001Good evening. I will reconvene into open session this meeting of the Arlington Independent School District Board of Trustees for June 4th, 2026 beginning at 6:42 p.m. Thank you all for joining us tonight. Our board meetings are open to the public and we welcome everyone. We appreciate your participation in public education. While our meetings are open to the public, this is a meeting and we have business to conduct. Disruptions will not be permitted. Anyone who disrupts the meeting or speaks when others are speaking may be asked to leave or escorted out by the security attending the meeting. We welcome civic input, but insist that we remain respectful and civil. Thank you for your cooperation. We'll begin this evening with the pledges led by Jamie Equavville from from Sam Houston High School. I pledge allegiance to the
002flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. And please join me for a moment of silence. >> Thank you. To learn a bit more about our student leading us in tonight's pledges, I'm going to turn it over to our executive director of family and community engagement, Mr. Aaron Pales. >> Thank you, President Morrow. to learn a little bit more about Jamie ESL. He's from Sam Houston High School and I think we can say it right. Graduations for last Monday and Tuesday. He is a senior at Sam Houston High School and he's also has leadership um with SLAB with
003our SLAB advisory committee which we're going to learn a little bit more in recognitions. But as Sam Houston, he really appreciates history and had a chance to talk with him about that. Um, and he really appreciates what we can learn from the past. And he applies that to his current present because he likes to go thrifting and he has an appreciation for reselling vintage clothing, which I thought was very interesting. And I asked him, I said, "What particular type of clothing?" He said, "Jes." And I said, "Can the jeans have holes in it?" And he said, "Sure." And I said, "Well, I've got some jeans in my closet from my 19 early 1990s days that we might be able to have a business transaction here." >> 1990s. I'm not that >> Well, the 1900. That's
004true. way back then. So, they're they're really vintage. All right. Um, so additional school activities, he's on the cross country team. He participates in UIL, social studies, AVID, um, and providing NHS community service. Um, he enjoyed going on college uh, trips this school year with his close friends and getting that experience together with them. Um, and he's really looking forward to making his last year as a student. He wants to enjoy it to its fullest. He wants to make memories with his loved ones, with his friends, and also work hard at school, and finish strong at Sam Houston High School. And like I said, we'll get to learn a little bit more about him later on recognitions. But I mean, thank you so much for lending your leadership with our pledges this evening. >> Thank
005you. The next part of our agenda is our recognitions. After recognitions and appointments this evening, we will take a short recess for pictures and celebrations in the boardroom and outside in the lobby. And you're all invited to join. Our first recognition for the evening is our outgoing student leadership advisory board. Back to m back to you, Mr. Pales. >> Thank Thank you, President McMurrow, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. Starting off our honors and recognitions tonight, we'd like to recognize our outgoing student leadership advisory board, also lovingly known as SLAB. So, I'll turn it over to executive director of school leadership, Dr. TJ Jarko. >> Thank you, Mr. Palace. And good evening, board president McMurro, members of the board. Dr. Smith, it's my honor to be here tonight to introduce our 2526 student leadership
006advisory board. Each day, I have the privilege of working with alongside some of the state's most exceptional principles and teacher leaders across our district. And I also have the opportunity to work with our junior class presidents and our senior class officers who make up SLAB. Um they're an extraordinary group of young men and women whose leadership, dedication, and service exemplify the very best of Arlington ISD. The junior slab members include junior class presidents from each of our six traditional high schools along with representatives from Arlington Collegiate, Arlington College and Career and Venture High School. The board is further strengthened by a team of senior class officers including a president, vice president, secretary, and administrative coordinator. The purpose of SLAB is to represent the perspectives and opinions of the student body in Arlington ISD and advis
007in an advisory capacity. To serve as a student voice to the board of trustees and the relationship between that board of trustees member and the student is extremely important because it gives our um board members an idea of what our student community um is is feeling and how they think about schools and so on. informs our processes and they also foster meaningful relationships um across our district with district administration and our superintendent. One of our senior class officers, Salatu Anua, um joined nearly 4,000 AISD seniors at graduation this week. We want to go and give our seniors a round of applause. And at the commitment at the commencement ceremony, Salatoua talked a little bit about a very inspiring welcoming address and he really talked about the fact that students in Arlington um collegiate were living
008outside the box. They didn't really allow themselves to constrain themselves inside a box with 94% of kids earing their associates. I'm going to use that story. He did a great job of telling it, but I'm use that story as a theme for this year for this this year's Slabs uh students. Solitu's message perfectly captures the spirit of what the slab members did this year. They were willing to think beyond the traditional boundaries of past year students. They built upon the work of previous um slab students classes brought fresh ideas, creativity and initiative to every step of their processes. Their commitment to leadership reflect the transformative power of public education and the positive impact students can have when they are given the opportunities to lead. At this time, it's my pleasure to invite Slab President Fred
009Thes Jr. to the dis to share how the team has embraced the challenge of thinking beyond the box and to introduce the 2526 slab members for their recognition of their service this year. Brett, if you'd like to join us. >> Thank you Dr. Jark, President McMill, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Smith, what a privilege it is to stand before you yet again. this time as the outgoing president of SLAB and technically an AISD graduate. I am proudly wearing my LHS alumni pin tonight. Almost a year ago to the day on June 5th, 2025, I declared that SLAP would be stepping into a new chapter. I'm sure because it's graduation season, you've heard chapter a lot. A chapter defined by greater leadership and the amplification of student voices across this district. As of today, this
010slab has spent roughly 20 plus hours meeting students where they are on their campuses. We started at Arlington Collegiate and we finished at Martin High School. We dubbed these visits our SLAB listening tour. Over the course of this eight-month tour, we collected critical information on topics such as cell phone policies, artificial intelligence integration, campus culture, campus safety, and more. These meetings um tended to draw out agencies up to 70 students. Collecting this information opened the door for SLAB to lead a trustee workshop for the very first time in its history. Working with such a passionate group of student leaders has certainly been inspiring as I've watched them represent their student buyers with the utmost care and consideration for the needs of their peers and classmates. As SLAB continues to evolve into an even more purposefully
011active organization, we're also prioritizing connection. I'm proud to announce the launch of the AISD SLAB network. The SLAB network will keep former SLAB members involved in the work of the group in a variety of capacities. Members of the network will retain no voting power regarding SLAP decisions, but they will play a crucial role in ensuring that SLAP continues to improve dayby day. At this time, I would like to introduce the young men and women I've had the honor of serving alongside and the schools they represent. I will begin with our junior slab members. At the conclusion of the meeting portion, each member will be presented with a board letter of appreciation and certificate. Once I call your name, please stand to be recognized. Our representative this year from Arlington Collegiate High School is Lauren Osalo.
012From Arlington College and Career High School, we have Kinsey Weldon. From Arlington High School, we have Libby Dine. She could not be with us tonight because she is at West Point. From Buouie High School, we have Quinn Wyn from Lamar High School, who will be serving as next year's vice president. We have Reese Riley from Martin High School, who will be serving as next year's secretary. We have Harper Huison from Sam Houston High School. Serving as next year's president, we have Haimey Esville. AND FROM SIGIN HIGH SCHOOL, she had a prior obligation. We have Allison Houston from Venture High School. We have Key Moyer. She will be staying on with us until Venture has fall elections and she will also be serving as next year's administrative coordinator. That concludes our junior members. Now for our
013senior members who served as officers this year. Once your name is called, be sent. From Arlington Collegiate High School, serving as the incumbent secretary, we have Salatua Nua from Arlington High School. serving as the incumbent administrative coordinator. Camila Howard from Buoie High School, serving as the incumbent vice president. My right-hand girl, she said, "Call me right-hand lady, but she's like, uh, no, that don't sound as good." We have Macy W from Lamar High School, the incumbent president. Well, you have me. That concludes our senior officers. I would like to sincerely thank the board of trustees, Dr. Smith, Dr. Jarco, every AISD staff member with whom I formed even the slightest connection, my fellow SLAP members, and everyone who has supported my slab journey, including my Viking family who is here tonight without whom I would
014not be here today because I had to start by representing Lavar. and of course my genetic family who's endured my very busy schedule. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve on this board and I am impatiently awaiting all the incredible strides SLAB will make in the near future. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Fred, for your exceptional leadership and your service to Arlington ISD. Your dedication, commitment, and positive impact on your fellow students has left a lasting mark on this organization and our district. As a small token of our appreciation, we are pleased to present you with this Morehouse College swag bag. I will tell you, it's hard to find a swag bag though that has Morehouse College on, so we had to improvise a little bit, but everything in it
015Morehouse College is related there. We got we got that part taken care of um in recognition of your hard work and contributions. So, Fred, if you can come back up. We'll give you one last round. >> All right. And we'll go and have our slab students uh go ahead and sit down for just a quick second if you can. We appreciate your service. As Fred concludes his term as slab president, he now has the honor of passing the torch to the student leader selected by his peers to serve as the next president of the student leadership advisory board. I'm pleased to introduce our 2627 slab president, Mr. Haimey Esavl um of Sam Houston High School. Haimey, congratulations on this well-deserved honor. At this time, I'd like to invite you to the podium to share a
016few remarks about your few remarks, I should say, about your vision for SLAB and the year ahead. Haimey, if you'd like to come forward, >> thank you, Dr. Jarko, board president McMurro, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Smith. Throughout my time as a student of AISD, I have always dreamed of being in the position that I am now. to be recognized by my teachers, my school, and by my district. I'm so blessed and honored to be standing in front of you today as the incoming and Sam Houston's first ever president of the student leadership advisory board. I give all my thanks to the amazing leaders who have worked beside me this past year, those who have pushed me to strive for greatness and the one who gives me life. The journey to get to where
017I am has showed me that you can't just sit and wait for opportunities to find you. You have to go and find them yourself. As my career as a student is coming to an end, I will no longer be asking myself things such as what can my district do for me? What does my district have to offer? Or how hard does my district work for me? I will end this chapter instead by asking, "What can I do for my district? How can I use what I've been given to make a difference? and how will I set an example for future students to make themselves heard and shape this district into how they want it to look? And the answer to these questions is through SLAB. Building off the president set by our brilliant current president,
018Fred Thes, we will go even further to better tackle our responsibilities as student leaders and to make this organization what it should be. Not only will we continue our year-long visits to the schools of AISD, keeping our accountability standards in check and give our students a handon leadership approach, we will begin to give SLAB a bigger name, making them more well known to our students and faculty, increasing our reach through a new SLAB network, and making sure that this team will take every opportunity given to them to represent themselves and their schools to make a change. I hope that we will not just speak these words, but achieve the results to back them up. The Student Leadership Advisory Board has a bright future ahead and we are ready for it. Once again, I am so
019blessed and honored for this opportunity to speak before you. I hope you have a beautiful evening and thank you so much for your time. Tammy, Fred, and all of our students are outstanding examples of maturity, passion, professionalism, and leadership that have defined this year's slab members. Throughout the year, the group has continuously impressed me with their character, their ability to communicate thoughtfully and confident and confidently, and their commitment to serving others. If you could please go and join me one last time in recognizing these remarkable young men and women with a well-deserved round of applause for their collective efforts and achievements this school year. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Jarko. And slab students, I'm going to ask you guys to stand one more time. last time, I promise. And I would like for you
020this time to face um the attendees here tonight. And everyone in the room, whether you're watching virtually, in person, you are looking at the future of our community. And I don't think there's one person listening to these leaders, these young people, not thinking the same thing. Man, the future is bright. So, we appreciate each of you and Dr. JCO, we appreciate your leadership and letting this amazing group of slab students innovate and lead. So, thank you all and we can't wait to celebrate you during recess. I guess I'll let you guys sit down now. Our next recognition for tonight is our community aart our community partner award. I'll turn it back over to Mr. Pales. >> Thank you, President McMoral. At this time, I'd like to invite everyone to please share your attention with the
021video screens while we share a short video about our community uh partner award of appreciation recipient, the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. >> Since 1972 when the Texas Rangers moved to Arlington, we've been involved in Arlington Independent School District. The students are our future workforce and our future fans, and we're committed to giving back to the district each and every day. From our long-running program, the Richard Green Scholars program that has helped fuel the educational dreams of hundreds of kids to our longrunning Medical City Fitness Allstars program that gets kids moving with Rangers Captain and helps fund physical education programs to our leadership development program, our leading off program that mentors eighth graders and gets them ready for that next step as they jump into high school. To our shopping spree with the Seagars where we
022get kids ready for back to school with brand name gear and all the smiles that that brings. even employing interns where we have kids working in our front office learning about the background of the Texas Rangers and how to work in professional sports. We have given thousands and thousands of dollars to the district. From this year's donation to help offset student lunch debt to our donation to the AISD education foundation to support the prek program. The Texas Rangers and the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation are proud and so honored to work alongside Arlington ISD to help fulfill the academic goals of the children of Arlington. We love working alongside you all and helping fulfill those academic goals and missions and helping see those kids thrive and become our future workforce and future fans. Thank you, Aaron.
023President McMurro, members of the board, Dr. Smith, I am honored tonight to get to recognize our outstanding principles of the year. We have an amazing group of principles across the board in Arlington ISD. And that we have three representatives tonight that were voted on by their peers who know best about what it takes. The weight on the shoulder of principles is immense. And we have three leaders who have just shown through. We're going to start tonight by recognizing our high school principal of the year, Marlene Rody from Martin High School. Senior Josh Lugos shared this about Miss Roddy. She's created a one-of-a-kind environment where students can learn, grow, and truly become the best version of themselves. Congratulations, Miss Rody, for 15 years at Martin High School. >> Uh, as principal. >> As principal. As principal
024at Martin, right? And 115 total. How many total? >> 37 at Martin. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Marlene. You're going to be greatly missed. Next up, our junior high principal of the year, Dr. Aaron Fogelman from Workman Junior High. Carson from seventh grade shared these words for you, specifically for you, Dr. Fau. Thank you for taking care of our school. I really appreciate how much you do for us and how hard you work. I'm grateful you're at Workman Junior High and for the responsibility you've taken on because you help us so much. Thank you, Dr. Fin. And finally, yeah, let's go. That's great. And finally, our elementary principal of the year, McDallia Castillo from Blandon Elementary. As one staff member shared about Principal Castillo, through intentional leadership, resourcefulness, unwavering advocacy for student, staff, and the school
025community, she proves every day that excellence is built through tenacity, heart, and purpose. And board, y'all know that this principal took on one of the biggest challenges we've seen in Arlington ISD this year, and she came through it with grace, a plum, and a grit that never stops. Thank you, McDalia. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, BOARD. Thank you, Dr. Champion. Congratulations to our principles, and thank you for all of your leadership, your incredible leadership. as she makes her way back to the dasis. At this time, I'll turn it back over to President McMurro for the rest of our recognitions this evening. Congratulations to our principles of the year and thank you, Mr. Pales. Our last recognition on the agenda this evening is recognition of outgoing board president, Mr. Justin Chappa, otherwise known as passing of the
026gavl. Tonight, we are honored to acknowledge our outgoing president as he closes out his two-year term, Mr. Justin Chapa. Over the past two years, Mr. Chapa has served as our board president and done a phenomenal job leading our governance team and governing our school district. While his service on our board will thankfully continue, we wanted to be sure and recognize his impactful tenure as board president this evening. At the start of Mr. choppers term. He was instrumental in onboarding Superintendent Dr. Smith from outside of our of our school district, helping him understand the strengths, opportunities, and needs of Arlington ISD while creating the conditions for his success. Throughout that process, he worked in lock step with his fellow trustees, bringing us together as a true team of eight. Under Justin's leadership as president, we adopted
027a new district vision, values and beliefs, and priorities, Mr. Chapa has consistently championed teacher and staff compensation, legislative advocacy, and equitable access for all students. All the while, Mr. Chapa was also serving at the state level on the TASBY board of directors and always excelling in the role that matters most to him. Husband to Anna and father to Benjamin, Audrey, and Evelyn. Dr. Smith often says, "How we do business is just as important at as the business we do." Mr. Chapa is a shining example of this. As board president, he was always intentional about building governance capacity in each of his colleagues he he served alongside, connecting us with opportunities that aligned with our unique strengths and interests, and starting new traditions such as gavvel sharing so that every board member could gain experience presiding
028over board meetings. How you serve is a direct reflection of who you are. someone who cares deeply about the school district that molded and shaped you as a student and someone who dares to go above and beyond in your efforts to give back. There is so much more worth highlighting about Mr. Chapa's time as president. And because of that, I want to allow time tonight for our colleagues to share their remarks. I commend you, Justin, for both your accomplishments as our board president and how you did business. Fortunately for all of us, your great impact on our school district will only continue. As the incoming board president, I can only hope to live up to the high standard that you set. Thank you for your leadership, your friendship, and your unwavering commitment to our students,
029staff, and community. And at this time, I would like to invite my colleagues um to share any remarks that you have about Mr. Chapa before we do a presentation um shortly and give you a couple things. We'll start with Miss Fowler. Thank you, President McMurra. Mr. Chapa, you and I have served since 2018 together, and you were here a few months before I was because you were appointed. and I have loved to watch the growth not only of you serving but the influence that you have had not only on the district but on the trustees and I will forever be grateful for you reaching out to me asking me if I had questions answering questions it has meant a whole lot to me and I appreciate you have done so much for this district your
030insights that you have brought the different ideas that you have you have brought to us and seen through. It's remarkable and you are an outstanding president and I thank you so much for leading this district through some tough times, helping to onboard our superintendent, which was very important. But thank you for being who you are and the way that you serve and the way that you love this district. I appreciate you. No, it's good. Are we going to talk about these? No. >> Well, that's what my speech is all about. >> I I I ruined surprises. No, you're fine. >> So, here's what I want to say. I wrote it down. Uh, today I'd like to honor Justin Chappa, someone who lives the phrase live truth without fear. He embodies this not only in spirit,
031but with powerful anomatopia, words that echo the very sounds they describe, like boom, crash, and roar. He doesn't whisper truth in hush tones. Instead, he booms it with unwavering courage. His words crash through silence and uncertainty like thunder rolling across the sky. >> Oh goodness. >> They roar past doubt and hesitation and whip boldly through every storm, steady, resonant, and full of heart. In doing so, he doesn't merely speak honesty. He creates an impact we can all feel. His fearless voice reminds us that truth spoken with conviction carries a power that lifts others and echoes long after it's spoken. Thank you for showing us what it means to live truth without fear, authentically, courageously, and with a resonance that touches the soul. President Choa, you have always dared to be different during your times on
032the board. And I know you would think I have something smart to say, but I truly don't. You really have been different from the moment that you stepped on this DAS. You have and I have talked before about that. I watched board meetings long before I was ever elected. I saw the work you did. I saw when it came to a vote that our students should no longer eat cheese sandwiches if they didn't have lunch money. You were on the side of the vote that said all students deserve a hot meal no matter the cost because they deserve that dignity. You were different there. You were different on the board when you said we deserve free prek for our kids and fought to make it happen. You were different when you decided to buck the
033trend of a suit and tie and a sports jacket. And instead, you have rocked your navy blazer with an educational t-shirt that always has a message, not just for us, but sometimes for our lawmakers. You've dared to be different when you read your proclamations, when you choose your lapel pins. Those aren't pens that you choose in a light-hearted way to be funny, but they're always things that you believe in, and they're things that you live out in your life. You did not lead with a quiet resilience, though at times you did. What you did do, though, was to lead us through hard times. You always allowed others to speak while you listened. You sought to bring us together when that wasn't always the case. You showed us that we have more in common than we
034are different. And you do that for our district. You've never shied away from those hard conversations or from people who will disagree with you. You have given of yourself and your personal life and your family's life. You have dared to be different in this role. And because of that, we are a different district. We are a different board and we are forever better. Thank you. Okay. So, I'm just winging it for you here, Justin. Just winging it for you. Um, so I will say that I appreciated the most that you were a quiet leader. And I appreciate that because I think sometimes people assume that the leader is the loudest in the room. And I think that you stepped back and allowed us to to speak and to have our opinions and to guide where
035things were going, but you supported those with your leadership. I appreciate that you always made sure that you were putting the good of the team over the spotlight and you made sure that we were all growing in our leadership capacity and we were all being heard and that was always a priority for you and I think as a leader that's a rare rare trait and so I appreciate that a whole lot. I appreciate that you made sure that our our feelings and our needs along with the districts but as colleagues that we were being seen in the hard times. It wasn't an easy year. So in the hard times you made sure that we were supported and I think that that is again a rare trait to find in somebody that is leading a board
036like this especially in an elected position where you easily could have took the spotlight so many times but you allowed each of us to shine in our own ways. So I appreciate that. Thank you for standing by me while I grew in my role. Um, I solely attribute much of my growth to your mentorship. So, thank you very much. >> I think I get to speak before Mr. Will Banks here. I I Here's the fun part is it's not often that I get to talk about the board president that's outgoing like this. So, I'm excited. I want to tell a story real quickly to everybody and I promise I'll keep it short, but uh a story that I think Justin knows a little bit about but most people don't is um when Arlington ISD had
037a superintendent vacancy come up um and it was the summertime of 2023 um I I was not thinking about applying for this position and I had a colleague that heard Mr. Choppa speak at UT to a doctoral class and that colleague said to me, "You need to apply for that job in Arlington." And I said, "Why is that?" And she said, "Well, because that guy, you and that guy would get along great. You stand for the same thing." And that really struck me. And I started doing a little digging about Arlington ISD at that time. And I had had somebody say that I should apply for that job as well, another person. And it it really uh took me a back to have somebody who who didn't know Justin say that guy you you align
038in values. You align with what's best for kids and you ought to pursue that. And so I did and uh it's really been an honor to be here obviously and a couple of the board members mentioned that I needed a lot of onboarding. So, um, in I appreciate the fact that Justin, uh, helped onboard me into Arlington ISD, and I say that in justest, but I also say that there were a lot of 10 p.m. phone calls in figuring things out and learning more about the community because what I think everybody in this room knows is Justin's heart is Arlington and he grew up here and he embodies Arlington. And so in order for me to actually know and understand the community better, having Justin as a partner throughout the process was was truly outstanding.
039So thank you for everything you did for me and for your support, but uh most importantly, thank you for your leadership for Arlington ISD. >> Wow. Thanks to my colleagues. There's been a lot of great words said, but I think out of everyone on this board, Justin and I go back the furthest all the way back to when 2010. So, we had a long history of service to this district before we were ever on the board. Um, and even then, we went through some difficult times. The budget cuts of 2011, uh, we were both on FFC together, and we, uh, I learned pretty quickly this guy was the smartest guy in the room. And I was really impressed that uh he worked his way up through Sam Houston uh went off to Harvard and then
040to Stanford Law School and um we forged a pretty good friendship back then. Um, but every step of the way, I was never intending to run for the board, but Justin showed was there leading the path forward and showing me the way and that um I really could serve in a greater capacity for this district. So, I owe a lot to Mr. Chapa. Um I've looking back um you bring a lot of um you're really a great effective leader. You look at you know ever since I've known you. you look at things and decisions from all sides from and looking at different perspectives and making sure those varying perspectives are heard uh in the decision-m process. Um I I often say that a high functioning board leans in to the superpowers that each and every
041person individually brings to the table. And I can't think of a more valuable superpower for a schoolboard trustee than uh being a a sharp attorney. Um you have been very val valable valuable in giving sagacious advice to this board when it's needed most and it's been very appreciated. And when you were taken uh when you took over as president, you really went above and beyond just like uh I think Mr. Fred Threats has learned from your example and and really innovative in the way uh our board operated and upped our governance game uh and then been in instrumental in putting the right governance framework in place for us to continue to be a high functioning board. And for all of that um and leading by example, I'm truly grateful for the time you spent it
042as president and I look forward to serving at least a couple of more years with you. So, >> so, um, I'm going to ask my colleagues, Dr. Smith, Justin, if we can all come to the front of the dice because we have a couple things to present to you. Okay. So, we have a couple things for you. And the first thing is um you you've seen this before. So, as as schoolboard trustees, this is a volunteer position. Just for anyone who wasn't sure, we don't we make zero dollars and zero cents for our service. And Justin is a super volunteer. And part of what we love to do as a board is go to conferences because not only do we learn how to become better trustees, but it's our bonding time. It's a time where
043we can really bond together. Not just board members, but with do but with Dr. Smith and his cabinet as a team. And so at these conferences, we get we get these badges and um we have No, go ahead. You can read it later. Just put it on. So at the at the conferences, Justin, like I said, he serves at the state level. So he's very important at these statewide conferences. And you know, we like to make sure that he is very decorated when he gets his badge. So tonight, Justin, we have some ribbons for you because um we like to give him sometimes some ribbons that are maybe a little unnecessary, but he deserves to be decorated all the time. And tonight is no exception. So the first ribbon um the one that I would
044like to present to you, it says respect everyone because Justin, you're always respectful. Even if you're speaking with someone who you disagree with, you have never fallen short in preserving people's um in respecting others. and also preserving their dignity. And um now not all of these are serious, so I'm going to need you to be open-minded with some of these stickers. Go ahead. >> Well, Justin and I actually happen to share a catchphrase together. Not drive fast, take chances. That's mine. But I have another one that Justin shares. That's how I roll. He's always saying that. So, I would like to honor you with that's how I roll, dude. Okay. So, piggybacking on what I said earlier, um the kind of leader that is truly a servant leader and is serving under the mantra of
045we rise by lifting others. You've always been a little bit different in all the ways. So, mine says, "Dare to be different," along with a flare pin for your lanyard. So, I really wanted my word to be anomatia, but uh we didn't get that. So, if you didn't guess, it's live truth without fear. Um, so there you go. >> And mine is accessibility for all because Justin has always fought for whatever one student gets another student should have as well. So accessibility for all. All right. So ribbons, that's not all. There's more. There's more, Mr. Chapa. So, on behalf of our board, on behalf of our superintendent, we are honored to present to you this plaque. And if you can hold it, I'll read it. It says, "Justin Chappa, Arlington ISD Board of Trustees President
046from 2024 to 2026 in recognition of your outstanding service and commitment to the children, families, and staff of the AISD. Please join me in celebrating and giving Mr. Chapa a ROUND OF APPLAUSE. GOOD ONE. Um I I just want to say thank you to to my colleagues. Um this this was a lot. Um uh I believe it or not, I'm still here. I've got two years left on my term. Not going anywhere. Uh moved a few seats down. Um but, uh thank you to my colleagues for all the very kind words. Um I think everyone who knows me knows that this is uh education is important to me. Before I was a lawyer, I was a teacher, but I grew up here on the east side of Arlington and um believe in equity and access
047for everybody. and that shaped my life and um that is why I got involved in this as soon as we moved back home on citizen committees and then eventually it turned into board service. And so um I'm still going to be here working for kids uh not just my own but for all of them. And I want folks to know that um my state level service has been mentioned a couple times. I serve on the board of the Texas Association of School Boards, which every school district in the state is a part of except one. Um they're different. They're daring to be different. Um but as a result of that I spend a lot of time with trustees and school boards from across the state and um Dr. Smith mentions this when he speaks a
048lot that the Arlington ISD board is different and we've got a very good thing going here and I can attest to that. um what you see up here on the dasis is a pretty unique thing to see a board um this well functioning and to see a board that gets along this well that despite especially the political environment we're in and have been for the last few years um continually tries to put kids first and so that's the most important thing that we do that's what we're going to continue to do and I'm just really grateful to work with this team and the superintendent and the staff um that we have here in Arlington and look forward to seeing you all out there working for kids thank Thank you all. With no speakers registered for
049the appointment section tonight, we will go ahead and move to our administrative appointments. Do I have a motion to ratify the appointments of the individuals discussed in close session? >> Motion. >> I have a motion from Miss Richardson. Do I have a second? I have a second from Mr. Mike. We'll now move to vote. Trustees, please vote. The motion carries unanimously. At this time, I'm going to have Dr. Smith announce our new administrators. >> All right, good evening everyone. I know it's been a long recognitions, but there's a lot of good stuff to recognize in Arlington ISD and we are excited to recognize four new teammates into our school district at this time. First, I would like to introduce our new principal at Hill Elementary, Miss Janie Nelson. Janie, come on up. With more than
05015 years of experience in education across Arlington ISD, Dotto ISD, and Denton ISD, Janie Nelson has built a strong record of service in both elementary and secondary schools. She holds a master of education in special education and a bachelor of arts and communication studies from the University of North Texas and is currently the assistant principal at Shackleford Junior High in Arlington ISD. Miss Nelson, congratulations. >> Thank you. Good evening to President McMurro, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. I would like to say thank you. I feel blessed and honored to stand before you and for you all to entrust this next oh this new assignment in my leadership experience. I look forward to working alongside and serving um to just help kids at Hill Elementary School, the Hill Highlanders. >> I also have to
051thank all the leaders before me who have helped mold me, the executive directors. I really thank you for the opportunity as well as Mrs. Smith from Shacklevert and all of my family for being here. Thank you. And now it's my honor to introduce our new principal at Little Elementary, Dr. Kadoria Burgess. Dr. Burgess currently serves as principal of WM Green Elementary in Fort Worth ISD and has built a distinguished career in public education over the past 15 years. She earned a doctorate of education in educational leadership from Texas Tech University, a master of education and educational leadership and policy studies from UTA and also brings extensive experience in bilingual education, instructional leadership in campus administration. Kadoria, we're excited to have you as part of the Arlington ISD team. WELCOME. >> I want to say thank
052you, board president McMurro, um all members of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees, Dr. Smith, for entrusting me with this opportunity to serve the students, the staff, and the families at Little Elementary. I'm very blessed and grateful um that you've bestowed this honor upon me. Um, I also want to thank my family, my husband, my children, my mother for always supporting and encouraging me. Um, I also want to say a special thank you to all of the educators at Bose Junior High and Martin High School because without those educators, I would not be the woman that you see here and the educator that you see here today. I also want to say a special thank you to Miss Shauna Wright. >> Yes. >> Penza Renick, I apologize. Delisa Reed, uh, Valerie Johnson, and TJ Lewis,
053who is no longer here with us. Those ladies are why I'm here today, and they poured into me as a student, and I pray and hope that I'm able to do the same for students at Little Elementary. To my mentors, Anissa Min, Dr. Guadalupe Cortez, Dr. Pamela Brown, Dr. Christina Turner, Deborah Wall. I want to thank those ladies so much for pouring into me, supporting me, guiding me, giving me wisdom to help me be a better school leader. In addition, I want to say a thank you to all of the educators and awesome staff in Fort Worth that I have had the privilege to work alongside. and to my new family and home at Little Elementary. I want to thank you all first and foremost for choosing me to serve alongside you to support students.
054But I also want to say I look forward to being able to strengthen the tradition of excellence for all students, all staff, and all families in the Little Elementary community. Thank you. All right, it is my honor to now introduce our new principal at Miller Elementary. Please help me welcome Ricky Andrews. A career educator with more than two decades of experience, Ricky Andrews has served in a variety of instructional and leadership roles, including classroom teacher, literacy specialist, instructional coach, and administrator. She holds a principal as instructional leaders certification from Lamar University and a master of science and education with a specialization in reading education from Arkansas State University and is currently the well let's say was currently the assistant principal at Wood Elementary in Arlington ISD. Congratulations Ricky. >> Thank you President McMmorro board members
055and Dr. Smith. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to serve as a principal in the Arlington ISD. To my family, you've been with me on this educational journey for 25 years and I'm truly grateful for your support as I navigated through my dream and landed in my purpose. To my Wood family, thank you for being the anchor of my principal ship. I will never forget the relationships we built, the fun we had, and the challenges we conquered. Please continue your culture of excellence, inclusion, and grit. To my partner in crime for the last six years, and I'm not going to look back, to my partner in crime for the last six years, Mr. Dillard, thank you for trusting a rookie like me who joined Wood during co. Your leadership, your kindness, and your belief
056in me helped shape me as a leader, and I will always be impacted by your mentorship. And to my new Miller family, I am honored to join you and cannot wait to make lasting connections as a Miller Maverick. And finally this evening, this name is not new to Arlington ISD. He's just stepping into a new role. Please help me welcome Dr. Matt Varnell as the new executive director of innovative programs. Nearly three decades of leadership in our of service in Arlington ISD and Grand Prairie ISD have shaped Dr. Matt Varnell's leadership in fine arts, dual language education, and campus administration. He holds both a doctor of philosophy and a master of education in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Texas at Arlington along with bachelor's degrees in music education and jazz studies
057and leads Gun Junior High Fine Arts and Dual Language Academy as the principal. He has done an outstanding job helping shape new innovative programs in Arlington ISD thus far and we know he'll do great things for us in the future. Congratulations, Matt. President McMurro, board members, Dr. Smith, I have to admit I'm a little relieved. I thought there was a chance Fred might get the job. So, I'm glad that it Fred, you will be. I know that, but I'm I'm glad it's not today. Um, you probably heard in the introduction that jazz studies is a part of my background. Um, one of the things that drew me to jazz is that you learn the rules. You learn where the box is and then you stretch the box. And one of the things that I believe
058about education is we ask the wrong question sometimes. We ask the question, how smart are you? Which I believe is wrong. We should be asking the question, how are you smart? Because successes become careers. And if we can help kids find that and plug in, then not only do we serve the kids that we have today with stronger learning experiences and more innovative and inspiring practices, but we draw people to Arlington ISD who are looking for those very things. I'm excited about the opportunity to take some of the practices that we've done at some of the specialized campuses and grow them in a way that we create not just opportunity but access for every kid in our school district to have an experience that motivates them and inspires them. Um I'm going to take a
059a pause from Miss Burgess and I'm not going to look at my gun family because um they are pretty amazing people. They are inspiring for me and it's a joy and privilege to serve that community. It will be hard to leave, but I'm very excited about the work ahead. I would like to introduce my wife because she is behind me every step of the way. She is a teacher in Arlington and I appreciate you so much. Thanks. Somebody asked her, "Oh, he's not going to be a principal anymore. He'll probably come home soon." And she said, "Nah, he won't change." Thank you all. I'm excited and ready to get going. Congratulations to all and as Dr. Smith said there there's lots to celebrate. So we will now take a brief recess to celebrate those receiving
060recognition tonight. I invite trustees and our honores to join us for photos. Please gather on the right side of the room. Trustees, let's aim to be back in 15 minutes. The time is 7:41 p.m. and we are now in recess. The time is now 8:05 p.m. and we are back from recess. Our next our next item on our agenda is open forum for agenda items. As stated on the posted agenda, members of the public who desire to address the board regarding an item on this agenda are required to register at www.isd.net/board meeting speaker request. Miss Aosta, do we have any requesters registered to address the board regarding agenda items? President McMurray, we do not. >> Okay. Up next, we will move on to committee and staff reports. And we will turn um to the report
061portion portion of tonight's meeting. Starting with our governance committee report with governance chair, Miss Haynes. >> Yes, thank you. Um so, a couple governance things. Um we had a governance meeting this past week um in between graduations. That's how we took a break. Um and we continued um policy review and have some policies that will be coming before the rest of our board and then um up here to the DAS for a vote shortly. Um and then we reviewed our board handbook and that will be coming out to our entire board shortly. And then Dr. Smith and I had the opportunity to meet with Senator Ramett and talk to him about all the amazing things happening in Arlington ISD and to discuss ways that we can partner to ensure that we're working together for the
062good of our district and all districts across Texas. Thank you, Miss Haynes. Our next item on our agenda is our Citizens Bond Oversight Committee or CBOC report. Dr. Smith, >> I'd like to welcome Mr. Kelly Horn to the uh podium. He is our liaison that works with our CBOC on a regular basis. And as you all know, this committee has put in a lot of hours into investing in uh Arlington ISD and ensuring that we're continuing the great efforts that were approved in the 2019 bond. and I'll turn it over to Kelly to introduce them. >> Thank you, President McBur, members of the board, Dr. Smith. It's that time of year again where we do get to hear from our citizens bond oversight committee and their annual report. And so I'm going to be brief.
063I'm just going to introduce some two very extraordinary people. And um first our our chair for the committee, uh Dr. Katherine ParrA, who's been nothing short of amazing, right, leading this group and our CNC and other committees. So, if you would like to come on up and Adam Baker, our vice chair, they're going to co-present tonight on the report. >> Thank you, Kelly. Good evening, uh, Dr. Smith, President McMurro, and members of the board. I am honored to stand here um tonight to present the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, uh, report for 2025 2026. Apparently, Adam's just going to stand behind me. Um, I am honored to have Adam present beside me. Um, please. Um, >> also just real quickly, um, mostly because he said it's not a big deal, but tonight's his birthday, so happy
064birthday, Adam. >> I told him >> that's all I was going to talk about. >> That's it. Just your birthday wish list. >> All right. Um so um the agenda for tonight uh we'll go over the purpose uh the committee composition um the meeting schedule our charge uh the 2019 bond program uh projects and do a little update uh then we'll have some recommendations and then thank yous. I'm actually going to skip this slide if that is okay because I'm going to come back to this. Um so our committee is composed of 15 members from across the district. Um the um y'all have done a fabulous job of composing a board that includes student uh students. Yes, our slab members um parents uh staff members, community leaders, um from every quadrant of um the district.
065And um so you see the list of names there. Uh I would like to take a moment. Uh there's a few of them here with us tonight and if we could just recognize them. If you would please stand. Uh we put in a lot of time and hours and um it is all volunteer and and so we wouldn't be able to do this work without this amazing committee. And um just want to thank y'all for being here tonight. Um I do want to talk about the slab students just for a minute. Um I have to say when um you all were talking about um Mr. Choa and um it was mentioned about his school and how he went to Sam Houston and then he went to Harvard and then he went to Stanford and I
066couldn't help but I was sitting right behind the slab students and I couldn't help but notice them all look at each other like wow and I thought to myself I'm not surprised that you kids will be doing this one day like they were shocked but I wouldn't be shocked if I we see them sitting where you are very soon and they are so instrumental in bringing insight that we as adults don't see. Um, and so I just want to say, you know, they've they've been great. They've shown up and these are like the best of the best, right? These kids are so involved and so for them to take the time to attend our meetings. Um, we are so grateful to have their their input. Um, so I would say as far as the committee
067composition, um, our recommendation would be to continue as is. Um we had great turnout this year. Uh attendance was fantastic and so that really helped to make sure that our meetings were productive. Um and and really gave us a picture of what the entire community um you know what their opinions are uh as far as our recommendations. So uh that that is our recommendation as far as the composition to keep it as is um with the number of members and and the diversity. So, um, as you can see, that's our meeting schedule. I'm not going to read it off, but, um, one thing that we did recommend, uh, last year was to add in tours in between our regular regularly scheduled meetings. And so, um, we we as a committee really enjoy getting to go
068and step foot on campuses and see where the bond dollars are going and and what those projects look like firsthand. And so um as you can see we had um four meetings where we just went and and toured different facilities and then um our regularly scheduled um four meetings uh throughout the year. So um something else that is different uh this year as opposed to last year is that um as you know uh the charge for the CBOC was slightly changed and so I do want to take a moment and read the charge as it's written. So the purpose of the CBOC the CBOC is established by the Arlington ISD board of trustees as an oversight committee that monitors the use of funds approved by the public in the 2019 bond election. This committee is
069established to ensure accountability and transparency transparency to promote public confidence in the district's use of voter approved funds. In addition, this committee should review the needs of the district to recommend additional projects with any remaining funds, including interest earned. The board believes the function of the committee is vital to the board, Arlington ISD administration, and taxpayers. And then the authority. The committee shall operate strictly within the charge approved by the board of trustees. The committee shall serve in an advisory capacity to the board and shall not assume the responsibilities or duties of the board or the administration. And so um at the beginning of the year in our first meeting we read this charge to the committee and um really wanted to highlight that what we are what we are meeting and what we are
070there to do is to not only monitor the progress of the 2019 bond but also look to the future um and and what we can do with the dollars that we might have left over or earned from interest. And so we focused our meetings on that. So I'm going to turn it over to Adam and he's just going to do um kind of a short uh overview uh to update about where our 2019 bond projects currently stand. >> I've got notes here. Um turning me loose with a microphone and no notes is probably a bad idea. though. Um, when the bond program began, the 2019 bond program, it contained approximately 95 individual projects that were ultimately implemented across five different phases. During the recent bond election, one of the questions we heard repeatedly was, why
071would the district consider another bond package while we still have projects going on from 2019? Hopefully, these slides will help answer some of those questions. The sheer scope of the 2019 bond program was enormous. It was never realistic to expect nearly a hundred projects spread across an entire school district to be completed immediately after the voters approved the bond or even within a relatively short period of time. These projects required years of planning, design, bidding, construction, and oversight. As you can see on this slide, a significant number of the 2019 bond projects have now been completed or in a closeout. Over the course of this year, our committee had the opportunity to visit several of those projects, including John's Elementary, Key Elementary, Rodriguez Junior High, and Martin High School along with Glasby Field. Those visits
072were incredibly valuable. Um, as Katherine stated, that was something we added this year is more tours and more visits. Um, not only were we able to see the improvements firsthand, but we also had the opportunity to speak with principles, staff members, and students without exception. They were enthusiastic about the changes and excited about what the improvements meant for the campuses and the students. This next slide shows projects that are currently under construction. I suspect many of these will become future tour stops for our committee, which is always one of the most enjoyable parts of our process. One item that consistently comes up and is featured on this slide um is the district-wide installation of replacement digital marquees. Um, it may seem like a small thing compared to some of the larger projects, but communication with
073parents is critically important. Principles at almost every school we've visited have explained how excited they are about having the ability to share information, celebrate achievements, and promote upcoming events with a captive audience during drop off and pickup times. Hopefully, all of those signs will be operational in time for next school year. Finally, this side shows the remaining projects that are currently in design and bidding phases. These projects vary significantly in size and complexity. Some involve site improvements, paving, landscapings, ADA accessibility upgrades. Others are much larger undertakings that require extensive planning and coordination before construction can begin. Before I hand the presentation back over to chairperson Par, she always makes me call her that. I'd like to share one final thought. One of the most informative and rewarding aspects of serving on this committee has been
074the opportunity to tour these projects as they're completed. At every meeting, we spend time reviewing budgets, financial reports, and project updates. Those discussions are important, but sometimes it can be difficult to fully appreciate what those numbers represent. At least for me, there's a big difference between seeing a line item on a spreadsheet and standing in a classroom, a fine arts facility, an athletic space, or a renovated campus and seeing the impact it has firsthand. Most of the people on our committee are incredibly knowledgeable. They understand construction, finance, facilities, project management at a level that is honestly impressive. They're also patient with people like me who occasionally need to see something in real life before everything truly clicks. What has stood out to me the most is the opportunity to meet people who benefit from these
075projects. The principles, the staff members, the students, the families we encounter are proud of their schools. These campuses are more than buildings. Their neighborhood hubs, their gathering places, their centers of their communities. As a stakeholder in both the district and the community, it's been rewarding to witness the pride and ownership and excitement that these projects have generated. The joy on these campuses is real, and it serves as a powerful reminder of why this work matters. Hopefully, my proportion of today's presentation demonstrates that the goal of the 2019 bond program was never to improve just a handful of schools. The goal was to improve the entire district. And as these projects continue to be completed, I believe we're seeing that vision become a reality. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Chairperson. >> Thank
076you, Adam. >> Okay. Um so I am going to um do just a brief overview uh of what our meetings look like this year. Um and so I already read the purpose um and and vocalized that that's what we wanted to focus on is kind of recognizing where do we think if we have extra funds and interest dollars earned we should spend that um and what would our recommendation to y'all be? And so on October 21st, um we met and we did a a project, an exercise where we had um kind of different departments um big poster boards and everyone got sticky notes and we just took time for us to talk amongst each other and then individually fill out as many sticky notes as you wanted. Um and place them in the, you know,
077desired uh department. And so we did that. That pretty much took up the whole meeting and um and we took all that information back and compiled it. Um at the end of that meeting, there were 44 items that um different the committee members had um vocalized that they thought were important that were not included in the 2019 bond that they think that um the district should focus on. So the next meeting we gathered back um in January and um we looked at that list of 44 items and further had more discussion um about where can we narrow this down um and what items do we want to really focus on and um at that meeting we narrowed it down to 27 items. those items um happen to include many items that were also on the
0782026 bond um proposition. And so for me as um the chair of both this committee and the capital needs steering committee that gave me confidence um that our community has recognized similar projects in two different committees. So, um, that just shows the importance of those projects. And these were things like replacing South Davis Elementary, um, metal and metal and weapons detectors, safety fencing at all campuses, um, junior high lighting on football fields, uh, um, CTE improvements, um, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing improvements, lighting. So um all of those things we recognized as the CBOC as being needs as well. Fortunately um we did go out for the 2026 bond and the capital needs steering committee also recognized those and our community recognized the importance of those and so um propositions A and B which included many
079of those items did end up passing. And so Adam and I were talking and um we did have a meeting in April where we still didn't know the results of the bond election. Um we we kind of looked at this list and tried to put it things in order, but there were a lot of unknowns. And so after the bond um results came out, we talked and decided that, you know, we would be remiss if we didn't go back to the committee and say, "Hey, look, propositions A and B passed. Propos proposition C which was our athletic stuff and which we also had included on our original list many of the items. Now there were some items that we had not identified and I will say I think it's because we just didn't we didn't
080know that those were needs at the time when we made our original list. um now having more information um and and seeing the work that the CNC did and seeing how the community, you know, it was a very narrow margin uh for Proposition C um not passing. And so seeing how the community came out and did show support um but maybe and I'm going to steal the words of one of our committee members, maybe they were just asking us to find a different way to fund those projects. And so, um, we decided to take our list, pull out any items that propositions A and B covered, pull out any items that um were outside the scope of the budget that we are likely to have, and then add in any items that were in Prop
081C that we hadn't previously identified. And then we sent it to the committee and asked them to rank them one more time. And we had great participation. Um I believe 13 of the 18 members um sent back uh their ranking. And so I'm going to show you what that looks like. So um as you can see there um they're ranked the scores are based on the average ranking of each item across all voting comm um committee members and the lower scores indicate a higher committee priority prioritization. So um you can see that the turf mac uh replacements in turf replacements in the MAC um ranked number one. Uh as a committee we recognize that those facilities cannot be used if those mats are not um updated uh for safety reasons, you know, and so many
082students use those facilities. Um then the next two items were turf um on the high school baseball and softball fields and then uh LED lighting at all high school baseball fields, track resurfacing at all junior highs. that was also uh part of Proposition C um um for the bond weight room equipment at all junior highs. Um the next one was not a part of um it was not a part of the CNC recommendations and it was not in the bond package but it was very important to our committee. Um, one of the things that the slab students um, they went to, um, ACA CHC and and talk to the students there and asked them, "What do you need? What what would help you have a better experience?" And one of the things they said was
083a an area where we can have dances, where we can have meetings, um where we can have uh assemblies. And right now they don't have anything like that on their campus where they can have that more traditional high school experience. And so um our slab members were so fantastic in bringing us that information. um and it could serve as a storm shelter which is you know now a requirement of the state and so um through all of our our conversations that was always very high on the list and um even if it isn't considered for this goound I I definitely think that's something that should be considered soon soon in the future um to make sure that those students have you know the high school experience that that they're wanting. um scoreboard replacements at high
084schools and junior highs. Sound and lighting system updates at all elementary schools, uh gym safety padding systems. Um so those are like the pads that go underneath the basketball goals um at all junior highs and high schools. Wrestling mat replacement, field event mat replacement, uh athletic storage buildings at all high schools, designated buses for specialty programs. Again, this was another one that um our committee continued to talk about and find importance in um to make sure that kids who are participating in all these special specialty programs have the transportation to get to them and they aren't relying on parents or their own transportation. Um safety netting and fencing at high school baseball fields and then tennis court seating um at all district courts. And then there's um you can see the roughly the dollar amounts
085um for each of those projects there. Um we don't have an exact dollar amount because obviously the projects are still going on. Um but we think maybe um you know it would might not be out of the realm of possibility that all of these things could potentially be covered um with the excess dollars and interest funds from the 2019 bond. In closing, um we'd like to thank a few people. First, we'd like to thank um President McMurro and the board of trustees for supporting committees like the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee and for valuing the transparency and accountability that it provides. Committees like this help build trust within our community and give citizens an opportunity to better understand how the district operates and how bond dollars are invested to improve our schools. The insight and perspective
086gained through this process is truly invaluable. Next, I would like to thank Kelly Horn and the AISD staff. One of the things that's impressed me the most throughout this entire process is the level of participation from the district staff. It seems like every department is represented at our meetings, ready to answer questions, provide information, and help us better understand the work being done across the district. They're incredibly generous with their time, especially considering many of our meetings occur after what I'm sure has already been a long and demanding workday. Whenever our committee has a question that doesn't have an immediate answer, they never dismiss it and move on. Instead, they go out of their way to find the information and bring it back to us and explain it in a way that people like me
087can understand. That level of responsiveness and commitment does not go unnoticed, and we sincerely appreciate it. I'd also like to thank our chairperson, Katherine Para. Um, when I was asked to vice um, chair this committee, I assumed that it was for balance. Um, Katherine is a woman, I'm a man. Um, Katherine's a doctor, and I'm here for balance. Katherine's been absolutely phenomenal as our chair. She's created an environment where participation is encouraged, questions are welcomed, and differing viewpoints can be shared openly and respectfully. She has a unique ability to keep discussions productive while ensuring everyone feels heard. Perhaps most importantly, she has somehow managed to keep us on schedule while overseeing a committee full of people who occasionally enjoy talking as much as they enjoy asking questions. And that's no small accomplishment. Finally, I'd like
088to thank our slab students. This committee has been blessed with exceptional participation and from thoughtful and engaged individuals. Our members consistently ask insightful questions. um they carefully consider complex issues and bring valuable perspectives to every discussion. The quality of conversation and collaboration throughout this process has been outstanding. Our slab students, I couldn't on I I honestly couldn't imagine this process without them. They willingly sacrifice their time to attend the meetings and provide perspectives that only students can offer. They're thoughtful, they're engaged, and they're refreshingly honest. When asked for their opinions, they don't hesitate to share them. and their willingness to speak openly has made our discussion stronger and more meaningful. Their contributions remind us of who these projects ultimately serve and our committee is unquestionably better because of their involvement. So on behalf of the
089committee, thank you for your support, your time and your attention this evening. And with that, if there are any more difficult, hard-hitting or potentially uncomfortable questions, um Dr. Par has said that she's she'll be willing to answer them. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. para and co-chair >> vice chair pardon me and it's your birthday m >> always get upgraded but vice chair from >> do I have any colleagues with questions or remarks for our CVOC >> Miss Richardson >> thank you both of you uh happy birthday Adam you and my daughter share birthday and have for many >> have for many years here >> she is not here she is not maybe you can celebrate later together thank you both I wanted to with the numbers that you showed us if we could go
090back to page nine. Um when we look at this, this is a little it's close to $49 million that would be needed to cover all of that money, right? >> Am I correct in that? Approximately about $49 million. And you were thinking based on what we are going to save and with interest, there is a possibility that we could do this. And I was with Trusty Willilbanks tonight and the audit committee when they've gone through and audited our projects and they've been able to also find money to give back to our district. And so I am so impressed that we are investing wisely, that we are getting money back early, that we have an audit department that is also finding money that can come back so we can look at items like this. Um, is
091there anything that isn't on this that you wish that would have made it? >> I know you spoke passionately about the Arlington Collegiate. >> Yeah, I mean that would probably be the one and I mean it's on there. So, um, that would be the one to me that stuck out as the biggest discussion point. Um and again it was that feedback from the slab students that really like pulled at our heartstrings about you know these students are looking out for their peers who don't even go to their school right and um and so for them to say that that was really important I mean I think you know like I said if if it can't happen this time around we definitely need to keep it on the list at >> so possibly for a future
092bond project. It would be something that we could consider for the student experience. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Did you have anything that you >> I would agree with that. I mean, like she said, um it was it was it was pushed by the slab students. Um it was extremely important to them. Um anything that they really voiced a strong preference on, we gave um really strong consideration to and I don't know that there was anything that was more important or or pushed by our slab students more than that project. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for letting me sit on the committee. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed hearing from you. It was a very different committee than when I first joined three years ago and seeing how it was
093run and operated. If anything, I think I would say now I think it's more efficient. Um I appreciate how it has evolved and changed with the growing needs of our district and I think it's going to need to continue to grow and evolve as we as a district are changing and um identifying what those needs are going to be. So, thank you for your help. Thank you for your help also on the capital needs steering committee. Those are two very timely and costly projects that I know um take up a lot of your time. So, thank you for your help. >> Thank you, Miss Richardson. Miss Haynes, thank you. Um so, I have a couple of questions about the items listed just for clarification purposes. Um the safety netting and fencing, um in parenthesis, it
094says high school baseball. It doesn't say all high school baseball or all like the other ones are kind of listed out. Um, can you just give some more information on what the conversation around that was? Is it just replacing existing or does some schools not have it at all? As far as I remember, it was replacing existing that are not in great shape. Um, and just making like improvements so that they are safer. I mean, for lack of a better word. Um, >> okay. >> That's correct. It's essentially taking and creating equity across all the high school baseball field. So, those that might need to be extended to to reach further down the foul pole lines, we do that, but then to make sure that they're all uh new and in good shape. So, >>
095perfect. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, and then the tennis court seating, I know that that's um obviously self-explanatory. I can read into that and determine what that means, but I've never been to a tennis match. And so, does do we not have any sort of seating at all? What does it look like when someone goes to a tennis match in our district? >> So, um, as far as I understand, it looks different depending which high school you go to. Okay. Um, so that is one of the items that some high schools have it because their booster clubs have been able to afford to put them in while other high schools do not. And so I can speak to Lamar. Um Lamar does have seating. It's it's essentially a bench um big enough to fit, you
096know, 10 people, 12 people. Um like at each court um but I know that there are other high schools that h don't have anything. >> Okay. Spec so spectator seating and player seating and >> Yes. >> Interesting. Okay. I love it. Um thank you. I I had the opportunity to serve on this with y'all and I will say that um I've served on this committee for the past three years and this year was by far the most enjoyable. Um it was very innovative and everybody on the committee was engaged and I think attendance was probably the highest it's been. So you guys have done an amazing job. I enjoyed it. I love the recommendations. So thank you. >> Thank you Miss Haynes, Mr. Choa. >> Thank you President McMurra. Um the question that I have
097right is sort of with the collegiate or the Arlington College and career request um is why did we land on gym/storm shelter because I know the storm shelter concept drives up the cost um considerably and I know that there are certain situations where now under new laws we have to do that was there what's driving the decision on that because I think that's driving the cost considerably. I mean, just remembering from the conversations that we had, it was um that if we were going to have to put a storm shelter and and maybe it's a capacity thing that you don't have to have one there, so maybe not necessarily needing that needing to invest that extreme. Um but also, you know, they should have a a safe place as well um to go just like
098every other campus. And so, um, if we are going to put in like a gymnasium type situation, I think the committee felt like we might as well invest and make it a storm shelter shelter as well. Kelly can probably speak to the more logistics of it. >> So, it it started out as a request for a MAC, but obviously that's too large for that facility. So, we it morphed down to become a gymnasium or some type of an activity space that would function as a gymnasium and and allow other activities to take place. the uh the space or the size of it would trigger the need to also be a storm shelter. But anytime we would add something that significant, we would want to go ahead and make it a storm shelter for the students
099and staff. >> Well, it jumps out to me a little bit because I because we've been doing gym storm gym/storm shelters as part of the 19 bond at the elementary campuses. And this seems like the cost of this particular one seems quite a bit more than what we've been doing at the elementary level. >> Yeah, this is an it's a good point. It's an all-in number. So this would include your your construction cost plus all of your added costs for design fees and that sort of thing. So that's why it's a little higher and then some of the complexities around the site too. Okay. But uh but it's a good catch. >> Do we offer PE classes at at college and career? >> We we don't to my understanding. We don't at this point. >>
100Okay. Um the only other thing I had to call out on here was the the sound and lighting systems at the elementary schools. um having attended a fair number of of programs at elementary schools um the last 10 years or so um I I feel like our sound systems across the board are kind of hit or miss and and so something that would bring everything up to the same standard at one time um I'd be absolutely supportive of using the interest earnings off of the bond funds um to do and I do just want to clarify because this is interest earnings off the the bond funds we park while we're waiting to for projects to come up and expend the money that's where the interest money is coming from because I don't want people to
101get the there's there's all these extra money waiting, you know, sitting around from the 19 bond. >> You are correct. And and as we begin to we're winding down now and we're really able to to look into the accounting piece and reconcile. So, we're able to to see now what would be bond we're or project savings that we'll realize towards the end. So, we'll have that element of it. We will have the interest earnings. And then there are other control accounts that we use throughout the bond for for things like FFN and land purchase and that sort of thing. as those begin to be reconciled to, we'll we'll we'll come to you soon with a a very uh with a more uh uh accurate number on what we'll have towards the end of this bond
102program. So, the biggest chunk of it though would be uh the uh interest earnings, but there will be some other project savings too. >> Okay. Well, that's great to hear. I mean I know when having gone through the implementation of the 19 bond on the board end you know we were very worried at when COVID hit and we started seeing inflation spikes especially as bad as inflation's been generally it's been especially bad in the construction industry and just again compliment you Mr. Horn and your team on anticipating a lot of those things and encouraging us as a board to rep prioritize some of the projects on the front end to get a lot literally tens of millions of dollars in savings that even put us in a position on the back end of being able
103to consider some stuff that we maybe weren't going to include the first time around. So I appreciate that that work that you've done. Um Dr. Par, Mr. Baker, thank you for your service on on CBOC. I know it's a lot of time and especially um both of you did double duty on on capital needs and and the bond campaign and and when you guys come forward with a recommendation um I know that that's a very solid uh it's coming from a very solid place because um outside of staff and the board I mean there are not many people in the district who have a better understanding of where our facility needs are, our demographics, socio economics, a whole bunch of things that go into these facility projects than than you and your committee members. So
104thank you all very much. Madame Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, uh, and Mr. Birthday, man. Uh, happy birthday. I I want to thank you for your, uh, a great presentation and very thoughtful recommendations. And Kelly and Meredith and the whole team, thank you as well. Um, trustees, there are a couple things that, um, we have to consider with all of this. Is an advisory committee. Um, they've given you a really good list and some great things to think about. Uh this dovetales with some things that we have to talk about is a team of eight and that is you did have a proposition C that did not pass and the board is going to have to make a decision whether or not you want to pursue a proposition in the future uh and if that proposition
105would be uh focused on athletic things or if you want to expend these monies. It's an example of one of the decisions. Another thing that the board's going to need to consider is is uh we've been very clear with the recent demographer report. We're going to have to enter into a time of facility planning coming up. Some projects that are listed on here might end up impacting campuses that might have to be talked about for various other uses across our district. And so, uh all of these things are coming together right now at a really important time. And over the next six to eight months, we know that we're going to need to um update our our master plan, our facility master plan for the long term of Arlington ISD. And this is one of
106the pieces of this puzzle that I need you to be thinking about. Um again, there's some great projects on here. Um and we just need to make sure that we're thinking about all of these projects in in context of the whole situation that we're facing in Arlington ISD at this time. So, um, I encourage you to be thinking about that. I I will tell you at the next board meeting, it is our intent to have a conversation with you about the proposition that did not pass and get some, uh, have some ideas for the board to consider and get some direction from the board and that dovetales nicely with this presentation. So, uh, Adam and Catherine, thank you for putting this together and most importantly, thank you for your leadership on this in making sure
107that community voice is helping us shape the facility use and facility needs of our school district for years to come. We appreciate it. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith, for that important context. And thank you, Dr. Par, Mr. Baker and everyone on CVOC both uh present members and and those who are watching for not just your participation, your attendance, but your active engagement and that's been mentioned several times tonight. So, thank you all very much and we appreciate y'all's time. >> Thank you. >> Our next report tonight is the 2026 2027 district improvement plan report. Dr. Smith >> trustees. As you know, Dr. Collins uh is going to be here tonight talking to you a little bit about performance objectives that we are considering. If you recall, we shifted the timeline significantly in the past few
108years uh on creating the district improvement plan. It makes sense to actually have a district improvement plan created during the summertime, right, when we're getting data back and we can plan for the quality professional learning that's needed in our school district to address some of the needs that we have. So, we appreciate you considering uh these things earlier than you normally have and uh we're grateful to Dr. Collins and her leadership for helping get us to this point. >> All right. Thank you, President McMuro, Dr. Smith, and trustees. I'm excited to talk with you a little bit about our district improvement plan performance objectives and where we are and the shifting that has happened. Um our purpose says that we will ultimately seek board approval. We're not seeking approval tonight. Tonight is the discussion. Uh
109but we do hope to seek approval at our future meeting. Um and just as a reminder, BQ Legal is our policy that requires the board to approve our district improvement plan performance objectives. You will notice as we talk about um these strategies, you'll notice tight alignment with our strategic um objectives that we've been talking about with our strategic plan. And so this is the district improvement planning graphic um that we've been talking about quite a bit. You'll notice starting with our district vision, then our values and beliefs, district priorities, the strategic plan. So those strategic objectives there are um the leader into feeding into our district improvement plan and ultimately our campus improvement plan. So with our strategic plan, what we've done together as a team is we've mapped out over five years what are
110some strategies and what are some metrics that we might want to see. And so we have all of that kind of mapped out or drafted. Then what we were able to do was essentially to pull out the draft for the 2627 school year and to look at it linearly to see what is the impact on different stakeholders in our organization. You how do things all fit together so that we could make sure that we were headed in the right direction. Then we looked back at our strategic objectives to say what shifts do we want to make for the district improvement plan objectives? What are the wording changes? And so what I'm going to talk to you about tonight are the just distinct words that we changed so that you can see the specific work that
111we plan um to use as a focus this year. We also were able to work starting this week with some of our campus leaders on campus improvement planning. And so one of the reasons that we're coming to you early on district improvement plan is so that we can with confidence move forward with our campus leaders so that they can move forward with their campus improvement plan performance objectives. All right. So, I'm just going to orient you to this slide real quick. You'll notice up in the top lefthand corner our priority of academic growth. You'll see the goal statement up there at the top. And then you'll see the proposed performance objectives. Again, I'm not going to read these to you. For example, for performance objective one is the exact same wording that we have in
112strategic objective one in our strategic plan. So, we're not going to read through all of those. Instead, what I want to point out to you is the nuance, what's uh unique for the 2627 school year. So, if you'll look at performance objective three, you'll notice that CTE programs have been um labeled out specifically, we have a goal for the 2627 school year to do an audit of our CTE programming. We feel like um we need to get a good picture on where we currently are and also a vision for where we want to be. you know that we just named a new executive director um for innovative programming and so this is going to be good work for us to be able to think long term about what are the programs that we want to
113have in our system. So we added CTE programs to that statement because that is unique for the work that will happen for the 2627 school year. I also want to point out that performance objective 2 is where that academic data comes in. And so that's where you're going to ultimately see um KPMS or key performance measures specific to each of our different academic areas. Um we've typically see them tied to House Bill 3. We're not exactly sure what House Bill 3 is going to look like moving forward because that ultimately ended in the 2026 school year. Um but we know that we're going to be bringing you metrics. We just have kind of some raw data from the state right now, but when we come back in July, um you can expect that you're going
114to see what those exact metrics look like for reading, mathematics, um science, and social studies. For culture, both of these statements are exactly the same. And so I will just point out to you the focus on student experience there on performance objective one and then employee well-being on performance objective two. That is the focus and we were able to stick with that focus. So there are no changes in wording between the strategic objectives and the um performance objectives that we're recommending for future for safety and discipline. We did have a couple of shifts that we are making. So in performance objective one we added a phrase about implementing systems of behavioral expectations. And so there are some strategies specific to designing systems in Arlington ISD focused on behavioral expectations and partnering with our parents with
115those behavioral expectations. So we wanted to specifically call that out in our performance objectives for the 2627 school year. So more than just that sense of belonging but thinking really specifically about designing some of those systems. Then in performance objective two we made a changing a change even to the title there. So uh for our strategic objectives it says strengthen safe and supportive physical environments and we have changed it to say strengthen safe and supportive infrastructure for the 2627 school year because you'll notice a phrase that was added there in the middle of the statement that we want to cultivate secure physical and digital environments. And you guys got to hear a presentation at our last board meeting about some of the work that our technology team is doing and that is a big focus
116for us for this next school year. So, we wanted to call that out specifically in our performance objectives for this coming school year. For marketing and engagement, we have one word that was added and it was in performance objective 2 and it is the word welcoming. Our community engagement team is working together with our um communications team to really focus on welcoming experiences for our families. So, that looks like campus branding that is a focus for us moving forward this uh next school year. customer service training as we think about a welcoming experience for our families. And then, you know, with our bond, we approved a lot of wayfinding signage and things like that just to make it easier for people to be able to get around. So, all of those things are about having
117a welcoming experience. And so, it was important that we add that word in. And then finally here with talent and resources, the change is with performance objective one. So, ensure fiscal uh sustainability. What that sounds like in our uh strategic objective is to close the district's uh deficit and adopt the sustainable budget model. What we wanted to capture here for our performance objective was to reduce the general fund budget deficit by at least 50% by June 2024 while maintaining the general fund operating fund balance threshold at 25%. And that uh fund balance threshold at 25%, you know, that's in policy CE local. So we're bound by that. And as we think about um that general fund, we know that that is a metric that we're going to need to stick to as a district. And
118so we really wanted to call that out and be crystal clear with what is it that we're trying to do this next school year regarding our budget. So um next steps, um we know that we need to work with our campus leaders to finalize individual campus improvement plan performance objectives. So once we have these finalized, that will support our campuses and the work that they're doing. Um, and like I mentioned, we started that with our leadership retreat this week and it will continue in July. And we hope to bring you campus improvement plan performance objectives um, in July or August. And then we also need to determine our key progress measures for the 2627 school year. Once we have our final data um, we'll be able to bring those to you. And so I would
119expect that those would be coming to you as well in our July or August meetings. and then to analyze our 2526 star, EOCC, and CCMR data in order to determine very specific math, literacy, and CCMR targets for the 26 27 school year. So, as I mentioned earlier, we're not seeking approval tonight. Just wanted to have some uh discussion. Um, and we'll be seeking approval at our next meeting. >> Thank you, Dr. Collins. Do I have any trustees with discussion or questions around our district improvement plan report? Mr. Chapa, >> thank you. Thank you, President McMo. I um I know that this is going to be coming back to us later, and you you've we've seen some variation of this before, but you've called out an important change, I think, on the talented resources uh discussion
120that I just want to highlight um because it it's a really, in my opinion, big change and it it directly impacts something that we have to keep an eye towards with a discussion we're having later tonight on adopting a compensation plan for the next school year. um and something that we have been doing for a long time but um has gotten more attention lately. We have had goals around reducing the budget deficit for this year. We set a hard KPM on it which we are on track to meet. Um and that was a a big impetus for the reorganization that we announced last month. But just to give some context to how we ended up there um I don't I don't want people to think that the district decided that this was the year that
121we decided to show some budget efficiency or or whatever. We have been working very hard and very diligently for many years now um through aggressive attrition and other things and at the department level at the central administrative level and we have been eliminating positions for quite a while um as but mainly through vacancies and unfortunately when you're in an environment like we are where we we can cut expenses but as enrollment is declining we're also losing revenue. So, it's not like, well, we've made a cut, so we know we're going to realize, say, $20 million in savings to reduce the deficit next year as enrollment declines or revenue goes goes down. And so, there's a level of aggressiveness that has has had to increase to meet the budget deficit issue. And so we're prop this
122this performance objective change proposes to very much more aggressively address this issue with the adoption of the 2728 budget. And I want to call that out because I think we're being very transparent by even putting this slide here. And I just want to call it out because I don't want anyone in the community to be surprised by what will be required to achieve this metric. We just had a reorganization in which we phased out some positions, but we said it was about positions and not people because we didn't lose people to achieve this budget objective to achieve one that was not even this aggressive. In my opinion, with a budget that is nearly 90% people, this budget defic this budget deficit strategy cannot be achieved without people being lost in the process next year as
123part of that budget adoption. And so, thank y'all for putting this on here to call out this transparently to have this discussion. Um, I will say that I I'm going to consider how whether this level of aggression is something that I think is necessary. Unfortunately, where from where I sit right now, I think if I'm reading the tea leaves for next year, I think it probably is without substantial change in approach from the state. um we're not a business that can go out and just find a way to go get more revenue and go market you know we're we're trying to market ourselves better but um you know with declining birth rates and we're not the only district in the state in fact the vast majority of districts in the state at this point are
124experiencing declining enrollment and so that also ties into budget issues and so without an change in approach in Austin next year and some substantial help um on the school finance front districts are not going to be able to pull themselves out of this position on their own And I want to call out the 25% fund balance threshold. That's not an arbitrary number that the district has adopted. There are real consequences for the general fund, our reserve fund falling below the 25% threshold. We have been very fortunate for many years to be able to slowly draw on that fund to give us the runway to make some aggressive moves in the background and not do things other districts have been doing many years before us. Closing campuses, reductions, and force actual layoffs. Um, we have been
125able to avoid that. The downside to that is without getting more money, as that fund balance falls, if it crosses that threshold, there are real consequences to our state financial ratings, there are real consequences to our bond ratings, which allow us to um have more bond funding to spend on our kids because we'll be paying more costs and interest to get those bonds. And so, it's a very complex issue. Um, and I I don't want to I'm going to come back to this later when we talk about the compensation plan. Um, but this is a really aggressive target. Unfortunately, from where I sit tonight, I just want to signal that I think it may be necessary and I want folks to be prepared for what that will mean. That's all I have. >> Thank you,
126Mr. Chapa. Do I have any other trustees with questions or remarks regarding the district improvement plan? >> If I could just uh add one thing to what Mr. Chapa said, and I want to be clear about this. So, uh, last year one of the, uh, key progress measures was reduce the general operating fund or the budget deficit, excuse me, by 33%. So, the idea was that over 3 years, you would reduce the entire deficit and we believe we're on track to reduce that and hit that KPM. The reason it says 50% this year is because what's remaining now, we got to cut that in half. And so, in order to do that, as Mr. Chapa said it's going to be really big work and uh I do think that you know we have to we
127have to make some really key decisions over the course of the next 6 months that are going to impact this and I appreciate you bringing up uh that compensation and staff are are the number one thing that drives our budget in Arlington ISD and it's important for everyone to remember that. I just wanted to make sure that everybody understood it's not like we're arbitrarily going hey let's do 50 this year. Um, this is the second year of what we set out to do and uh that's why it reads 50. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Are there any other questions or remarks? >> Okay. I just had one thing, Dr. Collins. Um, I I agree it's already been said, but the performance objectives outlined tonight um that go with all of our board priorities, they are
128very bold. Um, and Mr. Dr. Chava, I want to thank you for kind of um providing how that is connected to the financial conditions that we're under. I think that these performance objectives should also help us um kind of look through when we develop our our um our legislative agenda for the upcoming um 90th legislative session. I think that the how will we get there could really give us um help in funneling our priorities into what's most important and what's most urgent for this session um asking for help from the state and so um these are very thoughtful they're very bold and I also really see the interconnectedness between all of the performance objectives across all areas um our vision statement that we recently adopted It is to create exceptional learning experiences that inspire all
129students, empower their dreams, and prepare them for the future. And I see a direct connection between this district improvement plan and its performance objectives with that overarching vision. Um, so thank you, Dr. Collins. I'm I really appreciate the report. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we have our endofear academic report. Dr. Smith >> trustees. I'd like to invite Dr. Champion and Dr. Wartz to the podium. And I don't know Dr. Lopez isn't getting up, so it's not Dr. Lopez as well. Um I I I'm sorry, Natalie. I apologize. Um uh they are here giving you the end of the year academic screener report. Uh is requested by a trustee. >> President McMurro, board members, and Dr. Smith, thank you for this opportunity to share this information tonight. We're going to be
130taking a look at our literacy and mathematics screener data based on the endofear assessments. Before we jump into those numbers though, I want to remind us all what this is that we're looking at. You remember in 2019 these these goals were required to be set by House Bill 3. They got a little revision in 21. And so these are really based on those 2021 5-year goals. They there was a tweak whenever we brought in universal prek a year later, but again these it's not like every year we're setting a new goal. These are those five-year goals. We're at the end of that cycle right now. Um also wanted to point out we received several questions. Um and so we'll attempt to answer as many of those tonight as we can. If there's anything we didn't
131answer, of course, just let us know. We'll do our best tonight, but also next week. Uh there was there's some additional data pieces that we can send out and we'll take care of that next week as well. Um and with that, let's take a look at this data. Um so in early literacy, uh looking at preK4, the circle screener, um this is our endofear reading overall. The goal was to move from 78 to 79%. And you can see again all of these are set up in exactly the same way. The goal, the bar graph there in the upper right hand uh side shows that where the goal was and where we where we were. We're at 78%. The goal is at 79%. So, we did not meet it. Right below that shows beginning, middle, and
132end of year over time. And then I I really want to and then then at the bottom left shows the number of students um and those percentages that are either on track or needing support. Um, want to also don't want to ignore the four bars that are on the bar graph because again, these are five-year goals. And so, you can take a look back where we were four years ago and that we've improved overall in in those four years as we've moved forward. Did not meet the goal that we had set though. Same is true in endofear reading in kindergarten for MC class. um 32 3200 students took the took the exam, 71% hit that mark. Our goal was at 72% again and that bar graph moved from 63% to 71% over the last four
133years in first grade. Um exactly the same same story goal of 69, we hit 68. We did improve um last year here from 66 to 68%. Second grade, our endofear reading overall the goal was move from 62 to 65%, we actually exceeded that at 66% and again 10point jump since 2023. Taking a look at numerousy um you can see that uh we had a goal in prek uh to maintain 93% which we did maintain in prek. in um kindergarten went from our goal was to move from 68 to 73. There was a question about why was that so aggressive. It was because it was set 5 years ago and so where we were looking that we're just continuing with with those particular goals. Um this one you can see there's some fluctuation over those four
134years but four years ago we were at 64% had a jump in 2024 um and then landed in 68% this year. First grade um 2023 we were at 50% got to 57% this year but our goal was 60% so we were a little bit under that. Second grade math same same story 41% four years ago got 45% this year but again that goal set 5 years ago was was 51%. Um before we jump into discussion, I do also want to make sure we we talk about what this does and doesn't show and do like what exactly is all of this. Um, so while it clearly indicates that we did not meet six of those eight 21 2021 preK through two reading and math goals, reading performance falling just short of targets and mathematics um, falling
135several points below expectations. We're disappointed in that, of course. Um, but the results have to be viewed within a broader context of continued year-over-year improvement across most grade levels and subject areas. It's one thing. It's also it's also one piece of a puzzle. This isn't this isn't the final solution, the final the final ending the thing one thing we've been looking out for as part of a continuous improvement cycle. It's something that we talk about a lot in our district. Um we we view these we continue to to look at things like curriculum implementation. I know there were some questions about um instructional practices, intervention effectiveness, and campus level trends. is looking for root causes and strengths and trying to build on top of those. Um, one of the things we know is that mathematics
136continues to be a struggle. One of the reasons that we are adopting a new math curriculum and spend have spent a long time working with principles the last two days on the math uh instructional practices and ensuring that we're using change management to bring that along. That's definitely a piece of what we believe is going to be helpful as we have a unified approach for math um kindergarten all the way up through the high schools. We're we're excited about that. That's going to have some implications implications here. With that, happy to attempt to answer any questions. The good news is Dr. Lopez is still in the building and Dr. Wartz is right here. >> Thank you, Dr. Champion. Do I have any trustees with questions? Mr. Wilbanks. >> Thank you, President McMurrow, and thank you,
137Dr. Champion. So, you know, going back to the reading, there is um some things to celebrate. We are making progress and year over year. First grade and second grade especially, looks like, you know, we surpassed our goal that we set back then. And if you look at each of those bar graphs, they're progressing. And I assume some of that progress is, you know, um years ago, uh with HP3, they were required to start doing readingmies. Um and I wonder if that's part of the reason why it's making an impact because we've made a huge paradigm shift when it comes to our literacy instruction, early literacy instruction. >> I absolutely agree. Um, obviously I'm I came long after those had had begun. However, I did have the opportunity to be part of the structured literacy approach
138that we've implemented as close to being um something implemented with fidelity as I may have ever seen in a district this size and the scale that it was implemented. And that is going to because next year is year two. Um, I think we're going to continue to see that progress. Again, that's that continuous improvement piece where we start to make make some progress and we see it kind of like a flywheel moving forward. I believe that's true and I think the reading academyy's played an important role to set the foundation as we double down on that notion of the science of teaching reading. >> Yeah. And I'm I know it's too early to tell and as you know um I'd be curious next year that second grade cohort when they get to third grade and
139that's a testing grade if that's going to hopefully pay off in space. Absolutely. >> Um let's flip to math. >> All righty. >> So the fun part of the presentation. >> We got some work to do. >> Yeah. >> Um while we have shown progress in reading, some of our math has regressed or it's flatlined. And uh you know, I'm not going to lie, first grade with 57%. That's just not acceptable. monohex where any of us want us to be. >> Sure. >> Um what's the root cause? Why? >> Yeah, it's it's a great question and again I don't know that this particular data is is the one piece that we look at it is definitely a piece of the of the puzzle as we look at math. We know yeah first grade um we
140can definitely improve. Nobody wants to be at 50% in anything. And that's it is a dramatic move that we are we are taking on next school year. We know that there's there's a three-legged stool around the the written curriculum and the taught curriculum and the assessed curriculum. this year, this upcoming school year, we are taking a rigorous look at that written curriculum and implementing something um that that the Eureka math model that has been used for years and years is really what this is this is that we are moving moving toward and implementing that with fidelity. Remember, we're also talking as part of the curriculum management audit results about the assessment plan that we're going to be working on um as a as a school system. That's a that's a critical part as well. And
141then within that math adoption, there's also that instructional piece like what is the teacher actually doing in the classroom? That is a critical component of of the the new math curriculum. Again, a phrase that we're going you're going to hear a lot about next year is this notion of internal internalization and internalization of of lessons. That is actually taking best practices in classrooms and understanding what it is that I need to teach and how I need to approach it and how I need to localize it for these partic this particular group of kids or this individual student and then bringing that to life in the classroom. those three things those three those three things improve we see improved results across the board in the district but with this map scores as well. >> Yeah. No,
142you know, ever since I've been on the board, the the number one question I always have, you know, when we implement some new strategy is, are we doing it with fidelity? And we've been to say in the past really bad at measuring or even achieving uh fidelity on those things that we know are best practices that we know make a difference >> in student outcomes. >> And since you've been here, we're checking in a way we've never done before. And I think that's making a difference on the reading side. I'm a little disappointed that you know I assume you're doing those same checks in the math instruction too and and are you just not seeing um can I jump in real quick? So I think one of the things that we we do know in
143this and it's part of the challenge and I'm going to be really blunt in saying this is with autonomy sometimes in a teacher's classroom what happens is is what's happening in one classroom isn't happening in another classroom and we found that to be true across Arlington ISD in some of those visits particularly in math. So when we made a recommendation to you all regarding curricular uh experience and our governance committee has been talking specifically about instructional expectations, we have to remember something. We have a high percentage of mobile students across our district. When they move from one school to another, we have to be able to guarantee that they're still getting the same level and quality curriculum in one school as they were in the other school. And frankly, right now, we cannot predict that
144in our system. That is the challenge in math right now. So there not only is a curricular issue that we've talked about, but there is a fidelity issue and an expectation issue across the district too. We have to get to a spot where we can say this is how we teach math in Arlington ISD. And we can still do that with quality teacher voice and making sure that the art of teaching is impacting those lessons, but we have to have a standard across the district in every classroom because right now we can't guarantee that. And so when you ask about specific root cause and you you bring up the word fidelity and stuff >> that is at the heart of our math issue >> and is it also rigor? I mean >> sure >> very
145much so and and I say that with respect to uh realizing that um that's not all the time but there are situations where we have been able to see in classroom visits across the district the level of expectation for some of our students is not equal to even that teacher across the hallway. That tells me that we're creating gaps in our system simply just in the instructional expectations in the level of teaching that we have going on regarding math in our system. So, uh, I I I won't say it's all pervasive, but I think our curricular issues that we're working on are going to address some rigor things, but we also have to be able to say here here's the level of expectation that we need for second grade and the the ability to provide
146our teachers with the right resources and support to teach at that level of expectation. >> Yeah. Well, thank you for that insight, Dr. Smith. And um you know I I I look at these and then at the same time I know that for the first time as a district we're really tackling those root causes. Um and I'll go back to my question about readingmies at the beginning. Well the state also has the equivalent for math or early literacy and the science of teaching math. It's voluntary. Do you know if any of our teachers have gone through or have done that training? >> So, the state is actually just launching the pilot next year. The following year is when it will be required. So, um we are we're not they don't recommend if you're adopting new
147curriculum that you participate in the pilot. So, we won't be participating in the 2627 school year, but the 2728 is the first year the cohort starts and all teachers will have to be trained by 2030. >> So, it will be a requirement going. It's a requirement for the same group of teachers that participate in the readingmies. Those same teachers or the grade level bands and principles will be required to attend the mathmies. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, good to know because I I think, you know, it's just I don't want to call it the science of math and sound like it's the the latest buzzword, but we do know a lot more about what is effective um early numerousy instruction. >> That's right. and the fact that I think we're moving fast um to rectify
148those things in um when it comes to early numerousy um puts me at ease uh and it assuagages some of my concerns when I see the screener data not where we need to at a pivotal moment for our students um academic career >> trajectory if if I could too. Um, Trusty Will Banks, you made a you referenced um since you've been here and just to be clear, uh, I'm I just happen to be here at this particular moment, the district has been moving along a path um, under Dr. Smith's leadership, under the work that the academic services team has been has been putting on OSL as well. And then it just kind of led to this moment. Just to be clear, it is this is a the system has been moving in this particular direction
149as we work to find ways to tighten up and ensure that there's rigor in every single classroom that we have. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Champion. >> Thank you, Mr. Will Banks. Miss Fowler, >> thank you, President Mcmura. Staying on the the math page here. Do you worry that changing curriculum will cause our scores to dip? >> The Thank you, Trusty Fowler. In indeed, when you start something new, invariably there is an implementation dip that occurs. And that that is a that's a reality just in in general in change management. whenever you're measuring discrete things and you're trying to implement something as large as what we're talking about would would not be a surprise and you look for bright spots that show where where it's showing some promise and you double down.
150I mentioned earlier that we use this kind of data as part of a continuous improvement cycle. That same will be true that we we don't want it to go down. Just to be clear, our goal is to ensure that it moves forward and increases of course and sometimes that that is the natural effect of trying to implement something new whether with fidelity or if it's if it's done in pockets. Um if it's done with fidelity, you should see some natural trends appearing that we can again build on strengths and and find ways to plug holes where there are some weaknesses. >> Has there been research? And I know every program's different, but has there been research that shows maybe how long it takes with a new curriculum before we could see that uptick? >> Yeah,
151I mean, I don't I I'm not saying, yeah, there's been research. I don't know that answer, but I do know from from personal experience that a lot of times you you have a one one-year dip that starts to pull out um if you're if you're if you're you just can't stand still and and just let the let this you have to continue to work and improve and look again to the to the specific people who are implementing this and and how we're ensuring Dr. Smith said it well ensuring they have the resources that they need. Right. I'll add on one thing too. We are concerned about it because we do whenever you do anything like this as Brett said you you are concerned about a dip. So there's a couple things to one watch for
152and a couple of things that are happening right now that we're trying to do to to mitigate those things. One, I think it's important to watch on how some other districts perform when star scores come out. And we know that some other districts have led into some of these curricular changes. And I think we will see and have a better sense of districts that are maybe similar to us, what it's looked like over the course of the year. Second thing is we're doing our best to try and make sure that that doesn't happen too right now. Actually, not right now because it's all over, but our teachers and our administrators in the past few weeks have been engaging with new curriculum, professional learning already. And the goal was to get people involved in it now
153because springing something on them at the last minute at the as they're coming back to school wouldn't help us with this. So the professional learning that has been happening since I think Dr. Wartz was it end of April May. So through the throughout the month of May uh for our teachers I've gotten good feedback on. It's still going to be a big change and a big lift for our system. So, just know that we're yes, we're concerned about it, but we're doing our best to invest heavily. Uh, and that's what some of those grants that we told you all about are helping us with as well. Investing heavily in ensuring our teachers are as well prepared as possible for it. Um, because it is it's a big change. >> And and what are some practices
154or what are some things that teachers can do? I mean, other than I know like in reading they pull kids out for small groupoup instruction. what what can we do to try and help these these scores go up and our students to be more successful in math? >> Yeah, there are there are a number of strategies. I'm actually going to ask Dr. Wartz to help help with this, but but there are a number of strategies that are to this notion of the science of teaching math that are high quality pedagogical strategies. Dr. WZ, >> so what I would say um to answer that question is it's literally it's really back to what Dr. Smith said in terms of the implementation process. So, one of the things that's different about this implementation that's been different than
155others that we've done is we've started with front-loading the curriculum and the information to teachers so they have a chance to interact with it before they actually start with students and then build wraparound implementation services and support so they can help them with their implementation. So what you're going to see this next school year is that at all levels of the organization there are specific coaching and uh professional learning support for in bite-sizes so that people can go back and implement the things they're learning. So teachers will receive training and then there will be coaches that will be interacting with teachers for a good number of days over the course of the year so they have support in the implementation of the curriculum themselves. The other thing I would say too that's important is uh
156it's setting the targets and understanding like what's the relationship between the behavior that the teacher is doing meaning the specific practices that are embedded in the curriculum and the outcomes that students are experiencing. One thing that we're doing this year is we're updating our MTSS system which is our intervention system to make sure that the programs that uh students engage in are directly aligned to the math curriculum that they're actually receiving in what we call tier one instruction. So, if they're struggling in the first teach and maybe the second teach and they need more um refined or what I would say specialized uh instruction for their individual needs, there are programmatic um tools that the teacher will have access to at their disposal that's directly aligned to the lessons they actually just taught. And then
157what we're going to be able to do is monitor the outcomes that are happening along the way to see if we need to make adjustments in in real time. Uh the last thing I would say is part of it is not just what the teacher does, it's what what we do. Being in the classrooms, monitoring the implementation, figuring out where the trends are in terms of what's going well, what's not going well, and pivot our professional learning and our coaching support so that we're in real time helping teachers make adjustments as they're implementing. We spent the last couple days working with principles. And one of the things that uh I shared with them is uh we're in there if you think of the multi-year phase of moving from learning something to actually knowing it really
158really well. We're in the learn phase and it's not perfect and we're trying to create an environment where principles and teachers can feel free to take risks to be vulnerable and talk about the things that they're struggling with and not and what's not working for them so that we can react to it in a positive way and help them kind of get past that point. So those are kind of some of the structures that we're putting in place. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you both. I appreciate the explanations. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler. Any other trustees with questions or comments about the um data? End of year data. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. WZ and Dr. Champion. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Our next report, our last report on the agenda tonight is sixth
159grade next steps committee report. Dr. Smith, >> Dr. Champion doesn't get to leave. um he he and uh Dr. Shaveir Dala have led a um important study for us this year and I want to frame this before they begin. As you recall back in November, we did a presentation to you all and we said we need to study something and we mean study something objectively because we know we're going to have big decisions down the road to make and we need to be able to have some good information to help us make big decisions moving forward. So, we needed to do uh study something objectively and we wanted to do it with a focus on one thing and one thing only. What's the experience we want for students in Arlington ISD? Because we can make
160decisions for budget reasons, we can make decisions for uh facility reasons, a whole lot of other things. But what I know about this board is at the heart of this is what do you want for kids regarding experiences in our school district? And so that was the premise behind getting this study going back in um when we presented to you in November. And since then they've led a I think an incredible process with a number of people to get us to this point today to hear the committee's recommendation. And I want to stress this is the committee's recommendation. The administration again has not made a recommendation uh to this point. And tonight we're hearing what the committee uh did over the course of the time and what they're recommending for us moving forward. President McMurro,
161board members, and Dr. Smith, long time no see. I am pleased to be here tonight to to introduce this committee that we we had the honor of facilitating. I I've I've got to tell you, this last few months where we worked on this, the committee has been incredibly driven. They've shown up. They've done all the things, and we have a lot of them here. Would y'all stand up and and be recognized, please? Thank you. It was Dr. Dalas and my great pleasure to get to represent um these fine folks as we engaged in this study. Tonight, we're going to share the work that that this this committee has put together as well as a recommendation at the end for next steps for the board to consider. I want to um personally commend Shaveir Dala. He
162really led this and did a terrific job and it's my pleasure to turn this microphone over to him. >> Thank you, Dr. Champion. Uh President McMurro, members of the board, Dr. Smith, it's a pleasure to come back and speak with you tonight again. Um as Dr. Champion said, we gave you a board update on in November, so it is a pleasure to come back again tonight. But before we give you the report on our um before we give you our report, we do want to kind of reframe what started this conversation which and what really started this study. Um we looked at survey data from students, parents, and staff. Um we found that students reporting less belonging, particularly our sixth grade students in those elementary schools. Uh parents uh said that they felt like there
163would be a more appropriate experience for sixth graders in a junior high setting. And then staff said that this could this change might possibly reduce behavior issues and improve learning. Principles at the elementary level reported to us that they felt like sixth graders were ready for that independence piece. Uh junior high uh principles said they wanted an additional year to build that culture amongst their campus. Again, two-year 78 model. They wanted three years with the same students. So, I do want to point out this was survey results based on our current model, a K through six and a 7 through 8. I have no doubt that if we had a K through five and a 6 through 8, we would see the opposite of that. But as these things come up based on our system
164right now, we thought it was important to explore to see um what what impact it would have on our system. I do want to talk about our charge and our charge was to evaluate the placement of sixth grade whether it should be moved to the junior high campuses or remain at the elementary level. Um and Dr. Smith did a great job of framing this earlier so I'll just repeat it again. This is about the student experience. You're going to hear about us and the number of students we talked to, the different implications that we looked at. It was from that lens of the student experience that was the primary focus for this committee. And sometimes we'd want to veer from that and I said team friends we've got to look directly at that student experience
165because at the end of the day that's what we're looking for is that best uh best uh time in AISD. So work to date again in November we presented to the board just kind of our plan um to explore this uh possibility. In January we had our first meeting um where we level set with the committee our charge. Uh we also heard from a principal panel of two junior high principles and two elementary principles. And then we level set with research and accountability because we knew that we would be looking at a lot of research. We' be hearing from a lot of uh internal local experts and so we wanted to make sure that we level set around that. In February we had meeting number two and this is our first time to hear from
166students directly. So we heard from seventh graders at Gun Junior High. That's an that is a unique group to Arlington because they've actually experienced sixth grade at our junior high school. We heard from the departments of fine arts, career tech, and athletics. And then in March, we shifted over to Young Junior High where we where we met with a traditional set of seventh graders who had had sixth grade at the elementary level. We also heard from curriculum and instruction um advanced academics in GT as well as our counselors gave a report on what SEAL could look like if this moved. In April, we went to workmen and heard from another panel. We also heard from our special populations department which included special education and emergent bilingual. We also heard from Kelly Horn and facilities. And
167then at the um request of the committee, they said, "Dr. Well, we actually want to hear from fifth graders because if we were to make this change, it would be a fifth grader who the next year would have to metriculate to junior high. So, we asked our OSL executive directors to actually team up with the principles that were on those um that were on our part of our committee to go interview those fifth graders and then a representative from OSL, another executive director, Dr. Lee, presented that out to the committee. In May, we sat down and we had a couple more reports, one on discipline. Again, we thought it was important to bring research and accountability back to the table just to kind of level set what we were looking at. And then we had
168the really fun job of actually getting 30 people in a room to to agree on a recommendation. Um, so that's that consensus building. And along the way, we knew that we needed to get input from community members. So, it was pretty exciting. Um we launched this I think right the day after our second meeting. Um and it gave an agenda. It gave slide decks from the meeting. Um and it gave a place for people to give their feedback. The feedback was so good that midstream the feedback was the agenda is not enough. The slide deck's not enough. We want to know what's happening in those meetings. And again I'm going to thank RNA because research and accountability they take copious amount of notes. So I was able to go next door and say Janaa can
169you give us the notes for us? and we were able to put that up there. So, there's a comprehensive summary of every one of our meetings. When we received that input, there was also a place for them to share what what specific factors we should be looking at. And we received 362 responses. Of those responses, if they left a phone number, we gave them a call back. So, we made about 130 phone calls and were actually able to speak with 50 survey participants. It was great because they could expand on their statements. they could help us better understand what their concerns were. Um, and for the benefits, you can see there's a list there. Uh, but for the most part, it was expanded access. They thought moving sixth grade would expand access for their child.
170Um, and then it would also lead to earlier independence. The concerns were, would a sixth grader in junior high be emotionally ready? Um, would they be ready for that exposure to older students? And a lot of parents express that concern about loss of traditions, right? We think K6, you spend seven years in the same building. You kind of wait to be that sixth grader. And so a loss of that tradition of now it's not the sixth grader that's at the top of that school, it's the fifth grader. So what what would that look like? Do want to talk to you about the committee makeup. So we tried to get a very diverse group. Um, we had a parent, teacher, or principal representative from all 10 junior high schools. We then also had a parent, teacher,
171or principal from a corresponding feeder to that junior high school. Uh, we also had central administration represented with 11 departments. And we had seven different groups of students. I think that's the part that I'm most proud of in this work is we looked at seven different groups of students from three junior high schools and four elementaryaries. Um, and so that was really when we talk about the student experience being in the middle of that circle of what we're looking at. Again, we tried to emphasize that every step of the way. Um, and uh, fortunately or unfortunately for the committee, their work's not over yet as we bring our findings to you. We are excited to have a few of them present directly to you tonight. They were um, I said, "Thank you for volunteering earlier
172tonight." And they kind of laughed and they were like, "No, we're volunte." But thank you, Jana, for coming up. And, uh, Dr. Stewart will start for us. Good evening, Jana Stewart, research and accountability. Thank you for the opportunity to have me here to talk to you about a brief overview of the research literature and a few district examples uh regarding gradespan configurations. So, we reviewed over 30 studies and we're happy to provide a bibliography to you all um representing a range of research approaches from large-scale statistical analyses to those directly looking at student experiences. While the findings varied across the literature, a consistent theme emerged. And that's that even when researchers were able to find a difference based on a great configuration, they weren't able to establish cause. That the configuration itself was the thing
173that's leading to those differences. So, one reason it's challenging to establish causality um around grades span is that we cannot randomly assign children to elementary versus middle school settings. Instead, we have to work with naturally occurring differences in programming, resources, students, schools, and staffing. So, if you think about what secondary data is available to most researchers, a lot of these things aren't measured well. They're not available publicly, and all we have to go on is STAR scores or standardized tests. So, we only take our best guess with these numerical research studies. A second challenge in determining causality is that we cannot pick up and move the transition point. So, a lot of research talks about the transition itself being difficult, but it's hard to isolate that when you can't experimentally manipulate where that transition happens
174and hold everything else constant. So, I can't decide to move transitions from fifth grade to sixth grade or fourth grade just for research purposes. Um, and all of the configurations that are researched are typically those that already exist, unless they're doing statistical simulations and then we look for other variables to be brought in. Usually, they they aren't. Um, some of the strongest studies that we looked at attempted to address this difficulty by examining student experiences alongside outcome data. They looked at perceptions of academic rigor. So, they would ask the students, "How hard do you find the homework in your class? Do do your teachers keep you feeling challenged?" And things like that. U, they looked at perceptions of peer behavior. Are kids behaving in your classroom? School climate and student engagement. So, are people paying
175attention when your teachers talking? So, it's kids evaluating each other. That's just some some examples. So, most importantly, these studies that were very strong were careful not to extend their conclusions beyond what's directly supported by the data they collected. In research is easy when you want to have um an article that gets a lot of citations to have something very definitive and kind of reference other studies or assumptions and you're not really backing that up with data from your own study. So, we always have to be very careful when we interpret the the end findings. uh a nationwide study of more than 1,600 principles and teachers found a significant gap between what educators believe is important and what they're actually doing. So their middle school best practices such as strong transitions, advisory structures, teameing, things
176that we know are important, but fewer than half said that they were actually doing it even though they believed that it that it was important. So research does not identify a universally superior configuration, one that is like a one-sizefits-all. Instead, it suggests that what schools do, as we talked about earlier tonight with fidelity, matters more than the configuration itself. So we look at um sorry, notably these themes were not unique to our review. Handover research offered another synthesis for another district and that surfaced many of the same conclusions especially regarding the importance of implementation in local context when interpreting outcome differences. That distinction becomes important when we look at our own analyses. As we'll see in the next examples, identifying the degree of difference uh in grades spans is often easier than identifying the reasons
177for those differences. And oftentimes those nuance questions about how and why are better addressed through qualitative research where you can actually go and observe or talk to people and get the data that's not easy to just u quantify or measure. So this is a pedagogical example that our committee looked at and it's basically using tea comparison school data. So, if you don't know, TA comparison schools are um similar based on economically disadvantaged status, emergent bilingual percentages, um sped populations. And so, we took that um set of campuses and broke down by gradspan the differences. The interesting thing about this is you can see what looks like a statistically significant mean difference just based on the averages by themselves. So, that's something that we wanted to point out like it looks like that might be a
178grad span issue. When we look to the right, this is the part that's fun for the committee. This is a visual representation of proportion of variance accounted for. In other words, how much are these different factors explaining those differences in the domain one scale scores. So, as you can see, the shaded areas talk about how much those demographic areas um explain or cover in terms of the the pieces of the pie that explain domain one averages. And the large white space at the top shows the unaccounted for variance. So all we're using here is demographic factors. We don't have any details about programming, staffing, resources, community context to explain those differences. The most important thing here is that grade configuration. Even though it looks like that's what's causing the difference on the left, it's.1% and
179it's not statistically significant. So it's basically not contributing anything and it's not the primary driver of those results. That doesn't mean that great configuration doesn't matter. It just is not showing up as a primary driver in this analysis. And there are a lot of different ways to break down data and to explore it. Not saying anything's right or wrong, but we just wanted to educate the committee on the fact that numbers can be very misleading. So then we did the same approach with domain 2A, which is growth. And we saw even less explained by demographic factors and even more unexplained also in terms of the white space. So 80% of what makes up student differences is not explained in the model just based on demographics. So we're like what else would we be missing? We
180talked to the committee and we don't know about the leadership on the campus. We don't know about the resources, the supplies, student behavior, all types of other things. So that was just a fun exercise. So in other words, whether the grade span is 6 to 8 or 7 to 8 only accounts for a very small portion that does we already talked about it's not important. Um let's see here. Sorry. Ultimately both the research literature and our own analyses point to the same challenges where we observe patterns and outcomes but we cannot experimentally manipulate and that's the key. We need um a statistically significant correlation. We need time order uh precedent and we need to be able to rule out compounds. So ruling out compounds is the hardest part of educational research because all of the
181data that we look at is from existing environments and it's not fair to kids to kind of experiment with them and move them around so we can do studies. Um so that's why researchers caution against attributing outcomes to configuration alone. Instead they recommend examining the broader context and imple implementation factors that shape students experiences in each local setting. So, if we're thinking about what's best for Arlington, we should look at what would work here. Understanding local context requires us to listen to the experiences of those directly impacted. And at this time, I'd like to invite Principal Lending to the podium to share more about the local context and student voice. Thank you for allowing me to be here this evening. I'm Kirsten Lundy. I'm the principal at Young Junior High School. Since we were talking
182about the student experience, it seemed like it was most appropriate to be talking about to make sure that we had student voice in in that. And what um Dr. Stewart was just saying about being able to have some qualitative data um that's what we did. So we had um three student junior high panels and then um we had the elementary panel. So, the junior high panels that we had were um seventh graders at Gun Junior High who not only have their seventh grade experience at Gun Junior High, but also had their sixth grade experience at Gun Junior High. Then we talked to seventh graders at Young Junior High and then again seventh graders again at Workman Junior High. And being able to compare students that had our kind of regular u metriculation going into junior
183high at seventh grade and then also the students at gun who went into junior high at sixth grade. And we also made sure that when we were choosing students, we were choosing students that had um represented diverse backgrounds um with with our student populations. We also um the committee also thought that it was really important to hear from the fifth graders. And so um we did the same thing some took diverse uh students students from diverse backgrounds at four other elementary schools and that was Starret, Peach, uh Beckham and Hill Elementary. So, the junior high students had to say that um they thought some of their biggest challenges um going into junior high was going to be navigating the buildings, um adjusting to more teachers and classes. Um they did note that the support that
184was provided helped ease the transition and that um it didn't end up being as big of a concern as they thought it was going to be going into it. um as junior high students will do, uh they will always tell you the truth. And um they also mentioned that they really did like um they thought they were going to be afraid of passing periods and they actually really did like passing periods because they got to socialize with their friends in the hallway and they were allowed to talk in the hallways at junior high. Um and so while they were initially nervous about navigating the building um they you know they they were able to overcome that and then the other conversation that we had with them was about their classes that they were taking. All
185of the students um remarked about how um they loved that they had as many elective choices as they have at the junior high and they could take lots of different classes. Um, and the other thing that came out, um, which I sometimes is surprising, um, is that they were actually happy to be able to take as many advanced classes as they, um, were able to. And so that was one of the things at junior high that also came out was students can they can pick and choose the advanced classes that they want to take. So they don't have to take all four core in advance, they could take one, etc. And so, um, they really remarked that that was the thing that they liked the best about junior high was all of the choice and
186the independence that they get to have at junior high. And so, Dr. Lee is going to talk about what our fifth graders had to say. I am Stephanie Lee, one of the executive directors in the office of school leadership. Thank you for the opportunity to present the fifth grade student perspective. First, elementary students expressed excitement and opportunity around the possibility of transitioning to junior high school. They were excited about sports, afterchool clubs, electives. They talked a lot about meeting new friends and greater independence. At the same time, students identified the same areas of concern or had the same questions around belonging and safety, navigating a larger school environment, and increased academic rigor. Their feedback demonstrated a desire to build meaningful connections, confidently navigate new experiences, and be wellprepared for what they perceived as higher academic
187expectations in junior high school. What stood out was the clarity with which our fifth grade students communicated their needs. They embraced the opportunity and were actually excited about the possibility of transitioning to sixth grade while also identifying the supports necessary for them to thrive in junior high school. They talked about campus orientation before school begins and even having uh older students partner up with them to show them around their new campus. They talked about maintaining or establishing strong connections with not just their peers but also the adults in the building. They talked about not just the teachers, but we want to know our counselors and the office staff. They talked about needing support navigating all of the new experiences, but also that larger campus environment and they also talked about academic preparation supports. They even
188shared that you know in elementary school if we don't we don't learn something our teacher pulls us in a small group will we get that same support at the junior high school level. What was striking though is how closely their insights aligned with those of our junior high school students, demonstrating a shared understanding of both the opportunities but also the supports needed to successfully transition to junior high. And while student voice helped us understand how students may feel about this transition, we also wanted to hear from our internal experts, department directors, as well as district leaders. And we wanted to know or understand what it would take to create that positive student experience if sixth grade were to move to junior high. So, our district um leaders elevated these 10 key factors for consideration from
189their unique district uh department perspectives, identifying both opportunities but also important implications to plan for. And now we will hear about those opportunities and those important implications from other members of our committee. Good evening. Um, board president McMurrow, Superintendent Dr. Smith, and board members. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Dr. Danielle Reynolds, and I'm the director of curriculum instruction for secondary. I'm speaking on behalf of the board um or on behalf of the committee, excuse me. um around two of the factors. Curriculum and instruction was one of the highest lifted factors um that the committee actually reviewed and looked at different opportunities within curriculum and instruction. The alignment of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade standards or Texas essential knowledge and skills was one of the primary factors that
190we lifted as an opportunity. That's important because so many of our curriculum resources are defined by those standards. Our recent adoption with the math curriculum and in our reading language arts curriculum are great examples. They're actually built in a K5 and a 68 model. Where this also greatly impacts us is in the STAR assessment. Our students actually take a middle school science star that's actually based off of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade standards. This it was the second year of implementation of the new standards and the new science star in which students actually took the eighth grade standards or that middle school test and had eighth grade and seventh grade standards. Next year will also include the sixth grade standards. Students that are experienced or take sixth grade at the middle school or at a
191junior high level will actually have science labs as part of their daily instruction. In this current sixth grade model that we have right now, students have to access a STEM lab within seven grade levels that they have two labs. I know this because I actually was part of the committee that recommended or worked on those STEM labs and it's a great model, but it doesn't create the equity of access to the science labs. So, that was one of the opportunities that was lifted up um for um the transition potentially. Concerns were teacher certifications. There are different levels of certifications. We know this as um they metriculate up that we would want to ensure that we had the highest quality teachers um that had the correct certifications. We know that we'd have to look at interv
192intervent intervention supports scheduling and implementation planning. Those are all in connection even with SEAL. And when we think about some of those supports, they're the exact same thing that the committees recommended as well as the students. When we talk about social emotional learning, that increased counseling access, the stronger sense of belonging that was identified not only by the principal panel but also by the students and by the committee members would be really important to be able to look at as an opportunity because the sense of belonging that students have at elementary in the seven years that they experience there currently and what would that look like if they were in a three-year model in junior high. Again, the strong transition supports were some of the concerns with those scheduling and culture building. Next is Dr.
193Karen Zeski. Good evening. Karen Zesi, director of advanced academics. I'm going to discuss the um advanced academics if I could. There we go. Advanced academics and special populations portion of our committee consideration. We found in our discussions and our considerations that some of the opportunities would be increased coursework, advanced coursework earlier in the in the continuum. There's research that says the earlier that students start advanced coursework, the better their college readiness, their SAT and ACT performance will be in the long run. And so that would be an advantage. It also would increase the number of high school course options available to students. In particular, our GT students could have full-time advanced coursework available to them in the four core courses if this move were to occur. It also would improve our 68 math coursework alignment,
194having the students all in the same vertical uh continuum in working on that math coursework alignment. and we know that that will allow them for more advanced courses in mathematics in high school. As far as the concerns, the communication around this change, the rigor, the readiness, it would be important for our families and our students to understand is is a concern that was raised. and also very thoughtful scheduling and staffing to make sure that the teachers that were teaching those courses would be able to meet the needs of those sixth graders in the advanced arena. Also with special populations, we feel as a committee um that we should consider there'll be better alignment for the bilingual newcomer and special education programming with the sixth through 8 continuum and a potential for more targeted supports and
195staffing efficiencies with the sixth grade uh working with the seventh and eighth graders as well. A concern in that area is of course investigating possible ESOL course inclusion for junior highs. And we would be very much uh needed to inform supports um knowing the supports that those students need with one more year in middle school. Hello, I'm Matthew Nagel and I'm the band director at Shackleford Junior High School and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today. So, according to the consensus of the committee when we looked at it through the lens of athletics and uh um electives, we noted there's a strong potential for positive outcomes for sixth graders moving to the junior high campuses. For athletics, the ability of students to participate in daily pre-athletics programs focusing on skill building and
196conditioning while utilizing the junior high facilities such as tracks, dedicated fields, and weight rooms that are unavailable at the elementary campuses has the potential for greater outcomes for both junior high and then high school athletes. Increased time in a secondary curriculum alignment system should also enhance this. Current sixth grade PE is is implemented in a rotation with art, music, and orchestra where they may not participate every single day and operate with more limited equipment and facilities. For fine arts and electives, earlier and daily exposure to elective choices should equate to greater student achievement and to bring AISD to parody with our surrounding districts who start at a sixth grade level. in our competitive region. This earlier exposure and daily participation in fine arts and elective classes should metriculate up into the high school level and
197lead to greater student outcomes and achievements at the region, area, and state competition level and increase student engagement and continued involvement in those groups as they see greater opportunities for success and recognition. the concerns for athletics. The first two points listed on the slide over there where it said clarify course progression and participation expectations were brought up at the committee. But we recognize the importance of these two items, but understand that that won't be an issue until the board makes this decision if this were to come happen. Okay. So um we the consistent implementation across the district was the committee's consensus that was was by moving to 10 campuses the sixth graders up to 10 campuses at the junior high level versus the 52 elementary campuses. The athletic curriculum and implementation would be more consistent
198and be better aligned with the high school curriculum and lead to potential for greater outcomes for student athletes at both that junior high and high school level. In the concerns for electives, we noted there would be staffing concerns that the committee would really like to see the fifth grade orchestra program stay intact as it currently exists. And though we note potential logistical challenges with that, we would not want to see it removed from the elementary campuses. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Horn. >> Good evening. I'm Kelly Horn, the assistant superintendent of facility services, and uh I have the opportunity to share with you the impact potential impact on facilities uh with the consideration of moving sixth grade into a uh middle school uh setting. So uh I'm going to give you
199just simple numbers. Uh currently our at our junior high school level, we have uh we'll start with design capacity. Design capacity is the maximum capacity that we have for any of our for our campuses. And we have I'll I'll speak to that capacity in the way of number of seats or seat inventory. We can we can support as many as 13,000 students at the junior high level. Currently we have approximately at this time we have uh about 7,000 students at the junior high level with seventh and eighth grade. The design capacity uh though we we hit that with a factor of 0.85 85 which uh gives us a functional capacity, right? That allows us opportunity for growth uh in those grade levels and also specialized classes that might be smaller in numbers. And so when
200you f when you factor the 13,000 seat capacity at the junior high level with an 85 multiplier, you end up at 11,000 seats. When you add the sixth grade to that seventh eighth grade number, our number is about 10,500 students. So even at the even at the 11,000 seat uh number that we have, we can support very comfortably the the the inclusion of sixth, 7th, and eighth grade at the junior high level. Um and so and then we still have other inventory within our school district that we could employ to to increase that number of seats if we needed to. So so the impact's not negative for us. We can we can manage it well. In addition, uh, relative to the concerns, facility read readiness as I just mentioned, we can manage that. Uh, zoning
201might be our biggest challenge or reszoning across the district. And then, of course, making sure that we have a a robust transition plan relative to career and technology, and I'll cover that. There's there's not uh is a very low impact uh within this setting, but uh it does still allow the students to have some increased exposure to CT pathways and career career opportunities. And so, um, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Heather, Miss Box. >> Good evening. Thank you for allowing me the time to speak with you guys tonight. I'm Heather Bogs, and I'm a teacher at Bulls Junior High. I'm also a parent with a not sixth grader anymore. She's going to seventh. So, um, I'm going to get to talk to you guys about, um, discipline and the sixth grade
202traditions. I'm actually going to go out of order and start with a discipline because I sixth grade traditions are a little more dear to my heart. um discipline data. We took uh we got to look at data from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade, excuse me, and compare that and see where those behaviors come in and if it is significant enough to worry about that. We didn't see significant changes between sixth and seventh other than spike coming to junior high which we attributed to a transition time which we would see in this situation. Um, our concern with the discipline was just how are we going to make sure that the students are clearly communicated those expectations for going to junior high? How do we get them on that same page as what we
203see as a typical seventh grader? Now, um, for sixth grade traditions, these are those things that you think about that, like we talked about, you're in a school for seven years and you get to see all of these things as you're growing up. You want to do those special things, the student council president, you want to do safety patrol and the gingerbread houses and study buddies, all the different kinds of things that you look forward to see you see your brothers and sisters doing. Um, so those are things that we really want students to be able to still experience. The challenge with that is not only making sure that those students experience those and get to participate in those, but doing two cohorts at once because if this were to happen, we would be sending
204off two grade levels from the elementary to the junior high at the same time. So the concern would be to make sure that student the teachers and the campuses could facilitate that those students still get those experiences. And with that, I'm going to change it over to Dr. Dala for the conclusion. So, we heard from the committee and we saw those 10 factors they talked about um tonight. Um we also uh knew that those factors had a different weight to them, right? Some of them are going to have a stronger weight on that student experience. Some of them are going to have a lower one. So, we used the dot chart to have committee members rate the amount of influence the factors would have on the student experience. Um and once they rated those, they
205had three levels, high, moderate, and low. Then we had small groups, four to five members each, uh make their selection. They actually got to look at those 10 factors and make a dec uh had one of four options. uh retain sixth grade with elementary, transition sixth grade to junior high, a balanced perspective, which meant that the con that that group felt there wasn't a plus or a minus in kids going with sixth grade going up to the junior high or staying in elementary. And then the final one was no consensus reached because if you were a table of five and you couldn't come to consensus, we didn't want to force you into a box. We wanted to let you let the rest of the committee know that was the case. So we then brought our
206small groups together and shared out. We used the same criteria for consensus. Four out of five of the groups had to agree. You can see where the committee felt there was a significant impact on student experience and where there was little to none. Curriculum and instruction and SEO were high while discipline was low. We also wanted to capture why we chose the recommendation and what considerations were needed moving forward. For example, as you heard earlier in our earlier slide with fine arts, we know that moving sixth grade to junior high will get students an extra year of band, but we also don't want that to come at the expense of orchestra in our fifth grade. As you can see, a majority of the factors led to a recommendation to transition sixth grade to junior high
207school with two factors having a balanced perspective. This led to the following recommendation. I'm going to read this slide to you. It's important to read the slide to you word for word because the committee was very intentional with the specificity of their word choice and we want to honor their voice. Concerning the student experience, the committee recommends transitioning sixth grade students to junior high through a systemwide executable plan that is graceful, purposeful, and collaborative while considering facilities readiness, successful student transitions, and stakeholder voice. We elevate the importance of readiness and communication prior to determining an implementation timeline. So when we have a group of about 30, it's important to ensure that everyone's voice is heard. So to do that, we engaged in a consensus gram. And I think you've seen one of these before, but
208just in case, I'll tell you. Committee members rated their level of support for the recommendation. So, we came up with a recommendation and then they had to tell us the level of support on a scale from zero to 100. Zero, no support, 100% full support. We asked them also if they were not at 100%, what would they need to see before they could say they were at 100%. All but two committee members indicated support levels between 98 and 100%. The two responses below that range, including one at 90% and one at 80%, were not due to opposition to the recommendation itself, but reflected a desire to ensure the district fully implements the best practices identified throughout the committee's work, as well as ensuring that we continue to receive stakeholder feedback throughout the planning process. With
209that said, I want to draw attention to the last sentence one more time. While we were charged with a 2728 implementation recommendation, the committee felt strongly to incorporate this particular language. With this recommendation, the committee strongly urges the school district to take into account the timeline. This is a major transition for students. If you choose to move sixth grade to junior high school, we'll have to execute well. Dr. Lee and Dr. Stewart spoke earlier about some of the best practices that don't necessarily show up when we just look at data. They talked about things like advisory, teameing, summer camps to orientate students to that transition. We need to make sure those best practices are in place or will be in place if this recommendation moves forward. With that, I'd like to hand the mic back
210to Dr. Campion. >> I want to again thank the the committee and and Dr. Dala, and we're happy to answer any questions or engage in any conversation. Thanks. >> Thank you, Dr. Champion, Dr. Dala and everyone um from the committee joining us tonight. Do I have any colleagues with questions or remarks about the sixth grade presentation for discussion? Miss Haynes. Okay. Um so I'm thank you for the presentation. It was great. I've been waiting to see what came out of the committee work. Um when I went through the slide deck leading up to this, I was had a lot of questions around the what the committee thought of the timeline and it wasn't pictured in the slide deck. So, I'm glad that you read that last section. Um, could you elaborate on I I mean
211I can read between the lines of of what you read to us, but could you elaborate or do any committee members want to elaborate on the timeline? Currently, what is out there is the 2728. Um, and I know that there have been a lot of community concerns about that timeline. And so I'm curious where the committee landed on those concerns and was there no consensus? Was did you guys do your consensus game on a timeline? >> Yeah. Just um so the I see so see if this is true that they felt like 2728 was awfully aggressive. >> Yeah. >> Um given the um level of of detail and because again they want a deeply wellexecuted plan. And in order to do that, including things like you have to think about those traditions like if if
212this were to happen and sixth grade were to move, well, there's going to be a year where at elementary schools, fifth and sixth graders are both going to be moving. So, you have to think about like how do you what how do you handle all those tradition all of those those parts and getting that right may take a little bit of time because our charge was to look at it from for 2728. Um, we didn't say there wasn't a we never did talk about exactly when, but we did feel like I believe the committee did feel like it was that was an aggressive timeline. >> Okay. Um, so the traditions piece makes me smile as I'm looking at Dr. Barn Elks. It makes me think of going through that exact thing as a traditional Corey
213parent in a transition to an academy parent and that was just one campus and that was a a rocky transition and so thinking of doing that systemwide. Um I I definitely think the 2728 timeline is aggressive. That's a good word for it. Um when will we be So there's this presentation and then we're going to get presented a recommendation. Is that how that will work? When will we get to discuss the actual timeline options? >> Yeah, this is a committee uh presentation tonight and uh the administration intends to bring you a presentation at the next board meeting on our recommendation. >> Okay. And at that point would be a better time to discuss timeline you feel? >> Absolutely. One of the things that I think has been a little bit hard to communicate along the
214way is nothing was ever set in stone and we tried to make sure people understood that in the community because um Yeah, I'll I'll I'll tell you the challenge of being a superintendent. Sometimes I heard some feedback along the way. You don't even have a plan for this transition. Well, if I had made a plan, everybody would have said, you've already made a plan for this and why are we studying this? Um, that's just the truth. We have to actually lay things out and actually make the plan if the board ends up doing that and that will take time. And so I absolutely think that there is flexibility available in uh timelines and frankly we have to look at how it will play out and spend time doing that and that's going to take a
215while. So I um we will have some recommendations coming forward but everything is flexible and it's ultimately this is going to be the will of the board in all of this discussion. Okay. >> Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you to the committee members that are here. I appreciate the time you put into this. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. Mr. Mike, >> thank you. Uh, President McMurl, uh, thank you for the presentation. It was very well thought out. I really enjoy the fact that the committee focused on the student experience portion of it. uh and I just want to add more uh from from my my side of the dis when we talk about the student experience. The slides 17 through looks like 21 all focus on the opportunities and concerns and I really just want
216to focus on the opportunities here. A lot of those opportunities are directly impacted or reserved for that junior high experience. So the students will be able to experience more if they go to that level. Specifically on page 20, slide 20, I think that was a slide that uh Mr. Horn talked about facilities. Uh specifically we're talking about functional capacity. We just recently had a PASA is it PASA study and it talked about the realities of this district specifically the decline in enrollment and we know that Arlington was laid out at least our infrastructure was laid out during the boom time era where we were growing and we had enrollment. Uh but that's no longer the case. We are declining uh and due to aging population, smaller family sizes, competition, changing housing patterns, and we are
217largely landlocked. And then that projection in that POSA study said that in 2035 to the 36th school year, we would be projected at 43,786 students. And if you break that down for seventh and eighth grade, that's about 6,116 students. Now, if we look here already, Mr. Horn, you said that we have uh we're sitting at 7,000 students in junior high. >> I was using uh yes, using projected numbers for this coming year, >> right, out of the possible report. >> And so, what this decline is showing that we're going to lose even more students. Now, I am all for the student experience, and I really think that if we don't do something, what are we going to do with these junior highs? Because they're going to be so declined to the point that we may
218have to shut down a junior high, which means the opportunities that we see here are going to be impacted. And to me, that impacts the student experience. And so I know the presentation wasn't talking about functional capacity and enrollment and the decline in enrollment, but that is the reality we're facing. And I know there are some parents out there who have sixth graders or fifth graders who are going to be sixth graders that are very concerned that we are even exploring this or thinking about changing things. But there's a reality that's facing us. And unless Texas and the legislators decide to do like Massachusetts did in 1993 and go all in on education and really fund education and change the TICSS and change the star for the better, this is where we're at. And and
219as much as we love traditions, as much as we love to hold things in place, we've got to make some moves that are in the best interest of the children of this district who are the future of our community and the taxpayer themselves. And that's what we have to look at. And so when I look at this, this is a great presentation. Thank you for it. Thank you for focusing on these factors. But from my side, it makes total sense on what we have to do. And I know the timeline is very aggressive, but we're not getting any more funding anytime soon. So, something that we have to look at. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mike. >> Miss Fowler. >> Thank you, President McMurra, and thank you all so much for this presentation. I
220have several thoughts, not really questions, but thoughts. A lot of the presentation has talked about the fine arts and orchestra and athletics and advanced academics. To me, that's geared toward an upper level student. What about the on level and a little bit below level student? My fear is that they're going to get totally lost. you know, there there are different types of students and the more advanced academic there are more of the fine arts and and athletic and there are a lot of students that don't fit into that. I would guess probably the majority of students don't and I worry about what's going to become of those students. You know, are they going to get lost in all of this because they're not in advanced and they're not in orchestra and they're not in all
221these things. So I worry about those type of students. >> Yeah. So that's a good question and I think that goes back to hearing from those students and that that piece about I'm going to be in sixth grade. So I'm going to be part of that bigger group, right? Because part of that is being is having that opportunity to be in extracurriculars whether it's fine arts or athletics, band, choir, orchestra, those things, art. Um, so that's one thing, right, with that early exposure in sixth grade and it's a six, seven, eight track. Hopefully more kids get there. But I also think in the whole time that the committee met, I'm the executive director over junior high schools. And what we've see is K6 78, K5, 68. It's a transition issue, right? We have to do
222a really good job. So, as we're doing all this work, I'm thinking to myself, well, how do I talk to 10 principles about making sure that we make those transitions better, no matter what this whatever the system is, that we make those transitions better and that we offer that help for those students that need the most. I think when we look at the committee, that recommendation makes it to where there's that three-year track to where we get more students involved in something before we then transition them to high school. One other one other piece um Trusty Fowler is that when we heard from students I want to be be clear these we had students from all walks of life that that whom we with whom we spoke and um it was fascinating listening to these
223uh students talk about how afraid they were of exactly that of exactly getting lost the transition from six to seven. So it's it's really the same it's just to to Dr. $. It's just a transition question, but then how they found things like clubs, other electives that are unique at the at the junior high level um and opportunities just to connect with with other kids and and work work through that. So, I think that that's important to keep in mind like the kids talked about how they found their niche whenever they whenever they landed. And then I also don't want to discount one of the things that we heard from Danielle earlier about how um how curricula is tends to be laid out in a prek or K to fifth grade and then a sixth
224through 8th grade model. So your your question about advanced versus on level there is a natural flow in the 6 through eight chunk because that's the majority of of schools across the the at least the state um are in that six through eight chunk and so there there's some there's some help that that goes with that as >> Thank you. And it's just hard for me to think about moving sixth grade up because I don't believe ninth grade belongs in high school. I've taught ninth grade. They are not ready to be in high school. There's too much peer pressure. They're trying to be all grown up and they're not. They're babies. So, I just I I worry about that because I've seen the nth, you know, with the nth grade in high school how that
225is. Now, originally when I when I first started teaching, I did teach at a junior high and it was six, seven, and eight. But the way that they had it laid out is there was a whole area that was just sixth grade and then seventh grade and eighth grade and different lunch times. They weren't in the lunchroom at the same time or any of that. And I think that would be important. I don't think you need to be in that mix when you're in sixth grade. >> Yeah, that's part of that local context that matters an awful lot. How how do we arrange the facilities? Um, I too have seen something like a sixth grade center where sixth grade is is uh pretty much a hub unto themselves and seventh and eighth grade are are
226a lot more blended. And so again, that's where that that local context matters that several of the the committee members talked about. >> And and a question I have is, you know, usually when you get your education degree, you're, you know, K through five or six or 6 through 12. I was 6 through 12. So, have we talked to the teachers? You know, usually you pick if you want to be an elementary teacher or you want to be a secondary teacher and and and those two are very different. Have we talked to the teachers? We've talked a lot about, you know, the students and all that. Have we talked to the teachers? Do teachers that teach sixth grade and elementary, do they want to be part of the secondary? Do they want to be in
227the junior high? How is that going to change how they teach what they teach and and the makeup of that? Because I'm I'm definitely a secondary teacher. I am not an elementary teacher for a reason. >> Sure. Understood. I I can So, we were very focused on on student experience with this particular committee. Um we did have some some teachers um engaged in the process. They weren't necessarily sixth grade teachers. And so I don't have a I don't have a direct answer for that in again in this local context. I happen to be um in a school system that did this very thing, went from um the the model that we currently have into a middle school model. And and you're right. I mean, there are some teachers who opt out at that point and
228say, "Actually, I'd love to be in the in the elementary school. That's that's my that's my jam." um and others were very excited to move into the the secondary uh realm. So honest, what we found in in that particular district is we we figured out how to make it how to make it work. And not all of the sixth grade teachers, they found other spots in in different places. And so the the beautiful thing in Arlington is we have the uh lots of opportunities to go to be in different be in different levels because we have a lot of schools. And so that's helpful whenever you do start um making this transition. That goes literally back to what Trustee Haynes started us off with. Um what is the timeline? One of the challenging bits around
229this timeline is looking at certifications and absolutely ensuring that teachers have choice about what they're what where they want to land. And that's a that's something that just takes we have an outstanding HR department, but it just takes time to to pull that off. But but I would like to to see some kind of a report on what the sixth grade teachers are saying. >> Because like I said, they are in elementary for a reason. >> Sure. >> And I would hate to think that we would lose really good sixth grade teachers because they don't want to make the move to junior high. >> And I think it would be important to do a study on that and just see who would be willing to to move to junior high and who says, "No, I'm
230an elementary teacher." I was just gonna piggyback on that. Um I actually came from junior high and I was a sixth grade teacher in the district um in Arlington and I came there because I thought oh sixth grade I'm going to middle school. It's still middle school. It was in fact not middle school. It was in fact six excuse me again. >> It was in fact sixth graders interacting with kindergarteners and and that was a situation that I was not prepared for because there were discipline actions. there were things happening that sixth graders shouldn't be held to those same standards as a kindergartener walking in the hallway spoke about earlier. Um, and I went back to junior high as soon as possible. Um, so and I'm I'm very happy in junior high. I have talked
231to a few teachers that are are happy to move to junior high or move down to the elementary level. Um, so it is a decision about where you want to be curriculum wise and social and emotional wise. Um, so I think that is a factor in looking into that as a good idea. >> I do and and I think we have to look at the certification. >> Correct. >> You know, I don't want to lose teachers because they're not certified in certain areas or the grade level. And I would just hate to lose really good teachers because we're deciding to make this move. >> Of course. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. >> Thank you, Miss Valor. Mr. Wilbanks. Thank you, President McMarrow, and thank you for the committee. This was a
232lot of information. I know you guys did a lot of hard work, focused on a lot of domains of this question, and um I really appreciate it. However, for me, the biggest and I think it way outweighs the other is what is the impact on student outcomes? And I think the data is clear. We got a little bit of that. So, I have a few questions for Dr. Stewart. If we could pull up your slide that you presented earlier. I had a just a couple of questions >> on that one right there. >> Sure. >> Yeah. So, this study where you did you controlled for echois and >> um mobility or that was mobility not um minority status I guess, right? >> Yes, mobility. >> Okay. Um you show junior high seven and 8. Is
233this for the whole campus? This uh 7.3 uh domain one skill score or what what exactly are we looking at? >> Yes, we did not parse out sixth grade scores um individually. We looked at the whole campus and one advantage of that is that you get both transition points. So for six to eight you get the transition of sixth graders. For seven to eight you get the transition of seventh graders. >> Okay. Um so I I you know as my colleagues know I'm a data guy so I did my own regression analysis and I first started looking at this back right before right after co one of the things I noticed when I first got on the dis is you know comparing longitudinally our scores at every grade level math reading with our peer group
234of 12 and 12 large districts that were most like us from an echois minority um status. And the one thing that surprised me is we were in the top quartortile of that peer group for only one group and that was sixth grade. Sixth grade reading specifically. In fact, for someone with our high echoist and minority, it's unheard of us to perform better than the state average. But in two years, we actually did. Um, and the question was why? Dr. Champion is like answering why when presented data like that. And I actually went and did a comparison and found that it was it indeed because our sixth grade was in um in elementary. In fact, I compared every campus in the state where sixth grade was in the elementary versus the traditional middle schools configuration that
235I was used to growing up >> and that we're proposing tonight in seventh uh sixth, seventh, and eth. >> And there was a full letter grade difference >> in scores. Mhm. >> Um my buddy and I who just graduated with a masters in economics and statistical analysis. Um a few years ago we we did a regression analysis. We looked at um let me get the numbers. um the 262 elementary schools in the state of Texas currently with a traditional K or preK through six um configuration and then all of the middle schools that are the traditional sixth, seventh, and eth like we're proposing and there's 1,163 of them without doing any um control for the variables of echo discs the same full letter grade especially in math. Mhm. >> um persisted. And when we did
236regression analysis to control for those two, that difference was even bigger for both reading it and for math. And we did two different studies. We did um a control against the full population set of both. And then we did a peer match study which showed that it was even when you peer match echodis status and minority status with the basket of schools and shrink the middle school down to match um the population of where sixth grades in elementary. you saw an 11 point difference on the average of >> um approaches, meets and masters, which is very analogous to the scale score that you used >> and in reading it was six points and those benefits lasted through 8th grade. >> Now, some of that is obviously that transition point, but not the full 11 points.
237And for me to get behind this decision, I you know, we're you already we had a presentation that we're we can't afford to lose a letter grade in sixth grade in math and a half, you know, more than half a letter grade in reading. So, I would need to be comfortable that we have a plan to address the significant impact it's going to have on our scores to move sixth grade up. There's a lot of other benefits that of that this whole team put together on why we might still want to do it, but we I need that answer and I'm sure our parents want that answer because we want in the end our kids to be successful and that has you know for me sitting up on a dasis I always look at everything
238on what's best for student outcomes in our district. So that is going to be a big one uh for me to get behind this decision. The other thing is looking at um Mr. Horn from the facilities perspective because to me it seems like yeah we have capacity at the junior highs but we also have capacity at the elementary schools and we have declining enrollment at both. So, what's easier to consolidate um a couple of the 12 junior highs or consolidate 20 or how many of 10 elementary schools? And so what what what does that look like when trying to solve for the facility from a a facility capacity and maximizing the utilization at each of our facilities? >> Okay, if I could. Um, so I would love for for Jana to to talk a little
239bit about your first the first point that you're making just just from a from a from your lens. Would that be all right first and then then from Kelly? Is that all right? >> Thank you. Um, I appreciate your uh research into this and some of the analyses that we did also validated a lot of things that you said about the large point differences. Um, to Dr. Champion's point earlier about um, intentionality and execution, that's huge. Um, in a lot of the studies you'll talk about what is the actual experience of a child when they go into the middle school setting when it's not a responsive setting. It's not designed for their early adolescent needs for a sense of agency having voice in the classroom and there's a perception and experience gap with the teachers.
240Um, it's important, as Heather was saying, to recruit for teachers that are passionate about working with junior high students and don't just see them as a burden. A lot of times when kids go to middle schools, they're treated kind of like you're a grown-up now, you got to get in line. and they kind of just feel lost because of that. Um, and so a lot of it has to do with being intentional and proactive about setting up those um, best practices. As I talked about, there's an Alverson article where they looked at the 1600 principles and teachers. Most of them knew what they should be doing. And also, there is also a belief gap in what's important and why it's important. So, if we were to take this step forward, if the board voted for
241this in the future, um we would need to educate all of our teams about why it's important to do those best practices like teaming, having common planning time. A an adult advocate was one of the biggest key things that came up. And I know that we've in our staff survey, um our parent student survey, we talked about tracking those students and making sure every student has someone that cares about them and knows them and they don't get lost in the shuffle no matter the grade configuration. Um and again it's hard to piece out from the numbers what is the quality of the experience in that campus even when we were looking at um some of the analysis you talked about just looking at our sixth graders compared to other sixth graders um in the list
242of comparison districts that we talked about before there were a lot of themmies in there charter schools in there um and it's kind of hard to figure out what is the environmental setting that's an apples to apples >> but we can easily I we controlled for that in our we were intentional and that we >> picked non-chartered public schools 6th through 8th or >> prek or kindergarten through six. >> So it was most like us. >> Yes. >> And most like what we were proposing. >> So that's easy to control for. >> Yes. When we we can control for that as well. And there's plenty of other ways we could explore it. Um sorry I lost my train of thought. Um so yeah, I'll go on. Do you have any? >> Yeah. No, and I
243appreciate your analysis and u but I think the more relevant is looking at actual star scores for sixth graders in this setting versus the other. And >> and then also controlling for that natural drop off we're going to see in any transition whether it's fifth through six fifth up to six or sixth up to seventh. >> Um and so anyway >> I just had one other point. Um, as we heard from the principles and the students at the different panels during our committee meetings, I said to Shave, a lot of the best practices that they're doing are corresponding with what the research says. And if we could just kind of uplift those exemplars and have a cross fertilization across campuses, we're not really starting from scratch. So, it's not like we have a whole lot
244of work to do. We just need to kind of be more intentional and conversational about what's working at different campuses. whether it's good use of advisory time with a good curriculum that goes along with that or a great um adult advocate just a sense of culture. >> Thank you, Mr. Wilb. >> Can can I add one thing before we move on to the facility thing? >> Jana and Natalie, didn't we look at recently just sixth grade scores and how we compared to our comparison districts? >> Yes. what and remind me what we found in that because that's that wasn't a regression analysis or anything but to be able to say all right from our comparison districts that the board chose the ones that are in a middle school model versus a junior high model where
245do we stack up? >> So we did look at pure middle school models from some of our comparison districts and we did outperform some of them. Um and then we were looking into doing qualitative research with some that were a little bit ahead of us. Um so I think we were ahead of Garland for example on one measure and not on another. Um it's just a ma matter of the demographics and the programmatic approaches. >> Yeah, it's clear that our sixth grade is at the in the top quartile of our peer districts when our other grade levels aren't. And so that's just like you know there may be other I mean we have a lot of factors that go into this decision and if it comes out that the best decision is to go there
246that's just something we I I want to see a good plan on on how we prevent that drop off >> of scores and uh but right now I'm like it like depending on what Mr. No pressure Mr. Horn you know, like what is going to be easier, consolidating junior highs or consolidating elementary schools? >> Certainly, >> because that's my big question. >> Yeah. And you make great points and I think like Trusty Mike said earlier, it's it's one or the other. We we're going to with the way the numbers are are projected to go >> for both that for both we're going to see we're going to see declining enrollment for both. So we so depending upon how we as a district decide we want to or what we want to to look like or
247the programs that we want to have that would steer us one way or the other and whether we consolidated uh at the junior high level or consolidate at the elementary level. Uh from my perspective uh and and Dr. Smith, you may want to weigh in. At the elementary level, it's it might be considered to be a little easier because we have schools that are more closely align or they're closer together uh and and you impact uh travel to those schools or transportation a little differently. Our junior highs tend to be more spread out. Um we we know from the demographics you saw with the POSA report uh that you referenced earlier Trusty Mike that um on the north especially the northeast side of town when you look at Nicholls and then come down through Rodriguez
248and into Workman we're our numbers are likely to stay more stable whereas on the northwest side of town and down through the southern parts of town we're going to see uh at the at the junior high level current junior high level we're going to see numbers that uh that are drastically lower than they are today um in the 40s to 50 range 50% range utilization wise. Um we're already seeing that in our elementaryaries. Correct. And so uh it just depends on which which model we want to be that that drives the direction we go with consolidation schools. >> I think the key thing in this one is we're we are at a critical decision point is we do that facility planning. >> Mhm. >> Both of those options are going to stink frankly. Okay. >>
249Uh >> that being said, one of the reasons we chose to focus on the student experience for the study was about the opportunities for students and what is going to impact students long term regarding opportunities. Uh you mentioned it it could be both and I need to be clear it absolutely could be both still no matter what uh based on our demographic report. So it's not an eitheror. Uh it it could be a both end. >> Um yeah, just going forward. I mean, another thing is is getting more of the parent voice. Like we're providing a ser, you know, we need we're making a big decision that impacts our parents and we had some great parents on the committee. um couple of them, not as many as I would have liked. Um but um I
250would be interested in seeing a survey and to see just how comfortable our parents are. We had some speakers last week that stated that they would look elsewhere because they chose Arlington because sixth grade was in um elementary school. So that is going to have an impact on where our parents choose to send their kids. And so I'd like to know that is the impact small or is it large? So um that's what you know in terms of ask going forward um before I make a decision that's those are the things I'd like to say. I'd like to see, you know, just what a what a, you know, maybe that's putting the jumping ahead too much, but on the facility side, what a consolidation of junior highs right away would look like if sixth grade
251wasn't there versus elementaryaries. But also knowing, like you said, well aware, it's probably going to have to be both. So, uh, eventually anyway. Thank you. Uh and thank you to all the staff members and parents who participated in this. It was very informative. >> Thank you, Mr. Willbanks. Mr. Mike, >> thank you once again. Uh Trusty Wilbanks brought up some extra things that popped into my mind. When I do think about the POSA study again, when we look at the 2035 36 school year and and if you haven't looked at that 400page document, I I would encourage you to do so to really run those numbers. U just me looking and trying to break down and this is just me. Um, we have what what 53 elementary schools and we talked about the possibility of
252both having to condense. Just me running my numbers to actually reach between 80 to 100% functional capacity, >> you're going to drop down to about 29 to 32 elementary schools. That is something to really think about. That's the reality we are in. Now, I know Trusty will banks brought about um the differences in the reading and all of that. I will tell you that we've got an example here in this district. I think where's Principal Barnell? He just got promoted, right, Dr. Barnell? He was at Gun Junior High. We have that example. And and I'll just read some of these numbers here from the 2025 STAR EOCC campus report for reading sixth graders. 90% approaches meets 70% masters 35% those are sixth graders at a junior high campus. We've already shown in Arlington ISD that
253we can operate with fidelity with sixth graders at a junior high. We've already shown that we can do something transformational. And I know change is hard. It is. When we reorganized, a lot of people were upset and people are still upset. But there is a reality that we are facing. And the Arlington that we grew up with is not the Arlington we have today. The Arlington we were comfortable with is not the Arlington we have today. There are realities that we are facing. There are decisions that are hard ones that are going to have to come from this dis like the community needs to understand this. We have some decisions that are facing us and we have to make those and they're going to be hard and we are not going to like them. But
254we have to do it in the best interest of the children of this community and the taxpayer. That's that's where we're at. So if if anyone is of any doubt like I I am for this. I think I think this is a smart move for the district and the children as a whole and I know we can do this with fidelity. >> Mr. Mike, if I may, you hit on something that actually ties very closely to what you were you were talking about, Trusty Will Banks, which is those sixth graders at at gun the intentionality of that transition. we heard clearly articulated when we talked to those students from that school. So when you ask about like what are the kinds of things you can put in place we that actually came out very clearly
255in the conversation with students um how that the transition and bringing them over lots of specific things that went on um to that end. So I think it's interesting that you talked about that right after Mr. Mr. Robbang, you talked about like what are the things that would help safeguard against some of that some of that transition loss that we normally see >> and and and we we see it all the time in in our board meetings. We have children who come here who show exactly what they can do if they are allowed to do what they can do. We see our slab students who are performing exceptional. We just went through two days of graduation of students who have become exceptional. We see young elementary students who come here who are exceptional. Like I
256know as adults and parents we worry about oh are they are they old enough or can they do it? They can. They are the future. Like they are our hopes and dreams and at some point we got to let them fly. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Mike. Miss Richardson. My expertise in this isn't running data and formulas and control groups. So that is not what I can speak to. But what I can sit here and speak to is the fact is that I'm a parent of a sixth grader in a junior high. I have that child in sixth grade. I have a daughter who is in 10th grade now, but she was in a second group of cohorts that was sent to a junior high. A junior high that was
257under construction. And I was terrified. I was terrified. And it wasn't about student outcome for me. It was about parent comfort. I remember when we sat at that elementary school and they announced that they were going to move sixth grade up to junior high. And I got in the car that day and I cried and I cried. And I told my husband, "I think we've made a mistake. We need to pull out. We need to go to ditto. I'm not ready." I woke up the next day and we had that conversation again. And he said, he pointed out everything I said was, I wasn't ready. I didn't want to leave the experience. I didn't want to leave Mayberry and our little perfect elementary school where I knew teachers and felt loved and supported and whatever.
258She was ready. Didn't think she was. She was shy. She was quiet. All these things that we talked about of they're going to get bullied. They're not going to know what to do. They're going to get lost. They're not mature enough. They are not. She's a shy girl. She's not me. She's quiet. I was worried she was going to get run over. And then we go to that junior high that's under construction. It looked like an airport runway at DFW concourse. And how how did we go from this bright colorful elementary school where she was thriving to go put her there? There was a transition period. It was that four, three, four week transition of holy smokes, she blossomed. But it wasn't because we brought the rigor down for her. It was because she got
259to live up to the challenges and she got to go and have those experiences and she found all these different opportunities. Now, as a parent, I was terrified my sixth grader is going to be with an eighth grader. They're only two years apart. But for me, that sounded so old. Well, because the program was done what you said, with intentionality, with what was planned out by Dr. Barnell and his staff, they were kept in their own pod. There wasn't a lot of crossover. There was way more crossover she had with kindergarteners and first graders. When I we looked at that where we're going to lose culture and traditions, we didn't. So, sixth graders were no longer reading buddies. So, you know what happened? Fifth graders became the reading buddies. Well, sixth graders gone. We can't
260have StuCo. Do you know who became Stuco? Fifth graders became Stuco. Cluster just happened. Our sixth graders who were in junior high, they went to Cluster to go meet those other kids who were coming in. All those tra traditions and cultures, they're transferable if you do it with intentionality and with planning and purpose. what I see with this committee and when we looked at the very b the very last um consens that 98 mark and above except for a couple and their whole holdbacks were but are you going to do it with fidelity are you going to do it with structure are you going to do it with communication are you going to do it yes because we've seen programs roll out that weren't done that way and we know that parents aren't going to
261be able to support that we don't want to do something that's not going to be a a roaring success. So, I have no doubt we will make that happen. When I when I keep going back to looking at student outcomes, what is best for student outcomes? Are we going to make decisions based on what is best for students or are we going to do what is best for parent comfort? We did hear parents the other day come and speak at our last meeting and they said, "It makes me comfortable. It makes me uncomfortable for my student to be there. It makes me uncom correct. I hear that. But what is best for student outcomes? Because a lot of times when we raise the bar, they do meet that. But it does mean we walk through
262uncomfortable moments. Um when you think about our drop in scores, as Trusty Will Banks talked about, he you've talked about this a lot for the three years that I've been on the board about how you've done your own studies and it shows drop after drop after drop. And you know the reason we are the highest in sixth grade is because we keep our sixth grade in elementary school. Um so at the conferences we've been going to I went and asked the questions about why is that? And at these conferences the experts have shared in different areas that you are always going to see drops in scores when you move. It's a transition year drop. So just like our sixth graders who move over they're going to have a drop for a year. It's a transition
263just like our nth grade scores drop for a year. It's a transition score. So, do we want to keep being the top in sixth grade just because they're in elementary school or are we ready to move them and do the harder things? Trusty Mike, I like what you said. We have to do hard things and we're not always going to like them. We're not going to like having a hard discussion in a little bit about teacher compensation. We are not going to like a decision and the discussion we had to make about Bllandon Elementary. That was not fun. Um, but at the end of the day, if we truly say student outcomes are best, not what do we personally believe, what do I, what do we really think about for all students to have the
264best experience. What I've watched my own kids have is the best possible experience. They have had more exposure and they have been allowed to grow and to thrive into different people and students than I would have ever expected. And I do think it's because they were able to go to sixth grade early academically. I know their peers at other schools, they've not had the same experiences. Parents have expressed, "I wished I would have had that." It has come at the cost of saying goodbye to elementary a year early and saying goodbye to our Mayberry. And that's okay. We still get to go visit. We can still volunteer, but we have to think about what is best. This has been a full circle discussion. Trusty Choa, you talked about earlier that we are going to have
265to make hard decisions coming up in the next year and looking at how we're going to reduce our budget and the cuts we're going to have to make. The 50% for our KPMs, those are people, those are names, those are schools. And now we're talking about what is best for sixth grade. Is it moving it up and filling our junior highs and closing some elementary schools and maybe taking some offline because their enrollment isn't there? Or is it the other is it the reverse? Either way, we're still talking about all the same things, people, schools, and really hard decisions. I appreciate your recommendation. Um, I don't want to blow my nose at it and say I know better than you. I've done my own research. I've talked I've lived my own experience. I want your
266recommendations. I want the district, Dr. Smith, I want you to come back and bring us next meeting what you guys do recommend. Committee, thank you for bringing your recommendation. It's almost 11:00 at night and you have sat here and stayed with us the whole time. Unpaid volunteers. I don't thumb my nose at what you guys did. This was really hard work. And I know those were hard decisions and discussions you had at tables that are awkward because you don't always agree, but how can you get to a consensus and that's what we have to do. Thank you for your time and thank you for all that you've done. >> Thank you, Miss Richardson, Miss Valor. >> Thank you, President McMurra. Again, I I bring up the point that I don't think we can look at
267the kids that came through Corey and Academy and how they would do as sixth graders at gun. What about all the other kids that aren't coming out of an academy? Right? The ones that I referred to as the on level or a little below level. I think we have more of those that we need to consider. I mean, that's that's a different group of kids that went through academy and then to gun. Not all kids coming in sixth grade have those same experiences and now they're going to be asked to step up into junior high. And I just I have concerns. I do. That's that's a different population, different training, different everything compared to the regular kids that that I'm referring to. >> I respectfully disagree from living the experience. I respect with that and
268we can show you different data, but that is not a fair statement. >> That's my belief. I've taught sixth grade. I I don't think that they're ready. >> Thank you. Oh, sorry, Miss Feller. Go ahead and finish. >> I I just think we need to think about those regular students that aren't coming out of an academy. I worry about the drop in in scores. I I just have concerns and having taught sixth grade, I I don't know. It worries me. But but thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler. Mr. Chapa. Yeah, thank you, President McMurro. I I was um I just had a few point. Everybody's made points that I was going to make, so I was going to just focus primarily on my experience, but I want to come back to a
269few things that came up there at the end. Um I uh going through the presentation earlier um this week when we got it and and looking at the recommendations and the opportunities and the concerns and what I heard tonight. Um, I also have had the experience of my kids being the first in the district to go through sixth grade. My oldest was in the first cohort to go through um, and my my middle just finished at gun. Um, and she was in the third cohort to go through sixth grade. And so, and I have sort of a little bit of a throwback on my own transition in 1997. I was in the first group of nth graders to go to high school from junior high here uh, in AISD. So, it seems to be a
270common theme with my family. Um, and I can speak a little bit to those experiences. Um, and they, at least with my kids, the transition that we experienced um, at gun was entirely in line with the opportunities that were presented tonight. Um, I I respectfully disagree with with Trusty Fowler on on somehow that the academy program makes for a unique experience for the sixth graders at gun. Um we we do not at Corey and Jones uh screen kids for academic ability. They're not they're not magnet schools. And the opportunities that are in addition to what is offered at other campuses in our district are primarily in the fine arts. Um they get access to piano class, they have an access to um you know an additional art class, they have a theater class. Um but
271then the other difference is that their their half of their school day is is immersion in in Spanish academic language um in math and science and then Spanish language arts. And so um removing those uh our experience in the sixth grade was I think very similar to what they would have experienced in seventh grade and what sixth graders across the district will experience if this recommendation passes. Um my students experience was it that I think there was a very positive benefit for example for my son uh as the first group of sixth graders to go in for him to be able to have access to um AVID as an elective um which is not offered at our sixth grade level and made an enormous difference for my son and his study habits and the transition
272to junior high. Um, I also think that he might not have uh he he is still doing band and he picked band in sixth grade uh transitioning out of orchestra. I don't know if he would have stuck with orchestra for another year and that would also be an opportunity that's would be available to all of the sixth graders in our district um if this were to move up to to be in band. Um I also think there was significant benefit to some of the academic subjects that are covered at the elementary level um you know by one teacher multiple you know one teacher covering multiple subjects at the junior high level they are um they have their separate classes you know so you have the opportunity to have math separate from science and advanced math
273advanced science um if you're like me and you like social studies you get you get a social studies class all by itself and it doesn't typically you know, you get more exposure to that than I think you would maybe at the elementary level. And so I think that my the experience I've seen with my kids entirely dovetales with the presentation that was given tonight. I do think that the opportunities um outweigh the the concerns. Not to downplay the concerns, we had many of the same concerns during the same the transition for our family, but having been my seen my own two kids, which I don't think are um they're my kids. I think they're exceptional in many ways. Um, but I don't think that they're necessarily outliers and it was a very positive experience for
274us all the way around. Um, I am very interested to hear uh Trusty Will Banks's study. I I would encourage um him and staff to maybe get together and and figure out what you know, we have one set of data from from our staff. We have one set of data and studies from from Mr. Well, Banks and what we could learn from those two things being worked on together. Um, and maybe getting some more accurate data all the way around. And then on the facility side, I think where I come out on this is if you've looked at the POSA study, you've looked at our demographic studies for the last two years, to Trusty Mike's point, um, yes, we have an underutilization problem at the junior high level. it's it's much much more significant at
275the elementary level and only going to become much more so over the next few years. And so in my mind, setting aside the fact that our junior highs are are just distance-wise not in close proximity to each other. And so the the feasibility and and the you know, just on the transportation side of of closing a junior high and consolidating there, I think significant logistical difficulties for families. Um whereas our elementary schools are are much more dense in terms of their location. Um we just have so many more elementary schools that are on the bubble of their their utilization. And so I I think if yes, we could potentially close a junior high or two coming down the next, you know, 5 to 10 years. But I I think it it would solve a utilization
276problem at the junior high level, but leave a very very significant underutilization problem at the elementary level. And in an environment where you know the cavalry is not coming on the funding side, I think that we have to think very seriously about which of those two options we prioritize and and I think that the data shows that the elementary option is probably the superior one here. Um and especially against the backdrop of again I think that the opportunities for our students and the student experience is going to be so much more positive um by moving the sixth graders up creating the vertical alignment to Dr. Stuart's point um you mentioned that the adult connection I definitely saw that with AVID and my kid but the alignment if the state curriculum and TICSS are evolving for
277a 678 cadence it seems to me that having sixth seventh and eighth grade teachers on one campus um and vertically aligning on those campuses and and working together I think would be a significant um positive for the student experience as well. And so I am curious to see what the recommendation uh we have the recommendation tonight. I'm curious to see what the the administration's plan is to implement that recommendation at the next meeting. But from where I sit tonight on balance um I know there's concerns um I know there were people who will be happy by u and disappointed whichever way this decision goes. Um but tonight I think I'm probably leaning towards supporting this recommendation at the next meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Choa. Um I don't see any other trustees with questions or
278remarks. I want to thank you Dr. D, Dr. Dala for leading the charge. Um and this amazing committee of um different perspectives and I do want to highlight even though the makeup of your committee was on a slide, nothing on a slide is is showing this, but you are highly vested in not just where we are as a school district, but also where we're going. And I know that many of you as parents are also educators in our district, in other districts. Um, many of you that are educators also have children in our system. So even though you're you're one type of stakeholder, I I know many of you and you wear multiple hats. Um, I also want to thank our board. I think that this was a very long dialogue, but it was very
279fruitful. Um, and this is why we have reports prior to making this an action item. um this discussion was really important and the transparency through these discussions is really important for our community and I can imagine that this is really similar um to what our committee has experienced over the past six months when they have been having their multiple meetings around the topic. Um Dr. Smith, did you have anything that you wanted to add? >> Yes. I I just want as we're uh closing this discussion for tonight, I want to thank uh Dr. Dollar and Dr. Champion and our entire committee here. Um the objective I think you hit it and we were trying to make sure that we had a clear uh objective view of what you all thought might be. I want to
280point out I didn't go to your meetings, did I? And it wasn't swayed by administration, by me being there saying, "Hey, do this." And that was by design in all of this is that we wanted to be able to say, "We got to make a decision because we're at an inflection point in Arlington ISD and we've got to make a decision as we do long-term facility planning. So, let's talk about the experience that we want for kids and let's do a study on So, thank you for hitting that mark and in my opinion hitting it out of the park uh in just the process that you used and uh as we make recommendations moving forward, thank you for very thoughtfully informing them. We appreciate you. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Um given the hour, I
281am going to rearrange a couple things on the agenda because we do have public speakers this evening and I want to honor their time. Um, at this time I'm about to call us into a very brief recess that will follow be followed by our public hearing and that will be followed by our um open forum for non-aggenda items. So that um I just want to give everyone a heads up you will not have to wait for the action items. So the at right now the time is 11:04 p.m. I'm going to adjourn us into a 5m minute recess. All right, the time is 11:18 and we will now reconvene from recess. The next item on our agenda is our public hearing. We will open our public hearing on the optional flexible school day program for
2822025 2026 at 11:18 p.m. Dr. Smith. >> Trustees, uh Mr. Barry Fox is here tonight to walk us through this. This is an annual requirement that we go through um presenting to you all. And again, this is a public hearing. So, um please note that we actually have to pause and and um allow any comments that were submitted earlier for public comments on this topic. >> I'm happy to talk a little bit about our uh annual optional flexible school day program. Uh this will be just a quick reminder for for many of you because we do this every year as Dr. Smith just mentioned. uh we do want to provide you an opportunity to hear this information. We also want to provide the opportunity for public to weigh in. And if those weren't just already
283great things to do on their own merit, it's also required by law. So, we'll be doing those things tonight as well. Uh just as a reminder, some of the goals of the uh OFSDP. I'll abbreviate it to save us a few seconds as I will reiterate that several times tonight. the OFSTP. It allows us to provide flexible hours and flexible day schedules for attendance for certain students, including our early college high school kiddos. It also is designed to improve graduation rates for students in danger of dropping out uh or have dropped out or are just behind in their core subject areas. So, we focus our FSTP program at three schools. Um I'll be closing out the 2526 portion of this now and then the next one we'll do in just a minute. will open up
284the 2627 public hearing. So for for this year we just finished during the 2526 academic year 89 seniors were enrolled as OFSDP students at Arlington Collegiate High School and 93 seniors were enrolled at Arlington College and Career High School. For both of those campuses, the students graduated just a couple days ago. They were able to participate in a variety of college courses offered during traditional school hours as well as non-traditional school hours such as evenings and weekend courses, things of that nature. Students had the flexibility to take courses at their home campus, the Dan Diaper Career and Tech Center, multiple Tarant County uh college campuses, Texas Westland, the University of Texas at Arlington, etc. These this flexibility helped all students acquire their high school diploma as well as qualifying them to earn their associates degree.
285As for the venture high school campus, uh we had approximately 100 seniors enrolled under OFSDP there. These students were able to graduate at all various times throughout the school year. Uh based on when they complete their graduation requirements, they were able to participate in courses offered at their home school. uh traditional hours, non-traditional hours, again evening and weekend classes. These were offered at Venture High as well as the Dan Dyber Career and Tech Center. This flexibility helped them to acquire their high school diplomas. That's all the information I have for the 2526 OFSTP program. >> Thank you, Mr. Fox. Miss Aostto, do we have any members of the public who wish to speak regarding the optional flexible school day program for 2526 public hearing? President McMurray, we do not. >> Okay. We have no registered
286speakers. The optional flexible school day program 2025 2020. Oh, sorry. >> Yes. Public hearing is now closed at 11:21 p.m. Are there any trustees with comments or questions on the optimal on the optional flexible school day program for 2025 2026 public hearing? Miss Fowler, >> President McMur, I'm just so glad that we have those programs for students that that need that more flexible kind of day. Not everyone, especially high school students, not everyone fits into that 7:30 to 3, you know, they want to get in there and get their work done and and go to work or whatever whatever they do after that. So, I think what we offer our students with these flexible programs is is a really great thing and not all districts do that and I'm proud that we do. Well, thank
287you. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler. Are there any trust other trustees with discussion or questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Fox. Up next, we have our second public hearing on the optional flexible school day program for 2026 2027. Well, as we said, we get a twofer. So, here's the second one. We're opening up the 26 27 school year OFSD program. Uh the goals are the same here. We're just opening it up for this coming school year. Um here uh the OFSTP can be implemented for students in grades 9 through 12 uh who are at risk of dropping out of school, participating in an approved early college high school plan, attending a state approved innovative redesign school, or they just require alternate academic route due to denial of credit in one
288or more classes because of not meeting the state attendance requirements. So for this upcoming year, we will continue to rely on this program for our district's two early college high schools and Venture High School. In doing so, the OFSDP will grant students these transformational program access to things such as flexibility beyond the 175day requirement, uh, courses on weekends, courses at night, extended day classes, and even flexible schedules throughout the year to extend beyond the 18week semesters. Under the OFSDP umbrella, the school district can receive funding based on actual seat time that students are in attendance from as low as 45 minutes a day all the way up to a maximum of 10 hours a day. Minutes are accumulated over the year to maximize the average daily attendance that a student could earn during the normal
28912-month period. Students must apply to participate in this program. They must meet eligibility requirements and they are afforded certified instructors in all educational services for which they are eligible. They must comply with the appropriate assessments during the regularly scheduled assessment period. That's the information I have for the 2627 OFSTP program. >> Thank you again, Mr. Fox. Miss A Costa, do we have any members of the public who wish to speak regarding optional flexible school day program for 2026 2027 public hearing? >> President McMurray, we do not. >> Thank you. We have no registered speakers. Op optional flexible school day program for 2026 2027 public hearing is now closed at 11:25 p.m. Are there any trustees with comments or questions on the optional flexible school day program for 2627 hearing? >> Thank you. We will now
290move on to Thank you, Mr. Fox. Appreciate it. We will now move on to our speakers for non-aggenda items. As stated on the posted agenda, members of the public who desire to address the board regarding an item on this agenda are required to register at www.isd.net/board meeting speaker request. Miss Aosta, do we have any requesters registered to address the board regarding agenda items? I'm sorry. Non-aggenda items. >> President McMurray, we do. We have seven. >> Thank you. >> Um, our first speaker tonight, and I do apologize if I'm mispronouncing your name, is Taylor Sordone. And while you're making your way up here, Taylor, I'll go ahead and read um the procedures. This is a routine part of the board's agenda for regularly scheduled meetings. This segment of the meeting provides citizens with an opportunity to
291share their views with the trustees on items that are not on the agenda tonight. It is not intended to be a discussion or debate and trustees will not reply to the speakers. Derogatory comments aimed at an individual will not be tolerated. Personnel matters are not appropriate subjects for open forum. You will have three minutes to speak. The timer will ring when your 3 minutes is up. If you have any documents for the board to review, please hand them to the chief operations officer, Dr. Hill. And if you do have any virtual speakers, Miss Costa, >> we do not. >> Okay. In that case, I'm going to skip that part. So, um, you may begin when you're ready. >> Thank you for allowing me to speak and address the board this evening. My name is Taylor
292Sportone and I am the parent of a student at PICY Elementary who receives special education services under autism and specific learning disability classifications. My daughter is bright, funny, intelligent, curious, and participates in the gifted and talented program. Like many autistic children, she also struggles with social vulnerability, emotional regulation, and interpreting peer interactions appropriately. This year, instead of receiving the support and protection she needed, she experienced ongoing bullying, sexual sexual misconduct by peers, escalating emotional distress, and repeated school-based trauma. On two separate occasions, my disabled child was left behind and unsupervised on campus. Not missing, not aloping, not hiding, simply forgotten by the adults responsible for her safety. one time being locked outside of campus, left completely alone. Despite these alarming incidents and our repeated requests for a safety plan to be implemented, no safety plan
293has been added to my child's IEP. What has been most heartbreaking is not just what happened to my child, but how difficult it has been to get meaningful support from the system designed to protect her. Throughout this school year, our family attended approximately 15 AR meetings attempting to address the same unresolved concerns. We hired an advocate. We participated in a facilitated IEP meeting through the state process, a process specifically designed to help districts and families collaboratively resolve special education disputes. Even when recommendations and compromised solutions were proposed and agreed upon by our family, the district declined meaningful implementation. At every stage, we were met with delays, deflection, procedural barriers, and a level of resistance that communicated one message clearly. Protecting the district mattered more than protecting my child. We came to meetings prepared, collaborative, and
294desperate for solutions. Instead, we were forced to discuss traumatic events over and over while watching urgent safety concerns minimized, postponed, and ignored. No parent should have to beg a school system to take the safety of a disabled child seriously. No family should have to fight this hard simply to obtain basic support, safety, accountability for a disabled child or any child. I continue hearing concerns about declining enrollment numbers and messages with slogans encouraging families to reject vouchers and remain in public schools. But many special education families are asking the same difficult questions. Why should we stay if our children cannot be kept safe, appropriately supported, or meaningfully understood? Enrollment declines will not end with your slogans. Enrollment declines happen when families lose trust. And families lose trust when disabled students experiencing bully or trauma. I'm going
295to come back next week and finish. >> Thank you, Miss Forone. And I do appreciate you providing a written statement and our our board will absolutely review that. Thank you. Our next speaker is Carl Howell. Mr. Howell, thank you for being here tonight. When you're ready, or you'll have three minutes. >> All right. Good evening, Dr. Smith and members of the board. I'm I'm back again this week. Uh I'm here once again to speak on behalf of Caitlyn Settles at Buouie High School. The last time I spoke, her situation had not been made clear to her students. Um to that end, I would like to take this time to share the voices of the students on her behalf. Students say she actually knows my schedule. That may sound simple, but it speaks volumes as many
296counselors only know their students as screens or numbers in front of them. Miss Settles takes the time to truly know them and the courses they take. That effort makes students feel seen, valued, and cared for. Another student shared, "She actually cares about us." This came from a student who faced a mental health crisis, one that Miss Subtles helped them navigate with compassion and support. Others say she shows up. For some students, support at home isn't always guaranteed. The simple yet powerful act of showing up again and again means everything to them. Miss Subtles is that constant presence in their life. In addition, she serves as a counselor for two of Buoie's most demanding and impactful programs, AVID and IB or international balorate. When graduates from IB were asked why they stayed in these rigorous programs
297despite the difficulties, the most common response was subtles. I stayed with her to that extent. When seniors graduate, we have them write letters to the juniors for their next year. You know, the coming of age, what to expect. This year, it's sad to say that over half of the notes were roughly the same. Good luck without settles. If we expect our teachers to inspire, motivate, and push students toward success, and our counselor should embody those same qualities. Miss Subtles does exactly that and more. You need enrollment or money. Why is she going when she inspires so many kids to stay? Those kids keep those programs going because of her. Kids join those programs to have a counselor who knows their name and backs them up. Don't get rid of her and lower enrollment. You have
298the chance to leave people here who inspire and make other kids want to come to this district. That is it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Howell. Our next speaker is Rachel Adams. Thank you again, Mr. Howell. Miss Adams, when you're ready, your three minutes will begin. >> Sorry. All right. My glasses. My name is Rachel Adams and I have a vested interest in the success of students in Arlington ISD. As a resident, alum, parent, and teacher. I've taught for 24 years, 18 of those at Buoie High School. I am speaking here tonight to strongly advocate for the retention of Caitlyn Settles as the IB and AVID counselor at Buouie High School. As AISD has now designated the international balorate program as a specialized program, it is essential that the district maintain a designated
299counselor with the expertise, knowledge, and experience necessary to support IB students and families effectively. Miss Settles brings a uniquely valuable perspective to the role because she has experienced the IB program from multiple angles as an IB student herself, an IB teacher, an international IB educator, and now as an IB counselor. That depth of experience is incredibly rare and represents a tremendous asset to the Buoie IB community. She understands not only the academic rigor of the program, but also the social emotional demands, college preparation expectations, and long-term benefits that come with IB participation. Missettle's international IB teaching experience further strengthens Buoie's program by bringing a global perspective and authentic understanding of the IB mission to students and families. IB is not simply a collection of advanced courses. Its specialized framework requires knowledgeable guidance and intentional support.
300Students benefit immensely from having a counselor who fully understands the expectations and opportunities associated with the program. Additionally, Miss Settle serves as our AVID counselor. Both programs at Buoie provide critical access to college readiness resources for Southeast Arlington families. Many students rely on these programs for academic advising, scholarship guidance, and mentorship. Removing a dedicated counselor would reduce essential support systems for students who are pursuing pursuing rigorous academic pathways and preparing for higher education. As IB has become a specialized program within AISD, it should be treated with the same level of intentional staffing and support afforded to other specialized programs such as STEM and PEK. A designated IB counselor is not an optional luxury. It's a necessary component of maintaining a successful and equitable program. Our students and families deserve access to someone with the specialized
301expertise required to navigate IB requirements, college credit opportunities, and long-term academic planning. Equally important is the continuity and trust Miss Settles has built within our community. She works closely with our advanced academic and AVID coordinators to ensure that all of her students have schedules that best serve their academic goals. She serves a roster of 400 students and makes it her job to know each of them personally. She's always there to support them yet never fails to hold them accountable. Strong programs depend on relationships, consistency, and institutional knowledge. Her leadership and understanding of Buoie students needs cannot be replicated or replaced. Retaining Kalin Settles in this role would demonstrate ASD's true commitment to protecting resources for Southeast Arlington families, preserving equitable access to advanced academic opportunities, and sustaining the integrity of our programs. Thank you. >>
302Thank you, Miss Adams. Our next speaker is Stephanie Geramo. Come on down. And Melmo, when you are ready, you'll have three minutes. Thank you for being here. >> Good evening, trustees. My name is Stephanie Geralamo and I am reading this statement on behalf of Amy Hayes, advanced academics coordinator and IB program coordinator at Buouie High School. As the IB coordinator at Buouie, I am asking for your immediate intervention regarding the proposed loss of Buoie's IB and AVID counselor, Caitlyn Settles, there comes a point at which an organization is no longer losing positions. It is losing capacity for Buoie IB. We are at that point. This is not about resisting change. As IB educators, we are risktakers, open-minded, and reflective. We understand that change is necessary for growth. Our concern is that this particular change is
303harmful, counterproductive, and creates unnecessary risk at a time when stability and expertise are needed the most. Over the past month, Buoie High School has experienced significant leadership transitions, the loss of experienced IB educators, the departure of key program leaders. More than half of our remaining IB faculty have one year or less experience within the IB framework. At this very moment, Buoie is preparing for its IB self-study and evaluation process. We are being asked to lose one of the remaining leaders with deep institutional knowledge of our students, our community, and the systems that make our program successful. Caitlyn Subtles is not simply a counselor. She has been instrumental in building the systems, relationships, recruitment processes, student supports, and collegegoing culture that helped make Buie a successful IB World School and AVID National Demonstration Campus. She has
304helped position our program for recognition as a district specialized program. As one of Arlington's two IB world schools, Buoie serves a unique community that includes large numbers of economically disadvantaged students, first generation collegebound students, and AVID students. Their needs are not identical to those of every other campus. Equity does not mean that every campus or IB program receives the same staffing model. Equity means every campus receives the support necessary to meet the needs of its students and fulfill the commitments made to its community. Maintaining a successful AVID and IB program, maintaining a B-rated campus, and maintaining community trust requires continued investment in the people and systems that produced those outcomes in the first place. We cannot celebrate the results while simultaneously removing capacity that created them. Parents and students choose Buoie because they believe in
305the opportunities AISD promises them. A specialized program cannot thrive if the expertise required to sustain it is systematically removed. I respectfully ask the board to intervene, retain Caitlyn subtles, and protect the institutional knowledge, leadership capacity, and student support systems that Buoie High School depends on. The cost of preserving this capacity today is far less than the cost of rebuilding it tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alamo. Our next speaker is April Brooks. Welcome, Miss Brooks. When you're ready, you'll have three minutes. Thank you. >> Good evening, members of the board and district leadership. My name is April Brooks and I'm a parent at Peach Elementary. Um first of all I would like to just say that from the AISD website I got from the vision statement and the success statement it says and I quote
306at the end most importantly it is affirmed by students who feel safe and inspired families who choose and stay with AISD and educators whose impact is widely recognized. And with that being said, tonight I'm just asking you to reconsider the decision to move Coach Jones from Peach Elementary and to recognize Peach as one of the district's largest elementary campuses that continues to benefit from having two PE teachers. One word that keeps coming to mind throughout the process is consideration. Consideration means giving careful thought to all relevant factors before making a decision. It means looking beyond numbers, allocations, and staffing formulas to understand the real impact a decision will have on students, families, and the school community. Coach Jones has been at Peach Elementary since the school opened in 2016. For nearly a decade, he has
307done far more than teach physical education. He has mentored students, built relationships with families, organized beloved events such as field day, facilitated boys and girls club and the sixth grade cluster meet, and become a trusted and consistent presence in the lives of our children. He is the coach parents ask to speak with with their children when they need guidance. He's the mentor students look up to when they need encouragement. He is the familiar face many children see at neighborhood parks continue to invest in relationship outside of school hours which is also I noticed earlier about the sixth grade transition. It seems to be important for our children to have those safe familiar faces to help with those transitions. Um the true impact of Coach Jones cannot be measured by a staffing spreadsheet. One family shared
308that when their child was asked to identify the most influential person in their life, the answer wasn't mom, dad, grandma, or even grandpa. The answer was Coach Jones. That speaks volumes. One student said that Coach Jones helped them with anger issues and also helped their sister overcome a lot of things that she had been going through. Several students speak on Coach Jones. Research shows that when students lose a long-term trusted educator, they can experience a loss of school connectedness, increased emotional adjustment challenges, and a disruption in engagement until new relationships are built. We understand that staffing decisions must be made and that districts must balance enrollment and budgets. However, if Peach and the receiving campus both serve nearly 700 or 800 students, then this becomes more than a numbers issue. It becomes a question of
309equity, continuity, and whether the value of long-standing relationships have been fully considered. For many students at Peach Elementary, that person is Coach Jones, who they need. >> Thank you, Miss Brooks. Our next speaker is Whitney Rodri. Miss Rodrik, thank you for joining us. When you're ready, or three minutes, we'll begin. All right, I'll be quick because it's like 11:30 and there's more on the agenda. Um, I want to take a moment for the eight of you. This year has been crazy. It's been wild. We've watched a school district next to us be taken over. And I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for showing up every day. I want to say thank you for being an advocate for our community. And I want to remind you that there is
310a community behind you who is going to be advocates for you. We are so grateful for what you are doing. And what Fort Worth ISD has reminded us is that our board is not guaranteed. And I don't want people to wait and start showing up once we're taken over. I hope people will get involved now. And I know it's the end of the year and I do have a lot of other things to say, but right now I feel like the most important thing to say is thank you. Thank you so much. So, >> thank you, Miss Rodri. Our final speaker is Mary Angelie Williams. Miss Williams, are you here tonight with us? Okay. All right. All right. Next, we will move to our action item to uh and turn the action item portion of
311tonight's meeting. We have two items up for action consideration and the first item is to consider approval of the 2026 2027 compensation plan. Dr. Smith >> trustees uh our chief human resources officer Scott Kale will be here with Holly Stambbot tonight to present to you compensation plan. Maybe Holly's not here. Maybe it's too late. Um compensation plan. As you recall, we had a workshop on this recently. We asked you for input tonight. they've given um you what you asked for in this presentation and we're going to ask our board to make a decision regarding compensation plan tonight. Timing of this is important. Remember, we have a budget to pass in June and um with nearly 90% of our budget in people and compensation, it's an important piece of the budget process. So, Mr. Kale, >>
312good evening, President McMurra, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. Thank you for the opportunity to go through this topic with you. U this is the uh presentation pertaining to the 2026 27 compensation plan as a followup uh to the board workshop that we had last month. From a purpose perspective, uh our key priority of talent resources uh is to come to come to you today with a recommendation uh for the content of the 2627 compensation plan as well as the benefit plan contributions um to strategically prioritize our talent and our resources. So, I'm I'm going to try and take you through uh this this slide that I think sets the stage for how we got here and the balance of what we drew out of that workshop um and trying to trying to come
313up with the best possible alternatives considering some competing priorities. As you know, we work every year with the with the uh Texas Association of School Boards, and they help us with our compensation studies and making sure that we have market competitive pay uh for our different positions within the district. And what we found and and uh got out of those studies this year was that we remain competitive uh in our pay across the board uh in our in our base salaries and in our stipens with one exception which we'll talk about a little bit later which is uh the sped specialized programs. The district's uh 2526 budget deficit, however, of approximately $72 million at at the beginning of this past fiscal year did recently require the reorganization, as we know, of employee positions. And we
314also recognize that we have more work to do. Some additional cost savings measures and efficiencies are going to be needed as we work to fully address that budget deficit. And the TASBY and local market data that I mentioned just a moment ago uh it does give us some flexibility in terms of where we stand in our market position. We're fortunate in many cases to be in the top cile if not above that in our different positions as we stand today. Employee benefit premiums, however, continue to be a concern despite having some programmatic uh improvements and despite some uh positive growth in our partnership uh with TRS. And then finally, the administration will recommend as we go through these slides, four separate alternatives uh to maintain that competitive market pay while navigating that balance I mentioned
315earlier with the reality of our budget cost constraints. So, I'm going to try and and take us through these four options. There will be a summary uh table at the end to make it easier to refer to them as a group. Uh but to start uh for the first option that we'd like to present you with, it actually does not recommend any salary adjustments. It does recommend a modification to benefits contributions. So as we discussed in the workshop, uh we have a proposal uh for a healthc care clinic network benefit. And as a reminder, that network benefit would actually be um on top of our TRS uh uh plans. It would not replace them. It would be incremental to them. And it has a number of different uh positive outcomes for us. Uh anybody, first
316of all, we're talking effectively about starting with most likely two different clinics. We're talking about a clinic that serves everything from uh urgent care to primary care to preventative wellness, doctor's visits um on a very uh accessible basis to our employees and effectively with no cost to our employees either for participation if they're already in our TRS plans or even in co-pays when they go to the doctor. As a result, not to spend too much time on this particular element, but as a result, uh any costs that are incurred would not be counted as claims costs in our TRS plans. Therefore, helping us strategically start to move in a direction where our premium claims uh ratios hopefully begin to uh go down even further in the right direction, making us more marketable to have other
317options when it comes to health care plans going forward in the market. Uh the healthcare premium district contribution increase also as a part of option one uh recommends an additional contribution of $28.25. Uh what that is is incremental on top of the $51 that we currently offer. Um but it's not automatic. It does actually require a greater investment of initiative on the part of our employees to take additional actions that would be outlined um proactively to uh address their wellness and we we do believe that uh the best way to manage health care costs is by wellness and avoiding illness in the first place. So that has an objective of doing so. And then finally the the third element of this first option is uh addressing the one stipen area that the market data told
318us was not completely competitive and it's increasing the special education specialized program stipen by $500 effectively going from 3,000 to 3500. The total cost of that option number one is right at about 2.3 million. Option number two, uh, very similar and I I won't reiterate all the benefits content. That's why I spent spent the time on that in option one because it will be it will be replicated as we go through options 2, three, and four. But we what will change in these subsequent options will be the recommendations for pay increases. So similar benefit uh options as I discussed in option one. However, uh recommending in option one a 1% teacher market raise and a 1% midpoint raise for staff. That 1% market raise for teachers um is effectively $740 and a uh as we
319get to the next option. Uh I'll talk specifically about what those dollars mean, but you're you're talking about taking the regional average um for a teacher's uh pay and and um multiplying it by 1% and that that would be the increase. That cost of that particular option is 8.3 million. Option number three, again, consistency with regard to the recommendations on the health care clinic and the uh premium contributions and the and the special ed stipen while recommending separately a 2% teacher market raise and a 2% midpoint raise for staff. So again, uh the the 2% raise would be on the average teacher pay in the region approximately a total of $1,450 per teacher. And then the midpoint raise for staff consistently throughout these different alternatives is based on the midpoint of their range which is
320is published on on the uh human resources web page under compensation. And that would be on the new ranges per the market data for the coming year not the one we just finished. And then that total cost for that option number three is right at about 13.1 million. Option number four, uh, uh, a little variation. Uh, this is actually a 2% market raise for teachers, still the the $1,450 I mentioned a moment ago, and a 1% midpoint raise uh, on for staff with within their respective salary ranges, same benefits, uh, recommendations, and then a total cost of approximately 10.8 million. As I mentioned at the beginning, this is a grid that allows you to have some comparatives um as you as you look at the different options and it makes I think a little bit
321easier to to determine uh where your preference may be. Uh we are requesting that the board um uh grant approval for one of these four options. Um, and then this is this is purposeful to make sure that there's clarity and transparency because we're talking about a section of the compensation manual in these raises and these benefits. Uh, there are other elements of the compensation plan that would be consistently carried over from 2526. So just for the sake of clarity and transparency, I'll read this very quickly. Approval of any option included in the presentation will incorporate these specified components in the 2627 compensation plan along with position or supplemental modifications that we had made during the the current school year of 2526. And then all other elements of the current plan in 2526 will remain unchanged
322and be carried forward into the compensation plan. And that's the case with any approval of these four options. The only other element I I need to add real quickly is on option four you see an asterk and what that does is it gives you the choice if there was a desire to do so. It was one of the pieces of feedback that we heard in the uh workshop uh to to treat the teacher market raise as inclusive of the administrative professional um uh job family. In doing so, if that occurred, that 10.8 8 million would grow by 1.1 effectively taking it to 11.9. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions and I will certainly do my best to to answer uh anything you may have, but I if it's okay, I'll leave this
323grid up there rather than go to the discussion slide so that you have it as reference. >> Thank you, Mr. Kale. Any trustees with questions or discussion? Mr. Chapa. >> Thank you, President Ma. Before we start the conversation, uh, Mr. K, I just if you could explain what types of or or what positions are included within are included within the rubric of administrative professionals. >> Administrative professionals are effectively um uh positions ranging from campus administrators. Uh, they're salaried positions. They're also central office um salaried positions um in administrative type roles. Uh it could be somebody working in academics. It could be somebody working in finance. It could be somebody working in campus administration for example. >> Mr. Kale, are counselors included in that group? >> Counselors would be in administrative professionals. Yes, sir. >> Okay.
324And so are those folks included in the 2% for option three? >> Uh those folks would be included in the 2% for option three. That is correct because 2% in option three 2% is effectively everybody across the district. >> Okay. So option four as it stands at 10.8 the 2% that is there excludes the folks that you just said. >> Yes sir. That is correct. >> Okay. >> Adding them would would increment that by 1.1 million. It would go from 10.8 to 11.9. >> So it' be like option 4 B would be 11. >> Yes. Yes sir. >> Okay. Thank you. Of course. Thank you, Mr. Chop. Any other trustees with questions or discussion? Okay, I'll get us going. So, we have a tough decision to make tonight. Um, I understand the challenges that the
325board is faced with in a in a situation like this. We want every staff member to feel valued and part of that is pay and there is no doubt about that. The other part of this is I need to remind you is that anything that is approved tonight adds on to uh a dollar amount that we have to look at reducing over the next year. So as pay goes up, we have to consider positions going down. And that's the situation that we're in right now. Um we did that workshop in the format thanks to Mr. Rivas and his uh spreadsheet etc. so that our board could see those things and see the challenges that we have ahead of us. All of these are tough decisions and I need our board to hear we stand beside
326you as we're going through this uh process together. just we also ask you to remember any any action we take is going to impact some of those decisions over the course of the year that we're going to have to make and with that I'll I'll be quiet for a little while. >> Thank you Dr. Smith. Mr. might >> I think I'm going to ask question >> I think we just swap seen swap um just for clarification the reorg that we recently did um what did that what did that save our district what did that I don't >> so that it saved our district about $23 million >> okay >> Mr. Rivas, is that correct? Overall, yeah, I I apologize. It was about $20 million for the reorg and about a $3 million savings in our
327zerobased budgeting efforts. I I don't have a question. I just have some statements. Um I think going to uh trustee Chapa's uh point where he talked about uh the district improvement plan specifically under the talent and resources under performance objective one where it was written out to reduce the general fund budget deficit by at least 50% by June 24th 2027. And then when we look here on slide three for our 2526 budget deficit, we're estimated to be about 72 million and that is after the reorganization. >> Mr. Mike, that's not correct. >> No, the 72 million was at the beginning of this year. We just saved the 23 million. So we've we've hit the one-third that mark that we talked about. >> 50ome, >> correct? about >> 46 million. So whatever we choose tonight would
328add back on to what we saved during the reorganization. And that's a reality that that we're facing because when we come back to this improvement plan, that means that by June 24th, 2027, we would have to reorganize even more. Correct. >> Yes, sir. That's correct. >> So, um, you know, I know I brought up Massachusetts before and I'll bring them up again. They went hard and heavy with education. Hard and heavy. They focused on on enrollment versus the attendance and they weighted that enrollment. Teachers get paid more than teachers here in Texas. The per capita per student funding is, I think, double what we have. And they're number one in the nation in education. And I think that's something that our legislators need to look at and see, are we doing right by the students
329of this state? Now, outside of that, I know what I would want to do, but I know what reality tells me we can do. So, when you combine all the data that we've seen, when you combine what the enrollment trend is is doing, all of it together, um, option one to me is the most sound option at this point in time. And, and here's why I say this. We have to thank the previous boards and I think I was on at least for one time of being able to pass a 4%. Right? So, but the previous boards have set us up for success, have gotten us to the point where we're consistently in the one, two, or three parts of of the rankings that come out. Um, and so we have to thank them for
330that for that that foresight of doing that. And I don't even think that they would have imagined that we would be in this position here and now. Um, but we are here and we're working on a deficit that we have to get down. We're working on realities of facilities that we have to take care of uh in enrollment and grades and and everything that's that that is coming at us. The smartest option right now, I think, is number one. uh because at least we're trying to tackle the health care portion and I know Mr. held. There were several times where we had presentations on the health insurance and whether or not we wanted to explore moving out, but the claims data keeps us in. The clinic that was described, I think, is a win-win scenario
331because it allows us to get those claims down and then maybe in the future if we're exploring moving out, we have someone who can say, "Your claims are looking good. We will partner with you." The special education I think is key in ensuring that we go all in with that stipend and increase that so that we can get more special education folks in here as from what I have been told that that is a very high need that has been a very difficult position to fulfill. Um, and then of course with the wellness, I think there was a data that showed for however much you put in, you would see the increase. And I think last time we put in $33 and there was an increase of around 300 people. >> Yes, sir. That's close.
332>> I do try to listen sometimes. Um so for me overall um it has a minimal impact but we're doing something um and it's not what I want to do but based on the data it's what we can do. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Mike Mr. Chopper. >> Thank you, President McMurro. Much like Mr. Mike, I'm going to just sort of say say some thoughts and that I they may or may not be helpful. Um and and they're going to contradict a little bit what I said earlier. Um because I think as I mentioned also the issues that we're facing are really complex and it it is a big it's a big lift on the financial front and in add question to start out with for Mr. Rivas. Do we anticipate further cost reductions
333beyond what was achieved through the reorganization as we go into next summer? Are there is is more after everything settles and gets leveled and all that stuff in August and September? I'm being I mean know I'm drastically oversimplifying this. Do we expect to save more reduce the deficit by more than the 23 million that Dr. Smith mentioned earlier >> beyond making additional changes. No, we would have to tighten the purse on the reduced budgets that departments already submitted through CBB. So they went in and they itemized their budgets and to include overtime, right? So we would have to further restrict the spending within there just to get some savings. um we would have a little bit of savings in lab salaries, but it's not a number to just say here we can count on this,
334right? >> If anything, that portion of savings would probably go to offset further declines in enrollment because of the voucher bill. >> Yeah. is what I'm guess what I was wondering is does this 23 million include stuff that we've been doing for years already like closing out vacant positions or long open positions or maybe we you know there's a ratio that's changed and we don't fill that position or something pops up over the summer and we're going to choose not to fill it like it does the 23 million anticipate those types of savings >> so the 23 million included about 3 million in zerobased budgeting um the final cost and savings for Banton came out to about $3 million both variable and fixed costs Um, and then it included about another 3 million in vacant
335positions and then the rest were actual reorg positions. So >> because we've taken most of those vacant positions off the books, there's less of them to take now. >> Right. I know we've been working very hard for a long time on what you know it's it's flippant a little bit, but the low hanging fruit there's no more low hanging fruit. >> There's Yes. >> Yeah. So, I I like I'm really torn with this. I mean, we've been aggressive about our compensation for the last several years. I mean, we're the only district in the state that did 5 years of of 4% raises, and we took that VAT money we got the voters approved in 2020. We said we were going to put it towards staff and we did, and we got to where we are.
336I mean, we're overall the highest paying district for teachers in DFW right now, um, which is one of the highest paying areas in in the entire state. Um, you know, I I get on my feed. I don't know. I I it must know that I'm on a schoolboard because I get Facebook updates for school districts all across the state. And so, you know, I I'll see something come across my feed and it's like, oh, you know, college I'm just I'm going to get these numbers wrong. I'm going to make something up. But like College Station ISD, you know, like 6% raise for teachers. And I'm looking at I'm like, how in the world are they doing a 6% raise for teachers down in College Station? Well, their starting salary is like $52,000 or something like
337that. um you know so we are an outlier in many respects in compensation with the rest of the state but even with DFW we've positioned oursel to be very not not just competitive in the market but to be a market leader in compensation and that's continued through through staff and not just teachers but through the rest of the staff and so the workshop and it's not part of this presentation but at the workshop there was the presentation that showed that in in most classes of our employees we are above 100% of market um and it was one I I think for um educational aids I mean we're 130 something% of market >> your your recollection is correct >> so on the one hand we have been aggressive enough over the last several years that we
338have we have risen to the top almost to the top of the market in many areas always work to be done um and we could take our foot off the gas pedal and we would still be competitive and everybody else is going through the the same troubles around us, our our peer competitors. By the same token, our peer competitors who are going through the same thing that we are, as I have been able to gather, even the ones that are doing reorganizations or just outright reductions and force, most of them are still doing something to increase compensation for employees. And so I'm torn because on the one hand just the pure financial data and budget tells us we can't you know for being super responsible ultimately responsible maybe we shouldn't do any of this except
339Mr. Mike mentioned option one but looking at what the market is doing even for people who are in our position who are relatively close to us in compensation they're still doing increases for their employees on the understanding also that they are reducing headcount and so the the choice that I think we're kind of presented with is borrowing big help from the state next year we're going to be in this position next year and so I think there's there's a little bit of a sense of we just did this reorganization what's it going to what's it going to seem like to be putting more money into compensation when we just let people go and that money could have gone to save some of those folks. And the flip side is is well what if we put
340in money now we're in the position of having to do this again next year although it may be and it may even be more severe and we could have kept some more of those folks. On the flip side in the time that we still have with all of the employees who are here we could increase their financial situation for their families with a raise like many other districts have done. So, it's a very hard call. I don't think it's an andor because if the rubric is just going to be whenever we have a severe impact on our staff in a reorganization or or otherwise, we don't do a raise, then are we committing ourselves to the path of if that comes to fruition next year, we're also not going to do a raise next year.
341And so then, how long does that continue? because we're going to be in this budget deficit cycle again baring significant help from the state for more than one more year. And so how long do we commit to the path of of holding holding everything in stasis? And and I don't know and I'm I'm throwing these ideas out there because I don't think it's an easy question. I think if you and I have asked some employees if it meant you knew any further redu you know any any further effect on positions would be somewhat less if you got no raise next year how would you feel about that and the responses I got have been be anecdotally very mixed some are like I'd like any if I thought my job might end next year I'd want
342everything I could get over the next year help me out and then some other people are like I you know yeah it would meant that my neighbor is here next year maybe. Yeah, I'll eat I'll eat a no raise for a year. It gets a little diceier after that that point. And so, um I could go with any of these options. Um I'm probably less supportive of option three from a fund balance perspective, which has been allowing us to to ride this runway longer over time. I'm looking at in terms of fund balance days remaining depending on which option we choose. There's not a whole lot of difference in in the effect on our fund balance because we're going to have to use fund balance to to shore us up. Option one, we would have
343116 days of fund balance left. Option two is 112 days left. Option three is 108 days. Option four is 110 days. So, you know, based on the data that was shared with us, the difference between all these options besides the price tag, but really the net hit on the fund balance, which we do have some wiggle room there, I think is eight eight days of operating expenses. And so with that in mind, I it makes me open to doing something besides option one personally. And so I will lob all that out there and see where things land. Thank you, Mr. Choa, Mr. Wilbanks. Um, >> thank you, Miss McMar, President McMaro, and and um I appreciate the comments from my colleague, Mr. Chapa. I am concerned about fund balance and um tough decisions and I
344did ask around and we are in a great position thanks to the the generous raises that we've given in the past and put us at the top. We are above market and the more we save now means it just doesn't get compounded to in 3 years out where we will be in the same situation that we're hearing about in the news of districts like Easta and El Paso and even smaller districts that don't even have enough to make payroll this year. And the um I think there there's a saying about going broke is it's slowly slowly and then all at once. And those districts are experiencing exactly that. And when I look at those same things and I see that currently we're at 152 days and we have a very healthy fund balance. But then
345once you factor in the deficit from this year and then if we don't make progress that accelerates out. Um I think it would be viewed much more negatively if that we gave a raise and then had to turn around and then lay off more people. Um, I think keeping people and secured knowing they have a um there's slightly less chance of that happening I think is more important than um giving um feeling the need to give a raise given the in enviable position that we happen to find ourselves in at the top of the market. Um, I'm really concerned, Mr. Rivas, what when does how many days do negative consequences start um rolling in for us in terms of remaining fund balance? Somewhere around 75. the f the financial accountability the first report um to
346get the full credit the full points they want 75 days on the bond side rating agencies will look at your general fund fund balance and as long as you have the three months you're okay if you start depleting into it without an action plan to stop that course then that's where they may begin downgrading your rating which then increases borrowing costs As long as you have a plan in place that actually stops that and that plan gets executed and you're still within your 2 to 3 months, you're okay. So for financial for the first reading, it's 75 days to get full points. ISD start getting in trouble when they're 50 days because at that point depending on um your cash flow, depending on when your state aid comes in and when your tax collections come
347in, right? because your tax bills are due by February 1st. So ISDs receive most of their tax collections December and January. That's when homeowners pay their bills. So some some ISDs actually go out and get payroll loans because their auto reserves by the month of April. Um so anything below the 75 days, it just depends on your cash flow. That's when you you start getting worried. >> Yeah. Yeah. with I know there's several districts in that unfortunate position right now where they're giving having to take out what you said the equivalent of a payday loan against your future uh tax revenue. Um it is amazing just seeing the drop in the number of days from where we are now at where we were about 102 down, you know, in any one of these options. And
348I think it behooves us as a as a board to prevent that from accelerating more than it um more than it needs to. And so given that and the fact that I value the staff that we do have, um I don't want to put us in a position where we might have to lay off more people than we need to. So I would be supporting option one. >> Thank you, Mr. Willbanks. Miss Haynes. >> Yes. Um so it's late, so I'm not going to rehash all the same things we've all said. um when we did the workshop um the group that I was in um actually is the group that recommended option one not to say that that's the way that those individuals are going to support this evening but um I was very clear
349that night that that is that is what I felt was best um given our current state um and I feel the same way this evening and so I will be supporting option one >> thank you Miss Haynes are there Any other trustees with um discussion questions? Okay. Um I am going to go ahead and share my my concerns and questions and then um go ahead and make a motion. Um unless colleagues want to chime in. So I I really respect at the same time regret what you said, Mr. Mike, when you said there's there's an option that I want to do and judging from your track record and the track record of all of my colleagues with ranges of years of experience on the board, our track record has been what Mr. Chapa mentioned, five
350years of 4% raises. Five years in a row of 4% raises. But there is a difference like you, Mr. Mike, between what I want to do and what we realistically can do this year, um I I want to elevate one thing that we haven't mentioned. Um the premiums are increasing this year again and I shouldn't even say increasing, I should say spiking. So I do see the healthc care um premium contribution this year as a mustdo. Um, and I think that I I appreciate that staff has put um that healthc care contribution in from what I see all four options. I I really think that's a musto. I I know that we have always um gotten positive feedback on our teacher raises, our teacher and staff across the board raises and I know that that
351is something that our staff expects. It's something that our staff deserves and it's something that we do each year. I also know um that as recently as tonight, our teachers and staff have voiced to me that the reorg that we have we have carried out just in the past month and a half that has had a direct impact on um the jobs that they do every day. And even greater than that, they are bringing to our attention the implications that they believe that it will have on students. And so we have a budget deficit to close. And we know that the reorg is going to have to continue whether we do nothing or something. It's just a matter of what the magnitude is going to be. And um Mr. Rivas, I want to say thank
352you because you really helped us see that clearly um when we had our budget workshop with the spreadsheet and um I I I really wish that we could do a live stream of that spreadsheet right now because that was very sobering and um it really put things in perspective for for many of us. Um, so at this time I'm going to go ahead and make a motion. Um, unless there's any other discussion or questions from trustees. At this time, I'm going to make a motion that we adopt compensation option number one as presented. Do I have a second? Second from Miss Fowler. Let's move to vote. >> Additional discussion. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Do I have additional discussion regarding the motion? >> Trustees, one thing that I I do want to stress in this is
353that this does not mean if you if you don't if you do a 0% pay raise, it does not mean that we still don't have work to do to close a budget gap. And so these are super tough decisions. And I just want to be explicit about that. It's not, hey, if I don't give a pay raise right now, we don't have to consider reducing other positions. We still have to. And I I just want to be honest and very blunt about that at this point. Uh I know these decisions are tough and I don't don't want any um confusion in this as you're going into >> Thank you for that important clarification, Dr. Smith. We have a motion from myself, a second from Trusty Fowler. Any other discussion? Mr. Chapa? >> Thank you, President
354McMurra. Can we just go back and look at the slide for option one again? Like the specific slide for option one? I just want to make sure I'm clear on what what we're looking at. Mr. Chopa, if I could one point of clarification um similar to Dr. Smith just to make sure there's full transparency and no miscommunication. That that 2825 uh extra contribution through the wellness program actually requires uh a a additional level of proactive um behavior and activity on the part of the individual. So it's not an automatic. It requires they hit what we call a platinum stage. But um it does require additional uh effort on the part of the employee from a wellness perspective as opposed to it just being automatic. Okay. Yeah. And I and I thanks for the clarification. Yeah.
355I and I' I've said before up here like I'm fine. I mean I would I would do more on on um by tying it to increased level of participation in the wellness because I think to the overall goal here of reducing our cost ratio. I mean that that would help. Um and it's a relatively lowc cost thing to do. Okay. I just wanted that clarification. I'm um I'm very torn on this. I I I think I I respect the um this is very complicated. I respect the position of all my colleagues. I don't um want it to be to be to make it seem like anybody up here is making this decision. So, you know, on an easy basis at all. Our workshop discussion was very robust on this. Um I I personally don't like
356the idea of a of of no raise um at all. Um given that in the background there's inflation and so effectively no raise is is a is a pay cut at the same time. Um it's a probably a net pay cut with inflation at 1% and 2% too. And so it's just do what do we do to mitigate that? Um I I struggle even more given that um and I have already closed it so I'm look I'm going to look at Mr. Will Bankbanks screen, but the difference in the the fund balance remaining between options 2, three, and four versus one is is 4 days, 6 days, and and two days. And I I understand the compounding concern. Um, but recognizing all of the other work that has to go into getting us to where
357we'll be next year, too. I don't to me that's just a marginal at some level, it's a marginal difference in the amount of heavy lifting that has to be done. So, um, but that's where I'm at and that's for me and I respect the position everybody's in. >> Uh, we're all in. Thank you'all for what y'all done. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you, Mr. Chapa, Miss Fowler. >> Thank you, President Mcmura. Do I remember right that the healthc care clinic network is not going to be available for another year? Is that the one where they're waiting to to locate here and and find places to have their office? >> So, we're currently looking at two different vendors. We we've not made a a selection yet because we don't have a a green light to proceed.
358Uh it's most likely, regardless of which vendor we selected in order to do it properly and make sure that it it was rolled out effectively, that it would be rolled out in the spring. um that would effectively mitigate some of that 2 million cost in year one, but we wanted to give you an annualized uh uh cost that would effectively be in place going forward. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Okay. So, we have a motion on the floor um for option one as presented. Um, and that motion was made by myself. It was seconded by Miss Fowler. If there is no other discussion or question around the motion, we'll move to vote. >> Okay, the motion carries unanimously. Thank you,
359board. >> Thank you, Mr. Kale and thank you Mr. Rivas. >> Our last action item tonight is to consider approval of the 2026 2027 student code of conduct. Dr. Smith. >> Trustees, I'm glad to note that Dr. Michael Hill is still here and um is coming up to give this presentation. Uh as you know, he presented to you recently, so our our discussion on this item is going to be very short tonight. Um and uh I'll turn it over to Michael. >> Thank you. Uh we'll say good morning. >> It is good morning. Uh again, we brought the code of conduct uh at the previous meeting as a report and there were four items in there at the pancing uh with or without exposure, the allowing of body piercing and the taking of pictures. There's
360no other changes. We took the feedback and added some uh language in the handbook side of it, but the code of conduct still consists of those those four four changes. And so unless there's questions as recommendations for approval as it was printed as it was presented. >> Thank you, Dr. Hill. Any trustees with questions or discussion? Okay, >> we will move to vote on the on considering approval of the 2026 2027 student code of conduct. Do I have a motion? Motion from Miss Feller. >> Do I have a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. Second from Mr. Wilbanks. Let's move to vote. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Dr. Hill. We will now move to the consent agenda. Do do I have any trustees that wish to pull an item for discussion? Okay, we'll now
361move to vote on the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? Motion from Trusty Haynes. Thank you, Miss Haynes. Do I have a second? Second for Mr. Mike. Any discussion? Trustees, please move to vote. Thank you. Consent agenda carries unanimously. >> All right. We will now move to superintendent's comments. Dr. Smith will now give his superintendent report. Dr. Smith. >> Trustees, I have prepared a 45minut presentation for you. I will go ahead and email this to you all. Thank you for uh a very long but and challenging meeting tonight, but I appreciate your your um focus and your input. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Do we have any trustees with board member reports this evening? Mr. Mike, >> 30 seconds. Uh just a thank you to the to the admin and and all of
362the the campus staff for the graduation. It was so good that the news featured Arlington ISD. uh the the marketing team, the communications team with the the parents, the little parents uh Tik Tok >> thing, it was on the news. >> Oh, wow. >> Yes. So, >> yeah. So, that's all. Thank you. >> I agree, Mr. Mike. And I think our communications team and every every adult and and student, of course, it's all about the graduates who played a part in graduation deserves a quick round of applause. So, thank you for a great commencement. >> You were in a Bible video. It was all awesome. I think my favorite video was the one about the different types of parents at graduation. Um, Secretary Richardson, do we have any items to report this evening? >> Trusty
363Fowler asked for a college consolidation. I'm sorry. Trustee uh Will Banks asked for a consolidation of junior high reports of what that would look like. Uh, Trustee Fowler asked for a survey of sixth grade teachers to be done in regards to their feelings about it moving up >> and parents. >> Okay. Perfect. And before we go, I want to say to Trusty Fowler, I apologize publicly. I interrupted you earlier when you were speaking and it came from a place of passion that should not have come and I apologize that was not appropriate to do that from the dis and to interrupt a colleague like that. So I want you to hear me say publicly I apologize for that. I >> appreciate >> Thank you Miss Richardson. All items on tonight's agenda have been addressed and
364we have no matters to discuss in closed session. There being no further business this meeting is adjourned at 12:34 a.m.