001Welcome to the regular meeting at the Temple ISD Board of Trustees held here on May 12th, 2025 beginning at 6 PM. Our first item is to call to order. Our second item is the Pledge of Allegiance. Would everybody please stand and face the American flag? I pledge algiance 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. Honor the Texas flag. I aliance to the Texas. One state under God. One and indivisible. Item three is public comments on agenda items. Monica, has anybody signed up tonight? Okay. Item four is a superintendent recognition with Dr. Lisa Adams. Board members, could we please come in front of the dis for the recognitions? And because there's so many people right
002here, buddy. Perfect. Our first is the state and national qualifiers. The May board meeting gives us opportunity to recognize our students who qualified for state or national competition in advanced academics, athletics, career and technical education, and fine arts. Temple High School had two students qualify for state competition in UIL academics. Those students are Arian Galleria in mathematics and Genevie Allen in ready writing. Their sponsor is Tyler [Applause] Parker. Come right to the middle, kid. Uh students, if you'll come to the middle, we'll take a picture all together. Right there. Moms and dads, we'll take as many pictures as you like. Fantastic. We got it. Okay, if you guys don't mind going out that way. Can they get through back there? Thank you so much. All right, come on up here. Right here. Yep. Perfect. Okay,
003when I call your name, you go up and shake everybody's hand. The Temple ISD career and technical education program has qualified a number of students for state and national competition and we've already had the opportunity to recognize more than 80 state and national qualifiers from those high school and middle school programs. But there are three other CTE related groups we want to recognize tonight. Five of our FFA students earned the Texas FFA Lonear degree this year. Those students are Angel. Sorry. Angel Escada, Sonia Valerio, Scarlet Selenus, Reagan Daniel, Andrea Costia Cruz, and their sponsor is Christy Branton. Y'all go on up and shake their hands. Great job. [Applause] [Music] All right, let's come back to the middle, please, for a picture. Come on up here. Perfect. So, when I started so good, any pictures, mom
004and dad, feel free. Got it. Fantastic. Congratulations. The the police explorers program qualified for the following students for state. Go ahead. Summer New Yen, Anhelica Gomez, Trent Lleier, Noah Artal Madrid, Jacob Braniff, Eli Flores, Valerie Maldonado, and their sponsor is Crystal Batriel. Congratulations [Applause] my weight or welding. Is there any welding students here? Okay, perfect. Okay, so y'all are athletic training. Okay, all the pictures. All right, got pictures. All right, congratulations. Fantastic. [Applause] All right, we also had two welding students place and they're not here tonight, but Missel Ibara and Justin Munoz also play state and so we want to recognize them. All right, now to athletics. We had athletes who made it to the state level of competition and we want to recognize Zen. So, we'll start with our athletic trainers. Um, coached by
005Miss Wendy Scrabbonic. Uh, Avery Thomas was a TSATA academic all state and Kalia Williams was as well. Congratulations, [Applause] ladies. Oh, there you are. I should have recognized you. I get so focused on what I'm doing. Come to the middle. Good job. Please. [Applause] Congratulations. All right. From girls track with coach Tama Leavonne, we have Ki Hollowman. Ki placed fifth in the state competition for long jump. Congratulations, Ki. And Dr. Adams, she also has the school record. She does. Has a school record. Way to go, Ki. I think her coach has a school record, too. Yes, she does. Oh, over here. Did you get it? Okay, good. Everybody. All right. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] All right, next we have powerlifting with coach Chris Pilot. Um, Nani Rubio, Kaitlin Wolf, Mariah Gaines, Jazaria Clinton were state
006competitors. Go ahead and walk on up. Shake their hands. And then Kate Burke was tha elite academic allstate team. Congratulations, powerlifters. [Applause] tennis. All right, y'all. Come back to the middle. We'll take your picture. I know it. Is that good? Great job. Thank you. All right. Okay. With tennis, coach Robert Gerard and we have Genevie Allen and Keegan Dutton. They were named TSCA academic all state for tennis. [Applause] Congratulations. Okay, let's see. We also had Oh, sorry. Right there. Here we go. Okay. Thank you. Good [Applause] job. Uh we we also had one wrestling student who couldn't be here, Pablo Aguilar, and he was a state competitor. He's coached by Jeremy Ingulkkey. So, congratulations to our athletes. All right. Now, we'd like to recognize our fine art students for their accomplishment. And we're going to
007start with our elementary art students. Um, seven Temple ISD students won top of teams awards from the Texas Art Education Association. This recognition is the highest award an elementary art student can win and only top 10% of students in the state receive the top teams award. Um so from Kennedy Pal Elementary we have Lily Martinez and Quinn Macaulay and their teacher is Stephanie Gordon. From Meredith Denmark, we have Alicia Narat Mald Maldonado. Is that you? No. Okay. From Scott Elementary, we have Ivana Bonoi, Evelyn Johnson, and Alex Moika. Go ahead and go on up. And their teacher is Brianna Hail. And then from Western Hills Elementary, we have Karina Rodriguez, and her teacher is Megan Foster. Is that you? Go on up here. Good job. So cute. We have one more teacher to come. Are
008you going to come up there? Yes. Miss Love. That's all right. Miss Lovey, come on up. Was that Was that Were you one of the students? No. Okay. Fantastic. Yes. Fantastic. All right, we'll take a picture. All right. All right. Fantastic. We'll go out that way. Miss Gordon. Mhm. Congratulations, elementary art. All right. Do we have middle school art? Middle. We're going to trans transition now to middle school and secondary art. So, four Temple ISD students won platinum awards at the junior visual art scholastic event or vase. The platinum award is the highest honor you can win at middle school. Um, so from Lamar Middle School where we have Gabriella de la Cruz teaching art, we have Jan Ramos and Austin Beal. Come on up and shake their hands. And then from Bono Middle School,
009we have Serenity Hayes and Clover Levit. And they're our teachers are Stacy Smith and Patrick Dolan. Congratulations. [Applause] Are y'all banned? Okay, come on up. Excuse us, ma'am. How are you? Good. Good. All right, we we'll come back to the middle, please, and take a picture if you guys don't mind. Thank you so much. Okay, just congratulations. Fantastic job. it that way. Thank you so much. They'll let you through. I promise. All right. Um, now we also want to recognize our Wildcat band, choir, and orchestra. They were all well represented at the Texas State Solo and Ensemble Contest. And so, I'll read the names of the band members first. Malik Badger, twotime qualifier. Matthew Barfoot, Christian uh Benjamin, Anna Maria Bumman, Jaden Bill, DeAndre Colbert, Lily Cortez, Amari Dobbins, Taan Folks, Sebastian Guian, Ryan Hackett,
010Santos Hernandez, Riley Jacobs, Mallerie Gerald, Aiden Lamin, Adalia Lopez, Dian Niss, Maldonado Ortiz, Aaron Mccardi, Benjamin Mendes, Jasmine Moreno, Deontay Nixon, Brittany Ortiz, Noah Pena, Gabriel Raina, threetime qualifier, Alejandri al Alejandina Rob, Marissa Bowski, Braden Sans, Braden Slay, Crystal Sto, threetime qualifier, Emily Stanfield, Dylan Stefen, Alandre Suarez, Sarah Taladango, Christopher Tate, threetime qualifier, Dina Tol, Nan Tre Trevier, Jocelyn Valdividia, and Ericson Viadarez Husinio. The The Wildcat Band is under the direction of Brent Mat, Marcus Duran, and Peter Milikin. Our awardwinning Wildcat band. Congratulations. [Applause] Parents, feel free to come in and take a picture. Oh, yeah. If you're shorter, come down front. Make sure everybody can see your face. You can't see them. They can't see you. There you go. You guys should have brought your instruments. You could have serenated us. That would have
011been fantastic, wouldn't it? Okay, hold on just a minute. A little bit longer. Make sure we got all the pictures we need. Great job. Great job. Okay, parents, are we good? Nope. Got a few more parents. Everybody got everything they need? Well done, Wildcat man. We're proud of you. We'll go that way. We'll go out that way. Going out that way. [Music] So, the students are going to come right here. So, he can't stand right there. Okay. Hi there. Okay. Stand right here. So, as I start reading names, even if it's not your name, just go ahead and walk on out. I think I think y'all are m basically in order, right? Okay. Perfect. Are you first, Pearla? No. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yep. And you just kind of peek around. Okay. All right.
012So, now we'd like to recognize our Temple High School choir. Um, first we have Pearla Alleos, Sam Baron, Evelyn Ba, Abigail Bowers, Ayah Deng, Sebastian Dominguez. Keep going all the way down. Sorry. Sorry, Sam. John Mark Garary, Chloe Green, Adrien Lopez, Nathan McCertie, Vanessa Martinez Gomez, Victoria Carisales, Marabel Castillo, McKenna Davis, Connor Frasier, Isabella Rodriguez, Netty Royal, Elena Slawson, Jesus Smith, Kaylee S, Cody Zantho, Avery Tarbet, Avery Thomas, Junius Thompson, Colby Tiknor, and Kelsey Waller. Temple High School choirs are directed by Cameron Recllo and Megan Burke. Congratulations choir. [Music] [Applause] Just hold. Hold. Everybody smile pretty. Okay, we have all the pictures we need. All right. Thank you. Well done. You guys will go out this way. Great job. Great job, choir. You got to come again. Yes. Uh, let's see. I think you're last.
013John Mark, you're last. Uh, you are then Steven and then Gustavo and then John Mark. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. All right. And finally, um, for our orchestra, we would like to recognize Arian Galleria, Stephen Jones. Go ahead. Go up there and shake hands. Stephen Jones, Gustavo Sanchez, and once again, John Mark Garary, who qualified in both choir and orchestra. The Temple High School orchestra is under the direction of Nathaniel Kefir. Well done, orchestra. All right, gentlemen, if you'll go to the middle so we can take a picture. Here we go. All right, let's make sure we got all the pictures. Yep. Okay, thank you, gentlemen. You can head out that way. Well done. [Applause] Yeah. Item B is TLSBA scholar Lily Cortez. All right, Lily. Come on up here. All right. Tipple High School senior Lily
014Cortez has been recognized by the Texas Latino School Board Association as one of the organization's TLSBA scholars for 2025. TSLBA scholars are seniors in Texas public schools who are known for their scholarship and service and who might be lifted up as models for their peers and for the younger students who look up to them. In many cases, they have overcome various obstacles in life. And each scholar also receives a scholarship to help them continue their studies beyond high school. Lily is one of just 225 students from across the state to be recognized as a TLSBA scholar this year. She's a drum major for the Wildcat Band and was just recognized as a state qualifier as a trumpet player. Lily is also a member of the award-winning Temple Highlighters. She takes AP classes and will graduate
015in the top 10% of her senior class this year. Congratulations on this remarkable achievement, Lily. We look forward to seeing all you'll accomplish in the future. Congratulations. [Applause] Well done. [Applause] [Laughter] That was exciting. Yes. And item C is the principal pipeline. All right. So, our assistant principles um investing in growth is one of the core commitments at the heart of our leadership framework designed through the Holsworth collaborative. Are all our principal assistant principles are outside to allow parents to be do you mind? Okay. Miss Thomas is going to help me. Thank you, principal. Growing our current team members to expand their leadership capacity. creates an internal pipeline and potential paths for succession across the district. Campus principles play a critical role in the school district as they directly support the work of our teachers
016and oversee student learning. For this reason, Tippled elected to focus on our efforts to grow our current leaders by developing a principal pipeline for assistant principles. Here they come. Oh, here ladies. So they can be ready to apply for future potential principal openings. Our principal pipeline program has just completed its second year of implementation and included identifying high potential candidates and providing these assistant principles with focused opportunities to grow in key areas identified as necessary for campus leaders. We are so very pleased to highlight the potential principal pipeline participants. There was a lot of P's in that. Britney Anderson, assistant principal at Western Hills Elementary School. Congratulations hand. All right. Myra Bolivar, assistant principal at Meredith Dunar Early Science Academy. Joani Carbayo Lopez, assistant principal at Travis Science Academy. Congratulations. Laura Lopez, assistant principal at
017Samson Howard Elementary School. And lastly, Amanda Winkler, assistant principal at Scott Elementary [Applause] School. Please join us in collag congratulating these leaders for their commitment to excellence and self-development. Very proud of you ladies. [Applause] All right. So, we'll come back to the middle ladies and we'll take a picture. And I'll just say about this these this group, all of this work that they did to develop themselves as leaders was done above and beyond their regular assistant principal duties. And so, we appreciate their effort. We we really do. Okay, we're gonna wait till all the moms and dads taking pictures. Okay. [Music] All right. Well done. Thank you, ladies. That's the best part of the job. [Music] Okay. Item five is executive hires. Uh David McCauley will be presenting that. Item A, a consideration for approval
018of principal of Ray Allen Elementary School, Jenny Scho. All right, just making sure everybody's getting in. So the the Ray Allen Elementary interview committee consisting of Alexandria Lewis, Denise Chisum, Erica Harris, Manny Nelton, Melissa Starky, Carrie Monks, Jasmine Williams, Carla Goddard, Adrienne Lopez, and Dr. Sarah Watson interviewed six candidates for the principal or for the position of principal of Ray Allen Elementary on April 10th, 2025 and recommended the top three candidates to interview with the senior leadership team. The SLT interviewed the top three on April 15th and selected Miss Jenny Schaw as a loan finalist for the position. Miss Schul graduated from Texas A&M University in 2001 uh with a bachelor's of science in inter interdisciplinary studies and she graduated from Texas&M University in central Texas in 2014 with a masters of education in educational
019leadership. Miss Scho currently serves as an assistant principal at Donnie Dr. Jimmy Don AOK middle school. That's a mouthful. uh in clean ISD. Uh prior to that, she served as an elementary assistant principal, a campus literacy instructional specialist, and a fifth grade teacher, all in clean ISTD. Uh she also served as a literacy consultant with Leech Literacy Training for two years in 2018 to 2020. Miss Scho and her husband, uh, JC, who's with her, have been married for almost 24 years and have three children, Addison, Grant, and Caleb. Addison is finishing her freshman year as an education major at Texas&M University. Come on. I know there's some people that, but some of us are a little bit a little bit smarter going to A&M. Yep. David, you're you're on to come back to on the
020deans list. There you go. No, I went to&M. My goodness, y'all. And uh and hopes to come back in central Texas area to teach elementary school hopefully in Temple IT. That went in there, but I added it. Uh Grant's a senior about to graduate from Harker Heights High School. He'll be attending Texas&M University in the fall studying range rangeland wildlife and fisheries management while also being a proud member of the Aggie band. Kale is a n is a nine-year-old finishing up his fourth grade year. He loves all things outdoors, gives the best hugs, and has developed a talent for archery. Miss Schol has a passion for education and student learning and is excited to join Temple ISD as a Ray Allen Eagle. It is with great pleasure that the interview committee recommends Miss Jenny Schaw
021to the board of trustees for approval for the position of principal at Ray Allen Elementary on this date. Miss Schul would just come on up here so they know who you are. This this item does require approval. Do I hear a motion? Move for approval. Motion by Mr. Gains. I second a motion seconded by Mrs. Davis. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose the same sign. The eyes have it. Motion passes. Thank you. Congratulations. My notes are on my phone, so give me just a moment. First of all, it's a pleasure to be here. I have heard nothing but amazing things about Temple ISD. I quietly asked different people who were in different positions here in this district, tell me something important. And every one of them separately said, "What a family
022it is and what an amazing level of support there are for educators and leaders and families and students here." And that just absolutely warmed my heart. Um, thank you so much for considering me, for approving this position. It is with great humility that I say thank you to all of you. Thank you to the senior leadership team. I thoroughly enjoyed um getting to talk with all of you during the interview. It felt welcoming. It felt very very very supportive. Um to the Ray Allen Eagles who were here in attendance who just about made me cry showing up just right away already in full support. Thank you for welcome welcoming me to your home. I look forward to joining with you all in the work that we do. You heard some special introductions being made. My
023family. I also have here my mom. She has been a longtime um member of education working in schools in a variety of capacities. Um I also have my mom's husband, David, and they're just part of my network. I also have somewhere back in here my current principal Savannah Himenez who has been such a champion and such an amazing role model of what leadership can be. And so um just thank you to all of you for being here tonight. One of the things that I was asked when I was asked to come up and speak was what do you think about when you think about Ray Allen? And I continued to think about Eagles. Um, we go to Colorado often. I'm a mountains girl. It's quiet. It's cool. It's nice and cool up there. I've wanted
024to see eagles in the wild every time I've gone and I've it's never happened. And just a couple weeks ago, my son was at a crossover camp out ceremony and a pair of bald eagles right here at To Hoya flew over. I thought, well, if that's not a little moment, a little sign, I don't know what it is. So, I thought, okay, what's important about an eagle? Well, there's a neat analogy. There are very few things that pester an eagle. And for those of you who know this story, I hope you um humor me for a minute. A crow is one of the very few birds that will mess with an eagle. And what it does is it gets on its back and it starts to pick and it pecks at it. And the eagle
025doesn't fight back. It could. And it doesn't display any kind of anger. It simply rises. and it flies higher and higher until the crow cannot survive in that environment and has to fall away. So when I thought about that, I thought that's what we do as educators. Regardless of our position, whether we are serving on a board, whether we are serving in a leadership position, whether we are serving children in a classroom, serving children in a cafeteria line, serving children by creating a safe and quiet, clean environment for them, we rise. And so rise really stood out to me. And so I kind of put my thoughts together for R I S and E for eagles and how they rise. Rise, we reach beyond what we thought possible. I, we inspire greatness and those around
026us. S, we set the bar high. And E, we encourage one another in the journey. Thank you so much, Temple ISD. Just seeing all the families and kids here. It is such an honor to be joining your family. I look forward to getting to know all of you. Thank you again. [Applause] I want to thank Mrs. Scholes's family ahead of time for sharing her with us because that will happen for sure being a principal in Temple. Um and what I'd say to Mrs. Schol is that um you know Ray Allen is such a special place. I mean, every time I walk on that campus, I have to tell you, it is hard to leave. I mean, they are a fabulous group of teachers back there and staff, and they do the Lord's work every day
027with children and do such a fantastic job, and uh we look forward to your work with them and continue to make it a special place. Thanks for being here. [Applause] All right. Item B, consideration for approval of principal of Lamar Middle School, Michelle Rhodess. [Applause] So, the Lamar Middle School interview committee comprising of John Batson, Kimberly George, Ivana Howard, Pearl Mian, I hope I said that right. Uh, Liam Magguire, Karen Pollick, Linda Terry, Chad Wmer, Adrien Lopez, and Dr. Ranatada Rogers interviewed six candidates for the position and principal at Lamar on April 25th and recommended the top three candidates to the senior leadership team. Uh the senior leadership team interviewed those candidates on May 1st and selected Miss Michelle Rhodess as a load finalist for the principal position. Miss Rhodess is a proud lifelong Wildcat
028and she's a 1996 graduate of Temple High School and a former student of Western Hills and Travis Middle School. She earned her bachelor's of science in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Mary Arn Baylor in 2008 and followed that with the masters of education in educational leadership from Lamar University in 2014. Miss Rose brings 26 years of dedicated service to Temple ISD. She currently serves as a principal of Thordon Elementary. Her previous roles include four years as an instructional as a assistant principal at Lamar Middle School, as well as a service as a campus instructional specialist, elementary teacher, and instructional aid, all within Temple ISTD. Miss Rose and her husband Byron have been married for four years and together share a blended family of three adult children and one grandchild. With a deep passion for
029education and student success, Miss Rhodess is thrilled to return to the Lamar community. It's with great pleasure that the interview committee recommends Miss Michelle Rhodess to the board of trustees for approval for the position of principal at Lamar Middle School on May 12th, 2025. Thank you, Mr. McCauley. This does require approval. Move for approval. Motion by Mr. Gaines. Second. Seconded by Mrs. Davis. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. who have the same side. Eyes have it. The motion passes. Thank you. I am determined to get through my letter. Those of you that know me know me. Good evening, everyone. First, I give honor to God who has blessed me with the heart to serve and a desire to walk in his will. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
030Mr. Posie and the board of trustees for entrusting me with the opportunity to serve as principal of Lamar Middle School. Thank you, Dr. Aut and the senior leadership team for your steadfast belief in me. I am especially grateful to the Lamar interview committee. Your vote of confidence is deeply appreciated. Tonight, I am surrounded by those who have supported me on this journey. to my husband Byron, my mother, my daughter Janasia, and my mother's Miss Cookie. Wave your hand, Miss [Music] Cookie. Um, and to my extended family and close friends. Thank you for your your constant love, encouragement, and prayers. I would also like to recognize and thank my Thornton family. We love you. Your unwavering support over the years has been a true blessing and I will always be grateful. Serving as principal of Thornton
031Elementary for the past six years has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. We begin our our journey during the height of the CO pandemic. A time without a playbook. Yet through every challenge, we build lasting relationships and a strong school culture that I will forever hold dear. As many of you know, my administrative journey began at Lamar Middle School as an assistant principal. The lessons learned and the relationships built during those early years left a lasting impression on me. It is both an honor and a privilege to return to Lamar and serve once again. Now, as your campus principal, I look forward to building meaningful connections with our students, staff, families, and our broader Bearcat family. To my Bearcats, I am filled with excitement as we begin this next chapter together.
032I'm committed to walking beside you with purpose, vision, and a heart for service. Thank you. [Applause] I'm so glad you're here. So Michelle is the dictionary definition of someone who has given their entire life of service and career to one place. student here. Um, started out as an instructional aid, became a teacher, became an instructional coach, assistant principal, elementary principal, and now middle school principal. Completely dedicated every ounce of herself to the community of Temple, students of all ages, uh, and and just every part of of Temple ISD. Uh, and Michelle, you know this already, but it I mean we know it's extremely important to be a Wildcat, but a very close second is being a Bearcat. I mean you I mean you we all know that, right? Once a Bearcat, always a Bearcat, right?
033They always say that. So congratulations to you and and I know this is a dream of yours and we look forward to watching it play out. So congratulations [Applause] Item six is the board presence report. A consideration for approval to appoint a public officer as district 2 trustee Veria Alexander. [Applause] Members, this uh requires approval. I move for approval. Motion by Miss Suarez. Seconded motion. Seconded uh Mr. Gaines. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Same sign opposed. The eyes have it. Welcome. [Applause] Well, now I just want to say thank you so much for your 10 years of service on the board. Um, I know we recognized Lenel in the other room, but let's give her another round of applause. [Applause] Item B is the administration of statement of excuse me administration of
034statement of officer and oath of office for board members for district 1 2 and six is Basia Alexander uh Virginia Suarez and Shannon Gallen and Mrs. Boyd. Okay, ladies, if you will raise your right hand, please. As a notary public, I'm honored to administer the oath of office. Please raise your right hand. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, please repeat after me. I state your name do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of trustees of the office of trustees of the temple Independent School District of the Temple Independent School District of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best
035of my ability preserve protect and defend the Constitution preserve, protect, defend the and laws of the United States and laws of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me God. So help me God. Thank you very much and congratulations. [Applause] [Music] Hodgees. That was it. [Music] Is there anywhere? Wonderful. Oh, that's for me. [Applause] Malaysia, welcome to the board. Uh we're so glad to have you here. Uh so you know I've been on the board 14 years. It's the best thing I ever did and I hopefully your experience would be the same too. This is truly a great institution, a great district and a great group of folks. So with that, I'll let you whatever you'd like to say and rec whoever you'd like to recognize. Well, I'm a
036little overwhelmed. So being on the board is something that I dreamed about. I know I didn't share that with a lot of people and I didn't think it would be an option for me. Um I'm very humbled and when I look into the audience and I see my family and my friends um it means a lot. Growing my career and growing my family at the same time is a challenge but each of you play a part in that. Um I couldn't do it without y'all. I'll let you know is very active and I always need a babysitter. But I really appreciate it because I wouldn't be successful without y'all. And if y'all would my husband, would you please stand? So my daughter that you've heard probably the entire time, Noah. My parents, would y'all please
037stand? my parents. And if you're a part of my village and you're here in the support of me with this, would you please [Applause] stand? Means the world. Thank you guys. Sorry I'm hormonal and emotional. Well, again, welcome aboard. Uh, thank you for dedicating yourself and joining the board and wanting to do that. Shannon, would you like to sh say anything? I I have been on the board since 2014 and I will agree with Dan. I think this is the best thing that I ever did. You know, I used to be in the classroom um in the early 2000s, and I left to go work in the real world, so to speak. And there was one day that I was thinking to myself, I've got to find a way to get closer to kids again.
038I I've really missed that I was in an office with big people and I just it didn't always fit me. And so it was funny that next day I got a call from strict Steve Wright who was president of the board at that time and Joel Bedwell had moved out of her district and they needed somebody to fill this spot. And so with a lot of prayer um I ended up doing it and I I I tell you what, this is something I would do forever if y'all would let me. Um, but I uh I really enjoy being here serving um all of our kiddos. They're not just your kiddos, not just my kiddos, but they're all of our kiddos. I I uh it makes me emotional, too. And I'm not even Well, maybe I
039am hormonal, but it's different. Anyway, but thank y'all very much for allowing me to do this for yet another term. Am I looking I'm looking really forward to serving you. [Applause] Would you like to say something? You would put me uh all I can say is growing up east side always feeling like we weren't enough and that we weren't going to accomplish. When I got on this board initially it was cuz someone encouraged me to run. didn't know what I was getting into. Bri knows what she's getting into. Uh, and it's a good thing. It's good to have a voice that's going to speak for our kids. And it takes all of us to make it better. Um, I came from a family uh parents were not uh educated. They had no schooling at all.
040Uh, work fields. Uh, and it took me a lot of years to feel like I belonged here and that I understood what was really going on. And I won't lie, there's forever changing. So, we're learning something every year, uh, and every day. Um, but in my personal life, God didn't bless me with children. So, our babies are my babies. And it's our job, whether we're on the board or out in the community to do what we can to make sure that they're successful. And that's the challenge that God has given me and the blessing he's given me because in my heart in hard times in my life when I haven't had a job or I haven't this has been the constant in my life and no matter where I go I feel the love and
041the support and I I hope that I continue to serve our students and our parents and our staff in the way that is meant to be. [Applause] All right. Thank you. Item C is a TISD board of trustees officers election. Tonight we will be voting on board officers the president, vice president, and secretary. At this time, uh we'll entertain nominations for board president. I'd like to nominate Dan Posey. All right. Thank you. I second that motion. Okay. Any other nominations? All right, the nominations are being closed. Um, all in favor of Dan Posie for board president signify by saying I. I. All [Music] opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you so much. Thank you. This is again the best thing I've ever done. I enjoy my work here and working with y'all and everybody in the
042district. So, thank you. Thank you for doing this. [Applause] Our next office is uh vice president. I'm opening nominations now for vice president. I nominate Ronnie Gaines. A nomination Ronnie Gaines. A second. Seconded by Shannon Meyers. Are there any other nominations out there for the office of vice president? Seeing none, we'll close this. All in favor of Ronnie Gains for vice president signify by saying I. I. All oppose the same sign. The eyes have it. Ronnie, welcome back. Well, thank you, Dan. Congratulations. Thank you very much. I I thoroughly enjoy serving with all of you guys. It's been it's been a privilege working with all of you. I've learned so much. You know, I came into this kind of with a preconceived idea. I knew what goes on in the schools and I found out
043right away I really did and so but I've learned a lot and I really thrilled to work and serve at this capacity again. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ron. All right. The office of secretary of the board open now for nominations. Nominate Virginia Suarez. Nomination of Virginia Suarez and Mrs. Cook. I'll second. Seconded by Shannon Gowen. Any other nominations for secretary? With that closing the nominations. All in favor signify by saying I for nomination to Virginia Suarez for secretary. I. I. All oppose the same sign. The eyes have it. Well, congratulations Virginia. Welcome back. All right. Now we can get back down to work. All right. Item D is a designation of delegate alternate to the TASBY delegate assembly in Houston, Texas on Saturday, September 13th, 2025. Uh Shannon Gowen will be the delegate
044for the board and Virginia Suarez will be the alternate. I don't think we need to vote. I think we just need to name it. Okay. Item E is designation of facilities and policy committee members for 2526. And for the policy committee, Don Cook is will be the chair. Dan Poso will be serving and Brasia Alexander will be on the policy committee. On the facilities committee, Ronnie Gaines will be on there as the chair. Shannon Meyers, Virginia Suarez, and Shannon Gowen. All right. Item F is future items of discussion. Uh members, we do have our team development assessment report at our desk. Uh we will take the time to look at that and then we will work on next steps what we'd like to do with that and that information is but our set is already
045already posted online. Okay. And item uh any future items discussion discussed at a future board meeting. All right. Item G is important dates. Dr. I. All right. Well, it's May and there are a lot of them. Uh starts tomorrow morning. Well, first of all, I want to encourage uh board members and and I do this in our leadership team meetings as well, administrators to attend as many of these as possible. It means so much to our parents and students. uh to see us joining them in celebrating their culminating successes at the end of the um school year. So, tomorrow morning we actually at the Mayborn Center have a breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and that is to celebrate the middle school's top 10% awards. Bonum, Travis, and Lamar all do this together. Uh and it's a
046really great event if you have the opportunity to attend. Uh the following day we have the senior awards top 10% upper classmen and that is 6 pm in Temple High School auditorium uh in Braslayia. Just so you know. Oh, you already see the sheet. Okay. Yeah, you have the important dates um in the packet in front of you. Uh May 16th at the Temple High School auditorium 6 p.m. we do the CNA CMA pinning ceremony. That is a really special event. if you have the opportunity to go watch our students be pinned uh for their work. And then uh we actually this Saturday have the NAACP senior scholarship banquet. That's always a very special event and we're very grateful for the NAACP for working together and and uh putting together scholarships to help our students
047uh remove some of the barriers that may be in front of them as they try to pursue their postsecary postsecary education. um careers. Uh May 19th, we have our fine arts signing day. That's actually here at 400 p.m. in the administration building. That's always a very special event. As you know, several years ago, we started that so we can honor our fine arts uh much the same way that uh athletics is honored in signings. And then like I said, that's always been a very special event since it started. Uh the following Tuesday, May 20th, we have the superintendence um scholar reception and that is also here at 5:30 uh p.m. That's where we honor the top 10 and that's numeric not percentage. Top 10 freshman, top 10 sophomores, and top 10 juniors all together. and
048uh as recently as right before the board meeting had the opportunity to secure a guest speaker who is actually a former superintendent scholar as a freshman, sophomore and junior and a graduate of Temple ISD or Temple High School rather in uh 2021. Uh very excited to have her um kick it off. I think students would much rather hear from her than someone that graduated over 30 years ago. Uh the CCMR cord breakfast. This is a new event and we're really excited about this. Career College of Military Read Readiness. May 22nd. They have a breakfast event. Temple High School cafeteria 8:30 a.m. Like I said, this is the first time the high school has done this event. Uh CCMR is very important. It's it's not only an indicator in the accountability system, but it's a measure
049of success for our students after they graduate. and the high school has uh taken it upon themselves to recognize this in that way and uh really celebrate students who have earned these types of honors. Uh so we're very excited. I really want to encourage you to attend that as well. Uh retirement banquet, that's always a very special occasion. That's at Temple Bible Church at noon May 22nd, actually the same day. So if you go to both, you'll have two free meals. Um and then uh we have the board policy committee meeting May 28th. And uh that night after the board policy committee meeting, we actually have the parent meeting uh for uh future of Temple ISD at the auditorium at 6 p.m. Those have been uh really good events. Uh the last one we had
050was to talk about AI and education. Appreciate appreciate Dr. Ashley Jones. Um, somebody cut me off because I'm talking too long. But yeah, see they're all like, I wish we could. Um, but very excited. You know, we've been starting this series. I think this is number four for us, I believe, uh, as a way to really directly connect with our families and parents and and this is this has been exciting. It's it's really been educational. And then the next day, we have the board facilities committee meeting, 400 p.m. here. graduation uh May 31st, 10:00 a.m. Cadence Bake Bank Center. Uh and I do want to let Lenel and uh Brasia both know that both of you will be handing out diplomas that day, okay? Along with uh the rest of our board. So, uh please
051uh be there and we'd like to get there early and I'll send out information on that. It's important to get there early because of traffic and everything else. So, we can kind of go over uh the details on stage. And then June 5th, we have a board retreat at 8:30 a.m. So, um if you're bored in May and June, there's plenty to do. So, I hope to see you at at as many events as possible. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Item seven is the consent items A through J4. What is it the pleasure of the board to deal with these items? I move that we approve all consent agenda items in one motion. Motion by Miss Gowen. Is there a second? I second that motion. Seconded by Mr. Gains. All in favor signify by
052saying I. I. All oppose the same sign. The eyes have it. It passes. Thank you. All right. Call anybody up for that. Now item eight, action items, human resources. One consideration for approval to propose non-renewal of term contract employees. The board has received a recommendation from the superintendent of schools to notify Ryan Curry of the proposed non-renewal of his term contract. Do I have a motion? I move that the board give Ryan Curry notice of proposed non-renewal of his term contract. Motion by Mr. Gaines. Is there a second? I second. Seconded by Mrs. Meyers. Any discussion? All those uh who favor the motion to notify Ryan Curry of the proposed non-renewal of his term contract signify by saying I. I. All oppose. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Seven to zero. Okay. Item B is
053academics one consideration for approval of instructional materials for K5 math and K5 English language arts not to exceed 600,000. Dr. Rogers, welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Uh, Mr. Posey, and members of the board. I have two quick items for you. The first one, as Mr. proposal stated is uh consideration of approval of math and reading resources state approved um as noted on the document as well as the purchase of the materials related to those resources. You can see on the document those specific resources as well as the summary um indicating how we arrived at our request. Do you have any questions? Any questions members? This is approval. Move for approval. Motion by Mr. Gaines. A second. Seconded by Mrs. Cook. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed the same sign.
054Eyes have it. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Item two, consideration for approval to participate in Blue Bonnet Learning Spanish instructional materials pilot for math and reading not to exceed $60,000. Yes. And so in order to ensure alignment with our uh curriculum for English as well as for Spanish, we are requesting your approval to participate in the Spanish instructional materials pilot for math and reading. And so you can see the summary of our proposal as well as the district responsibilities which include um providing feedback to the state as they work to finalize the resource for final approval uh by the state board of education. Do you have any questions for me? Any questions for Dr. Rogers? This does require approval. I move to approve a second. Motion by Mrs. Gen Miss Gowen seconded by
055Mrs. Cook. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose the same sign. The eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Item C, facilities and operations. No items tonight. Item D, finance 2025 2026 attendance initiative. Mrs. Stanford, welcome. Thank you. Good evening. um Dan Posie and board members um TISD when I think about them I think about supporting the whole student. So the question in your minds is why is the finance person standing up here with a motto of here today ready for tomorrow? I'm not generally the most creative one in the bunch but our team has continually looked for different ways to support academics, human resources and student services to support the whole student. And so we would like to propose an attendance initiative for next year. As you
056may recall, um we have very little local local control over generating revenues. Unfortunately, I cannot control our enrollment or our student characteristics. No one can. But what we can try to control is our attendance rates. Um attendance rates hopefully will inc improve student academics and strengthen our teacher impacts. So our district right now at snapshot is about 8,800 students and 75% economically disadvantaged. It has been proven that students who live in communities with high levels of poverty are four times more likely to be to be chronically absent than others often for reasons that are beyond their control such as unstable housing, unreliable transportation, and a lack of access to health care. So why would we be wanting to look at student attendance since CO 19 pandemic? Although we've had a few years since statewide average
057daily attendance has dropped more than 3%. Temple ISD's average daily attendance has dropped by more than 2% and our chronic absenteeism has increased by more than 25% here in the district. The reason to take action is because absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance for the whole entire school year. Half the students who miss 2 to four days in September will go on to miss nearly a full month of school. Poor attendance can also influence whether school um whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade. And research shows that missing 10% of school or about 18 days a year negatively affect their academic performance. And when you think about it, that's just two days a month and is also called or known as chronically absent. By sixth grade, chronic
058absenteeism becomes an indicator that a student will drop out of high school and attendance is a better predictor of graduation rates than their performance on an eighth grade test. When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances to graduate. The next reason for an attendance initiative is to understand the difference between truency and chronic absenteeism. Most schools focus on the data that wants to improve truency. All they track is how many days a kid is present versus how many days they're absent. But what we really need to look at is how many days a kid is absent for an excused and unexcused absence. because you might have a kid that has 100% excused absences, but that never gets looked at because we're too focused on try. Either way, an absence affects
059a child, even if it's an excused absence. Chronic absenteeism also shows that most federal data that at least 30% of students nationwide were chronically absent and at risk academically. The chronic absenteeism for Temple ISD is not just a problem for us, but it's a problem statewide. Students who live in communities with high level of poverty are four times more likely to be chronically absent and attendance approves when students are engaged and parents are engaged in a positive way. Schools can provide mentors for chronically absent students. The third reason is important to recognize the impact of absences on teachers. In Texas, students absences significantly impact teachers by increasing their workload, requiring repeated instruction, and potentially hindering student progress, especially for those that are facing disabilities or so socioeconomic challenges. Specifically, absences could include disrupted learning flow,
060reduce student engagement, and increased teacher workflow, built difficulty in building those relationships with those students, and ultimately reduces teacher morale, which impacts our retention rates for teachers. So, we are proposing an attendance initiative. The action plan is is that we are going going to give um we are going to try to reduce chronic absenteeism by 1% from the prior school year. And how we're going to do that is we're trying to give everybody the historical data on absences and we will give them targets for each and each campus. In the first semester, we will give or first and second semester. Every six weeks, senior leadership team will go out and provide incentives to those campuses that improve their attendance rate and hit their campus targets for each six weeks. And right now, we are looking
061at just some small incentives, but we've also asked our administrative team, our principles, and other district employees to give us ideas to branch out. But there's also a monetary component to it. In the first semester, um if they are able to increase their attendance rate by10%, they will receive a multiplier effect times their average attendance. Second semester, we're going to do the exact same thing. However, there's a district multiplier that will come in come into play. And if the campus can hit their targets and the district hits a target, they will get a multiplier to expand that. So, let me kind of elaborate and break it down. So the campus will get an attendance goal every six weeks. We are currently partnering with student services and digital learning this summer to try to get some
062visual aids to each campus so that way they can incentivize the students. Currently we're trying to get senior leadership team but also the administrative team on campuses to make connections to kids. I will tell you the finance team doesn't really get to make those connections one-on-one and so they're excited about possibly handing out pickles and pop popsicles to students. Um but these are the ideas, the pickles, popsicles, popcorn. Those are the ones that we're reaching out to principles to try to come up with a different idea. But we're trying to reach all grade levels so that way it maintains easiness at the end of each semester. Because we know that community partnerships are very important. We have been able to work with spare time and they've come alongside us to offer a student incentive. If
063or each campus that hits their target for that semester, each student will receive a $10 gift card to spare time for their RK. Now, the monetary part is here's an example. Let's say the average um daily attendance for that campus increases by half a percent. for half a percent, we are going to pay out $5 for every student in average enrollment. So, if we have a 400 student um elementary school times $5, they're going to get $2,000 to use the next semester and the campus gets discretion on how best it would serve their staff and students. In the second semester, if they hit their target, they would get that $2,000 per student if it was a 400 student campus. And if they increased it by half a percent, but let's just say the district increased
064our total attendance rate by half a percent. Then we would multi multiply that by an additional $5 per student. So they would generate $10,000 for their campus to use for the next school year. And they get to decide how best to incentivize our students. One campus specifically told us that they would use I'm sorry. I'm nervous. um they would use this money because they would like to buy a soccer goal for the campus. They said that a soccer goal would incentivize students to come and at recess they could play a game of soccer with their friends, but then they could also use it as different celebrations throughout each six weeks to encourage their students. Not only is it get them out um exercising, but also they're attending school more often. And so that's just one
065example that we've talked about using the money for. The second semester, Spare Time has offered to partner with us again, and they would give our students a $10 gift card to a mini golf course that they are hoping to have open um before the end of school to every student at each campus that can hit their target. Additionally, they have listened to our presentation and agree that our teachers are the ones at the forefront trying to talk to parents and give them the help that they need to get their students to class. And so they have also agreed to give some sort of gift to our teachers for every campus that hits their target for the year. And right now they they're considering a $50 gift card to every teacher that they could use for
066dinner or just a family night out. So why would we want an 88 um in incentive plan? Because we want our students here so that way we can help um improve their academics. That's very important. But it also improves the whole entire student aspect. They're here for the extracurricular events. They're here for recess, but also it will help our teachers so that way they're not experiencing um expanded um workflow of trying to retach every time a student is absent. It would also help with their burnout. Um they would be able to better engage with the students. And so I feel like since our funding is limited and we don't have a lot of ways that we can control, we can partner with our other groups within the the district and help support them. So that
067way we can hopefully give them a monetary aspect for the campus budgets but also support in our academic growth. Any questions? Members, any questions? This is very this is exciting. Thank you very much. Great presentation. Thank you for everything. Thank you for and please thank thanks for everything you do in finance. And I would just say to the board that um Brandy presented this to the senior leadership team. She's also presented to all the principles at um I believe the previous principal meeting. Is that right? Uh and it was wellreceived. So Brandon, appreciate you um coming up with um or you know I think you saw some semblance of an idea somewhere at a conference I believe and I I forgot what district it was. Plano is that right? Who which one? Katie. Katie ISD.
068Uh but u you know just introducing new and different ideas uh in order to try to you know continue to engage students and families. So thank you so much for coming up with that and we're excited to see where it goes. Thank you very much. Item E is student services one consideration for approval a resolution in support of military connected families. Mr. Hogenberg, good evening. One of our goals this year was to have uh some of our campuses earn a purple star designation. And so we looked at Thornton and Bottom for this. The application actually opened up here in April and it closes in June on June 6th. And some of the things that were required in this application is there had to be an initial meeting uh at the campuses. The administration and students
069had to be trained in S2S, the studentto student program. Uh the website had to have information on military connected students and there had to be events here in April and some of the things that were uh held was the purple up ice cream in conjunction with UMHB and there's yard signs and there will also be a photo submission here uh in a month or so. And one of the things that uh helps strengthen this application is having a board resolution. So that's what is presented here uh for you tonight for your consideration. In August with they will announce what campuses are accepted and again we are uh we have submitted for Thornton and Bono. Any questions? Any questions? This does require approval. Is there a motion? I move to approve. Motion by Miss Gowen. A
070second. Seconded by Mrs. Cook. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. The same sign. The eyes have it. The motion passes. Thank you. Item two is consideration approval of be local board meetings. Members of the policy committee brought be local to the committee for review. uh is this uh policy which uh in preparation of the agenda requires at least two board members to uh be part of that submission. Uh it mirrors a lot of the districts that are in the area and upon review with TASBY uh they said that a significant number of districts across the state this mirrors what they have in their policy. So this uh policy be local that's in your packet is presented for your approval. Members, any questions? It does require approval. I'll move for approval. Motion
071by Mrs. Myers. Is there a second? A second motion. Seconded by Mr. Gaines. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose the same sign as the eyes have it. Thank you very much. It's approved. Item three, board policy education series. AA legal, AB legal, AB local, AC legal, AE legal, AE local, AF legal, AF local, and AG legal. It's quite a few. And this is section A, which is the basic district foundations part of board policy. And so this is the very foundation of the legal status and the authority that UA as a board has. And so with AA legal, this is where you uh sign or it illustrates where you get your legal status and that's from the constitution of the state of Texas and from the education code. So that's where
072your authority is based. AB local and this is where the name of the district is listed. So, uh, Temple Independent School District is how it's written in policy and and throughout the policy, it this is where it says it just refers to it as the district from from then on. AC legal, this talks about geographic boundaries and what was originally needed to set it up. A couple interesting things in this is it talks about how to change boundaries. There is a way for minor boundary adjustments and uh we as a district the last time we did that was on February 10th, 2020 and that was when a subdivision was being created. uh part of the uh houses were in another district and part of the the plat was in ours and so there was an
073exchange of property for that. It could happen by the minor boundary adjustment because of it satisfied two pieces. one that currently there was no student in the area at the time that the resolution was made and that the uh taxable value did not exceed onetenth of 1% of the total value. So that's why you as a board was able to do make that change with just a resolution. If none if one of those situations isn't doesn't occur then it's a more extensive process and that's called detachment and annexation and there requires not only resolution but a hearing and a posting of a public notice and so it's a very extensive process. The last time uh we as a district went through detachment and annexation was in 1987 and that was the wildflower uh piece of
074property. Uh also it before that it was 1978 and there was a swap with academy and then in 1976 there was a swap with Troy and that was to clean up some lines with 317 and 36 pieces but that went through a more extensive pol extensive process where there had to be public hearings and and that type thing. Ae legal talks about the state u miss and uh the state's mission and objectives. Some of the objectives that are listed are having parents be full partners, challenging students to meet their full educational potential, talks about diplomas, um as well as specifically mentions innovation and technology and career and tech. If you look at AE local that's uh was this was last updated by you as a board in 2005 and it says that the philosophy we
075educate all students we are responsible we find a way. So that was uh adopted by you in 2005. AF legal talks about districts of innovation and that has to be renewed every five years and you as a board passed the resolution in 2023 that reid the district of innovation. Some things that can't be um um exempt exempted as the district are things like admission uh diploma requirements fiscal year and funding diplomas. Uh we as a district are ask for exemptions for class size for weekly academics allowing an academic uh program to be housed in the same place that a DAP is housed and that's our weekly academics some certifications particularly with CTE and then our start date uh since it happens before Labor Day those are the ex exemptions that we have as a district
076of innovation. And the last one, AGL legal talks about home rule districts. This was created in 19 by the state in 1995. It was intended to provide a way for local voters, parents, administrators to govern schools according to the community's needs. And again, as I said, it was created for communities in 1995. But the regulations have were um for implementation are still large and and despite that there's been no district in the state that has become a home ruled district. So in case you hear you hear that that's uh how that policy came about. Any questions? Well, thank you very much for going through that. That's always very informative and it's just a perfect time to sort of update and educate us again on what on the material. Item F is the board committee reports
077one policy committee meeting minutes April 23rd 2025. Mrs. Cook, thank you. The meeting was called to order at 40:01 p.m. Changes to policy be local were discussed and presented for consideration at tonight's meeting. The committee reviewed the list of names in CW local. No names have been added to the list in the past year. Selected policies in the board policy education series were presented and discussed. These policies were reviewed at tonight's meeting. Meeting was adjourned at 4:29 p.m. Thank you, Mrs. Cook. Item two, facilities committee meeting minutes on April 24th, 25. That meeting was cancelled. The next committee meeting is Thursday, May 29th, 2025 at 4 pm. And before we adjourn, Dr. would like to say something. I just wanted to I know this is a little out of order, but I wanted to um
078thank you, Whitney. Uh, you know, Whitney has um not been in her new leadership position very long, but it's taken her no time to make a splash uh not only in the community, but uh supporting Temple IC. And um I want to thank you on behalf of Jamari Thrasher for working with the uh Chamber Futures Group to help raise enough money so he has the opportunity to participate where his talents lead him and that's to the Harvard summer leadership program. Uh we're truly grateful to you on behalf of him. I know he is so grateful and I believe one of his uh stipulations is to come back and present or what but he's excited about that already. So, and is looking forward to it. But thank you, Whitney, for your leadership and thank you for
079rallying the troops. And I mean, that's that's just one of the things that makes Temple special is they take care of their own. I I appreciate you um spearheading that effort. Thank you so much. And I just want to take actually echo everything Dr. Odd said, Whitney. Thank you so much. This is something that will change a student's life. And so, thank you and for the chamber. You're truly involved in the community. appreciate that. But with no further business, we are adjourned. Thank you very very much for attending.