Nancy Yeary, the assistant superintendent for Lampasas Independent School District, is preparing for the start of upcoming school year. She will focus on curriculum issues. PHOTO BY LISA CARNLEY After 17 years as a teacher, five years as an assistant principal and three years as a principal, Nancy Yeary still misses being in the classroom.

Though she is even further from the classroom as the Lampasas Independent School District’s new assistant superintendent, Mrs. Yeary fondly recalls her days of interacting with students.

But that doesn’t negate her excitement over working with teachers and administrators, as enthusiasm is written all over her face when she talks about continuing the district’s push toward exemplary status.

And some of the new ideas and programs the LISD is implementing are generating rave reviews from the newest district administrator. One such program is CScope, a process to implement a vertical and horizontal curriculum alignment.

Eighty percent of the state’s school districts are using CScope, Mrs. Yeary said. “CScope helps us in planning for what exactly each child needs to do for mastery,” she said.

Though she stands behind what she believes the process will do for the school district, Mrs. Yeary said CScope alone can’t provide results. “It’s our teachers who make it successful through the hard work and planning they put into their jobs. This just gives them the basics.”

CScope is not a program, Mrs. Yeary said. “It is a process. It is my pride and joy for what it can do for vertical and horizontal alignment for teachers so they can concentrate on the teaching. It aligns curriculum within each grade level,” she said, “and it makes sure we’re all teaching the same things, and that we know what the grade above and below them need to do to stay in ‘their lane.’”

The assistant superintendent said 100 percent of the teachers who expressed an interest in CScope support it. “It still gives them the freedom to teach the lessons they want to teach, but this gives them resources they can use.”

Though its primary focus is math and science, CScope will be implemented in various degrees in all core subjects.

CScope coincides with Superintendent Randy Hoyer’s charge to district personnel to define “What has LISD done to create a 21st century classroom?”

In addition to CScope, the LISD is implementing Eduphoria AWARE for data analysis and assessment management. “This gives us the means to see the history of a child from kindergarten through his or her TAKS testing years all on one screen, and what particular TEKS [Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills] subject they are struggling with,” Mrs. Yeary said.

“This new program can help us zero in on what students need and what we need to provide them to help them become more successful.”

In addition, Eduphoria AWARE allows the district to make its own assessments and provides a local database to analyze student needs.

Safari Montage also is new to the LISD, and Mrs. Yeary is thrilled to have the tools for the Web-based lesson creation and audio-visual integration in certain classrooms. “It will bring a virtual Internet into the classroom, and teachers can go anywhere on the Internet to assist in teaching a particular subject.”

The district also will update its Web site and make it “exciting and more user friendly,” she said. “We want it to be more informative about what’s going on in the district, and it will have some exciting new elements on it.”

Mrs. Yeary also is delighted with the LISD’s two new curricu- lum technologists -- Vicki McQueen, who previously taught at Lampasas Middle School, is the elementary curriculum specialist, and Susan Petrey from Saginaw ISD is the secondary curriculum specialist -- and a new instructional technologist, Eric Folks, most recently from Canyon ISD.

Technology is where it’s at, said Mrs. Yeary. “We want to engage our kids, and technology does that.”

Coming soon to classrooms are touch-sensitive interactive white boards that offer students and teachers the opportunity to interact with what they see on the boards. Special-education classrooms will receive the first round of white boards, and several portable white boards also will be available for teachers’ use.

Mrs. Yeary said a survey of students will help the LISD assess what technology is available in each home to help improve communication between the district and parents, for example with e-mailed newsletters.

“We want to do everything we can to be sure our students are offered the best chance to be technologically on the same level as other students,” said Mrs. Yeary. “We have a great technology department that keeps our computers running, but the district technologist will tie everything to our students and to learning.”

Mrs. Yeary accepted the assistant superintendent’s post, she said, because she is always up for a new challenge. “I enjoy working with students -- even if it’s indirectly now -- and impacting the curriculum and our students’ education.

“This job not only fulfills the role we all see in everyday life of the students in the classroom, but it is much more because the state has so many mandates that school districts have to keep up with,” she said. “There is so much more accountability in districts that goes on behind the scenes for a district to be in compliance with state requirements.”

Mrs. Yeary also has been working on federal programs that generate funding for each of the district’s campuses. “That is timeconsuming, and I am also getting ready for a new school year and teacher and staff development planning.”

Now that the LISD has just one assistant superintendent after the resignations of Nelda Fortune Crawford and Tony Peter, Mrs. Yeary has her work cut out for her. Even though some of the duties have been farmed out to other personnel, she has control of all curriculum matters.

A member of the Texas Elementary Principal’s Association and the Texas Association of School Administrators, Mrs. Yeary still finds time for some of the things she enjoys most.

“I like to watch the sun rise in the morning,” she said. “I enjoy it when I come to town, and I get to watch the sun rise. It reminds me of what a beautiful day it’s going to be.”

She and her husband, Billy, enjoy working with their cattle and traveling together.

Their daughters are in college -- Caley is a senior education major at Texas A&M University, and Carey is a sophomore business major at Texas Tech University.

And soon the girls will be settled back into their respective college towns, and Mrs. Yeary will be prepping for the upcoming school year.

She is ready.

“I always felt like the school district is a business that provides a service to the community, and in order to get repeat customers, we have to have satisfied customers. And to do that, we have to provide a good commodity.

“Our commodity is a good teaching job and a good learning experience,” she said.

“We want our parents to be proud of the education their children are getting here and of their school district.

“We have wonderful students and staff. That’s what it’s all about.”