State of the District - 2026

Nathan Heflin, Assistant Superintendent of Financial Services and Operations, presented to the CISD Board of Trustees an update on the current state of the CISD budget for the 2025-26 financial year.

Original demographer projections from the summer of 2025 were for the District to reach 5,942 enrolled students by October 2025, and an estimated average daily attendance (ADA) of 93%.

The District has a current ADA of 95.14%, higher than expected, but enrollment did not reach the projection from the demographer, with enrollment in February 2026 reaching only 5,760.

With these two factors in mind - higher ADA but lower enrollment - the school district's budget has been largely in line with projections.

Julie Sands presented an update on construction projects from the 2022 bond program.

Included in this update are notes on construction progress at the Bob Bean Agriculture Facility and the new wings at Community High School.

Bob Bean Agriculture Facility
Bob Bean Agriculture Facility is still on time for a May or June 2026 completion.

Community High School Expansion - Phases 1 & 2
Community High School's expansion continues to move forward with many foundation pillars set across the site, and movement on the current structure to make room for the additional wings. All new parking lots have moved forward as well, with the future gym parking lot almost complete.

As of now, the campus is on track for a Fall 2027 completion, with the parking lots ready for Fall 2026. The gym parking lot will be used by Pogue Construction until their work on the high school is complete, so while this parking lot is almost finished, it will not be publicly accessible until Fall 2027.

There is also some future work ahead for Edge Middle School. After the "State of the District" was completed, the Board also received information on possible updates to Edge, including a storm shelter/classroom addition, new front entry facade, and some other small changes to the back of the building.

Renovation of Edge MS is included in the 2022 bond, but the exact details have not yet been approved by the Board. The GMP for this project is expected to be an action item soon.

Julie Meek, Chief of Learning, presented an update on the current status of Academics in Brave Nation.

IMRA Approved Savvas Math (K–12)
Savvas Math has already been adopted and will be implemented districtwide.This ensures:  strong vertical alignment K-12, consistent math instruction across campuses, improved Algebra readiness, and support for our HB3 math goals and Closing the Gaps performance.
 

Proposal: IMRA Approved Savvas Reading (K–5 RLA & SLA)
We are seeking approval to adopt Savvas K–5 Reading and Spanish Language Arts to replace our current elementary reading curriculum.  This recommendation aligns with HB 1605, supports structured literacy and Science of Teaching Reading, strengthens foundational phonics and comprehension, and supports our Board goal to increase 3rd grade reading proficiency to 55% by 2029.
 

Prescriptive Lessons for K-12 (all subjects)
Beginning next year, all four core content areas K–12 will implement district-developed prescriptive lessons. These are not scripted programs. They are:TEKS-aligned, standards-based lesson frameworks, clear learning objectives and success criteria, district-wide pacing and instructional priorities, built-in checks for understanding, structured intervention and differentiation guidance.

Data Source: iReady
Our campuses utilize multiple data sources to track the progress of students. Each data source gives us information that is used to design intervention or acceleration that is targeted to each student’s specific needs.

We are going to talk about a few of those Data Sources tonight, the first of which is our iReady Diagnostic assessment. It is  given in Math and Reading, for grades Kindergarten - 8th grade, 3 times in a school year: Beginning, Middle and End of the Year.

What does it assess: 

• Reading - Phonics, Phonological Awareness, High Frequency Words Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary
• Math - Number and Operations, Algebra and Algebraic Thinking, Geometry Measurement and Data

Data Source: iReady, What do these results tell us?

All campuses saw growth from the Beginning of the Year (BOY) to the Middle of the Year (MOY). The growth seen from the Beginning of the Year administration to the Middle of the Year administration tells us: 

• Instruction in the classroom is moving students forward  
• Curriculum is beinga delivered with fidelity
• Instruction is aligned with standards 
• Teachers are responding to data with targeted and timely intervention or enrichment

Growth does not automatically mean:

• That every student is on grade level
• All students proficiency levels are high

Campus principals also covered some specific campus data with the Board from four data sources:

• iReady - Diagnostic assessment
• Benchmark - This is a comprehensive STAAR-aligned assessment for all TEKS taught (or will be taught) in a grade level. It is given to provide authentic practice for our students, familiarity with the platform that is very similar to STAAR, and most importantly, the performance tracking to identify specific needs of students who are in need of intervention or extension.
• STAAR 2025 - The 2025 STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) is the mandatory annual standardized testing program for Texas public school students in grades 3–8 and high school, focusing on reading language arts (RLA), mathematics, science, and social studies.
• High School End of Course Retakes - HS EOC (End-of-Course) retakes are opportunities for high school students to retake mandatory, state-standardized tests in subjects like Algebra I, Geometry, Biology, or U.S. History if they did not pass on their first attempt or missed the exam.

Each campus demonstrated some growth, but had some areas they are continuing to target for improvement. They concluded their presentation with an action plan:

Building on Our Current Work, We Will:

• Continue celebrating teachers and students that are showing growth and on-grade level success
• Respond to real-time data through campus and teacher data meetings with clear next steps and outcomes
• Monitor subgroup performance closely to provide targeted intervention
• Strengthen Tier 1 instruction through curriculum fidelity
• Expand intervention supports through the MTSS process
• Focus on math readiness through intentional fluency practices and prescribed lessons
• Focus PLCs and CTMs on data-driven instruction, lesson internalization, and lesson rehearsal
• Utilize coaching and feedback cycles to support high engagement and high rigor classroom instruction

Dr. Dina Rowe, Chief of Human Resources, presented an update on the campus climate survey that employees at each CISD facility completed.

Here is a summary of the results:

• 207/498 responses for 24/25
• 476/520 responses for 25/26
• Much higher participation more reliability
• Reduction from 32 red areas to 10
• Increase of dark green from 43 areas to 56
• Significant district improvement overall
• At this time, the Mid-Year Climate survey shows only 12% of entries indicated a plan to leave CISD.
• The results of both last year's and this year's surveys are included below.