001All right. Good evening. The time is 5:00 p.m. It is March 24th, 20125. This is a regularly scheduled meeting of the Argal ISD Board of Trustees. At this time, we will determine if a quorum is present. Leona McDade, present. Josh Westerrom, present. Rich McDow present. Lean Arto present. Matt Slayton present. Sam Slayton present. We do have a quorum established. The time is still 5:00 pm and we will adjourn to executive session. All right. Good evening. The time is 6:12 p.m. We have returned from executive session. At this time, we're going to have the pledge of allegiance. Join us. We do. High school. There they are. Miss N. Like, wait a minute. There's lots of people. Miss Nolles in Argal High School is here. So come tell us who you are real quick and then they
002can talk please. Okay. So this is our flag crew is what we've named ourselves. We decided at the beginning of the school year we needed a group responsible for taking down and putting up the flags each day. And so I reached out to Nolan who's one of our seniors and just said, "Can you help me?" And by the end of the day he had a crew. they are out there rain or shine um taking care of our flags, folding it, doing you know right all the stuff you're supposed to do. So I'll let them introduce themselves and then they can leave me. Hi, my name is um Nolan and uh I'm involved in scouts and band and it's really fun to be at the school and realize that like interests can be met at the
003school and um yeah uh I'm a I'm a senior. Okay, very good. My name is Jude Carlson. I'm involved in uh the superintendent, student advisory council, NHS, DECA, Turning Point USA, uh academic coaching, and something else. I'm involved in a lot. And uh I really love that there's a lot of really driven people at this school because it holds me accountable, especially as a senior who is facing some senioritis. Excellent. Hi, I'm Aaron Oberers. I am a freshman. I'm in band, scouting, and archery. Uh, I really like that all the teachers are very encouraging and they always help you with anything you need. Awesome. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you. and lead us away to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with
004liberty and justice for alliance to the Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Did you see him? I did. I did. Come on. Awesome. Thank you. [Applause] three years to figure that out. Choir's performing. Okay. With opening prayer first. Yeah. Four out of seven. order. Just do what I tell to do. Some of us listen. Well, we're following the agenda order. Sorry. All right. Mr. Hawksworth, why don't you lead us in in prayer, please? Okay. We let the kids come in. Do what you want to do. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for our time here together. Thank you for all these students and parents and family who come to support this district as we try to support their kids. Please watch over uh all the students and staff and administrators
005as we're on the end run to the school year and into the summer. Um we're grateful for you and all you do for us and we love you, Lord. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you. Now, we have our Hilltop choir here. All right. I think we're going out to see them now. You can move it the alley. We're going to come out here so we can enjoy this from this point. How are you? Good. Hi. Turn. Okay. Hey. Uh, I'm Bonnie Barkley. I'm the music teacher at Hilltop Elementary. This is the Hilltop Choir. And, uh, we came today to sing a song for you guys in honor of music in our schools month. March is known as music in our schools month. It's also art in our schools month, oddly enough. Uh, but it's a
006time when we talk about the importance of music in education and in uh, overall society. So, if you want resources on that, feel free to email me at bonnie.barkleyd.com. But, uh, we we have a song that we we thought would be appropriate for this and it's called a brand new song. And we even have some solos and some trios and even a quartet in it. So, if you're one of the people singing a solo trio or a quartet, would you raise your hand? Uhhuh. Just almost all of them. Okay. And uh, anyways, here's a brand new song. We hope you enjoy. [Music] If you sing the world, [Music] I can sing a perfect me. [Music] music and that's where we're singy. [Music] Come and sing aloud and we can ride a brand new song. We
007don't have to hide. With music on our side, we can show the world what we can do. Singing makes us feel like we belong. Together we can write a brand new song. [Music] The music will move us together. We [Music] will change the world. Thank you so much for having us. That was all we had to share with you tonight. I think they wanted us to stay up here for just a second, but thank you again. Thanks for letting us come. Y'all stay there. I know she couldn't step up. Big smile. Here we go. Feel free. Thanks guys. Thanks for sparkling. [Applause] I like [Music] the sparkling. The pastel. I love it. I love it. Well, you just match. I love it. together. Okay. I didn't have a good one. Oh, wait. We went from
008the hottest ticket in the town to the coldest ticket. So, that was amazing. That was quick. Thank you, Hilltop Choir. Great, great performance. So, all right. Uh this time I will uh entertain a motion to approve uh action item 7A as discussed in closed session. So moved. Mr. Hawksworth motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Dr. McDade has second. I uh Mrs. Leantho is recusing herself uh from this motion. Uh, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you, Wy. That's 6. Okay. All right. I will entertain a motion to approve action item 7B as discussed in close session. So moved. Mr. Hawksworth motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Minister McDall. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you.
009We'll go on to the consent items. Pull donations up, please. All right. For the March 2025 donations, we have Argal Bamb Boosters, $20,000 for the color guard position. Argal South Elementary PTA, $440 for Art Night, $1,460 for Life Skills. Total March donations, $21,900. Does anyone have any questions on any of the consent items we need to discuss? I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent items as presented. So moved. Mr. Matt Sllayton. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. I'm giving that to Mr. Westerm with the second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Sorry, Mrs. Arthur. I'll get you. That's okay. I'll be faster. Okay. All right. We have a construction report. Good evening, Mr. Cohen. Hello. Good evening. Are we talking about wind
010here tonight? Uh, yes, we can. We've had a lot of it. Uh, and unfortunately that does prevent certain activities at certain times. So, we've, uh, been fighting that, but still making some progress. So, uh, starting with the stadium. Here we see a view looking to the south on our home side. So, uh we have managed to pour quite a bit more paving out there. Um they've actually poured the fire lane on the left, which you can see in this photo is partially formed. Uh not poured yet. That got poured last week. Uh so the only thing we haven't done is made the tiein to the existing. Uh but what that does allow us to do is start going vertical this week. So, our masonry contractor is out here uh getting his scaffolds, getting laid out.
011So, over the next 10 days, I'm told we're going to see 105 foot elevator tower constructed at the end of about 10 days. So, that will be something to see. There's also crane sitting out here. Uh you can actually see it in this photo, but they've now got it assembled and uh it's ready to go as soon as that masonry gets done. Uh here we you can also see uh near the field uh a lot of the columns for the grandstands. So they've been pouring those uh for the last several weeks. Uh poured another couple of rounds over one over spring break, one last week. Then switching over to our indoor activity center and our uh visitor side. So in the foreground, the indoor activity center, they've got all the peers installed. They've started to
012dig grade beams, uh, which they are forming and putting rebar in right now. Uh, this plan was to pour that this Friday, although the weather is not look like that's going to cooperate with us. Uh, and then looking to the background, you can see the parking that they've poured on the visitor side. It's about half of it. We have not done any fire lanes there, and they do have all the grandstand columns uh, poured over there. So, our visitor side grandstands will arrive first in sometime in April, and we'll see those start being assembled first while they finish the fresh box structure and all of that glass before they do the grand stands on the home side. So, in case there's any questions, that's why they're starting on the visitor side, not because it's more
013important, but because that's a place we can get them started earlier. This is a little bit closer view of our home homeside uh grandstand here in the foreground. So you can see them forming columns there. Again, the parking in the background uh at either end of that you can see the uh plumbing roughed in for concessions for two of them. And then the third one is starting this week on the visitor side. This is just a closeup of one of those concession buildings with all the plumbing installed. Uh grade beams are dug. They've now got that poured. So once the mason gets the elevator tower constructed, he'll move over and start on the concession buildings. So milestones uh press box erection to begin March. Uh the steel will actually not start until April, but we
014are going to get the masonry going up for the elevator shaft. Indoor activity center is uh still roughly a month out before delivery. We're looking for that building to arrive the end of uh April and start construction on that. Visitor grandstand should arrive next month as well to start installation followed by homeside sometime early summer. Uh our contractual substantial completion is still November. Uh but we do continue work every day to see where we can get contractors in earlier, work faster, and try to improve that date. Although I don't have any commitments yet, but right now if we don't get any significant weather delays, I think we will be able to improve that date. I don't know by what extent yet, but hopefully enough to at least have a few games here. And then as
015we continue uh we'll be pouring more fire lane. So we've got to have fire lane in place in order to go vertical. So as we get fire lane around, we can continue with vertical construction on the concession stands as we get the fire lane past them. So uh that's why we got the home side in first. We didn't finish the parking first. We wanted to get started on those buildings. So we jumped over to the fire lanes. We should be seeing the indoor activity center uh building slab poured and also the visitor side concession stand. We'll see that get poured. Uh steel erection will begin here in the next two weeks or so. And then masonry, we should see that going this week. There any questions? Nope. No, sir. Okay. Appreciate it. No problem. So,
016moving on to the middle school. Uh, and just so you know, I've asked them to to give us some more close-up photos. Uh, so we'll have a few more slides, a lot more closeup views so we can better see what they're doing out there. There is a lot going on out there. I know these uh wide overall shots, it's hard to see the detail. Um, I was amazed when I uh rode around there last week with them just how much was going on on that site that you just you can't get from one of these kind of photos. So, here the main the big thing you can see of course is the uh the football field, the turf field going in. So, you're looking at uh the black is the under drainage mat that goes
017down first uh goes above the drainage and they've got all the rock flex space that goes in on top of that and then the turf will install on that. Uh they are putting the asphalt down this week for the track so we get an asphalt base before we get track service. So that will be done this week. Um I know a lot of you probably drive down 407. We're making progress there on our entrances. So the western drive the asphalt's been complete. So we actually use our west drive now to get into the site instead of the construction entrance. And then they've been doing the grading in preparation for the asphalt on the deceleration lane which goes from about the Cactus Canyon driveway up to our east driveway. So we should see that work completed
018fairly soon. Uh a lot of the barricades will come down. Uh and then I think all that will be left will be some restriping to create a center left turn lane uh in that road and then we get all those barricades off the road which will help that immensely. So, have we seen the latest design schematic for 407? Because they started obviously widening it. Uh, I have not seen one in quite a while. Are they coordinating us in any way with median breaks for our access to the school? Yes, we we have had conversations in the past. We'll continue to coordinate that with them to make sure we get the median breaks when that goes in. When that portion goes in because there is going to be a median in 407. Yes, it is to
019be a median divided uh six lane, I believe. And the expectation is is that where our entrances into this site, there will be a left turn. Yes. And you'll be able to be left in, left out. Yes. There should there should be the availability for left in, left out. Although uh with traffic, you know, with some more lights that may improve, but you may not want to make, you know, an unprotected left out because you may sit there a long time and you know, so I I don't imagine there'll be a lot of that. Uh, you know, the intent is that people would probably use the light and want to use our light. I know that on 377 really works. What's that? I said I know the the no on 377 really works. Yes. At
020Cook Street. So yes, in this photo you can see that the asphalt's been completed at the west driveway approach. So we actually now use that so the construction entrance to access the site and the traffic light we're looking at gateway or we looking at the eastern side of well gateway has been reported to you know have a light whenever that comes online and uh just two weeks ago we actually got our traffic analysis back on our warrant study and we do meet the warrant for traffic signal on our driveway. Okay. So our next steps are to design that signal and then that goes through the town for approvals and texttop for approvals. When we get all that then we put that out for bid. Okay. To get the cost on that. So we have been
021approved. We met the warrant. So we're getting ready to engage that next step. And would they also given the distance between the two and actually the one on 35 put a light at Gateway? Uh I it's up to text dot but I do believe it is over their minimum requirements for separation to have one at the highway at gateway and at our drive. Okay. So with with those lights uh installed once they're all installed then I think there'll be a lot more possibility to make those left turns out in some of those instances because that will actually slow the traffic down you know a little bit and give you those brakes built in when you've got the the red lights. Okay, this photo is looking from the north to the south. So, in the foreground
022of our photo is our detention area. Uh, and we actually own roughly 3 acres on the near side of the creek that runs through there. It's just uh pretty much undevelopable. There's really not much use for it. So, where you see the the blue silk fence going around there, that's not our physical property line. It actually crosses the creek. you can see in this photo. Uh it's just not a corner that's got a lot of use. Um so in looking at this photo, uh there's some parking that you can see has been poured. This is some of the uh additional parking, alternate parking that we did with the middle school. It was intended as elementary school, but also thinking about the the big basketball tournaments they may have in the gyms and wanting to make
023sure we had enough parking. So we got that in earlier. Uh so it's elementary school parking and event parking. Um on the left side you can see another parking lot uh that's been graded. It's got line has been done. It's stabilized and so now they'll be starting to put in forms and rebar on that very soon. Uh the buildings is that's why I asked for more close-up photos. It's really hard to tell but they've got all the peers drilled for the building. They poured grade beams for both the gymnasiums last week and they're continuing to move around pouring more grade beams and they'll start on the eastern drive coming into the site this week and getting that poured that's all lined and ready to go. So looking ahead uh expect to complete the paving over
024the course of about the next month maybe six weeks uh steel erection should begin within that time frame. Um, as soon as we pour the slab for the storm shelter, which is the one of the gymnasiums, we'll see our ICF forms go up. So, we'll start seeing that come out of the ground. And that will also be the mason, but as soon as he finishes ICF, he'll start work on the second gen, which will be all CMU, and then he'll just follow on around. So, some of the the milestones that we're tracking, uh, got a permit in August. Uh they completed grading last fall, early winter, and then we're still looking at substantial completion for July. And of course, we'll fill in some other key dates as we uh get to the point we can
025start going vertical. We'll put some dryin dates and things like that on here, permanent power, elevator. Any questions? No. Oh, thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Dr. Carpenter. Yes, sir. So, I have some celebrations. Obviously, the spring is busy. Uh we're coming off of our winter kind of our winter sports and fine arts into the spring, but our we've had several fine art programs that uh excelling recently from middle school perspective. Symphonic Band Symphonic Winds both earned sweep stakes in first division at UIL. So, that B program continues to be strong. We've had three AMS AMS choirs that also won sweep stakes and superior ratings at UIL and that was both in concert and site reading. We have um the middle school also TMSCA we had nine
026students qualify in 15 events and uh go to San Antonio on the 29th. So that's coming coming up soon. And then AHS Color Guard won the NTCA regionals and they will compete in the championships this weekend. So, strong fine arts programs excelling right now and several things going on during in during this season. Uh, athletically, we've got 44 of our track athletes at the middle school have now qualified for meet of champions. So, we had we had a strong showing there. State powerlifting this past weekend. If you haven't seen this on social media, Aaron Gomez, who's a senior at Argal High School, he won the 220 pound class and his combined total 2,145 pounds. and he set a state bench press record of over 700 pounds. So, um, big deal down there at the Texas
027High School Powerlifting Association. Congratulations to the high school and to Aaron for that. And the team total place seventh. So, excellent job there. And then we had Lauren Mansfield play second in the 165 pound weight class for the girls state powerlifting. Uh, girls and boys soccer double header tomorrow night. Both of them are in the second round of playoffs. They play in Kennedel the tomorrow evening and the girls will play first at 6, boys to follow at 8. So an exciting time for both soccer programs um as they both were district champions, won last week and now we'll get to play a double header. So that fan base will all be in the same place tomorrow night. Baseball, softball's in the middle of district action and then track and golf will be having district meets
028uh next week. So a lot of things going on across the district with our our programs. And then last week, if you uh saw our social media, we had our teacher of the year parade. I know um some of our trustees were able to join us that were could work that in their schedule, but um had a great day. We took the bus, we had the drum line, we had cheer, we had our eagle, and we made it a day across the district and celebrated Facebook live. Uh I think one of the probably the the coolest thing about the whole deal is the family of the winner is in town and the winners do not know that their families are here. and the look on their faces when we come marching down and they recognize
029because there's a lot going on and all of a sudden they zone in that their own family has driven in um it gets pretty emotional. So really really neat experience for them. Um and then this year what we added to that is we pro the campuses provided a substitute so that they could actually go spend the rest of the day with their family and so that was a nice uh piece to add to that. Uh just special thank you to Argonal Education Foundation. They provide a cash prize to all of our teacher of the years. Uh, Poke Construction also provides a cash prize. And then Justin Ray with Justins joins us in our parade and he fits every one of them with a ring, commemorative class ring, if you will, for their teacher of the
030year. And then we also have Emily Holt with Art Party and Gifts presents uh provides uh some gifts and then Eagle Partners a basket. So, it's just um a wonderful outpouring of support for those teacher of the year uh finalists and on their c the winners on their campus. in our next steps that we will um from a district perspective we'll be soon looking at an elementary and a secondary teacher of the year that will go on and compete at the regional level. So that process continues and congratulations to everyone involved. A few district updates. So, one of the um everyone knows that the we we we have a lot of safety and security requirements um that came out of the last legislative session, including intruder audit detection uh process. Also, the district vulnerability assessment,
031which is something new, and TEA is taking four years to basically do this at every camp, every district across the state. um and you don't really know where you're going to fall in the four years and this is year one and we were chosen for year one and they started today in the district. So um we had four campuses have right Dr. Daniel had the district vulner vulnerability assessment everything went very well. Mr. Lemish has done an incredible job. He's our network support and security coordinator. He had our campuses uh prepared probably overprepared but he's done a great job doing that. And then we have three more campus uh audits tomorrow. But there's over 248 items that have are on this rubric essentially and um so congratulations to our campuses but also Mr. Limish. He's
032done done a great job with that and getting that done. But we are one of the for early districts if you will um in the four-year process is to have our district vulner vulnerability assessment. Also want to do an update on uh for our elementary, sixth grade center and middle school. We had to announce last week that we were adding two minutes. I believe Dr. Jordan, is that right? Two minutes to the school day. I wanted to kind of explain that so that everyone understood. So, House Bill 2610 was in back in I think 2015 and that passed um for instructional minutes. So, students are on instructional minutes every day every year, not days, which prior to 2015 they were in days. And um the high school students here in Argal attend 450 minute per
033day. The other campuses are 445 minutes per day based on their bell schedules. And so that equates to where the high school has essentially 3.87 banked days of minutes a year, the other campuses have 2.02 bankked days a year. So there's, you can tell there's a difference there. And in the summer of 23, Dr. Jordan and I were kind of both new in our roles. And we started looking at the minutes and when the bells were ringing. And really the bells, the definition is instructional bell to instructional bell. Not when you ring the bell to walk to class, but it's when school starts. And so we wanted to make sure that we were were fulfilling that exactly like it was supposed to be. That's where our 450 and 445 come in. And so um this
034year we had two two days we missed and we also had an early release in December when we had the state semi-final football game. So when we missed our two days plus the half day kicked us over on those campuses that only had two days banked essentially. So we only needed about 90 minutes. it made sense instead of trying to take a bad weather day from our families just to add the two minutes to each day from here until the end of the year. So, that's how that works. It's um not uncommon for districts to go through that. You have some choices there and we figured that would uh minimize any the distractions, if you will, to family schedules for our ARGL families. So, that's that's why we have the extra two minutes on those
035campuses. Bond 2025 well underway. You are probably seeing a lot of um communications from the district coming out and I know that our district signs have gone out. Remember, anything the district's putting out is factbased. So, if you see our signs, they're going to just be early voting information, voting day information, the how many propositions, um that kind of stuff. That's what you're going to see on any district signage. And then you'll see communications messages coming out. You will see uh soon you will see dates for our three community meetings. And then we also have a lot of videos that we're going to be pushing out. So listening to some of our very busy families as it is springtime. Uh they asked for on demand versions of bond information in smaller chunks. So we are
036working uh to accommodate that. And then we'll have three community meetings. So please make sure you're staying uh and being informed with that. Um collaborative visioning. I think this is something that I'm super excited about. It's uh essentially a strategic plan for all departments and all goal areas in the district. It's been since 2017 I believe the last time the district engaged in that activity. So the goals and objectives are are uh have aged out. We've had a lot happen since 2017 in terms of education in general. So we have our our final committee meeting tomorrow night with that group and they will be bringing a recommendation in April to the board. Um what's really exciting about this is it provides us a five-year framework for achieving the desired results because this is a community-led
037process um ensuring our traditions, expectations, and values uh continue to be the process that we're aligned with as a district. And so it'll help us moving forward with clear direction, focus and efficiency, accountability, and then just a continuous improvement model. Um, so that's that's exciting because it's really defining the standard for who we are in Argyle, who we were, who we are, and who we will continue to be. So looking forward to them bringing that to you as a recommendation in April. And then finally, just from a legislative update, um, we went down February 26th and we took Mattie Fairchild, teacher at Argal South, Katie Hayden, assistant principal, Argal South, Steven Orsowski, teacher at Argal High School. Trustees Wester and Artho went with us and we spoke in person to several representatives on the Senate
038side and our house side and we have continued those conversations since we've arrived back in the district. We will have a legislative live this Friday. So I believe 11:30 on Friday 11:30 we will have a live YouTube update. Um and we will actually have our teachers and campus representatives and with us on there to talk about their experience and kind of what we know about the legislative session to this point. Um we still have not had any movement on school funding. Uh so we're still working through that and listening and wait patiently waiting um and anxiously waiting for updates coming out of Austin on that. So we'll keep you posted, continue to stay informed and you can use take action argyle to to reach your representatives. I believe that's it. If you haven't seen my
039Facebook page and Instagram account, please follow. Lots of good information. All right. Thank you, Dr. Kirby. You're welcome. We have a TASBY update. This is information only. Yes, information only. Um, this is TASBY update 124. Well, there'll be a big one this summer after this legislative sess session, hundreds of pages long compared to the the few that you received with this one. Um, so this is TASBY update 124 and then there's also two um local policy updates. One of these you heard is information only earlier this year and it dealt with um bereavement leave. Um we currently do not have bereavement leave available for staff. So this is coming back to you just again as information only um which would be 3 days um for each employee without a reduction in pay. And then the
040other local leave is also under DEC local. It is um increasing and this came out of the teacher superintendent advisory committee meetings just different ways to you know um recognize staff and show our appreciation. And so one of those was adding two more local days, paid local days um to their um annual aotment and that you did not hear a few months ago that we we decided to bring this all together at one time instead of piecing it together. And so that's the other part of DEEC local. So DEEC local consists of bereavement leave and two additional local uh personal days and that would be in effect for next school year. for next school year. And then update 124. Um there's a spreadsheet that backs that up with all of the different um updates that
041were included, but I'll just mention a few of them that were um of note. One of them was just some updates to language. One of them being nicotine pouches was not um a prohibited item. Um so that was added. Just clarification on that. and also um vaping devices for this is for staff. And then there was another requirement that came out of um legal as well. This is CPS reporting that when someone makes a CPS report, they're required to give their name, phone number, business address, and still remain anonymous. And then a third one that was of note is the um use of copyright materials that if you're using a copyright material, this is just a good practice anyway that it should be part of the daily lesson. It should be um directly related to
042the curriculum and it should be lawfully obtained. So, it's just clarification of policy for that along with the other things dealing with um GT and fiscal management. Liz, may you want to speak on that? I'm just But it's all there for you. Those are just basic policies um that TASB's recommended that are um and these are the local side. The legal of course we can't we have no control over, but the local side the board we we have some some flexibility with that, but these are our recommendations. These are the recommendations from TASBY. Okay. So, we currently offer five paid leave day personal days. Yes. And TASBY's recommending N we are re we are. That one's a ch that one's not related to update 124. That was coming from our teacher advisory council and how
043we could better support just maybe a little perk just to have us a couple extra days with just physical mental health and different things for those. Is that I mean how does that compare in the profession if you know five's the low end? Okay, I can tell you that some districts have done have done 10. I think most have backed off of that. Seven's seven's a good number, but it gives you a little room to grow if you need to do additional, but five is definitely the kind of the minimum. We'll be back next month. Okay. All right. Thank you. Chromebooks. Greg's making you do this, Liz. I told him come up to the podium. Okay. But he is here available for any specific questions. Um, okay. So, this will be um the first recommended
044purchase out of the 2024 bond that was specific for technology 1:1 devices um from May of 24. Oh. Oh, sorry. It's okay. All right. So, this is for um a refresh of grades six, seven, and nine. Um this goes back the recommendation is to move us back to Acer Chromebooks. So we started with Acer when we first started this program. We moved to Dell for quite some time and right now the Acer Chromebooks look to be the better option for this purchase. Um the price is a little bit better. The functionality um I believe the onscreen um device is better. Uh we're estimating some cost of the case for now. The case hasn't come out for this particular Chromebook, but we're using historical data with a little bit of a buffer in there. Um, so
045the total amount that we're purchasing is 1,700. Um, and you can see there the total cost not to exceed um is just under $800,000. But again, this is from the 2024 um bond that was specific for 1:1 devices. Um this is information only. Um and then would come back next month for request for approval. And what was the total amount? Remind me in the bond for technology six and a half million. I thought I believe so. It was six and a half. Six and a half. And this is our first purchase. It's our first purchase from it. Yes. We sold, I believe, half of those bonds this summer to start this. Remind me, do we have a technology fee in this district or not? No, you can't you can you can do you you can
046join optionally for insurance. Um but it is not a mandatory fee. Correct. And there are districts that do it. We did talk about it a little bit last spring during the budgeting process, but yes, you can. Uh many years ago, we had a a mandatory fee and then um there was a recommendation to move away from that. And so what we came back through that through that uh process last year working on the budget was a an insurance an optional insurance. You couldn't even pass off the $35 cover fee to the the family. There's some there's some legality there on what on when you charge a must for the actual devices. It's either cover it or pay for the damage. Right. If you want to join, we we made it where you could join upon
047registration for the insurance and you got a certain amount for insurance. And how much was covered under that? It it's for the first breakage and then a reduced fee per additional breakage. Um it was changed years ago though where Chromebooks or onetoone devices um are considered a like a book and instructional material. So you can't legally require a fee anymore. But what you'll find a lot of time I mean my experience has been most of the time when it's in your beginning of the year parents parents are going to to do that. They're going to I mean most of the time you have a pretty high percentage of parents participating in that program. I I would think also I don't know it seems kind of inongruent to be charging a parent for a case that
048their tax dollars are actually paying for. So that's kind of like a double charge. So an insurance policy, I get it. But charging them for part of a Chromebook in which they've technically already paid for. So anyway, it's a better experience for the students as well because they like to have stickers and make things their own and you can apply those to a case, but we don't allow them to the Chromebook themselves. To no one's surprise, I decree. But you can also imagine the wear and tear of these devices. We mandate that a case be on there to protect the devices. They're used day in and day out. And what I think you had asked or someone asked what was the fee? I know you told us how it worked. It used to be it's
04975 is what? Yeah. Okay. What's the expected longevity of the Acers? We're getting about right now of Chromebooks in general about seven years of use. It's pretty substantial. One of the I'll say one good thing about um we had the ASA rep come in and they are in oh I think it starts with a T. I for they're about 2 hours away their main headquarters and repair facility and so they're bringing people in training us on how to repair them properly. Um shipment for devices are are much faster. Um there there's a lot of pros looking at this model. And not only is the situation for repair, we can get them back in the student's hands faster, but also the specs on this Chromebook are are far exceed what Dell offers right now at a
050lesser price. Originally, Dell was $360 for the comparable Chromebook that was slightly less, but it's very interesting times where prices are changing very fast. This is the first time you had a quote rescended. I have never had somebody or a company take back a quote that they give me. And then here's your new one with your increased price. And lead time. You're okay on lead time for these like manufacturing. It's not like a bus or a band instrument. Assuming nothing extremely strange happens in the world that this would be normal and this is fine. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Still right everybody. We're up here. Okay. [Laughter] He's over posted. We have too many things going on. That's right. 11 A. It should be the budget amendment. There we go. Okay. So again, we we've
051talked about this for a while. You know, we've had discussions about how our enrollment is is uh above our projections throughout the year. Um we brought this to you um as a a formal amendment last month as um information and then again um this month for action. This is specific to the general fund. It is our first budget amendment for fiscal year um 25. and uh it it brings us up to including all of our um enrollment and attendance through the first semester. Um you know, we do continue to grow. So, I would expect another amendment based on um student attendance and enrollment uh later this summer after school has ended. But right now, this is our our um main amendment and it is um to balance the budget. It also includes all of the
052items that have been presented under the um superintendent's teacher advisory council that have been brought to you for um information and approval. And one of those action items is later tonight on another one-time payment that Mr. or Dr. Daniel would be presenting. So that incor incorporates all of it. Does anyone have any questions for Liz? I'll entertain a motion to approve action item 11A as presented. So moved. Mr. Hawksworth motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. This is Arthur with a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. All right. The next one I believe is the purchase above 100,000. This is specifically for band instruments. And again, we talked about this last month. Um talked about the fact that um
053Mr. bird has to look at his um you know he's estimating well in advance of what he thinks he may need as far as instruments and then you have to take into what your students actually are there what they're using what you have inventory and but we're still projecting for next year they still have to go through all of their instruments fitting and everything for next year but this is what the best um estimate that we can come up with is what's needed um the one change from last month we did get one more um quote in um that was not included we were at 130,000 last month what and we told you that we would have additional items to bring back to you later. Well, we got that in right after the last board
054meeting. So, we've increased this to 137,500 and that includes all the items that we're anticipating purchasing this year um for the band to start up for next year. Um and that includes, you know, berry saxophone, saxophones, um bass clarinets, bassoons, tubones, and some some other items. Mr. Fletcher, you were here to play each of those instruments for us. less here than tonight. We should have let you go after the choir. That's right. [Laughter] Um, does anyone have any questions? All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve action item 11B as presented. So moved. Mr. Matthew Slate. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Dr. McDavid with a second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Thank you. So, as Dr. Daniel's coming up to present
055this item, uh I wanted just to kind of quickly update when we had the budget workshop, I believe on March 3rd, one of the the requests from the board was direction from for us was to get some feedback on the budget priorities, if you will, going into next year for our st from staff. So, we did that and it's still open this week. they still have some time to complete that, but we've had 191 submissions so far from our staff. And so we'll be bringing you some of that information. But one thing I did want to clarify that I think has as I've been listening to some of the questions or conversations I've had with staff is the conversation with secondary staffing ratio versus what they actually have in class. So we've talked about the
056staffing ratio or class size ratios and those you those words are being used interchangeably of 25 to1. And so we were talking with principles this morning and essentially what you have there is you have a staffing ratio of 25 to1. Basically you start with taking your total enrollment divide times the multiplier of teaching six out of seven divide by 25 and you get x number of FTEEs. That's the starting point. Then you have to start looking at okay which staff members are in um a class that maybe h you know we have several coaches in an athletic period or we have a beginner band class that has just a handful of obo students. So our next layer of that is we're going to meeting with principles and coach Rogers and Mr. Bird to look at
057that because some of those teachers don't have six of seven. Some of them are five of seven and so we're going to have to find some negotiation in that in order because what's happening is teachers are hearing 25 to1 but I have 28 29 30 to1 and it's because we're we're missing some sections there. So we're going that's kind of going to be our next layer. So by the time we come back to the next workshop we should have more information on that. But I just wanted to to let you all know that update, but also let our teachers as those that are listening on that we're working through different layers of what that looks like because it's staffing ratio and what you actually have in class are two things different things because the master
058schedule is driving how many you actually have in class. So wanted to to make sure I made that point. Thank you. Okay, you heard um this agenda item last month. This is the supplemental pay resolution for the one-time payment as an appreciation and as a ret retention strat strategy for our teachers and staff. Just to kind of summarize it again, uh the recommendation is for a onetime payment of $1,000 for professional staff and 500 for pair professionals and auxiliary employees. That would be paid on the May paycheck. Um, some of the eligibility requirements would include having a contract for the next school year and then being here on the first day of school, which is August the 12th. Um, for pair professionals and auxiliary staff, there are not contracts there. There are things called letters
059of reasonable assurance. So, those employees would have to have a letter of reasonable assurance signed um, and then be here on the first day. And then if they're not here on that first day of school, then that um one-time payment would be pulled out of their final check in August. Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Daniel? And I'll entertain a motion to approve. Can I can I make one comment real quick? Sorry. So the the the thousand for professional employees for the second round and the thousand for the first round collectively is just over 3%. Correct. Correct. on the teacher side, from the teacher midpoint, those two together would be just over 3% for the year. Now, it's not in the base salary, right? Okay. Just making sure we had our percentages right. Okay.
060Sorry. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve action item 11 C as presented. So moved. Mr. Matthew Slate with a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Sorry, Dr. McDade with the second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. The time is 7:07 p.m. and we are adjourned.