TASB News
For Immediate Release: April 23, 2007
Contact: Stacy Hobbs, 800.482.7276, ext. 7233
Fund Members Recognized for Innovation
(AUSTIN) – Winners of the fourth annual Texas Association of School Boards’ Risk Management Fund Innovation Award recently received $1,000 each to be used toward their risk management efforts. Fund members recognized include Boerne, Falls City, Forestburg, Galena Park, Hawkins, Italy, Lockhart, Mesquite, and Willis Independent School Districts and Pewitt Consolidated ISD. District representatives were presented with their awards and checks at the Fund Members’ Conference April 23 in Austin.
“This award, established by the Risk Management Fund Board of Trustees in 2004, is a special way of recognizing Fund members who have demonstrated innovation and success in risk management initiatives, products, or programs. Applications were rated on cost effectiveness, originality, transferability for use by other Fund members, and ability to address current needs at the overall member level. Recipients of the Innovation Award set an excellent example of timely, creative, and effective approaches to risk management that we hope other Fund members will emulate,” said Dubravka Romano, TASB associate executive director.
Among winning entries were Boerne ISD’s automated external defibrillator (AED) program, complete with a first-response team made up of employees and trained paramedics who are activated to emergencies within the district; Falls City ISD’s Wild About Wellness program, that incorporates health checks, blood drives, student field days, and installation of exercise equipment; and Forestburg ISD’s school emergency operations plan that includes training drills with county law officers and local firefighters on school grounds and plans to replicate the program at other school districts in the county.
Among other innovative ideas were a training program in Galena Park ISD that utilizes a robotic character to teach students about bus safety, evacuation procedures, and appropriate rider behaviors; an intruder test on all campuses in Hawkins ISD to gauge staff response to a visitor without a name tag roaming the hallways and parking lots; and a district-wide mock disaster in Italy ISD that evaluated how local fire and police, teachers, students, and parents dealt with a potentially fatal gas leak.
Also cited were Lockhart ISD’s AED and CPR program that eventually trained hundreds of staff, students, parents, and other community members using American Heart Association guidelines; Mesquite ISD’s Employee Health Center, featuring a pharmacy and clinic that provides basic primary and emergency care with a focus on wellness and prevention; Pewitt CISD’s student fitness programs, School Health Advisory Committee, and community health fair which hosts 40 local organizations; and Willis ISD’s daily safety and wellness messages that are shared on the district’s website, monitors, announced over the PA system, and e-mailed to staff.
The TASB Risk Management Fund is the largest risk-sharing pool for school districts and one of the largest public entity risk pools in the nation. Created in 1974, the Fund provides comprehensive risk management coverage and services in the areas of workers’ compensation, property/casualty, and unemployment compensation. More than 1,100 school districts, education cooperatives, junior colleges, education service centers, and county appraisal districts participate in one or more of the Fund’s programs.
TASB is a voluntary nonprofit association established in 1949 to serve local public school districts. School board members are the largest group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts they represent serve more than 4.5 million public school students.
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