CSISD Board Meeting 04/21/2026

001Good evening everyone. We're going to call to order the workshop for the College Station ISD Board of Trustees. Declaration of a quorum, we have seven members present. Uh we have no uh people signed up to speak on hearing of citizens, so we're going to move right into our workshop sessions. Our first one is a TASB policy update, and we have Ms. Hester and from TASB we have Ms. Cadlecek um who is going to present to us. Thank you for being here. >> Good evening and thank you for um being here tonight. We I brought Amy with me tonight so that she could help explain better than I possibly can, um the changes in policy for the DOI so that we could be very clear. You all have received it in transmittal and you have it

002in front of you. So I'm going to turn it over to Amy. We appreciate her coming from Austin to do this for us tonight. >> Good evening. I'm glad to be here. So um Chrissy had asked me to come and just explain a little bit about the changes that we have made um particularly pertaining to the local policies that are impacted by the district's improvement plan. Um when DOI started after the legislative session in 2015, TASB had to really stop and think about how are we going to reflect those um exemptions that districts choose to um exempt themselves from and so that it is accurately reflected in a policy manual. And so from the beginning, what we would do was try to explain each district's individual exemption and what their rationale was and what their

003plan was and put that in local policy. And then we added a note to the legal framework just to say something in this policy, something in this legal framework may not apply because the district has an exemption. And that's how we've kind of rolled along. Of course, after this last legislative session when so many of the common exemptions that districts around the state have routinely used and included in their innovation plan, many of them the legislature came back and said those are no more no longer eligible and so we had to make changes to districts um DOI policies. And then also, it's also just a common time in 2017 when districts first got their um innovation plan approved, it was good for 5 years. And then again, so 2022 was kind of a a key

004time when districts started um re-upping their plans. Sometimes in between they would make amendments and then now that um you know, after 2022 they made new plans and so we're getting to that point where many districts, because of the changes and wanting to amend their plan, they're doing a total re- um redo of their DOI plan at this time. And so it gave us pause and we made some decisions in our policy in our policy department about how can we best communicate what is the district is choosing to exempt itself from. Um every district's DOI plan, while it's very common from district to district to see the same exemptions, exactly what the district is going to do um as far as implementing whatever uh change that they're going to utilize there, that is a little

005bit different. And trying to articulate that clearly in each local policy gets to be a little bit tricky. What we realized is that we were also creating policy language sometimes and in hindsight we feel like in some ways it's unnecessary. When you think about it, your DOI plan has gone through the whole process to be created and then the board has approved it. And so in essence your DOI plan is your local policy about whatever exemption that you all are choosing to um make a a decision about and and exempt yourself from. So we will continue to always put the note at the top of the legal framework in the applicable legal policy, but instead of making changes to local policy, we're going to rely on the district's individual DOI plan. It has to be

006posted on your website, it's posted on TEA's website, it's easily accessible for folks. And if somebody's looking in your policy manual and they see in the legal framework a little note that says something in this legal policy is impacted by the district's innovation plan and then it points to policy AF local, which is the policy that says we have chosen to have a a district of innovation plan, then it also points you back to going and finding that um DOI plan posted on your website so that the stakeholder can read the DOI plan, see what the exemption is. The only time we're going to put something in a local policy now related to the DOI plan is if the local policy already addressed the topic that is related to the exemption. And the best example

007is um the policies related to um complaints and grievances. Many districts have chosen to exempt themselves from all of the requirements under Senate Bill 12 related to the changes in timelines particularly. And so, we do need to accurately reflect that in local policy because your district administrators rely heavily on those local policies as do your stakeholders should they need to follow that policy to file a formal complaint or even try to get an informal complaint or grievance addressed. So, once you all notified me once Christie notified me that the committee had worked together and the board had approved the revisions and amendments to your DOI plan, I said, "Good to know. >> [laughter] >> Send me the whole plan. Let me review it." And then I went into your policy manual to find where all

008of the exemptions in your DOI plan were already represented in your policy manual. And then that is where I came up with the recommendations for the changes to the applicable local policies. Um so, in the packet that you've received, you will see that there are or I hope you've seen that there are a number of policies where provisions are being removed and in some cases the entire policy is being marked for deletion. Um and when you see that, it's because we had added kind of artificially um information about that particular topic. Um the local policy didn't need to address You didn't need a local policy provision about that topic previously until we at TASB had decided, "Well, to have an innovation plan, we better somehow communicate that in local policy." We're going to rely on

009your DOI plan now to to communicate that and therefore we're taking it out of any local policy and only including it in those local policies like your grievance policies where we need to clearly articulate what choices have been made um regarding that. Any questions regarding that part of this? So, there was a packet of policies here and as you've looked through them, I think it's pretty clear. You can see especially like on that first one where I've marked the DOI note at the top of that local policy for deletion and then a paragraph about your state teacher certification. That doesn't mean that that is not part of your DOI plan anymore, but the requirements related to state teacher certification are legally driven. They're in your legal framework. That's what you've chosen to exempt yourself from.

010So, there is a DOI note in the DBA legal framework. And then we will just put your local policy back to including only the local provisions that are related to the topics on credentials and records that are required in local policy. The next example would be DCA and you can see that that was an example of where we created a local policy just to say something about the district's choice to extend the probationary contract period for employees who are new and need to be on a probationary contract. Most of the time districts don't even have a local policy at this code. All of the provisions addressing how the district has to implement the local policy or implement the requirements related to probationary contracts are in your legal framework. And so, we created this policy completely

011unique and so that's why we're going to delete it. Again, the main thing is your local DOI plan explains what y'all are plans are are going to be as as far as how you're going to implement the five of eight rule as it relates to folks coming in on probationary contracts and the experience that they they've had in uh school districts prior to coming to your district. So, we without going through policy by policy, which I'm happy to do as well. I'm What I really want to know is Do you have any particular questions about any of these local policies? >> Not really. My only question, did you say the legal policy, did it change at all or was that was that clause already in there um calling out the you know, the district of

012>> The DOI plan. Um so, if for the exemptions that you've had in your DOI plan since before y'all you you made your recent amendments to include the exemptions from the new requirements under Senate Bill 12 related to the complaint policies, those did have um the notes at the top. The So, for example, the state teacher certification, the class size um exemption, the one about the five of eight rule for probationary contracts, those have all had a note at the top. Um and it will they will continue to have a note. We're actually updating that note a little bit, so that'll be updated when I process all of this for you, but they've already had that note at the top and they will continue. And then with your new amendments, like with um the three

013complaint policies, a note will be added to those legal framework policies. So, your original question is of Did they change? The note part didn't change. The policy more than likely changed though because of course there were there was a lot of change to pretty much every legal policy in the policy manual after the last legislative session. So, there have been a lot of updates there. >> I think we've done a lot of uh discussion on our DOI policy over the last months, and so I think it's just important to kind of point out that these changes that we're looking at in this packet aren't changing what we are doing as a district. It is just um an effort to clean up the policies and make it streamlined like they things that were in the DOI

014before were also in our local policy in a way that they didn't have to be spelled out there because they were in the DOI. So, just as not to like create confusion for anybody who's listening to this, this packet isn't a change of policy. It's just a change of how we're wording it um and where it's going to be. Is is that fair to say? >> Absolutely. That's a great summarization. Yes. And even with your complaint policies, the three complaint policies DGBA for employee complaints, FNG for parent complaints, parent and student complaints, and GF for public complaints, those policies are not substantively changing. We've put the note at the top. We've done a little bit of stylistic clean up. We used to spell out the the number 10 and now we use the digits. Um

015we used to always include or designee and after superintendent and that is being adjusted throughout the entire um policy manual because policy BJA already provides for the superintendent's delegation authority, so we are trying to remove that phrase and just make it a little simpler for reading. Um so, that's those are really the only changes. These three complaint policies are putting your policies back to how they were prior to your DOI plan um adding those amendments. >> And starting in September, we'll meet with DEIC to go through this entire plan and we'll work the entire fall on what the plan is and then bring a new recommendation when we have to re-up in uh March of '27. >> So, this wouldn't require any action at future meetings. We're not necessarily changing just restructuring. Okay, so it's

016informational. Okay, thank you. >> All right. We we do have to vote on these policies though and you know, we'll do that as normal the next board meeting. >> Okay, so this is >> But these policies do we need to update these policies so you will vote on the policies at the next meeting. >> Okay, so this is it's a first reading. Okay. >> Yeah, right. >> All right, thank you. >> And then as um Dr. Arkwright was saying when it is time for you all to review your current DOI plan and look at re-upping it and going through the process to get it um adjusted, one of the things I suggested to um Chrissy is after the committee has worked on it um then if if they'll send it to me and let me

017review it for them first. There are certain exemptions that um you know, some of those have gone away because of the last legislative session, common things that were common exemptions, but also there are some things that I think some districts have added exemptions in their DOI plan not realizing the flexibility of the statute already and so we do like to point that out and I'll be able to give some feedback and insight into that before the board it's presented to the board for final approval. And then at that time it will also let me know if we need to make any additional changes to your policy manual. If you're adding any exemptions or if you're deciding that that exemp- a particular exemption is no longer something you all want to include in your plan, then

018we would make the proper adjustments to your policy manual and I would prepare drafts as necessary. >> I would just add I real quickly did a search for our DOI plan and of course it is on our website for people if they want to look at it and like we just discussing it was approved for the 2022 through um 2027 time frame. Okay, well we really appreciate you being here um and meeting with us and um thank you for your time. >> You bet. You bet. >> Okay, all next workshop session is going to be a budget advisory committee presentation. >> We're going to have Mr. Carl Detloff will be the presenter from the budget advisory committee. I'm not for sure if he volunteered to present, but he graciously accepted the offer. >> I guess

019I can do this. All right. So, the the purpose of the committee, again, we just really had a great opportunity as a committee to serve as ambassadors, review our current and previous budget situations, plan for the future, and look at viable options. Also, you know, we uh looked at cost containment initiatives provided by the school district that you will continue to learn more about in the upcoming months to implement some of these solutions. Again, our task as an advisory committee was just to provide input. Certainly, the board of trustees will have to approve every endeavor and opportunity that we have for a budget containment and cost containment initiatives, and then the leadership team will certainly implement those solutions as the board sees fit. So, it was a great committee, and I just appreciate the opportunity

020to serve on it. Okay, here you have headlines and uh all you have to do is go to your favorite social media site or any periodical or newspaper if they're still in print and read these headlines across the state of Texas. Um so really I want to kind of provide the context for my remarks tonight through the current lens that I have. So I want to provide a a state overview of the budget situation and then kind of funnel it back down to CSISD and the implications it has from a statewide lens to your current budget initiatives. Really when you when you think about it uh I was a a former superintendent for 9 years in a in a like-sized school district as College Station ISD. I just retired after 33 years in education. Now

021I serve as the deputy executive director for a nonprofit organization that focuses on school finance and policy and we currently have about 450 school districts that are members. So these headlines we feel it, we see it, we understand it from across the state. And I'll also take this time to brag that the board of trustees in College Station ISD, the leadership team, the CFOs, the superintendents have been exceptional over the last 30 years. So you guys have been great financial stewards and I want our listening audience to understand that. Um you know across the state you've been conservative fiscally and have done what you needed to do to provide opportunities for the kids in your school district. So I applaud you for that. In our work we've seen polls and estimations that about 50 to

02260% of school districts in Texas, remember there are about 1,012 school districts in Texas. 50 to 60% are adopting deficit budgets. So, this is not new. You're in a position you've been great financial stewards and I applaud you for doing that. It's just where we are now. Um And this next slide If you look at the decline in enrollment and College Station is experiencing this and districts across the state of Texas are experiencing this, too. From 2007 to 2019, there's a 21% decrease in birth rates in the state of Texas. This is higher than the national average. Also, if you look at families, in 2020 actually 2000, the births per family were about at 2.5 births per per family in Texas. That was reduced to 1.84 births per family in Texas in 2022. So, a

023lot of the declining enrollment we're seeing across the state is really applicable because of the the birth rate decrease. So, also, if you kind of move through this uh I'm going to take my glasses off cuz I think I can see this better without. As you move through this slide, reduction or elimination federal funding. I think Heather and Dr. Harkrider will kind of talk you through some of those specifics, but the stagnant funding or funding with strings. What we're saying is despite a historic $8.5 billion infusion into state public education, it is targeted in different buckets and allotments. So, you have an ABC allotment allotment of basic cost. You have the teacher retention allotment, school support allotment. So, what's happening is is from a legislative standpoint, all these allotments are targeted now. So, what happens

024to districts like College Station, it is eroding local control. So, you were elected as a local official to represent College Station ISD, but you are losing local control because the funds are targeted. So, it gives Dr. Harkrider, Heather, your CFO uh less opportunity, and for you less opportunity, to put the monies where the local resources are needed. And that can be problematic. So, we're seeing that across uh the board. Um I think a great example of this target allotment is uh Texas Education Agency yesterday. They released uh and they said it was part of the school safety allotment that you need now an additional for every 500 people uh that are attending an event, an extracurricular uh event, you need a school resource officer. You're probably doing that already, but every uh person on top

025of the 500, for every 750 new attendees, you need an additional school resource officer. In my former school district, Central High School on a Friday night, we'd average about 9 or 10,000 in attendance at a Friday night football game. That would mean we would need somewhere between 10 and 12 school resource officers available. So, this just came out yesterday, but it's a classic example of a targeted allotment, and also a classic example of an unfunded mandate, because there no new monies coming in for this. It's supposedly coming out of the school safety initiative that actually doubled from 2 years ago, from 180 million to 400 million. But still, you you were using those funds to uh supply and employ your school resource officers. Now, you'll have to ensure that there's one for every 750 attendees.

026So, band concerts, um you know, large uh extracurricular activities, it could be problematic. So, I think that's one of the risks too now is that they're targeted funding. The legislative session won't meet until next January in 2027. Typically, what happens is you don't have a omnibus school finance bill. And it's every other session. So, what most likely will happen this session is you'll just have between 400 and 800 million dollars of clean up with current initiatives. So, they'll clean up House Bill 2 400 to 800 million dollars of clean up. But, there won't be radical or omnibus school finance legislation again. So, if you think until probably the next session. So, what that would mean is that spring of 2029. So, most likely you won't see any new funding until September of 2029. So, what

027we've been recommending for districts is that you've got your current levels of funding and you'll have to work through that. Now, let's talk about vouchers quickly. And I may need a sip of water for this one. That's right. Uh So, there are about 274,000 applications for the school voucher program in Texas. 1 billion additional funding was set aside. This is on top of education. And yes, uh you know, that funding was it well, some students are going to leave the current school district and go to a private school for the educational savings account or voucher. So, there was about 274,000 applications. Um but also if you look at the data, about 73% of these applications are already in private school. Now, a billion dollars was allocated for this. And even I can do Carl math.

028If 73% were already in private school, that means the people in this room, all of us taxpayers are paying about 750 million dollars out of our pocket that could be going to public traditional public schools. That if you just take the 75% of $1 billion. So, it's another funding mechanism that just started with the 89th legislature. So, another funding mechanism vouchers is on top of the school funding mechanism that's currently in place. So, my estimation and guess would be that this will continue to increase as the applications increase. Also, you have to remember that in the voucher program $10,500 is allocated for students that are accepting educational savings account. I think what could be more problematic is $2,000 are offered for home school students. So, all of these things together are going to, you know,

029put an additional crunch on local school district budgets. So, that's the voucher. So, all these together are working to really impact your local school district budgets. Uh the budget minimum payroll of 84% you can see on the slide. And and I think Mike and Tim know this better than anybody from having real time experience doing this. In public schools, most school districts in Texas are about 1,012 school districts. 80 to 90% of almost every school district in Texas, their total budget is made up of personnel. So, the only way that you can really impact and reduce a budget is through personnel. I think many times districts, you know, get caught up in reducing general supplies or they don't offer great course offerings for students. And when this happens, I think you also can impede the

030great culture that College Station ISD has created. The way you have to go about reducing a budget with significance is through personnel. And College ISD pays about 80 84% of their entire budget goes to personnel and this is typical of all school districts in Texas. Um so that that is the way uh to meet that requirement. The other option is facility. Uh you can look at headlines across the state and the merging of and consolidation of schools. So uh you know at some point in time perhaps long after your tenure on the board but maybe in the 2030s, uh we may have to look at consolidation or merging uh of campuses uh or perhaps looking at uh campuses that uh don't have high enrollments. Uh In my past and previous experience, you could typically save

031about $800,000 uh by closing a campus and of course you also uh have to remember the duplicative efforts of your uh administration costs, your counselor, your nurses, uh your assistant principals, your principals. So all those costs can be uh impacted as well. Uh uh You guys have done an incredible job on the budget. You're going to be A-OK because you've been great financial stewards, but in the future uh I think we know that you know we're going to have to continue to look at cost containment uh initiatives and and how that may be uh completed. I'll put my glasses on as I go to the next slide here. Uh oh, this was I was so interested in this. Um You know, one of my roles uh in my superintendency was how I always thought about

032how I can create a pay raise for teachers and all employees. In my former school district, a pay raise of 1% cost about $800,000. Here, I believe it's about 1 million or 1.1 million dollars for 1% pay raise. And remember, the early glow from the honeymoon has rescinded uh and the arms race uh for compensation will continue to increase uh with school districts despite the 8.5 billion uh you know, historic levels uh that were funded through the teacher retention allotment. So, um one of the task of our committee, we also looked at, okay, we want to provide continuous teacher pay raises, whether that's this year, next year, 3 years from now, what does that look like? What's that percentage? So, how do we generate additional funds? What can we reduce to generate additional funds? Again,

033knowing probably until September 2029, there'll be not a significant new funding um so that we can create a pay raise opportunities uh for our teachers. So, I think that's a a critical attribute of of what we're looking at, too. So, uh so, we kind of talked about underutilized campuses, review of staffing structures, uh the staffing reductions. Uh Dr. Harkrider and uh Heather has have implored to me that uh there no one in good standing will lose their job. So, for the record in CSISD, everyone that is an employee in good standing, which is probably 99% of everyone, will continue to have a position in the school district. Although, it may be a different position. So, those reductions will come through attrition, and that's the easiest uh most practical way to do it. So, uh as

034you combine positions, I know that uh you know, in some of our school districts, we see uh you know, even in the central office in the administration building, and I know Dr. Harkrider's mentioned that uh they're also going to be reducing in this building as well, but the combination of positions. I know in my experience, we uh had a PEIMS, a student data person, and executive director of schools. Uh we merged those three positions, provided the individual with the $12,000 raise, but you save $100,000. So, all of those are options for school districts as you look through attrition and staffing reductions. Pay for substitute and bus drivers. You simply cannot do your business of educating students without quality substitutes. And it is extremely difficult to find quality substitutes, but we are just so delighted and

035privileged when those campuses have and our principals will tell you that when when they have exceptional substitutes on their campus. And then the evaluation of all programs. We mentioned this in our budget advisory group, but you know if you look at the research, students that participate in extracurricular activities, their graduation rates are higher, their attendance rates are higher, and their GPAs are higher. So, I would offer keep the high-quality programs that CSISD continues to offer in extracurricular activities. Most likely your bands at both high schools probably have 300 student attendance or participation. Of course, you know, it's it's your choirs, your your drill teams, your soccer teams, your softball, your volleyball. And I will share speaker privilege because I'm just a citizen now. And that is it perturbs me that people don't realize the outstanding

036school district that is in their backyard in College Station ISD. My spouse and I, Judy, also a teacher in College Station for many years, we don't understand when you have two award-winning high schools, incredible elementaries, middle schools, that people are choosing another option. So, you know, I think it's perhaps the old fishbowl analogy that you know, when you're in the bowl, you don't understand what a great aquatic experience it is. How was that Mr. Martindale? Was that a good embellishment? >> But only the way Carl can put it. >> So, uh I just want people to understand that it's you guys have done a tremendous job and and I wish more people would would appreciate the high quality of education that the students receive here. And I just wanted to say that for the record

037in case I'm not invited back. So, with that, I will turn that over to Dr. Harkrider or President Eagy and tell me what I can do differently or for specifics, I'll turn it over to district leadership. >> Well, I just want to say first, thank you to everyone who served on that committee. It is a gift of your time and efforts to be a part of that. So, we appreciate that. And I do just want to open it up for the board to ask any questions that you may have. >> I don't have any questions. I I got the privilege of serving on this committee and I just wanted to thank Carl. That committee was made up of some really outstanding people. It was great to have your perspective as an outsider and having run

038another district. Um I want people listening to know that yes, they there were so many great discussions. But it was just a privilege to serve on that committee and thank you for your time. Anything else? >> I think they're waiting on Heather in the workshop. So, they're going to let you off easy. >> My my wife is making white bean chili tonight. So, I'm going to >> Well, I think you did >> quickly. I think you did a great job of just laying it out to us. So, thank you very much. >> I stood up for white bean chili. >> All right, and that is going to move us into our 2026-2027 budget workshop. We are ready, Ms. Wilson. >> Good evening, Ms. Ege, Dr. Harkrider, Board of Trustees. Appreciate the time tonight. >> So,

039we're on to our fourth budget workshop, but you're going to be excited to see some numbers tonight. So, we hope to have some things for you. We'll kind of look at the current budget landscape. We'll look at enrollment trends, fund balance, and then we'll look at the estimated 2026-2027 budget just to talk through where we are at this point and where where our next steps are. So, if you look at the current budget, we're turning really well for revenue. One question you might have is on that minimum foundation state revenue. It looks like we're a little bit over on collecting state revenue. I really think it's because of an overpayment. If you look at what I estimate right now as today, we should have about 29 million in there just as which is a little

040over 300 to 500,000 more than what you see in the budget. It's just if you look at what we thought we were going to have for enrollment and what we have now, we have less students and so they've kind of overpaid us. And so, that's what you're seeing in that revenue account just to kind of give you a heads-up in case you have questions there. Another thing about College Station ISD, you're probably very much aware of. We are a school district that pays two times a year. We pay in February and June and in June as well. And so, you see taxes there at only 95.4% collected. Typically, in a school district, you might be closer to 100% at this time, but we make that other payment in June. So, you'll see the rest of

041those coming in in our June payments. When you're looking at our total expenditures for the budget, we're about 75% of the school year complete and about 71% of the budget is expensed. So, we're in a really good place with a solid budget. You can kind of look through each little piece of that and kind of get a estimate where we're at. Um one thing that I really kind of like to break it down because as Mr. Dunlap said, as well as you're very much aware that 84% of our budget is in payroll. So, something you really want to kind of monitor is that first line there, payroll costs. So, we budget about 130 million in payroll, and we've only spent about 71% of that payroll. Now, one thing you want to keep in mind with

042College Station ISD is we have a robust TIA program. And then you're going to see over a $4 million payment go out that's going to be booked to June, and so you'll see that a little bit later. So, when you're looking at that percentage, you'll just kind of keep that in mind. But, 71% so, you should feel pretty solid about the budget. Okay? So, board priorities, we've talked about these. I'm going to just throw them one more time. This is something you guys adopted early in the process for our our budget this fiscal year. Um and I'm just bringing them back for reminders. Uh in addition, we just heard from our budget advisory committee when they were looking at things. I appreciate everybody that served on that committee. They got to look at a lot

043of information. I tried to talk them into accounting can be fun. I don't know if I didn't bore them a little bit, but there was a lot of great information that we were able to go through to kind of come up with these ideas. When we look at the budget tonight, we're going to look at several things that we've kind of been looking at. Uh compensation expectations, we looked at staffing ratios. Of course, I want to show you that fund balance usage, kind of where it would be with we had a past a deficit budget. And then kind of where our future lies there. Um talk about kind of what we've done to balance some of the deficit with department and campuses, class size reduction, and then just establishing the revenue resources. So, we can't

044really talk I know you've seen the cups before, but I just really want to kind of take a moment just to talk about the cup. Because what's going on in the state of Texas, and he kind of touched it on it a little bit, is our cup is shrinking in a sense. It's shrinking because in order to fill the cup, you've got to have ADA, and then you've got to have the students. And so, when we don't have students, we lose funding. So, our cup gets smaller. Doesn't matter, state, local, we all know it doesn't matter if our if we have a lot of property wealthy or not, if our cup flows over, it goes to the state. I'm talking about cup size. Our cup size is shrinking across the state of Texas because of

045enrollment shrinking. So, just to look about our enrollment, here's just some historical information on enrollment. Of course, you all know that we shrank this year in enrollment. Uh and you can kind of look at the reasons why. He talked about birth rates. You can see how it's affecting us. Our earlier grades are smaller than our our older grades. So, you can kind of see how that falls there. And you can also kind of see when you lose a grade, a 12th grade class is 1,062. If you're really not seeing in a huge growth in the area, you're not going to fill that up, and you're replacing it with, you know, a 950, 910. And so, that's your first thing there. And then you throw the vouchers in, you throw the charter school in, you throw

046the home schools in, and that's really kind of what's happening in the state of Texas. So, this is College Station's birth rates, and kind of how we're looking. Now, I'm excited to see that we might have some COVID babies this year. So, I'm kind of banking a little bit on that. So, we hope they show up. And and our kindergarten numbers are solid. You see closer to a 959, 960 versus a 910 that we experienced this year. So, I really kind of think we could see that just from looking at those data right there. Uh moving forward, you can kind of look, we just sent tend tend to trend down a little bit. Like I said in the last budget meeting, you can see pop pockets of our district is growing. Pockets of our district

047have aged out. So, there's just a combination of all that that we kind of just have to stay on top of. And as some of our campus start to age out, we'll still have to move things around just to fill up those campuses or look at other things like you talked about earlier, if it's time maybe to close one of the campuses that's aging out and move those kids. But those are things like you said that are future conversations, but as you continue to look at these numbers, it was a great opportunity to start the conversation with our community to let them know what we're experiencing, to know why we're experiencing. It's not just a College Station thing, it's a a state of Texas. You look at the headlines, you're going to see it all

048over the state of Texas that campuses are closing. And they're doing that so that they can provide additional opportunities to their students and give raises for staff. So, we all have to be a little bit more frugal. But this is just some of the revenue impacts when you start seeing those decrease in students. Um it's it I feel like we still have to kind of bring up what we've done in 25-26 cuz we've made huge steps to kind of close some of the gap on our budget. Uh we're we evaluated class sizes last year. We did it again this year for secondary and campuses to look if there was any way that we could reduce staff there. Uh we reviewed intermediate and elementary staff. Uh we looked at 25 to one for our intermediates and

049we looked at um 22 to one for our elementary campuses. We had to make dis hard decisions in the district where there possibly could have been a some reduction just because it didn't make sense with the students, we left the teachers there. So, there are a few things there that everybody's keeping in mind that our top thing to do is educate our kids and do what's best for them. Um in the numbers you're going to look at tonight, I am reducing one of our campuses by three teachers. If we can't roll that into Title one, I'll have to roll that expense back to the budget that you're looking at tonight. We're trying to look at class size reduction. It's one of our um highest need campuses and we want to keep those class sizes small.

050So, we're looking at what we can to make that happen. Um these are some of the things we did last year again. We set staffing models, reestablished those staffing models, made sure we're equitable and we brought that into this school year. We adjusted those campus budgets and so we adjusted again based upon the makeup of the campuses. Um of course, we're still working on that attendance incentive and we see that our attendance is staying high. In fact, our revenue went up a little bit this fifth sixth weeks cuz our attendance was a little bit better. Um our co-curricular pupil allocations were still in place and our our department still built zero-based budgets. So, this is kind of what I just discussed that we rolled into 2026-2027, but that's what you'll be looking at tonight. So,

051these are some of the staffing adjustments that we've made. Uh there's a reduction in 11 elementary teachers. Some campuses saw increases, some campuses saw larger decreases and it was all based on the 22 to one based on um based on their anticipated revenue for the next year with boundary adjustments. Um like I said, there's three teachers in there that that could be three less teachers in that pot. We're we're still evaluating that, but we needed to go ahead and get you some numbers tonight. >> Can I interrupt just very quickly just to clarify? Are we talking when did these adjustments occur? Are these things you're planning or things that occurred over this last year? >> These are things for next year. >> For next year. This is moving forward. >> enrollment moving forward. Yes, ma'am.

052Thank you for clarifying that. Intermediate, we're going to see a net zero. We're increasing one teacher at campus, decreasing one teacher at a campus. We had to hold it at another campus based on our student needs. Uh there's one teacher that we're anticipating for for school, one for high school and then a reduction of an intern administrator at College View High School. Uh Blair's going to talk a lot late later on about the sped adjustments, but there's a lot moving parts there where we're taking central offices and putting them back on campuses to fill needs that we have there. But like I said, uh she will she will discuss it with you guys a little bit later. And then career and technology, of course that's that three teachers that you guys have already talked about,

053the one custodian, and the one nurse for the CTE facility. >> [snorts] >> Okay. So this is a slide I brought forward before. I've reworked the numbers and they're exactly the same that has been presented on the total estimated revenue going forward to next year. We're estimating about $152,559,000, okay? Uh putting the numbers together, when you pull the budget with the new budgeted numbers from our departments and campuses, you're looking at about $155,630,000 as an estimated number at this point. Uh with those cost reductions in staffing that you saw on the previous slide, we'll reduce that by 600 on an estimate about $622,000. So we're looking at without raises about 155 and 8,000 for um next year for estimated expenditures for the 2026-2027 year. Before we kind of move forward and look at other things,

054I want to talk about the fact that we changed our fiscal year. Because of that, a lot of times that you see in public ed is we have retirements of teachers. And so we have some higher paid teachers retire, and we replace those with less experienced teachers, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, maybe 5-year teacher, 5-year experienced teachers. And so they're a little bit less pay than you would see with someone with 30 years of experience that could be retiring. And when that happens, you're going to see some savings. But we're going to not going to know that at this point in time, so we're not taking those estimates into those numbers, but those are some potential savings that we will see as we move forward. That when we adopt a budget in June, we're not going to

055have all the staffing done, and we're not going to be able to roll the numbers in. So we're we're really building them off of a position count with the estimated cost of that position. Does that make sense? Okay. Uh yes, sir. >> And and I can't remember, Tim, what you mentioned at the last meeting of benefits. Do we know how we're tracking with >> We've got it out to bid right now. >> Okay. >> And then we're hoping to bring that to you in June, but um it's still in the early bidding processes. They haven't been turned in. >> All right. All right. >> We're still in the RFP, Blake. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Mela, when does that end? May 6th. Okay. >> Okay. Continue. Okay. >> And then estimated 26-27

056revenue from the previous screen is $152, so that brings us to a $2.44 million deficit. Okay? So just to kind of give you some information, this is some of the information that was presented to the budget advisory committee, but this is just how we compare to our peer districts. So we're up on the top, College Station ISD, and we break it out by 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. And that's just the markers we look at when we compare ourselves to other school districts. Bryan is not so much a peer, but they're because they're local, then we consider them a peer district. The other ones are based on enrollment and makeup of students. I'll give you just a second to kind of look through that before I move on. >> [snorts] >> And this

057is based on 25-26 the TASB salary studies. And districts across the state, they'll submit their information in, and that's how we use it to compare. >> So I have to comment because we're looking at this because I feel like the common thing that we hear all the time is that we do not pay as well as Brian our teachers and um you know there may be some historical reason for that but just looking at these numbers we're actually not far from where they are. Is that correct? I mean >> That that's correct. We pay more for them in certain >> in certain categories, yeah. >> Yes, ma'am. >> That's great. >> So we're kind of right there together I would say. Uh teacher substitute pay that's another thing that was mentioned earlier tonight. I just

058want to bring up how we relate to our peers. I'm sorry that's not right justified it's driving me crazy but um anyway do you can kind of look and see how how we match up. So that's kind of where we have a concern. We do have a 77% fill rate which is honestly a really good fill rate. Uh but we want to be fair to those individuals that are stepping in for our teachers. So that's something that we kind of need to look at. Another thing that was mentioned tonight was bus driver pay. Uh we have 22 unfilled bus driver positions and 10 bus monitors that are unfilled and you can kind of look at the pay that's something that we kind of need to concentrate some effort to as well. So you can kind

059of see how we compare to our peers. More importantly down the road at Brian ISD. Okay, so I I always hate to put these things on information but we have to put the numbers up there but they get a little jumbled in the mess and so what we kind of put together is for professional staff which would be your administrative and your teachers looking at a 1% raise and a 2% raise and then if you drop on down you're going to see paraprofessionals and auxiliary staff. Their midpoint is quite a bit less than a professional staff and so we kind of run ran those numbers at a 2% and a 3% uh raise. In addition we have bus drivers in a different pocket and we looked at a $1 per hour raise or a $1.25

060per hour raise and so looking at both of those. And so you can kind of look through if you gave a 1% to administrative staff and a 2% to paraprofessionals or auxiliary and raise the bus driver pay by a dollar per hour, it's going to cost us about 1.366. And then, of course, if you do a 2% raise to administrators, um and then a 1% for paraprofessionals and auxiliary and bus drivers at a dollar 25 an hour, it's 2,354,000 is what the cost of a raise would be. Um I do want to point out House Bill 2 is worked into these numbers. So, if you remember, if you move from two to three years of experience, you were supposed to get 2,500. And if you move from three to five, you get 5,000. So, as

061they walk through and those teachers move up, we have to make sure they received at least 2,500 from the previous year's salary model and 5,000 when they hit five years and above from the previous year's salary model. So, I had to work in additional funding because if you look at a 1% teacher raise, that's $650 a year. And I have to make the difference up on the House Bill. If you roll it to a 2%, we gave them, if you remember, we gave them 1,250 last year for those years of experience. A 2% would be 1,300, so we just have that little bit of money we'll have to make up to get the five-year step to to 5,000. >> The percentage is >> Sir, you said midpoint are based off midpoint. >> sir. >> Thank

062you. >> Yes, sir. And it's a 1,300 for a 2% on teacher midpoint. And I know those aren't >> huge compared to the overall, but you're saying that that additional money required from the House Bill is not provided? >> It will be provided by TEA. Yes. >> Okay, so it will >> from the legislators. We turn in every year how many teachers qualify this and then how many teachers qualify for five years and above and then they they fund the money through our summary of finance. >> Yeah, I just I want to say when you're talking about deficit, obviously you know, it's you're it's a balancing act. But I'm especially grateful to see extra monies being allocated to the paraprofessionals, which has historically been not a highly paid position and I think just I want

063to call out acknowledging the work that they do and that they're historically have not been paid very well. I'm really I'm happy and thankful to see that we're pointing that out and trying to start making up that deficit. So I appreciate you guys doing that. >> Thank you. Okay, so I just want to bring up historical deficit budgets and it's really kind of the makeup of your district. So this the first column that you see is the original. That's the original adopted budget. When you look at the next column, that's the final amended budget. So as we amend the budget through the year, when we end at the end of the year, that's our final amended budget. And then the last column is your actual. So that's what it turned out to be in real

064life. It's hard to look at the 24-25 year because we adopted a 12-month budget. We rolled it somewhat to a 10-month budget and then we had to post a 12 in a sense. And so you can kind of see we posted a 10-month. So that's the 14 million that you're seeing there. And then the others are pretty explanatory. Okay. >> I mean, I'm glad you're showing this. Um I guess what it's showing is in general we are conservative budgeters, right? I mean, is there anything else you can add to that just besides the fact that we need to plan for worst case and hope for you know, best case to me. That's what it's kind of showing. >> And we're trying to tighten up on that right now. So, we've done a lot of tightening

065up to see if we can come. But, yes, we have been a conservative budgeting. And you want to be a conservative. You really want to look at that revenue and make sure you collect 100% of your revenue and then make sure you can cover 100% of your expenditures. But, if you think about it, when you have a hundred and fifty million dollar budget and you only expense 98% of it, you've got a big number left over, you know, bigger than we anticipate. And that's 98%. I mean, that's usually typically what happens. You might spend 99 to 99% of your budget, but then you have some money left over. Um and that's just to cover to make sure we have enough for legal fees and and and for utilities are big numbers that left over. Fuel

066is one that you want to make sure you mark. Sometimes you hit it right on the dot. Hopefully, sometimes you have fluff left over. >> I appreciate that. I mean, I with that much money um you know, you need a little plus or minus and hopefully we'll >> Yes, you always want to make sure you can cover 100% of your expenses. >> And additionally, for us to adopt a deficit budget is not new. It has been almost every single year and not out of the ordinary and sometimes we come out close, sometimes better, sometimes not as good, but this is not a new thing for us. >> No, and and typically even in my previous district, I budgeted 100% of my custodial and my bus drivers. And if you saw right there, 22% unfilled positions,

067well, that's I hate to say that savings to the budget that you budgeted, but not or not going to happen. You budget sometimes at 100% fill rate for custodians, but then you run short sometimes during the year and those are savings that come back to the budget. Some school districts don't budget 100% fill rate. So, So, just got to know your district and know what they're doing in your district to know what to expect. >> And even in times of tremendous growth, we were still adopting a deficit budget. >> Yes, sir. >> And you I'm a little confused. I just want to make sure I understand. I understand what we original is what we voted on. Final is what actually happened. I'm a little confused by what actual is. >> Okay, so final is just

068the finally amended budget. So, every month we take a budget amendment to the board and we adjust. Sometimes it could be for a hellstorm, sometimes it could be for something that happened that we come to amend the budget. >> Okay. >> When that happens, you have that amended budget there. A lot of times when we bring a budget amendment, we don't mess with the bottom line unless there's something big that happens. >> Okay. >> And then you have to amend the bottom line. And then your actual is just really your actual revenue and your actual expenditures, not even looking at budget, but what actually happened outside of the budget. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Okay, so fund balance, going just a little bit further. Our board policy says near to three months operating expenditures.

069It also says assigned and unassigned fund balance. Okay, so when you look at fund balances, you have multiple buckets. You have a non-spendable assigned and that may be inventory that we already have. We have to earmark that off. It's already actually spent. It's a prepaid, we already bought it, but it's not going to be until next year. Therefore, it sits on the balance sheet account and it has to be set aside. It's non-spendable. Sorry, spent in a sense. Committed is when we come to the board and commit fund balance and I'll come back to that one. And unassigned is everything else. It's unassigned, it can be spent on anything. Okay? Committed, we come to the board and that's for like I just came to the board last time and I said we've got a roof.

070You know, here's the roof. We want to commit that fund balance because we know that we're going to have to pay that roof in next year's budget. Okay? The other thing is a commitment for the change in fiscal year. I want you to understand you don't have to see woppy numbers anymore. That is a committed set aside in that committed column just to protect us so we can get through this times. So, when you look at that unassigned, you can feel pretty comfortable that that is truly unassigned. Does that make sense? Okay. So, when you put everything together and even when you look at the first rating, it's going to say do you have a budget where your expenditures exceed your revenue? If so, you've got to have 75 days of un um of cash

071on hand basically. Another one of the markers is you have to have 60 days of cash on hand. And so, what I looked at was 75 days of cash on hand. So, I took the budget and the deficit and I looked at the two different raises. So, if you look at the first raise where we give 1% to professional employees and 2% to paraprofessionals, you're looking at 156,375 in expenditures. Your deficit would be 3.8. 3 months operating is 39 with this and then you kind of got to look you've got to add that deficit. So, you're a little bit high or than the 3 months. However, like I said, it's around 3 months. And then you can look at cash on hand to match match your first rating, you would have to have 32 million

072in that unassigned bucket. Okay? If you go down to the next one, it would be 157,000 in expenditures. Your deficit would be 4.8. Your 3 months would be 39,340 requirement for fund balance to make that 3 month marker and the 75 days cash on hand would be 32,334. And Okay. All right. That's all the fun I have tonight. Are there any questions? This is just really kind of the beginning. Um I would love to take back a compensation plan next month. And so, you might kind of think through things and kind of think about if you have any questions that you want to send to Dr. Harkrider or to Ms. Egie. Um because we want to bring that back in May and adopt a a compensation plan in May. Yes. And then we will we

073will bring uh what we what we've done so far is all the budgets are in. We're sorting through all of it, going through it with a fine-tooth comb, especially on those. Um but we feel pretty good about the numbers. I'm not really seeing anything. Another positive is insurance. It looks like we're going to be kind of flat this year again, which is kind of exciting. It's like property is going down, casualty is going up, but we think that we're going to see a decrease overall. So, um and then there's some other things played into that. So, I've estimated flat there for insurance, which is a big number. You know, it's our 2.6 million off off the bat. So. Anyway, I appreciate your time to Yes, sir. >> Yeah, I was just going to say thank

074you for the information. And [clears throat] and I know we're still several months out, but well, you just mentioned compensation next month. Um uh and Dr. Detloff was just here visiting about uh the market and the job market and retention issues and all those types of things. Um my mindset at this point is we have a healthy fund balance. And and we are going to have to make a decision whether a healthy fund balance is important to us or retaining and recruit recruiting quality people with our students is more important. So, I I I I know we have lots of conversation left, but uh I thank you for the information. We It's obvious that we have a chore before us the next month or two. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, thank you for the

075presentation. I think a lot of those numbers are helpful in just thinking about um I think looking at all those deficit budgets in the past is really helpful, too. But, just putting in perspective, if you combine that with, you know, what we heard already of decreasing student enrollment, um we can't just look at the past, right? And say that because we've always had deficit budgets, it's all going to be okay. That was also when we were having increasing student enrollment. So, um this was all just really helpful um to put some of it in perspective for us. So, appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> [snorts] >> All right, that is our last item. So, that's going to bring us to item E, adjourn. >> Thank you for that update. >> Mhm. >> to um get

076started on this meeting of the College Station ISD Board of Trustees. Um declaration of a quorum, we have seven members present. Welcome to this meeting of College Station Independent School District Board of Trustees. We were elected at large to represent the interest 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 this meeting or in

077upcoming 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, this is 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 this 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 Elementary 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 Cott and I'm the

078principal 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 Osina 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 Osina's 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 So, and Caroline has spent her career in education at Forest Ridge. And now again a fourth grader. And then I have Miss Lydia here, Miss Lydia Pickett and Miss Lydia started her experience at Forest Ridge in PPCD and is now also

079a 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 Rickert's kiddos get to do that. So, we'll start with Miss Osina. >> Good evening. My name is Caroline Osina. I'm a fourth grade foot leader from Forest Ridge Elementary. My favorite subject is math and ELA. Some things that I

080love to do at Forest Ridge is go to different classrooms, see new teachers, and 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. 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 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 Outside of school, I like to do art and swimming. I'm proud of getting better at reading. I as a an ac- ac- accomplishment. For

081my career, I want to be a child life specialist at a hospital or a fashion designer. >> [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, are you ready? >> Hi, my name is Emmy Bailey. My favorite thing about Hi, my name is Emmy Bailey. My favorite thing about South Knoll is my teachers. My favorite thing to do is read Mercy Watson books. I also like spending

082time 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 is what your favorite thing to do? Sing and dance. >> Sing and dance. >> Jazara likes to sing and dance. And what do you want to do when you grow up? >> Um I want to be

083a bingo bell 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? Okay. >> 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. >> Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. >> Please join us for a moment of silence. >> Please be seated. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. Um Ms. Pickett, I think

084you 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 [applause] did. >> [cheering] >> We appreciate it. Super. And I think our future's secured. We'll 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? >> [applause] >> Okay. So, I um you know, I've been at Forest Ridge for a few years. And the ladies standing here to my left are just amazing educators. Some of have been there almost as

085long as I have, but uh I think the youngest one on to our Forest Ridge team is Ms. 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 Persing. So, and they are an incredible team of peop- people that love kids and work really hard for them. So, a couple of one little quick thing about each one of them. I'm going to talk about them in a as a group. So, Ms. Ann's Ms. Ann's is our uh our team member who makes sure that we stay on track. She is very organized. She has all her ducks in a row at all all

086times. 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. Ms. Wester, if Ms. 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. Andrea Prejean right there in the center as I already mentioned is just a powerhouse of energy and excitement that she brings to to the team. She is

087always 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 that I don't even know how she's going to use it. So, that's our claim to fame as well. Ms. House, Ms. House is a master of all things. She teaches all of the content areas and she has a really good 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 is really great at reaching out to kiddos who may need just a little bit more.

088And then Ms. Rollins, Ms. 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, uh 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 say often of all these ladies who teach language arts, but Ms. 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 reader. So, they all bring their unique expertise to this team. But but together together they're

089magic. So I I think that Ms. 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 the 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 their 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 team is they adore children. They feel privileged and honored to work with each and

090every single one of them. And they say really great things about their principal. 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 and make their jobs easier. Because the job of a classroom teacher is a challenging one. But, one

091of the first things you learn as a principal is that it's 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 that work, they all extended themselves and said, "I can do it." And they have all brought their special

092gifts 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 finds something to celebrate, a strategy someone is trying, success that that that someone has seen. Um uh 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 and motivated and celebrated, that's another way to keep everybody moving forward and to keep that work happening. And

093her 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 facilitator of our first grade collaborative team meeting. 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 team, they invest in the work. And these two ladies, Paula

094and 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 we tried this and and and and they're sharing and they're

095willing to extend themselves. And in a profession where we don't see a lot of or 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. Thank you, Vanna. Oh. For you. And for And for you.

096>> Teachers they're amazing. >> They are. >> [snorts] >> THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> GREAT. PRESIDENT EGIE, 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 state championship champion,

097Walnut Grove. They competed with determination and grit, and ultimately fell 2-0. And while the final result wasn't what they had 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 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 and receive your certificate up

098here from Dr. Hartrider 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 Percine. >> [applause] >> Asher Kalki. >> [applause] >> Jacob Lopez. Samuel He >> [applause] >> Santiago Martinez Salazar Brandon Burns >> [applause] >> Kevin Alvarado Jasiel Turrubiates >> [applause] >> Grayson Kemp Thomas Dominguez >> [applause] >> Vicente Parades >> [applause] [laughter] >> Ramon Ross >> [applause] >> Kaloyan Dimitrov >> [applause] >> Angel Del Rosal Joseph Rachetsky >> [applause] >> Jorge Flores Guilherme Vieira >> [applause] >> Rafael Becallo >> [applause] >> Khalid Alani >> [applause] >> Nathaniel Ifikhar >> [applause] >> Edson Acosta >> [applause] >> Caden Tapley Daniel Gonzalez >> [applause] >> River Chai >> [applause] >> Elliot

099McLone >> [applause] >> Hans Park Victor Cook Lucas Rivas >> [applause] >> And their head coach, Chad Peevy. Assistant coaches Wesley Fischer and Edgar De Luna >> [cheering] [applause] >> I can't see over the boys, but uh their student manager, Gustavo Lopez. >> [cheering] [snorts] >> Hey. >> [applause] >> 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 um is also from our students from Forest Ridge and South Knoll Elementary. So, just want to recognize that artwork and tell you to take a look at that when you get an opportunity. Um that's going to move us to item D1, which is board reports. What have we got? Uh okay, I can give a few. Sorry. Um budget committee met.

100Um we had a great presentation and workshop. So, um for those of you interested in that, I would definitely go watch the workshop. Got a lot of great information. Um I guess the main thing budget committee um They're they focused on facility efficiency, staffing review, program costs, and operational efficiencies. Um so, we had a great report from them. Um bilingual committee also met. Um really kind of focusing on some of the summer programs or some um academic um engagement they can give the students over the summer. Um this was the first year of that committee. Um so, it was great to get some parents together to collaborate. And um, this uh, special education um, committee also met and Blair is going to give us a great update tonight, so I really won't steal her thunder.

101But, um, one thing I did want to mention is the TA parent directed um, special education services grant. The application opened um, April 1st and it's open through the 30th and that's like $1,500 one-time grant for parents of students receiving um, services. So, I encourage parents to go out um, 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. Uh, 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 um, yesterday and we had a report from Baylor Scott and White and Saint Joseph systems. Um, I thought it was really interesting, something that's completely out of

102my sphere of knowledge, but um, interesting to hear what they've done to serve our community and um, 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 there 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, uh, 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 uh, supporting that because sounds like

103they can't find enough. And many of those 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'll just add up my understanding that was a summer exploratory program free to like I think June after junior year that yeah, so maybe still sign 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 um the student participants. There was an amount of 28,000 that went to the Ag Initiatives. So,

104congrats. Um also, we had a really great night and a few of us got to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony. Um and it was really special getting to honor those teacher student groups. >> And I guess I have two things to share. One was DIC that met back 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 HR, talked about um teacher incentive allotment, some of the details there and you know, and continuing to add eligible folks to to that program. They're and the recruitment efforts for for teachers. Then we also got updates similar to from this sped committee meeting, but again, we will be seeing those details here in a

105minute from Ms. Grande. And then we also got an update 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 heard the the idea right now is a is a AI Council I think she called it that just helping us as part of our strategic plan really, how are we going to inter- intergate in 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, the other thing I wanted to share is just with everybody is kind of I just came from on Saturday I got to go to the next step in the legislative advisory

106council. The kind of TASB organized effort 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 within our communities. I think that that was some of the discussion as well, you know, with the advocating and and educating our community about how the things that are happening in Austin are affecting us. We heard a I'd urge anybody to go back and listen to the workshop section where Dr. Detloff

107presented about some of the the challenges really impacting education in Texas in general, and then of course, you can hear all of the specifics how they're how it's affecting us as well. So, I think that's really important. 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, uh Head Start Policy Council, we didn't meet and we will here soon, but some highlights of the program. During their early education application round up, 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

108included. So, the initiative of asking those dads to come out and coach the teams were a huge success. So, a lot of fun. >> 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 15,902 uh tests so far and we have one more day of

109testing left along with makeups on Friday. So, lots of testing. I 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

110High School has three state qualifiers and Consol has two. Baseball, College Station High School believe has secured a playoff spot in the third seed. I think they may need to split this week. Uh 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 and Consol, will start the first round of the playoffs Friday night. Uh College Station High will actually be hosting both of the games on Friday. Consol is playing halfway between here and Crosby at uh Safford, 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 uh we have uh May 12th is College Station High School spring game that will be at

111uh Cougar Stadium. Consol spring game will be May 18th and that is going to be at AMC Middle School as Tiger Stadium is still under construction. Uh CTE, we had a big uh 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 uh state competitions. Uh fine arts UIL state and sight reading, all CSISD choirs, bands received 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 competitions. So, be a sprint to the finish line and there will probably

112be this much if not more at the May meeting. So, a lot of great things happening. >> Thank you. That's awesome. When you have 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. Simmons. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Okay, 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. >> Can

113I project it up to the There we go. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Um I had the privilege this year of working with um parent and teacher volunteers from around the district on the School Health Advisory Council. And um 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 shack 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 web page that you can see here. This is where you'll find

114our wellness plan that I'll talk about in just a second. Um and then we focused on the whole school, the whole community, and the whole child. So, that was This was our 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'll 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 Boudreau. We had a

115report from Neo on active transportation regarding biking and walking to school and safe routes. We worked with Bridget Goodloe through the child nutrition program and got some updates on that. Health and PE with Megan Symmack, 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 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 2026-2027 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

116as 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 the 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 Christie, we are 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

117nurses 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 as well. And then, um one of the active transportation recommendations that we had is 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 Shaq? >> I just want to say thank you for um leading that committee and coming and telling us what you've been doing and appreciation for the parents, especially that take their time to serve on that committee. >> Absolutely.

118It 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, Ms. Grundy. >> Hi. Good evening, President Egger, Dr. Hawk Rider, members of the board. >> [clears throat] >> I 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 in in 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.

119Um we had coaches Randy Daniel, Greg Smith, Devon Henry, and Elizabeth Engelhardt who pour into our students who participate in Special Olympics throughout the year. They coach on the weekends, they go all over the state, um 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 TAMU student organizations, as well as others who helped put that event on for our students. Another big celebration we have going on with the really night through 18 plus, which are kids who have graduated out and they're beyond 18 pluses past the high school age group. Those kids have 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.

120Education Foundation and CSISD provided a significant grant as well as Texas A&M got gave us a work-based learning grant that Amy Cesla transition coordinator and Mindi our secondary coordinator work 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. 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 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

121it took them away from their families to come in in the evenings to participate. It was fantastic. We spent a lot of time giving information and helping the parents learn about 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 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

122education evaluation data. So, this is historical data for initial full individual evaluations, also known as FIEs. In special education, the acronyms are everywhere 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 1920 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

123um FIEs that were requested. Not a surprise when you're looking at kiddos that have been out of school for a period of time, there were 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

124of 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 the world of special education in Texas. And the state is looking at providing and reimbursing the district $1,000 per initial evaluation. So we don't know when we'll see that exactly and you know the 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 that 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

125previous years, um and that is included in that $1,000 reimbursement. Special education enrollment over the course of the past 5 years, you can see district enrollment in that first column is going um you know, up to 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

126state 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 happened, 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 are 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. Um then you go to mainstream, those are kids who have co-teach in class support, that kind of services. Resource 41 is

127resource less than 21% of the school day. And I put a note on that one. We have 908 in that category, and that um bumped up significantly whenever we added dyslexia under special ed. Almost 400 of those students 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. Um another part of my wonderful webinar this this afternoon was that looking into 2026-2027 TEA is considered 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

128who have who have the special needs. And so, it would look at something Let me give you an example. So, you have two kids in general education and there's one who needs behavioral support, um help with four or five 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 um in the long run, but again, we'll see how it goes. Next year is our our pilot year to try it out. Okay, pause. Do you have any questions so far? Okay,

129what's your question, Mr. Fields? >> Do private schools pay for those evals when we do those or is that just like a service to the community? >> That is um a requirement that we have. So, if you are a private school student or a home school student, but you live in College Station ISD's um zoning, then we are required to provide this. Good question. >> Yeah, thanks. >> You're welcome. >> The growth um 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. Um do people come here? Are they seeking it out? I'm just curious. >> So over the years that has been shared that that we are known for being a district that serves our special education

130students 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. This was really hard to pinpoint which charts to make and show you because it's K-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. Um 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

131great 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 where we should be. And then we have a dyslexia screener that takes place in kindergarten as well 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

132K-3. I thought that was pretty exciting. Made my heart happy. And then um I know that it's STAAR, not everybody always wants to talk about STAAR. However, I pulled this data from the Texas Academic Performance Report because it is a significant part of the 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 um growth and scores because this is what you want to

133see. 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, which 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 um 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

134a little bit 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 one and English two, so your English one red bar kind of becomes your English two gold bar, right? Because you have to pass English one and then you take the English two 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 one

135is your red bar in English two. The STAR Alternate 2 is an assessment that is given to our students who are learning on the applied standard. So, they are accessing the curriculum at a pre-requisite level. A lot of times this is our life skills classrooms. The 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 can 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

136were first year providers or um administrators of this test when this data was taken and so I think when we see next year I I I think we'll see an improvement as well cuz they will have given the test more than one time. Okay. Pause. Do 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? They is just they all >> They count. >> They I just completely the 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, um there are a subcategory within, and they also have would

137have 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 subpopulations, we look at them. >> Yes. Yeah. Any other questions on that part? Okay. All right. And then, um looking at special education staffing historically, for this is for the past 4 years plus a projection into next year. Um 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 24-25 at the goals section, we

138had ended up spending $75,000 on contracted services for evaluations. So, we had our existing um 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 we looked at that and had that much needed for contracted services, in 25-26, 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. We also had um approximately $75,000 on contracted behavioral support for very high needs behavior. We had a student who had come in from out of um a clinical setting and required a lot of additional support. Fortunately, TEA

139has 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. Um so we kind of wanted to watch that for another year and see is that going to be something that we need positions added for or considered whenever we um 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. We also ended up having more

140students come in from the clinical setting who required a lot of behavioral support, and we accrued around $150,000 in contracted um services behavioral support this school year. I will apply for the high cost funds again grant again, but the amount is around 40,000. You don't get more than that. That's the max amount. So I'll still try to get it cuz why not, but um 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 um in special education. And so through evaluating our art facilitators positions in

141particular, 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 I just a fantastic idea in a lot of ways, but when you're looking at a budget deficit and you need 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 our 250 plus caseloads at those schools with one art facilitator and then we've had elementary schools that had 85, 95, maybe 110. Middle

142schools are 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 reallocating 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. Um 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

143special 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? >> I don't really have a question, but I just want to comment um and appreciate the thought that went behind that. Um I mean, we've been hearing we're going to hear more from Ms. Grande about this 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 >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And hopefully we're going to look at about a $300,000 savings from not having contracted services for those positions that we can reallocate the the facilitator positions and coaches back to the campus. Okay, shifting gears.

144TEA, 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 of 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 day 10 days, and then a total disciplinary removals rate at the bottom. 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

145here." 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 Devon Henry, coordinator, is she back there? Yeah, she's hiding. Devon um Henry and in collaboration with Tiffany Parkinson and Jeff Mann started working with our administrators just to talk about the data, what does it look 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

146really great thing. Um then we kept on showing a pretty good trajectory, and then in 2024-2025, 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. So, that's the state saying the green is the state saying, "Hey, you're getting better." 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 best. >> No. Yes, white is the white is good. White

147is the best option up there. Yes, thank you. >> Is this all students or only special education? >> This is um this is special education students in their discipline. >> Got it. I was just 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 have 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

148enough 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, ARD meetings are held within timeline of 30 calendar days after um 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. Um 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 are IEPs are developed and implemented by third birthdays of our

149students. 100% compliant there. And then, secondary transition IEP post-secondary goals and transition 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 wow. 100% like 99.81 so close. So, really proud of that group. So, I also wanted to circle back to some of 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 in our campuses and the um 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,

150and 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. Um and then, goal three, we're going to enrich students' school experiences by strengthening relationships between student, staff, and families. Um I've 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 until May 20 May 22nd. We have 745 students that were randomly selected by TEA and their families got an email

151from Gibson Consulting as well as from me about how to get that assess or that survey taken. Our response sponsor rate today is around 10% and state average is 2.5. So we are tracking on a good path with that, but that was another area that um I didn't add here, but we are also going to have to connect with our families. Okay. Do you all have any questions? >> I 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

152really 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 I'm in awe of our special education teachers. I substituted in a life skills class 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

153way to to give back, I would recommend get sub certified and go work in one of our special ed classes. Uh 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 um I really enjoyed serving on this committee this year. There's so much to learn and I don't even feel like I scratched the 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 are making great progress, but um 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

154kids. Um And 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, um thank you all for that opportunity and yeah, anybody I encourage y'all to go out there to the Special Olympics. It was a really really cool to see a lot of our students out there. >> Same thing. >> fabulous. I came on Friday. It was fantastic. >> Oh, Friday. >> I came Friday night. >> I've been talking to teachers over the years in sped um Devin 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 once they made the transition um and I

155think that's a true testament how much they care about what they do um and the support they get from the district. So, great job. >> 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 I got to say my couple comments, too. One, I also was on the advisory committee and again just um echoing what a wonderful environment it was of sharing 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

156make 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 yeah, 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 are spending it um and what the state was reimbursing us for those services. There was a $4.5 billion gap. And yes, there was additional 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. There will still be a gap. So, this is a a a clear area where, you know, we

157are 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 a district, we're obligated >> Yep. >> 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 we're choosing to overdo things. I mean, we're doing what we need to

158do for kids and the state's just not doing their part. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you, Ms. 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 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 step 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

159issue 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 Anahuac Consolidated High School that are roughly 40-plus years old. And typically you 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.

160>> Okay, I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Ms. Simon. Are there any further questions or discussions? Okay. All in favor, will you say aye. 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 deliberate 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

161Government Code. We'll return to open session when we're done. >> Mhm. >> Okay, I'm going to call this 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. >> 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.