001to get started on this meeting of the College Station ISD Board of Trustees. Declaration of a quorum, we have seven members present. >> [gasps] >> Welcome to this meeting of College Station Independent School District Board of Trustees. We were elected at large to represent the interests of our community and our state in educating our students. Our mission for our students in this district is success each life, each day, each hour. We adhere to all pertinent laws, policies, and procedures in posting agendas and conducting our meetings. The detailed agenda information was made available to us at least three business days in advance and we have all come to this meeting informed and prepared. We have just completed a workshop session where we heard reports and discussed much of the information needed to make decisions in either
002this meeting or in upcoming meetings. This is a meeting of the seven trustees in a public setting rather than a public meeting. As such, public comment is included on the agenda at a specific time and requires us to listen rather than take action so as to abide by the Open Meetings Act. We are pleased that you have taken time this evening to join us. We are very proud of the school district and we thank you for your interest in and support of our students. The first thing we have tonight is we have some students from Forest Ridge and South Knoll are going to come help us with our pledges. You guys ready? Good evening. It's good to see you all this evening and it's not raining. We'll we'll take that right now. So, I'm Teresa
003Cott and I'm the principal at Forest Ridge Elementary and I have two fabulous Falcons. Come on up here girls to introduce to you this evening. So, first I have Caroline Ocena and she's going to tell you a little bit about herself in just a second. So, Caroline is I said already a fourth grader at Forest Ridge. She is the first of the Ocenas to come through Forest Ridge and we have one more that's in second that will be making his way through Forest Ridge as well. So, we're glad that she's here and that then I have over here. So, and Caroline has spent her career in education at Forest Ridge. And is now again a fourth grader. And then I have Miss Lydia here, Miss Lydia Pickett and Miss Lydia started her experience at Forest
004Ridge in PPCD and is now also a fourth grader. And so she is the she is the last Pickett to go through Forest Ridge as you can see they're in the front row and yeah, there are other Picketts that went through Forest Ridge. I don't see Caleb though, but anyway, so we've had the the Picketts at Forest Ridge for well, almost as long as I've been there. So, we so this is a happy sad moment for your your principal right now. So, we're very delighted that they're going to have an opportunity to tell you a little bit about themselves before Miss Richter's kiddos get to do that. So, we'll start with Miss Ocena. Good evening. My name is Caroline Ocena. I am a fourth grade flip leader from Forest Ridge Elementary. My favorite subject is
005math and ELA. Some things that I love to do at Forest Ridge is go to different classrooms, see new teachers, and >> [snorts] >> My favorite thing about Forest Ridge is that all the teachers and principals are so involved. Outside of Forest Ridge, I love to dance and tumble. >> [gasps] >> I am proud of placing second in UIL spelling and building my confidence. For my career, I would love to be a dentist. >> [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Lydia Pickett. I'm a fourth grade flip [snorts] leader at Forest Ridge Elementary. My favorite subject is math. >> [sighs] >> My favorite thing to do at Forest Ridge is seeing my friends. My favorite thing about Forest Ridge is the awesome teachers. I uh >> [snorts] >> Outside of school, I like to do
006art and swimming. I'm proud of getting better at reading. I as a an com- a com- a com- accomplishment. >> [sighs] >> For my career, I want to be a child life specialist at a hospital or a fashion designer. >> [applause] [applause] >> My name is Laura Richter and I have the very good fortune of being the principal at South Knoll Elementary and I have brought with me two young ladies who are some of the best representation I think of what it means to be a South Knoll tiger and I'm going to let them introduce themselves to you and tell them a little bit about tell them let them tell you a little bit about themselves. Okay, Amy, are you ready? Hi, my name is Amy Bailey. My favorite thing about Hi, my name is
007Amy Bailey. My favorite thing about South Knoll is my teachers. My favorite thing to do is read Mercy Watson books. I also like spending time at my church. When I grow up, I want to be a teacher at South Knoll. I might only be a teacher for two or three years because I also want to be a doctor and a vet. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT. YOU READY, JAZARA? OKAY. MY name is Jazara Elders. I'm from South Knoll and I go to first grade. Um What do you what's your favorite thing about South Knoll? My favorite thing at South Knoll is um to learn and read and do math and science. What do you like to do outside? What's your favorite thing to do? Sing and dance. Sing and dance. Jazara likes to sing and
008dance. And what do you want to do when you grow up? Um I want to be a Tinkerbell and a cheerleader and a volleyball player. >> [applause] >> I THINK WE CAN ALL TELL JAZARA SPENDS A LOT of time at the high school. >> [laughter] >> All right, you guys ready? Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me for the Texas Pledge. I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Okay, wait a minute. Please join us for a moment of silence. Please
009be seated. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. Miss Pickett, I think you overcame your fear of speaking in public. I think you did a great job. Didn't she do a great job? Let's give her another round of applause. They all did. [applause and cheering] We appreciate it. Super. And I think our future is secured. We all have a dentist and a doctor and some dancers. We're good. So, thank goodness for that. Uh I I also get the wonderful opportunity and privilege of honoring some outstanding uh educators at Forest Ridge Elementary. And so, um would the members of our fourth grade team at Forest Ridge please come forward and stand right here. >> [snorts] [applause] [snorts] >> Okay. >> [clears throat] >> So, I um you know, been at Forest Ridge for a few years. And
010the ladies standing here to my left are just amazing educators. Some of them been there almost as long as I have, but uh I think the youngest one to our Forest Ridge team is Miss House and she's been with us for 3 years. So, we're pretty excited about that. Has been with us for a parent for longer than that. So, have Heather Ann's, Hillary Rollins, Julie Wester, Monica House and in the center there is Andrea Percin. So, and they are an incredible team of people that love kids and work really hard for them. So, a couple of one little quick thing about I just wanted that I'm going to talk about them in a group as a group. So, Miss Ann's Miss Ann's is our uh our team member who makes sure that we stay
011on track. She is very organized. She has all her ducks in a row at all all times and she also makes sure that we have our ducks in a row as well. And the kids too. So, that's really kind of one of her claims to fame at Forest Ridge. Miss Wester Miss Wester could teach science every minute of every day, she would be a very happy human. She knows science forwards and backwards and things she brings to Forest Ridge are quite amazing. You know, when they do the ice cream lab, she always makes sure I'm invited because, you know, I love ice cream. So, and did you know you can make it in a jar? It's really simple. Uh so, that's pretty fun. Uh Andrea Percin right there in the center as already mentioned is
012just a powerhouse of energy and excitement that she brings to to the team. She is always ready to lean and say, "We can do this." No matter how hard it may seem at the time. Her area of expertise is certainly in mathematics and she can get kiddos to solve problems in multiple ways and multiple with multiple materials and I'm always wondering what she's going to be using with something I don't even know how she's going to use it. So, that's our claim to fame as well. Miss House Miss House is a master of all things. She teaches all of the content areas and she has a really good op- opportunity to have a very smooth transition between English English language arts and mathematics and science. So, she blends those together in a beautiful way and
013is really great at reaching out to kiddos who may need just a little bit more. And then Miss Rollins Miss Rollins is known as the chicken lady at Forest Ridge. You didn't think I was going to say that, did you? She is. So, because she loves chickens. Really, I'm serious. And so, um she has all things chickens. But, that's really not her claim to fame at Forest Ridge. She is uh language arts is her area of expertise and she uh I've say often of all these ladies who teach language arts, but Miss Rollins especially, she can teach a rock to read. I mean, she can she can do it. She She also has that same level of energy and enthusiasm to really invite kids into the power that comes out of being a very strong
014reader. So, they all bring their unique expertise to this team, but but together together they're magic. So, I I think that Miss Given, our assistant principal, and I talked a whole lot about the fact that they have worked so hard to really embrace the theory and framework that we are working on here in College Station. And it was hard work. Wasn't it? Yes. But, they just encouraged each other and really took ownership of the process and we are seeing amazing results from our kiddos in all areas of assessment as well as the the ideas that our kids have and the creativity they have to take the key learnings into their next learning space. So, I mean, they they keep each other lifted up and pushing through the hard things, but the main thing about this
015team is they adore children. They feel privileged and honored to work with each and every single one of them and they say really great things about their principal. >> [laughter] >> No, I I just added that in for fun. Uh so, they really say really great things about our families and our kiddos and, you know, they believe they believe they are our 1 degree more award winners for tonight. So, please give them another ROUND OF APPLAUSE. >> [applause] [applause] >> THANK YOU. I ALSO GET THE OPPORTUNITY to celebrate some um incredible staff members from South Knoll this evening. So, if um Paula Martinez and Iris Becerra and Joella Schilling and Megan Covington can come forward. So, I believe that one of the most important jobs that I have as a principal is to support teachers
016and make their jobs easier. Because the job of a classroom teacher is a challenging one. But, the one of the first things you learn as a principal is that is really hard to do by yourself and you need help. And I am blessed with an exceptional group of teacher leaders who have um stepped forward and offered to lead um their grade level teams and become the facilitators of their um collaborative team meetings. Now, being a facilitator of a collaborative team meeting, that's not a glamorous job. It's kind of like being the president of your homeowners association. Nobody really wants it, but there's always one brave soul that says, "I'll do it. I'll do it." And these ladies are that are those brave souls. They They um when we were looking for people to to lead
017that work, they all extended themselves and said, "I can do it." And they have all brought their special gifts and talents to those roles and I just want to share a little bit about each one of them and how they have flavored our work and how because of them our work is stronger and better. Joella Schilling um knows how to bring the fun. She has added um an element of joy and playfulness to with her collaborative team. Um she um takes time every meeting they're together and find something to celebrate, a strategy someone is trying, success that that that someone has seen. Um and and she has prizes, which makes it fun. She plays games and has prizes, but she also knows that there's work that has to happen and that by getting people engaged
018and motivated and celebrated, that's another way to keep everybody moving forward and to keep that work happening. And her team when that when those when the kindergarten team rolls in, the what they're able to get done in the time they're there, it is just it's um it's amazing to watch how um the the meetings have changed once we've kind of made the move to the teacher facilitation. So, Joella, thank you for that. Megan Covington is um the She leads with this quiet grace and purposeful Everything Megan does has intention and I know that when she comes into the meeting, she's also done a lot of work behind the scenes to kind of um feel everybody out, get everybody's opinion, kind of build consensus before we get around that table. And because she's invested in our
019team, they invest in the work. And these two ladies, Paula and Iris, are on my second grade team. Paula is the facilitator for our English language arts side of the of the second grade team and Iris is the facilitator of the math side of our second grade team. And what I will tell you about them is on our second grade team, we have three teachers who it's either their first year or their second year in teaching. And over the course of the year, I have watched these teachers blossom and grow. And not only just come to the the meetings and and absorb and take in the strategies, which they have that have been shared, but over the course of the year now they're they're celebrating and hey, this is what I found and what if
020we tried this and and and and they're sharing and they're willing to extend themselves. And in a profession where we don't see a lot of work teacher retention is something we are faced with as a serious challenge, to know that we've supported three people new to the profession who during their summative conferences cited the support of these two ladies and their collaborative teams as one of the reasons why they felt a year of success is a tremendous accomplishment and I thank you for that. What you do is not just made a difference for your individual teams, but it's for our campus as a whole and the work we've been able to do and where where we are now and where we're headed. So, thank you guys so very much. >> [applause] >> Oh, thank you.
021Thank you, Vanna. For you. And for you. Teachers, they're amazing. >> They are. THANK [applause] YOU. GREAT. PRESIDENT EGEY, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, we are proud to continue our recognitions portion of the meeting by highlighting a special group of student athletes who have achieved great things this year. So, tonight we're proud to recognize the College Station High School boys soccer team for making history this spring advancing to the 2026 UIL 5A Division 1 state championship match, the first state final appearance in program history. The Cougars finished the season with an impressive 16-8-4 record after placing fourth in district play. They made a remarkable post season run earning victories over Porter, Angleton, Victoria West, Spring Woods, and Southwest Legacy to secure their spot in the state championship match. On April 10th, the Cougars faced the defending
022state championship champion Walnut Grove. They competed with determination and grit and ultimately fell 2-0. And while the final result wasn't what they'd hoped for, this team set a new standard of excellence and has so much to be proud for proud of. Several players were recognized for their outstanding performances throughout the season with all state tournament team honors for Brandon Burns, defender, Samuel Key, midfielder, Tomas Dominguez, forward, and district honors for Vicente Paredes, Andres Martinez Salazar, Jacob Lote Lopez along with several other additional all state selections. Please join us in congratulating these student athletes and their coaches. Their dedication, teamwork, and perseverance have brought pride to College Station High School and to our entire community. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, COUGARS. I'M GOING TO CALL YOUR name and as I call your name, if you'll come
023and receive your certificate up here from Dr. Harkrider and allow the board to shake your hands and wait over here to the side. We're going to take a group picture after we're done. Starting off, Andres Martinez Salazar. >> [applause] >> ANDERSON PERSIN. >> [applause] >> Asher Caulkin. >> [applause] >> Jacob Lopez. >> [applause] >> Samuel He. >> [applause] >> Santiago Martinez Salazar. >> [applause] >> Brandon Burns. >> [applause] >> Kevin Alvarado. >> [applause] >> Hasiel Turrubiartes. >> [applause] >> Grayson Kent. >> [applause] >> Tomas Dominguez. >> [applause] >> Vicente Paredes. >> [applause] [laughter] >> Roman Ross. >> [applause] >> Kaloyan Dimitrov. >> [applause] >> Angel Del Rosal. >> [applause] >> Joseph Rachetski. >> [applause] >> Jorge Flores. >> [applause] >> Guilherme Vieira. >> [applause] >> Rafael Becayo. >> [applause] >> Khalid Alani. >> [applause] >>
024Nathaniel Ifikhar. >> [applause] >> Edson Acosta. >> [applause] >> Caden Tapley. Daniel Gonzalez. >> [applause] >> River Chai. >> [applause] >> Elliot McLone. >> [applause] >> Hans Park. >> [applause] >> Victor Cook. Lucas Rivas. >> [applause] >> And their head coach, CHAD PEEVEY. >> [cheering] [screaming] >> ASSISTANT COACHES WESLEY Fisher and EDGAR DE LUNA. >> [cheering] [applause] >> I CAN'T SEE OVER THE BOYS, BUT THEIR student manager, Gustavo Lopez. >> [laughter] [snorts] [applause] [laughter] >> All right, as we let them get settled again, I just want to point out that the artwork at the back of our board room is also from our students from Forest Ridge and Knoll Elementary. So, just want to recognize that artwork and tell you to take a look at that when you get an opportunity. That's going to move
025us to item D1, which is board reports. What have we got? Okay, I can give a few. Sorry. Budget Committee met. We had a great presentation and workshop. So, for those of you interested in that, I would definitely go watch the workshop. Got a lot of great information. I guess the main thing Budget Committee um They focused on facility efficiency, staffing review, program costs, and operational efficiencies. So, we had a great report from them. Bilingual Committee also met. Really kind of focusing on some of the summer programs or some academic engagement they can give the students over the summer. This was the first year of that committee. So, it was great to get some parents together to collaborate. And the special education committee also met and Blair's going to give us a great update tonight.
026So, I really won't steal her thunder, but one thing I did want to mention is the TA parent directed special education services grant. The application opened April 1st and it's open through the 30th and that's a $1,500 one-time grant for parents and students receiving services. So, I encourage parents to go out and look at that. And I think that is it for me. I know a couple of committees that some of us are on are meeting. We have community advisory tomorrow and teacher advisory next week. So, those will be reported on next month. We'll have some reports on those. Um Several of us went to intergovernmental committee yesterday and we had a report from Baylor Scott and White and Saint Joseph Systems. I thought it was really interesting, something that's completely out of my sphere
027of knowledge, but interesting to hear what they've done to serve our community and just the growth in that sector and how they're working to grow people and the facilities and the investments that they're making in those. I don't know if either one of you have other comments on that, but Yeah, I was just going to add that I didn't know about the partnership we have with Baylor Scott and White that allows our students to go to essentially begin to explore different career options, particularly some that don't take many many years of education. We know those, we know doctors and nurses, but some of the things that they said that they're exposing some of our students to, letting them see options they have and supporting that because sounds like they can't find enough and many of
028those are excellent jobs, very well-paying jobs and Baylor Scott and White seem to be looking for as many as they could find. So, kudos to whoever put that program together. I think those partnerships are great as we continue to help kids find what's going to be the best way for them after they leave our hallways. I would just add that my understanding that was a summer exploratory program free to like I think June after junior year that yeah, so maybe still time time to sign up. I don't know. Any other reports? I have the Education Foundation. Um the Education Foundation invested in all 250 Brazos County Youth Livestock Show the student participants. There was an amount of 28,000 that went to the Ag Initiative, so congrats. Um also we had a really great night and
029a few of us got to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony. Um and it was special getting to honor those teacher student groups. And I guess I have two things to share. One was DIC that met on April 8th and it was a we actually had got three great program updates that I found really it really interesting. So, Ms. Cooper gave us an the whole team update from the HR. Talked about um teacher incentive allotment, some of the details there and you know, in continuing to add eligible folks to to that program. There and the recruitment efforts for for teachers. Then we also got a sped update, similar to from the sped committee meeting, but again, we will be seeing those details here in a minute from Ms. Grande and then we also got an
030update from Ms. Pugh who um shared some information about their AI discussions that have been happening through the district. And you know, putting together basically I or the the idea right now is a is a AI council, I think she called it that just helping us as part of our um strategic plan really, how are we going to enter intergate integrate that part of technology into our learning and finding that balance between you know, using it how it can be helpful to strengthen learning. So, all all really great great updates at DIC. So, um the other thing I wanted to share is just with everybody is kind of that that I just came from on Saturday I got to go to the next step in the legislative advisory council. The um kind of TASB organized
031effort where we had school board members in this this time from all across the state meeting in Austin starting to talk about our priorities for that legislative session that you know, we we we heard about in our in our workshop. And I don't think they'll be really surprises to anybody, but I also look forward to us starting our conversations you know, sooner rather rather than later so that we can advocate both with our legislators but also with in our communities. I think that that was some of the discussion as well, you know, with the uh >> [clears throat] >> advocating and and educating our community about how the things that are happening in Austin are affecting us. We heard a a I I'd urge anybody to go back and listen to the workshop section where
032Dr. Detloff presented about some of the the challenges really impacting education in Texas in general and then of course, you can hear all the specifics how they're how it's affecting us as well. So, I think that's really important. Uh and so anyway, that conversation I mean, it'll be here before we know it and it's I'm glad we're having those conversations. One last thing, I had start Policy Council. We didn't meet and we will here soon, but some highlights of the program during their early education application roundup, they had about 278 applications with 30 more since April 1st that applied. And they also had the early education soccer league which was a big hit. They had 266 family members in attendance over the last 2 weeks. So, a lot of fun out there. 88 dads were
033included. So, the initiative of asking those dads to come out and coach a lot of Anything else? Okay, Dr. Harkrider. Yes, ma'am. As we wrap up the last 4 weeks of school, uh time is of the essence cuz we have a lot going on. So, we have our volunteer appreciation lunch which we've had over 3,000 uh volunteers in our district this last year will be April 30th. Our district art show is May the 2nd. Little Olympics May 6th. Our education foundation scholarship ceremony is May the 11th and our employee awards is May the 13th. We're wrapping up STAR testing this week and Sherry told me prior to the board meeting we have submitted 15,000 test so far and we have one more day of testing left along with makeups on Friday. So, lots of testing.
034I know everybody is ready to get that behind them. There's a lot of uh a lot of work that goes into getting that process underway. So, we appreciate all of our testing coordinators throughout the district. They've done a wonderful job. Uh athletics, quite a bit going on. Powerlifting, College Station High School went to state. Track and field at the district meet, College Station High School girls were district champions for the 10th year in a row. The Consol boys were district champs. At the area meet, Consol girls were area champions. College Station High girls runner-up and Consol boys were runner-up. Region will be here in 2 weeks, May 1st and 2nd. Uh tennis, we've got state tournament coming up May 7th and 8th. College Station High School has three state qualifiers and Consol has two. Baseball,
035College Station High School I believe has secured a playoff spot in the third seed. I think they may need to split this week, but they will be in the playoffs. Consol is going to finish right outside of that at fifth place. Both softball programs, College Station High, Consol will start the first round of the playoffs Friday night. College Station High will actually be hosting both of the games on Friday. Consol is playing halfway between here and Crosby at Saffire I believe. And our golf state tournament, College Station High School boys is next week. Football, yes, we do football in the spring in Texas. So, we have May 12th is College Station High School spring game that will be at Cougar Stadium. Consol spring game will be May 18th and that is going to be at
036AMC Middle School as Tiger Stadium is still under construction. Uh CTE, we had a big representation at Education Foundation help support 158 students recently at the Brazos County Youth Livestock Show premium and freezer sales and we had multiple students participating in state competitions. Fine arts, UIL state inside reading, all CSISD choirs, top ratings. Both high schools theater programs brought home several honors from District One Act Play contest. Consol winter color guard advanced to the state contest for the first time in program history and finished ninth. And elementary middle school art students earned recognition at TAEA junior vase and team competition. So, be a sprint to the finish line and there will probably be this much if not more at the May meeting. So, a lot of great things happening. Thank you. That's awesome. When you
037have to have a whole front and back piece of paper to tell all of the great things that our students are doing. I love that. Um hearing of citizens, we do not have any this evening, so that's going to move us to the consent agenda which is items G I3 and J1 to J19. Motion to approve as presented. Second. I have a motion from Dr. Payne and a second from Ms. Simmon. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? That motion passes 7-0 and that is going to move us to item I1. We're going to receive a report related to the School Health Advisory Council. Time to project it up to the There we go. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Um I had the privilege this year of working with parent and teacher volunteers from
038around the district on the School Health Advisory Council and we got to do a lot this year, but I want to do a little bit of history. Um this is we met six times throughout the year. It was an open invitation. Originally, we had 80-something applicants and we were fairly certain that might be the biggest SHAC in Texas, but ultimately, we ended up with um 22 total members. 15 of those were non-employee members, five were district employee members, and two school board members. Um we focused on um I'm sorry, this is our webpage that you can see here. This is where you'll find our wellness plan that I'll talk about in just a second. Um and then we focus on the whole school, the whole community, and the whole child. So, that was This was
039our model for the year, which we've had for a few years. We just continue to keep that um because this is our focus as a um not only a membership, but as a district. This year, um we started off our meetings with um an update to the bylaws. Um we elected a new chairperson. Well, it'll be Neo again, Neo Jang, for those of you that know Neo. He will be serving again as our chairperson. We reviewed our wellness plan and made appropriate updates um to the committee. Uh we had a safe uh CSISD district safety effort report from Chase Tracy Boudreaux. We had a report from Neo on active transportation regarding biking and walking to school and safe routes. We worked with Bridget Goellet through the child nutrition program and got some updates on that.
040Health and PE with Megan Symmac, uh employee wellness with um Danielle from HR, and we had career and technology shared and came and spoke with the council about all of our pathways that are offered, and it when those pathways begin being presented to students and parents. And then we had a nursing counselor update from Chrissy Hester to round out the year. Um our plans We made some plans for the 26-27 um SHAC. We'd like to form two subcommittees. So, what we found this year is that we felt like we'd be more productive for people that wanted to serve on the active transportation subcommittee, as well as a We had a proposal for a healthy families expo this year, but we'd like to really spend some time planning on that to make it successful for hopefully
041the spring of 2027. So, we're looking forward to that. We want to have a subcommittee that focuses on those efforts instead of it being a whole 22 uh member committee. For our recommendations for this year, um one of the uh presentations, as I mentioned, was from Chrissy Hester on nursing and counselors. And um we have come to the um conclusion that should a floating nurse position be requested by student services, which is Chrissy, we our SHAC is in full support of that. Um and we'd like to partner with community engagement to increase the number of nurses that are available to substitute. So, when we have nurses that are out, our pool of substitute nurses is not um as as robust as we would like for it to be, so we want to work on that
042as well. And then um one of the active transportation recommendations that we had as that we would like to partner with um the district to promote and participate in National Walk and Roll to School Day, which is October 7th, 2026. So, please be looking for that as we um continue to work with um schools and districts to promote that day. Do you guys have any questions for SHAC? I just want to say thank you for um leading that committee and coming in telling us what you've been doing, and appreciation for the parents, especially, that take their time to serve on that committee. Absolutely. It was a great group, so I look forward to working with them next year. Thank you. All right, the next item that we have is I2, a special education department update.
043Ms. Grande. Hi. Good evening, President Ege, Dr. Harkrider, members of the board. I [clears throat] am really honored and excited to get to give you some updates about special education this evening. Um truth be told, I could probably spend a day telling you all about the great things happening and and the areas that we're working on and what we're identifying as as focus areas for our department, but I won't take that long, I promise. So, here we go. I'm going to start with some highlights in special education. We did have the Special Olympics last month on a Saturday. Um we had coaches Randy Daniel, Greg Smith, Devin Henry, and Elizabeth Engelhart, who pour into our students who participate in Special Olympics throughout the year. They coach on the weekends, they go all over the state,
044um and it it really is amazing to see. I also wanted to give a very public thank you to the CSISD students and employees, Boy Scouts, and AMU student organizations, as well as others who helped put that event on for our students. Another big celebration we have going on with them really 9 through 18 plus, which are our kids who have graduated out and they're beyond 18 plus is um past the high school age group. Those kids have um been working on a pop-up market, coffee services, and manufacturing goods to sell at their pop-up markets and to put out in our community. Um Education Foundation in CSISD provided a significant grant, as well as Texas A&M got it gave us a work-based learning grant that Amy Cecil, our transition coordinator, um and Emma Endres, our
045secondary coordinator, worked together to secure for our kids. It's a lofty amount. It's a big deal, and it's making it so these kids can do amazing things. Um they're making squishies, they're making cakes that go into your car I don't know what they're called, but you know what I mean, they smell good. And they have um all kinds of products they're making, and then they're selling them around the community. So, super cool stuff going on over in that in that world. And then finally, I wanted to give a special shout-out to our special education parent advisory committee. This is the first year we had this committee in place, and um it took them away from their families to come in in the evenings to participate. It was fantastic. We spent a lot of time giving
046information and helping the parents learn about um selected areas of interest, and as the year progressed, the trust was built between our staff and those parents, and I feel like you just saw it blossom. They were asking questions, they were getting clarification, we're getting more and more emails from them directly when they have questions about things going on, and it's helping us even identify areas that we may need to um clarify and shore up in training and things like that to improve for our schools and our parents and our students. So, really great stuff going on. I just wanted to to start with that with those highlights. Okay, here we go. Special education evaluation data. So, this is historical data for initial full individual evaluations, also known as FIEs, in special education. The acronyms are
047everywhere, and so I will try to define them and help I will try to define them and help make them clear. Um but you can see 19-20, we had 374 full evaluations for our students. That was the year that we left early in the spring for COVID, and so spring is a lot of the time where you have an uptick in evaluations, so I'm not surprised that number was relatively low that year. Following year, with 415. Post-COVID, virtual school was happening. We had a lot of kids still um accessing school from home that year. And then 21-22, they came back, and bam, right? 703. We had a huge increase in our um FIEs that were requested. Not a surprise when you're looking at kiddos who'd been out of school for a period of time. There
048were some deficits, so we saw more of those initial evaluation requests. 22-23, 23-24, we kept pretty consistent in the 600s. 24-25 is when dyslexia was added as a category under special education, and we saw an uptick in our evaluations there. And then 25-26, we are as of today at 675 initial evaluations um requested and being written by our assessment team. And I just put a note on there, the rest of these totals are as of June 30th, and so that 675 is tracking to be another year where we have a large number of evaluations by the time we hit June 30th. So, wanted to give you guys that just overview of the evaluations. And then um at 2:00 today, I had a TEA webinar where we talked about some funding and what's going on in
049the world of special education in Texas, and the per initial evaluation. So, we don't know when we'll see that exactly, and you know, very I'm hopeful that it's going to be great and wonderful, and we're going to get these additional funds, um but that is a really really promising thing that our state is looking at to help reimburse us um for our special education evaluations. I also wanted to tell you guys that does include private school evaluation requests. So, we've had about 50 so far this school year, which is two and a half times more than we'd had in previous years, um and that is included in that the $1,000 reimbursement. Special education enrollment over the course of the past five years, you can see district enrollment in that first column is going um you
050know, uptick, it's going up, it's going up, and then it kind of started to decrease a little bit. Special education enrollment doesn't decrease much, right? Like it just keeps going up, and then we had a little decrease from last year to this year. Percentage of total enrollment in special education is that next column, and then the state percentage. So, you can see the comparison of College Station ISD percentages in special education as compared to the state. I also put a note on 24-25. Um that was when dyslexia was added again, so we saw an increase start happening across the state there, but in our district, we started to make that shift to dyslexia being served through special education in 23-24. So, our numbers hit that 18% mark a little earlier than um otherwise would have
051happened, but we've we're staying pretty consistent with that 18% um students in special education. I also thought this was pretty neat to show you guys. Nerding out, right? Like this is fun for me. This um shows you the different levels of special education support that we provide. So, if you were have a student who is speech therapy only, they only get speech therapy services, they're at that 00, we have 444 students in that category served through speech only. Then you go to mainstream, those are kids who have co-teach in-class support, that kind of services. Resource, 41 is resource less than 21% of the school day. And I put a note on that one, we have 908 in that category, and that bumped up significantly whenever we added dyslexia under special ed. Almost 400 of those
052students are served through dyslexia. So, that was a big bump, and that's where we reached that 35% mark at that point. And then it just keeps going through, kiddos in resource 21 to 50% of the less than 50% of the time, 50 to 60, and then beyond. Okay. Another part of my wonderful webinar this this afternoon was that looking into 2026-2027, TEA is consider is going to have a service based funding model. And so, I'm hoping that this is another good thing for us, that we will be able to be more funded for our kids who have who have the special needs. And so, it would look at something Let me give you an example. So, if you have two kids in general education, and there's one who needs behavioral support, help with four or
053five different accommodations in the classroom, maybe they have someone coming in to give some direct instruction in that classroom, and then you have another kid in general education who just needs help staying on task, those kids are going to get different levels of funding based on the levels of services that they require. So, so this could be something that is really good for us in the long run, but again, we'll see how it goes. Next year is our our pilot year to trial it out. Okay, pause. Do you have any questions so far? Okay, what's your question, Mr. Field? Do private schools pay for those evals when we do those, or is that just like a service to the community? That is a requirement that we have. So, if you are a private school student
054or a home school student, but you live in College Station ISD's zoning, then we are required to provide those. Good question. >> Yeah, thanks. You're welcome. The growth percentage growth, you mentioned dyslexia. I'm just curious why you think, or if you have an answer, why we're a little above state in terms of enrollment. Do people come here? Are they seeking it out? I'm just curious. So, over the years it has been shared that that we are known for being a district that serves our special education students very well, and so yes, we do have families who move here to access the services that College Station ISD provides to our students. So, so yes, that is a that is a significant part of it, I would say. Okay, I'm going to show you guys some data.
055This was really hard to pinpoint which charts to make and show you because it's K through 12, all the subjects, all the things. So, I started with MAP sped percent growth met in reading for kindergarten through third graders. So, this is this is showing you specifically in reading, which kind of goes with your question about dyslexia in particular. A lot of the times this is the age group where dyslexia is identified, and we start showing those interventions happening. And so, um I thought this was really really great data to show to share with y'all. That dark black line is the 50% mark, and in MAP for percent growth projection met, that's the goal. That's what we're shooting for. So, if they hit that line, that's that's solid. Um in kindergarten, we're right we're right around
056where we should be. And then we have a dyslexia screener that takes place in kindergarten, as well [clears throat] as in first grade, and then we're monitoring it closely in second as well. And so, we start to capture kids in that first grade area who are identified as dyslexic, and then get that intervention service. So, you can see where their graph starts to improve over in that 25-26 in particular, but it's it's good trending data that's showing that our interventions are working, and that children are growing in reading K through third. I thought that was pretty exciting. Made my heart happy. And then, um I know that it's our Not everybody always wants to talk about STAR. However, I pulled this data from the Texas Academic Performance Report because it is a significant part of
057the accountability ratings, and so I wanted to share some of this information with y'all. Um this is a third through eighth grade, so these are all the kids taking ELA reading, and and they are special education identified. So, the blue bar is the general education scoring for the state. Red is general education CSISD, the gold is currently in special education, and the green is that they were former special education. I really loved how this report shared former special education students growth in scores because this is what you want to see. So, we have kids getting intervention in special education, and then when they exit, so they're no longer in special education, they're in the green bar, they're right on par with their peers. And so, they are exiting, and they are performing in general education,
058which is a really great thing to see. And then this is math, so very very similar. >> [clears throat] >> And then sped academic achievement, this is showing third through eighth grade overall each of the subject areas that these kids are passing STAR. So, this is approaches, meets, masters. Um and again, overall we're seeing a good trend. Our kids are growing, and they are mastering or or passing the STAR test at a higher rate. Social studies we're going to watch closely. We'll talk a little bit about that in a little minute in a minute. End of course exams were another area that I looked at. So, in algebra, gold bars are the ones for the most recent school year showing growth in algebra, biology, history is real close. English, um when you look at English
0591 and English 2, so your English 1 red bar kind of becomes your English 2 gold bar, right? Because you have to pass English 1, and then you take the English 2 test. So, that cohort of kids would be that next bar. So, that that shows that they're doing okay. We could probably see some more growth and some some better things in English, but I know that's a hard subject for a lot of our kids in special education just overall. Um and then that blue bar in English 1 is your red bar in English 2. The STAR alternate 2 is an assessment that is given to our students who are learning on the applied standards, so they are accessing the curriculum at a pre-requisite level. A lot of times this is our life skills classrooms.
060The gold is considered developing, and that is a not pass. So, according to the state, that gold bar is a not pass. Red and blue means that they consider they were considered passing for the STAR alt 2. Um we had additional training provided this school year because we would like to see less in the gold and more in the red and blue for our kids. We had additional training from our coordinators to our life skills teachers this year in administration of this test, and a lot of our teachers were first-year providers or administrators of this test when this data was taken, and so I think when we see next year I I think we'll see an improvement as well because they will have given the test more than one time. Okay. >> [snorts] >> Pause.
061Do you have any questions about that data? More general with the STAR testing for for the students in your programs, how are those in in general integrated in with the other STAR grades and with our accountability ratings? Are they Just They They count. >> They Just completely the overall average, right? >> Mhm. They count, and then there are these subcategories of special education in particular, are we growing our students in special education? So, they're a subcategory within, and they also have would have to show those growth rates that would be expected of other students. >> So, they're in the overall population, but then we just like we look at other sub populations, we look at them. Yes. Yep. Any other questions on that part? Okay. All right. And then, looking at special education staffing historically,
062for This is for the past 4 years plus a projection into next year. You saw that special education students have continued to increase. So, naturally, our teachers and instructional assistant support has also had to increase to support those needs. The part that hadn't had much growth for a while is that assessment section, and as our assessment numbers have also increased significantly over the past few years, we wanted to um pay attention to that. In 2024-2025 at the gold section, we had ended up spending $75,000 on contracted services for evaluations. So, we had our existing 22 evaluators, and whenever it came time to to do all those evaluations and report writing, we had to contract additional people in to help to help alleviate that burden because it was so much on those staff members. So, after
063we looked at that and had that much needed for contracted services, in 2025-2026, we added additional evaluation staff because we were paying so much in contracted services anyhow, we we needed the staff. So, we had an increase in that evaluation staff there. >> [snorts] >> We also had approximately $75,000 on contracted behavioral support for very high needs behavior. We had a student who had come in from out of a clinical setting and required a lot of additional support. Fortunately, TEA has a high class a high cost funds grant and so I was able to apply for that and get about $40,000 of that 75 recaptured. We got paid back for that amount so it's more like 35 for that total cost. So we kind of wanted to watch that for another year and see is
064that going to be something that we need positions added for considered whenever we looked at this school year. So then in the green for 25 26, we didn't have all the contracted services staff for evaluations because we added staff but we had 75,000 for physical therapy and another 75,000 for speech therapy because we were not able to meet the minutes required for these students to get their services without the additional contracted staff. >> [snorts] >> We also ended up having more students come in from the clinical setting who required a lot of behavioral support and we accrued around 150,000 dollars in contracted services behavioral support this school year. I will apply for the high cost funds grant again but the amount is around 40,000. You don't get more than that. That's the max amount. So
065I'll still try to get it cuz why not? But it won't offset the cost as much as it did the previous year. So looking into 26 27 and recognizing that there are positions that we need um had to had to think through how do how do we do that? How do we do that without coming to the board and saying we need half a million dollars of staff in special education. And so through evaluating our art facilitators positions in particular, we were able to recapture quite a few reallocate quite a few of those positions to go back directly to working with kids. About 2 years ago our art facilitators were serving multiple campuses and then we switched to them having only one campus which was really great and and I just a fantastic idea in
066a lot of ways but when you're looking at a budget deficit and needing to serve kids, you have to figure out where do where does that come from? Um we also looked at equity across our art facilitators caseloads to determine is this even possible? And so we've had for 2 years our high schools are 250 plus caseloads at those schools with one art facilitator and then we've had elementary schools that had 85, 95, maybe 110. Middle schools around 130, 140. Um so that's not real equitable across those jobs. So is it possible for us to be able to reduce back down and have those art facilitators take two campuses and have an approximate 250 caseload? Absolutely. I think that that we can do that. Um and so that is what we're looking at. Those positions
067reallocating to help provide teaching positions, therapy positions and instructional assistant positions and reallocating our instructional coaches that we had had for 2 years in special education at central office. They are some fantastic educators, some of the best teachers I've ever seen. They spent a lot of time covering classes in special programs for the past 2 years and so when you look at the need, the need seems to be that we need more teachers in special programs and so we we've made the decision for them to return to those positions as well. Do you have any any questions about this section? Okay. I don't really have a question but I just want to comment and appreciate the thought that went behind that. I mean we've been hearing we're going to hear more from Ms. Grande about
068this and just hearing you state it so well. Um it's it's hard but being able to put resources in where they are working with our students is just really great to hear so. >> I appreciate that and hopefully we're going to look at about a 300,000 dollar savings from not having contracted services for those positions that we can reallocate the facilitator positions and coaches back to the campus. Okay, shifting gears. TEA. So there are some things going on with TEA. We have results driven accountability which you'll hear RDA. That is a focus on disciplinary actions happening in our campuses. And so historical years the threshold number 2.5 is what the state has set as our goal. So our goal is to be 2.5 or lower in all of these different boxes. So OSS is out
069of school suspension fewer than or equal to 10 days, OSS greater than 10 days, ISS in school suspension less than or equal to 10 days, greater than 10 10 days and then a total disciplinary removals rate at the bottom. >> [gasps] >> And so from 2020 to 2023, you can see the gray. Those are areas of significant disproportionality. So that is those are areas that the state has said "Ooh, you're not doing so great here." Um and so we had four indicators consistently where where we were over that 2.5 threshold number. Um in 21 22 a significant focus by Devin Henry, coordinator, is she back there? Yes, she's hiding. Devin um Henry and in collaboration with Tiffany Parkerson and Jeff Mann started working with our administrators just to talk about the data, what does it
070look like, what are you seeing? They started having a lot more collaborative conversations and you can tell right away almost. Look at that next year. It went down to 3.7 in that ISS of greater than 10 days. So that is a testament to our administrators working collaboratively with the central office staff to figure out different strategies, different things that could be put in place to help our students be in school more, right? Like that's a really great thing. Um then we kept on showing a pretty good trajectory and then in 24 25, we started behavior solutions in the district. Um and that was just the very first year of it and now you can see we have that one indicator where we're disproportionate and then we have reasonable progress in one indicator which is green.
071So that's the state saying the green is the state saying "Hey, you're getting better." Like great job. So we're still not quite to that 2.5 or lower threshold but we are showing some really good progress in that area. Do you all have any questions on that? I just thought the white's better than the green. It took me a moment. I thought the green would be the >> No. Yes, white is the white is the white is the best option up there. Yes, thank you. Is this all students or only special education? >> This is um this is special education students and their discipline. Got it. I was confirming that. >> Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. And then there's another corrective action plan thing, the CAP. So we have state performance plan indicators that we
072have to report to the state and these are the four. Timely initial evaluation which means that the evaluation is completed within 45 school days of school. I mean 45 school days, right? So are we having our assessment team go through with the whole evaluation to the report point within 45 school days? We're 99.81% compliant. Pretty pretty good. That's like a one kid error. But the state said no, it's not good enough cuz you're not at 100%. So we still have to focus and work on this as a team and we we are but I mean I'm still real proud of them cuz that's that's amazing that out of all those evaluations there was one last year that that didn't quite meet the mark. 11B is eligibility determination so our meetings are held within timeline of
07330 calendar days after the reports are completed. 98.9 89% compliant there. Again, they're super close. That was maybe two kids and so we are monitoring this and watching closely but I still want to just celebrate the team because that's a lot of work for them to get that those those high numbers. Early childhood transition is making sure IEPs IEPs are developed and implemented by third birthdays of our students. 100% compliant there and then secondary transition IEP post secondary goals and transition services are in place for our students who are 16 plus years old and we were 100% compliant there as well. I mean what a high bar, right? Like I know it's important but whoa, 100% like 99.81 so close so really proud of that group. So I also wanted to circle back to some
074of our strategic priorities. We have had the motto we are all in for all kids and I do think the data is showing that this this group in the room and and our campuses and the collaborative team meetings and the focus on all means all kids having access to high level instruction, kids having access to general education standards. I feel like it's showing in our in our data and that's really great to see. So goal two for CSISD is we're going to elevate academic outcomes of historically underperforming student groups. And so I've outlined some of the specific areas that we're working on as a district going into next year. Some of these are areas that we've already started working on and we'll just continue and and make them better for next year. Some are new.
075And then goal three we're going to enrich student school experiences by strengthening relationships between students, staff and families. I put those three three things that we're working on there and then I also wanted to add there's a TEA parent survey that is currently out um open till May 20 May 22nd. We have 745 students that were randomly selected by TEA and their families got an email from Gibson Consulting as well as from me about how to get that assess of that survey taken. Our response sponsor rate today is around 10% and the state average is 2.5 So, we are tracking on a good path with that, but that was another area that I didn't add here, but we are also going to have to connect with our families. Okay. Do you all have any questions?
076I don't have a question, but I do have a comment. I thank you first of all and I think that this is families who have I've had a lot of families come to me throughout this school year who have kids in our special education programs and I think the just continuing to have such important public dialogue and you know, a lot of those families work really hard to advocate for their kids and it can feel like a upside-down topsy-turvy world for them. And so, I think the the more that your team continues to do what it sounds like you're doing a great job of just making sure that line of communication is there and then just a a note that our I'm in awe of our special education teachers. I substituted in a life skills
077class in the fall just before the election and I mean, it was just like I was absolutely cooked at the end of the day. I mean, I was like, this is I am so tired right now and then to think that those teachers show up and do that again day after day after day, but if anyone in the community is looking for a way to to give back, I would recommend get sub certified and go work in one of our special ed classes. Those kids are incredibly sweet and the teachers are truly heroes. So, they do a great job. They are. Thank you. I don't have a question either, but I just wanted to say I really enjoyed serving on this committee this year. There's so much to learn and I don't like I scratched
078the surface, but um I also just want to thank you and your team for always reaching further and higher. This is some great data and looks like you're making great progress, but you still want to achieve more and also for for doing what's best for kids and getting more of these these teachers back in front of kids um I also wanted to thank you Miss Egie, Miss Goolsby and I got to do the Special Olympics. We got to award medals and that was really really neat. So, thank you all for that opportunity and yeah, anybody I encourage you all to go out there to the Special Olympics. It was really really cool to see a lot of our students out there. She was >> fabulous. I came on Friday. It was Friday. I get it.
079Friday night. I've been talking to teachers over the years in sped. Kevin Henry, Greg Smith, the huge hearts that they have, but I'm always amazed that sped teachers want to stay in sped. They don't want to go back to gen ed which they made the transition and I think that's a true testament to how much they care about what they do and the support they get from the district. So, great job. Appreciate that. Thank you all. Also, can we note that at least three of the four Special Olympics coaches are homegrown CSISD products. So, shout-out to to keeping our own in town and doing great work. I got I got to say my couple comments, too. One, I also was on the advisory committee and again just echoing what a wonderful environment it was of
080sharing both ways. A lot of great information from your team, but then also allowing the parents to really open and share a lot. I think that was very beneficial. Um and I thanks for all the presentation and information here. I want to make one quick loop back though to our budget and to um just the the funding gaps that we have with special education in particular. That was a big discussion that we had um particularly this last Saturday because I guess 2 years ago the last legislative session the calculation was that the gap across Texas between what school districts were spending in public on special education services. We're spending it um and what the state was reimbursing us for those services there was a four and a half billion dollar gap. And yes, there was
081additional money that was approved for it. Some of this we we're hoping to see next school year, but the amount that was approved was only 850 million dollars. There will still be a gap. So, this is a a a clear area where you know, we are we are doing what's needs to be done for all students and we are not getting the funding that we put into our teachers and into our students. So, that's just it's one of the most blatant examples. So. I appreciate that and we don't want our services to our students to be compromised or or lessened if if we can. So, thank you for that. And it's not optional. I mean, we're if a child needs services, we provide. I mean, it's obviously the moral thing to do also, but as
082a district we're obligated to the to serve those children regardless of whether the state pays their bill or not. So, I mean, I think it's important it's not like we're choosing to overdo things. I mean, we're doing what we need to do for kids and the state's just not doing their part. Thank you all. Thank you, Miss Grande. All right, that is going to bring us to item K1 which is consider approval of the ranking for design-build firms for 21 and 23 bonds. All right. Good evening. So, in the November board meeting the procurement method for the MEP district-wide project was approved for design-build. That is a two-step process. The first step is the RFQ. We issued the RFQ. We opened it on March 31st and we had six respondents to that RFQ. The second
083step is a RFP, request for proposals for their costing methodology. So, tonight all we're asking for is a approval of the ranking of the six firms. That will allow us to go to the second step to issue the RFP, get the costing methodology and then from there we will rank them again, get that approval negotiate a contract and then go into design phase of that for this project. Some of these projects include LED lighting to finish out that across the district. It includes MDF and IDF mini-split units to control the temperature and humidity in our server rooms across the district at each of the campuses as well as replacing aged-out HVAC units. For instance, we have probably seven to 10 units at A&M Consolidated High School that are roughly 40 plus years old. And typically
084you get about 20 years 25 years out of them. So, we've definitely got our money's worth out of those, but that's what this would include for this project. Motion to approve as presented. Second. Okay, I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Ms. Simmons. Are there any further questions or discussions? Okay, all in favor, please say I. Any opposed? That motion will pass 7-0. Thank you, Mr. Buckner. Okay, at this time we're going to move into executive session. The board will meet in executive session to discuss safety and security updates. The session will be held pursuant to the discussion regarding intruder detection audit and corrective action plan exception in the open meetings act as set forth in section 551.076 of Texas Government Code. The board will also meet in executive session to
085deliberate personnel matters. The executive session deliberations will be held pursuant to the personnel matters closed meeting exception to the Texas Open Meetings Act as set forth in section 551.074 of the Texas Government Code. We'll return to open session when we're done. Okay, I'm going to call us back to open session. Do we have a motion? I move to propose non-renewal of Michael Kennedy term employment contract. I further move to authorize the administration to provide written notice of the board's action as required by Texas Education Code chapter 21. I'll second that. Okay, I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Mr. Field. Is there any discussion on that motion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That motion passes 7-0 and that's going to bring us to item N, adjournment.