Military Training with School Books/Supplies

September 03, 2019 Alief Board Workshop

Greetings, Damon Barone, Alief ISD taxpayer, Alief ISD parent.

I regularly attend school board meetings each month and routinely speak during the patron presentations, so I am excited to be here today to have the opportunity to speak at a board Workshop for the first time, thanks to House Bill 2840.  With the passage of this bill, community members are now able to speak at Board Workshops, Special Called Meetings, and School Board Meetings. 

I want to speak about agenda item #3, Digital Learning and Instructional Technology and how the district uses technology to communicate with students and parents.  Our kids use platforms such as Schoology and Remind 101 to communicate with their teachers or club sponsors, and we parents use Home Access and Remind 101 to monitor our children’s grades and their homework assignments. I am thankful that my family and I have access to these resources; however, I do have a few points that I would like to share regarding how the District uses technology. 

My daughter attends an Alief school where she has to carry around a large backpack every day with all of her textbooks inside of it because they are not allowed to use the campus lockers. Her backpack weighs over 15 pounds, so she is expected to carry around 15% of her body weight for 8 hours each day, military soldiers carry about 30% of the body weight of a 190lb male. I would like to recommend that the district have all textbooks available online as well as printed so that parents and students have equitable options. This too will save the district money. 

Another concern that I have is that the district communicates to the community using Podcasts and digital copies of the Alief Communicator, but we do not have any ways of communicating back to the district except by calling our local campuses or visiting the Administration Building. I would like to suggest that something be created similar to the Let’s Talk. 

I also have concerns of the use of digital technology related to the School Board Meetings.  Our surrounding districts, Fort Bend, Katy, Spring Branch, and even HCC currently share the slides of their board presentations through Board Books when their agendas are posted.

And finally, some school districts live stream their school board meetings so that all community members have an opportunity to participate even if they are working parents, seniors’ citizens who cannot travel, or simply do not have transportation to attend the meetings.  As an active member of our community, I know that having routine access to the information presented each month during meetings like this would be beneficial to all stakeholders, allowing our community to be informed of accurate information and increase community engagement.