HUTTO – On Sept. 20, the Hutto ISD Board of Trustees approved an eight-pronged district improvement plan that will affect almost every Hutto student starting as early as this year. The plan is weighted towards student success with the first two goals being to engage all students and to ensure all students are college, career or military ready by graduation. The plan details specific actions to reach the goals and makes the district accountable for student achievement.
Robert Sormani, associate superintendent for instruction and innovation for Hutto ISD, said the 2022-23 plan is a collaboration of all district departments and parts have taken up to two years to complete. Some objectives were initiated even before the plan was approved because they were based on the strategic planning goals from the district’s Vision 2025 master plan.
One such objective – improving digital literacy – will have an unexpected benefit this year.
“During the last school year we created a technology rotation at elementary level that helps students get involved with coding and learning to type on a keyboard. Many kids don’t have access to a keyboard or haven’t ever used one,” Sormani said. “The State just announced that elementary kids are going to have to type their responses on the STAAR test starting this year. Fortunately, Hutto kids had all last year and will have most of this year to work on their typing before the test.”
Sormani said the announcement from the state was surprising because while they knew the move to higher technology was eventually coming the district wasn’t expecting that third and fourth graders would be expected to type essays. He believes this could lower STAAR scores, particularly in districts that hadn’t already been teaching technology to younger students.
“If you think about third graders, it takes them a lot longer to type. You run the risk that the student’s frustration with typing, rather than their ability to write an essay, might dictate their score,” Sormani said. “I’m happy my team got ahead of the game on that one.”
Another of the district’s top objectives is increasing the music program. This year orchestra has been expanded to ninth grade so students who participated in eighth grade orchestra last year are able to continue their fine arts education. The district plans to continue the program through 12th grade.
Franchesca Mejia, orchestra director at Farley Middle School, believes expanding fine arts is critical to students’ development.
“Fine arts is the best vehicle to teach altruism, autonomy and building social capital,” she said. “Orchestra is a worldwide art. I’m able to pull in core values from other cultures as I’m teaching it. Fine arts can help students to find a healthy way to express emotions in this very emotional time for them. Expanding into the high school is critical. These students need something to work toward.”
While students are working toward graduation, the district is working toward ensuring the graduates are ready for what comes next. Travis Clark is the district Director of Career and Technical Education, and he oversees an expansive block of job preparation programs including robotics, agriculture, auto tech, health sciences and criminal justice, digital media and education. Increasing visibility and impact of these courses is one of the district improvement plan objectives.
“Something unique about our district is that we have advisory councils where industry professionals, teachers, students and parents all contribute to the program,” Clark said.
As part of the improvement plan Clark is starting advisory councils for three more of his career programs this year, with an overall goal of having a council for every program. He says the feedback from having individual councils rather than just one overall council as most districts do is worth the effort.
“In auto tech, we’re getting students more work-based learning opportunities. In hospitality, last spring industry representatives said they wanted the kids to graduate with the TABC certification. We plan on putting that in place this year. That will make kids more employable,” said Clark. “It helps them get their foot in the door. It’s a competitive world out there.”
Stephen McMaster participated in the robotics program advisory council with his son Nathan, who now studies at Texas A&M College of Engineering.
“The community engagement helps enable the success of the program. My son felt like he was included in the immediate and long-term development of the program,” he said.
McMaster credits the advisory council, the robotics program and district Lead Robotics Instructor Andrew Haub for his son’s success.
Under Haub’s guidance, the Hutto High School robotics team won the state robotics championship title four out of the last five years, bringing visibility to the school’s Career and Technical Education program and setting a solid foundation for its inclusion as part of the district plan to prepare students for life after high school.
Other student-focused district improvement plan objectives include improving the advanced academics program, full implementation of the district math plan, supporting emergent bilingual and duallanguage students, expanding blended learning and developing alternative school calendars.
