001All right, it is 8:30 a.m. and I'm calling to order this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees that was uh called for 7:45 a.m. Appreciate your patience for waiting with us. Uh this is the election canvas meeting and we are required to only have two trustees to have a quorum. Um I do want to thank Mr. Larry Mike for coming in this morning. He was not the second member who was um who had committed to providing our second. And so he responded to our bat signal and uh and rolled up here very quickly and I appreciate him for um doing some duty this morning that he had not committed to doing. Okay. The first item on our agenda tonight is open forum for agenda items. Ms. Crosnoe, do we have any speakers registered
002for open forum for agenda items? >> President Chapa, we do not. >> Okay, that brings us to our action items for this morning. Our first action item is consideration and possible approval of an order canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the May 2nd, 2026 general election. Dr. Smith. >> President Chapa and Trustee Mike, you have before you a set of materials relating to the results of the trustee election, which was held Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 to elect trustees to 3-year terms for places 6 and 7 on the Board of Trustees for the Arlington Independent School District. The set of materials you have before you includes the following: one, an official cumulative report of early votes and election day votes for each candidate from the Tarrant County Election Administration, and two, an official precinct
003report by polling location from the Tarrant County Election Administration. The results of the election are as follows: Place 6, Janice Tyler, 9,317 votes. Place 6, Brooklyn Richardson, 12,529 votes. For Place 7, Leanne Haynes, 14,239 votes. And for place seven, Linton C. Davis, 6,858 votes. If you accept this canvass of election to fill three-year terms for places six and seven on the Arlington Independent School District Board of Trustees, it would be appropriate to hear motion to approve the canvass at this time. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. At this time, do any board members present at today's canvass wish to examine any of the election returns or have any questions about the conduct of the elections for the staff? Seeing none, do I have a motion to canvass the returns for the May 2nd, 2026 general election?
004Mr. Mike. >> I move to adopt an order canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the May 2nd, 2026 general election. >> And I will second that motion. Trustees will now move to vote. All trustees present voting in the affirmative, the motion carries unanimously. That brings us to action item B, consideration and possible approval of an order canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the May 2nd, 2026 bond election. Dr. Smith. >> President Choppa and Trustee Mike, you have before you sets of materials relating to the results of the bond elections, propositions A, B, and C held at an election on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 uh for the Arlington Independent School District. The set of materials before you includes the following: a cumulative total of the report of the uh votes Proposition A
005for votes, 13,880 against votes, 9,655 Proposition B for votes, 13,919 against votes, 9,530 Proposition C for votes, 11,286 against votes, 12,116 Based on voting uh uh tabulations, Proposition A would pass, Proposition B would pass, and Proposition B C would fail, according to the election results on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026. If you accept the canvass of this election for the bond propositions A, B, and C, uh it would be appropriate to hear a motion to approve the canvass at this time. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Do any trustees present at today's canvass wish to examine any of the election returns or have any questions about the conduct of the bond elections for the staff? Hearing none, do I have a motion to canvass the results of the May 2nd, 2026 bond election? Mr. Mike. >> I
006move to adopt an order canvassing the returns and declaring the results of the May 2000 2nd, 2026 bond election. >> And I'll second the motion. Trustees will now move to vote. All trustees present voting in the affirmative, the motion carries. That brings us to our last item on the agenda for this morning, and that is an open forum for non-agenda items. Ms. Crossno, do we have speakers registered for non-agenda forum? >> President Jaffa, we do. >> Okay. That being the case, I'm going to read our rules for non-agenda forum, and then I will begin calling speakers in the order in which they it appears they registered. As stated on the posted agenda, members of the public who desire to address the board regarding an item on this agenda or not on the agenda are required
007to register at www.aisd.net/boardmeetingspeakerrequest, and in this instance, it was no later than 4:00 p.m. on May 11th, 2026. This is a routine part of the board's agenda for our meetings. This segment provides citizens with an opportunity to share their views with trustees on items that are not on the agenda. It is not intended to be a discussion debate, and trustees will not reply to the the speakers. Derogatory aimed at individuals will not be tolerated and personnel matters are not appropriate subjects for open forum. Each speaker will have three minute minutes to speak and the timer will ring when your three minutes is up. If you have any documents for the board to review, please hand them to Ms. Crossno. And would ask that you please end your remarks as close to three minutes as you
008can. Okay. We have three speakers who have been registered and we'll begin with Cole Perrin. All right, Mr. Perrin, you'll have three minutes. >> Thank you. I grew up in AISD. I graduated here, worked here, and my daughter now goes to school here. Uh so last week after voters awarded it nearly half a billion dollars in tax revenue, the district quietly eliminated our elementary STEM teachers, testing facilitators, and lunch monitors. Now, as a parent and a former student, this is frustrating for reasons uh I think are best described in the context of AISD's own values and beliefs, which I'll paraphrase for time. You strive to create exceptional learning experiences. Uh but the email you sent to employees claims that these roles could be assumed by other staff. I ask you, which other staff? It's long
009been common knowledge that our admin and teachers are stretched pretty thin. Now, at our school, our AP will be stepping in for lunch duty, too. Are they also expected to facilitate tests? Do we expect teachers with full lesson plans to set up, run, and take down hands-on lab experiments? Do you know how many of them lean on STEM and lunch breaks for valuable PLC time? Our STEM teacher has been there for everyone in the school who asked, without fail or complaint. So, who is going to fill in for the positions they're already filling in for? Is it exceptional to settle for this? Your students and staff deserve to feel valued, supported, and challenged to grow. Well, after helping pass this bond, after filling out engagement surveys, and after their supervisors were allowed to fill open
010positions from the outside, you told them that their jobs were over. That they have roughly 11 days to pack their things and use their PTO only, by the way, upon approval. Some of these teachers have given AISD decades. And this is their thank you. And someone else can do their job. Their roles don't align with enrollment. I ask how many students do we need to justify a cafeteria monitor or a test facilitator. All of the grades have to eat lunch and take tests, regardless of count. You also believe a thriving staff continuously learns and strives for excellence. Well, if this happened to you, would you feel valued, supported, or challenged to grow? What if it happened to your co-workers? Could you continue to thrive knowing that any day you could be next? Would you still
011strive for excellence? Would you even take a job in this district if you knew this had happened before? You believe in strong partnerships with families in the community. Then why does it feel like this decision was practically made in secret? I actually have a page out of our yearbook here. And this is a photo of you, Dr. Smith, uh with a couple students on our science night. They're showing you their projects. When you sat with them, did you know that this cut was coming to their STEM teacher? At the very least, this decision feels rust and rushed, I'm sorry, and out of touch. But if it was planned for any serious period of time, it feels callous and a little shameful. Resources must be maximized to promote learning and maintain effective fiscal management. Is that
012my 1-minute timer? >> It's your 3-minute timer, Mr. Green. >> Okay. >> Ask you to just wrap up your remarks. >> Yes. Um So, yeah, um, to wrap up, you know, pardon my layman's understanding, but supporting our staff taking a backseat to 60 million for Astro Turf and laptops, sitting on 168 acres of empty land worth over 15 million as of last year, doesn't feel like uh a valuable use of resources. I understand that payroll accounts for a large portion of the budget, as you stated. But I shouldn't have to stand here and tell you that it's because your people are your most valuable resource. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Perine. Our next registered speaker is Jesse Webb. >> I have uh I'll take my time. >> You don't have to take it if
013you'd like not to. >> I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you, Mr. Webb. Our next registered speaker is Michelle Sellers. Ms. Sellers, you'll have 3 minutes. >> Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. I am the STEM Lab Manager for Burgin Elementary, and I'm sorry, I'm very emotional. So, I'm going to try to get this through this as quickly as possible. Uh first and foremost, Arlington ISD prides itself on being a STEM district. Without STEM Lab Managers in place, there will be a significant gap between the district's STEM identity and the reality in practice. This elimination of STEM Lab Managers' position has been a great source of distress for the science teachers. They value STEM Lab Managers immeasurably for the time we can save them by prepping. We know where everything is and what
014needs to be put together. Assistance during labs when several groups are working on investigations, cleaning the lab equipment and materials, and making room for the next group that comes in. Teachers do not have time to go in and search for the materials they need, nor do they know where things are, what to get, and if they're out, how to reorder it. They can teach more effectively when we're there to assist them. If they have to clean up the labs, they are unclear as to the best way to do this, the most efficient and effective, where they can help conserve materials. Not to mention, it will cut into their actual hands-on learning time. STEM lab managers are more than STEM lab managers. We sub when they need subs. We cover classes so teachers can go to
015art meetings. We cover classes so the teachers can do their PLC meetings. And that way they can get together and work done as a team on things that need to be done in their grade level. We assist admin whenever they need coverage for detention, or when kids can't go to Yes Day or the special events. We have to We cover for that, too. And we cover all the extracurricular activities and help out whenever they have other fun activities at the school. And we still do our job on top of all of that. So, we're not giving up our job. We're doing that as well as all those other jobs. Furthermore, the lab resources can go wrong in so many ways. There's no one to keep track of what is needed, what needs to be ordered,
016when and where to order it. No one will be responsible for the STEM lab materials. Items may be borrowed without being returned. And without clear accountability, materials could easily be lost or misplaced. When a STEM lab manager is needed again, and I'm pretty sure at some point they're going to be, it may be expensive to regain control of inventory. In conclusion, eliminating STEM lab managers would have far-reaching effects on schools beyond what the board may have anticipated. The impact would extend to classroom instruction, teacher support, lab organization, and the overall effectiveness effectiveness of STEM learning. And it's not too late to change your mind. It's not too late to say you had to reevaluate. And realize that we are far more valuable than anybody could have ever imagined. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Sellers.
017There are no other items on this morning's agenda. And all of our business being concluded, we have no business in closed session. We will adjourn this meeting at We'll call it 8:45.