District of Innovation

House Bill 1842 was passed during the 84th Texas Legislative Session in Spring 2015 and relates to Texas public school accountability, and provides Texas public school districts the opportunity to be designated as Districts of Innovation (DOI).

Districts of Innovation may be exempted from a myriad of state statutes and will have:

• Greater local control as decision makers over the educational and instructional model for students;
• Increased freedom and flexibility as it relates to accountability and state mandates that govern educational programs; and
• A platform to create and think "outside the box".

The District of Innovation (DOI) overview of the proposed timeline is as follows:   September 12, 2016 SMSD will present a general overview, which explains DOI.   October 10, 2016 SMSD Board of Trustees will pass a resolution to study the concept and opportunities provided under the DOI legislation (HB1842).   November 14, 2016
SMSD Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing and appoint a DOI Committee to develop a Local Innovative Plan.   January - February 2017
A Local Innovative Plan (LIP) will be developed by the SMSD DOI Committee. This process will include periodic dialogue and feedback between the DOI committee and SMSD Board of Trustees.   March 2017
SMSD Board of Trustees will vote to notify the Texas Education Agency (TEA) of its intention to vote on adopting the LIP.   March 8 - April 6, 2017
The LIP will be posted for at least 30 days on the SMSD DOI website.   April 10, 2017
SMSD Board of Trustees will vote to adopt the final LIP.   August 19, 2019 SMSD district-level committee will vote to approve two new innovations to amend the current Innovation Plan.   August 21 - September 21, 2019 The amended Innovation Plan will be posted for at least 30 days on the SMSD DOI website.   August 21, 2019 SMSD Board of Trustees will notify the Texas Education Agency (TEA) of its intention to vote on adopting the amended LIP.   October 14, 2019 SMSD Board of Trustees will vote to adopt the two amendments to the Innovation Plan.   October 29, 2019 SMSD Board of Trustees will notify the Texas Education Agency (TEA) that it has adopted the two amendments to the Innovation Plan and will provide a copy of the final amendments to TEA.