001our open meeting to order. We will start off with our public participation in which there is none. So I will refer to Dr. Mark Portery for our staff reports. Thank you, President Johnson. It has been a wonderful week so far. We are working well. Uh things are looking well. Our students are excited. Of course, testing is over, so everyone is calming down. So that is a good thing. and we are are proud of the work that our staff and our students have done for the 2425 school year. Uh they have worked extremely hard. So we are moving forward. There are some things that I'll bring to your attention that um we are excited about. The first thing is that LA well a week and a half ago uh the our community voted on the bond.
002So, we're really, really happy. And so, we thank our community for the trust that they've placed in us. Um, it's going to help our students. It's going to help the entire community. When we start thinking about the buildings and what's going to happen, we are ecstatic about that. Uh, one in particular, the CTE expansion. Every day we talk about workforce development and what we need to do for our students to be able to uh get jobs after they graduate. And for our CTE building to double in size and to add uh different um opportunities for our kids, it's just amazing. And our kids are worth it. They're worth everything we can do for them. And we want them to have everything. We want we want them to be able to walk out of Port Arthur
003ISD and be able to enter the military, postsecary, career, anything they want to do. We just don't want them to lag. We want them to move forward and do everything they can. So, thank you to our board of trustees for the work that you've done. You've gone to town hall meetings. You've you've answered questions and um to Mrs. Lot who did a wonderful job with our our um our website. It it it all it all mattered and we are just really really happy that it did pass. And now we move on to making sure everything moves along. And that's first thing we're looking at finances and when we're going to draw money down and all of that stuff. Uh I will say this, the PISD was visited by TEA, district vulnerability. We call it DBA
004and that is mandated by the state uh by the Texas Education Agency. And that's a group of individuals that come in and they go through your schools. They were here for 4 days and they worked and worked and worked. They went up into the rafters. They opened up every door to see if it was locked. Obviously, the rules have changed for our students and they turn locks. They p tried to lift up the windows. They climbed up into areas we didn't know exist in the schools and they found them. And you know what? We're okay with that because safety is number one in our district. We want every student, every staff member to be able to return home just like they came to us that morning. Um they we didn't have many I mean if
005any findings um very minor recommendations. So that's good. Dr. Getwood has worked really hard with the team, the police team, our maintenance department to work on making sure that everything is in place. you know, the rules have changed this year and you know, it's it's okay and every month we have an unannounced visit from TEA. Now, every school doesn't have that, but because of the size of Port Arthur, we just come down the pike. And everyone was like, is do we really want that? Yes, we do. Because we want them to come and they come unannounced. They do not tell us when they're coming. They try to get into the schools, walk in with students, walk in with staff members, and that's okay. We want them here every month because that keeps us on our
006toes. We don't have a problem with auditors. We don't have a problem with TEA coming in and helping us to stay on our toes because when you talk about a life, a student's life, a staff member's life, you you just can't justify the loss. So we are happy that that has come and moved on. Uh yesterday we celebrated with our teachers. We have uh you all aware of the teacher incentive program and so we added and kudos to Dr. Owens and her staff. We added 12 new teachers to the teacher uh teacher incentive program. So now we have 33 teachers that are a part of that. And this year's allotment allotment adds up to $527,422 that our teachers will get at the end of the year, which is magnificent. You know, that's a separate check
007that goes to our teachers, not from our account, but from the state of Texas. That's incredible. And we are we're really happy about that. And our teachers are ecstatic about it. And let me say this, Port Arthur, you know, that money goes on top of their salary. So that helps them with their retirement. So just think, if a teacher receives $13,000 and they're earning60,000, that's 73,000. And when they're designated, they're designated for five years. So they get that money and I mean it and they work hard for it. So every year we want to add the number of teachers to the list that we have. So that happened on yesterday and we're excited for our kids. Summer school uh we have the summer school person uh Dr. Denita Jones and Dr. Owens that have worked
008has worked very very hard on summer school. We're we're we're uh kind of honing back on the summer school. We do believe uh I believe that summer school there are some areas that we have to have summer school. For instance, attendance. Students who have not earned the 90% attendance rule, they've missed 10% or higher, they have to come. Those students who have not been successful in the content, they have to come. But just on the regular basis, we're kind of moving back from there because we definitely want the certified teachers who are actually teaching our students to work with those students in order to get them to where they need to be. So, that is working very very hard. Uh Dr. Jones has she her packet is already done. So, she's on top of it.
009She it is a thick packet, but she's ready to go. Our students are ready to go and we are happy. So, congratulations to her and to the curriculum department. Our support service center, if you look across the street, you will see buses in the back. It's a what I'll call a soft move, Miss Jeans. So, they're moving and the and they're excited. If you uh we when once all of the furniture gets in and the people as one of you stated tonight when the people get there we are really going to be excited to see everything that happens in the support service center we're getting a lot of compliments about the building and we are very very proud as to how it has come out it's a beautiful facility and it's ours one thing that
010I will um talk about a little bit house bill four which is um passed through the house the Texas House and now we'll move on to the Senate. Now, just to put a little bit on that, House Bill 4 is a replacement for STAR. So, we're looking hopefully that will pass. It is something that we've been saying for years that the STAR test did not give a true depiction of what school districts are doing. So now they're pro um trying to get where it will be three tests, three smaller tests, a beginning of the year test that will be done about October, a middle of the year test in February, then the end of year, which is better because then we will see the progression of our students and it will not be teachers as
011they've accused public education teachers teaching to the test that one-time test. So it's going to take the burden off of schools. is going to take the burden off of teachers and our our students who really really are burdened by that test and it shouldn't be. We shouldn't have students coming to school thinking everything I do for 10 months is based on one day one test. It's absolutely absurd. So I am happy that they are working on that and as we move forward we just hope that it does pass and that we move on. Uh we are really happy with the uh on this Friday the Wilson Woodro Wilson Early College High School will graduate from the Mar College as a as well as certificates from our career technical education center. So we're excited about that.
012It's always a beautiful graduation and the students are happy because they graduate from college first before they even graduate from high school. So that's that's magnificent. And the parents are happy because they their kids have earned 60 credit hours for free. They haven't paid one dime for it. So they're happy. The students are happy. So everyone is happy. And then on next uh week on th on Thursday, May 27th, we'll culminate with the Memorial High School Wilson Early College High School graduation, which is always um a classy, dignified event that we want to keep going with. So that is happening and we do have this year we have a Gates scholar uh Mr. Jacob Wells who received the Gates scholarship and he now you know the gates I'll just say Gates pays for everything from
013bachelor's master's doctorate degree. So we're ecstatic and he is a wonderful wonderful young man and he's going to move he's going to make us proud as he met m metriculates through uh postsecary. Other than that, we are we're we're doing very very well. We're we're happy. We're very very happy. So, and we're also happy that we're into single digits. So, Oh, yes, we're in single digits. So, uh I'm going to ask Mrs. Lot to talk about some of the things that have happened with us. Uh she'll talk about And thank you, uh thank to our board members. I forgot to thank you for joining us. We're our teacher of the year uh program this year. Our teachers were happy and they did a great job. Um, they're just wonderful. I think every teacher in the
014world is wonderful. So, but ours obviously are the best. There's a lot. So, this report uh covers from April 1st to May 13th u because we uh skipped last month for time reason. The picture on the far left in the middle, our elementary campuses in Wheatley Early Childhood um are now receiving a monthly edition of Kids Scoop newspaper for free um from our partnership with the publishers of the Bowmont Journal. They deliver the newspapers to the campuses and every student gets a newspaper to encourage them to read and engage in literacy. And some of the pages in the newspaper are in Spanish. Uh and there are activities that the students can, you know, like write in the newspaper with the activities. So Weekly sent us some pictures and they made the comment that the kids
015had everything they needed but a cup of coffee that morning. So it was really cute. Um like Dr. Pury said, we have our gate scholar. So that is Jacob's picture in the top right corner. Uh we have started producing highlight videos that spotlight our students and our clubs and organizations. So these are clips from the Wilson Fitness Club of which uh Jacob is a member of. And um all of our spotlight videos are on our YouTube channel. The picture in the middle on the right, we have a content creator who has his own YouTube channel that goes to Tarot. We have had a couple of teachers who have been recognized in the news from on uh channel 4 and channel 6 from the Ark organization of Southeast Texas. And the bottom right shows uh a
016teacher from Portacres Elementary being recognized on the news. Our senior students have uh we asked them to send in their magazine covers. Um, this was an assignment at Wilson Early College and we hope that some of our Memorial High School students will do the same. Um, they're creating these covers that show the colleges and universities that they were accepted to and when they send them in, they're letting us know which one they chose and what their uh, field of study will be. So, we've been posting those on all of our socials. During the month of April, we had 15 observances. So here are some of the graphics that we posted and also some of the pictures that the campuses shared showing how they have been celebrating these uh education observances days, weeks and months. The
017bottom right corner, our Sam Houston fourth and fifth grade robotics club attended discovering engineering on the campus of Lamar University uh one particular spring Saturday morning and they had a good time. These are our May observances to date. And um we did have our senior prom and crowned our prom king and queen. We observe school principal day and recognized all of our principles. At the bottom right corner, Portas Elementary celebrated their principal with custom t-shirts featuring her photo. We've also been um recognizing when we are made aware of our scholarship recipients. So, um these are some of the graphics that we've shared on our socials to announce some of the different community uh organizations that have give awarded scholarships to our students. We celebrated school nurse and nurse assistance day and and we received photos
018from all of the campuses and named all of the nurses and all of the nursing assistants that we have. And here again, our rookies of the year and our teachers of the year. We had our annual graduation, our graduate walk, and that was where the seniors wore their caps and gowns and their cords to the elementary campuses. And it's not just a treat for the students, but the seniors enjoy walking the halls of their former elementary campuses as well. and it gives the younger students something to look forward to and aspire to as they can envision themselves um graduating high school one day. Thomas Jefferson applied for and was granted $1,500 from the national PTA uh grant opportunity. Our alpha UIL academic team came in third place overall at a recent competition. Adams Elementary has
019started rewarding their AR the students who have earned 100 or more AR points with the customized uh ceiling tiles. So the students leave their handprint on the ceiling tile and is put and that's a fixture that will remain on the campus for years to come. We had six of our students that earned the Motiva Excellence in Education scholarship and so Motiva created that graphic and sent that to us. One of our CTE welding students, Eric Bonia, won second place in pipe fitting at the Houston Livestock and Rodeo competition. And so that's that's new for us to have a win in pipe fitting. Uh Thomas Jefferson had their first ever entrepreneur expo. It was in the boys gym and students who have businesses where they offer goods and services uh decorated a booth. They created a
020trifold to market and advertise their goods or their services. And it was everything from uh homemade cookies to uh snacks, um custom bracelets. The young man on the bottom left corner has a auto detailing business. And so he had his different rates for different size vehicles and some of his u materials that he used to clean. One kid had his barbering equipment for cutting hair. Um, so it was, I believe, 12 students that participated on the first day of the expo and it was two days. So there may have been more participation the second day and it was covered by the media. So hopefully that will encourage more of the TJ students to participate next year. Uh, more scholarship winners and clips from our YouTube channel videos. Wilson Early College at the top toward the
021right. They had a senior trip. I believe they went to Austin, Texas. Lake View's first grade scientists are observing their terraniums. Um, our multilingual migrant department had a month where every Saturday they had migrant math mastery blitz and it was to help the migrant students um in the area of math. But it also they also invited the parents and they were able to show the parents strategies to help the students at home and then at the culmination of the blitz uh the students were able to take home u manipulatives that they can continue to sharpen their skills at home. We had our annual blue bonnet awards brunch. We named the winners of the spring break popsicle challenge. the youth and government group of graduating seniors at Wilson will now have a cord on their um
022gowns for graduation. So, they had a cording ceremony. We had teen artists, art students who um entered competitions at the annual courthouse competition and one of the students did actually place and her uh portrait will be hanging in the courthouse for the next year. Some of our weekly students learned how bees make honey. And you can tell by the faces that not everybody is a fan of what honey tastes like. Uh we had our first virtual career fair and it was a huge success where all of all 16 of our principles were able to interview with 80 certified teachers from across the globe including Ghana, the Philippines, Arkansas, and the state of Texas. um our friends and supporters at Fitz and Shipman, which is a consulting engineer and land surveyors uh business that has partnered
023with us for several years. They donated four front row tickets to the Houston Astros game that was on Good Friday and a premium parking pass. So, we raffled that off. Um our employees were able to submit their names for the raffle and a teacher at Terrell Elementary won the raffle. She took her two sons and her mom to the game. Wilson, the bottom toward the right, had their second annual chess tournament. The elementary and middle school bands and high school bands had their spring showcase. Um, the pool party was for the students who participated in the wide re tutorials this year at Sam Houston. And Sam Houston's kindergarten also had something similar to entrepreneur expo. They had a market day where the kindergarten students set up booths where they were selling goods and services and
024their classmates were able to purchase with the play money. Um, so this also taught the kindergarten students about the spirit of entrepreneurship. We had our academic signing day. Um, we had some CTE scholarship recipients who received toolboxes towards their careers in autoc collision. Our Sam Houston Foster grandparents and students were featured in a commercial. I believe Channel 6 uh produced a commercial. Um our seniors had their senior breakfast where they announced the class superlatives. The Queen was featured in Valero's um employee magazine for the partnership where Valero partners with United Way of to um to put vending machines for books in all of our elementary campuses. So, the Queen was featured in a magazine article about that. The TJ students visited Prairie View. Our high school choir teacher won first place in an adult classical
025division competition at a uh I don't know what those letters stand for, but some type of competition at Lonear College inside. And then the bottom right corner is the steam lab, the robotics team at Alpha in inside their steam lab. You can see the new mirror on the wall. In athletics, um we h we have a picture of our senior softball girls at the top right. TJ's Lady Titan soccer team came in second place in their division. We had uh the band had an event called uh pajama practice. So, there are some pictures that it was open to the public. They wore their pajamas. The public could wear their pajamas if they wanted to um to watch the band um rehearse some of their songs. The Memorial Flames drill team had their first spring review
026which was a a very well uh put together recital and it wasn't just the Flames who performed but they had area they had middle school uh dance teams from this district and they also had like community groups um and dancers who also performed on the on the spring review. We did a highlight film uh video on our Lady Titans powerlifting team and we had several of our Lady Titans soccer players who made all district uh teams our state qualifiers for the 4x400 mile relay. The Lady Titans volleyball is now in the spring uh volleyball tournament over at PNG and they're have been having a spring volleyball open gym at the high school between games. We had senior night for the softball and baseball teams. Several of our auxiliaries are having year-end banquetss. Uh the ladies
027in the red dress, that was the cheer banquet. The Flames have had their uh end of the year banquet. And it's just really nice to see the organizations, the band had a banquet. It's nice to see the auxiliaries going back to having end of year banquetss. Um the soccer our soccer uh coach is coach of the year. And then we had several players who made all district honors. Our volleyball team um was able to get a a serving machine from the Valero benefits for children's grant. Several of our track and field athletes earned all district honors. Three of our Lady Titan soccer players were invited to play in the Southeast Texas showcase. Um, and that was last Friday at PNG. And then our elementary basketball league had their championship uh run in the one out
028of this is one out of the four uh first place teams from that tournament. And these are pictures of our community engagement. We talked about the town hall meetings that we had for the bond. Our Kingsman from Wilson um was serving at a community event. We had our annual PTA founders day lunchon. Something new that we are starting this year. Um we are partnering with the education foundation. We have invited local businesses to donate items to fill gift bags for the top 10 students at Memorial and also the top 10 students at Wilson. um and filling it with it could be things that advertise their business, but it could also be gift cards like Valero donated fuel gift cards. Um so each kid would get one of those. One of the business uh donated baseball
029caps. So whatever they would like to to donate to make these gift baskets as rewards for our students. So this is our first year doing that and we will be delivering those um bags to both campuses next Monday. more community engagement. We did publish renderings of a potential uh consolidated middle school, what it might look like. Um we also showed what it would look like to expand the CTE building and to expand the newcomer center here at the admin building. Our Wilson Early College students were volunteering for the food bank. Lake View hosted a math night uh with the help of Total Energies. Uh we had artwork and on display at the first Southeast Texas FanFest. It's kind of like ComicFest and we did have students that participated as attending that event. Um and the
030person who produced that event, it was at the at the mall. He's going to to he because that was such a success, he's going to continue to do it, but also try to bring more things like this to our community for our kids to engage in. uh the Motiva Aspire Capstone project where the students are mentored for a couple of years by someone who works at Motiva. They had their culmination event a couple of weeks ago. We gave the public tours of the service center across the street. Um we have one former teacher who is alumni of the school district who is now president elect of the science teachers association of Texas. Uh Dennis Johnson. He formerly taught at Portres Elementary. Um, one of our retired teachers celebrated her 90th birthday. Thomas, she taught at
031Lincoln High School. Miss Moody, our testing coordinator, released her first album on all digital platforms. One of our uh Travis teachers earned her bachelor's and her teaching certification. Um, Miss Benois at Wilson published her first children's book. We did have one known um former employee to pass away, Mrs. um Martha Hollowman Winfrey. Um I know she substitute taught at Travis and she after her retirement, but she also retired from teaching at Travis as well. And we had several alumni who um offered scholarships to our seniors. And we have grown in our uh social media followers. We're up to 16,000 Facebook followers, but but all of our social media platforms, our audience has grown um throughout this school year. Um we've had over 2 million uh views on Facebook since April in these six weeks. And
032that concludes my report. President Johnson, may I make a comment, please? Yeah. F first of all I want to acknowledge and express appreciation to past president Loftton for his uh great works of being a the president of this organization uh a man who's traveled all over the world the last few months. So the idea of his being here at such a routine uh consistent basis I just want to acknowledge and appreciate that. Also want to express appreciation to and thank the new officers including president vice president and secretary of the board. So, thank you all very much for willing your willingness to assume those those those tasks. But also, I want to acknowledge the Friday teacher uh of the year celebration that Dr. Porter mentioned earlier. Uh you know, teaching is is is not a
033simple job. Uh you know, every day you got to show up on time, do your work. You you can't mess up with people's children. You know, there's so many things that could go wrong. And yet so often, more often than not, things go right with our teachers in the school and and staff and join our school district. And so the idea of taking the time to recognize our teachers, I thought was a great idea. Even albeit it was a seven in the morning, but se but interestingly and and I applauded Dr. Py for this. Every teacher showed up on time. Every principal, every administrator was on time. Every board member who was present was on time. And thanks those the majority of the board members who were able to participate. Just want to acknowledge that.
034Great job. It was a little tough at the end when Dr. Porter announced the teachers of the year for the whole district, elementary, secondary, the secondary one in particular, I won't call the name out. It was a tearjerker at the least. It was so so because of the challenges they faced in terms of medical issues and they acknowledged those medical issu. It was a good job and I thought it was a great great idea to have that program. Thank you, Dr. Py. Thank you. Thank you so much also Dr. Brown for those kind words. I definitely appreciate that. Um and I utter the same sentiment so far as for um the different programs that have happened thus far. It's been really exciting and I appreciate the district for offering that. Um we will go ahead
035and move forward to our minutes uh consider and if appropriate approved minutes of the April 24th, 2025 regular board meeting of board of trustees meeting. Uh can I have a motion? So move for approve. Second. Okay. Okay, I have a a motion by uh trustee Nory's and second by trustee Gwood. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, moving forward to consent agenda. The following items which are of routine and or current nature have now 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 without being discussed separately unless requested by a 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 discussion
036have been acted upon. I will give you a brief moment to review items one through 24. No. Okay. All right. If there are no Mr. President, I would like to make a motion that we approve items 1 through 24 on the consent agenda. Second. Okay. It has been moved by Trusty Borty and second by Trustee Gitwood. All in favor? I. Any opposed? discussing. Okay. At this point, we do have a discussion, possible action item, discussion and possible action regarding the renaming of Abraham Lincoln Fine Arts Academy. Uh we would like to uh hear from Trusty Gilwood at this point. Yes. Um thank you, Madam President. I originally had this. You have to have a motion first. So So move for approval. I apologize. I know. I got it. I'm happy to get on this. Okay.
037We will go ahead and ask for a motion to move this second. Okay. And it has been moved by Trustee Nor and second by Trusty Gwood. Trusty Gwood. Thank you, Madam President. Um I originally had this on the um agenda for last board meeting. how we wanted to wait until after um the bond election was successfully passed and in which it was um which we are excited about and so really just discussing um changing that name back to Abraham Lincoln Middle School. Um of course we have I think that we would we should consider that mainly because if we're going to make this a historical landmark it would possibly have to go back to being what it originally was. Um, so I want to just bring this before the board for discussion. Um, and just
038to see what were what were our thoughts and what were the proceedings moving forward. Okay, Dr. R. All right. Thank you uh for the opportunity to make a comment. I um I appreciate the vision uh Dr. Hurry and you and staff came up with for the idea of the fine arts academy approach. Uh and in fact I I think part of the if I remember right part of the reason for it was to encourage more students to attend that school and to give a kind of a special opportunity for for children to learn. Uh in my opinion humble opinion I would rather rather than go backwards to what we used to have let's move forward. And in fact, if the idea is to to get with the superintendent and staff about ideas of how to
039enhance or move the school to another level of operations or programs, let's have that conversation and then consider the whatever board board budget items that may need to be considered to to to enhance and make the make the program work better than perhaps some people think is working right now. uh as opposed to as as ooo as opposed to going going back back to the to the old. Let's go to the new and make it better through whatever enhancements or ideas or programs or or even uh budgetary resources that may need to be put in place to make things work better. Any other discussion comments? I just wanted to just clarify. I definitely agree with um with everything that Trusty Brown um has has uttered and ushered. Um just for point of clarification because I
040want to make it clear as to where I stand on this. And like I said, it's nothing nothing personal against anything that is done. I'm more than appreciative of the the thought of having a fine arts academy. I think out of anybody on this board, I would be the most appreciative of it being that I was a performing arts student. Um and and I I really am appreciative of the thought process of it. I think we do need to have a conversation about the approach of it. Um, and I'm just giving reference because I know during the bond election we did make um an option available to make this a historical landmark. However, I know historical landmarks have to be around for so long. Abraham Lincoln Fine Arts Academy in itself has only been around
041for three years. So, I just didn't know if that if that had anything to do with it. But even if it didn't, and even if it did, I just wanted to bring it to our attention as a board because we have to really stay true to the mission in which we're offering to our students, which is what we read every single time. And I'll read it again. Our mission as a primary source of education in the community is to meet the unique educational needs of our diverse population by providing a comprehensive quality education for students of the Fort Independent School District. And so I've had this conversation, we've had this conversation since 2023 when it first came up, which I was super proud to support. Came back in June, had some questions that of course
042went unanswered. Got my answers. Some really great receipts that I received. However, just was making sure that we are appropriately planning these things through um and and potentially not to go back, Dr. Brown, not to go back at all, but to rectify and to make sure that we can take it from a place of of of starting something and then making it better versus starting from the whole on down and trying to fix it. Starting from a foundational aspect to where we can kind of fix this. And the good thing is because the bond is passed, we now have the opportunity to do that. Um because this is something that needs to continue and should continue at this new middle school. So we now have an opportunity to discuss what that might look like. But
043that's why I put it on the agenda. Okay. If I may. Oh, go ahead. You go. No, you go. Okay. If I may, Trustee um President President Johnson, um if the board would allow us to move forward, um keeping it as is for the time being, of course, when we merge the two schools, we're going to have to look at names. Um we are going to have to design the new school. And you know, we looking at we said STEM. Now we now we're into this new term steam you know where is science, technology, engineering, art and math. So we will be addressing these issues as we move along. So if the board is okay with us moving forward as it is and to your question the historical landmark uh the intention was to and
044yes Abraham Lincoln school has been around since at least 1919. So that's 106 years old. So, it's a good opportunity that it will be a historical landmark, but we were thinking about more of a museum type and not a school. So, that would uh that could the fine arts would drop possibly. So, we'll have to discuss that. Uh we were talking about because the building is separated from the back getting rid of that. So there's there's a lot of conversation that needs to be had, but I think we need to move forward right now and then the the naming will come up again and the paperwork for historical landmark and I think it'll all work out. Again, I I definitely agree with you and I just want to make sure we're all clear here. This
045was something that I had to be put on the agenda for last board meeting. However, we however we waited and I only put this on the agenda just in case it was not passed. just in case it did not pass because none of us knew if the ball was going to pass. We're grateful that it did, but all of us was on pins and needles at that particular time. And I just wanted to make sure that if it was not passed, we were in the safe mark to make sure that hey, let's let's re let's go back to the drawing board and let's think this through and make sure that we're at least offering the best to our students and what that looks like. May I ask a question, please, Madam President? Yes. So, given
046what you just are you withdrawing the item from the agenda? Well, it's nothing to withdraw. It's discussion and possible options. So, possible action. So, it was just really just to bring a discussion to the table. It it was it was nothing to take action on unless we as a board decided to take action. It was discussion. Okay. Let me make one other comment. You know, um first of all, I love the arts. In fact, it's I I hate hate uh public and others who might think I'm wasting your time, but every morning I I wake up uh enjoying the arts. Every morning uh listen to Andre Crouch and people like that, just um just enjoying life through the arts. And I end the day, every day I read and enjoy the arts. And I've been
047fortunate and blessed my wife and I and family to travel the the nation actually the world and join the art even in Houston Texas Houston fine arts academy um debake is that debate yeah and um Dallas very fine fine facilities so I've seen schools that are just beautiful that I'd love to aspire and have discussions with this board and this and staff about how we can can can do a better job in what we offer. Let's have that conversation. Let's put the resources in place. I know we got the commitment staff. I think uh I I appreciate the principal who's there personally. I help hire the principal who's here and it I think he does a good job. But uh beyond that, and I love sports as well as everybody knows so much so when
048uh South Carolina Gamecocks won the national championship last year, not this year because Yukon was too good, right? But year before last, they were undefeated. I gota I got to see that team live. So Carrie and I pulled our pennies together to travel all the way to Colonial Life Stadium uh in South Carolina South Carolina just to see them playing to meet the head coach just because I was so proud of seeing what she was doing. Mr. Copeland, one of my favorite performers. Uh uh uh Carol and I had to go to all the way to California to watch her perform. Nutcracker. I didn't frankly want to go but my wife encouraged it. You got to go. Okay, cool. But didn't know at that time meet Mr. Cophind stage. Such a beautiful opportunity to be
049part of the arts again. The Hamilton in um um in New York City uh play all the way. So, so I've been around the arts and I know what can happen to it. It gives a certain different kind of meaning in life when you appreciate what Trusty Gwood just said, the art when you appreciate part of the arts. So let's let's continue to grow in that direction. Now so um so finally you know I appreciate um the intent of what trusty get just said. Uh but I I I think the way to the best alternative approach the better approach to take rather than change the name at this point do what Dr. totally just said and move forward in a positive direction and put the look look around the country that what we consider to
050be the best fine arts facilities, best fine arts options that are available. Take a field trip, take the board to wherever we got to go to what we consider to be the best options and then mimic whatever we see and enjoy and bring it back to Port Arthur, Texas. But don't deal with the name right now. Yeah. And and again, just so we all on the same page, this was something that was on the agenda for last board meeting before this actually before this actually moved. I I agree with you, Dr. Brown, and I definitely agree with Dr. Portery, and I want to also reiterate because I want the community to understand where I'm coming from as well. I'm not saying to change the name tomorrow. I'm not saying to change the name next week.
051I was just bringing it to the forefront because like I said, if the bond did not pass, we were going to have to deal with this coming up in August. And I just would much rather what you what you said was so true. Um and and about the arts, especially when you mentioned of course plays like Hamilton and things. I had the opportunity to travel to New York in high school and I was able to see the things that they're doing there, we've been doing here. The only difference is we've never had the resources to help perfect the crafts for the artists and the people that that actually value art. And so that's all I was giving reference to. And and that's honestly what this whole thing has been about because I don't want anyone
052to get misconrue with where I'm coming from with this. I care about the arts because I care about our children and our children have always been talented and it did not start because of a name change. Those kids have always been doing those things. what we've seen today, those kids have always placed at at UIL. My I myself have placed and made history in this district in the arts and wasn't able to to see that that initiative through because the arts weren't properly supported by the district at that time. And so all I'm saying is if we're ever going to have a performing arts academy, let's make sure that we're going at it from the right angle. And I've been saying that since 2023. That's a program that should have started off as a pilot
053program. and and and Dr. Brown, you yourself, you've been a superintendent, so you know how new initiatives work. And that's all I was saying from the very beginning is when we are doing new things for strategic initiatives, and even with this new middle school, even with this new middle school, everything has to be strategic. No, you know, I'm not shutting up. I'm talking the truth and telling it like it is. You didn't say that. No. Okay. I'm just I I'm I look I've been here for 4 years and I've been dealing with a whole bunch of stuff with with our amazing and comparable board with with cyber marks and so I'm just you know a little done with that. We're going to stay on this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. But just
054giving reference to this whole entire thing here. That's that's all this was was just to to have a safety net just in case the bond didn't pass so we can move forward together as a board. And but I do thank you and thank you Madam President. All right. Thank you, Trusty Gwell. We do appreciate you for bringing that uh to our attention. It was a um very descriptive discussion and Dr. Brown, your input was very valued. So, we definitely appreciate that and understand that going forth, we will need to collaborate and u make sure that we're just moving in the best interest of our fine arts. So, we definitely thank you for bringing that to our attention and for the comments. Um so, we will go ahead and move on to the personnel which I'll
055turn it over to Dr. Porter. President Johnson, I have given the board the list of employment for teachers for your approval. So move. Second. Okay. She said uh that was moved by uh uh Trusty Loftton and second by Trusty Brown. Brown and Brown. I'm sorry. Trusty Brown. I came from Trusty Brown and second by Trustee Diane Brown. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Move forward. President Johnson and board members, last month the board voted on the first candidate for the position of athletic director and it just didn't work out. So, however, we are fortunate to be able to move forward with another great candidate. So, I am asking for the approval of employment for athletic director, Mr. Andre Bevel. So, move for approval. Second. Okay. It has been uh moved by Trusty Gwood and
056second by Trusty Diane Brown. Uh we do have a request for a roll call vote. Secretary. Yes. Yes. Uh with seven yeses, that motion uh does pass for the employment of the athletic director. Uh we will now move on to information. Average daily enrollment by month um 8,62. Average daily enrollment by attendance 90.9%. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion for adjournment? So move a second. Okay.