C-FB ISD School Board Understands Challenges

 As educators in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District, we are fortunate to have the strong backing of our community.  In the 2011 parent survey, 90.6% of the C-FB ISD parents expressed satisfaction in their child's school.  That belief in our system is because our teachers, principals and entire team have the tools they need because we have a School Board who truly understands the needs of a 26,000-plus student school district.

The commitment of service to our community, parents, students and staff begins with our seven School Trustees. They understand the challenges we face as we work to increase student achievement with declining financial resources. On Thurs., August 25, 2011, the Board adopted the 2011-2012 district budget.

Although the district has 12 months before the 2012-2013 budget must be approved, the School Board held a special work-study session immediately following this year's budget approval to give us - the educational team - the direction for financial planning and decision-making.  Thanks to the fiscal direction of the School Board, C-FB ISD has weathered the financial storm better than most Texas school districts. However, with the changes made in the last Texas Legislative Session to public school finance, the district will be facing more and more difficult decisions.

Monitoring district finances, giving the educational team financial direction and ensuring fiscal stability are among the top responsibilities of an elected school board. And, the C-FB ISD School Board takes its fiduciary role extremely seriously. Thanks to their strong governance, C-FB ISD has earned a Superior Rating, the state's highest rating, under the State's State Financial Accountability Rating System since the system's inception.

Along with their work on budgetary and fiscal matters, the School Board also has other key roles including:

• Ensuring the creation of a vision and goals for the district
• Adopting policies that guide district actions
• Hiring a superintendent to serve as the district's administrator and evaluating the superintendent’s success
• Overseeing the regular assessment of the district’s students, staff, and programs 
• Communicating the district’s vision and successes to the community.

During the 2011-2012 school year, the Board will hold one regular meeting a month from September through June. All regular meetings will be the first Thursday of each month except January which will be January 13.  Regular meetings begin at 7 p.m. and are held in the Board Room of the Administration Building. You find all agendas online prior to the meetings. During the meetings, your School Board will handle these key roles, and you are invited to attend any and all of them. Regular meetings are replayed on CFB-TV and on our online Vimeo Channel.

The Board will also hold a series of work-study sessions to delve into topics that need more in depth discussion and review.  These meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. You are invited to attend these too.

Upcoming dates and topics:

• September 22, 2011 - Strategic Plan Review and Update; ERG (Education Resource Group) Data
• October 20, 2011 – Team of Eight Training (This meeting complies with the statutory requirement of a team-building training for the School Board Members and Superintendent.)
• November 17, 2011 - Limited Open Enrollment and Grade Configuration
• February 16, 2012 - Resource Allocation
• April 19, 2012 - Grading
• June 28, 2012 - Accountability and Planning for 2012-13

Our C-FB ISD Board of Trustees is an effective governing body who believes in this district's vision and goal of high achievement for all students. When elected officials, educators, and the community work together, their efforts produce results for student achievement.

A New Year - Full of Bright Spots

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District. We are having an excellent start to this year. Our campuses had an outstanding first day thanks to the outstanding preparation of our teachers, principals and entire educational team.

I want to thank our students and families as well as the C-FB ISD team for adjusting so well to the new school start times. I enjoyed visiting the schools on the first day. I found teachers and students already engaged in learning and working on the district's goal of "high achievement for all students." I am looking forward to visiting all of our schools during the year and seeing our teachers and students in action.  I know that our schools will be filled with many  "Bright Spots."


In C-FB ISD, we are committed to this goal as well as continuous improvement. Over the last school year, we made great strides in meeting our goal and the four strategic objectives that support our strategic plan.

In the book Switch by Dan and Chip Heath, the brothers write about the importance of finding the "Bright Spots"; that means when we see what's working we need to celebrate the success, investigate why it is working and study how we can use those successes in other areas. This year, in C-FB ISD, we are going to celebrate "Bright Spots."

Here are few "Bright Spots" from the 2010-2011 school year.

• For the second year, C-FB ISD earned a Recognized Rating under the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Accountability Rating System; 12 campuses received Exemplary ratings; 19 campuses, Recognized ratings.
• The Education Resource Group (ERG) annually measures the academic and financial performance of all Texas school districts. By using multiple data, ERG determines the educational productivity of individual school districts in three areas: overall educational value, academic performance and finance performance. For 2010: C-FB ISD ranked 11 out of the 200 Texas largest school districts in overall educational value. For 2010, C-FB ISD ranked 17 out of the 200 largest school districts in academic performance and 49 in finance performance. What this tells our community is that C-FB ISD is achieving at academically high levels while spending tax dollars wisely.
• In the 2011 parent survey, parents were extremely satisfied; 90% were positive about their child's campus; 88.6%, about the district.
• In the 2011 staff survey, 93% said they were confident in C-FB ISD.

We have many "Bright Spots" in our district. If you have a "Bright Spot" you wish to share, please email the details to cfbinfo@cfbisd.edu. Our students and staff really are the best. We are seeing amazing achievements. Since Carrollton-Farmers Branch has a culture of continuous improvement, your educational team will deliver results.