0016 p.m. and I call to order the special meeting of the Fremont Independent School District Board of Trustees. Trustee Bang, Trusty, Trusty Johnson, Trusty Martinez via Zoom, and Trusty Morales. Let the record show that a former board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meeting Act, Texas Government Code, chapter 551. This meeting will be recorded and the minutes will be taken for documented proceedings. Audience members are required to follow the standard rules of order for conduct of a meeting which allows audience comments during the open form portion of the agenda. Please refrain from comments during the course of the meeting. Also, please silence all electronic devices. Uh next item uh 1 C. Everyone please stand for the
002pledges and then prayer. I als heavenly father we are grateful to serve this community guide guide us as we continue to strengthen our vision of fostering the community of excellence, high standards, limitless opportunities for our prim students. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Open forum. Item two, long governance. A our vision and theory of action. Our criminalized vision fostering a community of excellence, high standards and limited opportunities and our theory of action. If Primis is empowers campus leadership with earned autonomies to implement strategic methods of effective instruction identify high performance campuses while agreeing to operate in pursuit the board should outcome goals and within the board's constraints then I will be able to accomplish the board outcome goals. Item 2B, under Lone Star governance action, consider a possible action to approve plan for the delay
003of teacher certification requirements and submit the application and plans to the Texas Commission of Education for consideration. >> Okay. Yes. Good evening and thank you. So under the 89th legislation um house bill two was passed and in house bill two the um state has basically said that the doi the district of innovation um verbiage and allowances that we had for uncertified teachers there that's been scaled back um and so effective this school year or as early as next school year without a waiver approval, we will no longer be able to employ any uncertified K through five reading, math, science, or social studies teachers. And with the current legislation, we would also the next school year, it will be all teachers. So the 27 28 school year we wouldn't be able to employ any teachers in
004math, reading, science or social studies at any grade level who are only certified. The waiver if we are approved if the board approves us to apply for the waiver that application is due March 2nd. And if we are approved, then we would have at least one additional year. We would still have to comply with the House bill. We would have at least one additional year to work on work our plan to just make sure that we have all of our teachers in place. And so this request is to submit the to actually submit the application to TDA for us to apply for the waiver. So under DOI by this coming school year. According to this right you gave us correct any vacant positions will be filled with certified teachers under DOI all teachers would have
005to be certified for the next school year that this means here >> under do under the current >> under the current DUI >> we no it's not that >> oh yeah I was having a looking at the description so 2627 any vacant positions will be filled with certified teachers what does that mean so this plan. So as part of our application submit a plan of if we are approved for this waiver then how are we as a district going to still put ourselves in position to comply with the house bill. So one way and this again can be definitely tweaked if we need to make some amendments. One way is if there are some current vacancies that we go ahead and start filling those with certified teachers because we know by 2930 they have to
006be filled with certain by the beginning of that school year. So really by the end of 27 28 they have to be filled with certified teachers by that time frame. So, if it's a vacancy already for the 26 27 school year, we can go ahead and start filling those with certified teachers in this proposed plan as opposed to continuing um filling them with uncertified teachers, which just means that we're trying to get ahead of that. It puts us in a position to not have to fill so many uncertified teacher positions at the same time. Right now, we have 11. This is the top four, >> correct? Correct. >> Correct. And that's just in the court subject. >> So in the last three years, most of these are fairly new. Um but the what the plan
007calls for is how many have we hired in the last three years. >> So most of those have been hired. So 2829 it's 2026 26 27 all vacant positions certified teachers 2728 prek I'm sorry K through five medium and then 28 29 all yeah found the waiver only goes to 2930 that's what planes through the end of the school year. And again, this is a proposed plan. We can tweak it any way if we want to say all staff um by 28 29. This again, this kind of scaffolds it a little bit so that we're not trying to fill 10 or 11 positions. gives us a way to purchase it and that's approved for the weight. So we still have to apply to be but we have to vote to see if you all want
008us to even apply and if not then we have this by K5 have to be taken care of by 26. So next school year we start in August all of our K through five teachers will have to be certified. So that would be about one two three four five six seven eight that would be eight positions that would have to be filled with certified teachers by office. So what happens if you don't if you don't find certified teachers? What happens then? >> So the so the students will start out with like permanent subs if we don't apply for it. Yes. >> Yeah. This plan and applying for the waiver. Uh I guess my question is maybe we talk about it later but is there a plan in place of how we are going to support
009these individuals possibly getting certified bonus pay for certification partnering with This is a good alternative certification program. That's key. You know, not one that's just going to take a lot of money, but actually support mentorship one has an amazing educator program down in the valley. Is there like talks for that? >> Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you for asking that. So, in our plan, you'll see the second line is that we have part of this and you have to partner the prep program. I did call Kingsville, they don't have one. Um, region two does have one. I did check into region one. We just have to partner with so definitely look for the best one region one region two. I mean, whichever one of those that we decide. But we do have to partner
010with educated program. We've also applied for the lasso for grow your own grant. We were awarded that grant and that grant does allow allow us to help the grie individuals. The caveat is that they already have they have to already have a degree to go through a prep program so we can offer a stipen with this grant. Um and they can still work with as a teacher. So that's one area that we might be able to fill some of those positions as long as they're going through that program. So we do have that they're ready to assist teachers in that way. I think the biggest challenge we'll run into is whether they have a degree to go through an alternative certification program have to already have >> no no degree can be yes it does
011not have to be and I'll have to look at it a little bit closer just to make sure that they're may to see if there's an allowance for teachers who are still working on their degree. So, let me go back and look at the see what it says on there, too. Um, but for my first understanding because they already have >> Yeah, I I I would just uh say no, we've seen that with the neighboring district where each year they let go of their uncertified teachers. We saw that influence came off this last year because you know they're liability so they wanted to get a job right now speaking because I know some of them they're amazing teachers right they just don't have the certification so I want to make sure we also capture those
012those individuals who are good at their job right but just maybe failing that certification right might be difficult they're really amazing teachers you know so um we need to make sure we yeah we capture them support them, we build them and hopefully we can retain that. That's >> absolutely way back many years ago the time we hire. I was administrator the hardest thing that that the board had the board gave a direct to the superintendent that anyone we hired had to be certified. That was so hard. I worked the entire summer interview. We had to have certified people and I started off the year with a with I didn't not find certified people. It was it was hard. very diffult everybody and that's what we're going. Yeah. Well, that's what we're trying to but even
013after that 2930 that's position as a district. Any other questions or >> I make a motion to approve the plan for the delay teacher certification requirements superintendent to submit the application plan to the Texas Commission of Education has presented. >> Motion made by Trustee Morales. I hear a seconded by Trustee Gutierrez. All in favor? Trusty Trusty Martinez Johnson. Okay. Item two action consider action to approve the following contracts for internet service communications for W fiber and computer solutions for network upgrades. Are there any questions rem? >> No questions. I'll make a motion. >> What? What? Oh, okay. >> I'll move to approve the great contract with BTS for internet access smart for W fiber and computer solutions for network upgrades. >> Motion made by Trusty Martina, seconded by Trusty Mis. All in favor trusty Johnson
014I'm sorry and pass business on the agenda. This is adjourned.