HUTTO — The Hutto Independent School District approved Cara Malone as the new chief of schools at the board meeting Sept. 25 and gave the nod to a contractor for the second high school.
Malone was the assistant superintendent of talent management and personnel support and served as the interim superintendent before current Superintendent Jeni Neatherlin came onboard in August from the Granger Independent School District.
While still acting in her role as assistant superintendent, Malone presented the school board with requests for new personnel, including another assistant principal for the district’s newest middle school, Gus Almquist.
“It just got here so fast,” board President Billie Logiudice said at the meeting, noting the need for another administrator at the rapidly expanding campus.
Since it opened in August, the original 900 students have grown to 940. Malone suggested the district begin the search to match the assistantprincipal to-student ratio of 1-to-140. The school currently has two assistant principals.
“We had talked about waiting until midyear, but I think just with the size of the campus and everything, it’s a good time to begin looking,” Malone told trustees.
The estimated salary for the new assistant principal is $80,000.
Other personnel requests included a resource and inclusion teacher for Almquist, a dual-language kindergarten teacher for Cottonwood Creek Elementary and a Title 1 aide for Hutto Elementary.
The board unanimously approved the requests.
In other business, trustees approved Joeris General Contractors as the construction manager for the district’s second high school, but not without some discussion.
Joeris previously worked as the general contractor for Hutto Memorial Stadium.
Trustees initially had questions about why the company didn’t bid to work on the district’s new elementary school project, but learned there was a lack of adequate staffing at the time.
Dustin Barton, assistant superintendent of operations, and Brandon Cardwell, director of capital improvement and facilities planning, assured trustees the company came to them with a reliable team for the high school project.
The administrators also looked at job history, work performance and pricing to choose the company.
“(Joeris) had all of their resources in (other) districts they were working in. … And so, for elementary number eight, they did not submit on that because they were not gonna provide us with the best team that we needed in order to get elementary number eight done, and we appreciate that communication,” Cardwell told trustees. “But the staff that they provided in the interviews for high school number two are rock stars.”
