MARFA — Marfa ISD School Board Trustees met this week to discuss early childhood education partnerships and district security initiatives. 

Trustees Ruben Martinez, Teresa Nuñez, Rene Gonzales, Lori Flores, Stela Fuentez and Interim Superintendent Arturo Alferez were present. 

Marfa ISD is embarking on establishing its own early childhood education partnership program after the success of neighboring Fort Davis ISD, which increased its state allotment from $70,000 to $1.35 million last year. The initiative involves one-year renewable legal agreements with early childhood schools that dual enroll pre-kindergarten through second-grade students in exchange for 50% of the additional state aid the district receives for those students. 

Marfa entered into a one-year contract with Fort Davis ISD in September whereby MISD leverages Fort Davis’ experience in establishing the partnerships and FDISD receives an upfront fee of $3,000 plus 10% of the overall additional funding that’s generated from successful partnerships. 

At Monday’s meeting, Alferez informed board members that the district secured its first official partnership with Flowers in the Garden Child Development Center in El Paso to dual enroll 18 students. In a follow up interview with The Big Bend Sentinel, Alferez said the children are pre-kindergarten students, around three and four years old. He said the district intends to follow a similar model to FDISD by splitting additional funding 50/50 with the partner school. 

Alferez said, in addition to a new revenue stream, the partner schools will benefit from MISD’s curriculums and flexibility with its state designation as a “District of Innovation,” which allows certified educators to teach in areas outside of their certifications — an initiative spurred by teacher shortages across the state. He said he wants to ensure the deals are beneficial for both parties.

“They are becoming part of Marfa ISD, that’s what I tell every director and every owner of these centers,” Alferez said. “If it’s a curriculum we’re using, I want you to also have access. That’s the vision that I have with these centers.” 

The estimated additional revenue from the 18 new students is yet to be determined, he said. The overall goal is to enroll 200 additional students through the early childhood education partnership program in order to get Marfa ISD back on its feet financially, and out of paying recapture, Alferez said. This year, the district adopted a $1 million deficit budget, for the second consecutive year, and paid $1.7 million in recapture to the state — annual payments MISD makes because it is deemed to have “excess wealth” per students due to a combination of high property values and low enrollment. 

“Recapture is what’s killing us in this district. Without it, we would have a balanced budget,” Alferez said. “We estimate around 200 students will take us out of recapture and get us out of the red and put us into the black.” 

Alferez said he is also on the cusp of finalizing another deal to bring in an additional 70 to 80 students from Just 4 You Learning Center out of El Paso. 

New students, while not physically attending Marfa ISD campuses, will help bring in additional revenue through average daily attendance. The district’s current enrollment is 194 and attendance district-wide is 93%.

Security upgrades

Trustees also discussed how to spend grant funds awarded by the state for security upgrades. This year, Marfa ISD was awarded a $310,000 Safety and Facilities Enhancement (SAFE) grant from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), funding handed down from the Legislature — in addition to new minimum security requirements — to bolster school safety in the wake of the Uvalde massacre. Some funding has already been spent on bullet resistant film for building windows. 

Alferez sought board approval to spend additional grant monies on more security cameras — 37 were installed in the fall of 2022 — panic buttons for staff, vape detectors for bathrooms and fencing upgrades. 

“Even though we do have cameras in our school system, we also found some blind spots, areas that we can’t see,” Alferez said. “Going through it, seeing blindspots, seeing where student traffic goes through, where parents walk through, so we’re using that for that specific purpose.” 

Silent panic alert buttons, the size of an ID card designed to be worn on lanyards, that have the capability of immediately alerting local law enforcement, even without internet access, will be given to all staff members. 

Alferez said the district is also looking to purchase several HALO Smart Sensors for junior high and high school bathrooms that will notify administrators and the school resource officer (SRO) of “vaping activity and THC use,” according to the company’s website. While the device is primarily a smoke detector, it also has the capability of detecting “aggression” and “gunshots,” according to the company’s website, which makes it a viable security expense, Alferez told the board. 

In a theoretical scenario where a student might be isolated in the bathroom during a lock down, they would be able to say a certain key word like “help” that would trigger the device to alert administrators and the SRO, Alferez said. It may also be triggered by a certain “tone of voice,” he said. Alferez told The Sentinel he became aware of the technology at a recent safety summit, and while the audio component seemed like a privacy concern he didn’t think it would be an issue. 

“I understand it’s a privacy matter, but never did I hear ‘Will this invade their privacy?’ No, it won’t. It’s just, you train your students, you train your staff on key words that can trigger it,” Alferez said. 

“Vaping is something that’s going across not just the state, but across the nation,” he added. “We’re trying to find measures to keep it out or out of our school systems, while at the same time educating the students about the dangers of vaping at a young age.” 

Money will also be spent on upgrading the elementary playground fence. The new fence will be 8 feet high, which is taller than the existing fence, and will have privacy netting. Alferez said the TEA recommends that fencing below 8 feet high have barbed wire on top of it, which he was trying to avoid for the sake of not wanting “to make our schools into more like a prison type of setting.” 

The board voted unanimously to approve the various security upgrades.