The purpose of this research was to identify practices and activities of school board governance in large urban Texas school districts that achieved an academic rating of Recognized during the 2005-06 school year. Specifically, this research was designed to identify the practices that board presidents and superintendents felt were beneficial and necessary in assisting their boards to govern in an appropriate manner. The research questions that guided this process are: 1) How is the board involved in policy development and district planning that contributes to governing the school district? 2) What practices are used in the management, operation, and training of the board and individual board members for effective school board governance? 3) What practices have proven beneficial for effective communication among school board members and between the board and superintendent, and how does the board evaluate its own governing effectiveness? 4) What are critical areas affecting school boards and their ability to successfully and effectively govern? This study used qualitative research methods to examine and identify the strategies and practices employed by superintendents and board presidents in assisting boards to properly and efficiently govern their school districts. Data for this study was collected through publicly accessible information from the Texas Education Agency’s web site and a series of one-on-one interviews with superintendents and board presidents in academically high-achieving large Texas urban school districts. After transcription of the interviews, the resulting data was coded and emerging categories and themes identified through Grounded Theory qualitative research methods and procedures. Based on analysis of the research, board presidents and superintendents identified the following practices for their boards: establishing salaries early in the budget process; regularly contacting local, state, and federal policymakers about educational issues; establishing annual goals and performance criteria for the district and superintendent from a district-wide strategic plan; providing the board with multiple opportunities of involvement each month to meet and discuss district issues; identifying and attending multiple levels of continuous board training; being visible in the community by attending school and community events; providing all board members with extensive and ongoing information from the school district; having clearly defined board operating procedures; and being an advocate for the school district as well as voicing support for the administration. Regardless of the size of the school district, the findings of this research will enhance superintendents’ and board presidents’ understanding of the activities and practices used by board presidents and superintendents in academically high-achieving Texas urban school districts. / text

The Hickory Sandstone Member of the Riley Formation is dominantly quartz sandstone up to 167 m thick which crops out in the Llano Uplift region of central Texas and dips away in all directions. It lies unconformably upon the irregular surface of the Precambrian Texas craton. The association of isopach thicks and thins over cratonic lows and highs demonstrates topographic control of Hickory deposition. Regional subsurface studies delineate the extent of the overlying Cap Mountain Limestone. Beyond the limits of the Cap Mountain, the Hickory grades into the Lion Mountain Sandstone laterally and vertically so that correlations are difficult. The six lithofacies of the Hickory Sandstone were deposited as nonbarred tidally-influenced or estuarine-related equivalents to deposits of Holocene environments. Outer estuarine tidal channel-shoal deposits display abundant channel fills of large-scale foresets, parallel bedded sandstone, and minor siltstone. Trilobite trackways (Cruziana) and resting traces (Rusophycus) occur in these deposits, associated with U-shape burrows (Diplocraterion and Corophioides). Deposits of open coast sandy tidal flats display upward-fining character, medium-to large-scale festoon crossbedding, abundant small-scale ripple bedforms of all types, and mudcracks. These deposits include the U-shape burrows, Corophiodes, and the trackway, Climactichnites. Deposits of inner estuarine tidal channels and tidal flats display upward-fining character, wavy-lenticular bedding, bimodal paleocurrent patterns, and the resting trace, Pelecypodichnus. All of these deposits prograded as a unit until sea level rise shut off sediment supply. Progradation of tidal channel and shoal sediments was renewed. These deposits are festoon crossbedded hematitic sandstone with wavy-lenticular bedding and abundant fossil debris. Storm energy funneled through tidal channels deposited crossbedded sandstone onto the nearshore inlet-influenced shelf. Final Hickory deposits and initial Cap Mountain deposits were storm-dominated, burrowed and laminated calcitic shelf sands. / text

The petrologic study of cave sediments is a new field whose history dates back only about 30 years. Most previous work has been done in Europe, with very little in North America. This is the first petrologic study of sediments of Texas caves. Sediments from the 11 Central Texas caves investigated provide information on the diagenetic sequence of authigenic calcite and collophane, and add to the knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of red clays and dolomite silts. The sediments from Fyllan Cave in Travis County place a maximum date of mid-Pleistocene on the existing Colorado River terraces. X-ray analysis of clays in sediments from three caves indicates a decline in kaolinite content, confirming a drying tendency for the last 8000 years. / text

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