Reprint from the Progress Times - January 25, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

SISD sets date for board elections

 

The Sharyland Independent School District (SISD) school board, in a regular meeting Tuesday, January 22, approved a measure to call an election Saturday, May 10, 2008 to fill two school board positions.

The two seats, which have terms of three years, will be open when board members Paul R. Rodriguez’ and Juan F. Zuniga’s terms expire on May 10.

May 10 will be the date for regular voting with early voting beginning Monday, April 28 and running through Tuesday, May 6. The main early voting polling place is scheduled to be the fire sub-station at 1804 North Shary Road in Mission. Applications for an early voting ballot will be accepted by the district by the Early Voting Clerk beginning March 11 through May 4. The deadline to receive early voting ballots by mail will be Friday, May 2.

Since the district will be employing the cumulative voting procedure and there will be two vacant seats, each qualified voter in the district will be able to cast two votes, including two for the same candidate.

The board also voted to approve a request for proposal for internet connections, network, wireless, video distribution and distance learning equipment in the amount of $4.1 million.

The equipment falls under the collective term E-Rate Round 11 which is comprised of several ongoing projects over the last three years. The goals of this project are to create a wireless infrastructure for the support of all wireless PDA’s, laptops and computers district wide as well as creating a video distribution network which will make available all library video resources via web page for viewing at each campus. The computer equipment will also provide additional distance learning support for virtual classroom field trips and training as well as create a Storage Area Network (SAN) for district email. This new storage area will help support the district’s growing email boxes due to the increase in multimedia applications district wide.

The district will also be replacing web servers district-wide as they are nearing capacity on server utilization causing delay on some of the district’s applications. Many of the district’s servers were purchased five years ago and are in need of upgrades.

The district only received five proposals out of 28 it sent out. The fifth bid was not tabulated as it came in after the 2:00 due time. The board decided to split the proposal to Dell and Calence for a savings of $11,187.

The board also approved the purchase of bleachers for the high school baseball and softball stadium. Two quotes were received from six cooperative approved vendors that were contacted. Approval was given by the board to Key Enterprises in the amount of $171,275. The next lowest bid was by Studisteel which turned in a bid of $251,390.

The district also approved a proposal to purchase two, 47 passenger special education buses at a cost of $173,342 from Longhorn Bus Sales. Although Longhorn Bus Sales’ final bid was about $1,000 more than the other two bids by Thomas Bus Gulf Coast and Capital Bus Sales, Longhorn Bus Sales’ bid included $1,800 engine upgrades on both of the buses.