Lubbock ISD trustees have two meetings on the calendar this week. On Wednesday they take a first look at who might fill the board’s empty District 5 seat. On Thursday comes a long agenda that includes library book decisions, plans for new middle schools and an honor for one of East Lubbock’s best-known education families.
Here’s what’s on the agendas, and how you can weigh in.
Wednesday: interviews for the District 5 seat
The board has scheduled a special called meeting for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, in the Board Conference Room. According to the posted agenda, trustees will go into closed session to interview applicants for the District 5 vacancy, then reconvene in public for any action on those items.
The seat opened when trustee John Weddige announced his resignation in September, effective Sept. 30, KCBD reported. Weddige had served since 2024, and his term runs through May 2028. The district accepted letters of interest through 5 p.m. Oct. 13 and said it expected to make an appointment by the end of the fall semester, according to KCBD.
The agenda doesn’t say how many people applied or who they are, and it doesn’t say whether a vote on an appointment will come Wednesday. Hub City UnCovered asked Lubbock ISD on Tuesday how many people applied for the District 5 seat, when the board expects to vote on an appointment and what the district’s 2026 FIRST rating was. We’ll update this story when the district responds.
Thursday: library books up for a vote
The regular meeting starts at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in the Boardroom at 1628 19th St. It opens with a public hearing on the district’s Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) report, the state’s yearly review of a district’s financial management.
Two items come from the School Library Advisory Council, a district committee of LISD parents and guardians that the board created to advise on library materials. According to agenda documents, the council met Oct. 19 and is recommending a new library acquisition list along with decisions on several books that had been under reconsideration. The documents cite two recent state laws on school library materials, HB 900 and SB 13.
Here’s what the council recommends:
- Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco: remove from all LISD libraries.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: remove from all LISD libraries.
- The Best Man by Richard Peck: remove from elementary libraries, keep in middle school libraries.
- Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George: remove from elementary libraries, keep in middle school libraries.
- Sophia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty: keep in all libraries.
According to the same document, three other titles under review, Blankets, This Boy and Nineteen Minutes, had already been weeded from collections in an earlier phase. The final decisions belong to the board.
A library named for the Gipsons
The meeting opens with a recognition of Curtis and Hattie Gipson and their family. Later, trustees are set to vote on officially naming the library at Curtis and Hattie Gipson Elementary School.
Agenda documents say the board voted unanimously Sept. 24 to give the couple’s name to the new elementary school being built at the former O.L. Slaton Middle School site. It will replace Bean Elementary, which now includes students from Hodges Elementary. Both Gipsons graduated from Dunbar High School. According to the district, Curtis Gipson taught history and coached basketball at Dunbar and later served as an assistant principal and principal at Estacado High School and Alderson Junior High before retiring in 1993. He died in July at 92. Hattie Gipson spent 30 years as a teacher and principal, including at Hunt Elementary and as principal of Wheatley Elementary, and also retired in 1993. She died in 2020 at 84.
Also on Thursday’s agenda
- Middle school building plans: trustees will consider educational specifications for the middle school projects approved in the 2025 bond. State rules require these specifications before design begins. The district says approving them has no direct cost, but they will set the minimum scope of those projects.
- School improvement plans: the 2026-27 district and campus improvement plans, plus a turnaround plan and targeted improvement plans.
- Policy and programs: proposed revisions to the board’s Educational Philosophy policy, AE(LOCAL), a “System of Great Schools” overview presentation, and a resolution on extracurricular status for 4-H.
- Money matters: August and September financial reports, fund balance classifications for 2026-27, district purchases and prevailing wage rates.
- Safety: findings from districtwide intruder detection audits. The closed-session list also includes deliberation on security devices or audits.
Trustees will also hear a Level III employee grievance and meet in closed session on legal, real estate and personnel matters.
How to speak at the meeting
Thursday’s agenda includes time for citizen comments. LISD’s board meeting information page explains how to sign up ahead of time, and speakers generally get three minutes. Full agendas and attachments are posted on the district’s BoardBook page.
Hub City UnCovered will report on what the board decides.
Sources
- Lubbock ISD BoardBook, Oct. 29, 2026 agenda: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/869?meeting=773127
- Lubbock ISD BoardBook, Oct. 28, 2026 special called meeting agenda: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/869?meeting=773853
- KCBD, Lubbock ISD names three new elementary schools; District 5 trustee announces resignation (Sept. 25, 2026): https://www.kcbd.com/2026/09/25/lubbock-isd-names-three-new-elementary-schools-district-5-trustee-announces-resignation/
- EverythingLubbock via The Lubbock, Lubbock ISD to hold board meeting Oct. 29: https://www.thelubbock.org/news/lubbock-isd-to-hold-board-of-trustees-meeting-on-oct-29
- Lubbock ISD, Board meeting information (public comment): https://www.lubbockisd.org/page/board-meeting-information/
- Public notice, FIRST public hearing: https://www.noticeregistry.com/texas/notice/public-hearing-lubbock-967768
