Crystal City ISD Board Meeting

001But let me mention that as of today or at the end of May, the balance in that account is actually now 341,000. District has used up significant amount paying payroll, processing payroll, all the issues, and some of the bills as well. If you turn to your page 15, that's the bottom line of the outstanding bills as of date of this report, which was the 26th. For current year bills, it's 1,216,000. The balance for prior year bills, which is at the end of 2024-2025, was 181,000. The bottom line is 1,337, almost 1.4 million outstanding at the time of this report. >> What's red is outstanding? >> A total amount of 1. >> No, the the red numbers. >> All these are outstanding. >> All outstanding. >> What are the what's red? What's outstanding? >> Yes. We

002haven't paid them. The district has not paid these bills. >> No, no, none of these bills are not just It's cuz on ours there's a due date that's red, but every single line item in here is unpaid bills. >> Robert. >> That's correct. >> I don't Are we okay cuz I noticed that we're behind on the commodities? Are we not behind? Are we just We owe one >> We In some of the items, some of the services and supplies, we are behind significantly and others, we're catching up. We're treating them as urgency, such as commodities. We must have commodities in place for to provide the service, so we'll catch up on those. Bring them as current as we possibly can. The funds that the district has available. >> Okay. >> Again, remember, keep in mind

003that the loan was primarily to meet payroll. Okay. On a monthly basis, the district is at about $1.5 million in payroll alone. And the utilities, one utility comes in at about It came in at about 82,000 last month or so. Electricity, 82,000 a month is phantom math. >> So, with uh school ending, might go down. >> We would hope so, but we found that many of our facilities over the weekends, after hours, are open. The gyms The gym ran $10,000 last time with this bill. Uh those 82 $10,000 was in electricity at the gyms at the high school. Combined both gyms. >> Is that lower? And people just turn their air conditioning way down at >> And people, I don't know who's authorized to use them uh or how they manage that. I just That's

004the cost of something that needs to be managed. >> Who's better last >> You have no end to it. >> Who's better last month? I don't think >> Or >> I don't think you have to ask him right now. >> It's okay. >> On the following page, it's on page 27. This report that I provided is very preliminary. We have the summary of finance PA, it's the template that Mr. Omar Garcia puts together. And the other is on the side on column B is Moakley Casey. They do similar items, pull from the same database. They may manipulate it slightly differently, but basically it's the same data. The difference between these two columns is only about $56,000. And those are projections depending on ADA and the FTEs. The tax value at this time that was used

005was higher than what's being projected for next year. There's a significant drop in value. Minerals have dropped significantly. Production has dropped. >> How you doing today? >> So, that means that revenue >> was going to change. >> Yes, sir. >> And go back to page 18. >> Number uh uh uh 13 20, I mean, the linear what's that? >> That depends on who's asking for the service. There are some commitments that the district needs to be fulfilled such as the student services, the business office services, and that's the system, their software, and the licenses. We have to pay for that. That's to report to TEA. So, either it's them or somebody else. >> Okay. >> Uh there are services uh training services, other other support services that Region 20 puts together. Right about now, maybe

006about a week or two ago, the district checked off the items that they need for next year. Many of them remain the same. There's a few that did not because they want to save some cost, but I mean the district These are services that the campuses utilize as well. Support services, training, and so forth. >> Mr. Velasquez, um you told us earlier in the year when when uh we had to pick up the raises for the teachers, you told us that we were going to have to carry the brunt of that expense, and then TEA would reimburse us. >> I didn't say that. Your previous superintendent said >> Okay, is that right? I mean, when we were talking >> that you see here that I was at that page that I was at, that basically

007includes everything. It included everything back then, August last year. Uh your previous administrator thought that we would get extra money. I didn't know where that she was coming up with a number, but >> Okay, I apologize. >> Yeah, but it uh we haven't seen extra money. >> Okay. >> So, in reference to those that money, the 8,000 and 4,000, has the district started receiving some of those funds or I mean, they're part of the formula as a whole and it's in there as well. You'll see that in here in this formula that I showed you. Uh it's part of the whole bottle wax. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's what the teacher retention is, right? >> Exactly. Yes. >> On SWTX on the 512 512 bills that's owed on 611, you can write those off. >>

008I appreciate that. If I can get it in writing, I'd really appreciate that. >> Oh, no. >> [laughter] >> I'm sure That's the stuff. I mean, glad that he brings that up. I know that we received information from the board president regarding some of the some of the bills that we do owe them. Are these part of that or >> These are Some of these bills are still there. We haven't seen anything in written form. So, I have to let you know in case that doesn't come through. It comes through, it's wonderful. And we'll take that. Again, the number that I showed you on page 26 and 27 are very preliminary. Those are projected revenues coming in and by different totals. They're very similar. Those templates will continue to work both templates and TA has

009the last word as we finish the year. >> They can go down? >> It can go down if ADA drops. If the values change, it's per child value as a whole. So, it it may teeter the contribution from TA from the state. It may provide a little more money. Again, ADA is very important. Today's ADA was 82% I think. >> Okay. >> On page 28 I've got what we currently have allocated. >> [laughter] [cough and clears throat] >> As you can see, the majority is the function 11, which is instructional, which is the function of this business of instruction. That's what TA helps us with. The rest of that pie chart are different services, different functions. It'll go clockwise. The next function is function 12 and from the local funds, there's nothing allocated there. In

010other words, they didn't buy new equipment, they didn't buy new books. There was nothing allocated for that. You got curriculum, you got 80,000. Then you got 21, function 21, which is instructional leadership. And that's about 96,000. If you look at 23, that's your school leadership. Those are your principals, your principal's office. All that costs that that is associated with that. The following page is the draft of next year's budget. Again, using the revenues that are currently projected against very, very preliminary expenses. Okay? Those will change, for sure, as payroll changes, as services you ask about within 20, as we modify those, as the campus asks for more or gives up some services, those will change. Of course, you have utilities that we have to take into account, contract services other than within 20. Fuel cost.

011Those are major. There's another section that um we on the agenda that mentions workshop. I can give you those documents now if you want, especially but I can wait till then if you want me to come back. >> Come back. >> Okay. >> That's all for [clears throat] the for the report. >> For this report, yes, sir. Except on the on the budget workshop, I'll I'll give you side by sides, okay? >> Unless we have Mr. >> Robert waiting in the >> Thank you, Robert. >> You're welcome. >> We're back to item >> number one. >> Number what? >> Item >> [laughter] >> Item number 17. >> 17? >> Yeah. >> We're back to item 17 on this video. Presentation by Moak Casey. >> [laughter] >> Leo, can you hear us? >> Yes, I can

012hear you. Can you all Can you hear me? >> [laughter] >> Yes, sir. >> Great. Good. Awesome. Great. So, uh this So, before I get started, um just want to say thank you for allowing me the time to explain things for you. So, my name is Leo Lopez. I'm the chief financial officer for Moak Casey. I'm also board member. I'm also head of the school finance consulting arm for Moak Casey. And so, I'm here tonight to to go over just a general explanation um as to the the process for holding a voter approval tax rate election uh and as well as the efficiency audit and the timeline that goes along with that. I believe in your packets there is a proposal from us to to be that auditor, but uh regardless of whether or not

013you would choose Moak Casey or another firm, uh everything that I'm going to present to you would apply. So, I'm going to go ahead and um share my screen real quick. And then we can get started and then uh then we I we can have questions after that. All right. Can you all see uh that? >> You got to see it. >> Yes, you can see it? You can see it? >> Yes, sir. >> Great. Okay. >> Now we got Yeah, now it's off. >> Was there a questions? >> No, it's off. >> Is it off now? >> Yes. >> Oh. Okay, hold on. What happened? Let me I'm sorry. Let me try to try that again. Technology never works when you need it to, right? Okay, I think I know why it turned off.

014So, I'm going to try something slightly different. Hide this. Okay. All right, can you see that now? >> Yeah. >> Great. Okay. So, very quickly just to kind of level set how things work in school finance. Uh so, you have several different components of the maintenance and operations tax rates. You have the tier one tax rate. That's often referred to as the MCR or the maximum compressed tax rate. And then you have the tier two tax rate. So, uh every district has 17 pennies available to them across tier two. There are eight golden pennies. And then you have nine copper pennies. So, tier one, that's the part that changes throughout that changes year over year. Uh that's based on the greater of state property value growth or local property value growth. So, if your local

015values uh grow more than 2 and 1/2% or the state average values grow 2 and 1/2% more than 2 and 1/2% then your tier one tax rate decreases. And then the state gives you more state aid to compensate for tier one. So, that's ongoing compression. The way it works for for tier two and for which includes the 5 cents that you already have and then and the other 12 cents above that is that as however many pennies you have kind of sit on top of that tier one tax rate. So, as your tier one tax rate decreases, your total tax rate decreases, but however many pennies you've levied stays constant. And so, that is something that your tier one rate will be determined by the agency at at the late July or early August time

016frame of each year and then then you all would adopt your tax rate depending on that. Now in terms of in terms of the way the beta rule tax rate election goes is of the eight golden pennies every district can adopt five pennies with with just a simple board majority vote. And then anything above those pennies require a tax rate election. Prior to hospital three those were called TREs. I often still refer to them as TREs. They are now referred to as vape vop trees or vaders voter approval tax rate election. The golden pennies are golden because of the yield is very rich and if you're a recapture district you wouldn't pay recapture on that. I don't believe you all are recapture district. And then the copper pennies are called copper pennies because the yield

017is much less rich than that of the copper of the golden yield. And if you're a non recapture district then you're guaranteed you're guaranteed up to a certain dollar amount per penny per per weighted student for each penny that you levy. So as you increase your tax rate if your voters were were to approve a tax rate then you would generate a little extra revenue per penny and the state will guarantee that sort that that state match up to that amount. So in terms of how many tier two pennies you all currently have I looked at your summary finances and you all currently have the five >> [clears throat] >> five tier two pennies maximum that you can have without going out for a vader. So you're you're at the point where if you wanted

018to increase your rate you have to go to the you have to go to the motor. So right now for the 25-26 school year your tier one tax rate is uh 0.6669. Uh and then your Excuse me. Your total tax rate is 0.6669, and then your tier one tax rate is 0.6169. So, the way tax compression works, for instance, if the agency were to come to you in in July or August 1 and publish your tier one tax rate for 2026-2027, and they said that your tier one tax rate was an even 60 cents, then you could adopt a an M&O tax rate of 65 cents if you were not going out for a Vader, right? So, those 5 cents you've already adopted just kind of sit on top of as your tier one tax

019rate declines. Uh and so, in terms of going to access new tier two pennies, uh districts usually have two possible actions. Number one is you hold a Vader, you hold a voter approval tax rate election. The other is is much let much less uh common. Uh depending on your county, you might be able to adopt disaster pennies, but there's a lot of criteria, which I'll cover. Uh and then those pennies don't last forever anyway, and they expire after a single year. Uh I'll cover the disaster penny information towards the end. Uh because really the main thing that that I know uh you all wanted to talk about is just sort of the default timeline and the default criteria with the standard uh Vader election. So, and just to give you a little context in terms

020of where your district sits uh uh compared to other districts in the state, uh there's about a third of the districts, about 338 districts ISDs, are at or below 5 cents. So, so this is that is the category that you all would be that you are currently in. And then uh this table just shows the breakdown. Uh you have more and more districts have ventured out and held TREs, right? So, you've got uh about about 550 districts or so that have gone into the copper penny yield, you have another 43 that have held tier rates but have stayed within within the 5 to 8 cent golden penny range. So, not knowing specifically what your um what your desired range would be and and your tax rate, uh this would just give you some ideas to

021where, you know, you would land with relation to other districts. So, nowadays it's getting more and more common for districts to have to go out, hold VATERS to help balance their budget. And then, of course, you have 87 districts that are right at the maximum. They've they've uh adopted the full 17 pennies um in their tier two tax rate. Okay. So, one of the things that uh one of the questions we often get is what is the timeline for a holding a VATER and what goes into that. So, typically, uh what's involved with uh a VATER and every district's different. Uh some districts start talking about a VATER with their community a year in advance, right? As early as So, if you were going out in November of 2026, some would start in the fall

022of 2025 just having those discussions. Others start in spring, and I've even had a couple of conversations this last month where there are some districts that are considering it but have not yet begun discussions with their community, and they were planning on doing that in June and July. So, it all varies uh in terms of uh what's typical. Uh right, there's not really typical. Every community's different. Um but in but essentially, the first step is to decide amongst yourselves uh whether or not you hold a community uh forum or not, that's up to you. Um but you you all as a school board would would, you know, discuss that either inside a board a board work session or public board meeting to discuss whether or not there is a need to go out for a

023a VATER um a voter pool tax rate election. And so, there there are some statutory requirements uh that go along with that. So, the first thing is that um the the the way the statute reads, uh you cannot go um past July 4th, 2026 uh without selecting uh an auditor to conduct an efficiency audit. Now, the statute uses the the word auditor and uses the the term efficiency audit. Um but there's actually no statutory or regulatory requirement for the audit to be conducted by a CPA firm or your independent auditor. They can certainly do that, but all but but auditor is a use it's a loose term to describe the entity or or the group of people that would be conducting the study or report. So, it's not an audit in the sense that you

024would think of your an- annual financial audit or your annual financial report, but nonetheless, you would you would have until uh July 4th in most cases. Now, in certain cases for districts that are not subject to holding an efficiency audit, that deadline does not apply. But again, that is the exception rather than the rule. So, there's a July 4th deadline to select uh an auditor if you wanted to go out for an election this November. And then similarly, uh August 17th is the actual deadline this year. Um if you're a district that's going out for a TRE, you would need to adopt your tax rate by that date. And the reason why there's that date is because there's a a statutory uh limit in in statute that says districts need to adopt their tax rate

025not later than 78 days prior to the election. So, if you take November 3rd, which is the the last bullet on the slide, which is that this year's uh November uniform election day, uh all voters have to be held on that day. If you take that day, you back up 78 days, that takes you to August 17th. Now, uh one of the things uh you should definitely do if you if you just had to go this route, reach out to your local tax office and county elections offices about this to get fully informed with when they need all their forms required. And one of the things that Mulkey C does that's a little different I think besides some other firms that just just do the audit is we do everything we help you with your

026with your board resolutions for the tax rate resolutions. We help you ensure that your tax rate you know, is adopted correctly in compliance with the agency's new maximum compressed tax rate. So we make sure that you submit your LPBS survey to the agency by the required deadlines. We work we work with the district that we're doing these for. We help them with their revenue projections. So if you want to have different scenarios like if you want to say well, I want to see my revenue you know, with eight with with three additional pennies and then with with an additional seven pennies and then with additional 12 pennies or whatever scenarios you want to see before deciding what your rate is. We we can help you do that. We can help your finance office your superintendent

027put together independent verification as to the revenues that would be generated by those different different tax rate scenarios. And then we essentially walk you every step that you would need to take in order to get the um the tax rate ordinances and and all paperwork you need to get done to the tax county elections office to make sure you don't miss any sort of deadline. So we act sort of as as a sherpa in that process. Now if you're not going to go out for TRE then your deadline for adopting a tax rate is no later than September 30th or 60 days after or receiving the certified roll which is typically July 25th. And most districts tend to adopt their tax rate by August 31st. All right, but if you are going to go for

028TRE it's got to be no later than 8/17. So you also you also need to back up you know, the the normal posting deadlines for posting a hearing uh the for the budget and rate adoption, so keep those timelines in mind in terms of posting it in the in the local newspaper. Uh the the statute also says that the efficiency audit has to be completed and posted to your website no later than 30 days prior to uh the uniform election date. So, for this year, that would be October 3rd. We often recommend that you hold a a public hearing the day that you post it on your website. So, that's typically would be the day that we would present the findings of the efficiency audit to you all, and that's just so that you don't

029post the report and it's just out there without any sort of public discussion at the same time. That way, you can uh have some context and have some discussion the same day that it's posted. And in terms of what what goes into efficiency audit, so there there are sometimes a little bit of confusion as to what an efficiency audit report represents. And so, uh the the Legislative Budget Board actually puts out guidelines that's very specific in terms of what the format of the data and and what types of information uh is in the report, right? So, a lot of times districts come back and and or taxpayers might come back and say, "Well, was my district efficient? Like, what did the audit find?" That's not necessarily the the the the the I won't say that's

030that that's not the point of it, but that's not necessarily um immediately teased out from the required format because the state is very prescriptive with the information in that report, and there's going to be a lot of comparisons with your with your selected peer districts in various categories. They're but but we do go the extra mile and we do provide the opportunity and for you all to provide some additional qualitative data in addition to uh the statutorily required uh quantitative data. Uh this requirement was put into place with House Bill 3 in 2019. Uh it compares your district uh with five to 10 peers. We work with you to select similar districts along key demographic, financial, and other factors. And then again, this is not an audit like your independent financial audit. There's no opinion

031issued in the audit. There's no opinion at the end of the report that requires an audit to say whether or not a district is sufficient. That's not something that is typically um required or produced. It's part of the actual report. And we did we did provide to your administration a sample efficiency audit so you can take a look in your packets as to what that would look like. In terms of voter communications, we would strongly recommend that you review TASB Legal Services as a guide as to what's allowed and what's not during these sorts of elections. You want to make You just very high-level summary. You do not want to use public funds to advocate or influence any sort of voter voter behavior. You cannot have any calls to action or value statements. You can't

032have any presentations that say, "We need this to pass or else this would happen." It needs to be very neutral and fact-based communication to your public. So, it's purely factual. No nothing you know, say you you know, we have to do You all need to approve this otherwise XYZ is going to happen. That's something that could get you into trouble. And so, this slide just shows a number of cases where the Attorney Attorney General's Office has sued various districts for electioneering or or you know, any or or people have accused various districts of of um communication or messaging that is walking the line or crossing the line in terms of what the state would call electioneering. They take that very seriously. So, we want to make sure that any communication about a potential voter is

033purely factual. Uh some some few frequently asked questions that we get. Uh does the TRE have to be in November? Yes, uh as far as we can tell and we haven't been able to find any sort of legal opinion that would indicate that you could do this at any other time. It has to be in the November uniform election date. Another question is, can I wait to use all of the approved pennies um until maybe the following year? Maybe you go out for 17 pennies and then you get them approved, but maybe you only really need nine. Can I bank the other eight pennies and save them for later? No, you can't. You have to go and use them or lose them, so to speak. And so so that's one thing, you know, however many

034pennies you go out for this year uh then I strongly suggest that you adopt them and you you keep them. If you drop them at at a later date, you will have to go back out to the voters to re-adopt those pennies. So it's so it's not um an authorization or it's not a perpetual authorization. It's it's a authorization that can go away if you decide to to drop those pennies or or forego those pennies. Uh another question we get along a lot is uh can I make my I&S tax rate conditional on the passage of my TRE? In other words, tell the voters that hey, um if my beta passes, you know, then I will drop the beta drop my I&S rate, but if the beta fails, I will increase my I&S rate. So

035the tax rate's the same either way. Uh and we're not lawyers, we would suggest you get with your lawyer. We've seen districts try to do that. Uh it it's the it's something that, you know, I'm not comfortable making uh an opinion on because again, I'm not an attorney and I would not be the firm uh we would not be the firm defending you in case uh there was a challenge uh on that practice. So if that's something you all are considering, I would get with your uh general counsel, your bond counsel, I outside counsel to get their own formal legal opinion. Uh disaster pennies, I don't think this applies here, but very quickly, just in case you're curious because we got a general question as to how the process works. If uh there is a

036um a disaster that impacted your your district uh that it was declared in in your county and then you had to actually uh levy funds or you had to expend funds in response to the disaster, uh then there are some provisions in statute that would allow you potentially to forego uh the requirement uh for a a Vader and or floor an efficiency added, although there's uh it's very it's very unlikely that that's a possibility in your case. Um this is just a temporary alternative way to access those pennies. Um but but there's also differences of opinion as to the statute says it's the year following the year in which a disaster happens. It's not clear if that's tax year or school year. So, uh depending on whether that applies or would apply uh again and

037it is only good for 1 year. And uh so that there was a recent disaster that covered most of Texas in January of this year and it covered almost all of Texas except South Texas. However, uh governor office did not request federal aid and so um because of that, uh you were not eligible for it um in terms of you're not eligible for the exemption from the efficiency audit requirement. So, to this point, he they have not the governor's office has not requested federal aid and that is the trigger uh for for some of those things. So, and there's also some certain uh disasters that qualify in some balance. So, the statute uh says that there's a couple of different types of disasters and not all of them uh are uh not all of them

038qualify. So, for example, the disaster must not be a drought, epidemic, or pandemic. Right? So, that's number one. Anything else like flood or fire uh would count as an example uh or windstorm uh perhaps uh but then it's got to actually impact the district. You actually have to have an outlay of expenditures in response to a disaster. And then, of course, like I mentioned before, the governor would have had to request federal disaster assistance in which the district is located. So, uh so, apart from that, again, that's more like the exception of the rule. Uh that's generally how generally how how the time frame uh would work. Um and so, again, what whoever audit whatever audit auditors you're considering, you would need to approve uh this month really in order to be able to to

039go forward with the process. And with with that, I'll stop and open it up for questions. >> Does anybody have questions on it? >> [clears throat] >> I guess um the efficiency study, will it only be looking at our finances financial side, or is it all across the district operations and everything? >> It it it's mainly looking at at finances. Uh there are a few things in there uh that that that most most of the audit uses PEIMS data. So, so we once we work with you to identify the peers that you want to be collect compared against, we look at things like your tax rate, uh we look at your um you know, um your your median home value. Uh we we do we do plug in some things in terms of your your

040ratings, right? In terms of uh like I said, the the LBB prescribes uh a format. So, whatever auditor you choose, it's it's going to look very similar because it it has to include a bunch of elements, but we do we do include some account accountability ratings for each campus uh within the district as example. Uh we would include demographic information just on the characteristics of the peer districts. But it's mainly fine it's financial. We're not really looking at uh operations. Again, this is all information that we can most of the data is we gather from PEIMS. All right, so this is not something where we go and and it's all done remotely. So we can everything on the audit we we can do from Austin. And so again, it's all pulling all the data uh

041that we get from the PEIMS financial actual reports. So for this engagement were were we to be selected, we would be looking at PEIMS data that just got published in the 24-25 uh financials, right? Because 25-26 even though the the year the school year is winding down or has finished, uh the finan- the the financial year that data has not been reported to the agency yet. So So there's a little bit of a lag in terms of the data. Uh but that's the most recent data that we have available to us in PEIMS. Uh but I believe your packet contains a sample of what our report would contain. But again, it's mainly financial information and we do look at some ratios in terms of uh student and staff counts and student and teacher ratios and

042and things like that as well. Uh but and we look at uh operating expenditures uh per in different categories, right? And and things like that. Uh but we don't really look at at operations uh the way I think you're uh thinking. >> Yeah. Is there a possibility that the study finds that a Vader is not required or not a good time to go out for a Vader? >> I'm I'm sorry. Can you Can you say that again? >> Is Is there a Is Is there just a possibility that the study finds that, you know, a Vader is not good for our district? >> Oh, okay. Um I'm going to restate the question to make sure I understand it. So, you're saying that let's say if you engage with us or any other firm and then

043later on in July you change your mind and you decide not to proceed with the Vader. >> No, I'm like after you do the efficiency study, I mean you're going to be looking at all of our finances and if you find that the district has not exhausted all options um and is working at the most efficient um status, you don't recommend a Vader because the district hasn't really done put in work. >> Well, I I would respond this way is is that uh we are not going to issue an opinion one way or the other that tells you whether or not you should go out for a Vader. That's not number one, that's not the the that that's not the focus of the report. >> Okay. >> Uh the focus of the report is really

044to meet the statutory requirements of certain comparisons. >> Oh, yeah. >> Uh and then uh we we won't be issuing an opinion that says whether or not you are {quote} efficient uh for a number of reasons because uh you know, we're in public education and you know, we're not in a business of producing I'll just use the word widgets, right? And so, efficient I can it's easy to you can quantify what your cost is to produce X widget, like right? Can you do that cheaper, right? Or faster? Uh but we're not producing widgets, right? We're molding young minds and I say we, it's the districts. We are Okay, Casey is in a in a support role, right? Um but but but you all, right? You're school district. And so, um we don't um like to

045use the term efficient with regards to the delivery of instruction because there's certain value propositions that you know, you all might decide to be a little more inefficient uh because doing so is necessary to provide the required instructional supports for your particular student population. So even though we we do our best to try to compare your district to like districts which to similar districts, not every district is identical. Right? So when we get through this process, we're going to give you a report that looks exactly like the sample you have in your packet except all the data is going to be your data. It's going to be up to up to you all to decide uh really whether or not you need the Vader. And I'll be honest, what I'll say is that the Vader

046for you all, I think the decision should be um you all may look at the report and look at some I don't know what the data would find. There might be some ratios that stick out to you all that say, "Hey, we are an outlier in this ratio." You know, like for instance, you might be overstaffed in one category or not, you might be understaffed. I don't know. Uh but yeah, you all might decide to go through the audit report and decide, "You know what? There's too many unanswered questions. We're going to pause on the Vader and we're going to go and investigate, well, why are we high here or why are we low here?" Right? That's kind of the point of the efficiency audit. But but MOCA Casey is not going to be presenting

047to you on on October 3rd saying we think you should do the the proceed or not. That's going to be a judgment call that you all are going to have to make. And and and and frankly, part of that will uh your 26 27 budget or your your budget position in terms of whether you have a projected surplus or deficit with or without the Vader is often a bigger consideration than the results of the audit itself. The audit itself. And just because you might find some things in the audit that you might want to go pursue and say, "Well, we might need to see if we're we're if we can improve." But that doesn't [clears throat] mean that you don't that you don't go forward with the Vader. That means you you still might go

048forward with the Vader, but then you still look at those efficient inefficiencies if you think that there are some and look to do that. But whether or not you decide to go with the Vader after the results, that's completely something that you all are going to have to decide on your own as a board. >> Answer your question, sir. You mentioned that uh a lot of information you use you guys get from PIMS. Am I correct? >> Yes. Yes, we get it from the agency. Yes. >> We get it from the state person. Uh in your comparison contrasting of the information from different years if you find some maybe some contradictions in the information do you guys uh uh point out this stuff uh as a benefit because the the better we handle uh the

049proper coding the uh the more efficient we'll be in uh generating income and therefore providing instruction to our kids. >> Yes, if if we see anything in the financials that uh that stick out to us as uh being odd or or um you know, peculiar, we'll definitely you know, point that out and I think the way we do the comparisons, that'll easily easily come out. Uh that's the other thing, if we find something that was the result of like a PIMS error or something in 2024-2025 but your current data you know, shows that to be different, we can always add supplementary information uh in the appendix or in the footnotes uh indicating that, you know, we believe that there was a some sort of error in 2024-2025 and using current data the district's ratios would

050look like XYZ, right? So, that's always something that we could we could explore if needed. But yes, so the if we see something that bears calling out, would definitely call that out. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> I don't think anybody has any more questions. >> No, sir. >> Do you have anything to add or >> [clears throat] >> So, Leo, we do have this as an action item later in this meeting, just FYI. >> Okay, great. Yeah. Um is Yeah, just let me know if you need anything else from me. Um otherwise, is my portion of the this evening's program complete then? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Well, have Have a good evening and good luck with your decision. We'll talk to you all soon. Bye-bye. >> Thank

051you very much. >> And seeing that we are on I action item 7D, we can take action if we need to move forward. >> That would be my recommendation. >> Yes. >> I think we can act [clears throat] on this like so we can get things rolling. >> I move that the Board of Trustees approve the engagement of the Moak Casey firm to conduct an efficiency [clears throat] audit related to the district financial and operational review process associated with consideration of potential voter approval tax ratification election lottery and authorize the superintendent to execute all necessary documents and agreements. >> [clears throat] >> Do I have a second? >> I second. >> Mr. Manilla. Any discussion? >> Yes, sir. I have a question. Um you guys have looked at the financial part or what's going to

052be the cost of that the company is going to be charging? Are we satisfied with the cost? I know it's a big amount, but I mean, you guys have had any contact with them? Or did you with them make any changes to the fees? >> No, I think their fees are set. >> Did you say it's pretty high? They are the recommended firm for this. >> So, you are comfortable with the fees? >> To a degree. I'm I'm comfortable with with the Okay, see, the fees are It's hard It's a hard number to swallow considering our financial situation, but considering what they can do to help us get this beta information so we can accurately report to the community and make a sound decision on the tax rate that the beta can set at, I

053think is paramount. >> The beta pretty much make up even more so like compared to the fees. >> Well, yeah, I mean, uh >> [clears throat] >> it's We don't have money today per se, but getting the right information so we know what to set our tax rate to make sure that we have the revenues this time next year assuming the beta passes. Yes, I I think it's money well spent. Thank you, sir. >> Does anybody have any more questions or anything? Dr. Riner, do you have anything? No. All in favor? All against? Motion carries 7-0. >> Yes. >> It's a little bit over my head. I mean, complicated. Too much. But, I'm for it. >> Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Um She was saying that she and it's a little complicated for her and

054a little overhead, but she's for it. >> It's just >> You know, moving forward. >> Oh. So, >> now we'll we're back to item 6C, the superintendent's report. >> Uh Since the superintendent is here Excuse me. >> Can I have a >> She's here. >> I was looking for her. I don't see her out there anymore. >> Oh, I thought I saw her back there. >> Well, that's >> Okay, maybe I just was seeing something behind Chief. All right. So, yes, we can go to um superintendent report. Item C. I see. >> 6C. Is that a handout? >> Um, it's a handout. >> Okay. >> So, it's really brief and considering the lateness of the evening, I think you can read it um an update on enrollment and attendance. Uh there's a copy of my

055town hall meeting presentation. Uh Ray asked for the prior years of fund balances. That's in here, right? Um Uh legal reports, which is a standing report that was originally asked by Peggy 2 months ago. I've just made that a standing report. The main thing here that I want to announce is the last day for teachers to resign is June 30th. So, that's 29 days from now. And I'll be out of the office next week. That's my report. >> [clears throat] >> Do you have any questions or anything regarding the report? >> [clears throat] >> Item 6D, tax collections on property appraisals. So, this >> So, uh I met with the chief appraiser last week. Uh mainly um She said she did the best she can on collections. Um she said it's up to the board,

056but one of her thoughts is to put in the newspaper all the delinquent I mean all the people who aren't paying their taxes. She said that's been done in the past. I know I've seen that done in other school districts I've worked in. It shames people publicly. Uh that's something that she felt like might motivate some people to pay their taxes. Um >> It should also include that. By this time, I mean, you're getting 15% penalty on what you owe, and it's going to affect them more. >> [sighs] >> But it's needed. >> Well, we're desperate for money, so you know, um maybe be my recommendation to wait until after the Vader election. Just >> Yeah. >> Just saying. Uh you want everybody on our side right now. That's just a political commentary. >> So,

057move on to 16. >> Okay. >> Preliminary budget for the sub fund for the year. >> Sure. So, again, I met with the chief appraiser. We are the biggest contributor to their budget. Uh the budget is going up. She did say, and I was actually quite surprised, and I will report to the board that uh she said if the board rejects her budget, that would give her motivation to um release at least one employee in their office, which would decrease their their budget some. So, um she also commented that that there's a couple a members school board members that are on the CAD board also. So, um it was my interpretation that CAD board wanted to support the budget, but she was willing to drop the budget if the school board would reject the budget.

058So, that would be my recommendation. Action. >> No, my recommendation would be that I mean uh that we also uh accept the raises that she's given to >> Well, all all we can do is accept or reject the budget. We can't modify the budget. So, it's kind of like recommendations from the superintendent. You accept or reject. So, my recommendation to the board is to reject the budget and then let her go back to the drawing board and then present to her board a revised uh budget. >> I know some of the some of the budget increase or her increase were raises. Um what she was stating was cost of living increases. Um there were some questions that the board kind of had regarding um the increases. Um but they're going to present something different that

059we have actually have a board meeting tomorrow. So, there's something that they're going to present tomorrow. >> Well, I can tell you in all my years I've not had a chief appraiser say reject my budget. So, I I felt like that was a very honest attempt that she's willing to do her part for the overall health of the school district since we are the number one contributor to their budget. >> Okay, let's see if I heard you right. In your discussion with her, she said that if the board rejected that the budget presented that she would go back to her office and drop it a freezer. I hear you right? >> That's what she said. Now, we don't have that authority. >> No, I understand after we reject. >> I just was shocked that she

060was willing to cough that up. Okay. All right. I wanted to make sure that's why I asked. >> So, she threw for dinner another preliminary budget. >> So, if it's rejected, she'll have to revise and present to her board. >> Which will happen tomorrow. >> Okay. >> I know timeline wise that we're it's coming pretty close whenever they will adopt the budget. Sometime right now in in June. >> Uh can I speak to Ms. Yolanda? >> She's not here. >> She's She's out. >> She was here, but she >> Okay. >> Uh but I'll contact her office tomorrow with whatever decision y'all want to make. >> Does anybody have a question? >> It's on the board It's on the agenda for an action item. Um so, at that time we'll take action, but >> The

061recommendation was to reject. Well, >> that's my recommendation. >> Yeah. >> Was We're not under this item right now. We're under informational items, but we'll come back to it to be able to take action on it. >> Oh, we're not We're not at the action item yet? >> No, not the action item. We're still under informational items. And then we're going to >> That was D. >> All right. >> We're on 6 E actually. Uh so, now we're on 6 F, the budget workshop. >> Mr. Plaskos. >> One minute. What I want to provide you is the data that is in the uh in the pie charts. You know that pie chart is made up of Ooh. >> This is simply a side by side Here is the current year. And these are just simply

062the 100 funds, the state and local funds. On page one of six and there's a dash missing on the page number down there, but it's one of six on page 16. The first section says uh 45 26 adopted from uh the appropriations are there right on the the numbers are the the ones on the right-hand side of that section. And then of course the 26 27 is the one right next to it. >> So on the page 28 that's the actual expenditures for the year as of what date? >> Page 28. >> Oh, he's he's looking at the >> He's looking at >> pie chart. >> He requests. >> Yeah. >> What are you looking at there? This I thought you were looking at the pie chart. >> Well, we're going over the actual budget

063workshop. >> Same thing as what's on the pie chart. >> This is the complete pie chart just makes it a little visual for you. If you look at that, you've got the first item is the zeros, which is the transfers out. That 85,000 is the funds that the general fund has to appropriate pay on the uh bond that the district got at a million dollars two years ago back 2016 I think it was for the uh What is the name of it? I can't remember the name of Uh it was for Anita Whitehorse in the middle of additional money that the district needed. Function 11 is all your instructional and you've got that broken down by payroll, purchases and contracts, utilities, 63 supplies and then operating costs, which is travel and and the such and

064then of course capital outlay. Both side by side, you'll notice the difference between those two 3 million 600,000 less in a proposed site, okay? And again, these are very preliminary numbers, but this is the direction the revenues that are projected right now are taking the expenses to. In other words, this is what the dollars that are not showing up can possibly afford. This can change from function to function depending on the need and the consideration of the board. The board has the last say on that. >> You have this instructional resources which is a library. Both years we're not projecting anything from the general and local funds. The next one is 13. The difference went from 80,000 to 30. A shortfall now of 50,000 for next year. Okay? Then you've got instructional leadership on the

065following page. That is costing that about $10,000. It's a smaller budget, but again, it takes out about 10%. School leadership, which is your principal's office. That drops at about 992%. And most of that cost is associated with payroll cost. The difference in in those two years is at about 990,000. You've got guidance and counseling which is function 30 31. That drop is at about 254,000. Attendance and social services, the change there would be about 128,000. Other services would drop at about 118,000 from the prior year from the current year. Then you've got pupil transportation, which is our buses and so forth. That would drop about 255,000. Then you've got food service. Now, let me mention something about food service. Food service is in this document because it's we call it a 100 fund because it's

066a community I forget the term again for that one. What is it? That the community We're uh uh fully funding the program, so to speak. Everybody qualifies for the food service program. CEP, thank you. That one is in here because it's a 100 fund. If it was strictly free and reduced, it would be called it it would fall under the 240 code fund, okay? That's why it's in here. And it pretty pretty much is a self-sustaining program. The following page starts with your co-curricular activities. That drops by about 460,000. Again, that I mean it's scary, but these are planning numbers. They will change. They will definitely change, okay? And then you've got administration. That drops by about 617,000. Wow. Maintenance and operations, which is our our maintenance and custodial staff. That drops by about 1.2

067million dollars. Beyond that, you've got security and monitoring the following page. That drops to about half the money. Drops by about 300,000. You've got data processing. That drops 321,000. Community services. We can lump all together cuz we don't have anything just next year proposal, okay? Or nothing has been documented like that. The last page is uh 71. That's your debt service. You'll notice the current year is at 1,479,100. That's the loan the district secured last year. That was the cost this year. Okay? That was to just barely get over the finish line last year. This year we've now secured the 4.5. The additional 740,000 is the additional cost of interest and fees. So, that's an additional cost of about $3.2 million. That has to be identified there to make payment next year. We start paying

068interest this month on it. For 3 months, we'll pay interest. It's about $56,000 in the period. Community facilities, that $200,000 now is not going to be showing up next year. And fiscal agent, about 43,000. And then you've got other governmental agencies, which is the drainage district. And that might be lower depending on what you got inside and what their board decides as well. That will change. Overall, the reduction from the current year to the next proposal is about $6.5 million reduction. Again, this will change depending on the revenues that we're getting. If we get a greater, of course, there'll be more funds available, more funds to be allocated, more funds to pay off [clears throat] debt. This does not include paying off the current running debt, the maintenance and operation debt, okay? That would have

069to come off the top, which means this gets reduced by that amount. You don't have that money available to you if you're paying prior debt, which is what this is This two year experience because of last year. This year paid for last year's debt and is still paying on some It still has a small balance on it, as I showed you in the report earlier. >> Can I ask you a question, sir? >> Sure. >> Uh when when will the last budget amendment be brought before us? >> We have been wanting to do a budget amendment for a while now. I'm referring to the business office. We're asked to wait. We need to implement one because we have to incorporate the loan proceeds that we just got. We have to account for them. And those

070fees that are associated, which is bank fees and the interest fees. We need to make one very soon, probably next month. And update projected revenues cuz they're not coming in like the taxes. And what we projected TA is either going to supply or not provide. Remember for the current year. >> Current year. Yeah, cuz I'm looking at the budget we adopted uh August 27th, 2025. And our projected revenues uh of $26,451 or something like that. $26,451,000. And then >> And we have to tell you we're not doing that. >> Uh Our projected expenses was 26 $26,420,103. And we were supposed to end up with a a a positive balance of $31,000. So, that's why I'm asking about the amendment because uh according to this uh we only expended about $22,000 of expenses. >> We haven't

071expended >> But that's why it's You list expenses here uh I've been trying to >> I'm going to hand you what where we are current. Actuals against your budget. What I was showing you there earlier is simply a proposed document, which >> I understand that you were going to be >> This was going to be the actuals. We have actuals as of today. Probably as of Friday because this was posted on on Friday in the books. >> I just want to see the flow. That's what I want to see. I want to see the >> [clears throat] [snorts] >> Okay. >> The first column that says act annual budget, that was basically was adopted. There's a 31,000 at the bottom. That was the projected revenue over expenditure. Previous administration made modifications to the budget as

072well as the district has incurred different expenses that were not necessarily in budget but still incurred them. That would be your year-to-date actual. Encumbrances are bills that are in the system that we know of that have not been paid yet. It doesn't equal exactly the list but pretty much most of those numbers are there. Okay? I don't think some of the junior college bills are on this encumbrance. >> So, what you gave me is given us this as as of May. So, we we should expect some revenue coming before the end of the budget year. >> Uh I believe this last month we collected the district April district collected about $55,000 in taxes. About half of that goes to the debt service fund and the other half goes to the administration and operations. >> So,

073we could considerably meet the projection of 26 million in revenue. I mean just that's what we adopted. >> Well, you you may have adopted a $30 million but you're not getting it. >> Well, you you should have known that you were the major >> I should have known >> you constructed this this budget. >> Your ADA has come in horribly. Your tax collection, that's why you asked for a report, is embarrassing. What they projected and what collected last year was nothing compared to this year. Okay? So, we made projections. The ADA that the previous administration provided to TA was at 14 25 1,425. The reports that I showed you, the agency smoking cases, one of those is projecting 1,100. You lost about 300 kids. >> Mr. >> in one year. >> Yes, sir. >> So,

074how do we come up with the numbers? We go on projections, and the district did not meet anything of its goal. It's been declining. Where expenses have been going up, expenses such as the electrical that I mentioned earlier, that you can't keep that can't manage. That's a leaky faucet happening every day. You need to manage that. Otherwise, any number on paper is really just a paper on a with ink on on a you know, on a scrap of on a paper. >> [laughter] >> You have to manage And if you continue to approve things, costs that are not budgeted and are not projected correctly, you'll have this, and which is what you've had in history. >> [clears throat] >> Years prior, it was managed differently. You had money in the bank. You have nothing in

075the bank. I don't know if I can put any clearer to Is that clear enough? >> No. >> Do you have any questions? >> On the state progress revenues over on 58. Second one on on on revenues. >> Correct. >> You have 10,000 >> No, that was 10 million. >> 10 million? >> Those were based on numbers that were projections, and again, those numbers are not going to come in. Currently, last payment from TA for a couple two different funds is approximately $1.2 million. It's not going to settle at that money because we haven't generated the ADA for them to pay us. So, honestly, I can tell you we don't believe we're going to get that money that close. They'll do a settle up with whatever we generate at the end of the year. And

076right now, like I said, last school day was like at 82% in attendance. >> The The settle up comes in in August. That's right. I know last year >> It's three payments, September, October, and the final one is in August. >> Now, I know last year we rolled over or this year rolled over about half a million dollars in debt from the year before. >> Actually, more than that, so you're right. But, it was more than that. Now, the district is paying on a bi-monthly basis. Last year, we scraped, we found money under the cushions to meet payroll for the middle of September because the money from the state doesn't show up until the end of the month. Okay? That is pretty much what we're going to have to do again this year. >> So,

077from TA, we get money uh I believe in the school year, but they don't come in in in October. You see? >> For the new year, TA will provide three payments, September and October. And they generally do that because that's the start of the school year, and >> But, it doesn't come in until the end of October. You >> probably until the end of October, November, and so forth. >> And the other one? >> In August. So, we had nothing in January and the rest of the year from TA. We'll get monthly small installments of about $50,000 from the available school funds. The major fund, the foundation program, comes in three payments, September, October, and August. >> Do we ever get paid on the teachers. We got the uh $6,000. >> I mentioned that earlier

078when you asked. That is the whole in the whole bottle of wax. In those three payments, that money is in there. There's no additional check that's going to show up for that extra money. >> But >> It's part of the whole >> But we did add extra. But we did get what >> Well, that depends how we finish the year, how much of >> No, we will pay. I mean, we spent uh >> You spent it. >> Well, we spent on giving the teachers their their >> Yes. >> raise. And you're kind of saying that we won't get it. >> I'm saying that it's part of the entire dollar number. That entire bottle of wax funding from TA is incorporated in there. It's not going to be a separate check. >> to explain. All right.

079So, the pay raise is the state guaranteed the teachers are getting and we were forced to pay. We pay. But they don't send us dollar for dollar that amount that's legislatively required. It's put in a funding formula and that funding formula is affected by our enrollment, our ADA. And so, often times we get shorted. And this isn't just Crystal City. This is other schools. >> That's what I'm trying to say. >> You know, >> so much, but we we're not going to get it. >> So, you know, it's misunderstood by our teachers and I say teachers everywhere and in the general public because they see the legislature says, "Oh, we gave every teacher this raise." And we're required to give that raise. But they're supposed to fund it to us, but they fund it through

080a funding formula, which is highly dependent on our ADA. >> Oh, I thought it was automatic. >> But but right now, what these projections that you put here, uh are they taking into account the fact that we're going to be So, for what I understand the settle up is in September. And [clears throat] the first payment >> The what settle up? >> The settlement The settle up is done in September. That's That's what I was >> Uh he's [clears throat] talking about this year they're going to settle up in August. >> This year it's going to be in August. >> Yeah, start settling up >> So So Oh, wait. But that would be the third payment. >> Yes. So we may have less money than anticipated. >> For this current year. >> Correct. >> So

081we're going to be short 300 times whatever it is per student. >> Right. Years past, the settlement would be maybe even in March of the following year. They did it differently. They're bringing the the data closer. The submission such as the AG's Mok and Casey and um Omar's out of TA. The data from PEIMS is more fresh. It's fresher. It's current. So they're generating better numbers. So they don't advance districts' money uh for too long. Uh they try to settle up before the new year. So they're moving that time frame That finish line closer. >> But that that settle up is >> How will I know how will we get paid for utilizing Blue Bonnet? >> I don't know that now. I don't know if it's a good VR grant. >> Um >> It's similar

082with grants. It's in your packet. It is a list grant. >> didn't know how >> how they you know Okay. How many most pretty much all grants you spend it out of the general fund, submit the request for reimbursement, and they review it in accordance to the criteria that were the grant was written, then they reimburse you. There are items sometimes that are not meeting the criteria, and the district just flipped the tab for that expense. It came out of the general fund. Something they might weren't expecting, [clears throat] but that's the bottom line. >> So Robert, as you're working on the budget, are looking to structure it where we don't have to depend on loans for >> It's going to be another year. This coming year, if the waiver passes, it will be very

083useful to set off payment on all of the delinquents that we have in in outstanding bills. That having been said, we may be able to start settling the debt service payments. We have That start that momentum in in uh which we need to get started soon. >> Okay, just to summarize what we have here. This is budget workshop number one. Yeah. We'll have budget workshop number two in July. So, today uh Mr. Hines and Dr. Rhino were working with principals and and Robert and they actually were working on their actual budgets. So, these are just assumption numbers. Okay? These are just assumption numbers, so they're going to change next month and you're going to say, "Hey, why did these change?" Because we didn't have all the input from the principals yet when we built this

084year. This is just a road map and a starting point to the discussion to the eventual adoption of the budget in August at the August 10th board meeting. >> Thank [clears throat] you, Robert. >> What I'm looking at what Mr. Casey mentioned, they all mentioned if they go for a waiver, the budget approval has to happen before the norm that the district has to entertain. >> August 17th, right? >> Yes. >> So, we need to shoot for the which is our regular board meeting. >> Thank you. >> So, you should have one item each. >> Yes. I can make this real short. >> I'm going to move on to item 6B. >> Okay, if you'll just turn the page um 62 in your board packet real quickly. Um page 62 in your board packet. I

085know everybody's tired. I'll try to make this as possible. All right, so when we I discovered we had these these IRS penalties that we had to pay. First thing I wanted to look at is our audit. And so went back to 2024, 2023, 2022, audits. And there's a specific uh questionnaire where it asks, "Did the school district make timely payments to the teacher retirement system, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Texas or excuse me, the Internal Revenue Service?" And the word yes is there. And so I on page uh 62 is the email that I sent uh Mr. EDR, our auditor, questioning him about why uh he didn't catch these mistakes. And he said, "Well, um this is a self-report by the school district." And I challenged him on that and I cited uh education

086code on his requirements cuz all governmental entities, not just school districts, have to have an independent audit. That's to protect the taxpayers from fraud, all right? And so if a business office is doing something fraudulent or something innocent, but it's a mistake nonetheless. It should be found. It should be publicly noted to the board in a report, and then it needs to be filed at TEA. And so, he basically wiped his hands and said he's not responsible for finding stuff like that. And I can tell you totally disagree with this. So, while this isn't an action item tonight, I am going to recommend next month that we look for bids for a new auditor. Wouldn't hurt having new eyes on our our books anyhow, considering what we've we've discovered this year and what we've what

087we're learning to be true. It would be good to have another auditor. So, regardless of his comments, I'd be making a recommendation, but he didn't have the courage to reply to that email because he knew I cornered him in writing. So, uh I'm making that a public statement for everybody to hear. >> Thank you. >> Do we have questions on that or >> Well, sure it's it is up in our next agenda. >> Advertise for a new auditor auditor. >> Yeah, I'm going to make a recommendation there. >> So, he his lack of bringing that to our attention reflects on our first rating that it's low. >> Absolutely. We're going to fail our our first rating because of this. We'll get another F. >> Yeah. >> Just because of that. >> Yeah. >> He should

088should have found it. >> Yeah. >> But it's we found it on our own because IRS contacted us wanting money. But >> Yeah. >> Uh one more question. Have we already placed anything um some kind of control uh to prevent this from happening again? What are >> Well, part of the auditors auditors report is to recommend internal controls. I challenged him where he was recommending internal controls and he didn't he didn't reply. Yeah. So I mean served or rainer rainer and I've been conversing about internal controls. We've talked about internal controls. But I'm also looking for a auditor to make some recommendations on what we can do in this office internal controls. And basically it's having two people verify every dollar. Okay, that's that's the basic internal control. So then that way one person makes

089a mistake the other person two people are making a mistake it's either they're incompetent or they're in collusion with one another doing something wrong. And so that's the internal control is having two people verifying accounts. >> [clears throat] >> Is that all for that item? >> Yes, sir. >> Move on to item 6J. CCMR >> Okay, Sarah you're on deck. >> Put the runners. Do you want to put up the presentation? This came Good evening and this came as a question that I believe Mr. Mata had about CCMR outcome bonuses. Um so the presentation that you have in front of you is straight from the TEA's presentation and Region 20's presentation. I just cut some of the slides because then they got a little technical with the math. Um So what is what are CCMR

090outcome bonuses? Funding designed to reward school systems for preparing students for college career military readiness. This is also to reward schools for students taking a step further by enrolling in post-secondary institutions, completing a credential, or enlisting in the military. This came out of House Bill 3, the 86th Legislature, 2019. The TEA annually awards districts for CCMR outcomes funding based on the number of annual graduates who demonstrate college, career, or military readiness in the excess of a threshold for three groups: annual graduates who are economically disadvantaged, annual graduates who are not economically disadvantaged, and annual graduates who are enrolled in a special education program. How How do we get CCMR outcome bonuses? Number one, college Students demonstrate college readiness. They must earn in an associate's degree or meet Texas Success Initiative criteria and enroll at a

091post-secondary institution immediately following high school. Second, career ready. They meet TSI criteria and earn an industry-based certification or earns a level two or level level one or level two certificate. Or three, they demonstrate military readiness by enlisting in the US Armed Forces or the Texas National Guard. >> Just real quickly, ma'am. >> Yes, sir. >> You're talking about seniors. >> Seniors. >> Okay. >> But all throughout um starting freshman year, we're collecting the data using And I'll get to it in a little bit more in detail using the CCMR tracker. Um so, we already have a lot of information for this next senior class. Um I'll get to that in a second. So, districts receive the amounts for qualifying graduates that exceed the threshold performance for each group. We're looking We're We're looking at the

092cohort of economically disadvantaged. Funding per qualifying graduate in excess of the threshold is 5,000. The threshold of annual graduates has to be 11%. When we're looking at non-economically disadvantaged, the funding is 3,000, the threshold is 24%. When it comes to special education, the funding is 4,000. There is no minimum threshold. >> The threshold means that there there has to be 11% of economically disadvantaged >> students. >> in the district or that are high >> in the cohort. So, then the criteria for TSIA, SAT, and ACT which demonstrate college readiness. When we look at TSIA, they must get a greater than or equal to a 351 on reading and a greater than or equal to 351 on mathematics. We're looking at SAT SAT, greater than or equal to 480 on the evidence-based reading reading and writing

093and then a greater than or equal to 530 on mathematics. We're looking at ACT, greater than or equal to 19 on the English and greater than or equal to the 23 composite. Mathematics, greater than or equal to a 19 and greater than or equal to a 23 composite. So, CCMR outcomes funding and the summary of finance report is based on qualifying graduates from 2 years prior. So, right now, we're 2020 2026, we're looking at the 2024 graduates. Sometime this month, we will receive the CCMR verifications report. We have to go through each student from 2024, make sure that everything for that those students from that 2024 class is correct. We won't see 2026 for another 2 years. Um, so we've always been asking, "Okay, when are we going to see a difference?" Well, keep in

094mind that our counselors and our high school principal have been working on improving um CTE and CCMR at high school for the past 2 3 years. We're not going to see that difference until Maybe we might see a difference this year or next year. So, it's it's always 2 years behind. What are we doing as a district? CCHS district office designee review the CCMR verification report. CCHS receives a CCMR tracker tracker for all cohort current cohorts, I'm sorry. This tracker shows all students special programs. Uh, shows that we already have received the CCMR credits. Um, shows us TSI A math reading data, dual credit, level one level two certificates, AA degrees, on-ramps, um, which we don't have any on-ramps, um, and it'll start showing us if a student already has uh qualified for the OB,

095the outcomes bonus college, and the OB uh career. It'll start showing us that data as well. What does a tracker look like? That is exactly what it looks like. What I did was I took off any student identifying information. So, what you see is just data that we see. Um What do we do with [clears throat] the CCMR tracker? The CCMR tracker is to be utilized to plan ahead and ensure that we are preparing students to be college and career ready. Um, if we have students that are not yet that have not yet received an IBC, counseling staff can use a tracker to ensure that the student is on a pathway um to earn that IBC by placing them in the courses needed for the IBC. And right now, all of our um CTE pathways

096are aligned. So, at the end of the school year, the student can take a test and then they receive the the career um readiness credit. Um, if a student has taken taken multiple dual credit courses and the student can be tracked as of ninth grade to be on the pathway to earn an AA senior year. This year I believe we had five seniors receive their their associate's degrees. >> They what? >> Huh? >> They received what? >> Their associate's degrees. I believe it was five. >> Not 10. >> Huh? 10? Okay, then my number was off. Um if a student has taken the TSI A and missed the assessment in either reading or math by a few points, the student can be receiving tutorials or enrichment for TSI assessment. We should be starting the TSI

097tutorials by eighth grade to expose students to these assessments which I know just based personally on my son, he's already been working on the math TSI A as an eighth grader with Dr. De La Cruz. I believe they're scheduled to take that test this coming week as eighth graders so that hopefully they can come in as freshmen. And there's a lot of work for them. Um they can go in as freshmen already having having been exposed to that test. Um then they'll start working on the reading section as well. And then the other page that I included was CCR accountability versus outcomes bonuses and how we can receive the outcomes bonuses again. Um but again, it's the students have to meet the two criteria. They're either going to um earn the associate's degree or meet

098ACT SAT TSI A college readiness and enroll in a post secondary readiness institution or post secondary institution. Uh career ready, they either meet ACT SAT TSI A college readiness and earn an IBC or they invest in the US Armed Forces. Questions? >> Well, I'm just I'm just I'm happy that the charts show that uh they're looking at kids taking the SAT and the ACT because I'm going to I'm going to say and I've said it before board meetings previous superintendents said uh just because we offer junior college courses doesn't mean that we should maybe indirectly discourage our kids from taking the SAT or ACT because they already got the hours because they went to junior college. Uh Well, I kept saying, "Well, they're not going to stay with the rest of them after junior college.

099They're going to go to uh four-year university and it would help a lot if they got good scores on the SAT and ACT and that's What is that What is that test they give to the at the junior college or the >> TSI I mean uh I've got the point there now uh >> How many >> We I've been pushing for the district to take all the seniors, put them on buses, take them to wherever they the they're having the test while they pay the fee. We I would before this emergency pay the the the fee and have them all take them. Not just the SAT, but the ACT also. Uh >> How many >> have >> How many students challenge the ACT and SAT? >> We did we did offer This year we we

100didn't offer it cuz we didn't we didn't get the funds, but the last 2 years we did offer it to every every senior or and technically every junior. We we had 100 We had 100 students that took the ACT the SAT um because it was a requirement for several of our students to pass math. >> The pre-SAT? >> No, the real SAT. Because it was a it's a requirement for the students who took algebra in 8th grade. Uh so, but we did offer it to every student. Um not this year, of course, due to funding, but the last 2 years before we did offer it to every student. >> Okay, you guys have I'm going to straight out. How you offer it, how you approach the kids is very important. If you just say go

101to the counselor, it's written on the board, then you look at it, get the number, call it, and sign up yourself. That is not >> No, no, sir. It was actually administered in campus on campus with the like I said, with the district >> The real SAT and the ACT. >> The real SAT. >> Uh cuz I have well, guys, I got I had I had two high school students in high school. I got one right now that's going to be a senior next year. And I ask all those questions all the time. >> Yeah, you know what? He He would have taken it this year, but like I said, due to funding, we didn't have it for this year. Uh but the last years before we did have it. >> Did he take it

102as a sophomore? >> Uh they take it when >> The pre >> They take it when they're juniors. They take it their junior year. >> He took He took a pre-SAT? And uh he scored over a thousand. I mean, and then he's only a He was only a sophomore. So, I had the opportunity for him. Of course, being the grandpa. Uh and this is personal, too. And I paid the mouse. Uh cuz I know how important those things are. >> Mr. And are there are there um grants or or anything to fund these types of tests >> for economically disadvantaged? >> Or well, I mean, I think >> And funds for certain Yeah. >> But I guess >> Not not >> how Mr. Bonilla is saying, I mean, you know, we don't have the funds,

103but are there mechanisms to reimburse us, reimburse students, or anything? >> I know that there is uh I know that for CTE, for the IBC assessments, there is a reimbursement. Um if we use federal grants, I can look into it, but if it was local funds this previous year, then we can't pay you we can't use federal grants for that. Um but if it's a test that we never used local grants local funds to pay for, I can find a way to see if I can work it some way to get it paid for. Um but it would only be for economically disadvantaged or making event students, our bilingual students, our special education students. We can find a way to fund for them for those populations. But for not our non-economically disadvantaged students, we probably

104wouldn't be able to. >> I just want to share some preliminary number actually actual numbers spring of 2024 we had 26 students that they received an AA or a certificate. Spring 25, 33. And then spring of 26, 45. So that's not including students that who have received 9 credit hours and passed the TSI. That's another funding outcome. So we still have a number and that's not including students who went to the military. That's another funding outcome. >> I understand. >> That's just something that we need that that >> Miss Hammer? >> Yeah, Mark. >> I know the funding that we receive from CCMRs I mean >> That's for the outcomes bonuses. We've been working on that for the past three years to get there, but again it's it's two years behind. >> But so from

1052023 to year 2024, I mean we have students that graduated with dual credit hours. So you're saying we haven't received for any that have >> Cuz we have to meet the threshold. >> We have to meet the threshold. That's the other part of it. And so we have to meet the threshold. >> Like 11% of the cohort has to register into a post-secondary school. How does the district track that on our end? >> I know there's a way to track it. I just have not seen that before. I don't know I I know I've been told that it's either they get the data from the universities and they track the students that way. But I've never seen that side of it. Not yet. >> No, we're not meeting the threshold. >> Cuz we don't have

106the enough students to that are both receiving an associate's degree and passing all of their their TSI. TSI assessments or they're not let reaching level one, level two and passing the TSI, ACT or SAT. So, we're working on that. I know that high school is working pretty hard on making sure that they encourage students to test um increasing their numbers of students that are testing on IBCs. So. >> Cuz I know we have a lot of students that receive, you know, certificates. >> Yes. >> Um associate's degrees. I would think a large percentage of those at least enroll the following semester um to a post secondary school. The the district doesn't track that? I mean, they don't don't have a list of all everybody and >> we have to track it because it does come

107out in our taper report. I just I I haven't seen that side of it, so I wouldn't be able to tell you how it's done, but I know it's I know they're tracked somehow because they they're they show up in our taper report. So. >> And I don't have Genesis. Is it It's a good amount of money that we are not are not even projecting possibility of money that we could get, right? >> And we and they know that high school has been working on it. >> They have a program that they work with >> Any other questions for miss? >> No, that's what >> Questions, sir? Huh? >> I don't have Genesis. >> Questions, ma'am? Questions? >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Now we move on to item 6K. Star Neil C.

108>> Good evening everyone. Um First uh I just kind of want to commend all of our staff on our star scores this year. Um I kind of went back history and I was looking back when I first started in 2022 and the star scores that I presented at at time. Um and I think we were glad that we hit one grade level over 70 at that time. And now, if you look across the board, um, we have multiple grade levels, multiple campuses hitting 70%. And I I just kind of wanted to bring that to kind of highlight like where how far we've grown these last 4 years. Um, it whether it was, you know, the leadership in the classroom, the leadership here at the district level. Um, all of that really kind of just pushed

109us to where we are today. And I And I really excited to share these scores with you today. Um, we're going to start off with Lorenzo de Zavala. Um, and the way that we read this score, I know I've given it to you before. Uh, we have the darker colors are this year's, the lighter colors are the previous years. And it is the one that's the that I provided uh, separately. Uh, because the one in the board uh, at that when you when I had it for the board, it wasn't uh, the scores weren't released yet. So, we're going to go ahead and get started. We're going to start with grade three math. We saw a 5% increase um, to 77% um, at approaches, 56% at meets, and 28% at masters. For grade three reading,

110we saw an increase of 3% to 72% um, to 55% at meets, and um, 20% at masters. Uh, those are some great scores that we saw at Zavala. Um, moving into Benito Juarez, we were expecting this specific grade subject and grade level. Um, we had been tracking it all year. Um, grade four math, we did see a little bit of we did see a dip uh, 11 points to 47% approaches. Um, meets stayed the same at about 27. And we saw a little dip in masters 10%. At for three grade four reading, we stayed the same at 70%. Uh, meets, we increased to 5% uh, by 5% to 35. And we increased our masters um, by 11 to 13%. Grade five math, we increased 17% to 71%. Um, we increased Sorry, I can't read my

111own Uh 10% to to 37% at meets and we increase 2% at 12% at masters. Grade five reading will increase 23% to 77% at approaches, 35 we increase meets from 35 to 52 an increase of 72 17%. And then we saw an increase of 12% at masters 20%. For grade five reading. You can see grade five science is blank. The reason grade five science is blank is because TEA is barely at this time meeting on I believe it's June 15th set the standards for the performance standards for the grade five and the grade eight science test. So that's why they're blank as of right now where we have a zone of uncertainty. So we have a a little bit of uncertainty where they're actually going to fall. So once we get those scores we'll we'll

112come and present those to you once they're a little bit more finalized. We get we get to fly and these are the two grade levels that we kind of saw some struggling. The two biggest struggles that we saw we have in grade six math we dropped 3% to 47% at approaches. 15% at meets and 3% at masters. Grade six reading we saw a dip of 8% 50% approaches 2% a dip of 2% to 34% at meets and 11% at masters. Grade seven this is our we have we have a big drop. I I don't know what to say I don't know if Miss Bettencourt wants to speak on that. I wasn't in the classroom so I don't know what's what what happened there but we did see a really big drop in grade seven math

113to 16% and that that's really going to hurt us in all honesty it's going to hurt us when it comes to accountability 4% at meets and 0% at masters. Grade seven we saw a drop of 11% and approaches uh to 37% at meets and 11% at masters. Algebra, um the 22 kids that took algebra, we had 100% at approaches, 91% at meets, and of those 91, 68% were at masters with one perfect score. And uh we had grade eight math, we had a increase of 10% to 73% at approaches, uh stayed the same at 35% at meets and 3% at masters. Grade eight reading, we saw great improvement here. Um that teacher, she she's she's rocking and rolling. Um she's at 81% at approaches. I don't think I've ever reported an 80% um in reading

114or math. Um so that's that's a really good increase there. We saw a 47% at meets and 20% at masters. Uh again, same thing with grade eight science, it falls in that same category as grade uh grade five science. Uh grade eight social studies, saw a little bit of a decrease of 53%. We saw an increase of meets and we saw an increase of masters as well of 13%. >> I have a question, sir. The the eighth grade reading teacher in 2025 is the same one that taught the 2026? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay, that's good. That's That's a good comparison to me. >> Yes, sir. >> Um but um I remember I mentioned before about tracking uh classes or groups and um yeah, I was surprised uh with the seventh grade math uh I

115mean, compared to how they did in in 2025, that group, cuz they were sixth graders. >> They were They had that >> I don't know the reasons. I I draw the arrows, uh I see improvements for the most part. Uh so that's how That's why I say that's the way we should compare, not the class of 25 to the class of 26, they're totally different kids. Okay? And we need to look at the teachers see what what the strategies that teachers using >> Mhm. >> to help the kids maintain that level or keep raise them higher. >> Yes, that's definitely, sir. And so, but so this report is really for more of a domain one kind of accountability. Hopefully, by next week, I believe on the 15th, we should have all of our growth scores

116in and that's where we'll be able to actually measure how well the kids have grown from last year to this year. Whether you know, they were at approaches this year, did they end up at and meets this year, did they end up at masters or were they at did not meet and end up at approaches. So, we'll be able to definitely track that for you and I know we'll be presenting that growth report to you once we get it. Right now, we're still in the preliminary stages. We haven't gotten the full reports. But once we get everything, I know we'll definitely share that with you. >> The ones that we we really appreciate the confirmation of the parents of those kids >> Yes, sir. >> that can actually see how their children are doing from

117year to year. >> Yes, sir. And I actually have a call out going out to the parents on the fifth for the high schoolers and on the 14th for the elementary kids. It's already planned and there's going to be so that way they can actually access their scores for their for their students on the texasassessments.gov. Okay. And then we're at Crystal City High School. Not that I have a favorite campus, but but they really rocked it. At Crystal City High School, we had Algebra 1. We they were at 82% at approaches, 30% at meets and 4% at masters. English 1, we grew we grew 8% to 66%, 44% at meets, 5% at masters. English 2, 61% at approaches, 44% at meets, 2% at masters. US History, we're at 94% approaches, 49% at meets, 14% at

118masters. Biology, we're at 96% approaches, 59% meets and 8% at masters. [clears throat] And this is first time testers. So, these scores are, I mean, sorry, this is all testers. We So, these are all of our re-testers included in here as well. Um, so the numbers did increase a little bit once we took out those re-testers and put them as solely as first-time testers. Um, I don't have the exact numbers because when we report when we get reports it's it's everybody all together. I believe it was like 89, 80, 80, 96, and 88% when when it came to actually once we took those first-time testers. >> They did really well in algebra. Was that the same instructor also, or was it a different instructor? >> That was a different instructor. I believe it was a

119different instructor from last year. >> I mean, all over. I mean, the whole campus is >> Who's biology teacher you? >> Yes. Yes. >> Who's the social studies? >> Yes, sir. Yes, he's the he's the he's the he's the history teacher. >> What's the scores? >> Yes, they were really good. >> Biology? >> Yes, they did really well. I knew they were, but then, you know, when they when they walked out I was like when I got the scores they were I was really proud of them. They did really well. >> Sir. Good job. >> Questions or >> They overall >> Yes. >> Yeah, overall the district I mean, I guess all the students have you know, shown a lot of improvement and you know, moving on. So, the teachers have been working hard and

120the district has been working harder. You know, when I when I see this it's just like everybody's working hard and everybody's doing things, but yet we still continue making you know, some decisions, national decisions that that are are not the greatest, right? You know, we everybody's working and you guys are doing great jobs and can't be financially stable. >> Thank you, man. I just have a one final question. When when will is over, get the grade report for the district and >> Right now, I believe it it's in it'll be in August. Typically when we get it. I have preliminary already for domain one and domain two B. Um I don't want to share I don't know. Once we get a little bit closer and a little bit more confident, uh but it's looking good.

121I'll say that. >> The agency's required to have the reports out by August 8th. >> Okay. >> Or August 10th board meeting. >> August before school starts. >> Well, that's somewhat strategic on me. I'm worried about Okay. >> It's uh item six alpha. Item 26 versus six. >> Okay, so this is me. Uh so you have this in a handout. This is a a late document that didn't get in the board pocket. Packet uh this is sent last week. All right, so let me explain additional day school year um So, conservator Hines talking with the principals and and then and I've been discussing uh how can we improve academics and academic outcomes? Well, part of that's having more days of school and not less days of school. And then how do we fund summer school?

122So, someone asked me about summer school and why we don't have summer school this summer and it's because we don't have any money to fund summer school. Now, what uh this is one of the commissioner's uh big initiatives that he's been pushing for the last several years. So, if a school district has 175 days of instruction, not minutes, we're talking about minutes in school years, actual school days, qualify for funding for up to additional 30 days of school in pre-K through eight. So, the month of June will be funded by the state. Now, let me put a asterisk by what funding means. That means paying the teachers. Okay, it doesn't pay for instructional aides, secretaries, principals, or any other school campus staff. It's just for the teachers. So, uh Luckily, I took the the currently

123adopted calendar, which is in this packet also, and kept the very same start date, the very same end date, graduation day, same holidays, and plucked out the all the staff development days and teacher work days that are sprinkled out throughout the school year, and I was able to get exactly 175 days of instruction. So, while this isn't an action item tonight, I'd like to make an action item at the July board meeting because for the teachers, they'll have more instructional time with the kids. Their number of days that they had to work doesn't change. For the students and the parents, their first day of school, their last day of school, the holidays are all the same. So, really there isn't any changes except the students will have fewer days out of school while the teachers

124are in teacher prep or teacher work days, if that makes sense. So, um start time of the school day is still 7:45, the end of the day is still 3:30. So, uh a fringe benefit is by having actually more instructional days, we build up more instructional minutes. So, we're required to have 75,600 minutes minimally to be fully funded by the state. Fully funded with an asterisk by ADA, okay? Now, >> [clears throat] >> by having more minutes, this gives us built-in days where if we have to call school because of bad weather and I don't know if y'all watch El Niño, they're talking about this El Niño is going to be a big event this winter. So, we might have another crazy snowstorm or something like that. We'll have a approximately 10 equivalent days worth

125of minutes built into this new calendar. So, if we had some type of mass flu outbreak where we have to cancel school or we have weather or whatever, our fortunate situation minutes is that would be also taken care of with this calendar where we didn't have that in the old calendar. So, it just makes sense to us. I hope it makes sense to you all as a board that this more instructional days means stronger student outcomes and also qualifies us for funding for summer school for pre-K through eighth grade. Does not change the beginning day and the ending day. I don't see any problems at all with the kids. Yeah, and and this district doesn't have a district of innovation plan where most districts do, so that a lot of the school districts in the

126area start school much earlier than what Crystal City does. So, Crystal City has to abide by the statute which is the fourth Monday in August is the first day of instruction. I mean, it's not a good thing or bad thing, it's just it's the way it is. So, we're following statute here by starting school on the fourth Monday in August. And we're finishing by Memorial Day weekend. The only downside was is to get the teachers their 187th day, they had to come back to work on Memorial Day. That's the only stinky thing of the whole calendar. And I don't know, maybe something will come to me that I can find a way to change that, but we can get this one. This is what So, this calendar it's real plain-looking because I was sick. So,

127I just didn't really mess with this until Sunday, yesterday. And so, this is your current adopted calendar for next year. So, I'll dress this one all up nice and pretty with havelina's stuff for the next four weeks. >> So, this is the proposed one? >> No, this is the proposed one. This is the currently adopted one. The colored one with havelina's on it is the adopted calendar. >> We were leaving money on the table as far as not having enough or not having the minimum days as far as funding the program? >> Um Currently, no, we're not leaving any money on the table cuz we have 167 days of instruction. You got to have 175 to get the money. So, by having all these PD days and teacher work days, yeah, you didn't qualify for

128that. But, a lot of schools don't have 175 days of school, to be honest. You know, there's a lot of schools that have four-day weeks. They don't qualify automatically because of that. >> So, the MLK day on January 18th is no longer a day off. >> Uh Well, I had it on my original calendar, but then I didn't have the >> It's over here. >> the spinach festival >> day off. >> And I got told this morning, "No, we got to have the spinach festival day off." So, I had to steal a day somewhere. >> [laughter] >> So, I mean, y'all tell me, I'll We just have to >> I know which one I'm for. >> No, I I didn't understand spinach day until today. >> Then there's not going to be one. >> So,

129um >> Oh, yeah. >> So, that November 2nd day on my original draft was not a holiday and I had MLK as a holiday. So, it's debatable. I just need direction from the board if you want >> This is an action item, right? >> No, it is a information only, action next month. >> Got you. >> Attendance is not too way known on that day. >> Well, that's what I heard. I uh heard I I guess it's kind of like the equivalent of the Battle of Flowers Day off in San Antonio schools. >> That's exactly what it is. >> So, we're on grants next. >> Oh, yes, grants and 6 month. >> Sarah, you're back on deck. >> I don't have a presentation, but what you have on on page 82 uh is a notice

130of grant award Lenovo for the NASA grant, the learning opportunities, learning accelerations and forward and opportunities uh NASA cycle four. Um we received it for the leadership and instructional foundations for Texas and the lift, which is lift, and the lift add-on for school improvement PLCs. The first part we received for 423,000 and the second part we received 120,000. Those amounts have They're They're uh specifically des- designated if you look on page 83, which is a program budget of the actual application application. The amounts have to be spent a certain way. So, if you look at the bottom part where it says budget summary, um 126,900 had to go to payroll cost. And 296,100 had to go to professional and contracted services. It had to be divided up between the 70 70% and 30% on the

131lift add-on for school improvement PLC, it had to be 50/50. 60,000 on payroll cost and 60,000 on professional and contracted services. If you look at page 84, this is we had to sign up with a lift provider lift approved provider and we selected Region 20. We are working with Region 20's school improvement and curriculum instruction component and we're working it's pretty much for 3 years. The lift year one K-5 math, that's where Bluebonnet comes in. We will work on we've already worked school system assessment. We are working on a 3-year action plan. We're working on customized support coaching PLCs, observation feedback cycles, professional development, modeling, shoulder-to-shoulder peer teach and data meetings. All of that is going to cost us 296,100. And the lift year one PLC add-on K-5 math, again for the Bluebonnet, we have

132customized customized support coaching PLCs, observation feedback cycles, professional development, modeling, shoulder-to-shoulder peer teach and data meetings. That's also going to cost us 60,000. Do we have any questions on that? >> Do we have to pay Region 20? >> Yes. >> We get 70% of the grant. >> For providing >> 70%? >> And the rest comes to us that we can put into personnel, materials that kind of >> How do you choose and using a what you identify math and not reading? >> We went by what needed to be targeted first, which was math. At the time um when looking at Ed White Elementary, the especially the fourth grade math, we were struggling um fifth grade at the time fifth grade math was When we selected the Bluebonnet math portion, it was fifth grade math was

133still not up to par. Their scores came out pretty good. Um but we went with math first because we knew that if we got math aligned first then it would be easier to get the reading. >> I don't know but nowadays I guess the the math portion of the STAR test is large percentage of it is reading and understanding the problem. And if the student can't or you know have any issues reading they won't be able to fully interpret the math portion of it. >> I mean the reading scores had always shown some promise, the math had not. >> And across Texas math is lagging behind reading. Hm. Could it be because of the reading? Um the reading increment, I don't know. Reading scores tend to be higher so it's more uh understanding than the

134complication computational part of it. >> Any other questions? >> I don't have any more questions on that. >> Do you have any other questions? >> No. >> Come on speak some Latin. >> Item 7A. Discussion action to approve Zavala County Appraisal District preliminary budget 2026. Mr. Ray, do you have anything to add to that? >> No, it's my recommendation that the board reject the budget. >> I motion to approve the Zavala Zavala Appraisal District uh preliminary budget for 2026-2027. >> Approve. >> Do you have a second? >> Second to approve it. >> Yes. Do you have a second? >> But I thought we said we're going to the was >> Mr. Jack, I mean he made a motion. You can get another motion. He's making a motion to approve. >> Okay, you can make an

135alternate motion. >> I'll make an alternate motion that >> Do I get a second one? >> Yeah, do I get a second? >> No second, motion dies. >> Motion dies. >> Do you have an alternate [clears throat] >> Motion that I think the real recommend that they take it back and then make changes and bring it back. >> So your motion was to deny the >> Deny. >> To deny the the Zavala County Appraisal District preliminary budget. >> Yeah, so we're going to make some >> Mr. Ray Espinosa, second. >> Second by Ms. Peggy Young. Discussion. >> I'll favor. >> I'll oppose. >> Same. >> Motion carries 6-0-1. >> [clears throat] >> Item 7B, discussion action to approve the 2026 2027 employee compensation plan. Goodnight, school board. Um before you uh you have the compensation

136plan. Um for the most part, we are introducing a pay freeze. So, when you look at the compensation plan, the base those uh from AP all the way to CP uh and TM, pretty much the first 20 pages are all the same. Um the pay scales are going to stay uh the same as last uh this year. There is no step increase to the staff or any staff member for the district. When you get towards the back, I'm sorry, but the the pages don't have an actual page. We do have a change to our uh cycle date. Uh this is um Uh this is page 4 >> I don't know how page there. >> It doesn't have a page. >> It's 115 on the packet. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Page 115 on the

137packet. >> Page 115 in your board packet. If you are in if you see that we are uh proposing a 50% reduction to all stipends, extra duty stipends. >> 50% >> Another change uh couple of pages down uh substitute pay >> 120 >> from 80 to 120? I'm sorry. >> Yes, 120. >> Okay, 120. We are reducing uh substitute pay. >> How much did it go down? I don't remember last year's. >> $15 >> And the >> 125 Excuse me. That's the proposed pay I guess rate of pay the long-term substitute degree, non-certified. You said on page 120? >> Yes, 125. >> Yes, sir, 125. >> And on the second to the last page of the compensation plan, this is a big change, even though it's in small lettering towards the end, we are proposing

138a reduction to our employer contribution to our health insurance. Currently, the district pays $759 per month towards our employee contribution employer contribution toward the insurance, and we are proposing a reduction all the way to $225 per month towards the insurance. I know that we did get a a request to show a couple of samples as to how this would affect different employees with the projected reductions. So, example here, you have a an employee that's either from 0 to 4 years, just to keep it anonymous, and the employee's gross pay is $2,265.58. Total deductions of this employee is $394. They currently pay $0 for insurance because of the employer contribution. Their net pay normally is they take home $1,870 after deductions. With the proposed changes to the employee plan, the employee gross pay is still the

139same, $2,265.58. However, there's been seen increase in their insurance of $277.38. So, with the current deductions, you add the 277, they're going to have Now, they're going to have a deduction total of $672.32. And with their net pay, you'll see that it gets reduced to $1,593.26. >> Robert, uh what about the I'm curious to see where where where are the employees that paying they get the first one the for top insurance >> This this is it. This is the first option. >> That's it. >> And they only they only pay insurance, but now because we're taking away the employee contribution, they're going to they're going to see a raise of $277.38. >> Is it for all employees across the board? >> Uh pretty much you're they're going to see a $277.38 uh increase to their

140insurance pay. >> Well, we're going to have to do Yes, sir. >> 40 But for all employees >> What what in the past, we had a lot >> [clears throat] >> We had a husband and wife working >> I'm I'm I'm I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there. I'm going to show you different examples. So, if we go to the next I'm I'm I'm sorry. So, the difference per paycheck is $277.38. Per month, this employee will see an increase or decrease in their pay of $554.76. So, that's the effect per month. >> Yeah. >> And then we go to to the next slide. So, another one is because we're also reducing coaching stipends by 50%. So, this employee, he coaches four sports or she he or she coaches four sports, which is

141very common at at our district. So, the gross pay he normally goes with $2,687.21. Supplemental pay is stipends that is added to his paycheck. He normally gets out of those four coaching stipends he gets $696.41. So, total gross but at the end of the month I mean at the end of the pay period, I'm sorry, is $3,383.62. This employee's deductions are going to are normally $1,322.18. He pays $396 for insurance. So, net pay he normally takes home $2,060 every paycheck, right? So, with the proposed reduction now he has the same gross pay but his stipends go down to $347. So, now his gross pay is $3,034.41. His deductions rose to $1,599 because of the reduction in in uh I'm sorry, with the increase of his insurance. So, his net pay now he'll see a $1,442.

142That's a difference of $624 $26 per paycheck or per month he'll see $1,252 less. >> So, they'll be paying $1,252 for insurance. >> Not necessarily. This is including the decrease in his uh stipends. >> The decrease in his stipends. >> In the stipends. >> What's your gross? >> So, you're you're going to increase his his insurance by $277 and he's going to lose around $396 uh because of his reduction in stipend. >> Every 2 weeks? >> Yes. Every 2 weeks it's $626. >> Have we done something about recommending that we won't pay every two weeks and we pay monthly. Have you decided on that or >> So, Region 20 needed to have an answer before this board meeting and we couldn't get that to the board and >> So, what was going to be the

143same? >> So, it's going to have to wait until next school year. >> Mr. Grill, are we going to go to TRS insurance? >> So, we we looked into that. We missed the enrollment date. It had to be done back this early this winter, like in January. So, we can't enroll until January of '27. And so, what we did do is we we had a meeting with the broker for this insurance. Pickle Bob is is the name of this broker. And they called this a rich pool insurance plan and it had a very low deductible and and so, and a very low co-pay. And I said, "Well, we're going to go look for somebody else for insurance because your insurance is too high." And he said, "No, we can get you an insurance that's comparable

144in price to TRS. It's just it's not going to pay like the insurance that the employees have enjoyed so far. So, I fully expect by the July board meeting that we'll be bringing a different insurance plan to the board, which will greatly decrease this out-of-pocket expense. But, it's not going to be it won't have as low of a deductible and low co-pays. >> Okay. >> So, I feel pretty confident that we're going to be able to make this situation better, but how much better I can't say today, but the TRS ActiveCare employee only $500 a month and this is $780 a month. So, it's quite a bit of difference in cost. >> So, again, this is an employee with 10 years or through 15 years of It has no stipends. However, they had the first

145payment or first premium for insurance plan. Again, pretty much the same thing. They'll see a $277 increase per paycheck and a $554 increase per month that they'll have to pay towards insurance. >> Which is a big pain difference. >> Again, an employee 25 20 to 25 years with two stipends. Same thing. They'll have a reduction in their stipend from 416 to 208. And they'll pay an extra $277 for insurance. So, the difference in in this person's paycheck would be $485.71 per paycheck or $971 less a month. And then finally, this is the uh 30-year employee. No stipends again. So, it kind of fluctuates whether you're in the what plan you're in. Again, this employee will see a $277 because they have no stipends and they don't pay towards the insurance and $554 extra per month.

146>> And this that's one Mr. Uh >> This is the family one. So, and I I'll be honest, this is me. So, this is a 20-year employee pays for family and employee and spouse. Uh this is what uh person takes home. Uh we normally pay $354 for insurance. However, because they take the spouse, both spouse employees and pay $779 uh for each, um that is going to uh increase from $354 uh and the deductions will increase um by all the way up to 1443. So, this person's uh net pay will go from $1,673 to $1,119. That's a difference of per paycheck of $554. Per month, we are losing $1,109.52. >> [clears throat] >> Uh what's the total savings for the different >> Uh and uh so Currently, uh the uh per employee $779 per pay

147period, we pay approximately uh $84,462.76 per year. We pay uh $2,207,106.24. Uh so, the proposed reduction to 225 we will be paying $23,284 per pay period, $558 uh annually, uh $900 per year, uh savings of $1,486,216. >> And that's just from the reduction in >> That's from the reduction in insurance. Can you go to the next one? So, again, also uh estimate savings due to reduction in force and uh payment uh pay freeze, we had a reduction in force of 65 employees uh and we are not increasing the pay step. So, next year's projected savings is 2,557,000 97,000 54. Next one. With the coaching stipends, this is going to be a little bit different and I just showing you this cuz that's what we have on paper, but I know that we also reduced the

148amount of coaches that we're going to allow to coach and there was talks today at our principal's meeting about also possibly reducing the amount of sports that they get to coach throughout the year based on scores and stuff like that. So, right now we're paying $310,000 in coaching. If we reduce it by 50% and it's different coaching stipends and everything that fits in there. So, it's $175,000 with a savings of $134,000. Again, these are these projections are only with our current insurance through Higginbotham. We haven't gone out for new bids and we like Mr. Grill said, we missed our deadline to go with our terrorist active care. So, these projections are based is as if we do not change anything and we stick with Higginbotham and our premiums do not change. >> And the stipend

149reduction of 50% is across the board, right? >> Yes, sir. >> I know you only mentioned coaching, but I mean it's um you know, adjunct professors, dual credit, band directors. >> Yes, sir. >> Everybody. >> Yes, sir. >> As well as the T-Cole master certifier. Everybody, yes. Does anybody have questions? Any >> No, um I was struggling with that, but our Mr. Grill explanation in closed session, I understand. >> Yeah. I mean, >> [clears throat] >> it stinks. This whole thing stinks. And we'll lose some employees because of it. But what it is is we don't have money to cover budget next year. I don't think the budget will cover if we don't [clears throat] stick to this compensation. I am meeting with all the staff tomorrow. Sent out an email to the principals and

150everybody for a 1:30 meeting. The principals changed that to 1:30 from the 2:00 that we discussed this morning. Okay? So, anyhow, the point is is I'm going to try to go over some of this tomorrow. To help everybody understand, this is just hopefully a 1-year plan. You know. It's easy for me to say 1 year and not be here a year from now when but I'd like to think the Vader's going to pass and the Vader's going to be the solution. As long as y'all don't start re-employing a bunch of people, you can unfreeze the salaries and maybe bump the health insurance up some. All the way back up to the total amount. Bring the stock ins back up. >> Any other questions, I know. >> So, this will be an action item. >> Right

151now, yes. Yes, it's an action item. You have a motion to Does anybody have questions for No, you're good? >> Thank you very much. >> [clears throat] >> What's the recommendation of the district, Mr. Earl? To accept the compensation plan as it's presented. Do I have a motion? >> I motion to approve the 2026-2027 employee compensation plan. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carried 7-0. >> 7-0. >> Item 7C, discussion action to approve the liquidation of surplus equipment. >> Okay, [clears throat] Tico's here. He can answer any questions if we have any. We did we have a a number of old buses and general junk over there in the transportation yard that we want to liquidate. The the actual board policy gives the superintendent that authority,

152but since this is time and I'm interim, I'm seeking board approval. >> And I guess that'd be just listed for sale or is it just auction type deal or >> So we'll we'll maybe put an ad in the paper that we're having an an auction. People just come in and they it's a silent bid is what I proceed doing. People write down how much they are operating on lot A and then we take that bid. If we don't get any bids, then we might be taking it to the pick and pull and then the prior maybe or to a metal recycler if it's just metal junk. Tico, do you have anything to add to that? >> We also have We also have the white team some white team that we need to get rid of.

153Um they're very old and they're shot out, so we need to get rid of the vehicles and >> Again, we'll try to get what we can get. It's not really going to be much of a money maker, but at least we can get some of the junk out of our possession. >> Okay. So, the recommendation of this request >> to uh approve the liquidation of surplus >> I make a motion. I make a motion by Mr. Second. >> Second by Mr. Espinosa. Any discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Motion carried 7-0. We already moved on to we already took action on item 7D. >> We just have the So, let's move to item 9A. Discussion and consideration possible action regarding authority for designated >> designated members of the boards of the board, superintendent, and legal

154counsel to participate in mediation and negotiate a potential settlement of pending litigation in Corpus Christi Independent School District versus Bartlett Cocke General Contractors LLC. Case number and related construction defects issues with Corpus Christi High School, South Elementary, Foy Junior High, and Meadowbrook Elementary School and matters related thereto. >> We have a motion. >> Uh I motion to authorize district legal counsel, interim superintendent, and board members to attend a mediation in the matter of CCISD versus Bartlett Cocke ETL case 0-25-002-3668 American Arbitration Association and negotiate settlement under the terms discussed in closed session and authorize the execution of settlement documents as necessary. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? Do we need the name of the three board members? >> He said we >> You don't need to name the >> exact board members, you can get

155back to them at a later time. >> But, uh for sure it could be you, Ray. >> I'm not >> No, I'm not ready to go I'm not ready to go on into that one. >> I think we we can name the actual board members at a later time. I know Mr. Brill and and you know, I've already committed. >> I know I know Mr. Back to you with the board members. >> You mean >> Okay, back to you. >> Yeah. It's you know, Mr. Houston and Leo Campos. >> Okay, going up. >> So, you have a motion and a second. >> Um, we had a discussion. >> All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries 7-0. Item 9B, consideration and approval of First Liberty ISD school safety audit for 2023 as discussed in closed session.

156Do you have a motion? >> I'll move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries 7-0. Item 9C, consideration to authorize superintendent search as per the terms defined in closed session. >> I'll move. >> Motion made by Mr. Bonilla, second. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Cino, sir. Any discussion? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. Gabriel, sir. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carried 7-0. Oh, you're asking about six Well, we had moved That's That's some case you want right there. We have moved it. Yes, we took action. I'm leaving. No, I adjourned We have a motion. Motion by Mr. Bonilla. I'll second. Discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Motion carried 7-0. All right, board board members, you have a