CSISD Board Meeting 2/17/2026 - Workshop

001Good evening everyone. Um it is 5:00 on the dot and I'm going to call to order our board of trustees workshop. Declaration of a quorum. We have seven members present. Um item C is hearing of citizens. We do not have anyone signed up to speak for this workshop. So that's going to move us to item D1, which is our 2627 budget discussion, which I believe is Miss Wilson. Good evening, Miss Geeky, Dr. Harker, board of trustees. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit with you guys again about budget. So, we're going to go through several things today. We're going to look at the current budget. We're going to look at the budget amendment. There were a lot of adjustments in that budget amendment and I wanted to have a chance to kind of

002go through that. We're going to look at the first semester attendance incentive. I think that's really exciting to celebrate our campuses that achieved their incentives a lotment. Uh we're going to look at enrollment trends again and then we're going to look at estimated revenue trends. So, we'll go pretty quick through that. That looks like a daunting list. So, we'll kind of start with the current budget. So, if you look at the current budget, uh it was in your budget reports, but I just want to kind of bring that back to you because we're about seven months into the budget. And so, you can kind of look at the revenue estimates and where we're over. A few things that you'll notice right off the bat is the available school fund. That's ASF/ Foundation State. That is

003over by $3.8 million. We'll address that tonight. A lot of that revenue is generated due to a property value study that we had done in our district. It was on 2023 values and it brought the district more than $2.3 million in revenue. Uh that is not on our current summary of finance, but that's property value study from previous years. In addition to that, we had some additional property value studies in 2022 that I'll bring tonight. And uh we had a little bit of repayment on um our um our um chapter 42 payments. Uh other sources was the 2.4 million that is from a hell claim that will receive the revenue this year. However, we won't make those uh repairs until next fiscal year. So because right now you remember our budget ends on June 30th.

004So if you want to look at it by expenditure, you can kind of look through here by function and kind of look at where we're at as a function level. I really like to look at it by object code because so much of our budget is in payroll cost with 84% in payroll cost. You can tell real quick if we're blowing a budget by how much of the year has passed and how what percentage of the year have we paid out in payroll. One thing that you really have to keep in mind with payroll cost is there's something in there called teacher incentive aotment. Uh right now we're estimating about 3,875,000 around that uh po point for the teacher incentive aotment that get that gets paid out in August. However, we get the numbers and

005then we rebook it to this fiscal year that ends June 30th because it's earned in this fiscal year. So it has to be coded and charged to this fiscal year. So when you're looking at the payroll, kind of keep that in mind because that is a very big number. So if we want to break down the budget amendment a little bit closer, I want to kind of just break it out in chunks and kind of talk about what you're seeing. So the total increase to the budget was $2.3 million, close to $2.4 million. Uh I had brought up to you guys the last time we kind of looked at the current. It's just where our interest income was, the additional fees that the district was being charged, and the decrease in return on investment. So,

006with that being said, I think we'll end this year with 372,000 less than we did in previous years and less than we did budgeted. However, we have that bank bid out. We're going to receive those in March and we're going to bring those to you guys to adopt in March. We're hoping that we can kind of turn this around, decrease some of the fees that we're being charged. Like I mentioned the last time, just the number of bank accounts, when we decrease that, that will decrease fees and be able to uh increase our interest revenue as well. And so we're trying to do whatever we can to kind of generate as much revenue. Uh state revenue, we increased 1,334,000. So this was the summary that was ran through the end of the third six weeks.

007Uh, of course that generated a decrease in revenue because our estimated students based on the demographs and bas and then what was actually uh showed up at school this year was less. And so we're going to go ahead and decrease that revenue now and then we're going to increase the revenue for those property value studies. So those property value studies amounted close to two $2.4 million there. Uh a big one right now is the federal revenue. You're going to see that a couple of places. So, we're going to go ahead and decrease the federal revenue by a million dollars. Um, it's a million1 actually. Uh, that is due to charge revenue. We're not anticipating receiving much of anything this fiscal year. We'll continue to monitor that because that's a number that we're going to want

008to kind of look at hard going into next budget cycle. U, we have three different cost reports that we're dealing with right now. there was a um a negative amount out of the 22 cost report from an audit that we're having to repay back a 23 cost report audit for SHARS and a 24 cost report audit. So what's happening right now is they're using the funds that we would receive an interim payments to take some of those to to reverse some of those negativities and then we're having to set aside additional money right now in the other uses category. so that we can pay back anything from the 2024 SHARS audit report. We're still working through it. We're still looking into it. We're still fighting it and we're kind of monitoring what's going on with

009the district to make sure we're turning in everything we possibly can to make sure we're saving those uh federal revenues. Uh if you're very if you're anything familiar, I know that um the previous CFO talked about this a lot just about the different types of charges that we can we can recoup cost on that we could in the past. And that's what we're really kind of looking at. Uh other resources, of course, is that $2.4 million in Hell Claims. So, I I kind of wanted to take a little bit. So, you can see in that bottom right hand corner, I wanted to look at one-time revenue increases and current revenue decreases so that you can kind of keep in mind. So, if you were looking at at a current budget, we decreased revenue in the

010budget 2.4. However, we have a $4.8 million increase. And so when we end the year this year, we will be putting money in fund balance. Does that make sense? >> But certainly can on that hail >> piece of it. And I think we have an item too that we're going to >> commit that fund balance. Yes, >> ma'am. But that one Yeah, that one's committed for something else for sure. >> Yes. Yes. >> Is that the only part of that that would be committed to something? >> Okay. So, we've got the 2.4 four million that we're going to commit to fund balance, but I went ahead and committed just that because you remember we told you at the last board meeting that we really didn't change our fiscal year to increase our fund balance. And

011so I pulled that out and put that as a commitment as well in fund balance. So you can kind of keep that in mind. However, we still have a healthy fund balance. It's over three months of operating and with those items in place. >> So just to be sure that I'm tracking with all of this, too, because we might get really excited and see a net increase of almost 2.4 4 million at the top, but the reality is we've got 2 almost 5 million that is insurance proceeds that we're going to be spending to fix our roofs, right? Yes. >> We just want to be sure that like as we're talking about these numbers, everybody's clear that we didn't just suddenly get a ton of money into our budget. >> Absolutely. And that's a great

012point because I want you to keep that in mind when we build next year's budget because even though we get a increase in revenue this year, you're going to see a larger deficit next year when we turn that around and have to pay for those roofs. But that's why that's committed. So that you guys know that's committed and that's going to be rolled back out to cover those expenditures in the next year and it's really not in a sense our day-to-day operations and to keep that in mind. So that's a great point. Thank you. >> So basically it's just all a wash relative to the repairs that we're going to have to have for the hell damage. >> Yes, sir. It really is. But it's going to look really healthy this year when we close

013out the fiscal year and add to fund balance and I just Yeah. So that's why we're kind of earmarking that. Okay. >> Can you can you talk a little more about the audit? I didn't I don't totally understand that. Sounds like three years in a row we were overpaid chars or we did something incorrect. What can you talk a little more about that? >> It's not really something incorrect. So what happens and what's happened over the past is they give interim payments. And so that was based on our estimates going into those years where they were changing our SHs and what could be reimbursed. And so they're paying you interim payments and then you do a cost report to settle up. And so what the cost report does is settle up any interim payments. So

014if you've been overpaid on those interim payments, they're wanting you to pay that money back. And so that's really kind of what we're looking at for 22, 23, and 24. However, with some of the stuff that's going on with the interim payments, like one of them's a a one trip ratio um on transportation and we feel like we should have gotten that money in. We should get that money back and not be charged for those costs in a sense. We should Okay, let me rephrase that. We should have earned that revenue uh when we submitted it. And so, we're still fighting those. But basically, you s they give you your interim payments, you file a cost report, and then they go in and say, "Oh, we don't agree with you or you do we do

015agree with you." And so, we're kind of going in through that period. It's nothing that the district's done anything wrong. Sure. And a lot of it has to do with they changed the rules after the game was played and so we submitted all the information. We received interim payments and then they came back and said, "Oh, you can't claim those costs anymore." And so, where we were dealing with some of that, too. So, I guess two follow-up questions. Is it typical to have like a four-year clawback? Like going back to 2022 seems like a very long time. >> It it does seem like a long time to go back that far. However, I think it has to do with just all of the change in the rules and them going back. And then not only

016that, we were trained on some of the rules and they actually went back and changed those rules after they did the training with us. And so, there's some of that in play. Typically, historically, we haven't had we haven't ever had this. We haven't had to pay money back. We haven't I mean, that's not thing. It's just like I said, it's the federal rules that have changed and we're just in the mix of it trying to get it taken care of. >> Yeah. They changed the rules and instead of starting asis, moving forward, they're retroactively trying to go back and recoup. >> So, that's a recent thing, >> correct? >> Okay. And then whatever the kind of the challenges around tagging, you know, getting getting things categorized correctly, do we feel like we have a pulse

017on that now? So the risk of that happening moving forward is less or are we still just we'll find out in three or four years if we did it. >> Okay. So right now what you're looking at now is we're decreasing that revenue. We're not receiving payments right now. the payments we're receiving are very very low. Like we used to receive a million3 a year. We're receiving like 254,000 right now. So we're kind of monitoring that and then making sure that we can claim as much as we can. There are a lot of school districts in the state of Texas just because of the decrease in revenue. They've emand abandoned the program. Just we want to make sure that's >> that these numbers are accurate and that we're getting all that we can before we

018abandon a program because that's still a lot of money. >> Sure. to us. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure we feel comfortable that whatever was changing, we feel as good as we can with the changing rules that we've identified those things and and our projections will be more accurate in the future, I guess, because of what we've learned. Is that fair? >> It It's fair. >> We'll see in a couple years relative to the way it's written now. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, if the federal government changes the rules of the game and then makes it retroactive and it applies back, >> then yes, we'll be hearing this conversation again. >> Okay. >> But right now, we're not showing any revenue, so there's nothing to take from us, >> right? >> So, I bet

019they can find >> I mean, they've taken everything. >> I bet they can find some. >> It feels like they've taken everything. There's very little revenue left in the program. We're just hopeful legislation will kind of look at this because this is huge to school districts. It's a another loss in funding. But great questions. Thank you. Okay. Looking at expenditure. So when you look at this, I didn't just want I wanted to take a hard look at our total expenditure budget because we're we're about to get into the hard budget season making decisions for our school district. So, I wanted to kind of look and to see what we set aside in contingencies, what our planning numbers were, where they are now, and take a hard look at payroll. So, as I showed you guys

020earlier, payroll makes up 84% of our budget. So, when we started this year, there was a lot of things playing on our budget. Uh, we changed how we budgeted. That's one thing. Uh, and we made sure everything was accounted for in your budget and then you had to live within your budget. But we also know when you're going through some of those pains, there might be some things that you might have forgotten about. So we set aside some contingencies for that reason. Another thing is we're still in the process of building a position control system within our finance system. So it lines your positions up with the exact number of positions and the correct coding behind that position is set up in the system originally. It's gone it goes through the budget process. it goes

021through the hiring process and it's the only way we can pay people. Okay. So, with that being said, we know that bud that positions are coded correctly from the get-go and that we know that they're all accounted for. So, some of the adjustments that you're seeing within the functions in the budget is yes, payroll was accounted for 100% correctly, but not in the right function. Like that function didn't have enough of the payroll in it. It needed to be adjusted. So, I went line by line and then I turned it over to Chris, he rebuilt the spreadsheet and he went line by line. If you also take into account when you're talking a huge staffed high school, three people are not hired for that campus, then that's a huge number. Another thing is with transportation.

022If you know right now where we got 22 spots in transportation that are not filled. So, when you build your budget, some people build with those not at 100% fill rate. We build with it a 100% fill rate. Uh I hear a lot of times when we're building a budget that yes, we build a deficit budget, but we end out perfect. Okay, we end out good. We don't we don't hit the fund balance. A lot of that is just because we have to cover estimates. We have to make sure that we're covering our substitutes for the year. We have to make sure we're covering all the insurance when we don't know who's going to take the insurance and things like that. So, what we've done here is gone and looked at all of those pieces

023and went ahead and reduced the budget to kind of show you what a real number looks like. Please keep in mind when I show you the final number here that we still have room in that payroll budget, okay? So, there there's still movement in there in case something goes over in substitutes or anything that happens. And so, we still have a pad in our payroll budget. However, this takes the contingencies out and those these takes like right now we're trending to be about 380,000 in savings and substitutes from previous years. That takes that into consideration and that takes that out of that number. Okay. Um, another thing that happens is sometimes we can't get positions filled. So, in that number, um, if you can look at the next line on contracted services, there's $31,000 sitting

024there. That is actually positions that could not be filled in payroll. So we had to contract out for a diag or we had to contract out for an aid for a behavior student. And so those would be typically things you would pay out of payroll, but now you have to pay it on out of contracted services. So that's the 301,000 there. Associated with that money that we receive in a property value study is we have to pay Purdue Brandon that runs all of those numbers and then that's an increase in attorney fees. And then of course we're setting that money aside for SHAR's payment. We're hoping it doesn't have to happen, but I just really kind of want to give you a true picture. So again, what I tried to do here was break it

025out on current adjustments to the budget. So I'm reducing your current dayto-day operations budget by $1.9 million. We can call that $2 million. And then we're increasing expenditures for one-time cost of a million. That is for your attorney property value study. And that is also for the shars. Okay. What questions do y'all have? >> Couple. How? So 2.3 million contingency and unfilled positions. How many unfilled positions is that? Do you have a ballpark? I was just looking at a total, but like for example at our two high schools when we went into the budget cycle because you remember now we have to go in at June 1st and we don't know 100% of the positions on June 1st but you have to adopt your I mean July 1. You have to adopt your budget in

026June. So when we looked at each line item we were looking at basically the two high schools we were over allocated on positions by three at each high school. So that was over 200,000 a piece. uh when you look at your transportation department um >> on the high school before you go forward. So are they unfilled positions or the positions that were absorbed because they were not needed and and so that's why the payroll decreased. It does my question make sense? >> Well, a little bit of both. We didn't go line by line and compare the positions. We were looking at a total cost of budget and it ended up being about that much. And when you go into the budget, what happens with our old system is you take your current position to you

027roll it in and then you try to make adjustments of what your known are uh during the system because there's not a position control. There's nothing at a onetoone. So you're you're basically taking your job classes and pulling them into a budgeting model and then pushing them into the next year's budget after you roll your raises. So you're hoping that you get like for example if we had three less elementary you hope you pull those positions out of the mix before you roll it in. And then what was going on was like Chris rolled one thing in or Mr. Neely did and then I had an Excel spreadsheet that I was working off of. And so then we kind of compare for materiality to see kind of where we are. Uh there was there is

028about um 600,000 in health insurance in in that number right there. That may have been a little bit overestimated, but you don't know at the time when you're when you're building the budget how many people will take, how many will not take health insurance. Um you had transportation. There was a little over there was a couple hundred thousand in transportation just from unfilled positions that we went ahead and reduced. Uh and there was a little bit in maintenance that we went ahead and reduced. There was a half a million in contingency that was just setting aside till we got through a period of time where we felt like all of the budgets, all the softwares and everything was accounted for and then that was reduced. >> Okay. You mentioned we we beat u your expenditure

029projection on subs. How how did we do are we just not >> are subs just not picking up jobs or how do we beat that number? Okay. Um, so, so what Mr. Neely does is kind of looks at a historical information on substitutes and then he comes up with how much he estimates will be going into the next school year on substitutes. However, we're we're trying to track down we kind of close some of the gaps in substitutes. For example, one of the cost savings going into this year was just we did um we set aside so many subs per campus that a that a principal could utilize. So we had a bucket of subs for campus and then each department in curriculum had a bucket of subs for campus. Um and then we looked

030at the other subs. And so so basically it's not so much that it's just that we're not we're holding people accountable in the substitutes where um you only have allotted so many subs. You can't just if you need a sub for the week. It's not that someone's missing is you just wanted to bring in a sub to relief something or >> right it's a part of their zerobased budgeting when they build their their budget. Okay. >> Um >> we're just trying to we went into this year that was one of our cost savings but we wanted to also make sure that we were accounting for everything and we weren't going to be short. Mhm. Well, no, I'm just ask because I didn't know if it was a procedural thing to help with the efficiency because

031on a Friday in spring at a high school, you are likely not filling all your sub requests. And so I didn't know if if the savings was relative to something that as far as how we're approaching subs as a district or simply the fact that more sub requests are going unfilled which then in turn yielded less expenses relative to subs. So, it's not it's not a it's not a big I was just curious. And so, >> fill rate's pretty similar to what it's been in years past, but as we building the budget for next year, our subpay is is not uh where it needs to be as far as being competitive in the county, and that's something that we're going to address. Uh I'm not sure it's just money. That's possibly why subs aren't necessarily

032our fill rate I think is a little over 60 to 70% and it also depends on the campuses. Uh I think it's more than money but we've got to make sure that that's not an excuse either that we give them a reason that they come here versus going somewhere else. >> Yeah, that was my thought on the subs as well. If there is any extra money when we talk about a 60 or 70% fill rate, you know, can some of that be used? I mean, that's kind of another maybe >> brainstorming some ideas. In Heather's previous district, Friday's uh sub rate was higher than Monday through Thursday. Uh filling for special education positions. We could pay more than we pay pay for gened. So, there's multiple things that we want to experiment with to try

033out next year and see if we're getting movement in the right direction that we want to >> because it still means 30% of the time um teachers or somebody's going to have having to cover some of those those classes. And it's been a pretty big issue since co everywhere uh substitute teachers and uh but you know we've got to evaluate where we are pay-wise. We've got to make sure we eliminate that but also coming up with some creative ideas like Friday pay potentially Monday special education positions could be something that entices more people. >> I think those are good ideas. One other thing because it was similar I think to what Mr. Martell's asking is when I see that two point something million that's coming out of the particularly con um construction payroll are you

034saying that we're not able to pinpoint like how many actual positions >> there's not very few a lot of >> that you know that we've eliminated some because of the you know changing the um well we're down we're down with our number of students so getting rid of some positions or as the question was we are we just not filling them. >> It's not it's it's not that we're not filling them. And actually our sub rate, the last time I checked with Mrs. Cooper, it was 77% fill rate. >> Um so and then when I compare with our peer districts, we are lower than our peer districts in subpay. And so we pulled all that data and we're ready. We've actually already submitted it to the budget committee so that they can kind of see

035um where where we have some things that we might need to cover. Um, most of that money is set when we set contingencies aside, we always set them in function 11. So when you set a contingency aside or you're building an extra amount of money in there for health insurance, you're going to put it in function 11. And then in addition, when you have subs that you might have overestimated how many subs you were going to need for the year, you set that in function 11. So when you look at all of those decreases, they're coming out of one function in a sense. And so that's a majority of that just to get to to start with. So and then on top of that TRS on behalf is another one that's really so if you're

036seeing some functions increase and then then function 11 decrease. I didn't feel from looking at the estimates that TRS on behalf was allocated appropriately by function. It needed to go less out of function 11 and more into the other functions. So, it's not that we're decreasing positions in function 11. It just happens to be we've got to get some of that extra out of there so that you can look at a true cost of a budget. That makes sense. >> Okay. >> And and I assume too, I could be wrong. I'm still learning the new fiscal year and the implications of how that thing influences how the district operates. So going into approving a budget in June, it's probably much more difficult to project some of your staffing needs that early on. Is that correct?

037That could play a role in this 2 million as well because absolutely. >> I guess you're going to anticipate some things as far as student enrollment, >> but a whole lot can change from then to the beginning of school. So I would assume it's a little more difficult to just completely pinpoint your staffing due to the when you have to make a move on the budget. Is that am I on? >> Absolutely. And so I think that's where position control is going to put it and be in play. We'll make sure their position is there. It's coded correctly. But a lot of times when someone leaves and a new person replaces it might be someone retired and a younger teacher replaces that. And so you're going to have savings and some of this money is

038attributed to that because when we were rolling those budgets over, we had to roll over current staff and then make make sure it was based on a pres a position. And so you're going to have some of those savings just from older teachers retiring and then hiring younger ones with less experience. >> So what I feel like I've heard you say, I mean you have talked about a couple of areas which we know are high need areas. special education. We ended up doing some contracted services for unfilled positions. And you mentioned um bus drivers, but what I'm not hearing you say is that we have a lot of unfilled positions um for teachers and and other staff. And that's really um great. And also just to kind of put in a bigger perspective. I mean,

039even for our families, sometimes when we budget, we have to kind of have a little bit of extra because we don't know what's going to happen. And I feel like I'm hearing that we're at a point in the year where you are more sure of what's going to happen so we can have better numbers. >> Absolutely. And a school district has to have contingency, especially a school district this large because there might be something that comes up in the middle of the year that you have to have and you want people to be uh conservative in their budget and then go into their budget conservatively, but something might come up, something might break, there might be a software that you need to purchase in the middle of the year that you didn't know through the

040budgeting process. And so you've got to have a little bit of money to be able to function and and we've had some of that in all honesty. >> Could we get like a five-year look back on unfilled positions just so it's feel it still feels very ambiguous to me? That is that that feels pretty straightforward, right? >> Yeah. I'm not sure we can give you an accurate count. We have not had a position control here. So part of that money as we're going through line by item, we've had money budgeted here historically in staffing that we no longer have those positions or need them based on enrollment. After this year, by them going line item by line item with a new software where the business office and HR will actually speak to each other, we

041will have a more accurate count of the staff we have and the staff that we currently need. So like in for this current school year, we don't know what positions we tried to hire last summer that we didn't fill. >> Okay, so I want to be extremely clear because I probably have said the wrong word up there. It's not about teachers and filled positions. When I talk sped, that might be you go through an AR and they assign a one- on-one or we have a behavior kid that no one will take that position. And so those are the ones that really kind of go unfilled. It's not so much or it's in the middle of the year and we have to have something now. Uh sometimes on diags we have all the positions filled. However,

042we need additional services and so because of ours they say you have to you know we we have to cover our case load. Um, and so those are sometimes your contracted services, but a lot of your your your money there in contracted services in the unfilled positions are things that have happened during a school year where we've gone through an AR and we have to have a one-on-one or and other things like that. A majority of your unfilled positions are sitting in your transportation department. There are 22 bus drivers that are unfilled right now and 12 monitors. That's not saying we're not doing our job because we are. they have had to uh increase route sizes and a lot of our work our our staff that's in the transportation department you'll often find them on

043a bus in the afternoon. Um with custodial that is a little harder sometimes because if you you feel at 100% those jobs turn over a lot and you're constantly refilling those jobs and so when that happens you might be short for a little bit in a position and then you rehire that position. So with that happening, if you've budgeted 100% for those positions and they're not at a feel right 100% because they're open some of the time, sometimes instructional aids, they leave us during the school year and we've got to replace them. But while they're gone, we have a a savings in a sense if we're not filling it with a substitute or something like that. So that's really what you're looking at. Our district is doesn't have like a problem filling teachers or anything

044like that. So I don't want that you guys to think that's it at all. And every department head and principal knows who what their staffing is. Right. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, this is the budget amendment and uh together we went from a 2.1 million deficit to a 2.596 if you're looking at current budget with all that that's was said. Okay. Attendance incentive. So I guess you guys know that if our campuses increase more than their targeted at 0.5 increase in attendance incentive, we reward them at one times their enrollment. If they go six to seven, we'll do two times their enrollment. They can keep going up. So the enrollment on the they kind of get a bonus to get that incentive up. So I'm really >> I'm sorry. Before we go, can

045you go back to the one just prior? I'm sorry. Right here. So the 33 is the delta of everything we just talked about. >> Yes sir. >> Okay. So 56 593 but we know 2.4 of that we're going to commit for roof damage later. >> Right. >> Okay. >> So if you look right now what we're going to contribute to fund balance at the end of this year will be more than the $1.2 million. >> Okay. in and so in our right now our annual operating is about it I think 156 >> 158 170 now it's 156 344 >> okay thank you >> okay >> all right so our district has a target of a 95.6% 6% increase in attendance. So, the winners are ADM Consolidated High School. I'm sorry that that kind of moved

046the letter there. Uh they actually had over 24 students per day that showed up than in the previous year, which is really exciting. Uh Oakwood Elementary increased their attendance over the previous year at 1.15 so far this year. Uh Pebble Creek is up there as well, over8% increase. and College Hills and College Station High School over 17 students uh per day over what they were last year. So, those are really exciting. Welburn's just right over that 0.5, but they still qualify for that additional funding. So, that's really exciting. Uh enrollment review, we've already kind of talked about this. I just kind of want to bring it to your attention. Um, we did adj I did adjust these numbers a little bit because when we resubmitted our uh fall snapshot, our number went down to 13953.

047So that's our snapshot enrollment number. Uh, I have showed this before, but just want to keep in mind because when I go I'm going into next year, I'm estimating that we're going to get those COVID babies. And so if you look at that year, that's 1,263. We have about 900 kindergarteners right now. And I think we're that number is going to grow this year. So, I'm kind of excited about that. Um, this is our estimated enrollment going into the upcoming years. The graph doesn't tell the whole story because that's not a whole lot of movement. I do think we have enrollment growth in our school district. I think a lot of it is our birth rate. So, if you look at the birth rates, you look at those earlier years, they're a lot lower. And

048if you look at those birth rates, they're just a lot lower. And so, we have less coming in. And so as our our grade levels roll off, you're going to see that kind of go down. Uh I do monitor different things like if you look at um Greens Prairie right now, Forest Ridge, some of those campuses, some of their grade levels are growing at 10%. So I mean you can kind of see the growth in the area, it's just those birth rates are killing us. Even though they can get here, we're growing as a district, but it's just not showing in our total enrollment numbers because our our larger grades are moving off. uh that one year where we drop a lot, we've got a big freshman class like over 1,160 something kids when our

049next level, you know, is 100 less. And so >> so that is strictly birth rate relative to how many were graduating, right? Projected is there any account or calculation relative to >> anticipated impact of vouchers or anything? Yes. or is that just strictly math? Graduating class, birth rate coming in. >> It's not strictly math because of the fact that I take a five-year history and I look at every grade level when a kinder works from first and I take that percentage of of growth. So, are they decreasing every year going from first to second? Are they increasing every year? Like we have a huge increase going from 8th to um freshman year. So 7% on average over the last 5 years, we've had an increase in enrollment going from 8th grade to their freshman year.

050So those are applied in these numbers as well. When you get into your upper level classes, you're going to see a decrease in every year. So I didn't take it off of one year because last year was huge decreases in some of our senior years, but in the previous year, no grease at all. For example, College Station High School, typically they get kids the senior year. They lose, but they get and they flat their senior class. Last year we had a 7% decrease in enrollment. So those things I keep into play and then make sure that I'm not decreasing. So like when you move my my juniors to my seniors, I know typically you're going to see a 6% decrease in enrollment from one year over the other. And that >> So you take the

051historicals and apply five years estimates, but then I'm kind of just take into account sometimes if there's an anomaly in there. Uh it is five years estimates. And so you've got your gear coming back from COVID that's in the numbers that I think you could possibly take out and relook at the numbers. But to be fair, when you're estimating enrollment on these campus that builds their budgets, I just kind of kept it to the five years. >> So since we had that question, how does um like the demographers new additions, new buildings, and all that part of it play into this? How's that in your estimate? >> You can kind of look at that. Like for example, like I said, 10% at Greens Prairie, 10% at on some of those grade levels. And so when

052I'm building out their staffing and in their enrollment on their campus, it might be just a hair different from this because of the fact that on that campus, I'm estimating they're going to get 10% more kids from second to third than they did. You know what I'm saying? So I'm not just rolling second to third. I'm actually that grade level is getting a 10% increase because historically you get a 10% increase. So those are kind of played into my numbers and I and and I even went back and kind of looked at some of the demographers to see, you know, like where they were off, where they were on par and I could see some of that in their numbers as well where they must have been assigning a little bit more growth to a

053few of those campuses like that. Uh you're going to see Pebble Creek is one that she fluctuated a lot because she had that apartment complex in her numbers. However, that apartment complex is moved out and so I'm going I think you're going to see a larger increase in her numbers going forward. All right, so on to estimated revenue. This is just really kind of a just kind of a look and what I did to get up these numbers, of course, is I used the enrollment numbers of the uh 13835. I played 95% ADA on that number and then I went in and estimated a a a 5% growth in property value. So I had to ref figure my property value study to figure my state aid and then applied the growth to the property taxes.

054And so that's really what you're looking at there. Uh so you can kind of see where it goes from a $2.596 million deficit taking expenditures one for one over to a 3.6 million. Of course, there are expenditures in our current budget that we won't have next year. Um, for example, we have a one-time cost on our new software. That's a large number that's going to go away. So, we'll be bringing more up-to-date numbers in the future, but I kind of wanted you just to see right now what that looks like. Um, and then I kind of took it out a little bit further. Like I said, this graph sometimes makes it looks like those are huge decreases in our revenue, but it's really not that huge of a decrease. I do want to give a

055couple disclaimers because most people do not show future revenue in school finance because it's a moving target. Every two years the legislation changes the rules. Um, however, I want you to be I I took it out of the number, but in 2829, if you see a huge increase and say that Heather did not show me that, this is what it is. It is called a hold harmless on recapture. So when we had House Bill Two, we were in recapture. House Bill Two threw us out of recapture. They held the recapture districts at a whole harmless amount. Okay, we went out of it. So we lost that bump. When we start lo, you know, like decreasing students and gaining property value, when we get closer to recapture, that holds comes back into play. So on two

056different summary of finances, on Tasbo summary of finance and on Omar summary of finance, you will see 28.29 jump a little bit more than $2 million. Okay, but I didn't want to show that because that looks really fishy because that's the the hugest decrease in enrollment is that year and it's a little bit hard to explain. But I do want to tell you if the law stayed the ch the same and we did see a 5% year-over-year increase in property values, you will see that hold harmless come back in play. Okay. Uh board priorities, I just bring them back every time because that's what you guys set. Uh next steps, uh the campus's budgets are due on February 20th. Out of district and staffing transfers are due on February 28th. So then we can start

057looking at enrollment and finalizing those staffing models for the next year. Uh our visor committee meets on Thursday. They're going to come out with their committee recommendations that they'll bring to the board in March. Uh we're going to continue to analyze cost. We've done a rubric on stipens and our our departments have done an amazing job of giving us all that information. And then we have our compensation and health insurance review going on and uh we are looking at rebidding health insurance at this time. So we'll bring that to you guys in the near future as well. H >> how are we tracking with the uh out of district transfer applications and has that been applied to your enrollment your projections for revenue? When I looked at the projections, it was of January 21st and

058that's when I pulled all of the out of district as well as the transfers. And so those are the numbers I started with. I have given the numbers to the campuses as of that date and I've told all of them if you see an increase in enrollment due to the transfers out of district transfers, I'm going to go in and increase your budget for that. >> So So what is >> wise? It's been pretty slow. I think we've got about 15 or so. I think it's a it's a odd time of the year when people the timing is not great. Parents really aren't thinking a lot about uh next year yet, especially in other districts. I spoke to a group of realators uh last week over in Brian. Uh they were not aware, many of

059them, that we had this process going. So, when we go through our staffing projections and we staff Creek View and Side Grove, we want to be able to uh leave a little room for growth there as well and then jump start and continue to keep that window open. make a big push in May through the middle of June. Uh at that point in time, we would know at Syroveve x amount of fifth graders we could take with that staff. Same thing with Creek View and uh see if we can't get another bump a little bit later. >> What's the What's the current closing date for that? And you mentioned you may extend it. >> Yeah, next week is the current close and we plan on to keep it open. Yeah, I think the first year

060is the toughest year to get it out and get it going for people to talk about it. And then your biggest salespeople obviously for us will be those that come here, enjoy their time, and then help us get the word out. >> Thank you guys. >> I want to thank you for all of the data that you look at. I mean, you're talking about apartment complexes impacting enrollment and things like that and uh that's a lot of stuff to look at. um and your um your recollection of being able to talk numbers is remarkable. So, I want to thank you for that. I also am I just want to say the English teachers are probably mad consolidated got spelled wrong. So, you you're going to take some heat for that. Um and I was happy

061to see uh College Station High School as one of the attendance winners because as Mr. Grimes knows, my senior is not helping at all with that situation. She's killing us and and he knows that. So, my public apologies for that. So, I was happy to see that. Thank you, Heather. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Wilson. All right, that is going to move us to item D2, which is our 26 27 staffing requests. >> Good evening. Um, thank you Dr. Hawk Rider, Miss Eggy, and members of the board for the opportunity to come visit with you today uh about a need that has been present in the athletic uh department for a while. Uh and so I appreciate the opportunity to come visit with you. Uh currently, uh so what what we're asking for or

062uh hoping for is an addition of an athletic trainer um per high school campus. Uh so one at Console and one at CSHS. Our current challenge is uh our we have two athletic trainers at each of our high school campuses right now. We have a lead trainer. We have an assistant trainer. Um and so it would we're asking for an assistant trainer, a second assistant. Um currently they're working many many hours. They're there. They're one of the first ones there in the morning and then they stay through and and until pretty much everyone's done practicing or if we have games then they're there for all of those. different from some of our other coaches who have seasons. Uh they don't have off seasonasons. They work uh when we come back 1 of August uh through

063um the end of baseball season whenever that might be. Um and so they work long hours uh long um days and so uh there are times where we have um coverage gaps with over overlapping events. And so I'll talk more about that in just a minute. Um the benefit of a third trainer would enhance our our student safety uh and rehabilitation. So the rehab side of that and getting them um back on the playing field or court uh as well as uh on-site medical support more frequently. And then obviously our goal is to provide highquality care for uh over 200 2400 students that are involved in our athletic programs. Uh you may or may not know but u approximately half of our middle school students and our high school students are involved in an athletic

064program. Uh so it's it's the uh participation is quite large. So from the fall so fall 2025 uh again long days but then also uh look at the amount of students that are checking into the athletic training room. uh you know if you break that down per day you know you've got 3600 kids that came in in the fall semester at console and really it's it's probably closer to the 5700 number they just have a different signin process so that's kind of the disparity there it isn't that they're getting hurt more frequently at one not the other uh and so you know they're probably um closer to the CSHS numbers of numbers of kids that go into the training rooms and then the treatments that are being offered uh to those kids to get them

065back healthy. Um we had over 1,300 new injuries. Uh some of those were concussions. Uh 61 broken bones across the district and then 46 uh of those injuries requiring surgery. Uh so our kids are very active, very competitive. Um we do have a a large amount of kids who participate in club sports outside, so there's some wear and tear there. And so um we're able to service those kids as well. But our current ratio right now at the high school is one trainer for every 600 to 700 kids. Um which is obviously um well it is uh exceeding those safety standards. There are also gap concerns and so with with coverage uh because of the UIL scheduling and the success of our programs and those deep playoff runs that we like to go on in

066this district uh there's a large overlap in our sports uh seasons. And so that causes multiple events going on on a Tuesday or on a Friday night. Okay. Uh and so there are times where we have events, athletic events or even practices without a trainer present. So if a kid gets injured, then our coaches kind of have to triage that um because a trainer may not be there. There were 91 instances uh of one or no uh athletic trainer on in the fall uh that was on campus due to traveling for events or they were out sick. One of them was out sick or whatever the case might be. Uh and so in certain circumstances we do use um uh contracted services for athletic trainers. Uh there are there are less now than there used

067to be, but there is a local um hospital that does have athletic trainers, but they are pretty expensive. Uh and so we have to be strategic in in how we utilize their services. This is just a a sampling or a um a graph that shows our season. So, I'm not going to go line by line, but you can see where that line is uh in the at the towards the end of January. All of the different sports that are going on at that time. So, with two athletic trainers on a campus, you've got wrestling, gymnastics, girls basketball, boys basketball, we've got soccer going, all of those sports are going on at the same time, which is where they're really stretched thin. And that third trainer would help us manage all of the things that are

068going on. So, an example, we we we put a a couple of Tuesday, Friday night examples, but just tonight, we've got uh girls basketball playoff game down uh for for example at Console. Uh the Lady Tigers are in Bridgeland for a playoff game. Well, we have to send a trainer there. Uh we also have a boys basketball game in at home and so we have a trainer there but then we also have a girls soccer game and so we we have to have a trainer there and so we have a very similar situation at CSHS tonight. So the longer that the girls basketball or the boys basketball playoff run goes then you have these overlapping three or four events going on on a given night. And then we have to plan how are we going

069to manage those things because we want to provide the best possible care for our kids. And so um we have to make some decisions on that. So the benefits uh our perceived benefits are one is just a it's a proactive investment in in the student safety. Uh it ensures that we have more consistent on-site medical coverage. Uh and so with those multiple event nights going on uh we also would be able to enhance our quality of care uh and so you know having a trainer there a medical professional uh is is going to help us as well as get our kids back healthy faster. So if we have three trainers that are on campus every day um in the training room doing treatments then our kids are rehabbing uh more frequently more intently and so

070hopefully returning to to action sooner. Also student outcomes hopefully with the faster recovery times we can also limit uh reinjury uh and so those kids can can have a a a more um positive experience um in their high school careers. Additionally, uh this would uh reduce the reliance on that outside contract uh coverage for our programs uh having that third trainer on site uh as well as potential reduced medical expenses for our families. So, if a student um a trainer could assess whether a student needs to be transported by ambulance or not, is it severe enough? Or a student um you know, like for example, I tore my Achilles at one point and so I I was able to utilize in my previous district the trainer to help with rehab instead of going uh multiple

071times a week to PT. Uh so they they are certified um for that and so that's an option that our kids could use instead of being pulled out of school for these PT sessions. Uh then they could do it in the in the athletic training room um setting. Uh and then that leads into minimized academic disruption. We know, you know, we just talked about ADA and the incentive of kids being in in class every day. Well, if they're having to be pulled out for PT or if they're, you know, they're just hurt and they're not able to get around, uh, this is an opportunity for us to, um, address that and hopefully improve in that area and then offer medical guidance to our families. You know, our coaches do the best thing best that they

072can uh, and and our parents do as well. And so, but with a medical professional who's trained there, u being able to recommend certain things to the families so that they make the most informed decisions based upon um their recommendation is is also a benefit. So, the way that we're currently structured again is we have a head trainer uh and they're currently on a an administrator pay scale. They're on a 207day contract. Then we have an assistant trainer who's on a teacher contract. they do receive a stipen and and and currently our assistant trainer teaches two classes a day. Okay. So, what we're asking for or asking for you to consider uh at the appropriate time is uh a an additional trainer which would be on a teacher pay scale. That would also include them

073receiving the uh stipen which would lower our ratios from 1 to six to 700 to uh 1 to 400 uh at our high schools. This also could if we decided uh to utilize them in the classroom uh then we could also utilize them um to reduce some class sizes in certain uh classes. And I do real realize there's a lot of things that maybe the district needs. Um, and you know, we're talking about deficit budgets and things like that, but I do appreciate it. This is definitely our highest priority need as a as a department. And so I appreciate the time to visit with you this evening. Are there any questions? >> Yes. Can you go back one slide, please? Go to the very last slide. uh that lower ratio is from one to 600

074student athletes to one to 400. Right. In the treatments I see I'm looking back at your third slide. It looks like um in the fall they saw 5,800 student athletes through the course of the fall. So I would assume the spring is similar to that or comparable. So then 10,000 treatments per school year. There's two of them. So let's just say 5,000 treatments per trainer. How many days of school do we have? >> 180 something. >> 70. >> Okay. >> Two. >> And uh we do have facilities uh inside the main buildings that are athletic training spaces. So there is additional spaces that could be occupied by that third trainer to um decrease the traffic in one specific training room and they would be able to utilize both spaces. >> And we allow we have

075some fine arts kids that take advantage of our trainers too, right? Some of the band kids and drills. So it's not just limited to athletes. These these trainers are servicing all our students if they need it. >> Absolutely. And we uh talked to Mr. Eekes uh yesterday and and he referenced that. So, especially early um when the band and and drill team flags they're out on the on the pavement or on the turf, you got heat exhaustion or they're turning an ankle or they get a concussion. Uh our trainers also treat those kids as well. >> And we still have the middle school trainers in place. Correct. >> We do. Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> So, just kind of for like my knowledge, I'm curious is the goal. Do we have uh trainers? We obviously

076have them there for athletic events. Are they also present for all of the athletic practices? >> They are. So they um we have athletic periods during >> but they're at the building during the practice. >> Yeah. They're they have athletic periods throughout the day. And so as those athletics period periods come up uh there's treatments during the period, there's treatments before school, after school on Saturdays, um all of those things are offered by our our trainers. >> So this is more just general process. So I know we heard from Kevin. I assume we're going to hear from Mr. Eek shortly. What is the I apologize I'm new to this how this process how how does this process and hearing potential requests for next year are we going to hear from different departments every month leading

077up to the budgeting process? >> No sir both of these uh were on my radar a year ago and so we gathered data this last year and felt like it was worth a discussion. There's others that come forward that may not in in my opinion in the cabinet's opinion be ready to pull the trigger on. So that's basically it. The priority >> the ones that come here to present in essence are the ones that administration is endorsing. >> Yes. And we need to consider. Yes. >> Got you. >> You mentioned the budget um which is relevant because it's on all of our minds. But um I think one of the greatest things that we can see is to watch young people try um and to watch young people do hard things, which is where athletics

078and fine arts and everything else comes in. Um and there's a lot of pride in this community around the athletic departments of uh both of our comprehensive high schools. We've also I've heard personally from parents on this exact topic. So I appreciate that this is being brought up. Um I think it's critically important. I think there's um so many benefits that young people learn from competition. Um and so in this I think uh just so you know where I stand, you have my full support in this. >> Thank you. >> And I can say as a parent whose son just went through a major revision surgery on his elbow yesterday um and he'll be living with Ellie and Dion probably for the next three months. Um these trainers also do more than just help with

079the physical aspect. It's the mental. They're encouraging. they're helping these kids come back from an injury and that's almost invaluable um to these kids and and it's right it's getting them back on the field and getting their confidence back in the field in the classroom. So I 100% um support this as well. Yes, I'd say I'm struggling a little bit more after just going through, you know, the revenue projections and the fact that, you know, we're looking at another significant uh deficit. And I've said before my my first priority is to make sure we have the funds that we need in our classrooms. I mean, I certainly also recognize the benefit of all our extracurricular. So again, it is a struggle, but to me, it's the um the classrooms have to be have to be

080first. And I guess the other the other part with this, it's trying to put this in line with the fact that we're just looking at our num our um enrollment numbers potentially going down, right? But then we're looking at adding additional trainers here. or is it just that we're get more kids in athletics or I guess we do have bigger classes for the high school level right now? Um so trying to make sure I'm understanding that need and is it a temporary need? Um >> I don't I don't think so. I think, you know, this district is is very special in the amount of participation that we have in our in our extracurricular programs. And I would say it's co-curricular, right? Like we work handinand uh with our academic um counterparts and and so I

081think we're all working towards the same goal, which is a well-rounded student um when they leave us. Uh and so I think that for us though, we have a large amount of participation um and we have a large amount of success, right? And so as programs have success, young kids want to be a part of it. And so it just continues to feed it. Uh we have um and so I think that the need is not going to go away. I think that it's always going to be there, especially as we consider and I know you know what people do outside of school we can't control, but there there's a larger growing population that does club and select and AAOU and all of those things. So, we're dealing with overuse injuries and we want them

082to be elig eligible to or able to play with with our programs and so that's part of it too. >> I don't I don't like that that has to that burden didn't end as necessarily on the school district. >> I think we care for kids. We there are kids. We want them to be healthy and so we take care of them. Uh and that's why we help with the fine arts or if somebody else comes up injured, we're going to treat them >> because there are there are folks. I've got a fine arts kid that has seen one of the athletic trainers. So, um I understand that and I and I appreciate that you guys are there to serve kids. I think what what is probably going to happen is we have a couple of

083requests we're looking at that are that are things that the district thinks are needs and and it's also going to be um up to you know, Miss Wilson and then all of you guys to show us how that will fit into the budget. Right. So, I mean >> Yeah. And I I wonder as they tighten up position control, we just did a a roll down of $2 million in payroll. So it's quite possible that in the numbers you're looking at now, the position is is >> quite possibly financially already there if that makes sense. I don't and uh I know those people are there all the time. I'm not there that often, but when I am, they're there. So, uh, and that was my point of under the current current staffing, they're administering 5,000 treatments

084in a school year. Um uh so and and I get what you're saying too because I think the classroom comes first but I also think that all these things work in conjunction with one another because we have such a large number of kids involved in extracurriculars and a lot of kids I was a math teacher they didn't come to class for my math class they came to cla they came to school for extracurriculars you know so I think we have to consider all those things but ultimately like Missy said this this is a longer process than today, but just the collective budget. But I I'm wondering as position controls tightened that maybe uh some of that money already exists in that number. I guess we'll see, right? >> And we talk about staff to student

085ratio in the classroom and you look at this staff to student ratio and that's it's crazy in my opinion. So another thing to consider. >> Well, we appreciate you um sharing with us and we know this is I mean it's a safety issue too for our kids. So, um, thank you for bringing that to our attention. And now I think we have Mr. Eekes. Get set up here. Good even good evening everybody. For those of you that may not know me, my name is Eric Eeks. I'm the director of fine arts uh here for College Station ISD. Uh, tonight I'm going to be presenting information related to staffing needs in our high school choir program. specifically at&m consolidated and college station high school. This presentation focuses on how staffing directly impacts student success, safety, and

086long-term sustainability of these programs. And these positions have been on our district radar uh now for a few years. The purpose of this presentation is to again establish the need for a full-time assistant choir director at both of our high schools. We will do this by sharing audit findings, uh, comparing CSISD peer districts, reviewing enrollment and program demands, and aligning our recommendation with best practices in music education. Last year, College Station ISD partnered with the Doc Docintis group uh to conduct a comprehensive audit of our choir programs. While changes at the middle school level have improved alignment and consistency, those improvements have highlighted a growing staffing gap at the high school level that we now need to address. To ensure that we are evaluating everything responsibly, we compared CSISD to districts of similar size, demographics,

087and coral success. These districts represent the same level of competition our students will regular regularly face uh making them an appropriate benchmark for staffing comparisons. This chart shows choir enrollment at comparable campuses with the number above each bar indicating the number of choir directors. What stands out the most is that is that our programs are similar in size to many others, but we are consistently we are similar in size to many others that are staffed consistently with two or more uh directors, but our College Station ISD uh schools are only staffed with one director. Uh this slide uh shows the enrollment growth over time at both of our choir programs. While&m consolidated has remained consistently large, College Station High School has experienced significant recent growth uh further increasing the instructional and supervisory uh demands placed

088on a single director. I'm going to hit the pause button real quick. I love I love the bottom line there. It's going to be the bottom line in orange. I love the angle uh of that growth. Uh and that and and that indicates really really just a a a quality powerful teacher uh that we have at College Station High School. So I I'm super super happy to see that growth. Okay. So comparing CS ISD to peer schools uh within our competitive region, these schools share the same uh competition pool as College Station ISD uh for UIL and for TMEA events. We are we are evaluated by the same adjudicators and we're held to the same standards uh which makes staffing within our region uh especially important. As of this year, every 5A and 6A campus

089in region 8 uh is staffed with two or more choir directors except for our two high schools. Despite having some of the larger programs here within region 8, CSISD remains an outlier still in staffing. Even with limited staffing, College Station ISD students have consistently achieved high levels of success at the region and all state levels. you will be seeing some of those students uh here later this evening at the 7:00 meeting. Uh these these these quality results uh definitely reflect exceptional work uh by our students and by our directors. Uh but sustaining this level of success long term requires appropriate staffing uh and support. uh our two high school ac capella groups, aside from&m consolidated high school, their their uh achievements illustrate the expanded scope of modern choir programs, including national competitions, recordings, and invitationonly

090performances. These opportunities are educationally valuable, but significantly increase the instructional and logistical demands outside of the school day. at College Station High School. Purple Rain further demonstrates the depth and complexity of our programs, including national performances and professional collaborations. These experiences require extensive planning uh supervision and instructional support uh beyond the traditional classroom instruction. I I do also want to pause here for just a minute. So this is the third year uh that Purple Rain has has existed. Uh and in their very second year, so this would have been the last school year, uh Purple Rain specifically was was invited uh to perform at at the Lincoln Center in uh um um New York City. Uh this is the same place where the New York Phil plays. U this this was an amazing moment for

091these students, especially uh performing in an ensemble that really was was only 2 years old. Uh it it's important to also understand that that that that these kids didn't pay to play. They they were specifically invited uh for this event. I I was actually the administrator on this event and it was it was truly outstanding, especially for an ensemble that's only been around uh just a couple of years. Uh this slide outlines uh the volume of events occurring outside of the school day, many involving over 130 students at once. You know, having a second certified director is critical to ensure student safety, proper supervision, uh, and instructional continuity during these activities. National and state organizations emphasize manageable ensemble sizes and individualized in- instruction. While staffing ratios are not necessarily mandated at the statewide level, common

092practice consistently supports adding a second director once programs exceed 100 to 120 students. Addition additional staffing allows for better differentiation, small groupoup instruction, and targeted UIL preparation. It also ensures appropriate supervision and safety during travel performances and emergency situations. Ultimately, this recommendation is about long-term sustainability. A second director supports continuity, feeder alignment, recruitment, retention, and it ensures that these programs will remain strong as enrollment and expectations continue to grow. So, in sum in summary, with enrollment data, regional comparisons, and best practices in music education, it all really points to the same conclusion. Additional staffing is both necessary and appropriate. I I greatly appreciate your time and I'd love to answer any questions that you may have. I >> think you forgot one of your biggest selling points is Mrs. Ramos has turned out a uh

093winner of the voice. >> Absolutely. Aiden Ross. Absolutely. >> I appreciate all the information and I fully support I I see the need for this um aspect as well. same thing um in terms of uh what the district is presenting with uh you and athletics. Um this is something from that I've heard about from parents uh from both high schools. So uh appreciate bringing this up pointing out the success we've had um and and the additional need because um it comes up often um and we turn out a great product. Um I was curious for those trips and things are there there's also same thing with athletics. I would assume there's out-of- pocket costs for the students as well, right? There can be uh you know it really just kind of depends on on on

094if it's tied to the classroom or or if it's an extra bonus trip like let's say students are going to be going to you know um Orlando. That can be more of a student out of pocket cost, but that's not necessarily something that every student has to do. So it really just kind of depends on on what the specific nature of the trip is. >> Just appreciate that again between fine arts and athletics, we're servicing kids and giving them an opportunity as Mr. Martdale pointed out um you know we don't get 5,000 people to show up to watch people take a math test but they do show up for basketball and football u same thing with concerts and the musicals we put on. So appreciate that we give these extracurriculars to things that we serve

095everybody who wants to participate. >> Mr. Spe so I assume these positions they're on the the teacher salary schedule with the stipen. >> Yes. >> And and how many do you know the days or anything off top of your head or have y'all looked at that? Kevin kind of gave us that. I'm just curious. >> Right. Uh, so we actually changed how we do stipens and uh, extra days. We changed that u, Mr. Simac just a few years ago. We're now basically not doing extra days. We're just doing a a stipen on top of the teacher salary. >> Okay. So it' be these would be 187 plus >> plus a a whatever. Okay. >> Right. Right. >> Well, I appreciate that as well. Thank you for all that you do for fine arts in our

096district. That is going to move us to item D3. Um we're going to talk about Senate Bill 546 and three-point seat belts. >> Missy, Dr. Harrider, members of the board, thank you for your time this evening. Um I'm going to come to you today and present on Senate Bill 546, which at its current time is another unfunded mandate from the state of Texas. However, that's why I'm here talking to you today. um because there's a plan moving forward because we are not going to have this money in our district budget and you'll see why here in just a few minutes. And so Senate Bill 546 passed during the 89th regular legislative session. It's a school safety law that mandates installation of threepoint seat belts on all school buses. Uh we have a deadline to submit

097to TEA our plan by May 29th of 2026. So we've been evaluating this for the last several months, myself, um Shannon Cthar, our director of transportation, and Miss Wilson, um who you've heard from tonight on the budget. And so this law officially took effect on September the 1st of 2025. We have until September 1 of 2029 to be in compliance, which is good because that gives us some times and some of our buses will roll out of cycle at that time. Um, so we have to report our current seat belt status and estimated compliance cost to TEA by the end of this school year, May 29, 2026 to be exact. The reason we're bringing it to you here today is because we are not going to have the money in our budget. And if you

098don't have the money in the budget, it is indicated that you need to have the board take actions before you submit this. So, we're introducing it to you here today. Um, and here's where we are currently in CSIC. We have 120 total buses. We run 71 routes daily. 89 general education buses, 24 sped buses, seven spares out of that mix. Currently, we have 49 buses that do not have three-point seat belts. Okay. It's about $30,000 a bus to retrofit a bus with seat belts. It's not as simple as just putting seat belts on it. You have to take the seat completely out of the bus. You have to add a new back to the bus. You have to bolt it to the frame. It's a lengthy lab laborous process and it's not something that's cheap

099or very easy to do. So, the good news for us is we have 30 of these buses that are currently without three-point seat belts that'll come off cycle in the next two years. And so, if you don't know, a bus cycle, we're trying to get 15 years out of a bus. Uh so what we have coming off the books, we'll have one 2010 and everything else will be a 2011 uh model that's coming off the books in the next two years. Next month you'll see 13 GenEd buses for your approval on the board agenda. And then we'll come back next year. We'll do 13 additional GenEd buses and we'll do four sped buses next year for the total of 30 that come off, leaving us with 19 buses that need to be retrofitted at $30,000

100a bus. That would be $570,000 from our general budget. Now, we have until 2029 to comply with this. Um, we don't have that in the budget as you've just heard from Miss Wilson this evening. And so, next month, we'll be coming to you for approval to submit this to TEA. Uh, we'll submit it just after the board meeting uh once we get that approval. And the good news is while this is currently an unfunded mandate, the reason they're asking us to take action is because they are going to hopefully do this. They say there's going to be a grant available. We have no idea how much money is going to be available, but they did something very similar with safety fencing. Miss Budro stayed on top of it. All of our safety fencing that's going

101up to be in compliance with House Bill 3 around the around the school district is currently being paid for by a grant that she applied for and was awarded for the school district. And so, we're very hopeful that something similar like that will u work here in our favor uh related to the three-point seat belts on our buses. Someone did ask me recently, why don't we use our bond funds? Well, we are using bond funds obviously to purchase buses and there is a Senate bill that would allow you to utilize bond funds, but then the shelf life of what you're using that money for has to be more than 10 years and the buses that would be in that cycle would be less than 10 years left in our in our fleet before we were

102to auction them off and replace them with newer model buses. And so, just making you aware of this at this time. Like I said, it'll be there for you next month on the board agenda. Um, and any questions at this time? When we bought buses a couple years ago coming out of CO, it took a long time to get them. Are we still having that issue where so when the new ones that were going to get replaced in the next couple years? Are we anticipating any issues with that? >> We um so when we came out of CO, it had been over 18 months and we and we had tried to purchase some buses and it was a situation where we couldn't get buses from that company. We wound up having a situation where we

103went with a different bus company. Uh we're currently waiting on our third quote right now. Um so what's happening to us is buses have increased. We bought 30 buses last year and they've already increased 6% in cost from last year to this year. Um so right now roughly say about $160,000 a bus. Um a few years ago it was only about $120,000 a bus. So the cost keeps going up and up. We're not having as hard of a time getting them. We're not waiting 18 months, but it's not they're not sitting on a shopyard ready to come to you two weeks later after the fact. It takes longer for sped buses, your 53 passenger buses. It takes longer to get those. Um however, they are more readily available than they were during co And then,

104you know, potential cheaper solution. You know those t-shirts that look like tuxedos? We could just get some t-shirts look like a seat belt, take a picture, send them to the state, tell them that we put Can we try? No, can't do. >> So, Josh, give it a thought. >> We have to take action on a recommendation probably next month. So, you can submit your report and basically it states that we don't have the 500 >> in the general fund. Correct. We don't have the general fund. Yes, sir. So then there's 19 buses left at at 30k after you cycle through, buy the new buses, so on and so forth for 570. And those 19 buses or however that number shakes out over the course of you have till 29 to make it happen. >> Yes,

105sir. September. Or would would like initial game plan be to try to knock off a couple of these a year to mitigate the 570 over three or four years or we just gone food for thought. We're not making this decision tonight for sure is uh much like much like we're designating some um some fund balance associated with the hell damage. You know, I don't know if the fund balance is tracking a particular way you designate the 570, get it done, but then again, who knows if they'll change the law again or they'll provide the grant funds. So, yeah, let's just say right now, if the grant funds are there, you know, then we maybe reconsider, but we are going to hold as hard as we can to our cycle of rotating buses off the off

106the fleet every 15 years. When when we purchase a bus, we want to keep it as long as we possibly can, run it as long as we possibly can as long as it does not not a maintenance issue or, you know, the cost becomes so much that it's not worth having on the fleet anymore. So, we will currently monitor this, certainly monitor this very closely with what it is with our fleet. We already have all that mapped out. Uh, we've got a pretty good plan looking at it, what it may be, but we just don't know what the money is going to be. And so, if it's a situation where they say, "Here's your grant, but you've got to get all these seat belts," then we can certainly look at doing that right away. But

107it's a lot easier to do whenever they're providing the money. >> You mentioned the grant from or that TEA says there might be a grant. Is that >> they said there's going to be a grant. We just don't know what the money is going to be. >> And then you compared it to the safety fencing. Was that also from the state or was that a >> from the state as well? That was that was House Bill 3 required the safety fencing, the anti-scalable, the six foot tall, so on and so forth. Um, and it was an unfunded mandate. And then I think once they started realizing how much it was going to cost school districts to be in compliance with that, they came back with a grant. And as long as you're as long as

108you apply for it, most everybody I talk I haven't heard from anybody that didn't get approved for the grant. Now, I know some school districts that missed the grant because they didn't find it. But, uh, Miss Budro was on top of it for us for safety. Myself and Miss Cthar will be all over this one waiting for it. Um, I'm in a I'm in a mailing list. I get everything updated to us and that way. So, we be we should be on top. >> Be similar. >> That's what we hope for >> theoretically. Yeah. All right. That is that is likely why they're asking for the reports. >> Sure. >> To gauge what it will look like in the next benium. And that very well may be what drives whether or not this stays a

109a law or not or you know because it's I think it's going to be really costly. >> Yeah, I think when they get all the numbers from across the state, I'd be really surprised if that September 1, 2029 is not pushed back >> so much. Yeah, I agree. Two quick things. So obviously we have more than half of our buses that do have the seat belt. So we've been buying buses with seat belts over the last five, six, seven, I mean how many years? every bus that we've purchased thus far since I've been in this position. Every bus that we've purchased thus far is coming with that three-point seat belt um is there and so we know that it's a it's a priority moving forward and so we're not buying anything that doesn't have it

110and I don't even know that we could even choose an option that doesn't have a seat belt currently. >> That's what I figured. And then my other question would be hopefully again there will be a grant and we wouldn't have to go in the general budget but if we had to come up with that 570 theoretically it also could come out of bond money. So, I looked that up and no, um I think it's 20 bill 22, Senate Bill 2246. I could be wrong on the number, but I've looked it up. The problem for us there is every one of the buses that would of the 19 that would need the threepoint seat belt, they're older. They're going to be less a shelf life less than 10 years. So, if you're going to invest bond

111money in something for safety or something that effect, it has to be have something that has a shelf life longer than 10 years. Well, and regardless of if we had all the money in the world, if there's a potential for the state to fund this, we should be financially responsible and go that direction first. So, >> we're not going to turn down free money. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Simac. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> That is going to move us to um adjourn. It is 6:24.