001Nice. We're going to open our Tuesday workshop October 21st, 2025, a little after 5:00. Call to order. Declaration of a quorum. All seven members here. Thank you'all for being here. Brings item C, hearing assist of citizens. We have none for the workshop. Brings item D, D1, bilingual and ESL program annual evaluation report. Come on up. be really loud. Um, this evening I'll be presenting the bilingual education and ESL programs report. Our presentation targets will be an overview of the bilingual ESL program, student demographic information, academic and English language proficiency progress, budget considerations, staffing and professional development. and there'll be time for questions at the end. Um, it's very likely you've seen this data through the school improvement presentation or accountability. So, tonight will be a quick summary. As we move through the presentation, I'll just
002call out what um, stands out the most. As we focus the presentation, um, the program is going to involve our emergent bilingual students who are served through our bilingual programs pre-K through six or ESL program preK through 12. The languages that are represented, our top language is English, but the second most represented language continues to be Spanish. In terms of students being served in our programs, the notable thing um that has actually happened this year, the number of students in our bilingual program are closely approaching the number of students in our ESL program. So, can you go back to that one? Do you have those actual numbers? That seems like a big jump. I can't really see the total increases like how many total increase students are. Is that >> from last year? I'm sorry
003I didn't. Yeah, it's hard to see on the Okay. >> Sorry. >> The one on the bottom for the ESL and bilingual looks really or I guess the bilingual looks really steep, but looks like 400 more kids. Okay. Right. Is it 400 more kids? Is that is that is that pass the sniff test? >> Yeah, where that dot is it looks like it's 5 525 give or take 8.96 and then uh ESL students look to be probably closer to 700 to 933. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And when we think about the academic progress of our students, emergent bilingual students um on grades star three through eight, what's most notable is our reclassified students um are um more than half of our students in grades three through eight have satisfactory progress in three out of the
004four content areas. And moving on to the students on STAR EOC, our reclassified students are consistently meeting standard on those exams with English one and English two continuing to be an area of growth. the linguistic progress of our students for Telpus in grades K through six, which represents our bilingual and ESL program. Many students across programs in grade levels are performing at the composite level of intermediate. And when we look at student Telpus progress in grades 7 through 12, um more than half of our students are performing at the composite levels of advanced or advanced high. The only new data points I have to share with you this evening are our loss links Spanish progress monitoring which is a requirement as we monitor the proficiency in the partner language of our dual language program which
005is Spanish. Our kindergarteners and first graders were measured um in their proficiencies in listening and speaking and many of them are progressing um well on that. And when we look at the composite level, listening, speaking, reading, and writing across four content areas, um this is the data you would accept to expect to see when students are acquiring a second language. The goal for our emergent bilingual students is to meet that reclassification criteria, which is scoring advanced high on Telpus, um meeting standard on a reading assessment as well as a positive teacher subjective evaluation. And I'm very proud to report that this year we had 145 students meet reclassification criteria across all schools and all grade levels. Um budget considerations, we have our state bilingual education aotment, our local budget, and we were fortunate enough to
006get our federal funds this year. Um all of that is used to um serve our students. The most notable thing in our program is out of the 46 dual language teachers that we need to serve our students, 38 of them are fully certified. As far as our ESL program, we have increased the number of teachers that serve elementary students from 283 to 337 as well as increasing the number of secondary teachers from 51 to 76. Um, all that being said, we have a lot of students with a lot of needs and part of that is having a fully certified bilingual or ESL teacher. If they do not, we are required to file an exception or a waiver. This year, we will be having to file an exception and a waiver. But what I'm most proud
007of is that our teachers who are not certified are participating in our Grow Your Own Strive program. Um, and this is preliminary data snapshot and this is due before November 1st. So there's a there's time for teachers to turn in you get that certification completed. Um in order to support our program and our educators, we have professional development through collaborative team meetings, provide compliance training. Our focus this year will be that teacher certification training as well as planning for the implementation of the new English language proficiency standards for the fall. And our next steps are to evaluate the effectiveness of the resources we've invested in um expanding our summer language academy and the development of our emergent bilingual family advisory committee. So if you have any questions, I might be able to answer them. That
008was a lot and it was fast. Um I guess in general I know there was a lot of data there but there was only one slide that kind of compared previous years to this year snapshot. How do you feel from year to year the program h has been doing as far as meeting the needs of the of you know the emergent bilingual students coming into the program? >> It's always a challenge. >> Yeah. How is the or is the population changed or have things changed? Kids are kids and when we hold them to high expectations with professional development and just keeping the focus on their education, I I think we're meeting the needs the best way that we can. If if you want to ask me truly like why we're meeting their needs is because
009we have the gold star program in College Station ISD, which is the two-way dual language program. It's an equitable program for our English speakers as well as our Spanish speakers. and the fact that we have so much support for our English learners across the board, academic English learners. >> And as you go, you're probably going to say similar thing. >> My microphone. It's a wonderful program. Um I just want our community to know that. I mean, my my children are both completely fluent in Spanish and it's amazing and scored well on tests. Um I'm curious though, and and I hate that I don't know this. What is the summer language academy? I don't just out of curiosity. I don't remember hearing about that, but I' we've been out for a little bit. >> No, that's
010fine. Um the summer language academy is um what we call our our summer programs. Um it's been rebranded. It's not summer school. It's not necessarily a remediation. Um we are the only program we're required to offer for our emergent bilingual students is um our prek and kinder program. We use our additional funds um to support our newcomers that are in grades um any well we focus we've done a high school new high school academy as well as an elementary academy. Um many of these students aren't able to um attend the acceleration academy because of their the linguistic um needs. So we partner right along those programs and provide intensive English support in the areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, academic English based on their TLP scores, their loss length scores and um sometimes MAP
011scores if that's applicable. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I also go ahead dear. just back on the dual language because we both were both dual language parents and both fans of the program. So, and looking at those numbers um of growth. So, how much of our how many have we been adding new classrooms? Are we kind of just a general update on the how is the dual language program doing at our three ele still three elementary campuses and one intermediate and have we been adding new classrooms? Those kind of things. And also, I'd say as it looks like more English language learners are coming in. Are we also being able to match the number of um native English speakers that are in the program? Kind of just a general update on it. >> I'll try
012to remember all of that. Our emergent bilingual programs are designed to meet the needs of our emergent bilingual learners. So there has been a shift in the revision of chapter 89 moving from a 50/50 language allocation as well as a 50-50 demographic composition of the classroom because of the high needs um to for the bilingual programs um districts wanting the gold star program of a two-way program. Rather than having a 5050 split for student participation, it is now a twothirds one-thirds participation because um as we know it, it's quite costly to add another unit. We add additional units as we as we can. Um currently our fourth grade cohort has eight classrooms that will be hitting Oakwood next year. So, >> did I answer all the questions? One intermediate >> Oakwood. >> Yes, ma'am. >>
013Yes. Yes. >> I was just curious about uh for our younger students to get enrolled, what's the education like? What gets them enrolled? Are they learning about it when they get there? And then why do you see kids signing up when they're younger? I'm just just curious. Anecdotal. anecdotal because they're sponges >> and um >> being bilingual just truly opens up a lot of different avenues for you. And living in Texas, it's beneficial to to speak Spanish um even Vietnamese in some areas. That is the next language in the state of Texas that is um being represented across the board. So, and I think going I remember going through the presentation of why anybody would want to be in the program. Obviously, we it's a state or a federal required program for emergent bilingual students,
014but for some of the other folks who joined the program, I remember the discussion of how um not only is it that picking up that other language, but it's the fact that it's these young kids are working a different part of their brain. It is a challenging learning environment if for if there if the students are up for it, right? I think they're that's another academic benefit that they they're offer. At least that's what y'all told us. I think so, too. >> It still is. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you for your time. >> That bring us to item D2. Review board policy FDA local. >> Yeah. You've got a copy of current FDA local in front of you. You've got some red line and then some blue lines of what that would look like if
015we tweak this policy. This is our u interd district transfer policy which you also call out of district transfer policy. The district's policy uh over the course of many years have have been pretty rigid. Uh only uh employees uh who live with outside the district could bring their child into College Station ISD to attend school. anyone else outside of that window or someone who lived here and then moved away at the end of that school year, they would have to transfer to another school district. Uh we've had conversations oneonone uh with each of you as well as some discussion in a board meeting of ways uh to generate additional income as a district. Uh our demographers report has been high every year. We're not close to the numbers that they're telling us we're going to
016be at. our enrollment. This year we are uh about 300 kids less than what we budgeted for, which is a little over $2 million. Uh and so it's problematic. You know, funding in the state of Texas has been a concern for public educators for the last hundred years. It'll be a concern for the next hundred years. If you look at what just happened in the last legislative session, uh I think there's caused to be even bigger concern. Heather's at a a conference right now. She sent me some data today in a text message. Depending on what data you look at, we fund students in the state of Texas ranked either 38th or 48th, depending on which one you're looking at. And the new number that just came out today that I find really interesting, our
017voucher program will rank number one in the United States with how much money we give for voucher programs. So, I think when you look at those two metrics, uh we can do one or two things. We can sit back and not do anything and pray every two years that the state's going to finally do something to help us or we can get more proactive and try to do what we can to make sure we're taking care of of our kids. We've established we do have space at at multiple campuses in our school district um that we could take additional students. I was part of a district several years ago when I took that job as superintendent. They had been taken out of district transfers for two years. So, I ran that program for about six
018years. The district started growing heavily and so we backed off. Everybody that was on a transfer could be grandfathered in, but we didn't take any new transfers. We kind of capped that piece off. I do not see anything in our demographic study that would lead me to think uh the numbers are accurate of where we're going to be in the next seven or eight years. Generally, they're very accurate for three to five. Once you get six, seven, eight, nine, 10, it's a guesstimate and a lot of things can change in between now and then. That's why we'll keep an eye on things and and see what we need to do. U but my recommendation and what kind of what I want to talk about today is uh your opinion. We're not taking a vote on
019this is feedback from each one of you on taking out of district transfers. Just to kind of give you an idea, it's not an open district. So there you get open enrollment is thrown around a lot and that's not what this would be. Open enrollment would be you could transfer in and we're going to accept you. We would have thresholds and criteria that kids would have to meet in order to qualify to be accepted. Like grades, all grades would have to be I'm just throwing out just raw numbers 80 or above. Discipline 0ero to2 referrals. Attendance 95% or higher. star scores, past star SC star exams. Uh those are things that they would have to submit documentation to us in an application. We'd have a team that would go through the applicants and create two
020piles. These qualify, these do not qualify. Uh we would set a tracking pattern of where the students would go. So parents knew you don't get to pick a school. you know, we would set that track and if we advertised out of district transfers, it would be advertised if you know the track your child's going to be on. We talked just my team and ever what do we do K6, K4, K8? My concern with K8 is maybe too much too quickly. In my opinion, I don't think we should go higher than sixth grade to give us a couple of years to run the program, decide the pathway for students going into high school. And we've kind of settled on if we get to that point, kids in high school would be a straight lottery draw. That
021way, we don't have kids picking a particular high school because I want to play football here, I want to play baseball, I want to be in this band. It would be a straight lottery draw of what high school that would we that they would go to. that would be the most equitable way in order to do it and also our way of policing uh someone not choosing a campus for UIL purposes. So that's basically kind of what we want to talk about this policy and we will come back and have another discussion. We there's also a part of our district of innovation plan that we could revise that we could add a clause that if a student was not meeting our expectations during a school year, they could be removed and have to go back
022to wherever their home campus was outside of our school district. So, it gives a little teeth if we had a child that whatever got into a bunch of discipline issues that they would be removed. In my uh six or seven years running that program in the previous district, I think I revoked only two transfers and we we had zero issues with kids that were coming in. When parents are willing to drive their kids in, they hit the four metrics to qualify for applying. Generally, on paper, you you have a student that's motivated and and is going to be an addition to our uh school community and a and a good addition to our campuses. So, that's basically just the gif of FDA local. Just to give you if if this is something the board has
023an app appetite for, we would change the policy in November. We would run a marketing campaign in December and January with the application window. By the middle to end of February, parents would get a letter from us. Your kid qualified for an applicant. They'll be going to exchool or they did not qualify. And then we would have a a chance before we go out for uh teacher contracts and things of how we need to staff uh campuses to make sure we're prepared in early spring and have all that set long before May uh end of May gets here. So just kind of open it up. You've got some things so we can take some notes and uh see where you guys are. I think the benefit is um you know there's often criticisms of what
024we can and can't do but you have we have to try to innovate and there's a lot of limitations with that um and I think this is a way for us to be innovative so I think that sounds great uh we have to find new avenues uh to bring in more students and and that's going to generate revenue because we're not getting support from the state. I'm curious. You mentioned the lottery program makes sense, but what about um you know, if they're specific where they want to come in and swim, so they console is the only place they're going to go. Would that how would we factor those kind of things? >> Yeah, we would. I'm going to I want to do some more research with some larger districts that have had that. think if
025there's a particular program outside of if there's a program that each school doesn't offer, I think letting them have that choice, I'm not necessarily opposed to that at all. But I think like you're saying the swim for console, if a child's a swimmer and wants to swim and their draw is College Station High School, they probably need to let them stay here at Console. We're just trying to eliminate if we have duplicate programs that they can't pick and choose and then it becomes, you know, one high school, this this one year is the hot school everybody wants to go to and and then we're creating some inequities that really wouldn't be fair. So, it would give us a couple years to work with some other districts to figure out how they kind of police that
026to make sure we're making an informed decision and something that would be equitable for everybody. And I think that one of the things I was thinking about is we don't we don't allow students who live in our district to choose where they go to school except for these situations where we have a swimmer who goes to console or we have other programs in CTE that maybe are at one or the other and then we do make those exceptions for transfers but um I would certainly like to see us not allow our outofd district transfers to do something that we don't allow our own students to do. >> Do we do we put limits on like what if we get a 100 people applying for kindergarten? like how do we handle the different grade levels? If
027we go K through six, do we try to even it out? And then I'm assuming also at Kinder, we don't have any of that data we're wanting. Is it kind of just a gamble on >> they would reapply every year and so every year they would turn in the documentation that we need uh in order to keep track. So every year they would have to because there there may be a year everything's in order and then the next year, you know, something happens attendance-wise or discipline gets bad. uh and so they would reapply every year and they're not guaranteed that they would they would be a part then. Now they do recommend on the uh FDA local that in order for us to to remove a child that it needs to be based on discipline
028and attendance, not grades. And and I was always good with that. We never removed a child who didn't pass a STAR test. If they came to me and they're in our school district and they didn't pass STAR, well that's on us. And so it was just grades and discipline are the the two criteria for any sort of removal. >> We've seen the special education growth. So what does that look like with special education? >> Yeah, there is zero discrimination. It's kind of like anybody can apply and and and being in a special education program would not keep them from being a part of our school district. >> And then on page two where it says unless required by law, would that be like a special education need? >> Uh no. required by law would I
029believe the the requirement to travel by law with special education transportation is only in district. Uh some of the transportation required by law would be possibly for McKenna with potential homeless children. This really wouldn't fit in this context. Would we expect given our reputation with sped and the growth that we've seen there would we expect and I'm realize you don't probably don't know we think we'd get a lot more >> in my previous district that was one of the uh largest increases we had was in special education. >> Yes it was. >> I'm going play devil's advocate >> special education teachers in this district that might just hear this and go >> oh no. So you mentioned earlier the staffing piece, but we also understand that special education is very difficult to staff for. So
030now it's a double-edged sword for us as a district. So, I guess that's where the hey the application piece comes into play where hey sorry we just we can't staff it to fit the amount of applications that correct >> that would be part of it >> because we're going to protect what we have. I mean that's just where we're at. >> Absolutely. We could look historically too on how many new special education teachers we've hired let's say over the last five years in each year and trying to anticipate what that number would look like. But that would absolutely be a determining factor because what we would do is look at our current programs and see what space we've had and if kids qualify a particular space could we take additional children there or not and
031if staffing is an issue then that would be the disqualification would be staffing and all of that would be outlined in our application process. You know you apply you could check every box and you may not get there. you know, we may be at a standpoint where we're thinking 300 kids, give or take, and let's say we have 500 applications. Well, we may not be able to take 500 that first year. >> I was really curious on how many you think is kind of the right amount to start with at a maximum to be since this is new to our district and um you know, a lot of unknowns with other things. Yes, I mean we still have >> I would say three to 400 depending on the grade levels, you know, where we're going
032to get. If we went K through six, the feeder pattern we would probably established would be Creek View and Side Grove. Uh but we've also got some additional campuses that could take on additional kids as well. And so kind of like create a board on our last demographic study of where we've got some movement and some flexibility. Uh Rock Prairie is getting in additional classroom spaces here this next year. They've got space there that's available. We'd probably try to keep it as a true two campuses the first year, but I could see that particularly branching out to some other campuses because we do have some space that we could do that. >> And can you address because one of the questions I had from folks was that with that the idea would necessarily be increasing
033class sizes, right? How would we manage that so it wouldn't be increasing existing? >> Basically, we've got raw numbers that we're running for grade levels. So Mike right now at Creek View, we know his seat count for K4. And so if I've got 40 first graders coming in, I've got 50 third graders, then we do the math on how many new teaching positions he would need. >> So it would depend on applications too then, right? So we don't know, >> right? >> We don't know how many we're going to get. And then we look at what where do we have room and where do we not? >> Correct. We don't have a magic number. that once you've done it for a year and you get applications to come back and you see how many new
034and then at that point you've got thresholds that you know how many you could take. Yeah. The first year would be more pretty much more wide open. And I just think the concern still is yeah we don't know how many would come but um if we're just plugging in a few additionals to you know already some crowded classrooms you know but >> I'm not saying come would not be ideal. We don't know how many would actually apply. 100% agree. I was saying, but what's a maximum that we think we could um handle for our capacity? >> Don't really know because >> 3 to 400 is what we didn't have. >> Yeah, we would hire we would hire new teachers. So, yeah, it would be there. Yeah. And I don't you know, we have one classroom
035over 22 to one in K4. So, we're not we're not over capacity in K4 classrooms. >> You don't add 300 300 to 400 kids without adding new teachers. Right. Exactly. I just want to clarify. That's what I'm that's what I see. >> Um I do think long one one thing another question I had is that if a kid is comes in and you know yes we want to reapply they got to make sure they're meeting the ongoing criteria rate um do we are we going to allow them to stay at that same campus that they are um you know they coming into kindergarten or and I don't what's the plan would they stay at that same elementary school for all five of their years >> correct >> that would be the okay Yeah. >> Okay.
036So, we have that flexibility with new kids coming in, but then there's a then >> they're not part of reszoning because they don't live here. >> Yeah. >> So, they would be they would have a set pipeline that they would go to. >> So, just to be so folks coming in, we also wouldn't be moving them around from one year to a year to year. They would >> No. Unless there was some sort of uh program change potentially. If a child was in special education and a program that was at this campus moved somewhere, then that would be an extenduating circumstance. >> I don't expect you to have exact numbers, but what what how common is this in in Texas so far? >> It's pretty common uh and has gotten very common over the last
037five years as uh what used to be high growth areas have experienced uh a drop in enrollment. Frisco for one. Frisco was building two high schools a year for I don't know how many years and they opened out of district transfers last year to take new kids because they had a huge deficit budget because their enrollment was dropping because people were moving out. And so you're seeing more and more of that of quite honestly school districts having to pivot and having to take care of themselves and they need students and they feel like they've got a great product to sell and so they market. You know, our our state has made it very adamant that they want parents to have choice. So great, we can give them another option. >> Yeah, that that's I don't
038have a number, Josh. I could probably get online and do some searching and see. >> I I just I just wanted to get the idea across that we're not reinventing the wheel here. >> No, it's not at all. No, it's it's not at all. Austin paid attention last fall. We had multiple conversations thinking ahead about this being a possibility and and he uh clipped and saved a lot of the marketing materials that multiple school districts used. Um and we can reach out to them as well of of things that worked. >> Yeah. And we in CSISD, obviously not level of Frisco, but we were kind of in that same boat where we were a high growth district for years and years and years and now it's so it's it's we're in similar situation. So >>
039yeah, it's leveled off, but our tax base and that's where the funding piece comes in hasn't. it continues to grow. And so that formula right now is working against us and it's costing us money. And if we don't do something, then we're going to be considered property rich as our enrollment continues to drop. And right now, we don't have to pay money to the state. But if things didn't change, we would start writing money to the state that we don't have to give. And you reason I bring up innovation is because there are other school districts. Katie for example is starting an online school. >> It accepts everywhere anywhere in the state. Um and I >> there's probably some pros that may come out of that and there's also some pitfalls that come out of
040it. Universities did that when they went to online learning and they thought everybody was going to come to their schools and what you find out is really people stayed regionally. Um and it was rather advantageous&m being in their traditional ways didn't do a lot of that. ended up working out well for them because they wanted in-class learning. The online learning wasn't the windfall that a lot of places thought. So, I think we have to try to innovate and this is seems like a a way to do that. >> That is another area we are exploring >> and plan on taking a trip to the Metroplex to uh go to a district that's been doing it for about three years and that would be something that we would explore opening in 2728. Only not not a
041K12 model, more than likely a 912 model. I mean, we're not going to be out there twisting any arms to make anybody come to our district, right? This is this is just an opportunity that we're opening. And we have to believe we have to believe that we are we have a product um that people want. We have to believe that we're doing a good job with student success um and supporting our students and helping them learn and that there may be some others out there that want that. So, I think it's we there's a lot of unknown. I mean, we're jumping into something that we haven't done before, but um We're giving an opportunity for other students that that they may want to take. >> I think it's a great opportunity too to make some
042money. I do want want us to take it cautiously and maybe with some kind of slower pace to make sure that's what I would like to see. Make sure we work out the kinks in it and it is um not causing any unforeseen issues that we hadn't expected. I think the one other question on the funding because obviously the funding follows the student. That's the whole reason for doing this and the funding full funding formula for their weighted funding whatever their classes they're in would follow them. Right. >> Everything follows the only difference is they're not a taxpayer >> or like the bonds and and >> a taxpayer or a voter in College Station ISD. Correct. >> Right. I the only thing that then in the back of my head because I've mentioned it a
043few times lately, there are still some pieces of of that funding formula that we know um don't meet the full needs of what we offer, right? We are we are providing above and beyond in some cases for for some services more than what the state in the fund in the average funding formula provides, right? Like special education like you mentioned um is is one. So that would be one concern maybe in the back of my mind and I don't know if other districts how they've dealt with that or seen that that you know that it doesn't cause an undue burden financially in in some specific cases. >> I I'd just like to say kind of to follow up what Dr. Payne said is is um I I appreciate the administration looking outside the box when
044it comes to this. So, you know, we quite often, especially when you have a school district like College Station where we've had a certain level of success over a number of years, you get I don't want to say complacent, but you you are less likely to try innovative things. And um if you don't do that, then you you stay at that certain level. Um and so doing this again, it it is not a lifetime commitment. And so to follow up on some of the concerns is try it for a year or two and if it if it works that's that's awesome and if it doesn't then you know you can always change your mind. So um you know looking out thinking outside the box and and looking at those types of options I think is
045good. All right. There's nothing else that'll bring a side of me. Ajourn You're good. Welcome everybody to our board meeting October 21st, 2025, a little after 7 o'clock. Call to order declaration of quorum. All seven of us are here. Welcome everybody. Thank you all for being here. Welcome to this meeting of the College Station Independent School District Board of Trustees. We are elected at large to represent the interests of our community and our state in educating our students. Our mission for our students in this district is success each life, each day, each hour. We adhere to all pertinent laws, policies, and procedures and posting agendas in conducting our meetings. The detailed agenda information was made available to us at least three business days in advance. And we have all come to this meeting informed and
046prepared. We've just completed a workshop session where we heard reports and discuss 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're pleased that you've taken the time this evening to join us. We're very proud of this school district and we thank you for your interest in and support of our students. We will begin with recognitions from all three of our high schools. Pledge allegiance. >> Good evening. I am Chris S. I'm the very proud principal at Collegeu High School and
047I've got a couple members of the Wolf Back here to help us tonight. I'm going to introduce JJ and King. Let them tell you a little bit about themselves in our school. >> Hello, my name is JJ or Jonathan, whichever you prefer. I am part of the CTE programs over at College View High School and as well as taking just my regular high school classes. I am very excited to be here with you guys tonight. also very nervous. I do apologize. >> Um, what programs are you in? >> I'm a part of our construction program over at College View. Twice a week we bus out to the Blind Relis College and we learn skills and trades necessary for Oh my goodness. Um, learn skills and trades necessary for jobs and workplaces where those skills are
048necessary and required. One of our most recent certifications is basic HVAC. So, heating and air conditioning, we love it. We're in it right now. It's awesome. >> Super important. So, that is one of the big things that we have recently learned. And overall overall, our programs over at College View are awesome and they're giving me all the skills and experience I need to go into the workforce. [Applause] >> Hello, my name is Kinley Bington and I am a student at College High School. I am a sophomore and I'm a part of our digital arts and animation uh pathway. It helps us learn different things that we'll need for like photography or Photoshop, things like that. Um I'm secretary of our Skills USA team and I'm also the secretary for NHS. [Applause] >> Howdy and good
049evening. Justin Grimes, proud principal of College Station High School. And um I have two of our uh Cougars here tonight, Sam Agiri and Isabelle Isabella Viscetta, who are going to introduce themselves. Hi, I'm Isabella Viscera. I am part of the first ever all female drum major team of College Station High School Cougar Band. Yep. I'm the head drum I the I am the head drum major for the Cougar band. And one thing I love about CSHS is the open culture that we have, the very positive culture that we have. And that gives us opportunities to talk about anything and improve in anything, especially leadership, which is something I'm very passionate about. And I also want to say I love our teachers, including my mom, CSHS teacher there. So yeah, I love CSHS. Thank you. >>
050Howdy. My Howdy. My name is Samiri. I'm a senior at College Station High School and my mom is a second grade teacher at uh Forest Ridge Elementary. Um one thing I like about College Station High School are the Cougar qualities and how the teachers and staff work hard every day to embody those and uh for and instill them into the students there. Uh at College Station High School, I'm involved in FCA, FFA, and Gen Now and NHS. And yeah, [Applause] >> good evening. My name is Gwen Elder and I'm the proud principal of Anam Consolidated High School. We do have two Tigers that will come up and introduce themselves. >> Hey y'all. I'm the student body president at Console. My name is Ava Sutherland. Um, at school I'm involved in NHS, National Honor Society, um,
051and environmental photography, as well as my track team. And after high school, I really want to study astrophysics hopefully at TU. Sorry, guys. Um, but my favorite thing about Console would have to be our student body. Like, we are just so passionate and driven. Especially if you've been to any of our football games or pep rallies, you will see at like the CSHS game this year, we are a loud crowd. We show up and show out. So, yeah. [Applause] Hi, my name is Amaya Dailyaly. I'm currently a senior at Consol. Um, I'm involved in a couple different activities. Um, I'm a part of the varsity basketball team as well as varsity track and field. Um, I'm a part of NHS, National Honor Society, Thrivors, Anchor. Um, I'm the captain of the step team. And there
052was one more, Brad Valley Promise. Um, after high school, I plan to go to college to study nursing, hopefully at Texas&M, to become a labor and delivery nurse. One thing I like about Console is just the opportunities that it's given students academically, athletically, and skillfully wise. [Applause] >> And now for the pledges. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> And now for the Texas pledge. >> Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may now be seated. [Applause] Thank you guys. [Applause] Okay, we're just making sure we're going in the
053right order of the agenda here, folks. Mr. Dr. Horak, members of the board, as always, it's an honor and privilege to be able to recognize students who have achieved uh significant accomplishments at the state or national levels. And tonight, we have several groups to recognize. The first, as you can see on our agenda, is our national merit semi-finalists. Eight CSISD seniors representing&M Consolidated and College Station High School were confirmed as semi-finalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. The recognition allows these academically talented students to continue in the competition for approximately 6,930 national merit scholarships worth nearly $26 million. The eight semi-finalists are among more than 16,000 students throughout the United States that represent the top 1% of students who entered the merit program by taking the preat um or national merit school qualifying test
054during their junior year. To qualify as a National Merit finalist, students must maintain high academic performance, meet all program requirements, complete the application and essay, confirm their PSAT scores with the SAT or ACT, and be endorsed and recommended by their high school principal. Students, as I call your name, if you'll come and receive your certificate from Dr. Hark Rider, make your rounds to shake the board members hands. And if you'll stand off to the side over here so that we can take a group picture. First from&M Consolidated High School. Ununice Carman [Applause] from&M Consolidated High School. Kate Kavanagh [Applause] from College Station High School. Sarah Leo, College Station High School. Sue Leo, College Station High School. Jaden McMurray [Applause] from&M Consolidated High School. Neil Pang from College Station High School. Shishien Dao [Applause] from College
055Station High School. Megan Wagner [Applause] Congratulations. [Applause] Next, also a part of the National Merit Program are commended students. 33 CSIC seniors have been designated commended students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in recognition of their outstanding ability and potential for academic success in college. These academically talented students are among more than 23 approximately 34,000 of high scores on the PreSAT and National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. The National Merit Program honors these students by sending letters of commenation to them through their high schools. And although these students will not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, some may be candidates for special scholarships offered by corporate sponsors. We'll start by reading names from&M Consolidated High School. Marray Deckers, [Applause] James Ellison, [Applause] Elizabeth Gregory, [Applause] Alicia Goo, AJ Gandana, Margaret Huffenberger, Jaden Guac, Madison
056McCaulay, Christian Mogford, Rachel Moran, [Applause] Joshua Shannon, [Applause] Harrison Smith, [Applause] Evelyn Walker, Berkeley White, Derek Yokum [Applause] from College Station High School, Maya Diazeva, Leila Farage, [Applause] Olivia Fagan, [Applause] Mary Gomeillian, [Applause] Jerry Sha, [Applause] Katarina Humphre, [Applause] Donio Lee, [Applause] Serena Lee, [Applause] Victoria Ozerova, [Applause] Jonathan Perryman, [Applause] Sir Shankar, Bach TR, Carson Olrich, [Applause] Eric Wang, Edward Yang, Lucas Young, and Cynthia Cowo. Please give one more big round of applause for our commended students. All right. Congratulations, guys. You guys can see. All right. And our last student recognition for tonight is from PON Trail Intermediates Theater Program. Gontrail Intermediates theater program recently earned exemplary status in the Texas Educational Theater Association Awards of Distinction, honoring the program for raising the bar for theater education in their community. The award of distinction honors
057schools that make outstanding contributions to theater education by excelling in achievement, resource development, diversity, and advocacy for the arts. Earning exemplary status is the highest level of the awards tiered system which ranges from recognized to exemplary. To achieve this status, schools must annually submit a detailed application demonstrating their dedication to theater through multiple avenues. Points are awarded based on a range of criteria. This recognition celebrates the passion and hard work of Pontrail's theater program led by Mr. to Roy Rodriguez, its students, and the community supporters who ensure that the performing arts remain a thriving part of school culture. With strong backing from the district's fine arts department and the whole CSISTD community, programs like Pontrails continue to provide students with high quality opportunities to learn, perform, and grow in the arts. And as a quick
058plug, Pont Trails Theater will perform Puffs, a one act for young wizards, a fast-paced, witty, and heartwarming story that offers a new perspective on a familiar wizarding world at the CSISD UIL one-act play contest on Friday, November 14th at 400 PM. And we have some of the cast here with us to receive this honor along with Mr. Rodriguez. We have Reggie Hill. >> Come on, Reggie. Caroline Propes, [Applause] Bridget Given, [Applause] Key Dowski, [Applause] Emily Bishop, [Applause] Mr. Walt Parkerson, Adeline Worthy, and of course, Mr. Roy Rodriguez, theater director over at Pont Trail. Please give him a round of applause as well. Give everybody one more round of applause. They came to you guys in costume, so we're very appreciative of that. We're going to take a quick picture, guys. [Applause] All right. Next, we'll
059bring our principles back up to recognize our staff members. Okay, guys. I have a couple of our Wolfpack members here to honor tonight. Your flowers first. >> So, I've got Miss Tamisha Jenkins and Miss Shandra Farms who they run our cafeteria at Collegeu, serveing all of our kids on the college side and also at the DAP side. And so, what I love about these two is that they will not allow any of our kids to go hungry. They show up late. They go, they do everything they can to get them food, whether even if it's just a bowl of cereal or or or finding some fruit for them to eat. They want to make sure that our kids are taken care of. They're wellfed. They're ready to start their day and also the lunches. And
060then they help us out. Last year for 50 men that can cook, they helped me warm up all the meat that we serve. By the way, we won that. Good job, ladies. And so, they just do an outstanding job. They really embody the service part of our school. And we're very proud to call them members of the Wolfpack tonight. >> Thank you. Okay, I'm back again. Uh, so one of the things that we talked about as my admin team, we met last week and of the 140ish employees that we have on campus, it came down to these two groups of people. So, I'm going to ask my head track I mean cross country coach, coach Branch, come up. And then my department heads, if you ladies will come up. [Applause] So, I'm going start with
061Coach Branch. Uh, Coach Branch is one that has never met a stranger. I think he would talk to that wall if that wall would talk back to him. He's always so upbeat. He is just a ray of sunshine on our campus. He came, we c hired him three years ago. And um not only does he u mold our student athletes on the track field, he does a a great job of molding those athletes uh in the classroom. Um Coach Branch, we appreciate your dedication. We appreciate all that you have given us in our um cross country program. Um he's been on our campus three years and of the three years that he's been on campus, he's gone to state every single time. Talking about raising that bar high and so we thank you for everything
062that you do. And so as a token of our appreciation, we know you love Hershey's chocolate bars and so we have you a an arrangement of chocolate bars. So thank you so much. And so next we have our department heads. We have Kayla Holmes, we have Emily Crossweight, and we have Lindsey Z. Michelle Jelica is also a a department head. She's um away. I think she's with the student on a competition. And so Jed, if you're watching, we're recognizing you, too. She she was kind of bummed that she couldn't be with us today. And so I want to recognize the ladies here mainly because they wear many hats. Um they are department heads. They are instructional coaches. uh they mentor new teachers. Uh the reason they run uh wear these many hats is because they
063wanted to wear these hats. I know last spring when we were looking at maybe possibly separating out the instructional coaches coach position from the department head uh position, they said, "Nope, we want to keep them together. We want to make sure we're able to have um one foot in the classroom where we're working with teachers and then also we want to continue to learn and help grow teachers." And so I do appreciate our our theme um on our campus is all in for success and they live that out day in and day out. You guys only collaborate with your teachers, but you also collaborate outside of the the department. And so as a token of our appreciation, we want to present you with a bouquet of flowers because you know you're all that and so
064much more. So we thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to ask Miss Tina and Miss Connie to head this way. But while they're walking up here, I'm going to tell a little bit about them. Uh raise your hand if you're responsible for feeding your family at the house. like you're the person responsible for cooking. Okay, raise your hand if you're responsible for cleaning your teenager's room at your house. Okay, so this should resonate with a lot of people in this room. Uh this is always a really hard night for me because there's so many people that I would love to bring up here. Um but I wanted to make sure that I recognize two very very important people to our Cougar family and that is Miss Connie Castanada and Miss Tina Hawkins. And
065I'm going to talk about uh each one of them very very briefly. Uh but that does not uh mean that I don't have a lot to say. Uh so Miss Connie Castanada is our cafeteria manager and I'm going to tell a quick story about her. We had an event uh recently, not not long ago, where we lost our major gas line to our building. And if you uh haven't already figured it out yet, the gas line runs all the ovens that it takes to to cook for 2,000 kids. So I want you to think about the household you're responsible for. I promise it's not 2,000 you're trying to feed. Um, all of this happened within about a 20 minute window of our very first lunch starting. I will just get to the end of the
066story and say this. Out of 2,000 kids that day, not a single student went without a hot meal and her and her team made it happen. And I just want to say how much I appreciated that day for you. That happens every day on our campus, breakfast and lunch. Uh, but that day was really, really special. And there was a lot of people in this room that made that happen, but this lady right here quarterbacked it. And so, thank you very much, Connie Castanada. Now, if you've ever had to clean up for your teenager, all right, think about your house is probably fourdigit square footage. We have a sixdigit square foot that she's responsible for. 450,000 square foot, three stories, actually four stories, including out buildings. And she's responsible for her team. And every day,
067uh, our building is clean, it is safe, it smells good. Um, and uh, our our kids are very very lucky to have Miss Tina quarterbacking our team uh, of custodians and making it happen every day, cleaning up after them in the restrooms, cleaning up after them in the classrooms. And I tell you what, she makes it happen. And I don't know where we'd be without her. And I can't say enough about Miss Tina Hawkins. Thank you. And ladies, you have five cougar coins that I will present to you tomorrow. And they know what that means. All right. Thank you all very much. [Applause] >> Good evening everybody. My name is Chuck Longwell. I'm the driver supervisor at transportation. Uh, and making his way up here is our uh, what month is this? October. Employee of
068the month, Miss Employee of the Month, Mr. Jimmy Luther. [Applause] And I want to read something that Miss Shannon, who was not able to be here tonight, wrote out. And uh, and yeah. Uh, so we're delighted to announce that Jimmy Luther has been selected as our employee of the month. This recognition reflects his outstanding dedication, reliability, and exceptional service to our transportation department and the students we serve. Jimmy has been a valued member of the CSISD transportation team for 12 years. Uh throughout his time with us, 13 >> 13 years, I'll correct Shannon. Uh throughout his time here with us, uh he has consistently demonstrated the qualities that define what it truly means to be a bus driver, maintaining composure and reliability in all conditions and circumstances. Uh Jimmy is the type of employee you
069can always count on. He shows up ready to work and never waivers in his commitment to excellence. Jimmy doesn't simply transport students. He invests in their lives. He looks for opportunities to make a difference and takes on additional responsibilities without hesitation. Uh many children have stepped on Jimmy's bus daily and benefited from his steady presence, kind demeanor, and genuine care for their well-being. He understands that he plays a vital role in their development. Jimmy's a dependable colleague who supports and uplifts those around him, strengthening our entire transportation team. We are honored to have Jimmy as part of the CSISD family. His hard work, dedication, and positive influence on our students exemplify the highest standards of our profession. He represents the best of what it means to be a bus driver. Please join us in celebrating
070Jimmy Luther's outstanding contributions to our school district and our community. [Applause] And and I have worked with Jimmy for all of those 13 years. U and I can tell you that it has been an honor and a pleasure working with him. Uh every day we come in and and if I'm ever in a bad mood, he just comes up and well, are we having fun yet? >> Yes, sometimes. Um, but no, it it's it's every time I see you, it really makes my day better. >> U, so I'm going to present I'm presenting you with a certificate of appreciation and a uh gift card provided by the education foundation and E3. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Look at all >> appcate. >> So I am here today to honor Mr. Longwell who's usually
071here doing the honoring. And so, um, Chuck doesn't know this, but he played a critical role for Miss Wilson, our CFO, and gathering data, uh, being readily available for her many nights working late, many weekends working, pulling data, running bus routes, learning new formulas, um, and applying all of that to help her throughout the process of what went on with redistricting or resoning, if you will. And so, Chuck, your uh, your attitude's been fantastic throughout this process. Can do, will do attitude. It doesn't go unnoticed. We greatly appreciate all that you do. So you get a certificate and a gift card from >> Congratulations. Okay, real quick. I know we've had a lot of recognitions, but I don't think there's anything better. uh no offense to things you approved during a board meeting. However, uh
072announcing and celebrating kids and staff members is awesome. So, our last group uh October uh every year in the state of Texas and public education is uh principal month. And so, we want to take a quick opportunity to thank the men and women uh that lead our campuses. Tell them this quite a bit. They've got the toughest job uh that I've ever had in the business. Uh and I do not regret being back at a campus level. I'm not sure I could handle it now. So, uh, they do a wonderful job. Uh, I tell them all the time, our retention rate in this district's great because of the work that they do. They build great cultures where kids thrive, adults want to be a part of. It's a very difficult job. Their job mirrors a
073superintendent's job more than any job in this industry because they're responsible for every facet of that particular campus. So, we thank you guys. We love you. We've got a uh little gift for you that we think you will find useful. and uh we just want you to know you're appreciated and valued 365 days a year. However, we get to draw special attention to it uh today. So, thank you. [Applause] >> Okay, let's see here. Southwood Valley Elementary. Ally Duna, [Applause] >> Greens Prairie Elementary. Donna Bington, Pebble Creek Elementary. Amanda Allen. [Applause] Oh, sorry. I gota turn Rock Prairie Elementary. Don Newton, [Applause] College Hills Elementary. Katie Allen, [Applause] Spring Creek Elementary. Mindy Chopa, she's not here. >> Forest Ridge Elementary. Um, Teresa Cot, she's unable to be with us this evening. [Applause] >> Creek View
074Elementary, Mike McKver, [Applause] Southn No Elementary, Laura Richter, she's not able to be with us this evening. Riverband Elementary, Heather Sherman, [Applause] Cypress Grove Intermediate, uh Piper Cameron, she's not able to be with us this evening. Oakwood Intermediate, Roco Grande, he is not able to be here with us this evening. [Applause] Pan Trail Intermediate, uh Britney Kaine, College Station Middle School, Josh Ryan, >> AMCMS, Omar Spedia. I didn't see him. >> He was able to be here. I just didn't see you. I was looking. >> Okay. Well, Middle School, Jeremy Stewart. [Applause] Consol High School. Gwen Elder, [Applause] >> College View High School, Chris Suard. [Applause] And last but not least, College Station High School, Justin Grimes. [Applause] We'd like to thank you guys for all that you do. Like Dr. Hawk has said 365
075days a year you're always on call 24/7. [Applause] All right, that brings us to item C6. We want to recognize the artwork at the back of our boardroom from the Head Start program uh in recognition of Head Start awareness month as well in October. uh also from our students at Anam Cassada High School, College Station High School and College View High School. So quite a bit of artwork here at the back of the board meeting boardroom, excuse me. Uh that brings item DD D1, board reports. Who'd like to go first? I'll start. Um Miss Egie, Mr. Horic, and I are on the community um advisory committee, a newly formed committee. Um just want to thank Austin and Melanie for their energy and it was a fantastic and for Dr. Hark Ryder for us getting this
076new committee together. Um we really just kind of got to know the fellow committee members. Um we kind of outlined some expectations um for what this committee is going to accomplish and um then um kind of got into the nuts and bolts of it and talked about what the district's doing well, what we could do better and kind of our next steps. Um so it was a it was a lot of fun being on that committee and um getting to interact with some comm community members. Um I also um had the privilege of going to the uh special education committee which is another newly formed committee and um Miss McAdams and I were on that and um that was just a fantastic experience the collaboration with just parents in the room just um above and
077beyond what was on the agenda just sharing resources and stories and parents meeting parents that had been in our the programs um for a long time. Um so really looking forward to seeing what Miss Grande um does with that committee. And um lastly, Miss Wilson and I um were on the uh Head Start Policy Council and um I do you want to talk about that? Oh. Um that also is a new committee for me this year. Um really really interesting. Kind of didn't really know what they did. Um they really are getting these young kids school ready. Um but they do so much more. Um I learned that um I think we had 60 kids get glasses last year. They facilitate getting eye exams, all kinds of health stuff. um help families with nutrition. Um
078that committee also had a lot of parents there and it was great to hear the success stories and for them to share ideas as well. And um Shelley Rice and her team do a fabulous job and just really looking forward to serving on that committee. >> We met um with Education Foundation. We've been reviewing grants. Uh grant patrols around the corner. It has moved from the 12th to November 18th. So, uh, we had a record number of grants about 139, um, submitted. So, quite a few from new teachers. So, that's exciting. They're so enthusiastic. Um, also is Brazis Valley Gives today. Um, and the education foundation already surpassed their goal. So, we're super excited about that. Um, excited to celebrate them and they've raised over 70K uh, right now. So, this is also just an
079amazing opportunity for our community. uh to get the awareness with all these uh different organizations. So just be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that. I guess I'll do for myself and Miss Eye. Yesterday we were at the intergovernmental relationship um inter intergovernmental committee meeting and you know the agenda item was Todd McDaniels who's from the city of Brian and he was doing the Brian economic development. So at first I wasn't thinking it would be necessarily a lot that would impact us in College Station, but he started halfway through his presentation really talking about the job skills needed for a lot of the companies that are coming in to Brian and to the greater Brasses Valley. And he started talking about the CEK center at Brian and how um most of the job skills
080that they need are not job skills coming out of Texas A&M. their job skills that can come out of our, you know, CTE programs. And so I think that's it was a good reminder to me of the opportunities with our great CTE programs that, you know, we that those students are going to have in our local community, whether it's in College Station businesses or Brian businesses. Okay. Um, Dr. Dr. Payne and I also attended DEIC meeting that was back on October 8th. Similar agenda to last time that we got an the kind of nextstep update on the CTE programs in the district. I had the one note that right now I have 68% or almost 69% of all our high school students are in some CTE program which is which is quite a lot. And
081once and then the other part of the update was the construction update for the new center which is well under its way and that's going to be exciting. Can't wait to get out there and see all the new programs that are that converge on that site which is part of the purpose of it right is that that programs that sometimes folks had to take at one high school or the other they can now take at the CTE center. Um and then the other agenda item similar to last time was about the calendar discussion and I guess two things to share. One is we talked about um kind of the criteria around developing the c the calendar and I think one important one for this summer specifically because of all the work that Mr. Simk over
082there is doing with the construction is that the admin team is really asking is that we give them a little extra summer time on the count calendar like another five days of so another week and so I think that that's going to be the goal of the calendar team to develop one that meets those meets those needs for all the construction going on and then I guess last thing there's the survey is out there that Mr. man is done, which is also a great thing to get feedback right now from from teachers and parents on how they think the calendar went in this first nine weeks so that we can use that information in developing for next year. I get it all. >> Is that it? >> All right, superintendent update. >> Yeah, just a
083few things going on. Our two bands, uh, Cougar Band, Tiger Band, will be in the area competition on November the 1st down in Channel View. Uh, here next Friday is Halloween. We will be hosting two football games in College Station. It's also the end of the second six weeks, as well as our UIL snapshot date. And what that means is they take a picture basically of our enrollment at our two high schools and decide our classifications for the upcoming bienium. It's also what the state uses in funding us on our different programs uh for our financials for the remainder of this year. Uh both of our volleyball programs have clinched playoff births. I believe College Station High School is in first. Kaw is in third. Both football teams are in great shape heading into the
084last three games as well. Our campus visits for our teaching and learning department are up to 525 visits so far this year. And a big focus for us this year was also classroom walkthroughs. And at the uh Elementary and secondary coaches and administrators have done a wonderful job. We have 642 classroom visits at the secondary level and 636 at the elementary level. So, a lot of great support and watching teachers do good things with kids throughout the school day. >> All right, that'll bring us to item D2. Receive a report on board member continuing education credit. Since 1986, the state board of education rule has required that a public announcement be made each year of the names of the board members who have completed the required continuing education hours and who are deficient. The annual
085required continuing education is a basic obligation and expectation of a sitting board member under state board of education rule. President shall share calls the minutes of the local board to reflect the information. Senate Bill is the bill that passed this. It changed the reporting board training hours from the last regular meeting of the calendar year to the last meeting held before an election of trustees. Board member Trustee Dr. Darren Payne place one exceeded. Trustee Kristen Wilson place two exceeded. Trustee Josh Ben place three completed. President Jeff Horat place four exceeded. Trustee Kimberly McAdams, place five, exceeded. Vice President Kim Eigy, place six, exceeded. Secretary Heather Simmons, place seven, exceeded. All College Station Independent School District School Board of Trustees have met or exceeded the minimum number of required continuing education hours with the exception of
086Trustee Ben, who will complete the legislative update on November 3rd, 2025. Thank y'all for your dedication to the extra stuff that we do behind the scenes uh in getting properly educated and especially with the legislative session with 133 slides. Good luck, Mr. Ben. 133 slides at just at an hour and 51 minutes if you uh need to know. So, make sure you carve out that time. But uh thank you all for taking the time to to make sure you're where you need to be on that. So, I appreciate that. That will bring us to item E, hearing of citizens. During this time, we will hear from citizens who registered to speak prior to the meeting in accordance with the board operating procedures. The open meetings act prevents us from responding to speakers regarding items not
087on the agenda. Comments related to the items on the agenda may be discussed during deliberations on that specific agenda item. Public comments are limited to three minutes per person. Those needing an interpreter may have up to six minutes. Each person has one opportunity at the microphone regardless of minutes used. Unused minutes may not be acred by another speaker. The executive assistant will time the comments and alert the president when time has expired. The board asks that those addressing the board refrain from derogatory comments. And our speaker, we have one tonight, is Miss Betsy Picket. We're going to use the microphone right up here. >> Good evening. My name is Betsy Picket. I'm the proud parent of five students in CSISD. Four of my children participate in band programs with two of them marching in the
088Mighty Cougar Band at CSHS. I am also the president of the CSHS band boosters. I am here tonight to raise awareness about how budget cuts and changes are being communicated to our fine arts staff. These changes are being made by Heather Wilson, CFO, and communicated via Mr. Eric Eekes, director of fine arts. CSHS ban received a significant budget reduction due to changes in state funding. This was communicated after our booster budget and student ban fees had already been set. Our booster organization is funded by student dues and our own fundraising. While athletic programs benefit financially from ticket and concession sales, our band booster program does not. Continued district budget cuts to band programs will force us to raise band fees, placing a burden on families. We do not want to price kids out of participating
089in marching band. Secondly, we are weeks away from qualifying for the state marching band contest. On October 2nd, the central office drastically cut funding to feed band students from both high schools who will be attending the contest. After several budgeting issues in August, Heather Wilson stated via email that future budget changes would be communicated in a more timely manner to help with planning and that postdistrict expenses would be budgeted separately to keep them from being a financial hit to general operating budgets. Our band boosters cannot cover these expenses on such short notice. When students experience great success, the result should not be a financial burden placed on families. Thankfully, the district revised the student food budget when we pushed back, but the way it was communicated was untimely and created undue stress and frustration for
090both our staff and parents. Receiving proper funding for ban programs should not require an uprising from parents. Lastly, a director in our program has taken on additional administrative duties and oversight of color guard due to staffing changes made last year. A financial stipen to cover these responsibilities was verbally promised at the end of last school year. Recently, this stipen was taken away for the fall semester because, quote, "They'd be working there anyways, and no extra work was being done during the marching season." From what I have personally witnessed, this director has handled the additional administration and oversight of our color guard on a daily basis for five months under the guise of receiving a stipend. Failing to compensate staff for work and communicating in this manner shows no regard for the tireless effort of an
091outstanding music educator. We understand budgets are tight and cuts are necessary, but those need to be communicated in a timely fashion and in a way that honors our dedicated staff to remain a district of distinction for fine arts. There must be continued financial support for band programs. With the current method of communication on financial decisions, we can't help but feel uneasy about where the next shortfall will be and when it would be communicated to us. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> That'll bring us to consent agenda. So, I need to let y'all know um Carrie and I were talking and in the legislative update um Senate Bill 413, meeting minutes and recording. So, When we vote during motions, now we have to do one of two things. Uh board meeting minutes, let's
092include each member's vote. So best practice is to call for a raise of hands or a roll call vote. I would say raise of hands would just be easier instead of me going trustee by trustee. If y'all are okay with that, we're going to roll with that. Um but that is Senate bill that just passed from this legislative session. So going forward, you know, all those in favor say I, but then you got to raise your hand with it. So just kind of how that goes. Um, also, uh, we had a request this morning from Miss McAdams to pull J1 from the agenda, consent agenda, and so we have done that. And, um, I believe Dr. Harkider and Mr. man have been able to uh put together a presentation that uh should suffice and and
093make sense. Um so we're going to hear that. So that one will be pulled. So if you want to make note of it. Uh all other items are item G, I1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J6, and J7. A motion that we approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Miss Eigie, a second by Dr. Payne. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries 70. Thank you'all very much. That brings us to item J1. Consider approval of the purchase of professional development services from Solution Tree through TIPS purchasing cooperative contract number 220601 the amount of $236,861.80 utilizing the title 2 funds. Mr. May >> uh good evening everybody. Thank you President Hack, Dr. Harkider, trustees. I'm very happy to come to you tonight and talk with you about the
094work we've done with Solution Tree. And so let's just jump right in. Um there's two major areas that I'm going to talk through the timeline of the work. Um and then I'm also going to talk through at a high level the expenditure processes that we've used um in this work. So jumping in the timeline from 23 24 is where we begin with the the topic at hand. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't just remind the folks that are watching at home, especially that don't always tune in to our board meetings, that all of this came out of the work of our strategic plan um that was rolled out and developed um in the spring of 2021. And whenever we got to the spring of 23, because it didn't happen immediately, we identified it's
095time for us to start working on our professional learning community work. And so then in February of 23, our two executive directors had made contact with Solution Tree and others about possible partnerships. And then we began to evaluate the different proposals from the different companies on the possible partnerships um in April. And then in July, we brought to the board um our first prop, excuse me, our first proposal um selecting solution tree. At the time, it ended up being over Corwin. And it's because of the reasons listed here. Um these were things that we found were very important for us in the proposals and it is about building collective capacity of continuous improvements for our district and campuses. Clarity of of uh of purpose in the work being able to cast a common vision for
096what we want to accomplish for our students. Establish collective commitments and create and achieve agreed upon goals. Um and it's because we we want to elevate the academic achievement of all of our students. And so just a little walk down memory lane. This was the first proposal in July of 23. Um came to the board and then we started in with training who was trained year one. Um we started with thinking about our campuses and we decided to divide them into cohorts. Um and the reason for this was really two two reasons. One were our campuses ready to start the work where are they on the level of readiness? and then two, funding sources because we started this work at the time that we did and we had to utilize the funds we had available
097to us. And so in year one, all of our campus principles were trained regardless of whether or not they were a cohort one or cohort 2. CNI staff members were a part of the training and then our cohort one campuses and I'll show you those here in a moment. Uh the training that our campuses went through is is what solution tree calls PLC at work. And so they do this in what they call an academy model. And so they are three two-day sessions. And campuses have their guiding coalition teams come to the trainings. And so the principles um identify their folks that are on the staff and and they're anywhere from six to 10 or 12 depending upon the size of the school. And then of course we purchase whatever associated supplies, materials, books, and
098whatnot for the training. And so over the course of the year, so starting July 23 through May of 2024, um we had eight days of district team trainings. And so that's our central office staff. We had seven days with our principles going through training. And then we had our cohort one campuses go through their six days in total of training. So three sets of two days every time they came together. And you can see the cohort one campuses that are identified here. And then that led us into the summer of 2024 and we had two cohort sets of campuses. We had our cohort one that had gone through six days of PLC at work training and we had our cohort two that their principles had had some training. They've had all the principal training here
099but their guiding coalitions had not gone through training. And so for that summer, we made the the decision we want to send our cohort one campuses to high impact team training and we want to send all of our cohort 2 campuses to PLC at work training because that's the training the cohort one campuses received over the course of the year. And so that summer, um, the cohort 2 campuses, which you see listed up here on the screen, were given the opportunity to to pick which month they wanted to go, June or July, and they sent their guiding coalitions um to the summer institutes, whether it was in Fort Worth or San Antonio or Austin, wherever it was. Um, and so the majority of them picked June, as you can see, and then we had one
100campus in July, and we had um, you know, a sort of district staff is the best way I know. we had sped staff and CNI staff go to both uh depending upon availabilities of those staff members. Um and also for our cohort one campuses, they had the high impact team training and that was only offered in July and so the the teams from those campuses went to that training during that time. So that's the bulk that is the work that we contracted with solution tree or that we sent people to from the district level during that first year. And so then if we look at 2425 which is the previous school year we continued the PLC at work um we also introduced the instructional coach training and development with um our instructional coaches um we
101also introduced behavior solutions work and then we had individual campus coaching sessions provided for our teams as well. So let's dive into each one of those. PLC at work, you can see in July of 24 um we brought it here to the board. We again received proposals from solution tree and Corwin and we again went with solution tree um because we felt that they best meet our need and also it was the lower price which worked out very well. Um we had our two different cohorts of campuses and so in conversation with Dr. Park Rider and CNI. So, we need to slow down and get everybody on the same page. It's hard to maintain this level of work with having groups of campuses in different places. So, we slowed it down. And so, our cohort
1022 campuses participated in their PLC at work academy trainings and then the cohort one campuses just worked on the work. The things that they had learned, they started to really put into motion at their campus. And so these cohort 2 campuses that are listed on the left side of the screen, they went through the same sets of two days, so six days in total that the cohort one folks went through the prior year in addition to what they went to over the summer. And then our cohort one campuses, they they really worked on the work at their campus. And every time that we came together, we did work at the district level with all of our principles, but that's where we were with that work. the instructional coaches. Um we had K8 instructional coaches and
103so for them their training was a mix of inperson and virtual training sessions with a solution tree associate and it was ongoing throughout the year um and those were scheduled um depending upon the pace and recommendations of solution tree with also the work that we were doing with the IC's um and we purchased whatever associated supplies and materials for that work. Uh this expenditure wasn't brought to the board for approval because it was under the $50,000 limit. So it wasn't something that we called out like we do for these other bigger purchases because they were over the threshold. Um but we always made sure to share updates and information through the transmittals. Our behavior solutions work um started last year so 2425 school year. And this is because Dr. Hark Rider had said that you
104know the board had expressed feedback that there's some concerns about behaviors at campuses. He said, "I've gathered feedback myself about behaviors at campuses that we need to be addressing these things." And so we brought in behavior solutions as a part of the work because they're a part of solution tree number one. Um, and the the big piece with that is we use the same systems and structures. The model is the same just as it is with PLC. You have a guiding coalition that's your behavior team. You have the same types of meeting structures, similar types of agendas. And the advantage of this is you're not teaching a whole new system and a whole new structure to your teachers every time. It's it is all in line with the work. Really the topic is behavior or
105academics. We don't even mix the two when they come together. We keep it very clear. Okay. >> Can I ask who's getting the um behav the instruction on the behavioral side? >> Yeah, that's picked the campuses picked. are going to they have their coalition of folks that they bring for the behavioral >> assignment. Yes, ma'am. Now, there may be some overlap. That's where they've got it. They're MTSS coaches, counselors, principles, APS, but they also could bring other people that they they identified they wanted to bring, right? We tried to accommodate as as many folks as possible as we could in the training pieces. Um, we had two in-person sessions and we had four virtual sessions. and the virtual sessions um were spaced throughout the year and there were some retaching and lots of Q&A opportunities
106for staff and again this was not above the 50,000 threshold so it didn't come to the board for the public presentation of this is the work that we're doing um but information was included in transmittals after we had big events related to behavior solutions um and then toward the end of the year last year we were able to provide um individual campus coaching work for our staff um And I was very pleased that we were able to do this um because we had done a lot of work. We fully recognized we've done a lot of things. Um and so whenever we had the opportunity to be able to say, "Hey, let's get our solution tree associate to be able to come to the school." We can divide this associate's time to where they spend a
107half day at each of the campuses. And so she comes in and she works with that principal. They set the agenda ahead of time with whatever the principal wants to cover. It can be whatever they need. They set it with her, she comes and then at the end she meets with us at the district level and gives us the high level overview of what she's talked about and then makes recommendations for us and the next steps in the work based upon what she's seen across all 19 campuses. So she gives us that input and feedback. And again, this wasn't above the 50,000 threshold. So that's why it didn't come into the board. Um but it was communicated the work that we were doing with her. And so then the timeline for this school year 2526
108we are continuing the on-site coaching RTI at work beyond labels training and then we're continuing with behavior solution work and so the individual campus coaching work. Um the feedback from the administrators at the end of the year last year was like I mean this is the best thing because she's here with us. She's talking to our people. Our people are talking to her. They get to ask her direct questions and it's very tailored to what we need. And so great, this is lovely. This is what we want. Um, and so with the approval of this purchase request tonight, this is going to allow us to do this for the campuses this fall and next spring so that we can provide that ongoing coaching piece for them with that outside consultant. And the the power, and
109this is just me in my opinion, but the power of being able to bring in someone that is wellversed in this work as a consultant is they're going to be that mirror that we need to to really help us see where we need to get better. And that's where I think the value comes in with having someone come and sit with us in the campuses one-on- ones in small settings. So the RTI work 2526 this school year this is um what we discussed in May whenever we came together um and it was on the agenda there and again between us solution tree and Corwin and Solution Tree is the vendor that we continued the relationship work based upon everything that we've got going and the models that they both offer. Um the RTI work um
110is for all 19 campuses and all 19 campuses have been able to participate in that training this year. Um all of them have completed at least two days. There's some of the campuses their final two days are going to come in November. Um but then that training will then be complete and it's a similar model format um to what we did with the PLC at work in that it's three two-day sessions and they have their guiding coalitions and they bring those and then whatever associated supplies, materials, books, all those things, we purchase those and provide that as well. And this is very solidly tied to goal number two, our MTSS. And we talked about that the last time I spoke with you. And so this response to intervention piece is is a very critical component
111for us helping all of our students find the success. And as a result of our coaching individual coaching work with our solution tree associate, she had made the recommendation to us based upon what she is seeing um consistently across campuses is a training that she said is called beyond labels. And so she had told us that last year. Hey, I think I think Beyond Labels training would be beneficial for the majority of your staff because it's a mindset. And so the training is centered on the belief that all truly means all. And it challenges educators to remove labels from students and focus on their individual strengths. And so principles were able to bring whoever from their guiding coalitions, their whole guiding coalition, if they were able to get it done, they certainly did that. And
112we had lots of our special education staff in attendance with those meetings as well. And so we had provided that for them earlier this year. Pardon the interruption. Little dry mouth allergies today. Um and this is very much in line with 1.3. Um because this is about if you go back and you see it's about focusing on the individual strengths of students. And this feeds into the individual goal setting and progress monitoring that as adults, we need to really believe that the kids are capable of the goals that they're setting and help them set appropriate level goals. So, and this was an expenditure that wasn't anywhere near the $50,000 threshold. And so, again, it didn't come to the board for a big discussion on it. Um, but we've certainly shared information about this in transmitt.
113And then behavior solutions training. Um the the slogan for this year around our behavior work is year one tier one. Last year was our learning year. We spent the entire year working with the solution tree associates on building our knowledge and foundation and we started creating the fundamentals that we needed to implement this year. And part of the expectations coming into um the summer and summer or Sally, a summer administrative leadership institute was for campuses to put together their PD plans for August based upon the work that they had done over the course of the entire year. And so that's where we are now is we are time to implement the tier one work, which is our campuswide systems and processes for behavior management. And so with the approval of the purchase tonight, it's going
114to be able to get them additional on-site coaching, Zoom sessions, and all the work that we needing to continue the work that we've established um is something that's been um a need for us and been beneficial for us. So that's the the high level timeline from 2003 to where we are today. And then I'm just going to do the same thing with expenditures related to a solution tree. And you notice it says 2002. And that's because whenever Miss Wilson was asked for, hey, can you pull us our solution tree expenditures? Boom. We get spreadsheets. It's got 2002 to 2026. We're like, let's take a look, right? And so what you're looking at here is what um she was able to provide. They got into the depths of our einance program, I guess, and um pull
115this information out. And what I want to draw your attention to um for those of us that are not accountants, right, is there's those numbers across the top. That's the funding source code. And I added on to the bottom underneath there where they come from. Chris, I hope I did right. If I did wrong, tell me later. Okay. But I put it here on a chart um because those of us that don't speak um accounting language and certainly not public ed, it's all Greek, right? So 199 is general funds and general funds are our local and state taxes. Okay? And this is important for us to to keep note of. Uh 205 is head Head Head Head Head Head Head Head Head Head Head Start funds and that is federal funds that can only be
116used for the Head Start program purposes. Um 211 are title one part A funds, federal funds that are only able to be used for our title one campus work. 224 or IDA or special education programming funds and they're federal funds. 255 those are title two part A funds. That's one of the programs that I oversee and that's for professional development of teachers and administrators andor the recruitment and retention of staff. It's all we can use those monies for. 263 is title three part A. You've received a report earlier tonight from Miss Norworthy. This is what she oversees. And so this is for our English language learners, immigrant students for English proficiency and academic achievement work. And then 282 is our good Oster funds that we don't have anymore. Um, but we had lots of flexibility
117to use those and so that's what we utilized whenever we sent folks to the summer training for solution tree because that included staff professional development was an allowable expense. And then 461 or campus activity funds and that's local and state tax funds. Okay, so I'm not going to quiz you later, I promise. Um, but I did break this down and this is on-site professional development. And so whenever you look at the totals of all the monies that are expended on-site professional development, that's the largest amount. And it's because that's where we get the largest bang for the buck because we can bring the associate here and we can bring as many people as we can bring to the training versus sending folks. We got to pay for food, we got to pay for travel, we
118got to pay for lodging and for registration. And so we try to bring them here as much as possible. And so you can see the funding codes on the left where it came from either local fund or it came from the idea sped fund, title one fund and title two part A. And you'll notice I put the yellow arrows on there because the 199 and the two ones that's campus driven. Okay. All the district driven or the 224 255s. Okay. And so that means that the 211 title one schools, they said, "We're going to use our title one funds to bring an associate to our school and do work at our school." That's what they chose to do. The 199 campus said, "I'm going to pay for an associate out of my allotted funds to
119bring an associate to my school." That's what they did whenever they put that in there. This is attending the conferences. And so you can see here, just like I said a moment ago, the 282 code, this is the ESTR funds. This is the the bulk of where we paid for us sending folks that summer to those different conferences. But you can see 461 is a campus activity fund. 199 is a local fund. Again, 211 is our title one fund. So those are campus driven funds that sent people from their campuses to conferences above and beyond what the district provided for them to be able to do. So they said we want to send more teams and they used their funds to do so. and then online and virtual PD and virtual PD is what it
120sounds like whenever we whenever we code um uh purchases we have to allocate the money even if even if it's of the same contract if we've got two on-site days and three virtual PD days it gets coded that way so that we can tell the state this person did it through Zoom or this person came to CSISTD just how they make us report it the online PD is this is we use a program from solution tree it's called global PD teams and it's our online professional development platform and it's where we house the videos from solution tree. So whenever our associate comes in and works with us and she shows us all the stuff we can't look it up on Google because it's not on Google but it's in global PD teams campus administrators can
121take that and then turn around and use that in their campuses and that's where it's housed. And so we pay for campuses to have access to that resource. And then finally, I have highlighted here the books because there's always books associated with learning. We're public education. We have lots of learners. They love their books. And so you can see here I just again I highlighted out what district paid versus campus. It's just a part of the training. Um anytime that you have any of these types of trainings, you're going to have books and resources. And we're talking about buying books in quantities of 120 to 150 depending upon the sizes of the academy. So, but this kind of breaks out the prices that we spent for all of it. So, big summary all of it
122because I'm also the data guy. Numbers are great. I also like the percentages and so you can look across the bottom. Um, but whenever you look and see with the 199 your local funds and your campus activity on the far end didn't even make up a full percentage. 3% of the money that we've spent with Solution Tree since the district has done anything with them since 2002 has come from local funds. 97% of it has come from federal funds. And we're very mindful of our funding sources. And that's one of the big reasons why the first year our cohort one was the size that it was because we're trying to utilize every fund that we can that didn't come out of our general funds. So that is what I have. I'm here to take any
123questions you may have. We were an overachiever. that was above and beyond what I had requested by a long shot. But it is good to see um that obviously just all the different courses that have happened over the last three years and it um there's a whole lot of pieces to the what has been happening hasn't been happening every year since then. not every year since 2002, but particularly the the program, the courses you went over starting in 2023 with the PLC's. And it is more than just the classroom PLC's. I mean, yes, the behavioral part is um to me a welcome addition, but it is I part of why I asked for the overall money spent was just the fact that we've see we see little bits at a time and I wanted to
124to be able to see the overall spending of it and where it's coming from, >> which is federal funds. Um, for instance, what what else could you spend this title two funding on or some of the other federal funds besides professional? >> I mean, that's yeah, that's part of what we evaluate every year and and we do it based on our needs assessment. That's one of the things you'll see in either May or June, depending upon whenever they decide to tell us when they're going to give us funds, we'll bring it to DEIC with our list of these are the things we propose to spend it on. Um, but depending upon the fund source, it depends on the areas and it ranges anywhere from PD to whatever supports or supplies that we're allowed to buy.
125There's so many rules that we just have to be in compliance with them. And title two particularly um majorities professional development is that >> yes for yes for this particular conversation the majority of it you could see title two has been the major lift for this but we've also received and I mean every year we've had the same or steady increase in our title two fund allocations from the federal government. So, we're trying to maximize everything we could. And just so you know, we were able to provide the on-site coaching. That was a surprise because the way federal funding works is around spring break every year, they say, "Okay, you're going to get this extra set of money." And so, you have to spend it before the end of the year. And sometimes it's really
126hard to spend $120,000 or $150,000 at the end of the year. But we do our best. We work hard. We ask principles. We do these things and we say, "Okay, what can we do?" We buy whatever resources, whatever supplies. And so, anything related to onboarding, anything related to teacher development, principal development. Two of our principles are not here this evening because they're at into learning training. And so, we fund that out of out of title two funds. I mean, we have a whole list of things that we we use title two funds for. So, just to be clear, because I think sometimes to um like a lot of us that don't know a lot about school finance, uh you can throw a number up there and we can also hear that, you know, we have
127budget cuts in other areas and things like that. And so, it can be concerning, but just to be clear, we're talking about spending a pot of money that is designated specifically for professional development. Yes. the exact kind of things that you know we're trying to do with Solution Tree that is supporting our teachers to help them to be able to do some of the things that we're asking them to do. Right. >> Correct. >> So it's not money that could have gone to cover band buses or what you know I whatever else it might have been teacher raises or things like that. Right. >> Correct. Okay. >> Yes. I just wanted to say I I really appreciate the timeline because this started before I got on the board and quite frankly it's started this program
128and the need for it started before we hired Dr. Hark Rider. Correct if I'm understanding. >> Yeah, it was in if you go back and see the the month he was approved was the month of the first contract. >> So the prior administration felt like this was an important program. >> Yeah, we were we were rolling this direction. >> Do you know why sol and I don't know if we have we'll get that. Do you know why solution tree besides just looking at between the two uh proposals? >> Why was solution tree the one that we went with? >> Um I mean I'll I will speak for myself and you know as a part of all the all the conversations with them. Um one of the things that was important to us especially coming out
129of COVID was we didn't want virtual. We wanted to have somebody come here and at the time the others were still only doing virtual. Um, the majority of the other proposals have um have folks that come from out of state. Solution Tree has a lot of associates in the state of Texas and the one that works with us in particular is a retired Texas educator that's been in Texas her entire career. Um, and is very wellversed on what we do with them. Um, but they've been in this game for a long time. Um, Richard Dor, if you if you read anything about anything related to PLC, you'll hear, "Oh, it's DeFor and his four questions." That's what this is based off of. It is decades. And that's the thing. This has been in place since
130the '9s. Like, I hate to say it, but we're in 2025. This is not new stuff. This is, you can research it. It has been like since 97. This stuff's been out there. And Solution Tree adopted it. They put it into schools and put it into actions and we're here. So, to answer your question shortly, they have a solid system and structure in place that resonates with us. and they have Texas educators or familiar Texas educators that we want to hear from them because they know our struggles. >> So, this is going back a little ways, but um back and I guess myself, Miss McAdams, Mr. Horac were probably the only ones on the board at the time and Mr. Martindell was the uh the superintendent and the school board, community members, the administration put
131in a lot of work to develop a strategic plan for CSISD. And one of my main concerns when we did that in 2021 was that so many organizations create strategic plans and then it falls by the wayside. and and that was my concern. We're going to spend all this time, this money to do this and then it's what's going to happen. And the number one goal from that that our community put together for CSISD was that CSISD will enhance instructional practices by implementing innovative and personalized learning experiences. The second goal was that we would elevate the academic outcomes of historically underperforming student groups. And when you look at the the six years that I've been on the board, um that goal number two has been something that we have drastically needed to do something different
132to improve those outcomes. And when Mr. Martindell and his administration beginning in 21 22 up to 23 started using solution tree and started using these types of programs uh more commonly. Um the board was was all on board with it because it was I think uh in the workshop Dr. Payne made a comment about being innovative doing something different and and and that's what this does. um you know at this and and and so and then when uh I think that was negotiated in the spring of 23, Dr. Hark writer came on in July of 23 and has continued uh that program. Um and so I think you know obviously 200 and something thousand dollars is a lot of money but um for us to continue on this process that our community started in 2021
133um I am absolutely in favor of doing this Mr. expertise and and the comments that you've made um I think are important. Um, at the same time as I'm leaving the board, um, you know, innovation is good. Doing something different to try to achieve a goal, whatever our strategic goals were, is good. Uh, but, you know, we we do need to in a couple years or whenever, you know, for those of you that's on the board, evaluate and hey, is this reach helped us reach the goals that we established the strategic plan? right now. Um I am I think we have to we should and we have to continue on with what we started in 2021. And so um I think that continuing with Solution Tree this year is a great idea. >> Just keep
134in mind you're leaving. You can't tell us what to do anymore. Josh, >> I love I love that. Um Josh the whole fact that we did when we put specifically that that um goal number two on there say I mean I remember distinctly saying that we can't just keep doing the same thing and expect something to change right so we are doing something different we've always done some level and types of professional development but this was been a very focused effort over these last couple of years um and yes it was with solution tree chosen from back in early 2023. So, um I do think the other key is then how do we continue to measure the success, right? And I think we are starting to see some of that maybe academically, but I think
135um we also need to make sure are there are there other ways that we can help gauge that that success is happening? That's just something I we don't have to answer that today, but you know, the behavioral sides of things. Um, you know, I know the other the other piece of it is not only have we invested a lot of money in it, our teachers and staff every have invested a lot of time into it as well. Both all the, you know, the training as well as the PLC effort. So, we got to make sure we're getting the return on all of that investment again both financially and and timewise. >> I think we've seen it when we'd go do our trustee tours. I mean, we've gone through quite a few schools and we've seen
136these PLC's at work and there's some recognized schools. I mean, we've even had some, you know, a school or two recognized. So, I think it's something you have to buy into and this isn't going to happen overnight. So, I I think I can appreciate the fact that they're continuing to analyze and see how these plans and PLC's are growing. So I think you know it's not something that's just going to happen overnight but as trustees we have been right there in the room with them and we have seen the success. So and it is helping kids. We've seen the numbers this year. >> Systemic change is at least a three to five year process. Everybody's chasing the next great thing. What is the new package? There's nothing that frustrates administrators and teachers more than the
137next new thing that you roll out every August and you have zero uh consistency in your program. That's why we had folks push back the first year because I was new. What's the next new thing? And we made the promise it's this is it. We're going to do the same thing next year. And so we're starting to get buy in and trust because it's not a fly by night scenario. the beyond labels, the RTI, it all goes together. We're all speaking the same language. So, it's not really that teachers are having to learn new things to do. They're learning to do things differently. And that's why we saw, and I told you guys when we got results this last year, gains were much higher than I anticipated just because it was year one, which tells
138me the teachers are bought into it. If you look at some of the the information that Jeff put up on campus expenditures, that's C. We're not telling campus principles, hey, you've got to go hire Solution Tree and bring them into your campus. They're seeking that out. They're having those conversations. Why? Because they see the value. They see the value. They see that their teachers are learning. They see that their kids are doing better. And so that's when the process gets going. And as we get better in some of these areas, we don't need the services anymore because our team leads the services as we move forward. So, it's a method of it's self- sustainable when your staff is trained and bought in on it. It's not something you have to continue to do. We move
139forward into the next step. And so, Jeff, you did a great job on the presentation. Our campus administration and instructional coaches have done a wonderful job of leading this process. and our teachers have done a great job of of of working hard through some of the ups and downs and getting comfortable in a new in a new way of thinking and planning and the results speak for themselves. They're doing a great job. >> Thanks for doing all this. I have two other real quick questions. One is speaking of that people are are doing it now. Do you have any idea on what we foresee in more solution tree trading and investment like in future years? I mean I would at some point will this taper off I guess is what I'm >> yeah soon or
140>> yeah that's basically what I just I was yeah that's what you >> it will it also will will based on the needs of our campuses and some of our campuses may need uh continued ongoing so it's it's not a uh this is not a one-sizefits-all. Okay, none of this is each campus is at a different spot. They're supposed to be at a different spot. They're not ever going to be identical and that's not we're not trying to clone campuses. The work's the work. They get there at different pieces in time and we'll taper off as we see fit and we'll keep going if we think we need to. What we judge it on, plain and simple, student learning. Are we continuing to raise the bar and moving the needle? Is the staff bought in?
141and where we see right now there's momentum, there's enthusiasm, kids are growing, kids are learning and and teachers are getting more comfortable uh sharing, talking, planning, and working together. >> And that was my second one. The last one was the staff buyin. I think as we we're talking about doing some kind of um meaningful survey in the spring that making getting some feedback on that and you know, have we really got the staff where we want them and need them to be? I think that would be helpful as well as including there. >> I can answer some of that. My wife just did some training and they were using tactics that they use with students made them get up and move around and engage and the teachers are like, "Oh, this Oh, wait. You we
142do that." So, she she caught on to that was like, "Don't use my tricks on me." So, good job on the training. >> Uhhuh. >> Everybody good, >> Jeff? Uh, I appreciate you getting this together on short notice. I think eight hours. Uh it's uh very informative obviously on the financial piece because obviously as as trustees >> we are upheld to be fiscally responsible. So the detail on it I've got quite a bit of notes here. Uh very informative. So >> I do appreciate you putting in the effort on it and getting through that. But yeah, we will need a motion >> on this one. >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Dr. Payne, second by Miss Wilson. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion
143carries 70. And I think that's it. That'll bring us to the end. Everybody wish Miss Wilson good luck. I don't know if we'll see her in the next few weeks, but we wish you the best of luck in your next endeavor. Y'all have a great night. Thank y'all for being here.