Welcome Back

We are so excited to start the 2022-2023 school year! This year will be a year to remember for Normangee ISD as we welcome in new students, new staff, and new construction! I wanted to take a chance to update our community on what has been our focus for the summer, safety and security, and what we expect with construction. 

First and foremost, the safety of schools is not a new thing and has always been a priority for Normangee ISD. Thanks to the support of our community, over the years we have made immense strides in the safety and security of our facilities. In addition to the facility upgrades regarding safety, in 2019, Normangee ISD established the Normangee ISD Police Department to have a full-time school-resource officer on campus. 

Due to the tragedy in Uvalde, there is, and thankfully so, a renewed interest at the state level in securing our schools. Late this summer, the Texas Education Agency informed districts across the state that they would need to comply with certain requirements before the start of the upcoming school year. I am proud to say that our Police Chief, administrators, and our maintenance departments have worked diligently this summer to comply with those requirements. The requirements mandated by the state included: 1) Partial Safety and Security Audit, 2) Exterior Door Audit, 3) Implementation of an active threat annex to emergency operations plan, 4) Ensure all staff members are trained on campus safety procedures, 5) Schedule all mandatory drills for the year, 6) Train all members of the Behavioral Threat Assessment Team, 7) Review and update access control procedures.

In addition to the requirements from the state, NISD took proactive steps to ensure our students, staff, local law enforcement, and first responders are better equipped and prepared to respond in the event of an emergency. These steps included creating a consistent numbering system for our buildings and all classrooms. All classrooms and exterior windows are now clearly labeled. We also created new emergency response maps with the new building and classroom labeling system. Also, all staff members now have immediate access to an emergency response program that allows them to immediately alert the entire staff and contact 911 from a single app on their device. Ensuring a safe learning environment for our students, staff, and community is and will continue to be a priority for Normangee ISD. 

Since the passing of the bond proposition in May, we have been working diligently with our architects, Goodwin-Lasiter-Strong, and our Construction Managers, Gallagher Construction, to complete construction documents and begin the procurement process for construction services. On August 8th, the NISD Board of Trustees approved the sale of bonds which will be funded to the district around the second week of September. Due to the continued increase in construction costs and because these facility improvements will help us meet the needs of our students, our goal is to begin construction as soon as possible. After bids are awarded at our September board meeting, we will likely see construction staging begin towards the end of September and groundbreaking at the beginning of October. 

We would like to thank our community for the continued support of our students and the commitment to ensuring that NISD has the facilities necessary to meet the needs of our growing student body, staff, and community. Our mission statement at NISD is to “Foster pride in our community by creating learning experiences that provide our students with the knowledge, skills, and character to become passionate life-long learners.” We know the end result of our facility improvements will help us continue pursuing that mission. From the facilities to the children in PreK that grow up to walk across our stage as seniors, we will always want our stakeholders to be proud of NISD!

If you have any questions about any of the information shared above, please feel free to contact us at 936-396-3111. We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. Don’t forget to come out and support our Panther Football and Volleyball teams this fall as they are already underway! Go Panthers!

Mark Ruffin

Superintendent