Two important Updates

This point in education is, at the least, challenging. As my granddaughter told me, “Grammy, COVID has ruined my first year of going into Middle School!!” We can all relate.

As I speak to educator friends and colleagues across the state, things are changing almost daily, and well laid plans are being revised on a regular basis. Texas School Procedures feels your pain and we are working hard to keep up and keep posting new information.

As districts are preparing to open at various start times, TxSP wanted to provide two important updates. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Employee Options for Returning to Work

Many districts may have missed the announcement of the Family First Coronavirus Response Act: Employee Paid Leave Rights (FFCRA) that went into effect April 20, 2020 and is in effect (unless extended) until December 31, 2020. Some educators are nervous and fearful about returning to work, particularly with the continued COVID spread across Texas.

TxSP has posted a protocol outlining the options for employees who are questioning if there are circumstances in which they don't have to return to work. There are two major sections to the FFCRA: (1) the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act - EPSLA and (2) the Extended Family Medical Leave Expansion Act - EFMLEA. The Act also allows districts to make arrangements/agreements for employees to work from home under certain circumstances even if they do not qualify for sick or family medical leave. Check out the section to make sure you understand all the options for your employees.

Website Link for COVID Specific Sick and Family Leave.

Title IX Training Updates

As if districts did not have enough on their plates, the new Title IX sexual harassment regulations go into effect August 14, 2020. TxSP is getting close to finishing all of our Title IX Provision protocols and documents that we will announce in the next newsletter. The regulations are complex and multi-layered and our feeling was, with all the complications of opening schools, an overview was more appropriate at this time.

District and campus administrators will be returning to work soon, if they are not already on board. TxSP has developed a Title IX training presentation (including facilitator notes/script) that district leaders can present at virtual or face-to-face meetings that will cover both the basic provisions of the new regulations and the critical terms and definitions. This is part of the required training. Check out the section to make sure you are ready to provide an overview of the new regulations to your administrators.

Website Link for Administrators Presentation for Title IX Sexual Harassment

If you are not a subscriber, request a demo.
Debby Moore July 19, 2020 0 0

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Debby Moore

CEO. Trainer & Product Developer

Debby Moore has had over 32 years’ experience in Texas Public School Education as a district administrator for Administrative and Student Services, as a campus administrator for elementary and secondary levels, as counselor for special and regular education at all levels, as a behavioral specialist, and as a regular and special education teacher. Although Debby retired in December of 2010, she continued to serve in several interim school district positions such as Director of Elementary Operations, COO of Human Resources, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, and Director of Student Services. In June 2013, Debby formed Texas School Procedures, LLC.

Responsibilities at the District administrative level included developing and overseeing district guidance and counseling programs, writing district regulations, forms, and letters, training and overseeing district discipline guidelines and other operational procedures for administrators, overseeing district safety programs, handling parent complaints and grievances, and chairing expulsion hearings. Over her years of service to public education and during retirement, she has presented staff development for teachers, counselors and administrators at local, regional, state, and national levels.

Debby has been married for 30+ years to a very loving and supportive husband. Her immediate family includes two sons, three inherited sons, one daughter through marriage, and six very special grandchildren. Debby loves spending time with their pets (Bailey, a rescued cocker spaniel, and LiLo, a rescued calico cat), researching, writing, and reading. Binge-watching various detective/crime series (particularly British) on Netflix has been a well-guarded secret to this point.

Rich Claypool

CFO and Operations

Rich has served in customer service and sales positions in various industries before joining Texas School Procedures from the very beginning in June of 2013. Rich was instrumental in developing the behind-the-scenes core set-up and operations of the company with company attorneys and establishing business procedures to ensure smooth operations and functioning of the company. He continues to serve in the capacity of managing all operational aspects of TxSP and as liaison to subscribing districts providing all “vendor” documents.

Rich is the proud father of one daughter, Dilyn, and will tell anyone that she is his number one priority. They enjoy being outdoors and doing anything athletic together such as swimming, hiking, running, biking, paddle boarding, fishing, camping, and kayaking. He is a very involved parent and always attends any school activity or parent conference and has supported her outside activities of karate, dance, basketball, and softball, to name a few.

Rich is also an advocate of animals and rescues his fur pets from organizations that take in forgotten animals off the streets. He currently has Kong (a “pitte”) and Bruiser (a “chiweenie”) that he adopted from South Side Street Dogs, a non-profit vegan Animal Rescue out of Houston, Texas.

Nancy Rouse

Customer Service and Website Administrator

Nancy Rouse is a retired Texas educator and Technology support staff member with 35 years in education. Her roles in Texas schools have been varied and include teaching, mentoring, instructional specialist/designer, and management of technology systems. In addition to educating district teachers in current software, she also became a subject matter expert on teacher web page development using Lotus Notes and became the District Lotus Notes Administrator and Webmaster. During this time, Nancy helped transition to a new email system as the Microsoft Exchange Administrator and helped usher in and manage a new phone system for the district as Microsoft Lync Administrator.

It was Nancy’s stent as District webmaster where she first met Debby Moore, a colleague. Debby was developing policies, regulations, and procedures for the school district and Nancy created a website to house the “Regs” and became invaluable in editing and posting the documents. In 2016, shortly before retiring, Nancy was again approached by Debby, this time to join TxSP to edit documents and help manage the new TxSP website. So impressed by the regulations and best practices that were being developed, Nancy has continued to support her in this capacity as a valued customer service representative and document and website manager.

Nancy has three grown sons, two daughters in law, and four grandchildren – three boys and finally, a girl. She enjoys her most precious gift, her family, and the time spent with them vacationing, hunting, fishing and laughing.

Tracy Laborde

Customer Service & Project Management

Tracy Laborde has over 20 years of professional communications, project management and client relations experience. A University of Texas at Austin graduate, Tracy left Texas and started her career in Atlanta, GA. There she worked at Turner Broadcasting in their educational outreach department where she supported taking CNN, and other Turner programming, and developing course curriculum and support material for schools across the country. Her final years in Atlanta were with Coca-Cola Enterprises where she was a communications manager for their change management team; focusing on a system-wide software implementation.

Tracy returned to Houston in 2006 and worked for University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center until 2018 where she spent most of her years building a project management team to support the MD Anderson Cancer Network, a program that collaborates with hospitals and health systems in Texas, the nation, and the world to improve the quality and accessibility of cancer care and research.

Currently, Tracy is on leave from TxSP and is enjoying traveling full-time with her husband, daughter and dog anywhere that the wind blows; or that her husband’s job takes them. Embracing every adventure, small or big, is what she and her family enjoy doing these days; and they do it all across the country living in an RV (aka tiny house on wheels).

Michelle Capener

Contributor, Consultant, and Trainer

Michelle Berry Capener, MS, LPC, is both a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified School Counselor and has twenty-four (24) years of experience in public education. She began her education career working for a non-profit organization at an elementary campus. She later served as a behavior specialist at a high school, a counselor at a middle school and has spent the remainder of her time at the District level supporting counselors and AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) staff for a District with an enrollment of about 25,000 students. Michelle also facilitated twenty-six (26) Fifth-Grade Career Fair events during her tenure which featured 75 community volunteers and served 700 students per occurrence.

Michelle’s varied experience at all grade levels, coupled with her serving in both campus and district roles, has provided her with valuable insights. Her commitment to establishing consistency within the district and monitoring compliance to state mandates was designed to strengthen and support District initiatives at all levels. In addition, her attention to detail and exceptional organizational skills allowed her to successfully orchestrate large district-wide events while simultaneously providing critical support to staff.

Michelle has been married to her husband, Todd, for 22 years. She is a proud mother to her 16-year-old son, Jordan. She is also an animal lover and enjoys spending time with her two cats, Jake and Daphne, and her beloved pup, Maggie. Michelle loves spending time on and near the water and aspires to one day live near the ocean. Personal time activities include attending church, reading, enjoying live music, exercising, and spending time with friends and family.

César Castro

Spanish Translations

César I. Castro was born in Veracruz, Mexico and immigrated to Texas at the age of 12. One year later, he was the first in his family of four to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He graduated from Plano East Senior High School and attended Tarrant County Community College.

Besides being fluent in English and Spanish, César is also fluent in American Sign Language and has volunteered teaching the bible in the deaf community since 2010. He has worked for various school districts in office assistance administration and translation. He now has his own translation business and continues to support districts and Texas School Procedures in providing accurate Spanish translations so that parents can be partners in their student’s education and students have access to documents in Spanish while they are learning English.

At the age of 26 he married his beautiful wife, Monique Castro, a certified A.S.L. interpreter, and moved to Fort Worth, TX. Together they participate in the Local Design and Construction Department of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which builds and maintains Kingdom Halls (centers of worship) and aids in disaster relief efforts in the U.S. branch territory. Together, they have two puppies Sonny (Mut) and Jojo (Yorkie Pomeranian mix). They love camping trips and swimming at a lake, river, or beach.

Dr. Glenda Boyer

Contributor, Consultant, and Trainer

Dr. Boyer has worked as an educator, school counselor, student assistance coordinator, licensed counselor/supervisor, trainer/consultant, and adjunct teacher in DFW area with over 30 years of combined experience. She currently has a private practice in the Denton area, working with children, adolescents, and their families, as well as adults and couples. Consultation with educators, professional development for school counselors, and adjunct teaching at area universities are also a large part of her professional life. Glenda has been with Texas School Procedures from the beginning providing training and consultation to counselors and developing counseling presentations for the site.

Glenda’s passion is working with children and adolescents and consulting with others who share the same passion – sharing from her experience and learning the needs of counselors and their students in educational settings. Play interventions with children, hands-on activities for curriculum-based support groups, crisis response, suicide prevention, bullying prevention, and counselor self-care/burnout prevention are just a few of her current interests in working with counselors in school settings.

Personal time includes time with friends and family and a small family ranching operation. Glenda has two sons and one daughter as well as a daughter-in-law and son-in-law and five grandchildren. In her spare time, she maintains close to 400 acres in West Texas where she is the proud “parent” of 30 to 40 head of cattle.

Dr. Sandra McCoy-Jackson

Contributor, Consultant & Trainer

In 2017, Dr. McCoy-Jackson became the Superintendent in Sanger ISD. Under the leadership of Dr. McCoy-Jackson: In 2018, all campuses achieved “Met Standard” while earning 4 Distinctions and earning a “C” rating: In 2019, the district received a “B” rating. In addition, Sanger ISD was selected by the Texas Education Agency to receive a Pre-K Grant for $750K.

Before becoming Superintendent, she served as an Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in Duncanville ISD and Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in Brazosport ISD.

Dr. McCoy-Jackson also held the position of Director of Elementary Student Services, Director of Student Community Partnership, Principal and Assistant Principal in Allen ISD. Dr. McCoy-Jackson received her under-graduate degree from East Texas State University, now Texas A&M – Commerce, in Elementary Education/English. Dr. McCoy-Jackson has also obtained 2 Master’s Degrees from National-Louis University – Chicago, Illinois one in Reading and the other in administration. Dr. McCoy-Jackson was awarded her doctorate in Educational Leadership in December 2008 from Nova Southeastern University – Fort Lauderdale, Florida.