Weslaco ISD Board Workshop & Regular Board Meeting (March 9, 2026)

001Good evening. I'm Isito, [clears throat] president of the West ISD Board of Trustees. This board workshop is being conducted in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Notice that this board workshop has been posted online for at least three business days prior to the meeting date. It is 5:33 and I will call this board workshop to order. I [snorts] will now begin the roll call. Mrs. Sta's out today uh sick so she won't be here today joining us. Uh coach Quer >> present. >> Mr. Ven Castillo >> preser >> present >> and Mr. Mark Los Santos >> present. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum even though it's a workshop and we don't need a quorum for a workshop. public comments. >> There's one. >> Oh, but this was uh it's going to

002be for the for the regular meeting. Yes. So, [snorts] number three, workshop on the construction of the new agricultural facility project uh CSP number 260225. Dr. >> Let me call [clears throat] Mr. and Mr. America. [snorts] >> Okay. Good even good afternoon Dr. Ia uh members of the board. Uh we do have a pres a brief presentation. We do have uh our bond legal counsel Mr. Rick Pettis. if you can please join us along with Dr. uh Angel Magayanis our financial advisor and this is going to lead into the presentation for the a farm. I know there were some questions so we went ahead and invited them over to the meeting. The I know the very first one where we'll start off has to do with the new Pete Ago facility project. I know there

003was some questions on the funding piece. So I'll turn it over to to the gentleman. >> Good afternoon uh Mr. President, Dr. Leetta, members of the board. Again, my name is Ricardo Perez and thank you for allowing me and my firm to serve as bond counsel to the Wasaku Independent School District. Uh I'm here I've been talking to I can hear and Dr. Riet and his staff for the last couple of weeks or months for that nature talking about you know how to spend some of this bond proceeds. Uh we have an agenda here where the school is um anticipating creating a new a farm known as the Pete Ago facility project funding. And I believe that the allocated amount that the district had proposed for creating this a farm was somewhere right around $9

004million. And uh I think that the bids came in at about 13.5 million. So, there's like about a $4.5 million shortfall. And we've been asked to tell you guys how you can fund that shortfall. And basically, you can fund it with interest that you've earned from Proposition A. To date, I believe you've got about 11,655,000 that the district has earned in interest just on the Proposition A. Or you could also repurpose some of the money that you have on Proposition A and just build it out with that. So, I mean, you have sources to to fund the the the cost uprun of what the school anticipated the cost was going to be. >> The next one on the agenda is letter B. That's the board approval of a resolution. Back on November the 16th, 2023,

005we presented a reimbursement resolution to the board which the board adopted. And that was before the bond election and before the bonds were actually sold in the mid 2024. And what the resolution basically does is gives the board the authority to reimburse themselves for any expenditures that they might have had regarding uh the projects that you wanted to uh fund with your bond money. 60 days backwards uh from the from the time that the uh resolution was approved and then you can reimburse yourself going forward for any expenditures that you've had out of your general fund for projects that have to do with what the purp the purpose of the bond money was for. And I think to date the district has identified approximately about 2.8 8 $2.9 million that they can reimburse themselves back

006into the general fund from bond proceeds. >> And that's correct. They're still looking for some more stuff that can be reimbursed back and they can pay back that money back into the general fund through bond proceeds or interest earned through the bond proceeds. And uh the interest that you've earned till date, you can use that money to not put in your general fund, but you can use that money for, you know, capital improvement projects for which the propositions were uh approved for. Um and that's where we are at this point. I guess at this point if if you have any questions regarding the resolution and the funding piece pertaining to bond proceeds or anything pertaining to bond interest that was going to be part of uh that was going to be part of Mr. uh

007Pettis's presentation that he was covering on there on the second page of that presentation you have the resolution that was board approved you [clears throat] have the resolution that specifies there um any expenditures that were done it's during through It's going to be through a three-year period. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, uh, Mr. Bettis. So, it was approved November 23, so we have until November 26 to go ahead and work with those reimbursement on those expenditures. Uh, and as uh, Mr. Pettis mentioned that we could go back 60 days from when it was approved. So, roughly it' be September September uh, 2023. And those are the ones where we're currently identifying projects. As he mentioned, for Prop A, we have some that have already been identified. We've had some others that we're looking at.

008So, it is fluid that we're still studying to make sure that they fall within those parameters of the resolution and the bond, what's allowed. So, we're looking at Prop A, Prop B, and Prop C. Okay? Those are going to be for the reimbursement piece. And we're also studying as as Mr. Pettis has mentioned the interest. We have roughly alto together with AB and C it's a total of 13.1 million to date. That's where we're at as of as of February. So that's what we've uh earned to date and that's something that we're studying and that's the constant communication that we've had with Mr. Pettis and uh Mr. uh Dr. Magayanis will be our financial adviser will be sharing some information on the draw downs. We make it sure that you know we have answer they

009answer our questions and any questions that we have to make sure that we're following everything the way should be followed what we can and cannot do. So I know there were some questions and that's why we invited them to come over and we wanted to make sure that they shared the resolution uh the funding how we're working through it and so forth. So I guess at this time if you have any questions pertaining uh to what Mr. Bettis just went over. I I guess we can do that before we turn it over to our financial adviser. >> Correct. Dr. Haime, any questions at this time? >> No, I guess just to clarify, sir, you know, so I I walked in a little late uh so I missed the first part of it there. So we're

010saying is the interest earned through the bond, you know, we can use it for bond uh projects >> projects, correct? Even though it might have not been >> included in listed. So, as long as it pertains to Prop A, Prop B, Prop C, whatever, you know, category it falls in. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> You can use it for that or you can use it to pay interest on the bonds. >> Okay. Okay. >> One of the two things. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So, so I'm assuming that because some of the projects at that time were bidded out a certain amount, but now with time, of course, it has increased, so we can utilize that money. If we allocated nine million for something, but now the cost is going to

011be 10 million, we can utilize some of that money for that. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Coach Grant. >> No, but you you already answered my my question. So, >> yeah. [clears throat] Okay. Uh, Mr. Castillo, >> no question. >> Mr. Los Santos. >> Um, no. Thank you for the presentation and the clarification as well to the public because I know there was questions as far as the act cost and and it's hard to as a trustee to explain that person by person or group by group. uh we usually don't take the social media with those type of uh responses or information. But what I do want to stress is and I and I asked for you all to be here is that within the guidelines and within all proper laws that we try

012to look at the projects like you said that fall under Prop A, B, and C, the projects that we use our savings for like you just mentioned that we can get reimbursed. Like that's the main goal here is so we can put that money back because that's going to play a major factor in how we move forward into 26 and 27 and onwards specifically with our staff. So, that's kind of the urgency I had there that if we can help, I'm not asking to play in the gray or bend the rules, but as much money as we can put back for those projects like the LED scoreboard, things like that that maybe fall under one of the props [clears throat] like one of them was athletics and we can get that money put it back,

013that'd be amazing. And that's kind of the goal here. >> Yes, sir. >> So, so you're uh to put it back in the general fund. >> Well, yes, because they said you can reimburse yourself for items that fall under Prop A, B, and C. >> Bond proceeds. Yes. like we can go back and place it back in the general fund on there. So, we made sure that we involved bond counsel, financial advisors, as well as our external auditors. We've been in communication with all of them on there to make sure that we're f we're being transparent and we're doing everything the way we're supposed to do it and they've been answering our questions every time, you know, we have anything that we need clarity on. So, exactly that there were since Dr. Everybody that came

014in, there's been a lot of projects that have been done and uh and which we're going to have a presentation, you know, during our board meeting, but a lot of those expenditures were through fund balance, >> you know. So, that's what we're identifying that they fall within those parameters of that date and that they meet the language through each proposition, right? You know, so for example, we got some other projects to get give you an example with u north uh north bridge airport memorial. The HVACs, >> we're going to pay those through through fund balance. But since we have HVAC identified in Proposition A, that's an allowed expense. >> So that's what we're still evaluating. We're still evaluating. That's why it's fluid. We're going through everything. But before we do anything, we make sure we

015run it through bond counsel, financial advisors to make sure that, you know, we're going in the right direction. >> So, what percent of the uh of the amount uh the interest can we put back in the fund balance? It all depends. >> No, what you've spent only, >> right? So, like >> Yeah, I think because it was I think 9 million and then like so it's around 17 to 18 total million that was out of fund or somewhere around there out of fund balance. Yes, >> I think that's what he's asking. How much of the 17 18 million that you identify >> during that time? 16. Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> So, so we've so we have a list that we have some projects already identified and like I said, it's fluid because we're still

016working through it. So, give you an example. We have yellow buses that we purchased through through our fund balance in in the p in the past few years and and those are identified under Prop A. We can get reimbursement for that. A lot of the projects that fall within the language of the proposition, those are the ones we're identifying and those are the ones that we're shifting over for reimbursement on bond proceeds which covers the resolution and the interest is another added bonus that we can go ahead and take care of projects that we have up to date on there. Uh so that that's one of and then we went back uh we also worked projects to date that we have already done with the bond and I know it's fluid because we haven't gone

017through it with the projects that we have and we also had Mr. Garza has verified everything with fees and expenses. We have some initial savings of about 6.5 million because we had earmarked so much but we came under on there but it's to date projects to date. We know that that's fluid as it goes along uh on there, but we also have that that we've been looking at. But I wanted to pro provide some clarification with the a farm. Initially where the discussions came back and I wasn't in this role back in 2021, but initially the initial discussions for the egg farm was going to be renovation of the existing egg farm, specifically the equin area. At that time we were looking at about $ 1.5 to$2 million to budget for that. When proposals came

018in they came in at about 3.8 to five over $5 million. That was because of co costs went up. So we brought it back to the board in September 21 to reject those proposals received because cost was too high. So in that we were kind of just monitoring and monitoring it. Well when Dr. Divera came in we looked at the the bond we're going out. says, "We're going to add it to the bond." That's how the new project came into play >> and that's where the cost came at. And of course, we didn't know we had budgeted a certain amount which was 9 million. But as you can see, when the the bids came in, right, >> that's where we're at. >> That's how it kind of went through that. >> And initially it started

019at five. Yeah. And then it went up to nine and >> with the renovation it had started going with that >> for the new one. Yeah. And then >> for the new one started adding and then costs going up and so forth, you know. And I know I believe you know trustees had questions on that cost going up in in a matter of years, you know, 10 years, >> but that's where we're at with that. >> Any uh final comments or questions? >> Nope. No, we're good. >> All right. >> Thank you very much. >> So, I'm going to go ahead and introduce Dr. Angel Magayanis, and he's just going to share some information on the bond projects, uh, projected draw downs, where we're at. >> Good evening, President Yetto, trustees, Dr. Um Ana Mayanes

020with Erian Hosa TRB Capital Markets. So one of the things that we initially did when we sold these bonds was that your also your administration kindly set up was a investment pool. All these funds were placed into investment pool. So you took advantage right away about on interest being made and as you know interest a year ago was was higher as as these tax cuts as the federal cuts go into play your interest rates do come down. And so they're they're probably in the pool right now. they're about making about three and a half% but at one point they were making over 5%. So you're making you know 5% over 160 million. So you capitalize on that and now you could take advantage of you know utilizing these funds to add projects or or to

021supplement like Mr. Rick Pettis said to supplement any other cost um cost overruns that there might be. But just projected right now u you know construction takes a while and design takes a while. So projected right now looking forward you still have funds in those pools making interest. So being real conservative, uh we're looking at about maybe about 4.8 million more in interest throughout the span while these projects get done and you start keep on drawing down funds. So those could also play into the picture as far as cost overruns or looking at extra projects as projects come under budget or over budget. So currently right now these funds are could projected we could project that to be a conservative number that the district could also utilize in in the future to consider. But that's

022all I had to add. Okay. any comments? >> So, just to clarification, the use of the interest that's generated, is that tied into the bond projects or is that >> uh is that something that we could use for whatever reasons that we need to use it for? >> It it'll be tied into the bond projects by proposition. Okay. So, and but then you could then reimburse yourself as Mr. Pettis mentioned on whatever projects you already had in expenditures within those propositions as well. >> Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Would it be um Go ahead. Other questions? >> Yes, I have another one for him. Um would it be fair to say like at first like you said we had a high interest rate that we were earning right on. Now that interest rate is dropping.

023So I want you to see if like you give an explanation to the board if you can. I know that I'm catching you off guard here, but is it fair to say then if if that's the case and your interest rate is dropping, the income that you're receiving on those funds is dropping as well like you just stated, but but remember you still have a commercial uh construction cost increase every single year. Okay, that that's based on a percentage as well too of total costs. So, at what point at what point does the district need to change gears now and say, "Well, we kind of took our time moving forward with all these projects that are listed because we it was earning and it had a positive return to where now we're starting to look

024at there's a negative return because I'm earning less on it, but yet construction costs are going up, >> right?" And so, and construction costs typically, well, it depends by category, but 4 to 8% or even higher in some construction areas. Mhm. >> So, that would be something I'd love to hear back in be like a presentation from you all to say, "Okay, now it's not benefiting you to have it sitting there earning interest because you're losing on the total cost of construction now, >> right? The roof cost 9,000 last year. We waited and now it's down 12, >> but yet on that same money, we earned even less." So, that's what I'm trying with. I want to try to get to a point. >> No, that's a that's a good question. And, you know, we

025see it throughout various districts throughout the state with with these types of funds and trying to expedite projects as they move forward. um you know at a certain point you could only do so much project per campus at certain points of time. Um so even if you had the opportunity to try to do all of it within six months you you you probably would have to shut down some campuses and reallocate move students etc. But I mean I I will let your your administration speak to that a little further. But um yes, there there is a certain point, but there's also points where a lot of these items in the front end, even when we're doing our conservative um sales, you know, we we had projected that we're going to probably have a penny increase

026in the tax rate and we actually didn't need that penny to increase. So, we're very conservative in projections. I know your staff was very conservative in projections and that's that's what allowing some of these items to be under budget uh currently that they've presented. Um, so that has allocated also funds to potentially yeah uh cost overruns that that will come about in the near future. So it does potentially could balance itself out. >> We're balanc we're we're at a good pace and we're balancing out right now. >> But initially that's that's you know from the start it was a very conservative approach on trying to project how much these projects will cost um within a year or two years in the future. But >> I'm trying to get him to say yes. Very very careful

027not to >> repeat that again. And it was projected to [laughter] increase by 1 cent, but we did not do that. We did not increase the tax. >> Yeah, we we did not increase the the tax rate. >> We did not increase the tax. >> Yeah. >> That's we haven't yet. No, >> no plans. >> Thank you. And no planning. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Marz. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Pettis. Thank you for joining us. >> Of course. >> Okay. So, uh, just wanted to provide a little clarification on that with, uh, uh, with the draw downs on on the projects and that's something that's taken quite a bit on the coordination efforts because since we have roofing, we have Hback, vestibules, some campuses have multiple projects going on at

028one time. So, one thing that we don't want to do is disrupt the educational learning process. And that's why Mr. Gara and his team work very closely with the principles because we can't have them taking over and stopping instruction. So that's kind of slows down a little bit with those coordination efforts and just enough to get the movement going because you know our first and foremost priority is make sure we educate our students and we don't want to disrupt that at all. But we're still moving through a lot of these projects and we're going to continue doing them as we move forward. >> Okay. >> Thank you Mr. >> You're welcome. >> Anything else >> on the pet library? >> There's the more that was their presentation but it was just a intro to what

029we were going to discuss with that. >> Okay. Any other questions on the presentation >> up to this point? >> No. >> Thank you. >> So again, that was a resolution. Just made a copy of what was board approved on November 2023. And that's where it says reimbursement of proceeds. Okay. Again, we're going back. We went back and we revisited uh with Mr. Juan Muika from U from Janak Architects. He was also with us. We had a good meeting with administration. There was also some feedback uh provided. I know u our director Miss Mrs. Gomez, she did have a meeting with a students representing both Wico High and Wessico East. There was student discussions that centered around the slides and the blueprints. Uh discussions where students, they asked very good questions. They wanted to discuss

030fencing type uh gate access for safety, you know, uh new equipment for a cattle, uh hog pins, welding. They had a lot of questions on that. wanted to know the um specific building material that was going to be used in the exercise arena, water access, fans, uh estimated completion date of the project, uh standard operating procedures, uh and they were also given a student survey. There's a little snippet that one of the staff members provided. I just added that caption below. Uh they were given an opportunity uh give their answers and questions per the information provided. And I know that's something that we've been working with our architect, Mr. Gara trying to provide all those specific details to the questions that they had during that meeting. Okay. And uh we also that meeting that was

031held that was on March the 3rd. Uh and we addressed the March 2nd meeting the day before. Uh we also um we discussed we went back we looked at everything uh that we had previously brought to the board. Uh we discussed it back and forth uh and we decided we were going to proceed with u uh the agenda, the discussion and action that you're going to be seeing before you this evening to approve administration's rank ranking recommendations for the proposals received. Uh and the rank is as follows. The top three, there's more there, but those were the top three. Um and again, administration determined that the ranking recommendation is the best option for Weso ISD. Regardless, Weso ISD will always negotiate the best and final offer before a contract is executed if the board wishes

032to proceed with that. Okay, any questions? >> Okay, go first. >> Okay. Um, yes, thank you for the presentation. One of the concerns was is I called for the meeting because in the past we've always followed steps and even boards before us have always followed a series of steps when they hire architects, engineers, come up with the planning stages, show the plans to the public, talk to staff, talk to parents, talk to taxpayers. So that's why we kind of did a rewind, right? Because we went from plans to not see I as a trustee didn't see the plans and I know others said they didn't and they was going to to to give the contract. So thank you for going back and including all these individuals and listening to them especially like the pins. Uh

033I'm not an expert in a or FFA. Uh I know it's a component of the school. I work within the school system, but I know it's there. But one of the biggest things in outcries from them was too is the pens themselves. Um because they showed us the pens in the plans, but I only found out after the meeting that they weren't included in the price. >> That is correct. >> And I know I had researched other other uh school districts, right? Just I did chat GBT and Google and went back and I looked at local construction uh construction acts and what those components came with. I looked at their board meetings and their presentations and pens were always kind of in the mix included in that cuz when the egg farm is designed they

034also designed the pen layout and then from there you also that's on your head and then from there you make the purchase and so those are the kind of things where I wanted just to come back and say I know it's good to that we move fast but that we don't skip critical components because building a farm without the pens was an issue. >> Absolutely. >> Um and then just getting facts for everybody. >> Okay. Um the other issue now is too I also had a proc uh I I really want to follow I don't want to make any mistakes with the bond. I've said that since the beginning when we first asked for it, right? Because I was here when we asked the committee for that and so and part of that was the

035process and the internal process. I I only looked at something and I don't want to kind of jump and steal his topic, but uh trust I still brought it up in the last meeting. He questioned the rankings. >> Yes, sir. >> And what you just described for item B on the slide. Um he questioned the rankings as far as the construction companies and all the different categories, right? So the public understands they have to submit for every single question. There's a series of questions and they have to put answers for it. One of them was um one of of course one of the most important things is cost, right? Uh but that's not the focus. It's also the company. The other question which trusty Castile brought up was the number one company had to submit

03610 examples of projects that are similar to the egg farm and the number one company submitted zero. Okay. and other additional companies that were on there uh submitted 10 examples. So, they've showed that they we have 10 examples of construction projects that are of this size, 13 million, and and we have that under our belt and on our resume. On top of that, he also brought up a real clear factor that some of them were underpriced. So, some of them were even cheaper than the number one ranked. So, I went back and I looked at the scoring sheet, right? And I asked for that. That's why we got it in an email. I asked Dr. better to send it to us and I wanted to know well on the scoring sheet what was kind of

037going on there how did how did that happen right so and I found three critical red flags that I want you all to to to hear hear me about right and then provide if you can provide me an answer right so that I can feel confident moving forward when that comes up in the next meeting number one is the insurance there's a category there it's a CP it's a what's it called CSP okay >> conceal sealed proposal >> yes >> and then so you have to meet those requirements so I just need clarification cuz maybe I'm wrong But here they ask for insuranceances for they ask for insurance on material labor and also possible warranties. Okay. And the additional companies, even the ones you listed that are not the number one ranked, they they submitted

038those they submitted those in the forms of builder's risk insurance, certificate of insurance, and also the company's one-year warranty. Okay. On on that's on the documentation you gave me. But the number one rant company submitted a bid bond and I went back and looked up, okay, what's a bid bond? Does that meet the qualifications of labor, materials, etc. And the bid bond only means that they're ensuring the prices that they gave you when they submitted the quote. So it it doesn't meet those criterias of materials, labor, or company warranties. That's one. And the other companies did. The second one that I saw when I went back and started looking at it because I didn't the first time is in detailed until he mentioned I went back and looked is the similar projects I already mentioned

039that the number one ranked company submitted zero all the others uh submitted 10 or at least five and then number three was similar cost that's one of the biggest items too 51 points and on that you had a company that met the requirements for insurance that met the requirements of 10 projects and there were 158 $8,000 cheaper, right? Um, and you had other companies that were less than a million dollars or a little over a million dollars but met all the other requirements. So, my thing is is that on price it's 51 points just for price, right? >> Mhm. >> And then the insurance itself was five points and then similar projects was 10. Your number one ranked company only beats some of the others by like seven or eight points. So, I guess make

040it make sense, right? You hear that a lot. like how how did that mathematically even happen where you have a company that missed all these major criterias but yet they were still ranked number one. >> Okay. And very good questions and thank you for asking Mr. Los Santos. So on there on the first one I'm going to refer out the [clears throat] one Mr. Bal Garcia here you joining us right now. Okay, I'll refer on the insurance on there because I know that one >> and and would that kind of disqualify them because I know you dis you guys removed another company because they didn't submit some documentation >> since they didn't answer the insur like those questions or they put bid bond instead of the other items. Does that still allow them to still

041be in the rankings and in play or >> so we'll get we'll answer those on the insurance part was requested. They'll they'll do that but I wanted to answer the one on the zero. Okay, on that one the zero and correct me if I'm wrong Mr. on that one where there's zero. They had any current projects right now with Waco ISD. That's where that zero came in and that's where we went back to it to look at it specifically on there. As far as listing similar projects of the range that we were looking at, they did provide a list of those projects and I don't know if we pulled them up. Do we have them? >> Waseneral Go. Go ahead. >> Yeah. So that zero number uh was in general for current projects that that

042are ongoing for any uh school districts or universities or similar. Yeah. >> Yes. So that's what that zero meant that they had submitted but they did have the 10 similar projects in a different section. Yes. >> Um as far as the uh the insurance and I know Mr. Garcia can help us out with that. I know that that's not part of the ranking criteria even though it's a requirement. The bid mod is a requirement from all the biders. that is uh uh and again correct me if I'm wrong uh yeah so the bid bond is required for from all the biders so the bids have to come in with a bid bond or a cashier's check for that >> so even though the CMP because the CSP the CSP specifically requires that they submit insuranceances

043for materials and labor and warranties it's just what it says I just want to make sure yeah >> it is it is a requirement so we do need to make sure that everybody has it uh it's not part of the ranking criteria so we focus on the ranking criteria to rank the bid But we do want to make sure >> warranties are warranties are part of it. >> Yes, warranties are not the >> absolutely correct. So the insurance is not part of it but it is a requirement. So the warranties is uh and we do ask for warranties on on materials. >> Did they submit a warranty to you? >> Cuz it's not on the it's not on the ranking sheet. That's what I'm asking because what you all gave us is not on there.

044That's why I just want to make sure. >> Yeah. So we we whatever they submitted we based a point uh uh allocated to them or given to them based on the information that they provide. Yes, sir. But so they did submit a warranty to you. >> Yes. Okay. Commission. >> They did submit. >> Yeah. During the uh the the committee meeting that and I'm a bad Garcia purchasing director, so I'm a non- voting member, but during the discussions, the criterias, we went through each one and they did submit uh uh insurance. The the bid bond is a requirement for a construction project, >> right? >> So they all we go down that list. they all have it. So, they were all qualified. As far as the uh the insuranceances for the once it gets awarded,

045then we asked for the the other bonds that are required. So, I think the question was if they had insurance and we they did and we went through that. >> No. Yeah. Well, my question was if they submitted everybody else submitted theirs, but they didn't submit their insuranceances. So, that's what I was saying. >> I just I was asking if that's okay. If you're saying that's okay, then we're good to go. I I'd have to go back, but based on our discussions with the committee, uh I believe they did have we required it and they did submit a copy of it. >> I don't know if if you're what you're looking at, but they should have >> I was looking at the rubric they gave us that had all their answers, but for theirs they

046they >> No, you it we require that they actually >> they just put bid bond over and over again, but they didn't put the actual the other ones did. The other ones put one year warranty from the company. Yeah. >> They put the builder's risk and then the Yeah. the CI. Yeah. >> Yeah. I believe they all had a warranty because that's one of the criteria that specifically was discussed during the committee. Now, as far as the insuranceances on the on the rubric, you might not see it, but they actually attach a copy of their certificate. That's a requirement uh to submit a proposal. >> So, so to provide I wanted to go back on that similar projects, Mr. Los Santos. Yes. So, if we look to the uh and I'm looking right now the

047CSP, it's addendum number five on page four of the CSP that went out on the count of similar projects. So, it said here, provide a count of similar projects your company is currently working on for districts, colleges, and or universities. That's where the zero came in. The next question on the similar projects for that number one ranked was 10 similar projects and they listed them on the bottom. They had a Harmony School of Science Middle High School uh phase two. Um I want to say it's Loredo Laredo ISD Heights Elementary addition and rehabilitation. Matis High School additions and renovations. >> Yeah, but that [clears throat] one says not going to be counted towards the ranking. >> Um they will not be considered for ranking purposes. But again, that was listing those projects. I just wanted

048to clarify the zero portion. >> But the other part is part of the ranking. I think if I remember correctly, I'm going off of memory. >> Which which other part? >> The zero part where they had zero >> the the zero on their part of the ranking. So again, it was part of the ranking criteria. >> And I went to look those up and it's not just to be picky, but this is a big project, right? And then um and it's just a big project, right? And we have to act like it's our money. Like as trustees, we could eas just say yes, let's just go through it and boom, let's vote. But we have to at least do our due diligence and ask tough questions. So I looked at those those projects too, but

049they were years ago like you know it wasn't anything you would fairly say is real recent. So my only thing is like this and he knows you're sitting there too and and you know you you know the business very well, right? You're very well known. Volume speaks uh wonders here, right? Whoever has volume has access and whoever has volume has access to resources and everything like that. There's companies that are way bigger than me and they're going to get their stuff way faster than I would, right? because they're consistently consuming large amounts, doors, lumber, etc., roofing, etc. equipment, equipment rentals, and access to everything, even funding. Um, that's just the way it works in construction, right? Um, so our my main concern here is like, yes, you have all these other companies that you're seeing

050up and down the expressway that are constructing, submitting projects that they're currently working on, etc. of this size and magnitude, and then you're going to go with somebody who has zero projects like that. and the examples that they gave. I went back and I said, "Let me go to the profile and look and look at the years because they have them listed there and they're quite a bit in distance and time, right?" And so that's all I'm asking as far as to make sure that that when you hire somebody that yes, that it's going to work out and and the price is is it's is it's going to actually stay true and we don't have too many overages. And then plus [clears throat] you have all these other companies too, some in case that were

051that were less and more experienced. So it's just kind of confusing to me right now. >> And and we have how your rankings came. We had those same questions when we with Dr. D called the meeting the following day. We had the same questions. Mr. We involved him even though he was not ranking on anything. We involved him in a lot of the discussions that we had. Same questions you had. We went through it. We also involved our our legal council through through Walsh. We got him involved as well on everything that we were doing. Uh I think I'm part of as you see some of the rankings some of the questions came up with experience. Can they keep up with the capital to be taking care of these projects on a monthly basis? That's

052another matter that came into play that we were also studying. Um, another another factor that came in is one of them that's coming in at the lower end. A lot of the projects that they were submitting were also at the quarter of a million dollars, you know, and they weren't as high. So, all that was taken into consideration and was we were discussing that. I don't know if you want to expound a little more on that. So, one of the things I want to clarify is that CSP stands for competitive seal proposal. And what that does is that it it gives a public entity options. Price is one of the criterias. And then you can have as many more criterians as you'd like. Typically, I like to keep it between five and eight. But what

053you want to get in those criteria is your experience. Is your warranty work? Are they do they work with you? Are they cooperative? And number four is probably the most important of financial backing. >> Some of these projects, the process that it takes to get paid, sometimes companies have to basically subsidize these projects for up to three months at a time. And in a project that exceeds 10 million and if it's going to take a year's time, doing some basic math, you're getting close to a million dollar draws monthly. And if you have to subsidize $3 million, that gets really, really sticky, especially for an unexperienced contractor, somebody that's tied. And mind you, this is not the only project. They have other projects this one, right? And so the the the point that I was

054trying to make is that you want the best value to the district >> and you want the less risk. And so balancing all of that, unfortunately, more times than not, results in not the lowest bidder. >> That's just typically historically what happens up in the valley. And as you mentioned, we've been at it for 35 years. And so that's the history that we have. So yeah. Okay. >> I hope that helps. >> Yes. Yeah. And then and just the verification of the insuranceances and warranties. That's all too because I didn't see them on there. So >> and the others did have them and I just want to verify that those are there. We're going to lock into somebody. >> Also a clarity on that. >> There's other bonds that are required of the awarded contractor.

055So once you award and say this is the highest ranked proposer and then you you you direct us the staff and myself to go and negotiate for the best and value offer we can do that and come back to you and only at that time if you award it to them then they have to provide payment bond information other bonds insurance all this other stuff that your staff will have to make sure that they are in fact who they are and that they have financial again prices one financial backing financial stability is critical it's paramount >> and since this is our first time right so the public understands this is the first time we actually do a facility building of this size. So that's why there's a lot of questions. >> Absolutely. >> Um so

056if we can get them done the first time, right, we can do we can do all the other projects, right? Very easily. So >> and we're sorry for the next one. >> But but um >> so yeah, that that's kind of the questions I asked for the warranties and things like that, verifications and whatnot. >> Absolutely. >> And then just how the rubric worked and what how it worked out that way. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I don't know if there's any additional other questions. >> Hey, thank you, Mr. I just wanted to answer the question on the pins. I know that that was also discussed and we are looking at that because uh we want to make sure that they have everything up to par, you know, second to none. They have everything that they

057need and that's also part of the bond equi equipping the facility. So, we're going to be looking at the needs to make sure that it is all taken care of and moving forward and we were actually discussing that uh when Dr. R. Ria had the the the meeting with us and we did discuss those options and what are some options that we have moving forward with that. But absolutely, we want to make sure we take care of >> and the AC's as well too. I forgot to mention that. I did talk to parents. The AC systems, I know that first you kind of mentioned there was going to be like an air natural air flow system like uh pretty much meaning the wind. Okay. For for those watching, but but for our kids, it's not

058just I want to clarify this. It's not just kids that have animals that are using the facilities in the classrooms. You have welding, construction, and egg. So, you're having Westico East and Westico High kids that are going there for normal class. And, you know, we're spending $14.5 million. And I just didn't sit well with me that these kids um I guess how do I put this? Not everybody just goes in there for 5 seconds and walks out and it gets really hot 100, you know, we get 90 we get what 100 degree weather and I don't want these kids sitting in a in a in a restroom with no AC. That just kind of that just kind of doesn't sit well with me. 2026 here and and and so what other options are there there

059either >> going out for best and final offer or or whatever or adding it in or looking at our >> we can certainly look at adding that that air conditioning to that those areas but I can tell you is that we've designed this plenty of times before that's pretty standard uh there is there is a classroom in one of the buildings and that classroom is in fact air conditioned there's an office within the egg barn that office is also air conditioned what we do we mechanically exhaust meaning a and in the restrooms and that's pretty typical as well you know u if you want to air condition we can certainly look into that there is an IDF uh for your technology stuff that has to be air conditioned as well and so the other is

060the welding shop the wood shop the egg barn those are typically in air condition because of the functionality and it's a very utilitarian facility and part of the issue here is that we're trying to train the students to kind of get into real world situations so that they kind of get environment that sort of thing right so but we do some some care to that we elev elevated the roof. We insulated the roof a little healthier. We have something underneath to kind of keep that. We have some some large fans to help kind of process and circulate the air a little bit more. So, yes, we understand the heat. Absolutely. I'm I'm from West so I grew up here. I know exactly what this heat is. Uh but again, we cross ventilate. Uh this campus

061I went to school here when it was cross ventilation as well. So, it's it's just part of the process for this type of facility to just have cross ventilation inter to just kind of and it's part of the thing. It's a very industry standard kind of facility. That's typically with if you want air conditioning, we certainly can, but that's going to add a significant cost. >> If you only want to do the restrooms, that may not be so much, >> but >> Oh, yeah. And I'm talking about the restroom just where the classes are >> cuz the kids are where the animals and and I've been out there, you know, they're out there. They're working. I'm talking about the classrooms. >> The classroom is in fact air conditioned. >> The restroom. Oh, okay. >> The

062classroom is air conditioned and so is the office >> and the rest. >> The restrooms are mechanically air conditioned. They only have a fan. So you walk in there, you turn on the switch, the light and the fan comes on. >> Food for no mas for this. >> If you want to add it, we can certainly look into that. We can get a >> price. I I wouldn't mind seeing air condition in the restroom. It does get hot. >> We can certainly look at that. >> I know the baseball field doesn't have it or the softball field. And those restrooms are >> not a good place. I wish that we could >> just put a mini split. >> I think a mini split. >> That's what I was >> because they got to go back

063to class. They're not dressed like for the animals. They're dressed like regular school. So they got to go back to they're going to go back to Westico East High. >> Yeah. >> And was it funny like 23? Well, I don't want to throw >> once we go to the regular agenda and we're going to approve it. We can add to that pending that the restrooms are >> depending on what they have there. I know everybody has other questions. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Information, Mr. We're going to pause right now on the on the the second part of the workshop because I know there's students here there we're going to recognize. So we'll uh adjourn uh or just pause >> just pause and then uh let's start with a regular board

064meeting. >> Just a recognition. Okay. So let me go >> uh we'll go to >> we're just pausing to do the recognition. >> Yes. So let's go to awards and recognitions uh proclamations after. >> Yes. Mr. Carlo, >> Mr. Elias, who's doing the recognitions? >> Is Carlos here? Carlos. Oh, he's here already. Okay. >> Start. >> Let's get started. >> All right. We ready? >> Okay. >> Well, good evening, President Yetto, Dr. Deta, members of the board. Tonight, we would like to congratulate some of our high school students for tremendous awards they have won over the past few months. So, we're going to go ahead and bring in our high school mage programs who recently returned from the state UIL competition in Sigin. Let's give them a round of applause as they enter the room.

065[applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> We have a big group here. This is Mariachi Tuani and Mariach Panta. So our Mariachi groups both received straight straight ones in area competition held in La Hoya to advance. We congratulate Mariach Pantaa from West Loo High School as UIL state qualifiers. Panta member Maria Rea received outstanding performance medal. Let's give her a round of applause. And Maria Panta as well. [applause] We also celebrate West Loi East High School Mariach Tuani who received the coveted UIL state superior division one rating. Round of applause. >> [applause] >> A UIL state superior division one rating means the mariachi tuani receive straight ones from the panel of judges. Tuani members Alexa if you could please wave. Thank you. [applause] We also have Eileen de la Cruz. Eileen [applause] and Alexandra Susita. [applause] All

066three of them received outstanding performer medals. Let's give them a round of applause. [applause] We also want to recognize their parents. Parents, can you please stand and be recognized? >> [applause] [applause] >> All right, let's take a photo. All right, congratulations. [applause] All right. Now, we want to recognize a wrestling team from West Lico. Let's give them a round of applause as they enter. [applause] Thank you boys for being here tonight. We recognize the 166A boys wrestling champions from West Lico High School district champions. Let's give them a round of applause. [applause] Several of the team members went on to compete at regionals. So, congratulations on a winning season. Their head coach is Moses Chavez. Let's give him a round of applause as well. [applause] And parents, if you're here, can you please stand and

067be recognized? parents. [applause] All right. Congratulations [applause] Okay, so up next we have some basketball teams that we want to recognize. So, let's give them a round of applause as they enter the room. [applause] [applause] All right. Thank you very much for being here, young men. We're going to start off with our boys team this evening. We want to congratulate the West Lo High School boys and the girls basketball team. We'll bring them on in a minute. Both teams brought home the 316A basketball championship titles. [applause] We are presenting the boys team. The Panthers were also by district champions and area finalists, finishing 29 and 10 overall and a 10-0 perfect district record. Several team members also won postseason distinctions. Head coach Gay Valdez and assistants Mike Yanz, Nate Salasad, Isaac Kamacho, Rowan Marquez, and

068Julius Marquez. Thank you very much for bringing the boys tonight. Congratulations. [applause] If parents are here, can they pl please stand and be recognized? parents. [applause] Thank you very much and congratulations. [applause] Now we have our girls team from West Lico High School. The Lady Panthers are backtoback district champions. Also claiming the by district championship title for the past 15 years for those of you that are keeping track. The girls also won an area championship title and have made the regional tournament the Sweet 16 a total of five times. Now those are huge accomplishments for the girls. The team also tied the school record for most wins in a season at 35. Several Lady Panthers won postseason distinctions and were named to the all-state academic team. Let's give them a round of applause. [applause] The

069team is coached by Griselda Fino. Assistant coaches are David Medina, Haley Ernnandez, Coach Ortiz, Coach Moses, and Coach Zuniga. Once again, congratulations. And if parents are here, can they please stand and be recognized? Parents, [applause] We do have a couple of staff um recognitions. Leading the day-to-day operations and overseeing facility upgrades for Wesley Kawaii athletics is all in today's day's work for athletic director Freddy Rodriguez. Because of his dedication, Rodriguez was recently named the Texas High School Athletic Directors Association Athletic Director of the Year for Region 7. With coaching a staff of over 150, Rodriguez also supervises the middle school and high school sports programs in our district and has already made a tremendous impact during his five-year tenure. So, we want to say congratulations to our athletic athletic director from West Loco, FREDDY RODRIGUEZ.

070[applause] >> [applause] >> OKAY, NOW YOU have to stand over here. >> All right, here you go. Congratulations [applause] >> and the wife. >> All right. >> Tonight we will also would like to congratulate the K West department at Westl. They recently returned from the Texas School Public Relations Association conference where they received numerous gold and silver star awards for their work. The team also brought home two best of category medals. The West Coast Find Your Passion ad won best print advertisement by graphic designer Nate Pena and graphic artist Samantha Holly. The story of the 2024 state softball champions 321 miles to a miracle won best documentary. Congratulations to the K West crew. [applause] Congratulations [applause] again. Should [laughter] we do the proclamation? >> Do the proclamation? >> Yes. Okay. We Let's move on to

071proclamation now. Uh West Lico Independent School District has a long-standing tradition of excellence and strives to bring together all resources to provide our students and staff the best opportunities for success. To that end, West Loco ISD acknowledges and celebrates initiatives, departments, and organizations that join in our effort to develop, expand, and enrich our learning environment for students, parents, and employees. Therefore, Isidorto, president of the WISD board of trustees, does hereby proclaim April 2026 Child of the Military Month. We also proclaim in April of 2026, National School Library Week, April 19th through the 25th, public school volunteer week, April 20 through the 24th. afterchool professionals week April 20 through the 24th in West Lico ISD and urge all citizens to recognize with appreciation our district's commitment to education and helping our children achieve their highest potential.

072Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> That concludes our recognitions and proclamation. quite quite a number of awards. But of course, special thank you to all the coaches and sponsors that work with all those students. You know, the athletic programs, the mariachi groups, the wrestling, the two boys and girls program, basketball programs have done very well over the number of years. And of course, the athletic director of the year. I was fortunate uh that I met uh the athletic director when he was a sophomore playing baseball for me. Okay? And he'll tell you the story. our first baseball game. He was a a young sophomore, 15, 16 years old, right? I put him to pinch hit because it was a close game. And guess what? He got the base hit and we won the game

073because of the athletic director right there. So, congratulations, Freddy. [applause] Any other final comments on the awards and recognitions? We're good. >> Thank you, sir. just uh no congratulations to all. It just shows how, you know, well-rounded our district is. Of course, you know, academics is always going to be our priority, but it's good to see our fine arts, our athletic departments, you know, and teams just doing so well uh and having much success. So, congratulations to all. >> Thank you, Dr. H. Coach Gr. my sentiments. Um, [clears throat] you know, hard work pays off and it's very evident that uh that it's there and the the most significant thing is in addition to the regular ac academic work that they do on in which many of them excel at the all state level, they

074do this and take the time for that and then that is is is the best part about attending a public school because we give them every opportunity to be well-rounded and all kinds of opportunities that get them better prepared for for what's ahead after high school. So to everyone that's involved, to all our our our recipients, congratulations. Keep up the good work and and the bar is set. Nothing but the best. So thank you for everything. >> Thank you, coach. Go ahead, Mr. Ben Castillo. >> Yes, just congratulations to all students. Uh you guys make us proud every day. We're representing the district. Uh always very positive news for us. Congratulations to Coach Rodriguez as well. That's very, very nice and welld deserved. So congratulations to you, your family, and your wife, which I'm sure

075she's a big part why you got that award. >> Thank you, uh, coach. >> Yeah, just a I mean a tribute, uh, fine arts, athletics, staff, a lot of great recognition. So, uh, you know, great job. Congrat Mentos. >> Everything's been said, but no, but fine arts, athletics, on and off the field. I mean, the school district continues to excel in every single area and and it's amazing, right? I've been here for five years and I continue to see it grow and get better and better and better every single year. And um to our athletic director Rodriguez as well too. It's it's been awesome having you on board. Uh you continue to exceed the bar right and expectations and and I wish you the best of luck and and everything you and all the people

076under you and the students as well. You've been doing an amazing job and you deserve it. So thank you. >> Thank you. Just one more thing. If you really want to know what kind of a job he does, come to the Jimmy Plat relays this uh this Friday, right? Friday. He will take care of everybody. [laughter] Ready again. Great job. >> Thank you. Okay. So, now we'll go back to the board workshop. Correct. So, let's go back to the insurance workshop. Dr. Eva. >> Yes. >> Let me go home. >> Well, are we still on the Did you still We're still on the act farm. >> I just want to make one last comment on that one. For the item for the next meeting, can you have the ranking for us >> uh with the

077with the scores and all that good stuff and even some of the backup information? Just one last look before we approve. We just want to be able to sleep. >> So everything's in the it's in this this meeting after our workshop. Everything's in the back. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. >> But that that's uh I know you put the totals. But what are you asking for? >> I was asking for the whole packet. >> The individual rankings and everything. >> Yes. >> Because we don't have that in the packet. We only have the overall accum accumulated totals. >> The individual committee ranking. Is that what you're asking? >> Yeah. There's only there's only three. Yes, there's only three. >> We typically don't submit the individual rankings. We do the point total, but again, you know,

078that's something we can go ahead and >> Yeah, because I I might even have legal questions on that one uh before we vote on it. >> Mhm. So, I just wanted a clarification also on the one with the uh not taken into the ranking that was only going to be if it was more than 10 item 10 listed. Those would not be considered on the ranking up to 10. After that, they're not considered. I just wanted to provide that clarification. I was looking at the matrix >> and it doesn't have the 10 on there, but it has the list of current projects as a as a scoring criteria. >> And so that's why I want that's why I want to see it >> the whole packet, right? That it's going to be on there that's

079going to be attached. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Like I said, I want to move forward with the project, but >> I just want to see it before >> before we >> I guess it be 100%. Like I said, it's it's our first project of this size. And then like I said, there was questions. So it's just verifying with the proper documentation. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> You have you have it handy. >> Pardon? >> You have it handy. >> The packet. Do you have the whole packet? >> And plus I was and I I'll put it on the record too. I was al also honest about the I know I've talked to Dr. Detta. It's always been one of my things of best and final offer. You know, kicking it back. >> It's a good strategy

080as well too, especially when you have uh I don't see these discrepancies, but you have these companies, these scores, and then you also have these prices so similar, right? Mhm. >> And that was discussed in our meeting that exactly what you're stating, Mr. >> And if we can throw in the pens, I'm just going to throw it out there. Like I said, I'm acting like this is my money. I go to the dealership. I'm trying to get everything I can >> for what I'm going to pay before I sign the paper. Same thing with the farm. Hey, we can kick it back back for best and final offer and say throw in options for mini splits, ACS or whatever, or at least the pens and the pen design. Then that's something I mean I think

081that uh even everybody who us utilizes that facility would be okay with. >> Correct. uh pin pins, welding, we discussed all that. >> We're going to do that. And if for some reason they don't cooperate, we'll go number two. >> Okay. As far as the packet, Dr. Detta, we can we just need to print them out if that's something the board would like. >> Yes, we can do the the the insurance workshop and then once they print it, bring it back. Is that okay, Mr. >> You have enough time to print? Do you have enough time to print? >> Do we have enough time to print it? Print it up. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Before the action item, we have enough time. Okay. >> Thank you, sir. >> All right. All right. Uh the insurance workshop.

082Dr. >> Let me call on Dr. Ku. >> Hi, Dr. Ria, Mr. Netto, and members of the board. We wanted to go over where we stand right now with insurance. This is a slide that's presented to you by Dr. Ria and his um superintendent update, his superintendent report. But I wanted to go into it uh a little slower making sure that you all understand that right now if we continue the trends for the next seven months we are going to face a shortage of 5 to7 million. We have had a lot of claims coming in. You'll notice that we're looking at $11 million of expenditure in total compared to 7 million at that time last year. So we are already spending $3.4 4 million more than we did the previous year. [snorts] We're looking at

083$12 million that we've already spent on the middle box, which leaves us $10 million to cover the next seven months. So, we are facing a deficit for this policy year. Remember, policy ends in August. It's a little bit different than fiscal. Fiscal ends in June, but we continue through August. September 1 is policy start date. So, we were given this challenge. We are facing a challenge of rising costs and we're going to have to get really creative on how to design this plan. Doing what we've always done is not going to work in 2026 27. We are looking at a $29 million projected expenditure if we don't do anything. If nothing changes, we're looking at a $29.9 million spend. Right. So, we started looking at the different levers. By that I mean the plan co-pays,

084deductibles, see how that compares to other districts and where are some of those design elements that we can make changes to. We got into our levers with the employee benefit committee and I do have a couple of members that I recognize from the employee benefit committee that were able to join us tonight. So, I would ask you to stand, but you're already standing, but you might want to raise your hand. >> [snorts] >> We also looked at different plan options and plan consolidations. So, one of the things that we did was compare current plans to [snorts] those of our neighbors. And you'll see that we have presently a deductible of $750 where some districts have a deductible of $5,000 or 10,000 for family, 1,000, 3,000, 1250, 2500. We have a 2500 deductible of 5,000 in

085some of the school districts. Based on this comparison, we can say that we've had one of the best plans for a very long time. It's been very robust, very generous. And this is what it looks like right now. That's our current plan. We offer three options for our employees. We offer a PO base, a PO high plan, and a PO what we call a state plan, which is the highest, right? So, it's a a base, a middle, and a and a top plan. But projected for 2026 27, if we continue with the present plan, we're looking at a spend of $29.9 million. We had a funding of 22.8. So, really, we need to make up 31% if we are to keep this plan. So 31% increase will be needed to break even on the projection.

086That's on top of the 5 to7 million deficit that we're facing right now for the current policy year. So we started looking at at different levers. We had the employee uh benefit committee uh very busy the last couple of meetings. We were fortunate to have um some representation there. We looked at option one. If we change it to $1,000, 3,000 from 750 to 22, we'd find an impact of about $168,000. But with enough of these changes, we might see um you know, some substantial savings. 88% of our employees are on the base plan, and that's why I'm only looking at the base plan here. That's 1,900 employees out of the 2171 employees that we have are currently on a plan like this. We then took a look at different types of plans. So we studied

087an HM what an HMO would look like, what a PO, a PO buyup and HSA with the adjusted levers and then we looked at different combinations. So, we presented five options and said, "Okay, we don't want to just offer one plan to our employees. How is it that we can combine these plans to make the biggest impact?" When we looked at the HMO, PO, PO buyup option one, that's actually three different plans with one of those plans being an HMO, a PO, and then a PO buyup. That was ranked first by our employees. But even with that plan, that only gets us down to 26.8 8 million. We're still facing a deficit of $4 million. It's no longer a $7 million deficit, though. Looking at the combination of HSO, PO, PO buyup, it's a $6

088million deficit. That only got us to 28 million. Yes, sir. >> On on this option one, what would we be charging the employee for each one? HMO, PO, [snorts] and PO B. >> So, that's still uh what we're working out because these are very different plans than the present plans that we have. But overall, if we were to look at HMO, PO buyup to come up to $26 million, we still need to come up with a 17% increase. Let me go back to the previous slide. If we do nothing, we'll be looking at a 31% increase. And if we move forward, I've laid that option out, and you'll see that here we get to 26 million. We would we would presently look at a 22.8 $8 million funding for that um plan, but that still

089leaves us short about $4 million. We're we're facing a 14% increase if we implement this plan. So, uh I know I got ahead of myself a little bit, but I'm going to come back to this screen because we also took a look at HSA plans, uh an HMO and a PO plan. In other words, just offering two plans. Instead of three options, we would give the employees two options, but that also only would come up to 2.6. So the employee benefit committee ranked option one as the best option presented with option three being the second. Okay. But to answer your question, sir, we are looking at a 17% increase, not necessarily across the board, not necessarily straight to the employees, not necessarily just the district. What we can answer right now is that we are

090looking at an increase of to make up about $4 million. >> Oh, I see. Now I get it. This one has the proposed uh co-pays and stuff. >> Correct. >> Oh, >> but then it's in detail on page eight. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. >> Yes, sir. So, you'll look at the HMO that we're looking at the PO and the um PO buyup >> because I I I I worked in another district that did this, the HMO, but they make the HMO cheaper than the PO because they're trying to get employees who don't need to be on a PO to go on the HMO. You know what I mean? >> Yes, sir. So, that's why I won't venture right now to throw out a number because that's what we're studying right now. We need to

091look at all of the impact including what you just discussed. Um, you'll notice that I'm going to go back to slide four because you mentioned other districts. We do have San Bonito that that has the one HMO and two PO plans. And by that we mean preferred provider organizations, a PO and there are some differences, right? A PO will offer more flexibility. It allows for out of network visits and no referrals are needed um but come with higher premiums and deductibles. An HMO was a health maintenance organization. We we might be able to offer lower premiums and out-of- pocket costs, but it does restrict care to in network. So those people uh would have to make sure that their doctors are in network um or pick a doctor that is in network when we start

092looking at the HMOs. >> And just to clarify, this would still be like a Blue Cross plan more than likely or United, one of the the bigger players. It's not going to be a small um network um like maybe what we've had in the past or we've tried in the past. So it still be >> correct. We would have to rely on what RFPs come in. We'd still have to take a look at all of the options. Right now before we can go to RFP, we really do want to >> [snorts] >> lay out a plan and say this is what we're studying. This is what we're considering. We have several districts that have gone to HMO. I see Edinburg has one HMO and one PO. We want to offer more options. We want to

093offer not just one PO, but a PO bio might come at a premium, but we do have people that might choose to go in that direction. >> Yeah, I think that's really smart. You do the one the HMO make it really affordable. People who get who want that, they still have coverage, but not necessarily like when you're young, you know, go to a specialist or whatever. >> Uh, but as you kind of get older, then you do want that flexibility, right? But we charge a little bit more for it. So we get the, you know, the employees who don't necessarily need a PO be more incentivized to go to the HMO. We might be able to see some savings there. And that that's exactly what Edinburgh did. That's what I'm thinking of. >> Right. So

094you're exactly correct. We do have some employees that don't have an existing relationship with with one of their doctors, right? So they don't have a relationship with a PCP. So when they do need to start that relationship, they would pick one that would be on the HMO. You're absolutely correct. If another difference is that um PPOs you you don't need to get a referral to go see a specialist but the truth of the matter is that most specialists still want you to get a referral from your PCP because they want all that workup that led to your decision to go visit. So it might not be a requirement of the PO to get a referral. It might be the the doctor that's making that decision. I need to see all your history. I need a

095referral so that we can continue. Generally speaking, right, not does does it say this is the case all the time, but generally speaking, you don't you don't know you need to go see a specialist until you go see your primary care physician. >> Correct. Another difference and and I'll go back to to the slide where we're looking at option one and right now it's an option, right? The other difference is that there is no out of network u benefit. So you really do have to stay within network. So it's a narrower network. There's more controls as far as that goes. um where the employee won't get to pick exactly what specialist they're going to go. So even if they go to a PCP, your PCP would know you need to stay within the network to

096go to that referral. >> Uh I think there's wisdom in the employee benefits committee's recommendation. I really do think that's that's smart. But to to Dr. Rodriguez's question, so are we planning to go out for bid on uh our health insurance? >> Yes, sir. And that's coming up. So, um I know that I just wanted to make sure that that was pretty clear. I do have two members of the employee benefit committee where we were looking at at different options and and what are some of the, you know, adjustments that we can make. >> I'll go on to the next slide because really right now we're looking at three strategic directions that we can take. We already came up with that that option one which would mean a 17% increase. Now, mind you, it's still

097an increase. We're still fa facing a deficit of $4 million, but we can make that up with a 17% increase. Planning ahead of time, being able to get the right funding for that plan. We'd say the district is going to contribute certain amount, the employees are going to contribute a certain amount, and we're going to make up that 17% through premiums. If we don't make those changes, then we are facing a 30% increase. >> So the 17% is if everything stays the same, right? >> Negative, sir. That >> well, the the premiums, co-pays, all that stuff. >> No, I'm wrong. Okay, >> you're wrong. Uh because if we keep everything the same, then we would need a 31% increase. >> So by making these changes, we're only facing a 17% increase instead of 31% increase.

098>> I think what you're saying is if we the 17% would be if we kept employee and employer contributions the same. >> No, sir. No, >> we would we would still need to adjust to make up that 17%. >> Going to increase their cost. >> We have to increase the cost by 17%. >> Walked in, but that's what it sounds like. >> Yes. So the cost right now that we're facing if we don't do anything is 31% increase. >> No, but if we go with option one and don't mess with the cost, it's a 17 17% deficit. >> It's a 17% deficit. >> Correct. That's what we're trying to do. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> And and who came up with the predictions? I'm just curious like how what an how did the analytics

099on this? How did you do it based off I know your employees now and the current like correct where they're at and how >> we have a consultant one digital. I have Sean uh right here with me. And those are projections based on current claims >> because I mean really one of the big indicators that we we saw is that we had a 300% increase in what they're calling neoplasms but layman's term cancers. >> Okay? >> Right? So a 300% increase that's not going to change from this year to next year. Right? So we're using existing claims, existing data and applying it moving forward and predicting that. I mean it's it's an extrapolation curve is it's what it ends up doing. It's a regression curve. >> We've always been able to like I'm just jumping

100in worst case scenario we've the district even before I got here has always worked on fund balance right because you've been self selfunded. >> Yes sir. And I understand that we're still looking at that category because it's dropped, right? But if we're able to worst case scenario, like in other words, what I'm asking is if you buy yourself time so that you can so that those individuals that are using this then can eventually either, you know, hopefully get better and then you see that the the usage drop. Is that something that's that's that's I guess even realistic or no? Like like or like you know what I mean? Because you say, "Well, I'm going to dip into fund bounds, buy myself two, three years, that's going to really fix the issue as far as people

101getting better, stop, you know, they're going to not go to test treatments as much, and then you start to see a rebound in in a reduction in in usage." Like, but now I know with fund balance because that's why I'm asking because if that's an that if that's something that's even realistic or available and then if we're able to replenish and put money back in because of projects that were funded, that that gives us another option of time, right? instead of increasing people's deductibles to, you know, you know, those are huge rates increases, right? Like 5,000 out of pocket. Like you look at if you look at the options, >> we're looking we're looking at 4,000 for the HMO, 45 for the low plan out of pockets, and 3,000 for the buyout. >> Mhm. >>

102Right. So when we're we're looking at that those plans, it it they line up pretty well with some of the neighbors that we have. Right. >> So if we don't do anything, we're going to have to come up with 31% more like >> on page five of the presentation. >> Yes, sir. >> So, it's our current plan. You have PO base, PO high, PO state. >> Yes, sir. Correct. >> And then right here, you have primary care 1515 across the board, right? >> Yes, sir. >> So, to the employee, like PO high is a better insurance than PO base, right? >> But it's the same price as PO base. >> The biggest the biggest difference would be your out of pocket and your deductibles. >> Yes, sir. But when you regular doctor's visit, it's all

103the same price. >> Correct. You would you would pay the same office visit, but you would hit your deductible much sooner. >> Okay. >> Right. And looking at it from that point of view, you'll see that we're not looking at making those changes when we get to the actual plan, we're still keeping it at 15, 25, and 45. That was discussed with the employee benefit committee and we felt the the committee felt that it would maybe impede people from seeking care right away because they wouldn't have the extra you know 15 if we save $15 going up to 25 or to 35 or to 45. They might hold off and say I'm not going to go see my primary care physician which we want our employees to get that uh taken care of as soon

104as possible. Number one. Number two, what happens when you delay healthcare? >> Get worse. >> It gets worse. >> Get worse. So those are those are I think a smart move. The employee benefit committee does not want to see that preventative care, primary care, specialist office, you know, changing up. When we saw that, um I'm going to go back to the differences in co-pay on page six, Mr. Castillo. >> Mhm. >> You'll notice that really if we go from $15 to 25 or even $35, it's pennies in a bucket, right? So we we felt and the committee felt that it wasn't worth pursuing to see a change in co-pays and specialist co-pays or they did see a big benefit and they they really are are stressing is the ER co-pays. We do have a lot

105of people that are using ERS as their primary care. So um the suggestion was to really you know raise that the facility uh to a 500 from from 250. So that will have a bigger impact uh than raising the primary care specialist office co-pays. So really the biggest difference is out of pocket and deductibles. Well, not necessarily because you have ER co-pay and it's a $19,000 projected impact, but then you have specialist co-pay and one of them is $131,000. So, I mean, that's >> Yes. If we go specialist to $75. >> Yeah. And so, I don't know. I mean, I I I think you you should look at that a little bit because all these add up after a while, right? >> Yes, sir. And I think you're touching on option or strategic direction number

106two, right? So, if we go back to page nine, you'll see that one of the options is to fund it at 17% and say we're going to increase somehow 17%. However that breaks down, we're still looking like you mentioned uh HMOs will definitely be less than the PO and much less than the PO buyup. >> Yeah. >> So, that's that's strategic direction number one. We have a second strategic direction which is exactly what you're talking about right now is continuing to study other cost sharing provisions. The co-pays, increasing deductibles, that's still something that we can continue looking at. We might be able to squeeze out another, you know, 500,000 to a million dollars in savings, which will take us from maybe 17, maybe drop it down to 12 or 15. And here I'm speculating we

107would need to get the actuaries uh involved for those projections, but that would be an option. what you're what you're saying right now is continue studying and and we covered that this morning with our benefit committee as well. The third option that we have also is to maybe engage alternate broker partners. Uh we've had a couple of firms approach the district. We've uh had Gallagher reach out to us. We've had Higg and Botham and these offer a turnkey solution. They'll say um this is what we can do for the district. We'll take care of everything. And one of their selling points is reminding the district, you're not in the insurance business. You're not you're not make you're not here to make money off of insurance. We will help and take care of the needs as

108a package. So they'll look at >> policy. >> They'll they'll look at a package deal for health care, dental, voluntary products. But that does come with some trade-offs, right? A possible trade-off would be maybe shifting to a new broker or new broker partners would definitely have significant plan design revisions. Right? We would have essentially uh reducing local customization options. Another uh impact would be that we would relinquish some design control. Right now we can control the designs but by going with a turnkey operation for benefits we would relinquish some design control. And then of course our servicing agents, right? We would we would lose our servicing agents for these companies. So there are some some direction that we can still take, but we're still studying the different impacts of these directions. Quick question. You're talking

109about the plan we currently have, right? That's what I saw your slides. You were looking at the plan we currently have now. When do we because I know that there's a there's a there's a window. I'm not the expert in this area. This is the one that that always confuses me, but there's a window where we can just renew, which I think we did just not too long ago, and then we actually have to go out for for RFPs, right? >> Correct. So, RFPs. >> Yeah. So, we we're looking at this being a an a year for RFP. >> This is the year we're going out. This is the year we're going out. So, I have a timeline as page 10 just to share with you. >> Um, today's the this first workshop >> on

110March 23rd. Uh I've invited companies uh Gallagher and Higinbotham to present to our benefit committee to see what the impact would be if they would be interested in considering some of the options that they might present. Of course, if we decide to go with a broker partner, uh we would be shifting maybe some significant plan design revisions and relinquishing some of the design control and also switching out more than likely our um servicing agents. uh March 30th we will be holding a second workshop especially that will be after the March 23rd uh presentations that the U Higen Botham and and Gallagher will be sharing April 1st through April 22nd we we are looking at the RFP window and then we want to come back for for multiple workshops because this is this is big league

111I mean we're looking at some some deficits that we need to find the best solution possible to take care of those employees that have th those needs uh with the less least painful uh way possible. Unfortunately, we are looking at deficits right now of $4 million even even with the options that were presented. >> Well, just speaking for myself I statement I'd be really interested uh to see what the committee the employee benefits committee has to say after they they hear the presentations from Gallagher and Higenboth on the March 30th meeting. Yes. March 30th. >> And then I think at that point we'll have more information as to what we what we can or what we should do. >> Yes, sir. >> Uh but I I want to thank you. Thank you for rising up

112to the occasion. It's not easy to have your job right now. >> It it it is not easy. It's very exciting and I'm seeing this through. You know, it's it's something that that I feel very passionate about. I tell the employee benefit committee that we need to balance really three perspectives. our personal view of how we personally feel the employees that they represent as a committee member because they're here from every department, every school, uh, every school, every department, but also the [clears throat] role of the district and we have to walk a fine line. We're not in the insurance business. We don't want to make money off of our employees so that we can put into the fund balance. I was very proud of the work that we did as an employee benefit committee

113uh because this past year policy year we missed it by 3%. We we had uh we missed it by $760 780,000. We came short just a little bit for policy which means to me is that a 3% margin on on the loss side means that we did not overcharge the employees for their healthcare. Right. Unfortunately, we have seen a huge increase in claims and now we have to pivot. >> Yeah. No, and I I thank you and I thank the committee's work on it as well. Uh yeah, we want to make sure they have the best coverage too, but we also have to be financially responsible, right? We don't want to be in a position where we have to get rid of our insurance program. >> It's it's a balancing act. It's a >> time

114already set up for March 23rd. >> Yes, sir. It's it's at 9 >> 9 in the morning. >> 9 and Yes. Yes, sir. It'll start at 9 at the U PLC. >> Which board members are part of that committee? >> We have >> Mr. Serna and Dr. Rodri. >> I've been able to sit in uh two of the meetings and and uh you know, they're doing a great job. You know, they're asking a lot of questions. You know, uh Homer and David back there, you know, they that committee is asking a lot of tough questions and and Dr. Kau and Sean are providing a lot of options, a lot of information there. So, um great job. It's not easy. It's not an easy uh task and and we're fortunate that Mr. Sai, you've been to

115those meetings, Dr. >> I'll be there at 9:00 a.m. I'll make I'll make arrangements. >> Excellent. Uh but we're fortunate to have you involved at the employee non- voting employee committee members, right? But you need to be there so that you can understand the conversations that we're having. They're they're tough conversations, right? Uh I've been getting texts the the employees are going to be mad. It's like the my job is to make them less mad, right? because at a 31% increase right now, I don't want to hit them with something like that. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Ku. Any uh other questions? >> No, just thank you. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> All right. We're going to uh adjourn uh this workshop. It is 7:02. >> Oh, we got the other

116We're going to wait for the regular agenda. The >> regular. The regular. >> All right. Are we ready? >> Yes. >> Good evening. Namoto, president of West Board of Trustees. This regular board meeting is being conducted in compliance with the Texas Open Meeting Act. Notice that this meeting has been posted online for at least three business days prior to the meeting date. The time now is 70:02 [clears throat] and I will call this meeting to order. I will begin the roll call. Uh Dr. Hime Rodriguez >> present. >> Coach Manduer, >> present. >> Mr. Ben Castillo, >> present. >> Mr. Eddie Sernna, >> present. >> And Mr. Mark de los Santos, >> present. >> All right. Establish it of a quorum. Invocation Dr. >> Amen. Let us pray. Would you bow your heads and gentlemen

117if you were in a hat if you would just remove it in reverence to the Lord. Lord of all creation, our Lord Jesus Christ, how great and mighty you are. You are awesome in all of your ways. You are good and merciful towards us in all aspects of our lives. We thank you for the many blessings you have bestowed upon WISD and those to come. Father, we will never tire nor waver to uh continue to ask you to bless and grant greater wisdom to our superintendent, Dr. Richard Rivera, and our amazing board. Thank you for their leadership and humility. May your will be done in our board meetings. H help us always to maintain integrity in what you have left in our care. As our students begin the testing season, we pray clarity of mind,

118peace in their hearts, and the knowledge they have obtained throughout the year flood back into their hearts and minds as they challenge a test. We know they will do amazingly well. Bless our administrators, staff, and teachers with wisdom, integrity, patience, and the physical and mental strength to continue and finish this year very strong. Above all, bless our students with divine protection, physical and mental health, and providence. Father, we also ask that you hold our service men and women in your arms. Cover them with your sheltering grace and presence as they stand in the gap for our protection and freedom. We are grateful to live in the greatest country in the world. We ask you all this in your precious, glorious, and mighty name of Jesus. And everyone says, "Amen." >> Amen. Thank you, Mr. [clears

119throat] Travinho. Uh, pledge of allegiance and Texas pledge. Dr. >> Yes. Mr. Buttermer. >> Good evening, everyone. At this time, we'd ask everyone to please stand, place their right hand over their heart, and face the United States flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'd ask everyone to please remain standing, right hand over their heart, and face the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you, Mr. Butterm. We already uh did awards and recognition, so we're going to go to public comments. >> We had one, but he withdrew. Okay. So, we [clears throat] don't have any

120>> number seven, superintendent's report. Dr. Evetta. >> Yes. >> We'll have Dr. present his superintendent's report and after the report, then I'll ask you if you have any uh questions or comments. Okay. Okay, [clears throat] on the first slide, we had the presentation already on the financial advisors in the bond council. Uh we actually met with them last week with Rick Peris and Angel and then Miguel de los Santos with Estraosa. So we met with him and they gave us guidance and direction on the use of the interest earned of approximately $13 million. And then today you you heard them present. Uh also we also met uh with Estrada Inosa and Rick Pettis and they have reviewed everything with the external auditors car rigs and Ingram. We just want to make sure that that we

121have the financial advisors plus the auditors to make sure that what what we're going to do would be the correct way and there's no no issues and I'll I'll present with the board whatever they give me as far as the projects that we can go ahead and do with the 13 million and also with the bonds and the fund balance on page three. There are many challenges facing Westl. Uh the first one is the process of reducing the 2526 budget that has been happening since September. we we saw the what was happening and since then we've been reducing the budget and our goal is to have a a balanced budget for 2627 and number two all districts including West Loco ISD we have the declining student enrollment many factors charter schools private schools school vouchers

122virtual schools immigration the border conflicts Then also the declining birth rates. Mr. Mr. Carlos Carlos Martinez has studied this and we are showing a declining birth birth rate here at West Loco ISD. Uh on number three, as we reduce staff through attrition, no one will lose their jobs. We just need to make sure that we have the the right staffing in all our schools uh to meet the needs of boys and girls with student enrollment fluctuations. Number four, we've discussed this already at the workshop. There's a rising health and workers comp insurance and for this year we contributed 1.4 million. The projected uh deficit is 5 to7 million. So we're we're addressing this. Now the challenge is that we have to adopt the technology trends in our classrooms and in the district's daily operation. Technology

123is changing every day. We need to make sure that our kids in the classroom have these technology items that they need. We want to make sure that we have innovative schools that meet the needs of our boys and girls. On on page four, you can see this was given by region one to all the superintendent. This is the region one student decline. You can see from 20 2016 to the present 2026. You can see the decline in all our all the districts throughout region one. You can see the decline again for different for different reasons. On page five, as you can see at our at our meetings, we have so many students major accomplishments. Uh, number one, we have six A-rated schools, nine nine B-rated schools, and the district earned a score of 85. We're

124again, we're very proud. We want to get better for this coming school year. Also the recognitions you saw tonight in the last few months. The Westico Panther Corps first division rating pigkin fourth in area West Wildcats first division at pigskin the mariachis state qualifiers west east the sweep stakes division and athletics. You've seen all the students recognized again. Panther football district by district champions. Wildcats boys cross country state third place. The Lady Panther Basketball District and Area Champs. Panther basketball [snorts] district and by district champs. The Wildcat boys track and field district area champs. The Wildcat boys baseball district champs. The Panther boys track district champs. Panther and Lady Panther golf district champs. uh all the participants almost 5,000 students that compete in athletics. So again, we're very proud of our students. We're here because

125of them and we want for them to be successful. The the last slide that I have is some of the accomplishments continued in the career technical education. This is this is career career tech. The district achieved the second highest number of industrybased c certifications in Halo County. Very proud of these. These certificates represent job ready skills in fields like cosmetology, welding, culinary arts. Preparing students directly for careers and to be workforce ready. The national qualifier advanced manufacturing. The Green Power USA national champions top five culinary reserve grand champion smoking on the Rio barbecue cookoff and then the egg. Very proud of them. This is why they're getting a new egg board. Numerous awards recognition San Antonio and the valley. The now the district accomplishments. Uh, we have the safe schools, modern Cameron systems, armed security

126guards, campus vestibules, the district-wide fencing, tremendous success with TA and the door audits. We are among the highest salaries in region one, all pay rates, among the lowest pay rates, tax rates in region one, and we have new and upgraded academic and athletic facilities. We the last one we are not closing schools. Many schools around us have have closed schools due to low enrollment. So again these are some of the accomplishments. Very proud of our staff. Very proud of everyone. Very proud of the board for being supportive and the things that we have at West Loco ISD. We feel that we're second to no one. This is this is my presentation. Are there any questions on any of these slides? >> Thank you Dr. Ja. Good presentation. Uh Dr. H >> um you know in

127regards to I know there's a lot of a lot of challenges the district is facing you know but there's also a lot of positive things that are going on with our district and um I know with like you mentioned the CTE uh I know there's there's areas there where you know hopefully you know we're we're looking and studying you know what what we can add to that what programs we can add to to provide for our students to attract and to keep you know our enrollment from taking a a big hit there. But great job. Thank you to all, you know, that that are working so hard to face these uh challenges. >> Thank you, >> Coach Qu. I'm just uh thank you to all for the the work that you do and and staying

128the course and and keeping Wes ISD, you know, the right choice. So for that, thank you so much, >> Mr. Beast Castile. >> Yes, Doc. Thank you for your report. uh appreciate all the work that you and your staff are doing and all the students, the teachers, and the principles. Let's keep it up. Let's finish off the school year strong. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh Coach Cerna, any comments on the superintendent report? >> No, sir, not at the >> And Mr. Maran, uh what school what school district scored better than us on the the CTE? We're second. Who was the first? I mean just that's a question that you know what's it malen okay okay thank you you know and a lot of times when you know Dr. Edo says uh we got to

129be first so if Macallen we could provide more certifications so that we can uh bypass Macallen but good presentation uh Dr. and moving forward like Mr. Man Casio said uh will approve in every area. >> Thank you. >> All right, let's continue on uh presentation uh bond and fund balance projects. Uh Dr. >> Yes. Let me call on Mr. Abel Hilar to present. I think you have the slides there also on your table on his presentation. >> Okay. >> Yes, we have Good afternoon, Dr. Detta, board president, uh, Neto, members of the board. I'm going to be going over, uh, board presentation for Wasco ISD projects. So, all the projects that you're going to see listed here, these are all Waco ISD upgrade initiatives to include large-scale capital projects, and we're utilizing both $ 160

130million bond and fund balance to address the district needs. What you have here in front of you, and they're listed uh in order, and we have the legend to the right identifying the letter. These are the baseball and softball synthetic turfs. As you can see, you know, they they came out beautifully. They've been be they're being used. Um and you have them all listed there from your Wusso High School boys baseball field, girls softball field, East boys baseball field, and Waco East girls softball field. You also have we went ahead and also uh worked on a baseball and softball scoreboard replacement for each field as you see there and you see the designs. Uh they came out very very nice. If you focus on letter B, it clearly uh highlights there our 2024 6A uh

1316A state champions are Waso High School Lady Lady Panthers softball. And you see the other the other scoreboards are are just as nice on the way they they came out. We also have our middle school running tracks listed. Uh we have our central middle school, Bearsa Quar, and Mary Hogue. Mary Hog's in its stages and that should be completed pretty soon. It's coming up. Uh but they're moving along. Just as a reminder, that one was delayed due to the concerns with the clay and we had needed additional testing. The Panther Wildcat Stadium upgrades, these are some of the upgrades that we've had through the process. Of course, you have your synthetic turf. B, you identify that we have the LED lighting and letter B. We also added down Panther Drive the rot iron fencing as

132you can see there. Uh we also worked on replacing the stadium chairlift and that was also another project. Also tied into that is our digital billboard conversion that we do work um uh districtwide. We also have our campus vestibules. As you can see, we've enclosed uh these are enclosed entrances between the exterior door and the interior of the building for safety reasons. Parents and visitors are required to check in at the vestibules when on campus grounds. Uh we do have the vast majority of the campuses uh vegetable bills completed and we still have a few that are pending and we are almost there. Uh districtwide safety and security. These are a few items that we have. Some of these were through grants. There's a few but the majority of them were through our fund balance

133that we have. Of course, we had four district security uh trucks that were purchased. We do have our K9 sugar that was added to our patrol in letter B. Um some items that we are working through our hospital, we have uh the breaching tools. Those are going to be coming in. We do have access control doors on letter D. We have district-wide security cameras, letter E. And another item that Mr. Raina's team, they're going to be working on is making sure we follow with our house bill um is a ballistic shields that we're going to be having for our officers. Next, of course, we already went over our our new Pete Abrigo a farm. We also uh invested in our school buses, transit activity liners, and fuel tanks as you see there. A list of

134two ultra luxury coach liners that have been they're being used on a daily basis as well as our two transit activity buses that we have in place. We have a total of four. our purchases with yellow school buses, our transit vans that are used uh as well districtwide. And one of the critical points that we worked with, especially our in our uh transportation department, was a replacement of our fuel tanks. That was a critical area that we needed to address and that was also a focus of ours moving forward. We will also make sure that we focus on our warehouse and our maintenance fleet. As you can see there, some purchases have been made for forklifts, uh, including our DY pickup trucks that we have, our warehouse two car box cargo trucks that we have.

135Those are used, uh, daily district-wide. And we also added another back hole to our maintenance department for a lot of projects in house. Another area of focus were our elementary campus library furniture. And again, uh, all of them were retrofitted. Uh again, the purpose for this is we wanted to make sure that we receive modern, innovative resources that are flexible, mobile, creative, technology friendly, and instructionally active. And again, you have different campuses, different scenarios, and they're being used on a daily basis. Districtwide roofing projects, what you have listed there in front of you, those are some examples that we have that have already been uh completed uh on the on the images that we have there. We have Kler Held Elementary. Uh Tony Rico Elementary, we have some that are are still in progress. Beatatrices

136GarcA Middle School, Dr. Ari Margo Elementary, Mary Hog Middle School, Central Middle School. Upcoming roofing projects that we're evaluating right now are Rudy Silva Elementary and Raul Gonzalez Elementary. And we continue to evaluate our roofing needs districtwide. district-wide HVAC projects that we currently have going on. We have our Wesico High School, Beatatrice Garca Middle School, Dr. Armando Quuer Middle School, Westico East High School, Mary Hog Middle School, Central Middle School, and our district-wide HVAC controls. These are all moving forward. They're in progress right now. Upcoming projects that are next on the list, we have Clerel Elementary and PFC Mario IA Elementary School. And we're also continuing to evaluate the other campus needs moving forward. District-wide student restroom remodeling. Those on the list right now that we're moving in the direction, we have Dr. Ari Marggo

137Elementary, Beatatrice Garca Middle School, Memorial Elementary, Northbridge Elementary. Upcoming projects for student restroom remodeling, we have um and I apologize there projects are there twice. our Airport Elementary School and Weso East High School. Again, we're continuing to evaluate the other campuses for up upcoming on the list. Fire alarm upgrades. The ones that we have we're working on and in progress, we have PFC Mari Elementary, Wico East High School, Dr. Ari Marggo Elementary, Central Middle School. Upcoming projects that we have for upgrades, we have Collector Held Elementary and North Bridge Elementary. and we're continuing to evaluate the other campus needs. Building envelope repair. This is for our WSO high school sepulva gym. And as you can see in the images you see on the very top, that's our current image that we have with our sepulva

138gym. On the bottom, you have a rendering of what it's going to look like aesthetically. It's going to change it some somewhat. You're going to be removing some of that. And the purpose behind that, why we have to move with that aesthetic change is going to be we're trying to prevent water intrusion and to avoid damage to surrounding classrooms and the gym floor. So, this is a priority need. If not, it's going to cost us more if we continue leaving it alone. So, we're moving forward with with this project. Also, we had some retractable basketball goals for our high schools. the previous basketball goals and you see some images that are there uh had exceeded the lifespan and needed to be replaced. They were mobile ones that we had on the gym floor and those

139were replaced to prevent damage to the floors. So again, we went forward with these um retractable golds. Also, you have up here campus kitchen remodeling projects. Those are the two that we've identified moving forward right now for Kler Hill Elementary and Tony Rico Elementary. We're going to have some other kitchen projects, but those are going to be new uh cafeterias or new kitchens, and those we continue to evaluate moving forward. Drainage improvement projects. We also have Memorial Elementary. I know that was one of a significant concern we had. And we also have our career and technology education complex, another of the projects that we're currently working on, and some others that we are continuing to evaluate. Demolition of Old Gym at Central Middle School. the demolition site. We had previously bought this item in a

140previous agenda. The demolition site of the old gym will be utilized for a new cafeteria. That's what we're working on. And uh the existing cafeteria will be repurposed for educational use. And that's something that we're working through as well. Tennis courts resurfacing. This is at Wesico High. Um we're working through this process and anticipated completion date is June 2026 to get this these tennis courts uh resurfaced. lighting upgrades. This is for the Susan M. Peterson Performing Arts Center. This is a project that we had as part of our bond. And again, we've already uh completed this one. Elementary playground equipment and canopies. All our elementaryaries uh have been completed, the playgrounds and canopies, and they're all functional, and we've been moving forward. Initially, we had started off with the grant. We kind of went local

141with this. We kind of had to make some adjustments. We also have elementary sensory rooms. The sensory [clears throat] rooms allow uh for students with disabilities access and interaction with sensory based equipment and materials to provide a calming effect on students. And you have the three areas of focus there as you can read below. You know, address learning and developmental disabilities, develop communication skills, and regulate emotional and behavioral dis difficulties. Uh with all that being said, you see where we fall within uh region one in Hidalgo County for our school district tax rates and we as we fall with other comparable districts on there and we have no plans of increasing taxes and we're continuing to move forward with all these projects moving forward. Again, uh we want to thank our Weso ISD board of

142trustees and the citizens of Weslo for continuing to invest in support in our schools, especially with the passing of the bond that we had. I'm open to any questions if you have any questions. And as you can see, there's been a lot of activity, a lot of movement in these last three years. And this was something that uh Dr. Ivetta first came in, he tasked us with it, and we started running with it. So, you see a lot of projects being done, and we continue, we're continuing to move forward with many more projects. So again, thank you for your support board and we want to thank the the citizens of WasauD. >> Thank you for the presentation question. Any comments? >> Yeah, [snorts] a lot of moving parts. >> A lot of stuff. Well, first

143of all, before I know part this was part of the uh superintendence report, the egg students, I just want to wish them luck with the livestock show coming up in about a week. Is that correct? Diego, I know I've seen a lot of your accomplishments and I just wanted to little props to the egg students because I know you put in a lot of time and effort with those animals. Good luck >> to all. Okay. Uh on this report, uh I know that the baseball fields are there, >> correct? >> And I know that I mean they're beautiful. They look great. Uh a lot of great compliment or comments out of uh people coaches that I know. Was the Westico East issue taken care of out there in the outfield pitchers uh bullpin area? >>

144Outfield bullpin. >> Yes sir. You know I know we had had some mud that had the company come in and and remedy that issue. I know it was causing them some problems. Luckily >> the mud rain. >> Yes. Luckily we haven't gotten a lot of rain this spring but I know it did. So that one rain was >> but did I know we're >> some like a swell right to keep that out. Okay I know that was talked about but that's what's going on right now with that area >> right now it's under design coach it's with the engineer so we're working through that >> creating a little swell to redirect that if it does happen >> but we're also currently >> in the meantime. So you Okay. Uh I know that had come up

145before. How current are these pictures of the tracks, the middle school tracks? Are those current? >> So A, B, and C. Well, those are all completed. >> No, but but as far as the I know the but the field I'm referring to the fields. I know central looks really nice and green. Is that irrigation that's going on there? What's going on? >> Yes. a lot better now. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I mean, it's for the public. I know they see these pictures on screen and and I'm curious as well if is it if they're current, are they looking nicer? Cuz >> they're nice and they're a lot nicer. >> And beg guards as well. And I know uh middle school uh >> Mary Hog is going to get something done. They're still working on that.

146But is there a thought of maybe providing or doing some kind of irrigation or sprinklers in that in those fields? >> And what about the is it quer as well because the central have irrigation? I think they have sprinklers, right? Yeah, >> that's the only one that does. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, is are there plans to maybe get those up to speed like Central looks really nice? >> I'm just Yeah, >> we can go back and evaluate it, coach. >> I mean, just for the future. I mean, there's our students and they, you know, practice football and, you know, it be nice to have >> Definitely. We'll go back and evaluate it as a team. >> Green space there. Um, [snorts] it's good to see what you're doing with Sepula Jim. That's

147much needed for many years. >> Yes, sir. I know that that was a project that we needed to address to avoid any further damage or anything. Um, so yes, sir. And I'm glad we're also getting the court the basketball basketball the baskets >> the retractable basketball goals. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. That was a dangerous thing there with the other one. So I'm glad that's getting done. >> That got done already. >> It's already done. >> Any more question? >> No, we're good. >> Okay, Mr. Castillo. >> No, I have no questions. Just a comment. Just thank you to the community for allowing us to do these projects. Dr. Geretta, thank you. you and your team go and able and uh uh and everybody for working hard on these and uh making sure we stay

148on time and complete and uh just offer the betterment of our students and the facilities that they use. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. And the tennis courts you said by June of 2026, correct? >> That is correct, sir. >> Okay. And uh coach mentioned Mary Hog, that one should be finished by track. the track. >> We're looking at about the next week hopefully getting it complete. >> The track. >> Okay. The track. >> I drove I I drove by there and it uh it's it's looking like it's looking really nice. So good. >> Yeah. Surface is already on there. So by next week we should get it complete. >> Okay. Coach, you had one more comment. >> Real quick, I know I was at the at the I guess

149it was Airport Elementary. The surrounding areas around the playscapes. Are we doing something to level that? I know other elementaryaries have issues with that. Is that something that we're addressing with our maintenance department? >> Just for the safety of the kiddos, you know, that's [snorts] >> because these are old pictures on there. I know a lot of that has already been addressed, but we can go ahead and follow up with our campus principles. Just follow up. >> Yeah. If they have any concerns on there and then we'll go ahead and address them as they come up. >> Please. Thank you. Thank you. >> Well, there where you said where it's not level. That's what you're talking about. >> Yes. Yeah. There's there's some uneven spots and >> some of these were the originals. >> Okay.

150Photos that we had. Uh but definitely we'll go back and revisit. >> Uh coach Gr any comments >> again you know just like like everyone has commended the the efforts and the progress we're making. Dr. Rivera you and your team >> doing you guys doing a heck of a job. >> Thank you very much Dr. Hay. >> Thank you coach. >> Yeah able. So are this is this still considered uh just phase one? Is it a mixture of of phase one phase two? There's a lot there's some that have come in in phase two that we've internally identified in phases for ourselves for our purposes. But we're the main thing is coordinating through projects. >> But with the bond projects, there's still other projects. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Okay. Just so the public can know

151that this is not all that's being done. There's still other >> the majority of our projects are going to be in in Proposition A. >> Okay. >> We have the majority of them. >> So, just they know there's still more. Thank you. Thank you for for all the work. Thank you. >> Uh which schools still need the vestibules? the vestibules where we don't want to identify uh Mr. Netto on those for safety reasons but there's the majority have been already addressed. >> Okay. Thank you uh Mr. Los Santos. >> The rest are in progress. That is correct. >> Okay. Any uh comments? >> No. Thank you for the presentation and and uh all the information. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. and let's continue on to item nine. Long story governance. Uh Dr. >> Yes.

152Misso. >> Yes. Hi. Good evening. members of the board community. So this month we have our district annual report in public hearing which is our taper report. Our taper report usually reports on data that is either last year's or the previous years. Right? So um in this presentation uh we have four committee members that address the different areas that are reported through our report and you'll see them listed on that second slide of the presentation. Um in this report you will find eight sections of the report. We will uh dive in into the academics, the finances, the district accredititation, our campus performance objectives which are tied to campus improvement plans, safety, um CCMR, HP3 goals, and your taper glossery report. So section one addresses the academic section of the report. And I know that I

153might sound repetitive as we've uh presented this information since last summer, but this is our official information that you can find in our 202 uh 6 uh taper report that just came out. Our 2025 accountability ratings as Dr. Dvetta shared in his superintendence report was a an 85 which is a B. Um I am happy to announce that the district uh received a distinction designation of post-secary readiness. So this can only be achieved if your meat's performance level uh uh percentage is high enough that uh you know at at especially at our high schools and our secondaries right if they receive it. So we are happy to say that our schools perform at a high level of performance right at the meets plus which aligns to our u lonear governance goals. Uh next you will

154find and I know that you've seen this page before the official uh campus ratings there. So you see them there and I know we presented those uh before. Um in the next slide I'm happy to announce uh the next slide the distinction designations. Four uh of our elementaryaries earned all distinction designations. The six out of six that is Margo Elementary, Memorial Elementary, Raul Gonzalez Elementary and Sam Houston Elementary. I also want to recognize or or call your attention to the postsecary readiness column. We have almost all schools uh with a high percentage of students performing at the meat's performance level and above. Right? And for the state that is what is considered on grade level or a student who is uh ready for higher education. So congratulations to all uh campus principles, teachers and staff.

155Uh the next slide uh addresses that in for special education we receive the determination status of needs assistance. Uh this is in the area specifically in the areas of social studies. Uh those students who test social studies. Um this has been an area that our special education department along with our campuses and in our district CNI team have worked on. So there is currently I know uh the our our department Mr. Neil Gars and his staff work on ensuring that we get out of this determination status. This determination status is given to us on a yearly basis uh based on the performance of students in specific subject areas um and grade levels. Next um I want to uh go over the attendance rate for WISD. We are above the state and the region. So we

156are currently and and again attendance rate goes two years behind just because the data reported uh that is used for accountability was uh from the 2324 the last data used for our 2025 rating. So um our attendance rate has improved. So, uh, congratulations to all, you know, as this is critical, right? If students are in the classrooms, they're learning, um, and they're coming to school and, and that means that our campus principles are doing an amazing job with our teachers and making sure that boys and girls are here. Our dropout rate, our next, uh, page really, really impressive. If you look at WISD, we're at a point.8 uh, and again, this is two years behind because that is the data that we report based on our on our ratings. um our our staff, the levers

157team, counselors, right, our parental, everyone has done a phenomenal job, our counselors, uh our principles in making sure that we recover dropouts. So, congratulations uh to everyone on those um efforts. Next, it's our graduation rate, and I'll focus more on the uh class the four-year rate, class of 2024. It's always two years behind on our graduation rate as that makes it official as we track five years and six year rates. Um we are at a 95.4 for for our uh senior classes right and this percentage is higher than the region and the state for WISD. So kudos uh to our high schools. Also the next page here, what you see here is our foundation high school program endorsements or distinguished level of achievement plan, right? Our graduation plans. We did we did see a reduction

158for the 2024. So this is in consequence to the more we recover levers. Some of these students are more anxious to exit out of high school with a basic right foundational graduation plan versus your distinguished uh graduation plans. However, we do have some measures that have already been uh in place at both high schools to ensure that students, you know, are encouraged to graduate under these distinguished level of achievement plans. Right. The next uh part of the presentation focuses more on staffing. Our staffing information here as you see uh based on each of the categories is very comparable to the state. Um one of the things that we did see um you know in professional staffing we are below the state uh also too in um we it's educational aids as well um and I

159wanted to point out another one or maybe it's another page I'm sorry our professional support as well right so this is just uh our staffing in comparison to the state and we're very comparable to them the next slide is teachers by years of experience so if you notice uh this when you received your report last week. Um WISD has minimal number of beginning teachers but we have a great pool of uh experienced teachers right and we take great pride in that and and you know our our students do amazingly well. So we do see that um and uh the last little row that you see there turnover rate for teachers the 21% obviously as we studied this the more experience your teachers are then you you will continue to see that data rise right because

160it's you're seeing teachers exit leave the profession which includes retirement as well [snorts] so our next slide u is experience of campus leadership here so it's very compar comparable to the state as well um for our administration. The next slide it's average teacher salaries and I believe it's in was one of our presentations right um west ISD pays um you know the teachers very well so we are above the the state and the region um for salaries with the exception of just your six to 10 years in comparison to the state but above the region in all categories of um you know uh the beginning teachers to 30 years experience. The next section of the report goes over the PE's financial standard report and this is just uh information for the public. So the total

161tax rate for WISD is uh 94. So this is um higher than the text uh than Texas and the region. However, it's broken down into your M and INS. So your M is lower and the INS right interest in syncing is higher due to the bond uh passing right. So the next slide or the next two slides you will see for public information how is it that we receive our revenues right where is it that we get most of our revenues and obviously most of our revenues are coming from state operating funds 60% of that right and if you see in the next slide also how we received our uh other revenues for debt service funds you'll see that most of the revenues there come from local property taxes Right. And so the next slide

162explains um how the expenditures um the operating expenditures for the district where you will see that most of our operating expenditures are instructional related right at a 62.02% which is very comparable to the Texas Texas and region one. So um the next section of the taper report will take us through the district accredititation status and the district WISD received an accredititation with superior achievement right based on the first rating and that looks at several categories or studies several categories of your district which is academic accountability ratings, financial accountability ratings, data integrity and other program um through RDA reports. Section four of the public hearing um links uh for your reference uh campus performing objectives which will be linked uh to campus improvement plans. What are the needs uh and the areas that they're targeting for

163improvement. Also section five of this report reports on violent or criminal incidents on campuses. And this reports basically uh this uh allows a district to report if there is any unsafe schools in your district. Um there you have the two incidents that were reported for that school year for 2425 and you have the code uh the disciplinary action or reason uh why they were reported. With these two incidents, WISC does not have a persistently dangerous school under the uh Every School Succeeds Act. So, we take great pride in that. The next section of the report is student performance in post-secary readiness institutions. Right? This is your higher education report. This is our CCMR. We take great pride if you see our CCMR uh score for the class of 2024 which is two class ago. Um

164so or behind uh we are way above the state and the region with a score of a 94. So congratulations to all of those individuals right who impact this CCMR and monitor it very strategically. I know that at both high schools we have Miss Maria Flores and Miss Karat Salenz along with gear up right and the other CCMR facilitators our high school principles constantly meeting with teachers that are making a great great impact in our CCMR u accountability and for them it's a huge deal as it's um 40% of their rating in in certain of the domains. The next uh table you'll have more college readiness indicators. The first table on the very top goes over dual credit uh courses right or completion in all subjects. There you will see that we have a 42%

165um a little below the state and the region. Um, so one of the things that I do have to inform you about is that this last spring, um, uh, higher ed institutions, right, I informed school districts that they will now make it a requirement if you want to, uh, be in route for an associates degree. You have to pass the TSI. before we used to enroll students in duel and allow them the opportunity right uh before they hit a certain right before they hit a certain semester to to allow them to pass the TSI but it um universities and colleges are now pushing that TSI is one of the first tests you have to pass in order to be dual enrolled right so this will obviously make it difficult as the colleges and universities have

166expressed but we have a plan of action to um we have an MOU uh SEC um that we signed for a non-deree seeking route to allow students to be enrolled in dual courses for 15 hours right without uh if they have not passed the TSI or such right and then the AP participation which I believe it was one of the questions that we received so one of the things that we've studied with AP participation as it has dropped right is the reason it has dropped is because our students have opportunities our students have more opportun unities. Every year that goes by, we study our programs. We have increased the opportunities and are increasing for the next year as well on more on-ramp dual courses, right? So, students have opportunities to go CTE, workforce ready. Students

167have opportunities to uh gain uh or g receive an associates degree, which are those are more than likely a lot of the hours are earned through your duel, your on ramps. Um and then of course students have the opportunity to gain these hours through through AP. However, through AP, you have a test. It's a onetime shot, right? You have to pass that test in order to get that college credit. So, students have opportunities, right? Um, and and choices. So, this is what we're seeing from students, too. And so, you have students also too that want to take an AP course, but those are a limited number of students. And if a class doesn't make because we didn't get 10 or more wanting that course, right? Because they're wanting to go the dual route or the

168on-ramp route, then the course doesn't make. So those are some of the areas that we examined as we received those questions. So um ACT ACT indicators in the next page uh for the SAT ACT tested in the region uh we are uh comparable to the previous class of 2023, right? Um so one of the things that we looked at at or above criterion we have increased from a 7.1 to 9.5. So they're are doing um extremely well in that area. Uh for SAT scores so one of the things that we look at in ACT scores is these are the students that are attempting to take the ACT and enrolled to take the ACT because they wanted and needed for college. Right? So um and then when you look at your ACT scores, one of the

169biggest differences that we've done, right, is that before all juniors were required to take it. Now is we encourage all juniors to take it, right? And and of course now it's if you're ready to take it, then at that point you'll you'll take it in the your junior year. So that is uh one of the things that we see the biggest difference. So this is uh also part of the accountability as for participation in the distinction designations for the high school. So we encourage of course every student to take the um ACT in particularly in their junior year. The next uh slide that you'll see reports on the four high schools that we had uh that year of 2223 as this is data that is reported to the state you know um later. So at

170that point at that point we had South Palm's garden west high and also our 21st century CT early college high school right that was that last year of that school and here what it reports is those students who have moved on to seek uh a public university or college or um can't be found right because they can't be tracked. So the state still keeps tracking them. This is your post-secary readiness tracking. The next slide is just uh making reference to section seven which is the HB3 goals which are the goals for LSG listed on our uh website that we report monthly on. And section eight you'll find the link to the taper glossery um in case you have any further questions or need clarifications. And this is also uh available for the public. It's been

171posted on the board book as well. And um I do want to end with this and and thank everyone who is here as in the last three years we have seen an increase in our academic performance and you know we are on track and and hoping that this year will just be another increase as well to our academic performance rating as well. >> Thank you. That's our report. >> Thank you Mr. Solano. I [snorts] was going to ask you AP question but you answered it right now when you explained it. the only one that I have uh ACT scores you know the average for our schools were 16.9 and 16.7 I believe and the region is a 17 correct >> and I I don't remember the state but those two areas and uh I think

172what can we do and I guess Dr. later on what can we do for those students >> so Mr. There's a couple things also that figure into that data. >> Okay, >> we looked at it right away too, right? >> So, we start researching in all areas. One of the things we noticed is the percentage of our students taking that test is a lot higher in that area than some of our fellow high schools across the valley. >> Okay? >> So, we have a lot greater students. So, again, as Mr. Solano alluded to, it is also a portion of the accountability where we used to encourage students to take that ACT test. Correct. So again, we are studying some of the things. That doesn't go to say though academically, we know we need to also

173look at what we can work with to make sure our students who are wanting to take the ACT or wanting to take the SAT are academically ready to score well. >> Okay. I I I would like to have some information on that like say maybe the top 25 students and top 50 students see what their score were. Got it. You know, because >> Yeah. You know, we as a district, there's a lot of them that take the ACT compared to other high schools, but I've always said that our top students always score well just to see where we're at with those uh top 25, top 50 students. >> We can do that. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh Dr. Hime, any comments on the presentation? >> Thank you for the [snorts] presentation. There's a lot of

174lot of good information there. a lot of highlights, you know, for our district and, you know, from safety and attendance, you know, congratulations to our our principles and our campuses, you know, for doing a great job of getting our students in class and um just keep up the great work. Keep up the great work. I know I know it's a lot of challenges, but uh you guys are doing a great job. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Coach, go ahead. >> Same thing. Um there there's a lot on that table. So um and what you see here is just part of it. You know, there's a lot of the challenges that uh that y'all have done a tremendous job of uh handling everything. And I mean there's [snorts] a lot more positive than than

175than negative. And and that's what we want to focus on, you know, the the good things because there is a lot of good. And uh you know anywhere you go you're you're going to have a little bit of everything but right now we're going in a very good direction. Uh everybody here Dr. Eveta great leader keep up the good work everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Ben Castillo. >> Yes sir. So that that's like caught my attention too. It's interesting because we we have higher average scores on the SAT. >> SAT. Correct. >> As opposed to the interesting right. Uh, but I I don't know and I don't know if we do this already, but maybe we could get a prep course for our students that do want to take it. Uh, because

176I mean getting a high score on your ACT, SAT is it's >> if you're not in the top 10% or whatever, that's one way of getting into these top universities, right? And >> very true. >> And uh, you know, the you're competing with kids nationwide >> and some some kids might have the opportunity to take uh, uh, courses, practice courses and all that stuff. And if we could provide that opportunity to our kids, I think we'd be doing a a huge service in trying to get them where they where they need to be with respect to those scores. >> We can definitely study that. >> Uh coach, >> you mentioned dual environment courses. >> Um what was one of the requirements that you use >> the TSI? >> Yes. >> What I mean for those

177kids on the bubble that are right there because dual enrollment is fantastic for our parents. Saves a lot of money. >> Yes. What are we doing to those kids that are right there like prep? Are is there anything that prepares our kids? [clears throat] Specifically, do teachers do PLC's? >> Yes. >> What is it that's going on with the TSI? >> Yes. So, through our CCMR uh funding coach, uh what the high schools do is first they they'll have their CCMR advisor, right, which is Miss Maria Flores, Miss Scotty. Then they have a CCMR facilitator as well that helps support and identify students who are that bubble right at risk. They'll provide we have CCMR or TSI tutors as well. We have provided PD to our core subject teachers to help them >> align a

178TEICS that is needed or that they failed to pass and through algebra or through a similar class they can help uh tutor so that they can then master their next attempt. Right? So our goal is always we give you prep time, you have prep time with me before you test again, right? To increase your chances of passing. >> Okay. So that you do have a team that studies that. >> Yes, most definitely. That is that is why the score is so high >> for accountability. Good. >> That's good. >> Mr. Los Santos. >> Um no, just wanted to say reiterate what everybody else is saying that great job on the presentation and great job at the campus levels. I mean that's why it's so important. I've been here five years and I was a student

179here and my kids go come here and regardless of the fact what's independent school district I always say this and there's a there's an institution out there that's a charter that gets mad what I do I know cuz somebody called me one time and told me but we're still the best uh academic organization within this town and with this because we we service all students regardless of backgrounds and disabilities and whatnot and we're highly successful in graduating people and send them sending them off to post-secary education and also the >> the workforce and the military Right. And and I'm I'm a living proof of that. >> Yes. >> Um I did things and and and I'm I'm at in a place in my life I probably shouldn't have been, but I had a great education

180that really helped me get ahead. >> And so that's a big factor. And I think about all those people in the past that contributed to that. >> And I think about the people that work in those schools now and are doing the same for these kids. So they you all are doing an amazing job when it comes down to academics and and thank you all for that. >> Most definitely. And we now have our 18 through 26 program too, which is doing extremely well. Awesome job. Thank you. >> And one more comment. I know that you mentioned the rating of the schools, right? And 85 overall. We had seven A's, six B's, >> but just we just got to remember also that the three schools that didn't score so well. >> Most definitely. >> We

181need to work and I know you are working with them to make sure they get up to B's just like everybody else. >> Yes, sir. >> That's correct. >> All right. Any other comments? >> Is that your >> That's it. That's it. All right, let's continue on. How about a taper house bill 3 public hearing 202425 annual report? >> That's it. >> That was it. >> Okay. >> Uh board self evaluation. I know some of the board members provided some information on uh on the quarterly progress uh tracker. And so we're still at about 80 83. And I'm going to give you the results from uh five out of the seven board members that present that provided uh the information. [snorts] And again, the key component probably in everyone is community community ownership of the

182board's vision. We yet haven't reached out out to parents yet. Uh we haven't had any meetings with parents. In the [snorts] near future, uh I will be meeting with Dr. A so we can begin and I had mentioned it before at another board meeting where we'll have a parent uh advisory school board uh personnel and uh I'll provide the criteria to Dr. AA and we'll work together to see uh for example uh two parents from each school uh fourth grade so that way they'll be still in the school next year and uh I'll provide that information so principles in the next month or so uh you'll get information on how to select those two parents uh for each school so that way at in May when I or a couple of board members meet with

183them so that way we can go over LSG presentation our constraint means or what we expect and that way for next year they begin the year providing information to us just like the student committee the student committee has provided a lot of good information to Dr. and ourselves to see what is it that we need to do to improve this your your campus. So now coming from a parents perspective and again like I tell students and I tell parents academics should be our primary focus that's our primary focus you know uh so uh it'll be upcoming there all right so uh visions and goals one the board has adopted student outcome goals we're doing well in that area uh our score was at 12 we're still not at the mastery level again because the community

184ownership we haven't done that portion yet [snorts] on visions and goals. Two, the board has adopted goal progress measures or GPMs aligned to each student outcome goal. Here again, we're at a 12. We still lack the communications with with staff members. Uh we haven't done that portion yet, so we're at a 12. vision and goals three. The board has adopted con uh constraints and uh we have and the majority of the board members voted as a as a nine. Uh we still need to improve uh community ownership of the constraints. I don't think parents uh understand the constraints yet. I don't know if uh staff members understand what what are the constraints that we put forward in LSG. That's something that we need to improve on and uh we will Visions and goals for the

185board has adopted superintendent constraint progress measures which we have and we're currently at a four the [snorts] mastery level also community ownership of the superintendent CPMs we haven't done that yet progress and accountability progress uh the board invests at least half of its time to improving student outcomes every month we have improved the last month that we were at 26%. But in order to be a mastery level, we have to spend 50% or more of the total time which we have it. Hopefully in the next year uh we'll get there. [snorts] Uh progress and accountability too. The board evaluates but does not interfere with progress towards improving student outcomes and we don't and you provide the information. You as a principal Dr. VA his team has worked with all uh with all phases. So we're

186still at a four there. Um we're still again uh student outcome goals and constraints monitoring reports. Those are things that we haven't done yet and we'll uh do in the future. [snorts] >> Mr. If I could ask a quick question and I agree with everything you said. >> Okay. But I I uh I saw on social media that some of our campuses are having a parent symposium. >> I don't know. >> I think I saw it somewhere. Maybe maybe we could hijack like 10 minutes of that and we could do our LSG outreach deal >> or it already happened. >> It it happened Texas Public School Week was last week. >> Never mind. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Cancel. We We still zero on that one. >> Yeah. But you know what? In the future,

187we we we can uh work on something like that. All right. Uh let's see. Uh assistance and process, we're in a 15. Advocacy and engagement, nine, synergy and teamwork, eight for uh right now we're at 83. But again, the main component is community ownership. That's something that we'll have to do and present to uh parents, to staff. Uh the student component, we're working with that. But uh if we continue to do that, then the parents will be involved too. and uh decisions that we as a district uh need to make in the best interest of uh students and staff. [snorts] >> Any comments Dr. Haime on? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> You you provided all the scores for that. So, uh thank you. Uh coach Gra. >> No. >> Uh everything you said there

188was was um I concur with that. Uh u we we we know what uh what we need to improve and and we're we're going to work on that. >> Okay. Mr. Castillo. >> Yes, sir. Thank you for for your hard work on this. I I I I want to commend and just recognize your leadership on it as well, sir. Thank you for all the time you're putting into it and uh and I will promise to do better. [laughter] >> You will, Coach? >> Okay. Just thank you for the work. >> Okay, Mr. Los Santos. >> No, I'm fine. >> And again, a lot of times I need your feedback on this because I want to know where we at and what areas we need to improve on. If I don't if you don't provide any

189information then uh some of them provide the information I don't know what direction to go and I think that's where the ownership comes into play you know just like we do for everything else uh this part is uh also very important okay any anything else Dr. Okay. So, uh we're going to pass it around and you can sign it uh as we continue with the agenda items. Uh consent agendas. >> I'm sorry. 983. >> Oh, my fault. I [snorts] always forget that one. Uh discussion of possible action for the board of trustees to consider approval of the Longar governance board monitor report for March 2026. >> Move to approve. >> We have a motion by coach to approve. We have second. >> Second by Mr. Rast Steel. >> Mark. >> Oh, Mark. My fault. Mark.

190Uh to approve the Longar governance bot uh board monitoring report for March 2026. All [snorts] in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All against. Motion carries. Uh item 10, consent agenda. Uh consent items. I'll give you a few minutes. See if you need to uh pull any items from the consent agenda. >> [snorts] >> I'll start with the right side, Mr. Los Santos. I was going to pull um 10 G2A, but I'm going to go ahead and I just want that department. I'm not going to pull it after all. Um but I just I do want to just say that hopefully next month, you know, we'll have an update. I know you guys are dealing with a very difficult task. >> Oh, yes. and I wish you all the best so that you can

191get us [snorts] accurate numbers as soon as possible. Okay. >> So, but no, I'm not going to that that that's all. I'm good with everything. >> Okay. Uh coach, >> None. Mr. Pink Castillo, >> none, sir. >> Coach Qu? >> None. >> And Dr. Hime? >> No, sir. >> So, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items? >> Move to approve. Second. >> We have a motion by Dr. Hime. Second by Coach Qu. Any other discussion? >> No, sir. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> All oppose. Motion carried. Item 11, discussion items 11A. You >> recognize Mr. Montalu. >> Oh, >> you approved him already, but he really did a good job reducing the amount >> on the insurance. >> Yes. [laughter] >> Thank you, Mr. Malvo.

192All right. Uh 11A updates uh update on trainings, conferences, events, and consider future agenda item requests by the board of trustees. Dr. Vera. >> Uh yes. Yes. Yes. >> Insurance workshop. >> There's Yes, there's there's two. On March 30th, we have the insurance workshop. >> Okay. >> And we'll have the first budget workshop. And maybe somewhere in here, we've got Mr. Sinto. He wants to go ahead and meet in March. So, we might have if the board wants, we can have all three because the Lone Star is based on finance, >> right? >> One of the constraints. So that'll that'll be a good good lead in to the budget workshop. >> So we might have all three. >> What was the date that we had uh >> agreed with the original date was March 26.

193However, >> since we know we had this, we reached out and he is available for the 30th. >> Oh, but he himself wants a 30th. >> Yeah. Okay. >> And it'll be a workshop only, right? Correct. Yes. Okay. Sounds good. >> Okay. Cool. >> Okay, that'll work. >> All right. 26. >> No. So, we won't do the 26, correct? No. >> No. So, we'll make workshop. You would like to then tie it into the constraints. >> The constraints. Okay. >> Which is >> Okay. Uh item 12, discussion of possible action items. 12 A discussion of possible action for the board of trustees to approve the administration's ranking recommendation of proposals received for the construction of a new agricultural facility project and to authorize the administration to negotiate and approve the contract. Dr. >> Let me

194get the team back over here. Mr. Hel, Mr. Moa, you want to come up here? >> I know there were some questions still deal that you all had. >> Correct. looking at it right now. >> Thank you. Some other documents for each just wanted to go ahead and uh just provide uh provide you with some information that was requested on the list of projects that you have on there for each of the top three. You have that. You also have on what was requested earlier on what you received was the method of construction that included the criteria and the points that was board approved on April 2024 when we submitted the CSP that had that approved criteria with the points and the ranking sheets mimicked that exact board approved criteria. So through the ranking Mr.

195book as here. Everything was asked uh carefully through each ranking criteria for all the proposals submitted. We did exactly what was there and that was submitted. But you also have some ranking sheets there if if the board wants to take direction and rank them. You also have that option to to go that route if you wish. Uh but that's been provided to you and you have the individual rankings by the committee members as well. That's been provided to you as well. >> The warranty issue >> the warranty Mr. Moa. >> So the warranty issue that I can speak to is whatever the awarded contractor who gets the project will be required to provide the district a one year's uh warranty on material and labor on the entire facility from the date of substantial completion. That

196is a requirement that whomever gets the project won't have to do. they submitted with their package because they sent us the package >> and every other provider had the warranty information except for the first ranked one. >> So that I cannot answer because I I was not I didn't see what came in. I I don't see the iron wave information. So I can only tell you from what I've been what I've seen is that they answered a response to that answer. But that's all that I can tell you because I again I'm not privy to that information. I don't see any of that in part of the committee. I'm just here to answer questions. So I don't really look at stuff. though. >> So, but as far as the warranty goes, whomever gets the project

197is required to provide you a one-year uh warranty from the data submission completion. So, I I think what happened at during that committee meeting that everybody got the exact same score because of that. >> Yeah, >> that's my recollection. >> Yeah. So, they they they sent us the packet and I was looking at it through one of the presentations and I I noticed what Trusty Los Santos said. He me he saw it only had the bid bond information but not the warranty information. >> That's correct. And we were trying we were before I said that they didn't submit we were trying to go through the proposal to make sure it was in there. We couldn't identify it in there. Uh so but again that's what we discussed with Mr. Mo is this something that is

198going to be negotiated and that's what he explained right now. >> Well I you know I think just because we have so many questions right I I me I statement right I would I would be inclined to reject that first ranked one because it didn't submit the warranty and just go on to number two and move forward. That would that's just me though. Uh I don't know how the rest >> through section through the section that uh that you received on there since we're the board gave us the authority to rank. You can take back the authority but it would have to be reranked by the board. >> Not if I reject not if we reject it then it just goes to number two. >> Well if if the board is voting on the overall

199uh rankings by the administration. So, in other words, you either approve the the rankings of the administration or you reject them all as a whole. >> No, you could reject a part of it, too. It says that in our bid. >> What's that? >> You could reject all of it or part of the bid, part of the submission. And >> I know I'm right. >> Yeah. So, so [laughter] well, and again, what what we know, what we've been told is that uh the the vote is on the rankings of the administration. >> Yeah. >> Not to change the rankings. >> No, I I don't want to change the rankings. I just want to go with number two on the basis that uh based on the information that we have, it doesn't look like they submitted

200the warranty information that the other that the number two ranked vendor submitted and then you guys couldn't find it either. Right. >> Right. >> We were looking through we couldn't find it. >> Yeah. And I was looking through it too and I couldn't find it either. So I me I don't want to delay it anymore and I I don't know how the rest of the board feels but I I would be okay with going to number two but having Dr. got to go negotiate that price down. >> I mean, and the other reason was too is when when it was brought up in the last meeting, right, Texas government code, right? You have to you look at that, you're justifying the scoring based on the published criteria that we asked all these individuals to submit

201by. And then the last meeting you mentioned that you had even removed a person because they didn't meet the the submission criteria. And so that's why I'm saying it's just about following process. And on top of that, even just the scores, right? I know you submitted this after the fact, but it was just even on the rankings. Uh, looking at the zero submissions when it was requiring 10, looking at the fact the insurance packet wasn't there and the points were still given. Looking at the fact that the cost was, you know, one of the highest and yet you still had others at the time with what what you all handed to us looked as as if they had more experience and other projects and like I said submitted 10 overall and I you know me

202I like to use my word for less just something that doesn't make me feel comfortable, right? because we have a process that we follow and then we didn't follow the process from the very beginning like it was just kind of like plans were done we're going out for contract and I as a trustee right and doing that I statement I didn't even know what the what the act form looked like at the time so looking back and looking at everything now too I I agree as well too I think that well I'm going to trust him because he knows the law right but um and processes but that just looked as if I know you're saying that well they'll do it after the fact but you're not giving everybody else that option You know what

203I mean? Plus all these other factors too >> that make me feel that we can go in a different way. >> So Mr. May just to to clarify. So so the committee looks at every bidder comes in with 10 or more documents that are attached. What you're seeing is just a summary that's printed out from from the uh our electronic bidding system which is the ion wave system. So every uh other piece of information you just mentioned is contained within this other attached documents that come in with every bit that comes that we get that we receive. >> Yeah. >> So Mr. Can we do >> like with me even like can I ask about the rankings here like number of similar projects? You have companies that submitted like a number of five if I'm

204reading this right >> and you have another one that submitted 10 submitted projects but then on some of the score sheets people gave them zeros. >> Like how's that? Like they got zeros for what they or they marked at least that they submitted and yet the number one option you're talking about submit put zero on there and yet they got points. So that's what I was just curious about because I'm going through these and looking at these scores. >> Yeah. So the zero that they that they uh submitted again it was for current projects that they that they're not working on for universities or high schools or colleges. That's what it is. But similar projects that they've worked in the past uh that comes in in a separate document. And so just because they filled

205out that section doesn't mean that they're going to get the points. We still have to assess whether that project qualifies a similar project to what we're trying to do. >> Yeah, they emailed us the whole packet. We have it in our email now with including all the attachments and stuff and so >> I mean >> so can we uh what uh Mr. Castillo recommended Mr. Subura to reject and go with number two if can we do that >> so uh Mr. Castillo do I have a motion? Uh >> yeah I if it's okay Mr. Mr. Board President, I'll go ahead and make a motion to uh reject uh that specific proposer's uh submission because they didn't submit the warranty part and move on with number rank number two, but authorize the superintendent to negotiate that

206>> way down. >> And Dr. Pricing, right? That's what I was about to ask. Yes, you're going to still negotiate. >> Dr. Are you okay with that? >> So, we I have a motion by Mr. Castillo. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Do you have a second? >> Go ahead. >> Uh we have a second by Senna. Any any other discussion at this point? So we know for sure for a fact that they left out that information. >> We couldn't find it. >> So it wasn't found in >> that's what we wanted to clarify. So we were going through the whole document. It's a large document to see if it was embedded in the proposal and we couldn't find >> Okay. Any other discussion? >> I'm good. >> He's good with it. He's

207>> are you good with that? Um you know I just I just know that I've been around long enough to know how how you all operate and um I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not an expert on construction or anything like that. So So I depend on on your expertise and and you know we're under the microscope. So I know you're not going to do anything that you're not supposed to be doing. >> Mhm. >> So with all due respect, you know, I I I I went along with with whatever you guys proposed because I know I I know you looked at it and I' I've seen everything that you presented and I'm very comfortable with that. So, um, I'm just I'm just, you know, that's just my opinion, okay? What

208I think, you know, I just I just want us to be comfortable with with with what's going on and and I'll support what we're going to support, but I don't want to ever discredit what you have put into this thing because I know that you did everything the way you you understand to do it right by the book. So, that's just for the record >> and and and if Dr. is okay with uh the motion. Uh I support Dr. Ia uh on this. Yes. So we have a motion and a second uh for the board of trustees to approve them uh the r the ranking recommendation uh for the construction of the new agricultural facility project and to negot uh for and to allow Dr. Eva to negotiate and approve the contract. Correct. >> Yeah.

209and below. I'm going to just to make sure I'm going to check. >> Okay. So, uh I'll go individually, Mr. Los Santos. Uh yes or no. Um right before you take the vote though, not only he'll be negotiating the prices, but he'll be negotiating some of the things that you heard the families talk about as far as >> correct. Okay. >> In fact, Mr. Gilad mentioned that. >> Yes. Yes. >> We discussed all that, so we'll be adding that. >> Okay. Yes. Okay. Cora. Yes, >> Mr. Benasio. >> Yes. And I agree with Coach Guy sentiments about the administration. By the way, I say I agree. >> I I agree too there. Uh, Coach Quer. >> Well, being that Dr. Okay with it, I'll I'll go yes. >> Okay. Uh, Mr. uh, Dr. H. >>

210Yes. >> And myself? Uh, yes. So, unanimous vote uh to go forward with uh construction of a new uh new follow-up. Right. All right. Item 13, close meeting to uh personal matters. Discussion regarding superintendent's recommendation of contracts for certified uh professional, non-certified professional and non-contractual uh personnel broken. >> Discussion regarding resignations, retirements of certified professional, non- non-certified professional, and non-contractual personnel. Consultation with attorney >> matter in which the duty of the attorney of the West Independent School District under Texas disciplinary rules of professional conduct of the state bar of Texas clearly conflicts with chapter 551 of the Texas government code. >> All right, it is 8:20 and we will go into executive session. >> You know, I know you all know you already voted, but if for some reason we can't negotiate, you approve the

211rankings, right? Yes sir. >> So if we can't negotiate for some reason with the firm then I can go back to you and go with number two. Yeah. If we can negotiate. >> Yeah. Number Yep. Oh yeah. Yeah. He means number three. Number three. >> Number three now. >> Right. Yeah. >> No definitely. Yes. >> All right. So we sir >> we go into executive session. Hey, Twitter. Open meeting is 8:32. Possible action if necessary on items discussed in close meeting 1481. Discussion possible action regarding superintendent's recommendation of contracts for certified professional, non-certified professional and non-contential personnel. Dr. Eva >> recommend approval. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> We have a motion by coach, second by Dr. Haime. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. 1482. Uh discussion,

212possible action regarding resignations, retirements of certified professional, non-certified professional and non-contractual prof uh personnel. Dr. >> recommend approval. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Dr. Second by Coach Quer. All in favor, please say I. >> I. All oppose. Motion carries. >> Ajournment. 8:33. All right. 8:34. All right.