 2022. For the last two years he has been the head boys soccer coach, taught Government and Economics, and this past year added a criminal justice course through Hill College to his AHS teaching duties.

In addition to TRS that our educators automatically participate in, a 457(b) voluntary retirement savings plan is designed for employees of state and local governments who want more than the state provides. Providing a 457(b) savings plan can help bring financial stability and security for life upon retirement for those who participate. With this plan, employees can lower their current taxes, earn tax-free income and reduce their retirement income gap. For the most part the plan operates similar to a 403(b), the key difference is that there is no penalty for withdrawal before the age of 59.5 (subject to income tax).

Plan Highlights:

• The plan provides 30+ different investment options, for savers and investors of all risk tolerances

• ROTH (After-Tax) Option

• Loan availability (subject to balance)

• Rollovers/Transfer (Rollovers and Transfers are accepted into the plan from other retirement plans)

• No Front-End or Deferred Sales Charges

This would provide another Employee Benefit for our employees to help recruit and retain educators. The savings path to contribute to a 403(b) plan is laborious working through TRS and individual agents. Often, educators give up before they are able to set up their plan. Only 34 of our current employees contribute to a voluntary retirement plan.

Our educators get emails from vendors that try to portray they are endorsed by AISD, i.e., ALVARADO ISD – RETIREMENT BENEFITS MEETING in the subject line. These vendors request a list of employee names and email addresses through the Public Information Act and then try to set up a meeting with our employees. We believe establishing our own 457(b) plan would deter our employees from responding to that type of email.

The Board recognized the district's Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year, Ms. Taylor Dickhaut (AES) and LTC Derrick Corbett (AHS). Both are now in the running to be the Region 11 Teacher of the Year, which will be named in August.

• LOCAL Policy Update 123 - Approved
• First Financial Bank Check Signers & TexPool Authorized Representatives - Approved
  
• Efficiency Audit - Approved
• Employment of Professional Personnel - Approved