District News

At the regular board meeting on Monday, January 23, 2023, the CISD Board of Trustees approved the hiring of Mr. Ron Burnham as the Director of Athletics for Community ISD. Mr. Burnham has been a coach and an educator for the past 26 years, including serving since 2019 as the Director of Athletics for Ore City ISD and the head football coach of Ore City High School.

Mr. Burnham has served in many districts in his time in education. From 2003 to 2019, Burnham served as the offensive coordinator at China Spring, the assistant head coach at Cedar Ridge (Round Rock ISD) and Magnolia West (Magnolia ISD), and an offensive coordinator at University High School (Waco ISD). His teams accrued 98 wins in that time period with several deep runs into the UIL playoffs. He has found significant success as a powerlifting coach with 55 regional qualifiers, 8 state qualifiers, and an individual state champion in 2013. He has coached football, basketball, wrestling, powerlifting, baseball, softball, and track & field.

Along with his success as a coach, Mr. Burnham has excelled in the classroom. He was the 2011 China Spring ISD Teacher of the Year, and has been a CSISD Teacher of the Month four times (2006, 2008, 2011, and 2018). His UIL Social Studies teams finished fourth in the state in 2010, third in 2011, and he coached an individual state champion in 2009.

An alum of the University of Texas-Arlington, Mr. Burnham was recognized as an UTA Distinguished Alumni nominee in 2020-21. He and his wife Nikki have three daughters.

NEVADA, Texas - Community Independent School District officials announced that the district received a rating of “A” for “Superior Achievement” under Texas’ Schools FIRST financial accountability rating system. The Superior Achievement rating is the state’s highest, demonstrating the quality of Community ISD’s financial management and reporting system. The District has received this rating every school year since 2016-17.

This is the 20th year of Schools FIRST (Financial Accountability Rating System of Texas), a financial accountability system for Texas school districts developed by the Texas Education Agency in response to Senate Bill 875 of the 76th Texas Legislature in 1999 and amendments under House Bill 5, 83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2013. The primary goal of Schools FIRST is to achieve quality performance in the management of school districts’ financial resources, a goal made more significant due to the complexity of accounting associated with the
Texas school finance system.

“We are very pleased with Community ISD’s Schools FIRST rating,” said Community ISD Superintendent Dr. Tonya Knowlton, “as it shows that our district is making the most of our taxpayers’ dollars. The rating shows that Community’s schools are accountable not only for student learning but also for achieving these results cost-effectively and efficiently.”

The Texas Education Agency assigned one of four financial ratings to Texas school districts, with the highest being “A” for “Superior Achievement,” followed by “B” for “Above Standard Achievement,” “C” for “Standard Achievement” and “F” for “Substandard Achievement”.
Districts with serious data quality problems may receive the additional rating of “Suspended-Data Quality.”

We are very happy to announce that our annual Thanksgiving meals will return this year! CHS hosts their on-campus meal on November 10, and then Edge, Ellis, and each elementary school will host theirs the week of Nov. 14 - 17. Check our District calendar for specific dates and locations. The meal is only open to students, staff, and parents/guardians of students. It costs $5 per visiting adult, with normal costs for students and staff.

Schedule

• Nov. 10 - CHS
• Nov. 14 - Edge/Ellis
• Nov. 15 - NeSmith
• Nov. 16 - McClendon
• Nov. 17 - Roderick

If you have questions, please reach out to your campus administrators.

Now more than ever, security and safety are at the forefront of our minds. While safety has always been the highest priority for Brave Nation, Community ISD is taking steps to reinforce the current security protocols with students, staff, and parents, and will begin taking input and questions from our community on what additional steps they would like the District to take.

The first step in this process was taken over the summer with damage-resistant film placed on high-priority windows, and reinforcement of annual training provided to our teachers and staff. Our CISD Police Department has also increased its campus presence with additional staff and higher frequency patrols.

The second step in this process begins in October with campus security summits. Starting with McClendon Elementary on Wednesday, October 5, Police Chief Scotty Morrison and Superintendent Dr. Tonya Knowlton will host a security summit at each campus across the District. At these summits, Chief Morrison and Dr. Knowlton will give a broad overview of current safety procedures and open the floor for questions from parents and staff. 

Below are the dates, times, and locations for the October summits, which are also on the District calendar (linked here).

1. Wednesday, October 5 at 6 pm - McClendon Elementary - MES Cafeteria
2. Wednesday, October 19 at 6 pm - NeSmith Elementary - NES Cafeteria
3. Tuesday, October 25 at 6 pm - Roderick Elementary - RES Cafeteria
4. Wednesday, October 26 at 6 pm - Edge and CHS - CHS Cafeteria

As always, if you have any questions regarding security, you can connect with Dr. Knowlton (tonya.knowlton@communityisd.org) or Chief Morrison (scotty.morrison@communityisd.org) via email.