Week of February 25

Wink's Words
My motto is this.  If you focus on everything, you will focus on nothing.  You can't grow in your performance, until you identify critical actions that you must do, and eliminate actions that detract from your focus.

Here are a couple of things to consider.

• Not every skill is critical.  Some are critical, and some are nice to know; therefore put the bulk of your  efforts in the skills that are critical and chances are that your focus on critical skills will improve the other skills as well.
• Research shows that more things we add to our plate, the greater chance is that we will get none of them done.  Pick one to three actions that you will commit to mastering, and let the others go.  You can get to them after you master your 1-3 commitments.
• Multi-tasking is a myth.  Your mind can't be deeply involved with 2 tasks simultaneously. Finish one thing before you start another. 

This week, I encourage you to identify tasks that inhibit your work and eliminate them.  Your productivity will thank you for it.

Carthage ISD Legislative Priorities
With the legislature in session, it is important to inform you of legislative priorities that affect Carthage ISD.  Below are the priorities and why they are important to CISD. 

1. Reduce amount of recapture funds taken from CISD (Robin Hood).
1. CISD sends an average of $7M - $10M every year to the state.
2. This amount represents approximately 1/4 of the CISD budget.
3. 44% or 450 of 1031 Texas schools districts pay recapture every year.
2. Increase state funding to ALL TEXAS SCHOOLS.
1. With the loss of ASATR (Additional State Aid for Tax Relief), CISD lost an additional $7M in state funding. (This is in addition to recapture)
2. ASATR was the sole reason so many positions in CISD were eliminated in 2016-18.
3. Increase funds to benefit all educator salaries and benefits.
1. Teacher salaries have not kept up with the cost of living and inflation.
2. Health insurance premiums have increased, and benefits have decreased, which has resulted in increased costs on all state employees, thus a loss to their paychecks.
4. Take care of retired teachers and future retired educators
1. TRS (Texas Retirement System) has decreased its commitment to health insurance by doubling costs for retired teachers.
2. TRS lowered the rate of return assumptions which negatively affected the future cost of living raises for ALL TEXAS TEACHERS.
3. Changes to TRS negatively impacts all teachers including those who are not yet retired but are currently paying into the system.

If you would like to see changes made in Austin, please contact your representatives in Austin.  

1. CLICK HERE to contact Senator Bryan Hughes
2. CLICK HERE to contact Representative Chris Paddie
3. CLICK HERE to contact any Texas Senator
4. CLICK HERE to contact any Texas Representative

Staff Shoutout
Thank you to the teachers and staff members from Baker Koonce and Carthage JH who took time to meet with Mr. Wink.  Your input and feedback is very important to make our district strategic plan for improvement.  Next week, Mr. Wink will be meeting with teachers from HS (2/25) and PACE (3/1), and in the following week, he will meet with Libby (3/7) and Primary (3/5).

This week's Staff Shoutouts go to Janet Baysinger (Libby), Danetta Dorsey (PACE), Rosetta Hicks (Food Service).  We sincerely appreciate them for going above and beyond to be exemplary role models for all staff members.

Upcoming Events

• Mar 4-8 - Texas Public Schools Week
• Mar 11-15 - Spring Break

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