At its regular April meeting, the Angleton ISD Board of Trustees celebrated student excellence and approved several measures to support academic programs and facility upgrades.

Trustees honored a number of students and staff for their outstanding achievements, including:

• 14 AJH students who qualified for nationals in the Great History Challenge;

• 30 students from 4th to 10th grade who earned distinctions in the Baylor Talent Identification Program;

• Zen Smith who was selected as a TMEA All-State Band musician;

• Luke Cook who qualified for UIL State in Swim;

• Coach Marvin Chizer who was named a Houston Area Alliance of Black School Educators’ Teacher of the Year;

• Frontier and Westside for being named to the Educational Results Partnership’s 2004 Honor Roll; and

• 2025 AISD Grow Our Own participants.

In addition, Maria Macedo, AISD Director of Elementary Education, presented an update on the district’s Bluebonnet Math initiative as the district is looking to shift from Eureka Math to Bluebonnet Math. The report outlined progress made in developing early math skills and shared data to guide future instructional planning in math.

“Bluebonnet Math has been created exclusively for Texas and is completely aligned to our state standards and the STAAR, and we will no longer need to supplement with additional resources to cover all TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) if we were to implement it,” Macedo said. “Our goal is to provide high-quality instruction for all students, and there is data showing how Bluebonnet Math supports student growth.”

AISD Superintendent Phil Edwards reminded the board that the district is only in the process of considering Bluebonnet Math as an option for the district’s curriculum and that it is not even considering Bluebonnet Reading Language Arts curriculum.

“While the district is not purchasing the program at this time, teachers have expressed strong support for the Bluebonnet Math resource,” he said. “We most likely will recommend approving Bluebonnet Math for elementary schools at a later board meeting.”

The board also approved the purchase of opening day library collections for Heartland Elementary and Heritage Junior High. The contract went to Libraria in the amount of $260,000. These curated book sets will ensure the libraries in the new schools are stocked with high-interest, age-appropriate titles to engage young readers from day one. The books will go through an extensive vetting process with two reviews and two librarians’ approvals before being sent to central administration for approval.

“We want to ensure that our students have popular titles available to them and enough books to cover the new schools’ needs,” AISD Director of Secondary Education Tyler Press said. “In addition, this proposal supports our vetting process when selecting appropriate books for our libraries. Our librarians will vet more than 16,000 titles with at least three reviews from national review companies provided as part of the deal. We will also run each book through our own vetting process. If it is decided that a book does not meet AISD standards, aligning with the requirements of EFB (Local), then Libraria will replace the book for us at no additional cost.”

In other business, trustees approved a proposal from Hellas Construction, Inc. to resurface 10 tennis courts at Angleton High School and 8 tennis courts at Angleton Junior High. The total cost of the project will be $206,960. The courts at the junior high will be funded from previous bond savings, and the high school’s courts will be funded from local funds.

“It is important for AISD to make sure our students have access to facilities that will help them be successful, and the project will provide updated and safer athletic surfaces for student use,” AISD Superintendent Phil Edwards said.

Finally, the following items were also approved by the board:

• Superintendent’s recommendation for renewal and issuance of term and probationary contracts for professional employees

• New hires for the 2025-2026 school year

• A-Rocket movers for moving furniture/equipment services

• Updates to board policies CFB (Local) and DFBB (Local)

• 2025-2026 Allotment and TEKS Certification

• Saxon Phonics teacher and student resources