2026-01-22 Arlington ISD Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees

001Good evening. I will reconvene in open session this meeting of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees for January 22nd, 2026 beginning at 6:37 p.m. We'll start the evening with our pledges tonight. Tonight we will be led in the pledges by Barry Elementary student Nissan Mahad. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Please be seated for a moment of silence. All right, to learn a bit more about the student who led us in the pledges tonight, I'm going to turn it over to our chief communications officer, Tyena Northington. >> Good evening. Thank you, sir. Let

002me tell you and introduce you all to Nissan. He is actually a fifth grade student at Barry Elementary School. Uh he says he has a favorite teacher, Miss Salazar, is fourth grade teacher, but he does not have a favorite sibling. He has his family here with us. So, he's got his siblings, his mom and dad. Um, and I did ask him and I told him there was no wrong answer. So, at least he knew his favorite teacher. Um, I think what was so interesting is we were just talking about how he enjoys science and one of the things that he u described about loving at school is he said investigative projects and I said tell me more and really you said it perfectly. He said I love to know how things work and so how

003things come about to work. can see him being someone who's maybe in the engineering scope. You never know. So, we've got lots of programs for you to enter. And I know that you're going to find yourself a home. And I on the weekends, he's a huge soccer fan. So, he loves soccer and he's actually interested in orchestra and that's what he loves most about Barry. So, I think that ties well into today's performance. So, thank you so much for joining us in the pledge this evening. All right, that takes us to our student performance for the evening. Tonight performing for us is the Arlington High School Symphony Orchestra Ensemble directed by Mr. Chris Chapman. >> Tonight board, we are excited to welcome members of the Arlington High School Symphony Orchestra. Our talented students have had

004the unique opportunity to work alongside members of the cast and the pit orchestras from Broadway productions such as The Lion King, Wicked, and Mulan Rouge. This spring, they're traveling to Orlando, Florida to participate in the Disney Imagination Campus soundtrack sessions. This is so cool. This is where they will actually learn and record Disney music in a professional sound stage with Disney musicians and sound engineers. These opportunities are just one of the powerful examples of the unique learning environments and student experiences that we have for Arlington ISD students. They'll be performing tonight mystical mage under the direction of Dr. Chris Chapman. Please enjoy. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. So awesome. >> Thank you so much for that performance. That was beautiful. And that's inspiration right there for you on or what you can do in the

005orchestra in just a few years. As we let them um exit and get the the stage ready, I want to make sure that um our board our board actually typically honors students for their recognition of different types of achievement that they have throughout the year. We have state level achievements, we have district level. Tonight though is a different story. It's actually their night to be honored. So, it is part of a tradition in the state of Texas to have school board appreciation month where we honor our trustees. These seven individuals are celebrating the theme this year of our future is public. And I want to just tell you a little bit about them. They are all focused on children. They're all focused on our schools, our communities, and most importantly, our future. Many of you

006don't know how much time it takes to be a school board member. Um, I tried to start adding up all the YouTube length uh lengths of videos of all the past 15 minute uh meetings we've had in the past year. I was already past 22 hours of just straight meeting recordings. And I know Spence edits out a lot of the time that it's actually in close session. So the amount of hours that they take not only on these meetings that are public but also at events, marching in different parades, going to visit schools, reading to children, sharing your experiences, sometimes offering times talk to our community during trustee talks. Um this past year we opened a junior high school. We opened a stadium. We passed a compensation plan for making us the number one district

007for teachers to be paid the highest in the DFW area. and you, Miss Fowler became a master trustee. Those are just some of the accomplishments that you all have done and that our community is so very proud of. Tonight, we actually have a few guests in presentations. We have one that we're going to start with. We're going to welcome the city of Arlington Mayor Pro Tim. We have Dr. Barbara ODM Wesley to present a proclamation. >> Good evening. I'm honored to be here in this building and honored to represent our mayor. I bring you greetings from Jim Ross, from the entire Arlington City Council, and from all 400,000 residents in the dream city. And we have a proclamation from the office of the mayor. Whereas Arlington Independent School District is guided by its values and

008beliefs, including a commitment to exceptional learning experiences, and inclusive culture, thriving and continuously learning, strong partnerships, maximized resources, and safe, productive learning environments. And whereas the Arlington ISD board of trustees plays a critical role in advancing the district's priorities of academic growth, culture, safety, and discipline, marketing, and engagement, talent, and resources to ensure success for all students. And whereas local school board members are elected by their community members to act in the best interest of students while establishing a clear vision that promotes academic excellence, student well-being, and continuous improvement. And whereas local school board members work collaboratively with parents, educators, district staff, and community partners to foster inclusive learning environments where students and staff feel valued, supported, and challenged to grow. And whereas school board members are responsible for ensuring strong governance, effective fiscal stewardship,

009and the responsible allocation of district talent and financial resources to maximize student learning opportunities. And whereas school board members serve as advocates for public education by strengthening partnerships, engaging families and the community, and communicating district priorities and expectations. Now therefore, on behalf of our mayor, Jim Ross, mayor of the city of Arlington, Texas, we sincerely appreciate the Arlington ISD board of trustees for your dedication, leadership, and service and do hereby proclaim January 2026 as school board recognition month here in Arlington. Thank you for your service. if we could join down in the underneath we can take a photo and then we'll have the rest of our celebration down there as they make their way down. Just to also highlight a few things this past year we um they actually presented at a statewide conference on

010culture. They went to Austin several times to meet with our elected officials. Um there was a ton of discussion that many of you heard around our district priorities being passed last year. our values and beliefs, what we want for students. And so this is just some of the work that they've done for the district and for our students and staff over the year. >> Perfect. Okay. Thank you. >> Do I need to raise this up? >> You don't need me in there. They're they're better looking than I am. I wanted to uh take a minute just to say as well uh just from the administrative point of view, one of the key measures of an effective school board is how well they work through the most challenging situations and how they work together to um

011put aside individual beliefs sometimes and come together for the good of a community. And that is hard. Everybody knows when you're at home trying to figure out how to navigate each individual's voice as a family, it's hard to do that sometimes and to do it as seven individually elected trustees uh for a school district and for 50,000 plus students is a really big task. But one of the most uh one of the things that stands out to us most as an administrative team and is how well this board functions together and how you're able to do that. So, from our administrative team, from our teachers and staff in Arlington ISD, please know how much we appreciate you. Your dedication to the students of Arlington and to this community as a whole. Your work says uh

012volumes about how much you care about this community and we couldn't be more proud to serve with y'all. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor Prom. Thank you, Mayor Prom. I appreciate you. Next, we're excited to welcome students from Little Elementary. They've actually have a piece of artwork that they would love to present to you as a gesture of gratitude for the school board's hard work. So, to help us introduce our students and share a little bit more about each piece, please welcome Little Elementary Teacher, Miss Aaron Williams. Good evening, board members and Dr. Smith. My name is Aaron Williams. I am the art teacher at Little Elementary. I'm a proud product of Arlington ISD. I was born and raised right here. I attended Rankin Hutch and Sam Houston. Yes, Mr. Chapa. I graduated with

013your brother Heath. I am now I have been teaching for 15 years, 10 of which I have been right here in Arlington ISD. Before I begin, I want to say a quick thank you to my family, to my fine arts team, to the administration of at Little Elementary for the encouragement and support they have given me. As we know, January is school board recognition month. This year, we are leaning into a powerful theme, our future. When we talk about our future, we aren't just talking about a date on a calendar. We are talking about 5.5 million students across Texas, including our very own talented students at Arlington ISD who sorry, including um who are prepared to lead in our economy and our neighbors. Tonight is the time for us to pause and say thank you

014to our dedicated volunteers for your willingness to serve as advocates for our students, staff, community of Arlington ISD more than ever. Thank you for all that you do. We truly cannot do what we do each day without you. We are incredibly lucky in Arlington to have a board to see the values and importance of our work as educators. To show you exactly what the future looks like, I wanted to share the work of those who are currently painting it. I am honored to introduce eight of our incredible talented sixth graders from Little Elementary. These students are were challenged to visualize their future hidden behind a door looking through a keyhole into the future. a project designed to promote imaginative thinking and bold dreams. As they be as they come forward to present their artwork, you

015will see the diverse path they are already carving for themselves. Scarlet, a lover of art and horses. Scarlet's piece reflects her hope to become an animal physical therapist. Mr. Wilbanks stamp item. Sophia, she couldn't make it this evening. Her work shows that she can change what we have done in the past to have a positive future. She is not exactly sure what she wants to do in the future, but she knows she will be working hard to get there. Victoria has her sight on the on the future school of UT where she plans to study to become an interd designer. Dr. Smith >> Georgia also a lover of horses. Georgia's work shows that working hard and traveling down a difficult path will lead her to the goals of becoming a pastry chef. Allison with a

016clear goal of becoming a police officer. Allison demonstrates her focus and determination to get the job done. CeCe, an outstanding pianist and artist. Cece's work showcase her growth of becoming a professional pianist or entering the medical field. Paris with a big goal for the the years ahead. Paris artwork illustrates her journey towards the law school and becoming a lawyer. Ivana, she couldn't be here this evening. Ivana is a new and wonderful creative student to our school. Ivana's work create captures the beauty of nature with a peaceful stream and a fish as she explores the possibility of who she will become in the future. Trustees, thank you for your countless hours of service and your prior pritori pritoriizing our outcome of our students. Because of your leadership, this these students aren't just ready for the world,

017they are ready to change it. Together, we are ensuring that our future is public and the that the future of Arlington ISD remains bright. Thank you. if we could all come together. So, I told them we'd take a picture because parents want a photo. If we could all come together with your student and your artwork really close that we can get one nice photo and that way the parents can take a photo. So, we're going to all scrunch just a little bit. There we go. >> Oh, okay. them. Lean it forward just a little bit so there's not a glare. >> Yeah, that's good. Okay. >> Stagger says >> Yeah. All right. >> If the students could hold the artwork and then they're standing that way they're not blocking the artwork. >> There we go.

018That way it's towards the front of her. >> Yeah. Have the kids stay in front that way. >> If you'll lean the glass forward so that way the glare There you go. And I told you guys hold those smiles cuz you got parents behind you. So keep holding them. There's some parents proud teachers said we'd hold our hold the smiles. Got the paparazzi. We have to have our Yes. Go. >> We're good. Spence. Good. All right. And we And if you want to take individuals, Spence will be available during recess. This does include tonight's honors and recognitions. >> Justin, do you want to ask? >> So, it is uh it is 7:00 and we typically take a recess after recognitions and so we will do that now. Uh trustees, let's aim to be back on

019the DAS at about 7:10. >> We're in recess. All right, it is 7, we'll call it 15. And we are back from recess. The next item on our agenda tonight is open forum for agenda items. Miss Aosta, do we have any speakers registered for open forum? >> President Chapo, we do not. >> Okay, we'll move on then to staff and committee reports. The first item on staff and committee reports tonight is an update from our finance and academics committee, which is led by our vice president, Miss McMarrow. I'll turn it over to Miss McMero. >> Thank you, President Chappa. Our committee, which is comprised of myself, Trustee Fowler, and Trustee Mike, met um on January 12th, and we got an update from Dr. Brett Champion on school improvement, and we also discussed potential future compensation

020plans. Thank you. >> Thank you for the update, Miss McMarrow. We're now move on to item B under reports tonight and that is an update on our capital needs steering committee. Uh we're going to hear a report from them and their recommendations. And for that I'll turn it over first to Dr. Smith. Trustees, um we're excited to have a couple of guests here tonight for a presentation. Uh Dr. Kathern Parra and Mr. Nickiser are going to be presenting for our capital needs steering committee and I'll invite them up to the podium. As you all know, you called uh for a capital need steering committee to be formed, approved a charter, and they have been hard at work since that time. And tonight, the uh our guests will be sharing the recommendations from the group over

021a course of uh I think it was six meetings, but it feels like many more than that. Uh a whole lot of meetings and a whole lot of time together. So, we'll turn it over to them at this time. You >> want me to drive? >> Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Smith. Good evening, trustees. Um, again, I'm Katherine Par and this is Nick Heiser. Um, Kelly Kernet uh is the co-chair that um him and I are the co-chairs of the committee and um he does send his regrets. He had um a conflict with work. Um and so Nick is going to stand in his place. Um so if we can go ahead and get started. The purpose of um the purpose of this presentation is for us to uh just do a final update regarding the

022capital needs steering committee. Um give our bond proposal recommendation options and then uh we'll discuss some next steps and uh do a little discussion at the end. So our committee uh was composed of almost 40 citizens. Uh it was a very diverse committee from it had uh members from all across the city uh different geographic locations different occupations different backgrounds different cultures but ultimately we all have one goal in mind and that's a vested interest in Arlington ISD and its future. Um go ahead. So as you all know back in October as Dr. Smith said, um, a charge was created for the committee, uh, for us to gain background information regarding the district, the facilities, the demographics, um, analyze all of those things, look at priority capital needs, uh, come up with options, recommendations, and

023then report them back to you. And so that's what we are here to do today. Uh this is our meeting schedule. We had six meetings. Um the first one was really a kind of meat and potatoes, find out a lot of information. It was very compact. We did finance 101. Uh we were updated on the 2019 bond and where that stands. Um and really just kind of went over some demographic information. Um and and I mean it was it was compact a lot of information for the committee to look at. Um the second meeting was at South Davis and um that meeting we looked a lot at the facility conditions um assessment and obviously we toured South Davis which was very eye opening for many of the committee members who had not had the opportunity

024to see that campus. Um and uh we mostly focused on the the facility condition index of different campuses and how those numbers um you know what they reflected and where we stand as a district. Um I one of the numbers that stood out to me was that I was like 25 to 46% of our facilities are considered in um like fair to poor conditions. And so um that's just something to to keep in mind as we were looking at all of the information that was brought in later meetings. Uh the next meeting we had at Key Elementary and this one we broke down into small groups. Um and each department so athletics, fine arts, technology. Um they met in small groups with each of us and did like a a roundroin. They would come to

025each of our tables and present what their needs were, uh what they had identified and um allowed for a good question answer uh with each department head. And then the next meeting was a bus tour, which was super fun. Um, so we actually got to see a a rookie bus, so one that just came into the fleet. And then we saw one that probably needs to be retired soon. And um we got to ride on the rookie one. And uh that was very nice. We went and saw um five schools. Um we actually toured three of them and then drove by two of them. And uh it was nice to see uh the progression of the schools, you know, what had been done in different bonds and where they are right now. Um one of

026the schools that we toured was Bllandon and um that was also a very eye openening experience for a lot of our committee members and re we received a lot of good information um in that tour. Then our uh December 17th meeting um we looked more at demographics. Um we uh looked at deferred projects from the 2019 bond. So ones that um weren't able to be completed with the 2019 bond um due to COVID and inflation and and other extenduating circumstances. uh that was reviewed in that meeting and we were sent home with some homework which we will go into more detail later. And then um our final meeting we u met to go over the homework that we had um and then we did one more activity and that's where we ultimately came up with

027our our two options for recommendation. Uh this is just another timeline kind of shows how quickly things have happened. Um we were just talking a lot of times that these bond um the steering committees have multiple months to kind of absorb all this information. Um and um I do have to say I I have to give props to the committee members which I I apologize. I forgot to mention earlier we have some of our members here and I would like to recognize them at this time. Um if you are on the committee if you would please just wave your hand or stand. Thank you all so much. Um, as I said, we did get a lot of information in a pretty short amount of time, but um, it was very well thought out and um,

028and presented in a fashion that I think was easily absorbed. Um, so just to highlight uh, a few of the, you know, things that show how hard this committee has been working. Uh we had the six meetings. Uh we did 14 hours of learning and decision-m 40 members. Uh we toured five schools. Actually I think it was more than that. Uh we did 41 curios curiosity cards. So, uh, just to give you a little background on that, at each meeting, there was a QR code, uh, that each committee member was encouraged if they had questions, if they had feedback, um, anything that they needed an answer to or just wanted to provide information, their thoughts, they could scan that QR code and that information was submitted um to be reviewed and then discussed at future

029meetings. Uh, six department presentations, uh, one comprehensive CNC web page. We had a homework assignment because what would school be if we didn't? Um, and then we came to two options. Um, at our very first meeting, I forgot to mention we we did vote that our consensus would be 75%. Um, and so we did achieve two options that met a 75% consens consensus. Okay. So um just to kind of further you know go into detail what you know what did we accomplish um we again met with department leads the um administration did a great job of presenting information um a lot of data was you know collected we had discussions um again we all agree that our biggest priority is the needs of AISD um and how can we best invest in that? So, one

030of the things that did help us in kind of narrowing down the needs um we we were presented with this number 1.8 billion of the overall uh facility needs um which is obviously a huge number and then the overall department needs was 167 million. Um, we just wanted to put that out there to show that there are still a lot of needs and that we were very focused um on prioritizing ones that need to happen now um over the next three years. And so it's, you know, it's not just one big list of, well, we we want that or we want that. No, these are needs that need to happen soon. Um, so can you go to the next slide actually? So this is our homework. Um, and I just want to explain just a

031little bit and then we'll go back to the previous slide. I think it'll make more sense in that in that order. So between the administration, our committee, um, the department heads, a list was made of those priority items. um they were put into an Excel spreadsheet and uh they were they were um itemized obviously and then we were asked to go in and rank whether we would want them in the potential bond or not. Okay. Um you will see uh let's see give me one second at the on the right hand side at the top there's two numbers 350 and 450. So at one of the meetings uh it was presented the the capacity for for a potential future bond and that is assuming it was going to be this May or in November and

032that it was going to be uh over a three-year period. And with those assumptions, um, if the bond was 350 million, there would be no tax increase. Um, and then if it was 450 million, it would be a 1 cent tax increase. So, um, they they did explain right now that our INS tax rate is. 2907. So, that's what it would stay at if it was at 350. Obviously, one cent more um, if it went to 450. I just wanted to point out some information that caught me um when it was presented. So our INS 10 years ago was 373. So we are actually definitely below that and even if we did have the 1 cent tax increase we would still be below that. So, um, you know, it's we've been doing it's the district

033has been doing a good job at making sure that that tax rate stays steady and and lower. Um, okay. So, we all took this home and on our own individually went through the list. Uh, it was about 30 emails were sent out to routine committee members who were in attendance. We had 21 submissions come back in. Um, and I will say that that committee members really put a lot of thought into this. Um, I I heard members say that, you know, it was Sunday and they're like, I got to fill this out, but I need to go drive around the district a little bit. I need to look at some more of these schools with my own eyes. Um, and so they really did put a lot of thought into this. Three of the projects

034met 100% consensus. 47 out of the 55 projects met more than 75%. So, um, 47 out of 55 is great. The total value was about 406 million. Um, and then of the eight projects not meeting consensus, there were two that were very close that were at 71%. And then again, I just repeat the 350 would be at zero and then 450 would be a 1 cent tax increase. Um, and I believe y'all have the actual um spreadsheet there. So, you can see which items and we're going to go through um a couple of slides here that'll show the percentages of each um each item. Okay. So, uh, projects that had 95% or higher are listed there. Um, just to point out a couple big ticket items, roof replacements, um, furniture, fixtures, and equipment. Uh, those

035really should be replaced like every 15 to 20 years, and I'm not sure if they've ever been replaced in a few of our schools. Um, and then the other big one is instructional technology. So, student devices. This would ensure that every student in grades 7 through 12 has their own device. Uh some of our some of our kids in junior high and high school are still doing where the the it's like a community device, right? They they go to their classroom, everyone gets a computer, but they don't get to take that home with them and they I mean they have to leave it there. So this would ensure that um every 7th through 12th grader has their own uh device. So 81 to 91% a few of the big items there. Uh so the elementary

036school gym renovation that would allow for uh three more elementary schools to have the gyms renovated so that they are a storm shelter and can hold the entirety of the school. Uh it would include a replacement of elementary school, specifically South Davis. and then uh two cafeterias, Lamar and Workman Junior High. Those were most those are the bigger ticket items that were in the 81 to 91% category. Um 76% you can see there um the school conversion for our 18 plus program uh was really the biggest ticket item there. All right. So, um, just to kind of summarize, we came back together, we we looked at all of the those numbers and in that last meeting, we asked, you know, do we have consensus to have this as an option to present to the po

037the board? And we did. Um so I present to you option one with 47 of the 55 projects the total being at 406 million. Um that is less than a 1 cent tax increase. And again um our committee came to consensus uh as as an option for this one. And I'm going to turn it over to Nick. >> Perfect. Thanks Katherine. Um uh so as Katherine mentioned, I'm filling in for Kelly Canut, who couldn't be here due to her prior work engagement. Uh just want to thank the board of trustees again for your time and attention tonight as we uh go through, uh these two options. I'll be uh picking up where Katherine left off and going through the second option, which starts with our sixth meeting uh on January 22nd, which which really was

038a culmination of the first um vote that we took over the holidays, giving an opportunity for people to kind of sit and and really kind of uh think on those projects and what they think they would want to vote yes for. But it was important to come back and and address any of uh additional questions, feedback, etc. that we were getting from the committee members. And as Katherine mentioned, I think it's important a lot of these committee members really went above and beyond going out visiting uh the schools, talking with other community members uh to try and gain additional context around these additional items, some of which did not pass. As Katherine mentioned, 47 out of 55 were passed in the first option. So, what we wanted to do was was really break things up

039into a subcommittee, right? give everyone an opportunity to have more of a free voice, talk through some of the things that they didn't maybe feel comfortable voting for in the first run through. Also, uh allow the the outside consultants and and district leadership that were there throughout this entire process to to provide that additional context, that additional flavor uh to to those who maybe, you know, missed a meeting or didn't have a full understanding of why this was considered a need. So, I think that was an important part of this process. Oh, by the way, it was the longest part of this process, uh, if I can be perfectly honest. Um, you know, so as we're going through, uh, you know, the these discussions in the separate tables, uh, you know, one of the charges

040was we got to go through each item again. Let's make sure we can provide a second option to the board that really kind of gives uh, an opportunity for everyone's voice to be heard. So while that's happening uh you know I don't understand the technology behind it necessarily but somehow in the background this is being tabulated in real time so that by the end of those discussions lasting roughly an hour or so uh we were able to kind of see the the new option too which we'll we'll present to you now uh in in a similar fashion as as Katherine went through her presentation. We're going to go through the same light items. What I will not do uh is is necessarily point out a lot of of these things. They're largely the same. Instead,

041what I'll do is is highlight the differences at the end. So, as we go through option two, which was the table discussion, subcommittee discussions, uh these are the projects that met a 95% or higher. This slide and the next will be those that met that 95% or higher. I'll pause for a couple seconds on each slide. For the most part, these are largely unchanged. As we move forward, we're going again going to look at those that met an 82 to 91% consensus as part of that second vote. Uh, and again, I'll pause for just a couple seconds. And then lastly are going to be those items that hit that 77%. You know, as we summarize this second discussion and second option, what we saw was some slight changes to option one. An increase in total

042projects that met consensus, 51 out of 55. Total project value increasing uh from 46 million to just over 421 million, but also still staying below that 1 cent tax rate increase. Um, when we look at the two projects, you know, side by side, what you see here is the overall projects that that we just reviewed, the overall cost. Ultimately, these uh projects respectively create an annual tax increase of roughly $6 to $7 per 100,000 in taxable home value. Uh, so we felt that that was a very reasonable ask u by this committee. What I'd like to do next is point out some of the key differences from option one and option two. Uh by the way, if feel free to interrupt if there are any questions. Um you'll see here on the lefth hand side

043option one the homework submissions that Katherine went through with you all. And these were some of the items that did not meet consensus that as a result of these additional discussions, additional context uh were able to push over that finish line to to a yes. uh the uh artificial turf for the MAC buildings, softball fields, infrastructure technology uh and telecom telecommunications equipment and just to to provide some context around that. So what what we were talking about that that I think pushed this over that finish line was one safety related to the MAC buildings and of course the telecommunications equipments, PAS and phones. Uh there was also oh forgive me as I kept my notes to the side um uh end of life for some of this equipment copers printers scanners these things obviously as

044we know don't last forever uh and then future maintenance specifically around the use of artificial turf this is something that we have seen across the state and I would argue across the nation as as more and more districts kind of look for ways to reduce future maintenance costs uh you know this was something that brought was brought up in prior meetings but wasn't necessarily I think uh you know hammered enough to to kind of bring it across the finish line and that's where those additional discussions really kind of helped create that context for the committee members. The one item uh that we were unable to come to consensus on uh was the new replacement elementary school. Um and as you can see here this is one of the largest ticket items uh that we were

045asked to review. um option one and option two, you know, the votes uh in favor largely unchanged. uh which was a surprise to many um but it created some of the best discussion I think we had in any of the six meetings because there was a lot of passion around both sides which I think is good right we want to have that that flavor from the different areas of the district the different community u uh members that are involved and so this spent a lot of time in the meeting uh towards the end um but I think we we still kind of left a little bit unsatisfied and so one of the asks that we we uh we did at the end was we sent a follow-up survey to the the committee members to to

046allow everyone to kind of give an additional say. I don't think everyone's necessarily comfortable talking in public situations, so they kind of hold some of that in. Uh and so we sent them that survey and email saying, "Give us more feedback on why you voted one way or the other on this item since was the only one of the biggest ones that that we couldn't uh agree on." Uh and so what I'll do is is just kind of you can see here in bold, you know, the the over overarching themes here. You know, the first two are are really summaries of those voting in favor and why they voted in favor of right aging facilities and equity facility concerns across the whole district. Right? We don't want to focus on one side of the district.

047We want to try and be as equitable as possible. And as part of the tours that we were on, you can definitely see some of the aging infrastructure that Arlington is is currently undergoing. Uh Jeff, I did not say Greg Pra by the way. Thank you. >> Way to go. >> Um the the the other part is educational quality, long-term district sustainability. Look, I mean, we're we're competing with districts across the state. Uh and obviously Arlington wants to be a district of choice. Um I think it was important and and definitely uh that gravity was felt by these committee members um that we want to try and offer the best to our students. where we definitely saw some some divide was concern around the timing and readiness of this elementary school. And so let let

048me kind of peel that onion back a little bit. So what what you have here is there was some outstanding items from anformational perspective that I think was just more of a timing issue. We just didn't have it at that meeting. Uh and the as the board knows, we've got a pending updated de uh demographer uh study that's going to be uh rolling out. uh we sent a community survey that we are going to wait for that uh information to come back. We didn't have that at that meeting. Um and it was just unclear or that was the sentiment uh from from many of the folks voting against it was just unclear as to the where when uh this would take place. Um and I don't think that was necessarily to say that they didn't

049see or understand the need. I think it was more to say given the facts and circumstances at this moment in time maybe this is something uh that we aren't comfortable uh uh in moving forward with. Uh I I'll give additional context. I spoke with a number of people after the meeting and and I will tell you that many of them felt that yeah we would love to see a new elementary school just need some more details before we decide to put a stamp on that if that makes sense. Um obviously some of the things that we wouldn't have known in that meeting is the utilization of those underutilized campuses. How would they consolidate? You know there was discussion there's so much information as we went through this things like how do we address sixth grade?

050Does that move up? Does that stay in elementary schools? All that I think uh just created a lot of great information but it also created maybe some questions that uh were were remained unanswered which again was no fault of administration or the district I think and I will reiterate what Katherine said absolutely phenomenal job in providing the information to the committee uh that was available to them and then of course the mixed views on the bond inclusion. You know one of the things that we talked about was we've got to pass this in the community. this is something that we want to try and push through so that we can further the benefits to the district. And there was some mixed feelings around the ability to push um you know a bond through over a

051certain dollar amount whether that is arbitrary or not. Um I think that was just the feeling of some of those uh in the committee. So I'm going to pause for just a second because I'm starting to get a bit of drymouth and see if uh the board has any questions on what we've talked about so far. Okay, we'll open it up for comments or questions from trustees. I know we have just a couple slides left, but I think I think we're good to go with questions now. >> Sure, Miss Haynes. >> Yes, thank you. Um, great job, guys. Um, it's a lot of information and a lot to to digest. Um, I'm disappointed I wasn't at the last meeting to hear you guys kind of hash all this out. Um, I have one question since

052you guys did highlight it and bring it up in your um, your option two when you guys were looking at things. What brought you guys from no on turfing uh, baseball fields and softball fields to then a yes on softball but a no on baseball? What was the discussion around that? especially considering we just put the softball fields in and we we could have turfed them in the last bond and so I'm just curious what what got us there. >> I think the the main reason behind that and Catherine chime in as well uh was simply the price tag associated with it. Not so much that we favor softball over baseball by any stretch. Uh but really just around it was a significantly different price tag for one versus the other. And I I don't

053know if you see on it was very close, right? >> Like I think it was 1% off which was maybe one person. So >> So my my thought around that and I'm a huge I'm a huge advocate for athletics and I'm a huge advocate especially for female athletics. Everyone knows that. But if there was that much discussion around it and it was that close, it seems like potentially not maybe a need that needs to be included is my thought. They are hefty price tags and one is more than the other. Um, but it was just an interesting add-in to me. >> You know, I'll add a little bit. I think some of the discussion that we heard when we were talking about turf was, you know, long-term and water costs as well and the cost

054of baseball fields versus softball fields is quite higher regarding water costs and stuff. So, that was the initial discussion. Ideally, from a school district perspective, as we were talking about things, uh turf is a good thing for us. We can play more often for our kids and we have far less water consumption for what are utility bills and we spend a lot on water throughout the district. So, those were two things. Uh you know, my my take on this is when I see the differences, they're almost the same. And that's where it comes when we have a a certain threshold and it could be just one person saying, "Well, I don't think they really need that or want that and that could have created that that discrepancy at that point." >> So, I I think

055there is as a board you're going to have a couple of these things that pop up that uh this is the committee's recommendation at this point, but ultimately you're the ones who have to decide a final bond package. One, if you want to go out, and two, what is included in that? and with some items so close like that, that's probably a fruitful discussion for y'all. >> And just some info when we get to the decision- making point. Um, not that I need it right now, but I'd be curious how many games are played by the softball teams versus how many games are played by a baseball schedule just to justify that spending. So, when we get to that point, if we could be provided that information. >> I was just going to add also,

056so neither one of them were in the first option, right? Um, and so I I do think part of the discussion also that one of the committee members who does athletics like that is his occupation spoke and said, you know, look, I'm old school. I go play baseball in the dirt like we used to, right? But we have found that it is safer um for for them to play on turf fields. And um so he brought that to the committee's attention as well and I think it made an impact also. So >> safer for softball or safer for softball for both. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I mean because they both did the percentages did go up for both of them >> right >> compared to the first option. So >> Dr. Bar, can I add

057one thing since I was in? >> Absolutely. chocolate. Do you mind? >> One of the other things that they um shared with us is that the availability of the fields that they don't have to deal with the same rain outs that it can rain and have a big storm and literally they can go play an hour later. So that helps the teams maintain, but also that we are able to rent our fields out and profit off of those fields when we are able to say securely, yes, you will be able to play rain or shine. we will be able to and that was something else that I had not thought about was not just the safety of our athletes but also the availability because we have built these really nice fields and to make sure

058we're getting maximum value out of it and that's something I didn't think about until uh the committee member brought that up >> and that same thing goes for the MAX as well. Um I know that we've rented out the Max to teams when there's weather inclement weather and they needed practice. I I'm pretty sure it happened during this playoff season. Um, and so, you know, if we want to be able to ensure that we're providing quality facilities for place, you know, if we're going to rent them out, then, you know, those updates probably need to be made. >> Yeah. No, I'm overall I am pro perfing in general. Um, I'm just curious on the discrepancy between one and and not the other here. So, yep. >> Thank you, Miss Haynes. Mr. Wilbanks, hang on, Mr.

059Obanks. I hit the wrong button. There you go. >> Thank you, President Chapa and Miss Par and um Mr. Hower. Great job. Um and thanks for the whole committee in their service. Like Miss Haynes, I'm kind of questioning, you know, my threshold, personal threshold is I would love for this to be a zero cent tax increase. So, I can see why. And you guys made cogent points on uh why some of the committee members didn't go for the second school, but we're already under that cent uh that 1 cent raise. We're at 70 70 cents um 70 bips. >> Yep. >> And finance speaks. um and adding so the additional turf items the only other items on the list that you guys didn't consider in option two that looks like it's 20,000 uh I'm sorry

06020 million on the nose >> yeah it's pretty close >> and that would still bring us in under the 450,000 so that would be what 85 085.9 you. We're going out to the voters saying it's going to cost you, you know, 7, which everyone's going to round that up to one, and this is 85 or 0.9. I don't know that it's a tougher cell. >> Yeah, I I would agree with you. And in fact, I think if if you just really wanted to go all in, I I want to say it was like a 1.2 tax rate increase. So to to that end, you're talking about 50 basis points. if all of the things were approved. So it it was it seemed marginally >> uh different between options one and two and then of course

061the perfect world option do it all. >> Can I add one thing too and I think this I think Katherine mentioned this earlier um Dr. Parr mentioned this earlier but I I um would just want to reiterate when we went through the voting even the for the second option people did have the ability to vote individually as well. So, while there was discussion and debate, we still don't know how everybody was going to vote. So, a couple of these little discrepancies, it one person might have just said, "I drove around and saw the softball fields. I think they need some I think it would be smart for them, or I don't think the baseball fields need it." So, I I mean, the discrepancy in what hit that threshold, we can't answer specifically for one person,

062and it probably was one person that changed their vote on that. >> Yes. So we I mean just to clarify we broke into three groups at each table. Everyone at that table got to give an individual vote. Then those tables were the information from those computers were at in real time sent to one computer. So everyone had a vote in that meeting as well. It's not it wasn't like a you know all in favor all oppose. It was like actually individual votes. >> Yeah. And to Matt's point, there were 21 votes uh registered on option one and there were 19 present for that uh sixth meeting. So again, to your point, it could have just been one person's one way or the other. >> Yeah. Uh my second question is um Nick, I think you

063said the difference of adding the elementary school is another 50 bips >> roughly. >> Okay. were what was the sentiment in the room and maybe between camps on sky's is the limit like this district has a lot of needs whatever they need we need to vote vote for or were people like absolutely you know the vote voters aren't going to approve going a penny or maybe they'll go for a penny what what was the sentiment in in the room with the committee on what that threshold was for what the vote they felt the voters could stomach. >> So, um I would say there were there were people in the room who definitely don't want to see a tax increase. >> So, 350 was their number. Um there were people in the room who I think

064felt had to meet one of those numbers >> because those were the numbers that were proposed, >> right? Zero or one. >> And then there were people in the room who said, "Look, all of this is needed. If we if we truly believe this is all needed, then we're okay with an over a one cent increase." And I mean that there were there were pockets of all three of those. >> It was definitely a healthy mix of sentiment around I mean you know because I I think the the concern is if if you went all in and none of it passes, are we missing out on opportunities? >> Yeah. Um, but I would argue too that that wasn't for us to decide. Um, I think that was for us to determine what the needs were,

065present that to the board for you to decide. >> And I appreciate that perspective. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. We'll go to Miss Richardson now. >> Thank you guys for serving and thank you for coming and speaking tonight. I have a few questions because I was at the very final meeting and was able to hear some of the discussion and even though being there I still walked away with questions of I would have loved to have known why do people feel certain way and we didn't get to individually ask everyone. Um one of the things that you point said Mr. Heiser is that there was two options presented and it's no tax increase at 350 1 cent tax increase at 450. If we let's play pretend for a second. We live

066in the dream city. So dream for a second. Say you weren't limited to those two things as two presenters tonight who sat through those m meetings. Is there something else you would propose? Is there something that if you weren't had to be into these goals that you would see? >> I think I think it's safe to say in a dream city in a perfect world, yeah, we would just say do it all. Um, if I had to pick one, I I I felt most strongly about, I would definitely point towards the the additional elementary school. I think I think it's sometimes challenging uh to appreciate a need that you might not see come to fruition in 12 to 18 months, but it's still a need that that persists and and and needs to be addressed.

067Um, it's it's a large ticket item. I appreciate. Um for me though I I I think it's it's something that we would commit to uh if the intent is to continue on the path that we've done over the last uh you know almost two decades with the 14 bond 19 bond and and this potential bond where we have tried to create a district of choice for students in Arlington. Um I mean I would definitely say go all in. Sad part is um I won't pretend to play politics. I'll leave it to you guys. But it's it's it's a more challenging environment than it was before and I think we all appreciate that. >> Yeah, I I think I agree with everything that Nick said. Um I would like to speak for maybe some for other

068people in the room in feeling that that they maybe felt like they needed to have it within those parameters, the 350 and the 450, like that was a limiting factor. And that's maybe how they approached it and that with the elementary school being such a large ticket item and then everything all the other unknowns that surround it not having the new demographer report not having the survey from the community and then just some of the other questions which schools will it be what's going to happen to sixth grade I think that maybe that pushed people into saying okay well we have to get rid of something and that was the I the one that stuck out as something that could be eliminated and and fit in those parameters. I'll and I'll add just briefly just

069um as a reminder to the board when when we first discussed this we talked about possibly being a smaller bond and I I say that realizing that we're not talking about small dollar amounts so please don't take me wrong in that but that it being a smaller bond and it is because there were some longer term things that we knew we're going to have to have. The facilities condition assessment told us $1.8 8 billion dollar in facility needs in our district right now. And that was completed in October. Right. So to actually um plan to have some of those things come to fruition, we knew we couldn't expend all of our um potential bond money for our our community at one point because we have a lot more planning to do. So we used two

070models at the beginning, a 0% tax rate increase and a excuse me, a 0% tax rate increase and a 1-centent tax rate increase. And that's what we had our financial advisor discuss with the board or excuse with the committee. U and I think maybe that did limit some but in turn we we wanted it limited some because we know that in a couple more years we are going to have to have a bigger conversation about um other needs in the district. So we um it was intentional but it also may have very much pigeon holed some people into what they voted. What I think about the bond cycle that we've been in, our last bond was 2019 and so we are so many years we are seven years removed from that process right now where

071before 2019 and COVID happened AISD was in a three-year cycle >> five five year and we have missed out on that. So my concern would be that if we are in the cycle right now and if you say for example the committee says we saw a need for the elementary school but we don't know the appetite for the community. >> We didn't ask them to judge the appetite of the community. What we did ask was identify the need and if you think the need is there and if it's there right now then what happens if we go out for a bond in 2026 >> and we don't put it on there and now they don't get a school passed until again playing pretend 2029 2030 a bond goes out you still got to wait for

072it you got to build it you're going to get every these kids could look for another six to seven years for that school to come to fruition so I I have a slight concern that we're already behind we already know these needs. Um, I think I might also feel differently just because I'm on campuses so often and I've seen these schools and the not everybody gets to go to a Thornton, a web, a Barry, a Gun Junior High, a new addition in Arlington High School. Not everybody has that ability. And when we talk about wanting to make sure all of our students have the same experience of quality, >> I don't feel like that's always there for all of our kids. Um, Nick, I appreciate that you said you don't play the game of politics.

073>> I don't want us to have to play a game of politics either of making choices based on if we do what's right for kids, then we might not get reelected. I don't think that's how we can make our decisions right now. What we can make our decision on is our kids deserve better. They need this. And do we think we have a pool within our community to be able to say, "You elected us, you trust us, hear us say they need this, they deserve it." When I look at the difference of these tax increases, um a no tax increase, a one- tax increase, um I'm going to put you on the spot because I didn't ask this ahead of time to give you time to do math. So, somebody else may need to step

074in and help. Do you know the approximate average cost that would cost the homeowner if that went into place? >> Which one? >> Both. Uh the >> the one cent. 0 for an average Arlington homeowner. >> Yeah. Was what $18 annually? >> $18 annually. >> Kelly Michael, is that correct? >> Or we're pretty sure on that 18, right? >> It was on one of the >> ones. Yeah. >> Okay. I need you to say that number for me one more time. >> 18 $18 annually for the average homeowner in Arlington. >> So everybody in Arlington would need to pay an extra $18 on their taxes for our kids to possibly >> on average. >> Yeah. I spent more at Chick-fil-A yesterday for my two kids to eat. So for 18 and I know that's already

075a privilege that I have that I got to take my kids to Chick-fil-A, but $18 that just you know the commercials they say for only this amount you can feed a child a day. I feel like that's almost what we're saying is for only $18 you too can improve the lives of our students here in AISD. Um I do have the concern that if this went to a bond we would have to put on the ballot that it's a tax increase. >> Correct. When people see that, they get scared. >> But it's going on there either way. >> So whether it's zero tax increase, one cent, or $500, it's going to say >> it's going to say there's going to be a tax increase >> due to this bond. >> By law, it has to

076be on the ballot. >> Yeah. So, legislation that was passed, I believe, in 2019, requires us to put uh on the ballot anything to do with a bond election that this is a tax increase. Um, I I won't soapbox at all about things, but I I believe the intent was when they passed that legislation was to say when you're agreeing to this voter, you're agreeing to additional indebtedness. You're agreeing to pay off additional um loans to a school district to build facilities and it's a tax burden on on the community. And so I think that was the intent of it. The challenge that districts have been facing since that legislation passed is specifically their tax rate might go down in essence because property values have gone up so much. So people's tax rate may have

077gone down, but it still has to say that on the ballot no matter what. >> And the fact is in and I think that again the people who authored the bill would say they wanted to be transparent with the community that if you're voting for that, you're voting for additional tax that a community has to pay off. I think that is misleading to the community in the same way because we are going to have people say it says on my ballot it's a tax increase. There are going to people who go on social media it says tax increase and we can talk until we're blue in the face about why it's not. So I think it's important that we put on record why that is. So thank you for explaining that. And I I will

078add that there was a lot of committee members who were very much in agreement that like if it's going to be on there anyways, we might as well have a tax increase because also the optics of it, us telling the community, there's not going to be a tax increase. And then they show up at the ballot and it says that there is. Well, who's telling the truth? And um and so I I I would you agree a I think most of the committee members were in agreement that like if if we're going to have a tax increase like let's let's have it. >> Um >> yeah and and none of the none of the responses from option one or two we're going to create a zero tax increase anyways. So >> I mean that I

079think that just reiterates what you're saying. >> Um can we go back to slide 25? the options between one and two. And when we look at 5.2 infrastructure, technology, copier, printer, scanners, it was really surprised in option one that people said no to that. Um, only because I feel like I spent my kids elementary school years in a teacher workroom. That's where I met Trustee Haynes was in a workroom making copies and doing those things. And for anybody to think that those don't need to be updated regularly and not want to give those I believe if everybody spent an hour in a workroom, they would want to go and vote to give every teacher a copier and printer in their classroom. >> Um the wear and tear on those machines as well. >> The other

080thing is the telecommunications that I want to point out when it talks about PAS and phones. Our PA systems are constantly used. That is one of the most utilized things but also our phone systems that have to be updated. But even so much as the things that the ladies, the clerks that we meet at the front desk are needing. One of the requests that I've seen come through is headsets. That instead of doing this all day long, if you can wear a headset and keep going, that's going to make their time more efficient, but that money has to come from somewhere. >> Um, so I like an option too that we see those things voted yes along with the turf fields. Um, I think that's all my questions for right now. I really appreciate you

081guys and how quickly it was put together. I appreciate our committee members who came and gave their time away from their families and at night and that we're willing to have hard discussions because the truth is if you're not willing to engage in those discussions, then you're not going to be able to make progress on anything. Thanks, guys. >> Thank you, Miss Richardson. We'll go now to Miss Fowler. >> Thank you, President Choa. Thank you both so much for your presentation and thank you to the committee members. I know the amount of time going to all the different schools and all the discussion and then the final meeting where you were really hashing through everything and that took a lot of time and a lot of effort. So, thank you for doing that for us.

082I had two things I wanted to comment on. Are any of the schools that you visited did you feel like there are any kind of safety issues that we would need to be aware of? You know, I know like with Bllandon there was foundation problems and things like that. Did you feel like that there were some issues that might be a safety issue? >> I think um ADA accessibility is definitely at the top of that list. Um it was very apparent at South Davis. Um, >> but also I think one of the things that that came about that is you can't >> if if you address a certain amount correct in terms of renovation to a school, you have to now bring everything back up and so that increased that that FCA cost for those

083schools. Uh, yeah, I mean just the the ramps were definitely one that that stood out. Um, it was funny at I forget what school I for South Davis or if it was Bland, but we were walking through it and they said, "We're going to go through three generations of this school." You know, the school's 70 plus years old and you're literally walking back in time >> and moving forward. And Ranken, a school I actually attended, I didn't realize this at the time, uh, was built with no air conditioning, which is amazing. Uh and so you had these little gaps and you know between the walls, the hallways and the classrooms to to filter air. It was it was an eyeopening experience. Yes. So there was definitely we could see some safety concerns. Um but I

084think you know a lot of it was to address 30% of this meant you had to address so much >> um that that it made sense to be more efficient with those with those dollars. >> Thank you for that. And do you think if you all would have had a little bit more time and maybe some additional information the the options might have changed or the the parts of it or do you feel like you kind of knew everything and this is what you recommend? >> I mean it was a lot of information in a short amount of time. Um, I feel like one of the pieces that maybe just didn't get absorbed was the facil facility condition index for the schools, particularly the ones that might be considered for that fifth elementary school and

085and how poor of shape those schools are in um kind of doesn't matter which school it is, right? like >> um and so I if I had to say some if we could have had a little more time on it maybe that would have been absorbed a little bit more. Um but overall I mean it was a it was great information presented well and allowed time for discussion. Um the staff was always there to answer any of our questions. >> Yeah, I'll I'll echo Katherine's sentiments. I think it had all of the information been available at the time the decision was made, it would not have made 100% consensus, I do think we could have moved it over that 75% hump. I mean, think about it. We only missed it by four votes. >> Yeah.

086>> Roughly. like this if if we had had the survey just because so much of some of the holdback was and again like maybe this was this was not this committee's call but you know you feel like if if we want if we need a bond we we want to go sell this like we got to be able to sell it. Um, I think having that that survey back would have maybe eased some people's minds or told us like, "Oh, we're doing the right thing." Like that would have maybe guided us a little bit better. But you all will have that information and you know, ultimately it is y'all's decision and we trust that y'all will take that information and do what's right with it. >> Y >> Well, again, thank you so very much

087and thank you to the committee. This gives us a lot of great information and things to think about. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Feller. I understand that y'all have just a few slides left and and I think what I'll do right now is just let y'all finish the presentation because I do think that one of the slides in particular deals with the timeline and I know a few others have some comments or questions up here, but I think the timeline might also generate some discussion among the trustees as well. So, we can finish that. >> Yeah. So, let's dive into the timeline. So, obviously we're here tonight on the 22nd as Katherine and myself presented the two options uh to you, the board. uh next steps, right? Between now and February 4th, you

088guys are going to go through and prioritize those projects, recommendations, take the feedback uh discussion, all that good stuff. We'll leave that to you. Uh by February 5th, um present the community survey results. This is, as we've mentioned probably six or seven times in this discussion, this was definitely one of the missing pieces that I think would have helped in in a lot of those decisions. Um maybe the the second most important date on here is is the 13th, right? Where the board is going to have to decide uh whether to call for a uh bond election or a bond proposal for uh the May election. Uh and then from there, it's just uh getting everyone out to vote. Right. Questions on timeline? >> Okay. There was just that one more slide. Uh but I

089did want to get there that because I do think that it's important for us to understand up here that that if we are going to make a decision with regards to um these options whether the the trustees would like to look at a different option um we only have one regularly scheduled meeting between now and the date that we would have to call for a potential May bond election which is on February 5th. So that would be potentially a lot of heavy lifting for the board to do on February 5th. And so I I just want to give trustees the opportunity tonight to get um as much of the discussion advanced and the ball rolling forward on that front uh as we can here to make sure that that discussion on the 5th is looking

090at options that we are that we can potentially move on or not um at that meeting. We always have the option to call um a special meeting, but um the timeline is short and I know folks might have might be hard to get all seven trustees on a date. So just with that in mind, >> the one thing that I will add on February 5th where it says present community survey result, that is the outside survey firm that we hired to survey the community that will come and present that to you all as well. So you will have that information not from me or anybody else but from the the firm that did the surveying. Uh so that will be coming. I I also um just want to commend our committee. I think I I

091personally think they did exactly what they were supposed to do because we can't ignore the fact that some are uh very much thinking from an individual perspective of what might pass and what might not. And I I think that's part of the the situation that we put our community in when we ask you all to be involved in these committees. Uh and so I I'm very grateful for the work that they did. And uh while there wasn't uh 100% consensus on a few projects, it were needs, the majority came out very strong like the for that group to say here's here's a big chunk of needs for the school district. And that's what exactly what we asked them to do. So I'm very grateful for them. uh tonight, you know, with Nick and Katherine representing

092the the committee, if you have any questions about process or any questions about their recommendations, now is the time to to get that information from here. It's our administrative job to then provide you as trustees with administrative uh information to make a good decision February 5th or I guess before February 13th um on one whether or not you want to call a bond election or two uh if you want to call a bond election what you want to include in a bond proposal at that time. >> All right, I'm going to open it back up for comments or questions for trustees and we'll go to Miss McMarrow. Thank you, President Shappa, and thank you, Dr. Par and Mr. Heiser, and everyone from our capital needs steering committee, whether you're here or not. I was so

093impressed with the engagement, and you know, all of our board, we were able to attend meetings, but we can only attend three at a time, so we kind of took turns. My favorite meeting I was able to attend with you all was the bus tour because um not only were we on on foot and we were looking at facilities, but I was able to pick up on a lot of the nuances and things that data wouldn't tell you. You have to see it firsthand. And I know that that really gave you guys valuable context. And I I honor that context along with everything else that you guys learn in such a short period of time. when I look at these recommendations. So, um, the new elementary school, yes, that was a big surprise to me.

094And I I know that you set your threshold for a majority very high. I think that's appropriate because 50% or more is what people mostly think of as a majority, but if it's a recommendation for for the unit of the committee, it needs to be a little bit higher. So, I respect that. Um, I I know that there's a need and I I I think that I agree with what was said earlier about there's a $70 million price tag for a new elementary school and that's just what we would be grappling with. So, I'm re I'm personally really interested to see the community survey results because at the end of the day, like you mentioned, Mr. Heiser, we want the bond to pass. Um, and that has to be part of what we craft in

095a bond package because not only do we have the required language about the tax rate increase, whether or not there is a real tax rate increase, but now in contrast to the 2019 bond, there has to be several propositions. And we've seen in surrounding districts, large districts, some pass, some fail. there's voter confusion and local school districts aren't able to be a pack. We can't act with district resources to promote and lobby for our own bond. So, with all that considered, I'm really interested to see um the survey results. And I I just want to throw this out here tonight while we're discussing it. I would favor the idea um of a May 26 or May 27 bond. I do not favor the idea of a November um bond election. I just want to say

096thank you guys again and um please stay engaged. You guys are real advocates for our school district and our children and we really need you um to stay engaged and please partner with us in continued projects and help us um educate our community um because we we all care about kids, right? But now that everything is changing and the landscape is tougher, legislation has changed around what we can and can't do with bonds, um, we just appreciate y'all helping us spread the word and for your commitment to our students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss McMo. Are there any trustees with further comments or questions tonight? >> Okay, seeing seeing none, I do have some some comments and questions. Matt, do we have that? >> There were. >> Okay. If we can't get to to

097that, that's fine. Um, so I'll just start with a couple questions about um, we started at the beginning with a discussion of identified over $1.8 billion in needs and then there was a subset of the 1.8 billion that was presented to the committee. How did the how did we put all of the needs in the funnel and get down to the particular line items that were considered by the capital needs committee? So, um, a lot of it we listened to, um, staff administration and the department heads about what their priorities were. Um, and, uh, I mean, that that kind of led us down, you know, what does need to happen in the next three years. Um, or else we're going to be even farther behind. Um, >> anything to add to that? >> No, I

098think that's pretty much it. It was just a matter of, you know, not so much what can we do everything this time. Also, I think it the price tag of of of the 1.8 was just seen as not feasible given the current um, you know, environment so to speak. >> Okay. >> Right. >> So, and I the next question I have might it might be more appropriate for for Mr. Horn. I don't know if you all touched on this, but we have we've got the South Davis component in here. And then you can we've referred a couple times to the facilities condition index. And so that's sort of the the score we use to determine how much repair a building needs. And so I I know it wasn't part of your presentation, but I know

099you I know you went over it really thoroughly um as a committee. And so, you know, on Tuesday night, we recommended, we didn't recommend, we actually ordered the closure of Blandon in large part due to the condition of the building. And our on our FCI index, Blandon scored a 58. And so, we've now got a proposal from the capital needs committee to include a new South Davis. South Davis's FCI is actually the highest in the district at 88. But within that range, we've also got several other campuses. Um, we've got some in the 70s, some in the 50s, some in the 60s. Um, at the junior high level, we've got one at 72%. Um, at the high school level, we've got some nearing 50%. And so my question is, obviously we're not going to replace

100all of those, but is there sufficient we does the committee feel like there's sufficient money being proposed as part of the general condition work in in the proposals to get the FCI numbers down to keep those buildings educationally adequate until we can get to the next spot? >> I was going to say that. It's a good question. >> Yeah. >> It's a good question. I uh President Choa, I can pull that information. There there are projects in this that will be addressing certain things at buildings like Workman and Shackleford and others. Uh but I would need to do a little bit of research to make sure I get you exactly what you were asking. >> Yeah. And and I'm I should have I mean that's a more detailed question maybe than y'all covered with him,

101but I guess that for me when I'm thinking of the amount that we put in >> um it's some level I'm very concerned about you've called it buying down FCI before. That's right. And to the extent we can buy down enough FCI to to buy time at some of those campuses because um you know we've talked about this a lot in the capital needs committee has talked about a lot and you've seen it. You might have schools within the same sort of they're sort of the same vintage, >> right? And they may be they may have very different FCI scores. I mean, a good example of that is, you know, >> um >> well, I won't pick any out, but we've got some schools in the in the built in the 50s that are 27

102only 27%, but we've got some built in the 80s that are over 40, right? >> You know, so it's it's not just the age of the building. A whole lot goes into this. >> Um, >> okay. Yeah, >> I'll get to just I I'm going back and forth because I I was wanting to show a slide that was presented to the capital needs committee to make to make a point I'm going to make here in a minute. >> Certainly. >> Okay. So, thank thank you for that. >> You're welcome. >> Yeah. >> Um so, I just to kind of put my my my thinking on the table. Um this we we've done bonds in the district. I' I've now been part of of three prior bonds going back to 2009. I um that Mr. Winks

103and I were on that bond oversight committee for a bit and so I just wanted to run through and I know Mr. Horn's probably going to cringe when I do this because fac the inflation and how it affects facilities work is very different than the general inflation in the economy but I just went on the the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator here and just to run we're talking about these big numbers and so when we start talking about 400 or 420 million I need to put that in context of what that gets us today. And so in 2009, we did what I think everyone agreed was a very modest bond. We hadn't done one in a very long time of 190 million, which would only be about 300 million today. And then in 2014,

104that was when we went out for the biggest bond in Tarant County history. And and Mayor Williams is here and co-chared that committee. And that was 663 million, which would today be about 920 million. And then in 2019, thinking we would continue this 5-year bond cycle, we did 966 million, which today would be over 1.3 billion. And that's that's probably shortcutting it. So if we go back at 400, let's take option two at roughly $420 million in 2014 is only then would have only been a $300 million bond. And so even though the numbers continue to go up pretty substantially, what we're getting for that is less and less because of inflation. And so, you know, in 2014, we built new elementary school for 20 million. In 2019, we built a new elementary for 40

105million. And now we're sitting here tonight talking about a $70 million >> elementary school. So, >> the numbers are just going to continue to go up. So, the longer that we wait, I worry about that. I also worry about I'm glad that South Davis is part of this proposal, but I was I've said this before. I was very disappointed that that South Davis was not part of the 2019 bond. And I know the world changed a little bit for a few years there, but we thought we would be going back out in five years. That was our plan. But now we had a 2018 capital needs committee that put together the 2019 bond that I felt that South Davis should have been in that bond. Now we have a 2015 capital needs committee recommending a

1062000 2026 bond. And if it's approved, Mr. Horn will probably take two years, year and a half to get a new South Davis. >> Yep. So, so we have some future design dollars in this bond that would allow us to to begin design the design process, but that takes about 12 months. Okay. >> So, uh relatively speaking, if we if we began doing some early design work here soon, u this time next year, we would have the designs uh complete and then it's about a 18-month process to build the new school. >> So, we would be looking at fall 28 opening South Davis >> and then Yeah. Exactly. Yes. And so that's my fear when we talk about a hypothetical potential elementary school number five a school that as miss you know Dr. Paris, you

107said that when folks toured the building, some folks their eyes were opened by the condition of that building. And the truth of the matter is is we've got several other South Davises in this district and we just addressed one on Tuesday at Blandon. And so knowing to in my mind we the condition of these buildings I don't want to have another South Davis situation where unexpected contingencies come up and we go out for a bond that's not including that extra elementary school now and it's another 10 years before we can get that building addressed and and it it's just not fair to the kids that go to school in those buildings. And don't get me wrong, our buildings are educationally adequate. I would send my kids to any school in in in our district and

108and I attended some of those schools. So, don't get me wrong on that point, but I just don't want to further delay. And it sounds like the committee agreed that there's a need for that campus now. Absolutely. >> It's just more the particulars about which ones >> and where and I know the background of this too is we've got a lot of things going on. We're doing another demographic study. We've got an attendance boundary study because frankly some of our attendance zones haven't been touched in 30 years. Um, but if we can show now the slide that I I want to help use proof this proof what I'm talking about that I think this is a real need that we need to come back um at our next meeting and have an I think an

109option three that includes a fifth elementary school is we are primarily talking about. So this this chart shows the utilization or essentially the enrollment versus capacity at each of our elementary schools. And you can see from this that some of our elementary schools are uh pretty well utilized. Um Mr. Horn will tell you that you don't want to it's not necessarily a great thing that it's 100 it's at 100%. You probably want it closer in in the 80s low 90s. >> You're correct. And if you're looking at this, that's the case at many of our campuses, but where it's not is concentrated in a very pretty geographically discreet area, primarily on the east side of town. >> And we have a density of campuses that fall into the under underutilization bucket in a in in

110particular one part of East Arlington. And then when you overlay the FCI index on top of it, we have quite a few of those campuses that would also qualify probably for a lot of treatment or replacement on the FCI scale. I personally think that administration could have been justified in asking for two additional potential elementary schools because we know that just redrawing some boundaries and what we have now for underutilization, we we could move people around among these campuses to to better utilize them and do what we did before at Rowarch to Barry Knox to Thornton and do some consolidations and and give our kids that state-of-the-art new facility to move into instead of just moving people around to already old buildings. We can fill up the already old buildings, but it doesn't solve the

111old building problem that I think we know we have a substantial issue with currently. Um, so I'm just using this to to sort of bolster my point of I very strongly feel that we need to come back with an option three at our February 5th meeting um for the board to at least consider that fifth elementary school. Um because I think it s I think it sounds like there wasn't much disagreement that there was a need there. It's just some folks maybe couldn't get behind it because they needed more info and they want to know which campus it was or is going to be or they felt like the $70 million is the the thing that would push it over the line in terms of a political issue of electability on it. And and frankly

112I don't I don't think that I I'm not worried about that. That's just me speaking for myself. um whether this is a 1.2 cent tax increase or a 0.07 cent or 7 cent tax increase, I don't think that's going to make or break somebody potentially voting for this bond because the bond language is going to be super broad. It's going to be something like, you know, 307 million or 370 million of general facilities or Mr. Horn, but it's a sentence and the sentence is going to end with this is a tax increase. And the fact of the matter is is we lowered we did not raise the tax rate with the 14 bond and we were criticized for that. We actually lowered the tax rate when we passed the 2019 bond and we were criticized

113that we were lying about that. And so I at some level if it's $18 for the whole thing or a year for the whole thing, um I I just don't think that that's going to cost some the addition of that school is going to cause somebody to not vote for a potential bond. So um that's all I have on on that. The last thing I would say is I would like I I don't I'm a little torn on turfing the the baseball softball fields. I would like to see that done for the playability reasons that other people discussed. My worry is is there's sort of this I think a sense that like turf is a luxury item even though it's it's if you talk to the people who use it it's something that's a very

114nice thing to have. Um, but I'm worried about, you know, there were questions that came up about the turfs in our existing MAC facilities, um, which are hitting the end of their life cycle. And my worry is if we get in a situation where we can't pass bonds to replace turf that we have once the condition gets, you know, deteriorates enough that we can't replace it and then we can't use those facilities anymore. And that's that's a fear that I have. So, I'm actually glad that the the MAC turf fields were kept in um because we we need those uh replaced or there may be a time in the near future we can't use them and we the community substantially invested in those MAC buildings and the 14 bond. Um so, that's something I'm a

115little torn on. I think I have to to think a little bit more about on the the baseball softball turf fields. I I whatever we do on that front, I would like to do equally. I don't like the idea of splitting those up. Um, and so that's those are my thoughts on I think everything I covered on my card here tonight. And with that, um, it looks like we have more questions or comments from, uh, a couple trustees and I'll go back to Mr. Will Banks at this point. >> Thank you, President Choa. And I have a lot of those same concerns. >> Um, and I think one of the key things is that uh, community survey results. So it, you know, kind of remind me again what is the scope of that survey? What

116was the charge on that survey in terms of what they're polling? >> Yeah. So they they take uh a sample of uh the voting population here in Arlington and it's a representative sample. They study uh voting record and see who are the people that are voting and they do a um targeted survey based on uh the things that the committee actually discussed. And so you will have detailed information based on not only levels of the bond like total amount but also information provided and uh education provided in what sentiment that uh garnered from the survey respondents and so they'll be able to present that to you at that time. Um, so are they doing any polling on um sentiment on a 1 cent tax increase versus a one point? When did you say it all

117in was >> around 1.2? >> Mhm. >> They did 1.2 all in with the extra elementary school. >> We did the zero and one. >> We did zero. We didn't we didn't do a 1.2. >> Okay. Okay. Um, I mean there's a lot of things up in the up in the air. We're moving very quickly. And so one thing I would like is we know we need to ensure whatever we put forward passes. And so that's my the only thing that gives me pause is that we have accurate data with a good polling to know that what we put forward that includes a second elementary school. Great. I'm all for it because the need is there. We've all seen it. Um I think we have options though when it comes to if what we know

118we can get past now and maybe start on that second one. and you know, we've got some extra pots of money that we can borrow from from uh in in the interim while we're waiting for a second bond to pass. Um there I I think we as a district can get creative of um if that second elementary school the sentiment is not there. I think there are options available so we're not having to wait as long as Kelly outlined if we were to wait for five years for another bond and then or I guess it was you miss Richardson. So, um I don't have the appetite for that for the second elementary school, but I think we, you know, we do need to really um our taxpayers are an important constituent and we need we

119need to accurately pull their sentiment. Um we've been very blessed by community of parents. I see several parents in the back of the room that care dearly about making sure that we provide the best classroom experience for their kids and uh we need to do everything we can to do that. But it's got to pass. So, >> thank you, Mr. Wilbanks. We'll go to Miss Richardson. Before we meet again, can I make a request from staff that we take the uh utilization map that you have and have it overlaid with the FCI? >> Yes, we can absolutely have that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I think uh I'll I'll just add in in this. So, we have two proposals from the committee in front of you. I don't know that they want to meet

120again for a third proposal, but um we we uh >> we what we can do is we can take a look at those that those uh pieces of the the proposals that did not pass, bring to you dollar amounts. And so that is where the board will have good robust conversation uh and be able to make a final decision on what you might want to include, whether it's option one, option two, or a modified version of one of those two. Um, and you'll be able to have that discussion uh February 5th and in subsequent meetings if you need to. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Richardson. Any other comments or questions from trustees tonight on this item? All right. Seeing none, Mr. Horn, Dr. Par, Mr. Heiser, thank you. >> Thank you to all the

121committee members for your work. I know that it was a lot. >> Yes. And thank you all so much. Um, I just want to say thank you for putting your trust in myself, in um, Kelly Kunette, and unbeknownst to y'all now, Nick. Um, um, I think I can speak for all three of us when we say public education is very important. And, um, and we want AISD to be the district of choice. And so we trust that y'all are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that the people in our community and even the people outside of our community continue to choose AISD. So, thank y'all. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, we have been going about um an hour and a half, so I'm going to go ahead and and

122call a short recess. We'll let's shoot for about just five minutes, get a quick restroom break, and we'll be back on the DAS. It's 8:37. We'll take a recess. >> All right, it is 8:47. We're going to be back from recess. Now, we have one last item under our report portion of our agenda tonight and that is a update on our curriculum audit and a report from administration on the recent results from that. So, I'll turn it over to Dr. Smith. trustees. Um, as you know, we got our curriculum audit kicked off last year with uh Curriculum Management Solutions Incorporated. Tonight, Dr. Steven Wartz is going to uh introduce our guest uh who was the lead auditor for the project and he'll be presenting to you tonight. Uh just a reminder for everyone's history on

123all of this. Uh this was something we sought out as an administrative team because we wanted to dive deep and wanted to get better. And this is a deficit audit. This is not a glows and grows audit. This is not anything other than a deficit audit to take a look at um areas in need of improvement based on um some very clear standards that a group has used over time. This is the third audit I've curriculum audit that I have been heavily involved in in the state of Texas. and uh I am very um happy to have the results here tonight so our team can dive into those results and build off of them. So I'll turn it over to Dr. Wartz. All right. Good evening, President Choa, Dr. Smith, members of the board. Um

124aligned to our board priorities around academic growth. As Dr. Smith indicated, we have engaged in a curriculum audit process which is designed to really evaluate the systems that we have across the district to ensure that our students have a high quality learning experience in the classroom. This process began in January of last year where we initiated our work with um our auditing team and we submitted over the course of the first semester documents for review that pertained really to board policy which he'll mention around focus area one and focus area two which is around the curriculum management process. Those documents were reviewed and we received initial draft findings which we presented to the board in late spring. And I just want to let the board know that we've actively been working on some of those

125items. So some of the things that we've already started initiating in our in our system which you have um been privy to are the implementation and the adoption of a professional learning plan um a a uh a management system where we're really trying to monitor the implementation of those practices in the classroom. Um we've initiated zerobased budgeting and started the process of designing program evaluations that really look at return on investments. We've expanded our programming for um focusing on our emerging bilingual students as well as started the process of building the framework for our curriculum management plan. So, lots of work is already started. Um over the summer, we submitted over 6,000 student artifacts to the auditing um committee to review and see what kind of work students were actually engaged in. And then in

126the fall, the auditors returned back to the system and they conducted interviews, surveys, focus groups, and they visited classrooms in every campus across the district in an effort to triangulate their findings, which they're going to share with you tonight. Um, our purpose this evening is to share with you the full report. So, um, Dr. Eel, um, Steve Eel, our lead auditor, will share with you not only the 17 findings, but also the recommendations. And our goal is to facilitate discussion with you as we build from the next part um our multi-year action plan as well as our cadence at which we will come back to the board under routine to give you updates on our progress. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Eel. >> Thank you, Dr. Warts. Well, good

127evening. I'm Stephen Ebel and the lead auditor for this audit and it's an honor to be here in Arlington ISD. And so, President Chopa, board of trustees, Dr. Smith, thank you so much on behalf of Curriculum Management Solutions and the Texas Curriculum Management Audit Center that's housed in TASA. We appreciate the opportunity to be of service. As you know, this is your second audit in Arlington ISD. You had an a curriculum management audit completed in 2013, and so we're honored to be back again to go through this process and talk to you uh about findings. This is really a deep look at the most important thing that you do each and every day here in Arlington ISD and that is teach and learning in your 76 campuses across this district. So I'd like to begin

128this evening and give you a brief overview of the curriculum management audit, the background, the processes that we engage in, then jump into your findings and talk about recommendations and then recommended next steps. So uh the curriculum management audit uh is an external analysis um and it's completely independent and we look exclusively at the design and delivery of the school systems uh curriculum and are you attaining your desired result which is high levels of learning for all students within the cost parameters in which you function. And then within the context of this uh report, we have findings and proposed recommendations. And uh the auditors who served on this audit team are all deeply trained. And so everyone who serves on a curriculum management audit is an educator by trade and has uh many years of

129experience working um in school systems across the nation. So, Curriculum Management uh solutions incorporated uh the first curriculum management audit was conducted in 1979 in the Columbus Io Columbus Columbus, Ohio public school system. And uh the curriculum audit was really based on this concept of looking at the model of a financial audit uh with a series of standards and then doing tests in terms of the performance at the school district in time. And so uh since 1979 CMSI has uh conducted over 600 audits across the uh nation and internationally. Uh we have over a hundred trained auditors. Uh and there are five focus area indicators that we really dig into. And so the audit itself is built around these um five focus area indicators that I'll uh talk to you a little bit about tonight.

130So when we think about the purpose of a curriculum management audit, the idea really is to think about what can how can you design systems to meet the teaching and learning needs of all students, delivering those uh high levels of learning for all students. But it's a systems approach. And so one of the things that I as a a a veteran uh Texas educator with 30 years of experience valued in receiving an audit in two different systems in which I worked is that it was a focus on systems. It's not a focus on blaming people. It's thinking about how can we build systems to support teachers and to support administrators and ensuring that students are all students are achieving at high levels of learning. So it's a systems approach and so it's thinking in terms

131of what can we do to ensure that all the systems are in place to meet the needs of all students. One of the things that I often share with administrators as we as I provide training around uh the curriculum management audit approach is thinking in terms of the the difference between a school district and a district of schools. So and that's for me that's very meaningful when you think about that a school district is focused around a very clear vision and utilization of resources and everyone is working in tandem. So 76 campuses across this district thinking in terms that is a school district. A district of schools could be some campuses are functioning and performing at high levels others maybe not so much and oftentimes based on the capacity of that campus leader. And so

132really what we think about when we think about the curriculum management audit approach is how can we build systems to ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction. As uh Dr. Smith pointed out this is a deficit audit report or an exception report. So while there are strengths that Arlington ISD certainly has and I'm going to um share those with you tonight. Uh we will be I will be talking with you about the findings. So the exceptions to the standards that we found um through a very detailed analysis and I as I say that I I do want to thank Dr. Collins and Dr. Wartz and particularly Dr. Wartz's uh administrative assistant Diane Forsber uh gathering the documentation and really chasing down over a thousand documents, 80 document types, ensuring that when we were

133on site September 8th through the 12th that we were able to get to all 76 campuses that was a human's work and so I really am appreciative of Dr. Wartz, Dr. Collins and Diane Forsber. So thank you for that. Okay. When we think in terms of the audit scope, we're focusing primarily on curriculum instruction. However, we will draw out any aspects of the school district operations that may be some way hindering the design or the delivery of teaching and learning. And so, we want to keep in mind that we're looking at a very datarich report. And so I was as I was going through your report again, 424 pages as I might point out and then thinking I'm really proud of this report because the audit team did a very good job of really digging

134into your data and uh looking at trend analysis and really thinking deeply about how is Arlington ISD performing against our standards and utilizing your resources to meet the needs of uh teaching and learning and and high levels of student performance and then looking at that over time. So there's uh some concepts that guide our work as curriculum auditors. Uh the first is technical expertise. Um ensuring that all the auditors who served on the audit team have had uh the actual experience in all the different areas that we audit. Uh we're independent. We have no vested interest in the findings that are uh listed in your audit. So we are are totally external to Arlington ISD and no connections to the district. um strictly a desire to help you improve your systems uh so that your

135students can continue to grow and thrive. Uh objectivity we think in terms of what can we observe, verify and so we do document reviews, interviews, we visited all campuses, we went through classrooms, we conducted um surveys and so all these pieces allow us to be objective and to step back and think in terms of what did we actually see um in terms of documentation. So we're always going to ensure if we reach a finding we have triangulated that documentation or or we have we've triangulated that finding to meaning that we've observed it we've heard it in our interview or we've seen it through the documents that we've taken a look at. um consistency since we've performed over 600 audits over the uh past several years that we will always use the same methods in conducting

136these audits. And then we do have discretion materiality as auditors to determine um those items that are most important. And then finally, full disclosure. We uh we're a completely open book in terms of how we reach conclusions. And so um all the information that we've analyzed comes from you. It's your your information. And so that's all communicated. So really when we think about the foundation of the audit, we think about alignment. And so this is what uh we call the quality control triangle. So we talk about the alignment between the curriculum documents, the assessment, and then the teaching that takes place. And so there's a design delivery connection that's really important to think about. So the district starts with the state standards the TEICSS and then designs the curriculum and then analyzes the available assessments

137to determine is the curriculum at such a level to ensure that students are well prepared for the assessment. The delivery connection is that the teachers are utilizing the expectation is the teachers are utilizing the district's written curriculum and they're also ensuring that the assessments that are used and developed is are guiding their instructional decisions that they're making. The next slide is what we call the tightly held, loosely held matrix. And so when we think about a district performing and functioning as a system, we want to ensure that a district has established certain non-negotiables. And so you see on this slide, there is the expectation that the district has established a vision, mission, goals, all these pieces that go along with planning that then will lead and guide the development of the district's curriculum, the district's

138assessment, and the district's programs. So those are non-negotiable and within those those uh non-negotiables it allows campuses and classroom teachers to make some important decisions to meet the best interest of the student. So uh certain things such as differentiation meeting the needs of student students within the their classrooms uh some processes procedures uh grouping staffing informal assessment. So it it's very important from our perspective as an organization that you have non-negotiables as a school district. So when you talk about Arlington ISD, there should be a clear level of expectation of that the the curriculum shall be used and followed and that the assessments that are designed by the district shall be used and followed. And when you do that, then some of these decisions on the loosely held side are always going to be guided

139by your vision and your mission. Okay. Okay. So the audit team, we had a team of 19 auditors and collectively very experienced team. Um we have completed uh over 206 audits in 22 states. Uh the team's professional experience they came from all over the US although predominantly from Texas uh but professional experience they've worked in 17 states and also all of us have worked at a variety of different levels um from uh the campus and to district leadership. Okay. your data sources. We analyzed over 1,000 documents. Uh and as Dr. Works pointed out, the district initially sent 6,000 approximately 6,000 student work samples, student artifacts that we gathered. I'll talk to you a little bit more about that. And so, uh, as we went through a process of stratified random sample, we brought that down

140to only 1,222 student artifacts. You can laugh with that. That's a lot of student artifacts to okay 1,222 student artifacts that we actually analyze. And so I'll talk to you about how we do that analysis process. So that's still and I'll tell you I've served on 16 audits in my time as an auditor and this is 6,000 uh work samples was the most that I've ever dealt with and I I've done audits in very large districts similar to your size as well. So thank you for that. Thank you for that opportunity. In terms of surveys, we surveyed uh three different groups. We surveyed parents, teachers, and administrators. Uh on the parent side, we had an English survey, a Vietnamese survey, and a Spanish survey. And so our return, we had 8,714 surveys uh returned. And

141then we did 344 individual interviews. And I I interviewed several of you myself. And so enjoyed that opportunity to talk uh with you. And uh we visited all 76 schools and we went in and observed in 1,11 classrooms here in the district. Tired already. Okay. Uh the five focus areas that I'll talk to you about tonight, uh was going to start off with vision and accountability and then I'll take you through curriculum and then focus area three is consistency. Focus area four is feedback and focus area five is productivity. And I'll talk to you about the definitions of those. But we have four essential questions that we really look at that apply to these five focus areas and they're based about design and delivery. And the first question that we ask is is it there?

142And so um that once we establish is something there. So a great example is is schoolboard policy present then we would ask the quality qu question after that is is it any good? And then the delivery side is is it being used and is it making a difference over time. So with all the five focus areas that I'll go through with you this evening, we can apply these four essential questions to that. So the final report uh is an explanation, a detailed explanation of the audit process and procedures that we utilized as well as the findings uh that have been triangulated and documented. Lots of good information in this audit report and I know you're going to want to spend a lot of time going through the document as well as recommendations uh with action

143steps um that can be undertaken to um address the findings that we presented. I want to point out that the recommendations are two in twofold. We provide governance recommendations for the board to think about in your role and then the administrative recommendations as well. So it's really important to see the distinction between those and then finally there's an executive summary within uh the report as well. So the findings that we're presenting this evening uh you'll see it's a description of the existing state whether it's positive or negative um between the condition at the time we were we were here September 8th through the 12th uh and a comparison with all the five focus areas. So for this audit report uh there are 17 findings that were presenting for your consideration. Just by way of note

144the 2013 audit report although that's not a baseline for this audit but it is interesting you had 22 findings in that audit report. So, fewer findings in this audit report. Okay. Recommendations. The the recommendations really are the audit team's uh best advice for addressing the gaps uh with these um findings. And I want to emphasize that the recommendations that we presented, these are not quick fixes. So, I I've been doing this work for a long time and what I've recognized is that there are no magic programs. There are no silver bullet silver bullets. It's really just hard work focused on putting systems in place. And so, um, really when you think about I I I really believe in this process and because I've lived it as a district administrator and I enjoy working with school

145districts who are committed to doing good things for students. And so, as you think about the role of the board, I can't overemphasize the role of governance in this process and how important that is. And you'll see as we go through this, I'll talk to you about the the value of policy governance and why that's so important. So our suggested timeline typically for most recommendations is anywhere from four to eight years to put into place and sometimes longer to institutionalize to become a part of the fabric of Arlington ISD. So our recommendations will include uh written statements of a proposed system action to resolve the findings and then the action steps for you as a board and then as I mentioned action steps for the superintendent uh Dr. Smith and then his team as well

146as a proposed timeline. Okay, so that's the background. So now I'm going to go ahead and go into findings. Okay. So as I've mentioned, this is an exception report, but one of the things that our audit team as we concluded our site visit in September, we recognized that there are significant strengths that we wanted to draw out here in Arlington ISD. And so you see these listed here on the slide. One of the things that that we were taken back by repeatedly and heard consistently um in our interviews and in our focus groups, we also did several focus groups uh with parent leaders, business leaders, um different staff is um dedicate, you have dedicated employees who are focused on meeting the needs of students who are very committed to the needs of your students. Here

147we also learned about multiple leadership pathways that are available for at all levels throughout the district that was mentioned frequently. And then uh you have so many unique opportunities here for students to take advantage of from your career and technical center, your fine arts academy, your language opportunities that you have. So multiple student opportunities. Um you have a new uh leadership team, relatively new. They're committed and visionary. And so that's exciting to see what's taking place here in Arlington ISD. It's very clear that you value student diversity here in the district and that uh the you you have a very supportive community as evidenced between from the previous presentation u before my presentation with your looking at your facilities. Okay. So I'd like to dive into focus area one and talk to you a little

148bit about district vision and accountability. And so as I step into each focus area, I also while I'm talking about findings, so that's a different the the distance uh between your performance and then our standards and our characteristics of quality. At the same time, I want to draw out some strengths for your consideration. And so when we think about focus area one, we think about the ability of the system, the school district to demonstrate control over resources, programs, and personnel. And thinking in terms of a school district's budget is typically 85% personnel. So a very uh personnel centered um organization as any school district. One of the things that we were very impressed with is you have a strong planning foundation meaning that you have a history of strategic planning and that you've really engaged

149with that. And as we surveyed teachers and administrators, it was abundantly clear that everyone is aware of the district strategic plan or the district plan now board priorities um and that there is quality district planning that has taken place in the past and currently is occurring. And so that serves as a strong foundation as we step into these first few findings. So as I go through the findings, these are all reference to the page numbers within the audit report. And so um though you can always go back and take a look at that. So as we think in terms of policy, this is our first step in. So this is your role in policy. Collectively as we analyzed uh the district policy, we found that that uh both policy and then the supported administrative regulations

150or administrative procedures don't provide adequate control for curriculum management functions. Meaning that there was not clarity of direction around expectations for curriculum, around specific expectations for assessment. So there's a lot of pieces that come into play here. So we started off looking at 524 policies, both legal and local policies, and we analyzed 145 um policies. And we found that your strongest um category fell into this vision and accountability focus area one. Um and then the the weakest area for policy was around curriculum. And so that's that's really a a great opportunity for growth to think in terms of how can you develop policy to really support expectations. What is your vision as as the board and how do you expect to see that play out in terms of curriculum and so uh that's a really

151important thing to think about. Okay. So uh finding uh 1.2 then is about the organizational structure of the district. And so we look at the table of organization. We think in terms of we have certain characteristics of quality that we look at for that. We analyze job descriptions. You actually gave us 1,669 job descriptions to analyze. And so one thing that I quickly realized is Arlington ISD you like to do things in a big way in terms of number of documents. And so uh you really work to overwhelm the team, but we we were able to persevere. of those 1600 job descriptions that you provided, we actually analyzed 104 that were specifically related to the functions of curriculum and uh design and delivery of the curriculum and assessment. So job descriptions actually this is a

152positive finding utilize a strong common template. Um but there are some individual job descriptions that were missing some key elements. So um around table of organization and job descriptions we had um some recommendations uh related to that. I I do want to step back to the previous finding around board policy since I have had the opportunity to travel across the nation and analyze schoolboard policy at various states across the US. One thing that I do want to point out is the Texas schoolboard policies. So the TASBY policy services really are are far superior to most that I've seen in other states. And and I say that just a as to to know what you have. And so when we think about the the policy support that TASBY provides and the different options that are often

153pro provided through uh the frequent updates, you think in terms of really how can you think about your local policy and what can you do to make that even more specific. Even with the the strength of the TASBY policy, it still will not meet the expectations found within the curriculum management audit characteristics of quality. And so as you really dig into this audit report, I encourage you to look at all those five focus areas within finding one around policy and look at all the details that are listed there in terms of what we expect policy to be able to do. Okay. Uh finding 1.3 is about um the long range planning approach. So as I mentioned, you really have a strong um planning foundation in this district. Uh, one thing that we did recognize is

154that the the district was somewhat stepping away from the current strategic plan and wanting to think in terms of uh, board priorities and that was great. That was uh, well referred to on the campuses as we did interviews. Uh, however, one of the things that we found with this analysis is that while you had very strong district improvement plan, you had strong board priorities, we didn't see a deep connection at the campus level. And so once again, when you think about a systems approach, we want to see evidence that we have a a flow from the board with your vision and then the mission and that goes from the district with the expectation that the campuses are really headed in the same direction. And so uh that that was one of the areas that we

155really want you to take a look at. So that's focus area those are findings within focus area one. Okay. So focus area two is uh deals with curriculum. So this idea is that the district has established clear and valid objectives for um for students. And so uh even though we're I'm going to step into findings around curriculum, I want to emphasize that I look at a lot of curriculum across Texas and across the US, you actually have a quality curriculum right now and your coverage is sound. You meet our adequacy standards, our minimum adequacy standards. can always get better. But I want to emphasize stepping into this that you do have quality curriculum that's being developed. And it's very interesting as as you look at the audit report. I encourage you to look at the

156um teacher and administrator survey responses about the quality of the curriculum and some of the analysis that we've done through this. But I also want you to think in terms of what curriculum must do in schools. So the first thing is to think about focus. It's very essential for uh to identify within your curriculum what is what it's very essential I'm sorry it the curriculum must identify what is essential meaning what is to be taught by teachers and learned by students and so that's the important thing I've been in states where uh I've been told we don't have a district curriculum we just follow the state standards and so for us that would be the tees and then what we would do we'd go into classrooms and we would see the teachers doing the very

157best they can interpreting ing a state standard this way and then go next door and seeing it being interpreted a completely different way or go across town and see a lot of variation. So the idea is we want to focus on what's what is absolutely essential and then think about this as students progress through your system. We want to make connections reinforce complex learning leading to mastery over time and then ensure consistency. So 76 campuses in this school district, um I'm still kind of blown away by that. 76 campuses in this school district, we want to ensure that regardless of where a student lives in Arlington ISD, that they're receiving the same high level of learning. And that begins with a document foundation. So many of the things that I say to you tonight have

158to do with design. And so to begin, you have to have documents. You have to establish these are the expectations. And because these are so important to us, we've put it we've put it in writing that then allows us to train from that so that our delivery can start from the same shared foundation. That's why we engage in planning. That's why we write schoolboard policies. When you think about the legacy of a schoolboard member really it is it has a lot to do with developing quality schoolboard policy. What are your expectations for the district? So with all of our findings, you will see we always reference board policy with all the recommendations that we go through. You'll see the role in governance is this is board policy. These are the board policy changes and improvements

159that are needed so that administration then can develop those plans. So whether we're talking about curriculum or we're talking about policy or plans, we begin with this level of establishing this is who we are as a district and we put that into into documents. Okay. So curriculum man. So speaking of plans, curriculum management plan. So the district has not developed and documented comprehensive curriculum management plan. This is a document that flows from schoolboard policy eh local. And so it's just that that's curriculum design. And so people laugh at me because I know all the schoolboard policy by by heart because I spend so much time in it because it's really good and it establishes expectations and board policy of this is what the written curriculum looks like. These are the expectations for the tested curriculum.

160This is the expectations for the taught curriculum. And then the these are various roles. This is the role of the board. This is the role of district administration. This is the role of principles and teachers. So it establishes that. And from that board policy then it allows administration to develop a very comprehensive curriculum management plan that explains how we develop curriculum, what does that cycle look like, who's involved in that process. So we start with that foundation. So there's 16 quality characteristics uh that are listed on starting on page 56 of the audit report and goes throughout um and then we have a very deep analysis of what what we found versus what we didn't and then you can utilize those characteristics of quality to start developing this curriculum management plan. Okay. So f uh

161finding 2.2 is about um curriculum coverage or scope. And so the first thing to point out is the district has coverage, meaning that you have at least a curriculum document available for every core course that's offered. So your coverage is 100% in core. In noncore, your coverage is 73%. So our adequacy standards are 100% in core and 70% in non-core. Now when we think in terms of of coverage, one of the things that we also recognize is that there's not differentiated guidance currently for advanced or adapted versions of these core offerings. So good overall coverage um but a little bit of work is needed for advanced and adapted areas. Okay. Then when we um sorry went too the district has developed quality guidance in most core areas um but there's limited uh guidance provided in

162non-core subjects and so when we look at finding 2.3 um we do an analysis of quality and and we it's a rubric of quality of what we expect to find in curriculum and we do we score from zero through three and in most cases um we found that the the well it we found that you have a quality curriculum available for teachers meeting our minimum minimum adequacy standards for elementary and junior high and really close like a uh point.1.1 away from the quality standard in high school and so uh some work to be done but a good foundation to start with on the quality curriculum guidance um and some work to be done as well in non-course subjects. Then one of the things that we found on site is that we we heard concerns in

163some of our interviews and focus groups around the student activities that are actually listed within the curriculum documents. And so we did an analysis of the content um and the cognitive demand. And so when we think of cognitive demand, we use Bloom's revised taxonomy. And so we think of um remembering understanding. So that would be considered lower level cognitive processes um up through analyzing, evaluating um and creating would be considered higher level. And so we did those analysis for the cognitive type and we found that some of those were a little bit inconsistent as we thought about that. Um we did those analysis we found in fact the student activities uh we found alignment in 80 86% of the content alignment and then 80% in cognitive alignment. And so when there's a mismatch in any

164of those areas, it means that students are not as well prepared as they could be when they're assessed in these items. Or if the cognitive demand in the curriculum in the written curriculum is lower than the assessed demand, students are not necessarily set up for success of how they're going to be tested. So it's what Fenwick English would call as a doctrine of no surprises. If some if a student is going to be tested on something, we will teach them at least in in the way that they will be tested. That means we understand as educators how they're going to be tested. So we spend some time as educators doing some analysis of the assessments that are available. Okay. In on folks area three consistency. Um so we're thinking about internal connectivity quality and equity

165and program development and implementation. So strengths in this area. you have some incredible specialty programs that you need to be very uh high uh very proud of and that you also are in the initial stages of a researchbased bilingual programming. And so um while we have a finding on your emergent bilingual programming, we also recognize some strength in the work that's been done right now. Although it's being piloted, we'd like to see that consistently throughout the entire district. So all students who are in that program are receiving the same high quality instruction and same high quality programming. Okay. So when we think about um instructional activities, one of the things that we found and you'll notice I have this question is it being used and so this is the delivery side. So we were on

166design. Is it there? Is it good? And now we're on the delivery side. Is it being used? So um district leaders have not established consistent expectations for instructional activities. So, as we surveyed teachers, one of the things we found is teachers said, "Yes, there are expectations, but they're optional." And so, this is one of the things that I really want to emphasize with you this evening is back to this tightly held, loosely held matrix is it's time for some things to not be optional anymore. And I'm not saying that you have to be rigid. We still believe that teachers are professional but we need to provide a written curriculum and then we need to provide support and say this is how our vision guides us for a set of instructional activities and we're providing professional

167learning support so that we can ensure that um everything that happens across the district that everyone is clear on what instructional activities are expected to look like in Arlington ISD. So as I mentioned we were in uh over 1100 classrooms and so our observations revealed uh teacher centered approaches um not so much um student centered approaches lower level cognitive demand um and we didn't see much differentiation taking place. However, I will I will mention that having a stranger walk into your classroom as a as a teacher that a lot of times we just feel the need as adults just to stand up and teach and talk. And so there is something that's a little bit artificial uh about the walkth through pieces. Uh but this is a piece of data. And so that's one of

168the things I emphasize with this audit report is there's so much data here. So take it and utilize the data and and think in in terms of how can you utilize this to improve. Okay. So the student artifacts that we analyzed, uh, we found that, um, they were on grade level, but 39% of those were not fully aligned to the state standards and that some were considered content mismatches. And so what that means is I I could get just give an example. If the state standard were to say, uh, for example, how does the setting impact the overall theme of the of the article that you read or the book that you read? A teacher might just see setting and and provide an activity on setting missing kind of the nuance of of the theme

169and setting connection. And so we would consider that a content mismatch. And so in some cases we found that there were content mismatches. Also uh at the elementary level the lower cognitive rigor um than the artifacts at the secondary level and we also found that the context which is we do this 3C analysis. So, it's content, context, and context is how how does a student demonstrate mastery, and then the cognitive type piece that I mentioned early earlier. And some of the resources that we looked at were not necessarily representative of the student population that served here in Arlington ISD. interesting thing that I just want to point out. Um, and I've been going okay um as we did an analysis of the Arlington ISD activities, one of the things that we found that 92% of

170those we found alignment with the content we and then when I do this training, I often talk with um campus principles and and district leaders about this thing called teacher pay teachers. I don't know if you've heard of that before. It's it's a site and there's always a chuckle that comes out of the training that I do. We did an analysis. Some teachers actually submitted a teacher pay teacher as as a student artifact. And so those that we analyzed, we found a 17% content alignment. So AISD content alignment was at 92% what was developed by the district versus teacher pay teachers 17%. And I say that not as as a blame of anything, but to emphasize that just because you were to say type in this is the topic that you're going to to teach,

171you might miss the important nuance within the state standard. Those of you who've looked at the TEICSS know that there's a lot of detail that has to be thoughtfully considered um as we think about the TEICSS. Okay, so I've been going a long time. I'll try to speed it up. I apologize. So um when we think about efforts to improve improve student instruction that was finding um 3.3 and this has actually been addressed and so we we were talking about professional development planning. We have 18 characteristics of quality within this that we we expect to see taking place and so um and then monitoring. So, if we're going to provide professional development, then we need to provide follow-up support and ongoing support, kind of just in time support, whether it's uh an event and then

172it's you try it out. And the idea is as educators, we need to continue to learn and grow and develop our own capacity. And so, there's instructional coaching connections that go along with that. And then there's also monitoring and supporting instructional practices as well. Okay. Finally, when we think about the design and delivery of services for our emergent bilingual population, we found that both of those were inadequate to promote the maximum uh English uh language acquisition, academic success. And so, good initial steps into design, good initial steps into delivery, but as Dr. W pointed out, we um we'd like to see that go districtwide. And so I know a lot of time has been spent in the district of thinking about that design and and a lot of work has gone into that. Um but

173we think that work is quality and it just needs to continue. Okay. Focus area four is feedback. How does the district utilize um data? How does it utili utilize system design results and assessments to now this is really a key adjust improve or terminate ineffective practices or programs. And I, as I've mentioned, I I've been to a lot of districts now, and what I found, regardless of the size of the district, most districts are not engaging in quality program evaluation or program evaluation at all. And so, it's really key to think about this focus area for and what are the expectations for how we utilize student performance data to make decisions about return on investment. And so um just to some strengths here when you think about uh most core core classes have corresponding assessments.

174So that's a coverage question again like it was with curriculum. We want to make sure that you have a corresponding assessment and that's also unusual in most districts to see that in place. Okay. So uh we didn't find that the district had a ris a written assessment plan uh in place and once again we have lots of characteristics of quality of what needs to be included within that. Um and although there were we we we rank these and we look at is it present are there part is there a partial or is it not present and so there are 16 characteristics and um we found that seven of those were partial. So once again good foundation to build on and really good to utilize these characteristics to think about that the scope of the student

175assessment program it doesn't necessarily provide consistent reliable feedback. Um and then we did an analysis of sample items for curriculum assessments. Um this is we found consistent alignment to the state standards and content. So good content alignment but not necessarily the co the context or the cognitive type. And so that's a I I'd really encourage you to take a look at that. We we actually have assessment items within the audit report and we go through and the auditors talk about what you see. Do can you tell I like this? I know it's late and here I am. Okay. So maybe you're not as excited as I am, but you just need to read the report. It gets better as you read it. Okay. Finally, when we think about assessment data to utilizing assessment data to

176guide instructional decisions. Um, so there is somewhat of a limited scope of existing assessments. So we did find that student data is reviewed, but what we really would like to see is a consistent format, an expectation of that we have a protocol in place and this is what we do in Arlington ISD at all 76 campuses when we give a curriculum assessment. this is we're going to get that feedback on this day and we're going to work in our PLC's or we're going to work in our our teams or departments and we're going to go through this data and we're going to make decisions and we we talk about the difference between formative that means an initial test to see or an assessment to determine how students are doing how I might as a teacher

177need to change my testing versus the summitative assessment. So we'd like to see a combination of both of those. So, we we'd like to really see an improvement of data practices in the district. Finally, we did an analysis of assessment trends over time and um we found that Arlington tends to to score below state averages and most areas star. Um but we also uh did a a light comparison group and so we utilized El Paso, Fort Worth, Garland, and Pasadena ISD. demographically are very similar to the dis to your district and we looked at performance over time. So, uh when you think about these districts that we compared you to um we saw that that it's some of it's consistent with performance of those districts. Okay, folks. Area five is productivity. It's this idea is

178the district getting better over time with the same or diminishing resources. So, your strengths here, you're in a strong financial position. you have built some really world-class very impressive specialty facilities. Uh and when you think about technology, as you were talking about technology in the previous presentation, the numbers are absolutely astounding under the number of devices that are out on campuses right now that are available. Although they're nearing their end of life cycle as was reported before, it still is impressive what you've done and your infrastructure is impressive so far. So, uh two findings there on one slide. So uh the budget development process um doesn't include data to make some determinations about effectiveness of all programs, innovations, practices and we have a very specific performance-based budgeting approach that we utilize um that is really

179focused on performance and um involves a lot of people in the process and is just a very transparent process. Um but many districts really won't take necessarily take that step. Regardless of what you choose to do with that, we emphasize just the need. Pro evaluation is key to your budget development process. Finally, uh we found that the district hasn't developed long range plans for technology or facilities and a lot of the work around facilities. We knew that this process was coming and some of those components within the long range facility plan you're in the process of developing um right now. and specifically as you think about the needs for the future um that you talked about um previously uh technology and facilities well technology is a big part of that and so those are the

180findings those are your 17 findings so now I'm going to step into the recommendations so some themes in these recommendations that I really want to kind of draw out a higher level as we go through your six as I go through your six recommendations is really emphasizing the value of systems and thinking about how to function as a school district and holding each other accountable on the board and administration for that. Um, and then policy. Once again, policy is so key to establishing this vision and structure for alignment and consistency across the district. Um, planning then flows from policy and then it the emphasis here is the plan just can't live at the district level. It's got to go through all departments and through all schools. Um the change process is so critical and so

181we talk a lot about in our training about initiation, implementation and institutionalization meaning that you have a well-developed wellcommunicated plan if you're going to initiate something new and then what is the what then the next phase is what does implementation look like? Who's involved in that? How is that communicated? Then institutionalization is this becomes a part of who we are and what we do. uh develop and refine curriculum, implement that curriculum, monitor and then report progress uh require that the curriculum um be a non-negotiable and then provide ongoing system. So uh feedback to the system uh being data driven really get serious about program evaluation and engage in that. So, uh, recommendation one, lots of words on this particular slide, but I I did bold those key piece, those key, uh, terms that are really

182important. And so, uh, really encourage you to revise existing schoolboard policies. And we've identified all those schoolboard policies that you need to consider. And then, uh, encourage administration to develop supportive administrative regulations along with that or plans. And then you're already engaging with board priorities, but think in terms of how that leads to your next strategic plan. Uh recommendation two is developing a curriculum management system. So that is clearly communicating and documenting once again from schoolboard policy into the plan and then refine those existing documents, improve them and then provide a lot of professional development around that prof around the curriculum document. So one of the things that we emphasize is that the majority of professional development in a district really should be around the curriculum because we really want teachers to internalize the curriculum.

183It's very easy in an off-handed way. I I've been a teacher and I've been a principal to say, "Oh, the curriculum's not any good." without having really spent time engaging and digging into the curriculum. So, what we really want people to teachers to do and campus leaders and district leaders to do is really become in internalize that curriculum, get a deeper understanding before uh it it's off-handedly dismissed. Not that there there's certainly room for growth within your curriculum documents. Um but there's a good foundation to build on right now. Recommendation three deals with uh student assessment and program evaluation. So the the key is how do we utilize data? What is that? We need a an assessment plan. We need an assessment schoolboard policy that comes from that. And then what's the expectation of how

184we consistently utilize data, student performance data. Recommendation four is then thinking about the consistency of the delivery of instruction. Meaning that we may identify what's our instructional model in Arlington ISD and provide a lot of professional development support to our teachers and say you have choices within these parameters and and we're going to utilize these and um professional development is there to support that. I think you've started that already with the monitoring and the ongoing support for making sure that that happens. Recommendation five is to think about um planning for facilities and technology. You've started down that path already. We have great characteristics of quality for both those uh areas to utilize to really build out some long range plans that flow from um your vision and your mission, those non-negotiables. And then finally, recommendation

185six is the budget process to really think in in terms of what are the curricular goals, what are the teaching and learning goals and strategies and priorities. And then how are we ensuring that our expenditures are getting the desired results? And I I actually made a mistake on this slide. I said it's dependent on recommendation three. It's actually recommendation four. And that's the the recommendation dealing with data. So I apologize for that error. uh it but it it is based on focus area four which is assessment and feedback but it's recommendation three okay so just some final thoughts that was a lot um and thank you for bearing with me so um developing a line district system so back back again to that idea of systems systems are so important to the district your policy

186role in that I I've said this a lot tonight I can't overemphasize the value of of developing policy that that expects systems to be in place and then overcommunicate. And some of the concerns that that we heard in terms of feedback is in some cases um some miscommunication from different um areas within the district. So overcommunicating why we're engaging in this work and then um can communicate a little bit more. So it's really easy to fall into the trap of taking these recommendations and looking at these action steps and thinking I'm going to get this work done and I'm going to crank it out. And I'll tell you that's what I that was I that was my mistake initially with this process when I I first got the feedback because I like to check the

187work off and and roll on. But the product is not as important as the process. Engaging people and talking about why this is important and then really having good conversations about that so that the you bring people along with the process and explain why you're engaging in the work. the product will come but the process is important and then monitor and adjust as a board hold administration accountable for the recommendations. The districts that we've seen that are most successful have a continuity of leadership both at the board and the administrative level who really make a shared commitment to implement these recommendations and hold hold administration accountable on a regular basis. And then um I just being here at your board meeting tonight, I'm impressed with your celebrations and so thanks for letting me um be

188a part of that or just to watch that. But celebrate the work. The work is hard and as I said earlier, there's no quick fixes. Uh but there there's a lot of hard work that's to be done, but you can celebrate the good people that you have in the system as you do this work together. So thanks for the opportunity to share this information uh with you this evening. >> Great. Thank you for the presentation. Are there comments or questions from trustees on the curriculum audit report? >> I have Miss Valer. >> Thank you, President Cher. >> Thank you so much for this presentation. One of the things that I'm I'm really pleased with is the people that were conducting the audit are educators. >> So many times there's people from the outside and they

189don't get it unless they've lived it, >> right? And that's one of the things that frustrates me with our legislators >> is they're making all these rules and these laws about education and they don't know what they're talking about. They haven't lived it and they're not living it as our teachers are now. >> So I appreciate that you're educators that were looking into this. >> If you had to pinpoint where the the breakdown is, is it between our policy and where is the disconnect? Hm, that's a good question. So, back to that quality control triangle, it's the design and delivery piece. And so, I would say it I it's hard to pinpoint because it really runs the gamut of uh there are some design elements that are missing. And it's so it's difficult to hold

190people accountable in the absence of um having a a a clear communicated design component. So, um, >> and I'm not trying to point the finger. >> No, no, of course. And that's that's the emphasis is it's about building the system. So, uh, I I would say the the initial step in is the design side first. >> Okay. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler, Mr. Wilbanks. >> Thank you, President Chapa, and thank you, Dr. Evil. Um, this is a great thorough presentation as a fellow consultant to work and preach to my client all day long about process and how the process needs to survive long after I'm gone from that >> environment for them to continue to reach greater heights. Um, I really appreciate that focus and I I

191do want to shout out >> and thank you uh Dr. Smith. Um, I don't know if you know this Dr. evil. But before he stepped foot in this district, there were several several of us that were pretty imperative that hey, your first order of business is to do a curriculum audit. That's great. >> It had been 12 what 13 years since you did the last one. >> And we had been hearing from teachers about the gaps, many of the ones that you just pointed out tonight. >> And um and this is important work. And I want to thank you for also dividing um the parts that fall under governance that we are involved in and the work that staff is led to do. And I can think of no more vital work for this board

192than this because at the heart of what we deliver is curriculum instruction to our students. That's the core of our mission, our our um what what brings us all here. And what I don't want to happen is we don't put those proper processes in place. >> Um we we kind of started down a really good path last time, but it petered out. And you know, I want my legacy on this board that we we do the governance piece, right? we put the proper policies. You've clearly outlined where those gaps are and that you know our role in governance is to set those expectations and those guardrails and say this is what we want to get us to our vision of what we want for this district. And um it's going to be a lot of

193work for not just the district. There's a lot in there for our CNI department and and our teachers, but there's a lot of work for us, too. and and I want to call on my board. Um I only have two more years left, but this like you said, this work is going to be ongoing that we put those processes in place so that that continues to happen and we take this seriously as a corporate body uh as well as a district as a whole. So thank you for that. Thank you. >> Um I want to focus and kind of just kind of talk bottom line at the beginning here in my questions. Um I'm glad you're on this slide because you know these are the three key areas I want to focus on and let's

194talk at the top the curriculum for me as a trustee what's called out I kind of hark back to that seinal work from Dr. Robert Marzano. Uh he's the the biggest impact on a school system. >> Uh is the curriculum guaranteed and viable? >> Right? >> And let's unpack those two words and what they mean. >> So when you were looking at our curriculum, um is it guaranteed across the district? Do we have consistency from classroom to classroom within the same building or from one campus to the next and is it at the proper rigor that we need for our students to succeed on >> um mastering the >> so in the absence of expectations and I went to the tightly held loosely held matrix which is slide right after that in the absence of

195those expectations it's not necessarily guaranteed and so if the if board policy isn't explicit about saying that the curriculum shall be taught, then it's not necessarily guaranteed. We could make the argument that it's potentially viable, needs a little bit of work, but um that there's quality components that are there, coverage is there within the core, and so there's some design pieces and there's some professional development support that are needed on the delivery side, but so um some work needs to be done. And um on the viability part, you pointed out there is some viability there, but one of the standards for that viability uh is it supported by assessments, >> right? >> And you mentioned it both formative and summitative. >> Um um I think your findings were clear. Is there anything you want to

196add in terms of what specifically found missing and where are in terms of the viability part and supporting it with uh assessments? Where's the kind of the critical success factor for us and what needs improvement? One of the things that uh that we found in in this training over time is that um this whole concept of assessment literacy that as educators we need to be assessment literate meaning that we really need to understand um how uh assessments should be designed and then how we then utilize those assessment results. And so um one thing that is typically lacking in preparation programs uh is really understanding assessments. So um we I would say all school systems need to do more professional development around the use of assessments and the development of assessments um and ensuring specifically for

197this for these audit findings is ensuring that we have quality assessment in assessments in place for all the courses that are offered and that those results then are utilized frequently and consistently across the district. >> Uh thank you for that. Um now let's talk on your triangle slide and first I love the slide you have up there that >> we have not been holding tightly those things that are important and talking to my colleagues at districts uh surrounding us and across the state. you know that is one of the things we can do as a board to ensure um that things are implemented with fidelity or as much as can be expected in a district this size. And so yeah, anyway, back to this the next part. Um, let's talk about well, I I think

198in your slide, this isn't the exact uh point in your um report. You talked about the teaching, the curriculum, and the learning were the three main areas that you kind of focused on. >> I guess with the curriculum, uh we talked about the curriculum itself. Is it guaranteed and viable? Let's talk about instruction and instructional practices. Um, you know, one of the things you found you mentioned that was lacking is we've got a lot of effort now with a evidence-based approach to our emergent bilingual and EL learners. >> Uh, did you find evidence, you know, I assume we're using SCUP or sheltered instruction for those students. Did you Where were did you measure how well I guess you said it what percentage of our campuses that teach emergent bilingual uh students are doing it with

199fidelity >> the instructional approach. >> Yes. So so just the the classroom observations kind of give us the the look into that. One of the one of the pieces of information that sticks out in my mind is that when we did the classroom observations across the district, one of the things, this is a minor thing, but it's an important thing. We look to see if a language objective is posted in every classroom. So, we we hope to see an instructional objective uh related to the standards. We hope to see a language objective posted in the classrooms. And just because something's posted doesn't mean that it's necessarily got to be taught. But once again, that's like the documentation piece. That's your foundation. in 91% of the classrooms that we we walked into, we did not see

200a language objective posted. So that that's not specifically for the emergent the students who are emergent bilingual population, but that is just an overall view into how we look at language instruction and and ensuring that whether a student a student might be an English learner and they're receiving services or they're not, what's taking place in those content area classes? Yeah, I know one other thing, you know, one of the responses from the last um curriculum audit you did was the need for an instructional mo model >> across the that's aligned to our vision and values and our expectations on curriculum. Um and that's how key would you say that is for us going forward in terms of priority in terms of response to this plan? >> Sure. It's it's certainly a recommendation that you identify

201what what the expected instructional model is and then provide training to support that really in tandem with the refinement of the curriculum documents and then also developing that instructional model. Uh we talked about a comprehensive plan for student assessments. Um and again, you know, I just want to thank you for um speaking to both ends of managing this district, the you know, the work that goes on at the classroom, but the very important role that we have as a board in terms of governance >> and providing those expectations and guard rails. >> Um I know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but I'm ready to roll up my sleeve. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Wanks. Are there any other comments or questions from trustees tonight? Mr. Mike, >> thank

202you for the presentation. I do have a few questions. Uh your data sources that you talked about the documents uh and the student work samples, >> did you all have a chance to look at the the viability of the online programs? I we did not look at the viability of online programs. >> Okay. >> Um I've heard the 2013 audit referenced multiple times. I've yet to see that. Could you have a copy? >> I do have a copy. Yes. And I I'm happy to provide that. Yeah. >> And with regards to that audit, >> Sure. >> and this audit. >> Yeah. >> Are there any same or similar findings? One of the things that that uh we I'll answer your question, but let me give a preface to that. Uh one of the things that

203that we often say is that when we come into a district, regardless of whether we've been here before, it's really this point in time. Okay. >> However, it's I think it's just natural human nature to say, but yeah, I want to know if we've gotten any better. You there are improvements that that as I compare the 2013 audit to our findings today, there is growth in the quality of the curriculum. there's growth in the coverage of the curriculum. Um, you certainly had more findings in your previous audit and there were there more more recommendations. So, uh, there there has been growth since that last audit. >> Okay. And and you know what I've I think I'm on page 92, okay, of 424 of that that audit report. So, I've got a long way to go.

204Um, but what I have noticed so far and even from your presentation tonight is that there's been consistent inconsistency. >> Yes. >> Um, and I know the staff right now and the administration, they're working on fixing all of that. >> Um, you referenced four different other districts that are comparable to us. El Paso, Fort Worth, Garland, and Pasadena. out of the four, three are B-rated districts and and one is at risk of take over by TEA. >> Uh with regards to those districts being their size, >> um do you see any similarities between those districts as far as the control um the I guess what I'm trying to say is the district having that control on this is what is going to take place. >> Oh yes. >> You see what I'm saying? Do you

205see any similarities with that? Well, that's really that's a good question. That that really was not part of our analysis. We were really just looking at um demographically similar districts as part of our analysis, but um that would certainly make a great study to really dig into that. And yeah, yeah, I see the the district that's uh Yes, I see the point that you're making. >> Yeah. And be, you know, just me just looking at the data and mind you, I'm not I'm far from an educator. Um but looking looking at this data and and seeing all the recommendations of we've got the framework >> absolutely >> we just need to take that additional leap to complete that circuit. >> Um so you know I I knew full well going into this when when we

206asked for it that this was going to be deficit. We expected it >> right. Um, but with that, I think the good that comes out of it, right, is to know what issues we have, >> right? >> And now we can pinpoint and focus on those issues and get things ready. Now, I know you you said your six recommendations, they're not quick fixes, going to take four to eight years. And I'll be honest, we don't have four to eight years, >> right? We don't have that. Um, I would like to see some work done prior to the next school year. uh because you know we've got tea, we've got political things going on, but ultimately we've got our future the children that we've got to make sure that they are >> the best that they

207can be so that they can be good with this community. So, uh thank you for the very thorough report and I tell you I am so far enjoying the read. Maybe it's the lawyer in me, but >> I kind of like it. Well, and I will add as you as you read more and you look at our recommendations, many of of the recommendations will give you a suggested timeline and many of them say begin this work immediately. And so while the expected timeline could be anywhere from 2, three to four, even longer um for full implementation that you can certainly begin many of these recommendations and the recommendations are presented in priority order. So recommendation one, that's the one we recommend that you dig into right away immediately. >> Yeah. Very outstanding, very thorough work.

208Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mike. Miss Feller, >> thank you, President Choa. This made me think of a couple of things when you were talking about things that we need to do immediately. >> Okay. >> Two things jump out that you presented. 39% of the student artifacts are not aligned to state standards. >> Okay. That to me is a pretty large number and that means students are working on things and teachers are teaching things >> that really don't align. >> Right. Right. >> And so that that percentage really concerns me and we're talking about what we need to do immediately. I think that's something we need to look at is what they're doing and what's being taught. >> Is it up to state standards? Because that's what they're going to be tested over. So,

209we need to make sure that we're preparing those students for those kinds of assessments >> and we have a very large population of bilingual students >> and and and to learn that we're really not developing and and doing what we need to help those students is really alarming and I think there's some immediate work that needs to be done in those programs as well. >> Yeah. And can I add your I think your observations are are are excellent that I I think accompanied with this work is a culture change for the district because one of the things that that our audit team our takeaway was we heard this repeatedly is so many things are optional and and many things are loose and so to shift to say many that you're going to shift and say

210that you're going to be tightly held versus loosely held. Um that is that's back to the process product kind of challenge of the the process will take time to explain the why and tell explain to the employees of why this change is important and so that they can understand and be part of the solution rather than to say this happens beginning next week and so so that piece is really important. The human component, as you well know, of this business is so important as we bring people along and learn together about the this information that's really so critical. >> And I agree, they need to understand why, not just we're telling you to do this or this needs to be done, why it needs to be done and how it can be done. I think

211that's very important for us. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, Miss Fowler. Any other comments or questions from trustees? And seeing none, thank you for your presentation. >> Thank you, >> trustees. I I hope that you're like Mr. Mike and 90 pages in. Um, one thing I did get a request that maybe uh some of you might want it in print form so it's easier to uh note and stuff and we can do that if you just let me know. I do want to um thank Stephen and uh Steve and Stephen and uh Diane and all the people that um did a lot of work to get things done. I see Deise back there and uh Christy and a whole lot of people again gathering 6,000 artifacts for to to take a look at

212are important. One of the things that I think is extremely important to point out with this and I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. evil here on this one is um we're going to need to discuss how tightly held the use of district curriculum is and that is a um a culture shift in this district and why I share that is the quality of curriculum according to the audit ratings that I've seen is higher than most audits that I've seen and I've looked at a lot of audits we have a lot of quality curriculum in place here so And we've it begs the question of what's missing then and it I think the our our audits report is the expectation that it's used and used with fidelity and used even though some people might say that it's

213not quality and that's the reason we brought in a third party to assess quality. And so I share that with you just as some things to wrestle with because that's going to be one of the key pieces in recommendation one as we take a look at the policy recommendations that we have to start to tackle that you as a board are going to have to tackle as well is how tightly held do you want some of those things because it does not exist in current policy as you have it and I think that um that is that's that's where the districts usually struggle the most is if you articulate the expectations and then we hold ourselves to those expectations. Do we have the fortitude to actually see those expectations through? And that's where I think

214we have some really challenging work for us moving forward. I appreciate you all that. I know that those were two long presentations, but we also know that both of those presentations were uh important to this board, so we wanted to take the time to provide those to you tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. We'll move on now to our only action item on the agenda tonight. Item A is to consider approving the 2026 2027 academic calendar. Turn it back over to Dr. Smith. Trustees, I forgot that I had to say anything on this one. We have uh Steven Words and Ginger Cole Leel here tonight. We presented to you at the last meeting and tonight uh they'll bring final recommendations to you for your consideration. >> All right. Well, before I begin, I want to

215personally also thank Dr. Abel Eel and his team for all the work they did there. The information they provided was invaluable in helping us to continually improve to meet the needs of our students. Uh this item that we're talking about tonight is actually related to that. So as you know in uh one of our priorities and culture was really to develop a professional learning focus that allow teachers to improve their practice so that we can make an impact on students. And we've tried to ideulate and think about how do we embed those things into a calendar this school year so that our teachers during the workday have a chance to grow their skill sets in a way that is bite-size where they can practice with the wraparound supports that were discussed and to do some

216self-reflection on their next steps and then go to another opportunity to keep learning. Uh we've analyzed all that information this year in terms of how it's going. We've taken feedback and a committee of stakeholders have been working since October on multiple iterations on how to refine that process for the next school year. So those things will be embedded in the calendar. Tonight uh and our goal tonight obviously is to share with you our final recommendation as Dr. Smith said. I've invited Dr. I've invited Ginger Kle, our director of professional learning, who's overseen this process with um uh her team, and uh she's going to walk you through our final recommendations for this uh next school calendar. >> Thank you, Dr. Wartz. Uh good evening, President Japa, Dr. Smith, and um trustees. Um first, in the

217spirit of school board recognition month, I wanted to say thank you for your service um and appreciate this third opportunity to u meet with you again to like Dr. words mentioned um give a final recommendation for our 2627 school calendar. Um I just want to again um remind you all that we have a wonderful committee that has been working on this since the fall and they're made up of a diverse um set of stakeholders that represent different groups from our um community. The charge that we've been focusing on um for this calendar to um reiterate what Dr. Wart says um we really challenge them to reenter around that purpose of balancing um the calendar necessary to have a foundation for solid student learning and also make space for professional learning for our teachers to continue

218to grow and develop. The calendar that um we have for you tonight as our final recommendation meets all of the policy and legal requirements that we've discussed before. Um, one of the things that I want to point out is that this year our calendar um was a little bit short of the required instructional minutes and that's because we used the TEA approved staff development waiver to embed some of that professional learning in the calendar. The committee did a great job of bringing back a calendar to you that does not require the use of the staff development waiver. So it meets the minutes for that required instruction and it also provides space for teacher professional learning. Um just a quick note uh the last calendar that we um brought in December was adjusted just a little

219bit based on the feedback that we got leading up to the board meeting and in the board meeting. And so you can see on this visual um you might remember that in December we had April 2nd and May 3rd as inclement weather days. Um we worked with um our our team to adjust those to February 15th and March 26th. And so that's what went out into the community uh with the thought exchange. So it was a little bit different than what we looked at in um December based on the feedback that we were getting. That also caused us to um take off the August 3rd day that we had as the beginning of the teacher contract. Um so it was shifted to August 4th. So just a quick note that there was a little bit

220of difference that went out in the thought exchange. Speaking of the thought exchange, um we had over 3,000 participants engaging in the thought exchange. And um the interesting thing as we were reading through that data and um using some of the features to analyze um what the thought exchange was revealing to us is this idea of low alignment came through. And we talked about this in December too. How there are some pretty disperate views on what the calendar should look like um kind of based on where people are coming from. And so that's what this visual represents. depending on where um what your unique circumstances are as a community member, you kind of saw the calendar in a different way. And so some of the places where this disperate feedback showed up are around these

221three areas. So for example, um around professional learning that was commented on quite a bit because that is a unique feature of our calendar this year, right? and the parent conference days. Um there was appreciation for that being embedded in the calendar so that it didn't have to occur outside of the typical um work hours and the timing of that throughout the year. Just as many comments about the timing on that um maybe having some suggestions for improvements around that. So an example of where we're kind of on both continuums um with regard to the same topic. The same thing showed up with regard to break spread throughout the year. there was an appreciation for sort of those common um opportunities every month for there to be a little bit of time off um for

222families to spend time together. There were some questions about how does this impact consistency in routines um and some comments around childare which we also discussed in December. And then the the third example of where there was sort of this low alignment um is around alignment with work schedules, neighboring districts etc. So there was equal appreciation for that alignment and also some questions about could we have some better alignment um with neighboring districts for example. So as we looked at as a calendar committee at that feedback we found a couple opportunities to um dig in sort of within the scope of our um most urgent work which was um look taking a look at that calendar to provide a final recommendation. We looked at um January, February, and April. So, in the thought exchange, it

223also showed up that um coming back from the winter holiday to a professional learning day was a bit of a concern. And so, um we took that into account that we had conversations last time about how um there was requests from our community to have professional learning and then opportunity for implementation time. And so we hear that feedback and we're going to take that feedback into our professional learning design team to think about what are the structures around those professional learning days and as teachers are going back to campus um to make sure that we are strengthening that practice of giving time and opportunity to unpack the learning and apply it effectively. Um but we went ahead for the calendar and put the workday first followed by the professional learning day. Um based on sort

224of what our community is accustomed to and um the feedback that we we saw in the thought exchange as well as the phone calls that we received about that in February. Um you might have noticed that um the inclement weather day remember we moved it to February 15th. um our community let us know in the thought exchange that's going to be a little interesting if we use that inclement weather day we would have students come to school on Monday February 15th February 16th would be a professional learning day which then um has the students at home and then we would come back to Wednesday an instructional day so we took a look at that February day and made a change there also in response to the feedback that we got from our community around it's

225a long haul from April to May with no breaks So, we worked with our testing and accountability um group and they made some recommendations on a day in April that would have the least impact on the star testing window. Um and we also looked at some other district calendars where they were doing um uh the same thing, embedding an inclement weather day in April. And so, um we placed that inclement weather day on April 23rd, which then shifts the last day of school to May 26. So there are a few updates um that we made um as a result of the feedback from that thought exchange. Um so you can see here is the current visual of all of those adjustments. Um and again to review the the teacher work calendar begins on August 4th

226on this calendar. the update that we made to January. You can see the work day and then the professional learning day and the inclement weather day was moved from February 15th to that April 23rd date which shifted that last day of school to May 26th. The only difference between the elementary calendar that you see here and the secondary one on this screen is that there are those two half days for secondary at the end of each semester to accommodate the final schedule. Other than that, they're exactly the same. Um this is just a written summary of the um number of days that are embedded in the calendar. Uh the one that I want to highlight tonight is that there was some conversation last time about instructional days. Um and you might remember that I talked

227about we won't need the staff development waiver with this calendar as it sits right now. Um because we added back in instructional days. So this year is 170 instructional days. The calendar proposal for next year goes up to 172 instructional days. And so, um, we're here tonight at the end of our timeline. Um, hopefully an opportunity for us to, um, adopt the calendar and of course, um, after I'm able to answer any questions or receive comments that you have. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Kale. Do we have any comments or questions for trustees on the proposed calendars tonight? Miss Fowler, thank you. President Chappa, if we're going from 170 to 172, are those days included in the teacher contract or is that additional pay? How does how does that work? >> So, it is not

228additional days. This calendar represents the 187 um work days for teachers, the contract days for teachers, and so there's no increase in those days. There's no additional pay required. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Feller. Any other comments or questions, Miss Richardson? >> Do you have committee members here tonight with you? Um, we have Sarah Mahoney who is the co-f facilitator and I think and Fedra is one of our committee members also. >> I'm a little short so I miss seeing you over there. Sorry about that. Um, here would be my question because we had this happen this past year. Right or wrong, we had committee members go out and say that is not the calendar that we proposed and they didn't stand behind the calendar. Is this something the committee can stand behind

229this time and take ownership of? >> I believe so. The changes that you saw reflected in the calendar tonight are a direct result of the most recent committee work that we did in January. >> Okay. That is important to me that as presenters that we are believing what you say, but also that committee community members who serve on these committees that we are hearing them out as well. So, I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Miss Richardson. Any other comments, trustees, questions? Okay. Okay. I've always said that the calendar is one of the most thankless tasks. Thank you for doing it. We will never have a calendar that makes everyone happy. Um I have had heard mixed feedback on every calendar that we've ever adopted in the almost nine years I've been on the board. Um,

230this calendar represents a good continuation, I think, of what we had last year, which I think was a little bit of a significant departure of approaches we tried before. So, I'm happy to to support doing that again and uh seeing how this continues to work for us and see um looking forward to the feedback for next year. Is there a motion? This is an action item. We do need a motion to take action. Is there a motion at this time? >> So, moved. >> I have a motion from Mr. Wilbanks. Is there a second? >> Second. Give that one to Mr. Mike. Trustees will move to vote. All trustees present voting in the affirmative. The motion unanimously carries. We'll move on now to our consent agenda. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Are there any

231trustees who would like to withdraw items for consent agenda tonight? Seeing none, we'll move to vote on the consent agenda as presented. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. Thanks. Uh, would somebody like to move to approve the consent agenda? >> Thanks, Miss Haynes. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> I'll give that one to Miss Fowler. Got people hot on the second tonight, but not on the first. Okay, we'll move to vote on consent. Consent agenda unanimously carries. 7 to zero. >> We'll now move on to our open forum for non-aggenda items. Miss Aosta, do we have any requesters for non-aggenda tonight? >> President Chapo, we do not. >> Having no requesters for non-aggenda items, we'll move on now to our superintendent report and comments. Dr. Smith, >> trustees, thank you for a wonderful meeting tonight

232and uh again, thank you for your service on the Arlington ISD board of trustees. Um, I communicate with you all often and I know you uh often don't want to hear from me and I the public doesn't hear all of those things that we have to talk about individually sometimes and uh I just want to thank you for having um dedication and always picking up my call and being able to talk through things and uh continuously working for the betterment of the district and most importantly for our students. So, I appreciate you all and and thank you for your work. The two even we we even got applause back there. The two um priority that I'd like to focus on tonight are culture and uh the engagement part of marketing and engagement. Marketing obviously is

233an important piece for us, but I think that leads to the engagement that we are looking for as well. So, couple of things that I wanted to talk about this evening regarding culture and engagement. First, uh, in Arlington ISD, we have a culture of can do, um, and staff that are prepared and ready to do anything necessary to support our students when needed. No one embodies this more than Lori Marsalo, a first grade teacher at Hail Elementary. She was monitoring the pickup line one afternoon at Hail last semester when she noticed a young child, the sibling of a Hail student, experiencing a medical emergency. She jumped in immediately using her district CPR and readiness training to literally save a child's life. Arlington firefighters stopped by Hail last week to honor her and thank her for

234her heroics. We're very proud of Lori and thankful for her dedication and her can do attitude when needed most. Our culture is also innovative and proactive and we need engaged community in order to make these things happen which is exactly what you see in our CTC entrepreneurship students during their annual market days. The young entrepreneurs were recently awarded micro grants by the chamber of commerce to bring their business ideas to life. 19 student groups were awarded over $6,500 to create their businesses and sell their products at the CTC market coming up on February 26th and 27th. That is the embodiment of an engaged community. And finally, our culture supports and creates strong partnerships. And that often means partnerships with communities, community groups that provide resources and opportunities for our students. Like at Web Elementary last

235week when a nonprofit group called Canned Aid showed up to give 100 skateboards, 100 bikes, and 30 ukuleles to students. I can't wait to hear the ukuleles. That's going to be great. Uh, plus they surprised fourth and fifth grade students with an assembly that included a demo and lessons in skateboarding and life from the pros at Square Skate Shop. We really appreciate our partners who help provide the exceptional experiences. we want all our students in Arlington ISD to have. And that concludes my superintendent report for this week. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. We'll turn over now to trustee comments and reports. Are there any trustees tonight with reports? >> Seeing none, we have no further business on the agenda for tonight. So, at 10:17, we are adjourned.