001Good evening and welcome. My name is Taylor Kingman. As president of the board of trustees of the St. Angelo Independent School District, I would like to welcome all of you who are present at tonight's pre-aggenda board meeting. We appreciate your interest in the activities of our students and the business of SISD. All items that will be discussed at our meeting this evening have been posted as required by state law. Also, as you may be aware, our board meets a minimum of two times per month, and most of the items on our agenda this evening will be discussed tonight and voted upon at our regular board meeting. As members of the SASD board of trustees, we are here to set goals, listen to reports from our superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, and personnel appointments, and to make
002policy for the district. Please keep in mind that our mean is mean of the board of trustees held in public and not mean of the public. However, we do have a public comment item on our agenda that allows anyone present who wishes to speak to our board team on an item that is not on our action agenda or an action item on the agenda an opportunity to do so. Please provide your name and contact information and the specific topic you wish to address on a public comment form located at the back of the room um prior to public comment this evening. Please listen carefully and comply with the following rules so we can move through this part of the meeting efficiently. Each speaker will be given a total of of three minutes. The district will
003provide an official timekeeper. You'll be notified when your time is up. Please respect the privacy of others and refrain from identifying students, employees, or other community members by name. Disruption of the meeting will not be tolerated at any time. Comments on any subject, whether positive or negative, must be courteous and respectful. Comments are limited to the specific topic you indicated on the form. and any speaker with a specific complaint about a district employee decision or operational issue should present that complaint through the appropriate mechanism which is the district's formal grievance process. Also, please understand if you offer a public comment that the board cannot reply to you except to thank you for your comments since the matter has not been posted for discussion. I ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking.
004I also ask as I remind my fellow board members to please turn off or silence your cell phones. Again, thank you for being here and for your support of SASD. We do have a quorum this evening. Um Miss Cardinas will not be able to attend this evening. Um but we have six of our team here. Um and with that, we'll move to our pledge of allegiances. If everyone please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the flaggis. All right, we have no public comments this evening, so we'll move straight into our finance and audit committee workshop, and I'll turn that over to Mr. Dindle. >> Thank you, Dr. Cayman. We've got a couple
005of uh reports tonight. First on the agenda is our bond construction update. I'm not sure whether Dr. Brandon, Mr. Denheim, or Mr. Lopez is going to help us. But maybe we can be tag team and get all three. >> Welcome R.J. Thanks for >> Good evening to the gentleman that needs no introduction. >> RJ, >> thank you Dr. >> All right. Dr. Kingman, Dr. Moran, and board of trustees. It's wonderful to be out here tonight. Um, you will be hearing eventually a lot more uh uh from Carl and the others u as construction gets underway and as we start meeting quite a bit more. We've we've had a few meetings uh up until now and I'm going to run through what we've been up to u up to this point. Just as a reminder, these
006are the overall timelines u as far as the overall bond projects go. We've got the more detailed schedule and if you have any questions on any of these, feel free to ask for sure. I just want to make sure we continue to show these and discuss anything that uh ever changes. Right now, we're on track on schedule for all these. I have uh provided a project status update that gives you a brief overview of each project that we're working on. Um quickly it just shows uh you know which architect is working on the project. Um the status at the very top of that project. So you can see Crockett Elementary uh is 100% complete in the bidding process. Um the estimated completion date is August 2026. So that's when it would actually um open and
007construction would be completed. Um recent activity, we've had Lee Lewis selected as the general contractor and then we're coordinating with the city on permitting and upcoming exciting we get to start construction on Crockett Elementary. So that'll be the first bond project that gets underway. So, knock on wood, in the month of August, you should see some construction on Crockett Elementary for the 2025 bond projects, which is very exciting. And then, uh, we've also gone through and and listed out each project and just given you a quick quick overview of of what's going on and what you can see in the future. Um, I've I've listed each one of these on a slide just to make it a little more graphic, but it has the exact same information. and we just went over Crockett. Next project
008would be McGill. Right now, McGill is uh at 100% schematic design complete. Um we are u we will eventually be bidding that one out as well like we did Crockett. Um we do preliminary reviews with the city so that we kind of have it on their radar and make sure we have any comments incorporated uh prior to finishing out the drawing. So we've we've gone through that process. Um and we've also uh started working through the 100% schematic design review which is kind of the more sketchy um maybe 20,000 foot view of the plan. Now we're going to start getting closer to that 10,000 foot 5,000 foot and really narrow into the details of the plan. So the upcoming work on McGill would be just moving from 2D plans to really 3D massing and and
009details on McGill. And then on the larger projects, they just take a little bit more time, but we have been working towards those uh those schematic design is underway for Glenn New School. We're working through getting surveys uh coordinated. We're looking on looking at bringing on the construction manager at risk currently. We've walked through the existing facilities with the principles and some of the design team to just verify scope, talk about every space that was included within the um the bond scope and make sure that everybody has a good idea of of what the original goals were and what's best for the campus. So that's that's kind of what we we looked at uh when walking through those spaces. So the next step is just to take a fine tooth comb through u the list
010of spaces that we have and make sure that those are um those fall in line with the the needs of the campus and then then we can actually start making blocks and laying those out on the side. Um so the ne upcoming um items for Glenu Middle School would just be looking at those list of spaces and then uh we're also scheduling site visits of other example middle schools so that the the design team and the leadership team can really see with their own two eyes what the middle schools built within the past 15 to 20 years really uh feel like and look like. and they can hear from the, you know, maintenance staff and the teachers and the principles because, you know, it's one thing to see pictures, but to experience and then um
011also be able to just hear feedback from others is uh really puts a whole different perspective into the design process. And so we're we're really excited about that potential. I have a couple pictures of just walking through some of the uh example facilities with the team. You can see on the right there, we had uh a really good cross-section from our side of uh engineers and project managers um and architects. And then from y'all's side, we had uh principles and uh CTE director and the director of food service. So trying to make sure that when we're walking and talking about the new facilities and uh the correlation between the existing and the new that we kind of have everybody there to uh discuss the the potential and the the opportunities for the new building. So
012a lot of really excited uh individuals and a lot of exciting conversations happening during those tours. And I put five, six, and seven because uh a majority of the same team went through uh Glenn, Central, and Lake View just so that we could also talk about making sure that uh y'all's standards are are being met so that if we're selecting certain ceiling tiles or carpet tiles, if there's opportunity to, you know, select similar items to where you know, uh economy of scale and purchasing and maintenance, it make it more efficient. then then we want to do that. So, we're trying to document those items where that makes sense. I think I mean I know each school is going to have a little bit of their own identity, but they're also all going to be under
013the umbrella of St. Angelo ISD. So, we want to make sure that each team knows that while they're working on it. All right. And uh the Lake View update will be pretty similar. We're working on survey uh working on bringing on the construction manager at at risk. We also walk the schools and then we're reviewing the list of spaces. So, it's kind of at the the same stage as Glenn. That completion date for Lake View is January 2028. And then lastly, we have central and that one's currently under schematic design. It's also u survey scope coordination and the CMR request for proposals underway. So kind of this the same status. We'll be reviewing the list of spaces tomorrow actually with the principal and leadership team and then scheduling visits uh of example theaters of example
014competition gyms of example culinary spaces. So right now we're putting together pictures and options for places to visit and we'll be narrowing narrowing the list. So it's a exciting time. Any questions on those projects? I went through kind of quick. We've got a lot of going on. It's kind of a quick synopsis. Looks like we're putting gas in the car and fixing to take off, making a plan for the trip. So >> moving forward. Any questions for Mr. Lopez? I will apologize to some of the leadership team. We've been sending a lot of email invites and a lot of calendar invites to get people together to work towards these projects. >> I just want to thank you Mr. Lopez and Park for doing what you are doing. The the idea of creating efficient spaces that
015make it easy for our maintenance team. And I know it's partly why we hired Mr. Danheim to make sure that he and Mr. Candy were working together to make sure that we make these facilities easy to maintain for the next 30 years. Um is important because that's how long they last around here. >> Yeah. So >> we're counting on 60 at least on these. >> Yes. 75 wouldn't be too bad. So that's our goal. >> Well, great. We proved that to be possible in the past. So continue that tradition of >> There you go. laying the groundwork for some good facilities that will last us long term. So again, thanks for making the drive again and uh we'll look forward to uh the next update. >> Yeah, glad to be here. Thank you'all. >> Okay.
016>> Next up is uh Dr. Moran's going to help us with an update on Senate Bill 13 uh library materials. >> All right. This is a uh a new law that has um been passed well a new new legislation anyway for districts to consider. Dr. Dr. Gomez is going to overview this for us. Miss Hog is in the audience. Uh our media specialist and leader at Central High School. Uh but essentially uh the board has a decision to make. We'll propose and educate the board and then on the 25th provide the opportunity for the board to to go either direction. So Dr. Gomez, >> do you want me to go up or speak from here? >> Your call. >> You're good. You can go. >> Yeah. >> You're good. You got a mic. I apologize
017that I missed the change in order so I'm I'm back on. Sorry. Um so absolutely I know that I've sent you all have received a lot of literature this summer with the legislative updates and so we first started talking about this bill in June. and we revisited it in July and just want to give you an update and really the key requirements of the law, making sure that everyone understands that now the board will approve every library purchase, including those that are donated. So you all have the proposed DFB local policy if you want to refer to it or we'll discuss it more on the 25th, but it's specifically on page three where it um specifies that at least 30 days prior to your vote um you must have access to that. So what that
018means internally you can have policy but it changes your administrative regulations. So, Miss Hog and I have uh spent a lot of time working and I want to commend her hard work because even the process for librarians and library pair professionals to submit orders have to change and the timing so that we can get them to all of you and enough notice. Um, another key component to this law is the parent access to their children's uh specific materials. So we had that enabled in Destiny previously last year. Uh it was available upon parent request. We will um continue that but we've widened that transparency. Mr. Ramirez, do you mind referring to the web page? There is a new component on our SISD web page under the parent section specifically under library services that um Mr.
019Wilcox has worked with Miss Hogue on getting this information there, but you'll see that live link instructions to access your students library account. So, right now, we have a lot of information going to parents. We're trying to chunk this more more than anything. We want parents to know we're ready to welcome them and their students Thursday and Friday. So, we will continue to push this information out, but we have it posted in multiple places. So, for all of you to see there, it's new and accessible on that library service um page. Then, um more than ever, it's important to note with this law that um parents and guardians are the primary decision makers. So, they can also submit titles they do not want their students to check out. There's a way within the system where
020librarians can go through and mark off certain titles so that they would not have access to those. And that is kind of just the big summary, the purchasing, the parent access. Um, and then of course it's specific in the policy, the language which uh introduces is indecent and profane. So it add adds that prohibited content and uses that language specifically. The last portion that we have in ours specifically page 407 of the proposed policy the challenge of library materials. The district has had a reading content selection committee for a number of years. So um that's why this policy was presented to you from TASBY. And then it goes through and breaks down the guiding principles. what's the difference between an informal and a formal challenge if that should come to be with a book. Um
021some districts there's a consideration of a separate local school library advisory council. This district would have to do that if we hit a certain percentage of a request for that. But because we have the current process in place with the reading content selection, we're proposing to continue that unless we should need to move forward with the it's called the again it's abbreviation LSLAC slack committee. So do you have general specific questions you'd like to go through tonight and hear specifically about on the 25th? I just know you're going to be approving a lot of library books. Yeah, there's no way around that. It doesn't look like >> No, sir. There's no way. >> But the that's okay. But the I think the good thing the thing to point out is that you and our librarians
022have worked to we're ahead in on this in a lot of ways. We're really ahead of the state um in having a policy in place that has allowed parents um one to see the books that were checked out by their k children and two um to allow for parents to and community members to come and discuss what books were appropriate for our libraries or not. And so in some ways like we're having to formalize it and make tweak it a little bit to make things fit into how we were doing things. But the reality is in a lot of ways we were ahead. I mean, obviously the board wasn't approving every book that was purchased, but from a transparency with our parents, um, a lot of this is what we were already doing, just in
023a little bit different format. >> Yes, sir. I really want to commend Miss Hogue, uh, and all of our staff who have been a part of that process. We have always said we want parents to be involved. Um, but it's super important to stress that the parent is that primary decision maker. Now, you'll notice on page 407 in the challenge of library materials, it does clarify that a district employee, a parent or guardian of a district student or a district resident may challenge library materials, but ultimately the individual parent or guardian has the final say on I do not want my child checking this out and our librarians are able to make that happen. How far how often do we have parents challenging with the current >> um you specified parents so parents are very
024few because parents already have had the option to say I don't want my child checking out that book >> which is not a problem so um if you have people that are not parents and outside of that role that's more frequent than parents >> so okay okay so we get a lot of outside >> I wouldn't say a lot but we do get some. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Thank you. >> I wanted to ask um in approving the library books, what is the expectation of the board? None of us have library science degrees. That's why we hire Miss Hog and others. Um so what are we how far into the books are we supposed to go in? >> Well, we there are requirements of information that we have to provide. Um and all
025of that information will be given to you. So in terms of how far do you have to go um you you hit on a very important part. We have staff that do have that degree of expertise. They understand the law. Some of them have multiple degrees in this very thing and they understand what we are allowed to adopt or not adopt. So um they're working under um those guidelines and preparing for what's presented to you to meet those. Now, I can't speak to you as an individual board member of how much deeper you take that. Um, but I know that my degree and understanding in procuring library materials is not as deep as Miss Hoax either. So, I do um and trust in our employees who have that depth of knowledge to do their job.
026>> So, there will be some serious vetting before it finally gets to >> All of our books do go through that process. Yes. >> Absolutely. >> Yes. And and also in this process due to the time frame um some vendors are faster than others. So we've even really been selective about which vendors because to get vendors that are timely to get you orders 30 days in advance. This really has changed our entire timeline and process. So a lot of homework is done before any books will ever come your way. >> Correct. Okay. >> Can I'm sorry. Can we um also just for anybody who's watching or listening um just say that like this vetting has already been done. This is nothing new because of this this lit this >> Yes ma'am. You're exactly right Miss
027Miselle Flint. This vetting has not changed. What has changed is the amount of extra work that will be put on our employees to meet the 30 days posting. And also what's most important to us is that we're getting materials in our libraries so we get materials in the hands of our children. So, we will make all of that happen, but there's a lot of extra work that will come with this. So, um while we're not afraid of the extra work, we're committed to doing what it takes, but we're not presenting to you information that does not meet the right criteria. >> Great. Additional questions. Thank you, Dr. Gomez. We look forward to next week talking about that. >> I want to thank Miss Hog. She will also be here next week, but I've um reassured
028her she does not need to sit through the whole meeting. So, thank you, Miss Hog, for your time. It's very busy as we prepare for the school year. >> Miss Hog, you are welcome to stay if you'd like to. >> It's not an absolute. So, thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate that. Next on our agenda are our reports, our bills and accounts report. They start on page seven. If you'd like to go to page 11, couple of things. It shows our committed fund balance at 4.7 million. We've got uh significant amount of uh capital uh projects and also we've still got a million dollars of our construction projects in that in that fund that we haven't moved yet. Couple other things in there. There's always a property uh insurance deductible uh and security. We
029always have those out there uh just in case we need those. So also uh on the same page it also shows our unassigned uh fund balance amount currently at at 52.8 million somewhere in there a healthy uh unassigned balance which uh we're moving forward with this year. That's some good news. A lot of districts do not have that that they have some fallback to where they can actually take care of some projects without uh adopting a deficit budget for sure. If you want to move forward to page 13, that's our June revenue and expenditures report. This is the 10th month of the budget process. So, we should be approximately at 83% of our budget. Uh right now, we're at 82% of both uh at both revenues and expenditures. Uh as is normal, the state contributions
030are at 71% while our local revenue is almost 98% complete. uh this the uh local revenue comes in early uh makes our budget whole and then the state makes the whole as we move forward to the uh end of our fiscal year. Uh our federal receipts are lagging behind at 50%. Uh and also uh as note we show a uh construction actual expenses right now at 7.4 million rather than 7 million. something that we probably just haven't moved funds over to uh accommodate those uh that uh $400,000 worth of expense which will come shortly I'm sure with a general budget amendment check registers is contained on pages 13 through 32. I'm not sure if anybody's got any questions on any of the checks. If you do, make sure you let Dr. Brandon uh know and
031uh we always get answers to that. uh we usually a lot of times we'll do that before the meeting and so there all these checks are already reconciled in our minds before uh even we get to the meeting which is which is very nice. Investment reports are on pages 32 through 37. As of June we had invested funds totaling uh $67 million procs with interest earned at $257,000 uh interest rates between 4.3 and 4.52%. Any questions about the uh investment reports? If not, we can move to the tax collection report which is on page 38. Collection rates for 2024 are at 97.86% while the 2023 collection rates were slightly ahead at 98.58%. There's no if there's no uh questions about the tax collection report, we move to the PO report for purchases over $20,000. those
032those those those pills are contained on pages 37 through 44 as is the the procedure at the beginning of the year. There are a lot of lot of maintenance items in there plus uh our school res resource officers uh PO is in there and there's also some professional learning expenses there's any other questions about any of those POS. All right if not uh Dr. Mr. Human, that concludes the uh finance and uh bills and accounts report. >> Thank you, Mr. Dentle. Um all right, next we're going to work on our 2526 budget workshop and Dr. Brandon and Miss Flores are here to answer questions and work us through that. Dr. Keeman, Dr. Bran uh board of trustees. Good evening. Um Miss Flores is with us. The bud the brains behind the budget. That's what I'm
033going to say. Um certainly you have your budget workbook uh to look through and I would encourage you if you have any questions certainly to email those to me andor um Mrs. Flores for us to review and get get an answer back to you. Um we're going to uh kind of go through rather than page by page in the workbook. Um going to take you through the information presentation uh tied to our budget and tax rate discussion uh as we before we move into the 25th uh for that approval. Uh so as we look through the um objectives for this evening, uh we're going to review the preliminary budget um and then set a public meeting date to discuss the budget and proposed tax rate, set the proposed tax rate to be published, and approve
034the 25 2025 appraisal role. You've seen this slide several times. Uh we talk about how do we define local and state revenue, both of those very important to the budget process. Uh I have that up there to make a couple of points. Property values. Uh we're going to spend some time in that conversation about local property values, how that affects our budget and our tax rate. And then state revenue. Uh certainly one good thing that we want to u show appreciation to our community. uh the tax ratification election and the eight golden pennies that are now approved and and part of the budget. Uh and then we have the basic aotment increase. Uh we'll talk about some things that we appreciate the legislature for uh in this past session. Uh and we'll single out house
035bill 2 legislative increases. So when we think about uh property values and what we will ask um for your approval on uh the certified appraisal role uh Mr. Johnson uh our chief appraiser works very closely with the school district uh as we have questions back and forth uh not only about school finance but property values in general. you see down in the net taxable value 6.9 million. Uh and I point out uh at the top of this next page uh these are the property values uh for St. Angel. And you see that highlighted at the top 140K and 200K. So we've not had a reduction in property taxes voted down by the uh by our taxpayers. And so the legislature knows in November um to bring that when that's brought before the public, there's a
036strong likelihood, right, that we're all going to be on board with uh uh homestead exemption increase and reduction in our taxes. So, but I I do want to point out the difference of what that would have been. So, um Mr. Johnson provided also a 100k estimate. So, if our homestead exemption would have remained at $100,000 uh per home uh with a appropriate homestead exemption, it would have been right at 7.5 billion. And if we take a quick look at what it is with 140,000 homestead exemption, 6.9 billion, we see a loss of $500 million in property value. Well, the state does make that up. Thank goodness, right? So, it's a it's a blessing to our taxpayers uh to see that reduction in homestead exemption. Uh but as you track the numbers, there's going to be
037a difference and we'll come back to that of that loss of 500 million in property value. This is kind of what it looks like a as the property values have increased uh over the last six or seven years. Uh in St. Angelo ISD uh we get all the way to 9 billion and then we had the increase from 40,000 in homestead exemption to 100,000 and then next legislative session we see in 2526 the proposal moving to 140,000 a continued commitment by the legislature to drive down uh taxes. we see a small growth from 6.93 billion to 6.98 uh 0.01 1% growth. So we take those property values and we bring that into the revenue uh for the district and that's divided by local, state and federal. So in the blue as we look through some
038of those very very same year to year we see a slight drop uh in our current taxes and that very top line in blue 43 um.8 million to 43.6. Um we look down the the main the main drop in local you're going to find in interest earnings as we have built buildings right for our elementary schools at Fannon and McGill uh those expenditures out of the general fund by the board of trustees. Um as we lower that then we don't collect as much interest. So for locally that's the major uh difference year-to-year is that 1 million loss in interest earnings. Now, if we look at the white section for state aid, uh you see a drastic increase um from 51 million to 58 million in the foundation school program and that's going to be our
039House Bill 2 teacher raises. Our teacher retention um raises are part of that. And then very similar again in the green section for federal. Just to compare last year revenue for proposed estimated revenue for 2526 an increase of 5.7 million. Now we know the bulk of that 5.7 million lies in new funding from House Bill 2. You can see school safety was an increase, a small increase in special education, the basic cost aotment uh for inflation andor uh salaries outside of the teacher raises and then teacher retention aotment being the large portion of that uh 6.2 2 million in new money and then we see the increase of 5.7 that new state funding money is from House Bill 2 is included in the 5.7. But when you subtract off the loss of 1 million in
040interest revenue then you see kind of where we came in at 5.7 over. Now we always know that student membership and attendance is important uh for our students. We know we hope to start the year at 12,800. We get paid on only the students in attendance, right? So 93.5 attendance rate is what we've been tracking. That drops to 11,900 and then we've been running approximately 1.3% decline and that mimics our demography study uh for student the loss of student enrollment. So we base the budget on 11,812 students by the end of the year. You'll see that we take the 138 million in forecasted revenue for the district and we move that to available revenue in the proposed budget. I did include uh for discussion um our compensation considerations just so that we can see once
041again the differences between House Bill 2, the mandatory raises that were part of the increase uh from the legislature uh the benefits had to be included in that. So we see 4.4 million in the required raises. We did the TASBY salary study to see where we were behind in markets in similar sized districts and other districts in the area. And then we have the 3% um GPI uh approved by the board last month. That total compensation plan at 6 million uh is 112 million estimated for salaries for 2526. That moves into the 6100 expenditures for payroll. We have some slight increases in contracted services, supplies, materials, and operating expenses. So, at the end of those increases, we have 138 million to match our revenues for a balanced budget. Uh, very proud of what the district
042from board administration all the way through the district. It's a team effort to get to zero for a balanced budget. We're fortunate uh there's not a lot of school districts, right, uh that uh are able to do that at this time. Uh so we've made the adjustments along the way since since co to try to make that possible. So when we talk about uh approving the budget which will happen on the 25th by fund and function uh we have the general fund, child nutrition and debt service. Those are the three funds that the board will be approving. And then the expenditures by function code 11 through 99. You see, we immediately take the 138 million, drop it in the total revenue, and then the codes that you saw here from 6100 through 6,400. Those expenditures
043uh by function uh for the same total 138 million for the balance budget. child nutrition, you do see a deficit of 327,000. Uh we've talked in the past about at one point child nutrition, their fund balance was actually too high and so they received a letter from the state requesting that that it's not meant right for child nutrition to carry a large fund balance. So they were able to drop that and so the same way here they'll use their extra fund balance money to uh as part of that 327,000. uh but they also receive grants throughout the year that may offset that as well. And then our debt service is just a straight money in and money out. um the tax money that is raised uh 24 million at the proposed tax rate and then
0443.3 million we'll see that in just a minute on the state aid for hold harmless uh for 28 million and then uh offset by the payment of 28 million for the year. Now, where that tax rate is going to come from when the bonds were sold. As we track across the page, um you can see the years of bond payments uh in that columns 3, four, and five. You see the outstanding bond of indebtedness. We see a payoff of the 2008 bonds by 2034. And then as those bonds are paid, then we kick in and start uh we're paying on the 2025 all along, but to a to a greater amount. Uh so you see the tax rate where the red arrow 3584 um as a proposed tax rate um which was 271 for just
045the 2025 bond. the 271 is lower than the proposed tax rate. Uh when we went to the community and we were making bond presentations, if you remember that rate was 2726. So slightly lower. Uh that's always a good thing. Uh the bond that we would uh propose uh to be adopted lower than uh what it would have been uh when we started the bond presentations. And then you can see over time uh a general growth in the tax base half a percent then allows the INS tax rate to drop over time. If we see greater tax base greater tax base growth then the board certainly could drop that rate uh over time as well. So this is what the debt service looks like for the 2526 school year at a proposed rate of um 3584.
046You see the local collections at 99% with the 140,000 homestead exemption value collecting just over well 24.7 million. Uh we will receive some taxes for prior years penalty and interest and then certainly a larger amount of interest this year because due to the amount of tax collections. Um so you see in the projected tax collection 25 a.5 million and then the hold harmless from the state. So when you saw that the tax rate the talk the prop property value sorry when the property values were reduced by 500 million then the state hold harmless the district for that amount. Uh so that was the big push sell the bonds make the first payment before September 1. Um, so that 3.3 million is coming from the state as part of our hold harmless to make the full
047payment of 28 million on the bonds uh for 2526. And then that will leave a $654,000 projected uh extra overage uh that will go in the INS fund balance. And that INS fund balance will be used overtime to pay down the bonds. Whether that's next year or whether that's at the end of the bond and pay it off early, those funds will always be used uh toward the bond. Just to put that in perspective of our historical uh rates, um our M tax rate, the proposed 7122, uh you can see back just a few years ago, uh the M tax rate was over a dollar. So that's dropped uh over 30 cents over time, mostly compression by the legislature. Uh but we also see the INS tax rate uh has dropped over time. Uh and
048then we have the sale of the bond. Uh then that number falling within about the median of some of the other districts that we've seen in 6A and their bond construction. And then historically uh if we look back uh not that long ago even though the$17 is the proposed rate uh that's still lower than what we had just four years ago uh in the community. So certainly appreciate what the board of trustees has done over time to continue to lower that and I know that will be the focus moving uh in the future. So here we have the M tax rate INS and the total how that compares to last year proposing 7122 in M.3584 for INS uh for $1.706 for the proposed total tax rate. Two things that come out during this time to
049make sure that school districts are in line uh with their tax rate projections. the um CAD uh has completes a tax rate calculation worksheet. The chief appraiser uh calculates that and two main things that come out of that report. It's six or seven pages long, very difficult, uh hard to follow honestly in some areas. Uh but two things come out of that. The no new revenue tax rate uh.77. If the property values would have remained 500 million more, then we would have only needed.77 cents to collect the same amount of revenue. But with the drop uh and the homestead the increase in homestead exemption that dropped the property values by 500 million uh is where we land on the 81 cents. But more important than that number is the voter approval tax rate. We can't
050go out to the public with a tax rate higher than the voter approval tax rate. And you see that that is a$18, just over a dollar eight. So we're under our proposed tax rate is actually a penny under uh the voter approval tax rate. You'll find the same information in the notice of public meeting to discuss budget and proposed tax rate that we'll propose that on the August 25th board meeting. Uh, one thing I wanted to put point out that we don't want to be confusing. Uh, if on first glance, uh, you see the first red arrow indicating the drop in property values. Um, and then the second page, when you look at that, it may seem hard to believe that you would actually go from 81 cents to $17 and pay less taxes. But
051you have to remember that's this is uh overall this is an average. So even though the average home went from 219,000 to 230,000 look what happened to the average value after homestead exemption. So last year the average home with a 100,000 homestead exemption uh was at 99,000 but now with 140 and then some of our seniors over age over 65 receiving 200,000 um there are a lot of homes that won't be taxed at all through the school district. So you see that that number actually drops uh because of the dollar7 um even though it's higher. You see that related back to the increased homestead exemption. So overall you see a drop in average homeowner from last year to this year. And then again the voter approval tax rate I've highlighted that comes out in both
052reports uh at a$18. We have the expected fund balance next year at 52 million. And then our interest in syncing fund balance is for the 2008 bond that does not have yet um uh the amount for our 2025 bond. So administration recommendation uh this could be done in one motion but to set our public meeting date to discuss the budget and proposed rate on August 25th two weeks. uh set the proposed tax rate to be published at Mino 7122 INS at 3584 for a total tax rate of $1.706. And then also this evening approval of the 2025 appraisal role as presented and then I'll open it up for questions. I just have a quick question as far as the notice for public meeting. Um the notice that we're actually going to publish is assuming the
053tax homestead exemption gets ratified as we all are assuming it's going to happen. >> Leg I just want to confirm that legally we don't have to post both values since that has not actually happened yet. >> No. Okay. They they actually uh the uh appraisal district was as actually told uh when they set that this time uh to to do it off the November rates. Uh we've not there's not an expectation that the voters will vote down a uh tax reduction on the for themselves. So they were tasked with uh sending the values to all of the school districts at the 140,000 200,000 homestead exemption >> and that's by the state. So they've been instrued by the state controller to do it that way. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just want to >> Yeah. Yeah.
054>> Following the rules. >> That was my question. >> Does anyone have Sorry. Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Brandon or Miss Flores regarding the presentation or budget workshop. I know um they've been both very happy to answer questions that have come up when I was looking through my budget workshop, but anyone has any questions, just make sure you all email those because although we'll set the dates, etc. tonight, we won't actually be approving budgets. So, if you have any questions regarding those things, email them this next week so they can make sure we get your answers before you have to vote on this. Um, any other questions or comments? So, do I have So, we do need a motion for this. Um, so this would be um we can do >> AB and
055C as one motion if um someone can have that as long as Dr. Branding keeps that up on the screen. >> Yeah, >> Dr. Keman, I'd like to set the public meeting date mo to set the public meeting date to discuss the district, excuse me, to discuss budget proposed tax rate on August 25th, 2025. also like to set the proposed tax rate to be published. Our maintenance operations at 71.22 cents, our interest in syncing fund at 35.84 with a total tax rate of $1 and7.06. In addition to that, I like to consider approval of the 2025 appraisal role as presented. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion from Mr. Dindle and a second from Mr. Gyos. Um, any further board questions or comments regarding the saying of the public meeting,
056the proposed tax rate or the approval of the 2025 appraisal rule? >> Dr. I know it's a challenge to stay within our means, but our district has been able to do that for for several years now when lots of uh districts are now depending on the state to bail them out with their deficit budgets. I know I asked Miss Lord several questions this evening and Dr. Brandon uh about our our budget and uh they were happy to answer how funds have moved from one function to another which they know all about and sometimes I don't other than just noticing an anomaly in the budget process. So, uh, thanks to them for their hard work, uh, on the budget as we move forward. And, uh, I think we're, uh, obviously fortunate to maintain, uh, moving forward
057with a balanced budget for, uh, this district for sure. And that's in part due to, uh, Miss Flores and Dr. Brandon, uh, being careful with how we spend our money and letting us know exactly where we're at and not guessing. So, thank you. And I just want to reiterate the the fact that you all have been able to put a balanced budget together that we're still able to support our teachers and employees by giving them raises because they're the ones making the impact on the students each and every day whether it comes from the maintenance of food nutrition our teachers and the fact that whether it's through the TASBY or through raises over the last year and a half um with that you know we've been able to give people um all those we've been
058able to give people raises and continue that balanced budget. So, thank both of you. >> All right, no other comments or questions. Um, I had a motion from Mr. Dindle and a second from Mr. Gyos. All in favor say I. >> All against say the same. Motion passes 6. All right. Now, Mr. Combach, we are going to consider board policy FNC. This is going to cause a lot of emails. Um, personal communication devices of House Bill 1841. >> Yeah. So, uh, Dr. Moran, Dr. Kingman and members of the board. Um you in July you approved the student code of conduct which included the necessary information uh about the cell phone policy but it part of uh house bill 1481 is that it actually goes into local policy. So tonight it's just a matter of putting
059the u the electronic communication devices uh into the local policy. So, as you have it there, um, it doesn't change anything about the code of conduct or anything like that, but it does put it into officially that's the requirements of 1481. So, pretty simple tonight. >> Any board questions or comments for Mr. Colinbach? Just a reminder that the reason we are doing this tonight is the state is requiring that we do this before the first day of school. Correct, Dr. Maria? >> That's right. >> So, >> the board is instructed by the legislature to adopt a policy prior to the first day of school for students. >> So, this that's why. >> All right. Um, do I have a motion to approve board policy FNCE, personal communication devices, in regards to House Bill 1481? >>
060Make the motion to approve the approval of FNC as presented. >> I'll second. >> Went from no seconds to a very quick second. We have a motion for Mr. Gos and a second from Mrs. Meisel Flint. Any further board comments or questions? >> She didn't want me to second. >> That's right. >> Um, all right. All in favor say I. >> I. All against say the same. Motion passes 6. All right. We are going to go through our proposed agenda. Um, so we have we'll have invocation pledge allegiance. We'll have a recognition of the Kuanas Club and the book patrol. We will not have a recognition regarding the United Way on the 25th. So we can cross that out, please. We will do Sandra Reeds and our tailgate partners. We'll have a bond construction update.
061Um Dr. Gomez, you'll have an update on academic programs. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. And then do we want to go ahead and talk about um board meeting posting guidelines tonight or do you want to just talk about that at our regular board meeting next on the 25th? And yeah, I think what we're planning to do is just have a discussion on the 25th about uh the impact of the three business days posting uh as opposed to the prior 72-hour posting requirement and how that's created some challenges for some things that the board typically gets. We have a pretty good workaround. I think we can work that, but we just thought we'd have a conversation with you all on the 25th. >> Perfect. Um yeah, we've already been working through that with this meeting because
062that really kind of we think became law in July, but we're um and then bond construction payment update. That's just Dr. Brand, you're going to confirm that we've paid something before September 1. >> I will. They uh are uh our payment is uh set for August 15th. Uh so by the 25th, then I'll have the numbers for you of uh the movement of the money uh to our investment pool and then the payment uh from there uh for our first interest payment on the bond. And why that's an important update obviously is because it's saving the local taxpayer $80 million or 80ish. >> Yeah, it's estimated to save $80 million uh by that happening before September 1. >> So, thank you for that. >> Payments on August 15th, correct? >> Yes, sir. >> Um Friday.
063>> Friday. Yeah. All right. So, we'll those will be our information items. Um, we actually have some consent items already listed for potential consent items for um, next meeting. Um, donations and pre-aggenda workshop and board meeting minutes. Keep consent. Everyone's okay with that. Um, the TESS annual certified appraisal list is on page 76. Um, that is something we do every year. Um and um >> normally consent. Everyone good with that? Staying consent. Um Mr. Henry, do you want to talk to us about our HVAC filters and installation service tonight so we can keep that on the consent? Absolutely. First one I bring to you is bid 25-008 HVAC filters and installation. The district currently contracts the replacement for all HVAC filters. The filters are on a scheduled replacement plan that is closely monitored by the
064maintenance department. A multi-year replacement bid has been opened. Two bids were received. The bid tab is attached and shows the results of the proposal. After scoring criteria were applied, Santex Services received the highest score and was the low bid. Santec Services has serviced the district for many years and has done an excellent job of work working with maintenance and our school sites. This contract will begin on September 1st, 2025 through August 31st, 2026 with the option to renew two additional years. The administration recommends Santex Services Inc. on of St. Angelo for our HVAC services filters replacement. Do you all have any questions over any of that, >> Mr. Henry? Is this why the the other contract is expiring, I guess? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, because we've had a multi-year contract with them previously,
065correct? >> Yes. This is uh the third one that I can remember of off the top of my head. >> Everyone okay with consent? >> All right, we'll keep that on consent. Uh why don't you talk to us about bid 20-009? This is just a standard adder for our maintenance and transportation supplies bid. Uh this one is this one allows for us to add additional vendors as they come available with board approval. Everyone okay with consent on that one? All right, let's go to RFP 25-014, which is St. Angelo Stadium parking lot lights. >> The St. Angelo Stadium currently has parking lots, parking lot lights only located near the fieldhouse. By increasing the number of lights, we will increase the safety and security in the parking lot at night. Plans and specifications were prepared prepared
066for the addition of six poles to light up both sides of the stadium. Bids were opened and two contractors submitted quality turnkey bids for this work. These bids were reviewed and scored and Jet Electric of St. Angelo has the lowest price and received the highest score. The administration recommends award to Jet Electric of St. Angelo. Total cost of this project is $471,111 which includes a $20,000 contingency. >> So my question on that one, Mr. Henry, is on the bid sheet their number is 441 and actually Dinard Electric is 471. I think we may have transposed a number there before we keep that on consent. >> Oh yes, you are 100% right. >> So um the board book shows 441 but on the actual motion >> on the motion. Okay. >> Yes. >> Um so if
067we could fix that people want to keep that as consent or >> let's go and leave it on the regular agenda so the people are going to know. It looks like we'll have this parking lot lit by the >> back side of football season. >> Yeah, especially on the east side. >> I mean on the west side >> because in the mornings when those kids are going to school, a lot of kids are walking across that parking lot. It is ever since I was over there for you to drive me nuts because it was always so it would be dark. I mean, we put lights out there just kind of safety towards the the ticket booth and all that, but that was as close as we got. So, yes. So, since that's a safety upgrade,
068let's keep let's move that to regular and let's make sure that the um board books fixed to matching the 441. >> M Henry, I'm reading it's a 98 day equipment lead time. >> Yes, sir. >> Plus 112day install. >> Correct. >> So, will this uh the 98 day lead time may be right on the back side of football season, but will any the 112 day working project will that affect any of the access to the parking lot during >> it? Shouldn't we're going to put somewhere in there. >> The poles are going to be right on the inside of the fence along the back side of the stands right there on the edge where the fence is. So, it shouldn't affect any >> not out in the parking lot directly. Okay. So, just surrounding the
069stadium. >> Correct. Okay. >> All right. So, we'll move that to So, Jessica, item six needs to go to regular. All right. Item seven is a excuse me. Yeah. Item seven is the um a fund balance amendment for um no function codes and no monetary changes for the child nutrition fund. Everyone okay keeping >> that consent? Excuse me. And then the um general fund budget amendment again with changes to function codes but no monetary changes. Uh again make that consent >> and same with debt service. Everyone good with that? >> Fantastic. So everything else will stay consent. >> All right. So next um we're going to move to discussion regarding action items for our August 25th meeting. Um bills, accounts, and financial statements will need to stay regular. Um RFQ25-014 will be a is a
070placeholder at the moment I believe I remember correctly. Um and so that will be um need to stay regular and I I assume we will get that in Friday facts if we are going to be able to keep that on our 25th. Um I we have two weeks between these meetings. So because we have of the posting for 10 days so uh if we can get that for Friday fax then we can keep that on our agenda. Um Senate Bill 13 Dr. Gomez is going to um hit on that with with it being what it is. Let's keep that regular unless someone has questions on that. Um and I think Dr. G, I think you did an excellent job. I think just pointing out the parent access and the parent involvement especially and even a
071screenshot of the way they're getting to that. >> We'll have an official slide deck for the formal meeting. >> Perfect. All right. Um uh next is House Bill 3372, restriction on outside employment of an administrator. Um this is similar to what we did last month, but this for Miss Goodwin um seeking to continue her work with K12 coalition. Um it looks like it's a very similar setup to what we approved last month. Um, exactly same. Um, any questions regarding that? Um, I'm okay with that being consent since we have that in front of us unless someone else Let's move that to consent. Um, okay. And then approval of fund balance. um >> designated >> this. So this is a placeholder kind of for what y'all are going to recommend to us at for the 25th
072meeting. >> Yes, sir. We'll go through and we'll look at um you know when we talked about revitalization. Most of those projects are similar to what we're doing within the bond projects, but we'll look outside of that and see if there are uh that would uh the board might entertain designating fund balances possibly in buses, playgrounds, u band instruments, and we'll bring those to you. If you have any uh additional items uh for consideration, if you'll email that to me, uh we'll have those uh on there for you as well for the 25th. So, if we can get since we we'll keep that regular obviously, but if we can get that also a Friday facts before um that Friday before the meeting just so we know what we're going to be looking at if anyone
073has any questions regarding committed fund balances. Um, as we have previously discussed, like our goal is to make sure we have a fund balance that takes care of the unknowns of the of the year, but we also want to make sure that we're getting dollars to our students where they um we're getting they're getting the impact from that money. So, um, thank you for looking at that. All right. And then the public meeting to discuss the proposed budget and tax rate. We've already kind of gone over that. you will give your presentation again there and we will have the adoption of the 2526 budget that will also stay regular. Um and then uh adoption of the M tax rate and INS tax rate which will also stay regular. Um any questions or comments regarding um
074those items? All right, announcements for next week. We'll have the September 8th uh pre-aggenda workshop and we'll have a September 18th uh regular board meeting. And that completes it. Any questions or comments before we adjourn? >> And the 18th is Thursday meeting. >> And the 18th is a Thursday meeting. I think that's probably because of my 18th. We're back. We're gone the week before that for TASBY. >> Yes, >> that's right. >> Okay. We have a TASBY the week before. So, all right. With that, no further comments or we'll have this meeting.