2026-02-05 Arlington ISD Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees

001All right, it is 6:57 and I will reconvene into open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees on February 5th, 2026. Thank you for joining us tonight. Our meetings are always open to the public and we welcome your participation in public education. We're going to start tonight with our pledges led by Beckham Elementary student Jackson Mccoli. 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 indivisible. All right, let's be seated for a moment of silence. Thank you. All right, to learn a little bit more about the student who led us in the pledge pledges tonight,

002let's turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tina Northingington. >> Thank you very much, President Chop. I want to introduce you all to Jackson. She's a sixth grader at Beckham Elementary School. She is a fan of Crazy Hair Day at Beckham and also the dino races that her principal, Miss Wilks, uh, famously participates in. But it just speaks to the culture that they have at that school that they are automatically drawn to really enjoying and engaging their students in different ways. And one of the other things that she really says she loves is the science class that she has there. Uh, specifically blowing up the Mentos with Coke. So, I feel like there's going to be some other experiments that uh she's going to be partaking in as she gets older and continues to

003attend school. But she's the youngest of three four um siblings and her three other siblings. Uh one is actually a senior and so we know that they are family rooted in Arlington ISD. Um a shout out to Miss Lee, her favorite teacher. Miss Lee is a favorite her favorite teacher because quote, "She's not too strict, but doesn't let us play either. She's a good combination of both." And I like the way she teaches reading and her anchor charts. And so that was really informative. And when she described to me what anchor charts were, I had to ask um Miss Principal Wils said, "You're melting my heart." Um what she said was that she loved how she's always got those um ability to reinforce the learning she's got right there in front of her. And so

004that just speaks to how some of our teachers are mislike Missly are setting up their classrooms, making it so that you find success. And she doesn't lack confidence. um the youngest of three. She knows that she's going to be a mover and shaker just like her parents. And so we are so happy that you're here. I know you're going to come back and she's already made some arrangements with Mr. Lewis um to talk to him about some cafeteria menu items like her mom's spaghetti maybe making the cafeteria list. So you never know what you might see out there. But Jackson, thank you so much for joining us for the pledge this evening. All right, the first portion of our agenda tonight is recognitions. And after our recognitions this evening, we'll take a short recess in

005the lobby to take pictures with our honores. Leading the recognition portion of the agenda tonight is our chief communications officer, Miss Northingington, >> President Chapa, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. Dance classes at the Marcelo Kabaso Center for Visual and Performing Arts bring together dancers from all across our district. That's six high schools that we have here producing highlevel contemporary and modern dance pieces. The dancers at the CVPA that are walking up right now are challenged to perform and express themselves at a level that actually prepares them for high expectations of a collegiate dance program. So these advanced dancers have the opportunity to work with outside choreographers and dance instructors in college throughout the year and they frequently serve as community ambassadors for us and a variety of performances promoting our district. Some have

006gone on to dance at University of Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas Wesleyan, and Oklahoma City University. Tonight led by Dr. Brianna Miller with the help of maybe some board members. Representatives from the CVPA dance senior class will demonstrate an exercise that is used to come up with their choreography. Thank you so much for having us tonight. Have you guys ever wondered how a dancer comes up with choreography? Well, tonight you're going to get a brief snippet. I know you're all used to seeing group performances before your board meetings, but tonight we have something a little bit different in store for you. Because our dance program at the CVPA is a bit different than dance programs on regular AISD campuses. You see, at the CVPA, we try to focus on training our dancers to be expressive and

007critical thinkers, taking a more collegiate approach to the way we teach dance. One thing we focus on is choreography or the creation of dances. And we're going to share one exercise with you. Actually, some of our board members are going to help us out in creating a dance. We'll get to that in a moment, though. For now, I would just love the three of you. So, Miss Haynes, Dr. Smith, Mr. Chapa to just think of a single word. It can be any word. It could be a sound, an action, an emotion, an object. Think of a word and I'll come back to you in a moment for that word. So, this exercise is called word association improv. It's pretty simple. I give the dancers a word, for example, melt, and they do the first movement

008that comes to mind without judgment, just their first instinct. Okay, dancers, give me a melting movement. As you can see, each dancer has a different response to the prompt, which lets them explore and define their own movement style. We then continue to string on more words and movements one at a time. For the sake of time today, I'm they already know what I'm going to say next. So, one more time, that first word was melt, then gather, tornado, elongate, and ice cream. Sometimes we like to use silly words to get them thinking outside the box. So again, the point is for the dancers to come up with the movements in real time, just coming up with initial ideas that could be shaped into something that could be ready for the stage down the line. So

009here's where my three volunteers come in. So Miss Haynes, could you give me the first word that comes to mind? She said strong. So dancers, give me a strong movement. Oo, I like it. Okay, Dr. Smith, what is your word? >> Sunshine. Sunshine. Oh, nice. Okay. So, you can see like similar like consonants, right? But slightly different. So, we had strong and then we had sunshine. Now, my last word is grow. So, last word is grow. So, dancers, give me a growing movement to finish out your phrase. Excellent. So, just quick recap for their brains because we're doing this in real time, right? Our last three movements were strong, sunshine, and then grow. And we always tell them, if you forget what you did, pick a pick a new movement. It's okay. We're finding ourselves

010here. So, in the classroom, we could spend a good chunk of time on this. We would refine the movements, change anything that doesn't feel right. Or maybe the dancers would pair up and combine their movements to create something larger. But for now, let's take a look at the whole phrase, what these dancers have come up with. Okay, dancers. So from the top we have melt, gather, tornado, elongate, ice cream, strong sunshine, and finally grow. Great job, dancers. So you can see we just did that in like three minutes, but imagine how that can lead into something longer. Thank you so much for your time. Give them one more round of applause. Now you see how it all happens in the back. That's kind of just like a little hint as to how things are made,

011how the sauce is made. And we appreciate our CVPA senior dancers for joining us this evening. At this time, I'd like to invite everyone to turn their attention to the screens for a special video highlighting our Arlington ISD student of the month for February from Martin High School. Please join us in recognizing Xavier Nelasco. Martin High School has selected Xavier Nelasco to represent the district. Xavier is a really neat kid and he never shies away from new endeavors. He's friendly. He's well-liked by students and staff and on top of that, he's involved in so many activities. Xavier is the consmate student athlete. Um, he's a great kid. He's got a great sense of humor. He's kind of our team dad, if you will. Gets information out to the kids. Kind of controls everybody. And he's

012helped build this program to places we never thought we would go. Xavier is going to without a doubt be irreplaceable. >> He is the kind of young man that you would want in your program. He has grown in so many ways in the last four years, but it's not just musically. It's watching him grow into the young man that he's become. He has taken on so many different things in his life. He is always striving to be the best in everything that he does. This could not go to a more deserving young man than Xavier Nolasco. >> He brings an amazing energy to to class, any class that he's part of. Very vibrant, fantastic leader. I could always count on him in groups to lead the groups. Xavier Nlesco represents all the qualities that make

013him a phenomenal Martin warrior and I want to congratulate him for being the February student of the month for the district from Martin High School. Good evening. I'd like to start by thanking my teachers, uh, family and friends for coming here and supporting me. I'd also like to thank Miss Griffith Yates, Miss Rody, and the STEM coordinators for nominating me. And of course, Mr. Chapa, Dr. Smith and the rest of the board members for recognizing me with this award. AIC has had a huge impact on me over the past six years of my life. From being in sixth grade where I learned for the first time what an engineer actually was, all the way to entering the STEM Academy when I was going into my freshman year of high school, I was able to learn

014the applications of math and science and how it applies to engineering and the world around us. And it's all led to now where I've been able to secure an internship in structural engineering and also I've been able to earn a full ride to UTA where Yes. Thank you where I plan to major in civil engineering. Um thank you AISD for putting programs career career oriented programs in place in order for students to learn and grow. And I'd like to also once again thank my family, friends, and mentors such as Miss Epley for teaching me how to be efficient and intentional. Um, I know little old me from when I was 12 years old would look at me now and he'd be really proud of where I am. Thank you. The board is going to come

015down to greet you and also they'll award you with our official Arlington ISD pin and an award and give them one second to make their way down there. Okay. >> Okay. So, first of all, Xavier, congratulations on being our student of the month. We are extremely proud of you. When I hear that you exemplify everything it means to be a warrior at Martin High School. Obviously, it means a lot to the the campus itself, but as a school district, we need you to hear that we're extremely proud of you, too. We're excited about what you're going to do in the future. We're glad you're going to UTA. That's a great thing. And we hope you continue to live, work, play here in Arlington for the future because we need great leaders like you with great

016minds to do amazing things for this community for years to come. Congratulations on being our student of the month. We're really proud of you. Also like to present to you a lapel pin that we all wear here on the board. uh for you to show that you're a proud Arlington ISD graduate. So, >> thank you, sir. >> Thank you. >> Right here. >> Thank you, Xavier. Don't tell >> if our board members will stay down. We have two more honors this evening. >> Yes, congratulations. This evening, we're also proud to recognize two of our educators who have earned National Board Certification, one of the highest professional distinctions in education. This achievement represents more than 400 hours of additional rigorous work, I must say, beyond the school day. Candidates closely analyze student learning, reflect deeply on

017their instructional practices, record and examine classroom teaching, and demonstrate their impact through extensive written submissions. National board certification is a nationally recognized mark of quality that reflects deep dedication and professional growth. Research consistently shows that national board certified teachers positively impact student learning and our district is stronger because their expertise and commitment. Our newly certified teachers to you. We hope that you lead, mentor, collaborate, and innovate in ways that benefit classrooms, schools, and students. I also want to give a special shout out to Hazel Bird, our professional learning specialist we have here in the district, who supports and coaches these teachers throughout their journey, which is a pretty special and unique thing we offer here in Arlington. It's my honor to recognize the following educators who've achieved National Board Certification this evening. First, Lindseay Payne

018from Miller Elementary. She's a fifth grade teacher. Look right here. Yeah. >> Look right here. >> Okay, we're good. And Lindsay, I'll have you stand right here. We'll take one after both of you, but I want to make sure each of your schools can highlight you with your individual photo. Secondly, we have Rachel Higgby from South Davis Elementary School, also a fifth grade teacher. >> Look right here. Perfect. Lindsay, if we can have you squeeze back in there, that we can take one of both of you and proudly present that on behalf of the district. Cool. Once again, congratulations to both of these teachers and educators and to their families who are also in attendance. This takes a lot of support from a family standpoint, not only on part of our district. We appreciate all

019of you. At this time, I would like you all to turn your attention once more to the screens. >> Texas Health Community Hope is proud to be recognized by Arlington ISD for the support Texas Health Resources has provided to students, families, and educators. Texas Health Community Hope supports Arlington ISD students in a variety of ways. To improve literacy outcomes in long-term health literacy, Texas Health teams up with Scholastic Book Fairs. And with support from businesses like Atmas Energy, we've distributed 3,500 free books across six Arlington elementary schools. We've encouraged more movement, play, and interaction through our recess refresh program at five Arlington campuses. Together, we've added colorful hopscotch, chess, foursquare, and other games to school playground areas. Good things are also growing in Arlington schools through our school learning garden program. We've built, rebuilt, or

020enhanced school gardens at four campuses, creating outdoor classrooms that support hands-on learning, wellness, and healthy eating. Last year, Martin High School and Lamar High School were recipients of our wellness innovation grants funded by R4 Foundation. This Shark Tank style competition provides up to $5,000 for the best student-ledd campus wellness projects. Winning projects like Martin's newly imagined courtyard now provide space where students can collaborate, grow plants, create art, and learn more about the environment. We've supported many other well-being initiatives as well, including campus wellness rooms for both educators and students like this one at Buouie High School. We also provide school supplies, wellness kits, and many grants for students and staff programs at half a dozen Arlington ISD campuses. We're honored by this recognition, and we look forward to continuing our relationship in support of health,

021well-being, and learning for years to come. Oh, President Chapa, Dr. Smith, and board members, we're so pleased to be here tonight. Thank you for this recognition. And on behalf of all of us at Texas Health and right across the street, uh, we say a huge thank you to all of you. We value our relationship with Arlington ISD and we appreciate the partnership and that's truly what we see, a partnership that we're both both working together to improve the health and well-being of students, families, educators, and staff across all of Arlington. Over the past three years, Texas Health Community Hope efforts have impacted over 9,000 students across 18 Arlington schools. But we didn't do it alone and we never think that we do. We've had tremendous support from Arlington ISD leadership. Uh many others within the

022district, some of who are here tonight. Thank you so much for your support. And would also like to especially call out partnerships with the grants department and the operations team who truly are boots on the ground in helping us in implementation of many of our programs. and they definitely go above and beyond to ensure our initiatives are executed successfully and seamlessly. You have a great team. We'd also like to acknowledge some of the companies who have contributed to making these programs possible at Miss Energy R4 foundation, our gardening consult uh consults uh ma made green um certainly all of you your support is critical to our collective success. Before I close, I want to make a mutually beneficial but shameless plug for our school wellness network. We hope more Arlington ISD schools will join the

023network. And by the way, it's the best price. It's free. Um, so please join us if you haven't already. We're proud of what we've accomplished, but very much together. And we are truly honored to be recognized tonight. We look forward to ongoing collaboration with Arlington ISD. Again, we say a huge thank you. So, on behalf of the school district, we want to present you with this. I've had the distinct pleasure to be involved in a couple of the garden projects and um the Martin Courtyard there. I think President Chapa even painted in the Martin Courtyard on accident that night. >> Yes. Um but we're really we're thankful for the investment that you make in kids. One of the things that stood out to me at Crow Elementary is when we were um dedicating that day

024and and working with kids that day is the excitement that we saw in kids' eyes about things like a garden and how that can enrich their learning experience. So, we truly appreciate you as a partner. We're thankful that you're right across the road, but most importantly, we're thankful that you're in our schools. Thank you for your work. Okay, we're good. >> This concludes tonight's honors and recognition. Thank you. All right, that concludes our recognitions portion tonight. So, we're going to take about a 10-minute recess so we can honor all of our uh recognition uh recipients tonight. Uh trustes, let's say to be back on the DAS about 7:30. It's 7:19. We're in recess. >> All right, it is 7:36. We are back from recess. The next portion of our agenda tonight is open forum for

025agenda items. Miss Crossman, do we have any speakers registered for agenda forum? President Chapa, we do not. >> Okay. With no speakers on our agenda forum tonight, we're going to move on to committee and staff reports. The first item tonight, item A is a report on our teacher incentive aotment committee study. Turn over to Dr. Smith. Trustees, we um this has been on the agenda for a while. We, as we promised back in the fall, we would keep you updated on our um steering committee work and the work that's been going on. So, we have Dollaris Johnson here tonight, our executive director from human resources to walk you through the work that's been happening and where we are, what's coming next. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Chapa, members of the board. Thank you, Dr.

026Smith. The purpose of today's report is to provide an update on the exploration of the teacher incentive aotment program, what we're learning from our staff engagement efforts, and how that feedback is shaping our next steps for any future decisions. From the very beginning, we've been deliberate uh to make sure we're not rushing this work, but instead listen and learn and build understanding with the people most impacted, our teachers. This slide illustrates how teacher voice has been embedded throughout the entire TIA exploration process year-over-year. Beginning in the 21-22 school year, an exploratory TIA steering committee was formed that included teachers from all grade levels uh along with campus and district leadership. In the school year of 2223, teacher engagement expanded through district level lead teachers who facilitated focus groups with approximately 120 teachers across all GA

027grade levels and there were multiple teacher surveys administered during the 2324 school year. We added additional district level staff to the TIA steering committee. And then to broaden participation, the steering committee expanded teacher engagement beyond committee membership and utilized the engagement sessions to elevate diverse educator voices across the district. And then last school year, we kicked off our engagement efforts by meeting UEA teacher association representatives from each campus. We updated our district lead teachers on next steps and gathered additional feedback. We also solicited largecale campus feedback through the thought exchange tool where we had over a thousand teachers participate and we held multiple campus and information sessions. Teacher input has been continuous structured and has influenced where we are today. This school year to advance the study of this program we have continued our teacher

028engagement efforts. We share the flyer that you see on your screen uh with all campuses along with an invitation to discuss the pilot program. The content of this flyer actually reflects teacher stakeholder input that was shared with us last school year. The flyer was intentionally structured to answer two of the most common questions we received from our teachers. Will I be will I be eligible for a designation? And if I do receive a designation, how would I be compensated? By answering those foundational questions upfront, it allowed our focus group sessions this school year to be spent actually evaluating systems that would impact TIA. The next round of conversations with teachers was held at five campuses across the district. These campuses are also proposed sites should Arlington choose to apply for participation in TIA. Teachers from

029multiple grade levels and across the district attended these sessions to learn more about the TIA proposed pilot. And feedback in these sessions centered on two components of a successful TIA program, the district's teacher appraisal system and student growth systems. This slide here is my favorite slide. It captures the spirit of our TIA engagement efforts and these focus group sessions with teachers. They're energetic, they're collaborative, and they're genuinely enjoyable. Teachers really leaned in. They shared openly and built off of one another's ideas. You can see from the photos, it's not just sit and get. These are active, engaging conversations where teachers feel comfortable sharing their feedback with us. Teachers told us they especially appreciated being invited into this process early on and having a space to actively and open talk about the system. What was really

030encouraging, we had several teachers who participated in earlier focus groups who joined us for the second round of feedback. Our campus administrators have been partners in this process. This photo shows a principal focus group meeting led by Dr. Stephanie Lee from the Office of School Leadership. We invited principles from potential pilot campuses to weigh in on systems on what a possible TIA program could mean for recruitment and retention at some of our highest needs campuses. So what we heard and what we're learning. This table is organized to show the clear progression from what we heard from our teachers to shared agreement and ultimately to show how that feedback is going to inform the steering committee's work. Overall, what you'll see there's a strong alignment around shared priorities. Starting on the left in that lefth hand

031column, you'll see the priorities that consistently surfaced across teacher and principal engagement conversations. First, the focus has been on our students. Teachers and principles emphasize that if any TIA program comes to Arlington, it should be centered on improving outcomes for all students rather than the designation itself. What is most encouraging about the data in this chart is the evolution of the feedback. Earlier feedback reflected healthy caution. We're not sure if TIA is right for Arlington ISD. That uncertainty has been important to informing our work. We honored it. We slowed down. We clarified. And we listened to our teachers. What we're now hearing is a meaningful shift. More recently, teachers are sharing with us we do have systems in place that could support a program if it's designed thoughtfully. This shift actually signals a growth in

032understanding of the program and confidence in our systems that we already have in place. While we have gathered teacher feedback over the past several years, the landscape around us has been changing. This map shows regions 10 and 11 already are already densely saturated with TIA districts. Arlington, you can see there in the red circle, sits right between Dallas and Fort Worth. And you can see we're currently surrounded by districts who have applied for TIA or have a fully approved TIA system in place. This means that we're just operating in a highly competitive environment for teacher recruitment and retention. This data point was provided to us by steadystate impact. Along with our engagement efforts, we have external resources through the REF partnership and steadystate impact. These two organizations have helped us connect with other districts uh

03316 Tarant County school districts allowing us to uh understand and learn from best practices from our neighbors. Having access to these districts that are currently implementing just gives us a regional insight and to pull those best practices. In conclusion, the steering committee will continue refining key concerns and collaboratively developing solutions. Our goal is to bring a recommendation here in the spring. If the district chooses to proceed, the next TI application window opens up midappril. Thank you so much. And I'll answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions from trustees? >> Miss McMarrow. >> Thank you. Can you go back to the slide with the pilot campuses and um >> let's see >> the flyer. >> Yes. Um, so I know that just as TIA is evolving, the conversations I'm sure

034have evolved and the focus groups have gained information as things shift. is can you expand a little bit on the proposed campuses for the pilot program and would that I remember the last report we got there was some conversation around using our campus needs index to guide that and would that be the basically the core of the rubric that we use for TIA I just want to get a better idea of what what's evolving as far as the rubric how would our teachers earn the incentive as of as things stand right now. >> That's a really good question. Uh the first uh part of your question, yes, these campuses are uh part of that campus needs index. They are some of our highest needs campuses. The way the TIA program is set up, there has

035to be a student growth um element and a teacher appraisal element. We uh already use TA test in our system. And in that gray box there down on the um the left hand of that very first flyer, it shows the student growth measures that are being proposed star um circle map and class. Okay. And we know that the assessment is going to change drastically. Um, and so would that do it might be too early to tell, but would the implications of that maybe put a hold on some of those measures where we can again award things in the realm of teachers control a little bit more versus catching our chips into an assessment where we don't really have because even when we thought we knew what last year's star assessment was going to be, we

036saw what happened with our um ACR scoring and we had to dispute that and now we're going to get a completely new state assessment that has three assessments per school year starting as young as third grade. So is that coming into play with kind of the proposal you guys are going to bring to us? >> Yes. Um our research and accountability team is a part of this process and they have been monitoring that shift. The other thing that I'll say on that too, absolutely remember that the application process that we're talking about, it doesn't start immediately. It comes a couple of years after that. So, we'll know more and more about the assessments that will be used. Y'all know my hesitations on this one. And um I think that we we are very aware of

037the changing landscape of TEA assessments and how that could impact something like this. So, as we um potentially move forward, and again, we have to make that decision before April if we're going to, you know, decide to do that this year in the application window. If we decide to move forward, we're absolutely going to take that into consideration. >> Okay. Thank you. And I, you know, I asked because we have a big priority in the district for culture. And if we're putting, you know, that that pressure on our teacher shoulders and, you know, I see what happens in those surrounding districts who have been offering TIA, there's sometimes some confusion, some disappointment. Um, and I I just want to make sure we're being as clear as possible with our teachers. Um, and again, I'm a

038proponent of if if teachers know what they're getting into, a high needs campus, um, something like that. I love the idea of incentivizing that if it's something that's tied to an assessment performance. Um, I just worry what the implications will be there on our collaborative culture that we're really aiming to improve. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss McMahon. We'll go next to Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chapa. And you know, the one thing that has always given me pause about TIA is the reliance on heavily heavy reliance on star. You know, from what I hear, the devil's in the details and I know we've got a lot of changing landscape with the um state required accountabilities and how they're going to continue probably to force that on us. what as it stands

039now um on these assessments we've got MAP and national norm reference test that we can lean in on what is required of us in terms of how much is starbased in terms of our rubric versus using MAP or MCL class or some other uh form to measure student growth >> I I don't um believe that the state actually says you have to have a certain amount um based on that. What I do know is there's a waiting requirement. Um and right now we had our teachers weigh in on that last year and they decided that they would want um student growth to be 50% of that requirement and the teacher appraisal to be 50% of that requirement. >> Okay. But of the other fif the 50% um uh or on the student growth it doesn't

040we have a lot of flexibility there and we you're anticipating that going forward correct? >> Yes. >> All right. One other question while we're on this slide is >> back in the early days of TIA there were three distinctions. >> Correct. >> Yes. Yes. And the first one was you just had to be national board certified. We had two teachers tonight who earned that distinction. I don't see it on the uh is that still an option? Does that still get you at the first level or explain the levels again for me because it's changed since >> the last session. >> Absolutely. Um so there are two pathways to a designation for a teacher. um a national board certified teacher actually right now earns a recognized designation. The other pathway is when a district uh puts

041together a local designation system and now the there is an additional um designation called acknowledge designation is probably what you're seeing on that slide. So the three still exist but they've included an acknowledge a fourth one and acknowledge designation. So national board certification to answer your question is still a pathway for a teacher to earn it's a recognized right now and I think they're looking at making it its own designation but right now I know they earn a recognized designation through TIA. >> Great. That's good to hear because >> you know we all know that you know if a teacher goes through that they have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're they are a recognized teacher and the more we can rely on objective measures like that I think the better. Um

042the other thing that if we can go to slide nine I just do want to focus on the yeah this one I like that the top priority is the focus on students but I think the other thing that's also critical when we go down this path is the fairness and being able to set clear expectations with standard rubrics. So I, you know, I think you guys nailed it there on the top three and we, you know, you put students first, but it's got to be fair >> for our teachers with clear expectations. So, um, I agree wholeheartedly with that. And then on slide 10, the next slide, um, I mean, this to me this says it all right here. we're going to be at a competitive disadvantage if we're not already um in terms of

043attracting the the best talent in the metroplex. Um so I think we just need to be very mindful of this and the fact that this map is increasingly getting filled in um with districts around us. So and that's all I had. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. Any other trustees with comments or questions on the TIA report? >> Okay, seeing none, thank you. >> Thank you, >> trustees. I do just want to know I want to thank Dollaris for her leadership in this obviously and we're going to continue to work through things, but uh we will be bringing this back to you. So, I encourage you if you have questions in the next couple of weeks that you let me know about those questions, but we will need to make a decision coming up

044here in uh a little over a month now. Okay, that takes us to item B on our committee and staff reports tonight. Our next report is a midyear district priorities report and update. Dr. Smith, >> trustees, Dr. Collins is going to come present to you this evening um possibly the most important part of the night, but also equally important, our our potential bond election. But as trustees, every year you adopt key progress measures, the things that you want us to accomplish in a year, and this is our update to you on our progress on those key progress measures for uh our midyear priority report. >> Good evening, President Chapa, Dr. Smith, and trustees. I'm excited to get to talk with you a little bit about the conversations we've been having regarding key progress measures. So,

045you remember that back in October, you approved these key progress measures, and these are the things that we want to be held accountable for as a district. It's the big work that we really want to achieve. All of these things are embedded in our district improvement plan, but we've highlighted these as the beacon of the work that we're trying to accomplish this year. And so, every um month, our senior staff team comes together and we have what we call priority report meetings. And so, we have conversations about the big work that's happening in the system and people report out on that big work. But in the month of January, instead of having a traditional priority report meeting, instead we did a middle-ofear check-in. And what that allowed us to do was to gather evidence on

046the strategies that are being used around the system for each and every senior staff member and their teams under each and every district priority. So we didn't just say talent and resources, our finance team and HR team need to tell us what's happening there. Instead, what we said is what is the work that each of us are doing for all of these areas? And we were able to collect that evidence. So, what I'm going to share with you tonight are a couple of highlights for each of the different areas. I'm not going to give you the big exhaustive list, but I think it's important for you to know about the work that's happening. And I'm also going to use kind of a a temperature check. So, for any that are already complete, it'll have a

047green check mark next to it. You'll see that most of them are still in progress. It's work that we're continuing through the spring semester. And then for any that aren't started, um we will show this to you. Um spoiler alert, we have started all of them and there are no big red X's in the presentation. So we're excited about that. So for the first academic growth, you'll see that all of these um strategies are still in progress and I want to highlight um three big um strategies that we are using. So the first is the idea of academic conferences. So we have several different kinds of academic conferences that are happening in our system this year. The first is that we have principles coming together in learning communities to share things like their academic focus

048for their campus. They're talking about the goals that they've set. They're talking about the strategies that they're using on their campus and the progress that they've made so far. They're sharing with us the real data. Um, and so what's so powerful about those academic conferences is that not only are principles, you know, gathering the information and reflecting and reporting out, but they're learning from each other. And it's just so powerful to see principles asking each other questions about the strategies they're using because maybe they're going to take an idea and go and use it on their campus. We also have academic conferences happening that are led by our research and accountability team. So they are headed out to meet with different campus leaders specifically on accountability and they are walking our campus leaders and oftentimes

049it's leadership teams through what does accountability really look like on their campus and what if we moved these two numbers right here just a point or two what impact would that have on your overall accountability. So really trying to help people know and understand how the accountability system works. We also have a lot of professional learning and instructional coaching supports that are happening in our system right now that are a huge um win. So we have of course a big focus on literacy and mathematics this year. We have classroom observation cycles that are happening where we have cross um functional groups that are going in and out of classrooms looking to see what classroom instruction really looks like. Not just what are what is the professional learning that we're providing but what does it look

050like whenever uh teachers get back into the classroom. And then campus walks that are happening as well. We have principles that are walking each other's campuses. Like it's just a really fun opportunity to get to see what does learning look like in action. Of course, we're using those professional learning days and providing continued professional learning opportunities for our administrators on a monthly basis as well. And then the final thing that I'll mention here um and I'm just going to touch on it because we spent a lot of time at our last meeting talking about the curriculum management audit. And so I just want you to know that the curriculum management um planning team has already come together. They are already working on implementation of recommendations. And so you'll continue to see more information about what

051that looks like. So for culture, you'll see that all of these are also still in progress. Um I'll start with a focus on all leaders using um the staff survey data. So you'll see there that um key progress measure number one is about increasing our net promoter score um on the annual staff survey. And so we worked very closely with campus leaders and district leaders. We provided them with a toolbox of resources that they could use to reflect on the campus survey data and the department survey data to figure out what are the things that we could do to move the needle to continue to improve the results that we're seeing on our campuses and in our departments. And then we've had check-ins with them to see how is it going and what are the

052things um that you're hearing. So we're soliciting an ideas and then um we are putting together right now kind of a mid-year progress check that we want to send out to our district staff to say, "Hey, how's it going for you this year and what are the things that we need to continue working on this spring?" Our research and accountability team and our communications teams um have come together um and they are engaging stakeholders to help define the student experience. And so they've got some really um engaging ways that they're bringing people together. And so we're very excited to see the results that that's going to lend. And then finally, we've had a dramatic shift, as you know, in our tip and tap plans this year. Now it's more of a district approach rather than

053individualized campus approaches. Um a lot of the strategies are aligned with what we've already talked about um in the academic progress um section um with targeted leadership coaching. But one of the things that I'll highlight here is just kind of the re- um alignment or reimagining of department supports so that we can make sure that the supports that we're providing are hitting the right areas and also that we're um making the biggest impact that we can um in the system. So safety and discipline, you'll notice here um the first one is in progress, but that second one is already complete. So that's our green check mark that we've completed so far. Our goal was to have this complete by January 30th and um we did reach that target. So a couple of highlights regarding safety

054and discipline. We have targeted CA campus safety supports and trainings happening um at our AP meetings every month. Uh we have committee work um committees coming together. You saw the presentation um just last month about the work that's happening with our behavior teams. And then um we are tracking progress on each of our campuses towards those behavior support plans. Uh we've had some teacher behavior focused groups and they provided really um supportive and helpful feedback to us on the positive actions that are helping their campus to improve um s uh campus safety. Regarding marketing and engagement, you'll see that the two uh KPMs are still in progress here. Um two things that I'll highlight regarding marketing and engagement are the implementation of Onflow, which was formerly called Let's Talk. you know that we have used

055this tool um for some really big initiatives in the district already um since December. Um the goal is to improve customer service with that tool. Uh we've also had some intentional shifts with our newsletters this year. Just trying to be really intentional with the way that we share newsletters with our staff and with our um parent community. We have intentional media relationships that we are building. where we've got some intentional social media strategies that we're using and really trying to improve communication overall um as a system. And then um the last thing that I'll share is about battle cards. So you've heard a little bit about battle cards in previous meetings and the development of the battle cards are really to help our campuses have good data on what their um campus has to offer

056compared with what charter schools have to offer. And so as campuses are having conversations with families who are considering leaving the campus, we want them to be armed with the information about their own campus and what the uh charter schools um offer so that they can help people make the best decision um for their child and hopefully choose to stay in Arlington ISD. Um we have a new marketing director position. Um so that's an exciting thing as well as we think about marketing and engagement. And then you know that we've been using that geo fencing strategy um to um approach our recent levers here in Arlington. And then finally regarding talent and resources, both of these strategies are also still in progress. We talked a lot tonight about budget development. So I'll just hit this

057one quickly. you know that uh the zerobased budgeting development strategy is being used and um even this coming week we've got a lot of time on the calendar that we're going to spend digging in together as a senior staff team on zerobased budgeting just to continue that work. Um and then finally our program evaluation development process is being led by our research and accountability team and um they have done things like look at our current policy regarding program evaluations and they have some proposed changes to our policy that we'll bring to our next governance meeting. We've established a pilot team um that's been working to vet some tools and some processes and we're working together to gather information on all of the programs that we have in our system so that we can prioritize kind

058of this cycle of program evaluation um in our system moving forward. So I'll just ask if there is any discussion or questions that you would like to ask. >> Thank you Dr. Collins. Are there trustees with comments or questions? >> All right, seeing none. Dr. Hi. >> Oh, Miss Richardson, >> it's not a question as so much as a thank you. When we were talking about goal four with marketing engagement, you kept talking about customer service and customer service. And one of the things we've said is our families are our customers and they're not just community members or not. But I really like the chosen verbiage that we're using there to remind our staff and everybody who is coming in contact with our families to treat them that we are offering a service. we are

059offering something that they also can choose to go elsewhere and we want to make sure that they are choosing us over and over again. So, thank you for being intentional in your verbiage. Thank you. >> Dr. Collins, can you go back a couple of slides? I just want to point out one more thing that I know is in progress and um going to ask you to elaborate on it. Let's go back to culture. I believe it's in and it's number two about engaged students, staff, families, and clearly defining the desired student experience in Arlington Arlington ISD. So, the initial creation of this was really to get this conversation going. Since I've gotten here, I've talked to you all about having a community-based accountability system to be able to say from a community standpoint, what does

060the community in Arlington want for their students that we have here and how do we hold ourselves accountable to actually achieving that. So, accountability goes far beyond test scores in a situation like that. It's really about trying to know and understand what our community wants out of our schools and to be better every day at that. Dr. Collins has been working with a team to start defining how we would create that system in our district, too. Do you want to tell them a little bit about TAC work that's going on? >> Sure. So, TAC is the Texas Public Accountability Consortium, and we have a mix of campus leaders and district leaders um that have come together. We did some initial learning together back in the fall. We actually had a follow-up meeting on virtually today

061just to have conversations about what is the work that we've done together so far. And so whenever we think about the public account um the accountability system, what we want to think about is not only are we about the numbers that STAR tells us, not only are we about the attendance percentages and those kinds of things, but what is it that our community wants to hold us accountable for and then how do we tell the story of the work that we're doing with those things. So, as we have conversations about defining the student experience and we hear from our community the things that are important to them, what this new accountability system will help us do is to tell those stories and that they can hold us accountable for the things that are most important.

062And so, we just had our first uh conversation today with a group of PTA leaders um to ask them what you know what is the desired student experience. And so, we're beginning to gather that information. We're excited to bring that back to you in the coming months. >> So, I asked Jennifer to elaborate on that. To me, that's one of the most important key progress measures that we have here. There are a lot of things that are important, but to really be a community-based school system that's producing the experience that our community wants for our kids, I think is what public education is all about. And so, we're excited to continue that work. This is just a first step in it, but I wanted to make sure you knew there's other background things happening along

063the way, and we're going to keep pushing on that one. >> Okay. There are no further comments or questions. Thank you, Dr. Collins. We'll move on to item C. >> We have a report on a community sentiment survey for a potential bond election. Dr. Smith, >> I'm inviting Dr. Hill up and he'll introduce our guest. Um, and we're excited to have Matt here tonight to help present on this. Uh, and this is why I imagine most of our guests are here this evening. Um, we've been studying some things for uh through the capital needs steering committee and part of this process that we also wanted to make sure our trustees had was to be able to gauge community sentiment about their excitement, tolerance, whatever word we might want to use for a potential bond election

064and Mike will will uh intro our guest. We'll get we'll get into the survey itself. >> So, thank you Dr. Smith and to board and president Chapa. Uh, as Dr. Smith mentioned we've been uh Capital New Steering Committee has been hard at it for quite some time uh over several meetings doing a lot of good work behind the scenes. You've had that first report, but we thought it'd be important as he said to kind of see what our community feels about what potentially could be coming forth. And so we did engage with Baseliss uh uh a statewide known uh research firm that kind of works through all of this and conducts our surveys. And so I'm going to invite uh the chief operations officer Matt Gamble to come and share with us some of the

065results that uh our community gave as a result of that survey back in January. So at this time Matt, turn it over to you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Good evening. Um so we uh pulled 400 uh voters in the district. The margin of error to the sample size is 4.9%. Uh we had a mix of live interviewing as well as um text to web where respondents could uh take the survey on their phone. Just want to review the objectives with you real quick. Um we wanted to first measure general attitudes about the school district. We wanted to measure support for different bond um proposals or propositions. Uh we wanted to look at the difference in dollar amounts and the difference in a tax and no tax scenario. U meas measure the favorability of

066different bond projects. And then lastly determine what information was most important to communicate to voters. Um, so before we get into the results, just a a little bit of uh the me the demographics and kind of what we're looking at. Uh, this survey is really reflective of active voters or engaged voters. So if you look at the voter file in the district, 12% of all registered voters have participated in one of the recent May elections. In our surveys, uh, nearly two out of five have participated in one of those elections. When we look at the last 12 elections, including uh primaries, oddyear, November elections, general elections, uh you see that 46% of registered voters have not voted in any or only voted one. It's probably the presidential election. Uh only 4% of our respondents voted

067in zero or two. 60% of our respondents voted in um five or more elections compared to 20% of the voter file. So, we're looking at people that are really engaged to be participating. Um we set up um some quotas to uh based on region. We tried to model as best we could the attendance zones but we had to stick within precincts. And we looked at the voter registration and voter turnout within these six regions and set a quota to make sure we were repres uh collecting a representative sample of respondents based on your voters within these six regions. We also set u parameters and quotas for age, race, ethnicity, gender, and um other demographics to make sure this is a representative sample of voters. Um age is an interesting one. As you know, older voters

068are much better about voting than younger voters. And so, as your turnout goes down, your proportion of of older voters goes up. This is what the registered voter file looks like. When you look at people who vote in a midterm election, 42% of of the last midterm was senior citizens. 56% of average of May's is senior citizens. Um, our survey is closer to kind of midterm scenario and you could kind of look at how the results would be impacted if it was 56% seniors instead of 43% seniors. Uh, but the point is with this election, it's going to be heavily dominated by older voters. So, let's look at some general attitudes about the district. First, we asked if they had a positive or negative impression of the school district. 60% positive, 21% negative. It's almost

069a 3 to1 positive to negative ratio. And this is pretty consistent with what we're seeing across the state right now when we were asking this question. Uh we did see that uh your non-parents are just more likely not to have an opinion of you. Uh negative percentages are the same, parents and non-parents. Uh your parents, 77% positive impressions. Pretty good. We also asked about fiscal responsibility. What we found here is a plurality say that the district's doing as good as a job is as to be expected in managing uh the money that you have to operate. And these percentages are also similar to what we typically see um when we ask this question. We're really looking at is making sure that the wasteful and ineffectively isn't like the high 20s or the 30s and that's

070not the case here. So when I mentioned that we wanted to test um support of bond u propositions, we did that two different places in the survey. Once at the beginning of the survey, which we call the initial ballot, and then again at the end of the survey, which we call the informed ballot. So the initial ballot is really just testing voters uh or respondents reaction to the ballot language. Anything that's not printed on their ballot is going to be something they're going to have to hear either from um the district or from a pack or from their neighbors, the news. So this is just kind of how do they react to the ballot language with not knowing anything about uh these projects. Uh we tested two different um tested three different ballots. Uh one

071was for technology and then we had um we tested general bonds but we tested two different amounts for that. So for $290 million 53% would vote for 38% would vote against. uh behind um the support there's intensity uh there's a there's strongly so 25% are strongly for 21% are strongly against the intensity is important because if you don't feel strongly about something you're probably not going to go take the time to go vote for it or against it particularly in like a May election when there's not a lot of other things going on um and so we look at those proportions uh really closely u you can't vote unsure so when we extrapolate just the total support and the total opposition that's 58.2% for 41.8% against. When we extrapolate the intensity and we look at

072those proportions, it's 53 to 46. We like to average those numbers. And so when we look at the rest of the ballots, we're just look at the average extrapolation. Uh that's the easiest way to look at this. So you're um just over um you know over 50%. It's outside that 4.9% margin of error, but you know it's pretty close. Um, it's a good place to start. When you look at $390 million, that's 50.8 uh% four. Again, not a bad place to start, but obviously um a little too close for comfort in my opinion in terms of margin of error. When you look at the um technology bonds, it is 55.6%. So, we tested, like I said, two different dollar amounts. What happens in surveys is sometimes when you start increasing the amount, you start losing

073more support. You know, people are like, "What are you gonna ask me for next?" A billion dollars. Um, when you start uh large and you start working your way down, things start to sound more reasonable. And so what we did is we rotated the amount. So half the time the smaller amount came first, half the time the larger amount came first. And when we look at what came first, uh you see that um 290 did a still did a little bit better. It's 50 59.9% for uh 390 is 55.5%. So 390 did better when it came first. So it looked like only 50%, but that's because it followed the smaller amount half the time. At the end of the survey, we actually saw more support for the higher amount because we told them at the

074end um how would you vote? Keeping in mind the more bonds you pass allows the district to do more of the things we're we're talk talking to you about in the survey. Um so there really isn't a diff difference in the dollar amount. There's not a like a sticker price issue there. Uh we asked voters to tell us why they were opposed to the bonds if they weren't in favor of all three. Uh they got to pick from this this list and then they gave us their next biggest reason. Uh obviously uh concerns about taxes are the number one issue. 60% of this is among the people that got asked this question who were not in favor of all three proposals. Uh it's 37% of the total sample are hesitant to vote for bonds because

075of tax increases. Um only 3% of the total sample say they're against this because they don't think it's needed. Uh that's a kind of a good sign there. and you've got a quarter of the total sample uh unsure or not supportive at this time because they just want to know more about it. So, looking at a tax versus no tax scenario, um we asked voters uh just if they would support a bond that increase taxes uh $10 per year on every $100,000 of taxable property value, which is $15.70 per year on the average home valued at 297,000. This is the amount that goes with uh 450 total package. So prior to this we were asking prop like bond propositions. Now we're just asking total tax impact of of all the props combined. 65% would vote

076for 27% would vote against. Um you know this is obviously a lot of support for uh for proposal that increases taxes. Uh when you ask voters if they would support bonds if there was no increase in the tax rate, 79% would support it. Um you wouldn't be surprised that, you know, there's more support for a no tax uh election. But again, there's still uh to almost twothirds support of a scenario with a tax increase. When we looked at um how the respondents answered these two questions, we found basically 16% were conditional to support bonds only if there was not a tax increase. So there it's a pretty small percentage that are really kind of uh holding their support based on that. That's only part of the equation. The other part is the believability of if

077there is actually a tax increase or not because the ballot language is going to say in all caps now at the beginning and at the end this is a tax increase. So we asked them first of all did you know that this is a requirement legally that the bonds the ballots have to say this? Only 25% know this. So most people when they hear this they're going to be hearing it for the first time. And then when we asked them, well, would you believe it if you were told a bond prop wouldn't increase taxes um even though the ballot language says it was a property tax increase? Only 31% would believe it. The people most likely to believe it are the people for it anyway. The people that are going to vote for um the

078bonds no matter what. When you look at that percentage of that were no tax conditional, uh 71% would not believe it. Only 13% would. That's 2% of total respondents. So, there's not really a strategic advantage to calling a u calling for a no tax increase bond because most people who would only vote for that are not going to believe it because of the ballot language. So, um most of the survey questions were dedicated towards testing different projects and asking if the respondent was supportive of these projects. And that allowed us to not only find out what support exists for different projects, but to educate them about what the package does and why it's needed, so that we could ask at the end of the survey how they would vote on the informed positions. Um, what

079what we're looking at now are kind of like the optimization or major big additions uh that we tested. 78% support the South Davis rebuild. 77% support expansions at um LHS and um WJHS and 73% support construction of a new elementary school. We put number five. Um and those are all very high percentages of support. Um then we had um strong support for storm shelters, life cycle and deferred maintenance. Um FFN was really just about the classroom desks. Uh 80% were supportive of that. Uh we had support in the 80s for the special education program improvements. Uh that was specifically just uh this message was just about the u kind of the life skills program. uh 84% for CTE, 81% fine art improvements. We had uh 86% support SA security and uh safety improvements, 81% for

080technology, 78% supporting tech infrastructure. And we we test technology infrastructure and technology devices differently just because legally you have to kind of put the devices in its own prop. Um but strong support for both of those. We also gave the respondents additional information. This isn't do you like this project or not, but other things about bonds that they they might want to know. Things like cost escalation, the citizens committee studying um the district's needs, um that you haven't had a bond in six years, what the tax impact might be. And at the end of the survey, after hearing all that information, I'll show you where we ended up. Uh on 290 we went from 56 to nearly 70% support. Uh on 390 we ended up at 65% and at uh on the technology proposition at

08171.7%. So a lot of movement between the beginning of the survey to the end with the information that we provided. Uh we saw movement not just with the total sample but with um whoops with different types of subgroups. So, I'll call your attention just to the non-parents, which is like the third row. Um, you see that they're right at the margin of error of 50% or on the 390 amount, just under 50%. Keep in mind, a lot of the majority of the people voting will be non-parents. Uh, but we were able to really increase their support when they learn more about the bond propositions. So, this is just kind of summarizing everything we just talked about. Um I'll I'll move now though to this last slide. So when we got uh out of the field

082and we're looking at all the data, one of the things we did is we looked at the correlation between different projects in support of the bond because we find all the times that uh voters might like a particular project. They might be okay with the fact that you're going to buy buses, but are you going to vote for the bond? Well, no. So the uh regression analysis that we do looks at again the correlation between liking a project and actually voting for the bond to pay for it. And we also looked at the other messages that correlated with support. For example, the fact that you haven't had a bond in six years. And that allows us to know what messages are most important to voters. And what we found was the very best message that

083um was enhanced support for the proposal was talking about um purchasing new desk chairs. Um sometimes this happens. Um but that was something that they really really liked. Um the second best message was was telling them that you haven't had a bond in six years and this is the next step in a long-range plan. The third best message was talking about the tax impact. Now, I'm not saying voters want their taxes increased, but it's so minimal that it was something that made them uh okay to vote for the bond. Um, and one of the things that this kind of the behind the math is it looks at uh what is moving someone from um not supporting to supporting. So, it is a relatively small amount and it's something that isn't um isn't really a negative.

084Uh the fourth best message was instruct improvements for technology um instructional technology and then the fourth the fifth best message was um replacing essential school building infrastructure like like HVAC and such. We also looked at what messages were best for parents and non-parents and voters that had participated in a recent May election. Uh so we can see how to kind of tailor different messages for different types of voters. So, I know that's that's all that's a lot all at once, but um bottom line is you're in a really good starting point. U most districts would be envious to be at 50% on or over that on an initial ballot. Um but I wouldn't, you know, just think it's going to be a walk in the park because you are so close to that 50% with

085the margin of error. And um we know that they they're supportive of all the projects. We just have to educate voters and let them know uh how this is helpful for the district. >> All right. Thank you for your presentation. Trustees with comments or questions tonight, >> Miss McMurro. >> Thank you. I know that you work with a lot of school districts throughout the state and what you just said was really helpful in helping us glean the the main idea from all of this. Is there anything else that was unique to Arlington ISD survey results that that you you found good or bad um that that we should be informed about like just as a forecast of what we're potentially going to do in this bond package? Um, not really. There wasn't anything like surprising

086um or or particularly unique with that. Um, you know, a lot of it was kind of expected. Um, you know, kind of typically don't ever see a big difference in dollar amounts. >> Yeah. >> Um, we we always see there's an issue with believability with taxes. Um, your image and the the fiscal um attitudes are are really in line with what we typically see. So >> yeah, I I was actually um enlightened by a lot of a lot of the um results and it it's jarring to me how 47% I think it was of survey participants did not know about the required ballot language and is that usually what >> I think it was um 25% knew of it. So you on that like did you know type of question you have unsur and nos

087and really an unsure is a I don't know. >> Yeah. >> Um 25% knew about that and that's um that's kind of what we see even when we we do surveys in districts that have had um so this will be your first bond since the new law. We've done this had this question in districts where they've had a handful of bond elections and it's maybe 40%. >> Yeah. And I think this is something um just speaking to my colleagues, this is definitely something we need to share with our legislators because this is a result of state legislation. And if the whole purpose was to have a more informed community when they come to to the polls, this isn't this isn't hitting that target. And so I really appreciate you guys for including this because it

088informs us what we need to educate our community around. Thank you. Mhm. I'll just tell you, we started asking that after November 2020. We got feedback from districts that said, "Well, we told people the taxes wouldn't go up, and they said they didn't believe us." So then we found that a lot of districts are were spending their time kind of defending themselves from voters thinking they were lying to them. So, >> thank you, Miss McMarrow. Mr. Joel Banks. >> Thank you, President Chapa. And uh thanks for the survey. I I if we can start with slide 12. I agree with your >> Oh, already there. Um finding that um it didn't really number one, as we were saying, no one believes no one would believe us if we tell them it's not. So, it's almost

089better that if we do go out with a larger package and we can tell them, "Yeah, your taxes are going to go up, so we're they don't think we're lying, but they're only going up by a penny and that's only going to cost you $18 a year." I think that's a much better position to win over voters than trying to convince them this official language from the state is a lie. >> Uh that's just too bit much of an uphill battle. So, in a lot of ways, I think going out I I wanted to keep this bond package where it was truly no new tax rate. >> Uh, and we just couldn't do it and we've got a lot of needs, but I think that it puts us in a little bit stronger position. Now

090the downside is you also mentioned that >> um we've got a lot of education yeah to do because your pre-pole just numbers versus we're very close to the margin of error and then your post once we do educate we've got strong favor. Um but that so it is going to require a good campaign to educate our voters and educate our parents. >> Yep. we don't have a lot of time to do it. So, that's one of my concerns is we we've got a very short leash and to spin up a uh community group to support and go out and communicate about the bond. Um, they're not going to have a lot of time to do that. Um, so go back if we can go back to one of your first slides, I think slide three.

091>> One of the things I was confused on, so if you could explain this. So >> yeah, >> since we're talking about a potential May, let's ignore the >> the 12 Yeah, >> the the right hand side. Let's look at this. So you got our voter f file and 12% of the voter file, which we kind of know there's a couple of in here worked a lot of May elections. >> Yeah. >> Um we know that of registered voters, a very small percentage vote in May elections. an even smaller amount vote in multiple May elections. Yep. >> And are informed. >> Explain the bottom one there. So, of your respondents, so of the people you contacted, >> Yep. >> 39% have voted in one or more. >> Uh what And did you did you guys

092have a formal definition of like likely voters? because that's what I'm interested in is what do our likely voters say? And I don't know if just voting in one mayoral election out of the last 12 years, >> you know, >> uh or is that one or more out of the most recent years? What's the what's the definition of that? >> Yeah. So, um that's voted in one, two, or three of the last three May elections. >> Oh, the 22 to 24. Okay. >> Yeah. We wouldn't want to only interview people who had voted in one because as you said, very few voted in multiple. So they show up one year and then that's it. Um and um there will be new people coming to vote in May that haven't voted in the last three May

093elections. So we wouldn't want to limit that. >> Um but the you know the the amount of new voters that are brought in will be a function of how excited the community is to vote for it or against it. Yeah. >> Um, but what it what it's showing is just that it is it's looking at the people who took the survey more likely to be voting and stuff than just the average person on the voter file. >> Okay. And so at so the 61% hadn't voted in any May election >> any may any of those last three May elections. >> Okay. So out of the people that you pulled and that these results are representative of that's only 39 of your total. What was your total? What was your in number? >> 400. So 39.

094So roughly 157ish. >> And we can we we can also do is look at the difference between those voter those respondents and the other respondents. And even though it says they voted in zero, they're that's the reason I put the other half of the slide there is it's not like they're not voting. They're voting in constitutional amendment elections, voting in primaries, they're voting in general elections. So they are participating. Um but >> but they're coming out and voting for the president every four years. there's not that really that big of a difference between the May the people who voted in May and didn't um when you kind of adjust for all the demographics. >> Here's here's my concern. If you could go to the first slide I is that where you had the confidence the

095margin of error. >> So this is going to be this May is going to have it's going to be a very contentious mayoral race. Okay, >> you go back to the last mayoral race, 17,500 voters voted in that election. >> And if you your definition of likely voters is you reached 157, that's like 089% not 1%. So >> yeah, would >> your margin of error if you're just looking at likely voters is likely double that. And you said, you know, with without educating a voter, their likelihood is pretty close to the margin of error. If it's 4.9, if it's double that, >> we're within the margin of error. That's my concern. >> Well, yeah. I mean, we, you know, we do, you know, these all the time and we would never only interview just people

096who had voted in May. So, the fact that you have respondents in the poll that haven't voted in a recent May, I I wouldn't say they're not likely voters. They're they're likely voters because they have participated in a lot of other elections, too. Um but, you know, it's um again, when you look at also the people who had that May history and who didn't have that May history, we didn't see a very big difference in them in in in their support of the bonds. what the biggest driver is is like the age of the respondent or the age of the voter and the partisanship of the voter. Um, and those >> can swing a little bit between May versus >> u kind of midterm type elections. But I I still I still feel like the

097margin of error, the 4.9 that's that's good with uh with the with the data that we're we've provided and the sample being reflective of of active voters. So >> yeah, I just would like that end number to be higher to represent the kind of May election we're anticipating this May. >> Yeah. >> Um and then that also then makes me a little uncomfortable given our how close we were to the margin of error starting out with the voters. And you got to assume most of our voters coming to vote are we're not necessarily going to be able to reach out in touch with the message. Um so that that gives me some pause. Now when you go back if you look at the support for the individual items, you know, kind of the meat, >>

098those numbers >> give me a lot of confidence. >> Yeah. But I just wish we were polling what I consider likely voters. >> Okay. >> So, I'm a little concerned. And then, you know, the bottom line, the plus side is >> I think the fact that we're going to go out with it, you know, just a single cent, it's only $18. That's a much better position, as you pointed out in your research, than trying to say it's not really a tax rate and people not believing us. So, that is in our favor. There are a few things in our favor. The other thing that gives me concern or grief is just the compressed timeline we would have between now in May to educate our voters. >> Yeah, I would the thing about the compressed timeline

099is kind of twofold. I mean, it's the planning and all the the things that needed to happen that would be a concern, but you know, for campaigns, it's it's best to kind of, you know, hit them pretty close to when the election starts. I mean, I don't know that you would really need to start uh communicating for this the May bond until, you know, maybe next month. So it's not like you've missed the opportunity to start that education because uh you know campaigns they usually you know frontload or backload all their their communications towards like the start of early voting but it's the planning and all. I don't know what how much time is needed for that but you still have plenty of time to communicate to voters is my point. It's just I don't

100know the organization and getting all that stuff up and running. >> That's it. >> Yeah. >> But uh thank you for your work. >> Thank you, Mr. Will Banks, Miss Fowler. >> Thank you, President Choa. Thank you so much for the presentation. And I think you hit on a key element. It's the education because the public is not going to know what, you know, what are we going to use this money for? It's going to be up to us to educate. The things that are going to be in this bond are not things that we would like to have. They're not it's it's things that we need. So, it's not about want. It's really about need. And I know one of the first questions that citizens always ask, "Oh, are you going to use the

101money for a big new uh football stadium?" We need to make sure that the public knows exactly what we're going to be using this money for. things like technology and safety and and and desk and chairs. They're things that we actually need. They're not wants. They're not fancy things. They're things that we actually need. And it's going to be up to us to educate the public on what those things are and why we're asking for this money. >> So, thank you for emphasizing that. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Miss Valer. Any other trustees with comments or questions? >> Okay. Okay, I have a couple questions and just a couple comments. Um, a question that I have is is I noticed in here that it appears as if we're lining up to what we are potentially

102considering tonight for a potential bond proposal. We're looking at props A, B, and C. And your survey addresses what to me looks like props A and B, but not C. Is there a reason we didn't poll for the athletic facilities or did we poll? And >> we we did not poll for that. I I don't I I can't recall it specifically, but I think it was we didn't think it would make the cut. >> Okay. So, it's a pretty >> Yeah, compared to everything else, it's a relatively small ticket item of options that we're looking at. So, is that was a potentially a consideration there? >> Could be that. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, I had a question on but really it's a question for you to to based on your experience and I'm going to

103ask you I know you're this is like you're data driven in this presentation I'm going to ask you to extrapolate from something that I'm going to tell you and I'm going to tell you it's true and I hope you believe it. Um, so we have a history in our district of going out for bond propositions and and trying to educate our community and rally community support for it. and we get roughly the last two big bond elections we've done have have almost been at 70% in favor when it's all said and done. The city takes a slightly different approach and they have their bond propositions on a essentially a three-year cycle >> and they do essentially no effort >> to I'm not being unfair to my friends at the city. They they provide information like

104that, but there's not the same sort of rallying of the community to get them educated on on the bonds that we have done on our side. and their bonds generally pass with about 70% of support. >> What would you chalk that up to? >> I'd have to really study uh I mean are are the elections held at at the same time? >> We have generally held them in May. Our 19 bond was held in 19. >> And what does the city does the city do theirs in May too? >> Um they've generally done May. >> How what are how what are the dollar amounts for the like the city? They're generally in the 300ish, $350 million range. >> Yours are kind of there, too. >> Ours have been larger. >> Larger, >> but less frequent.

105>> Yeah. I I don't know. I' I'd have to look at probably a lot of a lot more data to >> it could be >> I mean, the city's not doing anything to educ. >> Are the are the ballots more descriptive of what the money would be used for? Not particularly. >> H >> and there more there's more ballot propositions um on the last like for the last one I think there was ABCDE E and the city I mean certainly puts out information don't get me wrong I don't want you to think like a vacuum >> of there's not a massive campaign is what you're saying >> yes that if there is a political action committee that's supporting the city bond it it tends to spend relatively less money and there's not as many signs

106out and no one's generally a whole lot of people are not putting vote yes on the city bond signs in their yard. Yeah. Well, I I mean, one explanation could be that, you know, the image of public schools has just been kind of going down lately and it it could be that you're having to fight against that. Um, not to impugn the district's image because you have a, you know, you have a good image, but um that could be a factor. um the the way the money was spent or the way the communications that for the school bonds had been done in the past. >> I'd have to know like if it was like who we were talking to, uh what the efforts were. Um maybe it just didn't get go to the right people

107or maybe it wasn't enough to really make an impact. Sometimes clients will think, oh, we you know, we communicated, we had some town halls and we sent out two two mailers. Well, that's not enough to really get in someone's face and and let them really understand what the propositions are about. So, I'd have to know that, too. But, I think it's >> um you know, everyone lives in a city. Not everybody has a kid in a school. And I think that's another issue, too. >> Um and you know, we know that >> uh older voters, particularly 50 to 64 year olds, are just not that supportive of of school bonds in general. They don't have kids in the school. They're they're not taxed yet. They're not frozen tax frozen yet. So that that could be

108a factor as well. >> Sure. And that'll make I was just asking for you know based on your experience if if you had any insight on that because as we get as we look at putting together a bond and then on the back side of that looking at how what could we do to >> um you know educate the community about it. It seems like the two big government entities in Arlington historically have taken slightly different approaches to to doing that and I was just curious if you had any insight on that. I do think there's maybe something to reading a bond proposition that mentions police or fire or libraries or parks and it's just much of it's a much simpler >> Yeah. >> um thing to look at. But on your I the one

109of the things I wanted to point out you mentioned are you know the image in the community and if we could go to the slide um well I think it's going to be go back a little further. I'm sorry. It's one of the slides that has par parents versus non-parents. >> This one. >> Yeah. So, this is something that that actually just to I just wanted to point out actually aligns with some data we got last year. We did a survey with Inspa as part of our communications audit and we saw this same dynamic here to where I think this atmosphere of discussion that's been very negative recently about public schools I think is trickling down to the general community and folks who seem to know us which are parents and staff and that survey

110had n the report was actually very similar to these numbers here and how they viewed us which was very favorably and the the community generally views us favorably too but the there's a a pretty significant drop off in that. So this is a trend that we've seen before. And then the last thing I wanted to to observe as we go into this is the Y against bond slide which is slide 10. >> Um it's interesting to me the dynamic that we that I just described is it it to me it seems like we have a pretty set inelastic group of voters in our community who they will not b vote for a billion dollar bond. They're not going to vote for $190 million bond. And that I think is what we see here is the

111folks who are generally say that they are not going to vote for a bond. I think and tell me if I'm wrong, what this slide tells me is for those folks, there's not really an amount of education on the Strongleys that's going to ever get them to be a bond supporter because they just don't believe in it at all. It's just as a philosophical matter. >> Yeah, you're right. The the the one group that kind of does move would be those who say, "I don't know enough about it. Um, so >> and that's our job to go educate those folks. And I would say the other thing I wanted to point out here because it, you know, opposed to a tax increase and don't trust it'll be spent wisely. To me, that sounds like you're

112sort of the the stereotypical like I just don't I just don't believe in in in government spending and I think government's wasteful and whatnot. Yeah, that's pretty dug in. What stands out to me here though is despite this disparity and maybe how a little bit of a disparity in how people view us in the community, parents versus non-parents, the it to me looks like the vast majority of people don't disagree that we have significant needs that be addressed in the bond. Only 5% indicated that they don't think that we need improvement as a reason for them to to not support the bond. >> Exactly. and that, you know, we we know that when we ask this question, the most people are going to pick, they're concerned about taxes. Um, but we we do this to

113see kind of where where the other things fall out. And um, school buildings don't need improvements being the lowest. I mean, it's just that's not really the issue. It's um, it's just kind of getting people more excited about the proposal and letting them know really what's behind it. Um, but you're not really gonna you can't win most of these other anti- voters over. >> Okay, >> those are all the observations and questions I have. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> I just want to thank you, Matt. Good to see you again. I appreciate your work. And um, trustees, hopefully this gave you uh, some insight into sentiment. The one thing I will add, I know Mr. Will Bankbanks brought it up, but it is pretty typical for districts and um any community groups that

114support bond elections to after the bond is called is really when you kick off the education campaign. So, I do think we have a really good window here to actually do that coming up. Um now, whether or not you decide to call this bond election or not, that's that's a different story, but I do think the opportunity is there and that's typically been in the four that I've been involved in the time frame that we do it. >> Yeah. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you for being here. >> Oh, good. >> You're good. >> Thanks. All right. >> Appreciate it. >> Okay. We do have a slight change uh in our normal lineup. We do have a public hearing tonight. Next up on our agenda is a public hearing on the Texas Academic Performance

115Report. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Smith. >> I forgot we had this. Sorry about that. Um I'd like to welcome up Dr. Lopez. Uh as you know, this is an annual requirement for districts throughout the state of Texas. And Dr. Lopez will walk us through the data from our taper report this year. >> Okay. Good evening, President Chappa, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. So, thank you for the time this evening to conduct the public hearing for the 2425 Texas academic performance report. The tapper has a multitude of data points that are relevant to our district and our campuses. And tonight, I'll just highlight some key insights obtained from the district report. I'll begin with um our star participation and performance for the 2425 school year. We accomplished testing 100% of

116our students overall. This is up 1% from what we did last year and uh is above the state participation rate of 99%. So moving into performance, this slide details the all subjects category at the approaches grade level or above which is the passing standard um in the state of Texas. We maintained our performance from 24 to 25 at a rate of 67% for our all student group. So that is displayed in the first column of the visual followed by the year-to-year rates for the remaining state designated student groups. So the state and region they also maintained their all student rate from 24 to 25. So we are in alignment with those trends. We consistently report out on reading and math. So we do that throughout the year looking at reading specifically. The trend resembles the

117all subjects rate in that we maintained from 24 to 25 and actually at the same rate as the all subjects which is 67% uh for our all student group. The state and the region also maintained their reading rate. For mathematics uh we maintained the approaches or above rate from 24 to 25 at 65% for the all student group and that is also in alignment with the state and the region who maintained their rate from 24 to 25. So this next section covers college, career, and military readiness, which is a familiar data point that we report out on not only during tapper um but throughout the year. So the tapper, like the adaf accountability system, reports information on the graduating class from the year prior to the reported year. This slide shows our 2024 graduates compared

118to our 2023 graduates. As you can see, there is a 10% gain in the CCMR point acquisition for our 2024 graduates, which is 9% above the state rate and 11% above the region rate. Our district has continued to focus on college and uh career and military readiness um for our high school students with the intention to prepare them for life beyond Arlington ISD. This next section uh focuses on data directly related to one possible pathway after high school which is the post-secary enrollment and performance of our students. So this slide details the most recent post-secary options our graduates have pursued. The data on this slide is one year behind the CCMR data that we just reviewed. Um, so what you're seeing are the results of our 2023 class that entered some sort of post-secary option

119in the 2324 school year. So overall, our 4-year public university enrollment increased from 2022 with most of our comprehensive uh high schools seeing that increase. So it wasn't in just one little pocket. It was uh spread across the board. Our two-year enrollment uh slightly decreased from our 2022 results, which makes sense though if more of our students are choosing a four-year pathway. The independent option remains uh small and stable. Private college um enrollment, that's not a major driver of our overall collegegoing trends. Historically, the not trackable and not found rows have counts um of our students who did not enroll in a university college option or who enrolled um in some sort of u university or institution not in the state of Texas. And I'll move now from enrollment in higher ed to performance of

120our again our 2023 class in their first year of their post-secary institutions. So the the class of 2023 earned stronger first year GPA at four-year public universities uh than the prior year with higher shares of students at or above a 3.0 GPA and then stable or growing representation in the highest GPA bands. the proportion of students um earning GPA below 2.0 at four-year public universities, excuse me, four-year universities remained flat um or declined, suggesting improved college readiness um or a more effective post-secary pairing. GPA distributions at two-year um public colleges continue to trend lower with a large share of students below a 2.0 no GPA um and only moderate inconsistent improvement from 22 to 23. And our early college high schools continue to produce strong uh first year GPA outcomes at four-year um institutions even

121as participation increases. That's not really surprising. They they earn their two-year with us. Um and then they continue to have academic success once they leave us and enter their four-year universities, which is what we hope for is that we're preparing our students. So that brings us to the end of our 2425 tapper insights. So what you see here are links to our district's 2425 tapper and discipline data, the 2324 financial data which is always a year behind and our 22 23 postsecary data of which we just reviewed a little bit of. Um all of this information will be posted on our Arlington ISD website upon completion of this presentation. And that brings us to the public hearing portion. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Lopez. Miss Crosen, do we have any speakers who are registered

122to speak at the public forum tonight? >> President Chappa, we do not. >> Okay. In that case, I will open the hearing at 8:54 and I will also close the hearing at 8:54. All right. Trustees with comments or questions. We'll go to Miss Richardson. >> Hi. If we could go to slide nine with the CCMR, first of all, congratulations on getting to report out on a really great statistic like that's that we're not talking half a point or one point or two that to find out how we increased how we increased in the state, but then also in our own region. That's a big deal. >> Yeah. >> What do you attribute that to or can you tell us what we can attribute this large gain to? Well, I think there's a collaborative approach to

123um the college of career, military readiness, the options, but I mean certainly the the work is occurring in at our high schools. And so the staff there, the the teaching staff, the leadership, um and Dr. Smith, please go ahead. >> I I will very clearly tell you that I learned about this when I first got here. Doc, Dr. Jarko, TJ Jarko really led some efforts across our district with our high schools to hone in on this beginning in the 22 school year I believe the 22 23 school year and it has paid great dividends for us and it is work across all our campuses uh and work that has been supported by central office leaders as well and they really got into this data so focused on what needed to be done to move this

124data and we've seen great results since. So, it's great work by some of our staff members in the district. >> Okay, that's good to know. One of the things I want to point out is as we're looking at this, Vice President McMurro and I were looking at slide 11 together. One of the things we have to keep in mind as we read this, this is enrollment in Texas higher education. So, we're not tracking those students who go out of state >> and who go elsewhere than God's country. >> Yes. Yes. Right. The so the not trackable not found could be um could be in institutions beyond >> I want to make sure that when we're reading these total high school graduate numbers the 5633 762 these are just Texas state colleges they they could go

125many other places and we are not tracking that. >> Yes. >> Okay. I think that's important to know because if so, you can look at this and say, "Oh, that's such a low number when really there are students who choose to go all over, not just the country, but elsewhere." And that's important. >> There's a side note on this. So, just a reminder, this is not Arlington ISD's tracking. This is the taper report tracking. >> I believe, and Stephen might be able to tell me, um, I believe we use the National Student Clearing House as well, >> and that data actually tracks across the nation. So we have additional data that we use internally. This is just for the taper report data. >> I would just take would for anybody to look at that and

126say but you graduated a class >> of 900 kids and there's only five. So thank you. I just want to make sure we point that out. Thank you Dr. Lopez. >> Thank you Miss Richardson. Are there any other trustees with comments or questions? >> Mr. Mike. Yes. >> Thank you. Um I I wasn't going to say anything but I keep using my calculator to get percentages. So now I'm talking. Uh I will tell you on slide nine the the big gains there. What I've noticed in correlation with the other slides uh where we're sitting in their 60s um the African-American, Hispanic population, ecodes, your emerging bilingual, they're all very similar on those low ranges. But here you can see, you know, a 12.3% jump for African-American. You've got what? A 10.8% jump for Hispanic. Your

127Ecois is what about a 10 10.6 maybe. Mhm. >> And then you've I mean so I'm seeing correlation and and I don't know if you know I'm not a data guru but I don't know if there's correlation between hammering down on these to help bring that score because the CCMR jumped what 10.8 like it jumped really high. I mean that is that is a really significant jump but for me just looking on the outside looking in if we look at all the other data points for mathematics reading all your subjects um I think the efforts that's made here for the CCMR we continue the efforts that we're making now with our mathematics and our reading and all of our subjects will start to see some gains the same way that you see here in the

128CCMR >> and the CCMR has um multiple there there's multiple ways you can get a CCMR point >> that's very different than the one test at the end of the year for reading and that's the only opportunity for the student >> and the one test in math. So that that that is a big difference is that there's multiple ways to get a point for college career military readiness. In addition, there's multiple opportunities. you can take the SAT, the ACT multiple times and then achieve, you know, the highest score to obtain that point. And so it it emphasizes the fact that you're you're rewarded on your growth and your persistence, not just one point in time like the star test. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I understand that. But but I do know that um the point

129that I was making was that we just heard the comment that um Dr. Jarko was it right took the time to go in and say we're going to tackle this. And so I'm making the point that I could see what we're doing as a district and the admin on tackling these these things that uh once we get to a point where u they become fruitful that we will see gains like this. >> Yes, sir. >> That's that's my hope. >> Yes, sir. Me too. >> I'll I'll throw a little teaser into one of the next presentations that we'll have at an upcoming meeting. I don't know if it's the end of February or beginning of March, but we have some assessment data to show to you, but one of the things we're going to do

130is invite a couple of principles who are very clearly tracking every student's growth and show you some of their tracking systems because as trustees sometimes you ask, well, here's the data, but what are you doing about it? So, we're going to make sure that this next presentation is uh involving what are we doing about some of that data? And I think it directly relates to the point you're making. the more focused we can be about knowing the student, helping support them right where they are and giving them what they need to help move this data. Some of those same things are happening across our district at the various levels to help with academics as well. And we'll show you that coming up. Any other trustees or comments or questions? Okay, if we can go to

131slide 11, the enrollment in Texas higher ed. So just I have just a couple of observations because I think this is um really remarkable data here if you look at it for us. So just ballparking it, I every one of our campuses um has a higher than the national average I think of college enrollment or our high schools in terms of like the I think the national average for college enrollment is somewhere in the like low to mid30s. in every single one of these um is either close to that or I think all but one exceed that if I'm looking at the math right with sever of our campuses having between 40 and 60% of their um of their their students going on to attend post-secary education and so there's a big movement right now

132that that you know it used to be college for all and and now we're I think appropriately swinging the pendulum back to look at things like CCMR um but even with that being the case huge chunks of our graduating classes that even our campuses with significant numbers of socioeconomically disadvantaged students are going to college. And I think that that says a lot, but I think that's even which is something that's really to build on that on the next slide. Um, at for many of our high schools, there are students who go on to college. It looks like at some of them uh 40 to 50% or more of our students are getting a B or higher average in their first year, >> which means that they're going to be more much more likely to graduate.

133And if you look at just our like our kids passing for every one of our high schools, the majority to vast majority of the kids who go on to college are passing in their first year. And so I I think that there's a lot to be said for um you can look at the A throughF accountability system, you can look at the one-day testing, but when you look at the overall body of work of what our and the preparation our students come out with, um we are doing very well compared to uh the national average um in a district with a significantly higher percentage of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. And so I think that speaks really well of the work that we're doing here in the district. And that's all I have. Thank you, Dr. Lopez.

134Thank you. Okay. Okay. We have a a uh for those following along, we have a significant agenda item coming up next. We've been going over an hour and a half, so I am going to call about a 5m minute recess. It's 9:03. >> All right. All right, it is 9:16 and We're back from recess. Uh we'll move on to the action portion of our agenda tonight. Our first action item is to consider an approval of the order for the election for school board for May 2nd, 2026. Uh there is no presentation on this item. Um are there any trustees with comments or questions about this item? Okay, seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the order of election for a schoolboard election on May 2nd, 2026 as presented? >> Motion. >> I have

135a motion from Miss McMurro. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Have a second from Miss Fowler. We'll move to vote. All trustees voting in the affirmative. The motion unanimously carries. We'll move on now to item 5B. And it's got quite the title here, but um it is considered, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding an order by the board of trustees of Arlington Independent School District on May 2nd, 2026 calling a bond election to be held within the district, making provisions for the conduct and the giving of notice of the election, and containing other provisions relating there too. Dr. Smith, >> trustees, um we've got uh Dr. Hill and Mr. Bberto Rivas who are going to walk us through some presentation materials. As you recall, we've had a presentation from our capital need steering

136committee chair and uh other member uh and we have some of them in attendance today. I once again want to thank all of them for their continued uh dedication through the fall and into January to get us to this point. Tonight's um big decision is uh Michael's going to walk us through on a couple of things, but you all have the information now in front of you to determine whether or not you want to call a bond election and if so, what you want included in it. Okay. So, thank you Dr. Smith for setting that stage and this will be myself, Mr. Rivas and Miss Northern will pass the uh podium here till we get through uh the discussion. So, the purpose is as Dr. Smith said to deliberate for a potential bond election based

137on the capital need steering committee and that great work again that they've been doing over uh quite a number of months. Uh three questions. Do we want to call a bond election on May 2nd? If so, what projects should be included in the propositions? and what are the dollar amounts uh that should be proposed. So this again was was centered around uh the values of the district, the core values and beliefs uh really focusing on the exceptional learning experiences, strong partnerships, maximizing our resources, and then really creating that learning environment that we want for all of our learners across the system. Just a little bit of bond information. We all know what a bond is, but it's it's basically it's a loan. We're going to borrow this money and pay it back over uh a

138period of time. Uh again, it's approved by the voters uh of the of the city. Bond elections are authorized or sold in bond issues could be over multiple years. And we talked about uh they'll talk about how that can uh potentially impact the tax rate by spreading it out a little bit. And then uh school districts across the state use bonds to basically uh purchase capital needs or bigger facilities uh needs across systems versus uh paying with it with local uh local dollars uh in the 199 account. So general tax information uh all homeowners are eligible to receive $140,000 tax exemption. And so whatever the value is, you subtract that 140,000 and that's what the taxable uh is for the bond. uh as noted in the uh survey information, uh citizens 65 or older in

139most cases are uh would have their taxes fro their school district taxes frozen uh if you were to call a bond election. And then this money is just the debt services uh fund is used to pay back these bonds uh at the appropriate time. And so general information about the bond process for those that uh may need to know and then I'll turn it over to Mr. Revas to just kind of talk about the uh the tax rate information. So here we go. Thank you, Dr. Hill. On this slide right here, you all will see our tax rate history. So, the bigger portion is the M. This pays for day-to-day things like um salaries, supplies, transportation, and fuel. And then the smaller portion is the interest in syncing. This is the portion that is servicing

140bonded debts. So, on the M side, we are at the cap. On the INS side, the maximum allowed by law is 50 cents and we've been at 29 cents for the last three years. This next slide shows a comparison here within this region. And so you'll see Arlington IC towards the middle. This is a comparison on the tax rate itself. So the bottom gray portion is the M side and the blue portion up top is the debt service side. If you look at the left of this table, you'll see a few districts at that 50 cent cap um 50 cents 50 cents 49950 and then several in the 40 range and then on the far right hand side you see the districts that have the lowest INS rate 1524 and so forth. So even though

141we're on the we're towards the middle here in terms of the entire tax rate, on this next slide you'll see our actual debt per capita. When you look at debt per capita, we're on the far far um lower end with those same ISDs. So you'll see us towards the very far right. We're at 3315 debt per student. Turn it over to Miss Northing. Thank you, Mr. Revas. So, I have the pleasure of really talking about the process and the people that have helped us get to this process. I do want to give a shout out to our two co-chairs of our capital and steering committee, Dr. Katherine Par and also Kelly Krenett and several members of the committee that I've been able to get to know and work with over the past few months. And

142so, the folks that are here, I really appreciate their time, support, and and has been a lot of time. Um, as we go through, I'm just going to really tell you how the community has historically supported bonds in our district overall. And so, in 2014, you all know that we passed that bond successfully for $663 million. We came back after that work. And in 2018, the community came back together again to establish a long range plan, studied our facility condition assessments. This was really to address and was preempting the 2019 bond. You see that bond for $966 million passed. That bond is still being in completion, but it's in the very last part of the completion. And really, we haven't done anything since 2019. So then in 2025, you all voted to have a continuation

143of that facility condition index. And that work started probably early last spring and finalized and concluded in October where we had a presentation that was brought forward to the findings of those. that then was handed over and you all decided to have a committee come and explore what it would be like and that's how we have our capital needs steering committee today. They identified and reviewed over $1.8 billion of projects. Tonight they bring forward um not only 1.8 million in projects for our facility needs but 167 million in department needs. Uh this is just a preview of that work. As I said it's been a lot of time. We've had a lot of good meals and broken bread together. started in October. There was a total of six meetings that included two presentations to you

144all to let you know the progress. Most recently, that was on January 22nd where we really laid out the different options to you all. And just some other items of note, the last day to call the bond would be February 13th uh legally in the state of Texas. So the different options that our committee chairs brought forward to you um with the help of Nick last uh meeting was that out of the 55 identified projects 47 of them met consensus defined as 75% or more in the option number one. We gave them multiple options and ways to come to these conclusions. Option one's total value was about $46 million. That is a less than 1% tax increase. And this was agreed upon to be submitted following some homework that they had done at the end

145of December. After the new year, we brought everyone back and said, "Let's have a deeper conversation. Let's truly talk and answer any questions that they may have." And so we did that activity which was we called the worksheet activity or homework once more. And this time we were able to really dive deeper into table discussions which you see right here pictured. And that's when 51 of the 55 projects met consensus of 75% or more. That total value came out to $421 million still equaling less than a 1% tax increase. So that was agreed to be submitted to the committee for you all as option number two. The key differences here are minimal and so I want to quickly touch on them. Option number one uh the nos were to artificial turf in the max and

146to the softball field. It also was a note to infrastructure and technology which is copiers, printers and scanners and then telecommunications equipment. But when we gave people more information, when we educated them on the needs that were currently being identified, those flipped to the yeses. And so that's where you see the difference with option number two after those submissions. for these next few next few slides. Um, we begin to wrap up what those committee recommendations were, plus projects that got left out and projects that were discussed when this was presented to the board. So, here's just a draft table showing committee option one, committee option two, and then several other items that perhaps didn't make those committee recommendations, but were plugged in just as placeholders to show what the actual range of a potential bond

147package could be. So, there's a note down there. These are not final. Once we had this complete list, then we shared it with bond council because as everyone as it was mentioned earlier, there was a new law in 2019 that required a general prop to be separated from special purpose proposition. So in looking at those projects and the purpose, that's how we ended up with Prop A, a potential Prop B, and a potential Prop C. Um once again this listing is not finalized and as we finish this presentation that's where the deliberation piece will come in. Now there's there was talk about a 1 cent increase earlier versus a no tax increase. Um so this is this slide shows the impact of that one penny increase. Up top you see a little screen grab. This

148document was taken from the TAD website. It shows the average value at in that at that point in time on July 25th 2025. that was that's a snapshot um date that we use for certified values. So it shows the average market value and it shows the net taxable value. So the way to read the table um and do the math under the 2025 column you see a value of 176,061. This is the net taxable value after all homestead exemptions. You divide that by $100 and then you multiply that by the rate. So the estimated taxes due on that $176,000 home is$1924. The column to the right of it is the exact same calculation with one more penny. So the cost to the average um home value in Arlington ISD after homestead and after any exemption

149is applied is an estimated tax impact of about $18 a year. On this next slide, um it's titled capacity for future bonds. As trustee Will Banks mentioned earlier, um regarding a small, um bond proposition at the beginning when we started this process and started planning and projecting out, there was this idea of a one a smaller bond and then a potentially bigger bond, but at that point in time, we didn't have a facilities condition assessment, right? So, there's still other items that are in the works. We're working on the second demographer report. There is this um plan being developed for the sixth grade. So all in all, this is just one step in this um master facility plan. And at the very bottom, there's a couple of bullet points between this proposed 2026 bond and

150if a potential 2828 bond comes up. And so in 2025 last year when we first looked into this, the total range between both was about $1.1 billion. Now using our projected tax um future tax values using current funding laws, and I say current funding laws because those are subject to change. If the 20 if the 2026 authorization was issued over three years and if a 2028 authorization would be issued over four years, one penny would be able to cover a total of $1.1 billion over those seven years. Now, the way that works is financial guru that's back there with the way they structure the debt, the way principal versus interest is laid out, and the way our current debt would be um would be coming up. That said, I'm going to >> Nberto, can you

151go back real quickly? I just want to really stress this piece because trustees and I want to remind you as we talked about this last April before we got everything rolling. The initial uh charge was is to be able to talk potentially smaller bond first while we gathered the additional information. I want to point out on that third bullet very clearly we have a proposed 2026 bond. That's what you're deliberating on tonight. But in order to model the financials and to really think about this long term, we had to pick a year. So, we picked 2028 and that's why the other one says potential. Obviously, it's not for you to deliberate tonight and a lot of things could change before then. But in order to model that that you asked for last spring, a smaller

152bond to start, gather the additional information we need for a master facilities plan and then come back to the voters after a couple years. We chose 2028 to model that. So, I just wanted to be really clear about why it reads like that. Um it isn't in any way, shape, or form obligating our board to do anything um after this year should you call a bond in 2026. But we had to use a point in time to model things. Okay, Dr. Smith, Mr. Rivas, Miss Northing, Mr. Hill, Dr. Hill, thank you. So, we've got um quite a few things to consider, I think, as part of this. And so, I'm I'm going to try to bring some structure to our deliberations on this tonight. So, the first thing I'll ask for from the board if

153there's any comments on questions um specifically on non like at a at a generic general level, not options one or two or specific line items, but questions that might be appropriate for staff at a high level or for Mr. Gil or Mr. Willerford um bond counsel and our financial adviser who are here. And once we do that, then we can proceed to to deliberate on um the specifics of the proposal and a potential order to call the bond election. Okay, seeing none, I I do have a quick question and I think this is probably going to be for bond counsel um based on the information that was presented. So sat in on a couple of the capital needs committee meetings and there was some consideration of a few items that um most of which were

154put under what we were calling a fine arts option. So, um, and tonight that they have been pulled and the recommendation from staff is that we pull these items and and use 19 interest, uh, interest from the 19 bonds to to pay for these. And the items are um uniforms, instrument equipment, um, approximately looks like 3.7 million on that. And then 22 vehicles for the white fleet at 1.26 million. So from the capital needs committee's consideration roughly 5 million um the staff is recommending using interest earnings from the 29 bond proceeds and the explanation that we've been given is that bond council um said that that has to be done or needs to be done because of of changes in the law changes in policy. Can you help me understand that a little bit? >>

155Yeah, I can. Uh superintendent, president, members of the board. Again, uh my name is Sam Gil. I'm a partner at McCall Parkerson Horton. We've been your bond council for a number of years. So um yeah, when when we're presented sort of with the overall projects that are looking to be financed, the first thing that we need to do um is kind of identify the buckets in which they have to go to. And as uh Mr. Rivas mentioned, there was a change in law in 2019. So um your prior bond that was back in the days when you could have one proposition for school facilities and essentially you could anything under the sun as long as it was a school facility or some piece of equipment that was going to be in there. So, um, as

156the legislature has broadened that out, they've, um, undertaken these special purpose categories. And so, you know, some of that the technology obviously, um, the athletic facilities with respect to the other items that we've pulled out, um, some of that stems from us working with the AG and the AG essentially looking at what the law says and then making interpretations about the types of things that can or, you know, cannot be financed. And so with respect to the the the vehicles for example, um the statute uses the term buses. And so it used to be that there was, you know, you could get away with doing vehicles and and fleet and things like that. Well, when um the the new categories were created, the AG also took a stricter look at what buses are. And so

157now at this point in time, it really does have to be a bus. And if you're going to buy like suburbans or something like that, the AG will ask you to certify that those vehicles are being used for the transportation of students to and from activities. And so we're no longer able to buy pickup trucks and kind of fleet vehicles and maintenance things. Um, and the reason for that is because again when we're looking at the INS tax and the M tax, the AG has really taken the position that anything that's kind of maintenance and operational really should be paid out of that M side of the budget. And so that's where that comes in. Um with respect to uniforms and instruments, it's again these are some things that um you know you may hear

158down the road, well we do that all the time and and we get these calls all the time where it's like District X down the road did that and you know it's hard for us because you know we do more deals than anyone in the state. we represent, you know, larger volume uh election transactions and we have more um engagement with the AG and so we're very much attuned to what exactly the AG is looking at, what the red flags are um and and what the AG is going to limit you to do. And so, you know, fleet vehicles, again, prime example. Um, you know, the band instruments and ban uniforms. Um, again, that's another category where the AG essentially has come out with a determination that they believe that that's more an operation maintenance

159expense. And so, as an example, we had a district last year that was looking to, you know, finance some of those things. They had some bond voter materials that went out that referenced, you know, um, uh, uh, banned uniforms. And at the time that we go to, um, basically close the bond transaction, the attorney general has to approve that transaction. And at that point in time, they will get on the website, look at all of the proposed projects, and that's when they'll interact with us and call us and say, "Hey, we saw that you did this. Tell us about that. What is that?" Um and and this is where these things come up oftentimes. And so in the last year, we had the AG contact us prior to a closing and said, "I saw banned

160uniforms. Um we view those as M. We don't think you can issue bonds for those." And so, you know, again, the election's been approved. The projects, it's it's in a list. Um voters have said yes, but the AG essentially will take the position you cannot issue bonds for that purpose. and they then take the next step in the closing documents of the bond transaction to make you all the district or a district certify that they will not use bond proceeds for that purpose. So that was the real basis for our decision and again our job is to categorize things in a way that we can you know you you you all can go out to community be open and transparent um it's legal and it's also within the confines of what the AG um has

161made under policy reasons or in their interpretation of the law is what's permitted. And so those were the three items as we look through that whole list um that we you know advised you all to you know find another way to pay for that. So, um, to make my long answer longer to, um, the the the the prior bonds, again, those were issued, um, at a time when these restrictions didn't really exist and and there were broader interpretations of the law. And so, um, under the old bond mechanisms, um, you know, you could utilize bonds for some of those things. And so um again any interest earnings or unspent proceeds from that prior bond which has broader um author you know you have broader flexibility you could use earnings for that money to to buy

162some of those things because they were not prohibited at that time. >> Okay. I appreciate that explanation. And so it sounds to me like there was a change in the law in 2019. And I I respect I guess there's a a change in the statute that mentioned the word buses and even though the historical practice of districts all across the state for decades has been to use the bond expenditures for vehicles other than buses that the attorney general is now taking the position that that was wrong. >> Correct. >> Okay. So then we also have I I I guess I have a question on the fine arts side. We would have to break out fine arts anything that's an expenditure. my understanding that's a that's a capital expense on the fine arts side um would

163have to be a separate bond proposition and historically in this district we've used it almost exclusively for uniforms and instruments and and I don't know if people spend a lot of time looking at at at band uniforms or or instruments um they're quite expensive and and it does make sense to pay them off over we don't pay them off over 30 years we pay them off over the life of the of the item >> um what would be an example of something that the attorney general would consider a fine arts capital expenditure that would not fall under the maintenance and operation rubric. >> Um if you were, you know, if you were remodeling a fine arts, you know, educational classroom, um any anything like that? >> So that wouldn't be under the general facilities. >>

164Yeah, that could be under general facilities. >> So it could be under both. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. With fine arts, the real the real key that the AG looks at is um performing arts. So if you have a, you know, a space that's going to be used spec, you know, predominantly for performances, that would be something that would require a separate. >> So if we were doing a I'm just I'm just sorry. I'm this is like a brave new world for me because I was involved in the 0914 and 19 bonds. So if if we were doing an expansion of an existing, say, hallway at a high school, in the middle of that hallway was a blackbox theater and we wanted to redo the entire wing. we would have to put the blackbox

165theater on a separate bond proposition. >> If the predominant purpose of the blackbox theater was to hold a is a space for performance, then yes, you would >> even though we're doing the work on the rest of the hallway. >> Yep. >> Okay. That's absurd. But um I I mean I just So what is the statutory authorization that the attorney general is citing to say that fine arts expenditures fall under the maintenance and operations side? >> I I don't think it's fine arts, like I said, per se. It's really those specific items that are under you know that were categorized as fine arts which is you know the the um instruments and the um uniforms and and those two things I think those are items that the AG views as M expenses and again with

166respect to fine arts if the predominant purpose of a fine arts classroom that would be something you know again you could finance in the general prop but if it's if it's a fine arts facility you know a performance hall those are the items that and That's what that that new category was designed to address was, you know, folks go like stadiums, folks that were going out and building, you know, prominent, you know, performance halls, um, and not a lot of classroom instruction and things like that. >> So, I and and and you're the messenger, so please don't Yeah. don't take this wrong way. Um, it's extremely frustrating to hear and I would just point out that the attorney general's opinions are not I mean they're not legally binding authority. But I I also don't think

167in this particular instance that they actually make a lot of sense policy-wise either. Maybe they made more sense I think back if we go back to 2006 and we could have jacked the M rate up to $150. We had a lot of money in the maintenance and operations fund. But since then, the state from a school finance perspective has embarked on this this this, you know, not not a it's just a policy decision, but the M's the M gets compressed now. And so we have fewer and fewer M dollars to do things that I understand if you were just generically talking about them would sound like maintenance or operations or that should come from the M fund. But we're in a position today, and I don't think we're unique in this, where for most districts,

16890 to 95% of our M budget is personnel and and utilities. And so, if they're going to start now reinterpreting um the the law in a way that constricts our ability to use bond funding for things that districts have for decades been using bonds funds for. Just because the attorney general has a gut feeling that it should fall under maintenance and operations, it really runs counter and headlong into the way that the state's finance policy has been evolving to where we have almost no margin in M to spend it on things that generically sound like M. And so that's just very that's a dynamic I think we're gonna that's going to frustrate us going forward because to me having been in this for a while this is new news to me and it sounds like

169it's going to be a a a change in how we do business pretty substantially. >> Yeah. And and President Chave you you were not alone. I assure you that you know it's um you know part of my job that that is frustrating is again hearing this this is the reaction of most districts and you know again when we go to the attorney general um we're analyzing the law and we often you know again you know you're you're sort of they make these decisions these policy decisions and at the end of the day your bonds have to be approved by the attorney general. And so, you know, again, when we we we find out they're taking these positions, that's what we do is advise you all that >> this is these are the problematic areas. And,

170you know, your reaction to this is is >> and I've done a little bit of administrative law and I know agencies change their interpretations, but you know, sometimes the real world on the ground hopefully it lines up with the the what is in this case a reinterpretation. I respect with the transportation. It sounds like there's sort of some sort of statutory basis for it, but >> um you know, the real world for us is looking at what we're going to have to plug back into M here is the equivalent of a 1% annual raise for staff >> and that that's a little frustrating. So, thank you. Yep. For letting me set box for a second. Um Mr. Will Banks does have uh some uh comments or questions. Mr. Will Banks. >> Thank you, President Choa,

171for your comments just now. they are shared. Um my comment is for Mr. Rivas. So if you could go to the slide with our tax rate and I think I've asked this before Mr. Rivas, but if you could humor me. So um you talked go to the one showing well yeah this this one. Um, so what we're proposing tonight is a 1% increase based on the packages that are outlined on your previous uh your other slides. If we added the and even the addition of the second elementary is still just a 1% >> I mean 1 cent uh increase. um uh what you know the total tax rate includes the INS and the maintenance that you see here with the compression mechanism built into state law now. Um, it's too early to tell what our

172compressed rate for this next year is, but if you were just ballparking it, what do you think the compression is going to be on our M rate? >> In looking at the three years listed there, 2314, 244, 24, and 2526, the M side compressed from 82 cents to 81 cents to 80 cents. So for the last three years, >> at least a cent >> at least a penny. >> So in reality, if we approve this, the our taxpayers tax rate will most likely not go up at all. The total tax rate >> there there is a possibility that it the total tax rate may stay the same. >> Okay. Yeah, that's something worth pointing out. And the other question I had regarding that is um remind me the timing of when um when we'll have

173a better estimate of what that compressed rate it's going to be long after the ele election if we do it in May. Correct. >> Correct. So preliminary values have were just released by the control by the comproller um at the end of January last week and this is preliminary values for the current tax year. So now that these are out districts have an option to appeal their values if they fall out of range. Um so once that option period is out the window then in the summer TA begins projecting compressed rates because by then they know where everybody ended this current year. So it would be as you mentioned towards the end of the election cycle. >> Okay. All right. That answered my question. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you Mr.

174Will Banks. Any other generic high level? Okay. So, what I'm going to propose that we do, and I'm I'm open to to any other way to consider this, but I I hope this will give a little structure to us. Um, we had two very similar um consensus recommendations and options from the capital needs committee, and um as Miss Northing explained, there are very minor differences between them, but I think there's been some discussions around those some of those items. Um I would propose that we at the outset um move to consider exclusively one of the options and then we can um based on your preferences add to or pull from that option um going forward instead of trying to decide all the things we would like to tack on and then backwards going to decide

175option one or two if that if that makes sense. Um does somebody have a preference for the option that they would like to consider? Miss Miss Valor. >> Thank you, President Choa. Um, I'm more in favor of option two because of the different things that it list out there. So, option two would be my preference. >> Okay. And Miss Fowler, would you would you move that we consider option two? >> Yes, sir. I move that we consider option two. >> I have a motion to consider option two for Miss Fowler. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second from Miss Richardson. Trustees will move to vote. >> Any discussion? And if you would like discussion on and this this the option that we're looking at right now this discussion would be

176just on whether we want option one versus option two. >> So if a and b or just two >> just we're not look I know that we're see so we're looking at I know there's variations on a theme. Um I would like to just do straight up one or two and then and then run down the sub options. >> Yes. Yes. >> So we're looking at this right here. We're just considering >> considering this is not a vote to approve. >> This is just to guide our discussion. >> Okay. I have a motion from Miss Fowler, second from Miss Richardson to just consider starting with option two. All right. Let's move to vote. Okay. All trustees voting in the affirmative, we will proceed with consideration of base option two. And with that, um, I will

177entertain discussion on whether or not we would how we want to go from here. Um, if we want to go through, I think some of from based on the discussion we had at the last meeting, some of the the items that got the biggest consideration and just run through them. I think they're on our sheet as options um 2 A and 2B or do we want to start with how do we want to start with something else? and trustees Tyena is handing you out some information so you can see a hard copy of that in front of you so you can take a look specifically option two uh and and move from there. I also want to point out the only obviously totally up to you on what projects you talk about to be included

178overall. The only reason we included the option A and B there were in our previous discussion with you all when the CNC chairs uh presented the elementary school number five and the uh artificial turf fields were the two that you had deliberation about already. So that's why we put those other options out there right now. But um definitely open to any of those that you need to discuss. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Smith. Okay, trustes. I'll give you just a second to look over that list. This is just the option two versus one. Okay. I think having looked at the list that's in front of us, I'm going to I'm going to propose that we consider the items that would be in um the school facility school facilities and buses category and then we'll

179proceed to each each one. I think that would help us organize um our consideration. And just to be clear, trustees, on that handout that you have, why this looks different from your previous um handout that you had before for um option two, this is broken down by proposition that Sam just mentioned about how we would have to actually create the proposition for the actual bond election. So that's why the order is a little bit different on this sheet. Okay. So with that um with that in place under proposition A the prop what would be under proposition A is there discussion on Proposition A items? >> Okay, >> Miss McMaro. >> Thank you President Chappa. Um, I do want to note the addition of the telecommunications equipment. Um, when you compare option one and option two,

180and I do favor that addition, I think that an investment in telecommunications equipment really gives us what we need in regards to safety. Um, and it looks, if I'm understanding how that fell into the community sentiment report, I think that that's something that the community would favor as well. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss McMarrow. Um, I I think the elephant in the room on option two in part A is going to be the plus elementary school number five item. Is there are there any trustees who'd like to discuss the plus elementary school item? We'll go to Mr. Mike. >> You knew this was coming, right? Um, yeah. Well, if you look at um the facility needs index, you look at our uh population, you look at everything that that we have going on. Um when

181you look at where Arlington was back in the 50s and 60s where you had that economic boom and you had that growth and the schools were built out based on that development. when we look now 2025 or 2026, things are different. And so I think our district needs to reflect the way Arlington is right now, which means that we need to start looking at newer facilities um that don't have such as high of the of the facility needs index. And when you have newer facilities and if you're looking at, you know, hypothetically how how we did with Rodriguez or Barry or Thornton or some of the other ones where you took schools and you consolidated, I think taking a streamlined approach uh to some of these facilities with newer facilities for the children will be

182better off for the entire district as a whole. Um, and there are some outstanding things that that are going on here. Right. We've got the the second demographer report for the sixth graders. Um we've got just a whole host of things that that are going on that I think we need to take a hard look at, including another elementary school, especially in light of that survey that was done where what was it 73% or something like that that was in favor of that and we sent it to the voters. Thank you, Mr. Mike. Uh, further comments on or questions on the um elementary school beyond South Davis. Okay, seeing none, is there um that is not included in option two. So, to add it to option two would require a motion at this point to

183amend option two. Is there a motion to amend option two to add the additional elementary school beyond South Davis? I have a motion for Miss Haynes and I'll give the second to Mr. Mike and trustees. We will move to vote. All trustees vote in the affirmative 7 to zero. Adding the elementary school beyond South Davis carries unanimously. Are there any other items within base option two in part A that trustees would like to call out for individual consideration or discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to proposition uh B. These would be the school technology improvements. trustees. You can um see on your sheet here that um by selecting option two, uh the three items that would fall under Proposition B have all um are all consensus items um from the capital needs steering committee

184and so would be um part of Proposition B unless removed. Anyone would like to consider any of the Proposition B items separately? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on now to the items under Proposition C. Are there any trustees who would like to individually discuss items within Proposition C? My switchboard is lighting up. And we'll go to Miss Haynes first. Miss Haynes. >> Yes. Thank you, President Chapa. Um, I want to circle back to the discussion at the last meeting where we discussed the turfing, specifically the committee's decision to add softball turfing back in and not include baseball at that time. Um, I think that in order to move forward with this, we need to we need to move forward and turf both. I think if we're going to turf softball, we need to turf baseball

185or we need to scrap the turfing alto together. Um, I personally am in favor with moving forward with that if we are comfortable. Um, I'm also okay to postpone that and focus on the greater needs that we have. Um, but I I really just want to urge my colleagues to to not go forward with one and not the other. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. We'll go next to Miss Fowler. >> Thank you, President Choa. And I agree with Miss Haynes. Um, and we talked about, you know, the student experience and what they're getting out of it. And I think having a turf field adds to that experience. But also in the long run, it's going to be so much better to have turf than grass. The upkeep is better. It may be a little bit

186more to begin with, but the upkeep is easier. It's going to last longer. It's going to allow us to possibly have um um little leagues come in and use our facilities as well, and we won't have to worry about the grass getting torn up. We have a lot of rain in the spring. That's baseball and softball season. So, I think it really makes sense to turf both of them. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Fowler. Mr. Mike, >> I think we're all in consensus on this. U you know, when you look overall at the expenses for watering grass, >> u it's that comes up to a lot of money and and with the heat in Texas, >> that's a lot of money. >> Maintenance. >> Yeah. maintenance is maintenance is big and yeah the upfront

187cost um is huge but I think throughout the time it'll it'll pay for itself but not only that when we look at the factor of >> is this a good move for the children of this district the ones who play baseball the ones who play softball the ones who are out there performing and and doing what they love I think it is a good move and I think out of all of it the kids will be thankful for I was thinking of this way and certainly yes I think we need to add it and send it to a vote. >> Thank you Mr. Mike. Miss Richardson >> I was going to talk about turf but I think we uh talked about that one. Um, what I do like is the last thing you said, it's

188about the student experience. And we have heard repeatedly now that is also better for their bodies long term. And I think that's something we also have to consider because we do have a lot of students that already we're seeing wear and tear on their bodies and their joints. And we have been shown over and over that that's going to be better for them long term. And I think that's an investment we make. Um, I would like to go ahead and move to 2.10. >> Mr. researchers in can we um I would ask that we finish consideration of the turf fields first because to to add the baseball fields would be an amendment to option two. >> Then can I make an amendment that we add in the artificial turf installation for the six high school

189baseball fields. >> Okay. So let me make a note. Turf baseball fields >> 2.7. >> Okay. Miss Richardson has the motion to add turf baseball fields to option two. >> I second. And we have a second from Mr. Will Banks. Was there anyone who had any further discussion um on turf for the baseball fields? Okay, seeing none, we'll move to vote. All trustees voting in the affirmative. It carries unanimously 7 to zero. Uh baseball fields are the option two is amended to include artificial turf for the baseball fields under option 2.7. Mr. Richardson, you had discussion on item 2.10, athletic storage buildings. >> I do. Um I personally am not a fan that we that it was voted no on by the committee. Um I feel like if we are investing in our equipment and

190we are paying good money for this that we also need to take care of this equipment and be good stewards of it. Part of that means is they need to have places to store this track and field options that are sitting outside and being left outside in weather in Texas, heat, rain, cold, we are going to be better stewards of our property if they have a place to store it. Right now, that is severely lacking. So, um, in light of everything that we're looking at, 2.2 2 is a very small number to be able to take care of the items that the high schools are already requesting and using regularly. So I encourage my colleagues that we add that in 2.10. >> Okay. Um any comments or discussion on 2.10, Miss Haynes? >> Yes. Thank

191you. Um, can I ask clarification on the athletic storage? I know that the MAC is used for athletic storage for certain sports. I know um, baseball stores equipment in various buildings in their stands. So, what exactly would this um, encompass? And would it be across the board for all sports? Would it >> So, how that work? >> That's a good question. It would be any field equipment for outside sports. So, we're talking field events, uh, hurdles, uh, mats for, uh, high jump, pole vault, things like that. Anything that's outside, potentially, uh, ground equipment for mowing, currently fields now, but that may not be an issue. Uh, if we go with the turf, so, >> okay, >> but all of the outside equipment. >> So, mostly track and field equipment. Is that >> track and field?

192Uh, goalpost for football. Uh, >> yeah. Football and track. >> Football, track, baseball. >> Okay. >> Pylons, things like that. That for soccer, soccer goals, soccer nets. >> And typically where is that stuff stored currently on campuses like just >> out there and wherever we could find a nook craned? Yeah. Sometimes we store them under the bleachers when there's space there, but it's it's still exposed to the elements to the point earlier. So, >> and then would this storage I know it says building, so I feel silly even asking this, but is it a shed? Is it a an actual building? I'm >> It'd be a little bit more than a shed. Uh it'd be appropriately spaced uh for the equipment to be able to get in and out. Uh >> not climate controlled, but

193definitely space available to and away from the elements. So, >> okay. >> That every sport that needed it would have access to. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Haynes. Any other comments or questions on item 2.10? Okay, seeing none, is there a motion to This would have to be added to option two. Is there a motion to amend option two to include item 2.10? >> Okay, I have a motion from Miss Fowler. Is there a second? >> I have a second from Miss McMurro. All right, trustees will move to vote. All trustees voting in the affirmative. Uh item 2.10 is added to option 27 to zero. Any other items for consideration on what would be prompt C? Okay, I have one. Um I I have we have discussed the junior

194high LED field lighting um for at different times we've discussed it with our citizens bond oversight committee and I know that that's um that was something that is at least flagged here was was potentially a 19 bond uh allocation um and it would cover our eight campuses. Many of them had had field additions in the 19 bond or track they did work on the tracks. Um we now have some like the field at gun junior high um is really nice. The but it doesn't have lights. Uh we have the new field at Rodriguez does have the lights which is which is great and and this is a new option we have with the LED directional lighting whereas before there were issues with neighbors in the city on on light pollution. Um I would like to

195actually remove this from option two indirect that it be paid for with 2019 bond funds to to accelerate that. I I think this is an it's an operational issue. Um we are in some cases in the fall at our junior highs. Um having to run two buses to go to a a field that has lighting when generally we would be able to host more home games and so we have fewer buses transporting. That's reducing our transportation cost. I think it also would help with parents. we have to especially after the time change in the fall um many of those games have to be scheduled earlier in the day and then throughout the winter so um so we can take advantage of lighted the lighting um if they were to be held at the home fields

196we couldn't you know we kind of couldn't do that and so I think it would help operationally for us to use those nice facilities that we have at many of our junior highs to go ahead and and have these lights done with the 19 bond funds and not um you know further delay that that being And so uh any discussion on that? >> Is there a motion first? >> I haven't made a motion yet. If no one else wants to discuss it. Okay. I will make the motion then to >> remove item. This is actually listed as 1.2. >> Okay. I'll make the motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. The motion is on the floor. Is there discussion on removing item 1.2 and use and directing that 19 it be paid for

197with 19 bond funds? >> Okay, Miss Richardson, >> do we know how much money we have currently available in the 2019 excess to be able to play with? >> I think last meeting, Mr. Horn, to correct me if I'm wrong, you said about 40ish. >> Yeah, that's it would have to come from interest earnings. >> Interest earnings. Yes, that's correct. The the overall funds, there may be some additional funds when we finish all the projects and we go through all of the allowances or control accounts that we use for FF&E on projects and that sort of thing, but we don't know exactly where that will be yet. But there are interest earnings that have been acrewing and so it would have at this point we would say take it from that, but it it still

198could be it still could be used from un unallocated funds at the end too. So you have those options. Do we have any other items that we are already taking out of that 40ish? >> Currently we uh we do we we have certain things that we that we fund from that. Part of that is the the salaries of the personnel that operate the bond uh our project managers some of our project managers and so forth. Otherwise uh we're working with the CBOC and they'll be meeting. We had to postpone a meeting because of the weather, but we're going to be uh we're going to be meeting shortly and that group will also make some recommendations to the board as to what they might uh suggest we use some of those excess funds for, but but

199nothing else at this point. >> We in the past had a um I've just lost the word student advisory committee >> slab. Thank you. slab student Carara from Lamar who had recommended and suggested that we put in a Lamar extra parking lot over at Lamar for high school. Is that still being considered? >> That's been that's actually been designed and that's part of the project that's going in. >> It is for sure. Okay. Um so my concern with President Choa's recommendation is making sure that we have enough money to play with. also what other projects are going to come out of that. But knowing that CBOC is going to be able to come together after they have already been overseeing all of the bond and know whatever their needs are needing to be done. Um

200my questions are answered and I would support moving ahead with it because I do think it would take help us take advantage of our current junior high facilities that we're not able to use to the full extent without the proper lighting. Thank you. I think I could maybe help with that and maybe even Sam Gil might want to offer in, but any any excess funds that that are unallocated or were not particularly uh um allocated for a project would have to be decided by the board as to how we move forward. So So the the administration might make recommendations, CBOC might make recommendations, but however that those dollars are spent at the end or determined to be spent would come from the board's actions. Yes, ma'am. Miss Haynes. Um, >> yes. The So, going along

201with the excess bond funds, the 10-ish million that we're taking out of fine arts equipment, is that are we intending to use 2019 excess bond or interest funds for that as well? >> That was what I understood from the >> Yeah, it it the fine arts component of that is about 3.7. >> Okay. So, we didn't What line items did we take out for the fine arts piece? >> Right here. >> Okay. So, we did our math with more items. Okay. >> These were the ones that removed that are on their uniform instrument equipment and the weight vehicles for 4.9. >> Okay. So, that in addition to then the lighting. >> Yes. >> Okay. Still giving the CBOC wiggle room to talk through the recommendations that they've been working on. So not taking that completely

202away. >> Yes, ma'am. In fact, uh the lighting is actually one of the items. >> Yeah, it was one of the top >> that's on their discussion list. So So I think you'll make them very happy. Okay. >> In that sense. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. Any other discussion >> on item 1.2? Removing item 1.2 from option two. Okay, seeing none, we'll move to vote on removing the junior high school's LED field lighting from Prop C. So, a vote in favor is a vote to remove that item. All trustees voting in the affirmative. Item 1.2 two is removed from option two for Prop C. Are there any trustees who have any further items in Prop C? Miss McMurrow. Thank you, President Chappa. I'm so glad um that you brought up the topic of junior highs

203because that reminded me to ask something that I I meant to ask um earlier. So, with line items 2.3 and 2.4, four. We have a brand new junior high. So with Rodriguez, we wouldn't need to replace the scoreboard and wait room equipment. Correct, Mr. Horn? >> That is correct. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And the reason why I'm asking is because it does say 10 junior highs. So I just um I I know that that won't be a major cost adjustment, but they they were just furnished with >> You are correct. >> Okay. So would that be adjusted even if we didn't revise those two line items formally or are we needing to make a separate revision? >> Yeah, you're fine. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Miss McMar. Any other items

204in Prop C? >> 2.3 and 2.4. >> Okay. I'm going to Are there any other items that trustees would like to address with respect to the option two as a as we've amended it. Okay, seeing none, I'm going to recap real quick what we ran through just so we can make notes here and all be on the same page. So, first we had um we changed the recommendation of no for item 1.8, new replacement uh elementary school to yes. Then we went to the down to prop C. Um item 2.7 was changed to a yes. Option 7 or sorry 210 was changed to a yes and item 1.2 was changed to a no or removed. Okay. Anybody have anything further on this? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve? And then we'll have to

205address the motion, the actual agenda item calling um approving the order for the bond election. But can I have a motion to approve option two as amended? >> I have a motion from Miss Fowler. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Uh we'll give that one to McMurrow. That was a tie. Okay, we'll move to vote >> discussion. >> Is there discussion on the option two is the as amended in its entirety. Mr. Will Banks, can >> we get a sanity check on the total dollar amount? >> Yes, sir. >> Of where we are. >> I think Chris, do you hear that? >> We're working on that. So, let's see if we've got that in the back. >> You been calculating as well? Okay. >> Is it on this one? >> Yeah. So for

206prop A the number would be 438,751410. >> 438 million751410. That's the total with the projects. >> That's all of them. >> Mr. Rivas, can you can you speak louder, please? >> Yes. >> So, the number just adding the dollar figures um because we'll have to round up by 5,000 for the purpose of the bond. Just adding the project numbers, the number for Prop A would be 438,751410. The number for Prop B would be 30,953,000 and the amount for Prop C would be 31,36500 before any rounding. >> Um 31,3500. And what is the total of all three of those? >> 500 501 064910. And I do have a a note here. >> This is what I'm showing for for the athletics. Only thing we're taking out is the the lighting. >> Got it. >> 06410. >>

207There's a a slight correction on Propsy. It's 31 million 56500. So the total is 501,264 >> 501264 910. >> Thank you. I have a question um for further discussion. Does anyone see an advantage? I mean, we're really close to being under 500 million. Does anyone see an advantage of trying to get under 500 million? So it it would possibly be more palatable to the voters in terms of the total dollar amount or is that really not going to be a big deal because it's going to be split up into three. Anyway, >> if I can just jump in. Um I I would we had this discussion with the 19 bond and and there was a there was a consideration of would we go over a billion dollars and we fought not fought but there was

208a lot of discussion on what were we going to cut to get below a billion dollars in this magical thing. And my my my argument at the time was whether we were at 1.1 billion or 1.05 billion or 966 million which is what we ended up with at the end of the day the people who didn't like the bond we're going to say you're passing a billion dollar bond. And so I think if we dropped below went from 501 to 495 or 490 or some variation they're still going to call it a $500 million bond or a half billion dollar bond. And I think that's just going to be the reality. But that's my thoughts. Miss Richardson, >> at the end of the day, my philosophy on this, Trusty Will Banks, is I want to

209do what's best for kids. I understand the stakeholders are the ones voting, but I feel like what we just decided is what is absolutely best for our schools and students. And so I want to stick with what we have because I believe in our community that when we go out and we explain why it is this and not slightly under. I think everything on here, none of these are pipes. Uh like none of these are pipe dreams. None of these are crazy things that we're asking for. These are all basic needs to keep our schools up and running and to take care of what we have. Um so I prefer that we stick with the number that we have right now. Personally, >> well, I mean, personally, the 2.10 I was on the fence on.

210>> Um, and that's two 2.2 million. If that's something we can also look at local capital outlays or some other source outside of the bond, I think getting us under might help. And given where we were on the survey, you know, just within close to the margin of error on the survey results, um I would want to keep doing everything we can to make sure this is as palatable as possible when people see it for the first time because we know a lot of voters are going to go in and see it for the first time when they go in to vote and make it as palatable as possible. >> I understand that. I hear you. Um, I still see the need for the athletic storage buildings. And I say that because, um, I have

211a high school kid that I pick up every day at Arlington High School. I park in the back by the MAC and I watch the kids drag things in and out of buildings. I also see them shoved in places and left on the side of fields. I also live right by Martin and I see similar things happen there as well. So, I see a need for these storage buildings personally and if we said we're going to take it out to make it more palatable, but we're still going to make sure this 2.2 happens and we're going to take it out of 2019 reserves or we have somewhere that we're able to do that. Um, I don't mind where the money comes from, but I still see a need. Um, I think a need is a

212need. So, I I still feel strongly about that. Um, and I do appreciate what President Chapa, you said that in 2019, at the end of the day, the number was the number because when I think about how people are going to write this story, when we think about the Fort Worth and Arlington report, when they put the news out, they're going to round up. They're going to call it what it is. And I don't know if shaving off 2 million is going to change what is printed. >> Miss Fowler, >> thank you, President Chapa. I think we've had really good discussion on all of these items. I feel like we have come to a consensus on what we feel like is important for the district and our students and I don't think we need to

213start picking at things and taking things away. I think we we're going forward. I think we have good items and I think we need to stick with what our discussion has led to. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler. Is there at this point because uh um option 2.10 was added as an amendment to option two. There would have to be a motion to reconsider that vote. Is there a motion to reconsider option 2.10? >> So moved. >> Okay. I have a motion to reconsider option 2.10 from Mr. Wilbanks. Is there a second? It requires a second. Okay. Um Okay. So we will now vote on whether we are going to reconsider option 2.10 10 which we added to um this motion would remove 2.10 back from option two. >> Mr. Mike has a question. >> U

214Mr. Mike, can you hit your mic? >> Mr. Mike. >> Yeah, I had a question. If I'm just trying to figure out what's the the tax rate implication from 501 to 4989. >> It's still one cent. >> Okay. So it's it's still the same. >> Okay. Okay. So we now have a motion to reconsider adding option 2.10 to option two >> and I I it is laid and my my uh my parley pro is is is rusty. Doing great. >> Mr. uh Mr. Aobbomb would this are we voting to reconsider? We would then have discussion and then require another vote to actually do it or would this vote be the one that removes it? Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, if uh is there further discussion on the motion to reconsider >> 2.10 to remove it?

215Okay. My um my perspect seeing no lights. My perspective on this is that that we made the right call the first time. Um let's move to vote. >> Okay. So if you vote yes, option two, you're voting yes to remove option 2.10 to the amended option two. If you vote no, it would retain the option as it was amended originally. >> Wait, say that again. >> If you vote yes, that would remove. So we we previously moved to add 2.10. >> Motion. I was just wanting a discussion. >> I specifically said, is there a motion to reconsider? And you said so moved. Second. >> Okay. >> Are you withdrawing your motion? >> I'm withdrawing my motion. >> I thought this is the motion. >> This is the motion to reconsider the other one. >> I'm

216withdrawing my motion. >> The motion's been withdrawn. Okay. After that side quest, uh we are back on considering option two as amended, which we already did. Um and we have a total um of 501264910. Is there further discussion on the option two um as a whole? Okay. Seeing none, I believe at this point we will vote on option two as fully amended. >> And this then we would pause >> and then we would need to pause to we need to get the numbers correct for the order. But we'll we'll take a brief recess for um our math wizards to do their math. >> Okay. This is the vote on to approve option two as amended. And just to recap, that is with the elementary school in Prop A. And that is removing option two, option

2171.2, the lights from OP Prop C. It adds uh 2.7 baseball fields. It adds 2.10 athletic storage buildings. >> Okay. Mr. Wilbanks has the motion. Oh, yes. It's already been moved. So, we'll just move to vote. >> Confused all over again. >> Sorry, >> I'm good. >> Okay, all trustees voting in the affirmative. We are going with option two as amended. We're now going to take a brief recess for our math folks to math and we'll be back. All right, it is 10:34 and we're back. There's um we have opted to go with option two as as amended. We do have to adopt formally an order to uh call the bond election on May 2nd, 2026. So, at this time, I move that the board adopt an order calling a bond election to be held

218on May 2nd, 2026 with Proposition A for school facilities in the amount of $438,755,000. Proposition B for technology in the amount of $30,955,000. And Proposition C for athletic facilities in the amount of $31,565,000. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a second from Miss Fowler. Trustees will move to vote. >> Discussion. >> Is there discussion? >> I see no lights. Okay, >> Mr. Mike. >> Yeah. Um, here's my only worry is will we have enough of a a runway to get this out to the community? that is oblivious to the needs of the district because I think for this political climate um we need to make sure that the message is out there that people know the needs of this district um and not let that message be taken over by others as

219as you know I mean action beats reaction any day um also May 2026 we've got multiple city council races, we've got a mayoral race, we've got a whole bunch of unknowns. Um, that I'm just asking, is it prudent to have a longer runway to be able to get the message out to voters? >> So, a couple of things on this. This is typical for bond elections and I'm going to have Miss Northingington come up and talk to you a little bit about the communication piece. This is a lift obviously, but I to get to this point was a significant lift for the administration as well. Okay. Um but typically when you get to bond election time, we don't as school district administrators go out and promote the bond before the board calls a bond. >>

220Yeah. >> We you create demand for that after the fact. And so after tonight, should you call this bond election, our job then is to get facts out to the community. And Miss Northingington can talk a little bit about how we would go about doing that. >> Happy to speak to that. In fact, that's something that I've been anticipating as far as, you know, once this vote comes forward, what's the next step, and we have begun just mapping out what I call an educational plan. Um it actually is week by week already defined working with our partners uh to really say what all needs to happen from even a social media post to recorded videos educating our public along the way how to meet that need not beyond just um anything you might see but

221print media mailers uh different mailers in different languages. And so we actually have um a way to describe this is it goes in a W. And so as you have this energy right now and these, you know, feelings, we're going to kick it off and then it might slow down right before spring break and we know the city has some key things. We've mapped out Grand Prix. We've mapped out looking at what this is, what events are coming up, what we call the educational road show, per se, when we go and speak to people and educate them on what you all have called for this evening. And then we go up to say, okay, after spring break, we ramp up and right when early voting starts, uh, we have that other type of, you know,

222lift that we really pull the last part of that. And so there is a mapping plan to how we educate our public on different areas, but also working with you all. And so there's bond education that we want to make sure we're doing properly, work a lot with our bond council to make sure that every message we're putting out is properly worded and so we're not crossing that line. >> Okay. And I do want to point out that and I think all of you as trustees know this but again for anybody here tonight is as soon as you do make a motion the district's job is facts and about facts about the bond election. We cannot advocate for the bond election at that point. That is uh really where we would lean into community partners

223if they want to do that. They're the ones who would be doing that. But our district, the education piece and the factual sharing piece is what we have to lean into at that point from from this vote on. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I just I just don't want this is this is very important for the children of our district and and I don't want it to be lost uh in the shuffle of everything else that is going on at this particular time. So um yeah, if you feel that way then Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, Mr. Mike. Mr. Will Banks. Thank you, President Chapa, and thank you, Dr. Smith, for clarifying uh that very clear distinction. we wouldn't want to cross any lines in terms of electioneering, but you did mention,

224Miss Norington, you know, events, you know, and what I would hope is that we would have community partners that would be willing to step up uh with a pack and and um if they choose to advertise at those events, great. Um but in order for that to happen the way it did in I think it you know the most um the best example that we've had is the 2014 bond where uh the community really showed up in force and put the resources needed to get that bond which was historic at the time of what was the total dollar amount Mr. Chapa? Yeah, I think it was um somewhere in the neighborhood of $663 million. >> 600. Yes. Not the 966, but um it took a big effort to get that one pushed and I want

225to make sure we have the time to do this right. Um I mentioned earlier when we got the survey, it would have been my preference that we'd have survey data that was more tightly aligned to likely voters. As Mr. Mike pointed out, this is going to be a crazy election. We're going to have a lot of outside forces put money and rile up sections of our voter base that uh that probably aren't as friendly as others are to school bonds. And so I've got concern from that standpoint as well. Um then when you look at our long you know the biggest ticket item is that second elementary school that we don't really have a clear plan in place for that that one yet which gave pause to our capital needs steering committee and it's the

226reason why it wasn't included in the package. I would hope that you know if we were to have a longer uh runway we would get the second demographers report. um we would have hopefully a better survey polling likely voters in whatever time frame that we would consider and um we can have a more comprehensive long range facility plan. This whole process to me has seemed a little rushed but I want it to succeed. The needs are great. Um, we care about the student experience and we want we've got to compete. It's, you know, the window for vouchers just opened. So, competition just got a whole lot greater for us. So, it is important that we care about our facilities and um we put together kind of 21st century classrooms that parents are demanding for their

227kids and students deserve. Um, but to do that, we've got to get this bond passed. And I just need to have a little bit more warm and fuzzies on the ability to get this bond passed. But we're going to need a little bit of time to give me those warm and fuzzies that we've got something and a strategy in place to get this over the finish line. >> Mr. Banks, I'm confident that we have that support. Not only do we have Ryan back here who um has already worked with us in the district in the 2019 bond, but we have a team that's already formulated a website. We have a logo. We have already articulated a lot of the needs for our educational plan. We are ready to just hit go upon the word of

228our board. >> Anything further, Miss Danks? >> Okay, I have Miss Haynes. >> Yes. So, I just I feel compelled to add that what has guided me through this is the needs of kids over the wants of adults. And I think that we would all want a more comfortable, a more accepting political climate for a bond like this. But at the end of the day, that's not where we are. And the needs are great. And that outweighs how difficult or how hard we're going to have to work to make this um go through and pass. I think that we have amazing community support. Um, I have no doubt that we have buyin from individuals that want this to be successful for the kids in our district. So, I I don't feel compelled to have to

229push this back. I'm ready to have it on the bond or have it called for election now and I'm ready to get to work making sure that this passes. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. Miss McMo. >> Thank you, President Choa. Um, these are all really good and fair points, Mr. My your initial question was a fair question and I I'm sure that it's been a question too of the community members who have served on our capital needs steering committee. Um I agree with a lot of what Miss Haynes just said. I think that this date is coming to us as a staff recommendation for a reason with all of those things thought thoughtfully considered. Um, last meeting I did want to go ahead and kickstart the conversation about timing and so I I think I

230mentioned something like May 26 or May 27, but I really would want to avoid a November election because of those partisan influences. But um, yes, the thing that keeps on pinging at me is that the needs will just continue to bottleneck. We have waited um you know and and we've had conversations about this formally and informally. We have waited for six years to call a bond and here we are. And at the end of the day, we're elected because we're we're called trustees because the community puts trust in us to work on behalf of what's best for kids. And I can't with good faith support delaying this knowing what the needs are and knowing what what the community does get behind. Um I love our community and I know that if we do what you

231mentioned, Miss Northing, that we can be successful um in passing this bond. Something that re really reassured me this evening was the community sentiment report. And I do think that that that survey was timely for me to give me just what I needed to feel confident about a May 26 um bond election. So that's what I'll be supporting tonight. >> Thank you, Miss McMo. Miss Richardson. >> Trusty Mike said it a minute ago when you were talking about this upcoming cycle is going to be heavy with all the elections that are coming up. Um, and I think about what you said, Trusty Haynes, that we put kids needs above adult needs. Trusty Haynes and I are up for reelection right now. And it would be really easy to punt this down the road and say,

232"We don't want it on our ballot. We want to do." I'm telling you right now, there's nothing more important than our kids' needs. And Trusty Haynes is excited to go out and campaign for it. I'm excited to go out and campaign for it. We know what our kids need. We tour these facilities. We are in and out of them all the time. and knowing these are not crazy things that we're asking for. These are basic things for our kids and our teachers and our families. Trusty Fowler, you're up on a ballot. You're willing to go out and talk about what our district needs. We're willing to put our own goals and what we want aside because we believe what is best for AISD and we're we believe in what that that team out there, that

233capital need steering committee, they got together and they worked through this. They've given us a great presentation. It's time for us to go out and make it happen. And I'm ready to get behind you. No matter what that needs for us, no matter what that means for any of us sitting up here, we're ready to do it. >> Thank you. >> Any other further comments and questions on discussion on the order of calling the bond election? Um I'm absolutely in favor of going forward with this. I explained last time that I felt like some of these projects have been delayed too long. Um, I also disagree with the premise that somehow this is is more rushed and putting us in a different position than we were in in 2019. Um, we approved the call to

234call the 2019 bond election on August 13th of 2019 um for a November 5th uh election, which is only about 2.5 months. Um, we're calling it today if this were to pass uh 3 days shy of three full months. So we're actually two weeks ahead of the timeline that we were on in 2019 for a bond that an inflation adjusted adjusted terms and this I think will overstate it because this is just a consumer price index um is only about 40% of what the 19 bond was. So I don't think it's too big of a lift. I think it's the right thing to do and um if there's no further discussion we'll move to vote. Okay. The order of election uh passes unanimously 7 to zero. Um, I do want to point out that there's

235some folks here who've put a lot of work into this besides staff and staff. You know how we appreciate you and we've we've said that too, but also capital needs steering committee. We would like to say thank you again. Um, we do Kelly Kernut and and Katherryn Park, Dr. Katherine Park, our co-chairs got called out for recognition earlier, but if you would stand up, we if you're on the capital needs committee, including our former board president, Kesha Mays and Miss Nia, Miss Nia Henderson, and also our facilitators in the back as well from PBK. We'd love you guys to to stand up and get a little bit of recognition. So, these folks put in a ton of work over over a multi-month period, over many meetings, and so we really appreciate your work. It's really

236informed our discussion tonight, and I I hope you feel like we very seriously considered your work, and thank you for what you do. Okay, with that, we do have more uh more to do, but uh we do uh we're going to move to consent. Um, >> okay. There's We're going to move to approve con or move to consider consent. Um, I understand that there's a little bit of discussion uh or consideration still need to be had uh on item H, policy update 126 as it pertains to policy CJ. And so, um, I will move I will go ahead and move to approve consent minus policy CJ as part of item H. Is there I I have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second from Mr. Willbanks. We'll move to vote. trustees voting in the

237affirmative of consent carries minus policy CJ legal and local. Okay, we'll move on now to our open form for non-aggenda items. Miss Crossno, do we have any speakers registered for non-aggenda tonight? >> President Choa, we do. >> I'm sorry. We we do or do not. >> We do. Okay. I believe that we did. Okay. We have two speakers registered for non-aggenda forum tonight. non-aggenda forum is a part of our regularly scheduled meetings to discuss items that were not on our agenda. It's not intended to be a discussion or debate. Trustees will not reply to the speakers. Um derogatory comments will not aimed at individuals will not be tolerated and individual personnel matters are not appropriate subjects for open forum. You'll have three minutes to speak and when Miss Crossno notifies you that your time is

238up, uh we'd ask that you please wrap up your presentation. Uh the first person registered to speak tonight is uh Whitney Rodriguez. All right, Miss Rodrigo, you have three minutes. >> All right. Um, thank you, President Chapa and Dr. Smith for opening a space for the community to come and speak. I'm usually pretty quiet at these meetings. Um, I am a mother of a first and third grader in Arlington ISD. Um, and this week, uh, an email went out at 5:08 on Tuesday for us to review materials, instructional materials with a due date of Friday. Um, so I stayed up till 1:00 in the morning on Tuesday and I started reviewing. I started with Blue Bonnet um, because it seems like that might be a direction that the district is going because there are current

239schools that are piloting it. Um, and I've made it through about lesson 18 of kindergarten, which obviously I will not finish a complete review by Friday. Um, and some things that I have noticed in just a quick 5-hour review, is there's no differentiation. Um, it's a lot of sit and get, um, there's no scripts. There's lessons with models of teachers um, talking um, callin response. I hear a lot about productive struggle. There's no evidence of that. It's a lot of asking a student a question and getting a response. Um, and I wrote down all of these patterns and then I did a side by side of the curriculum audit two weeks ago and there were a lot of similarities in what I was finding in Blue Bonnet and what was picked out in the curriculum

240audit. And I'm not sounding the alarms, but I'm raising a flag that I do have concerns about this program. And I do have a request three days during the work week to review three programs that are K through five. is not enough for a community to give their input. Um, and I care deeply. I'm here because I care. I'm not here to push back. But I would ask that you would extend that timeline. Parents want to review. They want to give their voice. Um, and I think maybe my opinion would change if I could make it out of kindergarten. Um, um, so I would ask for that. And I would say I would also be really careful about TEA being the publisher of some of these. um it's 100% aligned, but if you look at

241the last 25 days they've squeezed in, it's called additional school days. There's probably about 13 kindergarten teaches squeezed into that last 25 days of additional school days. And I just worry about these the downstream consequences of first grade and second grade if we don't get to some of the what I would say are pretty important in those additional school days. So, I know you can't respond, but thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Rodriguez. We have one more speaker registered tonight. Briana Woon. Is Briana here? Okay. I will then close non-aggenda forum. We'll move on to superintendent's comments. Dr. Smith, >> trustees, I won't go through a whole report tonight. I wanted to make sure I updated you all on weather and makeup days real briefly. one um just going into decisions of weather

242and what we learned from our our challenging weather with uh ice storms and snow and sleet and whatever else came down over the past couple of weeks. Um there were a couple of key things that happened. Obviously Monday was a pretty easy call for weather. Tuesday is when we were really out and about and we had numerous people out and about throughout our district driving our campuses and we actually had employees at our campuses at many of the schools during that time. What we noticed is some of the ice was melting on Tuesday and we then didn't have school obviously on Tuesday and didn't have school on Wednesday. When we went to visit facilities and I was at six schools on both Tuesday and Wednesday, we saw significant melting on Wednesday and I think you

243all know that the majority of Arlington became open during that time and we had people driving on roads on a regular basis. What we saw in many of our parking lots during that time was significant melting. And so that was a key indicator for us when we were looking at the weather decision that we made. um because the melting was happening and also the weather that evening was not going below freezing. Um the thing that we really learned and unfortunately we learned after we had school started the next day, but our campuses that had north and east facilities where we had parent drop offs had the most challenging circumstances. And that can either be due to wind and wind chill that got that uh those parking lots frozen again or it can be due to

244shade and they just didn't melt fast enough. But specifically, I was on two specific campuses where one of those was still very slushy on um Wednesday afternoon and it was great on Thursday and then another campus on Wednesday that was melting about the same and on Thursday it was still frozen. And so a couple of the key things that we really uh learned throughout that process is one, we've got to be able to get more timely information or in the morning sometimes on some of those things because based on the weather forecast, based on our eyes on the facility, based on having numerous people out driving things, we still had significant freezing in some areas that next day. So just wanted you to know that um we definitely learned some lessons along the way. That

245might mean sometimes that when we have to make weather calls, it might be later than some of our families want. And I hope our board and our tr our um trustees and our community understands that. But we believe wholeheartedly in the value of a school day. So, we're going to do everything we can to get students in school. But sometimes those weather decisions are going to have to be a little later than some people would want because in order for us to get the most accurate information. Um it it's important for us to actually get on site first thing in the morning sometimes and that's what we were doing on Thursday morning and and Friday morning as well. So I want to assure you one we did learn some lessons along the way. Two, we're

246going to make sure we're better than we were this time. We understand that it impacted some of our families, some of our students, some of our staff, and that's not okay, and we want to make sure we're better for the next time. Um, but also, uh, wanted to make sure you also know about the makeup days, and, um, we had three days that were off. We announced to our community that one of those days we're not going to have to make up. One of those days, um, we're going to ask to make up, and those were the two days that were noted on the calendar. And I wanted to explain the why behind that. First, we had enough minutes in the schedule to cover one of the three days already without doing anything. The second

247thing is a second day, we were a little bit short of having another another chunk of minutes to cover that second day. And then the third day, we have the ability to have a waiver from TEA uh on that one. So, as a superintendent, I have to make a decision on whether or not we extend the day a few minutes for the rest of the year and just cover those day that uh third day or not or whether or not we actually bring students back. And as an administrative decision, we decided that we would bring them back in May or in March, excuse me, not May, March. I want to be clear on that. Um for that day, I can't substitute a few more minutes tacked on to the end of the day for an

248instructional day for our kids. And if we really believe that student learning and instruction matters and we designate those days on our calendar as potential makeup days and we're serious about academics, as you all know, we need to be right now, then I think it's important for us to bring our students back for that day. That was already a day that was scheduled for teachers and so um the decision that I made at that point was that we were going to ask students to come back in that in that uh day in March. So I wanted to be clear about what we learned from that weather situation. we will continue to be better and why we did ask our students to come back that day. I know I'm probably not their most favorite superintendent ever

249right now. But I can tell you at the heart of this, it gets down to are we offering the learning opportunities that we need to for kids and we need to continue to do that and we believe this day is going to be a great learning opportunity for them. That concludes my superintendent report. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. We'll move on now to trustee reports. Are there any trustees with reports tonight? Miss McMurrow. >> Very quickly, um, recently, uh, Trusty Mike and I got to go see a production put on by Arlington High Theater. Um, they did an amazing musical, Big Fish, and I it it was these students just blew me away. Um, and that includes the technical crew. I'm also equally impressed and apprec appreciative. um for the directors and the supportive families.

250The auditorium was full and this was the Sunday matinea performance um on a very chilly day. So, thank you um to everyone involved in this. It was a wonderful production and it inspired me to go home and watch the movie. I think the play was better. I think our students did a better job. It was a great movie, but I really enjoyed the performance. Thank you, Miss McMurrow. Miss Haynes, >> I I believe Trusty McMurrow sent in photos for this. No, I thought you were. Okay, so I have a text where she said she was going to, but could I speak about it? Um, so on that note, I shall speak about it with no pictures. Um, so last week, Trusty McMurro and I attended um the Shatter the Silence event in honor of National

251Human Trafficking Month. That was January. Um, it was put on by our family and community engagement in guidance guidance and counseling teams and they hosted Unbound Now, the Women's Center of Taran County and the Arlington Police Department for a panel that um was not boring at all. I I I didn't know what to walk into. Um, I didn't know if it was going to be dumbed down, if it was going to be relevant. You know, you don't know what you're going to get at these things. And it was incredibly impactful. Um the the room was packed full of youth. It was packed full of parents with their children, which was even more impactful. Um listening to guidance from professionals in the field, giving advice about hard conversations and things we can do as parents and

252as community members to help prevent human trafficking from happening in our community. Um, a couple things I want to point out is they recommend that these um these difficult but important conversations start as early as fourth grade. Um, it they used to say sixth grade but it's happening earlier and earlier to our children and so as early as fourth grade and to make sure to educate people on the fact that boys are absolutely just as much if not more at risk than their female counterparts. So, if you aren't already having the conversations at home with your kids about human traum human trafficking, um, their digital footprint, their activity on social media, I would encourage you to go to our AISD website. The guidance and counseling page has a plethora of resources. I went through all

253of them after that presentation. Um, and start having those conversations with your children. It is vitally vitally important. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. Any trustees with comments or reports further? Okay. All items on tonight's agenda have been addressed. We have no items to discuss in close session. No further business tonight. We're going to adjourn at 11:04.