EARLY – Friday’s 2024 Education in Brown County Luncheon featured guest speakers from Blanket ISD, Brownwood ISD, Brookesmith ISD, Early ISD, May ISD, Zephyr ISD, Brown County Christian School, Cross Classical Academy, Howard Payne University, Ranger College, Texas State Technical College.

Hosted by the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce and Early Chamber of Commerce at the Early Visitors and Event Center, the following are highlights of the speakers for each respective school:

Brownwood ISD (Superintendent Joe Young)

• Enrollment for the 2024-25 school year is up approximately 10% to about 3,500 students.
• Approximately 600 employees for the 2024-25 school year, 249 of those being teachers
• Teacher Incentive Allotment resulted in 33 employees received $293,000 this month in extra pay for tasks they were already doing
• Received an Autism grant for $650,000
• Received a $550,000 grant to purchase 3 school busses
• No. 1 goal in district to have kids reading before they leave third grade, found $300,000 available in a grant already received to fund Pre-K through third grade program for improvement
• Spent $1.7 million on safety and security improvements in the past year

Early ISD (Superintendent Joan Otten)

• Brand new superintendent is 14 days on the job as a first-time superintendent
• Theme for the year is TTHL: Turn Those Horns Loose, applies to students, athletics, teachers, and building confidence
• Plans to grow CTE programs and dual credit programs
• Look forward to working with Howard Payne, Ranger and TSTC for scholarship opportunities
• District is going to challenge kids where they are and where they can be so they can meet the goals important to them

Howard Payne University (President Cory Hines)

• Every year Howard Payne has an economic impact of $36 million on the area
• Held a business fair Friday for new students with more than 40 local businesses on hand
• Last 5 years HPU has spent more than $16 million in campus improvements
• Will spend $4 million this year in campus improvements
• HPU has raised $25 million in donations the last 5 years that goes into campus and and scholarships
• HPU has grown from $88 million in assets 5 years ago to $134 million currently
• 100 percent pass rate for all nursing students this past year
• Brown County graduates in Top 25 percent of their class are automatically accepted to HPU with a $60,000 scholarship

Ranger College (President Derrick Worrels)

• Ranger College is looking to relocate to a new home in Brown County
• Currently Ranger has its largest amount of nursing students in Brown County with 80
• Ranger College received $4.3 million prior to the school year from the Texas Legislature to aid rural community colleges
• First Ranger Reach Gala is scheduled for Sept. 28

TSTC Brownwood (Provost Andy Weaver)

• Just shy of 100 students graduated at the TSTC West Texas ceremony earlier this week
• 80 percent of TSTC students qualify for 100 percent of the Pell grant, which is for households with an income under $27,000
• West Texas Growth Initiative revolves around facility raising money for students in need, and 121% of Brownwood employees gave, as others from the community also chipped in to the program
• TSTC offers Welding, Emergency Medical Services, Chemical Dependency Counseling, Heath Information Technology, Drafting and Design Technology, Business Management Technology Education and Training, Cyber Security, Digital Media Design, Web Design and Development, Computer Programming Technology, Computer Networking Systems Administration and Pre-Alllied Health Degree Plan

May ISD (Superintendent Nick Heupel)

• Approximately 250 students enrolled for 2024-25 school year
• 52 employees, with 28 being teachers
• 9-1 teacher to student ratio
• Added over 70 cameras and wrought iron fencing for school safety purposes
• Share a resource officer with two other schools, also have a guardian program
• High school offers 8 career tech pathways with 13 possible career certifications
• Partnered with Texas Workforce Commission, which once a week works with seniors to plan post-secondary situations
• Over 80 percent of senior last year place in a post-secondary school

Brookesmith ISD (Assistant Superintendent Bob Contreras)

• Brookesmith schools came into existence in 1903
• 100 percent graduation rate for 7 years running
• Largest grade this year is 9^th with 15 students, smallest if 5^th with 5 students
• Brookesmith and Howard Payne are collaborating to create at K-5 music program
• District has earned superior financial rating 3 years in a row
• Received 3 new school buses last year via a grant
• Updated cafeteria with a $30,000 grant

Blanket ISD (Principal Joe Branham)

• Fantastic school board, very supportive, creates environment of being able to do well
• Tremendous staff, fully staffed, made fantastic hires
• Still trying to shore up some things academically to get them where they want to be after COVID
• CTE is going well with a drone program and e-sports
• Built a new greenhouse
• Dual credit program through Ranger
• Facilities are exceptional, few buildings more than 20 years old
• Added fencing, cameras and guardian program for safety and security

Zephyr ISD (Superintendent Stanton Marwitz)

• School finished 32^nd in the Class 1A UIL Lone Star Cup last year, which measures academic and athletic success, aiming for Top 10 finish in 2024-25
• Small school students have the opportunity to participate in multiple activities, which later makes good employees as they’ve learned how to multi-task
• The most important thing in life is people, and if you have the right people in the right place good things are going to happen, and Zephyr has that

Brown County Christian School (Principal William Hoffman)

• Made the transition from Victory Life Academy in 2021
• Largest enrollment to date, up 25% from last year to 50 total students
• Hired another Pre-K teacher due to growth
• Added cross country, robotics, e-sports, dance to extracurricular activities

Cross Classical Academy (Head Administrator Shandra Harrel)

• CCA is a small, private Christian school founded in 2010
• Located in Union Presbyterian Church in Brownwood
• 50 students enrolled this year, school consists of Pre-K through 8^th grade
• Students attend school Monday and Wednesday, while Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are home days and children complete assignments at home with their parents