Mineola school trustees will be considering ways to address continued growth in the school district in the coming months.

Superintendent Cody Mize announced at Monday’s meeting that the district continues to see record enrollment of 1,761, which is up 13 students in the past month and 89 from a year ago.

The board will be looking at the cost of additional projects from the 2022 school bond, which paid for the recently-completed primary campus.

There is about $4 million left, and the next two projects are renovating the elementary campus as a career and technical education facility for the high school and revamping the elementary gym into an auto mechanics shop.

Preliminary estimates presented to the board Monday show the CTE renovations at $4.5 million and the auto shop retrofit at $2.2 million.

“We’re going to need the (CTE) space for the high school,” Mize said.

Trustees approved the sale of five old school buses through an auction.

Transportation Director Bill Self said the used buses that Mineola purchased from Pflugerville ISD are working fine, and the gas engine buses are much quieter than the diesels they replaced. He added that gas buses make more sense for bus routes with lots of starts and stops while diesel buses are better for longer trips.

Trustees learned the final tally for property insurance is $536,000, up from $315,000 last year.

The primary reasons for the increase are the new campus and adjustments to the replacement value of other campuses, which had been undervalued.

Mize listed some of the issues the district will be addressing when the state legislature meets in January.

The state maintains a $20 to $25 billion surplus, when 70% of the districts in Texas have adopted deficit budgets. (Mineola’s is not one of them.)

One of the areas will be pre-kindergarten student funding. The state reimburses the district for only a half day for the 100-plus students.

Business manager Keith Sparkman said the Spyglass utilities audit identified about $6,000 per year in savings. The district will pay a fee of one year’s savings and then begin seeing those savings next year.

The board approved a private donation of $14,525 for a new lighting system for the theater department in the multi-purpose facility at the high school.

The following students of the month were recognized by the board:

Elementary – Second graders Lexii Rios and Caleb Lucas

Intermediate – Fifth graders Kanyon Worsham and Yanelisse Patricio

Middle School – Seventh graders Brayden Veach and Caydence Perales

High School - Juniors Makena Quiambao, Caroline Castleberry and Chance Williams

The following teachers were recognized: Brittany McMahon, second grade, elementary campus; Syntha Pierce, ELR-special ed, intermediate campus; Beth Godain, eighth grade math, middle school campus; Catherine Nations, chemistry, high school campus.

The Buzz’s Ultimate Effort Award was given to Adam McMahon who stepped in to assist with the high school theater department’s play, “Into the Woods Jr.”