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 a regular board meeting as members of 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 a mean of the board of trusties held in public and not I meaning 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 in the back of the room prior to the start of tonight's meeting 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 three minutes the district
003will provide an official timekeeper you will be notified when your time is up and you to stop speaking and return to your seat 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 and comments on any subject whether positive or negative must be courteous and respectful comments are limited to the specific topic you indicated on your form you filled out a 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 if you have a pending grievance being processed by the district you'll not be a permitted to speak about the grievance during public comment also please understand if you
004offer public comment 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 I 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 sisd with that we do have a quorum this evening our entire board team is present and if you all will stand and join me with the pledges pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for allor the Texas flag Al to Texas one state God one indivisible uh next on our agenda
005is public comments but I'm going to take a moment of privilege and um ask that we have a moment of silence in regards to the passing of Caroline bonds um her impact on our district our milit AR community and our city um is real and palpable um throughout this town and so um I just ask that if everyone just give just a moment in remembrance of her thank you now we're going to move forward with public comments um and uh first up is Miss Cynthia rutage hi I'm Cynthia rutage and I appreciate you're letting me speak tonight I'm a big reader I love reading I think it's basically the the uh Cornerstone of all education and critical thinking skills and because I am so devoted to reading I would urge you to vote no on
006the blue bonnet curriculum for two reasons one it seems to be an inferior curriculum for teaching reading and secondly it's a violation of the Constitutional separation between church and state the uh blue bonnet curriculum Cuts student reading time in half and there are Provisions in it for individual or small group reading during testimony at the Texas state board of education on this curriculum many reading language arts teachers and researchers cited the evidence through the decades the best way to improve reading skills is to spend time reading therefore anything that cuts reading time in half could be assumed to be inferior in and of itself instead of spending time reading the blue bonnet methodology ology would have the teachers present a word and then a mini lecture or story about the word another um uh opponent
007to the blue bonnet curriculum that testified at the Texas State Board of Education was a spokesperson from the American historical Association and she stated that um the way history is best presented is as it actually happened rather than an interpretation through a biased viewpoint she noted that the blue bonnet stories contain a lot of historical inaccuracies submitted in such a way is to slant towards a particular bias uh Bible stories are incorporated into the curriculum which I have no objection to but the stories have been carefully selected and edited in such a way as to draw conclusions from one point of view which other biblical Scholars would not agree with I'm a Christian myself but I really don't want Christianity to be taught in the schools I especially don't want this version of Christianity Christian
008nationalism taught as accepted fact any more than I would want the teachings of Roman Catholicism or sharah law presented as fact throughout the blue bonnet curriculum Christian nationalist views and conclusions are presented as historical objective fact whereas other religions and culture beliefs are presented as what some people believe uh this curriculum seems to not only be inferior at promoting reading skills but also seems to be a clear violation of the Constitutional separation of church and state by bringing one particular uh religious belief set thank you very much thank you Mrs rutage um next we have Mrs Rebecca White good evening thank you community input to give us another chance to work together to shape uh the future of our school district I appreciate your dedication to our students and recognize the hard work you put
009into every decision I am here because I have deep concern for the curriculum currently under consideration we know our intention is always to provide our students with the best educ experience but I believe that this proposed curriculum falls short of the high standards our students deserve and the goals and expectations set forth in our district mission statement framework and learning profile these standards being challenging and preparing our students to be critical thinkers Innovative problem solvers and engaged future citizens of our world that businesses and organizations cry out for our students are the Future Leaders of our community we must must hold them to rigorous academic standards that push them to achieve their full potential a highquality curriculum is more than just a collection of subjects it is the foundation upon which our students build the
010skills necessary for lifelong success furthermore it is important that we recognize and respect the professionals who work directly with our students every day our Educators have a deep understanding of what truly works in the classroom they follow and adhere to the district standards their firsthand experience tells them that this curriculum does not align with best practices or the Innovative approaches that can make a significant difference in our students lives ignoring these experts or the and their expertise not only undermines our Educators professional judgment but also risk lowering the quality of Education that our students receive I urge you to reconsider the adoption of this lowquality curriculum instead let's commit to a course that prioritizes the needs of our students demands excellence and takes into account our experienced Educators by doing so we're not just rejecting
011a flawed proposal we are respecting the intelligence and potential of our young people and we're honoring the professional Integrity of our dedicated Educators why risk being Hasty and choosing something flawed rather than taking our time and choosing Excellence compelling a school district to implement a lowquality curriculum because it's tied to State funding is like building a house with cheap materials just because someone else is paying for them it might look fine at first but it won't stand the test of time we can work together to create an educational environment that challenges our students to excel respects our teachers expertise and ultimately prepares our community for a bright and successful future thank you for your time and your commitment to Excellence thank you Miss White next we're going to have Miss Cassidy vaugh good evening um
012my name is cassid Devon I am from St Angelo I grew up here I am a product of saisd I also taught in this district and now I'm a parent here um I believe in public schools public schools matter to me I want to see them Thrive um that's why I'm here tonight asking you to no on the adoption of the blue bonnet curriculum I have reviewed this curriculum myself and to be totally honest I don't understand why this is even being considered if there is some major benefit that the public doesn't know about I'd love to hear it I'm willing to change my mind if there's something I'm missing but right now I'm just not seeing it um it's full of religious bias and ideology that has no place in public school public education
013should be fact-based inclusive and designed to serve all students as a parent I get to decide if when and how to introduce religion to my child but adopting Blue Bonnet takes that choice away not just from me but from every family in this District if this curriculum is approved there will be zero secular education options in St Angelo that sends a pretty clear message if you don't align with this belief system you don't belong here now I have been told that I can opt my child out of the Bible infused lessons but that raises even more questions where will they go during that time what will they be doing do we have the staff to support this will the already overworked teacher have to come up with extra lesson plans or let's be real our
014kids going to be stuck in the hallway doing busy work what happens when kids start feeling isolated or targeted for opting out um as a former teacher I know exactly who this is going to fall on and that's the teachers um they're already stretch stretched thin um now they'll be stuck at the copy machine answering frustrated emails handling complaints and trying to adapt a curriculum that doesn't even meet real academic standards instead of focusing on teaching they'll be stuck doing damage control and for what there are other highquality instructional materials out there that don't push religious bias or Christian nationalism Blue Bonnet doesn't offer any educational advantage over those it's simply pushing an agenda that is not the role of a public school curriculum plain and simple um in fact it's unnecessary it's risky and
015it's bound to collapse under pressure um our kids and teachers deserve better thank you thank you Miss vaugh next we have Miss Maran white good evening my name is Maryann white and my son just graduated from Central High School after being in the district schools for just just two years his earlier years here were a combination of amide school and home school my husband and I chose amide for one reason and one reason only because they stressed the importance of reading entire books from cover to cover as written and then reciting back in writing and orally depending on their ages what they learned from those books using the author's voice I can say that before he went to Central during his junior year he had read a two-foot stack of books each year in Junior
016and senior high school as well as all the thinner books that you read during kindergarten and Elementary while I share many of the same concerns about our students being read to from scripts not books rather than experiencing the joy and the necessary process of reading the material out loud themselves and the separation of church and state and education my main concern is that our school board is rushing to implement something that many have not studied just because they're offering to give us extra funds to adopt this curriculum I did a search to determine which school districts have said yes and which ones have said no so far Denton and Spring Branch have had said no entirely while Humble ISD voted to use the math portion Conroe voted yes to both portions of the 15 San
017Antonio area school districts six voted no to both four still undecided and four are voting for only the math curriculum while one voted for the K5 uh K to5 language arts several of these schools will said that they will continue to use their own teacher developed curriculums as they find them to be a better product note that I said teacher developed those people who sacrificed three to four years of their lives to go to school to become teachers were asked to help develop the district curriculums Midland Odessa leok and most all of the DFW area have not released um their vote about the adoption meaning that they're not rushing the process one ISD asked for input from teachers parents students um before they vote Round Rock is G has formed a committee made up of
018curriculum experts community members parents principles teachers to study the material currently Round Rock is leaning towards adopting the math curriculum but are still undecided on the language arts they stress exploring the curriculum in depth looking at how it impact their students and what is the best course of action and that's all I'm urging as that we do the same Appo appoint a broad-based committee with all the stakeholders necessary teachers thank you thank you Mrs White next we have Mrs Karen best Treasure Island double-sided off the internet from tea have yall read Treasure Island how many on the board has read Treasure Island Long John Silver you know the good stuff the pig leg guy and all the good stuff so everybody's going to talk about what bothers them about this curriculum and I've been here
019multiple times now to talk about the deficits that have to do with it last time I was here I asked how many of the board had actually read the curriculum for themselves and only three raised their hands and I appreciate your honesty in that by the way it's a lot right and we go through a process where on a board We Trust our administrators and the people who work who tell us what to vote on how to go forward but we've never seen something as broken in a curriculum as Blue Bonnet before so I understand your trust and another curriculum coming when's the last time y'all had this many people show up about a curriculum choice you haven't and for a lot of reasons I'm avoiding religion in this one because so many others are
020going to say it more eloquent eloquently than I can but what I can avoid is a script that when you take Treasure Island and you dissect it so that by the time you've read to page five there's 90 minutes and over 180 words of vocabulary in a book about Long John Silver we have to learn about Pirates around Africa and all of these other things instead of just being able to read the flipping story it's a great story by the way it's not just a yoh ho ho and a bottle of rum it's about all kinds of wonderful things like coming of age story and those are the things we we're talking about adopting a curriculum because want to develop character and yet in this Rewritten a bridged version of Treasure Island they've removed all
021of the character references that speak to the struggle the same struggle that Luke Skywalker goes through and Harry Potter goes through and Frodo goes through the things that make classical literature Classics is removed by Blue Bonnet in the Rewritten text and replaced with 400 pages of forced script I always run out of time here because 3 minutes isn't enough time to say how badly this curriculum sucks but you know what you guys are where the buck stops the truth is you are asking this community to vote for a half billion doll Bond because you have a vision for the future for my vote tonight and for many other votes out here and the referendum is tonight on that Bond what is your vision for for the educational future of St Angelo if it's blue bonnet
022then if I can't trust you with Treasure Island how do I trust you with the bond would anybody like to pick this up I've carried it around for two days if you'd like to circulate it I didn't want to pay to print another one thank you Mrs best anybody want it next we have Mr Caleb Leonard good evening uh I actually had some stuff written down before uh I Ste foot into the administrative parking lot um but then as I was um making my way up here I ran into a few people that I know uh in the administrative building which I think I know almost every single one of you because I'm here way more times than I feel like a teacher should um and and in doing so um I actually have um
023I talked to a few people about um about the the the curriculum that's coming up um and not it it didn't necessarily change my my my thought process um but it did change what I was going to say so I apologize that I don't have a script in front of me except a couple of notes that I joted down um I am a uh a teacher at a high school I'm also a teacher at middle schools um what music is what I teach um not English not I don't I don't really necessarily follow the the standardized curriculum when it comes to the math and things because that's that's not my my my classroom um but I I am a huge and very firm believer um in communication and transparency um I also know that we
024are we we always vote things like this um every so often uh curriculum voting is is not an uncommon thing it seems like this is a very popular um this is very popular I don't think it's it's the first time that I've actually heard of a curriculum getting voted on um and then hearing about it on Facebook and things I'm going to talk very fast because I know I'm a yapper and I'm really sorry um so here is here is actually something that that I've I've learned a few things um downstairs talking to a few people um I'm not going to ask you to vote Yes or no either way on this um I I was going to ask before um now if this is voted no I would like to ask all of you
025if we can come up with a Q&A or an FAQ that the rest of the public can be able to understand this a little bit more um this weekend I got to to look um and review a little bit of what I could find on Blue Bonnet um and unfortunately new sites can be very biased um and chat gbt is wrong because they don't know really know what it's talking about so I would strongly advise if this is voted no to maybe have that panel of teachers um or somebody to to have a Q&A um so that way the community who is I can tell is very outspoken about this can understand more about this because I don't think any one of you are out to get any one of our students or any one
026of our children or your children um and I I really do believe in honest and open and transparent communication so I I feel that if this is voted no that that is something that we could request if possible um it's my first time coming and speaking to one of these that it isn't to celebrate my own students um so I don't even know if that's possible um and I don't even know if this is open to the community to to ask for that thank you for your time thank you Mr Leonard uh next we have Mr John best good afternoon thank you all for um thank You' all for your service I guess is the first thing I want to say it's a being an elected official is a is a a difficult undertaking we
027appreciate everything you do for our our children and for the school district so I'm speaking in opposition to the blue bonnet curriculum um you know we all want the best for our kids that's the bottom line we want the best for our kids we have a great Community we have great children children in our community um um and yall have the difficult undertaking of of trying to chart the course for the future for our children this uh I'm going to be honest with you my wife Karen has dissected this thing as much as she can and and I'm speaking um really secondhand from what I've heard her talk about with regard to the curriculum because she's gotten into it in detail but what I know on a higher level is that is that we um
028I feel like we can do better than this curriculum in the Concho Valley you know just looking at the figures from the adult Literacy Council right 28,000 people in our community can't read or understand written information um one in five can't understand written information literacy is important it's critical um and quite frankly from my perspective and from my profession and what I do it matters you know um 60% of adults in the criminal justice system um 85% of minors in the juvenile justice system are illiterate that's a thing right it it all um comes back to roost in the future if we don't educate our children and teach them how to read teach them make them literate um from an early age um so it's important um you know maybe some of y'all have uh
029made it made up your minds about how you're going to vote on this curriculum um and the question I guess is is why um is it money does it have to do with money I understand and again not the most educated but I understand that that there's uh money involved from the tea for adopting the curriculum um but from what I understand adopting another curriculum um would not is about the same I guess you get $40 as opposed to $60 and the blue bonnet if you adopted it we give you an extra 20 um for printing materials and I've seen I've seen what my wife's printed out and it's a lot of printing materias I don't think it would be a much of a net gain for the for the district if you went went
030that route thank you Mr best next we have Mr Ginger Moore hi I was actually at the State Board of Education and I did testify and I did hear a 100 people testify and there was also um a lawyer there for the State Board that did not feel that state and church were were being a problem for this so if the lawyers do not feel that way I don't know how we can uh upsert what they are saying but let me start with um if you have an issue with blue bonnet they have been begging people and I actually did this at one point but until Wednesday they're still taking applications at the state board for texas.gov slimr a to make changes to Blue Bonnet so if you have time to come up here and
031complain I suggest you try and make some changes to it um also I know that tlca very best Christoval and I also talked to Bobby A at Temple IND IND Independent School District and he's also has approved Blue Bonnet curriculum um in November prior to the State Board of Education meeting about 80 Hispanics were praying in the middle of the lobby there for Blue Bonnet curriculum to happen um the also during the the State Board of Education meeting there was many there that were for Blue Bonnet and I heard the ones that were against it but I actually listened to more that were for it than we're against it um and the paper and pencil printed materials are what I'm for I I need cursa from second to fifth grade our kids cannot write their
032names I also help with a uh Fort Concho Christmas and I get the CH I have the chapel in the school and half of those people cannot sign their names because I ask them on the little chalkboard uh if they can sign their names um for tea the average initial cost including the cost of teacher classroom materials is $684 per child in K through five for the rla for the any sub subsequent year the average cost is $26 per this came from tea for me today the average initial cost if including the cost of teacher classroom materials uh for math is $574 per child in K through five and then after that it's $23 per child to maintain uh amplifi curriculum which you currently have is is is have you really gone through that one
033I mean the way you have blue bonnet Blue Bonnet seems to be a Target um but the cost of District usually I this was came from Temple about 200,000 a year for amplify and that's what you have now blue bonnet is free in fact all the Texas schools including Cornerstone or any of the schools can use it we just get if you have a school district you get a disc thank you Mrs $6 next we have Mrs Gretchen Smith so to finish out that last thought um $68 for reading and 57 for math means that $60 per kid not per subject won't cover half of the cost anyway that's not actually what I hear came near to say last meeting we had a really great show of CTE and Robotics kids right we saw them
034with their robotics we saw them with what they had made we saw these videos where we showed them in the classroom buildings and doing all these things we had all these kids who were doing all these Hands-On engaging wonderful things there was not a worksheet in sight there was not a single teacher reading from a script to any of those kids those kids were our exemplary this is who we want to point out as our highest achievement as a district are these kids who do these things right at your next meeting you're going to have a bunch of music kids some of them I started on their instrument I've been teaching music in this district for years you only learn by doing you only learn to read by reading you only learn to build by
035building and 70 minute chunks of scripted isn't going to teach us anything I mostly come here as the parent of of three students who've been through saisd all of them special needs one of them who is GT two are on a 504 and three were special ed which is fun to fit all that into just three children nowhere in this curriculum are modifications for sped nowhere in this curriculum are enrichment for GT kids y'all my GT Kid at 19 years old last fall went to aeran as a delegate an official Observer for the United Nation climate change conference she's a Central High School graduate she did not learn to care about the Earth she did not learn to do all those things to become the outspoken and powerful woman she is by doing a stack
036of worksheets my special ed kid is also in college and he's doing a phenomenal job and as I was thinking through this I was thinking of some of the things that I'm supposed to modify for my students as a teacher as I'm required to that aren't in this curriculum uh to learn from audiobooks and V videos these from IEPs fewer items per page chunking pacing assessed by different means frequent breaks alternate projects alternate assignments small groups extended time to dictate responses to capture your responses in an audio or visual format all of these different things that we do and yet you want the script to make everything the same the best moments in my 19 years of teaching have come from teachable moments where I get to kind of go off script and really dig
037into a question a kid asked or something they cared about y the next time you go up those stairs read them they talk about Innovative classrooms creative engaged lessons they talk about all the things this isn't thank you for your time thank you Mrs Smith next we have Mrs Bible those who can't teach this is a thing this is a saying I've had a very interesting relationship with throughout my life as a child I had the absolute privilege of having my entire educational experience inspired by only the top tier educational um providers I had the utmost respect for every single one of my teachers even the one I did not like the one I watched throughout my life as Artisans crafted worlds but with mere words recreated events of history in such vivid detail and
038dropped me in to explore engineered engaging inspiring and challenging experiments and experiences that challenged and shaped my perspective on the universe its inner workings gave numbers life and meaning introduced me to Arts which gave me gave my life meaning and allowed me to express myself in ways I had not dared dream in every aspect I owe them my very existence I knew that even then yet this saying still lingered those who can't teach I often pondered this As I Grew Older how could these powerful capable intelligent caring individ being capable of anything yeah I let this color the view of my future anything but a teacher being a teacher would be failure I had lofty Inspirations I couldn't contemplate any other path for some reason I had to dismiss teaching though likely I knew even
039then the outcome of my story so I entered my final year in college I was married pregnant and studying Wild biology my then husband forbade me from taking a field job apparently plants are too dangerous uh he also said we didn't have the money for grad school and I had to get a stable job so I could afford so he could afford to take chances with his career so I was basically forced into the one thing I had absolutely sworn off teaching the moment I entered the classroom however I knew I was home I found my passion the the students I taught my first year were challenging I had 10 preps I was a new mom I was teaching science with zero supplies and zero money zero budget and no other teachers at the teach
040at the school I was teaching at teaching my subjects everything about that year should have made me run but I loved it I built curriculum I built clubs I started at student council and that wouldn't happen with blue bonnet thank you Miss Mo all right the next is Miss Sarah n Go movatic I'm so sorry I tried I apologize hi my name is Sarah neit a lot of people have spoken about their concerns with lecture style classrooms with no room to actually teach others have expressed their displeasure with the way Christianity is a major focus of the curriculum and while I agree with those concerns I'd like to present a perhaps unique perspective for those of you who don't know me I am a published author of multiple books for teens I also spent several
041years as a literary agent for middle-grade and young adult books reading is my passion fostering a love of reading is something I see as crucial for our society if the goal of blue bonnet is to destroy students passion for reading then it gets an A+ rating from me here's just a few examples that I saw in the curriculum in third grade students will get multiple days of being lectured on the brain and the nervous system for their language arts lesson I say lectured because that's what the curriculum demands the teachers don't need to use their vast knowledge or skills to create interactive important lessons no thinking needed simply read verbatim from the paper and move on I'm sure every eight-year-old dreams of this kind of lesson in fifth grade they get to read sanitized modern
042favorites like Don kote published in 16005 and midsummer Night's Dream published 1600 do you know what a drummidary is it's a one humped camel in a highlighted vocabulary word from Don kote such an important word to know I've been in the classroom and I've tried to teach Shakespeare to high school students to say it's a challenge is an understatement God bless the teacher trying to explain act one scene one to 10-year-olds with Concepts as classic as killing your daughter if she won't marry the man you choose for her yeah that's midsummer's Night's Dream to wrap up in their fifth grade year they get to read The Lion The Witch in the wardrobe a truly great novel published a little more modernly in 1950 but it'll be ruined with daily biblical lessons and stated focuses such
043as students will explain how the connections between ideas in the novel and the Hebrew Christian Bibles contribute to the author's message so inappropriate not to mention it's an allegory story which isn't a fifth grade teak with zero text published within the last 50 years for our fifth grade readers it seems the curriculum is intentionally trying to make students hate reading I fully believe that when someone is able to read and read well they have the ability to learn anything of all the subjects that we teach reading is the crucial essential element for learning all the other subjects in this author's humble opinion we'll be doing these readers a grave disservice with the blue Bonet curriculum thank you thank you all right next we have Nicole isano hello uh my name is Dr Nicole Lano I'm
044the very proud and active parent of an saisd elementary student uh who actually just competed with her robotics team at State this past weekend I'm here tonight to join the chorus of voices who have asked you not to adopt the blue bonnet curriculum you've heard from parents teachers community members and I'm speaking to you specifically as a Jewish parent of a Jewish child there are many issues y'all such as a 4 5 minute lesson and a 15-point reading asking kids to summarize World War II in a logical way as part of the fourth grade curriculum um that's part of Number the Stars uh but really having Christianity infused into my Jewish child secular education is upsetting to me from both a religious perspective as well as an educational one my daughter will be in fifth
045grade next year and as Sarah pointed out she would be required to read Don kote and The Lion The Witch in the wardrobe in donot uh I can't imagine fifth graders trying to read that story uh but the curriculum also provides a definition of God noun Almighty but more distressing is the inclusion of The Lion The Witch in the wardrobe this book was written to imbue a fairy tale with the elements of the story of Jesus Christ it's filled with over Christian symbolism and the entire conclusion is structured around the resurrection of a Christ figure and climactic battle for the soul of Narnia I've read it each of you were provided a handout that was me who gave you the handout um that highlights specific uh troubling issues but there's two that I really want
046to point out in Lesson Four teachers are told to tell students that the character of Aon is perhaps CS Lewis's most not noticeable biblical allegory in this story as we continue to learn about this character you may see that some things are similar to things Jesus is described as doing there is then a margin note called support that Christians believe that the prophecies in the Hebrew Bible were fulfilled by Jesus in lesson 9 they are directed to consider how aon's death is an allegory for Jesus and reminded that they learned about the death of Jesus in grade three unit 4 when learning about ancient Rome one thing that I've heard repeatedly is that I would be able to pull my child from lessons that I object to and I appreciate that in theory but what
047happens when it's an entire book because I can assure you that my Jewish daughter who is enrolled in a theoretically secular school will not be ow to remain for this 14-day unit with each lesson ranging from 60 to 90 minutes and as what was pointed out earlier what happens to her socially from being pulled from that what would she be doing in that time who's organizing that time and why within a secular education is this something that I would even need to consider and I'm struck by the idea that if we turn this on its face and in said integrated Jewish beliefs there would be an uproar around this even more so than what you have now if this curriculum is adopted it leaves no secular education in St Angelo and it negatively impacts the
048education of students within the district the curriculum itself goes against the mission of the district to engage all students in a relevant and inspiring education thank you Dr [Applause] Lano all right next I have Sierra mat all right hi everyone so I took some time to open up blue bonnet curriculum go through the ELA units in multiple different grade levels and as a previous teacher for 10 years that holds a master's in curriculum and instruction K12 literacy specifically I found some very concerning issues first I want to address the fact that almost every unit asked for our children to sit through 40 to 75 minutes of whole group instruction before the text consider taking a break was even seen I mean let's be honest I'm pretty sure most of you guys are starting to tune
049out already and it's been what about 40 minutes so imagine the 5-year-olds um and by the way it's recommended for our kids to only sit for about 10 to 15 minutes before they get up move engage in activities next I'm just blown away by the material being utilized the questions and topics that I came across were do you know the Embargo or do you know how sorry do you think the Embargo Act will work and what are the different positions held by the warhawks and the merchants in the US in 18 12 oh those were questions for a seven-year-old from their reading so the point being the pages Focus heavily on tier two and three vocabulary words which is pointed out in the curriculum they don't have enough support to actually help the students learn
050the vocabulary correctly they overload the cognitive process for the students and their eyes are just going to glaze over be like everyone I mean there's anyone who knows you know um medical stuff but if someone hands you a medical pamphlet to learn all about the heart you guys can read it but can you understand it so the instruction given to teachers give no direction to activate your child's schema either and I can continue with all of the high vocabulary words that I know but let's face it this is just too difficult of material for these kids so finally I want to take a look at the little readers that are being given to the students because they're poor examples of the syntax that we want model to our children they lack Rich interesting stories I
051mean how many asop fables can you really read in first grade plus looking at fifth grade as mentioned Shakespeare he uses completely different diction that any students would be able to even digest so blue bonnet likes to use difficult texts to look fancy but rarely did the assessments when they were walking out of the classroom the exit tickets the activities they never really aligned well with the actual objectives so we need to push our children to be forward thinkers and ready to run our great state and Nation please vote no thank you Miss mat next we have Mr Jesse Ramone uh thank you for having us uh ladies and gentlemen of the board I want to avoid repeating many of the same topics already described by the other speakers these past few weeks instead I'd
052like to spend some of the remaining time calling this exactly what it is in using a definition from SD's code of conduct which is a single significant act or pattern or act by one or more direct at another that explo exploits the imbalance of power this is the district's definition of bullying and it's abundantly clear that the state of Texas is bullying Statewide districts into adopting this problematic and controversial curriculum you've all asked the same questions I have such as do we have Alternatives and what happens if we don't adopt this curriculum and time to time again we're told it's not perfect but it's the best we have and without it funds are going to be withheld and if that's not bullying I don't know what is if what was mentioned last time was true
053and the star test is being revised to align with the blue bonic curriculum then there may be appear appear to be no true alternative we're being tricked into believing that this is a choice which I find ironic coming from the state that pushes vouchers and financial incentives disguised as school choice I think the biggest red flag for me is not the withholding of funds dedicated to the public education but the financial incentives promoted within the curriculum specifically the extra $20 for printing materials the comments I've heard in favor of this curriculum boast about its heavy usage of paper and pencil and lack of electronic devices citing how harmful uh the uh the devices are to Children the irony is the curriculum increases its usage of paper then offers a monetary incentive for the printing of
054these paper so they are giving you the cure to the problem that they created lastly as it was previously shared it's not perfect but it's the best option we have available right now emphas empasis on right now so unless I'm mistaken there's no deadline for this to be considered there's also no reason this can't be reconsidered in the future with necessary changes this issue associated with this curriculum are too problematic too controversial and clearly riddled with errors and discrepancies so you have an opportunity to resist on behalf of our children on behalf of your constituents who have elected you all to make this tough decision a decision parents and residents have loudly exclaimed for weeks now that they do not want this in our Public School s we'd be lying if we said the incentives
055are largely part of why this is being considered So speaking of incentives why not incentivize the state of Texas to explore the Alternatives the fewer districts that adopt this the louder and clearer our message becomes our children deserve better our teachers deserve better and our districts deserve better I encourage you all to vote no on this curriculum and explore the alternative curriculums that better suit our district thank you [Applause] thank you Mr Ramon next we have Miss Alexander Looney hi my name is Alex lening I'm here to speak against saisd adopting the blue Bonet learning curriculum I have listened earnestly to the information presented regarding Blue Bonnet for the last two board meetings I've also watched watched as much of the State Board of Education hearings that I can possibly stand and because of that
056I know that this curriculum barely pass the State Board of Education with a vote to7 um I have read the entirety of the kindergarten and third grade curriculums as those will directly impact My Two children at Bottom Elementary next year I've also read extensively through the other grade levels as well unfortunately what I have found is a curriculum that not only contains lessons regarding religion as required by the te curriculum standards but an entire K through 5 curriculum Rife with religious bias it is true that religion is a necessary component of teaching political and historical context on certain subjects but that is not what this curriculum is doing it is Con it contains clear bias to a very specific type of Christianity and I'm certain every family in the city has beliefs that don't align
057perfectly because I know mine do not and while there are mentions of other religious beliefs these references are full of mischaracterized mischaracterizations and inaccuracies and while parents can individually opt their students out of certain lessons I know I certainly would but I do worry that the curriculum has these ideas so gratuit gratuitously woven through each grade level that we'd have children in and out of class all year long not to mention Dr Mills was told last month that these alternative lessons do not meet teak standards so those children would be at a disadvantage during class discussion and STAR testing all of that aside I am certainly no teacher I am do not have an expertise in this but I am the mom of a current 5-year-old little boy and a little girl that was once
058a 5-year-old and the long scripted lectures that our youngest students will be expected to sit through don't seem like the path towards a well-round the well-rounded inspiring education I know everyone on this board wants to provide our saisd kids I know the other curriculums are not as easy to choose they come with less Financial incentive but I believe instilling a love of learning in the children of s Angelo is the absolute priority of the members of this board as well as the teachers and administrators in the district the best schools in Texas are not adopting Blue Bonnet and I hope saisd will be among them thank you thank you next we have China Young thank you um I am a product of saisd having attended Bowie Elementary uh Glenn Junior High and Central High School
059first I want to speak from a personal experience that I have that stuck with me since I was a student when I was in 10th grade biology I had a teacher that decided to teach Evolution uh by creating a Biblical timeline around the room I think she believed she was doing her part to not offend the Christians in the room but she clearly neglected any other religious practitioners I found this approach to be very odd and noticed a few other students who became very uncomfortable as this lesson proceeded being a softmore I didn't have the experience advocating for myself in an educational environment like this so even though I felt like this was inappropriate and I had the impulse to say something I had no idea how to go about saying it so I just
060sat there dumbfounded and have carried this memory with me since I think this speaks to the ways in which our students probably don't have the tools to advocate for them themselveses if they might be in conflict with the way a lesson is being presented most of the conversation around curriculum seems to be about how parents feel about their child's education with teachers taking the backseat to the conversation unfortunately students perspectives are often not anywhere near this conversation we all want to believe we have the best interest of students in mind but they ultimately become victims of our choices and might like myself continue to question the impact of those choices into their adult life a specific example from the blue bonnet curriculum is in the kindergarten lesson around the Golden Rule quote the text for
061today's story of the golden rule features references from Leviticus part of the Hebrew Bible which includes a section called the Torah and from The Book of Matthew part of the Christian Bible's New Testament along with references to Islam and Hinduism the lesson then specifically references lessons taught by Jesus and Moses within the context of the Bible the final section of the lesson simply says quote besides the two versions of the Bible there are other versions of the golden rule in ancient books from other religions including Hinduism and Islam on end quote it then sums up the Golden Rule once more without any actual specific examples from those ancient texts so much for including those other religions I personally remember learning the Golden Rule as a child but it was never tied to religion it was
062presented as a basic understanding that simply exists in our culture and our society I didn't need to know that its found came from religion to understand the concept of treat others the way you want to be treated this is just one very small example of how centering religion in an otherwise incredibly simple lesson can actually complicate how students might understand that lesson and it's no different than my sophomore biology teacher choosing to teach a lesson on evolution by using a timeline out of her Bible this emphasizes how important it is to consider how we teach and not just what we teach thank you thank you so much thank you all right we're going to move forward now with item four on our agenda which is to conduct our finance and audit committee Workshop um and
063just for those who are present we are going to move item six to after the report section of this so that thank you all for all being here we'll move it up but give us just a moment to get through some of these reports thank you Dr Kingman the first report is our management oversight report for human resources and Dr skelton's going to help us with that tonight Dr Skelton Dr Kingman members of the board thank you for giving me this opportunity to kind of talk through a little bit about HR uh just wanted to give you some 2425 updates of course there's a lot of rocks going on that we're moving um especially with recruitment um end of year things with HR but wanted to give you a little oversight of the things that
064we're looking forward to for next year one of the big things is smart smart find Express this is part of the power school system and it's an absence management system that we're looking into switching over for this next year um part of that absence management system is putting everything online what that does is it allows every employee in the district the opportunity to either call text use the app and website to put in absences um one of the things the district is working towards is making sure everything's automated of course we have people behind the scenes double-checking triple checking making sure that absences are connected to leave balances and things like that um but this system is part of because it's part of the power school system we're actually integrating it in with our e
065finance and everything else power school that we have um this will save us a lot of time and effort um when it comes to leave we still do paper leave we we double check all of that but with this system it'll allow us to integrate time clock um and things like that we formerly used um Frontline or asop as you remember it still allowed our us to do automated absences but it did not talk to e finance which we have uh which we've had for a long time so this is a great opportunity for us to switch over and and make that move to automate all the processes our power school SubFinder system is the next piece of it it it also allows us to pick up pick up absences through the app through phone
066calls through the website it's a great opportunity for all substitutes from all ages um to be able to connect uh it's been a great uh thing for us with Frontline but because Frontline didn't automate with our other systems this is going to do the same thing plus with the backend automation when it comes to recruitment we're right in the middle of recruitment we've had three uh job fairs that we've been to the first two love it Christian University that one was uh if y'all remember was when the uh snowstorm hit up there so that was uh a little rough but uh we made it through we've gone through the abene and then today we had the Charlton State uh job fair we're going to be going through those resumés and applications uh from those applicants
067uh tomorrow from the uh group that they brought it was a great report coming back from uh from our people that went and we're excited about going through those applications what we do is is we follow up with every person that they talk to uh we reach out to them saying thank you for stopping by joining our table uh we'd like to talk more these are the positions that we have available right now but there's more to come and then of course as you can tell we're going to go to Texas Tech University yep and then other places just say it uh but we do have our job fair on April 12th uh that's a Saturday and that is uh we hold that every year at Central High School in the Tucker building and that's
068a great opportunity uh for all of our uh groups to be able to join and have people come in and get jobs one of the big things that we've been doing is the ram resident program we've been partnering with ASU this is our second year to partner with ASU on the ram residence it is a paid year-long residency for student teachers it's a new track uh that allows us to pay students to be student teachers which many of us didn't have that opportunity when we went through school but uh it's a great it's a great plan and uh those student teachers start the day teachers get here on August 4th and then they finish May 23rd the last day of school and they are with them all year long and um last year we had
069nine and they were all day one ready it was incredible to see the growth from day one to um their first official year as a teacher and the growth that they made we actually hired five of the nine that we had the other four moved away moved back home we expect that we always tell the student teachers that we're here to prepare them for day one we call it day one ready your first day in the classroom by yourself um and we our goal is to prepare them for that not to prepare them to be a teacher at saic but that is a benefit if you do um but we want them to be day one ready and last year we had five this year we have 12 residents that uh are working with us
070at four campuses and those four campuses are San jento Bradford Lamar and Fannon uh we were uh scheduled to have 12 more residents next year but ASU called us and said we'd like to give you more and we said bring them so we're projected to get 20 Ram residents we're going to split them among five campuses and we're going to try if possible to bring them into the middle school there's a lot of logistics behind the certifications and Middle School um most of all these residents are Early Childhood through sixth grade EC through six so um some of them are special education so we're going to try to get them because special education is a EC through 12 is an alll certification we're going to try to push them into middle schools as well so
071we're really excited about that but next year it's going to be Migel Belair Crockett Hollman and Santa Rita are going to be our five schools and then we're going to intermix them with some middle schools if we can and those are some of the big rocks that we have going on youall have any questions be glad to answer anything for you yeah I was going to ask you Jason um teachers from ASU Texas Tech all the places you've gone um are are their numbers coming up a little bit more more than what they were say like after Co clinical teachers yeah just yeah that want to be teachers it's a it's a decline all over it's still declin it's it's declining yeah we're actually starting to see more alternative certification teachers come out than than
072student teachers okay Across the Nation all right thank you yes sir any other questions for Dr Skelton I'm ready there none thank you thank you just as a note to the audience we have uh major program overviews every month uh usually during the pre- agenda and so uh today tonight's uh uh agenda concerned Human Resources so we'll have another one next month next on the uh uh agenda is a summary of findings of tea Intruder detection audit conducted by the Educational Service Center staff Mr Walters helps us with that this is usually a pretty brief report uh because we uh monitor concerns but we don't publicly review them so yes sir and Dr Moran Dr Kingman and members of the board once again I thank you for your support and what you do for sisd
073uh through the month of end of January through the month of February we had one Ida uh any findings or and Corrections that need to be made if any or being made at the campus level Scott would you define the acronym there IBA uh the Intruder detection audit okay thank you which region 15 does for the state all right thank you next we have a facility update and Dr Brandon is going to help us with that Dr keeman Dr Moran Board of Trustees just a quick update uh we did go through some of these slides last month but then we met with all of the Departments walk the campuses uh received their input and so tonight we have the um wanted to let you know uh how we are going to proceed from here uh
074you just as a reminder a couple of charts uh our campus needs support facilities charts um as monies have been spent on campuses with students uh then there are areas within support facilities uh that have needs and so as we've looked across the district in an effort to be efficient uh We've looked at not only what those campuses or those support facilities need uh but also the age of those facilities in particular we were concentrating on on Black Shear Carver and Sam Houston as you see all of those from 66 to 75-year-old campuses infrastructure issues HVAC electrical upgrades so the question being can we move students and staff to a facility uh that is better suited more efficient safer uh for those individuals uh we did star the two day and Rio Vista El entries
075because those are uh the Head Start programs are there with the uh Council of government academic considerations um will be that Sam Houston which is our special education special program staff will move to the top floor of the central on Oaks Campus uh Carver will move to the annex uh this is allows a separation uh between the annex and the main uh there at Oaks uh where now we have separation between the principal and the AP for those two campuses now they'll be uh together where they can go and if one of them is off for training then we have the other one that can provide leadership uh on either campus quickly uh we also have uh the pays to be housed on the lower floor of the uh Central on Oaks Campus um and
076then you can see there uh the where that helps uh with the two administrators uh it also helps with our school resource officer where we've had where you take three different sites uh now with those Consolidated one school resource officer can provide uh that safety net uh on those campuses uh you can solidate and you can have one receptionist secretary um answering the calls and sending the calls out uh to different departments so as we think about the efficiencies for our taxpayers across the district we reduce staffing needs we reduce cost related to Safety and Security we have we see utility savings uh gas electric water sewer we have reduced maintenance cost uh between going from three facilities to one and then eventual property casualty savings uh on vacated properties just wanted to give you
077a heads up see if you have any questions uh about those moves I got a question now I was going to ask you the pays um pays will be you said it's going to be on the bottom floor was this going to be the bottom floor of the annex or is it going to be on the bottom floor of the new addition of the main of the main and then the Carver will all be in the in in the Annex Building on the bottom floor as well bottom floor of the annex that's make sure thank you and just for clarity the bridge program will stay at its current site yes um after we look through all the different needs uh of our special need students uh just the campus uh had some logistically just in
078and off uh you know in and out of the campus uh some questions there and then some needs that they had uh Plumbing type uh facility issues so at the moment we feel like it' be better for bridge to remain uh on their campus any additional questions for Dr Brandon all right thank you Dr Bron appreciate that next uh we have a bond presentation from Dr Moran okay pictures worth a thousand words and so I thought it might be good to go back and revisit some of the projects that are being presented to the community for consideration and we're just going to work through um the major projects by campus so a lake view um what I'm sharing with the community is the current facility and the next slide shows by age of building so
079you can see what is constructed uh and the coinciding year but the next slide show shows you uh what the bond provides as an opportunity for the community to consider if you'll notice on the left the blue portion of that would be the renovated locker rooms noting that some of that area is not currently air conditioned then you'll notice on the bottom there the the pink salmon color that is a new miachi practice facility like a like a band hall if you will and then on the far right the new CTE Center that would be connected and then a renovated old CTE Center that's just above that and so that would be what would uh happen on the campus and while you're looking you can kind of see to the to the north the practice
080field there and the tennis courts so the next slide zeros in on the athletic facilities and the proposition um presents turfing softball and baseball expanding the parking lot creating a concession restroom area for that facility ruring the soccer football field adding bleachers and this would be kind of a sub Varsity type setup where you might have ninth or JV football or ninth JV or Varsity soccer games and a fully lighted field currently there's a One telephone pole with two lights for that entire field so in the morning those those kids are in the dark then you can barely see this but at the top of that picture you can see additional tennis courts which would mean they would have eight total tennis courts currently they have six and only four have lights so this would
081be adding uh two to make eight and then lighting all of the tennis courts so that would be Lake View the next slides um walk into the Central High School conversation and this is current campus with little orange people walking around and the next slide shows by building by date and while you look at this slide you'll notice that uh it's very unusual for a high school campus not to have facilities on the campus that can offer uh support to scheduling for instance you don't see softball baseball uh football soccer practice uh athletic facilities that would allow for students to remain on campus during the day and be scheduled throughout the day so at the at Central you have Athletics really before and after school if they're uh needing the facilities at the stadium there
082is one turfield it's used for soccer and band so as we work through this you'll kind of see the progression but the bond election presents this this would be phase one if you're looking at a long-term uh solution for Central and this would be a new theater a new cafeteria a new gymnasium or Arena taking the current cafeteria and remodeling it for health science and culinary arts CTE then if the community wanted to proceed in let's say 10 years this would be phase two phase two would begin combining the campus and connecting the buildings so that the students weren't outside all of the time there'd be the opportunity to be outside but you'll also notice there's some fields that are added to the campus and then phase three would be the third bond election down
083the road that would add softball baseball and that a new pool uh and that way you'd have everything there on the campus couple things to note there's a city street that runs uh by the band hall and the jrc and we'll have to engage with the city on that conversation we've already begun the conversation but more formally and then in everything I talk about tonight remember there's deferred maintenance that will be addressed in the amount of $40 million and there are Safety and Security upgrades that impact every campus in the amount of $8 million so fencing secure uh keyless entry all of those conversations are taking place the next is Glenn and with Glenn you can see the current building and then the next Slide by year of construction and then the next slide gives
084you an idea of what the vision would be for Glenn and that would be a new Glenn Middle School built on the current practice fields that faces Johnson Street and then a demo of the current building and adding the uh track football field there to uh to help those students with adequate facilities the next slide Fannon every thinking I think everybody knows we uh used uh emergency relief funds to construct some buildings there at Fannon which is a very unusual thing usually that doesn't happen outside of a bond election but the next slide at Fannon shows you uh the current facility and again the next Slide by year of construction you can see the salmon pink color and then this the next slide would be the uh bond election adding the office Library cafeteria uh
085kitchen area and changing the campus layout the front of the building would face East instead of South that's Fannon then Mill Mill you'll see the same kind of progression in thinking uh the next slide will show you the current facility and the next Slide by year of construction and then the next slide if the bond is approved what it would do to the campus and you can see kind of the finished product there and then the final um effort would be at Crockett Crockett's cafeteria and kitchen are uh very old and inadequate the next slide shows you by year of construction and the third slide shows you the new cafeteria kitchen with four additional or several additional classroom I think four or six at least there uh to accommodate students as we consolidate elementaries and
086begin to move students uh into adequate spaces in the district so I believe that's it um so so really that's what we're showing uh folks everywhere I'm going and talking through the bond uh this is the conversation I thought the board would benefit from updated pictures and hearing that conversation any questions any questions for Dr Moran I have a quick question sure um in looking at Glenn Middle School um which I'm very excited about the opportunity to possibly build a new Middle School um but I'm curious about why we would need another football field when there's a stadium right there yep so that's a good question and the answer really is um every campus should have its own facilities because sharing facilities uh really is a is problematic when you have Varsity uh Sports using
087the stadium multiple high schools using it often times the Middle School becomes uh the one that has to give up their opportunity and so uh you know the question is is what is our standard for a campus at Lincoln and at lonar we have those facilities uh we want to be mindful of the opportunity to provide those for all of our kids regardless of the campus they're on okay any additional questions all right thank you Dr Moran I think we're going to hit pause for a moment on reports we're hit pause for a moment on the reports and we're going to go to item six um and Dr Gomez is going to help us with considering house bill and instructional materials Dr Kingman Dr Moran and members of the boards we've had many conversations about
088um House Bill 16005 and what has us here this evening to make some decisions moving forward so through house bill 16005 as we 've already discussed came to be the imra process as we now know it the imra process again we like acronyms and education so that your instructional materials review and approval creates criteria that the State Board of Education review and approve um and the State Board of Education is separate I know we've had questions about this from the Texas Education Agency so through this process there must be te coverage because every educator in the state of Texas is required to cover the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for their grade level and their content area additional criteria include quality that the material must be suitable for the grade level in the subject area
089that's being taught free from factual error no harmful content and other statutory compliance and the last key addition through this process has been the parent portal compliance additionally with that is the parent transparency that requires school districts to establish a process for the materials to be reviewed and it requires Publishers to make imra approved textbooks accessible to parents via the Internet you'll notice and we've highlighted this multiple times the newest edition this has never been part of the process before are state-owned textbooks so under house bill 16005 what that means is the Texas Education Agency was required to develop state-owned textbooks that are subject to approval by the State Board of Education part of that process provides optional teacher training for districts to utilize the materials and a related grant for educator prep programs now
090it's very timely that Dr Skelton gave his overview this evening we are so so blessed to have Angela State University right here in our community and it is a true blessing to have our Rams residents U Mr gagos asked a key question and said are we seeing an increase in teacher candidates coming to the profession to which Dr Skelton replied No in fact this spring right now in St Angelo ISD we have a total of seven clinical teachers seven overall of those seven there is only one EC through six candidate that means only one cand candidate pursuing certification the elementary grade levels so if we did not have those 12 Ram residents we would be even in a more difficult situation especially at our elementary levels a part of this process which is this is
091another key change are the tis review and revisions that come to be with us I'm going to show you a timeline that we've reviewed before so going to spend some more time in in a second um we've also talked about in statute you uh school districts are not allowed to use What's called the three queing system I sometimes joke and say in a former lifetime I was a reading specialist and a primary teacher really that was just 29 years ago um when I myself taught early readers and then served to be a reading specialist I was trained as many of us were on this 3 queing system so if you're like I'm not a reading teacher might be a researcher but I've never taught a child how to read what that meant specifically was um
092meaning semantics and visual does it look right does it sound right and does it make sense which we're around what now the science of reading which we are required to teach and learn as Educators when you know better you do better and so the three queing system has been banned and no resource can refer to that for phonics instruction and then lastly this is so key um for Teacher protections teachers cannot be required to use their planning time to create initial instructional materials without having the additional supplemental Duty agreement and I know that we have discussed that and what that would mean would be additional compensation of teachers were having to create those materials so to recap this timeline I know timeline has come up individuals have asked well how did this timeline come to
093be are we rushed in this decision so we'll recap this during covid materials were referred to as C or covid emergency release versions began in two uh areas around English language arts for elementary levels K5 and then you'll notice when it says knowledge we've talked about the difference between Knowledge and Skills when it's referencing K2 skills English and Spanish that's the explicit phonics instruction then in math K5 for Eureka and then for high school and secondary 6 through eight um Texas math solution or Carnegie Learning you might hear it referred to so you can see the timeline there where house bill 16005 came into play and how those covid emergency release versions have now transitioned into blue bonnet learning when we talked about the process for tees revisions um you can see how the standard
094staks revisions used to be a multiple year process where the State Board of Education they would develop the standards they would approve those standards then there would be materials review then five years later districts would adopt materials and then finally by year six those materials would make their ways into to the hands of teachers and districts and then you also notice the state accountability portion where State assessments are used and there would be a timeline where you had new standards being adopted um and staff had not had the opportunity to teach those standards for the state assessment this is just another way of looking at it but if you refer to the bottom portion there with a new review process there is an annual approval of materials that can occur without changes to those Texas
095Essential Knowledge and Skills so instead of a fiveyear to six-year process you have a shorter process there meaning in year one the State Board of Education can review materials year two districts can adopt materials and by year three those newly adopted materials are available in schools we have not had conversations around social studies um not trying to just highlight that but if you know any social studies teachers in secondary they've gone multiple years without the state approving and adopting new materials so that brings a lot of challenges to teachers having to create those materials uh Mr M will you click on the second one now I know you can't read this especially if you're sitting in the audience but I point this because this comes straight from the State Board of Education and the timeline
096so when people talk about bials and funding and entitlements it is so very small but the conversation and the vote presented to you are around two content areas and two grade level spans so specifically we just reviewed the process in that very small print first row says January through June 2024 that was the Emeral review for reading language arts K5 and phonics K3 that's what puts us here now for a vote on instructional materials to get them in the hands of staff so just as a reminder the materials to consider are only K5 reading language arts and K3 phonics now if you can read this really tiny print you you will see that secondary rla because there's no mention of resources for secondary rla those would not become available to teachers until 2030 also uh
097the other area that we have to decide on is K through 8 mathematics and high school mathematics specifically Algebra 1 so again going back to what you saw on the timeline to what you see on this very small chart in January 3 June of 2024 the emra process called for a review then there was the approval in 2425 making 2526 the emra implementation for K8 mathematics and Algebra 1 so I apologize for that very small print this is straight from the State Board of Education calendar and timeline I'm me go back to the slide deck okay so when you talk about um funding because yes there is a funding regardless of what materials are accepted or approved by the Board of Trustees so you have your regular bium allotment this is where vocabulary word is
098very specific so you receive your regular allotment for student enrollment to have enough instructional materials now please note because this is very confusing for individuals that's one one pot of money for all instructional materials including print digital and devices the State Board of Education also requires that teaks for technology are specifically taught so there is a requirement to teach students how to properly use devices and there's also the requirement to teach handwriting for the additional entitlements that we have discussed that's on top of the regular allotment the only way districts can access those additional entitlements is if they adopted a state board of education approved instructional material so we've gone through these Pages it's simply a review you can see companies listed here there are three pages of companies I want to stop right there
099for a second and on the first slide on The Orange Box we talked about the requirement under house bill 1605 for a state-owned textbook so you will notice the Texas Education Agency listed and you will note the resources that the state agency owns are blue bonnet learning this is a review of the slide where we discussed what I just recapped with you the regular allotment then the two potential entitlements depending on what a school district chooses to use now additionally there's been conversation on the timeline and not making rushed decisions we could not agree more especially if you're an educator that has an instructional resource for multiple years the difference in this process is the ongoing revisions that are requirement under house bill 16005 so when we talk timeline whatever resource a school district adopts
100is ordered through the emat system that's the way you place your order that's how you submit your request the emat system closes March 28th and is down the entire month of April allowing it to reopen in May so people might think well the school year hasn't started that's great there are over a thousand school districts in the state of Texas so if a school district submits their order and at the 1 of may you may or may not have teacher additions and materials to have in teachers hands who very much want them over the summer and before school starts so they can review those materials however you're in a queue an ordering system of all the other districts in the state of Texas what I can tell you in my 29 years as an educator
101if you have a delayed roll out of a resource it sets the tone for your entire year teachers need whatever the adopted resource is because they are the deliverer of the craft in their classroom and delays on receiving those resources does create extra barriers for whatever is adopted and then we have also continued to address parents have the right to review all instructional materials and the right to remove a child from the classer activity so that's simply a recap was not trying to skip through any of that too quickly we've just had multiple conversations and so I just wanted to highlight what has been discussed on multiple occasions I have questions for Dr Gomez you said that it could be a delay like they shut it off in May or they shut it it will
102close this year effective March 28th and it will reopen in May and that incl all the material like say like if if whatever we decide to do today yes sir okay now will that take preference meaning okay if if you don't do it if you don't take this other one today and and you want to order another one A different um curriculum would it be last or would that blue bondet be first now it doesn't change it just cuts it off it just cuts off the system so you have no access there are also additional parts of the process that a school board is directly involved in you will know and be familiar with the instructional material certification where that has to be presented to the board well a district can't certify the instructional materials
103until the district knows what instructional materials the Board of Trustees is adopting so we can't present that to you for your review and consideration because we haven't yet selected the instructional materials under the State Board of Education timeline so just locally here for our district the regular board me meeting is March 24th if there is a vote on instructional materials for that regular board meeting on March 24th there would be a presentation because it needs to be by May 1st but also in full transparency if we want materials to be in teachers hands before they start the school year an order needs to be placed that's not rushing a timeline that's full transparency of what teachers want to be prepared in their classrooms so on March 24th the instruction material certification could be presented depending
104on what materials are adopted there could potentially be an open educ ation resource transition plan that a district has to have approved before you can access entitlements so put for sure there's one additional process before any orders can be placed in the system and potentially there's two depending on what is adopted other questions from Mrs Dr Gomez sorry yeah I got some questions um in regards to our current curriculum is is it an option to remain with our current curriculum is that even an option um so I want to be really specific because a lot of things can be generalized so are you talking specifically for everything are you talk how about we recap our current curriculum yeah like amplifi yes so currently in the 23 24 school year the district went to the CER
105version of amplify for K2 skills with the 2425 school year the district expanded to 35 which skills remember that's phonics we have a lot of words in education here um so in K2 your skills component for phonics is separate from the knowledge portion okay so with this school year the knowledge portion was added to K2 and amplify rla which skills and knowledge is combined was expanded through 3 through five then in terms of because there's been a lot of talk about rla but remember we have the two different grade spans and the two different content areas to vote upon so for math with the 2425 school year for 3 through five amplify is the version of the co emergency response the current free version is what the district went with in addition to Algebra 1
106Carnegie so if the question is could the district stay with the covid emergency response you could yes please note for the state board approved instructional materials entitlement you will see amplify education partial subject English phonics so that would be the skills only component and a district could stay with that but you will notice that on the state board approved instructional materials there is no mention of the knowledge component so we couldn't stay with our current knowledge component no sir not for the entitlement you also note that in the areas that I mentioned for Eureka the only to stay with that you it's not on the state board approved unless you went with the states because Blue Bonnet for Eureka and Carnegie are the Texas versions with the full alignment according to the state board approved
107of it State Board of Education uh for Texas specifically all right thank you other comments or questions so I have a few comments and then we'll go from there I do think whatever however people vote here I think it's important that when there's this much discussion as far as a community that everyone understands where as a board we are um so I'm going to say where I am and then we'll see what happens from there so the issue for me and Dr G is you have to stay up there so in case we have questions um is right now we're not an a district we um um as far as the state classification and whether we believe that students should be graded on one test or not the reality is the state is creating a
108curriculum and then they're going to score us on a test that decides how they're going to rank us for our community we don't have to think that's fair we don't have to think that's right but that's a reality of how the state is going to do this and so the idea that there are options here is true and I'm not disputing that we can all have opinions on what those options are but for me the fact of the matter is we have seven districts with Excuse me seven campuses with Improvement plans right now and we're going to ask our teachers to not be given the key to the test as far as what the curriculum the state's approving I you think that there's light I mean I can't from the things that I have read
109and I get that there's still things that are not clarified in Blue Bonnet that there's very strong possibility that some of this curriculum will be excluded by the courts I think it's likely and almost assured that some of this curriculum if we adopted will be excluded locally I would completely agree with that statement um but the reality is the same way we have to trust teachers with their craft we have to trust teachers whether they whether we believe in the Bible infusion or not you have to trust the fact that teachers can do damage on either side of that whether it's to Christian students or non-Christian students and the reality is our teachers other than parents are likely the people with our children in the most vulnerable times anywhere already um but with that being
110said we can't not provide them a curriculum that they can go create their own curriculum without finding more money which we don't have and there's also the possibility if you look through some of the records from the um legislature that they may require the professional development of all teachers to have blue bonnet whether you adopt it or not in the next two years um and whether you whether the tis is written to match or the ma or the blue bonnet was written to match the tis it's another discussion of pretending we have an option but the reality is um from everything I read the teaks is going to align with blue bonnet that's what the State Board of Education is telling us and that's what they're going to grade us on um now I do
111think that it has to be transparent and I think someone brought up a FAQ idea for everybody to explain exactly whatever happens tonight he said no but the reality is yes or no the district should have an FAQ about why we decide to do and it should be a one pager and it should be succinct and it should be as clear as possible and it should be everywhere because this has been a um disputed discussion or um but I would also before we get to making a b a uh board action I would also propose as a board that we separate K through 8 math and Algebra 1 if someone was going to make a motion one way or the other and let's vote on that because I haven't heard as many um discussion regarding
112K through 8 and Algebra 1 and let's vote on that and then let's look at the K5 rla as a separate vote and I have checked legally we can do that based on the motion that was written so we're going to that would be my proposal if someone wants to make a motion one way or the other Dr K and I've been in the same boat you have for the last uh couple of three months I've endeavored to do as much research as possible to make a decis Vision adopting or not adopting this curriculum and I thank all the folks that came tonight to speak on behalf of either yes or no of how you like it um I've also received numerous phone calls and emails about approval and inent and descent but in fact
113the way that the state has created these lessons that align with the teaks the the uh Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and the elps the English language proficiency standard have embedded supports to help secure that that you the teachers have a better chance of scoring higher on the star test than not and that's how the state looks at us that's how the community looks at us that's how you guys are looking at us tonight is how we see uh how you see us compared to uh how the state ranks us and it's a uh it's a terrible thing but that's what we have to pay attention to in addition to uh what Dr Kim was St stating early earlier so I mean again there's some there's some instructional uh review on this thing and that
114would be a great uh uh I think uh proponent to to this it would help the district to have a committee set up that actually helps with review of this so um saying that um again U blue biner right now is the only state board of education approved up with an educational resource that fully aligns with the tees that that uh that push toward the St test I I would like to make a comment I don't I I've had multiple discussions with teachers and other board members and I don't think the financial impact is I don't think it's been brought up at all frankly from my conversations I don't think the extra money is I think it's really more about performance and trying truthfully trying to put a curriculum that's best for our children and
115while you know I I've looked at tons of stuff on Loop on it and there are obvious INF there's some religious infusion built in there it's obvious you know it's infused in there but it's it's not just it's not all over it's not Blain most parts of it that I was reviewing are just normal everyday type of stuff it is it it seems wholly unnecessary frankly that it's in there at all but they put it in there and it at the end of the day you know we've had people come up and say how we still have so many people illiterate in our world we've had this curriculum or previous curriculum for years and years and they had they're still these people they can't read so it's not blue bonnet that's making them not making
116them illiterate there's a lot of problems with curriculum over the years whether it's related to the political stuff now or or not I think the state has put us in a situation where really we we don't have any good options um but to outright throw out Blue Bonnet because of the religious stuff that we can as you mentioned and Dr Kingman mentioned we can exclude some of that on our own is very nice we don't have to uh take every bit of this verbatim we can we can edit it locally and I think that's important to remember that no matter what we decide tonight if we ultimately decide to go Blue Bonet as a district we can take whole parts of this out and you you don't parents don't have to elect to take their
117children out of certain sections the district can do that independently now are we going to take all of the religious stuff out I if if it got elected I I I don't think that would be possible but I think there's some controversial parts that could be edited out and uh I think that would be very prudent as a district to have a low bar low threshold for considering uh you know such an action but um to rule out a curriculum completely because of um some obvious religious overtones I think is is is not going to be in the best interest of our children especially uh with the lack of other alteres because I did look at the other uh high quality or I forget the acronym youall use but the high quard approved instructional materials
118yeah that one um the sa savis I don't if I'm saying that right I mean I looked at that extensively too and uh you know a lot of the L literature comments about reading books and trying to get kids love reading I mean it it has some books in there too but I I it's not like I mean I I have a list of some of the ones that the the fifth graders read none of these are I read through some of them um none of these are going to be things that Force kids to love to read I mean I think a lot of the curriculum is is very similar um in a lot of ways and I'd be afraid that if we were to go a completely different course because amplify this is
119blue blet is a version of amplify in essence is that correct yes sir um the teachers already familiar with amplify they already know it well if we were to completely Go a different direction how long for the teachers to become comfortable for with that and proficient in that to teach it well when they already have something that is 70% but blue bond is already 70% amplify anyways and they already feel really good about that why would we go a completely different direction so those those are just some of my thoughts I I do think that there's some more legal stuff that's going to come out of this uh in the future and some of this we may not have to make that many decisions on anyways uh but um I do appreciate everybody spending as
120much time on this as I have and and uh appreciate B coming and expressing their concerns I want do you do you have I guess this is a good time do you have anything to say to some of the comments that were said publicly well you mentioned um that the ENT every religious um connection could not be excluded and we've discussed that in a prior meeting so to clarify a district could not throw all of that out you would lose the uh Integrity to the standards alignment and going back to what we're required to do as Texas Educators is to cover the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills so that's why it could not all be thrown out in its entirety but you are exactly correct um that districts have local discretion on what they adopt
121and how they Implement what any District would be required to do to meet the requirements of house bill 16005 is the parent transparency so if any revisions or modifications are made that has to be available for parents to see can I ask a question because I got distracted in my talking um I meant to ask so in whatever curric we've had curriculums every year we've probably unfortunately maybe to the detriment of our district changed curriculums I think three or four times since I've been on the board and I think the reality is um when we talk about good districts and what they're doing they're not changing curriculums and that may not be because the curricul is great but it's because the teachers can internalize it and actually teach instead of like I remember in my
122own profession like day one you're given eight steps to a procedure and like all you can remember is eight steps but like that's not how you do the procedure and so to clarify with that I just want to make sure like if a teacher has internalized what is the teak of that day as long as they stay on their pacing pacing thank you um they is and they're covering the teak for that day they can cover that teak with whatever they want as long as it's following the teak well whatever they want is a very broad statement okay sorry yeah thank you but I I would like to point out because what continues to come up with the hqm the criteria you'll notice the criteria that we've covered multiple times and nowhere on this criteria
123does it say read a script but that's what continues to come out well if we're not reading the script when someone walks in then in essence we're in trouble and I I totally say that is a false statement no one is saying You must be holding your te reading word for word so however there is a big difference you cannot walk in and just pull it out and wing it not with the depth of the high quality instructional material so you must have internalized the lesson in advance to know what has to be covered um can I comment on that when you say you can't just walk in and read the script you could but that is not I said you can walk in and just wing it so for some of us who have
124been in this profession for a long time you must be prepared right and even if a very qualified teacher 30e teacher yes ma'am those I mean High qualified teachers always read a script well I don't care what script is the night before we're looking at it we're deciding how we're going to teach it how we're going to um um differentiate instruction how we're going to meet our GT how we're going to meet our special ad you do that as a teacher so when you read a script if I'm reading the script there may be something in the script that I've never seen before then I'm like that's amazing but the next day at school a a a a teacher with you know where I'm talking she's not g to you wouldn't expect to walk in
125and see her reading a script no way so that is not what I'm I'm hoping and I and I feel confident because I've talked to a lot of people y'all teachers a lot that is not what we want a teacher to do we we do not want a robot we want a teacher that has a a craft has a skill and when we walk into their classroom we want to say wow that teacher teaches it that way what is she teaching she's teaching foreshadowing I go into the next cre she's teaching foreshadowing but you know what she's she's doing it a little twist her way both children are learning both children are going to be successful we and all the years that I was in sa I was always told we will never put a
126teacher in a box you know because then we take away their craft some teachers need to be in a box correct and we know that some teachers need to be in that box they need to be given a script they need a tight hold we need to be monitoring um for whatever reason maybe they're an alt sert and they said you know I want to be a teacher today and for that we celebrate but we help them we guide them to be successful yes ma'am right those that went to school especially let's take a um High School teacher their craft is their subject I could never I mean my craft is math I could never walk into a biology classroom and tell a biology teacher what I don't know their craft and if they're high
127school that's all they've done for years and um so I say all that to I will always stand back and have com have faith in the teacher and if my child is in a room and my faith isn't in that teacher I'm going to have those conversations things may happen um and that's my role as a parent right um but I'm not here to micromanage a teacher I don't think they want to be micromanaged and whatever the curriculum is it's a curriculum it's not a I'm going to get up and on my calendar I'm I'm going to say this word at this time or do this for any curriculum and I spoke on this last board meeting about Saxon Saxon was a little bit like that they wrote your quiz for you they wrote the
128test for you they had the homework problems they had the lesson we taught that but not every day did I teach it exactly the way and the teachers around me we didn't teach it the way Saxon said because some days I didn't agree with that did I teach the teach absolutely did I teach the pace absolutely the pacing is important you don't want to get to the end of the year you haven't covered all of your te so those two things go hand in hand but and it's something you have teak is what you have to do the pace is how this the pace you have to do it the curriculum is a tool and you can have many tools you teacher pay teacher as a tool I've seen teachers bu step off that and
129they go that is an amazing thing all of these are tools my fellow teacher is my tool so I just wanted to make sure that I'm understanding that right that as a teacher you do not have to read a script every day no one is going into a room saying she or he are not reading the script okay I I just wanted to absolutely make sure I'm on that same also like to point out what we all hold so dear in the learner profile and the for C's so I want to point that out that we want students to be critical thinkers collaborators communicators and they need to be talking as well now when you move to a new instructional resource Dr Mills asked this we've been using it two years it takes time for
130any educator to learn the new resource already our summer professional learning is okay you've had two years with this resource now how do we stay true to our SD learner program profile in our four c's with student engagement how do you build those in it does not say on amplify or eure on page 64 turn and talk to your neighbor that's the craft of teaching I've been directing this long I've been reading this long where do I build that in that's the engagement and that's what you call the craft of teaching I I think it's important that the district continue to promote that with our teachers I know we do but reviewing this literature or the the curriculum you know I found the the teaching guides to be actually very helpful as a parent you
131know like I'm not a professional teacher I don't know how to teach curriculum I have no experience in this but I can read these internalization protocols and these teacher guides and now I can understand much easier what the goal of the lesson is much more than I can with my with the the current curriculum now cuz I I don't have access to it the great thing about this stuff is it's very everyone can get it it's open anybody can has the internet can access this stuff it's easy to find and it's pretty easy to understand and I could see how teachers could be off-put by something that seems very you know like if I with zero teaching experience think is helpful it might not be helpful for them but as a parent it also is
132very reassuring that I can look at that stuff and support the teachers at home and continue the education CU we all know education does not stop when they leave the classroom or shouldn't stop when they leave the classroom so just you know as a non-teacher I appreciate teachers and what they do but it this is it was helpful for me reviewing this stuff so that's I guess if someone's saying for something positive about that I think that's a positive Dr gumz um at the last meeting I had asked if a teacher had more to expand upon in a lesson um because it was minimized in the in the blue bonnet lesson um if they would be able to do that and I thought that I remembered that you said that they wouldn't have time to
133because it wouldn't fit into the into the schedule what I talked about was the pacing so again that's pretty General when you say will the teacher have time to expand upon does that mean the teacher wants to take an additional week to tie in additional resources to that reading then that I would say no because you do have have to stay within the pacing window however does that mean that a teacher cannot supplement to enrich that is an absolute yes but you do have to stay within the pacing and you can't just scrap materials all together think I use the example of I'll just miss reris will be my partner we're both third grade rla teachers at campus a and we decide we don't like this reading selection we're just not doing it and we
134go off and do something else because there's a system and process it's our responsibility as a district to ensure that all of those tis are taught and also to have checkpoints to see how we're tracking as a district however there is a system and a process that we use quite frequently for secondary if we say we have some concerns about this selection then you go through the process and then the final decision is made so yes teachers very much have a voice but to have full autonomy then you have no alignment in the instructional material and that would be a no because then you're not consistent when we talk about how do districts end up in a situation where we're all over the place our arrows aren't going in the same direction and that's how
135you end up in that situation all right no I think I'm sorry I think I want to speak on that just because I'm sorry Amy I know it's it's the teacher in me I think that goes back to the teacher so I'm going to use if you're teaching seven periods a day okay and I'm teaching fractions and I get to my seventh period and a Miracles happening every single child in there already knows how to do it I'm not going to continue teaching what I teach the other five periods for the next week I'm going to enrich that group of kids I'm going to take them farther same thing in a classroom first period if you're teaching fractions two um two kids don't get it but the rest do that's where that differentiation happens that's
136the skill of a teacher taking the kids that get it grouping them over here and so I'm going to ask a reading question I'm reading a novel okay I have children in there that they're reading level is so Advanced would they be required to read the novel that everybody else has to read a first grade level if they're in a eighth grade level I mean because kids are everywhere nowadays that's the hard there's different components to the material so there are the read alouds which are on grade level or above to expose them to the vocabulary you're hearing and there are the decodable readers that go from less complex to more complex text as students learn to read and that's where the differentiation comes in so so back to say going back to that what
137a student on that is I don't say struggling student I say striving student but when you work with students that need more academic supports I just think striving is better than saying struggling we all struggle at different things in life but as Learners you always have the opportunity to grow and be better so a striving student their reader is going to be different than a more advanced reader that's the Continuum of learning to read so so so you're still in the same pace you're still in that same window but the window might look different so the readers that we've looked at within each grade level are not necessarily the readers that the students would be reading if they're in that grade depends on their individual reading level and what all that student has to cover
138that's reading just regular reading instruction okay and I think that's really important to point out the specific tees the statute prohibiting the use of the three queing system so as as you build you notice that K2 SK our skills was originally K2 that it's been expanded now to K3 so every third grade student wouldn't need the same level of support for the skills instruction for phonics as they've grown from learning to read to reading to learn okay all right are you talking yeah I'm talking sorry yes I'm speaking um my curriculum it's not my strong suit it isn't I mean half the time when you're going HH qfq I have to write it down and just kind of wing it but you know I've been doing this for 20 years going on 20 years okay
139and my deal is just the fact that I mean we've eliminated Homestead exemptions we've discussed very touchy situations that have gone on this to me as personally as a board member because I took a oath 20 years ago going on 20 years to protect and defend the Constitution of these United States and of the State of Texas now the curriculum it may be the best in the world which is fine I mean y if y'all think it's good and and you think it's good and some of you think it's good but here's the one thing they did do they circumvented what we have held true for 2 yes they did no one can say they didn't circumvent only one attorney there at that thing said that well they're not really going around it there's no
140amendments right now to the constit stitution or to the State Constitution that allows you to do that you have the you have the exception Clause whatever that is but no they haven't changed anything they haven't changed nothing and so to me in a time a day right now the age we're living in where it's so easy to do that now oh well you know what it's just a rule I ain't doing it you know we're going to change it I'm not and that's just that's me okay that's how I feel because to me they will be it it's it's it's almost open it's opening a Pandora's Box I feel okay it it is it is because you're going to you're going to have and I'll just give you an example just stuff that I was
141running through my head but um you know uh you know say you're you're teaching something from the Bible or whatever whatever and you don't really believe and you're like you start telling the kids ah this is not really what happened this isn't really what happened this is what happened and that's what scares me because then you have someone who's not even a Christian you have someone that has a different belief and says that's not what happened what happened is this is what happened okay and that that's the reason like I said curriculum wise like you said you know to me they're not giving us a choice they really aren't I mean this is you take this or not okay we're gonna pay you money to take it okay it's almost like they trickled it down
142okay well we got paid to push this through now we're going to pay you $40 and $20 and I'm not going to do that I'm not I'm not going to do that I'm I'm not for sale and these kids are not for sale that's how I feel it so that that's my personal and you know you guys presenting this to us presenting to it I understand that that's what the State Board of Education wants us to do that's what the tea wants us to do or to decide what to do and I understand that's what that's what you presented and it's nothing against y'all or anything like that but that's what you presented but like I said I draw the line at that you know if if they didn't mention any of that stuff in
143there you know it hey no problem we wouldn't be here right now I'd vote Yes but they want me to cross a line that I said I would never ever do now if it turns out fine it turns out fine but I know that I did not cross a line that I promise not to ever do so that's that's what that's my opinion like Tim March used to say I'm going to stand up on my little soap box right here but yes so that's that's I I don't I can tell you right now that I don't want to do that so I think it's just important to remember that it's a vote for two different content areas and two different grade spans so a vote on both will need to be taken so unless there's
144more comment I'm going to make a motion see what happens for approval of K through 8 math and algebra number one to be blue learning as State Board of Education approved as a high quality instructional material and that to be adopted as a district do I have a second I'll second that any further board comment if I can just say one thing um thank Dr Kingman thank you very much for separating these out um I've spoken to uh Dr Gomez and to several Math teachers in our district and um the across the well overall um we've seen we've seen really a vast Improvement in math this year um using this curriculum and um Math teachers overall seem to like it they didn't in the beginning but they have kind of come around now and they
145understand it now um so I'm I'm okay with the math uh we'll have a different discussion when we talk about reading language arts but I'm okay with math all right any other for more board comments or questions all right so all in I had a motion for myself in a second from Mr dendle um all in favor say I I all against say the same so 61 all right it's now the fun one um I will make a motion that the s D adopts Blue Bonnet learning as a state board of education approved high quality instructural material for K through five rla do I have to put the second part that does all of it right K through five that's all that's available do I have sorry do I have a second I'll second so
146a motion for myself and a second from Dr Mills do I have any further board comments or questions I have comments um so I actually wrote up comments last night but all of the speakers tonight said a lot of what I was going to say so I don't need to cop to reiterate what you all said thank you um to those of you who came to speak thank you very much for coming and sharing your concerns um those are most those are many of my concerns too um I think a lot of us in this room um are currently um frustrated by the voucher situation what's happening with um with vouchers and um if you look at um social media if you talk to people in um legislators offices the overall the number of calls
147and the number of comments and the number of emails are um are very much against vouchers but our legislators are voting for them anyway and I've been reading every one of your texts and calls listening to your calls and reading all your emails and social media comments I've spent hours and hours and hours um between going through the curriculum and reading everybody's comments and um and responding to U people and I think I've only had one person in favor of blue bonnet in in all my calls and texts and emails and Facebook comments um and so I don't want to be one of the legislators like the legislators who are saying forget you all I don't have to listen to you because I'm here in this seat right now and so I'm listening to the
148people that I've that have reached out to me and spoken here at the meeting and I will be voting against [Applause] it all right um any other board comments or questions all right I'm going to make youall speak out loud because I just want to make sure I get it right um yes or no um all in favor say yes or either way just tell me yes or no yes yes no yes okay motion passes 43 one comment can I do a comment we already voted right yes okay just thank all of y'all I just want to thank y'all for coming really to me this is democracy at work that's what we're here for is for you to come tell us stuff and for us to act on it or not act on it so
149so thank you thank you very much all right we are now going to move back to our finance and our routine reports which will be on starting on page seven thank you thank you Dr Kingman we are have done our management oversight reports we are in um first of all our our bills and accounts for February start on page seven page nine shows our Com or combined statements of Revenue and and expenditures shows a restricted fund balance at this point of 11.7 million which most of that is an $8 million construction uh uh bill that we are probably close to paying show an unassigned fund balance of 52.8 million moving forward end February page 12 uh shows our Revenue expenditures for general fund for February should be somewhere around 50% uh revenues at 80 million
150right now which is at 61% which is uh we're slightly ahead because we do most of the the local collections uh in December January and February so that's why I trying to little head our expenditures at this point are 69 million which technically are 52.1% of a budget so we're a couple of points higher but really close to uh where we should be any questions about any of the revenue expense reports not we'll move forward to uh our check register that's page 13 through 36 any questions on check register this also can be found on online under our uh tab uh Financial uh transparency even our checkbooks online any questions about those checks I did have questions but they were answered by Merl so okay got it Merl answered my question and so Jason so
151thank you for both of them I have a question and I haven't had it answered yet but got find the page number sorry there is a text or there is a bill to Lee Lewis and I was just curious where are we on final payments on final payments on the Lee Lewis and I assume that's Miguel and I was visiting with Mr Henry so they still have the demolition of the building uh that they're doing right in the middle of the campus at MC uh so they've got approximately 1 million left after that $400,000 payment so as far as our committed fund balance million showing 8 million she uh so uh Miss Flor is Director of Finance so she hasn't moved that balance down yet because there was still money in that account and so
152she has paid out of there and then as we get closer then she'll make an amendment and then we'll begin to uh pull that pull that down but I can maybe if for our Friday facts could we just get a update on where we are as far as that uh pay down yes sir thank you any other questions about our checkbook if not we can move to pages 37 through 40 of our agenda for the monthly investment report other districts total invested funds at the end of February were 85 million procs total interest earned for the month was $31,500 interest ear in the general fund was $267,000 procs interest rates in the pools varied at this point from 4.35% to 4.52% in comparison to January there were 84 million invested with 325,000 in interest our
153quarterly investment report is on page is 42 to 45 uh the total Investments as of February 28 2025 the end of the second quarter uh were approximately 85 million again total interest earned for the second quarter was [Music] $91,900 98 million with with 1.02 million uh interest earned that's the qu those are the investment reports any questions on [Applause] that if not we can move to the tax collection report which is on page 46 for January 2025 our collections for 2023 we're at 79% uh totaling approximately 43 million and our 2020 four collections we're at 82.61% totaling approximately 46 million it's on page 46 of the tax collection report so uh slightly ahead of last year as far as collections are concerned page 47 through 50 are POS over $20,000 which include uh styrofoam trays
154we bought a lot of those there's some maintenance report our school resource officers 21,000 are you no but that's what styrofoam tray that's what styro trays are yes sir I thought it was something like medical they were using or something what is styro TR uh curriculum instruction we have a lot of that uh there's some Lea space on there also we bought a little over $20,000 with the orange chicken again fibertech which is uh part of that uh there's a property study in there bought some laptops a couple of vehicles some playground equipment for one of the schools some occupational and physical therapy expense fuel for the month there was a bus repair in there and there was a transfinder upgrade and uh Dr Brandon transfinder is our bus our bus uh bus program so
155it's an up upgrade on software program for our bus students that we uh that we move around every day easier for parents to find too so um with that I think that uh concludes our financi and report for February all right NE any break all right we're going to take a quick stop for a break for the facilities um and we'll be right back so we'll adjourn for a moment all right we are back in session um we are going to move forward with item number five all out of order we're going to consider an eate Grant application for the funding year of 2526 good evening everyone um so it's the time of the year we do this each year of applying for our eate Grant application and so eate is um funded by a
156tax that's on all of our phone bills cell phones home phones if you still have a home phone um or a landline type phone and so it funds for discounts on our internet wide area network cable modems um they this school year added bus Wi-Fi for next school year they've added hotspots and then um they also have a formula where we're allowed to apply for um Network infrastructure upgrades and so this is part of that same process that we do each school year and so for our Wi-Fi internet cable modem we have a multi-year contract it was bid out last year as part of last year's um eate project and it will be about $260,000 that'll come back to the school district based on um estimates of what our bills are right now and then
157um our bus Wi-Fi we bid it last actually this school year but this time last year and we have an extension option on that contract so we're we're happy with that vendor it's kajit and um so we're going to continue another year and extend that contract another year and it'll be about 14,000 that'll come back to us from um the usack eate system and then as part of this year's eate posting We had to to bid for Network upgrades and hotspots and so we posted for that as part of a bid of the bid process and so we um Jason Henry and Frank and my network manager David and I we reviewed the bids that we received and for Network upgrades we had two vendors who responded funed that was insight and I'm going to
158say the name wrong inch two two eyes and um Insight had our highest points they are the vendor that we've used for a number of years they know our infrastructure well they actually uh contract with a company that has Eng engineers and installers here in town so that helps lower the price as well as um because of the volume that they do um we get significant discounts so their price pre- discount was $120,000 less than the other vendor so and we're very pleased um that they came back to the table again this year and provided us a quote so we recommend insight for the network infrastructure upgrades for next school year and then for hotpots we had four vendors kajit Optimum AT&T and T-Mobile all provide quotes and after our review of the quotes and
159scoring um we recommend that we go with k for um the hotspots kajit is also our vendor for our bus Wi-Fi and the um bonus for picking them is um that we will have one management system so that management system to manage the devices monitor the hotspot I mean the internet usage and control the internet filtering will all be in one platform versus if we chose AT&T or T-Mobile we would have to have a separate system to manage also they were the lowest cost cost vendor so um it's a win-win both directions plus they we have experience already doing eate with them so um they were they're a good partner with us and we've um actually used kajit for several years we've actually had bus Wi-Fi since before covid started we were one of the
160few districts that had bus wife on on our buses and we actually used it during covid times to help support our kiddos who couldn't come to school during that time and we put our buses around town and people would go to our buses to get internet service so it's been a great uh company to work with and so I very I feel very comfortable recommending them again for um continued service with our district is there anything I can answer for you any questions for Mrs D I don't have a question but I just have a positive to tell you I finally made it to Aloma or are y'all calling it Aloma Technology Center for finally made it I finally made it over to the Technology Center and it is amazing we are loving it and
161I am so excited for y'all and everyone in there was so so nice thank you and they seemed really excited so my heart is happy that y'all have because I was used to going to the closet yes so I'm I'm very happy for that yes it's a much better setup for us to support our um not only our ex our internal staff but all of our staff across the district and our students yes um and so part of this um the renewal of the or the continuation of the contract for our wide area network is this summer we will be moving our server room and the core of the wide area network over there um Optimum has been great to work with um it will put us um a better setup than what we've had
162at the Susa location while Susa has served our district for about 25 years this is going to set us up for many years to come um and allow us to grow and continue to support the district as well as um a better lines set up and uh better connectivity options and so forth and yes my staff is thrilled to be there so it's we're we're very pleased to be there and we appreciate the board support any other board questions or comments comment just a comment um I uh when I went to um Washington DC this year one of the topics that they talked to us about um to take to our um Federal legislators was rate because there's a threat of it ending um and I just wanted to thank you for being so um
163informative to us all the time because I was able to go back to my notes that I had taken from all the things you've said and talked to Senator Cruzes um and Senator corins and uh representative fuger staff about how much eate has helped our district and um so I think we're still waiting to hear how that goes but um erate has had some uh considerable impacts on our district starting with like you said the Wi-Fi on the buses and all the other technology you know the uh Security on their doors and um for all the buildings and so um I just wanted to thank you for being so informative to us so that I could sound intelligent when I talk to our Representatives you're welcome and I I don't mind answering people's questions anytime
164um to give um Everybody kind of an idea um so I've been here 20 years and I looked it up this morning and we've had not counting this current year is about $21 million to our school district so it has been very impactful to our school district um it helped us to have our infrastructure at a good place um when covid happened and we needed to go to one to one we are ready we're ahead of the curve of a lot of districts and already had access points in every one of our classrooms at our secondary level and we're in the process of getting them in our classrooms at our elementary level so and you know we push forward real quickly and finish that project off because it was already in the works and so
165um it's really helped us to support our um Learners and our teachers um as well as to do that infrastructure like you say the the security the access control Energy Management different things on our Network because more and more is moving to the network and internet so and I can't say enough y'all y'all done y'all have done a lot y'all have done a lot and we've tried to stay with the Curve like when y'all brought up when she just brought up the Wi-Fi for the buses I remember when y'all were parking them like over on Jefferson and all that for kids could come log on because they didn't have Wi-Fi at home but they were able to access it through the buses and that was a big a big help and and we've had some
166great Partners the the vendors that I'm recommending tonight have all been great Partners to us um and I look forward to continuing to work with them and so that's helped us to move forward and move the district's technology infrastructure and resources forward all right do I have a motion Dr K move to approve the selection of vendors on the attached bid summary sheets for the 25 26 erray Grant application is recommended by the administration and authorized the superintendent to execute the final agreement with each selected vendor in a form approved by Council for the district without further approval by the board it's also recommended that the board authoriz the submission of the eay grant applications for the 2025 2026 funding year second thank you Charlotte so I have a motion from Mr dle and a
167quick second from Mr gagos do we um any other board comments or questions all in favor say I I all against say the same motion passes 70 thank you all and once again I greatly appreciate your support of myself and my department thank you thank you Mr D all right we're going to move through our proposed agenda for next week uh we got the invocation Pledge of Allegiance recognitions um probably we're going to have an academic update which will be our midal of year academic report which our map scores correct yes it'll be maap for third on up and M class for early literacy for the primary grades perfect and then Dr Mar is going to give us a legislative update and then um we'll be looking through our action items below for or consent
168items so bills accounts and financial statements will stay regular Corley investment report will stay regular it can go it actually can go oh it can go consent come man Mr dendle look at loosen in the rains and then we're gonna do uh the we're going to talk about the bids for the Child Nutrition department for the 2425 school year Warehouse products because y'all have been here all night and so we're going to let you talk about it right now so you don't have to come back next week how's that sound well thank you Dr keeman we appreciate that we would have come back gladly and spent time with you next week as well um but thank you Dr kemman Dr Moran um ladies and gentlemen of the board and cabinet um we're excited to bring
169to you our first RFP um as a result of the interlocal agreement that was approved back in December um by your elves with Midland ISD we immediately hit the ground running um coming up with a small list of items to test um and see what the savings might would be if we were to partner some of our high volume items together so we um seek approval this evening for um to purchase items listed on RFP 24-22 n for warehouse products as a part of our interlocal agreement with midlin niy and as a part of this agreement our department works together to develop the selection and like I said it's high volume items and we did receive two bids on this um one was from a Cisco West Texas and the other was from Acme soap
170uh this RFP was a single vendor awarded contract and so it is our recommendation that the award go to Cisco West Texas um they were the lowest bid but also the only one that was able to provide all of the products um requested in the RFP um so the total amount of this interlocal M ment is $559,500 181 with $377,450 7598 just on these products listed here um and that's just a lot of that is Juice So a good example um the juice if you looked at any of the attachments came in at about $2.50 less per case but because we use juice every single day at every single level and then also high schools um have it at both meal times and then it's also sold alicart I mean we go through 700 cases
171a week so when you take $2 50ish times 700 cases a week per flavor I mean you're just it's a huge savings so we're we were very excited to see that to see that savings and again the savings just comes from the fact that we do have a warehouse Midland has a warehouse and because we can bring in bulk instead of them just having to deliver five or six cases to a school here or there which is um part of our current agreement um that increases costs because of the labor and the trucks and the fuel and all that that goes into delivering products to smaller areas whereas for higher volume items we can receive bulk we're just very fortunate in that way so just a a good thing for St Angelo I to have
172that warehouse um so each district will purchase receive store manage and pay for their own products so we're in no way responsible for Midland isd's portion of their contract and they are in no way responsible for our portion of our contract so um does anybody have any questions or want any additional clarifications so everything everything went great y'all just kind of met together together and yes so we held a lot of Zoom meetings I did offer to go to Midland but luckily there's Zoom um so we did to go to we did coordinate a lot um we sent our forecasts over um we met several times to discuss which items would be most advantageous right now for the remainder of the year because this was a short contract again this was just a bite to
173see um if it would be advantageous for both districts to continue forward with an interlocal and so we met we we we coordinated back and forth on building the RFP The Proposal packet um launched it together we each advertised it in our own respective areas and all of that so um and then we met together to do the opening via zoom and then we had another meeting via Zoom where we did all of the tabulation together and then we came back and even made some additional um suggestions after the initial tabulation to add in different columns which are the ones that you see that compare the saving of St Angelo ISD individually versus Midland ISD individually because we felt we needed to put that in our packet separately so it was a really great um
174learning experience and we've already learned things that we would Implement going forward into if we continue forward with new rfps what we would do a little bit differently to even improve um the process so I would say overall it it went pretty smoothly so well I want thank you because I know this was kind of your brainstorm a year ago and kind of and got to the ground obviously we have a good partner in midd iy as well and uh yes you can tell her to thank you as well I sure will um but what I would say is U thank y'all for making sure this happen and saving we've talked about money in the district's tight and so any pennies we can save is always good yes so um I'm okay with that Beyond
175consent everyone else good with consent thank you for staying with us tonight thank you again for your support as always thank you all right thank you F both for being here really yes you're very welcome uh next is tasby board policy update 124 I have a question on it okay and I didn't email you ahead of times because I was distracted by other things so I apologize which one when we look at it's about staff and nicotine products yes I bet that is it is Page 30 on DH local A1 what page uh it's on in our is 98 in our packet um so it says an employee is prohibited from possessing or you possessing or using which is uh great and all on campus I worry a little bit what if a vape was
176in a cup holder in a vehicle parked on campus I'm just it seems a little well worrisome on things something like that so it specifies the district vehicle but also on property mhm but we don't currently go in employees vehicles on property unless there is a reasonable need to do that yes so a vape pin sitting in a cup holder would not be okay that that was all I was I just want someone a gotta I didn't want a gotcha sort of thing on somebody does that make sense absolutely okay and that was that was one of the ones with the most additions of course um with that page three of five then um you you'll see that the nicotine products and ecigarettes came in a couple of them those additions um also under the
177Community policy and the also I think we need to look I don't know what page it is for you guys but under special programs gifted and talented that always is a big topic especially on funding so if you notice the the wording it's page three of three under ehb local it's on 104 for yall for us okay um I just think it's really important that we've had that discussion because it specifies uh the superintendent shall develop administrative procedures to ensure that 100% of the state funds allocated so notice the change from effective use of funds to 100% of funds okay just because we've had some discussions okay and then all truly um this is always important and the HR department would add this in the employee handbook but as Educators and serving in any capacity
178we're required to report it's not our um role to determine if there is abuse or neglect but if there's any reasonable suspicion we are required to report so if you notice on effg local the oral reports there's an addition there it's just the fact that it would be recorded if it was oral yeah and then on page three of4 um the requirement of the individual providing their name and telephone number and um the school employee they must provide the business address so that would be something I mean that's reviewed annually and when HR sends out that employee handbook they provide a list and that would be specific under the list to make sure that all supervisors campus and District department leaders were to review that with their staff really it's a very small update now
179we can all be prepared for a lengthy update after this legislative session so if you want an official report I'm happy to do that but the majority of this are very minor changes yeah I'm okay with consent I just wanted to clarify the facility all right um then we'll do bid d01 and did that skip one it's just in the wrong order okay1 251 uh and that's the oak sewer line replacement thank you all for having me here tonight this is this one should look familiar to most of you this is the central Oak sewer line replacement this is a previous project that had been tabled and now we've rebid it out uh the bids went out and this is for replacing the sewer line for running from the student bathrooms all the way to
180the city that has collapsed and needs to be replaced Park Hill in conjunction with Park Hill we created RFP and was released for the replacement of the sanitary SE line at Central cafeteria building on Oaks uh this will be open later in the week and I'll make sure that you get a Friday fact and have the recap in in the bo it'll be ready it'll be ready for a regular board meeting yes okay let's keep that a regular then yeah and then trades bid 24-25 this is an annual bid that we do it's for various departments in the school district need professional Trade Services at times throughout the year this bid will will establish a pool of preapproved vendors for various trades to be used on an as needed basis throughout the school year bids
181were prepared for a variety of Trades and sent to over 200 vendors 75 vendors responded in 52 different categories the following bid tab list vendors and categories the vendors will be used to secure quotes for projects that arise during the year this contract period will be from April 1 2025 to March 31st 2026 with the option of two one-year extensions the administration recommends approval of the vendors in each category as listed on the following bid tab do you all have any questions okay we consent if everyone else is all right U thank you Mr Henry thank you all right so announcements we'll have a regular board meeting in two weeks not next week the 24th and then our finance pre- agenda Workshop is April 14th and a regular board meeting is April 21st we do
182need to go into executive session very briefly I'm so sorry uh and that is under Personnel matters 5510 74 all right we are back from executive session we took no actions we made no votes and with that we are adjourned