Re-elect Gary Cook

It has been both an honor and a pleasure to represent the residents of Alief as a Trustee on the Alief ISD School Board for the last 11 years. I am currently running for re-election to the Alief Board of Trustees for position #7 in the November 3 general election. I truly appreciate your continued support and encouragement over the last 11 years.

The Alief community and the school district have seen many changes and challenges over the last 11 years. The Alief ISD Board of Trustees, the Alief Administration, Alief Teachers and Staff have continually strived to meet those challenges and to meet the needs of all of our students.

I am committed to the vision that all children in Alief should have the opportunity to receive an exemplary education. To ensure that education, we must keep highly trained and dedicated staff in the classroom and maintain a safe and secure educational environment. My goal for AISD is to continue to see an increase in student achievement. I believe we need to continue to support the district initiatives and intervention programs that we currently have in place. I believe these programs are making a significant contribution in our student achievement gains. We currently have 7 Exemplary and 21 Recognized campuses in Alief ISD.

With a fixed State allocation of funds and a moderate gain in student enrollment, and with price of energy, gas, insurance and the cost of building maintenance increasing dramatically, I believe my experience and leadership can continue to serve the children in Alief by keeping as many dollars as possible to continue to go directly into the classroom.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Alief community.

• • Alief ISD has 21 Recognized campuses and 7 Exemplary campuses.
• • Alief high schools have made tremendous gains in test scores over the last 5 years, outpacing the state improvement rate in all content areas.
• • In Texas, the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) defines the acceptable standard for completion rate as 75%. As reported in the 2008 AEIS Report, Alief ISD had a completion rate of 80.7%.
• • Fall enrollment for 2008/2009 Alief ISD school year is up 0.5% as projected.
• • Texas Property Tax Code states that if a school district adopts an optional homestead exemption, the exemption will be in addition to the mandatory $15,000 residential homestead exemption.
• • Over the last 10 years, the Alief ISD tax rate has decreased more than 35 cents from $1.6995 to $1.34 — a 21% decrease.