001And none of them are right. >> Yeah, that's why he said that he uses his phone. All right. >> All right. Welcome everyone. We're going to call to order our board [clears throat] workshop. It is 5 o'clock. Um declaration of a quorum. We have seven members present. Hearing of citizens. We do not have anyone signed up to speak at this meeting. So we're going to move into D1 which is consideration and discussion related to the 2627 school calendar development process. So Mr. Man. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Thank you very much for uh allowing me to come and talk with you tonight. If I am wearing my Christmas camo then it is time to talk about calendars. Right. So we're going to jump into the work. Um I've shared this graphic uh before and
002and this is just a great demonstration of the timeline of where we are in the work. Um we start this in the early fall um because we like to get the feedback from folks and so we find ourselves here in December um having just um had our DEIC meeting last week where we u made final revisions to the calendars that you have in the blue folders that are in front of you that we'll talk more in detail with everybody here in just a moment. Um, and tonight this is to give you an update on the process, let you know the work that we've done, and then we are prepared to send out the survey to the community to get stakeholder feedback from all across the community over the winter break and then bring it back
003to DEIC in January for us to look at it as a group if we need to make any changes, make changes, and then hopefully them make a recommendation for you as a board to review and hopefully adopt in January. So, that's kind of where we are with the process. Um, and like I said, it began early in the fall. Um, I started this last year where um, after August PD, um, I said, you know, let's let's get folks um, take on how things are right after they experience something, whether it's professional development or a break instead of asking them to recall how they felt about something weeks or months earlier. And so, we've done that. And then every time that we do that, we take the feedback to the DEIC to review. And we've done
004that every month. And so these are the type of questions that are included on the survey. Um feedback on work days, on the number of placement of professional uh professional development days, um specifically in August, but also throughout the year because we have them at different times during the year. Um we get opinions on the school start day of the week. Um month specific questions. So very specific about we had this day off this August and September. What are your thoughts around that? You know, would you like it again? Would you like it moved? same for October, same for November and then um we had fall break specific questions as well in the different surveys. Um and the role of the EIC in the calendar development process um also includes for them to learn the
005parameters that um we operate within um and the constraints and a big one is the construction piece and we you know give them an update where we are on all of our construction projects that were approved by the voters in the different bonds and so that we see where we are and then the projections of what needs to be completed the coming summer. So that that then helps us to know um start dates and there was the request um for us to try to push back about a week from what we did this year to give them just a few more days to do the work they need to do. Um and so I think we were able to put together some options that will meet that request. Um we always work really hard to
006align with&m's calendar because we know the impact that has on families um if we're not in alignment with them as much as possible. Um we talk about the minutes requirements. Uh teacher contracts meaning the number of days that we have in our teacher contract requirements. Um we have discussions around we've got to consider the child care restraints that this can put on our families if we have a lot of extended breaks. Um and then also the ending the school year Memorial Day has been something that we have done um for a long long time at CSISD. Um, and so we try to continue to do that so that it gets our seniors that opportunity to jump right into college in the summertime if that's what they choose to do. Um, and then so you can
007see like this is the the process, right? We review the survey data. I'm going to show you some of that here in a few minutes. Um, but this year I asked them to make some month-by-month decisions. One of the things that was um mentioned last year in DEIC was is it possible for us to take this month from this version and put it on this month and this version and so this year whenever we went into that I said well let me figure out how to make that happen and we were able to do that um just through the way we manage things in the meetings and so gave them more of that I like this I don't like that can we put these things together kind of options um in in October and November
008um I brought two versions but two drafts of each versions and asked them to take these four and make them into two and tell me what you like this August, this September, whatever it is, but gave them the opportunity to really tell us what they want to see. Um, but then as individual members, they get to give individual feedback as well. So, it's not just a group feedback, it's also what they put into the the survey mechanism. Um, and then we ask them to share out whether it's with their staff or community or whatever um we need them to do depending upon the month. So survey data um we we received a lot of data. So you can see here uh the different u opportunities that folks were given to give us their thoughts, perspectives
009on different pieces. And so the August workday survey count that is one that Austin sent out from the district level after we had that workday and got um staff to give us some uh perspective on that. And then the August September survey was one that I sent out um and was able to get, you can see there, parents, staff, students, and even a couple of community members. And Austin helped us out by pushing it out across emails and social media to try to get as much voice in there. And then we did the same thing in October. The November survey was strictly for staff because we had narrowed it down in DEIC to different choices. And so then we wanted to get the staff perspective on it before we then put it out communitywide, which
010is the next step for this process. Um, and so these are just some screenshots of of the different survey tools that we used to show you where the the metrics and the counts came from. Um, and so all in all, you can see we had lots of lots of participation. Um, I was really happy to see a lot of parent opinion um, put out there for us. And one of the DEIC members even made the comment toward the end of the last meeting said, you know, this year the conversations that we had didn't seem like it was um as an emotional conversation because we had so many different things to look at to help us decide as a committee what folks are thinking and wanting. So I I feel good about being able to get
011that level of perspective from people. Um and the hot topic uh this year was to have a full week in fall break or to not have a full week in fall break. Okay. And so these are these are comments that are strictly from the staff survey. Um, and all of these comments here, I'm not going to read them all to you, but I grabbed all of these because they all mentioned like we want a fall break. It's very clear that staff appreciate and like a fall break. They feel it's necessary. They feel that it's a good rejuvenation for them, for the kids, families, right? And so it was very clear and you can see the star ratings whenever we use thought exchange and people have the opportunity to rate on a scale of one to
012five if they like that they don't like that and what you're seeing on the side of the ratings are the other votes that weren't a five if they were a four three two or a one. So this is how the tool helps us to see the level of agreement that people have with certain comments. So it's a very useful thing for us to see. Um, and then this was from the staff survey as well. And these were um, staff comments that they want a full week to have off in October and not just a couple of days. Um, and so as I'm reading through these and looking at them, um, I started to look and I noticed that there were some trends and I highlighted just some of them here. There were some others. Um,
013but they were very specific to say that there's many districts in Texas that take a full week off in October and we need to do that as well. And me being the data guy that I am, I'm like, well, I want to find out. I want to look, right? And so I went on what I like to call the tour to Texas ISD calendars, right? And so what I did was I started out um just like every um every person in 2025 does first like I asked chat GPD. I put in the question, how many ISDs in the state of Texas have a full five days off for staff in the month of October? And so I just put the screenshot of the response and obviously it's it's it's a rough estimate that's extrapolated that
014even says I'm uncertain that this is even be something to go by. But I thought hey it gives me a baseline. It's saying 20 to 30%. So let me just do some digging there. Right? And so then I went through and this first set that I looked at was the greater Houston area because that's the area that we're often most compared with because that's where we're close to in many regards. And so I literally went and I pulled up tea's website, tea.gov, and I went and I found how many kids were there and then I went to their district calendar and then I linked every calendar there. So if you want to go and check my work, please do, right? Um, and you can see here, this is the number of districts that have a
015full week of fall break. It's 30% of the 36 and then 69% do not. Um, and this is with the fall and this is specifically for staff because in the comments it was about staff wanting a full week off. It wasn't for the kids, it was for staff, right? And and I get it. So I wanted to look, is this the case? So then I was like, well that's interesting. 30%. So then I said, well, let's go to DFW. That's a big metropolitan region. So then I came down here, did the same thing. 39 districts. Well, then it's 12%. Well, then I'm like, huh, well that's that's different. So then my brain just starts going and I can't turn it off. My wife says, "I'll see you later." Right? Like you're going to go do
016what you do. And so then I said, "Well, what what about the districts we played in varsity football?" Okay. So then these are all the districts that we play that we compete against. And so 20% of those districts have that. And then, you know, I just start falling down the rabbit hole. Here comes Austin and they're at 9%. San Antonio, no percent. El Paso, 36%. A lot of the El Paso districts are on an interession schedule which means they go year round. Okay. Um panhandle districts 7%, South Texas area, South Texas districts 12% and then West Texas 0% and then I looked at all the region six districts because that's who we live near and that's who we often get compared to and so the 30%. Right? So I looked at all that and and
017then I was like well let me just you know kind of put this into a format whenever I share it out with folks. And so 181 total and these are the regions that we looked at and the numbers that were there. And I looked at the letter grades just because I can't help myself to see um where they are, right? And then you can see the graph. And I really tried to get this in order of day one to day five, but Google wasn't cooperating and I gave up. Um but you can see here 75 of those districts have one day off. And it is worth noting that many of these districts, they have other breaks, but it's because of county fair. And it may not be in October or November. it maybe in January
018or February. And so they take a couple of days off in different places. Okay. Um but you can look and see you have you have the spreadsheet, you have all the data. Um you can see the breakdown of letter grade versus number of days off. Um and so I looked at those pieces. I came over here and this was the part that really stood out to me because I was curious how many kids are we impacting in looking at this. It's 181 of the districts of all the districts. So, it's 14.75% of all the ISDs, but it accounts for 61% of the kids. And I was like, "Holy cow, that's not even a half, right? But we've got over half of the kids accounted for." I just thought it was interesting. And of course, then
019it makes me think, well, this is why it's so complicated in Texas because there's so many different varied needs of the IST. Has nothing to do with calendar. It was just an interesting thing to look at. Uh but then we looked at districts within 10% of our ecodis um to just look and see and so you can see the majority of them have one day 14 two days no days 5 days three days so you can see you know so looking at all the statistics in there and I told DEIC it's all super interesting and really cool to look at but at the end of the day it tells me that districts do what they need for them right um but whenever I hear people say everybody's doing it like I want to look and
020see if everybody's doing it right or we missing the boat on something. That's just how I roll. So, parent feedback. Um, in the October survey, we had really good parent response. I broke it apart into elementary and into secondary. And so, putting it together as it relates to the October and fall break. So, 11% of those um of parents said a fall break they would prefer that. But then there were mentions from other that weren't specific to wanting that and some of them mentioning work conflicts, child care, that a short break was sufficient or they would want more frequent breaks, but they appreciate having a break because they like to be able to do things with their family, right? So, and then this is the last piece of it and then we'll look at the
021draft calendars. Um, but this came from um our survey that we did with the staff. Um, and so you can see I underlined the the big takeaway uh coming from staff and it says while some value breaks during Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring, others prefer minimizing fall breaks to maximize summer vacation, overall the emphasis was preserving a full summer break. And then the other AI summary from the staff feedback is there strong preference for a fall break, some advocating for a full week. Um, concerns include the impact of the break on learning continuity for the students. Um, and so overall the fall break is seen as valuable. And so I take all that together and I say that people do appreciate having a break, but I don't know that everybody wants a full week. And DEIC
022folks seem to be in an agreement with that. So, but we put two versions out there because there was a lot of feedback last year whenever we did the community and the community survey. They said, "We're really not making a choice. We want to have a choice." And so we want to make sure that they've got a choice. And so that's what's in front of you in your blue folder. Um I'm not going to go through all the nitty-gritty details of each one. Um but I did provide for you a cheat sheet. And this is also linked onto the survey that our community will take. They're going to receive a PDF that has each of these two calendars, the fall break and the no fall break version. And then it has this that has what's
023the same. And the majority of the things on here that you see are the same are the national holidays that we see in some of the PD days. Um, and I have a notation on there because Dr. Hawk Rider informed me that he was hearing that&m may move their week of spring break back to the week of the 15th. If they do that, we'll make our change, too. We'll come back here. We'll say, "Hey, we need to do an amendment to our calendar." And we just move on. Right? Traditionally, they do the second week of March, but they don't release theirs until late January. And so, we that's an easy change if that's what we need to do. Um, but then it has on here um what's unique between the two different calendars for people
024to see. And so, they can see the days are listed on there, you know, PD days, workday schedules, um, uh, teacher work day in October versus fall break in October. Um, November there's a work day on the no fall break that's not in the fall break version. January on the no fall break comes back with a workday and a PD day versus January on the fall break is a PD day when we return. Um, and then there's a teacher workday on the fall break version that wouldn't be on the no fall break and then there's a teacher work day in April. So, it's really looking at what are the differences in choice and they look at that and on the survey they'll have the opportunity to provide us their perspective and any comments and feedback
025that they have. So, um the next steps in the process is for us to gather feedback from all of our stakeholders on these two drafts. Um the plan is is for us to get it posted by tomorrow. We have the link and everything ready to go. So, we'd like to get it out there sooner, but we'd like to get it out by tomorrow to give plenty of time. Um, it'll close on January 2nd at like 11:59 p.m. that night. And then, um, we'll start to break it apart. That'll give me the time to get prepared for DEIC the next week. And then hopefully from DEIC, we're ready to come to you guys in our January regular meeting with a recommendation from the committee for y'all to consider. So, that's where we are. I'll take any
026questions that you have. >> Do the two calendars end up having the ex same amount of school days, same amount of PD days, same amount of of teacher work days? >> Uh, not not 100% in line with everything. So, the no the no fall break calendar um has 169 school days and the fall break calendar has 170. Both of the calendars give us a cushion. what was my next >> of three days, but also both of the calendars have two bad weather makeup days at the end of May that if we need to dip into those where we would bring students in then we could do that if necessary. And so that in essence gives us five days if we needed five days. And then as far as the PD days and the work days,
027let's see, I've got it. Uh, give me just one second. teacher work days on the no fall break is 10 and teacher work days on the fall break calendar is eight. So there's a couple of day difference there. And then as far as the PD days on the no fall break calendar there are eight and on the fall break calendar there are nine. And so there's again oneoff differences on a couple of them and it just happens to be with start date and the fall break dates configuring into the counts. >> Jeff, you said five days were built in. Too bad weather in three days with minutes. >> Yeah. Three days and change like 3.77 or 37. Yeah. Yeah. So, I know this maybe is tricky because it's a little bit here and a little
028bit there, but is there something that we are giving up by having the fall break version? >> We're coming in two staff returns in on the 6th and 7th of August. Like that's the major difference >> that folks are going to notice is is they're going to come in two days prior and that Mr. Simac and his crew, they would be able to work through that with having staff on those two days if that's an issue with whatever construction may be occurring. Like I know he would like to have nobody there and I get it but you know this is how we're trying to meet where everybody's at. Quick question on the window for feedback and I think this is something probably always struggle with because of the timing and trying to get it to
029DEIC in January and to the board and >> so posting for feedback uh on the two calendars to the community on the 17th I believe you said of December through January >> the second any concerns with that's kind of when everybody disconnect or we still tend to get pretty good feedback I suspect the similar windows been used in the past. I just don't remember. >> Yeah, it's Yeah, it's very similar to the past. And typically what we see because we direct email it and social media it, we tend to get the probably 80 plus percent responses within the first two or three days most of the time. Um so yeah, but it is similar with what we've done previous. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> I guess the other thing I'd um kind of
030say on we're calling them no fall break and fall break. I mean, um, it's about those October days, but really both of them have student days off, right? One of them has two student days off, one of them has three student days off, right? Sure. So, I mean, when a parent or family's looking at it, you know, there's there's a somewhat of a fall break. Um but the real difference is um the no fall break or or I guess the fall break the teachers get all um get those days off right. It's really like you had mentioned before when we talk of that language it's really more in the eyes of the the teachers and staff of of not having to come period. You know, it's funny because it's always a struggle every year, right?
031We do the blue calendar, the green calendar, the A calendar, the B calendar, and like what do you call them? So that you're not coercing a choice over the other, right? So, but yes, the kids will get some sort of a breakaway from school. Families will get some sort of a break. It's just a matter of how long is that for them, but truly for staff to not have any work expectation period on those two days in October. Well, and one thing that you said, but that is important for the community to remember is that with pushing the start of school back a week for construction purposes, you know, it's hard to keep getting those days off that we might want. And so, I feel like you guys have done a great job. I didn't
032know what it was going to look like when we, you know, when I heard we might be doing that. So, it's great to still have those days, you know, included in our calendar. So, thank you for for doing that. >> You bet. >> No, I agree. In general, we were, I think, very fortunate this year with the way some of the dates um yes, worked out that we were able to get most of the things we're kind of used to, right? The same amount general >> the week off all week at Thanksgiving, finishing in time for, you know, before um Memorial Day. >> It help Memorial Day is May 31st. >> Yeah, exactly. That's it. >> Yep. >> Anything else? All right. Thank you, Mr. Man. Appreciate that. >> Yep. >> All right. That's going
033to move us to item D2, which is our budget workshop. >> Wilson. Good evening, Mr. Hark Rider, Miss Eggy, board of trustees. I appreciate your time tonight as we go through a second board workshop. Um, and we'll just kind of go through really the current budget. Every time I come back with these budget workshops, I want you to see where we're at in the process for this current year because, as you know, we are 300 students less than what we were anticipating. And I want to show you as you go what that will look like. Sorry about that. I want to talk about balancing the numbers, just where we are in the process, what we've done so far as we built the current budget that we're in. Um, and then just make sure that you
034guys are comfortable with allocations that we've set and some other things that are going on and then revisit those board goals that we talked about last uh board meeting and make sure that they are what you want and we can move forward with that and then just talk about next steps. So, first of all, I just want to show the current revenue as estimated is a little over 40% of our fiscal year is complete and we have collected 35% of our revenue to date. Uh 12% of that of course is uh our property taxes. We're still a little early in the game in receiving property taxes. And then our state revenue, we are 95% collected. You do see a negative number there. And I'm sure if you're looking at it, you're trying to wonder how
035we collect negative revenue. And that is because we had to make an adjustment where our pre when we changed our fiscal year to July 1 through June 30th, they had booked the revenue from the previous fiscal year and I had to correct that. So, we had to reverse that out. Uh, I reversed it out of last month's um spreadsheet so that you wouldn't think that we had collected over our state revenue. This is just the adjustment for that period. Uh, but no, we don't. We didn't collect negative revenue. Um, and then of course you've got your on um on behalf TRS payments and your federal revenue. A couple things I want to touch on when you look at our revenue is really that state funding because as you know students drive how we receive our
036revenue and attendance drives how you receive revenue. And if you've been through this process with me before I know Miss Eggy has mentioned it before Heather you're not estimating a full 97% of your kids or 96% of your kids are coming. You've got a lower ADA percentage which is always giving me a little bit of buffer in case we are faced with this. Now we expected 60 less students. I did estimate less than what the demographer said and then we came in even further. Okay. So if you look at our current summary of finance at the end of the second six weeks we are a million dollars short in state revenue. I know it adds up to a million8 but the 800 was my buffer. We're below it. Okay. We're not going to see that.
037It's not going to come back. There are a few things in those numbers that are new and our our software systems haven't had a chance to catch up. So there's new a lotments in the last legislative session that we're having to gather in different pieces of different softwares and estimate a little bit and so but we'll continue to monitor that. Another thing I want to bring to your attention is uh I know you guys have heard we have this new PES reporting where we're doing real time to the state. that's going to affect us because after the first semester about January, they're going to take our real data and then they're going to adjust our summary of finance. So, if we turned in numbers like we were going to get this many students and we
038get less, they're going to adjust us real time during the school year and not wait till the end. We usually have a settle up in the summer. They're going to settle up on us all through the year. And so we're going to have to be very mindful of the numbers that we estimate and as we see things like this, they're going to be holding back state revenue and so we'll have to kind of mend and go as we go. Another thing that you can look here is interest uh interest earnings. We're a little short on our interest earnings and then we've had another drop in interest rate and so we're going to have to continue to monitor that. A lot of that interest earnings is something that we're bringing to um that we brought to
039the DEIC that we'll bring back to the board to amend. Our depository contract changed tremendously where we used to get 10 basis points. We're getting negative 20 basis points and that's hurting us interest rate. That's hurting our interest earnings and we didn't even know that that was going to be a thing until we had already adopted the budget. And so we're seeing some of those effects. The other on your federal revenue um it's just the SHAR's funding. If you looked at the historical information on that, we used to collect over three million nearly in charge funding and we're down to nothing right now. And so those are hitting us hard. And so we'll continue to monitor that. But I just want to keep you informed as we go through the fiscal year so you're not
040shocked at the end. Okay? Uh and we can make adjustments as we go. But there's not a lot of things in our budget that can be adjusted. Sometimes the school district might make special projects in the summer and then pull those back where our current budget doesn't have special projects. So we can't really pull anything back. Uh this is our total current expenditures. And so you can kind of look through there on functions. Like I said last time, I like to look at it two different ways. I like to look at as a function because you guys adopt a budget based on fund and function, which is the top part of that. But then you it's easier to monitor a budget when you're looking at object code because 84% of our budget is in payroll
041cost. And like I said before, if we have blown a budget, you're going to find out real quick in our payroll costs. So you want to make sure if you say this percentage of the year is expensed, you you should expect about that much in expense in payroll. Uh one thing that I want you to keep in mind is something that we don't post until the end of the fiscal year is a teacher incentive aotment. So they they work on that all year long. They actually get paid out in the summer because it's earned during our school year. They're going to take that cost and they're going to they're going to put it back into this budget. Okay? And that last year was over three point it was about $3.8 million. And so when you're
042looking at those percentages, you're going to want to know that number. So $3.8 million. We look for that to be a little bit higher. It seems to grow. Bridget and her team do amazing job. That number grows every year for those that qualify for TIA. Uh we're going to look at balancing the numbers real quick. We're going to talk about some enrollment trends. We're going to look at previously budgeted uh cost management that we used for this previous budget that or the current budget that we're in and then look at allocations and staffing models and what we developed uh through our U cabinet got together we reviewed everything and then we made sure we we really I spent a lot of time just figuring out who we had how many people we had in each
043position and then kind of rolled that back into a um staffing model. And then board priorities we're going to retouch on that. So when you look at enrollment trends, you can look at the 2025 snapshot data. We brought this to you last month. Again, look at those lower grades. I know some of that's birth rate. And then we have a smaller class sizes in our lower grades. And so we need to anticipate what the future looks like. And then just enrollment trends. Again, I want to just show you this one more time because where you think we should be growing like a Pebble Creek and things like that, we actually lost enrollment on those campuses. And then we grew some campuses that don't have growth, don't have developments in those those um feeder patterns. Uh
044when you look at historical growth, this is our historical growth. I went back to 1516 and I was really kind of spending a lot of time looking at fast growth a lotment. So I verified that these numbers were indeed what was utilized in snapshot but then also utilized for fast growth estimations. And so we started back in 1516 with a little over 13,000 students. And in 2526, we are just shy around 14,000 students that we currently have for snapshot. Uh it's 14, 2016, but there's some students in there that aren't assigned to grade levels in a sense. And so that's why the numbers, if you're if you're wondering why I'm 20 off, it's that's what it is. Um, and then in 2018, in August of 2018, ILT Texas, which is the charter school, opened in
045our community. There are over 900 students in that charter school right now. And that's where you can see some effects on our numbers when you look at some of the development growths in our area. Uh, when you talk about 2526 BOS budget, yes. Just real quickly on that ILT thing, are those 900 that they have total or are those 900 that live in CSISD district? Do you >> Those are 900 total. >> Total. Okay. So, >> uh, budget cost management efforts. These are some of the things that we did last year leading into this one. And I went through these last time, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them, but I'm just going to talk to you about how we come up with our campus budgets. And so we do
046campus allocations to all of our budgets based on estimated enrollment numbers when you're talking about base allocations. And then I give them so much to go towards a copy cost. So they get a fixed cost for a copier plus a base allocation per student. Those are based on estimated enrollments. Some school districts say they give you 90% now and then once snapshot information is in they'll go ahead and give you they'll settle up with your numbers. I felt like we had taken some we moved a lot of cost around. We moved a lot of budgets around. So I went ahead and gave them a 100% of their allocation and then if I shorted them and I have about three campuses that I know I owe a little bit of money to because they're they came
047in a little higher than the estimates. When that happens when snapshot number comes out comes out we'll go ahead and give them additional funding for those kids. Uh special programs we allotted per special programs. Those are based on our snapshot information and uh this is how I really want to look at the numbers going forward as we build this new uh next year budget. So this is my my spreadsheet that I utilized to gather all the information. I just kind of wanted to show you where we were getting all the information to get their total budgeted amount. And then this does not include title one, but you can kind of see the title one campuses in the far corner. It'll tell you which ones are title one and which ones aren't. And then you can
048kind of also see where your uh dual language campuses get additional funding. And then like I said there's a fixed cost column there. Uh we did that just because like all the elementaryaries have exact amount of copers. I didn't want them to have less per student in a sense and so we kind of give them a little bit of a fixed cost in there. Uh our staffing models are established like this. And so what this allowed us to do is look across campuses and make sure we're equitable to all campuses. A lot of the adjustments we made this year was just on that instructional aid. We had to take some instructional aids away from campuses that had a lot more per student. And then we actually gave an instructional aid to a campus that had
049fewer. Uh the one that sticks out the most here was um our receptionist. We had a we have a campus that had over 600 students that didn't have a receptionist and we have some that have 450 students and they had a receptionist. And so there was just some inequitables there that we just have our eye on and know like when things come up that we could go ahead and add that back. But this allowed us to kind of look at it. But it also kind of allows us to look at the cost of overhead of a campus. And so you might have a campus that has 450 students and you might have one that has one that's 600, but they're going to say have that top box. They're all pretty well going to have that
050same box. So if you look at it kind of about on an overhead that the cost per student at one of those campuses have 450 students is a lot higher than the cost per student that has 600. So if you kind of want to look at it that way >> I'm sorry go ahead quick question on the previous slide real quick just so I understand I understand your calculations going across your a lotment for the programming. >> What's the discretionary sub aotment? So, what we did this year is just if you want to do subs on your campus and it's not for someone that's six or it's not for someone that's PD at our at our district, we allotted you so many subs for teachers on your campus. Okay. And so that's kind of what
051that is for if they want to allow like >> department chairs together or something. >> Yes, sir. Like outside of our planning time that we already all lot them or if they wanted someone to come on a testing day or something like that, they had those extra money for subs. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um, I kind of put all the models in here so that you have act I gave these to you as we were building the budget, but just really kind of wanted you to understand what we kind of based everything on and how we worked to get to the numbers we did, but it also allows us as we go through these continued budget cuts. It it allows you to look at what we have to know, you know, where
052we might have more than our peer districts and things like that. U, then we've got our high school. Um, another thing to mention is, um, I'm going to go back to the elementary. I don't mean to switch on you. Um, 22 to1. I know that's a lot. So, we've set all of our grade levels at 22 to1. And you can kind of see the ES ECSE numbers in the preK and how that's allotted. Um, and then when you look at your intermediate and middle school, we try to keep a 25 constant. And I know Dr. Dr. Hark Rider and Pane talked about that in the last budget meeting just to kind of talk through kind of what we try to try to maintain on our campus. At our high school, it's a class constant, so
053it kind of fluctuates a little bit, but that's kind of our goal is to try to keep them at a class constant average of 25 per classroom. This is a spreadsheet on steroids. I don't mean for you to look at it, but just to kind of look through the process we go through. And I really just wanted to touch base on the fact that a lot of times we say that we're cutting staff, but we're really not. We're just trying to make sure when grade levels move from one grade level to another or if we've got a campus that's losing students that we're still maintaining that 22 to one. And so this is kind of what we looked at last year. Um last year we had a demographer that came up with numbers and then
054I kind of ran numbers and then we looked at each different one just to kind of see where what that means. like if we go off of here, we need four teachers. If we go off of here, we need three. And then we kind of came uh to where we moved teachers around based on not like like I said, we weren't increasing the class sizes. We were just trying to maintain that 22 to one. >> The staffing model numbers, those are based on probably some standard with TASBY staffing recommendations or >> they're a little bit of everything on the staffing models. Yeah, you start with TASBY. What I did is reached out to all the peer districts and started gathering peer districts. So, so really we didn't compare oursel this last year with peer districts
055because of the fact we might have two instructional coaches. They might not. But I really wanted to take time to establish what we had and make sure we were equivalent across all campuses. The next step would be to try to look at some additional models and and then just compare peer districts to what we have in our district. >> And we can do that for departments as well and we can utilize that taskby salary model. >> Yeah. peer district like Brian I assume to ball. >> Okay. >> So you would look at it in multiple ways. For one thing like if you look at Brian they might not be a pure district when you look at how our makeup of our kid is but then we need to compare to them because of the fact
056that they're so close and we have to compete with them. Um but then you know ball absolutely instructional wise yes we've got to compare to them. So, so on staffing sometimes I try to look at when you're trying to compare us staffing, we've got to look at our our area peers and then maybe in your classroom when you're looking at how to staff a classroom, you might look at your instructional peers. >> Got it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Uh this is just basically our attendance and I kind of wanted just to point that out. We did grow a little bit, not where we need to, but our attendance instead of is still out there where we got to go to 95 to 96 was just a big jump. When we started
057the attendance model, we really kind of went and look at that three-year average just to not say, "Okay, we want you to go for 94.9 and you're going to have to go to 95.9 the very first year." Because we recognized they took that huge gap from 93.7 to 94.8. So, we wanted to give them credit for that. So, we did a three-year average, but this year is a new baseline. And so, we did go up the 1%, which is the 96%. and and I've got the intendance incentive information in a couple of other slides that um I can touch on, but basically it's two different semesters. The first semester, if they get a 0.5 to 0.9, they can get additional money per student on their campus uh if they get their attendance up. So, basically
058what we're doing is taking that additional revenue that we receive from getting their attendance up and then pushing back back to the campus to benefit that. And so those are different adjusted adjustments I make throughout the year in addition to the allocations that they get. >> And you may you might talk about this more. You mentioned with attendance, but when you are um budgeting for the next year, what attendance number are you >> I try to say pretty conservative. So I'll look at a lot of different things, but I'll I'll budget on no more than what we have this year. No. So if we have a historical uh attendance of 96%, that's what I'm going to go with. I'm not going to budget that we're going to get to 97 because there's a good possibility
059we might not reach that high. >> What did you say you you created 25 26 budget on 95? Is that what you did? >> Yes, it was about 95%. >> So on your zerobased budget uh is what we did for our departments. So all of our departments within the central office had to come up with the zerobased budget. We looked at it as a central level, achievement level, and enhancement level. And so in all honesty, they gave us a lot of the three different levels and we budgeted a lot of between essential and achievement and looked in there. So we really can touch on that third level in the department budgets. And when I say department budgets, that's just our departments within the central office. And so we required them to do a serial based
060budget. We'll require them to do the same. It'll be it won't be as hard this year because we spent a lot of time. I know Dr. Hark Rider and Sarah were tired of me saying, "Hey, I got some more budgets in. Let's spend, you know, five hours looking at them." Uh but yeah, we went line by line by line, looked at everything, looked at what they asked for and just kind of felt like where we could go and where we could move. That was also where we we took a lot of what was budgeted here at central office and I want you to know we pushed that back to the campuses. And so if they budgeted ESL money here, I just took it out of here and gave it back to the campus. If they
061budgeted prek, we took a lot of that out of here and gave it back to the campus to give that those principles a little bit more discretional how they spend the money. We did special ed as well. Like if they're buying equipment, we hold it here. But if they're buying supplies for their campus for sped, like wipes, food, we push that back to the campus and then they'll let them be uh responsible for that and then give them discretion how they utilize those funds. And so we spend a lot of time rotating budgets around and just trying to to get that back out. Uh this is just the attendance incentive. Sorry, when I added that one slide, I messed up the rotation a little bit, but I wanted to give you the numbers so you
062could kind of see what it looked like. I I have more documentation if you want more information on how we do this here. It's actually based on a KDISD model. They came up with it. I stole it. Uh board priorities. And so after we met last uh month, um we kind of came up with a few. There wasn't a lot of conversation, so I kind of adived a little bit. So, I'm going to show you what I got and then if you there's adjustments to it, um, you let me know. I think there was a lot of discussion last month on protecting fund balance, not so much moving it to a six month, but protecting what we have, making sure that we're staying in that three month, four month area right now as we go
063through these times um with not getting a lot of extra funding from the state. um prioritize academic quality and so making sure that we keep those class sizes right now. As we begin the budget process at 22 to1 for our elementary campuses and if we see a a a continued increase in a deficit, we might want to come back and visit as we go through this budget process if we want to look at adding one student 23 to one. Uh things like that. But right now, 22 to one, the 25 constant on our other grade levels, I felt like is where you guys kind of talked. Um, continue to look and make difficult decisions, but make informed decisions as we look through our data. Uh, we've talked about accepting out of district transfers. I know
064we're going to talk a little bit more about that tonight, but that's just another way to generate additional revenue. And I think we have to be um very innovative right now because we don't want to cut programs. And I I'm not saying we're going to cut programs, but you can see where the staffing models are. Those things are going to have to be looked at if we can't get some of this generate additional revenue. Proven tenants. We're going to continue with those in tenants incentives and our principles do an amazing job. We've provided them software. They can track kids um and then make sure they get those kids in the seats. It's not just about money. It's about education and we know that they perform better when they're in the seat in the classroom. And
065so, um, we'll continue to work on that. Expand learning options. Uh, consider online alternative. That won't be for this next school year, but just to prepare. That's another thing that they're allowing us to get additional funding starting this school year. So, when we look at next year, we just want to be prepared to kind of be innovative um to kind of get some more revenue is what we're kind of looking at. And then evaluate all programs, revenue programs to ensure, review programs to ensure um, and suggest reductions when appropriate. But I feel like we did reduce a lot of our we did reduce some of CTE last year, athletics and fine arts and I'm not suggesting we reduce any there but maybe just hold that constant for the going on. Are there any other thoughts,
066questions, changes? I'm going to flip it to this slide just because it just kind of gives you ideas to think on. Are there are those okay for our budget um priorities or do you see anything that needs to be tweaked or moved? I have a question and I don't know if you know the answer to this. Um it's okay if you don't. Would you look at the studenttoteer ratio particularly intermediate and secondary about 50% of our high school kids are on some sort of accommodation right give or take do you know ballpark >> do you know >> general yeah >> okay I'm just cur yeah yeah my concern uh question I guess is about if you've got uh a teacher who has 70% say and another teacher has 20%. I I don't know if we're
067looking to balance that or not because there's and I get there there's so much work that the counselors do of accommodating schedules and if you need to take math in the morning we put them at math in the morning. So there's a lot of things we're doing for the kids. Um the concern is just at that ratio are are we looking that granular to balance out hey if one teacher's got 60 70% of people on accommodations versus another teacher might have 10 or 20 that's a lot of difference in work and I don't know if we get down to that level or not >> be something that a campus potentially would look at if it was overloaded uh also depending on the the rotation of parents or co-teers coming into that setting and what the
068needs of those kids are. So yeah, there may be and that would be Gwen, Justin, whoever the campus principal is. But yeah, if there was a concern and it was heavily loaded, it does become difficult based on the kids schedule uh electives and what they're taking of how that works out, but there is some balancing that they have the the ability to do as well. >> And so even department heads would maybe have the ability to balance that. Yeah. Okay, good. And I get it. There's especially with high school, that's the competition and concern and all the things that make sense that they do to take care of the kids. I'm just concerned that the teachers who are getting overwhelmed um yeah >> right so kind of next steps in the process um I'm going
069to finalize the budget goals for tonight and then review campus and nonpro program uh payroll allocations and we've kind of looked at that tonight and I'll move forward with those allocations. Uh we're going to continue to examine new revenue sources. That's going to be we're gonna uh out of district transfer. Sorry, I'm stumbled for words. Um and then establish uh staffing based on enrollment. So in the month of February, I'll be bringing that back to you guys. We're going to work really hard on enrollment and estimating staff and get that out to our principles so they can begin the budget the pro the process of budgeting in January. Uh we're going to continue to annualize cost. Right now, we have analyzed all stipens. We work to build a um a rubric and make sure all
070of our stipens are being paid at the correct amount. We push those out to our department head so that they can kind of build job descriptions based on their rubrics and then make sure that they're being paid at at a correct amount. Uh we'll continue to evaluate overtime. They have done an amazing job here of looking at where we are paying overtime and try to get those overtime costs down. Uh we'll continue to look at those staffing row uh uh ratios. We'll continue to monitor federal budgets and then we had our first advisory budget committee meeting last week and uh they spent a lot of time in school finance 101. I know they had a lot of fun and they walked away with thinking accounting can be fun. Uh but anyway, I really appreciate their
071time. We're going to dig into a lot of details in the next meeting. And there's one more in February. And then they're going to establish their budget advisory committee goals as well. And then they're going to be able to present that to our board of trustees. And so that's coming up in the uh near future. And then Austin's doing amazing stuff with thought exchange and we'll be getting surveys out as we go through the process. So that's all I have tonight. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Just a few follow-up questions. Yes, sir. Um if I if I was looking at it correctly, how are we tracking as far as um projected deficit for 2526? Is that two 2.1? Is that >> 2.17? Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> And then I would say you've
072got we're short another million on top of that. So you've got 3.1 and then we're going to be short in federal funds by close to a million. So yeah, it's not >> so 4.4. >> What? And I and I know you showed it at the last meeting, so I apologize. I don't remember off the top of my head. >> Uh what is the current fund balance? >> The current fund balance is uh total is 65 million, but of course, not all of that is. That's because we changed our fiscal year. >> Okay. >> And so if you look at a three months operating, we're right there at three months. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. >> We're just a little bit over three months operating. We added 2.1 million to our budget last year. If you're if
073you did a 12 month to 12 month, >> right? But with the transition to the budget, you were able to add quite a bit more. I noticed um and this is probably early. I I suspect this is what you got you'll work on with the the group uh in the spring as you're starting to think about 26 27. Have y'all had or and maybe Dr. Hark Rder can answer this well. Are are y'all what are you looking at as far as en enrollment number? Are you anticipating dropping enrollment number as you start working budget next year or holding it about the same or >> Okay. So, um we're >> and this may be early this probably a spring. >> Yeah. And I was hoping to have it to with to you tonight, but we're doing
074boundary adjustments and everything into the numbers and I was comparing two systems and I didn't feel comfortable bringing those numbers. Uh but if you look at our we're going to go down because if you look at our seniors and I can flip that kind of back and show you what I'm looking >> more graduating than coming in at a lower grade. So you'll have to reduce the enrollment >> and you just take the ADA that basically that processes through the course of this year or last two or three years. >> Right. Okay. It's staying pretty consistent there. Another thing that we kind of have to look at is um I've got a spreadsheet that basically says grade level to grade level and I showed a snippet of that last month and just walked one grade
075level one year up. But I've got a five-year history of that and just to see if there's trends there. So if there's trends that we're losing first graders every single year, then I can kind of evaluate that those numbers as well. And so I'll be bringing that to the next board meeting. >> Okay. Thank Thank you very much. Well, and all of that is just to say that I think you did a good job capturing our goals as a board um in your presentation. Um but I know that we're asking a lot and it's a hard job and you know there's I just wanted to say thank you for what you do and um just for keeping us informed and I I know we all hope that we're going to be able to uh find
076ways to get that deficit down. So >> absolutely. And also, I said this last time, I'm I'm glad we've started a budget committee and not only for, you know, some of us on the board to dig in um a little deeper, but really I think also to involve the the community to understand more of the complexities and the not just complexities, but really the limitations that we have so much because of what's um what we get or what we don't get, I guess, from from Austin from the state. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate that. Thank you for your >> Thank you. >> All right, that's going to bring us to item D3, which is a review of our board operating procedures. Um, this is really for the seven of us to just take a
077little bit of time and one review those. You should have a copy um at your seat if you want to look at that. Um, and I would ask that if you haven't that you would take some time um to read through all of those and make sure that we're just all on the same page about how we're going to operate together as a board. Um, but also there may be some things that we need to kind of uh tweak or update to these. So, I'm not going to be asking for any action from you tonight, but this is a discussion to see if there's anything we might want to change and then we can come back and take action on that in January. So, I invited all of you to send me items that you
078might want to discuss. So, I'd like to go through those items first and then we can open it up for anything else we want to talk about. Um so these some of this is really just really quick little things um to update our current um procedures to current policy and law. So for example on page seven um item 2G one of the changes I think we need to do is um get that wording tweaked so that it represents the current process of speakers. Um we've gone from the cards to signing up online and that's just an item that the wording hasn't changed. So if you want to take a look at that. Um, and then also on 2M, same thing. That's just the remarks that we say at the beginning of that time and those
079are the old ones. So, we'd like to get those updated to the new ones to um reflect those changes. Um, one thing that I noticed when I was going through is that um there is an item on number two on page seven that talks about um let's see where it is. It's H. the person addressing the board shall stand at the microphone and state his or her name and indicate whether or not they reside in the district. Um, I know a long time ago when I started coming to board meetings and watching, we used to ask people to actually state their address and I'm not sure that honestly I don't want to ask people to do that from privacy reasons, but um I think we've kind of fallen off of that policy that we have
080in place here of doing that. So, I was wondering if we might add to the end of the remarks that um whoever is saying those some line that says something like please begin your time speaking by stating your name and stating whether you live in CSISD. So, those are just simple updating to what we currently do. Are there any comments or concerns about that? >> All sounds good to me. >> Okay. Um yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Good catch. Okay. Um I know on page 10, our list of committees needs to be updated. Again, that's really just making sure we have all of our uh new committees reflected on our operating procedures. Um so we'll take a look at that. Um the last part that I have on page eight where it's talking about agenda
081development, you know, one of the things that we've had to do is we've had to change when we post our agendas. So, we used to um be able to have our executive board meeting on the Wednesday before a Tuesday meeting, right? And that's when agendas like it talked about and set. And so, um on 1C on page eight, it talks about if you have an item to submit to the agenda, um we need you to do that at least eight days prior to the meeting. But we have now had to bump that back because we're posting agendas on the Wednesday before the Tuesday meeting. And so we have executive meeting on the Monday um before a Tuesday meeting. So my request would be would it be all right for us to change that wording to
082say that if you want to add an agenda item, do that 12 days prior to the meeting. 12 days because we have the weekend that are not work days. So we would need you to submit that the Thursday before we meet on a Monday. Um I don't know that that's ever been an issue at all, but um I think that's just an update to reflect our our current timeline. Makes sense. 12 calendar days. It was >> 12 calendar days is what that is, right? Um okay. So that was um the other thing that was brought up um to my attention and I and I think I agree with this. Um if you look on page 8 3C that's also about agenda development. It says um this is actually on page page nine, but before or
083during a meeting, any board member can request that a consent agenda item be brought to the board for discussion, questions, and consideration. Um I want to ask us if we would like to consider saying that we should, if we're going to ask to pull an item off consent, um give a 24-hour notice. Um, I think that I've seen situations in the past where a board member wanted to discuss something that was on consent and the fact that they were able to bring that to someone ahead of time meant that we could all come prepared with the information. If we were going to ask, for example, Dr. Harkrite or any of his staff to bring us information on those items, we were able to do that. So, I've seen situations where that happened and they were
084able to come prepared. Um, I know part of our procedure says that we're going to come to meetings prepared. Um, I would expect Dr. carrer and his staff to come to meetings prepared and I feel like we give them a better opportunity to be able to answer our questions if we don't in the middle of a meeting say hey we now want to talk about this item um thoughts on that >> I agree when you read through the I've read through this four times um so and it's out on the website if anybody wants some really riveting reading um at night um it talks about especially in the ethics piece of this that we were supposed to come to meetings prepared. And to me, that just kind of falls in line with it. We should
085be we shouldn't ask something to them. We should give them time to prepare to present the information to us in the community. So, I fully support allowing people to pull step off consent, but giving 24 hours notice I think is helpful. >> Go ahead. >> I think I'm fine with that if we just use consent with discretion. Um I I it it clearly states on page eight under C consent agenda should be items that are routine and that trustees have knowledge of. So I think if we're utilizing consent under that umbrella, I don't have a problem with that. when there's significant items like policy change and those types of things that have had limited open compensation um then then my opinion that would merit that item well it shouldn't be under consent to begin with
086but pulling it so I can support obviously what the collective group decides I I think that we need to use caution and restricting our decision and discretion as a board of trustee though and and I understand not uh catching administration offguard or anything along those lines. Uh so just all the things to think of. >> Well, and I certainly wouldn't uh imply that we should be taking away any board members right to take something off consent. Um, if we are now posting agendas on the Wednesday before a meeting, that's six days before we're only asking 24 hours, you know, just to give a heads up if there is something. But I understand your concern about what is on consent and I'm I hear that concern and we'll keep that keep that in mind. >> I
087do think it really does help that we are getting the agendas sooner, right? More time to look at it. I mean the whole the idea is um that there could I think one other side of it though is there could be something new or information that really does come to light about an item um at the last minute. I mean, obviously that was a situation before with um to to pull something off consent, but I hopefully again up to to Mike's point is that uh if they are more routine type items on consent that it wouldn't be something that we would really need to to pull off the Oh, my only other um my only other thought would be and I'm in no way an expert on Robert's rules. I mean, if you actually go
088look up the all of them, they're you know, pages and pages and pages. Is there anything about um consent on Robert's rules, you know, about that would be my question. Maybe we should, you know, find that out because I actually think one thing with consent I I don't even think if it's something's on consent, the whole idea is we're not supposed to discuss it. I know sometimes just I think out of habit we would say, you know, we've got a a motion and a second for consent. Is there any discussion? I don't think we're supposed to discuss consent. Those would be some question, some Robert's rules questions to just to confirm. Um because if we can discuss consent, then you don't have to pull it off consent, right? That's I guess kind of my my
089question. >> That's true. Um I can look into that and and get you guys >> some information on that. Um >> I guess something else with that Miss Eggy is and we get the agendas earlier which Wednesday this go around and I'm appreciative of that that gives us an idea of of what's going to be covered in workshop in the meeting but the the supporting documents still don't really get to us to the end of the day Friday. So therefore, unless we spend our weekend reviewing the documents, which I guess some do and and that's everyone's discretion, then you would need to make sure and comb through those materials Monday to bring those question. We're shortening the timeline on ourselves as well. Again, I I don't I don't have I I can get with this
090idea. If we just use consent, um we're just utilizing consent in an appropriate manner and not with big decisions. Well, and I think that when we get those agendas on Wednesday, we may not all be getting all the supporting documents that we get on Friday, but you can still see if there's an item on there that you're like, "This is not an item that should be consent or you have concern about, you could still reach out at that point, even if you hadn't had all of the information on Friday." Um, and you know, I think that I think there has to be reasonleness because with every procedure, um, there could be the oneoff time that something really crazy comes up. And then you reach out to, um, myself, Dr. Harkite, or whoever's sitting in this
091seat at the time um, on the day of and say, "Hey, this is this is new information. This has come up." I think those conversations could still be had. Um, but if we could as a board agree that in most normal circumstances, we're just going to give each other a 24-hour, you know, at least heads up, I I think that's that's really was was the intent of it. >> And the exec is deciding what's on the agenda. So, it's not like conversations aren't happening as to what's going to be on consent, which is the role of exec. >> True. But, but we're just keeping it open for every board member, even though it's not on exec, to be able to say, "Hey, we have the right to discuss something that's on consent." So, um, >>
092yeah, I had certainly no, um, um, no problem at all with the the intent to, you know, obviously no, I don't think anybody the plan is to try to pull something off consent at the last minute to get a heads up. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I think we have a bit of consensus on that, but we you certainly can feel free to reach out to me. Um, we're not ask any action on any of these items right now. Um, I had one other thing that I just wanted as as a just reminder um, from a re review standpoint. Um, on page seven, this is as we talk about communi communicating with our community. You know, one of the things that's been a long-standing board policy is that we um, as a board member do
093not respond to anonymous messages. Um, so I would just like to ask everyone to to consider that. Um, I know there's a lot that's going on um, right now and sometimes consider that that might include social media. So, um, this just a just a reminder. I know we as people when we're individuals out in the community, we we get to act as as our own, you know, self, but um when you're in the context of a board member, just just a a gentle reminder that we um have had a long-standing policy of not responding to anonymous messages because we can't really engage with those people um in a way um to find out what's really going on there. That's all I had. Um and I don't know if there's anything else that you guys are
094wanting to uh discuss on these. I have a couple of things. >> Okay. >> On on that, I'm a little unclear. I did have a question mark next to that one. Are we are we just cuz I'm new, so I apologize if this is obvious to everyone else, but are we recommending that board members not respond to anonymous comments or are we saying we do not? That feels like too different. So the way that it reads is that anonymous calls, letters or electronic communication will not receive board attention, discussion or response and will not result in directives to the administration. So for example, if we were to receive as a board an email that somehow came from an anonymous response, right, you know, person, we could not then respond to that or go to Dr.
095Hark Rider and ask him to respond. >> Sure. >> Um >> but like the example of social media, >> right? I feel like that one honestly I feel like that's a little bit of a gray area and so that's why I said it in the way that I did because um often we're on we're on social media not necessarily um as a board. Um but I know that if I'm on social media and somebody says that Kim Eggy responded in this way to something that has to do with school district business, those people then know that I sit on the school board. And so I feel like for me as Kim Egie schoolboard um trustee, I should be careful um how I respond even in a social media setting. But I don't think that's a
096an explicit directive. I feel like it's something that I would ask everyone to be careful of and just use judgment on. >> But we could make it a directive if >> we could make it a directive if you if we decided I mean and yes, we could change it to specifically say that. >> Okay, great. So, just a couple of things on the on page two and three with the core beliefs, commitments, goals, and specific results. I I really enjoyed reading through those. When and how were those developed? Like who who came up with those? >> Wait, we're talking about >> page two and three, just the the big >> kind of the overarching things that are guiding principles, >> right? These are these are directly from our school district. I mean this is our
097vision and this is our um strategic plan. Um these things all come I mean correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Harrider but these all came specifically from the direction >> of our school district >> place part of us coming strategic plan was done 22 >> just part of the strategic plan >> right so I mean like if you read those goals up there they're going to align with the goals that are on page three >> it was done in >> go ahead Mike knows it well >> it was done in the spring of 21 >> so it may be playing. >> I mean, we may consider revisiting will be five years this spring just to make sure it still aligns with all of the same. >> Our plan is to look into that in the
09826 27 school. >> Okay, great. >> Um, I had one other see. Oh, I would this is I couldn't really find the exact place for this, but and maybe it doesn't need to be stated here. If it was anywhere, it would be kind of under this five page five at the bottom. How do we what is there? Do we have any sort of rules or u how we want to manage when we do get emails that come in that are addressed to the whole board and the administration? obviously want to be cautious of seeming like we're any board member is ignoring someone's email but also I don't want to complicate somebody emailing in by overstepping. So do we have guidance on how to handle that? >> Yes. Um I would like to look there's there's
099two sides to it. Um, I would like to ask the board to give if that email is addressed just to the board to give u me an opportunity to then um find an answer for that and and let you guys know that that has been responded to if it's addressed also to Dr. Hark Rider or someone else in the district that is taking that on to give them an opportunity to find an answer and respond and let the board know. Um that does not mean on the flip side um I don't feel that I could ever tell you not to respond to someone. I know there's been a situation where maybe I knew the person who had reached out and so I did also send a note and say hey just let you know I
100I do acknowledge this. I know somebody else is answering it, but um generally speaking um I think it would be in the best interest of not complicating everything um and confusing to allow the district um personnel that you know needs to answer that question to have the time to do that and then um either them or myself would let you guys know, hey, we we have addressed that. Does that make sense? I would also if you get one just to you and you can't see anyone else on it a good practice is then to send it to the board president Dr. Hark Rider just to say didn't see your name on it and let them disseminate whether or not sometimes they'll send them to us individually so everyone is seeing it but that's just a
101good practice to do to keep them in the >> great so just so I'm clear >> just to streamline >> the go the if Dr. Dr. Hark Ryder is on the email, we'll let him respond first. Is that am I hearing that? >> I'll respond if it's sent to me, right? >> If it's sent to the board and correct copies me, then generally >> I will have to >> Got it. >> And I'll respond reply to all. >> Okay. >> I see my response. >> Yes. And you'll do the same. You'll always reply all. If you do respond. >> Yes. Sometimes it may be a situation where I don't reply all to that person, but then I come to you guys as a board and say, "Hey, this is, you know, we had one of
102those recently and I just emailed you guys directly and said, "Hey, um, this is what I've done. I've reached out to this person." So either way, you should get some sort of communication. >> Okay. >> And I would say if you if you the first one to see it and maybe it's been a couple days for whatever reason, it's on a Friday and you see it on some, there's nothing wrong, I don't think, with just saying thank you for the email. Sure. Just acknowledging it. I don't think there's any. >> And there's also nothing wrong with reaching out to either one of us and saying, "Hey, have you seen this?" Um, it can happen sometimes that something goes to spam. Um, and I I mean, I've had that happen. I know Miss Simmon recently said,
103"Hey, did you see this?" And nope, hadn't. It had gone to that folder. So, okay, >> don't hesitate to reach out to us either and say, "Have you seen that?" >> Okay. Thank you. I would say I think it's great to know that you you know we can rely make sure it gets to you too and that you'll be able to make that kind of more official response you know after you've got the admin information you may need. Um I don't think it necessarily precludes us from ever like you said before from responding if we um especially if we know somebody or you know or we feel like we want to but it's you'll kind of have that official answer. Does that help? >> And we'll get a followup just so we're copied so we
104know it's been addressed and so on and so >> Yes. Yes. And if there's ever a time that you feel like you haven't seen resolution, you know, reach out to us, let us know. Um, and we'll make sure that we do that. >> I just I guess two small ones. one is back to the um the goals and the strategic plan part that's in there. I do I think we also um made some changes to that like specific results level of the goals at some point and um some of those got updated along the way so they may not match what we're using today but maybe we wait till we redo the whole plan. And I mean I think some of those may be a little out of the sec. Um maybe not. It's not
105a big a huge deal. Um >> I can check and see. Yeah, it's the current version. Not a problem. >> I think the other part is just a little bit more on that communication discussion how you know how we communicate with other folks but how we also communicate with each other. And I maybe just a little discussion on I love the the emails responsing response to um emails that we receive. Obviously we get information in a number of formats from you from from the admin and from you Dr. heart rider or obviously transmitt is one way that gets us the weekly information of and and hopefully not only what's going on in the district but help many cases prepare us for upcoming board meetings with information. Um so that's a very helpful and a lot
106of good information in there. As far as questions though, and the one thing that's on here, I think the whole um and I we do it sometimes but maybe not all the time. One of the key things with like when you when we ask you a question, uh I think the whole the um the underlying idea is that we all seven should get the same information. Right? Even if one of if one of us has this question the idea is that we all should get that same information and I think that's that's listed I don't know even what the number is right but um under the communications superintendent will communicate information in a timely fashion to all board members I somewhere there's the yes request to the superintendent and board president from any board member
107will be distributed to all board members >> I'm It's not happening but I mean but because often it is and I think our Google sheet is one way that that's happening. So may are we going to keep do we want to document the Google sheet in here as a way to do that or do we want to just leave it open as we will get a if somebody has a question we'll respond to everybody. I think that's kind of what it indicates. I just want to make sure that we are all getting even if it's a phone call question are we is the expectation that we should all get the same information about um a topic. >> I mean the only reason I hate to list out kind of specific things here is because I
108think that that then kind of pigeon holes into us into one thing and we do have different ways like you said that we communicate. We have the spreadsheet that we can get information for simple questions. So I feel like from a wording perspective this makes sense. the requests from any board member will be distributed to everyone. Um, but I I think um to acknowledge that we do need to be doing that whatever format the question is coming in. I think >> and I agree. I'm not sure that we necessarily need to change the wording. Just maybe the discussion of how we're liking the Google sheet. Do we like now or is it better to get um emails or or put it if there was a question that came up then maybe it shows the answer
109shows up in the Friday transmitts just maybe what is that preferred way for us to get that information maybe >> I mean I've I've liked the Google sheet from the perspective of it it is a more um not um not a question I maybe need the answer to right you know this day a more general question. I've I've liked that because it's just easy for me to go and put it in and be able to have you guys see it and then answer it and all the answers are there, you know, and so kind of I can see the historical questions and I might be like, "Oh, wait, what did they say about that?" And I can go back and see it. So, to me, that's a good tool. Um, I don't know how everybody
110else feels about that, but >> I like you have to check it. So, that it's just kind of changing your routine and I've been trying to do that with the transmitter. So, I think it is one of the most effective ways because it is a good history of what has been asked. Um, but yeah, I just think like you said just commun and I know Dr. Harker, you've done that at several times. You've been asked a question from a board member and then you've copied us all on your response to it. So, >> I think Kim, I'm a little confused. If you call me and ask me a question, are you saying you want me then to answer your question and then email everybody that you ask me a question? >> Is that that's I'm
111just going to >> I think it's worth discussing. I agree because I I can see that sometimes that would not be practical, right? It would not really be practical. >> No, it would it would not be practical in my >> But it does kind of see this here. >> If you have a question and you think it's relevant to the entire board, I think it should be in an email that everybody gets it and that's easy. But if I'm driving down the road going to a conference in San Antonio and you call and ask me a question and I answer it and then the expectation is me get there send an email to the board that hey Kimberly and I talk I think that's a little because I don't think a question you have everybody
112else may have. But if it's something that's concerning for you if you put it in an email 100% or Google doc however you want to handle that. Yeah be more than happy to do that. I I agree with Tim on this. >> I agree too. >> Yeah. If it's a phone call, just a quick or hey XYZ uh if it's relevant to the collective group should be captured in the email so we can respond to everybody at one time and we have it written. I I'm kind of with him on that. >> And if you have a pressing question too, the Google doc, you send it directly to me. If there's something going on, text, whatever, get that to me. The Google doc is more of, hey, I thought about this community member asked me
113something. Can you guys look into that? That's what that really is for. Anything else that's pressing concern, direct communication is the best way. And I think you've answered what I kind of expected and I think it's more maybe on our side that if we do have a question that we feel like is something that's going to be information that all of us could benefit from that the best way to to um communicate that would I mean if it's if it is something that's come up come up soon put it in an email and you can respond to all all of us if it's some or put it in the Google doc if it could take a little bit >> we have a conversation and you ask a question going you know what I don't I
114know. I've never thought about that. The whole board may I got you. >> Yeah. >> I think if you have a phone conversation and learn something that feels surprisingly valuable to the rest of the board, you get off the phone and then send the email and say, "I thought our phone conversation would be something the rest of the board should hear your answer to. Here's what I asked at your leisure. Please answer this." >> But sometimes you do get surprised. It's like, "Oh, I that's very new information. I wasn't expecting that." And keeping in mind we're talking about informational requests because you know open meetings act we are going to be certain that we're taking care of that. So informational requests is what we're talking about. Right. >> Exactly. >> So I think what I've
115heard is we like the Google spreadsheet to still exist because that's good for a certain type of question. If you have a more pressing question that needs to be done more timely, please email it um to Dr. Hark rider. Um if you want a response that's going to come back out to the board. Um and of course you may call him if you have you know also a question. So >> so next steps we'll clean up the board operating procedures and just bring it back in January for you guys to take a peek. >> I I have two two comments. >> Okay. >> And mine are are are pretty quick. Uh page page five uh executive session number three. I think it's just important that we as a collective group, team of seven, team of
116eight, recognize that the conversations that we have in executive session should remain in executive session. Uh because if we're not able to develop or have that trust among the group, we won't be able to have crucial conversations for the benefit of the school district. So, I think it's just important that we highlight that's a part of our operating procedures and uh we recognize that publicly. uh with the group. Also, uh page six, I don't have this information, so maybe and I don't I don't know if Chris does, just as new board members, if you could send this to us, that would be helpful. Under communications, um item three, the uh uh superintendent will annually provide a planning calendar with board reports uh July. So, if you could if you could if we could get if
117I could get that as a new board member, that would be helpful, please. >> Those those are my uh only two observations. I I do want to go back to the consent for just a minute. >> Okay. >> I'm hopeful that it'll be read in a way that we still have the discretion, but it's encouraged that if we see an item, we bring it prior to the meeting. >> I think that's fair. We could wear it that way, right? I say my only thing I had to note too about the kind of the Facebook um and it's not even just the anonymous part of it but just I I think the we've we've talked many of us that you know social media has some positives but also a lot of uh a lot of potential
118downsides. I think one of the the keys that's in in our document here and I think we need to practice it anywhere we speak is that I mean you said it when we're speaking to an individual or when we're speaking to the media or when we're speaking on Facebook we're only speaking as an individual an individual board member. We're not speaking for the board or for anybody else on the board. And I know I I've over the years went to a like a Facebook um you know at TASBY conference, right? you go through a session that how how are you supposed to manage social media and they and um one is very carefully but they always suggest you know if you're going to post something you it put that statement in there if you if
119you um are doing anything that looks like it's you know a an opinion right that this is your opinion or you know and you're you're speaking just for yourself I try to do that if I make when I come on my own um board Facebook page. So, it I I think it's just a a good reminder. >> I think if we're going to talk about that, then maybe page four, we just need to really focus on honor and conduct. And four and five, making sure that we're basing our decisions on fact rather than public favor, opinion, but then also five being super important that we're making [clears throat] every reasonable effort to protect the integrity and promote the positive image of this district. um and not painting it any other way that we're trying to
120push CSISD in a positive light. So, those were my two that really stood out. >> Well, I appreciate the discussion. Um again, we'll do a little clean up and I'll look into a couple of the questions that you guys asked and um we'll follow back up on that. Um but that will bring us to item E, adjourn. I had that stack of papers and they're ready. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> I just I forgot to bring them with me. Yes. Yes. All right. >> Ready? >> All right. Welcome everyone to um our meeting. I'm going to call this to order at 7:01. 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 interests of
121our 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 and 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 an upcoming meetings. This is a meeting of the seven trustees in a public setting rather than a public meeting. As such, public comment is included on the agenda at a specific time and requires us to listen rather than take action so as to abide
122by the open meetings act. We are pleased that you have taken this 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. And that is going to lead us to our recognitions. And we have our students from Cypress Grove and College Station Middle School. My name is Jackson Muse. I go to Cypress Grove Intermediate and I am in the sixth grade. My favorite thing about CG is a nice and kind staff. My favorite subject is reading and my favorite teacher is Miss Ray, but Mr. Helm comes in a close second. When I graduate, I want to be in the MLB. Hi, my name is Mackenzie Marquez. I go to Cypress Grove Intermediate and I am in sixth grade.
123My favorite thing about C CG is the teachers. They are so kind and heartwarming. My favorite subject is math and my favorite teacher is Miss Taylor, but I have more. When I grow up, I would like to be a teacher. Hi, my name is Alicia Cowie and I go to College Station Middle School. My I'm in seventh grade and I do cheer and choir. And my favorite thing about College Station Middle School is the teachers. Hi, my name is George Kopic. I'm in eighth grade. I go to CSMS. I am in orchestra and I play basketball. And my favorite thing about CSMS is how encouraging the teachers are. >> Now, may y'all please stand for the pledges. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
124it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Now for the Texas pledge. >> I aliance to the One state. >> Please stay standing for the moment of silence. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> [applause] >> Hi, good evening. >> So, I'm Piper Cameron, the principal at Cypress Grove. Um, I get to brag on two ladies tonight. These two ladies are the core of our special programs in our special education department. Miss Patricia Hadnot oversees our castle and AB and Miss Amber Gilbert oversees our life skills. If you know anything about special education and special programs, it takes a very special person with a lot of patience, a lot of passion, a lot of love, and a lot of care to run their programs each and every day,
125to give a fresh start each and every day, and to deal with a lot of uncertainties and things that get thrown out at them minute by minute, really, sometimes seconds by second. Um, but these two ladies are the absolute definition of what it is to be in that role and to be those teachers. We could not do it without them. We uh have a lot of tears and laughs on some days. They work tremendously together and they go above and beyond to give them so much extra experiences from dance parties uh to building community gardens and whatever they can think as far as field trips go. So they are recognized tonight because they are truly remarkable. [applause] >> Great job. All right, y'all come on up. >> All right, I'm Joshua Ryan, proud and blessed
126principal of College Station Middle School and I have two of the heartbeat of my school right here and one who is not here. Uh, so I've got Dr. Allison Gilmore. She is our eighth grade principal. I have Mr. Hayden Bell. He is our seventh grade assistant principal. And then I have who is not present, Jasmine Ray, who is our amazing counselor who is about to have a baby literally at any second. She was due on Monday and she still came to work today. So if that tells you about commitment, you know, I don't know what else does. Um I just want to speak on these two these three briefly because um they mean the world to me. Uh I I hired these two this year. It's their first year, but you wouldn't know it. Uh
127Dr. Gilmore is her laughter can be heard from miles around. If you know her, you know what I'm talking about. She brings experience in the IC world, MTSS world. Uh, but most important, she loves our kids and she loves our staff. Uh, Mr. Bell, former military man here. He is a Yes, sir. I'm going to go. Belle, I'm on it. He's running down the hallway doing whatever needs to be done. I can always count on him. Uh, and and Jasmine Ray again, who is not here, she's a school counselor. If you know anything about a school counselor, they do all the things. um anything and more she does it. I I'm blessed to have all three of them and I can't thank you enough for upholding our mission of valuing students, challenging them and getting
128ready for the next level. So, thank you guys greatly. Okay. [applause] Sorry, we're going a little out of order than I'm used to. Uh uh my name is Chuck Lwell. I'm the driver supervisor with uh the transportation department and we would like to recognize Miss Ariana Bunch as our employee of the month. [applause] Uh, I do have some words from Shannon who could not be here tonight. She's feeding animals. Uh, since joining our transportation team this year, uh, Ariana has truly [clears throat] has become a truly cherished member of our team. Uh, what sets Ariana apart is the genuine care she brings to her role every single day. Her students are met with kindness, patience, and a loving spirit that makes each ride more than just transportation. It becomes a positive part of their day.
129Parents and colleagues alike have noticed the difference she makes. Ariana's helpful nature extends beyond her students. She's always ready to lend a hand, support her teammates, and go the extra mile without hesitation. Her positive energy and collaborative spirit have strengthened our entire department. We are so fortunate to have Ariana as part of our team. Her contributions have been remarkable and we're excited to see her continued growth with us. So Ariana has been here six months, >> four months. Uh she is an aid on one of our special needs buses and uh she had the unfortunate uh bad luck to have me as a driver one day. Um, and we we were on that bus and there was uh one of the one of the one of the kiddos was having a hard day and she
130was letting us know about it at at all the decibb. Um, and Ariana handled it like a 20-year veteran. Uh, she was unshakable. It was it was a fantastic thing to watch. Uh so for you we have a certificate and a if I can find it gift card provided by E3 and the education foundation. Congratulations. Welld deserved. [applause] Thank you sir. Right. President Eigy, members of the board, and our distinguished here guests here with us tonight. This evening, we are proud to recognize student athletes from&m Consolidated High School's volleyball team for reaching the state championship match for the first time in school history. The Tigers finished their record season with a 37-10 overall record, placing second in district play. And in the playoffs, the Tigers beat Pasadena in the by district round three sets to
131one. Bumont Westbrook in the area round three sets to one. Austin Anderson in the regional semi-final round three sets to zero. College Station High School in the regional final round three sets to zero. And New Bronze Fools in the state semi-final, three sets to one. The Tigers concluded their historic run at the Class 5A Division 1 state championship facing Highland Park. And though Kansaw fell to the Scots in the title match, the journey itself stands as a testament to the team's resilience and extraordinary effort this season. So please join us in congratulate congratulating the 2025 state finalists, the&M Consolidated High School Tiger volleyball team. [applause] We do have a handful of players here with us tonight. We've got several who are catching the the sick bug uh this time of year and also playing uh
132club volleyball um this season as they concluded their regular high school season. To start off, we have senior uh Mia Cross. Is Mia here with us tonight? Nope. That's all right. She got sick today. That's okay. Senior Presley Johnson, [applause] Junior Julieta Costa, [applause] Junior Macy Downing, [applause] Junior Chelsea Dobson, not here tonight, [applause] senior Jill Vinyl, And the Tiger volleyball team is led by coach Laura Corinick and assistant coaches Coach Hicks, Coach Cis, Coach Collins, and Coach Maltz. [applause] >> [applause] >> We have one more. >> Sit down. Okay, good evening everyone. Um, we have a special guest with us tonight at our board meeting. Um, Darren Gryom. He is the state executive director with Solution Tree. He is here to celebrate a couple of our elementarymentaries that are being recognized for the promising
133practices professional learning communities in our district. The two elementary campuses that we're going to celebrate this evening are Riverbend Elementary and Southwood Valley Elementary. And at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Gryom. And he will continue with the presentation. >> Thank you very much, uh, President Eigy, Dr. Hark Rider, trustees, uh, truly my honor to be with you this evening. It's my first time visiting College Station for a board meeting, so I'm happy to be here. Um, as we come to the close of 25, it's a great opportunity to look back and reflect on some outstanding school leaders and educators that are doing great things for kids here in College Station ISD. Um, and I support several states around the country. One of those being Texas, my home. I live here
134and um, one of the very aspect very best aspects of my role as I have the opportunity to observe and visit dozens and dozens of schools and districts each year um, across the country to see how they're transforming educations for students. And I'm really proud to share with you there are undeniably great things happening here in College Station. Our partnership with College Station ISD began a few years ago uh when Mr. Martinell was leading the district and by the way congratulations on coming back to support this community. Um we're glad to see you back and uh that work was continued under Dr. Hark Rider and his team and I have to tell you how this work has unfolded from the very beginning um encompassing all aspects of teaching and learning um uh beginning with district
135leaders and their stakeholders um moving down and expanding to campus leaders and then deepening the work to the teacher collaborative teams. The PLC at work implementation here has been one that will serve the district going forward as sustainable and effective. And the effective part is why I'm bothering you tonight. Let me take up some of your time. Uh we're really proud to recognize two campuses, as Paneet mentioned, Riverbend Elementary and Southwood Valley Elementary as promising practice schools. This promising practice designation is an outward celebration of the integrity, intentionality uh that these communities have invested to collaborate on behalf of their students. Make no mistake, this is not a participation trophy. This is not about the number of book studies or how many meetings you attended or anything of the sort. You have to have results
136and these teams have shown concrete results of positive progress for their student outcomes. They've spent hours on very four simple questions. What is it we want our students to learn? How will we know when they learned it? How will we intervene if they don't? And how will we provide enrichment and rigor when they do? The power behind those questions is in the educators themselves because they're keeping their discussions focused on students by name and by need and what's best for those students. and that's why we're here to celebrate them tonight. For Riverbend Elementary, as an example, they've seen maps uh scores and uh gains in both math and ELA across the campus. English ler English language learners um grew by nearly 30% in math while economically disadvantaged students grew by 6% in ELA proficiency. And
137over at Southwood Valley on STAR performance, uh their third graders grew by uh 6% in math and 10% in ELA. and fourth graders saw a 14% growth in math and 9% in ELA. And here's the very best news. It's not the finish line. This is just the beginning. These leaders on these campuses, Miss Sherman at Riverbed and Mr. Duna at Southwood Valley, um along with their entire teams are committed to continued success for this their students. and I know with the work they're doing with their coaches and and how um folks at Solution Tree have come to know them, I'm confident that I'm going to be back here in a year about 18 months uh celebrating them as model PLC's because they're going to continue driving, continue working and most importantly seeing those success for
138their students. I have one additional comment before I wrap up and that is it's not only a campus recognition. It's an acknowledgement of the hard work of the entire education community here in College Station, including you all, the board of trustees. Congratulations and thank you for keeping student learning at the forefront of your discussion and priorities. It's paying huge dividends for your students and educators and their families. So, please join me in applauding Riverbend and Southwood Valley elementary schools as two of our newest promising practice schools. They're going to come up and I'm going to give them a presentation. [applause] Right. [applause] We have one last recognition that I want to point out and that's to recognize the artwork at the back of our boardroom. If you'll um take some time to look at that
139tonight, that's provided by Riverbend Elementary and College Station Middle School. That's going to move us into our board reports. Um item D1. Do we have any committee reports? I have a bunch. So I'll start. Um Shaq met um and we had a great presentation by Miss um Budro Tracy um up on safety um which is always uh she does such an amazing job keeping our kiddos and our campuses safe. Um one of the things I want to point out um on the website there's the standard response protocol. It's on the district website which I think parents would find really interesting. It goes over some of the terminology and it's really informative. Um we also had um Mr. Jen come present about biking to school um trying to encourage more kids um to walk and bike
140safely to school. Um more walking less cars. Um he had the city of College Station here. So I'd like to thank them. They came to the meeting um as well. So um very informative meeting. That committee does great things. um also on the special education committee um met um we had a great presentation by um Amy Cecil. She's the CSISD transition coordinator. So she gave us a lot of really great information. Um one of the things they talked about is um people are less people are getting education degrees and that's even more so in sped. So um it's you always see how we're always have openings in that um department and for those teachers and that's just kind of across across the country. um that's what's happening to us. But um Mrs. Grande, they're doing
141great things to try to fill all those holes and um and um do great things for our kids in in that program. Um also, sorry, I'll keep going because I was on a lot of committees this month that met. Um the bilingual, Miss McAdams and I both were um we were both on sped and bilingual and the bilingual committee met. Um it's a very new committee. Still trying to kind of figure out the goals and um the overall take from it though is that that program is is one of our shining stars and just to keep keep um keep it going and how can we make it better and the communication with parents. So um really looking forward to seeing what that committee does. Um and lastly I was also on the budget committee which
142is also another new committee that Mr. Field and M. McAdams are on to. Um we had our first meeting that we were included on and um it was great. Miss Wilson gave a great presentation. Um community members were there and I think um it's really excited about that committee. They're going to learn a whole lot um learn a lot of the information that we get to hear um and um just see that really what we're facing um in public education and that is a lack of funding. Um and the committee is going to come back with some recommendations and be really included in the discussion on how to move forward in our district. So, um, those are the four I did. >> Thanks for covering all those. Uh, DIC met last week and one of
143the items we covered was calendar, which we already discussed in workshop and there I don't know if you're going to mention two, but we'll be bringing that out to um for for the vote for the final two calendars. The other couple of things we discussed um one was we had a couple of items that we needed to approve so that we could kind of I guess modify our district of in innovation right so they have to go through the DIC committee first and I think they're all things that we had uh talked about one is for the out of district transfers and couple of other things and then the other item we covered we covered a lot in an hour was just a kind of a a a look at the district improvement plan. We
144had the main goals spread out around the room and let folks on the committee go around and kind of give input on what we what they if they had any positives or other input on some of the the plans moving forward. >> All right, I'm on two uh Head Start policy. We're meeting in January, so no updates on that. And secondly is the education foundation. We had a record of almost 800 star educator recognitions. There was a minimum of $10 required um to to recognize the teachers and the staff. So that the certificates will be delivered tomorrow. Um so congrats for all of those that are getting recognized. Also the education foundation scholarship opens up um this Friday and that will be due March 1st. Lastly, the honores for the senior hall of fi hall
145of fame were recognized and called out. There were 66 from our three high schools and they will be announced after the break. I think Austin will be doing it at after the new year announcing those. Um and Teresa Bendon, our fearless leader, had her ninth grandbaby. So, congrats to her. I I attended um the safety and security committee meeting which is not something we really report on but I think it's a great time to take an opportunity to say that um there are so many people not just in our district but um organizations um around the community that work every day to keep our kids safe. So I appreciate that. Um Dr. Hark Rider, >> just a few updates. Um we talked the last couple of meetings a big focus for us this year was
146um getting into classrooms and visiting campuses. So, our teaching learning department has done 794 campus visits so far this year and our learning walks that campus administrators as well as district teaching and learning department uh have conducted over,200 uh classroom walkthroughs. So, they've done an outstanding job. Uh Thursday is our CTE phase 2 beam signing ceremony. So, that'll be at 11 o'clock out at 13770 South Ding Road. So, excited to be able to get some uh updated pictures. Josh does a good job of putting stuff out on social media to see what that facility is going to look like and the uh new programs that we're going to bring and certification pathways for our students that u is going to serve our district well for many many years. And then on Friday is December 19th,
147the last day of the first semester and that will be an early release day. Um and if you're going out to to eat lunch here over the next three days, just a reminder, restaurants will be a little crowded. students at our both high schools are in final exam mode and they get to leave lunch and go eat. So, I would stay away from this Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell. Not that I'm trying to hurt their business, but there's going to be long lines, I'm sure. Uh, our staff will return January 5th for a PD day for professional development, half campus and half district. And then on January 6, our students will return. >> All right. Item E, hearing of citizens. We do not have anyone signed up to speak tonight. So, we're going to go to
148item F, the consent agenda, which is item G, um, J2 through J9. >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Mr. Martindale. Um, any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? All right, that motion passes seven to zero. That's going to move us to um item I1, review criteria for CSISD to accept out of district transfers. Mr. Dunen. >> Thank you, President Eigy, members of the board. I am the communications director, but this is a group effort here. So, I've collected a lot of information from our our different departments to present to you tonight. um just as an overview of the continuing conversation we've been having over the last several months. So, just uh if you recall from from
149last month and for those here in the audience and watching um at home, we did update um a policy um in our board uh policy FDA local that was passed last month to allow the district to start exploring this option. And so we're coming to you tonight to kind of talk a lot about it a little bit more generally. Um get into some of the specifics, talk about that criteria, what the administration is planning on doing, kind of looking at a timeline, what those expectations are going to look like, and and really dig into the why behind this. Um, I know we've had some conversations just in general about this, but we really want to put this out here for you guys to see in writing as well as our community to see what this
150is going to look like for us moving forward. Now, a lot of these um items, as you probably read the memo ahead of time, these items are are majority an administrative function. And so, we're bringing this to you tonight for review and discussion. We're not asking for any action this evening. So just a general overview of what we've talked about thus far related to outofd district transfers. There's a distinction that we have to make here because the the term out of district transfers and open enrollment get tossed around um kind of in the same way. Out of district transfer, we're using that terminology because this is a program that allows students who live outside of the district's boundaries to apply for enrollment at specific schools within the district. Open enrollment would really be more of
151um a program that would allow any students um outside the district or inside the district to enroll in any school. Um and it would essentially be just an open transfer process. We don't have an open transfer process in the district. Um at this point we do have other transfer functions. We have employee transfers. So folks who live um outside of the district who are employees can bring their children here to CSISD. So we do have a process for that. We have discretionary transfers, so parents can um ask for their students to be transferred for um any particular reason that's reviewed by the district. Then we have program based transfers for things like Siblings of Head Start Kids, dual language kids. Um and then we have other program transfers um specifically for things at our high
152schools like the swimming team at Console or the culinary program at CSHS. Um but specifically for outofd district transfers, we are reviewing this process and looking at available capacity um to choose these schools and we'll revise that annually as we look at our demographics each year. Um we're also going to review and approve applications based on specific criteria and we'll get into that later in the presentation. Um just like all of our other discretionary type transfer processes, including our employee transfers, those applications would have to be renewed annually. So there would be um an additional review process each year following the criteria that we lay out as a district. And then again, for our out of district transfers, similarly to all of our other transfers, transportation would not be provided for those students. We would
153not bus kids from outside of our district into our district. So, we've talked about this kind of on a surface level in in tandem with a lot of um Miss Wilson's conversations about the budget, but we want to kind of talk through this a little bit more specifically about why the district has chosen to move in this direction. The primary uh part of that and the main part of our discussion has been to stabilize enrollment and funding. So, as our enrollment declines, our funding declines because every student comes with state funding to our campuses and to our district. We need to maximize the existing capacity of our schools. Um we are a a public entity and so we are funded by taxpayer dollars. We need to steward those dollars well and we need to make
154sure that we are using our campuses to the extent that we can to responsibly um make sure that we are educating as many kids as we can with the facilities that we have. We're also in a a new era of public education. Um the state has created a a level of competition that has existed not just because we have vouchers coming next year, but we've had charter schools in our area around the state for more than 10 years. And so the competition has existed um for quite a while. And so we need to strengthen our competitiveness and and make sure that this is a long-term solution. It's not just a band-aid for one school year um as we lose students this year. And then again, just to reiterate the point, we have to protect the
155programs, the staffing levels, the extracurricular opportunities that we have and doing that um by by allowing students to transfer into our school district will provide us with the funding mechanisms to do so. Just just for perspective, high level perspective, this is not a unique situation to College Station ISD. We have lost about 300 kids this year, but this has been a trend for several years across the state. Enrollment patterns have been uneven across Texas. Um, for the past several years, about half of the Texas school districts have lost enrollment. Um, any increases that we are seeing on an average statewide are pretty nominal. And this past year, TEA reported that they had the smallest increase since they began collecting this data in its current system. Um the the state is also tracking average daily attendance.
156Public schools are funded on attendance and they are seeing um a decline in that area as well which is suggestive that we're going to continue to see that decline um over the next several years. And then the other piece that's been talked about quite a bit is that parents have educational options for their kids. Um TEA's data shows that charter school enrollment has doubled over the past 10 to 15 years um with with new options coming into different communities. And then another big piece that we've seen since COVID has been that public school or students are leaving public schools for homeschools. In this conversation, we're having this conversation about opening up our district to a specific set of criteria for students to apply. And at the same time, we have districts across the state meeting
157this month talking about closing schools. This is a stark reality that exists right now in public education. And we want to be proactive in this. These are not conversations that we've been having specifically in College Station ISD about closing campuses or consolidating programs at this point. But I I just want for for the board, for our community to recognize that this is a reality for a lot of our peer districts that they are using these functions like out of district transfers, virtual school, trying to market themselves um because they are seeing steep declines in enrollment and having to make um very challenging decisions with their community um uh just this month. So like I said, this is not a unique idea to College Station idea ISD. We didn't come up with this. This is just
158kind of tip of the iceberg. Some uh districts from around the state, big districts, small districts, medium-sized districts, rural districts, um they're all looking at this option because all of them are seeing some kind of decline in enrollment and they're making this choice in order to um in order to offset some of that. So here in College Station um here's kind of the criteria and I'll pause here if there's any discussion or questions related to this but these are the the requirements that we have established for this program at this point. So for academics we do want to maintain a high level of rigor and expectation for our students. So we are going to look at applications um with an 85% or higher in core classes for the past two school years. We're going to
159ask that students who apply maintain that 90% rule set by the state for the past um two school years. And then we're going to look at behavior and ensure that there are no more than three referrals with no major infractions. And that being DA DEAP. Um it's also important here to note that just because you are a qualified applicant, that does not mean that you are going to be admitted or um or approved for enrollment. um we have to we have to manage the school and program capacity um for the selected schools and so again we're not open enrollment we are out of district transfer which we are going to integrate into our existing transfer process I'll pause do we have any questions or discussion points right now based on the requirements criteria that we
160have set forth at this point >> it's just only on the academics I mean we're opening this up to K through six. Correct. Right. So, obviously may maybe some kids who don't even have um an academic history. >> Remind me. I've been a while for me. Um even if we first second graders, are they getting what kind of grades are we we getting in their >> depends on the school district. Sometimes they're just meeting certain goals or standards and that's how it's processed versus a letter grade. maybe not as clear-cut to be we made a 85% out of the out of 100% but um >> right if it's standard base uh going through the standards based on the metrics you can get a good feel for where they are academically. >> Okay. >> So we'll
161talk about kind of the the campus availability what we've identified at this point in the process and what that pathway is going to look like. Um, we've looked at uh for Creek View Elementary, that's going to be one of the available campuses in 2627 for families to apply to send their kids to school. You can see their current enrollment and their capacity. We've also been able to identify students who want to be grandfathered into the boundary adjustment process um for Cypress Grove Intermediate. You can see their current enrollment and their current capacity enrollment um uh well below that capacity there. So that allows us to explore this option at that campus. If we were to have a sixth grader enroll next year, the following year, then that pathway campus would be College Station Middle School
162based on its current enrollment. And we did not adjust intermediate and middle school boundaries this past year. And so the the current enrollment and that projected enrollment will remain fairly stable there. And then when we get to high school, um after several years of this program, we'll we'll opt for a lottery draw for our two high school campuses. Um you can see their capac their um current enrollment and their capacities at this point. Um those that capacity is based on the completion of the expansion projects that are ongoing at this point. Um we've had some some discussion and questions about the financial piece of this and you know what is a student coming to us worth? How is that going to impact our revenue? Um the basic aotment was raised slightly this past legislative session
163and so it is currently set at $6,215. So you can see what the financial impact and revenue increase would be based on the number of students that we have leading up to that 300 student decline that we have seen. And then um we've also had some questions about you know what does it actually cost to um to have a student in our school? What is the expend budgeted expenditure per student this year is set at about $11,000 as students leave our c our district that cost increase increases. The overhead to pay our utility bills, keep the lights on, all of those things. It stays the same, but our revenue goes down. And so that cost per student then rises as that as our as our enrollment declines. So, in order to do this, we do
164have to have some logistics behind us. Again, this is a little bit of inside baseball for us, but um our transfer application period for all of our transfer applications opens January 5. So, that's the day we come back from Christmas break. That that period closes February 27th. And so we would look to start informing families of their status related to out of district transfers on March 6th and then set a deadline for those families to inform us of their intent to enroll on March 20th. And we're holding those those dates a little bit loosely at this point until we're able to finalize this process. So speaking of our next steps um as administrations, we're going to finalize the the process to um have have families apply. Um like I said we we already have a
165transfer process discretionary transfer process that requires a committee to review those applications. We we are going to have a separate committee um that includes uh relative internal stakeholders to to review that process um and start looking at the numbers at each campus so that we can make sure that we're maintaining um responsible operation at those schools. A big piece of this is going to be utilizing our current um marketing and communication channels online um our local media to inform the public. Um sending an internal email doesn't really do any good for us at this point when we're trying to get this information out to folks who are not in our district. And then Miss Wilson alluded to a little bit of this um in in the budget workshop, but we have to integrate supporting strategies
166here. This is not a um this is not a magic bullet for us. this is not going to solve all of the problems. And so we have to work together as a district, as a community to support the efforts to ensure that our public school system maintains its level of excellence that we currently have. And so we're going to address things like absenteeism. We want to look at the root causes of student retention. We just had a meeting with our thought exchange uh vendor looking at asking asking parents about, you know, why do their kids miss school? We want to we want to get to the heart of why kids are missing school and not make assumptions so that we actually can make some meaningful change there. They have some great case studies with other
167Texas school districts that we're looking forward to digging into here in the next several months. We're going to start exploring virtual learning options over the next several years to help retain students. Um and then really we have to do some communitydriven marketing. And so we have to tell the story of our current students, our current families and staff. um so that it uplifts the districts and and builds continued trust in the public education system here and in the state. And then we also have to continue the work that we've been doing this semester through committee work providing meaningful opportunities for people to engage in our district currently, provide them with clear information so that they can authentically advocate for the district. Um, we do have another legislative session coming up in in in a couple
168years. And so, we want to make sure that our folks are prepared to have those conversations and advocate for our school district here locally. With that, I'll open it up to discussion, any questions um for the administration. >> I just want to say thank you Austin. Excellent job. and the collective team as you mentioned. I think getting this information out in a presentation in writing for the public to to see and understand the moving pieces and the exact details of the plan of action for this policy change uh I think just naturally answers lots of questions. So, thank you very much. Could you walk me through that? We bring in $6,200 per student, but it costs us $11,000 per student. >> Maybe a a great question for our chief financial officer, Miss Wilson. >> There's
169a little bit of a weight to that. It's just basically we get based on that enmentulates about The other federal budget when we build a budget we have the budget show and that's number that way and I thought that was going to be a great question that you would want to address. As we decrease in students, that number is going to grow. And and if we can keep our our students flat or at least grow in enrollment, our overhead costs shrink. Therefore, that cost per student shrinks as well. Does that make sense? >> It makes sense. I mean, obviously, if you lost enough students, your costs are going to go down invariably. It would depend because >> facilities but on >> teacher I mean 85% of the budgets on >> 85 right? >> Yes sir.
17084% of the budget is on staff. Um but if you look at your higher cost items or your administration on your campus and then your teacher as well and all of the things that run a campus. So for example unless we close a campus we're going to have a nurse, a counselor, assistant principal principal, two instructional coaches, a GT and ESL. So there's a lot of cost on a campus and so that kind of gets absorbed in when you keep that enrollment up. So if we continue to decline, we've either got to consolidate those campuses to get our cost back in in control or look at other means. >> Okay. >> But yes, if you look at our total expenditure budget this year and divide it by the total estimated students, then it is 11,000
171per student. >> Okay. Yeah, I think it's just going to be important as we I mean obviously there's a ton of unknowns, right? So I don't I don't expect anyone to have all of the answers, but we we can do the math to figure out the gross number, but I think it's going to be for me I'll be very interested to see what actual costs increase and you know even relatively smaller expenses like a marketing campaign to draw students in. you know, those all do count against that topline revenue number. So, I want to make sure we don't fall too in love with that that big topline number without paying close attention to what are we actually and you know, we've we want to make sure we don't bring in too many students causing a
172campus to lose title one status and then all of a sudden we lose those federal funds. So, I I'll be curious. I know there's a lot of questions we don't have the answers to, but I'll be curious to watch that over the over the next year. Anything else? Thank you, Mr. Dunen, for that. That was very helpful. And we're going to move now to item I2, which is consideration of adoption of non-B businessiness days for calendar year 2025 for the Texas Public Information Act calendar, which is also Mr. Densson. >> Thank you, President Eigy. U this was back uh a couple legislative sessions ago. The the legislature allows us to identify 10 non-b business days within our Texas our public information calendar. This is separate from our academic calendar and our employee calendars. This is
173really a function of uh my team and my office and how we calculate those days to provide uh information to people who request it through that process. And so we have identified those 10 days as January 2nd, March 9th, March 10th, March 11th, March 12th, March 13th, December 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 28th. And all of those days are within the the parameters that the state has set for us um to identify as days that we don't have as much working staff. Um, public information requests usually require collaboration between several departments and we want to make sure that we provide that information in a prompt manner. In order to do that, we want to make sure we calculate those days effectively. And so we are going to ask the board um to um consider a recommendation
174that College Station ISD approve the attached resolution that was provided to you before the board meeting to establish non-B businessiness days pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act for the 2026 calendar year. approve. Uh I recommend I recommend that the board approves uh the resolution as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. Martinddale and a second by Dr. Payne. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? That motion will pass 70. Um and we will move to item J1. Thank you, Mr. Dunen. uh consider the official ballot for the Braza Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for a one or three-year term beginning January 1st, 2026 as deter determined by the BCAD board of directors at the first meeting in 2026. Miss Wilson, >> thank you, Missy. If I might
175take a moment, we've got an is what our community knows in our crowd. Uh but they are actually Hub International and they'll be our agent of record for insurance and I appreciate them coming here. It just kind of stands for we're really exciting excited when you look at how much we spend per month on health insurance for our employees compared to our peer districts as well as our instructional peer districts. We are above and beyond. And we want to make sure that's paired with insurance benefits to our employees. And so we're we're hoping to pair with them just to make sure we're getting the best possible insurance we possibly can for our employees. And so I applaud them for being here and we're excited about taking a chance. So uh then I'll move on to
176J1. Okay. So uh I would like to present a resolution for the adoption of the central appraisal district board of directors. We actually have 542 votes to cast. There are three members running. The member that we nominated in our previous board meeting was Brian Maguire. We can allocate those votes between all to one person or we can allocate them as we see fit between the three. That is up to our board of directors. Okay. So, board, we have to discuss and decide how we're going to allocate our 542 votes if we want to um and and make sure this is what we talked about um at a previous meeting. This is for the Braza Central Appraisal District Board. Um we as a school district are allowed, we have votes um to put people onto that
177board. And so, uh, Miss Simmon had actually nominated, uh, Mr. Maguire and he had agreed to, um, to that nomination. And so, we have a chance now to cast our votes. Um, we can do it different ways. I know last time we did it, we decided to put all of our votes onto the person that we had nominated because that basically guarantees that they're going to get a spot on that board. Um, we don't have to do that. We can also, um, decide to put our votes on to different people. So, open that up to your thoughts. Um, it's always great if we have a representative on that board. So, and I just want to say um Brian Magcguire, they've had three kids in our district. Their oldest is a senior at Console and their
178youngest, sorry, their oldest graduated CSHS, second Consol, third at Consol now. Um, I think he'd be a great representative um for us on the board. >> I agree with Miss Simmon. I know the family, wonderful family, great kids, and Brian would be a great addition before putting all of our votes behind it. >> I if that's who Heather recommends, and if none of the other board members are familiar with any other candidates, I think to ensure the district has representation uh as far as CSISD, then we I agree with Dr. Payne as well that we log all our votes to award that candidate. >> Okay. Then I will ask for a motion. I move that we um allocate all our votes to Brian McGuire. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Miss Simmon
179and a second by Dr. Payne. Um any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> That motion passes 70. And our Christmas present to everyone out there is that that was the last item on our agenda. And I hope that everybody um enjoys the break. Take the time that you need. We appreciate all of you. We're adjourned.