CSISD Board Meeting 11/18/2025 - Regular Meeting

001getting quiet. >> All right, welcome everyone. Um, I'm going to call this meeting to order. It is 7 o'clock. Um, declaration of 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 our community and our state in educating our students. Our mission for our students in this district is success each life, each day, each hour. We adhere to all pertinent laws, policies, and procedures and posting agendas in 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

002decisions in either this meeting or in upcoming meetings. This is a meeting of the seven trustees in a public setting rather than a public meeting. As such, public comment is included on the agenda at a specific time and requires us to listen rather than take action so as to abide by the open meetings act. We are pleased that you have taken time this evening to join us. We are very proud of this school district and we thank you for your interest in and support of our students. That's going to move us to item C, our elections. >> Thank you, Vice President Eigy. Um, good evening everybody. Um, we will be administering the oath of o of office to our elected board members and we'll start with uh our elected trustee for place three, Mr. Chris

003Field. He is going to be ceremonially sworn in by his wife and his kiddos. Take it away, Field family. >> All right, you'll have to bear with me. I lost my voice about a week ago, so I'm doing the best I can. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, I Chris Field >> I, Chris Field >> do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> of the office of schoolboard trustee place three >> of the office of schoolboard >> trustee place three >> of the state of Texas >> and will do the best of my ability >> and will to the best of my ability >> preserve protect and defend >> preserve preserve, protect, and defend >> the Constitution

004and laws >> of the United States and of this state >> of the United States and this state. >> So help me God. Next in place four, Mr. Mike Martenddale being sworn in by his wife Alicia Martenddale. >> No, you're right. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, I Mike Martinddale >> I, Mike Martenddale, >> do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> of the office of school board trustee place 4 >> of the office of school board trustee place 4 >> of the state of Texas >> and will to the best of my ability >> preserve, protect, and defend >> the Constitution and laws >> of the United States and of this state. >> So help me

005God. And lastly, place five, Kimberly McAdams, being ceremonially sworn in by her husband, Dan McAdams. >> Go slow for me. >> In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas. >> In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas. I, Kimberly McAdams, >> I, Kimberly McAdams, >> do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of schoolboard trustee place 5 >> that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of schoolboard trustee place five >> of the state of Texas >> and will do the best of my ability and to the best of my ability protect and defend the constitution and laws >> and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend in the Constitution and laws >> of the

006United States and of this state. >> So help me God. We made it with our glass. >> All right. Now, we'd like to recognize our outgoing board members. Um, first we'd like to recognize from place three, Mr. Joshua Ben. Uh, Mr. Ben was originally elected to the College Station ISD board of trustees in 2019 and then reelected in 2022. He has served as secret board secretary and board vice president and um served in a capacity through some challenging times through the COVID era um hiring new superintendent and we are incredibly grateful for the time, efforts, sacrifice and service and his expertise and his knowledge and all of the the quips that he brought to our board meetings. Um, and we're we're just incredibly grateful for the time that you've spent serving the staff, the students,

007and the community here in College Station ISD. So, we do have a little token of gratitude from the administration and from your fellow trustees. So, if you guys will please um give a big warm round of applause for Joshua Ben. So, we have a nice little um this one's from from the board. Um a nice little momento cutting board and a plaque from the district to honor your years. >> Cool. Thank you. Floor is yours if you like. Sure. >> All right. So, there's always been kind of a tradition at CSISD that the outgoing board members will say a few words and I'll I'll try to get through this as quickly as possible. Um, I was watching Ted Lasso the other night and he made the C. Yeah, we're finally catching up to it. um

008that my hopes are as high as a giraffe's top hat. And that got me thinking about a speech story I heard several years ago about giraffes and and leadership. And it just I wanted to share this with the the board and the uh administration. Uh and and each of you have um in front of you a coaster from uh with a giraffe on it. So you can either throw it away or keep it as momento or whatever you want to do. But um as y'all move forward over this next year and in the future uh remember um you know obviously giraffes are the tallest animals on earth which gives them a broad view of their surroundings. It's their ability to see the bigger picture. And y'all are responsible for an organization of over 14,000 children,

0092,000 employees, 19 schools and and numerous other facilities. You don't just represent one school. You don't just represent one constituency in our community. You represent the students, the teachers, the staff, and the taxpayers of College Station ISD. So, as y'all move forward, I would just urge you to have a a a big picture mindset where you don't just get caught up on the latest social media outrage or the other day-to-day management issues that need addressing. Please don't allow those things to overshadow the big picture. School trustees are ordinary citizens elected by other ordinary citizens to represent the public in the education process in Texas. It's a big job. It's a job that in the six years that I've been on the board has gotten even bigger. from school finance to to COVID to pand you

010know pandemics so forth and so on. It it's a it's a big job and I would urge y'all as you move forward to keep in mind that as you do this you're a team and there's no room for ego for grudges against each other. You've got to move forward as a team for the benefit of our community. Um, giraffes are also they're not afraid to stick their necks out when they see something good. In fact, like them, your first instinct should be to push forward even if doing so seems inadvisable to others who can't see what you see or are privy to the information that you're entrusted with. And there'll be a lot of that. And these may be your co-workers, your friends, your family, folks on social media. It's going to happen and it's

011going to happen a lot when there are things that are discussed in executive session. There are other things that that you just you can't share. Leaders like y'all need to understand the big picture and be willing to take on the risk to achieve it. And don't be afraid to stick out your neck to do the right thing, but also never forget that it's not about you. despite all the challenges we face, you are a trustee and all these people out here of one of the greatest organizations in our community. Um, sorry. Um, obviously I want to thank uh my wife Melissa uh the five kids that have gone through CSISD um for the the time that they've given up with for me uh with me over the last six years. I also and most importantly

012want to thank the teachers, the bus drivers, the coaches, everyone else involved with College Station ISD. Uh, y'all hear this all the time and I don't know if you realize it, but the difference that you make in kids' lives and in our community. Um, I started thinking about some of the coaches and teachers that I've had over the the years and I I thought about um, Coach Harmire. He was uh he was my bus driver. And this might shock y'all, but apparently I had a tough time making it to the bus on time, but he would wait for me and he had to because otherwise I wasn't going to school. My uh uh my dad worked in Brian College Station. I grew up in Brennham and I lived out in the country and if I

013missed the bus, I was not going to school that day. And uh I started thinking about other teachers. Um my uh the reason I wasn't going to school that day if I my dad was in Brian and if I missed the bus was because my mom was actually killed by a drunk driver when I was seven. And I'll never forget, I probably had a moment like I'm having right now in elementary school, and it was a teacher that pulled me to the side, gave me a hug, and took care of me. And that's what y'all do. and we, you know, the board, everybody else, we have to deal with, you know, test scores and budgets and and finances and so forth and so on. But when it comes down to it, that's what y'all do

014is y'all take care of kids. Um, thought about Beth Parish, my high school debate coach and theater teacher. um she wanted me to um go to this how big a nerd I am wanted me to go to debate debate camp one year and couldn't afford it but somehow she put together a fundraiser and actually I think it was just her sent me to debate camp and that led to law school and and all the other horrible things I've done. Um, but I I just I just want to thank y'all for the opportunity to serve y'all for the last 6 years. Uh, it's been an honor and uh, y'all just keep doing what you're doing and keep continuing to make CSISD one of the best school districts around. So, thank y'all so much. We'd like to

015recognize our outgoing trustee and our outgoing board president, Mr. Jeff Horak. Mr. Horak was originally elected to the board of trustees in 2019 and reelected in 2022. He served as board president for the past four years. And like Mr. been guided the district and provided um leadership for our community through challenging times, changes, and on behalf of the school district and the community and our families here. Thank you so much, Jeff, for your leadership and the time and the effort and the sacrifice that you have also given to this community. and um we can't thank you enough for all that you have done, all of the hard conversations that have to have um and all the hard decisions that you've had to make over the years. So, we also have a token of uh appreciation

016to you from your fellow board of trustees, a um a nice little cutting board and a plaque from the school district. But I'd just like to turn the microphone over to you, sir. Um, I usually add lib, but this is uh something I didn't want to do that with. And I didn't use AI except to spell check. So, um, and it's ironic that Mr. Ben talked about giraffes because I'm going to talk about elephants. Not because I'm almost as big as one, because I have lost a little bit of weight, but um, elephants never forget. and I will never forget the last six years. So, how do I summarize six years into a few minutes? The words that come to mind are passion, purpose, eventful, success, and moving forward. My sole reason for wanting to

017be a trustee was to be a resource for our school district and assist in any way that I could to guide our CSISD district forward. I'm proud to say that I feel like this goal has been accomplished. The opportunity to serve in this capacity has been a joy and a challenge at times. I never thought I would have worked for three superintendents during a six-year tenure. The co event and many other obstacles have presented themselves over the years, but I always focused on what was best for our students and our teachers in navigating these times. One of the most significant obstacles was what direction CSISD should go. When we conducted our third superintendent search in roughly three years, the board in our district had to decide which direction to move forward. Look within or look

018outside. After recommendation from the previous administration and the enormous amount of feedback we received from the community and teachers, we decided that it was best for CSISD to look outside for our next leader. Which brings me to today. We've made great strides as a public education school district in the state of Texas. Dr. Dr. Hark Rider along with the multitude of support staff have evaluated and examined how our district function, inherited some items to address, and how our students are performing in all facets of being a learner. CSISD is now on a trajectory to be the to be better than we have ever been and continues the vision of success for all students. Our administrators, teachers, and staff are doing amazing things for our students in a climate that is very much against public education.

019These folks will continue to make sure our district is a destination school district for all to model. CSISD is doing great things right here for our students and our teachers. I want to thank the trustees that I've worked with in the past and those that helped guide me as a trustee getting into this. You thought you knew what you knew and you thought you knew everything about being a trustee and very well was mistaken that first December meeting in 19. We are entrusted with the success of our students and y'all do not take that lightly. It is much appreciated by so many even if we don't hear it a lot. Serving as a trustee is not about having an agenda or conforming to an agenda or a narrative. It is about making decisions that are

020best for student growth and outcomes. We gain as much information as we can to make those informed decisions to confirm that CSISD is doing better than the day before. The only way for CSISD to continue to flourish is if we all work together and not against each other. This is the only true way for success. We must stop being scared to do the right thing and continue to stand up for our students and ourselves. We all have a role in a student's life. As parents, we can't attack our teachers. They only want what is best for your child. As a teacher, we can't be satisfied with average student success. Education has changed and we as parents and teachers must change with it. As administrators, we must continue to advocate for our staff and provide the

021best learning environment for the teachers and students. And as trustees, we have to take the best interests of all 14,000 plus students, all 2,000 plus employees, and all 19 campuses to heart. These are only my observations over the last six years. I can't thank everyone enough for just the opportunity to come back to CSISD, the place I graduated. And now I get to watch my kids do it. So now I'm going to go be a dad again on a more full-time basis. I've missed enough of their events. I even got to do third grade math test review last night. One of the best messages I received in the past few weeks was, "I'm so proud of you. You gave your heart and soul to each person you talked to for the past six years." This

022is all I needed to hear to know I helped this district that helped me years ago. Thank y'all so much. I appreciate it. That's going to bring us to item D, recognitions. I think we have some students from College Hills and Pebble Creek who are going to come up and help us. All right. Good evening, guys. My name is Amanda Allen. I'm the proud principal at Pel Creek Elementary, and I have two amazing fourth graders here. I'm going to let them um introduce themselves and talk a little bit about them. >> Good evening. My name is Taylor Carter and and I'm in fourth grade at Pebble Creek Elementary. I love to learn about reading. My favorite thing about Pebble Creek is the teachers. I'm thankful for the teachers and my friends. Good job. >> Good

023evening. My name is Henry Dixon. I'm a fourth grader at Pebble Creek. My favorite thing to learn about is math. The best part about Pebble Creek is my teachers. I'm so thankful for my family and friends. offer shuffle this way. >> Hi, I'm Katie Allen, the proud principal at College Hills Elementary, and I have two students who are fighting over who doesn't have to go first right now. So, I'll let them introduce themselves to you. >> My name is Addison Robins, >> third grade. >> And I am in third grade at at College Hills Elementary. >> What is your favorite thing about College House? I like learning from our wonderful teachers. >> My name is Vera and I am in first grade at College Hills Elementary. >> Who do you like about our school? >>

024I like Koda. >> Tell them who that is. They don't know who that is. Who is >> It's a Turby dog. And what else do you like your teachers? >> My favorite thing No, >> you're thankful for. What are you thankful? >> I am thankful for my teachers. >> We practice awkward shuffle outside. That's why we're doing that. So, okay. So, now you're going to say, "Please stand." >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Oh, actually we're going to stand here and say it. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. flag. I pledge algiance to thee Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. Stay right there.

025We'll continue our our student recognitions this evening as you're following along on your agenda with our state semi-finalist tennis team from&m consolidated high school. So tonight, we're proud to recognize the&M Consolidated High School tennis team for an outstanding season and a remarkable run to the UIL state semi-finals. The Tigers finished the season with an impressive 16 and3 record and earned their place among the state's best. This year also marked a significant milestone for the program. This was their 10th state tournament appearance in school history. Reaching the state semi-finals is a testament to the team's consistency, their competitive spirit, and the long-standing tradition of excellence at console. Under the direction of head coach head coach Daniel Marshall, team navigated a strong schedule with resilience, teamwork, and sportsmanship, representing&m consolidated in College Station ISD with pride at

026every step. athletes, at this time we'd like to invite you guys and coach Marshall to come forward as I call your names. So, if you'll come and you'll receive your certificate from Veronica and Dr. Hark Rider and uh shake the board members hands and then stand over here off to the side. We're going to take a group picture when we're done. All right. Presley Cochenau, Payton Freeman, Anna Gao, Samuel J, Katherine Hamilton, Sarah Hildebrandt, Matthew Johnson, Caroline Cleman, Ryan Cleman, Nene Lee, JJ Lynch, Gabby Micheum, Rudy Rap, >> Caleb Ryner, Reed Scholler, Lily Strickland, Nate Trinary, George White, Ruby White, Sarah Weir, who we got back there, Gavin Willis, head coach Daniel Marshall, your&m consolidated tiger tennis team state final state semi-finalists. >> All right. Hey, can you all look at me just one time

027and then your parents? Okay, here we go. Ready? All right, stay All right. We're also um privileged to recognize the exceptional accomplishments of our state cross country runners from&m consolidated and college station high schools this season. Showcase they showcase remarkable grit and discipline um earning district titles, regional uh program finishes and strong performances at the state meet. And coach Branch is here from console, but I I don't know do we have any of the console runners here? No, we didn't make it tonight. That's okay. We have lots of dual athletes in this district and they're they're out playing basketball, I think, this week. Um, but I do want to go ahead and recognize the the girls team and we'll give them a round of applause here in a second, but they earned um their district

028championship this this year. Um, they finished second at region and finished eighth overall at the state meet. And they had a single medalist come out of state and that was Rowan Skinner who placed fifth overall. They also had one uh runner from the boys team qualify for state and that was James Ellison who placed ninth at region and 39th at state. So please uh let's give uh coach Branch and his runners a round of applause. And then from College Station High School, we had three Cougar runners who qualified for state after strong performances at the regional meet. We're proud of their dedication, hard work, as well as their competitive spirit for earning a spot among the state's top athletes and carrying Cougar pride with them uh to the competition's biggest stage. So, athletes, as I

029call your name, y'all will come and be recognized. First, Justin Boatcali, Camilo Rio, and Cindy Ramirez. And cross country coach Josh Mson. All All right. And last, we have our um our high school marching bands&M Consolidated and College Station High School marching bands competed in the UIL class 5A marching band contest for the fourth consecutive time earlier this month, marking a successful end to the 2025 marching season. At the state contest, Tiger Band placed 18th and the Mighty Cougar Band placed 26th in the preliminary round. Both bands qualified for the state contest back in 2021 and since then have ranked in the top 10% of class 5A marching bands across Texas which is an incredible accomplishment. We're immensely proud of the students and their directors for this accomplishment and it wouldn't be possible without the

030unwavering support of their band boosters, parents and the CSISD community. So please join me in congratulating our high school marching bands on another successful year. So, drum majors and directors, if you'll please come and be recognized uh by the board as I call your name from College Station. Oh, there we go. Sorry. We'll start with the College Station High School Mighty Cougar Band. Uh drum major Isabella Visquera. Drum Major Adriana Vargas. All right, Addison, help me with your last name here. >> Pushki. >> Pushowski. Addison Pjowski. Katarina Humphre and the Mighty Cougar Band is led by John Seal is the director assistant director Michael Dixon and assistant director Joseph Conn. Congratulations. All right. And from the Tiger Band, drum major Guju Day, Sam Rhodess, Taylor Rutled, Riley Brinkman, and the Tiger Band director, Mr. Steve

031Fry. and assistant directors James Benton and Cole Croftton. Can you scoot over? All right. Now, we'll we'll bring our elementary school principles back up to recognize our staff. >> Do I need to do anything? >> Awesome. Okay. So, yes, I'm Amanda Allen at Pebble Creek and I have Jordan Lawoff with me. She is our assistant principal. Um, and I have the great privilege I will awkwardly scoot over. I have the great privilege of um, just appreciating um, our front office staff. So, we have Abby Peavey who is our secretary and then Elaine Williams is our attendance clerk and Cat Cross is our receptionist. And something unique about this team is they are all brand new to the office this year. Um, you would never know it. And so, um, just the appreciation of all the

032little things that the front office staff does that Jordan and I potentially forgot to tell them about, you know, like on the first day of school, how do you actually answer the phone when the classroom is calling? Um, or how do you get outside the office to the hallways? Um, and so I just can't appreciate or how do you say I appreciate so much even um just any type of feedback we've had to give, they've just rolled with it. Um, their ability to build relationships with the community, students, parents has been amazing. Um, even Dante, we recently sent out a thank you form to our parents to write thank you notes. And the number of personalized thank you notes each one of these three ladies got from the family is just a testament to the

033relationships they're already building in such a short amount of time. Jordan and I could not do this job without you guys. We appreciate you guys. Um, and we just love you so much. So, we have a little uh acronym for your name for you. Hopefully, you get the right bag. If not, you know, y'all can just switch it around. But just, you know, we love you so much. And as we say at Pebble Creek, um it's always okay. I love you. Bye. So, that is our that's Yeah. Thank you for you guys. All right. I have two people that I want to recognize. We have been talking to the students this month about gratitude. And so, when I brought it to my guiding coalition said, who are we going to bring to um say thank

034you to them in front of you today? These were two of the ladies that came up over and over again. So I have Lindsay Ditmar, my assistant principal. Not only is she my assistant principal, partner in crime in everything. I could not do this without her. She is amazing. She came on as a new AP, as I was a new principal. And so together, we have formed a bond that will last forever. She is a great leader. She is awesome to families, students, the staff. So we cannot thank her enough for her service to our school and all that she does for us. So thank you very much. And we have Molly Talbot. She um waltzed into my office last year and said, "I think I want to be a teacher and I would like

035to be an assistant to learn how to do this." And so as I'm finishing up my program, um I want to get my feet wet. And I said, "Come join us." And so we put her in kindergarten and she worked as an assistant. And then all year she told me, "I'm going to be finished. I want to be a teacher." And so we brought her on as a first grade teacher. I knew she would be great, but I'm going to tell you, I thought she would struggle a little more than she has because when she struggles, and it is hard to be a new teacher that first year, and she's tiny and she's cute, so all of that made it even harder, right? She goes to everyone on our campus and says, "I'm struggling. Can

036you help me?" And that is something that is really, really hard for new teachers to do. And that, I think, is what is making her so successful. but she is loved by the staff, by her students, and by the parents. So, thank you for all you do for us. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. behind me. >> Behind. >> Uh, good evening everybody. My name is Chuck Longwell. I'm the driver supervisor at transportation. Uh, with me is Shannon Coular, the director. Uh and the two people we wanted to recognize as employees of the month for transportation. Uh it is with great pleasure that we recognize Kotisha Mech and Jessica Hampton as our employees of the month. Both exemplify the dedication, professionalism, and positive spirit that makes our transportation department exceptional. Uh a little bit about Kotisha. Over

037the past four years with our transportation team, Kotisha has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to both her role and the students she serves. Her reliability is unmatched. She is someone our team can always count on day in and day out. What truly sets Kotisha apart is her remarkable demeanor. She greets every day, every colleague, and every challenge with a genuine smile and positive attitude. Her calm, cool, and collected approach when working with her students creates a safe and reassuring environment that puts both children and parents at ease. Kotisha has built strong, trusting relationships with the parents of her students, maintaining excellent rapport through her consistent communication and caring nature. Parents know their children are in capable, compassionate hands when Kotisha is behind the wheel. Kotisha embodies what it means to be a team player. She

038is always willing to help wherever needed, never hesitating when asked to take on additional responsibilities. Her co-workers know they can rely on her support, and she consistently goes above and beyond to ensure the success of our entire transportation team, Miss Jessica Hampton. Uh Jessica Hampton has been an invaluable cornerstone of our transportation department for an impressive 15 years. And she hasn't thrown me out the wall yet. Her long-standing commitment to our team and the students we serve reflects a level of dedication that is truly remarkable. Over a decade and a half, Jessica has consistently demonstrated the professionalism, expertise, and reliability that define excellence in our field. Her experience and institutional knowledge make her an essential resource for our department and her continued service is a testament to her passion for what she does. Koticia Mack

039and Jessica Hampton represent the very best of our organization. Their positive attitudes, dependability, and genuine care for students, parents, and colleagues alike make them invaluable members of our team. We are honored to recognize their outstanding contributions and grateful for their continued dedication. So, you're each going to get a certificate and a uh gift card provided by the Education Foundation and E3. >> Congratulations. Good. >> Thank you. All right. I would also like to um draw your attention to the artwork in the back of the boardroom. Um that is provided by students at College Hills Elementary and Pebble Creek Elementary. And I know that I'm always sort of amazed what even our youngest learners do. So, take a look at that artwork as you um leave tonight. Um that's going to move us to item E1,

040which is our board reports. Um I can jump in and just say that we had the audit committee meeting uh at 4:00 this afternoon, and you're going to hear more from the auditor later, but we got to meet and hear that report a little bit ahead of time. So, >> I can talk on education foundation, hence no voice. We had grant patrol today. Uh it was super successful. We hit this goal of three million overall, which is huge. Um we handed out 94 grants and they totaled $354,720. Um all 19 campuses received teaching grants. So we're super pumped for all those teachers who were eager beavers. Um, also if you're considering honoring CSISD teacher or staff member, uh, the Star Education program is opening. Um, it's a minimum of $10 donation for education foundation and

041you'll get an honory, a certificate, a star educator pen, and recognition on the website and social media. So, I guess I'll do two. Um, Dr. Dr. Payne and I attended DEIC again this month and it's really kind of a repeat. Well, actually, we got some new stuff this time. We um got a a summary of a lot of the new courses that we're going to be seeing a lot of them because of the new CT center and things that new classes that we're going to be able to offer because of that. And of course, DIC then approves those and now those are on our agenda to approve approved tonight. Um and then the other thing of course we talked about again was calendar made had some good discussions about um some actually got to see

042some calendar options talked about ways to narrow those down. We get one more month in December to to look at that in from DIC and then the understanding is then those options will come to the board in December before we put those out to our community to vote on. So, that's where we are with that, I think. Um, and then just yesterday was intergovernmental and last month it was the Brian economic development and then this month it was our College Station economic development representative. And, you know, as most of you know, a lot of the differences is that Brian is bringing in some manufacturing. College Nation is more of, you know, retail growth and still some um construction growth, particularly with a lot of college residences. And so there was some discussion about how though

043all those new college residences, will they at some point free up some other um houses throughout our community that may because I think um we discussed and I think some of us are aware of this, the housing prices in this town are one of the things that is probably attributing to us our our reduction in in our growth, right? because it's harder to have new young families or it's harder for them to find a place to live in this community. So, there was some of that that discussion. Um, but I think just in in general though, lots of growth in this community both from the college age side and then of the retirements, but missing missing some of that middle place where they would come into our schools. So, but lots of good things happening.

044I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Dr. Harter. Okay. Any other board reports? >> Okay, Dr. Hark Rider. >> Yes, ma'am. We've got to recognize some outstanding students today and a couple other teams I want to draw attention to. Uh the football teams that consolidated in College Station High School both won the first round playoff games last week. They both have second round playoff matches on Friday. Uh Saturday, something that doesn't happen very often. We have Consol volleyball team is playing for the state championship at 11:00 a.m. Saturday morning in Garland. So if you're up for a road trip, head north Saturday morning. Excited about the opportunity for those young ladies and also a big congratulations College Station High School volleyball team for another out outstanding season. They made it to

045the fourth round this year. So extremely proud of both of those uh teams. Friday is a teacher work day, student holiday, which leads us right into Thanksgiving holidays, November 24th through the 28th. All right, we're going to move to item F, which is hearing of citizens. We do not have anyone registered to speak at this meeting. Um, that's going to move us to item G, the consent agenda. Um, on the consent agenda, we have um item H, J2 through J5, and K3 through K10. >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? >> Yeah. Can I get J2 moved off of consent so we can discuss it? >> J2. >> Yeah, sorry. It would be J3. >> J3. >> Yes. Thank you. >>

046J2 and J3. Okay. We're going to move J2 and J3 to when they come in that part of the agenda. And our consent agenda will now be item H. Um item J4 through J5 and items K3 through K10. Does that sound right? All right. Can I have a motion? >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Second. Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Miss Simmon. All in favor say I. And we do need to raise our hands. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. The consent agenda passes seven to zero. All right, that's going to move us to item I1, which is consideration, discussion, and possible action related to new middle and high school course approvals for the 26 to 27 school year. >> Second Technical difficulty. >> Good evening board members.

047Dr. Hawk Rider. While they're pulling up on the uh presentation, I'll go ahead and start. Uh I have the privilege tonight to bring you the final stages of some CTE courses like we do every year. Uh these courses start out in our campus committees. uh they go uh through their leadership teams, they get voted on and then we take them to DIC. We did that at the last DIC meeting. Uh we present it to DIC and then from there uh they approved them. So this is our final step uh to bring them to you. And I want to just kind of give you some highlights of it um and go through it. And this is probably the best way to to show the whole picture. Uh not all these are new, but with the CTE

048center uh coming aboard, there's going to be some questions and I can probably answer them all at the same time as we go through this. And of course, at the end of this presentation, I'll answer any questions and then I'll ask hopefully you guys will approve this and we'll put it into uh our course guide. Uh the first thing is a mechanics. We already do this uh at um&m consolidated. Uh we will move this out to our upper level out to the new CTE center. Uh, but if you look at the very bottom, that's the biggest thing I want you to see is it is no longer a CTE transfer program. For those of you that are uh not familiar with the district, over the many years, we've had a lot of CTE programs that

049you would transfer one mascot to another for, uh, we're very thankful that we're able to now uh, offer this where our kids can stay home at both uh, College Station High School and at Console. There is no new classes on that one. The next one uh is really a simple change. Uh we've been offering buildtech for a while. Buildte is really, if you read the TEICSS, uh it's really towards facilities maintenance, which is a great program. Uh but our kids want a little more framing, a little more electrical, a little more plumbing. Uh the best thing that we can do is change that course from buildtech into construction technology. That gives us a little more freedom to do some hands-on stuff with that. And if you look at the very bottom of that, it also

050says this is no longer a CT transfer program. So that's a great win for our district as well. Uh the next one is a brand new uh thing that we will be doing at our CT center is our automotive programs. Uh for those that don't know, we've been busing kids to Brian ISD for the last 5 years so they could go ahead and uh take those automotive courses. So we don't have any new courses because those were adopted years ago. But if you look at the very bottom, we do need to add the practicum and transportation system. And you'll notice that everything will be housed out at the CTE center. Uh this is our welding. Uh we're very excited that we will have welding in our district as well. Just like automotive, we have been

051busing those kids to Brian ISD because of our new CTE center. We're going to be able to teach those kids inhouse. Uh we don't have really any new courses because we've been doing this uh for many years. Uh but again, just wanted to let you know this is a change of location. We'll no longer have to bust a Brian. We will teach him out at the CTE Center. This one is brand new to us. Uh very excited about this. This is the number one request I've had from principles and counselors uh since the minute I have worked here. Uh everything I'm asking today is new. Uh we have not bus kids anywhere for cosmetology. Uh there are a lot of different courses and let me explain why. Um, and the other thing is, let me

052back up on the CTE center. This is a sophomore through senior program. We'll bus kids out there. They can drive just like we're currently doing with Brian uh, CEK. Uh, what's important about this is cosmetology uh, for their Texas department license regulation, they do have to get a,000 clocked in hours. If you do the math at 177 school days in a double block, triple block, you are pushing the limits at perfect attendance to make sure you get this. So it's very important that these are two and three block courses. That's why you will see two and three period. Uh we also have not hired yet. So we need to make sure that we have kind of a a handful of courses that depending on that teacher that comes in. Uh you'll notice at the bottom

053where it starts talking about nail care enhancement, spa services, and all that aesthetics. We need to make sure that we have those on the books because that teacher may come in with that background and we don't want to delay our kids learning another year to bring this to another formal thing. So, we're very excited about that one. Uh, a couple of quick things at College View. Uh, we're excited about this. Uh, we need to continue to uh do what we can to uh enhance college view. So, animation one, animation 2, practicum and animation. uh those have been taught many many years ago. Kind of bringing some of those out. But the big one is that digital art and animation. Uh we're real really excited about that. We have a lot of kids interested in it.

054It's pretty straightforward. And then over at uh both Consol and at CSHS, our video video game design. Um we need to also add that digital art and animation. If you'll look in the parenthesis, it's very important. It does count as an art credit. That's a really good thing. So, a kid will get the CT credit and the art credit. We visited, of course, with Mr. Heeks before doing this. Uh, it helps out the art teachers overflow and different things. Uh, these are things that we will absorb with our teachers. We're not putting this on uh one of fine arts teachers. And then over at Consult, we do teach cyber security and we need to do a couple of tweaks uh to stay with the times. Digital forensics has gotten really popular. Um, and kids are

055asking for it, teachers asking for it. We want to uh abide by that as well as that fi foundations of cyber security. I don't think anybody can argue with cyber security is upon us. Uh so we want to make sure that we're keeping up with our coursework in the times. That is my presentation. Short and sweet. Uh if there's no questions, I'd love to answer them. I know they're all staring at me like Kevin. Don't don't go too long. Uh but if not, we would love to get this uh formalized. >> Do you guys have questions? I just want to say thank you. This is such an incredibly important part of education in 2025. So, thank you for everything you do and your team. >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Second. >> I have

056a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Miss Simmon. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed. Um that motion passes 70. >> Thank you. >> All right. Right. So, that's going to bring us to item J1, which is an update on thought exchange. >> Yes. Thank you, Vice President Eigy, members of the board. Um, bringing you just a quick report and an update on where the school district is on gathering stakeholder feedback. Um, kind of a fancy way to say how we survey people, right? Um, so we have entered into a contract, a partnership with a company by the name of Thought Exchange. You've probably seen it already. Um we've been surveying our staff over the past several weeks. Um you saw earlier in the workshop with Miss Wilson putting out an

057exchange. We've also used exchanges in our DEIC um committee as a part of our academic calendar process. Um, so I I'm gonna work through this these several slides fairly quickly. Um, because I I really want to spend the most time showing you what this product looks like for the user and then also what it looks like for us on the district side because I think it's important if we're asking people to be transparent and honest with us, then we need to be transparent and honest with our stakeholders. Um, so they need to see kind of what what we are seeing on the back end of it and how we're analyzing their feedback. So, I I just want to center the conversation here and and let everybody know that, you know, the the strategic plan that

058was developed in 2021 is still ongoing and this is a continuation of that. And so, these bullet points here are are pulled directly from our core beliefs and shared commitments that were outlined by our community in 2021. promoting community engagement, recognizing the diverse perspective of others, demonstrating mutual respect, encouraging and strengthening communication, fostering student voice, and using technology to enrich educational experiences. These these core beliefs and our shared commitments are are kind of what grounds us in this work. Um, and and that's intentional because this is something that me and my team, Melanie Ward, our community engagement coordinator, we talk about this platform on a regular basis, nearly every day about how we're going to use it and how it's going to be utilized and and we center ourselves on this. Um, just a brief

059history on stakeholder feedback in CSISD, kind of how why we're using thought exchange over another platform. Um just quick five-year uh history, the the district used panorama education in uh 20 starting in 2020 through about 2023. Um is kind of instrumental in providing us with some guidance and stakeholder feedback through COVID as well as developing the strategic plan and then set up a normal rhythm of stakeholder surveys each semester um through asking questions of staff, students, and families. Um we we took a gap year um with our uh survey platform and didn't renew in 24. Um and we started using just some in-house products. Um we're a Google district, so we heavily rely on Google forums. We had developed a new website through Final Site, so we're using their survey platform. Our technology department is

060incredible. Um Kelly Derek does an amazing job of creating in-house surveys. And then we also did just some kind of grassroots listening session. um survey type of visits to our campuses last spring, visited all 19 campuses in the spring of 2025. So that kind of leads us to where we are right now. At the end of last school year, we sat down kind of as a cabinet group, Dr. Hark Rider and I had several conversations about identifying priorities for continuing to get feedback from our stakeholders in a meaningful way. And so we kind of talked through some of these priorities. Transparency through the process, um, publishing results, taking actionable steps, understanding what people think and feel, but also why. Um, and so that was a big part of it. Um, it's great for us to

061be able to have people rank how they feel on a five scale rating. Um, but if we don't understand why they chose that one to five, then we're we're just making an assumption. And so we have to be able to dig a little bit deeper into that. We also were looking for some kind of platform that was going to give us some flexibility to do more than just one survey a semester. Um it's hard to remember how you think and feel from August to December and from January to May. And so we wanted to be able to uh kind of change the culture of feedback in the district and use a platform more regularly. Um, it's also really important for us. You know, one of the things that we recognized as we were having a

062gap year and using a third party was that, you know, anytime we're looking at open-ended feedback, we're people. We're humans. And it's not just me or Melanie or Dr. Harkrite or anybody else, like we all have bias. And so, we wanted to remove that and use a third party that was going to interpret the data in a meaningful way for us as well. It's also uh important for us when we're spending money in the district to understand how we measure the benefit of the tool that we purchased. Um I think it's great for us to be able to say, "Yeah, we're going to do a survey once a semester and gauge how much we improve on different topics." Um and that is a definite benefit to the culture and the climate of our school district.

063Um but is there a way for these tools to pay for themselves? And we'll kind of get into that. we talked a little bit about in the budget workshop and we'll talk about how the this can be used to help develop some of those strategies. And then really the biggest challenge that we're facing right now is understanding, you know, why why is enrollment declining in College Station? You know, how are we going to be impacted by by vouchers? How can we address absenteeism and recruitment and retention? And so from those priorities, we started having some initial conversations with um a few companies looking back at our panorama data and what those contracts looked like. So we started with Thought Exchange. Um Dr. Hark Rider and I both had had some experience um at least tangentially

064with Thought Exchange and were aware of it. So we wanted to have an introductory meeting with them. Uh we had an introductory meeting with Qualrix, which is another survey platform. Um and shortly after those conversations, we felt like Thought Exchange was going to be the best um survey platform for us to use. So throughout the summer, we started having several discussions with them. Uh kicked off our partnership with them in late September, early October and then launched our first staff success survey, which is basically a perception survey for our staff members. And that ran from November 3rd through November 17th. and we are res reviewing the results of that and the reports with our thought exchange partners on Thursday afternoon. So thought exchange you've probably already seen um it has basically two functionalities. It's got

065a classic survey um this is kind of the traditional survey platform that you would see ranking um questions collecting opinion based data and then exchange. So, the exchanges are the unique thing with Thought Exchange that we felt like was going to give us a lot of flexibility. And um it's basically opening uh answering an open-ended question um that you can uh rate other people's responses on. And we're going to show you what that looks like here in just a second. If you haven't seen it, our strategy using these two um engagement platforms is uh really kind of broken down into two sections. We want to gauge stakeholder experience and then we also want to involve our stakeholders um more in our decision-m. So you can kind of see on the left side our strategy there

066with our um once a semester surveys is to do a a big broad survey where we ask a bunch of questions and then pair it down to topical exchanges so we can keep the conversation going and get more specific. Um, and then on the other side of stakeholder experience, we want to address things like chronic absenteeism. Ask parents, why are your kids not coming to school? Um, ask teachers, what do you hear about kids not coming to school? So that we can understand that and then develop better relationships with our families. Um, to help them to understand the importance of of coming to school and how we can support them through that. Thought Exchange also developed a new um enter and exit survey interview platform that we're going to start um beta testing with them

067in the spring. And then through all of this, we're going to be using this feedback to understand why people choose College Station ISD and using that information as our community's voice as we market our school district going forward. As far as decision-m, we're using Exchanges to get feedback on things like our academic calendar, our budget, professional learning, parent engagement, the communication tools that we have across the district, and how we plan our initiatives and programs. So, really quick, if you've got your phone, scan that QR code and I want to show you what it looks like. Audience, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see that. I want you all to participate in this question. Think back to your time in school and tell us what your favorite food in the cafeteria used to be.

068>> All right, looks like I've got everybody's heads and their phones. I can I'm going to switch over and I'm going to show you here. So, this is the user experience side. So, this is an exchange and we're just asking one question. We're not asking any demographic information. We're not asking for um you know, what school you're at, what your email address is, what your name is. We're just asking for the substance of what you think and feel, right? So, you're going to click through some of these things and you can see some of the thoughts that have already been shared. things like chicken nuggets because it's a classic or steamed veggies because broccoli's my favorite or pink milk because it's fun. Cheese pizza cuz it ain't easy being cheesy and an apple a day

069to keep the doctor away. Right. And then you can I can I wrote all of those last night. So, um so you can >> why you read them all? Hey. Um, the the great thing about the exchanges is that it's not just one answer. So, if it's like, I've got lots of qu I've got lots of answers, got lots of feedback, budget priorities that we just shared. If you've got lots of priorities that you want to consider, great. You can use it as much as you want. Um, and then when when you're done, you get to see other people's responses. So, if it if chicken nuggets resonates with me because it's a classic, great. I'm gonna go four stars. Pizza, not my favorite. Tacos are consistently good. I agree with that. Frito pie, also very

070good. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy because it was filling. Trying to trim down a little bit. Um, Salbury steak. So, so you kind of you got to get get the gist here. The last piece of this is it's like, yeah, great. I get to see everybody's thoughts and I get to rate them. Okay. Well, the transparency side of this is that it shows you the data in real time. And so, you get to see all the topics. You get to see everybody's thoughts and you get to see what what you put in there. So, you can scroll through this as much as you want. We're going to leave this open. You can kind of see what the the usability of it is. The reason why we chose that is primarily because it it

071doesn't just provide us with feedback based on the volume of responses on one topic. It gives us a collective agreement based on other people's thoughts. So for instance, if I said that chicken nuggets are my favorite and so did 20 other people. Well, the algorithm that exists in Thought Exchange is going to recognize what I put and what 20 other people put in there. And it's also going to recognize that only one person put steamed veggies. So, it's actually going to show steamed veggies to more people because it wants to get the opinion of everyone based on everyone's voices. So, rather than pushing down the things that people say less, it actually pushes up every single individual voice. And so, that's what we wanted to see. We wanted to see not just what's the loudest

072voice, what are people, what are people saying that participate in these surveys the most. No, we want everyone to be able to have a chance to have their voice to be heard. And that's what the great thing about thought exchange does for us. Provides transparency on the front end and then transparency on the back end. So I want to show you what that looks like for us um on the back end of this. So, if we look at the results of what's your favorite cafeteria food, it's going to give me an AI summary, right? So, this is what kind of removes the bias. So, if I'm just looking at all the responses, I can be like, well, it seems like chicken nuggets are their favorite, but but pepperoni pizza is like a 4.8 rating. So,

073but it gives me a summary based on what people wrote. So, it says responses highlight a variety of cafeteria favorites, including Big Daddy's pepperoni pizza. uh steamed veggies particularly for broccoli preferred by some. Pink milk is favored for its place playful aspect and then you can kind of get into that. Um the also the great part about this AI too is like if if you're using AI like chat GPT it's using the whole internet to learn about you. It uses your data so that it can help other people to to learn about their their chat GPT. This is all this is all localized. So it's only using our data. So, it's only using things that we say. Then, anytime someone shares something that may be too personal, it flags it and we can shut it

074off. So, we can shut off if someone says something specific about their student, something about their per personal life that may be too personal for other people to see and it won't show it unless an admin says yes, that can be shown. Um, I probably had about 20 on just our DEIC calendar stuff. It flags things um very sensitively, so it's it's great. Um, so that's kind of the back end. There's a lot of other tools. You'll see the reports when we release the results of our staff survey, but um, it's it's a great and robust tool that's giving us a lot of resources to be able to tackle some challenges and have continual conversations with our community. Now, big questions here that come up, privacy. How is what I'm sharing going to be private?

075How is my data going to be protected? And then, do you know what I'm saying? Are my responses connected to who I am? That's those are questions that we have heard over the past several years about anonymity versus confidentiality. These are not College Station ISD's definitions. These are how these are thought exchanges definitions. So we are able to use this product in basically two ways. But I want to talk about privacy. So just like any other platform, they have agreed to things like furpa and the the student privacy pledge to make sure that any student data that's shared is localized. They also go further to say that if a user or participant were to share something that they want removed from the platform, we can do that. Um the basically the data is not thought

076exchanges or CSISDs, it's the individuals. So that's on the data side. Now, when you are a participant filling out this survey, we only have two options as a district to select whether or not we're going to run an anonymous survey. And that basically means your information is not connected to your responses in any way. So, we're not asking for your email address or your name. But there's a possibility of inference because we did just run a staff survey. And in order for us to understand uh the experience of people across campuses and grade levels and roles, we did ask for some demographic information like what campus you work at and what's your role. But we're also recognizing the fact that an elementary school only has one nurse and only one principal and one AP. And

077so in order to provide people with a comfortable experience, we added an option for other or we'll add a not applicable. But there's always a caveat to that. If you share something with the school district and it's not uh specific to your role or your campus, then that information does help us understand perception districtwide, but it's not tied to anything specific. And so if you share something specific about your experience and it's not tied to a campus or it's not tied to a role, then there's not really a way for us to target any actionable support for that. And I want to be careful when I use words like target or or anything like that because the idea is not to identify those specific things. I can tell you Melanie and I have looked through

078how this platform is going to be used and it takes about 10 different clicks to even try to figure out what roles or campuses are saying what because in reality as the district we're looking at how does this reflect upon the leadership that we're providing? How does it reflect upon the support that we're giving to our campuses? Right? And then as we roll this out to our campuses, we're going to be giving them the same level of resources that we want our staff to feel comfortable. And so the again, these are thought exchanges definitions. We don't have any use cases for confidentiality right now because that ties um individuals names and email addresses to the responses and we want to keep things fair and easy for people to use. So how are we going to

079use this feedback? So, we're going to gather feedback from our stakeholders. We're going to review that analysis. So, we're going to do that for the first time in uh for a survey on Thursday with Thought Exchange. And then we're going to use Thought Exchanges um uh reports to publish those publicly to our website. Okay, that's an important part because if our community can't see what our staff feels or parents feel or students feel, then we have then um then there's not that level of transparency. We ask them to be transparent. We also have to be transparent. It's their voice. So, we're going to we're going to publish that in a way that is um reasonable for us to do. So, again, we're not going to be identifying any specific campuses or roles in that aggregate

080report. Um it's going to be districtwide. Then uh a part of that publish publishing of results, we're going to identify action items and we're going to start taking action. So a lot of that action initially is going to be asking more questions. Um rather than just going based off of a percentage point that says, you know, we improved from 75% to 80%. Um we need to dig into why did that grow or why did that dip, why are we improving or why are we not improving. So that that's the use for for this platform. So you can kind of see our next steps. We've got several things in the queue um including attendance and chronic absentee exchanges, onboarding exit interviews like we talked about, and then rolling this out to our campuses and departments for

081use in collaboration with the communications department in the spring. Any questions? >> So I know in the past a lot of surveys have gone out like to parents through email. So, is that still I mean I'm seeing a QR code here in a meeting that obviously you can do, but are you still going to be sending these out? Like, how is this going to get out to parents and community members? >> So, it our first use case was with our staff and we sent them an open link. So, it was just here's the staff survey and here's the link. We'll be sending it um out via email and text message to our uh parents and then we're going to work directly with the campuses when we get ready for a student survey. Um those will

082also be posted on social media as well. Do we have a limit to the number we can use or can a campus will will they have the ability to send out their own personal surveys? >> Yes, there's not currently a limit um right now. The only limitation that we have is some of their products are in beta. And so we we try not to overextend ourselves and trying to understand a product that we're not an expert in. And so we'll we'll make sure that we integrate that process with thought exchange if they want to develop something that's more advanced than what Melanie and I can help with. I just pretty much >> pretty much want to just say thank you. Um I think it I mean feedback is important for anybody and any organization that

083wants to you know get better and I I this is an interesting new new way to do it you know but I think um I love the thing some of the things you mentioned about one some of those key things you highlighted in the strategic plan that that it it really helps meet some of those goals I hope but also that you know like you keep saying focusing on the why some people feel waste because that's the only way you can we we can help make decisions to make it to make things better. So I I really really appreciate that and some of the helping us with decision- making too getting input. So lots of lots of positives. So thank you for sharing it with us. I didn't know so much was going on for

084way back in in June, but it was it was a was nice to see it coming out and I hope I hope our staff and our community help us utilize it to to provide feedback. So thank you. >> Do you have early numbers back on the staff success just the percent who participated? >> Um I don't have a percent but I have a number uh we are around 680 total um respondents which means they started the survey and we were close to 400 who completed >> out of roughly 2,000. Is that right? Or >> so this was just campus based. So this was if you have a email address that's attached to a school then you got the survey. I think our guesstimate was 1,200 or so. I don't know how many. >> So about

085a third. >> Yeah. >> So this I'm sorry. >> So 400 out of a thousand finished it >> right. So yeah still usable. >> Well they did some they didn't just like put their name. Correct. Whatever they completed is still useful data. Yeah. >> That's great. Thank you. Yep. >> So security parameters on this and I'm familiar with a exchange and qual um it so a survey is limited one to one to an ISD email account in other words could on the staff survey the link be forwarded and someone else complete the email or is it limited to one submission per per CSISD account? Yeah. So, we had that option to link everybody's email accounts to Thought Exchange. We opted not to do that um for a couple reasons. One, it would have slowed our

086process to be able to launch this product and start using it feasibly as quickly as we started paying for it. Um would have put our lead time a little bit back so that we may have missed being able to survey people this semester. Um the other part of it is that the perception of folks email addresses being connected to a platform. I'm getting an I'm getting an email directly from this platform. Therefore, you know who I am. We wanted to remove that perception. So yes, it is open. So feasibly, yeah, somebody a staff member could share that link with somebody else and that may skew our data a little bit. Um but it would be anecdotal hopefully. Um, and we'll play around with it and see what the best use case is for it, but

087right now we're not going to be connecting our district email addresses to that platform for those reasons. >> So, which which I understand the reasoning and I don't disagree with it. I guess my question as to how do you then manage repeat submissions andor ensuring the submissions are coming from faculty and staff that it was distributed to. I I'll be perfectly candid with you. Obviously, my wife is a staff member and I could access the staff survey from my Gmail account. So, my question is how how do we ensure the validity of the results when it's so open-ended, so to speak, because I mean, to me, that could be manipulated by the respondents. You're saying, >> well, maybe it's not all staff or staff are submitting multiple time, whatever the case may be. It doesn't

088seem like it would capture it that it Yeah. Anyway, >> yeah, we'll review the the results to see if we feel like that were to happen. Um, right now, we want to build trust with the product. Um, and we want to make sure that our staff does feel safe in this process. And we had several conversations about whether or not Thought Exchange was going to get access to our email addresses initially. Um, and that was just the decision that we made and we weighed both of those options. And I recognize what you're saying as far as understanding whether or not that data is fair, true, real or not. Um but you know that's on the respondent side of things. >> Sure. Just something to contemplate. I uh and secondly do is it a bank of

089question? I assume the district can write the questions that they want asked. Is that correct? It's not limited to a bank produced by thought exchange. >> Yeah. Yeah. We um we did work with Dr. and Skelter um with Thought Exchange who helped develop our um initial questions for our staff survey. Um she's kind of their resident expert just like any other platform would have. So they did provide us with a template that we refined over the course of a couple weeks and um and landed on what we landed on. But as far as the exchanges and future surveys, we can customize it as much as we want to. really the the main part that we work with thought exchange on is the functionality part technical part of things. >> So in future surveys when we

090ask faculty and staff for feedback or to respond on the lyker scale yep >> we get asked or distinguish between district administration and campus administration on separate questions. >> That's a great point. Our initial our preliminary data was able to distinguish that simply based on people's open-ended questions, but we recognize that that needs to be a differentiator for folks to be able to say, I have certain opinions about my boss and I have certain opinions about their boss. >> Okay. Thank you. I think it's a wonderful product. So to that point, it just makes me wonder when when we were sending out surveys before, um did we have the ability to limit people to only one answer at that point? Like if if I as a parent got um the calendar survey before, could I

091have gone in and answered three or four times? >> Um well, the calendar survey I'm not exactly sure. That was I think was developed in-house. Um, but use if you're talking about using panorama, >> I'm just trying to figure out how that how this issue compares to other survey platforms we've used. Is it unique to this or has that always been the case? >> No, I think it's uh I think it's it's a choice. So, usually they'll provide you with either the option to create just an open link not connected to people's identities. Um, or you can connect it to people's identities and so that it limits just one survey response. We would hope that our staff, families, students that they would see that we are being earnest and honest and transparent through this process

092and that they would have mutual respect for us when it comes to using the platform and that they would just respond one time and be fair with it. One thing to consider when you do research is if you get anyone to respond, it's a good thing because most of them don't. So, anything over 10% is astronomically successful in most cases. I can't imagine that. I'm sure some may have an agenda to do it over and over again, but that's a big time suck that I don't think most people would want to do. >> Our feedback from current employees were past survey instruments that were used tied to their email addresses they were not fans of. >> Yes, >> that's the that's the trade-off, right? Yeah. One just quick question. Is this an annual fee that

093we would pay to continue this? Okay. We've got one year going and then we'll see how it >> We did sign a two-year contract because we felt like getting involved at this point, especially with us wanting to having an impact on attendance, >> uh, vouchers, all the things, we needed to have a two-year look to see if it's viable and feasible for us. There's a price break by doing it that way. >> Other questions? Thank you, Mr. Dunen, for working on this. I appreciate that we are making some strides to try to get some good survey results and I would hope that our community would hear that and would um give you guys some good responses. Um all right, we're going to move then to item J2 which is consideration, discussion and possible approval of

094recommended amendments to the district of innovation plan. >> J2 is tied to J3. So we need to discuss J3 first. >> Okay. So let's talk about J3 which is consideration discuss discussion and possible action regarding changes to board policy FDA local. Are you going to take this? >> Oh it's wanted. >> Yeah, I'll jump in. >> Yeah. So I appreciate being able to pull this off of the consent agenda. Obviously the transition like this is always challenging, right? We get the agendas I think on Friday. start digging into all the links, understand what we might need to vote on, and this was kind of the big one that that popped up to me. So, I had a good call with Tim yesterday. I really appreciate Dr. Hark Rider taking time to answer some of my

095questions. I think that for me, I still have a number of questions about open enrollment that didn't feel clear. So, I love the innovation. I love the need to I think we have a huge need to be creative. We've talked about that. I think that cannot be overstated that we need to find new ways to create revenue. I think the uncertainty for me comes around just how little clarity we have about what this looks like. So we I understand we don't know how many students would be interested, but we're making a lot of assumptions about revenue without really any idea of how many students might come, which feels tricky. And even if it's successful, from what I've heard, several hundred students coming, we know there's going to be costs associated with those students. And the

096real revenue might be a half a percent of our annual budget. So it it for me I'm curious. We make money on it. Let's say we do make money which would be great. Um even though we don't know how many kids there might be and we don't know how much revenue we might make. All I've heard is this will make us more money. This will make us more money. And I think my my question is at what cost will it make us more money? And I haven't heard that direct line yet between with this money this is how we'll make the lives of students and teachers better. It's just been this is a revenue source and if it doesn't every parent I talked to I tried to reach out to a bunch of my colleagues

097and friends who had kids in the district and just said hey what do you think about this? this what I know about it. They had a pretty consistent feedback which was how does this make my kids experience better in CSISD? It was kind of their final the money is fine. It's great to have more money but at the end of the day if it if it represents such a small fraction I think it would be 50 or $60 per kid. How does that make life better in the district for my kid or for for teachers? And I I honestly couldn't answer that question. So that's I wanted to at least pause there and not just vote yes without having that conversation. >> Let me clarify one thing first. Number one, there's been no assumptions with

098any revenue. That's why we need the policy approved now. So we run the application window in December and January. Then we know how many kids would meet the criteria to be accepted. Then at that point in time, we could run revenue projections, staff implic implications, and have that information by the end of February. I'm not for sure what you're meaning only $50 to $60 per child. We would get the full basic aotment per child, not $50 or $60. You're talking close to $6,200. >> Sure. I'm saying spread across the whole district if you factor in how many kids we have in the entire district. >> I guess I'm just not following that. >> That's fine. >> Yeah. I mean, I I think you look from a standpoint of how does it benefit a person's child

099in the district. Now, if you looked at our presentation, we're running right now at a $2 million deficit budget, close to three.5 million. Without any new revenue, it's going to impact their education in a negative manner at some point in time. There there's no way around it. Sure, >> we're running multiple buildings, two for sure, at below 55% capacity. It's not efficient. We have space. We need revenue. That's the idea of the thought process and the plan. I mean, that's straightforward. You know, how it's going to affect us. I don't know. I mean, I don't know how many applications we're going to be. I would guess we would get two to 300. We may get a hundred. 50 may qualify. Taking 50 kids, it's 50 more than we're going to have come next year. And

100we may have several hundred. I don't know. I would anticipate year one probably a couple of hundred. I think once the process goes, those families come here and they're happy. I think in year two that number potentially would grow and continue to grow, but I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know. I know where we are right now with the state of public education in Texas. We're not going to get any help in the 27th session. Vouchers, anything they can take away from us right now, they're going to. And it's a chance, in my opinion, to be proactive and not reactive uh when things start crumbling. I think >> it feel it sounds to me like you're saying it feels like a swing worth taking even if we're not sure what the results may

101be. >> It's a no- lose situation if we get a 100 kids to bring into our school district when we've got room for them. And we're talking we didn't clarify this K6, >> right? >> K12. And I think to um used to be that we could all just educate the kids in our district and um the state and federal government were taking care of us um funding us in a good way and that's not the environment that we're in right now. And I think if we were not in the environment we're in right now, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Um but I do when I look at what was presented earlier in workshop um as a board member I'm looking at how do we do the best we can so that we can keep

102providing what we're providing right now. I'm not saying that 200 more students in our district is going to make um my kids experience at their high school better. But I'm saying it's going to help us as a district overall be able to keep providing those things that are provided for them. I mean, I can speak as a parent and say that I talk to people and we're we're dealing with the budget cuts that, you know, Miss Wilson has had to put in because it's we have to do it. Um, but we're at a place where we don't have a lot le more to cut um without taking away programs and stuff. So, I think of it more from the perspective of this is a way to keep providing what we are already providing. Um, so

103just just kind of my thoughts on that. We also don't have really any other options. Like you said, we've cut all we can. How else are we going to generate revenue? Dr. Hogarter, you've worked in other districts that have done this. So, this is not something that is just brand new. Correct. >> Correct. I went to work in a district that started it the year before I got there and then my office ran it for about six years and then we became a fast growth district and we stopped taking any new out of district transfers and those that were currently on an out of district transfer were were grandfathered in unless they had a younger sibling that that came into school and we accepted them as well >> 100%. >> Yes. part of the DOI

104plan which jumping ahead but part of the change on that is currently uh a transfer is for one year regardless we can amend our local policy where a transfer can be revoked at any point in time during a year for discipline or attendance issues >> and I also go ahead >> sorry so I I I completely understand the concept and you point on is there's no other way to truly generate revenue and I also understand if enrollment continues to decline, property values are not going to go down and and unfortunately I have been sitting up here when we had to send local money back to the state due to recapture. So I know that becomes a risk as well with enrollment. So I I think and Chris you can correct me if I'm wrong. Um

105what's difficult for Chris and I is just to take action on this and we haven't really been involved in previous conversations. So it it provides it's a challenge for us to just try to understand as best as possible uh how how this is going to be framed up. So I completely understand the financial implication implications. Um, I guess I think what would relieve um cuz I started getting calls like two days ago uh and and I tried to explain to people a bit having watched the workshop last month where y'all discussed this. I I'm not sure it was it discussed previously in detail or not. I wasn't aware of previously. So I try to articulate the things that I could gather from the workshop. Right? So um for me I think if I'm just sure

106of or or maybe it would help those that asked me the questions are generated just angst. Um so this will be K through six only which you said several times >> then advance up as they're with us. >> Right. So, and and that's something I I I want to follow up on just a minute. K through six. And you can use apply three different markers for determining the approval of the transfer, which would be attendance. And I think you said a marker of 95% uh in their prior district. >> Whatever. Yeah, we haven't come up with those metrics yet, but correct. We set a percent for attendance, discipline, and grades. >> Okay. So, that leads me to my question. So when are the metrics to determine the admissions of these students going to be developed?

107I think if if there were clarity on that then a lot of our staff would go okay well they're only going to consider these these indicators 95% I'm just picking numbers as example 95% attendance rate um 90 or above in all classes and no I think you referenced zero to two referrals and my assumption would be those were are of course are minor referrals significant. So I think if there are some some true it is going to be these things boom boom boom boom boom boom and these things will have will get it revoked so that people truly understand the framework of which we'd be considering these students. I wonder if that wouldn't take away some of or or help uh some that maybe haven't been involved in this conversation or even understand the financial

108piece of it. It may uh reassure them of the parameters being established around what you'll be considering if that makes sense. >> Yeah, we planned on bringing that to you guys in November. The revocation of a transfer cannot be for the grade piece. We can >> Right. It's a attendance or discipline those two. Correct. Yeah, and we could utilize uh we've had the internal conversations to see, you know, where we are. I know what we did in our other district. However, I think we could utilize thought exchange to get some feedback from multiple stakeholders to see their impact of what they think. You're going to have some that don't want us to take out of district transfers that they pay taxes here. And I I totally get that. Uh but we didn't vent the game

109currently that we're having to play right now. you know, the state has created a metric where they want competition in public schools and now private schools. So, it's a it's a free-for-all. And I think we've got to market our district unlike anytime we've ever have in the past, but we also have a lot of great metrics to market. And so, I think that's what makes us an attractive option for sure. >> Yeah, we can have those metric. Now, the the policy, just to give you guys the the timeline is imperative for us from a budgeting standpoint, we want our campus principles when they get back from spring break to have their allocations and know who they're going to hire when they get back from spring break. So, time is of the essence for us. Our

110plan was to open up the out of district transfer window for November and de oh no, I'm sorry, December and January. So, we can bring the metrics to the board uh of what those are for for approval. It would be just pretty much in local. It's actually I'd have to visit with our attorney. I don't know if we'd have to put that necessarily in a district policy. Probably could just be our administrative rerecks because those may change for us. But approving the policy for us moving forward is is is big for a timeline to make sure principles aren't waiting until April and May. >> Right. And and I think the parameters you use would be just an administrative function. I don't I don't know that you would capture that in the >> I wouldn't in

111case we needed to tweak it for some reason. >> Yeah. >> So, what are we actually voting on? What would we be voting to say yes to? That's >> Yeah, you're voting to Currently, our policy only allows out of district transfers for employees, kids only. >> Okay. >> So, what you're doing is allowing us to take out of district transfers if we decide as a board district that we're doing that. So, we're all we're doing is opening up the window that that could happen. That's the change on the policy. The DOI piece that deals with FDA local is just the rev the revoking of a transfer during the school year versus it's just one year regardless of what you do. >> So, go ahead. >> I've talked a lot already. Go ahead. Well, I I

112think just I think the order of operation has thrown me off a little bit here and I'm obviously trying to figure out how things function, but it feels a little backwards to me that we'll vote to approve something, then we'll be told what the parameters are, then we'll ask staff how they feel about the par. Like, it feels it would be I feel like it would be helpful if we knew what the parameter is. It's immaterial tonight probably, but for the it feels like it would be helpful to know what the parameter what we're actually saying yes to and how the key stakeholders who will have to execute the plan feel about it so that I could take that into consideration because I feel like I'm sort of flying blindly which will generally >> changing

113the policy only makes it able that we can do this doesn't say win doesn't say if it's it's open that we can't take it >> but but it is open for interpretation as far as the parameters you use for for accepting. So correct. I'm kind of with Chris if if this was packaged together. So we had those details. Um >> yeah, that would >> but I think the advantage if if you saw the last couple of meetings, I don't know if you watched online, but it was talked about at length, but um the advantage is trying to innovate because we don't know how many we'll get and then we can decide the parameters based on those who apply. So if we want to adjust to decide who we let who gets to play the game

114or not, we get to set the rules. So once you have the applications then you can decide okay based on what the applicants were looking at who we want to bring who we want to allow to come in then we set the parameters based on who we think would benefit us. >> So I I understand what you guys are saying u but I think what we're looking at is we want to be able to give them the opportunity and then we can set the parameters say all right we want to set the bar here everybody above the bar gets to come in everybody below the bar doesn't get to come in. Don't tell me what the bar is, >> right? We don't know, right? Kind of kind of what they're saying. We haven't said it

115yet because we don't know what the application applicants look like. >> But but if you get a hundred of these and 75 of them have a 70 or below in another district and they're coming here, you're going to adjust the metrics so you can get as many kids as possible. That's that's not the way that's not how this should be driven. >> Well, and I I don't I don't think that's how it will be driven. Um, I do think right now, um, to answer your question, um, we have to change the policy to allow the district to even move forward with with setting some of this stuff and doing some of because right now the policy says they can't. So, the order of operations is for us as a board to change that policy and

116let them have permission to do that. Um, doesn't mean you can't later have some discussion about it. Um, it it's going to be it's going to be up to Dr. Dr. Hark Rider and his team to make sure that they're setting parameters in a way that makes sense for our district and and isn't it isn't about a number. It isn't about, hey, we just want to take the top 50 kids or whatever. Um it's about making sure that those are the kids that are going to do well in the environment that we are going to put them in. Um so a little bit to answer your question is um we have to give them permission to be able to move forward with with all of that. >> Sure. And once that permission is given though

117just unclear we won't it won't be a vote then if we accept the parameters it's then out of our hands and whatever happens whatever's executed is executed and we'll just live with the results. Is that right? >> Well technically on administrative regulations doesn't require a board that's what however we would bring it to the board in a workshop to get consensus and prior to that everybody's good moving forward with what the parameters are. >> Okay. I mean, I can tell you just off the top of my head, gradewise would be 85 up with nothing below an 85. Attendance would be at least 90 and above and three or less referrals with no major infractions. >> I mean, that's just spitballing, right? And that metric in my mind would not be moved. >> Yeah. regardless of

118the number. >> And I think that's why some of us that have been on the board and been a part of that discussion last month. Um maybe are a little more comfortable because we've heard some of those things and and have just a different comfort level with it. Um >> but just to be clear too, we don't have a number in mind of transfers that we want to take, >> right? >> We're not going to just take kids to take kids. We and we have been discussing this longer than a month. It it's come up several times. The idea has been out there. Um, yeah. I just I feel like like we have to allow this step so that the process can go. And at no point are we married to anything. I don't feel

119like like you said, we're not going to just take kids to take kids to just fill our coffers. I that's not how we operate in this district. This administration has never operated that way. So I I think we have to let them do their jobs here. >> I motion to approve as presented. >> Second. And I I did want to go ahead and you say >> you can have a discussion. Yes, >> we have a motion in a sec. I I just want to add I mean I said some of this in the workshop. I mean I think this is something in my opinion we should give a give a try. Give it a try, right? Because um we're in it is a tough situation for us and the state right now for public schools.

120Um and it is an opportunity to draw some kids to our district and I think we will we will draw some. I am also um you know want us to be careful not only about setting these parameters which I firmly believe need to be set up front because I mean we need to know and agree we being you and your administration agree what are those parameters that need to be set and because it's not about hitting the number it's about getting the right kids here. Um, but I and I've said before too, I would rather um bring in and if we had hundreds and hundreds of these applications, I'd still probably rather limit how many came in because I think there are a lot of unknowns about what it will look like in our district.

121Um, what you know, students, some of them will bring in more than the basic aotment, right? because they they have their weighted funding and it's hard to know what that'll what that'll look like and how how are we able to get all the teachers in time to support new students but I think it's worth um I think it's worth experimenting with or try trying because I really think it's an opportunity and I I would add one more thing after hearing the presentation about thought exchange I would expect in a year from now we can be using thought exchange to be cap capturing some of that feedback on on what folks in our district think on how it's going. So that's what I would hope to see. >> So I have a motion by Dr. Payne

122and a second by Miss Simmon. Um all in favor say I. >> All in all in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. >> Okay. That motion passes five to two. I'll send an email to everyone uh when we get back from Thanksgiving break for you to send me what you feel like the parameters should be and then I'll gather that information and share it with you guys and then we will get together as a team and bring the parameters to the board in a workshop uh in December. >> Okay, that's going to bring us back to item J2 which is consideration, discussion, and possible approval of recommended amendments to the district of innovation plan. just a process question because this policyy's passed. I absolutely believe that there needs to be an amendment that allows

123administration to revoke if necessary less than a year. So I absolutely agree with the recommended adjustment to the plan. The process question I have is and it may be here in the attached documents. I couldn't find it. My understanding to make an amendment to your DOI plan requires majority vote by DEIC prior to the board considering I I could be mistaken or an advisory committee. DOI committee >> DOI it correct >> and that's a comparable >> that's my cabinet >> but commissioner's rule says a comparable committee and and your cabinet is not comparable to the IC >> our attorney said that would work when we contacted her >> so we just run it through the cabinet as opposed to making sure parents and teachers ers and those that typically serve on DEIC or a district

124level committee uh are able to to be knowledgeable of and take action on it. >> Well, it's the board's job to accept the changes in the DOI amendments and so our job is to take the the considerations to the board for approval and these were approvals and conversations that we've had months ago. So, it hasn't they've taken place in board workshops multiple times and so the cabinet ran through the DOI amendments. Okay. Well, I I don't I don't So, a council told you that was acceptable because that's really not what articulated on through the agency. >> I'm just telling you what council told me. I'm I'm just telling you what's articulated on the agency. >> Okay. >> So, we as a board have to choose to move on this or not. Do I have a

125a motion? >> Motion to approve is presented. >> Second. Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Miss Simmon. All >> I do have come I'm going to to vote against it. Not because I don't think they should be able to revoke, but I don't think that procedure was managed appropriately for the amen amendment and I fear that if we're challenged in on this and an appeals process and it goes to the agency will lose. So I just want to make record of why I'm voting against it. >> All in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. I I'm abstaining because this is way above my current board of trustee pay grade. So, >> all right, that motion passes then 51 and that is going to bring us to item K1

126which is consideration, discussion and possible action regarding the annual financial and compliance report for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. Miss Wilson. >> Good morning, Miss H. Good afternoon, Miss Eie. Uh Dr. Hark Rider, board of trustees. Tonight I have uh Rebecca Darling. She is with Weaver and they prepare they prepare our annual financial statement. The little thing different about this year, it's based on a 10-month statement, but she's going to present it and thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. As she said, my name is Rebecca Darling. I am with Weaver, um which is the district's external auditor. So, I'm here to present the um basically the audit results for the fiscal year ending um June 30th, 2025. So, I think you all have the um this is really the the product, if

127you will, of the audit. It's a large annual financial report. It's over 100 pages. I will not go over all pages. I have a very summarized just focusing on the audit results itself and just a couple of budget highlights. Oops. Let's see. Did I press? Let's see. >> Sorry. >> Is it that? >> Okay. >> I do know how to operate this. Okay. Um, so for those of you that had the large document, I've pointed out some page numbers, but basically if you take nothing else away from this short presentation, um, the district did get an unmodified opinion or that is basically a clean opinion. That's the highest level of insurance you can get on the financial statements. Um so that opinion is actually in the um on page three of the annual financial report.

128Um because the entity the district is does receive federal and state funding. There is also a government auditing standards um opinion as well which means we just have to go a little bit deeper. Um we look at compliance and controls and things like that. So there's another opinion in the back as well um that is a clean opinion as well. There's also a third opinion in the annual financial reports. It's um on page 101. It's actually the opinion that is over your federal state grant dollars. Um that's actually in draft form right now because of the the nice government shutdown. Um the government has the federal government has not issued their final what we call uniform guidance which is what we have to have as our kind of our audit guide um to issue audit

129opinions um for federal funding. And so we've done that work. We don't expect the um the opinion to change in any way um because the district gets a lot of the same funding, child nutrition, title one, things like that. Um the work is done. We just have to technically wait on issuing that opinion in final form until we get that federal guidance. So hopefully within the next 60 to 90 days. Um but the program that the major program that we tested this year for the federal federal funding was the child nutrition cluster. Um which basically has your school lunch and breakfast programs. Um so for those that type of audit, we do compliance and controls. We look at specifically um what the federal government gives the district in terms of guidelines of how those um

130how those monies have to be spent. And so that's a different kind of audit, but it is part of the annual financial audit. Um and in the back there's a schedule of findings and question costs. Um and right now there are no findings um in that. So that's where you want to be. Just some required communications. I know this is small in regards to the audit itself. Um, our responsibility in relation to the financial statement audit is to form and express an opinion on the financial statements. Like I said, we did get an unmodified opinion. We cannot look at every single transaction for the for the 10-month period that we audited. Trust me, finance does not want us to do that. So, we do base it on materiality and risk assessment. Um, we are required

131to be independent of the district. So, we go through that process every year. uh just making sure that myself and my team don't have any um relationships with the board members or anything that might um in factor appearance give us the um appearance that we're not independent of the district um significant risks identified during the planning phase of the audit. It is required that we do a risk assessment. So um these are not red flags by any means. It's just part of our due diligence. Um some of the things that we look at are what we call management override of controls. So even if a district has really good policies and procedures in place in terms of um approval of expenditures and segregation of duties, there's always going to be individuals in finance that can

132go in and change numbers and make journal entries. So we always look at those um processes, those journal entries made at year end and month end and just make sure that the people that are going in and and booking those numbers manually and making those changes are authorized to do do so that there's uh proper approvals for those. We also look at revenue recognition. So, we want to make sure that the tax dollars, we vouch those um and we confirm those. We look a lot at the state funding dollars and make sure that particularly like the the um the state funding um is finalized per the TEA standards. We make sure that those numbers um have been tred up, that any payables or receivables are booked. Um and of course, we look at a lot

133of the the grant dollars as well. So, the the federal and the state grant dollars. Um and then we look at, you know, the expenditures going out the door. where we take samples and we look at um just to make sure that there was proper approvals and authorization of expenditures in the different departments and things like that. Um so basically we didn't have any material misstatements or internal control findings in any of those areas and that's just kind of a a little preview of some of the areas that we look at. Um in terms of the qualitative aspects of the significant accounting policies um there was a new what we call government accounting standards um issued this year. was uh regarding compensated absences. So it does um require entities to um look at their compensated

134absences. So their acred vacation and sick leave for their employees and book liabilities for that. Um so that did add a liability to the financial statements this year or upped the liability. Um that's on the governmentwide statements as uh only. So that liability doesn't it's not something that the district budgets for. Um it's on the governmentwide statements that has like the the long-term assets and the long-term liabilities. Um under that um qualitative aspects of accounting policies, we do talk about estimates as well. So there's always going to be estimates on the financial statements. Um I I noted before we do look at the foundation school program revenue because we want to make sure that um that revenue that's booked for the year is the final number that was agreed upon. And so any receivables or

135payables based on what's been received um at year end is booked. Um we do look at also at the what we call the incurred but not reported acrruel for workers compensation. So um when the district um has that that program, there's always going to be um claims out there that have have incurred but not necessarily reported. So um that number actually comes from a third party actuary. So there's not a lot of management judgment involved in that. And similarly um at a governmentwide level the district's required to um report their their portion of the net pension and oped um liabilities which is um so those actually also come from actuarial valuations. So while those are large numbers and they do fluctuate from year to year um they come from third party reports. So there's not

136a lot of management judgment in involved in those either. And then just mentioning the compensated compensated absences liability that was added this year. Um there is some judgment involved in that because you have to estimate based on historical um knowledge how much sick sick leave and vacation time people are going to take. Um the disclosures uh really the footnotes and the financial statements are very similar to last year and what um the district is used to seeing. So nothing really new noted there. In terms of this slide, you see a lot of none noted. That's really where you want to be. Um we didn't have any significant difficulties encountered during the audit. Um, in terms of uncorrected and corrected misstatements, that's really a big one. I was telling the um, audit committee earlier today, it's

137really nice when you can go in uh, and do the audit and not have to make a lot of adjustments. So, we came in and management had had booked the approvals that they needed to, you know, we didn't have to come in and say, "Hey, you need to correct this or this is materially misstated. You need to book this." So, when we're not doing that, it does make the audit go a lot quicker. We can audit the numbers and get in and out. um not that it's a quick process is it's a lengthy audit process but um there were no material adjustments that we had to make to for the numbers that you see. So that's really important to know. Um notice agreements with management. We do ask management to sign what's called a management

138representation letter. It's just them taking responsibility for the numbers that they've provided us that they've pro provided us with um true and factual documents that they haven't withheld information that type of thing. Um no other management consultations with other accountants, no other significant issues. Um there is other information just we call it other information because it's optional but the schedule of required responses to selected school first indicators which is one of the um schedules that TA requires that is actually um included in the annual financial report as well. Um so we do look at those answers and make sure we agree with those as well. And then here are just a couple of just financial highlights. Um as Heather said, one of the things different this year is because the district changed the fiscal year

139end from 8:31 to 6:30. Um this audit actually just covers a 10-month period. So from September through June 30th. So it's a little um it's a little different and you know less you know 10 months versus 12 months of activity. So here's just a highlight of the general fund. Again, it's on page 24 of your annual financial report, but you can see your state dollars, your state program revenues, and your federal dollars, and then your expenditures. Um, of course, most of that going to instructional and instructional related services, which are your your classroom teachers. Um, so you have the excess of revenues over expenditures there. And then you have some other financial sources and uses, um, refunds to taxpayers, um, leases. um there's some extraordinary gain and losses just having to do with some insurance

140um payments and recoveries. And so then you can see this the change in fund balance for your general fund for the 10-month period was a positive four 14.2 million. So just some general fund um highlights. There is a it is required to present the general fund um original budget amended budget and um budget to actual. So that is in the back of the report as well. I think it's on page 68 or so. Um, but some of the key things, you know, just to point out, general fund, the unassigned balance, so it's the the balance of the general fund that's not committed or assigned to anything else. The unassigned fund balance represented about 40% of total general fund expenditures this year. Um there was an increase of about 14.3 million in fund balance during the

141period which is primarily the ro result of the change in fiscal year end because um really there was a there wasn't wasn't as much operating expenditures in a 10-month versus a 12-month whereas the revenue was pretty flat but you have you know 10-month versus 12 month of expenditures. So, um it does um you know look good and it and it is was a $14.3 million increase in the general fund this year based on that time period audited. Um variations between the original budget and final final amended budget. Um there was a decrease in um local and intermediate revenues of 3.1 million and an increase in state aid of 2 million. Again, looking at the original versus final budget and then the budget appropriations or expenditures were decreased by 11 about 11.6 six because that original

142budget um was looking at a 12-month period and then it was adjusted to a 10-month period. And then there's approximately an 11.3 million variance between the amended budget and actual expenditures. And that really results comes back to the fact that there's only 10 months of expenditures this year. So the the the budget to actuals this year are a little wonky, if you will, because you're looking at a 10-month period. So next year you'll be back on that 12-month period. Um but just some just some highlights there. Um just real quick, some of the other what we call major um funds that are required to be presented are your debt service fund and your capital projects fund. So that's on these are on page um 24 of the annual financial report, the debt service fund. You

143can see the local um really the tax dollars there. You have 10 months of debt service. Um and then you can see the refunding of the bonds um under other financial sources and uses. Um so this this fund had a net in change of about 33 million positive. And then the capital projects fund um you can see as well the main the main um what stands out there is you have about 40 million of capital outlay and then you have the issuance of the bonds this year um to increase that fund balance um about 112 million. Okay. So that's my required presentation. I'm happy to to answer any questions. Um before I do forget, I do want to thank the really the finance team and um Chris and Heather and their team. We do we

144come in in the summer and then um before the numbers are closed and we do a lot of samples and questions and then we come back and um for another couple weeks period and we do ask them to pull a lot of information and ask a lot of questions. It's on top of their regular job. So, we always appreciate um having a warm welcome and and everybody getting us the information timely. So, really appreciate that. >> There any questions? I move to approve the annual financial and compliance report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion by Miss Simmon and a second by Mr. Martenddale. All in favor say, do we have a discussion? >> Yep. Just a thank you. I just think I usually I'm

145used to the motion second and any any further come obviously a lot of work from our team to do all this so it's all and it's always great to have that unmon modified clean report so thanks to our our team >> no worries all in favor say I >> I any opposed >> that motion passes seven to zero >> and I do want to make a shout out real quick because Chris Neely and his team do a lot of work on this and they do an amazing job and one thing that she did mention was uh a single audit. And when you have a single audit, it's a deep dive into a program. And uh Bridget Goodlet, she had a single audit this year with our audit and she also got TDA audit. And so

146big shout out to them. Yeah. Because that's a lot of work. All right. Next up is item K2, which is to consider nomination of representatives to the Brazis Central Appraisal District Board through resolution to begin January 1st, 2026. Sure. Back in the legislation session of the 88th legislative session, Senate Bill 2 or the spe second special sess session, sorry. uh they changed how we could do that. And so what we do now is we do one board meeting where we nominate it up to two members for the appraisal board. And then what they'll do is they'll all lot us so many votes. And then what we'll come back to in December is after everybody's nominated from all the taxing entities, we'll take our votes and then we can cast them on the the nominees that

147we would choose. So we're looking for nominees for the appraisal board if anybody has any. I'd like to nominate Brian McGuire. >> Okay. Brian McGuire. So, we'll say that um to board members that this is a big time commitment. So, I don't we're open to hear any nominations that you have keeping in mind that hopefully you've spoken to these people about the fact that you're going to nominate them. >> Awesome. So, if there's no other discussion, it's the recommendation that the board of trustees of College Station ISD approve the resolution to nominate Brian McGuire for a director position to run for the appraisal board. >> Motion to approve is presented. >> Second. Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Miss Wilson. Is there any further discussion? >> Okay. All in

148favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion is going to pass seven to zero. Right, and that's going to move us to item L1, which is consider approval of the construction project delivery method for districtwide mechanical, electrical, plumbing projects, Mr. Buckner. >> Okay, I hope to be quick. The last agenda item um like I mentioned in board workshop uh construction delivery methods approved by local policy are um competitive sill proposal and uh job order contracting. This one being a MEP with mechanical electrical and plumbing. It is a little more difficult especially on the consultant side to design this project and get fair bids without uh inflated prices from contractors because there's a lot of unknowns once you get in a wall and once you get above ceiling that where duct work goes where chilled

149water lines go electrical lines the whole bit. So I have uh done design build a couple of times. It works very well for um MEP type projects where you have those unknowns. One of the benefits or a couple of the benefits of design build is one of them is the designer also serves as a general contractor. So there are no fingers uh pointing at another entity as the plans are wrong. So now there's a change order or anything else. There are no change orders in this because they point back to themselves because they did the plans wrong. Um which kind of goes into both. the services and there's no change orders with it. So, um this project would consist of finishing out the district with LED lighting which is more energy efficient to help lower

150some of our energy costs. Um this will also one of the big factors of this which all kind of started it was adding many splits uh HVAC units into our MDF and IDF rooms to uh keep those at a constant temperature for our servers versus having to run a portion of the building to operate in those MDF IDF rooms so we don't have to um incur as many costs there. As well as aged out HVAC systems. We have air handlers in buildings that are um some of them are 30 plus years old and it's time for replacement. Um so we're looking at those in that 20 25 year and older range of where that would be. But of course this pro this project that would go through a process to select a uh contractor designer.

151It is a two-step process. So it is kind of lengthy of an RFQ as well as an RFP on their pricing. But then we would get into the design phase and make tweaks from there of what this project would consist of. Um in the past this project has worked for me as always being after hours holiday work. So when everybody is leaving the building they are entering the building and when they are entering the building the contractors are leaving and the goal is for them not to even the principles to not even know that the contractor was there overnight. So, um, this would allow us to start getting the process rolling with getting a proposal set up and put out for, um, for RFQ and for bid. And it would be utilizing 2021 and 23

152B and 2023 bond funds for this project. >> Do we have any questions for Mr. Buckner? I guess the only one is that I um was a little surprised to see that there was still some 2020 something would come from a 2021 bond. Um >> are we I thought the last time we had said that was the last thing coming off of that um >> there was some money allocated for like LED lighting then that would deplete it all. Correct. >> Okay. >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Mr. Martinddale. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? All right, that motion is going to pass seven to zero. Thank you. >> And that's going to move us

153to item M1. The board will meet in executive session to discuss qualifications of new executive board nominees. The executive session deliberations will be held pursuant to the personnel matters closed meeting exception to the Texas Open Meetings Act as set forth in section 551.074 of the Texas government code. Um we will go into executive session and we will return when we are done. All right. Okay. The time is 9:56. We're coming back to open session. Um, do I have a motion for president and vice president? >> I make a motion that Kim Eyee be president and Heather Simmon be vice president. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. Martindell, a second by Dr. Payne. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion passes 70. Um, for

154the position of secretary, we have two nominations. Uh, one is Miss Wilson, the other is Miss McAdams. So, I'm going to ask for um by a show of hands um who would like to vote for Miss Wilson. Okay. Who would like to vote for Miss McAdams? Okay. So, Miss Wilson has the votes for three. May I have a motion? a motion that um Heather Heather Wilson be nominated as secretary. Kristen Wilson. Why do we all night we've been doing that? Kristen Wilson be nominated as secretary. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Miss Simmon. Um all in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? Okay, I'm gonna just for procedurally here, I'm going to make sure that I saw everybody clearly. All in favor, please raise your

155hand and say I. >> All opposed. >> Okay, that motion passes 52. Thank you guys. And uh that's going to move us to adjurnn.