001Wow. Good evening. I will rec convene into open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees for May 7th, 2026 beginning at 7:01 p.m. We'll begin tonight with our pledges and they will be led by Ditto Elementary student Timothy Lusk. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. All right, you may be seated. At this time, we'll take our moment of silence. All right, to take to learn a bit more about the student who led us in the pledge tonight, I'm going to turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tyena Northington. Miss
002Northingington, >> members of the board, Timothy is a rising sixth grader at Ditto Elementary School. You got to see it beyond our beautiful um junior high school students here. But let me tell you a little bit about him. He has two s three siblings, Benjamin, Elizabeth, and Emily. Um, he says that world geography and studying our earth and the landscape is one of the most exciting things he does when he's at school every day at Ditto. But he especially loves his favorite teacher, Miss McCoy. Miss McCoy makes him feel special. And he says he loves the positive environment and how the teachers strive for their best interest individually. Um, if he could have one meal for the rest of his time at Ditto, it'd be French fries. Many of us probably still want to have
003that one meal across the board. And when he is not doing something with his siblings or with his family, you're likely going to find him doing something in arts and crafts and being really creative. His young mind is just ready to explore the world and to navigate it. And I know after Ditto, he's got a lot of things that he's ready to tackle. So, we want to thank you so much, Timothy, for leading us in the pledges this evening. [applause] That brings us to our recognition portion of the evening. After recognitions, we're going to take a short recess to take pictures with our honores in the boardroom and in the lobby and leading the recognition portion of our agenda tonight. It'll go back to our chief communications officer, Miss Northingington. >> Thank you so much,
004President Chop. I would like you all to join me in welcoming the young junior high varsity mixed choir representing the highest level of coral excellence in their campus. This talented group brings together the varsity treble and tenerbass students for major performances throughout the year including the UIL concert and site readading contest. They've actually earned the designation of performing at both TMEA and the American Coral Directors Association. They're known for their strong tradition of excellence. Under the direction of Christy Jones and Keith Daniel, these students are leaders both on stage and across their campus, and they're a mighty big group. Please help me welcoming the Young Junior High Varsity Mixed Choir. [applause] >> [singing] [music] >> world. [singing] The sharpest tool in the shed [clears throat] looking kind [music and singing] of dumb. Finger and her
005thumb shape came up and fell on her forehead. [singing and music] Well, the years are coming and they don't stop coming. Fed to the rules [singing] and I hit the ground. Did it make sense not to live for fun? Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb. So much to do, so much to see. So [singing] what's wrong with taking the back street? Never never know. You never never know. You'll never shine if you don't glow. Oh, hey n. [singing] Hey now, go play. Hey n [singing] get [singing] all that glitter is gold. Only shooting [singing] stars break the mold. [music] It's a cool cool place and they say it gets colder. Buckle up now. [singing] Judging by the hole in the satellite picture. [singing] The water's getting warm, so you might as well
006swim on fire. >> Firef [music] [singing] is gold. >> [singing] >> Only shooting stars break the mold. [music] [applause] Those might have been some familiar mashups that you might have noticed if you caught on to them. Thank you once again. Let's give a round of applause to the young junior high school varsity band. [applause] >> Back of their shirts, talk less, sing more. very fitting and appropriate for them. They're a large group, so it's great to see them and have so many students active in our choir at Young. Next, I would like you all to turn your attention to the screens for a special video highlighting our Arlington ISD student of the month for May from Venture High School, senior Monica Brahas. >> Venture High School student of the month is Monica Barahas. [music] Monica's
007taking advantage of the whole student experience in Arlington ISD. Not only is she a distinguished [music] scholar, but she has also taken advantage of the career tech center. Monica has gone through all of Arlington ISD [music] and John's and prek through ranking through workman and now to adventure. >> I've had the privilege of being her adviser the last 2 years [music] and she's become family. I like her coming in every day, hearing her [music] stories. She joined the Chick-fil-A leadership. She was in the hope squad on the [music] student council. Anything she put her mind to, she went for it. And I'm really going to miss her when she's gone. >> We are really excited to honor Monica at Venture. We don't always get to see a student [music] from the very beginning to their
008graduation date, but with Monica, she came to us as a true freshman. [music] Now, we're going to get to watch her walk the stage. And all through that time, she's been an amazing leader, somebody [music] that we want to represent us as a Venture student. >> She's been an inspiration, not to just myself, [music] but to her classmates as well. It's been truly remarkable being here in the program, being committed, showing that drive, showing that passion, showing the love for the craft that she's honed. [music] She truly loves it. It's really been encouraging and inspirational for me as an instructor to have someone like Monica, [music] and I look forward to see where she's going to take this. >> Super proud of Monica. If we had more students like [music] her, it would be an
009amazing place. Congratulations. [applause] >> At this time, I'd like to invite Monica, if you want to come to the microphone and say a few words. This is tall. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Monica Barahas and I'm very honored to be here to talk about my uh experience here at Venture and how it shaped me into the person I am today. When I first started at Venture, I started out as a freshman in the very first bridge camp program that Venture offered. Everything felt so different from a normal high school experience. Venture didn't have sports, didn't have a lot of things that a normal high school would offer. But looking back at it, that's what made Venture so unique. At the beginning, I was very outgoing, but I often got into a lot of
010drama in situations I could have avoided. At time, as time went on, sorry. As time went on, friendships went on and changed, and I started to realize the experience I had with those type of people just became lessons. During my sophomore year, I faced challenges including >> including losing a family member. Got you. At that time in my life, it became a really good reflection on me. Even though it could be a very bad situation, it made me think about the people I had around me and about who I wanted to be later on in life and how I wanted to live my life. By my junior year, I became more focused. I stayed out of drama and put all my energy into my classwork and my future. Starting cosmetology was another big step for
011me. At first, I kept to myself. I was afraid that talking to other people in my class would get me into more problems that I had in the past. But over time, I opened up, made new friends, and gained confidence in myself. And I worked hard to earn my cosmetology license, passing my written exam on my very first try, and earning the highest score out of my instructor's both Bday classes for my practical exam, which I am very proud of. One of the [applause] Thank you. One of the biggest things Venture taught me was growth. I've changed a lot from the person I was when I was 15. The teachers never gave up on me. They listened to me, support me, and checked up on me and reminded me that I was capable of so
012much more. Even during difficult moments, they always showed and they always showed cared and encouragement and that truly meant a lot to me. Some people see venture as a get in and get out school, but once you become a part of it, you realize it is such so much more than that. Venture is a really special place. You make relationships and emotional relationships that connect you with the teachers and not only them the students as well. Those bonds and supports are memories and it would it it makes the experience truly worthwhile. As I prepare to leave Venture as of next week, I will always be grateful for the lessons and memories and support I received here. This is this school has helped me grow not only as a student but also as a person. Thank
013you. [applause] Monica, don't sit down just yet. You've got a bunch of trustees that I'm sure going to offer you more than a handshake. They might give you a hug. It was Thank you for sharing your story with us. And I know your principal, Mr. Dr. Meeks is an incredible guy who leads that campus with such heart and grace and I could hear that in in your words. Dr. Smith, Miss Barahas, we are extremely proud of you and I think every adult in this room probably can sympathize that maybe we got into a little bit of drama we shouldn't have gotten in earlier in our lives, right? It's called life lessons that we learn along the way. But one of the things that stands out to me the most was things like grit and fortitude
014in your story. things like perseverance, things like determination, and here you are today being honored as Arlington ISD's student of the month. Congratulations on all of that. [applause] Thank you for so so much for talking about how venture reaches students in ways no other school can. Uh it was near and dear to my heart. My daughter graduated from Venture and has gone on to be a successful physicist because of Venture. And I hope the best for you. And in honor of that, I would I'm glad to present you with a lapel pin that each one of our trustees wear on their lapels. And we would like you to have this. [applause] Thank you, Monica. Congratulations on a on a great high school career. We're all really proud of you. [applause] Next, we're proud to recognize
015some of Arlington ISD's wrestling national regional and state qualifiers. Maybe national day, who knows? Uh these outstanding student athletes earned first place finishes at the district meet securing their place among the top competitors in the region and the state. They have also risen the challenge pushing through some tough competition advancing to that regional level while continuing their journey not only to state but academically. That's what's most impressive is that these students maintain such high levels of academic rigor along the way. We are have several from our different campuses. We're going to call them up by campus. So, we'll start with 6A from Arlington High School. Our wrestlers are Ashlin Bacon and Faith Brahas. [applause] >> Let's go, ladies. >> Got some hardware there. I love that. You go right back in the middle and we'll
016take a photo with you guys. Make sure you pull it down so we can see those metals. Let's see. There we go. >> We'll hold it, Mom. You're good. All >> you come back up. Don't be shy. >> All right. She says she got it. Congratulations once again, Arlington High School. >> [applause] >> Next up from Lamar High School, we have a state qualifier, Maris Reese, Cameron Cole, and Henry Richardson. [applause] We have some nice quarter zips there. We'll come right back here and take a photo in the in the middle. Please don't go too far. thinking about it right now. [applause] >> From Martin High School, we have Geneva Province and I believe we have, is it Lala Tuland Steel? Is Lala here or just Geneva? Geneva. Geneva is representing today. And we've got
017[applause] a few of our friends. [clears throat] You come on up, Dad. Mom and dad. Here we go. We'll post all these photos on our Facebook pages and on our Flickr pages as well. And we've got our AP coming down. >> Give us hold. Congratulations, Geneva. Got it. Okay. [applause] Next from Sam Houston High School, Long Tall Texans, we have Yaritzi Espan Espinosa, Sophia Ornales, and Aiden Winters. [applause] Aiden couldn't be with us tonight, but he is a regional champion and a state qualifier. That's awesome. From Sam Houston. Hold. Mom, you got that one? Got got her. Sister, sister, mom. I mean, just saying. Making sure you got your photo. Apologies. All right. Congratulations once again, Sam Houston. [applause] And finally tonight, we have from Sigin High School, a 5A district, Samira Whitley. CONGRATULATIONS. [applause]
018>> Looks like SM's heavily involved in a lot of things. >> Beautiful leather leather jacket. Hold that beautiful smile. One. >> She won. This is This is a big moment for her. [laughter] [applause] >> Even better. Love it. Love it. Congratulations to our wrestlers this evening. You guys can take back to the dis. Okay, our next recognition is item 1D and that is administrative appointments. And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Smith. >> Trustees, we are celebrating a lot tonight. We're celebrating great leadership in our school district, too. It's my honor to introduce to you our uh new principal at John's Elementary, Miss Mcdalia Castillo. Please give her a round of applause. [applause] [applause] McDalia brings over two decades of educational experience and a strong commitment to student success to her role as
019principal of John's Elementary. She currently serves as principal at Blandon Elementary in Arlington ISD where she has demonstrated effective leadership since 2023. Miss Castillo began her career as a bilingual teacher and has since held various instructional and administrative roles across Arlington ISD, Grand Prairie ISD, and Mansfield ISD. She holds a Bachelor of Education from Texas Wesleyan University and a Bachelor of Science and Biology from the University of Puerto Rico. Congratulations, McDalia. Thank you. [applause] Good evening everyone. I would like to thank Superintendent Dr. Smith, Board President Mr. Chappa, the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees, and District Leadership for the honor and the opportunity to serve as the new principal of John's Elementary. I am truly humbled by the trust and the confidence that you have placed in me to lead such an important school community.
020Being named principal at John's is both a blessing and a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I also want to thank my family for their unconditional love, the sacrifices, encouragement, and unwavering belief in me as I continuing continue following my passion for serving others through education. None of this would be possible without their support. A very special thanks to my executive director, Mr. Toppaser, for his mentorship, for his guidance and leadership throughout my journey. Thank you for always pushing me to grow and lead with purpose. I also want to thank Mr. Son for making the tip and the tap feel a lot less scary and for reminding me that growth comes through challenge. Before beginning this next chapter, I need to recognized recognize the incredible Bllandon Elementary community. Bllandon has been so much more
021than a school to me. It has been a home filled with relationships, memories, growth, laughter, challenges, and people I deeply love and respect. The students, staff, and families at Blinton have shaped me both personally and professionally, and I will always carry them with me in my heart. To my leadership team at Blandon, thank you for standing beside me every step of the way as we worked together to bring our school to a strong finish this year. Thank you for the long hours, the long weekends of work, the hard conversations, and the relentless commitment to doing what is best for students. Your dedication and heart have meant more to me than words can express. One thing I strongly believe is that schools are more than buildings. Schools are people. They are the teachers who pour their
022hearts into children every single day. They are the families who trust us with what matters most to them. and they are the students who walk through our doors carrying unlimited potential. As a leader, I will continue to lead with the belief that every child can do hard things, overcome obstacles, and accomplish great things when they are supported, challenged, loved, and believed in. I am eager to begin working alongside the staff at John's Elementary, including assistant principal Miss Flores, as we continue building a culture that puts students first and strives for continuous improvement every single day. John's will be a place to learn, a place to lead, and a place to belong. And I am truly blessed and honored to be part of Arlington ISD. and I look forward to serving the John's community with integrity,
023passion, and heart. Thank you. [applause] My next announcement, I would like to introduce our next principal at Gun Junior High Fine Arts and Dual Language Academy, Dr. Thomas Flag. [screaming] [cheering] >> [cheering] >> So, Thomas, before you go, I have to say a few things about you. Yes, [laughter] >> we got excited right there. I'll keep it brief, I promise. Thomas brings nearly two decades of experience in education with a strong background in both instructional leadership and fine arts education. He currently serves as associate principal at the Dr. Marcelo Kavaso's Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Arlington ISD and has previously supported Gun Junior High and Fine Arts and Dual Language Academy in a leadership capacity. Dr. Flag began his career in music education and has held multiple leadership roles across Fort Worth ISD,
024Dallas ISD, and now Arlington ISD. He holds a doctorate of education in educational leadership from Texas Christian University along with a master's degree from Concordia University, Texas and a bachelor's degree in music education from Langston University. Congratulations, THOMAS. [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> WELL, thank you. Thank you to President Chapa, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. I am truly honored to be named the new principal of Gun Junior High School Fine Arts and Dual Language Academy. I'm grateful for the continued trust in my leadership throughout this journey here in Arlington ISD. This is a special weekend for me personally. I will also walk the stage of Texas Christian University receiving my doctorate degree. And so, as luck would have it, my family is here from Oklahoma City. Over my right shoulder, my mom and dad
025are here. Hello. And then from Detroit, Michigan is my nana, my auntie, and my other cousins. So, hello to them. Thank you all for being here to celebrate this moment with me. I also want to acknowledge my friends. Thank you so much to my friends, my family who are here in person and online. Um, thank you. I have received your text messages. Thank you for your love, encouragement, and support. Those have carried me through every season of my leadership journey. To my rock, Kevin, thank you for being my biggest supporter. And yes, Gun Jr. High School is in the house. First, I want to thank the children of Floyd Gun, Bill Mary, and Susan Gun. They're here tonight. Thank you so much for being here. Your support means everything. [applause] To Dr. Varnell, thank you
026for your mentorship, your guidance, and your belief in me. I look forward to carrying that same leadership forward and continuing to serve uh the district with excellence. And last, but not least, to my incredible staff at Gun JH, thank you for always showing up and supporting me. I am truly peacock proud to return home as your principal. Thank you. [applause] is we have a microphone replacement. We're going to now welcome our newest principal at Rodriguez Junior High, Mr. Jared Zhan. [applause and cheering] >> Mr. Zan brings extensive leadership experience and a deep understanding of secondary education to his role as principal of Rodriguez Junior High. He currently serves as our director of school improvement in Arlington ISD's office of school leadership where he has supported campuses since 2019. Mr. ZH previously served at a principal
027as a principal at both Shackleford and Ferguson Junior Highs in addition to holding multiple assistant principal and teaching roles within the district. He holds a master of education from the University of North Texas and a bachelor of behavioral science from Harden Simmons University. Congratulations, Jared. [applause] >> All right. Uh, President Chaba, Dr. Smith, members of the board, I do want to thank you guys for this opportunity and noted that I actually was wearing the same tie as in that picture up there y'all had up there earlier. So, maybe I need to update my my tie selection. I I don't know what's that saying. That was a few year old picture I think when I got the director position. And I do want to add on a little bit to tonight the theme of I want
028to recognize venture again. Um just like David mentioned my daughter graduated from venture last year and just want to recognize their staff and their team over there. Made a great impact on her and just what a great program it is and the staff. So I want to add on the praise and venture while I'm up here and just recognize them. And um on top of that would like to recognize the group from Rodriguez back here. We have a group group of rattlers back here. [applause] Okay. Thank you. And I just appreciate them. Long long day of school. Everybody had all these staff that worked all day today and came out to the fun activity of a board meeting in the evening. Right. So, thank you for that that show of support. And do want to
029recognize my son Luke Z is sitting right here in the right beside me where I got up. Um he he's here from college and going back back tomorrow. my wife and daughter at an activity for her tonight, so they they could not be here, but I just want to recognize them for all their all their support um throughout my career and uh education. And then appreciate the long info about my experience. Do want to say that, you know, I've spent 25 years in Arlington ISD. I've I've all but one year has been in the district. I've enjoyed all the various positions um Dr. Smith talked about. Um, I've worked, this will be my seventh junior high to work at within the district. Maybe I'll hit them all before, uh, before we go. We'll see. But
030I, um, what was really unique was this January um, I was given the opportunity in my role to go out and actually spend about a month back on campus. And I wasn't like walking around just um, you know, doing what not minimize what we do sometimes where we walk around and then we leave. No, I spent all day there doing lunch duty, doing bus duty, doing help helping out, doing everything we do back on the campus. And honestly, that that experience just helped uh just kind of rekindle why I was an educator, right? I I don't think anybody got into education to be a director of school improvement. Um I've never asked anybody who what they wanted to do and that's what they said they wanted to be. So that that uh that time really
031ignited that idea of I want to be back on a campus. I want to be working with kids. I want to be working with teachers. I want to continue to give back to the community in a in a more direct way. And honestly, it was the also the experience with the Rodriguez staff. Just when I saw the potential in the students there and when I saw the work that the staff was putting in daily to improve, it was a motivation to go be part of what's happening over there. So, um I'm I'm really excited about that. But before I get over there, I do want I do want to acknowledge um Chief Champion sitting over here. Um Brett's only been here, you know, less than a year, but I would say he's had a big
032impact on on me personally. He's helped me grow and see the just operations of a district from a different lens. Has helped me grow professionally, has helped push me. Um all the OSLEDs, many of them I was principles with them. We moved to central office together. We've worked together for the last few years and they have really just helped me grow as I kind of work in partnership with them in my current role. So, I appreciate the growth and opportunities I've had with them. And also, um, wanted to recognize all the principles I've worked with for the last five or six years. I just as I'm out there trying to help and work with them, I'm learning from them. I'm seeing new systems they put in place and I really appreciate the opportunity, the spirit
033in which I've been able to work with them and how open they are to um, getting better. So, now I get to go turn around and implement some of those same strategies again and all those things I I learned from them. And I am wrapping up, but I do want to recognize also Michelle Wilmouth. Michelle Wilmouth has been serving as the interim principal. [applause] And as I can, my son's going to keep calling me old as I make these connections, right? But Michelle, Michelle was my supervisor when I got my first principal job. So, she was the person who helped push me to become a principal and gave me support when I was my first principal job. And now I'm going to continue to work with her as we transition things at Rodriguez over here.
034So, I appreciate Michelle's um support of Rodriguez this year, but also just her support of me throughout throughout my career as we uh kind of come full circle right here. But overall, really to the just the Rodriguez community, I just want the parents, the students, and the staff to know that I'm excited to join over there. Um I'm going to be in the work with you and I'm just excited to join join the team and excited to just help Rodriguez continue to grow like they have this year and continue to improve. And I thank you guys for the opportunity. YEAH. >> [applause] >> WELL, WE HAVE THREE AMAZING LEADERS joining our campus and we have some other leaders that are actually in the department level. I want to tell you tonight about our risk management
035department. Their team has actually earned a prestigious TASBY fund excellence award for their innovative approach to workplace safety. After identifying that more than half of the workplace incidents were preventable, this team launched what they call the near miss reporting program, making it easy for employees to report potential hazards through simple tools like QR codes. Their efforts have reduced our injuries and strengthened our culture of safety across our district, one of our priorities. If I could ask you all to turn your attention to the screens for a short video on this program. Arlington ISD emphasized near misreporting to prevent injuries before they happened. Uh we looked over the data and seen that more than 50% of the injuries were preventable. [music] Risk manager created a QR link where you could simply click it and it has
036a couple of questions on there for you to answer and you can upload photos and it transposed to our risk management department. So it's [music] it's really a simple process and very easy for anyone to do. >> Employees are not scared of reporting the injuries. It is a non-threatening [music] approach. which we are taking everybody work collaboratively towards the trust building >> this leadership process that Kurt and his team have have embarked on is a process of including everybody from the ground up in one collective effort and they've just done a fabulous job >> as coordinator of library services [music] I sat down with a team because of the the near miss program and let's look at how we do things and how we can do them uh safely and what are some areas that
037y'all are concerned [music] about and my team said, "Lifting the heavy boxes." And we ended up buying a hydraulic lift table that is on wheels that can be rolled from the warehouse [music] space into our department area. And that changed things dramatically. >> I actually received a call from our maintenance department saying how easy it is when they're on, you know, site, meaning that they can just scan and go. It's a scan and go process. and I can foresee the next school year being even better because we have this program [music] implemented here at Arlington ISD. [applause] So, as you saw, that's a statewide program for TASBY for folks in the audience. And tonight, we actually have Betsy Morton with us. Um, she's from TASBY to say a few words and to present our team
038with an awesome uh awesome certificate. Come on down. >> [applause] >> Dr. Smith, I appreciate everything and I appreciate you guys hiring such awesome people that have put the employees first and have actually implemented these programs as well as multiple other things. Um, I have to say Kurt has been phenomenal in reaching out and getting feedback and Jennifer has been as well. she shares um any of her ideas with us and we appreciate their openness to learn and their openness in sharing your programs with us so that we can help other districts as well. So, thank you very much Jennifer, thank you Kurt for all you do and thank you for allowing them and for you guys putting safety first at your district. We appreciate that. You like to come take a photo [applause] >>
039and the board will join for a photo just as soon as we recess. >> All right. Congratulations to our risk management staff. I'm gonna ask him to stay up there with Miss Morton. Um, we are going to go ahead and move to our recess at this time. So, uh, so we will have photo opportunities out in the lobby here in the boardroom and, uh, we hope you'll stick around and take some photos. It is 7:41. Trustees, let's aim to be back in about 10 minutes. We're in recess. >> [music] [music] >> All right, it [music] is 7:59 and we are back from recess. >> We're going to go ahead and get started. >> 18 minutes later. >> He's counting. >> [music] >> Okay, we'll move on to our open forum for agenda items. Uh, Miss
040Aosta, do do we have any speakers registered for open forum? >> President Chapa, we do not. >> Okay, we'll move on now to the more substantive part of our evening. Uh, beginning with committee and staff reports. Um, I'm going to also at this time just recognize you can all everybody here can see her, but Miss Haynes is attending virtually tonight. Um her daughter Savannah just finished her first year at Arizona State University and she is going to help her with logistics and get her back home. So um we appreciate Miss Haynes joining us during this busy time. Our first report tonight, item A, is a report on the Arlington ISD bond election. Dr. Smith, trustees, just briefly tonight, we wanted to recap our uh recent election results for May 2nd, 2026 for our bond election
041that you called. We have a big thank you to give to our community. Um, thanks to their support, we have the ability to talk about propositions A and B and is a reminder to everyone. There was a lot of hard work that went in by not only staff but community members to make that happen. And we are extremely grateful for their trust and support and allowing us to do that and grateful for your leadership as trustees to call that election and also be able to go out and inform the community appropriately about those propositions. Proposition A, just to recap, was $438,755,000. And the sample of uh different projects that could be incorporated in Proposition A are all listed there. We are excited about these items and you even have a couple items on your consent
042agenda tonight that allow us to get this moving rather quickly. Proposition B, obviously the devices, as we know, this was a result of legislation in 2019. the reason we had to list this out separately now and we're thankful for the the understanding and support of our community in the replacement of technology devices across our system for our students and our staff. Obviously, we didn't get the uh result that we'd hoped for Proposition C. In Proposition C, we had a focus on reinvesting some money into some of our fields in Arlington ISD and to expand that those field use um at some of our baseball and softball fields by providing turf fields there. We wanted to get more people on those and um using those on a more regular basis. As you know, weather is a
043challenge for us during the springtime and uh does impact our families in a pretty significant way. In addition, the costs of uh maintaining those um natural fields in our school district is pretty significant and continues to grow every year. Uh now that the election is over, I can very clearly say this is still a need in our school district. And one of the things that we're going to need to talk about coming up here is what do we do now? And I actually have gotten that question numerous times from the community this week about what's now for Proposition C. And I think this is one that we're going to need to bring back to you rather quickly to get your thoughts from a board perspective. And I'll revisit that at the end of this tonight.
044So, a couple of things that are next um for us. A citizens bond oversight committee. We're going to be uh talking to you in the coming weeks about what you desire for the 2026 bond. We already have a citizens bond oversight committee for our 2019 bond. And we have a couple options. So you can have separate committees both overseeing the two different uh phases of bonds, the 2019 and the 2026. You can have that combined into one or we can do something very different. So that is going to need to come to you all rather soon so that we can get that organized for the upcoming year because as I said we want to hit the ground running. Another item to point out is that we uh need to have continued communication about all bond
045projects in our school district. One of the things we heard loud and clear as we were talking about the 2026 bond package for our community is that the level of communication to our community has increased significantly and they appreciated that and we need to continue that as we begin the phases of this bond project uh in phase one of the recently passed bonds. Our community needs to know what was approved and what's been completed on a very regular basis and we need to keep them updated along the way. So anticipate continued communication at a level that you have seen recently on all of those bond projects. As I mentioned some of the phase one projects we are already getting underway with some of the consent agenda items. Tonight we have some design things that need
046to get moving for our 18 plus facility and for South Davis Elementary School in particular. and you'll see some of those items listed on the consent agenda tonight for your approval. And then finally, all of this leads us to some really significant long range facility planning that needs to get kicked off, if not this summer, immediately when we get back during the school year in August because we have some very big decisions to make coming up. Over the next couple of weeks, you'll get an updated demographer report from our second opinion demographer. So, you will have both of those pieces of information for you. We also will be talking about sixth grade and the study that we've been doing about moving sixth grade to the junior high potentially and our board will need to weigh
047in on that before we get the long range facility planning committee kicked off. So there are big decisions coming to Arlington ISD in the um future months. And while the the bond election has passed, the work hasn't stopped and it's going to continue moving forward. Last, I'd like to open it up to any thoughts that you all have or comments that you want to make about the recent bond elections in Props A, B, and C out there. And if you want to begin weighing in on any thoughts about potentials for Proposition C that did not pass, feel free to do so. But also remember that we will be bringing that back to you in the very near future to talk about options for Prop C. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Are there any trustees with
048comments or questions on the bond report? Okay, Miss Richardson, >> I was frustrated with hearing some of our community sentiment with Propsy um from different lenses. We heard it and one I heard was but what about the arts? But what about the arts? Well, we have supported the arts. We have supported in 2019. We have so much that we can show that we have already done for the arts. Well, we've heard, well, turf is just for athletics. Not necessarily. Our marching band kids use the turf. Other people are using the turf. I think about our students. One of the things I love when I think about our AISD students is we have a well-rounded kids and they may do UIL, they may do academics, they may do sports, and our job in public education is
049to make sure they have the best of all of those things to be able to participate. whether it's a musical instrument, whether it's turf for a field. I found some frustration when actually speaking to a high school baseball student and he said he was so happy it did not pass. Exact. That was literally Melody when he said that. I said, "Excuse me." Well, it's dangerous. He said, "I heard." You ready? I heard I can get staff infections from that. So, it's not safe for me. So, we got to have an educational conversation about all the advantages of tur turf and why we need to make sure we're doing the research. But what he said at the end of it, he was like, "Well, I just heard some adults talking about it." We have to make
050sure that we educate our community better. We need to make sure that when we say, "But what about the arts?" Yes, what about the arts? We want to support them. We also can support athletes at the same time. One of the things that is most frustrating to me, especially with the MAC synthetic turf replacement, is I don't know if our voters and our community understood, no matter what, it has to be replaced. So, we're either doing it through a bond or we're cutting stuff out of our regular budget, which is already not enough thanks to the state. So what you're telling us is okay, we need to go and look at our numbers, which is really people, which is positions for something that has to be replaced. Just like your living room carpet has to
051be replaced over a time, so does that at the MAC. We need that. So I hope moving forward that our community understands that it's not just about athletics. It's not just about wanting turf. there was so much more behind it with monetary reasons with watering. When I tell people that our coaches maintain our fields, not a lawn's crew, not a grounds crew, they are shocked. Well, shouldn't your coaches be co coaching? Yeah, they should be. But we have them doing so many other things just like our teachers in the classrooms. So, I hope that the community understands that when they chose not to vote for Prop C, what we lost and how this is going to continue to affect our budget. Thank you, Miss Richardson. Any other trustees with comments or questions? And I just
052will say that's interesting uh uh comment on the the the fine arts piece. If if you were here, for the folks who were here for our meeting where we put um the bond props A, B, and C to the voters, you will recall that there was a Prop D that was withdrawn that night because there was a decision to pay for Prop D from 2019 interest uh earnings which was just for [clears throat] fine arts. And so the the to the extent anyone is confused about whether or not fine arts was part of this bond package and we were not considering fine arts, we absolutely were. um and we're going to continue to do that. We just decided to use a different pot of money to do it than going out with a new bond
053for that. So, that's disappointing to hear. Um definitely will echo everything Mr. Richardson said in terms of getting the message out. Um always a little bit of confusion. I think um I I just want to say from a ma level serving on the the TASBY board for the the state association of school boards, every district in the state as a member and my colleagues on that board have been frustrated for the last few years because bond packages have um especially around athletics have been uh failing at disproportionate rates. I think last November there were 22 districts that went out for a bond proposition related to athletics and only four of them passed. And I think um there's a sense in in communities that when they see athletic facilities on the ballot, um they're not thinking
054about our situation where we're mainly paying to replace things that we already have and have it paid for in in many cases with um previous bonds. Uh they think stadiums and there were of course no stadiums on this ballot. And I I can't help but if I just, you know, had to take a guess that a lot of communication in this city the last three weeks leading up to the election about public funding of stadiums um might have contributed to uh what happened with Prop C, especially with it being so close. Um I am very happy with the fact that that it was so close. I think that that is a testament to the hard work our community did to educate voters about that. um these types of propositions have been failing pretty largely and
055so the fact it was close at all I think is a is a real testament to the message we got out and of course Props A and B passed pretty handily. It was I believe it close to 6040 the final canvas isn't done but um our community has a long history of supporting our bond packages and I'm very happy that that continued to be true here in 2026. Dr. Smith, >> if I could just add one more thing. This is just food for thought uh for trustees before we have the next um discussion about uh Proposition C and what your desires might be moving forward. Um we're gathering some data right now, but you know, based on previous legislative conversations in the previous legislative session that there's some push statewide to change uh election rules
056for local school districts and cities regarding bond elections in particular. And two of the the proposals that were thrown out during that time were a 60% threshold and a 66% threshold or a twothirds threshold. And in both of those cases, we would have failed all three propositions in Arlington ISD, despite what President Chapo said of us having very good margins for Prop A and Prop B. I think it's important for us to consider the narrative at the state level when we're thinking about bond propositions for Arlington ISD and some of the challenges that we may be facing legislatively in the coming months. >> Miss Fowler, >> thank you. President Choa, I just want to say thank you to our citizens bond oversight committee. They put in months and months and months going around and and
057access accessing things and looking and making notes and talking with people. They spent so much time trying to get it right and and we appreciate them. A lot of hard work that that went into that and I just want to say thank you. And you know, we got the A and the B. We didn't get the C, but I just want to thank the committee because they really really did a great job. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Any other comments from trustees tonight on this item? Okay, [clears throat] seeing none, we'll move on to report item B. This is a report on a key progress measure from marketing engagement and Dr. Smith. >> Trustees, tonight I'll invite uh Tyena Northing and Dr. Natalie Lopez up to the podium. They're going to tag team the uh presentation
058on our key progress measures under our priority of marketing and engagement. As you know, we have two key progress measures under this area. And again, those are annual marks for us to try to hit that would be milestones for us as an organization stepping forward in under that um priority for you. And they'll join me at the podium tonight and present to you. >> Thank you so much, members of the board. Dr. Smith, I want to invite also Natalie to join me. Uh this is a dual um a dual KPM. I would say this is our priority that we've been able to work uh representing culture and marketing and engagement. And our purpose tonight is to update you on those key progress measures. So our progress measures for this school year were to increase our
059net promoter score from a 41 to a 42 on the annual parent and family survey. And secondly, it was to measure the impact of a targeted marketing campaign to re-engage families that have chosen a charter school by March 30th of 2026. So I'll invite Dr. Lobus to talk about the parent survey. [laughter] I'll keep this brief because we're covering two. We administered our parent survey from March 2nd through the 23rd. We strategically administer that during our openhouse um meetings and opportunities because we really authentically want to capture as many parents and get them to participate because their voice matters. uh we were able to survey uh or have 11,824 parents participate in the survey with an overall engagement rate of 23.3% and a quality response rate of 19.2%. Happy to let y'all know that um
060our net promoter score on our parent survey this year was a 44.8. So you can see that our promoters, those um parents that are like strong advocates for the district, uh nines and tens was at 59.2%. And then um we have a very small amount of detractors those that would um uh respond on our on our net promoter score question 0 to6 was only 14.4%. And so that calculates out to that overall 44.8 8 is our um NPS, which is a um that's a that's a great net promoter score. So happy that we [laughter and cough] exceeded um the 42 that we were going for. Uh like a three-point jump on NPS is uh it's meaningful. So, and our parent survey next steps now that we have this information, that's the NPS is one item
061of the many items that are on our parent survey. Um, so we're going to be releasing our parent survey results dashboard that identifies um, areas of focus and recognition. We'll be promoting our parent survey toolkit to our campus leaders. Um, this is something that they're used to to getting um, resources for support for goal setting based on the results. Um, and then the resources are are multilingual, so they're able to send out um, communications in multiple languages. [snorts] And that's just one of the many tools. Um we'll have outreach to uh principles on replicable best practices as we do when we evaluate kind of down to the campus level where we see any areas of extreme growth in uh parent perspective and a positive direction. We reach out and ask the principles what exactly did
062y'all do intentionally to obtain um this growth and then we share that out so that if something worked we want to make sure that um we're doing that all over. So uh there will also be district level review of trends and patterns. So down to the campus level, but of course at district level as well, and then sense making sessions with our family engagement council. So we will be coming back to y'all with the full breadth of depth of parent survey results. >> Thank you, Natalie. The second part of this KPM is about measuring the impact of a targeted campaign for families that have chosen specifically the charter option when it comes to why they chose an alternative um educational model. And so we actually developed a plan to be able to have this scope
063of work done. And that plan is five steps that I'm going to overview. We had to identify our target. And so getting to know what families left us in the 2425 school year was the first part of our targeted effort. Uh later on you'll I'll talk about the second part which is actually the families that chose to leave us for a charter in the first semester of this current school year. So once we identified our target, we were able to develop collateral. When we talk about marketing collateral, these are families that we needed to engage um in various ways. So, English and Spanish predominantly, making sure everything was bilingual, but also we had to have small things like a coloring book because if it's left on a door, we might want the child uh who
064always says around the corner, oh, what's on the door? You know, and so thinking about how they would go and grab this packet and it would be a coloring book of a school or of a soccer field or something with a piano. And so engaging that student on the back we had QR codes that tracked and showed us when someone might have scanned. Um we had stickers in there. We had a letter from Dr. Smith. And so we had all this collateral development. Um and there's still more collateral to be made I believe just to highlight our programs. But overall for this we wanted to find something that we could define what that packet looked like. Uh we actually attempted a door-todoor canvasing campaign. This is similar to what you guys have done in the
065past with Project Graduation. This is some type of effort that is just for these families. Uh this was done to 1,200 different homes in the Arlington area of those families that have left us for charter school specifically. And then we developed for that doortodoor we had to develop a survey. The real question is why? Why are these families making a different option? What can we do to gain their trust back or to have their families rejoin us? And so coming up with a only maximum five question survey that was intentional that they might do whether on the QR code or in a collateral piece or doortodoor canvasing was something that we took strategically an approach on. And then finally knowing that we had the information we targeted them with different types of digital ads. Um,
066and this was so that when they are searching on Pinterest or they're watching TV, they might see just a positive promotional item that's about our district. Not necessarily telling them click here to enroll, but just to start baking that sentiment and building that trust back with them. And so that was where our digital campaign came in play. So we've got a few of those items just here. I've got the coloring book that was designed by one of our interns. And then we've got a door knocker that is talking about we missed you and how we can regain them to be an Arlington ISD family. So I'm happy to say that we did get some people that answered their front door and and took our survey and I wanted to share what was important to them
067factor- wise when they are choosing that educational um opportunity for their child. It's about the academic performance of the campus. It's the options. It's the proximity for a lot of them to their current home. Uh so maybe some families might be willing to drive and specifically these charter families are making that effort uh but it's still within their circle. So they're willing to drive but not long enough to go 15 miles out. They still want to be in that 6 to8 mile radius. Interestingly enough, things like the class size or teacher staff ratio wasn't high on their list. And so it's about if there's an opportunity for their family, they're on there and they're ready for it. uh some of the feedback uh and the open comments were was very uh I eye eye opening
068for me. One mother or grand grandmother said that their grandson is in homeschool had no desire to come back. However, the younger grandsons are currently in our campuses and so this speaks to options which I know we spoke about earlier this evening about academic programming options and how we become um wider and broader in our opportunities. This is exactly what we heard. Further down, you see that there's one family that says, "I'm fine with my daughter continuing in Arlington, but my youngest son, he needs something else." And so, we need we need to now become that something else. And what can we offer to become that something else? And so, you could see this just in those responses. Some talk about opportunities and how we support them. And we knew we were going to have
069some of those barriers. Those are natural reasons why families make decisions. But I really wanted to hone in and feature these two because it's interesting to show that we have families that are split with how they're willing to travel for their children's education. So some of our next steps um is really I would like to have the opportunity to build a more timely exit survey. So we have um a longer turnaround right now. When I asked for the data of current students last year that were leaving and withdrawing, I wanted to shoot a you know quick online survey out to them. And we have to develop that still and so that is an immediate next step. Uh bless you already working with technology to develop an online survey and having we have that platform inhouse
070already. Um focus more on a printed mailer and personalized tours and inviting people by name. We can merge tag it but saying we would love to see you Cameron join us at this school and have an opportunity for that to be something they can do. Hosting a fall enrollment openhouse. We've got some great principles that are eager for students to come in their doors. They have already reached out to me personally this year on different times and they have said whatever I can do, I want to. And so we're going to do a trial run of some fall open houses at those specific campuses because it takes a lot of work to do that before the school year starts. And we recognize that. And then we want to find a way that in the spring
071when we naturally have our open houses that we invite prospective students just as much as we're inviting current students. Um, and so that's a different level of preparation for a campus because currently they're expecting the families come and they're visiting their child's schedule. And so we would have a cafeteria or a library where they would be able to almost have like a mini open house for that campus. Um, but we do believe that that would be a way to appease our prospective families and give them some more opportunities to come into our doors during the spring. So, we do believe with those both uh quick reports on our KPMs that we have achieved um those items for the 2025 school year when it comes to marketing and engagement priorities. Are there any questions? >> Thank
072you, Miss Northing. Any trustees with comments or questions? Mr. Mike, [cough] >> uh thank you for this excellent presentation. marketing engagement was uh one of the priorities for the board um because we truly believe that we are the best ones to be able to communicate how good we can do things for the community and like um Dr. Lopez said the 3.8 8 jump. That's That's no small feat. Like I expected one, but this this is I wouldn't say overkill. I mean, it is great. >> Um, what I do want to look at is slide nine. And so there are a few things that stick out to me. And of course we had we just had that workshop um with I think I think it was with the giraffe and how the music how we could
073you know think differently. >> And when I look at this slide it speaks to me in regards to what we looked at. For instance, when we look at the most important factors on choosing a school for the child, I see location pops up at 33.3%. And then when I look on the right hand side, the first and the last um comments really speak towards what we talked about as far as exploring some type of virtual option. I mean, even the child who is homeschooled and has no desire to turn return to high school, >> what would a virtual option look like that would allow that child to still homeschool, quote unquote, but still >> using our product as a as an AISD student. Uh, and then even the last one where the youngest son loves
074the outdoors, I automatically started thinking of STEM. >> And so I know that we've got so many things that that our families can consider. And I would hope when I move to slide 10 where you talked about these open houses, we did something or your team and and the rest of the team did something different with state of the district which was I I still like everyone I talked to I'm like, "Hey, you this was the greatest thing ever, right?" Because we went back to school and I still am like I can't wait for the next one so I can go to these different classes. That's how good it was. I would hope that something like this like that would be in the open house because we have so many programs for children to explore
075that parents may not even know that we have. And I think if they were to see a little taste of what we have to offer, they'll be mind-b blown just like I am every day. So once again, kudos. This is I mean we're we're moving in the right direction. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. hinted at next next fall's event. >> Miss McMarrow, >> thank you Dr. Lopez and Miss Northingington. I I too am very excited how much we grew in our net promoter score and it just aligns with other data that we've seen throughout the years saying that we get positive feedback from the from the people closest to our school district. um people that are not associated with AISD might have misconceptions and it's like the farther you go
076out that's where you know there that things like the net promoter score the um sentiment about the school district might shift but our parents are seeing greater satisfaction with our school district and so that's just a huge celebration. We had a really meaningful workshop um right before the board meeting and we did talk about the expansion of STEM and the possibility of a K through 12 STEM trajectory and I do think that there would be um there would be a lot of interest there. I love all the next steps that you've laid out. I think that all of those will be effective given where we are and where we want to go. Um last night, was that last night? We had uh we a lot of us attended the Piery STEM showcase and when I
077was walking in um there was a mom with her little and he looked to be about prek age and I said, "Oh, do you go to PICY?" But somehow, I don't know how, maybe this was the Piery staff or word of mouth, but she learned about this STEM showcase and he is not four yet. And so she was just coming to check out the school and bring her little and I just said, "Well, yeah, you should go check it out." And I experiencing the STEM showcase last night, there's no possible way, no possible way that a parent would go into those doors and come out and say maybe. I mean, exceptional student experience there at Piery. um whether you're going to pursue a future in STEM or not. Just excellent educators, leadership, students, parent involvement,
078everything. So, imagine the possibilities if we expanded that to our 76 campuses. And there is something special about every campus, whether it has a special program or like my son's school, it's a traditional campus. And so, I just really see a lot of potential. And um also with our um universal prek as well, we do a lot of prek events that are districtwide and several of them are for current preK students, but imagine if we could get the word out there. And so when we are doing our STEM I can't remember what the name of the event is, but when we're doing our um STEM awards for our preK4 students, inviting prospective parents to see that. I think that that might help us see an uptick in ro in enrollment as early as prek4. So,
079thank you for all the efforts made. Um, this is very exciting. We do still have a lot of work to go, but I think that the next steps are um going to definitely yield great outcomes and help us spread the word of all the great offerings that we have for kids. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss McMarrow, Mr. Wilbanks. >> Thank you, President Chapa and Miss Norington, Dr. Lopez. Thanks for the presentation. Um, this is an awful position to be in because not only did you blow out our KPM that we're holding our superintendent accountable for, you really blew it out. And so then now we've got to come up with a new one. Uh, do we stretch them even further? >> And um and then what what does that look like? What areas of
080focus you we obviously need there's as mix m Uh, as Miss McMurro said, there's still work to to do and there's probably some more gains here, but you know, then maybe we look at as a board measuring the ROI in terms of increased enrollment and look at um adding KPMs along that. And then, as we've all said, you know, it's easy to market when you've got great products to market. And we know we we you know my colleagues have mentioned some great ideas on how to expend the extend the offerings and virtual learning to reach the family that has a son at home as well as one in the district. Um, so there's a lot of work to do both in terms of offering and rounding out what we provide to make ourselves very competitive
081in a very competitive marketplace now for education. So >> thank you Mr. Winks, Dr. Smith. >> Trustees, just a reminder is the net promoter slide is still up there on our screen's not up there uh here. I wanted to comment on this and I think Mr. Choppa might comment on this as well, but the reason we're going to do that and we're going to keep bringing this back to you for a few years. We're not getting rid of the net promoter score. A reminder why this is a common measure used across business and industry that is not common in the world of education. But we don't live in a bubble of education. We actually need to compare ourselves across business and industry as well. And this is a a stretch for public school systems. And
082the reason we chose that, if you take a look at this graph that's up there right now, you note that the net promoter score is actually calculated by only focusing on those that are nines and tens, the highest on a scale of 0 to 10, in which uh parents answer a question, would you recommend Arlington ISD to friends and family? And if they score a nine or a 10, that's what you see are 52 or 59.2%. and then it it subtracts the detractors down at the bottom which are considered 0 through six which is a large portion of the scale. So it is a very rigorous measure for us as a school system and it's one that we want to keep pushing on because ultimately if we go back to our first discussion on whether
083marketing would even be a priority for us or not. The purpose of marketing is to do what? To actually engage people in your school district. So engage measuring our engagement and how willing people are to actually promote our school district is a really important measure for us to keep pushing on as a school district. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. We use this a lot at at at TASBY and and I know it's common in private private industry that it's a really demanding scale. I mean people who are seven, you know, rate seven or eight you would consider to be fairly positive and in this mode it's considered to be neutral and that's so this is a really demanding survey but what I like about the fact
084that we've moved to this because as we've done this a couple years now um and then with our insper survey results too it all dovetales and Miss McMurro mentioned it folks who are with us who know us tend to think very highly of us and that's been borne out year after year since we started tracking these things and so Um, also almost 12,000 survey results on this. I mean, this is not something where we've cherrypicked some of our fans. I mean, this is um, in in fact, usually when you spam out stuff, you tend to hear from the folks who have very strong negative feelings. And so, even with that type of surveying, we're doing um, I think extremely well. Um, I just also wanted to highlight um, if we can go to slide where
085did it go? Nine. So, we've been um you know, as we're going out in the community, we're talking about enrollment decline and things like that. Um something that comes up over and over again is why are you not talking to the folks who are leaving and figuring out what you can do better? And I'm happy to say that we're actually doing exactly that. And uh and so we now have these some of these results. And it's great to see that um some of the the perception I think some folks would expect school safety to be almost at the top of this list because in the community sometimes people blame oh we think we're leave people must be leaving because they think your schools are unsafe. And if you have followed us for at least the
086last three years that we have publicly reported on our discipline data, you will know that our discipline data is near historic lows and our schools are among the safest that they've ever been. um at least since we've started tracking any of that stuff, which is for a very long time. >> And so it looks like things like location and programming are much higher on parent scores than um we maybe originally anticipated, which location um looking at some of the stuff we've heard from Zonda over the last year. I'm not surprised to see that location's actually very high on there because I think it dovetailes with the the Zonda data as well. Um, for the folks who are choosing charter schools based on school safety, I would point back to the fact again that we are
087reporting our discipline data and as far as I'm aware, I don't I don't know of any of those schools that they think might be safer are actually reporting that um data publicly at least and we are so being transparent there even when it makes us potentially um look not as favorable. So with that, thank you Dr. Lopez, Miss Norington. >> Thank you. We'll move on now to um at least Miss Lopez is staying up here. Uh item C on our report tonight is another progress measure KPM on our student experience report. Trustees, as you know, uh this was part of our work as well this year and to really begin to define the experience that we want for students. And so our KPM this year was about getting that work kicked off. and Natalie will
088be presenting to you tonight on what has happened and um some of the the results from that. >> So, President Chapa, members of the board and Dr. Smith, thank you for the time this evening to discuss the student experience key progress measure. My name is listed on this slide, but we I did this with uh collaboration with Tyena Northing and uh the communications team. And so in this presentation uh we are going to provide information on the district's completed process for defining the desired student experience based on our stakeholder input. So I want to provide a reminder that the student experience uh key progress measure is listed under our culture priority and we aimed to engage student staff and families in clearly defining the desired student experience in Arlington ISD by March 30th of this
089year. And in order to do so, we gathered feedback uh from our stakeholders with a very consistent approach. So across student, staff and families, we use the same set of guiding questions um through various methods. So in some cases the feedback was gathered electronically, in others through paper and pencil activities and in some settings through more in-depth um like semi-structured conversations. So regardless of the format though the goal was the same and that was to ensure that we were capturing the authentic perspectives while staying aligned in the questions that we were asking the different audiences. So specifically all of our feedback was anchored in these three core ideas. What we want every student in Arlington ISD to feel what we want them to experience and then also what we would like for them to be
090prepared for. So this approach allowed us to gather uh diverse input while still arriving at a clear and coherent understanding of uh the desired student experience across our district. And so on this slide you can see the range of engagement opportunities that we used to gather the input. We intentionally um reached multiple audiences through a variety of formats both in person and virtually. While the engagement methods differed um all the responses were ultimately captured in a single platform and that's our thought exchange hub. So this allowed us to bring all of our perspectives into one place and then importantly to analyze that data um across the different stakeholder groups and we were able to see where perspectives aligned and then any possible differences um based on the group that we were reaching out to. So
091what was particularly reassuring though is that across all of the stakeholder groups there was strong alignment in the themes that emerged ultimately. So in total we engaged 682 participants and they shared 599 total thoughts and provided 3,885 ratings. Uh that gave us breadth and then depth into um input to inform this work. So here you'll see that we've taken all the input gathered from our thought exchange um hub and then mapped that into shared themes. So while stakeholders express their ideas um in different ways clear and present theme or clear and consistent themes um emerged across all the groups. So first there's a strong desire for our students to feel safe included and valued in their learning environments. Second stakeholders emphasized um the importance of students experiencing highquality engaging learning every day. And then the
092third was that there was clear alignment around ensuring that we are preparing our students for graduation uh for life beyond graduation, excuse me, with the skills and the knowledge that they would need to pursue multiple post-secondary pathways. So now that we have a clear stakeholder informed definition of the student experience, um we can move from feedback to action. So the first step is that we're going to have the opportunity to share the findings back with our stakeholders. So closing the loop on what we heard um what it means and how the input is shaping um future outcomes. And then we're going to establish a formal framework that consolidates those themes into a clear uh definition with guiding principles and a small set of meaningful indicators. From there, we can develop practical guidelines to support campuses
093in aligning their plans and their instructional practices to the framework. And then finally, we can establish ongoing feedback loops for progress monitoring um ensure stakeholder voice continues to inform improvement over time. So this work moves us from listening to implementation. So to conclude, I'm happy to report that we have successfully completed our um student experience KPM by the indicated deadline of March 30th. And that brings us to the discussion portion. >> Thank you, Dr. Lopez. Are there comments from trustees tonight? [clears throat] I know Miss Haynes, you have uh some comments or questions and so I will go to you. >> Perfect. Can you hear me? >> Okay. >> Yes, we can. >> Okay, perfect. Um I just wanted to say thank you for the time and effort and energy that went into collecting these
094responses from parents. Um, I had the opportunity and I think Trusty Richardson was with me at um the Arlington Council of PTA's meeting many many months ago where you guys pulled out paper and um pencils and had the PTA members who were present answer those questions and um I currently carry that paper with me because [clears throat] I that that exercise was refreshing to see that level of detail and time be spent with parents that are probably some of our most engaged parents. Um, given the opportunity to answer these questions, um, it just it made me feel seen as a parent, totally separate from my trustee role, but as a parent in our district, it made me feel seen and it was nice to see the alignment that you spoke of from all the responses.
095I think that was one of our larger attended meetings of the year and everyone was putting their answers up and the answers were very similar which also made me feel like we are we all are on the same page and want absolutely what's best for our students and I think that um it's clear that with these responses we are on the track to ensuring we're having exceptional experiences on all our campuses and so as a parent I just am truly thankful for you guys putting in the effort you to include everybody in answering these. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. Any other comments from trustees tonight? >> Dr. Smith, >> one thing that I would like to add on this is that um while there are many other very important measures
096for us and uh projects for us as a school system, I don't know that any are more important than what we did in this one. to be able to very clearly begin to articulate what we as a community want for our kids in times like we live in right now is really important for us all to be pointed in the same direction moving forward. And I think those responses while very similar the themes that you saw or excuse me about while very simple the things that you saw I think they are um extremely important for us as we dive into the next phase of the planning process. As you'll recall Dr. Collins reminded you all that in our strategic plan that's being developed, this step was really important for us to develop that framework and
097to actually develop a system in order to address this moving forward in Arlington ISD. So, uh, thank you Dr. Lopez and Tyena and everyone else that was involved. Again, this work um, very simply could be the most impactful work long term that we've done as a school district. Okay, there are no more comments or questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, that concludes the report portion of our agenda tonight. We do have a public hearing tonight. This is our required annual public hearing on the Texas End of course assessment. Turn it over to Dr. Smith. Dr. Wartz is here this evening to walk us through an annual requirement that we have to uh present to you and hold a public hearing on regarding our interventions for end of course assessments. >> Right. Good
098evening, President Chopa, members of the board. Dr. Smith, I'm here this evening, as Dr. Smith indicated, to share um information about our end of course uh assessment and as it relates to our intervention program. This is a requirement uh as part of Texas Education Code section 29.081. Uh, as you may know, House Bill 5 does require students who participate in our STAR grades 3 through 8 and also specifically EOCC um to participate or receive interventions if they do not pass the assessment. This um this this report tonight specifically is pertaining to the five courses that um have an EOCC or an end of course exam in high school, specifically English 1 and two, algebra 1, biology, and US history. Our students participate in the spring when they take their first assessment. So the graph that
099you have in front of you indicates the number of students and the passing rate of the students for each of the five uh content areas who participated in the first attempt in spring EOCC of 2025. As you can see across the board, algebra 1, for example, there were 2,976 students who passed it on their first attempt and 1420 who did not meet the minimum expectations of approaches. House Bill 4545 came out several years ago and this is the bill that required that students in grades 3 through8 in the EOC as I mentioned um receive interventions and supports if they failed to meet the expectations on their STAR exam. This um legislation piece of legislation was modified with House Bill 1416 which actually was designed to make it a little more palatable for school districts to
100actually implement. And so some of the things that are required under the these two bills which work together um is that you the students when they're receiving if they've if they have not passed their assessment um they must either be assigned a TIA designated teacher which in our system we have a few or they have to receive supplemental education based on the use of high uh impact u tutoring practices and this means that they have to receive up to 15 to 30 hours. um it can be delivered in the summer or during the school year. Um it does limit the requirement to two content areas. So if a student took more than um two uh star assessments that they had not passed, the intervention is focused around to um priority given specifically to the language
101arts, reading language arts or mathematics assessments. Um the group size for receiving the intervention can be no more than a group of four students unless parents or guardians give consent. And then we of course have to use effective instructional materials and it has to be delivered by a consistent trained instructor. Our program here in Arlington really focuses around four main strategies that are used to intervene students for with students who are in high school. We have EOCC remediation courses that kids can participate in. Um they can actually take the class again if they for example didn't pass the the course or the assessment. Uh we also have read 180 and math 180 math courses which are uh teacherled and adaptive utilizing adaptive software to um try to target specifically the skills that students are u
102demonstrating deficits. This just gives you a a brief uh overview of the number of sections of EOCC remediation sections uh in our district as well as the number of sections at each of the high schools that have um students in read 180 and math 180. The important thing to note about the EOCC remediation sections, they look a little different in each of the high schools and that's because it depends on the the what what the student needs and how um it's actually coded. So in some cases it looks like there are 30 and others there are 20. That's related to the volume of students that either didn't uh pass and or the way that they are actually um being um integrated into courses where they're receiving uh intervention. This is this is a slide that
103indicates the budget that's being utilized to um pay for the accelerated instruction intervention that's being provided to students. Um we have about $3.8 million that uh pay for payroll, which is basically all the teachers and staff who actually administer these courses. Um campuses have spent about $23,000 for extra duty pay and tutoring. And then of course the licenses and consumable u materials that are utilized for read 180 and math 180 are indicated there as well. [clears throat] Here you can see on um some bar graphs specifically the difference between June and December EOC retesters. So I'll use the first bar graph to to kind of walk you through how to read it and then they all repetitive as we move down the road. So algebra 1 in June had a 103 students who did not
104retest in June. So, they took the assessment when it was first administered and then they did not take it again in June. But of those that did take it, 177 in the blue or the teal uh passed it and 240 students uh did not. And then in December, those students who did not meet or who had not tested um could take it again in December, which is the administration, that's often uh where they will actually engage in the test again. And you can see here the number u drops pretty dramatically where you have a much more students who actually will uh take the test and pass and then you have still some that don't meet the um passing standard. Um I just want to note on here that it's not uncommon for June to have
105the large not um not not sit for the reassessment in June because school just gets out. Some students aren't don't attend or haven't registered for the summer school and they haven't had any time for intervention. So it's often where they will receive their intervention and then they'll take the assessment in December. So that's pretty common where you're going to see that the spike goes up in December versus in June which is literally like a month and a half after they sat for it the first time. This is the 2025 accumulative data. So you can see in the plus areas um the growth that happened for students. So for example in algebra 1 there was a 14% increase in the cumulative data of the assessments in algebra 1 for students who received intervention and then resetat
106for the assessment. Biology 5%, English one 8%, English 2 7% and then US history is 3%, US history is one assessment that we have really high success rates at um typically. Anyways, the last thing to note is Senate Bill 149 does provide an opportunity or a pathway for students to graduate if they do not meet um the state requirement of passing all of your end of course exams. Students who um meet the passing standard of at least three end of course exams. They've attempted all of the administrations that were offered and they've also attended and participated in the interventions as well as met the minimum um AISD credit requirements for graduation. those students um under a committee can actually meet graduation requirements and what you see in front of you are the total number of
107students that actually graduated under the IGC or the individual graduation committee by year. Uh and in 2026 as of the 27th of March, we have right now about 264 students. And that's it. Thank you, Dr. WZ. We will now open the end of course assessment public hearing at 8:51 p.m. Miss Aosta, do we have any members of the public who registered to speak regarding the end of course assessment public hearing? >> President Chapa, we do not. >> With no speakers, I will now close the public hearing at 8:52 p.m. and open it up to comments and questions from trustees. Trustees with comments and questions on the EOC public hearing. Seeing none, thank you Dr. WZ. >> Thank you very much. I will just make an observation that we recently heard that only 30% of our
108students were passing the US history EOC. Um I hope that that has been debunked uh by this presentation. Okay, we'll now move on to the action portion of our agenda tonight. Uh we have four items for believe it's four items for action. Uh we'll move through these uh pretty quickly I think. Dr. Smith, uh we have item A, consider approval of teacher probationary and term contracts. Trustees, in your board materials, we have the list of um teacher probationary and term contracts for your consideration this evening and we ask you for your approval. >> Okay. Trustees, with comments or questions on the approval of teacher probationary and term contracts. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the teacher probationary and term contracts as presented? >> So moved. >> I have a motion from Mr. Wilbanks.
109>> Second. >> I give the second to Miss McMurro. Trustees [clears throat] will move to vote and Miss Haynes, I'll call for your vote separately. Miss Haynes, can I get your vote? >> Uh, I vote yes. >> Okay. All trustees present in online voting in the affirmative. The motion carries seven to zero. Um, as is my practice, although I'm not legally required to do so, I will ask that the record reflect that my vote is an abstension with respect to the contract of Sarah Holder. Okay. Okay, we'll move on now to report item or action item B. Uh, consider approval of probationary and term contracts for administrative and professional staff. Dr. Smith, >> trustees, in similar fashion, we're bringing to you tonight the contracts for uh our administrators for uh our probationary interm contracts. >>
110Trustees, are there any comments or questions on the contracts for administrative and professional staff? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the teacher or the probationary and term contracts as presented for administrative and professional staff? >> I have a motion from Mr. Mike. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Have a second from Miss Fowler. Trustees will move to vote. Miss Haynes, I'll call for your vote separately. Miss Haynes, can I get your vote? >> I vote. Yeah, I vote yes. >> All trustees present and online uh voting in the affirmative. The motion carries seven to zero. Uh and although I didn't see her name in there to the extent um and as my practice to the extent Terry Chapa's uh contract is in there, I request that the minutes reflect I
111abstain on her contract as well. Okay, we'll move on now to action item C. Consider approval of a nomination of Arlington ISD for region 11 position C seat on the Texas Association uh Texas Association School Board's board of directors. Um kind of awkward because it's a seat I hold. I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. trustees. Uh it is awkward because I I um I'm going to leave it up to you for the nomination right now. Uh but Mr. Chapa, as you know, serves on the TASBY board of directors and it is uh time to reconsider this nomination from you as a body, as a board of trustees. And to tonight, we bring you this opportunity to nominate the person you see best fit to serve in this role. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. I'm
112rejecting all mics that want to comment or question on this. Um, >> Miss McMarrow, >> thank you, President Choa. I don't I don't feel awkward at all. And before um we move to vote, I just want to add that uh Mr. Chapa has served our school district and all public school children in the state of Texas through the TASBY board of directors for how many years now, Mr. Choa? Six years. and um we are very proud in AISD to have him serving at the state level um and now as an officer um at the state level. So, thank you for representing Arlington ISD. I'm very excited to support this tonight. >> Thank you, Miss McMarrow. Mr. Mike, >> are we ready to [cough] So, uh Miss McMurro, you convince me. I move to approve the
113nomination of Arlington ISD trustee Justin Chapa for the region 11 position C seat on the Texas Association of School Boards TASBY board of directors. >> Thank you, Mr. Mike. I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I'll give that one to Mr. Wilbanks. >> Okay, we'll move to vote. Miss Haynes, can I get your vote? >> Oh, yes. >> Okay. All trustees present and online voting in the affirmative. The motion carries seven to zero. That brings us up to our last action item for tonight. Consider the proposed non-renewal of term contracts for Amelia Korea. Dr. Smith, >> trustees, we've discussed this um situation with you in closed session. And tonight we bring you the proposed non-renewal contract for Miss Amelia Coreo. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Are there any trustees with discussion
114on this item? If not, I'll make a motion. I move to accept the superintendent's recommendation and to propose non-renewal of the term contract of Amelia Couo and I move that the record of this action reflect the following. Before voting on this motion, the board considered a draft letter to Mrs. Coreo providing notice of proposed non-renewal. The superintendent reviewed with the board the reason or reasons for making his recommendation regarding the employee. And the board considered the reason or reasons and any other information provided by the superintendent. And then by passage of this motion, the board directs the superintendent to prepare for the board president's signature a final notice of proposed non-renewal for Emilio Curio and assure that the notice is delivered to her not later than the 10th day before the last day of instruction
115in the current school year. directs that the notice of proposed renewal include the time, limitations, and procedure for requesting a hearing before the board. Agrees if a hearing is timely requested to engage an attorney to assist the board in the conduct of the hearing and the proposed non-renewal, including any pre-hering matters necessary to ensure a fair, efficient, and expeditious hearing. directs the board president to notify the firm of Eekbomb, Wardell, Hansen, Powell, and Muno PC of this action and requests that office to retain an attorney on behalf of the district if necessary to assist the board in the conduct of the hearing if the employee requests a hearing and authorizes the firm of Aikobal Bardell, Hansen, Powell, and Munos PC to consult with the superintendent to approve the final notice of proposed non-renewal and to
116take whatever actions are necessary and proper to present the case in support of the proposed non-renewal and directs that a copy of this motion be attached to the minutes of this meeting in the final notice of proposed non-renewal sent to Amelia Curio. That is my motion. Do I have a second? I have a second from Miss McMurrow. Trustees will move to vote. >> Miss Haynes, can I get your vote? >> I vote yes. >> All trustees present in online voting the affirmative. The motion unanimously carries. Give me just one moment to make notation of the for the record. Okay, that brings us to our consent agenda for tonight. Any discussion on consent? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion. >> I have a motion from Miss Richardson. Do
117I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second from Miss Fowler. Trustees, we'll move to vote. Miss Haynes, can I get your vote? >> I vote yes. >> Thank you. All trustees present in online voting in the affirmative. The motion carries unanimously. Consent is approved. That brings us now to our open forum for non-aggenda items. Miss Aosta, do we have any speakers registered for non-aggenda tonight. >> President Chappa, we do not. >> With no speakers now, that brings us to our superintendent comments and reports. Dr. Smith. Trustees, tonight we get the pleasure of focusing in on our academic growth priority. Ensure positive, engaging experiences for every student that promotes academic growth and ignites a passion for learning. Special delivery. Arlington High ISD's high academic achievement is always on display this time of year
118as our seniors rake in the scholarships. Over at Martin High School, two STEMmies, Tweet Doe and Julia Tran were really were recently surprised with mail at school. When they opened the boxes from Amazon, they discovered that they'd both won the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship. The highly competitive scholarship provides up to $40,000 in college funding and a paid internship at Amazon after their freshman year at college. Congrats to these outstanding seniors. In addition, we're all about engaging experiences that ignite a passion for learning. And that's exactly what's been happening at Chick-fil-A in Arlington. Yes, Chick-fil-A. If you've been in Chick-fil-A recently, and you probably have, you've enjoyed fresh flowers on your table. These flowers were arranged by our floral students at the Dan Tyber Career and Technical Center. It's a partnership that gives students real world
119experience and inspires inspires their creativity. Not expires, inspires their creativity. And as you know, the program by students for students on the topic of outstanding experiences, our culinary students recently presented dishes that they created as part of our by students for students program. It's a competition where the winners will go on to be showcased at the Taste of the District and then added to the 26 27 school cafeteria menu. The competition is strong this year with tasty options from our high school culinary students like butter chicken breakfast croissants, chicken Alfredo lasagna roll-ups. I am interested in seeing that one. And buffalo chicken pita wraps. And then finally, as many of you have mentioned, a few of us were all at the Eagle Expo uh last evening. As you know, the Eagle Expo was at Piery
120Elementary STEM Academy, and we had some amazing experiences there with students showing off their work that they'd been focused on over the course of the year. When you have a first grader like I had telling me her in detailing me her investigative unit and what she's been working on, it was beyond phenomenal. So, I had to show you a couple of things. The top picture that you see in the top right hand corner is the no bake bake off that I got to see. And these were students showcasing their their love of culinary uh items and what they were doing with uh this cooking competition in front of all their parents and family members. And then at the bottom, we actually have a video to ceue up for you from some amazing first graders in
121our school system. [music] You stay tied. >> Never kept [music] tripping over your shoelaces because they keep getting up tied >> at recess and PE on our way to lunch. >> Got the perfect solution for you. We invented mommy >> help you keep your [music] shoes tight all day long. First you tie the knot mommy to each sides of your shoelaces. Then you lock it in place. Then cut off the leftover shoelaces with sisters and you are done. >> We tested it. We ran jump and play tag. And our shoes stay tied all day long. No more tripping. Just keep walking. Better things to do than tie our shoes all day. >> We are the inventors of Pier Sam Academy. [cheering] >> So obviously you put cute kids in a video, think great things happen,
122right? But [clears throat] I also wanted to point out the the process that they went through. They actually printed those off of their 3D printer at Pierce STEM Academy and actually tried them out and went through a scientific experiment and be were able to actually see these things in action as first graders in our system. We have amazing experiences happening in Arlington ISD on a regular basis and I'm proud to highlight Fiery STEM Academy and some wonderful first graders that were doing great work there. And that concludes my superintendent report for the night. Thank you, Dr. Smith. That brings us to trustees reports and comments tonight. Do I have trustees with reports or comments? Miss McMurro. >> Thank you, Mr. Chapo. I don't have any pictures, but really quickly, I just wanted to give a
123shout out to Young Junior High and Crow Leadership Academy for having me out recently. There's a lot of career days going on right now and I was able to talk to both schools about my role as a schoolboard trustee. My awesome work that I do with each of you guys and um being able to be an instructional coach in a neighboring school district. They had a lot of questions about how I schedule all that and I said I don't actually know but I make it work. And the students as always were brilliant. Had great questions and I want to say thank you to Miss Treadway at Young and thank you to Miss Hatcher at Crow for having me out. Thank you, Miss McMarrow. Any other reports tonight from trustees? Okay. Well, I just want to
124say happy teacher appreciation to everyone. Um, I got some questions about what my shirt says tonight and and it is never underestimate a public school teacher and honor teacher appreciation week. >> You're supposed to have a video we end with tonight. I and I I have been informed that we we do have a video uh tonight of >> Miss McMurray and Mr. Mike's performance at Dancing with the Arlington Stars. [music] All about [music] [cheering] [cheering and music] [music] [screaming] >> Can I ask I don't know if this is appropriate in the agenda. Can we get a reprisal of that and actually have it at um maybe our convocation or something like that coming up? >> The reprisal maybe I do want to provide some context. So that dance was part of Dancing with the Arlington
125Stars which is put on by our downtown Rotary every year to benefit multiple local charities here in Arlington. And so, um, our we we're really lucky because we, um, had another community leader dance for the Aware Foundation to raise money. So, Mr. Mike and I chose to dance to raise money for the Arlington ISD Education Foundation. And so we were really proud um to dance and I we're I think we're both still physically recovering. But the best part was being able to raise money um for this amazing amazing community partner who have been speaking of teacher appre appreciation week awarding our teachers with grants and our students with awesome experiences like six flags education celebration and they have been working to partner with our school district for over 30 years. So, thank you AISD Education
126Foundation. We were very happy um to support you and we had some fun, >> you know, and and just to add on to that, the the splits that happened uh during practice, I would use my hands, but Sarah said that I had to go all out. So yeah, I was hurting for about two weeks after >> once once again showing that this board goes does go all out for uh the students and teachers in AISD. Um they were the last to perform that evening and really did bring down the house is a great way to end the evening. I see no further reports for tonight. Miss Richardson, do we have any items to report? >> We do not. That brings us to the conclusion of tonight's agenda. We've addressed all items for consideration. We don't
127have anything to discuss in close session. So, there being no further business to discuss, this meeting is adjourned at 9:09 p.m. We're journed.