The new plan calls for a change in location and the addition of classroom space. The original site for the facility was located directly off of 31st Street, but administrators ruled that the property could be used for something vital in the future. The new site is located in the northeast corner of the campus adjacent to the practice soccer fields. The move means that an access road will have to be built and new water lines will have to be installed and extended a longer distance, driving costs up.
The other cost factor is the addition of three classrooms where Ag classes can be held and the FFA can meet. This means veterinary or Ag students do not have to walk back and forth between the Career and Technology building as much, and they have direct access to the livestock.
The board had approved $770,648 but asked Max Cleaver, executive director of facilities and operations, to come up with a new estimate based on the needs of Ag Farm students and other high school facility needs. He said that the $1,597,848 is based on a worse case scenario and could change depending on how the board wishes to approach the project. The board has the option to approach the facility in phases, and they are planning to meet with the facilities and planning committee, as well as parents of ag students, to determine their next step.
Temple High School principal J.J. Villareal presented an updated plan to convert the high school to an academy system with divisions geared toward subjects such as health science, business and technology, and house them all under one roof with no appreciable increase in staff.
The first step is to create a ninth-grade academy, where students are separated from the rest of the school and given more in-depth career counseling using what they call a cohort and advocacy system.
A group of Temple High School teachers and administrators got the idea from a high school using an advocacy system in Amarillo with similar demographics that went from a 50 percent retention rate from ninth grade to 12th grade to 93 percent retention rate.
The ideas is that counselors and teachers adopt students and parents to create a learning plan and a possible career plan.
There were concerns expressed by the board that students will be locked into subjects they don
