001just write down that item 6A and 6B with no action. I'll be moving on to item 7A. Consent action items, consideration approve the minutes of the board the minutes for the board held on March 23rd, 2026, March 31st, 2026. Got a motion. I move to approve the minutes for the board minutes held on March 23rd, 2026, March 31st, 2026. Second. I second. >> [clears throat] >> Um discussion? I'll second. The second by Mr. I second. Discussion? It doesn't matter. All in favor? Uh motion passes 5-0. Uh item 7B, consideration approve the monthly bills for March, 2026. Got a motion? I move to approve the monthly bills for March, 2026. Second. I second. Uh motion by Mr. Second by Mr. Gabriel Espinosa. Uh discussion? All in favor? Motion passes 5-0. Item eight, informational and discussion. Um
002first we'll have the superintendent's report. Uh Mr. Grill is passing out um information. Do you have Do you all have a report for the board members? We have a report uh that's just going to be an oral report. Under meeting TEA information. On the agenda it's 7A superintendent and 7B. You want to I was going to defer to Okay. >> Dr. Reina first. I'm going to go first. Well, I was passing out. Good evening, Mr. Martinez, members of the board, and and Superintendent Grill. As the Texas Education Agency Conservator assigned to Crystal City ISD, I want to provide a focused update on the actions underway to strengthen academic performance. Specifically, there are two overarching goals for the conservatorship, and I think we've mentioned these before, but I always want to reiterate them so we can
003keep our focus on the reasons why we're here. Uh first is the unacceptable campuses Benito Juarez to earn a B or C by April and through the April and May testing, and hopefully we'll see those results in August on August the 15th, such that our goal is to move to either one of those categories such that over the next 2 years we will achieve a category rating. Uh also, our second goal is that the district moves up one letter from where we are right now. And right now we are at a um D D district, and uh what we would want to do is move the district to a C or above. And I think with everything underway that we'll be able to get there. So, again, we're also working to stabilize the district's finances
004and to build governance capacity. Specifically, this week we worked with and we'll work directly with district leadership and the principals to align instructional priorities for the upcoming school year. This includes reviewing the adoption of Blue Bonnet Math, identify professional development needs for both summer and fall, and ensuring the completion of key planning systems such as comprehensive needs assessments or the CNA, and the campus improvement plans or CIPs. Additionally, we are reinforcing end-of-year evaluation processes including the T-TESS for teachers and the T-TESS for principals to ensure accountability and instructional clarity throughout all of the campuses. And Mr. Hines is going to discuss that in more detail in just a moment. Specifically, when we talk about another area of of discussion with us is financial oversight and stability. Uh I've engaged in multiple finance discussions with both
005internal leadership and Region 20 partners to see and to analyze the district's current financial position. This includes reviewing revenue streams, identifying cost-saving strategies, and working with the district staff to identify all of those areas that we need to look at including staffing allocations to better align resources with student needs. These steps are critical to ensuring long-term fiscal stability sustainability and responsible stewardship of district funds. When we talk about governance and board development, a key priority is strengthening the board's effectiveness. I am actively coordinating leadership govern- and governance training for all trustees, which I understand that you all have already been through and have had a coach in the past. I think we just need to revisit those for any of the new board members, and also the new positions that many of you hold. So,
006that also includes direct communication which with each one of you to ensure participation and alignment, and we're also refining processes for agenda development, board operations to ensure compliance, uh transper- transparency and efficiency moving to- forward. Additionally, I'm fin- finalizing a structured plan for the superintendent superintendent search uh to ensure the district secures strong, stable leadership aligned to student outcomes. Not that we want to get rid of Mr. Grill dist- as we signed his contract today, but certainly the long-term is for us to think and to plan ahead. In closing, the work that that we're doing or that we've undertaken is intentional and is aligned with the TEA expectations. It's focused on improving student achievement, restoring financial health, and building a high-functioning governance team. I will continue to provide district oversight and support to ensure sustained
007progress in all three areas. I stand before you to say that the staff has been very cooperative in working with us and giving us information and meeting with us, and for that we're very grateful. come in and we can ask just about any question and get be given the response in a very constructive way such that everyone has their eye on the ball of making this district solvent and functional in the future, and that is our goal. So, I really do thank you. I thank the staff that has that has supported us, and if you have any questions, please let me know. And at this time I just pass it on to my colleague here Mr. John Hines. She took a lot of what I was going to say. But okay. Sorry. It's all right.
008I'll build on what she said. All right. We did an update for you last time. Uh given the timing of STAR testing, direct campus access has been limited. We want to leave the the campus administrators alone during this time. Uh as a result, much of my work has been uh work during this period has focused on ensuring that key instructional systems and supports and some compliance issues are in place so that campuses are positioned for success both during testing and immediately afterward. This has included finalizing important instructional components such as the lift grants which I'll tell you about more as we get to them, confirming the implementation of Blue Bonnet Math curriculum, coordinating support with TEA and Region 20, and ensuring that all state assessment processes are aligned and in compliance. At the same time
009we did an update for you last time across departments and campuses with the focus on aligning systems that impact instruction and planning and student support. A priority in this process has been ensuring that the information we receive or the information we are using to make decisions is accurate and consistent. To that end, we've taken steps to verify information across multiple sources so that the district is operating from a clear and shared understanding moving forward. In addition, we have been we have begun reviewing key systems that will impact next year including special education services, staffing structures, and opportunities to operate more efficiently while maintaining strong support for the students. As we move out of the testing window, my focus will shift more directly to campus level work supporting the principals, strengthening instructional systems, and ensuring consistency
010across campuses in alignment with the priorities Dr. Reina outlined. Do you all have any questions for me? >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, I'll I'll pick it up from here. So, uh on our district enrollment and ADA report, I'm doing some real basic math. So, our students bring in dollars. And with that said, uh we get what's called a basic allotment of BA approximately $7,000. Now, if your student did uh has special needs or you're in early childhood or you're in CTE or you're in uh ESL bilingual TT any of our special pops, dyslexia, we get what's called allotment dollars. So, let's just work with simple math. Simple math being the basic allotment of $7,000. We're 104 students [clears throat] shy of where we were a year ago. So,
011that's $728,000 less funds for those 104 kids. Now, I can tell you it's a lot more than $728,000 because of all the allotments that are also tied to these kids. I would say I dare say it's well over $10,000 a kid instead of $7,000. But, just doing some quick math, so our ADA is running about the same place as it was this time last year at 91.39%. So, you're losing about $600 per ADA per day. So, the importance of children coming to school teaching and learning is our core mission. However, them not coming to school and not learning hurts us on our academics and hurts them in in their long-term academic growth. It also hurts us financially, too. So, obviously, uh we want to see that attendance rate running 96% better. And that should be
012our our goal is 96 plus. And really, that should be our bottom bottom end number as far as expectations of children. But, what the state is seeing and what the country is seeing since COVID is is a drop in attendance everywhere. So, this isn't a phenomenon that's unique here in this community in this school district. This is this is everywhere. We were struggling in my previous school district at 93%. So, not much better than what you have here. So, it's just every time I'm bad here with any sniffle, cough, anything, they hold the kids back. And then there's that element of just parents who um they need to go to San Antonio for one child's doctor's appointment, so they had to take the whole family cuz they're not going to make it back in time.
013And that's just that's just how life goes sometimes. So, it's it's it's hard to uh get every child to school every day. Our hopes are is school is important enough that we make it important enough that parents want their kids here. Uh That said, I want to turn over the business office reports to Robert. If you have any questions, Robert can answer those. Good evening. Do you have any questions on the report that are on the agenda? >> [snorts and clears throat] >> Uh the first one being it was just a little reference for the month current for the month that Estrada put together. Showing prior year, that'll be on your on your right left-hand side of the the page. And right next to it is the current year. Uh for the general fund, you
014see that yellow column and I'm going to refer to the current year just for expediency's sake. You're currently at compared to levy collected about uh 1.1% of the levy. The levy being $10,520,000. Collection 496,000 dollars. That was what was collected for the month. Uh that's in the general fund. You'll see right next to it the debt service fund. And that's that's the fund that's not in any control compared to the general fund. Got any questions on that? I I did have concerning the attendance report. Uh No, I'm cuz I'm I'm concerned about the number, the 1468. So, by any chance, do do you recall the number that was reported for in reference to TA and attendance? The number that was used at TA for funding was uh 1425. Which is high. Now, this report, I'm
015not sure I'm going to be going over here in a minute, Robert. Do you have any questions? Do you have any other questions regarding the business office report? If not, thank you so much. Okay, if you would, please turn to the key side of the pages of my formal superintendent report. We have a consistent report I give each month. And it's basically a synopsis of uh my thoughts and observations uh that I'll report formally. You received my first uh board update last Friday. That's typical and normal for me to send out a board update on Fridays. It's just really a kind of a quick glance of what's going on during the week. So, this report's more expanded version. So, uh first I thought to just say my first few days in district were were delightful
016even though they were very overwhelming. You have wonderful people here. Uh I had uh Chief Rios take me on a tour of the district. We went into each of the campuses and I had a brief walk around principals and I can tell you in my 41 years in education, it it was just school. It was it was pleasant. Hallways were bright. The floors were shiny. Uh The staff that I ran into and was introduced to were pleasant. And so, you have what I feel is a very normal, very pleasant school for your your students to go to school in and our employees to work in. Uh We [clears throat] have some facility issues that need to be resolved, but um for the most part, I I can tell you you have very nice campuses and
017and good uh people that I met. So, I'm setting up interviews, as you know, with each one of you individually. Uh I have both of y'all scheduled already. Uh Plan for an hour. Again, the more my mouth opens, the longer the meeting goes. So, you just have to tell me at the get-go, I got to leave at such and such time and we'll set a timer on my phone so I can get out. I did that with the principals the other day and it didn't quite work out, they found out, but we'll get better at that as well. What I'm asking you bring to that meeting is is just some written statements. At least one, but no more than three concerns that you'd like me to work on. And no more than two what I
018call sacred cows, things that you don't want me to change. And what I'll do collectively with the seven board members is see what comes to the top with many of you, which I dare say will. And there will be a couple commonalities of things that you don't want me to touch. And so, that kind of sets my boundaries. What are my goals to start immediately working on and maybe where I shouldn't stray off on, at least not the beginning till we've had more time to interact with one another. So, uh the next item is item three on this report is this longitudinal summary of finances. Uh We have wonderful people here in our business office. Uh Robert and I've been working closely. I I go home uh nightly anymore since I'm living here, but uh
019my wife is a CFO and she actually is in Pearsall tonight working with their school board on their finances. So, numbers make sense to me, uh but not always to everyone else. So, I try to keep it as concise and straightforward as I can and I try to keep it to one page. This is something I shared with our cabinet and then with our principals last week and I'm going to share with you. So, I went all the way back uh five plus years now ago, five and a half years ago to year 20 21. Um you were solvent in that year. And when I say solvent, you look at what are your revenues and what are your expenses and what was the difference? And moving forward to the year 21-22, uh you had a
020deficit of 327,422, but you had a really healthy fund balance of over $10 million, $10.6 to be exact. As you progressed into the next year, you had a much larger deficit of one 2.1 million dollars. But, you still had 9.5 million in fund balance. The next year, uh huge huge uh uh deficit budget of 9.6 million dollars. Uh if you recall when y'all met with me at your last board meeting, I told you the wheels came off in one year. I wasn't sure what happened that year and y'all cited a few things. So, maybe a memory jogger to y'all, I still don't really have a conceptualization of what happened. And and frankly, it's not my place to worry about what's happened because it's happened and I wasn't here, so I can't I can't solve that
021problem. I'm here to help solve problems as we move. Now, what's really concerning is last year into this year, so the 2024-2025 school year, uh you went into a negative fund balance. So, you ended up borrowing money out of your INS. That's your interest and sinking fund. That is your bond indebtedness. This is voter-approved money solely to pay for bonds, not to manage your day-to-day operations, your M&O budget. So, that's a huge no-no. So, that's part of the reason y'all got an F on your your your finance accountability rating. And that trend continued into this year. Now, again, I'm not here to point fingers. It's not my place. It happened. I'm here to pick up the ball and try to run from here with it. I can tell you that this district is beyond broke.
022All right. And in my 31 years of administration and my wife's 30 six years in school business administration, neither one of us ever seen numbers like this before. And so, um you know, it's not probably new news to y'all, but it's I need to make an impact in saying that. This is this is highly unusual and and um y'all don't have any reserves. You don't have any money in investments to pull from. There's nothing at all. And so, with that said, the the other big ouch here is approximately 90% of your budget is tied up in payroll and benefits. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that it should be around 70 to 75% of your budget should be tied up in payroll and benefits. So, not only are you in a bad financial
023situation, you're horribly overstaffed. Now, again, it's not my place to to critique why it's happened or how it's happened. It It is what it is. And And the only way you're going to correct your long-term health financially is you've got to decrease the number of people you employ. And a vast decrease, fortunately. Now, I have worked my entire 41 years in small communities. And so, I understand how important a school district is to the economic health of the community. But, this can't continue. And this is harsh, but I'll I mentioned it in my Friday update and I I want to say it out loud here publicly. This district is facing school closure and consolidation. That is where you're going if this doesn't get corrected. And what does consolidation mean? That means this school will be
024absorbed by one of your neighboring school districts. How that basically works is the district has to petition the neighboring school district to see if the neighboring school district's boards are willing to take on your your debt and your students. So, it doesn't mean you get to choose. It's that district that chooses you. And what often happens when you consolidate is your elementary school stays in your community, but all your secondary kids get bussed. So, that's the gravity of it all. And I I want to impress upon you that this isn't Richard Grill talking. These are the numbers that Richard Grill was presented with to help figure out. And I don't have manna from heaven to sprinkle on this. I I can tell you that the only way out is we've got to to make deep
025cuts in personnel, not in budget. You can't cut enough in your budget. There's not enough money in your budget to cover the numbers here. Now, there's there's other practices within the district that are wasteful that I've come across. I'm not going to get into that laundry list. Uh one of them I'll bring up here in a minute that Peggy asked about, but I'll mention that here in a second. The The point I'm making here is is there's nothing to fall back on. So, uh we collectively, the two conservators and I, with our partners at TEA and Region 20, met today to talk about some things that they could possibly help us with. But, the thing that they're not going to help us with is give us money. Okay? I I had conversation back and forth
026with Commissioner Morath last week. Um first let me know I I was formerly here and he said, "Great. Glad to have you back into the mix." And I was appreciative of that, but I'll also tell you that I said, "We need money." And he said, "Well, let me refer you to David Marks, who will help me help y'all file for financial exigency," which y'all did in December 2024. Okay? Now, uh again, I wasn't here. I don't know all the particulars on why uh some of the things weren't followed through when y'all filed for financial exigency, but not everything was implemented. And y'all I mean, y'all have to decide are we going to take that next step to help save this community school? Cuz it's for y'all. It's y'all's community. It's not my community. It's for
027y'all's students and your children and your grandchildren. I'm not running. I'm just here to work with you all to help try to get things fixed, work with the conservators and and what they can do to help us resolve these things. And as much as I'm concerned with your academic problems, that doesn't matter today because if we can't keep the stores doors open, academics doesn't matter, okay? Now, I've had good uh academic outcomes in the schools as a principal and as a superintendent. And so, I feel confident those things will come. I'm confident in our conservator. I'm confident with your principals after meeting with them last week that we can get there academically. It might take a year or two to get there, but I I think we can get the the accountability and this is
028accredited warned status off of your off of your nameplate. The finances is is the daunting problem here. So, uh with that uh I met with Tico uh today. You have a lot of HVAC units that are failing. They're 20-plus years old. Uh again, in a perfect world, I would tell you that in the places that I've I've been a superintendent and even as an assistant superintendent, we had maintenance plans where we we earmarked money in our fund balance for every 10 years where we replace these their HVAC units, these floor systems, our roof systems, our our boilers, which are your hot water heater systems. And so, when those things would go out, we had money earmarked in fund balance. We don't have that luxury here and we have students and teachers in classrooms where the
029air conditioning's not working and it's getting hot and it's going to get hotter here in the coming weeks and days. And we have units that still run on R-22 refrigerant. That's ancient stuff. That's ancient stuff. And so, uh Tico's telling me that uh just to get in the door with the new compressing units going to be five to seven thousand dollars a pop. Okay? And so, when we have numerous units going down, those are critical pathways that we need to address now. That That affects teaching and learning in the classroom. It's not humane for those teachers and kids to be in those hot classrooms. And frankly, not having enough money just comes across as an excuse to parents when they hear about their kids sweating in the classroom and our our staff having to put
030up with that, too. It's not right. It's not fair, but frankly, I'm not real sure what we can do other than um do what we can do. So, I'm I'm talking to the schools and directors about presenting me information on uh what we can start doing on reducing staff. So, quite possibly by the next board meeting, I'll I'll be bringing to you whatever's necessary for us to file financial exigency. How many of you were on the board when you filed for financial exigency in 2024? I think we all were. Okay. So, y'all been through it. I've never been through it. I looked at the application over the weekend. Like I said, Commissioner Morath gave me some advice. I'm meeting with several people that at Region 20 day after tomorrow in San Antonio uh to get
031coached up on that because I don't have any background on financial exigency. I've been told that Juan Cruz, your attorney, knows a lot about how to do that, too. Um not because he's y'all's attorney, it's just because I asked who I could call legal-wise and I was told he's the guy. And so, which is it's nice to know that he's y'all's. Um So, just a a quick glance into what I've gone through in my past to kind of be suggestive of where we can go in your future financially. In Sabinal, uh if you recall, if you were in a board seat or paying attention to to school finance in 2011, the state was in a really bad financial situation. We were in the Great Recession. Remember the 2008 recession that we went into? And so,
032the state cut $5.4 billion, which today doesn't sound like a lot of money, but back then that was a lot of money and schools were laying off teachers. And so, uh there was a hold harmless provision in some early legislation called ASATAR, additional state aid per tax relief. And it was one of the early 2000 uh attempts to reduce the tax burden on property owners. And so, in Sabinal, we were about a $7 million plus budget. Y'all are about a 20 plus million dollar budget, so quite a bit bigger district. But, we were going to lose over $2.5 million out of a $7 million budget. So, that was a huge amount of money that we were going to lose from the state. It wasn't because we were mismanaging, it's just they were ending legislation on
033a hold harmless provision. So, in those days, you could just have a tax increase and you could raise it raise your M&O tax rate so many pennies each year without calling for a tax ratification election. And so, I had this very same conversation with the board and then I had this same conversation with the community of Sabinal. And I told them that if we didn't increase our taxes, that um we were possibly facing school closure and consolidation. And um nobody likes to hear about their school taxes going up because that's over 50% of your overall taxes that you pay on your property. And so, I tell you this story for a reason. So, we had a really low M&O tax rate of 82 cents back in that day. And we raised it to a dollar
034four over a period of three years. And we got out of that financial situation and we never had any financial problems and and we went on as if nothing had ever happened. And we never got into our fund balance either. So, what I'm also proposing to the board is we investigate is now it's called a VATRE, V A T R E. V A T R E. So, voter approved tax ratification elections. And you can't raise the tax rate as much as we did back then in this 2015 through 2017 period in Sabinal. But, my point is is we can still raise our M&O tax rate to help us. But, this we call the election the same time you call your board election. So, it's a November election. So, the way we call the election for
035this VATRE in August. I think it's August. Might be late July. Anyway, it's the same time you call your school board election. It'll be on the same board meeting. So, with that, it goes to the voters. Rivals in Sabinal to Hondo, so I told them they were going to become the Sabinal I'm in the Hondo Cowboys. And that made a lot of people upset, but it got people active behind supporting the the the tax ratification election. So, I can tell you that I might bring up Carrizo Springs podcast. >> [laughter] >> Okay? And if if that stirs people up, I mean, I'm I'm just telling you I part of my job as I see it is to help y'all get out of this financial situation. I got to convince people to be pro-school. Hope your
036financial situation. It's just what I do. I like having transparency in the community. I like having accessibility to the community. And so, I hope to start off with some bad news, but on the right foot by being accessible to your community about this. Um It's a delicate tightrope on uh being transparent and also upsetting people and having them lose faith in your school. I I recognize uh the tightrope that I must walk in that communication, but I'm I'm just telling you how it is, okay? I I wasn't here when this problem was created, but I'm here to hopefully help bail y'all out or get you down the road moving in a All right, I'll do this. And I feel very very uh comfortable in saying that God had a mission for me. And I'll leave
037it at that. All right. So, uh with this said, I I mentioned this um uh a little bit in my Friday update. Um We we're looking at how we can cost uh cut costs administratively. And when I say administratively, I'm not talking about administrative positions, but um merging our two elementary schools together and consolidating them. Um So, you know, you're still going to have the same number need for teachers. We're still going to need a counselor, a librarian, and all that, but we have we have a lot of um paraprofessional and at-will positions that we could downsize on. And And nobody wants that, folks. You know, I I don't relish that job. But, you know, in a way I'm your hired hand to bring to you those solutions. And the solutions are going to be
038we got to we got to downsize personnel, period. That is the main ticket. With that said, um Robert has tentatively secured a $1.4 million loan from Zavala National Bank. This will help cover payroll for like a couple months, Robert? >> May. Through May. We got to go through We got to get through June, July, and August also. Our fiscal year ends the end of August. So, this doesn't get us out of the hurt. It just gets us a little further down the road. We got to get till the end of August. We got to find solvency. So, uh while this isn't an action item, certainly speak [clears throat] up during this report. Are y'all interested in us approaching like Uvalde or State Bank? Uvalde, a bigger bank that has a higher lending uh capacity. Is
039that something y'all want us to look into? I would think finding out what we need to get us through the end of the year would be most important to find out now. Um I can cover any debts, I guess, if there's any debts needing to be covered. Um I don't think just addressing um that was searching for larger loans back in 2024. Um but, that seems no longer They're no longer employed or is no longer by the district or contracted. >> So, correct me if I'm wrong, Robert. Our our bond counsel, not bond counsel, but our bond financial advisors won't work with us anymore because we owe them money. Uh no, sir. Um The group that Mr. Martinez is referring to was replaced by a new firm. Uh that firm is the Athena Financial. Uh
040he used to work uh with the district for many, many years on pretty much all the bond counsel people. service. Uh But, he's accessible. Uh we can reach out to him. The catch with these kind of notes is they have to be short-term, 1 year. Outside of that, anything longer than that, and this is by uh information that our attorney writing our bond attorney. All right. From this It's coming in from him. Uh We can only go 1 year. Anything after that, you have to go to the voters. So, please keep in mind anything you borrow, you have to pay next year. Which means you reduce your available funds next year. The district met the obligation that the district committed to year before, the 1.4 the 1.4 million that we went to. Uh we settled
041that that loan. And it impacts your next year budget as well. So, with that said, if you'll go back to this spreadsheet with these financials on it, you know, you've been hovering around 20 million as your revenue and you've been hovering 20 million plus for your expenses. This year, you know, your revenue is much smaller and also your budget is much smaller. It's 15 and 16 million respectively. And you're still at a small deficit. So, we have to realize that our budget next year is going to be substantially lower than 16 million, which is this year's budget, which is the smallest budget on this whole spreadsheet. Because we have to have enough reserve capacity to pay back these loans. Okay? So, if we take out loans, we have to have that amount. I can tell
042you that um People have figured out there's a new superintendent in town because I'm getting phone calls and emails about how much money we owe different businesses and companies. The largest being with Region 20. We owe them over $180,000. That's a lot of money. And they're the ones that are trying to help us out still, okay? And that's for services and goods, not so much that um they're going to give us um No one's going to give us money. State the TEA is not going to give us money. Uh So getting enough money to get us through the end of the year. Let me define end of the year. That's August 31st. Not the end of May, the school year, okay? We're one of the few organizations that has a, you know, a true start
043and finish in their school in their being their school calendar, and then we have a regular 12-month calendar like the rest of the working world has. And so fiscal year ends >> [snorts] >> August 31st. Our school year ends at the end of May. So we've got to make payroll for April, May, June, July, August. That's 5 months. And we have with this 1.4 million, which we have not signed off on because it needs y'all's approval. That's just going to get us through the end of May. So that still leaves us a deficit of 3 months of not being able to make payroll. So um and school's out, but that doesn't mean uh our people don't get paid those months. They're They're Everybody's uh that's on what we call uh 10-month working cycle, meaning the
044school year, their their income is annualized over 12 months. Okay. Uh Wrapping up here, uh did an informal PEIMS review. Uh If you recall when I met with y'all uh the night that y'all decided to hire me, I told you that there was some PEIMS irregularities. Well, I got a letter dated April 2nd stating that they're doing a desk audit on our PEIMS irregularities. So what I surmised when y'all met the night that y'all decided to hire me, that fact is true. So I have requested uh with Region 20 today uh them to do uh an internal audit of our PEIMS to help us right some of the wrongs in how we code. And And this is a really complex conversation for another day, but basically we have a a string of 21 numbers, and
045all those numbers mean something in payroll, personnel, students, employees, the subjects we teach, the the programmatic things that we're required to have for students. And we're miscoding things. Now some of this will help us when we re- uh code, we'll actually get more funding in some areas like in comp ed and in early childhood. Those two areas I'm I know our numbers look really small for this type of district. When I say this type of district, a district that has the vast majority of our students are economically disadvantaged families, okay? So we get extra funding for those children. And so uh we're not getting our comp ed dollars, which is our second largest student funding source. And those our comp ed numbers look really small, and they should be really large. And then our early
046childhood, those are children uh kindergarten through third grade. They're economically disadvantaged. Well, I dare say it's probably every student in kindergarten through third grade, right? So we should be getting 100% funding on those, and we're not. All right. So those things we can correct, and that But that's just going to be a couple of pennies in the bucket at the end of the day. So uh PEIMS is an area that uh we're looking at. All right. I want to change gears. Uh Peggy had asked for um a copy of the legal invoices uh for the last 3 months. Uh So I provided to every board member. I'm going to turn over to you, Peggy. Can you talk to that? Yes. Um I requested the um attorney fees. I am I don't think as a board
047we really don't know where we're going with the attorney. We don't um We don't You know, he doesn't bring that much to us as far as actions and things that he's doing. And um it worries me that um if we're going to pay high attorney fees, I want him to be handling sound things, things things that are, you know, detrimental to the district that are that are, you know, things that are um going to be taking care of us. Um if we're paying him and um he's doing things that or things are going on that um How do I word this? You know, he's they're not um How do I word this? I I just don't want him to be, you know, like taking care of matters that um are not going to be good
048for us. Like paying um you know, like we're paying bills for somebody. We're we're um you know, we're taking care of their debt. If If the ex-superintendent, if she was using the attorney to help her structure her not buyout, but retirement, then I think money's like that need to come back to us. And And I think that um people like that need to be responsible for their debt. Y'all follow me? No? No, I I do follow. I follow you. And you know, when I'm when I'm reviewing [clears throat] all these fees, there's a lot of fees on here. Uh you know, point 20 memos. Uh you know, FMLA things. You know, there's a lot of things on here that sometimes I don't think the lawyer may need to get involved with. Well, I I think
049a lot of it has to do with um they don't know their positions that well, and they don't know what to do. So they're having to pay the attorney do their work for them. That's the way I see it. And I That's not our money to spend like that. Well, if I could speak to that, um first I think we can make this just a standing report month to month. We bring you the the attorney fees for that month, just like we do the other information during the board. That way you can see the tracking of who called in. Uh typically uh the only two people that should be calling the the attorneys superintendent and the board president. I haven't read y'all's board operating manual, but usually that's only two people that the board authorizes
050is the board president and myself. Uh Two, and I'm not going to be so bold to say that I'm as smart as an attorney, but I have prided myself as being very legal-wise. And two, I'm I'm pretty experienced as well. So my board loved me because I was a tightwad. That's what they called me when it came to stuff like that. So um I saw that number. I mean, there can be some unique years where you'll have a a big number like that, but this shouldn't be a constant thing. But maybe y'all have been through some stuff. You know, I didn't spend a lot of time looking at this again because what's happened has happened before my watch, but I can tell you that I don't like calling attorneys for that reason. They're expensive. And
051to the extent possible, I uh The one thing about educators, and I think this is true whether you're a teacher, you're a principal, or you're a superintendent, you can call your friends and say, "Hey, do you have a document for this? Do you know how to do this?" And And we as superintendents do a lot. Uh we call one another quite a bit. And I am a uh TASB certified mentor superintendent. So I've been mentoring rookie superintendents for over a decade now. And that's one of the things that I I bring to them is is all the plethora of documents I've created and collected through my years. So I have all those luckily with me here, too. So uh I was talking to Sarah today about level one grievance uh scripts from the attorneys. And
052so we spoke about that today, did my Sarah. So, you know, uh once you have the script for these grievances and how you conduct a grievance hearing, uh until the legislature changes something, those scripts are good. So something that uh she and I just discussed today. So we don't necessarily have to contact the attorneys for every little thing. Okay. Um trying to wrap up. We really we're having a short meeting in board, so I apologize to everybody for this audience included. Okay, so uh because I've made a commitment to live here, I'm working like I'm here cuz I don't have a wife or family to go to, so we all putting in the hours. So, what I hope uh y'all can find is reasonable is on Mondays or the first day of the week I'm
053going to be in the office. I'll arrive here around 9:00, 9:30 in the morning, and then on Fridays I'm going to try to skedaddle around 3:00. Just so I can not drive in the dark. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be. I'm getting older, and two, I just really miss my family a lot. And so, trying to have a little bit of time on the weekends is is really paramount for me. So, those will be my basic hours of operation. [clears throat] Uh typically, uh during the week when I'm here, I'm here at 7:30, and I'm staying here. I don't think the earliest I I left the office was Friday, and that was at 6:15. I was here till 8:00, 9:00 nights before. So, unless there's a big concern with that, I'm
054going to put the hours in. I'm going to get the job done one way or the other, but to the extent possible, I I'll try to leave a little early on Fridays. Um So, I I had mentioned uh briefly I'm going to be out of uh on a vacation that was previously arranged before my employment in in June, so that will necessitate a move on the June board date. And then also the last week of August into the first week of September, uh my wife and I are going to be traveling, so I'm going to be taking those days off, but those will be non-paid days. Uh I won't be uh being paid for those days, so there won't be a cost to the taxpayers or to the district. With that said, uh that's my
055report. Promise they won't be quite as long in the future. Does anybody have any questions or Uh I just want to mention that I'm sure or sure that uh looking at this uh financial summary, it's interesting to see that we've been told all this time that we were good, we were good, we were good. And to see a big difference. Right. The it's kind of disheartening, and then at the same time I'm also thinking, okay, is there anything >> [clears throat] >> trainings that doesn't cost much or doesn't even cost the uh school board, you know, where we can get educated on school finances? Because I think this that's very detrimental to understanding, you know, how finances really work at the school district. Uh cuz it's a little it can get confusing. Really confusing. So,
056I mean it it's it's disheartening. I mean, I'm like, wow. That's all I have to say. >> [clears throat] >> Uh There are trainings. Uh To answer your questions, they they'll have trainings at SLI in June. I have trainings at the TASB conference in uh October, in September, or whenever it is. You know, the the problem that's a catch-22 right now is sending y'all to a training costs a lot of money. And the you know, the conference, just registration for those conferences is $700 per board member, and then you pack on accommodations and meals and travel and all that other stuff, it can back up real fast. Um I'm not going to say that uh I can get training here, but I'll certainly try. Uh I don't I don't know that TASB does on-site training
057like that. But, um I might be able to contract out uh with somebody to do some training. Your your best defense is you're mandated by law to have a audit, independent audit, and then your auditor should be going over those numbers, you know. Now, granted, that audit book is big, it's really busy, and it's got a lot of information, but you can ask for what is the bottom line? Where are we at financially? Get them to talk to you when they do the audit report. So, y'all's fiscal year ends in August, so your audit will be sometime in the early, mid-fall, October-ish, probably, and you'll probably get a report sometime November, December-ish. Um I mean, that's when I spoke to y'all when y'all met with me at last board meeting, that's where I was getting
058your information, your financials and stuff, because your audits are posted on the TEA website. But, if you recall, I said it was lagging. I couldn't get this past year because it wasn't posted yet. And so, I could already smell the the stink in the air that there was something wrong by just looking at those audits that you can look at. You can also go on the TEA website, and again, this is something that uh either Robert or I could do as an a training in the future is just teach y'all where to go on the TEA website to look this information up, because it it's called lagging information. It won't have the immediate last 12 months, but it'll have the previous years' information listed where you can look this up, the summary of finances and
059whatnot. Uh It's really complex stuff, though. I mean, even to have training, it it's complex to comprehend. Um I'm not going to say I'm an expert on it, but you know, I've been doing it so long I understand it better, but I should as a superintendent, as especially a seasoned superintendent. But, I can't answer why y'all weren't told this. There should have been a lot better transparency, though. Or at least to be able to ask the right questions, you know, that that the we're always under the I mean, they're the pro In my opinion, they're you know, they're the professionals, they know what they're doing, and and we got slapped. And I guess my only my only I guess the statement and what I have to say is, you know, the information we heard today
060is a lot of information to swallow, and it's a lot of of numbers, you know, to to take in. Um and hearing, you know, the words consolidation and closure, you know, it it should ring hard in our heads, you know, around us in in the towns around us. We have a lot of um you know, examples of what happens when consolidation and closure happen, you know, Big Wells, um Batesville, Asherton, to say the least. They had the same type of, you know, issues uh going on back in a couple of decades ago. Um so, as we move forward, you know, these decisions are going to be tough, they're going to be hard, but they're going to be important and needed decisions. Because my opinion is the school district, you know, it's the heartbeat to this
061city. You know, and and if something happens to the school district, what's going to happen to Crystal City? And I want to be able to say in 5 years, you know, we're still the Crystal City Hondo Liners. Um we're still here, and and move forward as a pack, right? Um So, I just thank you for all the work that you've done in the past week. You know, it's a lot of information to to pull together. Um you know, I think as a board, it's going to be a lot of inside thoughts and and looking and and you know, to move forward and to start making the right decisions for for the district. You know, and and take everything out of um any anything personal, anything going moving forward. It's just going to have to be
062students first and district first, you know, moving forward. Um every decision's going to be important. And um the staff and everybody involved and and included, you know, money's going to be tight probably for a while. Um expenses are going to need to be brought down. Um you know, I think we have the right person in interim to to lead us through this, and hopefully we can find somebody else to um full uh permanent superintendent that can, you know, take the reins and and um you know, move the district forward. You know, this is a very important time for not only the district, but Crystal City as itself. And [clears throat] uh adding to that, and I I I appreciate the transparency. That's what we really needed. That's what we wanted. That's what we've been asking
063for. Uh the transparency not only with us, but with the public, with our teachers, our principals, everybody who, you know, our stakeholders here. So, I really do appreciate that. Thank you. Well, I am >> [clears throat and cough] >> I hope I'll bring a value-added uh effort to the cause. The main thing that we all need to learn to say is no. We all have to learn to say no people cuz people are going to come to you all as they will come come to me trying to justify but please, but we need, I want, and we just we have to understand that if we don't say no, we're never going to get out of this mess, because everybody's going to have their exception. And >> [clears throat] >> all I can promise you is
064what I will bring you will be my very best recommendations. It'll be up to y'all to accept those recommendations, and understand that I have nothing to gain here other than trying to help you all get out of this mess. And so at the end of the day it's going to be y'all's decision, not mine. I'm just going to be bringing you the best recommendation I can and I hope that you'll trust it because I have nothing to gain. I don't pay taxes here. I don't have children here. I ultimately don't live here. So why would I bring those recommendations to you unless they were the best ones that I could bring? Okay? I hope you all will respect that because things are going to get things will get ugly before they'll get better. Unfortunately, we
065have to accept that. I think that's all for that. Um move on to item 9A, informational items. Uh 2025-26 TA assignment accreditation status to Crystal City ISD, accredited warned. Sarah going to We're going to Good evening. Um I'm here to present the assignment of accreditation status to Crystal City ISD letter that we Then we received the official notice back in February. One of the notification requirements was that we either send it out to students, to parents and staff, um well, parents and students of Crystal City ISD. The other one was that we could have posted it on the school news on the city newspaper, or we could present it to the uh school board. Um we had sent it out to all parents of Crystal City ISD students. Um but we didn't read, and I
066will own it, I didn't read the other part that we had to send it out to all community members, and we don't have that type of postage here. Um so when communicating with TEA, they they recommended that we just present it at a public uh public school I mean school board meeting. So I'm going to read the letter um as presentation, and then if you have any questions I I'll entertain questions. Um The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the 20 uh the 2025-2026 accreditation status of the Crystal City ISD is accredited warned. Under state law, the accreditation statuses that may be assigned to districts include accredited, accredited warned, accredited probation, and not accredited revoked. A status of accredited warned means that a that a school exhibits deficiencies and performance that if
067not addressed will lead to probation or revocation of the district's accreditation status. The Crystal City ISD has been uh assigned an accredited warned status due to the ratings assigned to the district in the state's academic accountability rating system and financial accountability rating system. Specifically, the Crystal City ISD was assigned a 20 2025 financial accountability rating of F, substandard achievement, and an academic accountability rating of B for the 2025, 2024, and 2023 school years. To address the financial accountability, CCISD and the Board of Trustees have developed a strategic action plan to manage current fiscal pressures by closely tracking enrollment and attendance, optimizing staffing levels and managing personnel costs, using state financial rating, the first rating, to ensure more money reaches the classroom, and building healthy reserves for future stability. We are actively watching watching for risks
068like funding shortages or sudden sudden costs. To stay ahead, we are working with TEA experts on financial planning and keeping our community informed every step of the way. To address the academic accountability, Benito Juarez Elementary and the Crystal City ISD are committed to a new era of academic excellence. We are currently implementing a rigorous turnaround plan designed to raise our school rating to a C or better within two years. Through our strong foundation strategy, we are revitalizing our curriculum and leadership with proven evidence-based methods. Backed by additional funding from the CCISD and expert guidance from ESC 20, we are focused on providing the high-quality education of our our students deserve. With strength in community, we are unified for success. Under law, if the current accreditation concerns for the district are not addressed, the district may
069be assigned an accreditation status of accreditation probation or not accredited revoked. A not accredited revoked status means that the TEA no longer recognizes the district as a Texas public school. Districts with an accreditation status below accredited accredited may also be subject to additional accreditation sanctions as referenced in statute and rule. For more information regarding the assignment of accreditation statuses to school districts, you may access the TEA website. This website will provide you with background information as well as links to the Texas Education Code and current uh commissioner rules related to accreditation. If you have any additional questions regarding the assignment of accredited accredited warned status to the Crystal City ISD, or you would like more information, you can always contact my my office, contact my phone, or my email. So that is the letter that
070we have we had sent out to parents um and that we present to you. Any questions? Are there any requirements that we post on the website or anything? Yes, it's also posted on the website. I guess does that change anything or how the district operates or or doesn't change anything right now the way anything goes? As far as changes go for the curriculum side of it, we are working with Benito Juarez and we are working with Mr. Hines as well. Mr. Hines is closely working with Mr. Alvarado. Um we did apply for the Lasso 4 grant. We it is still in process um but we are also working with Region 20 for the LIF cycle, um which is another part of the grant, and we are going to work focus on the Blue Bonnet implementation
071Blue Bonnet curriculum implementation for math K through 5. We are also working on the LIF PLC, which is going to restructure our PLC process to conduct data analysis, go over curriculum, um to ensure that our teachers internalize the curriculum of the Blue Bonnet. Are we allowed to put this in the newspaper? We can. I think that would be But it's it's part of the website already. >> purposes. Because it does state there for community >> [clears throat] >> as I was reading uh students are all in the district and property owners in the district. So. I think it'd be good to go ahead and post it in the In the newspaper? >> Yeah, there's still a lot of community members that will read the newspaper and get that information. We can put it out there.
072Thank you. Any other questions? Don't put it in the pencil. Hm? Airman Hines. >> [clears throat] >> And with that being said, um item 10, adjournment. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. I make the motion to adjourn. Who will second? Sammy second. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you all. I'm I'm at 7:09.