001and begin with our open meeting. We'll start off with public participation. Um there is none. So we will go over to the staff reports uh by Dr. Mark Cordy. Thank you, President Johnson. Tonight under our staff reports, we do have the starlets from Sam Houston Elementary School. Uh they are led by Mr. Gregory Brousard and Miss Maxine Bean under the leadership of their principal, Mrs. Marcia Sharp. So, they're I think they're out in the back. Yeah, Miss Sharp is waving. And I think they're going to come forward. They're here somewhere, Miss Sharp. Right. Okay. Well, we're ready for them. Dr. >> members, it is our privilege. We are Sam Houston. We're not only top in academics. We can do it all. And we show up. We show off. We've got I've got 28 girls here
002tonight. They can dance, they can cheer, and I have our first flag team for elementary, which we're going to work on to build it up with middle and high school. And I want to thank y'all for your attention. [applause] We have our spirit team. They consist of our dancers, our sassy silks, and our pet squad. Huh? [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] [cheering] [applause] >> So, I'd like to introduce you to our officers for 2526. Six pep squad captain Lizzy and co- CAPTAIN CASEY [applause and cheering] our high steppers Captain Joyceman and co- CAPTAIN NICA our captains for our sassy silks Captain Jalissa and co- captain Tia Yeah. It [screaming] up [screaming] it up. It up. It up. >> [cheering] >> up it up it up it up it up it up it up
003it up [cheering] Now we're going to do a routine featuring our sassy silks. Heat. [music] Heat. [snorts] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [snorts] I got you. Now I want to say one more thing about all my young ladies. These ladies are giving up a lot of their summer time. We didn't just start at summer at the beginning of the school year. We spent three days with the flag for memorial. We spent several days with our flag memorial march and flames and also our cheerleaders. So, we want to thank all those groups for this work right here and what we've accomplished. We're very proud OF [applause] YES. [screaming] R O W [screaming] O W Let me see. [music] the left to the left to the right to the right to the right to the left to
004the left to the right to the to the baby. You got it. >> [applause] >> There was one. And this is one that our marching planes taught us. Pokey. and you can come up. >> [music] [music] >> Heat up here. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [applause] >> This is a dance we came up with. What is it? Heat. Heat. [music] >> [applause and cheering] >> Now everybody can be on their feet for brother fight. [applause] [music] never. I got my Hey, [applause] [cheering] you didn't know where we were from. We're going to tag you. We are WE ARE [screaming] WE ARE We are You say we are We are We are You say we are [sighs] We are What are We want to thank you so much for
005having us. I want to thank our principal. [applause] >> All right. [cheering] >> Thank you for having San Houston. >> Okay, Mr. Brussard, hold on one second. If the young ladies will stay where they are and if you would turn around and I'm sure the board would love to say something to you and to our parents, we just know with everything you have, thank you for bringing them out your time. You know, everyone is doing something, but you all are absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, talented, great, and everything else that's positive. Yeah, >> I guess I I guess I'll start off. I guess you all can officially say that I've reached UNK status. Okay. I've never stood up in a crowd like that with my cell phone like holding like an iPad. I am so super
006duper proud of you all. You all came in bringing those H.B.CU vibes. I I thought it was homecoming all over again. Um just keep going. I do want to say thank you for your for your dedicated dedicated commitment. um to hear that you all have been working on that for the past summer and replicating what you are seeing but also not just replicating what you are seeing but putting yourself where you will be when you get to the high school when you become a flame when you become a twirler when you become whatever you become you can say you've started here so I want to say thank you to to all of you beautiful talented young individuals but also to um of course the administration and all that is involved thank you this is how
007we create culture this is how we create a lasting culture because this is going to start here so by the time they get to high school, it will have to second guess who knows where they come from or who knows the fight song. So, kudos to you. Kudos to you. Kudos to you. [applause] First of all, I like to say ladies, ladies, job well done. Ladies, ladies, job well done. Y'all had me so fired up here, I'm ready for tomorrow night already. I'm ready for the football game tonight. Administration to show up. your your team. Y'all did an awesome job with these kids. I've been on the school board since 2015 and this is the most excitement we didn't had since I've been on a board by y'all coming here. I'll see y'all next year.
008[laughter] >> I want to say congratulations to all of you. >> Y'all have done a well job and I want to thank Miss Sharp for having the team. And this is the first cheerleader team we had perform in front of us at y'all at grade level. Y'all did an excellent job. I'm so proud of all of you. [applause] >> Uh, Miss Sha, I expect to see these ladies performing at the basketball league this year. Oh, you know, ladies, you did a wonderful job. Uh, look like we got a bright future with our flames and flag girls and y'all keep up the good work. Congratulations. [applause] Let me ask Dr. Porter a question. Are these the students u that were on the field a few days ago at the football game? >> Some some of them
009some of us are shaking. Yes. [laughter] I I assume so. You all did a great job Friday night, but you you did an outstanding job tonight as well. Congratulations and thank you very much. [applause] >> Okay. And lastly, I definitely want to say that I enjoyed this coming from, you know, being in extracurriculars from little all the way until being a varsity cheerleader. It definitely makes a big difference starting at a younger age. And I want to give kudos to you all for having the courage to come up here and do that. You know, nobody was um shamed, shy, embarrassed, or anything. I mean, y'all got up here and really brought it. So, I'm so proud of all of you young ladies. Continue to be great. continue to work to perfect your craft because definitely
010the example that y'all are showing is that it starts when you're younger. And when you work on that at a young age and perfect it, there's no limits by the time you get to high school of what y'all will be doing. I mean, we going to have some UIL awardwinning extracurricular activities. It starts with um your your your advisors, your sponsors, Miss Sharp and all the other administration and your parents as they said that probably been working all day but took the time to get you here on time and ready and spend of course whatever money they may need to spend because I know some things may not be free. So definitely we give kudos to everyone for that. And in that same sense, I'd also like to give a shout out to our superintendent
011because behind the scenes, he does push a lot of starting at a younger age. You know, we are having a problems where we get to the a little a little drop we had when we got to high school and there were many people in different curricular activities and he noticed that and I know that he does push that a lot on our elementary level all the way up and support that because this is how like Trusty Bartis say that we make our future. Like this is how we get that going. we get you guys enthused [clears throat] about it. In turn, you know, you're going to be eager to make the good grades and do everything you have to do to stay active in these type of different extracurriculars. So, I mean, just a shout
012out to everybody across the board from the top to the bottom and all the way to you beautiful young ladies. Continue to be great. Continue to invite us to everything that y'all have because we definitely as a board love to support our youth and I just enjoyed the whole performance. Madam President, I think it's I think it's only right that we deem our Sam Houston spirit squad as our official school board halftime performance of the year. >> Yes. Yes. >> I think it's only right that we deem you all that. >> Yes. >> Needed this. And to Mr. Brussard and Mrs. Bean, thank you because there takes a lot of time to work with our students and you go over and above. So, thank you very much. [applause] All right. Thank you. Y'all have homework
013now, right? [laughter] >> Yeah. >> And you got to eat. So, thank you. We appreciate you. >> TSU is waiting on you, by the way. Just letting y'all know. HBC, you ready? I see. Oh lord. Okay. Next on the agenda we have Mr. Ricardo Celis. He is one of us. He works for BI a independent school district. He is the student parent community specialist and he is also the PTA president for the entire district. So, Mr. Celius, thank you for coming. Thank you. [applause] And I tell you, he has a whole lot of ideas and that makes us all work. [laughter] >> Well, thank you for having me. Yes, I was going to say that all of you know me for the work that I do for the um multilingual department here at PISD, but
014today I'm I'm wearing a different hat which is the um Port Actor City Council of PTA's president and um what we can what we just saw it was a demonstration of what happens with when the school and the parents work together. We have students that the ones like the ones we just saw and we can accomplish whatever we want, right? Any goal uh no matter how high it is, we can accomplish it if we work together. The parents and the schools. Well, the PTA um the mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children. And the vision of PTA is every child's potential is a reality. And I guess we all agree on that. But if we work together that will become right.
015Um a little of background about uh the product city council of PTA is that it was founded between 197 I'm sorry 1917 and 1920. So it it has been working for more than a hundred years and after all that that time I have the privilege of being the first Hispanic president of the paractor city council of PTA. [applause] Thank you. In Texas, PTA is a powerful voice for children and a resource for families and schools. PTA at state level at state and national or is a state and national organization with structure bylaws and support. And some of some of the benefits of belonging to PTA is that they provide advocacy at the state and national level liability insurance leadership training resources and grants. And let me talk a little bit about the advocacy part. You
016know, I don't know if you feel the same way, but I I believe that public education is under attack with the vouchers and um you know, we need teachers, but they are raising the bar for people to become teachers every now and then. And um what the PTA does is that they review every single bill that is written and they fight against them. They did fight about uh against the uh vouchers. Uh we didn't win, but they are here to support public schools. Um about training, they offer a lot of training that is free for the members. And on that on that path, I had to go to the training myself. Uh during the summer, I I attended the Lonear Leadership Weekend. It was in June June 6 to June 8th. Then I went to
017to the conference that is called the launch. It is it was in Dallas for three days also. But I was um kind of surprised or amazed of the work that the all the people at PTA do like during the um leadership weekend. We were we started working at 800 am and we will finish kind of at 8:00 pm. So we work through breakfast [laughter] through lunch and even through dinner. So they they do but um the other thing that amazed me is not only that they work that they are able to to give all this time to to volunteer but that they are really really knowledgeable and that they don't hesitate to help um to help others and to train others. Um also I want to thank um I want to thank Dr. reported for
018his support. Uh thanks to him, I participated during the leadership retreat. I talked to all principles during that day and all leaders or PTL PTA leaders. Uh I don't know if you remember I also spoke to the whole entire PSD body during convocation and and now I'm here in front of you all. Um so thank you Dr. Py for your support. There are some goals that we have as PTA this year. One of them is to have a PTA at every single school. We have it at most of them, but there are three schools that that we're missing. We started working with them. Hopefully the next time I am here uh I will have um better news. I will say that every school has a PTA. So that's one of the goals. Uh PTA gives
019some awards every year and um the two that I'm asking the schools to reach [snorts] to they're called the golden apple award and the voice for every child award. The first one that means that every single staff member of the school joined PTA and the second one the voice for every child that means that um we have the same number of members as students in the school. So every child has a voice and and the other goal that I'm I'm working on is to promote create and support scholarships. PTA offers scholarships for our students. So, I want to make sure that our students take advantage and apply to these scholarships, but also I want to create one that we offer to our students. So, um there's two things that I want to ask you. Uh
020first, I would like for every board member to join PTA. We get a state recognition when you all do that and not only the board members uh also the executive team. I invite you to select a school the one that you like and and support them. And by the way, I also support Lincoln. So if you want to join Lincoln, call me. [laughter] Yes. And uh the other thing is that um PTA offers training on leadership but we need parents to step in. So if you know someone that you can invite, encourage to be part not only of the PTA but be part of the board, please encourage them and lead them to one of the schools. Yeah. Between the things that we have done along with Dr. reportedly yesterday we had our first uh
021principal and pre PTA president breakfast and it was a success. We had all the schools were represented with the principles and all PTAs were present were there uh present. So it was really really a successful um I think after COVID we we've been struggling to and this is the first time that I see a full room in a PTA meeting. So I inviting you to to support and if you are able to attend one of our meetings usually is the first Wednesday of the month. And um the other thing is that uh we want students to be part of PTA. Students can be parked as themselves not not by their parents. They can pay their dues and they can participate in PTA. And uh by doing that they will they will be able to take
022advantage of the leadership uh training and if we um encourage them to lead an activity that's something that [snorts] they can use to write when they uh are applying for scholarships. So we are going to give them opportunities to be the leaders in in some activities. So that's another thing that I would like uh you to support and um I think that's it from my side. Are you have do you have any questions for me? [laughter] Well, first and foremost, let me take this um privilege of having you stand before us by thanking you for all that you do. um you do a lot in your official capacity, even beyond the hours at the library, working with students, um helping them get where we need them to be. So, thank you for that. But also,
023thank you for um not only wearing that hat, but now wearing this hat as the PTA president for the citywide, which is not an easy task, not an easy feat of something that I'm well aware of. You know, my grandpa's been a part of that for 23, so 16 years. But, um what I will tell you is I want to thank you for coming to the board. And I also want to thank Dr. Portery as well um for establishing a better rapport and relationship with the PTA. And I want to put emphasis on that because the PTA is basically the parents school board. This where parents have an opportunity to work on campuses before things even get to us to actually have a greater effect and a chance to actually make change. And I'm not
024quite sure that our parents are fully aware of that. And so I I I appreciate your goals and I want to want to charge you and challenge you too in your term as president to um work closely with our administration while we have this partnership going on to push that information out to the parents to understand that advocacy especially in these times especially in these times advocacy is one of the most important things that we could be doing not only for our students but just for our city and our district. So, I want to thank you for taking the the charge and thank you for taking the position and running with it. Um, thank you for meeting with our principles because that's where things start on campus. Um, and I'm glad you also mentioned too
025the PTSA because I'm not sure that our students are also aware that they can join a PT um, a because I was a part of PTA um, my ninth grade year at SFA. I was actually the first vice president [clears throat] um, for our PTA there on campus. Um, and like you said, the leadership trainings that that I was um taught there, I'm pretty sure is kind of the reason why I'm here where I'm at today. So, it makes a difference. So, I definitely want to thank you and charge you with that. Um, and I know for a fact that our our amazing superintendent is going to continue to do all that he has been doing um to to further that partnership to make sure we really collaborate and make PTA and Pora all that
026it can be. >> Yes, I agree. Thank you. >> One question. Okay. It's usually 11:00 a.m. Uh, next meeting is November 5th. Um, it's going to be here in the admin building and Dr. Pory is our guest speaker. [laughter] I have a question. >> Dr. U, what would it take for each one of us to join the PTA? What's what process would you >> Yes. uh you reach out to the school, but basically you have to pay dues, the membership dues, which are which go from 8 to $10. Every school is different because every PTA is independent, >> but um >> I'll send you all a text and collect your money as well. >> I was going to say I did my [laughter] on the website is easier. >> I just want to make it
027Oh, >> how much is your lifetime though? How much is it? saying how much is it? >> Oh, I don't have the number right now. >> We'll find out. >> Yeah. Yeah. Let's I get back to you. >> I just want to say that I am a part of the Poras Elementary PTA. >> Perfect. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> BTW, >> you can do that. >> Yes. Another way is that you can go online and you can type um Texas PTA and there is um join PTA there. So, you can do it online too. Uh several of us of our schools are there not all of them but I'm working on that. So every PTH will be online too for you to to have more access more easy access. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
028I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much. I think next we have the director of multilingual and migrant department um Mrs. Naomi Nolton and also Mrs. Juan multilingual migrant program supervisor that has here tonight. So she's Mrs. Nolton is very passionate about her department and um she is really really good. The entire department is wonderful. So Mrs. Nolton, good evening madame president, members of the board, Dr. Portery and executive leaders. Uh tonight I have the distinct privilege of presenting the 2425 bilingual ESL program evaluation for Port Arthur ISD. Um, this report fulfills state requirements under chapter 89, uh, 19, Texas Administrative Code, and it provides a clear look at how our programs are supporting linguistic, academic, and effective needs of our emerging bilingual students in the district. Uh before I begin with the with the
029actual report, what I wanted to just briefly note in an effort to save time because yes, I can I can talk. Um [laughter] but what I've done is for each of the the report that you have each of you have on your uh desk, it actually is the complete bilingual ESL program evaluation report. Um, I am going to provide a very high summary of each section and so it might appear that I'm going through um the the slides rather quickly. Um, at any point if you would like me to slow down or or work through any of the slides, please let me know. But I am definitely going to give a high summary and I'll ask you to attend to certain slides uh for your review and reference. Uh we are going to begin uh
030today with our team just briefly. Our B department and team um includes a a strong group of individuals and Dr. Porter already mentioned but I would be remiss if I did not recognize Dr. Buan our program supervisor and Mr. is also here for a different purpose [laughter] but also uh with his work with our families and our students uh and our community. Uh together we do ensure uh program fidelity uh we maintain compliance with state and federal guidelines uh and we provide highquality instructional support across all of our campuses in the district. Moving forward, if you review the table of contents, this is the complete report. uh and it's an overview of tonight's presentation. We'll begin with of course program purpose and framework and then move through student data, academic outcomes, professional development, and of
031course end with our bilingual exception and e ESL waiver summary, uh a comparison from last year to what will be filed on or before November 1st of this year. There is an executive summary that's slides of the report 7 through nine. Uh so Port Arthur ISD currently implements three LIEPS those are language instruction educational programs in the district. We have transitional bilingual early exit ESL contentbased and ESL pullout. So, these programs are designed to ensure that all of our emerging bilingual students have equitable access to grade level instruction while they acquire English proficiency. As outlined in these slides here, our bilingual programs serve our bilingual program, pardon, serve Spanish speaking students at Sam Houston. That's a hard act to follow, right? [laughter] Lake View, Tero, and Wheatley ESL programs are implemented at all campuses across
032the district. In total, we served last year 2,83 students, which is 34.9% of our total enrollment for 2425. Um, so that is all again and the executive summary also lists the areas of the evaluation that must be covered uh in accordance with Texas administrative code. In the next section, and those are slides 10 through 14 of your report, um, it's going to go over the introduction and purpose um, and the vision and mission and goals. So this annual evaluation fulfills both the TEA and the ESSA federal requirements and allows the district to reflect on how effectively we are in meeting those goals set forth by the state and the federal federal government. So our vision in for the multilingual department and migrant department for the district is that every emerging bilingual, immigrant and migrant student
033will have equitable access to culturally responsive education that celebrates all languages and all cultures in our district. Our mission is to promote academic excellence by addressing the effective linguistic and cognitive needs of all of our multilingual learners in the district. This work of course is aligned with the district mission and the expectations of chapter 89 of the Texas Administrative Code. Moving forward in the next section of the report, slides 15 through 24, it's a look at our emerging bilingual demographics, uh, both at the state and the both within state and district context. At the state level, and the next three slides are going to look at the state context, the state level, emerging bilingual students now make up 24.3% of Texas enrollment. That's over 1.3 million students. The state has seen nearly a 50% increase
034in emerging bilingual enrollment in the past decade. Moving forward to our our snapshot. So Port Arthur ISD mirrors those state trends. [snorts] One in three of our students is emerging bilingual. Spanish is the dominant home language at 96%. But we also have students that speak Vietnamese, Arabic, Mandarin, and many others. Over 83% of our emerging bilingual students classified as economically disadvantaged, and roughly 11% receive special education services. Please note the charts that are provided within the report as they show how our district demographic demographics align closely to statewide data. This chart in particular shows that our Hispanic students uh they are at we are at 55.97% um and our emerging bilingual students 34.86% 91% of our emerging bilingual students identify as Hispanic or Latino. In the next few slides, you will see our statistics, our
035ethnic distribution, our emerging bilingual student distribution, our newcomer students, which is on which is a steady increase year after year, our migratory, highly mobile students. These are a list of our home countries and the languages represented in our district. Moving to the next section, program implementation, the transitional bilingual English as a second language. Provided in your in your report is an overview of our district LIEPS. So, our language instruction educational programs are aligned, of course, to the both the district improvement plan and to tea's requirements. We operate the transitional bilingual program at four elementary campuses. Uh ESL contentbased and ESL pullout programs districtwide prek through 12th grade. I wanted to highlight an important change, pardon, it's back on this slide here, that took place in July 2025, and that was the sunsetting of the Washington
036Elementary bilingual program for a number of reasons. um with certified teachers being re bilingual teachers being relocated to Terrell Elementary to maintain transitional bilingual early exit program capacity for the 25 the current school year 25 26 school year. The following slides in your presentation go through the transitional bilingual early exit program sites pre-K through fifth grade. They also have a detailed um component and description of our instructional models transitional bilingual on your screen. Also our language allocation also on the screen at this time. There are two visual illustrations for you uh for the transitional bilingual early exit model. This one here and this one here. The transitional model, we transition to English gradually by the time the students are in second grade. Instruction is 100% in English. The next one is our ESL program sites,
037elementary preK through fifth grade, and ESL program sites, secondary 6th through 12th grade, along with the program descriptions of ESL contentbased as well as ESL pullout program models that are implemented across the district as well. So moving forward to the next section of your report, it's emerging bilingual student data, program participation, reclassification, and special program participation. And again, I'll give you the provide the high summary. There are a lot there's a lot of details within these portions. Um, but I wanted to just start by saying that during the 2520 school 2520 24 pardon 25 school year, Port Arthur ISD did serve 2800 approximately 2,800 emerging bilingual students. So here's a detailed breakdown of uh the instrual model. So we had 257 students who participated in the transitional bilingual program fully staffed by bilingual teachers. 647
038students received instruction through bilingual alternative language programs. 983 students participated in the state approved ESL contentbased or pullout programs where 843 students received instruction through alternative measures uh due to staffing shortages. The remaining 73 students were parental denials, meaning that although they qualified for services, the parents denied uh declined program participation. So together, this means that roughly 32% of our emerging bilingual students were served under alternative methods due to staffing constraints. And just take a moment if you would to review the charts provided. And also there is a high summary overview in your packet as well. I've also provided a four-year longitudinal comparison for your review. Just to take a moment to look at our emerging bilingual totals year uh after year. If what we're seeing on the screen is that we are increasing our
039numbers every year, every year, which I'm sure this year will be no exception to this rule. These are our comparative highlights for your review. And this is premium snapshot. And so these are what for the current school year looking at the numbers by campus. Um and then of course our total numbers. The next section of this um for this report is reclassification data. Our reclassification rates of our emerging bilingual students. And just briefly, a student is reclassified as non-emergent bilingual if they meet reclassification criteria. And so it has to be the student has to have passed start and have met the advanced high uh intel pass. So it's a it's a it's a feat for a student to be reclassified. I wanted just to briefly note that we reclassified 127 students at the end of
040last year. um which is the highest it's been in since co. So it is uh it is a considerable feat. I wanted to take a moment to talk about our high performing campuses. Jefferson Middle School reclassified 10.3% Memorial 9th grade 7.4% to Queens 7.3 Sam Houston 5.5%. Wilson Early College does stand out as a statistical outlier because they reclassified 61%. Uh they have a smaller newcome smaller emergent bilingual cohort, but every year they're reclassifying over half of their emergent bilingual students as English proficient. We do have some areas of concern, Adams, Portacres, and Terrell. they had limited reclassification rates which just indicates they need more uh increased coaching and monitoring support for the current school year. So overall the data is is showing us that we have areas of strong progress but we're also areas
041in need of targeted intervention and continuous improvement. So the following slides, the one I will show you, these are our reclassification comparison and then of course our reclassification trends for last year. Okay, moving through emerging bilingual students served in other special programs slide 52 through 54. So the charts provided in this section basically show the intersection of emerging bilingual students participation in other special programs. The largest overlaps are migrant at 12.4% special education at 11.3% followed by 504 dyslexia GT and dual enrollment. So it just demonstrates how critical it is for crossd departmental collaboration and ensuring equitable access for all students including emergent bilingual students. In the next portion of your report is our ELPAC compliance activities and they this is a super critical part because they maintain compliance for bilingual and ESL programs across
042the district. The language proficiency assessment committee ensures that identification, placement, and reclassification meet state and federal requirements for Port Arthur ISD. So, every campus operates an ELPAC team with a campus administrator, an ESL or bilingual educator, and a parent representative for all emerging bilingual students at that campus. So we conduct and we ensure in accordance with board policy which is provided on the screen for you now that our that our ELPAC teams are fully trained and prepared to carry out all compliance activities to keep Port Arthur 100% in compliance and that is our goal and we meet it every year. provided for you also is the training that we provide to our teams to ensure that they can carry out all their duties and responsibilities effectively and com and in 100% compliance. Moving to the
043next section, it's curriculum and resources. And this one I will click through rather quickly, but we just wanted to note that in compliance with Texas Administrative Code Chapter 89 uh 1201, our district ensures that emerging bilingual students have equitable access to TEACS and ELPS aligned materials, curriculum, libraries, and technologies. And the samples provided here are just some Just a snippet of what is available to teachers and campuses to show that how contentbased language instruction is embedded into all subjects ensuring both linguistic and academic growth for our emerging bilingual students. And again, these are just some snippets provided. Like I said, I'll go quickly through these into the next section of your report is the and that's slides 79 71 through 79 are your star academic performance and language proficiency performance of our students. uh due
044to the nature of the the invol the involved nature of this section I'm just going to ask that the if you please review this portion of the report what we have provided for you is our emerging bilingual students breakdown for star 2025 3 through8 districtwide and in each one of the sections we did provide highlights of both the English administration of the test and the Spanish administration of the test where applicable right? Because this the Spanish test stops at fifth grade. Um, and so just be mindful that I won't go through each one of these sections, but they are there in the report for your review. So, I'm just going to go through here. We have math, RLA, Spanish, RLA, science, and social studies. Okay, moving into the next portion. Very important portion of course.
045This is the 2025 Tilpass English language proficiency report. We also see this in domain three of state accountability but also in resultsdriven accountability as well. And so I just kind of wanted to take a moment to note that the Texas English language proficiency assessment system known as Telpass measures our students growth in listening, speaking, reading, and writing annually and it's tested in the spring. So only students with two consecutive years of TELP pass results are included in the state's official calculations uh allowing us to track true language development over time. And so the slides that I'm about to show from you are actually snippets uh from the confidential reports in the in the teal system uh relating to domain three uh for each of the campuses. I wanted to take just a moment and go
046through the campuses and highlight the campuses that put in the work and that are showing progress in this area, namely San Houston Elementary, DQ Elementary, Adams, Jefferson Middle School, Lincoln Middle School, and campuses that need more support. We have Memorial High School, Lake View, Terrell, Travis, and Portacres. One of the things we are paying very close attention to is that campuses who did not close the gaps in their English language proficiency progress measure working with campus teams through professional development through progress monitoring through increased coaching to strengthen language integration into core instruction which will have an impact on this um part of closing the gaps. Next slides 95 through 101 bring us to our RDA data review. We are still dealing with the TEA's unmasked the the mass does not come out until November. But
047I wanted to just briefly show you that the results driven data the I'm sorry the results driven accountability or RDA it is the state's accountability system uh that evaluates how well districts implement federally required programs including bilingual ESL. So the report is used to determine monitoring and intervention uh for the district. RDA combines STAR and TELPASS into a single performance index used by TEA to evaluate our program effectiveness. So based on our internal analysis and the region region 5 ESC uh their projection, Port Arthur ISD is expected to remain at a determination level two for bilingual ESL programs for the second consecutive year. Um, this is a cause for celebration. Maintaining a DL2 means that our bilingual ESL programs are healthy. It means that we are not required to have TEA monitoring, reflecting a steady
048improvement and stronger alignment between instruction and assessment and compliance in our district. So, while we continue to monitor risk indicators, uh we have several ESL fifth grade science, uh ESL 8th grade social studies, tell pass reading rates, [snorts] um at beginner because students don't want to take the test, not that they're not capable. Is progress demonstrates our targeted supports, not only as a department, but as a district. um and also the professional learning and datadriven interventions that we must have in place to sustain a positive impact with regard to this. And I've just provided if you were to just refer to your screen all of our detailed indicators, our performance levels. Uh four is bad, three is we have to keep close eye on it. So those are highlighted in yellow. Two and one, we
049really want zeros. And so this just gives you a detailed indicator by program, bilingual, ESL. Alternative, those are students that were not served uh by a certified educator, but they were still served in the program. Students not served are our denial students and of course Telpass. And then the last one is graduation and dropout. And I just want to have as a notable mention. If you look at our graduation rate of emerging bilingual students, we're at a zero. zero is the best that you can get. And I know in speaking to other district directors, that's an area they struggle. So, I want to commend just the district and the work that's done because we are graduating our emerging bilingual students for for work, for college, for life at a high rate in Port Arthur and
050that matters. That really matters. So, where our graduation rate is high, our dropout rate is low. And so those are the those are some beautiful things to look at when your graduation high, your dropout rate is low. So, uh, just it's it's commendable. It's commendable to so many people, people that are not necessarily in this room right now, but I just wanted to to not walk out of here without, uh, making mention of that. To the last two portions of this presentation, our staffing and professional development. Again, this is going to kind of go like rapid fire. um provided for you is frequency, scope and results as per the requirement of the report. But if I may just say that professional development continues to be one of the district's most powerful drivers of school improvement.
051So from July 24th to August 25, we conducted over 40 professional development sessions districtwide and or at a regional level. So over 120 of our teachers, aids and administrators participated in these sessions. I also want to make notice make note that we have a future teach bilingual teacher project within our department for the district and we had multiple multiple teachers international professionals join that project. Ultimately, the goal for that is to ensure that we can staff our bilingual programs and we create a local sustainable process for supporting our international professionals that are living in Port Arthur, working many of them working in our school district, some are not that we that we help them to become bilingual teachers because finding bilingual teachers is one of the most difficult things to do. And there are a
052number of reasons why it just got even more difficult. Um, so we really just wanted to make no mention of not just the frequency, the scope, and the results of all of the professional development we provided. We've also provided on your screen now. You'll see, and there's many pages of it, but we didn't want to not include all of the training that was provided on site, districtwide, and again, things that we would send our teachers to do. And so there's there's multiple pages of that as well. Now, the final portion of this presentation today is our bilingual exceptions and ESL waiverss. I just wanted to note that earlier this week, uh, I met with Dr. Portery, members of the executive team to review the bilingual exceptions that will be filed for the 2526 school year.
053And so, that is that process. We are ready to go. um and file those hon or before November 1st. I would just like to note that the following slides that you will see are the requirements per state guidance in terms of filing bilingual exceptions or ESL waiverss. Um when certified teachers are unavailable, the district must file bilingual exceptions and ESL waivers for 2425. I'm just going to get to that portion. So that's that the 2024 filing. We filed 28 bilingual exceptions and four ESL waiverss, a total of 32. For 2025, we've reduced that number to 22. We are filing 20 bilingual exceptions and two ESL waiverss for the school year. But that decrease is a significant improvement and we are very very happy to see that our action plan will continue to be to support
054our teachers pursuing certification. Recruiting and retaining the bilingual teachers we have. Dedicating at least 10% of the bilingual education aotment is which is an area that we need to increase funding to make sure we're meeting that minimum threshold and to ensure high quality instruction for all emerging bilingual students regardless is if they're under an exception or a waiver. And I've I've just provided this is the actual TEA application for your review. In conclusion, I wanted just to state that the evaluation we come before you one time a year and I know it is lengthy, but it also represents a lot of work and a lot [laughter] of work >> that our campuses are doing when we serve almost 3,000 students. There is a lot that goes into staffing, supporting and serving the students that are
055that are uh supported under bilingual and ESL educational programs. It gives us an opportunity to analyze data to celebrate growth and we have growth and also to identify targeted areas for improvement. So our diversity is one of our greatest strengths because it fosters creativity, enriches learning for every student in Port Arthur. So as we move in and we are already we were saying I can't believe it's already October, it's almost already November. As we continue through the 2526 school year, our department will continue to collaborate across divisions to ensure equitable access, highquality instruction, and sustained progress for every emerging bilingual and migrant students. Thank each and every one of you for your continued support of our bilingual ESL programs and for your leadership for supporting every student regardless of language background. and that they ha
056each student in Port Arthur has a right and an opportunity to thrive here. I would like to take this opportunity to commend each and every one of you and to the school board for the your commitment to the work that we do for our students and their families. I am very proud to be part of a district that advocates for inclusive practices and educational equity for all students, including our language minority students. The district vision is clear. Language, languages, and cultures strengthen our district. Language is not a barrier. It is a bridge to opportunity. And in Port Arthur ISD, we believe in the power of bilingualism. And that is all questions. [applause] [clears throat] >> I want to uh acknowledge Well, first is anyone else wants to go first? I >> Okay. >> Um I
057want to acknowledge u your passion and commitment uh with the work you're doing. Uh, I like the own the own the store uh passion that you've demonstrated. I appreciate it and thank you Dr. Owens and any others who are part of your your your department and certainly the superintendent. Um, I was just thinking about Sam Houston Elementary the presentation that uh we enjoyed this evening the school for which Dr. Pottery, most of you probably know this, was the principal of that school. Uh when I first came here a long time ago, [laughter] but he was the [clears throat] principal of that school. And um I I don't want to ask you anything off the top of your head, but do you have a general idea of what the percentage of Hispanic students would be in
058that school? >> I think Sat Houston since they're they're predominantly his Hispanic and predominantly emerging bilingual. >> That that's what I thought. Yeah. >> And you you said something about it earlier, but that's what I thought. And the sponsor this evening, I mean, everybody heard it who was here and paid attention mentioned that they have the top scores in the school district. >> They do, >> don't they? You know, they do. >> And uh I Dr. P knows I I walk around with data and you know, everywhere I go. And so I remembered that in fact they're not the just the top their overall rating was 87% out of 100%. For the state of Texas 87% out of 100 and so I just want to acknowledge that and you know I think a lot about
059time on task and you know the idea and I support extracurricular activities. So what Sam Houston is showing demonstrating very strongly is you can not only have students engaged in activities but also do the hard work of the academics. Correct. I just want to acknowledge that this evening. Thank you. >> We are very proud of Sam Houston and they are again that's a school that really believes in the power of bilingualism and just I just wanted to make notable mention here that a lot of times people think it's like well maybe they take all their tests in Spanish. They do not. So these are kids these are emerging bilingual students performing on the English star test and on Telpass which is an English assessment of language proficiency. So they are very we are very very
060proud of >> but one other point your last paragraph by the way I I I really appreciate what you said. I don't I I know it was not by coincidence by accident that you made those comments about inclusion. I mean that that was very powerful and I thank you for that attitude. you and the superintendent and staff because it it doesn't happen that way everywhere as you know. But anyway, just want to acknowledge that as well. Thank you. >> Questions? >> Okay. No, ma'am. There's no more questions. We appreciate >> presentation. We appreciate you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Next, let's see what we've done since we last hear from Mrs. Lot. [laughter] So this is our uh media and communications report for September 26 till today. Um, we had a first time ever fall
061break and it was the break that we didn't even know we needed, but we appreciate it [laughter] so much. It came right on time. Prior to the fall break, we celebrated homecoming 2025 in such a major way. And the top three pitches on the right, we had three varsity football players that were interviewed on channel 12. And we received many compliments about how very well spoken they were and how professional they were. And I told them when I saw them when they came to the administration building that they already are ready for the NFL press conferences. Um in the middle the high school hosted a college and career fair and not only were colleges and companies um present and visible to recruit but also military branches. at the bottom in the middle. If you have
062received this in the mail, Bolero sent the whole city of Port Arthur their newsletter and our back to school funfest was featured on the front page. Our uh marching heat band was featured in a news story about the $125,000 that they uh received with the approval from the school board to purchase new instruments. And this was also preceding their uh competition at the Baton Rouge um Battle of the Bands on Southern University's campus, high school battle of the bands. These are some of our October observations. These are not all of them, but these are some of them. Uh we celebrated National School Bus Safety Week, um National School Lunch Week, we celebrated uh custodian day and all of we were proud to see that all of our campuses publicly celebrated their custodians across social media.
063Uh this is principal appreciation month and we have been campuses have been celebrating their principles all month. We have celebrated them on social media and we will also celebrate them at our next leadership meeting. Uh we also celebrated Texas Education Human Resources Day and today we actually kicked off our 2025 uh Red Ribbon Week celebration and this year's theme, life is a puzzle, solve it drugfree. These are some of our homecoming week celebrations. Our tiniest titans actually had a first responders day because they were going to clean up and fix up the mess that was made when the Titans demolished the tornadoes. Uh Sam Houston life skill students uh celebrated in this uh western day dress up. Here are my favorite uh student teacher swap. So the students dressed up as teachers and the teachers
064dressed up as students. And um I don't know if they call it senior citizen day or what they call it, but the I [laughter] think the high school enjoys dressing up like the elderly more so than the elementary students. And then they also uh enjoy the decades day dressing like we did back in the day. Our administration building had our first ever homecoming parade inside the building and outside of the building. and we invited our football players and our auxiliaries to come and um witness the the homecom parade, but also we had a pep rally in the parking lot of the administration building. So, that was a whole lot of fun as you can see from the photos. I mean, they sell you wouldn't even know that those are supply carts um that they turned
065into homecoming floats. We had a Texas-sized mom that the ninth grade academy students and teachers assembled and it was featured on channel 12 news. >> This is our homecoming queen and king and a couple of pictures from the homecoming dance at over at the high school and the the theme I think was homecoming on the bayou or princess and the frog or something to that effect. Uh Booker T. Washington's communities and schools liaison counselor and social worker put together the list of a list of community resources which is the bottom left corner of I'm sorry the bottom right corner of the slide but at the top left corner they had had a drive-through event where they invited the students families to drive through and they gave uh the resource lists out but they also gave
066u those treat bags that also contain resources to help families. Um the inside the yellow We have some of our tiniest titans observing insects and science. Uh in the middle we have two of our Terrell Elementary School teachers on after school traffic duty. Uh Wheatley Early College, a group of teachers actually went to the um pink out football game last week to support the students. Adams Elementary put down a put out a library newsletter that had fun facts about their particular campus library that I thought was very cute and informative. And at the bottom left corner, Travis held their annual read to Succeed program, which is one of my favorites because all of the students and the staff dress up as their favorite storybook characters. And that that was sponsored by their uh campus business
067partner, Chevron. A couple of our campuses, Adams and Washington, had Lego challenges for their students. Uh TJ's has a a crew that does the morning announcements and a separate crew crew that uh raises and lowers the flags every day. So they're showing off their t-shirts for their organizations. The bottom left corner we have Lincoln's homecoming king and queen. And then on the right, this uh was a a list of important reminders that the high school put out prior to the end of the first quarter just so that students know what they need to make sure they have taken care of before report cards came out, which report cards came out last Friday. This is our a very large group of our Wilson Early College seniors who uh found out what campus they were matched to
068for our student teacher interns. So, it was pretty exciting for them to um come and be trained in orientation and then to receive their envelopes and find out what campus they matched to. It it reminded me of when uh students are going to medical school and they open up the letter to see what medical school they match to. Uh someone at Terrell dressed up as Papa Smurf for homecoming week. Um the city of the health department um did annual ex they did inspections of different cafeterias and restaurants and they did um evaluate 10 out of our 16 schools and all of the 10 schools received high A averages. And so we posted our all A honor roll on social media and people in the comments asking about the campuses that weren't there but they didn't
069inspect those yet. So when we received those reports we'll post those days a as well. Uh at the bottom left our CTE real estate uh class went to city hall and met the mayor. Uh TJ last last spring we heard uh Dr. Lewis um present a proposal for a sixth grade gifted and talented pilot program. So that class has been established and this is a group picture of one of their recent field trips. It's called the Ignite. Uh that's the name of the program, the Ignite program. And then one of the second grade classes at Travis uh had uh read to a friend. And if you notice, the friend is the stuffed animal that's sitting on their desk. Uh the high school theater arts teacher who is new to the campus, but she's also a
070Memorial High School theater class alumni. She put on she and the other fine arts teachers put on a very nice uh one big Titan fiesta. So it involved uh different uh fine arts groups and classes at the high school and they put on performances for each grade level. So everybody in the school was able to enjoy their celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. This year Kelly Education Services is celebrating 20 years of partnership with our school district. Last year, last week there were several celebrations of the 20 years. And so, um, these are some of the pictures from some of the celebrations, and we will be, uh, sharing more pictures as they send them to us. The Memorial High School organized a breast cancer awareness walk-athon. Uh, donations benefited the Julie Rogers Gift of Life program.
071They raised uh, $1,500. There was one particular soccer player uh who raised over $100 by himself. Uh this was the Wednesday, the first day of the fall break. And just look at how many people, how many students came to participate in this event on their first day of fall break. The entire band, the whole drill team, all of the cheerleader squads, all of the volleyball teams, uh witness uh Wilson Early College Fitness Club and Asian Club. And then there were community groups as well. So it was very well attended. Everybody enjoyed it. There was a bounce house. There was a DJ. There were food trucks. It was a really nice uh showing. And there is a highlight video that is on our YouTube channel today um that we put on social media. In athletics, yesterday
072and today our Lady Titans basketball and powerlifting teams had triyouts. Um, I think last week it was Thomas Jefferson's uh eighth grade volleyball team came in second place at the annual Bulmont ISD middle school volleyball tournament. Yesterday was the Clash of the Titans and Lincoln was victorious. Tonight is the that was the football Clash of the Titans. Lincoln won the football game. Tonight is the Clash of the Titans for volleyball. And so we will find out later on tonight or tomorrow who won out of uh Lincoln and TJ with the volleyball. Um our volleyball team um received grant money from Valero to purchase pink jerseys and pink warm-up shirts. Um so now we have pink jerseys to wear every October. So there was a pink out game last Friday. And then um they had their
073first district win versus Baytown Lee. And at the conclusion of that game, senior Kennedy Meeks, who spoke at the last school board meeting, um was recognized because she earned her 500 career dig during that game. Here are pictures from that um Southern University High School Battle of the Bands. All of our auxiliaries placed in the top three positions. U the the drill team, the band, and the flags and the twirlers. Uh the top right are pictures from Lincoln's homecoming football game and the bottom right these are pictures from the various age groups that attended the mini flames camp. So these are the kids who were so fantastic on the field Friday night and some of them are already ready for high school as you can tell from the videos that were posted on social media
074of these future uh flames. [clears throat] These are some of our community engagement announcements. This Saturday, the city of Port Arthur's Beautifification Commission is having a um fall sweep. So, it's a community cleanup. They are meeting under the pavilion on Proctor at 8:00 a.m. They will provide breakfast and lunch to those who are registered and we have put the word out. Um so, it's a very aggressive campaign from the chairperson of this commission to get the community to come out and help clean up the community. Lincoln is also going to have a um re RLA elevating to success event next Thursday, October 30th at 5:00 in the Lincoln cafeteria and they are inviting parents, teachers and also community members and stakeholders to this event. >> These are more community engagement events. Our organizations are participating.
075For example, the bottom left, the Flames participated in the in our city's annual national night out with first responders this um I think it was this past Saturday. GT Tame had a STEM day on Pleasure Island and it was attended by a lot of our students. Uh as you can tell from the picture of various ages, the biggest group was likely the GT Tame group from Wilson. Next Thursday, October 30th, Wilson's Bible Club will be hosting a trunk or treat event at the school from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Um, we sent a safety a safety survey to all of our parents, all of our staff members, all of our employees, and to our fourth through 12th grade students to gauge their perception of safety in our schools across the district. Um, and we have been
076getting a lot of responses because I've been sending a lot of reminders to uh the community, parents, staff, and students to ask them to complete the survey. Uh, so we have, I want to say over 400 responses already, and we're going to close the survey out at the end of the month. So hopefully we'll hit a thousand before we get to the end of the month. As far as our alumni accomplishments, Casey Randles graduated in uh May and she is already u making her mark in Southern University's band. She was featured in a video on their social media and she talked about her high school marching band experience and her college her transition to college marching band and she is going to school to be a nurse. So, she talked about studying to become a
077nurse. Um Jamal Charles was inducted into the collegiate football hall of fame. We also received a huge donation from the Houston Association of Port Arthurans. Every year they donate uniforms, belts, underwear, socks, spirit shirts, and college shirts to our students. And so, um, it's to me it seems like every year the donations increase and so our social workers are able to service more students and families in needs and so those um, donations will go to students and families that qualify. We are honoring the the memory of um, Geraldine Frank who recently transitioned. She was a retired um, weekly uh, school of early childhood bus aid. And this is our uh social media stats for the month. We did publish an electronic Hispanic Heritage Month magazine that showed the different ways that the campus is celebrating
078Hispanic Heritage Month this year. Um thanks to our assistant superintendent operations, she discovered a treasure trove of old football programs. So, I have been posting um screenshots of some of the pages from those programs throughout the weeks and people have been tagging the people that they see in these old school pictures and it it goes back to like 1996, 1997, um 20201. So, everybody has been enjoying taking that trip down memory lane. Um we celebrated our 10th anniversary of our Facebook presence. We also shared three very important district updates which are updates to our stadium and athletics policies. Um turnaround plans for alpha and memorial which also included a parent input survey that we have been encouraging parents to make their voices heard and complete those surveys so that we have feedback from them and
079also the cap letter for Jefferson. Um, Homecoming helped us to reach to have over two million views on our Facebook content for the past month and we have gained almost 400 new Facebook followers. And that concludes my report. >> President Johnson, board members, you can see from what we presented tonight that we are busy and you know what, we're still having fun. So that's the main thing. Thank you. That concludes our report. I I did quickly want to highlight too the media team has been doing the dang thing with the football games. Okay, you you almost made me want to watch it while I'm sitting at the game because the theatric that you all have added to it has really enightened the experience. So kudos to that team and hopefully too maybe we can replicate
080that and get some students involved, some student commentators. Yeah. >> But huge shout out to them because they are definitely making some some some movements with that. For sure. >> Yes, they are. >> Yes, they do. >> Okay. Moving on to our minutes. Considering if appropriate approved minutes of the September 25th, 2025 board of trustees meeting. Can I get a motion? >> Motion. Second. >> All right. It's been moved by Trustee Diane, Secretary Diane Brown, and second by Trustee Gwood. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Moving [clears throat] on to consent agenda. Um, the following items which are of routine and or reoccurring nature have been designated consent agenda items by the board president per policy be local. All of the items in the consent agenda will be acted upon by one vote
081without being discussed separately unless requested by trustee in which event the item or items will be withdrawn immediately for individual consideration in its normal sequence after the items not requiring separate discussions have been acted upon. Um I will give you a moment to review the consent agenda items. We will pull number four from our consent agenda items. So you will be reviewing numbers one through three and then five through >> 15. >> Um Madame President, I would also like to pull number 15 for a separate uh consideration. >> Okay. We will also pull number 15 as well. So it's what 1 through three and then um five four I'm sorry 5 through 14 will be all voted on as one. I entertain a motion from there. Would you all >> second? [laughter] >> Okay. It's
082been moved by Secretary Diane Brown and second by Trusty Loftton uh to approve those items one through three and then five through 14. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Item number 15. Um, Madame President, I move that the board adopt a resolution casting equal votes for Donald Frank and Mary Woff for the Jefferson Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for a term of the term of 2026 to 2029. >> Okay. has been moved by trustee uh Gitwood and second by trustee um Johnny Brown. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Moving forward to personnel. >> President Johnson, board members, I would like to pull two, three, [snorts] and four. And I am saying that we do have we've given you the approval asking for approval for the employment of teachers.
083>> So move for approval. Second. It >> has been moved by Trusty Gilwood and second by Secretary Diane Brown. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Information. Average daily enrollment by month 7,889. Average daily attendance by month 92.78. >> Madam President, before we adjourn, I also would like to acknowledge the beautiful presence of some beautiful ladies from Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated in the building with us tonight. So, shout out to y'all. Thank y'all for being here. >> Yes. Thank you so much for attending and um coming and supporting us at the board meeting tonight. We definitely love to see when anyone comes and supports us here at the meeting just to get the information and knowledge. So, thank you again for coming as you do and as you as you have done
084in the past quite often. So, we appreciate that. >> Shout out to DST. >> All right. If there's nothing else, I entertain a motion for adjournment. >> So, move. It's been moved by Trusty Gwood and seconded. We are journ You didn't second that, did you? >> Yeah, she seconded. D. >> Okay. Diane Brown. I'm sorry. [laughter] Okay. I thought she did.