001All right. Good evening. It's May 6, 2026. It is 5:00 p.m. on the nose. This is a special meeting of the Argyle ISD board of trustees budget workshop superintendent evaluation. At this time, we will determine if a quorum is present. >> Leona McDade, present. >> Josh Wester, present. Rich McDow present. >> Lean Artho present. >> Matt Sllayton present. Craig Oxsworth present. >> I Sam Slayton present. We do have a quorum established. At this time we'll have the pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Oxford. >> Aliance 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. Texas flag. I pledge algiance to the Texas one state under God. One and indivisible. come to you today uh thanking you
002for all that you do for us. Please be with us as we contemplate decisions for the for the district moving forward and help us make the decisions that benefit all the students in the district. We love you, Lord. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you, Mr. Hawksworth. We have no one signed up for public forum. >> All right, so we'll >> Budget workshop. Here we go. Okay. So, our budget workshop will be a little bit shorter than the last one. We don't have as many things that have happened in since the last month, but we do want to talk about a few things and kind of go over a reminder of some. Um, just on the agenda, we're going to talk a little bit about campus department budgets, this uh refresh of the staffing and how that
003details out. Um, Dr. Daniel's going to talk about compensation a little bit. Um and then we'll look back at our budget outlook and where we are with our fund balance update. So with campus and department budgets, um we've talked about this for several years that we do campuses based on an aotment um a per student aotment. Um each campus uh works through their budget um and presents it up to that aotment. If there's something above and beyond that, then they're allowed to submit a special request. Uh we did have one special request submitted this year. departments are all zerobased. I know we've talked about that for a couple of years as well. They go through a ranking process. Um we expanded ranking for one through three this year and we redefined our rankings and went
004one through four with some different criteria that um each one of them had to go through on every line item. And on some of them in in the line items, uh you may have several things in one line item that that are under that same account, but it may have different rankings in there. So just depends on on each different department. Some departments will be more where they'll all be ones uh versus they might have some flexibility to have some twos, threes, or fours. If you think utilities, right? You have to have utilities to to come in the building. You got to have your air, you've got to have your water. Those were all one. So, that whole that whole department will be a one. Um but everybody else will have some different ones in
005there. So, we had um individual meetings uh with each one of those, reviewed them. We're still reviewing um the departments at this time, and we'll have more details for you on that in June. Um, we had uh some state of the district meetings. In those we've done all of the campus meetings. We had all of those in April. We had our meeting with this office um this week. And then we have meetings scheduled with a couple more departments um later in May. Staff are allowed to do a follow-up question that after the presentation, if they still have questions, whether it's over the budget part or whether it's over the state of the district part, they can submit in a question. Uh, one of the questions um that we have received is about sped pair professional
006pay questions and I think Dr. Daniel may talk about that here in a minute. Um, and I think I went through over this slide while you were looking at the others. So you might have thought why I was talking about that went out a little bit out of order but basically again we went over each one of the uh campuses and departments. We reviewed the special funding request. Again we had one of those. Um we also are creating an increase and decrease by department uh whether the overall um department if we include all four priorities. Um what percent is it going up over last year? Some departments are impacted by campus opening more than others. Um if you think again I'm going to use an operations budget. If you think about a maintenance budget, their
007maintenance may increase more than some other budgets because they do have another campus to take care of. So then we like to go through those different individual budgets and we go, "Okay, well, if if the increase is this much overall, if we went in there and we looked and we took that new campus out, what's the increase based on that?" So we've broken those down in each ways and we'll be able to bring that to you and look at them so you start looking at and going, why is this one such a higher percentage than others? Those will be in June. Um, and then we want to go back and make sure that everything aligns with the collaborative vision because that is our district plan and that's how we move forward. So, we'll review all
008of that over the next few weeks, make sure it's all in alignment. If something is on the plan and wasn't included in somebody's budget, then we've got a way to go back and actually include that in in the budget because if we are saying we're going to do it, we've got to have a way to pay for it. So, we'll go over all that and we're still working through those aspects of budgeting. On the staffing, it's just a reminder of where we've been. Um, phase one was approved in early March, phase two in April, and then you've seen phase three, but it is not back as a recommendation yet. We're still waiting on phase three and holding at this time. Phase one and phase two total over $5 million in new funding for um staff
009positions um and how those break down. These are some slides that were included in our state of the district presentation about how the staff phases are presented. So if you look at all three phases including phase three, you'll see that campus level teaching is at almost 35%. It's the highest percentage. That's what you want in your staffing plan, right? You want your instructional staffing to be the highest percentage. We have quite a bit of special education and special programs. Uh that was at almost 22%. Campus administration is almost at 22% too. That's because we opened a new campus. So you will have um almost a whole another administration there. That's why that percentage goes up in this year. Operations covers transportation maintenance um there 14%. Fine arts program support 2% and central office at 6%.
010Okay, phase one looking at each phase individually. Again, phase one was really focused on opening of Gibson campus. So that's where the majority of the teaching positions came in. And here it's reflected at almost uh 54%. You have that campus administration because we have that um Gibson campus administration in there as well. part of the special education, special programs that was in phase one, part of it was in phase two. And then we had the bus drivers, if y'all remember that in phase one, that's how you get 10% almost 11% in operations. That was in phase one. If you look at just phase two, we focused a lot more on education and special programs that had the largest percent there at 36 and a half. Um, central administration and office support, sorry, campus administration and
011office support. Again, we had some some programs there from Gibson. Um operations, we had more there in maintenance and a few more transportation positions there. Um going around then to central office, that's where we had the three new central office positions. They came in at 16%. Campus level teaching was down at 5.4% because if you remember, the main focus on phase one was campus level teaching. Um and then fine arts program support at 6.4%. Phase three, phase three oper um focuses on operations more than any of them. So if phase three is approved in total, it would be almost 50% operations. You'd have 24% campus level teaching positions and 26% campus administration office support. And again, that's if it's brought forward in its current state and was approved in its current state and how it
012relates to the others. >> What's the dollar total on that, Liz? >> Oops. Do you mind? You're asking phase three in itself. >> Phase three in itself. >> Do you mind clicking on phase three link? >> It's just over 330,000. >> And actually, >> it'll actually go down. >> Yes. Because those residencies, there's only five of them, >> right? So 30,000 of that will come off >> when it's brought to you back for approval. >> So you're hovering right around 300,000. >> And this would be within a balanced budget or not? Not at this time. >> Okay. >> We're still working on that and that's why it's not here as an action item. >> Okay. >> It's still just discussion. We've got to finalize um basically our department budgets and figure out where we're at
013there. We've got uh we've made a lot of headway. We're in the final rounds of that. We should be able to bring that back to you in June. Um in our workshop, we do have one more out large outstand outstanding item that we are I think it's going to be after June 1st before we get our quote back on our all of our insuranceances. um that be property, fleet, casualty, liability, all of those. So, um I think that um you know, we've tried to include the highest percent in that in a working copy that we can. So, we're hopeful that the amount that comes in will actually be less than that and we'll be able to bring our department budgets down and look back at phase three a little bit more. But at this time,
014phase three is not in budget. >> All right. Okay. So, we're going to switch over to compensation for just a minute and we're going to let Dr. Daniel discuss that. We're in the process of working with TASBY on compensation and as you may remember from previous meetings, there is money set aside already for pay increases that's being set aside. So, we're trying to work within that budget when we work with TASBY. TASBY is hopefully midMay, late May, we should get some models from them based on different percentages that we've given them to see where they fall within our budget. Um, just some other compensation considerations. Just last week or early this week, we received information about TRS insurance rates going up 10%. >> Um, so that may be something that we consider if it falls
015within the budget in June. Then we've also um looked at our special education supplements and extra pay that we provide to teachers and aids and we are looking at making some adjustments um specifically right now for some of those um pair professionals that are working in the life skills XC and um behavior classrooms and changing their scale to a higher amount than what it is now. So that includes teachers. >> Yes. >> And pair of professionals, >> correct? >> Okay. >> This is just a diagram just showing the percentage of increase for all of the different plans that we put together. Um just a comparison between last year and this year. And this really varies from, you know, person to person and what plan you're on and how many um people you are trying to
016get covered, whether it's just employee only or employee and family. So you can see the rates are going up anywhere from $58 per month to $231 per month. >> Did they change? Do we do we look to see if the coverages are staying the same? I mean, sometimes they raise the rate, cut the coverage or >> coverages are staying about the same. They go over all of the different plans with us, but the basic medical um plans are same coverage. >> Okay. As far as uh participation rate goes, um about half a little over half of our staff um participate in medical insurance options. And remember, we also provide teleaalth to every employee without any charge to the employee. So everybody has teleaalth whether you take medical or not. But 54% are participating in medical
017at this time. That rate's stayed about the same over the years. about half of our staff. Um, and then just looking at impact if we were to do anything. If it's within the budget, we did increase the premium that the district made the contribution for either I don't remember if it was last summer or the summer before, but it did increase. Then if it increased again, that just gives you an idea of what those amounts may be based on current participation rates. >> So that's something that we'll look at when we bring up entire compensation package to you in June. So the money that you have set aside right now for compensation includes the possibility of one of these two options. >> Well, no. We we don't know. >> It's over there. >> We don't
018know what the models are going to show as far as pay scales and because we're looking at that first. We're looking at the pay increases first and then if we can afford something like this, then we will include that. >> Okay. And what are we currently giving employees >> as just you know if it's just the employee I'm not asking about all the other >> No we get it's no matter if it's employee only or if it's family it's the same amount and I think it's 350 >> three it's either 300 or 350 a month >> 50 >> toward that what was on the >> correct the 600 and something for the base one. >> Okay. And you're thinking about increasing that between $50 and $100? >> We would like to, but again, it's going
019to matter depend upon whether or not it can fit into our budget without having >> no matter and it just touches half the staff basically. >> Correct. That's why the focus is on the pay increases first. >> So just I mean this isn't for doing anything at this point in time. Just a curious question. the the other 46% of the people that aren't taking insurance from here, is it typically I mean, have you surveyed them? Is it because they found it cheaper someplace else or >> they have a spousal insurance? I'm thinking it's the latter, but >> have you ever >> We have never surveyed them. Usually that's what it is is they're on a different plan through their >> Okay. >> their spouse. >> Have has the district ever looked into doing your own
020plan? I know that's a whole and I'm not asking for anything now. I'm just curious question >> selfunded through >> I don't know if you can be selfunded and afforded is it >> there are some districts that have gone >> but um there were limits past when you could opt in when you could opt out of that >> it's like a two-year process >> okay >> and some have come some are coming back to TRS that have been off of it are coming back I know that >> we did offer one of those alternate plans probably four or five years ago. >> Yes, I remember. >> And it was >> was less expensive, but there were a lot of issues with it. >> And so we went right back to TR completely back to TRS.
021>> Okay. >> Because you could do both at that time, but then they made >> this second or third year they've regionalized premiums. Is this the third? This will be the third year they've regionalized them. >> Yeah. >> Which is used to be it was the same premiums across the state. Now they're regionalized. And of course region 11, region 10, your metro areas are going to our premiums are higher. >> It's the risk pool. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. >> And everybody I mean the people that are here obviously generally seem to be happy with what TRS is providing. I mean I'm sure they're not jumping up and down. >> I was going to say I was going to say I have I have the insurance for health insurance. >> It it's it works for the family,
022but >> yeah, it works for my I mean it works for my family. We we've always had it. Okay. >> But the rates are terrible. >> Well, yeah. I agree. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Curious. Yeah. Okay. So, you may remember this slide from last time. Um, as we're working through things, we aren't ready to change any of these numbers yet. So, this is still our outlook. Again, I want to remind you that's very early and it's tentative. I like to use those words. It's not proposed yet. It's not recommended yet, but it is um projected as balanced. Um, it's based on a demographer's projections. So again, your revenue depends on how many students show up and how often they show up. Um, so we start trying to project that now. We actually ask
023you to approve a budget before we even know how many students will be here. And then historically for us, we've grown throughout each year. And so that changes as the year goes. But this does it does base it off the demographers's current projections. Um, so our campus departments, as I mentioned, they're in review. Um, we've looked at our operations cost uh with the new campus. Uh, the property values, our first look are out. We're still working through those. Um, when we get that information final in July, towards the end of July, we'll work on our tax rate development and we went over last time some new laws with our tax rates development and information that need to be included and provided. Um, we're still looking at how we can bring staffing phase three and what
024will be included in that compensation package. like he just went over, we've set aside, as you can see on that bottom line here, $2 million and it depends on what comes back as a proposal for comp, you know, for the raise. Is there additional amount in that two million to offer some form of incentive towards insurance? How do you balance that? Um, when you're affecting 54% of that, your focus is first on the pay plan. So, but that is in there right now at 2 million. Phase one and two again uh five million. We have the um we always have to do the campus prior to year opening, right? There's some costs that we have the year prior opening. Um we've got GMS, what we've operated there, all the campus and departments increases that we've
025projected that we're trying to stay within and then sometime costs that we brought out of this year's budget that we knew one time. So again, it's early. We're still at the same outlook that we were last month when we talked uh working through those departments. I've been going back over them and making sure that we can fit them in what we projected. And so Liz, the the big the variable that I understand in these projections is the is the CAD values, right? I mean, we've talked about this many times. >> Yeah. >> We we last year you were making in building the budget, you were making some projections about CAD values that maybe that didn't materialize because of a change in law. We didn't know how the formula would be uh interpreted. >> Correct. We're
026now year two into that law change. Are you thinking that this budget has a little better accuracy as to how that formula is going to be interpreted or are we still pretty exposed there >> on that portion that we're talking about which is on the freeze reduction? Um I cannot remember the Senate bills off the top of my head that went into effect, but it was the um hold harmless on the over 65. there were two two um laws that were passed there and it's going to depend on the information every um year that goes in and how it's interpreted. So what we've done is we've included what was um if you'll remember when we talked about it first the initial information that went in in January it came out that our um frozen values
027had gone down to zero and they had been at a million dollars um and we had expected to be at a million. Now they're um TEA stepped in and commissioner and did a little bit of different outlook than what the comproller had. They brought that back up. It wasn't the million that we had thought, but they did bring it back up. We've counted on that amount in this coming year's budget as well. So >> you've counted on a million. >> No, it wasn't the million. It's what it came out to this year, >> like 600,000 or something like that. >> And that So that's what's in this. >> That's in this budget. And that in my opinion, that is going to be a fluctuation every year that you will find out midyear. you say? Yes.
028So, we'll find out next, you know, February, March, >> right? Because it's based on the data that's gathered and sent in by every county. >> Okay. >> so in the compensation planning amount, does that include um the leveling potential leveling, >> correct? >> I mean, we try to work all that in. >> Okay. Um, the other the biggest the biggest overall variable in this whole budget in my opinion is how many students are here every single day. How many are enrolled and how many show up for attendance every day. Um, and that's with your growth. If you were in a district that was declining, that'd be your biggest variable, too. It's it's a variable either way, whether it's a decline or whether it's a growth. It's projecting that and you rely on demographers to help
029you project that. um and work on that throughout the year and estimating okay you know first six weeks your attendance is typically higher you know so you know what your enrollment is as you grow you may be growing in students but your attendance may go down for the second third and fourth six weeks maybe it comes back up for fifth typically it does for six so that's that's your really that's your biggest variable in in estimating your revenues on the expense side it would be any unknown factor like if you had a Um um if you have a major storm come through, you know, if you had something that required you to pay the large deductibles on insurance, if you had something that um some some form of inflation that wasn't projected like we had
030in COVID, those are those are some factors that um we can't predict. You you can't go back and predict that 20% inflation that was happening at the time. So we do um try and predict some, but those are things that could come out that are unknowns if they were to happen. as it relates to the unknowns, you you're talking about the demographer projections. Am I correct that when you're building your budgets? I mean, every year with maybe the exception of one, the projections were higher than what you budgeted for, which is means we had a little bit of a surplus. >> The actual enrollments and attendance, yes, were higher than what we had. >> I think one year we two years ago or so. >> Uh 23 24 I believe is what it was. Okay.
031That's correct. Um what we are starting to see in in our um area right now and we've looked at looked at that quite a bit in our democracy report is some of our um fast growth neighborhoods that have really contributed to our growth in the past. They're starting to build out. And so it will our growth will depend on are the other neighborhoods that are coming online are they coming online at the same time? Are your houses regenerating? you know, if if there's a home that had students in it that have graduated and moved on, is that family selling their house and is a new family coming in that has students in school. Um, because we are getting to build out. You know, this neighborhood here is built out. Harvest is getting close to build
032to build out and those are our two big big growing neighborhoods. So, it's it's as first comes online and how quickly they come online as the neighborhood next here next to our administration building comes online. are they growing as fast and selling houses and bringing in families at the same factor um as what we've seen in the past. >> And my recommendation to our district is if you want to reentify those houses, you make it um attractive to families with young children. And the way you make um school districts attractive to young families is you have small class sizes at the elementary school level because you're parents are happy, your kids are learning, and your teachers are happy. And if you make that a focus in your budget, and you get a reputation that you
033have really good elementary schools with small class sizes, I think you're going to always have the best teachers and you're going to have families wanting to move here. >> And I think Dr. Dr. Carpenter has a slide in her superintendent's report almost every month that shows our average class size right now. And if you look um there was a priority made in this 2526 budget to lower class sizes specifically. Um the elementaryaries are all under 22 to1. A lot of them average at 19 to1 right now. Um which is a great average for an elementary classroom especially if you start looking at some of our neighboring schools and what they've had to go to at elementary levels. um we are kind of constrained by how many classrooms we have for next year, but we are
034anticipating starting the school year um lower than 202 to1 and all of those as well. Um so it is it's a factor that we put a priority on as a district. Um you know, the board agreed that was a priority and that's what we've done this year. We're going to try and continue that to the to the space allowed for next year. All right, just a reminder um of where our fund balance goes. So the last two on here um two columns are estimated 2526 we won't have an actual there till after we close our books for this fiscal year and then 2627 is based on that balance budget as you know um we have a board policy at 17% fund balance our AISD practice has always been 25% that's a common practice among most
035school districts growing district um equals a growing budget if you have a balanced budget every year your fund balance declines a surplus budget um would make your fund balance maintain. So that's just a reminder of where we're where we're headed. Um and we've gone up and down. You can see there in our percentages um as far back as 2021 being almost at 30% and now um projected to go down hovering close to 20%. But as we as you're growing and shining and opening campuses, that does equal out in the years where you're not. So it should come back up. Just a reminder on where those fund balances go and what they're projected to do. Um, I do, um, have a budget amendment. I believe that will come to you in the middle of May. That
036would change the 2526 outlook a little bit and increase that a little bit more, but you will talk about that on our next board meeting. All right, next steps. May 18th regular meeting with the June 4th budget workshop. That's going to be focused on compensation. Um because we plan to bring back compensation on June 15th to the regular board meeting for action. We have a regular July 20th board meeting and then by July 25th we'll have our certified values. We'll work on our tax rate, get all of everything calculated, advertised in the paper and meet all the requirements and have our August 24th regular board meeting where we plan on recommending a tax rate in a budget. So do y'all have any questions? wonderfully organized and informative placeholders. >> Thank you. Well, again on June
037when we're talking about conversation, we'll also have some more details on individual budgets and things like that to deal with. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. >> I think the next one is yours anyway. >> Okay. This is information only. Purchases above 100,000. Y'all are getting really used to seeing this cover sheet both in information and action. Um so all of um these two they both have to do with FFN funds. One is for the stadium and IC. The other one is for GMS. The stadium IC is about 100,000 um $110,000 max not to exceed. It's going to cover items like um the refrigerators um in the press box. It will cover um some additional tables and chairs in there. It's going to cover like the um
038little mule vehicle that's used around the stadium to drive around. um and just some different various items in there. >> Um for GMS, if you'll remember, we've already brought you the big order with um all of the furniture that's already been taken care of, but this um has different areas in it. It has quite a bit more in athletics, it's got more in fine arts, it's got more in curriculum, um some small office areas. Um when you go and break it down, I want to just give you an example of things like um when you're setting up the gym, you need wrestling mats, right? Those are a large expensive item. those are included in this. Um you might need some um some science materials in the classroom uh for science labs. So it's it's a
039little bit from every single area. Uh we don't have quotes and on every single thing, but we're using historical uh data that we have on opening other campuses to come up with a maximum not to exceed. I do know that there's going to be one more area that we've got to cover that will come back in June and July on FFN um for Gibson, but right now this should cover the majority of the rest of it. um other than the initial furniture order and those are both out of the 2022 bond and falling well in line with the budgets that are presented. Um FFN on Gibson is I think the budget there was over 7 million for FFN. It's well under that. >> Do you have any questions on those? Okay, we will bring those
040back to you on May 18th. >> Okay, >> thank you. Okay. And then we have uh the next one is FDB local policy. This is the one that you saw I believe April 20th. Um this is the one regarding siblings. And so the way the pol current current policy reads is that the sibling transfer option is um for basically written in the way that the student is with the student that you're applying with as long as they are in that particular school. And so the recommendation was to allow the student if the sibling took the transfer to be able to finish where they started. So that's what that adjustment is and we have not had any um feedback or you made any changes to it. So it's up for consideration. >> I think it's good
041policy. >> All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve action item 6A as presented. >> Motion to approve action item 6A as presented. >> Mr. Western with a motion to approve. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. McDow with a second. Any further discussion, questions? All in favor, please raise your hand and say, "I." >> I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. >> Okay. And then the next one uh was the opening configuration for Argyle Legacy High School. So back in October, we had the parent presentation where we talked about options for opening the configuration and had that parent meeting. And then we came back to you March 2nd with an update um with basically the planned process sharing with you the same opening configuration options. Did the parent poll during that time
042frame came back April 20th with the board presentation that had the information from the parents and then I'm bringing it back to you tonight to consider for action. Uh the district's recommendation after going through that process was to um nth grade with 10th grade option. I know when we had the parent meeting in October, any feedback we did receive at that time, um, you know, parents were were excited about the option. Um, I had an email, one email yesterday from a parent, um, advocating for the option, but, um, can certainly answer other questions of PE from, you know, constituents that you may have heard from um, regarding the opening configuration recommendation and we can go from there. Well, I have run into several parents just in the past this week, which is convenient. Um, and
043I think when they filled out the survey, they were doing it from the frame of mind that siblings may be able to transfer for one year, but maybe not repetitively after that because the policy wasn't in place. And so, they were all like, "Oh, we'll go to Legacy High School." But then once they saw this presentation, they're like, "Maybe we'll stay at Ardal High School." So when the idea of opening two high schools came about, we talked about having a freshman class, a sophomore class with the possibility of a junior option, which makes sense to open a school and have that many students there. But then looking at it going this direction, if you have students who said they were going to do the sophomore option or go to Legacy as sophomores, so class of
0442030, if given the option to go to Argal High School, now you're potentially looking at opening Legacy with a full freshman class and a very partial sophomore class. And I don't know what that looks like with impacts on class offerings, how that affects UIL, >> if that's the most prudent use of space and administrative costs. Um, so for me personally, I don't feel like I'm ready to make that decision, but if you have more information, >> um, okay, >> I'd be open to hear. >> Sure. I appreciate that question. Um, yes, I can answer a little bit. I've also got Miss Lumson here. I know she can probably talk a little bit about the the sizes um as far as the numbers for making classes and then we Dr. Jordan you can talk a little
045bit about academic offerings. Why don't you start there as far as the message the messaging on class offerings hasn't changed. Correct. >> It has not. So both high schools and both middle schools are operating off of the same course selection guide. So the same courses will be offered to all students regardless of what class which campus they attend. But then which courses are actually offered is going to depend on what students select. Generally speaking, we would say a class makes if 15 or more students select that class. However, we have classes where we stack them. This is a theoretical, probably not an actual, but let's say we have AP drawing, AP painting, AP sculpting. Five students in each class. Well, the art teacher could have all 15 students in the same class period where she's
046operating with three different groups teaching, putting them to work, teaching them, putting them to work. Another option that we've talked about if there's we could have a shared teacher. So maybe they're AM here, PM here, or even Monday, Wednesday, Friday here, Tuesday, Thursday here with an aid facilitating between and then flip-flopping the next week. So we have some options if classes don't make that we know are really important for our students future >> and that's really just for it's pretty temporary >> if it's that one that one class of course um and we already do stat classes at the high school here correct okay >> uh Miss Lson do you mind coming up I wanted you to talk a little bit about I think the question as far as the uh how many students to
047make you know what where you where we kind of came up with those numbers because you've been a part of that conversation So, I wanted you to talk a little bit about that. >> So, um I've always kind of said about 75 spot um for a smaller school. Um what happens is if you have a teacher who's not a teacher coach, there's just a teacher. They teach six periods. So, that'd be 150 students. So, the most normal of configurations and and it used to be how we set up elementary schools, too. um six home rooms or six sections is a whole teacher. If you have what happens is if you go down to 75 now you that teacher would need to teach three sections of this and three sections of that. So it creates like
048a double prep but at high school that's not uncommon to teach a couple of grade levels. So that's why 75 is kind of the sweet spot. What happens when it gets lower to 75? It depending on, you know, how it dresses down, it adds more preps for teachers or more travels, which it costs that travel period. Um, I like what Dr. Jordan just said about if an I like that setup where there's a teacher here and there's an aid here and they're alternating how many days are there and the aid is more monitoring work and the teacher's there for the instruction. And that's a that would be a very workable um that I think would be better than a traveling teacher >> losing up period. Um so basically when I think about going small um
049I've always been under the thought as a principal like I feed the teachers so the teachers feed the students. So I immediately go to what does that do to my teaching staff? So I think 75 would create a couple of preps which isn't that taxing. Um, I know when I was talking to teachers about staying at AMS or going to Gibson, um, just being very fluid with them and saying, you know, for a couple years you may have two, three, if you're an elective teacher, maybe four preps or more, but look what we're getting to do. Um, there are teachers who that's exciting for them to open a new school. And so to have multiple preps, that'd be something they'd be willing to do for not long term, not forever. No teacher wants to do
050that forever. But to get to be a part of building something new, I think we would have buy in because I had more people volunteering to do that than I expected. Like I was afraid not enough people were going to want to stay at Argon Middle School and as it turned out, you know, we had to move some and being very open with them about prep. So that's the first thing I think of. If you go real small, like um if it goes down to 40 kids a grade level, like that's would be a little crazy because then you'd have three preps. But even with three preps, there's no way to do that where it wouldn't decrease the class size down to about 20. So if you go too small, you're creating the expense because
051the number of students in the class like 40, you have to do two sections, right? So that'd be 20 per section or you have to burn one section of 40. But you've got to get down in that really small zone before it creates a different student ratio. So I think we have teachers that would want to have multiple preps to be a part of opening legacy as long as they knew as we grow their preps shrink. So >> and you know we met several times and we talked about if we you know if we don't if we don't have the option and we just force 10th graders in we and we talked about if we did that what that would do to those that may may have may have been over here as a freshman
052that could have potentially have been a varsity competition or in the marching band. And so we felt like it was too much of a judgment call. And it wouldn't there wasn't a fair way to do that because then people would be um potentially saying, "Okay, I'm going to try to put them on varsity >> just to say they're on varsity to keep them." And it just didn't it didn't feel like that was the the best way to try to find a you know, >> right? >> Um something way to decide that. So that's right. Would you would you add to that? >> Yes. As a former coach, I would say teaming kids is the most stressful thing you do. So if you add that because there would like if you if we add the scenario
053where if you make a varsity sport over here then you can stay over here. Just imagine the pressure on that coach now like is it going to look like I'm putting this kid on varsity just because their parents want them to stay or do I have a parent like it's just a tremendous amount of pressure to put on a coach. Um, and then I also think if you go down that route and you do it for athletics, well then you have to think about well band well band just has one band. So if they're marching they're on varsity and then theater we only have one one act play. So does that mean they're varsity? and UIL academics, whoever competes is that and before you know it, it might as well be a like there might
054only be a small handful of kids who now are choosing just because we've let everyone choose because so many people fall into competing at something at the varsity level that really why take away the choice for the kids who aren't that involved when the whole point of doing this is to get more kids involved. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. Is the expectation that it's going to be 115 kids that are at >> the 2030 graduating class opposed to 45? >> I hope so. >> I think they have some of the numbers like an expectation. >> Yeah. On that slide >> based on the survey. >> That's the one. >> I mean we Right. Correct. Yeah. We had >> based on the people that responded kind of a predictive, you know, using predictive model there
055and we have some numbers and you know we talked to different districts we have for two years you know a couple years now and of course I come from one where we did nine and 10 and there was there was no nine or 10 option. We've talked to districts that have done it since then that had done that went with a 10 option. We've talked to one that didn't do just nine only just started with nine and then metriculated everybody up. So, there's different you've seen different models of it. Um, and it's really just what best fits your community is. It's really there's no right or wrong answer to it. Um, but I think, you know, we felt like we had the best feedback after that parent meeting of parents saying, "Yes, we want the
056we want to be able to have that choice because they get over here and they meet their friends or they're, you know, acclimated and and so that's kind of where our conversations went. We spent a lot of time talking through that um to bring a recommendation obviously but the uh but yes we you know I mean the other thing you can do is say okay we'll do an option but if we don't have x amount then all of you are going and we'll make a decision by this date. I mean you know that's that can be done but even in the the districts that have done the option they've averaged about half the class. It's what they've all averaged. Now, of course, not everybody's the same, but >> Right. So, what would that look like
057at >> um >> that would get us to the 75? Very close. >> Yeah. I mean, it's Yeah. So, it it it would be, you know, probably we're expecting about 350 to 450 in the 910. So, half of a half of a class about half of that 150ish probably or 175 200. But it regardless on a UIL standpoint, we're expecting Legacy that first year, and we've said this all along, we're expecting them to be a 3A that first year because they'll be in the middle of an alignment, >> right? >> Then the way UIL works, if you open up with two grade levels, then you double that for the new alignment. So, for example, we'll open in 27 and then when it's time to turn in UIL numbers in fall of 27 after snapshot, we
058take what we currently have enrolled in 9 and 10 and we it's a times two and they place you in. So, that's going to take us to 4A. should take us to 4A immediately with that. >> Um, if you open up with 9, 10, and 11, you your multiplier is different. So, it all depends on what you they have a formula for what you open up with. So, we're expecting that first year to be 3A and then beyond that would be 4A. Um, Arl High School, we don't expect it to change to from 5A. It should stay 5A. From a capacity standpoint, what our numbers are showing us from projections is we'll get to 20 33 34 and we hit right at the right at 24 I'm sorry 23 20 3435 sorry 3435 hitting that
05921 2200 number over here. So it's getting us through that year with the new with the zones the way we've got them right now is what the projections are showing now. Again that's 10 years out. So this would run does the does it impact the capacities at the two campuses that first year if you offer the option like are either one close to running at capacity? >> No, because this one um right now the projections what what we have that we've shown um in 2728 if let's say we open up over there at you know 400 and so you end up you you only get you know half half of those in there. Let's say you're at 300. You're over here showing 1613. So maybe 1,700 which right now they're running >> what we are.
060>> Yes. Less than a little bit less than what we are right now that first year. And then of course each year it metriculates up. It's just that first year it'll be a little bit smaller. >> And as we project further out >> the delta is like within 75 students or something like that. >> Rapid. >> No. No. Well, I mean 10 years 10 years out projection. Again, let me rephrase that. That's 10 years. So that's that's a long ways out, but the 10-year projection is a difference of about 1,200 and 2100, which we've known. That's kind of what we've known. >> So I think >> 4 and 5. >> I mean, my thoughts talking graduating class, right? >> Oh, graduating class. >> I thought when we >> Oh, graduating class. Sorry, I'm just passing.
061Yeah. >> Graduating class like 80 to 100 like right there. >> It's about a 6040. What I'll tell you is I I didn't have anybody reach out to me, which doesn't mean much, but um I didn't hear anything about it and but Leanne, you you do cause me to think about it at a little probably maybe even a deeper level. I was when I when came up with in the last meeting, I you know, had some questions about it. it it I do think the 10th grade option has the potential of getting Legacy High School off to a little slower start potentially >> may not but it does create that risk if a whole bunch of high-erforming kids academically athletically fine arts and then panic sets in they're going everybody you know how those things
062go and it gets out in the community and everybody goes oh my gosh everybody's going you know legacy high school's not going to be able to even fake or something and then you know that's a a risk and a concern I think because you I see siblings opting in and I see potential for high performers >> you know staying >> and then all of a sudden it becomes friends and then >> well and I will say on the on the siblings like we we ran the freshman siblings there were only nine of them there's not very many of those it's not it's not a lot of them but you have to be going into high school >> it's not but so what it's the misinformation information that I worry about that causes some state of
063panic. And so >> sensing >> and and that was kind of what my questions, you know, were with Coach Rogers and and now hearing what your breakdown a little bit, you know, comforts me because you really don't know. The opposite thing could happen too, >> right? And and so when I kind of weigh it all, I kind of go, you know, for the the reality of it is the year of the transition is going to be hard on those particular grades. And we knew that when we were making this decision, there was no way to avoid it. Whatever year you pick, it was going to be hard on those kids. >> And it just didn't matter. And so I always kind of started going, well, as much choice as we can offer, even though there
064may there's consequence to choice, you guys know me well enough now to know if you use that word, I'm kind of like in, >> you know. Um but I I I there needs to be some >> critical math >> safeguard in place here that if it that you know >> you don't you don't get to the 40 like or you know I don't know I mean I we need to revisit that maybe in some ways because I don't want it to go that extreme. Well, when you're looking at staffing to all the administrative team and if it's really 40% of the freshman class is what's there and then maybe or of the total freshman for this district and maybe if you have half of the 40% of the sophomore class but you're running an administrative
065team. I mean, we have received criticism from our community for things like that and that's what I worry about. Like that was the big criticism. >> I think we still we would know our ratios. We would know our numbers. So, we're going to >> the deadline for them to make a decision. So, that you can make a number. >> So, if you'll go down about staff, >> Rick, will you go down to the what we presented last time? >> Can I make up the timeline? Sorry. Wait, that was it. Sorry, you were on it. Sorry about that. Keep going. I think for staffing, one thing that maybe is important to point out, which we all know, but maybe we're not thinking about it, when sometimes when new high schools opening, they're opening and moving into
066a new building, so all that overhead cost. So, just remember, we're we're in a building where the middle school will be there, too. And even this during this split, we sat and looked what are the numbers warrant for the office staff for this, for that. and we we're doing some creative things to make sure that we aren't overstaffing for the number in the middle of a split. So, we're in the same building. So, like for example, if the 10th grade class does end up being so small, we can share a receptionist. We can I mean there's there's I know we would look and we would only add positions that couldn't be done by positions that are already there, right? >> And you know, air, heat, all of that is already an expense. Um I also
067don't want the 40 if to make the job of that principal the easiest would be for everybody has to come but when you step back and think about that too that doesn't feel quite right. So yeah the middle somewhere around 75 I don't want 40. I would love every single one of them but I don't want to tear a kid away if they made you know my daughter made varsity as a freshman. It would have broke her heart to have had to have left a high performing team. So I get that human side too, which is always the side I want to land on. >> For for me, the the balance or the equation is we're crystal balling something at the expense of taking choice away. >> So if you you don't want a future
068trip, you don't want a crystal ball. And so, you know, my thoughts are then provide the most choice. Um and then you know if it if it is 40 obviously it can be done >> can make it work >> but but if it's 150 it can be done. Um but there's just I don't know that we'll ever get an accurate number until October. >> And so obviously a decision has to be made before then. >> Um so that that that's where I'm sitting with it. I don't even think it's as much crystal ball because we have examples of other districts that have done it and we have data. >> Now, as you said, every district's different. >> Everyone's done it a little bit different. >> The the concern with staffing for me is if you're
069if you know what it's going to be in October, you have you have time to staff up or or not as based on who's said they're coming. >> So, there shouldn't be and to your point, it's already open and running. It's not an additional expense, right? uh bringing Gibson Middle School on is right. We see the effect of that on the budget currently. >> Yeah. Do you'all want Whitney to come up here and talk about that? >> Yeah. And Miss Nolles, >> don't listen to him. >> It's okay. >> Thank you, Miss Suma. Any other comments, questions? >> I know some of the when we were meeting and talking about this decision, one of the things we didn't just talk about is was when Argal High School was small, you know, it's kind of that
070same mentality is is program directors and coaches are recruiting kids to be multiport, multi, you know, that's just going to be the culture of that campus. So, they're going to be pulling kids and, you know, getting them to be involved in things. And so, I think the culture over there is just going to be different in that sense. you're going to have kids doing multiple things versus starting to, you know, get into just single, you know, types of activities, which happens when your schools are larger, >> which quite frankly is one of the reasons why, you know, I mean, even if it is a little small, there are benefits to that to those kids that made that option and it could cause more strain, but like you said, I I've always wanted to create an
071environment where >> coaches were competing for kids, people were going trying to find kids to get them involved as opposed to saying, I have so many kids, I don't care if you come out or don't come out. And you know, at some point, we've kind of kind of re >> kind of hit that level in many areas. >> And so I I love the idea of them saying, >> "Come join my program, club, whatever it is." And so, >> well, and how many how many parents have we heard from throughout the years of like I remember when you could do >> multiple sports in our >> March in the band and play football. Um, you know, march in the band and do drill team. And and you know when that ends is when you get
072really big and every program gets their own class. >> That's when you get a baseball class, you get a basketball class, you get a cross country class, you get all those classes. You have to be in a class >> and you can only do that when you get really big. And sometimes that forces specializations on kids at very young ages. That that's my opinion, but I'm sure somebody disagreed with it. And the schools that'll be in their classification will, you know, have those same kind of they'll have those same kids those kids that are, you know, playing or participating in several things because that's just that culture of that those size schools. >> So, it's going to be rough. It's going to be the transition years will be could be potentially rough. I mean, when
073you see these schools open up, they they do struggle and then but you see them the next year, I mean, they're right back, you know, and you >> I'm prepared for that, >> you know, and I'm kind of excited about growing something and seeing these people and these new leaders and these new >> families get excited about growing something. So if they choose to stay at Argal High School and don't go to Legacy, do they have any choice and they live in Legacy >> and that attendance bound, do they ever have a future choice to be able to go back there? >> Yes, they will because they live there. It's the opposite that they don't want, you know, if you make a decision, you can't turn, you can't turn like if you said you were
074going to go over there, then you changed your mind, we wouldn't come over here. But if you started here and wanted to go back, yes, absolutely. Because that's their zone. >> Okay. The only other thing I will say is if the sophomore class is going to be very small, but it still makes because we gave them option. I know that there are people that are out of the district that would come back to the district for the junior option, but we're not offering it because it's too small. So that's and I know that there's the upper classman logistics and it gets harder and I get that. But this is why decisions are hard for me because I have a whole road map in my head instead of a straight line. >> Yep. That's okay. And
075I think our the reason we didn't recommend it is because the prediction to full group was so small that we didn't feel like it was even going to be feasible based on the the the re the uh responses that we got from parents. >> Well, they they can do what a lot of families just repeat 8th grade and then they can >> they're already freshman. They're already there. >> Oh, I didn't know they >> their and their UI quaka started. >> That's kind that was kind of popular there for a little bit. It was very popular in elementary especially. >> Okay. I will uh consider a motion to approve action item 6B as presented by administration. >> Make a motion to approve action item 6B as presented. >> Um Mr. Hawksworth a motion to approve.
076Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. McDow with a second. Um all in favor please raise your hand. Say I. >> I. I. Any opposed? >> No. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Now, under the authority of the Texas Government Code 551, subchapter D, the board will now go into close session at 5:55 p.m. to discuss 551.074, Personnel Matters and Public Officers, and 551.072, deliberation regarding real property. Thank you. All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for those here still watching. It's 9:29 p.m. Uh we have returned from executive session. Uh at this time I will entertain a motion to approve action item 8A, consider action on superintendent contract. Motion to approve action item 8A as presented. >> Mr. Matthew Sllayton. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? >> Second. >>
077Mr. Hawksworth with the second. >> All in favor, please raise your hand and say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Thank you. The time is 9:30 p.m. and we are adjourned.