The Canton ISD Board of Trustees conducted their monthly meeting on Monday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. in the Canton ISD Administration building, which featured two special presentations prior to the Trustees discussion period.

To begin the meeting, Canton ISD was presented with a poster reading ‘In God We Trust’ by the Republican Women of Van Zandt.

“Brian Hughes, our Texas senator, passed a bill recently that states that all schools in the state of Texas must display our national motto, so from Republican Women of Van Zandt County, we brought a sign for each of your campuses, as well as the administration building,” a spokesperson from the group told the trustees.

At the close of the poster presentation, the Board of Trustees began recognizing October’s ‘Teachers of the Month’ across the district, with principals from each campus introducing and speaking about each honoree.

Among the honored included: Brooke Keith from the Elementary School, Kylie Jeffcoat from the Intermediate School, Sarah Smith from the Junior High, Amanda Burch from the High School, and Nita Stuart from the Support Staff.

Honorees were presented with a certificate and gifted a lawn chair brandished with the Canton ISD logo.

Following this ceremony, Angela Barton presented the trustees with a short report on Canton ISD’s ESL program evaluation, which is required yearly by the state of Texas.

Superintendent Dr. Brian Nichols followed by addressing the Board of Trustees in his monthly Superintendent’s report.

Nichols began by updating district enrollment numbers, which he noted in last month’s meeting.

“As of Friday Oct. 14, Canton ISD enrollment is at 2,309,” Nichols noted. “At the same time last year, we were sitting at 2,276 students, which ended up being our peak, enrollment wise, for 2021-22.”

Nichols continued by mentioning repairs that are occurring across the campuses.

“Since our last board meeting, we have had the roof at the junior high fieldhouse replaced, which looks really great. To continue updating everyone, we are still working on getting some pricing to repair the walkway at the baseball and softball complex at the high school,” Nichols stated.

Nichols concluded his report by noting several upcoming extra-curricular activities at the High School.

“Our band has done really well recently. At Springtown we received ‘Outstanding Band 4-A’ and finished second overall across all classifications. Our girls’ basketball will start practice on Wednesday, Oct. 19, so their season will officially begin then. One other thing I wanted to note was our E-sports team that we started this year at the high school. They are competing against schools all across the country and are doing very well. Mrs. Oliver is doing a great job with that group,” Nichols concluded.

At the close of Nichol’s report, board members discussed several policies and programs around the district, which were passed into action with no objection from the trustees.

No action was taken following a closed executive session conducted at the end of the October monthly meeting.

The next scheduled meeting between the Canton ISD Board of Trustees is Nov. 21 at 6 p.m.