February 13, 2024
Longhorn Weekly
Superintendent Update for the Week of February 12, 2024:
Dear Vega ISD Community,
Happy Valentine’s Day to all of our Longhorns and Lady Horns in Vega USA! Our elementary students will be celebrating their class Valentine’s Day parties this Friday and then all of our students and staff will enjoy an early release on Friday afternoon and everyone will also be able to have a day off of school on Monday, February 19th for President’s Day.
Between now and then, though, there is a lot going on right now and it is very exciting to see the hard work and success from our students and their teachers and coaches.
Let’s jump right in!
Congratulations are in order for the Bi-district Champion Lady Horns who defeated Sudan Monday night in Dimmitt to win a golden basketball trophy. The team has played hard all year and been very resilient. We are excited about their next playoff game which will be in the Area round of the playoffs this Friday against Stratford. Our boys basketball team will begin their playoff action next week as all of the seeding for playoffs and opponents are still being determined as of this writing.
The State Swim meet is this upcoming weekend and Vega ISD will be well represented again by our own swimmer who will be competing in two swimming events. In addition, we have five students who advanced to the State FCCLA competition for their projects in Repurpose and Redesign; Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation; and Texas Cupcake Presentation. Vega ISD students continue to represent our school well at the highest levels.
Our One Act Play participated in a clinic in Wellington last week and not only did a great job but received fantastic feedback that will help them as they continue to prepare for their next OAP play festival this weekend in Amarillo and ultimately the district performance. Powerlifting is making the long drive to Amarillo Highland Park this weekend, as well, as they continue with their season.
Last week, our own Vega Junior High was recognized during the Panhandle School Leaders Association Meeting in Canyon for earning Blue Ribbon School designation. This certainly has been a celebration and congratulations are certainly deserving to our fantastic students, dedicated teachers and supportive staff (both current and former) for this incredible achievement. It takes a village to have this type of amazing school culture that is evident throughout Vega ISD!
I have now completed 65 individual one-on-one meetings with our staff as I continue to listen and learn about the district. I was able to attend the district’s site based decision making committee (SBDM) meeting last week where the feedback from our stakeholders about the 2024-2025 academic calendar was reviewed and a calendar was selected by the SBDM team to be presented for approval at the next school board meeting later this month. We had great parent and community involvement with our staff at the SBDM meeting.
In campus walkarounds over this past week, our students and teachers continue to work really hard building literacy and math skills. Coach Sansing’s science class was hard at work in groups with students using their computers on their assignment. I was also able to be a guest reader in Mrs. Spiva’s class and had a good time reading a book to our 2nd graders.
The growing consensus right now is that the governor is not planning to call another special session because there are not currently enough votes in the Texas House of Representatives to approve vouchers. The result of not calling another special session is that there will be no additional funding from the State for public schools at this time. The lack of additional funds for public schools is disappointing.
While many districts across the state, including Vega ISD, are experiencing a deficit budget, this is certainly not the outcome we desired. As I said last week, we will have to continue to find our own solutions to this issue for now as we find the balance between maintaining the level of support we provide for our students and conserving limited budget resources in order to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.
Thank you,
Jerry Adams
Superintendent
Vega ISD