The Brazosport Independent School District District Education Improvement Council (DEIC) approved the district’s proposed revised Local Innovation Plan during a public meeting held on March 31, 2022 moving the district one step closer to renewing their designation as a District of Innovation. The current Local Innovation Plan is in its fifth and final year.

Passed during the 84th Legislative Session (House Bill 1842), the District of Innovation designation permits local school districts to obtain exemptions from certain provisions of the Texas Education Code that allow for more flexibility and local control for innovative programming. In May of 2017, the BISD Board of Trustees approved a Local Innovation Plan that permitted the district flexibilities in the areas of:

• Calendar
• Discipline
• Flexible Daily Schedule
• Class Size Exceptions
• Minimum Attendance for Credit or Final Grade Determination
• Minimum Minutes of Instruction
• Teacher Appraisal
• Teacher Certification
• Teacher Contracts

With the renewal of the Local Innovation Plan, the district’s flexibilities will continue in the areas of:

• Teacher Certification - the district maintains the flexibility to hire individuals with professional or vocational experience who does not possess a traditional teaching certificate, but is highly credentialed as evidenced by a license, degree or experience, to teach non-core courses such as CTE, and to permit a certified teacher to teach a subject area out of his/her certified field in grades 5th - 12th if they meet certain conditions that would qualify them.
• Teacher Contracts - the district maintains the flexibility to fill a teaching position to the Superintendent without issuing a Chapter 21 Contract for a non certified applicant to teach and for a teacher hired after the first day of instruction (late hire). The innovation further grants flexibility to the district to extend probationary contracts to teachers who have been employed in public education for at least five of the eight previous years and have completed their first probationary year with the District, in order to continue to evaluate the staff member’s effectiveness.
• Instructional Calendar - the district maintains the flexibility to move the start date of school to earlier in August to allow for more balanced semesters.
• Discipline - the district maintains the flexibility to send students who persistently misbehave at both their home campus and the alternative school to the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program.
• Optional Flexible School Day Program - the district maintains the flexibility to waive the requirement to annually apply to the TEA for permission to offer flexible instructional time within a ten hour period daily at the Brazos Success Academy to at-risk students who, due to extenuating circumstances, cannot attend school following a traditional schedule.
• Class Size Exceptions - the district maintains the flexibility in granting class-size exceptions when needed to classrooms in grades Kindergarten through fourth without having to seek a waiver from the state giving the district greater control over maintaining class sizes at or below 22:1.

Legislation passed since 2017 rendered the Minimum Attendance for Credit or Final Grade Determination and Minimum Minutes of Instruction innovations obsolete. The Teacher Appraisal innovation is being discontinued.

The proposed revised Local Innovation Plan can be viewed on the District of Innovation page and comments regarding the revised plan can be sent to Mr. Ron Redden, Assistant Superintendent of Compliance and Data Quality at [email protected]. The proposed revised plan will be presented to the BISD Board, along with any public comments, on April 25, 2022, when they will vote on their intent to adopt the revised Local Innovation Plan. Notification of their intent will be sent to the Commissioner of Education. Then, on May 16, 2022, the BISD Board will vote on adoption of the revised Local Innovation Plan. If adopted, BISD will once again be designated as a District of Innovation and the exemptions listed in the plan will immediately go into effect for a period of five years.

For more information contact the Office of Compliance & Data Quality at 979-730-7000.