The Hays CISD Board of Trustees on Monday unanimously approved attendance zones to accommodate the opening of the district’s fifth middle school in the 2009-10 school year.
  
The new middle school, which is currently under construction on Highway 150, approximately seven miles east of Interstate 35 next to Hemphill Elementary School, is scheduled to open in August. The new attendance zones include students who currently attend Dahlstrom, Chapa and Wallace middle schools, and primarily involves students in the Hemphill Elementary School attendance zone, according to Carter Scherff, Hays CISD Deputy Superintendent.
  
The new middle school will open with about 500 students, located east of Goforth and south of Rohde Lane and in the southern area east of Heidenreich Road and County Road 158, including the area east of Highway 21. High school attendance zones will not change, so the students currently in the Dahlstrom Middle School attendance zone, who will be in the Middle School No. 5 attendance zone next year, will attend Hays High School. Those students in the Chapa and Wallace middle school attendance zones this year, who will be in the Middle School No. 5 attendance zone next year, will attend Lehman High School.
  
Also included in the attendance zone revision is a change to Science Hall Elementary School to alleviate high enrollment. Approximately 120 students in Bent Tree Estates, Cottonwood Hollow, Creeks Landing, Oakmont Estates and the Ranch at Porter Creek will attend Tobias Elementary School next year. Bilingual students will remain at Science Hall Elementary School.
  
The attendance zone changes are the result of a recommendation by the district’s citizens Growth Impact Committee. Students affected by the attendance zone decision who wish to remain at the school they attend this year, may do so under a transfer contract. All transfer students must provide their own transportation.
  
Another adjustment to the district’s elementary attendance zones, which takes effect this school year (2008-09) is the apartment complex under construction just west of Interstate 35 in Buda. While the complex is located in the Buda Elementary School attendance zone, no students currently live there. As students move into the apartments, their “home” school will be Tom Green Elementary School.
  
Campus efforts at energy conservation have paid off, to the tune of $654,396, the School Board learned on Monday.
  
“The remarkable thing is that our square footage in the district has gone up 43.8 percent (since the benchmark year of 2003), yet our kilowatt hours used during the same period have increased 3.3 percent,” said Carter Scherff, Hays CISD Deputy Superintendent.
  
Ten percent of the savings will be returned to the campuses, 15 percent will be used to augment rate increases, 50 percent will pay for new energy management initiatives and personnel and 25 percent will replace district maintenance and operations trucks.
  
In a 4-3 vote, the School Board approved the purchase of 22 new buses for $1.8 million. The funds are part of the 2006 and 2008 bond packages and continue the district’s bus replacement schedule. The new buses will include GPS tracking systems.
  
Scherff gave the School Board a financial update, noting that amid global market turmoil, the district’s investments are secure.
 
“We did the right thing selling our bonds in July in terms of getting the right yields,” he said. “If we had sold our bonds in October, it would have cost about $30 million more for our debt service. If we had sold in November, it would have been about $17 million more.”
 
Scherff said that enrollment projections are slightly lower as a result of the slowdown in new residential construction.
 
“I think we’re going to be closer to 14,500 students (in 2009-10),” he said.
 
“The percent of growth is slowing down, but the number is still very high,” said Chip DuPont, President of the School Board. “We’re still growing at 800 students per year. We’re not going backwards.”
  

Dr. Gary Hartman, a professor at Texas State University, will present a lecture on the history of Texas music, on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 4 p.m. The lecture is the third in a series funded by the Teaching American History grant. The event will be at the Hays CISD Curriculum and Instruction Annex, between Hays High School and Barton Middle School. It is open to the public and admission is free.
  

A free workshop for military families during the holidays will be at Camp Mabry in Austin on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 3 p.m. The workshop is targeted toward family members or service members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Please email HopeforHeroes@Samaritan-Center.org or call 451.7337, ext. 118 for more information.
  

All Hays CISD campuses and administrative offices will close for the Thanksgiving holiday beginning Wednesday, Nov. 26 through Friday, Nov. 28. Campuses and offices will reopen on Monday, Dec. 1. The district's Christmas Break will begin on Monday, Dec. 22. Campuses and administrative offices will reopen on Monday, Jan. 5, and classes will resume for students on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009.
  

Christy Phillips from Lehman High School has been selected by VFW Post 12058 as the winner of the National Citizenship Educator Award.
 
Mrs. Phillips teaches Teen Leadership classes and is co-sponsor of the Student Council. She was nominated for the award by a fellow teacher at LHS because of a year long project she sponsored with her Teen Leadership classes last year. Mrs. Phillips had received news from a friend about a young soldier who was injured while serving in Iraq. "We simply wanted to honor him as a true hero and great leader, so my TL classes adopted him," she said. "We sent him a basket filled with goodies, and then presented him with flowers at our Veterans' Day assembly last year. We also named our room after him. We found it neat that Teen Leadership and Thomas Lee (the soldier's name) have the same initials." Mrs. Phillips continues support of the armed forces this year in her classes with a project of writing letters to several various soldiers who are serving abroad.
 

Flu immunization clinics for uninsured and under-insured students will be taking place over the next two weeks at various campuses in Hays CISD. This year, the intranasal influenza vaccine (FluMist) will be given to healthy children over 2 years of age. Cost of the vaccine is $10. Eligibility and permission forms must be completed by the student's parent/guardian and sent with the fee prior to the administration of the vaccine (forms linked below). Parents may accompany students, if desired. Here is a list of flu shot clinics and times: Wednesday, Hemphill Elementary School, 9 a.m. and Lehman High School, 2 p.m.; Friday (Nov. 14), Elm Grove Elementary School, 8:30 a.m. and Impact Center, 11 a.m.; Nov. 17 (Monday), Blanco Vista Elementary School, 8:30 a.m. and Kyle Elementary School, 11 a.m.; Nov. 18 (Tuesday), Buda Elementary School, 8:30 a.m. and Tom Green Elementary School, 10:30 a.m.; Nov. 19 (Wednesday), Tobias Elementary School, 8:15 a.m. and Fuentes Elementary School, 10:30 a.m.; Nov. 20 (Thursday), Negley Elementary School, 8:15 a.m. and Barton Middle School, 10:30 a.m.; Nov. 21 (Friday), Chapa Middle School, 8:15 a.m., Wallace Middle School, 10 a.m. and Dahlstrom Middle School, 11:45 a.m.; and Nov. 24 (Monday), Science Hall Elementary School, 8 a.m. and Camino Real Elementary School, 11 a.m. Medicaid and CHIP students, please make an appointment for a flu shot at the district's WELL Clinic, 268.5218.

	Flu Vaccine Consent Form (pdf)
	Vacuna de Gripe Forma de Consento (pdf)
	TVFC Form (pdf)

HCISD surplus inventory online auction: www.lemonsauctioneers.com Online Auction Starts: Tuesday - November 11, 2008
Online Auction Preview at Beacon Hill: Tuesday - November 18, 2008
Online Auction Ends: Thursday, November 20, 2008
Removal of items from Beacon Hill: Friday - November 21, Monday - November 24, Tuesday - November 25, 2008.