Lumberton ISD’s change in the Texas University Interscholastic League by moving up into a small 5A category has some in the community questioning the legitimacy of the move and the impact it will have on the academics, athletics, and music departments.
In a post on Facebook early Thursday morning several parents took the opportunity to question and express their dislike about the districts move from 4A to 5A.
Jamie Chizer the original poster posed several questions, “Why are the realignment numbers and TEA numbers so different. Shouldn’t these numbers be the same? We were only moved up because of possible 12 students over the limit. Are the alternative programs counted against us? Were the drop out students actually removed from the enrollment? Were residency issues looked into and addressed? Are the students temporarily here due to Imelda counted in this number? Do the Foreign Exchange students count against our realignment numbers? These students will not be part of our student body next year? Did the person put in charge of Analysis know what criteria to use in conducting this process? Was there any over sight and direction in this process? And finally, for now, who was responsible for looking over final data and submitting it? Were the School Board or Administration notified what the final numbers were before the submission of final data and if so, were there any concerns considering some of the extenuating circumstances?”
The Brooks Report reached out to the LISD School Board members for answers. School Board President, James Kersh said, “I was under the impression that we were going to miss that mark by close to a hundred students based off student enrollment numbers maybe fifty, not twelve.”
Kersh went on to say that the board never saw this coming, “We increased that number over the last year. If we had known that it was going to be around the number it ended up being, 20 or less, we could have looked harder at the numbers before we submitted.”
Superintendent Gerald Chandler responded when asked, “ UIL creates the conference breaks after all school districts submit their high school enrollments. Our high school enrollments are at least 100 higher due to 250 students graduating last year and 350 freshman entering this year. Our submission was for 1,222 students. We submit numbers to UIL every two years.“
The Lumberton ISD board will be holding their regular scheduled board meeting Thursday, Dec. 12. at the Lumberton ISD administration building.