Editor’s note: The following are highlights from the top Eanes school district stories of 2009.

January

District students dominated the regional Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards competition held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Ryan Summersett won an American Vision Award for animation and Colleen Troxell won an AVA for oil painting. Shannon Soule won the People’s Choice Award for photography.

District Superinten-dent Nola Wellman told school board members that the district had spent roughly half of the $1 million allocated for initial ADA modifications. She said the initial list included items deemed “life threatening” and items that could be easily fixed.

February

Darren Allman, head football coach for Odessa Permian, became WHS’s new head football coach and the district athletic director after unanimous approval by the school board on Feb. 25.

The school board also approved the purchase of $662,037 of high definition broadcast technology equipment on Feb. 25.

March

The WHS robotics team placed fifth out of 50 competing teams in the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in Dallas March 12-14. The team also took home the Xerox Creativity Award.

Four WHS students earned spots in the State Choir during the Texas Music Educators Associa-tion Clinic and Conven-tion in San Antonio.

Place 4 school board candidate Paul Stone drew an opponent in his race for re-election, WHS Chap Club president Sharman Reed.

Parents of district students with disabilities vocally criticized Kid Venture, a Texas-based company offering summer day camp programs for children with which the district contracted for facilities rental. Former school board candidate and parent Carl Shepherd said the company told parents it did not have to serve children with disabilities. KidVenture owner and Westbank resident Mike McDonnel denied the allegations.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office reported an increase in parties in the Westlake area involving alcohol consumption by underage teenagers.

April

WHS flung open the doors of it’s renovated Research Center Library and Performing Arts Center on April 1. Renovation of both facilities was estimated by the district at $18 million.

Wellman presented an overview of first ideas for projects that could be included in a new bond election. The total cost of work listed in the initial look was $186.4 million. The list of $94 million in new district construction included a natatorium, a new elementary campus outside Loop 360, a new transportation facility, a wrestling room and new tracks and football fields at the middle schools.

Wellman told school board members on April 29 that she would delay a much-talked-about change in facility rental fees, for now sticking with the per-participant fee structure, which in-creas-ed from $25 to $30 per player.

The Eanes Education Foundation estimated an $800,000 grant to the Eanes school district for the 2009-10 school year and announced the foundation’s new executive director, Westbank resident Wally Moore.

May

The district canceled events during the first few days of May as a safeguard against the H1N1 virus. Administrators said the district had no reported cases of swine flu.

Incuments Paul Stone and Gail King won re-election to third terms on the school board.

Bridge Point Elementary School teacher Susan Bufkin was named district Teacher of the Year.

School board members met with Wellman to discuss the developing budget for next year. A number of parents took the opportunity to address the board during open forum about the district’s direction in special education issues.

June

School board members appointed appointed James Kallison as a replacement for resigning trustee Gail King.

July

School board members approved a new Student Code of Conduct on July 29 that specifies that students who commit certain types of drug- or alcohol-related infractions will receive a mandatory minimum placement in the District Alternative Edu-cation Program for 45 school days.

Business services head Larry Keiser presented certified property appraisal values and the latest version of a proposed 2009-2010 budget at a meeting July 29.

The budget proposal reflected total expenditures for the school year at $120,367,825 and total revenues at $115,762,440, creating a projected defi-cit to the district of $4.6 milion, which administrators said they planned to pull from the district’s $32.9 million fund balance.

During the budget process, board members approved a $1.25 million staff pay increase for the coming school year. Property taxes for the district remained the same.

August

The Texas Education Agency rated all nine campuses and the district itself as exemplary. The district and all nine campuses also achieved Adequate Yearly Progress in 2009 as determined by federal school accountability ratings and announced by the TEA.

September

Wellman announced the district’s plan during to hold nine community bond forums intended to provide local residents and business owners a chance to voice concerns and opinions.

Friction between parents of special education students and a policy that restricts their ability to visit their children’s future classrooms came to a head during a school board study session Sept. 14. Wellman said the district would ask the Department of Education for a decision on whether to let parents visit special education classrooms in which their students were not currently enrolled.

Wellman touted academically strong schools, high quality staff and a focus on curriculum designed to meet the needs of students in a changing world during a series of State of the District addresses. But the news was not all rosy.

Wellman also told parents that school districts in Texas are seriously under funded by the state and hinted about a possible election in the future to raise school district property taxes by 2 cents and a bond election as early as next year. She said the district planned to take $4.6 million out of the fund balance to balance its deficit.

October

Keith Davis returned to WHS as the featured motivational speaker for the Safe Home fall program Oct. 6 titled “Wrong Voices. Wrong Choices.”

Wellman held the first of nine scheduled community forums at Eanes Elementary School on Oct. 15, to share information about the district’s long-range plans for facilities and to gather input from local residents before going to the school board with a new bond proposal. Parents at the meeting said they wanted to see specific details of the bond proposal, including how much money would be spent and details of where it would be spent. They repeatedly told the panel that they wanted to be part of the process of any redesign of elementary schools from the beginning stages.

Wellman said the district needed to address dangerous traffic on Bee Cave Road, changing instructional methodology, increasing technology needs, elevated state academic requirements, aging facilities and the possible reconfiguration of district elementary school campuses.

District administrators continued their bond presentation at Westlake High School on Oct. 21. Among the issues included in that campus discussion were changing traditional classrooms to rooms more flexible in nature to allow for interactive learning, updated technology infrastructures, ADA structural changes, improved athletic facilities and specialized classrooms for new-era classes in science, biotechnology, robotics and filmmaking.

Wellman etched out the bare bones of a long-term strategic plan for school board members during a meeting on Oct. 28. She told board members that administrators have a framework for the 2010-2015 strategic plan, but that it would take them the rest of the year to flesh out details.

November

Good news for the Eanes school district came from WHS college and career counselor Jeff Pilchiek who told trustees that students in the district are applying to and being accepted at colleges and universities in record numbers. Pilchiek said 99 percent of students at the high school applied to colleges in 2009.

The district reached a legal settlement with the parents of an unidentified student qualifying for special education services. The district agreed to pay the student $70,000 during the November 2009 – August 2010 time period and reimbursement of $4,000 attorney fees in leiu of all services.

School board members approved a 2009 District Improvement Plan on Nov. 18 and listened to a report by human resources head Lester Wolff that showed a district enrollment increase of 177 students this year. Board members delayed a vote specifying changes in graduation requirements for WHS students next year.

WRMS hosted the FIRST Lego qualifier tournament on Nov. 14, where four district schools entered teams that competed and captured top awards. BCES took first place, and HCMS took third place in the teamwork competition. CCES took first place in robot performance and third place in a champions competition.

A WHS Graduation Committee recommended that the district maintain its current higher requirements for health and technology, but expand the choices available to students for the technology requirement.

State legislative changes stemming from last session’s House Bill 3 recently eliminated some graduation requirements under the recommended plan for Texas high school students, including a half credit of speech, a half credit of health, a full credit of technology application and a half credit of physical education. On Nov. 20, the State Board of Education added back the half credit of speech as a requirement for all high school graduation plans and eliminated the half credit of health, the full credit of technology applications, and 0.5 credits in physical education so that all three graduation plans have similar requirements.

District administrators reached a compromise with parents who wanted to continue the practice allowing middle-school students to rush the field after home football games before the popular WHS v. Austin High School football game.

Middle school students were allowed to enter the field directly from the pit area reserved for them after the game, thanks to the efforts of more than 40 volunteers who stood their posts between the end field and the 40-yard line and made sure students entered the area in a controlled manner.

The practice of secondary students running onto the field from the “Pit” area had become a community tradition, but Wellman had banned the activity after a student was hurt earlier in the season. WRMS student Cody Allen shattered his elbow in two places when he fell during the rushing of the field after a recent home WHS football game.

Administrators promised to again examine the district’s policy regarding the middle-school pit area and how students there access the football field after games next year.

December

Due to expected precipitation and freezing temperatures, activities in Eanes school district buildings scheduled Dec. 4 from 6 p.m. and later were canceled or postponed.

Former BCES principal Ellen Arnold returned last week to the post she left five years ago after the abrupt resignation of John Andrews.

Members of the WHS robotics team competed at the Texas BEST Robotics Competition Dec. 5 at the University of North Texas’s Coliseum in Denton, Texas with 47 other teams from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Bechtol gave school board members an update on the district’s thinking regarding new course offerings for the 2010-11 school year during a study session Dec 7. He proposed only one new course addition for the year, a Film III class.

Wellman brought an update of potential bond projects to school board members Dec. 7 to help move the process closer to a decision on whether to put a bond before voters in 2010. Among projects added to the previous list during the early morning meeting lighting and restrooms at the district’s two middle schools, the career and technology program at WHS and special education programs, including the 19-Plus program. Dozens of parents attended the meeting, represented by open forum speakers who asked the district to build a new elementary school wet of Loop 360 on the River Hills tract.