001That's >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Sit down. Let's go. >> All right. Call to order our workshop Tuesday, November 18th, 5:00, declaration of morum. Seven present. Welcome everybody. Thank you'all for being here. Uh item C, hearing of citizens. We have none for this workshop. Item D1, review November 4th, 2025 election results related timelines. Mr. Dunen. >> Yes, sir. On November 4th, 2025, general election was held by the College Station by College Station ISD for the purpose of electing place three, place four, and place five for College Station Independent School District Board of Trustees. The election results were canvased on November 12th, 2025 as follows. for place for school board of trustees place three Chris Field 6,826 votes Grant Madson 1,689 votes Chrisfield was elected to the board of trustees place three with 80.16% of the
002votes for board of trustees place four Mike Martinddale 4969 votes Jeff Hak 374 votes Mike Martenddale was elected to the board of trustees Place four with 59 57.29% of the votes for school board uh place five. Kimberly McAdams 5,870 votes. Oliver had not 2,828 votes. Kimberly McAdams was elected to the board of trustees place 5 with 67.49% of the votes. This evening we will administer the oath of office to the elected trustees and recognize our outgoing board members. And that meeting is at 7 p.m. Thank you. >> Item two, consider approval of the construction project delivery method for the construction of the CSISD central office. Mr. Buckner. Okay. So, as part of the uh 2023 bond that was approved uh by the voters was a central office building. Originally, it kind of started off as
003uh finding an existing building and renovating it for the central office. Due to the lack of buildings of that size, we had two buildings that came into that were possibilities. Um one of those was kind of eliminated pretty quick. it was almost going to be like a pretty much a full scrape and rebuild. Then the second one has its struggles. It was a tilt wall construction, so it gave lots of um obstacles. One of those is it was it had lots of volume, but not necessarily great square footage. It needed a lot of renovations. And then with it being tilt wall, there was very um small chances of adding on to it for any type of future growth. And that site had flood planes all around it. So, one of the uh determining factors was
004we kind of pivoted um to use land that we already currently owned and build our a new central office that would meet the needs of the district that we have now and also allow for future growth of whatever that may be. As you can see on the the slide, it is a uh the area off of Sylvester Road. It's kind of behind the um the car dealerships right there on on Highway six. But it's kind of like a very rough site plan of where we could locate this building and also allow for future growth out there. But according to um board policy local for um construction methods and procurement, it allows for competitive sill proposal and job order contracting for this project. It is it's two parts. One is the construction of this and also
005is the um renovation to the front portion of this existing administration building to locate to relocate some uh departments within the district over here. But that is to go uh construction manager at risk Seymour. That gives us the best option especially with budgets and the unknown of what's going on in the world especially now with um tariffs going on across and everything else. as we designed this project, we can go back with our our construction manager who would serve as a general contractor. And what they would do is constantly give us updated budgets to know where we are on that process and if we need to start making cuts ahead of time so that we get this within budget and make this a successful project. But so we're asking for that to go to construction
006manager at risk for the um building of the new central office. Can you share a little bit more about um will remind me how much was in the budget for this and or and then also like the timeline that this would >> So for this project we have a estimated construction budget of 25.4 million. Um, our tenative timeline right now is is if we are to get this approved tonight to go construction manager at risk, we would try to release this on Thursday for um to get a construction manager on board. That would come back in the January board meeting for approval of the construction manager. And we would hope to break ground on this in late summer of 26, end of July, beginning of August, right as the bulk of our other projects are
007coming to an end, right at that same time. So, as we're finishing up those, we would just dive straight into this one and keep going with projects. And this one would have about a total with this one and the renovation here about an 18month um construction process. It it's my understanding this is more than just a central office. Like there's going to be a lot of meeting spaces in here, a lot of large spaces that even like teams could hold their banquetss in and schools could be using for functions. Is that correct? >> Yes. Yes. It would have a lot of um conference spaces with dedicated conference rooms. It would have a dedicated boardroom. Of course, that boardroom would be multi-use to where it wouldn't just be board only. It would have um other uses
008that we could utilize in there, but it would have a a big open area for uh collaboration with employees to kind of hang out um have lunch. But um each kind of portion of it would be department specific as well with their own dedicated conference rooms, but it would give a lot of meeting space that the district actually desperately needs because there is a very lack of that space within the district, especially in our current You have one real large conference room for a couple hundred people. >> Uh two that would be similar to this size and then the boardroom that the only thing built in of the boardroom would be the dice. The seating would be flexible seating. So you could have trainings tables and things in there as well. >> I don't know
009Dr. Ryder, do you want to explain any more um about some of the trickle down movement or domino effect, I guess, of using if we move things out of this building, what th what would this be used for? >> Yeah. So, uh we would finish construction December of 27 or January of 28. So, central office would make that move to the new building. uh Head Start, uh Kids Club and Child Nutrition would stay housed here. They would relocate and so I believe kids club would utilize the facility back here in the back where our offices are. Uh at Start would be where special services is. They would have this shared room for all the functions that they do and all the meetings that they have. There would only be two folks handling this. Child nutrition
010would stay up where they are. The entire front area would be renovated starting in January of 28 would be completed August of 28 in time to move DAP from College View over here to this front center. So you'd have a secure festival, you would have secondary classrooms, a couple elementary classrooms, restroom renovations, and so that whole front end would be renovated in about eight months in time for the beginning of the 2829 school year. that would give us a lot more opportunities at college by pulling DAP outright to maybe expand some of the programs there or >> opens up a lot of space and it gives us about a year and a half to start planning potentially of what we would utilize those spaces for actually a couple years in the 2829 school year. And
011I'll just add too, I mean, I think I mean, I'll say it's kind of I think it would be beneficial for College View in other ways as well that it's still I think it's been a perception issue for this for the campus that it's had both the all the great things that are going on at College View, but also the DAP is there is there. So, being able to pull that off, I I believe would be a probably a a positive. I think there's definitely a stigma there that sticks with some folks that I think uh removing it, putting it here and adding some additional programming over there would be beneficial. Yes, ma'am. >> Well, and if we're talking about benefits, I think it's great to remember that in 23 we had this really comprehensive
012bond package where we were trying to take care of, you know, a wide variety of needs in our district. And this is kind of that last piece that was part of that bond. Um, and you know, one of the things that was talked about back then was just the need for space for employees that are in this building and and how they're working really crammed together and and not ideal situations. And so, it's a benefit to be able to take care of the many employees that um work in this building, too. >> We've seen a draft floor plan of uh the new building as well as upfront of what would take place at this building. That's something uh we took our first glimpse making a couple changes to that that we'd bring back to the
013board here in the next month or so. Um and also the the new building would be built if the district ever needed to expand that particular facility. You'd have the ability to expand on that site if you needed to. Just looking at this particular site, you see uh Sylvester Road. You'll see a roadway that's going right through the middle there. That is a thorough affair that the city has had planned there for years that we're kind we're in discussions with them. We feel like the infrastructure that's in place now that thoroughfare really doesn't fit the bill anymore especially with the work that's going to be taking place on six. So we're having some discussions with them. We want them to reconsider that thoroughare plan that was approved I believe back in 2007 and that obviously
014it's 18 years ago. A lot of things have changed. So, we're hoping that that roadway we would have to expense that that would not have to be put in. It would not be immediate. This one, >> you're talking that Yeah, that low curve thing. >> This one right here. Yes, it is in the thoroughfare plan. It is supposed to connect down. It's not on the map, but down over here as it gets closer to Rock Prairie. The original intention was to take people if they're over in this general area, they could take this road back to Rock Prairie instead of having to go north on Highway six U-turn, but instead how they have it now in their thoroughfare plan, it really just takes you north of Rock Prairie. So, it dumps you back on the
015service road and still takes you north on Highway 6 to make the U-turn. So there's really no reason so much for it anymore, especially with the development they've had over there. So that's what we're um in con in consultation with them of what it's going to take and what that process is going to be to have that thoroughare plan updated to remove this from going through this portion of the land because it also requires this portion right here which is another owner for whenever that gets developed to complete it. So it really is a kind of a road to nowhere until that gets developed as well. Whereas these car dealerships right here, this road already kind of exists and suffices for what they are wanting. So >> I'm I actually didn't know that that was
016a planned thoroughfare. I still can't figure out where where would it go from that curve >> on the plan. Where was it supposed to go to? >> It's uh I believe it's near that church >> that's right there past right past Mallistister's. So basically it takes you back >> south to six to go back north or you could just go Sebastia Road >> to get on six. So it really doesn't serve a purpose. I think probably back in ' 07 >> with less infrastructure. Okay. But now with the infrastructure changing and six changing, you're just taking people further south to come back right where they were to begin with. So there's a whole process that we're starting now to go through. Ultimately, I believe the decision uh resides with the city council once you go
017through the different steps. And so, we'll be having discussions with them and working through. >> I will say one good thing is I could probably walk to this. I live over here so I go on that road all the time. Um and it is there is a lot of traffic on that access road right now. So, getting on and off of that access road is not ideal. So when like when you're having I mean it is a good location because it's off of six and it's you know it's pretty central. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying turning that access road is so busy now and maybe with all the con the you know expansion and changes on six >> changes with six would help that would be better >> and that's why
018this is a good site for a central office versus a campus where school kids with >> parents buses everything else trying to navigate that access road where >> with um central office employees it gives a little bit of a different um different clientele that's using that those roadways right there versus the students. >> It also gives you the ability to develop future uh district projects on this particular site. And then you've also got uh you have parking spaces that you could share for nightly events. I know uh fine arts uh center was on [clears throat] the agenda for discussion for the 23 bond didn't quite make the final cut. I think the the flip side of that just I'm not saying this is something we're going to talk about anytime soon, but I believe that
019facility had a lot of office spaces in there as well with the central office there. That project can be condensed down because you wouldn't need the office spaces because you would have a new central office. So, it would be really more of a fine arts center and be very specific to that or whatever future projects you've got multiple acres there to develop site >> and we can't put a school on this. It's not big enough for school ideally. Correct. I mean, size-wise, you could put an elementary school, but the access and everything else is very difficult, especially with how it is shaped right there and everything and getting parents in and not having a situation like we have had at Rock Prairie prior to this renovation project of you would have parents probably lined up
020down Sebasta and onto the feeder road, which >> not ideal at all. It's not ideal. I wouldn't think this would be an ideal location for a elementary at this time or in the near future. >> Do you know what's going in on the space that the owner has? >> No, >> we don't have >> It's uh they've we've looked it up and they've told us in some of the meetings the owners, but I don't remember the family name who owns it or what their if their plans are to sell it or keep it or what. Don't know. Well, that back corner used to be where the Amazon site was. So, I don't know what's going to >> which back corner. >> Um, >> the one right beside the 8.667 acres. >> Yes, I think so.
021Yes. >> Okay. I wasn't familiar with what was there. >> Right. Right. I know a church is in that upper left corner. [sighs] Yeah. But this is just for the procurement method. It's for us to go construction manager at risk versus competitive sill proposal. And it just gives a b competitive sill proposal has its benefits, new construction renovations with kind of how really since 2020 when um COVID happened and then storm yuri construction manager risk is really a more beneficial procurement method for these types. So you know where you you are going into budget. I know I had a project in the past and if we would have I was told after we bid it out if we would have waited two months it would have been two million over budget. So it's versus 100
022grand under budget. So it's a quick kind of process in some of this and with competitive SL proposal you get updates from your architect but it's nice having that contractor right beside you through the whole entire process to give you real world numbers and that they're talking to their subs. they're getting numbers to know exactly where we stand instead of, hey, we're seeing this on other projects here and there and then you get to bid day and it's way out of budget, then you've got to really pivot on what you want to do. That's where that's why I think Seymour is a um a better method for for this project right now. >> So, I'd like to make a motion that we go with the construction manager at risk procure procurement method for this project.
023A second. >> One quick question that's not necessarily related to the motion, but this would still leave the district with how many tracks of land that uh >> I know of one other >> we've got the 100 offakes >> and then we have the 90 which has the CTE off South D. >> Yeah, just those two. Okay. >> Yeah. So large enough that if we do need to at some point add another campus any of them will be available. So okay just check. >> Motion by Miss Simmons, second by Miss Eyee. Remember we need to raise our hands. That's the new law. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed. Motion carries 70. Thank you Mr. Bugner. Uh brings item 3 2627 budget workshop. Good evening, Mr. Horic, Dr. Hark Ryder. Thank
024you guys for taking the time to start the budget process. And so, this is really just one of the first workshops that we're going to kind of go through, but we're going to hit on a few things tonight. We're going to start with historical financial information. We're going to look at the current budget, and then we're kind of going to look at a bunch of numbers. if you hadn't guessed that already. And then uh we're going to look at the next steps. But we really want to take this time to kind of start the conversation with you guys to figure out what the board priorities will be for the 2627 fiscal year. Uh when we finish the presentation, there'll be a uh thought exchange here. It's not just for our board members, but we would
025like to hear from our community. anybody in the crowd watching online that QR co is available uh for your feedback and we would love to hear from you. So just looking at historical information I think it's important to pull this into a 12 month analysis. So when you see the financial tonight you're going to see it on a 10-month close and so when you if we kind of roll the numbers forward and these are the numbers that have to go to TEA. So, this is what went to TEA or will be going to TEA and we did have an increase of $2.5 million that was added to the fund balance with a 10month close, which is really exciting. So, when you look at that and you've really got a the lowest you want to be
026on your fund balance for per operating cost is a threemonth and that got us a little bit above that. And so, I think that's as low as we want to go. We don't want to go any further than that. uh when you look at a 10-month close, we're going to add $14 million to the fund balance. Okay? And that's going to be the total fund balance. But I want you all to keep that in mind. That is not real dollars in a sense of cash in the bank. So just I mean it looks good, but we've got to keep that in mind. But the positive is we did add to the fund balance this year. So that's going to that's that's a big positive. You can kind of look at what the trends are doing.
027For example, the revenue we collected in 2324 versus the revenue we collected in 2425 is pretty eyeopening. We collected $4 million less revenue over those two years on a 12-month basis. Uh that's because of loss in enrollment. That's because of loss of char funding. There's a lot of things that play into into factor there. Even if you look at the interest earnings, we're seeing a decrease there. When you look at our next in our current budget, you're going to see where we're a little off on that as well on our interest earnings. So, we have to kind of monitor that. You can look at payroll cost and you can look at across the board. We were up in payroll cost, but our our district did a great job of looking at those other expenditures outside
028of the classroom, outside of, you know, other things with payroll cost and cut other programs in the 2425 school year. >> Can I ask on the payroll cost though? What I mean that I'm assuming shows the money that was earmarked directly for teacher salaries, right? It was kind of that in and then an out, right? >> Well, this right here is going to look at >> that in there, I guess, is the question. >> Yeah. So, it'll be on the next one. So, this is our historical. So, these are the last two years. And then when I show it right here, then this is going to account for that money. Yes, ma'am. So, you'll see just a like I'm going to take it back one time. So you'll see just the revenue here and this
029is actual cost. So the actual revenue was 150 million. When I flip over, wrong way. When I flip this way, we budgeted 155 million budgeted. Okay. So we'll kind of monitor that. But there's just a difference to kind of put that in perspective of a lot of the revenue we receive for the salaries for our teachers and other things from the state. Um I want to show this to you. So, if you look at our budget calendar when we get through, we're going to meet often and just kind of walk you guys through the budget process. When we do meet and talk about a budget, don't get so excited, Mr. Horat. When we do when we do meet and and walk you through these budget process, we're going to kind of bring you back just
030where we are currently and walk it through. Uh this is how I've always liked to look at it as percentages of collection and then also when you look at your expenditures, your percentage of collection as well. So, we're a wealthy district and so we're going to receive a lot of that state funding up front. So, you can kind of see real close that available school funding foundation state funding 94.29% collected as of right now. That's because we're in a payment class three. So, we're going to get a majority of that money up front and then our last payments after our tax revenue. Our district collects this taxes. You can pay it in um February or November or June or you can pay it all in January. And so that's a little bit different than I'm
031used to, but that's something that we do here at uh the city of College Station. So that those are things that you're going to see reflected through the year. Please pay attention to federal revenue. Uh I don't feel like we're going to collect all of those funds and I do not feel like we're going to we're going to be a little bit slow on the interest income as well. So we're going to have to monitor those pots of money as well as our enrollment is down. And so I'm going to bring that to you as we go through the year. uh I budgeted ADA of 13203 and we're already below that number. That's not good for this part time of the year, but we're down 300 students in enrollment. And so that's something that we're
032going to have to consider and monitor. So I know this is a lot of numbers, but I want to walk you through this because this is a great way to be transparent, but it's also a great way for a board member to really stay on top of what's going on in the school district. So if you start with the far left column, you're going to look at the budget, and that's what you guys adopted. at the top is by function. At the bottom is by object. And I'll explain that a little bit later. But when you look at function, um the positive here is if you look at those top three categories, that's money in a classroom. And a district always wants to be at at least 60% money in a classroom and we are.
033And so that's a big positive. Uh and then you can kind of look at the other items and what percentages we spend. But then if you look at expenditures per period and then you can see some big numbers like if you go down to that function 51 and you see maintenance and operations $3.4 million. That's because we paid our insurance costs this month and that's over $2 million. And so that's something that when you look further down at the bottom you're going to see that I'm 53% expended in operating cost. That's because of interest insurance that's being paid. And that's a huge number, like one of our biggest numbers in our entire BA budget outside of payroll. Then you kind of go over, you can look at year-to- date expenditures, and that's the 50 million
034that's expended to date. And then percentage of budget expended. So that's what you want to kind of monitor. For example, right now, this is of October. So 33.33% of our budget is could be expensed by this time. So you can kind of look at those functions and kind of monitor it that way. When I say 33.3% the big number you want to watch is the one on the bottom. So that's by object code and payroll cost. So if you think about most of our payroll cost are salaried u or split out over 12 months 24 payments. And so you want that number to be 33.3 or less. If it goes above we're going to have a problem. when we bust the budget because we're over 84% of our budget in is in payroll. Okay, so
035those are big numbers. So you can kind of monitor that. And then at the last column, you can kind of see the percent left to be expended. So we'll bring this back to the board every time we have a budget workshop as we go through the year. And that's just another way that you can kind of monitor us and make sure that we're staying on top of the budget. Okay. So when we talk about uh balancing the numbers, I just want to look at several things. I want to talk about enrollment trends. I want just to give you a quick update on federal funding. Uh our lo local funding challenges. I want to talk about uh the previous budget cost management that the board brought to us last year when we were t um well,
036excuse me, we were talking about what we did last year during the budget. I've got also what the board said was our priorities in the previous budget cycle. The risk is really I want to show you what fund balance looks like of course and then talk about what those board priorities will be for the next budget cycle. Okay. So this is really just kind of our purpose that we want to bring this back because we always want to keep the goals in mind for our students, our staff, and our community. And so that's really kind of just the purpose of this and it's our priority through our budget process. Um this is the enrollment trends right now. So this is by grade level. Um, one thing that's kind of eyeopening that you need to kind
037of monitor is just look at our earlier grade numbers compared to our older grade numbers. For example, I've got 99 kinder, but I've got 1,33 12th graders, 1,171th graders. So, as those grades graduate, if we can't grow those earlier grades, that's just going to be heavier losses as we move forward. uh this is how it looked per uh campus. And so you can kind of look at that far right column and that's enrollment growth versus our 2024 snapshot. So you can see like one of our highest growth campuses with Southnull Elementary, one of our highest loss campuses with Rock Prairie Elementary. We lost 12.3% of enrollment on those campuses. And then you can kind of just see per campus what it looked like um on enrollment. uh also pair those total capacities of those buildings
038so that you can kind of see that uh the positive with with construction that Josh and his team are doing right now is going to grow those two high schools and take care of that capacity issue there that you see on the screen. Um here's another thing I kind of like to look at. So when you look at early edk and kinder those are numbers based on our previous early edk and kinder. When you look at first, second, third, and fourth, what I'm doing is working walking that kinder gardener to first grade. Did I have an increase at that campus or did I have a decrease? Does that explanatory for everybody? I kind of put in the reddish color, that's where we had decreases on campus, excuse me. And then your um navy color is
039where we had consistent increases. And so some of the things that we weren't really expecting is Forest Bridge there. There's not huge growth there. It's really at uh Pebble Creek, but you can kind of see the adjustments in enrollment there and the growth of those students. Uh Greens Prairie is another one that's growing pretty steady and we'll take that into consideration as we go. But South Null Elementary, that was kind of a shocker, too. They grew in every single grade level. So, uh that's just our elementary campuses. Um, and what I did here, I know this is a lot of information, but I can get this PowerPoint out if you don't already have it. Uh, so you can look at grade spans. And so what it is is it's your elementary grade span over the
040years. It starts with 1920. And you look at each grade span, and you can kind of see how we're decreasing and increasing the different pieces of that. We're pretty steady on our elementary schools. uh we kind of grew and we're kind of decreasing a little bit but you can kind of just see how those numbers lay out but I mean like look at intermediate last year 2064 we're 2082 we had some strong growth in intermediate this year uh also you know that one thing I know we had some uh usually in a high school what I've always seen is a little bit of a kind of kids graduating early and things like that but we had over a hundred kids show up freshman kids new to our district from compared to our eighth grade kids.
041So, that's something to kind of monitor. Um, and then I kind of this is going to get a little busy, so just hang with me. Um, this is just our enrollment trends. And what I try to look at is when you're when we're looking at enrollment trends, you're trying to find something that makes sense so that you can build good enrollment numbers going forward. And it it's really kind of hard, you know, it it doesn't have one year we might be up in kinder, the next year we're down in kinder. one one kinder walks to first, the next year it doesn't. And this follows the same path. The prek through uh K prek and kinder are just based on the previous year. But when you do first, second, and third, you're walking those grade levels
042from first to second, from second to third, and you can kind of see where there's growth some years and there's decline some years. But um I have provided this big massive spreadsheet to in a transparency, I mean a transmitt before. I know it's a lot of information. This kind of breaks it out a little bit different. When we talk about federal funding, I know that's a little bit of a scare for a lot of people. I've kind of laid it out in three different proposals. The president's proposal is really not something they're looking at right now. He wanted to do a lot of block funding, meaning we're just scoop all the federal funds together and then say you can spend it on multiple things. We're really not talking about that right now. What they're really
043trying to debate is between the House and the Senate's plans. Okay? So if you look at those two columns, you can kind of see some eliminations. For example, title two, uh the house says eliminate title two and the senate wants to level fund those uh grants. Okay? So they have until January. So what happens with federal funds is they're um they're frontloaded in a sense. They're front funded. So when they build their 26 budget, it actually funds our 2627 school year. So, they're in the process of building their 26 budget that we went in to close the government and we've now just opened up. We're hoping by January 1 we're going to have those numbers and know what happens with our federal funds. Um the least restrictive and we hate to say this, but a
044lot of our um adversar uh advocates are really kind of just pushing at least to level fund us um at the least, you know. So they call that CR funding, but uh it just really kind of does a level funding, but we're kind of they're in the process of negotiating these. If you look at the far column, you can kind of see what the effects would that be for our school district. And you can see our numbers are on uh what we're currently at of those grants. So when we talk about local funding challenges, this is a lot of what we're looking at. Uh the biggest really that's going to hit us the hardest is that decline in enrollment. Um, if we get hit with uh federal funding, that's just going to be another layer
045that's going to hurt, but reduction or elimination of federal funding. Stagnant funding is another big one. It's stagnant funding or funding with strings. And so, we did get some additional funding this previous legislative session, but it was strings attached. even our additional money that we got for the basic aotment um that brought it up to $6,215 the strings that basically were attached to that meaning they gave us a raise for salaries but they didn't even cover the TRS and so the additional money we got there would cover just the TRS portion of that and so it wasn't really new money they gave us some money on based on enrollment and that money has strings attached to it as well so they're still working at TEA to prove we have to kind of send in information
046to them to prove how we spend that money, but it's really just to prove that we spend it on insurance and other operating costs. So, increases in insurance that we've seen since the 2019 increases. Uh they're talking like some of that can be um utilized for that purpose, but we have to prove it. So, there's just still a lot of strengths attached to the money that we're getting. Labor shortages and wage pressures are huge as well. So, we have some shortages in in our transportation department. we have some shortages in our food service that are pretty detrimental to our district. But we kind of have to weigh, you know, the cost of that increase in the wages to be able to get those um additional positions when there's so many people fighting that for those
047type positions. And so you really kind of see some wage pressure there. [snorts] Of course, we're still dealing with inflations and to add to inflation, you're dealing with tariffs. Um health insurance, I'll bring that to you every time. We pay between 400 and uh 70 up to 510 per month for our employees. We're required by law to pay $225. So, we're doing a great thing there. However, we feel like we could do a better job of the insurance that we're providing that to our employees. So, we're really going to take a hard look at that and see if we can bid that out and provide them a better insurance program with the with the same dollars. We feel like we are ahead of what other people are doing. We just got to match the product.
048Uh vouchers, we're unknown about vouchers. We don't know how vouchers are going to affect us. And that didn't even take the decline in enrollment. Of course, I've mentioned 84% of our budget is in payroll cost. Um we're outspending our allocations by large sums in special education and early education. And so those are things we might want to look at. And then there is a push for increased transparency and scrutiny on all districts, not just our district, but just on all districts. And so those are things we want to look at and some of the challenges that we're ready to to face on. So to kind of bring back I went and listened to the presentation last year of the board and the B board priorities and this is a lot of what was talked about.
049There was a lot of talk on not digging into fund balance anymore. In fact strengthening it closer to a five to six months. And so not only don't dig into fund balance, but go ahead and make sure that we're increasing our fund balance, prioritizing academic quality. So ma maintaining those class sizes and we talked a lot about that. Um there was some discussion on making informed decisions knowing that we have to make hard decisions that but as a team we're willing to do that and that was something that was discussed in length. um review out of district transfers. And so that was discussed as a possible revenue stream to look at out of district transfers and bring those in. And that was mentioned last year at going through the budget process as well. Another thing
050was just improve tenants incentive uh improve attendance and we looked at in tenants incentives. Uh we've adopted attendance incentives but we're going even further. So we're doing thought exchange this year. Um, and then really kind of just honing on how and why kids are are being absent and making sure that we're getting information out to parents and listening and trying to change our conversations that we're having to make sure we get kids in classrooms. Um, expand learning options just to consider online and alternate alternative school models as part of our long-term planning. That was brought up last year as well. Another thing that was brought up was to evaluate programs. Not only hit the classroom to make sure that if we're cutting in the classroom that we're cutting in extracurricular, we're cutting in fine arts
051and we're cutting in the other programs as well. And that was brought up last year. So, as we took all of that into play, this is kind of what we did to cut cost in the previous year. We evaluated secondary class schedules. just looked at reducing conference schedules when we had more than you know if a teacher had two conference period we kind of evaluated those to make sure that they were appropriate and that we could maintain instructional quality. We reviewed intermediate and elementary class sizes but when when I say that I want to make sure that we're all on the same page. What we did was maintained a 22 to one structure. We did not increase class sizes in a sense. We just with the decrease in enrollment, we were being fiscally responsible by
052decreasing those staff. But we did look at all of that and then we made sure that it was decreased. We reviewed facility rental fees, make sure that we were charging, make sure they were uh in market. We reestablished a consistent campus staffing model and made sure we were equitable between all campuses. We adjusted the campus budget allocations and looked at all pots of money and making sure we were pushing as much of that as we possibly could to the campuses. Um, we had developed an incentive in um, attendance incentive like I've touched earlier. We established co-curricular pupil allocations and so that we allocated per pupil in a lot of those programs where we could monitor if if a if a band is increasing, they're going to get more money. If a band is decreasing, they're
053going to get less funding. But we kind of made sure that that was fair across the board. Uh we compared all of these things to peer districts just to see where we lined out and where we could look at cuts and where we could make look at some savings. We implemented zerobased budgeting for departments and um everybody kind of came and helped us kind of develop these things. So this is really what we did for 2526. When you talk about risk, you can look at that huge increase that you see there in fund balance. That's the 14 million from closing a 10-month budget. But that's just kind of looking at each one of those different uh funding streams. Non-spendable and assigned budget is basically money that we can't spend. We don't even have an option
054to spend that. Typically, that's your inventory in your warehouse. We've already spent it, but we haven't pushed the cost out to the campus. So, it's sitting on a balance sheet account, so it kind of has to be sent set aside as non-spendable or assigned. or if we got money for a grant or something like that, that money has to be spent on that purpose and so it would be non-spendable. Committed is when we go to the board and we say, "Hey, we want to commit this money for future projects, for roofing project, for construction projects and other things." We commit that fund balance and it's committed by the board. Unassigned fund balance is fund balance that we use for our operating day-to-day operations. And so when you look at your fund balance, you really want
055to do you want to look at that unassigned number and see where it is. So our new uh fund balance would be the 58181. However, we were closing a 12-month budget. Total new fund balance would be $46,461,12. Um, if you want to look at that unassigned and kind of compare that to our current budget, it actually uh three months of operating with our current number is $39,542. And um unassigned would have been 41,57,000. So we came just a tad bit under there to hit that three-month mark on a 12 month spin. And then if you look at five months, and I know when we talked about what the board said last year, they said they want that closer to a five or a six. That's a huge number and that's a lot. >> Can you
056remind me of that discussion? I don't remember what was our what was our rationale for five or six? I mean, what did it have to do with just the changing of the fiscal year? >> No, ma'am. Um it was just a mentioned um and I think it was it was you or Joshua mentioned that we need to make sure that we're being financially sound and that we need to look more to that five or six mark and that and truly that's where districts need to be at the five to six month budget but no less than a three-month in fund balance. Six months seems mean a lot to have and we I've never had a 50% of I mean I go back a little I mean who knows what I said but um I I
057a six month seems a really big fund balance for to have you know half of your annual budget >> in reserve safety net and so the districts the hard thing about that is like the district I came from we were at six months but you have to do that over time it's something you can't do and you can't do it in the area that we are in now. You can't do it with a legislation not supporting a school district and that's what we have going on. >> It's kind of a it's kind of a catch 22 because with the legislature we have now it's more important to have a bigger fund balance, but it's more important. >> We would set it up >> earlier. We would be in different talking right now. >> Yeah, that's
058what I was thinking too. I could see us having the discussion that we don't know what's going to happen with the legislature and with vouchers and all. So yes, we want to make sure we have a a comfortable fund balance, but on the other hand, we are in a tight budget situation. So there's not a lot of in my mind a lot of extra money to start to just be, you know, putting away. finding that sweet spot in there is the is the real >> just try to get it where you're not taking any more out of it so you're not getting below that threemonth threshold. And the reason why I say a threemonth is because there's so much that goes into fund balance um because it's really kind of we don't want to ever
059have to borrow money to make a payroll before we can get a tax payment. We don't it's we have to our federal funds you saw the numbers earlier with head start with title one with title two um those funds we spend them and then we have to request that money back from the from the state honestly TEA gives us our our state payments when we request it on a monthly basis and so we fund that stuff upfront so we kind of have to have that cash in the bank and so when you look at um even the first rating if you kind of follow what they're doing on the first rating they don't just monitor your fund balance, but they monitor the cash in your bank to just to make sure you've got enough cash
060in your bank to make 90 days worth to make your payments. And so that's just one thing we're graded on, but it's it's that's good sound. Three months is good sound. No less than three months, but hefty good place would be five to six. And it was mentioned last year, so I just put that on there. Okay. So, we kind of get to our budget or board priorities. And so, um, I'm just going to kind of start out. I'm going to leave this up to you guys to kind of talk between yourself. I know Dr. Hark Rider might have some additional things. These are just some of the things that I put up there for for just thinking like fund balance uses, compensation expectations, staffing ratios, balancing programs, looking at those class size, or maybe
061establishing additional revenue sources like taking the uh transfers, looking at possibly um doing online courses and things like that just to generate the revenue streams into the district to kind of help us push uh what we're doing here a little bit further. We're going to put together a budget committee. Um believe we've had one before that will include a couple board members, some administrators, as well as community members, parents. Uh so these priorities are really big from a standpoint of giving that committee some guidelines and parameters as we talk of uh you know exactly what the board wants as well as what uh new board members as they come on their input as well with the thought exchange. and this won't be the first time we're talking about this. So, but we need some uh
062guiding steps because I believe our first meeting is December 9th, couple weeks. Yeah. >> So, it's open for whoever would like to talk. >> What do you feel like are the appropriate uses for fund balance in your previous district? Like you're the expert here on that. um onetime expenditures. And so when you look at fund balance and you're wanting to dip into fund balance, it might be that additional bus that you need to purchase. It might be that you've saved some fund balance and you want to build something, do something to a building, update the buildings. Um there's a little there's a lot of play that goes into our budget here in uh College Station that we have to keep in mind is we don't do the upkeep of our buildings right now in our
063general fund budget. We don't do technology replacements for the most part. We don't do infrastructure on technology. We do not do roof replacements out of our general fund. That's all in our INS in our um in our uh construction budgets. Uh so our our community does support us. Um, what's really going to hurt if our community declines a bond in the future, that's where we're taking those items and that will need to be shipped back to the general fund. So, our bus replacement cycles and things like that, that is all in our uh bond program. Um, but typically, if you're going to dig into fund balance, it needs to be on a one-time expenditure. I will tell you just based on trimming department budgets, trimming campus budgets, we're about as lean as we can get
064from that standpoint without compromising programs. So that's really not uh there's not too much more we can dig in from that capacity. So I think if you look at the kinder first and second enrollment trends that she showed you earlier, it's about 100 kids less than we have third through 12th grade. In 10 years, that doesn't change. You're down a thousand students. So I think it's imperative that we have got to figure out um another revenue source. Out of district transfers is something we've talked about now for over a year. That is the only option that we have to increase revenue. And if if that's not a direction we go, that's fine. However, programs are going to be compromised and you're going to have to start looking at do we consolidate campuses is happening across
065the state. So either we can be proactive and have another revenue source come in or there's going to have to be some really tough decisions that the community is not going to like and we're not going to have a choice because we're going to get to a point where you're going to have to consolidate one or more campuses and you're not going to have a choice otherwise because you're going to have to cut savings if you're not bringing in additional revenue. And I think we've been incredibly fortunate to not do that yet. As we get into the audit committee later and how lean we've gotten and how well you guys have done to save money. The concern is where else can you go? I mean these these are all you hit it on the head
066with what you see here. The unknown is what's going to happen with enrollment with vouchers where we're headed decreased. Uh you know uh we've had demographers in here for years telling us the growth was astronomical and then whole bunch of factors come into play with that. Um, so predicting the future makes it exceptionally challenging where we're headed, but I I think you're looking at compensation, of course, staffing ratios, all of that is is exactly the concern. Class size. Um, and then the alternative is we haven't had to close any campuses uh yet. And we've been very lucky because other districts have >> I think we have an attractive oh sorry product to sell in CSISD and so I think out of district transfers is to me one of the most logical options that we need
067to explore. I was just going to say that because we're in year two of this legislative session, we know we're not going to get increases in funding. So, you know, just putting that out there for anybody who might not be aware of that. So, we're going to have to be careful this year, I think. I mean, and and we trust you to look at those numbers and and help us understand that, too. But I think it's hard, but we're going to have to be careful. Really careful this year. >> Can you pull up slide 11? [clears throat] >> Okay. You'll have to help me numbers at the campuses enrollment trends. Yep. I think this is important to look at, [clears throat] especially for everybody at home and in the audience. This one, this one, just
068kind of seeing the numbers and we're talking about this out of district transfers, but there is there are campuses that need students, right? Like the numbers are right here for us. Is this accurate? So, [snorts] I'm I'm thinking like it does seem beneficial for us to look at some of these campuses and figure out how we can work these students so that we don't get so far behind with the budget. [clears throat] But this slide seems really important to just kind of see those elementarymentaries and then see the ones that are kind of bursting a little bit and then hoping that that tapers. And that's kind of what the demographer has said that we're not super growth. We're kind of just stalling a little bit. I think that's the big piece is that we we've
069talked about this out of district transfer stuff for so long and just to clarify for everybody, this isn't a free-for-all where you in you get accepted into College Station ISD and you get to pick where you're going. That's not how this is going to go. And I think that's maybe the the the part that people are missing is that yes, we have some overcrowding at certain schools. Well, y'all are smart enough to know that we're not going to put kids in those schools because obviously what Kristen just said, we can prove where we need to put kids. So, it's a strategic plan of planting where we need to have children depending on what grade they need to be in. So, um again, if anybody has any other solutions for revenue growth besides going to&m and
070ask them for a grant or something that can be used for anything, >> they're going to say no. They're going to say no. But I mean, those are some things that, as I've learned in six years at school finance, hands are kind of tied. Legislators tell us what we can and can't do. Not a lot of local control. Now, the states created a market for competition amongst public schools. And so, either we're to the party early or we're to the party late because districts have been doing this. When I worked in Grand Prairie ISD 18 years ago, our superintendent at the time created schools within a school and started taking out of district transfers 18 years ago. And that was the only reason that district did not go under back then because we took in
0715,000 out of district transfers from all over Dallas for Worth that wanted to be a part of it. Um, and I understand it's it's something different. scary, but you know, when you look at revenue and and going back to just kind of priorities, you know, we need some feedback is the expectation that we give staff raises. That's something that's the first thing on my list every time before we start a a budget conversation is staff raises. Where can we get? Uh so if that's the case, which I'm assuming it would be, uh then obviously we've got to have additional revenue because like I said, we've cut as much as we can cut that I feel comfortable that we haven't compromised programs. We've gotten leaner. Uh our staff's doing a good job of spending the funds
072that we do have. However, long-term planning wise, we've got to have some directions class size. you know, as far as reductions, our class sizes right now, believe we have one elementary classroom over 22 to1, and we put a pair of professional in that classroom to better support them. And so, from that standpoint, we're good, but we do have some campuses that have extremely low ratios. So, there's some FTEEs that can be moved as you take in new students, potentially can be moved to other campuses, and it's not an additional burden to our budget. Uh, we will not compromise secondary classrooms. But we're not going to be We're still at our threshold, I believe. Pane, were we at 25 or 27 with secondary staffing student to teacher? Was it 25? >> Yes. >> Okay. 25 to
07330. That expectation for us, we don't want to change. We don't want to move that to 27 to 32. So, we want to make sure that we're continuing to deliver and not overstress our teachers. However, we also have to have some parameters and game plans of what the board would like us to see. >> Well, I think I have a couple things, but one on the capacity, right? You've said we just saw we're down 300 students. I would think that um with we could absorb somewhere up to that level. I personally, and I've said this last month, I would like us to take this a little slowly because I think there are some unknowns, but you we did have 300 more students last year. Now, um we did have more teachers and staff last year,
074too. So, I mean, are you trying to are you I'm going to make sure I understand. Are we saying that you don't think um we would be adding need to add additional staff back? >> No, that's not what I said. >> Okay. I just want to make sure. Yeah, that I didn't think so. said there are certain campuses that would not be part of taking on new kids that their ratios are low and they could use lose an FTE in a particular grade level. So that FTE would be moved to a different campus that had additional students coming in. So in the long term would you have it all depends on how many kids come in and then what our ratios looked at. We we don't know that now. We had never done it. So
075it's complete unknown. Not going to have the answer today. Not going to have it in January. we would have it at the end of February. >> I think the important thing to know is that obviously if we have more more students, we would have the more teachers to continue to meet those appropriate ratios. Is that fair? We would have >> Yeah, I just want to make sure it's said and that's why we're having this conversation now so we can make a decision so that we can prepare. Correct. >> Correct. >> Getting back to which we we've got an item later we'll discuss on the out of district transfers. I think right now to kind of wrap this up, we need some we don't really have any guidelines >> about your priorities and it's just you.
076It's not as an individual >> throw something at us. I would like to talk about that balance a little bit more because I really think that seems maybe >> more than I expected and um and I don't remember the exact numbers when we were doing last year's budget but you know what were we estimating to add into the fund balance from you know going to that 10-month fiscal year and then were we looks we had >> higher >> we were estimating higher we've added high more we added more right so >> correct and kind of explaining we were a good bit higher, right? And what happened there and you know I like being a conservative budget with our budget but also if if we should have been spending some of that money I mean and
077I don't want to get too lean in our classrooms is where I'm >> well going. Okay. So we're we're still at three months. So we're right within a half a million of where we need to be. Does that make sense? because we put 50 I mean three months of our budget is 39 million 39,542,000. That's three months operating of our current budget. Our unassigned number at 12 months is 41 million57,000. So we're where we need to be. Yeah. So no, we we did exactly what we needed to do. who we gave the raises that needed to be given if you remember and so we didn't compromise anything there. >> Yeah. And when you're also anticipating a 10-month budget, I mean, there's a lot of guesstimates that go into that. And so there's a lot of
078unknown until it shakes out at the very end. There's no way to know exactly where it's going to fall. She had an expectation of where it ended up being higher, which was to our benefit, but it's still we're we're where we need to be without dipping in and doing anything else. >> That's perfect. So, I'd just follow up saying then um I would not really be in favor of trying to build up any more fund balance really because I feel like we have we are very lean. So, that's just how could we get build up more fund balance if you're saying we're already lean. I I think make sure our needs >> I mean we're able to grow our expenses in any any area should be compensation. I mean we we can say that we
079probably all agree. I know that that's difficult, but I mean from a priority perspective we're able to um increase anything. I think that's where it needs to be. >> But where does it come from is going to be the question. >> So just to clarify, we're at about a three and a half month fund balance. >> Yes, sir. And if we dip below a three-month fund balance, we get hit hard when it comes to financial ratings, if we need to do bonds in the future, so forth and so on, right? >> Things you need to keep in mind. Yes. >> And as you grow your budget, then your operating three months grows as well. >> Yeah. And just keep in mind, we're also prior to losing roughly 300 students, we were at about a 2.1
080million dollar anticipated deficit budget as well. So now you're looking at close to $3.5 million deficit budget with no new revenue coming and programs and departments cut about as lean as we can get. >> The programs are cut. Uh the campuses are cut as long as we can get. It's kind of hard because we had to reset that, but you got to look at inflationary costs, tariffs, and things like that. I I just don't think we can take the allocations any lower. We did a lot of that this year. It's been a hard transitional year for our departments and our students and our uh co-curricular and things. I don't think that's something we could touch at all. >> We will lose title two funds. I had an alert today. uh White House announced uh multiple
081services within the Department of Ed are going to be franchised out to other departments. So I think you're just getting one step closer. I would anticipate a year from now there is not a department of education >> and so what does that look like? >> I don't know. >> That's where my concern is right of where you're looking. It's hard to predict but you see federal funding keeps being reduced right as a trend that was already happening. Is that where you kind of see that continuing to go or >> It wasn't happening. We lost our SHs funding. Okay. >> And so they used to fund a little bit on inflation and then that all depends on their student makeup, how you get that funding. However, right now we're just hoping that we can get level
082funding. No increases for inflation or anything, but just level it and and then they'll reallocate it to our student makeup. >> But and to your point and what you're talking about, if you're following the national stage and what happened here with vouchers, if you look at where the money was coming from, it wasn't from Texas. that was coming into Abbott's coffers to attack public education. It was from out of state. It was national because they wanted a conservative state to pass vouchers. And as you said, Department of Education may go away, which may or may not be a bad thing. I don't know. But on a national scale, public education is under attack. Um, and there's and there's not a lot that we can do about that. Um, so we're relying on the state and
083what we can do. Um, you know, you talk about the ratio sizes, um, class ratios. I would love to see secondary, you know, lower than 25 to 30. When you consider about 50% of the kids have accommodations that are in those classrooms, it's a lot for teachers. Um, at the same time, we don't know what we're heading into next year and our enrollment is going down. And so, you add vouchers on top of that. We don't know. And I teachers are nervous and uncertain and they don't want to see their classroom sizes grow, but we're also trying to keep everyone employed and that makes it extremely challenging. And I would just want to throw in here that uh obviously this is a major major issue that that's got to be dealt with. But [clears throat]
084College Station is not alone in this because we we for so long were such a fast growing district that we built schools that were needed and so forth. And now we we've just hit the the absolute wrong time since basically postcoid with de you know decreasing or stagnant enrollments and so forth. And so it's um it's not a good situation. After tonight, Josh, I'll expect a monthly text from you just to mention general fund balance while you're not here. Look forward to receiving that from you. >> I don't know if you're Nobody's gonna like this, but I'm going to mention it. Um but you know, because that's how I am. Um the we just talked about a new a new building. Uh when would we how I think we need to consider how much that
085would cost us in operating expenses and um when when do we have to pull the trigger on that? No. you know, knowing that there are so many unknowns going forward with our number of of kids coming and we're talking about if we have to potentially close a building and we're would it be make more sense to repurpose? I just it's just I think it's just something we need to make sure we are very cognizant of because these next couple years there are a lot of unknowns. So it >> so you know that money has to be spent because it's already been sold as a bond. >> We have not sold everything to bond. >> You have to you the taxpayers voted on what we were using that money for. >> I I understand but we
086don't have to spend it if something changes and is that correct? If something changes with our needs, we we can't spend on something else really. Right. >> But we can't I know and I certainly know it's not it can't go to teachers. It can't go to all those things. Certainly understand that. But I just want to make sure it's not um adding an extra um regular operating >> expense to our >> It wouldn't add because the money has already been in a sense appropriated. We just hadn't sold the bond, right? >> Correct. >> I mean for electricity insurance and all those kind of other things just to run and and more um >> so we're talking about maintenance and operations. >> Operations daily operations. Um >> the daily operations wouldn't increase. your bills would increase
087because yeah, you're going to put another facility facility. >> Also want to clarify just I threw out the mentioning of closing in the campus as worst case scenario. So that's not on the books to make that crystal clear. I I understand your concern and what you're saying, but I also think there's opportunities we're not seeing with College View because of DAP taking up a big portion of that that there's possibly revenue streams there and and growing enrollment there and various different programs. So, it's an unknown, but yeah, the voters voted on this project and the money's there. I guess my biggest thing having a construction background before my pre my current life, but um it's not going to get any cheaper and so um just knowing what Mr. Simac, Mr. Buckner, and M Wilson are
088having to deal with with the changes that we approved six, seven, eight months ago of moving forward with stuff and then maybe change orders and things like that. Um it's the only project on the 232 24 bond that's that's not operational right now. So >> yeah, the project the budget could be blown waiting six months potentially. You know, I think the other diamond potentially in the rough as we talk later the board approves out of district transfers. The growing the biggest growing market right now that I'm seeing across the state is online schools. And I think that is an opportunity for us to garner uh a lot of kids that we don't have to have space for. We've got room in College View to house teachers to be able to to give that instruction. We've
089got plans to visit a couple different campuses or a couple districts across the state. That'd be something that we would consider opening for the uh 2728 school year, but it is a growing market that I've seen no less than 10 school districts in the last three months announce plans to begin. And so it's obviously extremely competitive, but it's also a field of uh potential option for homeschool parents that when they get n and I'm talking at the high school level. I'm not talking K12, but I've got my kid K through eight. I'd like them to continue to be in homeschool, but becoming more challenging as a parent to be able to deliver that instruction. So you still get the homeschool setting, yet it's our teachers delivering the instruction and and providing the resources. So, I
090do think that that is a market potentially for us to generate even more uh revenue, but we don't have to have a space for them because obviously they would be at home. So, that's kind of a potential win-win for us on not overcrowding facilities yet having enrollment grow as well. >> That I know we've talked about that particular topic before, but how does uh state funding work with online >> B? My understanding it's the same way as if they're here. Okay. >> Except uh you know you wouldn't depending on some districts. It depends on how it was structured. Some districts are only taking kids within their boundaries. Most I'm seeing are taking kids anywhere in the state of Texas and you can be a student here. Now the logistics and that's why we want to
091go visit some campuses because freshman sophomores are actually now freshman potentially if they're passing in juniors would have to take star tests. Well, you would have to take a STAR test with us even though it's online. It couldn't be proctored, I don't believe, from your house. But there's just some some hurdles we just want to look at to see how people have have handled that in the past. >> And then bring you guys back more information once we've done some research. >> Guess I just want to acknowledge um you know what what you said about the fact that a new building is going to have some additional operating cost. I mean, that's that's a fact. I think a lot of things that we do have inherent risk in them. Um and we make decisions and
092we have to balance out those risks. And um just having been a part of some of the bond committees well before I was on the board um and listening to um the needs for that new building, it feels irresponsible in some ways not to move forward with those plans that were approved in that bond package um unless we were at a point that we're like just we cannot do it um financially. So, I just I acknowledge that there is there's risk in everything that we we plan in our budget, but I feel like that is a a calculated choice that will be good for a whole lot of people in our district. >> I would agree. And we've been hanging on and patchwork in this building for a long long time trying to make it
093work. And if you talk about just having other spaces, opportunities, things we can use, um that would be a distinct advantage, I think. And again, I we talked about all the positives and I I do recognize a lot of positives to it, including our it is what was on the the bond committee. I just uh it's just hard to think about that at when we just went through this discussion um and all those potential issues impacting our budget. That's a that was a big page you had there and I just think um you know gives you gives you pause moving gives me pause at least moving forward at least. >> All right. So kind of the next steps um we're going to finalize some of the budget board budget goals next month. So if you
094think of anything and you want to reach out to Dr. Hark Rider and give them your thoughts, we would we would be more than happy about that. Uh we're going to continue to review campus and program non-payroll allocations, make sure that we don't need to tweak those, not down, but there's possibility we need to tweak a little up. Uh we're going to examine new revenue sources just like we've talked about tonight. Uh established staffing based on enrollment planning. Um we're going to continue to analyze costs. They've done a great job. Josh and his team have done a great job in transportation, just making sure that we're not paying overtime and taking that money and putting it towards things that really benefit uh the greater [snorts] uh staffing ratios. We're going to continue to look at
095that. We're going to monitor the uh federal programs and then we're going to divi uh develop a budget committee, a board budget uh committee that uh can we can listen to our community and make sure that we're all on the same page with this. I do want to point this out. This is on the transmitt every month, but is our budget calendar and it has a lot of good information on it if it will pull up. Uh but it kind of lays out our whole process for the budget. Uh we've got if the transfers go through, you have the timelines on the transfers. You have the timelines on grandfathering. It kind of talks even about when we're going to do our staffing on uh for our campuses and and and guesstimates when we're going to
096require the budgets to be in from the campuses. And then it also talks about each board workshop that we're going to come back and discuss with you guys. And so that is on the transmitt. And we can make sure that you have that information for you guys. uh here is uh what we were telling you earlier uh we want to know what your priorities are. So if you want to look at that QR code, we want to hear from everybody, want to hear from our community, uh our board members, and then we want to make sure that we build this budget uh for the community, for our teachers, and for our students. Any questions? >> Yeah, just a big thanks. I love seeing all the numbers that you put together on our spending so far
097and all the categories and also I'm excited about having a budget committee where we can can involve um our all our staff and and campuses but also the community helping us with these hard decisions. So I think it's greatly >> absolutely great. >> Thank you for all your hard work everything you put in. Have a >> bless you. That brings us to E ad ajourn. this way. >> Getting 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
098is 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 decisions in either this meeting or an upcoming meetings. This is a meeting of the seven trustees in a public setting rather than a public meeting. As such, public comment is included on the agenda at a specific time and requires us to listen rather than take action so as to abide by the Open Meetings Act. We are pleased that you have taken time this evening to join
099us. We are very proud of the 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. U we will be administering the oath of o uh of office to our elected board members and we'll start with uh our elected trustee for place three Mr. Chris Field. 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 >>
100that 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 school board >> 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 and laws >> of the United States and of this state >> of the United States and this state. >> So help me God. [clears throat] [applause] Next in place four, Mr. Mike Martenddale being sworn in by his wife Alicia Martenddale. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, I Mike Martinddale >> I, Mike Martenddale, >> do solemnly swear >> that
101I will faithfully execute the duties >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> of the office of schoolboard 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 >> and will to 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 God. [applause] 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
102>> 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 and the Constitution and laws >> of the United States and of this state. >> So help me God. We made it with our glass. [applause] >> 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
103then 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, and 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 [applause] Ben. So, we have a nice little um from from the board um a nice little
104momento cutting board and a plaque from the district to honor your years. >> Very cool. Thank you. Floor is yours if you >> [applause] >> 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, that my hopes are as high as a giraffe's top hat. And that got me thinking about a speech sl 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
105a coaster from uh with a giraffe on it. So you can either throw it away or keep it as a 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, 2,000 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
106where 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 know 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
107of 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 going 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
108the 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 want to thank the teachers, the bus drivers, the coaches, everyone else involved with College Station ISD. >> [clears throat] >> Um, 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
109coaches and teachers that I've had over the the years and I I thought about um, Coach Harmier. 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, [laughter] 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 missed the bus, I was not going to school that day. [snorts] 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 I missed the bus was because my mom was actually killed by
110a 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 [snorts] 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 is y'all take care of kids. [snorts] Um, thought about Beth Parish, my high school debate coach and theater teacher. >> [snorts] >> 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
111it [snorts] 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. [snorts] Um, but I I just I just want to thank y'all for the opportunity to serve y'all for the last six 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. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> We'd like to recognize 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
112Mr. 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 to 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. [applause] Um, I usually add lib,
113but 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 be 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.
114The opportunity to serve in this capacity has been a joy and a challenge at times. I never thought I would have worked for three superintendent 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 outside. 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
115today. 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. These 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
116worked 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 best 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
117is 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 best learning environment for the teachers and students. And as trustees, we have to take the best interest of all 14,000 plus students, all 2,000 plus employees, and all 19 campuses to heart. These are only my observations over
118the 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. [snorts] I even got to do third grade math test review last night. >> [snorts] >> One of the best messages I received in the past few weeks was, "I'm so proud of you. [snorts] You gave your heart and soul to each person you talked to for the past six years." This is all I needed to hear [snorts] to know I helped this district that helped me years ago. Thank y'all so much. I appreciate it. [applause] [applause] >> [snorts] >> That's going to bring
119us 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. [applause] 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 Sailor 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. >> [applause] >> Good evening. 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
120is my teachers. I'm so thankful for my family and friends. >> [applause] >> 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 Robbins. >> And I am in third grade at at College Hills Elementary. >> What is your favorite? I like learning from our wonderful teachers. [applause] >> My name is Vera and I am in first grade at College Hills Elementary. >> Who do you like about your school? >> I 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? Teachers. >>
121My favorite thing. No, >> you're thankful for what are you thankful? >> I am thankful for my teachers. [applause] >> We practice awkward shuffle outside. That's why we're doing that. So, okay. Do you know how you're gonna say please stand? >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Oh, actually we're gonna 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. >> Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God. One and invisible. [laughter] >> You may Thank you. [applause] [cheering] >> [applause] >> We'll continue our our student recognitions this evening as you're following along on your agenda with our state semi-finalist tennis
122team 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 every step. athletes, at this time we'd like to invite you guys and coach Marshall to come forward as I
123call 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, [applause] Payton Freeman, [applause] Anna Gao, [applause] Samuel J, [applause] Katherine Hamilton, Sarah Hildebrandt, [applause] Matthew Johnson, [applause] Caroline Cleman, [applause] Ryan Cleman, [applause] Nene Lee, JJ Lynch, >> [applause] >> Gabby Meechum, [applause] Rudy Rap, [applause] >> Caleb Ryner, [applause] Reed Scholler, [applause] Lily Strickland, Nate Trinary, [applause] George White, Ruby White, [applause] Sarah Weir, who we got back there, Gavin Willis, [applause] head coach Daniel Marshall, >> [applause] >> your&m consolidated tiger tennis team state final state semi-finalists [applause] >> look at Just one time. [applause] All right. We're also
124um 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 if 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 championship this this year. Um, they finished second at region and finished eighth overall at
125the 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. [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 call your names, y'all will come and be recognized. First, uh Justin Boat Cali,
126[applause] Camilo Rio, >> [applause] >> and Cindy Ramirez [applause] and cross country coach Josh Mson. [applause] >> [applause] >> All right. 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 unwavering support of their band
127boosters, parents and the CSISTD community. So please join me in congratulating our high school marching bands on another successful year. >> [applause] >> 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. [laughter] We'll start with the College Station High School Mighty Cougar Band. Uh, drum major Isabella Visquera. [applause] Drum Major Adriana Vargas. [applause] All right, Addison, help me with your last name here. >> Pushowski. Addison Pjowski. [applause] Katarina Humphre [applause] and the Mighty Cougar Band is led by John Seal is the director assistant director Michael Dixon and assistant director Joseph Con. [applause] [clears throat] >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. And from the Tiger Band, drum major Guju Day, [applause] Sam Rhodess, [applause] Taylor Rutled,
128[applause] Riley Brinkman, [applause] and the Tiger Band director, Mr. Steve Fry. >> [applause] >> and assistant directors James Benton and Cole Croftton. [applause] Thank you. All >> [applause] >> right. Now, we'll we'll bring our elementary school principles back up to recognize their staff. >> 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.
129And so, um, just the appreciation of all the little 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
130from the family is just a testament to the relationships 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. [applause] 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,
131who are we going to bring to um say thank you 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 walted into my office last year and said, "I think
132I want to be a teacher and I would like to 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
133to everyone on our campus and says, "I'm struggling. Can you 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. [applause] behind me. >> Uh, good evening everybody. My name is Chuck Longwell. I'm the driver supervisor at transportation. Uh, with me is Shannon Coulth, 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. [applause] Both exemplify the dedication, professionalism, and positive spirit that makes our transportation department exceptional. Uh,
134a little bit about Kotisha. Over the 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
135to be a team player. She is 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. [applause] 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
136passion for what she does. Koticia Mack and 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. [applause] >> Congratulations. Good morning. 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
137to move us to item E1, which is our board reports. Um I can jump in and just say that we had the audit committee meeting. uh at four o'clock 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 [clears throat] also if you're considering honoring CSISD teacher or staff member, uh the star education program is opening. Um, it's
138a minimum of $10 donation for education foundation and you'll get an honory, a certificate, a star educator pen and recognition on the website and social media. So, [clears throat] I guess I'll do two. Um, 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
139some good discussions about um some actually got to see some 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
140residences. And so there was some discussion about how though all 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 rate because it's harder to have new young families amilies, 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
141into our schools. So, but lots of good things happening. I 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
142team for another out outstanding season. They made it to the 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
143would be J3. >> J3. >> Yes. Thank you. >> J2 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.
144Good evening, board members. Dr. Hark 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 EIC 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
145but with the CTE center uh coming a 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
146lot of CTE programs that you 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
147bottom of that, it also says 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 five 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
148like automotive, we have been busing 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
149other thing is, let me back 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 Brian uh CEK. Uh, what's important about this is cosmetology uh for their Texas Department license regulation. They do have to get a thousand clockedin 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
150notice at the bottom where 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 two, 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
151kids interested in it. It's pretty straightforward. And then over at uh both Console 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 parentheses, 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 Consol, 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.
152Um and kids are asking 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. >>
153Second. >> I have a 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. All 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
154with Miss Wilson putting out an exchange. We've also used exchanges in our DEIC um committee as a part of our academic calendar process. Um, so I I'm going to 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,
155you know, the the strategic plan that was 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
156ourselves on this. Um, just a brief history 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
157their survey platform. Our technology department is incredible. 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
158it. Um, it's great for us to be 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
159we recognized as we were having a gap 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
160and the climate of our school district. Um 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
161had some experience um at least tangentially with 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 resing 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
162has basically two functionalities. It's got a 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 it 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- making. So, you can kind of see
163on the left side our our strategy there with 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
164going to start um beta testing with them in 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 y'all to participate in this question. Think back to your time in [snorts] school and tell us what your
165favorite food in the cafeteria used to be. 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 is my favorite or pink milk because it's fun, cheese pizza because it ain't
166easy being cheesy, and an apple a day to keep the doctor away. Right. And then you can I can I wrote all of those last night. So, um, so you can read them all. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> 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 going to go four stars. Pizza, not my favorite. Tacos are consistently
167good. I agree with that. Frito pie, also very good. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy because it was filling. Trying to trim down a little bit. Um, Salisbury 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
168why we chose that is primarily because it it doesn'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 puts 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.
169We wanted to see not just what's the loudest voice, what are people, what are people saying that participate in these surveys the most. Now, 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
170but pepperoni pizza is like a 4.8 rating." So, but 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
171personal, it flags it and we can shut it off. 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,
172how is what I'm sharing going to be private? How 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
173that. Um the basically the data is not thought exchanges 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
174nurse and only one principal and one AP. And so 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
175can tell you Melanie and I have looked through how 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
176people to use. So, how are we going to use 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 Exchang's 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
177identifying any specific campuses or roles in that aggregate report. 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
178rolling this out to our campuses and departments for use 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 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
179we get ready for a student survey. Um those will also 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. pretty much >> pretty much want to just say thank you. Um I think it I mean feedback
180is important for anybody and any organization that wants 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
181didn't know so much was going on for way back in in June, but it was a it's 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.
182I don't know how many. >> So about a third. >> Yeah. >> So this I'm sorry. >> So 400 out of a thousand finished it >> right. So yeah. >> 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. So security parameters on this and I'm familiar with thought 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 a 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,
183it would have slowed our process 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 [snorts] folks email addresses being connected to a platform. I'm getting an email 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
184best use case is for it, but right 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,
185whatever the case may be. It doesn't seem like it would capture it that it could. Yes. 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
186and secondly do is it a bank of question? I assume the district can write the questions that they want asked. Is that correct? It's not limited to bank produced by thought exchange. >> Yeah. Yeah. We um we did work with Dr. and Skeltchure 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, tech tactical part of
187things. >> So in future surveys when we ask faculty and staff for feedback or to respond on the Liyker 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. >> 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
188got um the calendar survey before, could I have 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
189earnest and honest and transparent through this process and 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 that's the trade-off, right? Yeah. One just
190quick question. Is this an annual fee that we 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. >> 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
191is consideration, discussion and possible approval of recommended 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? >> I was wanted it. >> Yeah, I'll jump in. Okay. >> 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.
192Hark Rider taking time to answer some of my questions. 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
193to be costs associated with those students. And the real 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
194to reach out to a bunch of my colleagues and friends who had kids in the district and just said hey what do you think about 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 be50 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.
195Number one, there's been no assumptions with any 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 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 allotment 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
196how does it benefit a person's child in the district. Now, if you looked at our presentation, we're running right now at a $2 million deficit budget, close to three and a half million without any new revenue. It's going to impact their education in a negative manner, right? 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 is
19750 more than we're going to have come next year. We 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 27 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
198taking even if we're not sure what the results may be. >> 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
199do the best we can so that we can keep providing 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
200to keep providing what we are already providing. Um, so just 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. Hogwarter, you've worked in other districts that have done this. So, this is not something that is just brand new. Correct. >> Right. 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. 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
201as well. >> 100%. Yes. Part of the DOI plan 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 would 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
202and Chris you can correct me if I'm wrong. Um what'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 a 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 just 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
203workshop. Right. So, um, for me, I think if I'm just sure of 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
204metrics to determine the admissions of these students going to be developed I 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 not 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
205that maybe haven't been involved in this conversation or even understand the financial piece 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 attendance or dis. 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
206totally get that. Uh but we didn't invent the game currently 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
207break. So time is of the essence for us. Our plan was to open up the out of district transfer window for November and de oh no oh 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
208that you would capture that in the >> I wouldn't in case 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 a re the revoking of a transfer during the school year versus it's just one year regardless of what you do. >> So, go ahead. >>
209I've talked a lot already. Go ahead. Well, I I think 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. 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
210sort of flying blindly which will generally >> changing the policy only makes it able that we can do this doesn't say when doesn't say if it's it's open that we can't take it, >> but is open for interpretation as far as the parameters you use for for accepting. So I 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 will get and then we can decide the parameters based on those who apply. So if we want to adjust to decide who we
211let who gets to play the game or 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
212what they're saying. We haven't said it yet 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 because right now in the policy says they can't. So, the order of operations is for us as
213a board to change that policy and let 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.
214And once that permission is given though just unclear I'm 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 I'm however yeah 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
215in my mind would not be moved. >> Yeah. regardless of the 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
216at no point are we married to anything. I don't feel like 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. >> A motion to approve as presented. >> Second. I I did want to go ahead and you say >> you can have a discussion. Yes, >> have a motion. 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
217state right now for public schools. Um 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
218will look like in our district. Um, 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 a 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 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 what folks in our district think on how it's going. So, I would hope to see >> So, I have a motion
219by Dr. Payne and 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 felt 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
220that allows administration 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 could be mistaken or an advisory committee. >> DOI committee >> DOI correct >> and that's a comparable >> 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 and those that typically serve on DEIC or a district level committee uh
221are able to to be knowledgeable of and take action on it. was 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 don't I don't So, council told you that was acceptable because that's really not what articulated on through the agent. >> I'm just telling you what council told me. >> I'm just telling you what's articulated on the agency. >> So, we as a board have to choose to move on this or not. Do I have a a motion? >> Motion to approve is presented. >>
222Second. 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 in 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 which is consideration, discussion and possible action regarding the
223annual financial and compliance report for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. Miss Wilson. Good morning, Miss H. Good afternoon, Miss Eggy. 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 10 month statement, but she's going to present it. >> Thank you. Good evening. As you 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 you will, of the audit. It's a large annual financial report. It's over
224100 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. I press 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. Um because the entity the district is does receive federal and state funding. There is also a government auditing standards um opinion as
225well 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 opinions um for federal funding. And so we've done that work. We don't expect the um the opinion to change in any way
226um 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 how those monies have to be spent. And so that's a different kind of audit, but it is part of the annual financial
227audit. 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 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 to be independent of the district. So, we go through that process every year. Uh just making sure that myself and my team don't
228have 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 go in and change numbers and make journal entries. So we always look at those um processes, those journal entries made at year end
229and 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 u 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 ted up, that any payables or receivables are booked. Um and of course we look at a lot of the the grant dollars as well. So the the federal and the state grant dollars. Um and then we look at, you know,
230the 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 absences. So their acred vacation and sick leave for their employees and book liabilities for that. Um so that did add a liability to
231the financial statements this year or ups 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 payables based on what's been received um at year end is booked. Um we do look at also at the what we call the
232incurred 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 OPB 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 thirdparty reports. So there's not a lot of management judgment in involved in those either. And then just mentioning the compensated compensated absences liability that was added this year. Um
233there 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 really nice when you can go in uh, and do the audit and not have to make a lot of adjustments. So, we came in
234and 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 representation 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
235that 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 end 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
236it'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 [clears throat] 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. um payments and recoveries. And so then you can see this the change in fund balance for your general fund for the 10-month
237period 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 period which is primarily the ro result of the change in fiscal year end because um really there was a there wasn't wasn't
238as 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 6 because that original budget 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
239variance 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 can see the local um really the tax dollars there. You have 10 months of debt service. Um and then you can see the
240refunding 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 come in in the summer and then um before the numbers are closed and we do a lot of samples and questions and then
241we 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? >> No. Just a thank you. I just think I usually I'm used to the motion second and any any further come obviously a lot of work from our team to do all this so it's
242all and it's always great to have that un 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 big shout out to them. Yeah because that's a lot of work. All >> [applause] >> right. Next up is item K2, which is
243to consider nomination of representatives to the Brazes Central Appraisal District Board through resolution to begin January 1st, 2026. Sure. We're back in the legislation session of the 88th legislative session, Senate Bill Two or the SPE second special 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 nominees that we would choose. So we're looking for nominees for the appraisal board if anybody has any. >> I'd like to nominate Brian
244McGuire. 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 [laughter] about the fact that you're going to nominate them. >> Awesome. So, if there's no other discussions, 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 as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Payne and a second by Miss Wilson. Is there any further discussion? >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Okay. That motion is going to pass seven to zero. Right. All right. And that's going
245to 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 S 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 water lines go, electrical lines, the whole bit. So I have uh done design build a couple of times. It
246works 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. It serves 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 some of our energy costs. Um this will also one of the big factors of this which all kind of
247started 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. It is a two-step process. So it is kind of lengthy of an RFQ as well as an RFP on
248their 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 B and 2023 bond funds for this project. >> Do we have any questions for Mr. Buckner? I guess the
249only 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 allocated that and 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 to item M1. The board will meet in executive session to discuss qualifications of new executive board nominees. The executive
250session 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. I know. embarrass. [laughter] I feel like she's Take this trash. 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 the position of secretary, we have two nominations. Uh,
251one 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 43. 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 going to just for procedurally here, I'm going to make sure that I saw everybody clearly. All in favor, please raise your hand and say I. All opposed. Okay, that
252motion passes 52. Thank you guys. And uh that's going to move us to a journ.