001[Music] um good evening the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees is now convened in a regular board meeting on Thursday January 16th of 2025 in the board of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Mark Henry Administration Building at 6 p.m. I'd like to welcome both our audience members and our online viewers um to this meeting the board is here to set goals review reports approve budgets contracts and Personnel appointments and establish policy for the district is not the board's role to handle the daily operations that responsibility lies with our superintendent policies and procedures are in place to address concerns uh this is a business meeting of the Board of Trustees held in the public um but it's not a public meeting um audience participation is limited to designated times for citizen comments or
002agenda related comments we ask for cooperation in ensuring that the meeting runs in an orderly and efficient manner as outlined in board policy um disruption of the meeting by any person including audience members is not allowed and will be addressed by the board president uh or me the Vice President in his stad today or councel persistent disruption can result in removal from the premises and in some some cases may lead to legal consequences including arrest um if disruptive individuals may be asked to leave the gallery and view the meeting from the Overflow area board members have received materials related to tonight's agenda ahead of this meeting agenda items may not be handled in the or uh may not be handled in the order they appear in the agenda if the board determines a need for
003a closed session during the meeting it will do so in accordance with sections 551.071 through 551.074 of the Texas government code uh tonight's proceedings are being um broadcast live on the district website and will be available for viewing afterward for the video to reflect the meeting clearly please refrain from speaking While others are talking and keep your cell phones turned off or on silent thank you for joining us this evening and for your continued interest in Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District um we uh will'll head um we have citizen participation guidelines that I will share with you now um patrons who have registered in advance May address the board during agenda comments prior to the board's discussion of the related item the Texas open meetings act prohibits discussion of complaints against public officers or employees
004in open sessions such comments will be heard in a closed session and may be rearranged on the agenda patrons may also address the board during citizen participation on any non-agenda matters of Interest the same rules apply regarding complaints please note that while board members may not respond to public comments this does not imply agreement or validation of those comments participants should also be aware that public statements are not protected against claims of defamation or invasion of privacy for detailed instructions on registering to speak please visit the district website at cfisd.net patrons registered to speak will see their names on the screen when your name is called please move forward to the front row of reserve seats and tonight um we ask that you move quickly up to the front rows as possible um for the
005list of speakers when you approach the podium you'll see a timer on the monitor you'll be given warnings at 30 seconds and 15 seconds to wrap up your remarks the total speaking time will depend on the number of speakers registered tonight and uh always um a special time in our meeting is when we um do our invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance the invitation for tonight's board meeting will be given by Reverend Joseph kamaro who is the senior pastor of life Church in Cypress Texas an a reader coffee drinker didn't know we had that in common and traveler Pastor Joseph as he is lovingly called by his church members is a native houstonian with a die hard love for Houston sports teams his studies and heart for people have led him to counsel many families
006in the Cypress Community through the difficult seasons of Life Reverend Gario believes that investing in the students of our community Through kindness and acts of service will produce lasting results for future Generations thank you Pastor Joseph for being here tonight and supporting cfd before the invocation I would like to introduce the Cypress Lakes High School afjrotc Cadets who will be performing the color guard Cadet first lieutenant Ashley Pinera Cadet first lieutenant javanni Marshall Cadet senior master sergeant Arman Amaria and Cadet Airman First Class Abdullah Hassan these C Cadets present the colors to you under the direction of senior master Sergeant Jason single retired US Air Force at this time I would like ask each of you to please stand for the indication and the pledge of allegiance to the United States and Texas Flags I
007pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to thee Texas one State under God one and indivisible thank thank you dear loving father thank you for your many blessings thank you for the gift of life thank you for giving us the measure of Health that we need to fulfill our purpose thank you for the opportunity to be involved in meaningful and Lasting work and for the honor of serving our community in your sacred writings it says that you have established those in authority to promote peace and Justice it also says that we ought to pray for our leaders so that they so that we may live
008a peaceful life therefore I pray for our superintendent and our school board officials I ask that you would grant them wisdom and dealing with the agenda that is before them confidence to do what is right for our district the ability to work together in unity even when there are genuine philosophical differences and peace peace in their lives and joy in their callings lastly I ask that you would Grant and keep the students the faculty and staff safe at all times and at every occasion in your mighty name amen trustee Christine cach will read the dist vision District's vision and mission statement our vision at cfd is formed from the acronym lead to learn Empower achieve dream lead our mission is to maximize every students potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing students to be
009the 21st century global leaders thank you thank you truste comach uh we will now proceed to the remarks and announcements and recognition portion of the agenda in this uh in 1A the superintendent will make remarks and announcements regarding the honors and achievements earned by staff and students in recent weeks and provide information regarding district and community events or items of Interest we do have one speaker on this uh subject um Carol trojek if Carol please come forward to the podium thank you thank you uh Mr secretary if you will okay um hi my name is Carol traic and I stand before you as a resident parent and teacher of this district and I chose to speak under this agenda item to highlight the impact of your leadership on our students and my child I applaud
010the work you do and I recognize the time and dedication you give to this District I know that you believe your efforts are contributing to what you perceive as the right path for Cipher students that being said I must speak I must speak up what I witness on Monday during the meeting specifically with regard to several of the policies being discussed was traveling I find these policies to be self- serving and not in the best interest of our Cipher students the contempt directed at one of our board members who spoke against some of these policies was painfully clear contempt in my view arises from hate and hate arises from fear and the fear that I see in this board comes from the false belief that our children will not Thrive unless you mold them into
011believing and behaving like you I'm so sorry this is on um remarks on honors and achievements and you're speaking on a different agenda item I'll make sure that we add you to the end of that um agenda item but you're speaking on the wrong topic so please have a seat I was speaking on their leadership yeah so please have a seat thank you that's fine oh and I'll hand it over to Dr Killian to make some introductions thank you very much um the fall semester of uh 20242 uh school year showcased many Great Moments in cfis please enjoy this recap video highlighting how our students and staff are on the path to amazing [Applause] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
012[Applause] [Music] [Applause] my communications department does a great job on those videos um January is designated as Schoolboard recognition month trustees are elected unpaid volunteers who are responsible for so many important and difficult decisions facing our Public School System we want to thank our seven trustees um and all this the decisions that they have to make and all the commitment they have to our community um to express the appreciation for school board members our campus has helped create a brief video that I'd like to share with you now thank you for amazing the path to amazing yay thank you school board from elementary thank you for stepping up for CF thank youir school board for all you do happy board [Applause] appreciation thank [Applause] you see [Applause] [Music] we appreciate all that SCH love thank
013you school thank you says thank you SCH Bo y AR Elementary wants to say thank you to our cfis board members for supporting our staff students and Community we appreciate your service and dedication to our students staff and Community thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you from Kei [Music] Elementary Shakari gracias [Music] gracias thank you thank you cfic school board for helping our students and staff grow more more [Applause] apprciate thank you for keeping students like me in mine our dedicated teachers in mine our growing community in mine from all levels of your Elementary thank you for your [Applause] service thank you cfia st school board for all that you do brosan appreciates you [Music] from our neighbors at Lin thanks for all you do thank you school for your service loves you from Anthony
014Middle School thank you for your [Music] service thank you School Board You're simply amazing your leadership and Care are truly worth [Music] praising thank you jger Elementary wants to say thank you School Bo we want to take a moment to express our appreciation for your hard work dedication and Leadership we're grateful to have School Board like you love Elementary appreciate you thank you School Bo postma Elementary thanks you cfis school board members we love you than you School Board school board thank you so much for serving our district I have some special post Patriots that would like to share something with you um thank you for giving us beautiful school and wonderful [Music] teachers um thank you Dad for doing the school board thank you so much we appreciate you and we have these special
015cards that will be delivered thank you thank you School Board we appreciate you on the happy School Board appreciation thank you for keeping us safe thank you for giving us recess equipment thank you for giving us the best education thank you for allowing us to go to field trips that about our community thank you for giving us knowledge thank you for feeding us good food thank you for giving us books to read thank you for the supplies we need in classroom L Elementary appreciate you we are a squad from Heaven Elementary we want to say thank you for all you [Music] do we appreciate you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cool good now we also have a proclamation from uh Harris County Precinct 3 commissioner
016Tom Ramsay's office here to present that is Landon Reed assistant director of community outreach and special events welcome thank you just wanted to say on behalf of the precinct and also commissioner while I'm here we know the hard decisions that these boards have to make especially these last four years a lot of things in the budgets a lot of things to make our kids safe we're rallying for y'all as much as we can with the state especially on that safety side of things uh and we really appreciate you guys you know youall take that time out and and it's tough and you are the largest school district we have in Precinct 3 so uh being large and stretched out like we are we appreciate the woses that you guys have to go through to figure
017out all those Logistics and everything so on behalf of commissioner tonight The Honorable Harris County Precinct 3 commissioner Tom S Ramsey PE hereby recognizes the school board for your service to Cyprus Fairbanks ISD January 16th 2025 as Precinct 3 Commissioner of Harris County Texas and on behalf of the constituents of Harris County it is my honor to recognize and congratulate the school board for your faithful service to the Cypress Fairbanks istd Board of Trustees your unwavering commitment to Foster the educational experience for students in our community is truly making a district a great place to live and learn thank you for your generous giving of your time and talent to the board as you serve the faculty students and families we wish you continued success in Harris County pre Sy 3 Tom S Ramsey thank
018you all thank you uh next we have our wonderful Leslie Marton president of Cipher Houston Chamber of Commerce to come up and speak as Landon is handing that out I have to say I'm really glad I didn't follow the kids because that's a hard act to follow all those bright shiny faces so I'm glad you got to do that and I didn't have to um it is is my pleasure it's my 13th year to present to you that it is still the number one reason that people move to our area is because of our amazing school district and our relationship with this school district make our business great so on behalf of our business Community thank you for the hours that you spend away from your families um away from your jobs away from your
019volunteer time thank you for what you do for our community and continue the great work and all that you do for cfd thank you um now I'd like to recognize Essence Castro um from the cfd VIPs executive board thank you so much good evening tonight I want to take a moment to express my deep gratitude um for the remarkable work you do as volunteers your service is a testament to your passion and dedication and it's clear that your hearts are fully invested in the success of our students and staff and Community here in scair thank you to thank you for your countless hours you devote to making decisions that reflect both wisdom and compassion your commitment to including stakeholders into decision-making and seeking feedback shows your belief your yeah your belief and the power of
020collaboration it's a practice that strengthens our community and ensures that every voice has an opportunity to be heard together we share a vision a path so amazing for everyone here in cyer ISD your leadership lights the way inspiring all of us to work harder dream bigger and achieve more for the future of our district from the bottom of my heart thank you for your service your leadership and your unwavering dedication it is an honor to walk a alongside this journey with you all thank you so much um next I'd like to also introduce the Girl Scout our great Girl Scout council 51 n of San jento I believe they have a special gift for all of you oh it's cookies love Girl Scout cookies there go my name is Belinda piden I'm the community engagement
021manager for part of the side feir ISD we split this I first want to take this time to apologize that the girls could not be here today we are preparing for cookie season with starts in about 3 weeks and believe it or not there's a lot of training that the girls have to go through so I am their representative today but we too would like to thank you the school board for everything you allow the Girl Scouts to do in this District we have approximately no we have actually uh five communities Girl Scout communities in the sere school district wild flowers Heart of Texas Firefly Trails Cyprus B I'm sorry Cypress band and Cooper Creek Meadows and of all those we have over 2,069 Girl Scouts in the sfair school district representing 234 troops and
022this could not be done without your support the support and the empowerment that you give the principles the superintendent all the support staff and we just want to say thank you on behalf of the Girl Scouts of San jento Count Council and I do have cookies for you I don't know how there's very there's a variety so I'll just leave them maybe with someone and you can pick which one you want okay thank you thank you we so appreciate the Girl Scouts and really their cookies too that was the first 15 pounds in my life so extra 15 pounds that is uh thank you also to to the scif falls uh High School culinary practicum students under the leadership of teacher Tyler mcke for preparing the delicious treats that you see at each of your
023desks also lastly I want to thank all the campuses for delivering gifts School swag and quite frankly for the video that we just had too as well thank you so much for that moving on it is National mentoring month January is designated as National mentoring month mentoring can make such a big difference in the lives of students uh struggling with academics personal issues and staying in school we would like to thank all of our cfis mentors for making such a difference in the lives of our kids and if you're interested in becoming a mentor we'd love you to contact our cfd community engagement office thank you so much for that uh the character trait uh bringing out the best character trait for this month on January is punctuality thank you all for the campuses for
024emphasizing strong character for all of our cfd students and here's an event coming up that I'm looking forward to the cfis dance showoffs are scheduled for Thursday January 23rd at 6:30 p.m. at the Barry Center see some of the top dance Talent throughout the district including the all district dance team admission is free for all who attend I would tell you just you need to go to this these these ladies are all out all outstanding so next we have the livestock show coming up really quickly here the 31st Annual cfd Livestock Show and sale will be held January 29th through February the 1st at the cfd exhibit Center on 11206 telg Road as in the past year we will have live stream of the judging and the sale uh the onsite freezer sale and silent
025auction will be at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday February the 1st followed by the buyer luncheon that will be at Arnold Middle School at 11:00 a.m. and then the live auction at 1:00 p.m. M back in the uh Gerard Arena uh view more information on the district website and then finally uh we'll have uh a celebration coming up for our counselors uh we would like to honor our school counselors the week of February 3rd through um the um February 7th for the national school counselor week national school counselor week highlights the tremendous impact that our counselors have um not only on achievement but also on planning for careers and the needs of our children so thank you so much for our counselors in the district and then finally I just like to add on a personal
026note uh thanks to the Barry Center staff and the athletic staff for the recent uh wrestling tournament the Invitational uh while many of us were finishing up our vacation those folks were putting together a tremendous program um that is just the Envy of all of the area in Texas uh for wrestling so we continue to just blow it away for wrestling so just wanted to thank the staff for that next next I have the pleasure and honor of introducing somebody um that's joining our staff that actually is already hard at work um it is my pleasure to introduce Dr Tanya gory um as the chief academic officer for cfd Dr gory brings 33 years of experience in education including 17 years of dedicated service to cyfair Independent School District most recently she served as the
027assistant superintendent of Elementary curriculum and instruction and previously the assistant superintendent for school Improvement and transformation her work is grounded in proving School Improvement practices designed to Foster positive outcomes for students throughout her career Dr gory has excelled in various leadership roles including principal assistant principal instructional specialist and classroom teacher she was actually named principal of the year in 2015 um and she's a sought-after national presenter and keynote speaker and has contributed to several educational Publications Dr gory earned her Bachelor's of science uh in education um uh Elementary education at Lamar University her MERS of Education Administration from prayer riew A&M University and her Doctorate of Education in professional leadership from the University of Houston she also attended the Harvard University School turnaround leaders Institute further strengthening her expertise in educational leadership in school Improvement
028um Tanya is dedicated she's her expertise in transformational leadership is well known um undoubtedly she's going to be a great Chief academic officer um from the moment that I met her back in I guess it was January February of last year been a year already it was clear to me that she's got a heart for kids and a heart for moving um and taking care of kids and taking them to Great Heights Dr gory good evening Dr Killian and Board of Trustees it is an honor to stand before you tonight as the chief academic officer for Cypress Fairbanks ISD this opportunity is both exciting and deeply meaningful while traveling the path to amazing my goal is to lead and serve with a clear focus on the success of every student and educator in our district
029great achievements are never accomplished alone so I want to acknowledge the very talented curriculum instruction and accountability team a group of individuals with a Relentless pursuit of Excellence I am honored to lead them I also want to thank everyone who came tonight to show their support the leaders who paved away from me and those who have contributed to my individual to my journey finally I'd like to introduce my family who's here tonight to support me those watching and those here in person my husband Kelton my dad and my stepmom a and Chester dorsy my brother-in-law Ray Williams my daughter my oldest daughter brayan my youngest daughter is watching online in Plano the person who hangs the star the moon and puts the stars in the skies for us our granddaughter Avery my sister Tracy and
030her grandson Trent my mom Mary Sullivan's also watching online I am so excited about the possibilities ahead and the incredible work we will accomplish together thank you congratulations [Applause] congratulations well deserved all right so next I believe you're going to introduce your first official Duty actually congratulations you're going to do some new principles I believe good evening again oh and yeah it is my pleasure to introduce our new assistant superintendent for educational Support Services marshelle Peters marshelle brings over 25 years of experience in education and is excited to return back to Cypress F ansd most recently she served as the exe executive director for special education in in kdd she has held leadership roles as a director of specialized programs and assessment instructional officer for life skills and ecsc programs a diagnostician coordinator a program
031specialist for assessment and inclusion she's also served as a diagnostician and a special education teacher throughout her career Mrs Peters has demonstrated a deep passion for supporting students with exceptionalities as reflected in her extensive experience Miss Peters earned her Bachelor's of s earned her Bachelor of Science and education from Baylor University her master of science and education Psychology from the University of Houston and she is currently pursuing a PhD while taking on a new leadership role in her free time she enjoys spending time with her family volunteering alongside her husband and connecting with her friends please join me in welcoming marshelle Peters back to Cyprus fingy thank you Dr gory Dr Killian and Board of Trustees and everyone that is here tonight I'm going to EXP express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you for
032this incredible opportunity it is an honor to be entrusted with leading this amazing team and I am truly excited to be returning to Cypress Fairbanks ISD it is a district that holds a very special place in my heart I want to take a moment to acknowledge the people that have made this journey possible uh my parents are watching online they live in Central Texas um but here tonight I have with me my husband Kurt his brother mark my son Brandon my daughter Bri who just ran over from a basketball game over in Waller uh my bonus daughter Indigo and my son [Applause] Bryce to the entire Cypress Fairbanks Community I am eager to partner with you as we continue to serve our students and family and staff with Excellence thank you for this opportunity to
033lead and make a meaningful impact together thank you and [Applause] welcome well miss Cole I got ahead of myself now you get to introduce the new principles thank you Dr kilan Vice President Boston G and Board of Trustees you have heard me say how much I enjoy the opportunity to introduce our new principles and so we're going to get started with the new principal at Goodson middle school and just so that y'all know we are announcing two principles tonight and they've been in the R all of nine days so be sure to check on them on the break so Lynn has 29 years of experience in education with 25 of those years in Cypress faank ISD she earned her Bachelor's of arts and biological sciences from the University of Houston Clear Lake and began her
034career as a biology teacher and assistant basketball coach at Tyler ISD and Brian ISD in 2000 Lynn joined Cypress fix ISD at Cypress Springs High School as a teacher and Coach eventually becoming the head girls basketball coach Lynn transitioned into Administration after earning a master's in educational Administration from Prairie viiew A&M University she served as an assistant principal at Cook Middle School for nine years and at Cypress Woods High School for four years in 2020 she moved to Jersey Village um Jersey Village High School as associate principal and now will serve as a principal at Goodson Middle School throughout her career Lynn has exemplified an all in Attitude at each campus where she has served she actively seeks opportunity to grow as a leader and has cultivated strong professional relationships with other administrators and staff
035her expertise is frequently sought after and she is deeply committed to supporting the professional development of her teams Lynn and her wife Sheena work with who works for cciir Police Department have three children their s Matthew is a graduate of Cyrus Woods High School and works with students at Jersey Village High School their daughter Genevie is a sophomore bridgland high school and works at Club rewind and their youngest Aiden is a freshman at bridgelin high school and so as you can see their family is well invested and rooted here in our community in her free time Lynn enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends as an avid sports fan whether watching games on TV or attending in person so please join me in congratulating Lynn on being selected as a new principal at
036Goodson Middle School [Applause] [Music] [Applause] lower this a little to my level thank you Mrs Cole Bard trustees Dr Killian in the superintendent's cabinet I am truly humbled grateful and honored to be named the principal of Goodson Middle School Goodson is more than just a school it's a family of Champions for kids over the past few weeks nine days I've had the privilege of witnessing this firsthand in teachers classrooms reaching this Milestone is not something anyone does alone and I'm deeply thankful for the support of my family friends and colleagues and who I'd like to introduce some of those today first my wife Sheena and her three wonderful children Matthew Genevie and Aiden I wouldn't be here without your support and love and kids I know it's not easy living in a house with both
037the school administrator and a police detective that work in the district I'm also grateful to have my in-laws Ruth and L Evans here today along with my sister and her husband Jackie and Kevin to my family members who couldn't make it today that live across Texas and in Florida thank you for your unwavering support I'd Al also like to recognize my dear friend and colleague Maggie Wy Maggie your leadership and friendship over the past 10 years have been invaluable to me thank you a heartfelt thank you goes to my Jersey Village Family for supporting me over the last few years and to my new goods and grids Lees who some of y'all are here today and my friends um I'm excited to build on the traditions of Excellence that Goodson stands for together we will
038accomplish great things for our students thank you again for this incredible opportunity I will not let you [Applause] down the next principal we'll be introducing tonight is the new principal Joel Elementary Dr Virginia Stout Virg Virginia is in her 20th year of Education she began her career in Arlington ISD as a music teacher and then moved to KD ISD while serving as a music teacher in kdd Virginia found opportunity to support outside of her role including as a district curriculum writer and as an inventionist in various grade levels at her campus in 2017 she joined Joel Elementary as an assistant principal and has served in that role for the past eight years throughout her career Virginia has been actively involved in numerous committees demonstrated a passion for lifelong learning and consistently pursu leadership development opportunities
039her musical background and Innovative thinking have allowed her to infuse her leadership style with creativity and a unique perspective Virginia obtained her Bachelor's of music education instrumental um from Texas Christian University her Masters of Science and educational Le leadership and her Doctorate of educational leadership from the University of Houston Clear Lake Virginia and her husband Adam are proud parents of two sweet dogs Oscar and I hope I say this right amarillis okay outside of work Virginia enjoys engaging in activities related to performing and Visual Arts of course both Adam and Virginia are professional musicians so their home is always filled with the joy of music please join me in congratulating Virginia in in her new role as a principal of Joel [Applause] Elementary Dr Killian and Board of Trustees thank you for giving me the
040opportunity to recognize the pillars in my individual Community who help me stand before you today you just heard a lot about me but I want to spend my time introducing you to my community my Mom and Dad are here they looked at a painfully shy and Incredibly introverted 5-year-old I know it's hard to tell and they had many conversations about what they should do with me for kindergarten and their answer was Mrs Hernandez's morning kindergarten class where I enjoyed my time in centers and circle time and I'm now able to stand in front of this semi half circle and feel right at home so thanks Mom and Dad good choice my husband Adam is here and he's always the best part of every day he also makes the world's best grilled cheese sandwiches um one
041of my best friends is here tonight her name is Heather and by day she's a professional librarian but by night she's an incredible Baker and an even better friend not only does she connect me with the beauty of the printed word she also writes notes that speak confidence and positivity into my life many of them are taped to my kitchen cabinet and are delivered with baked goods so that works well Kimberly chriswell the recently retired principal of Joel Elementary is here and I am so honored that she picked my resume out of a sea of I'm sure Millions When She interviewed me to be assistant principal she didn't know me but I'm so glad she took a chance on me and I'm even more thankful that she answers on nearly the first ring every time
042I call so thank you she's made these nine days really easy Caroline Nelson and Lisa Flynn are here they're representing our leadership team and our staff tonight from Joel and they both speak to Joel's Rich history in our community thank you for being here and thank you to those staff members who are also watching online our substitute principal from the fall Donna Harden always watches board meeting she's a retired um principal from scair and so thank you Donna I know you're watching for being our Joel life vot and for your continued membership Dr Rene San from bosnan elementary is also watching online and she's my official rookie principal Mentor which speaks to how sciare truly grows and supports new leaders in such a short time only nine days she's already been such a great resource
043and an absolute Fountain of assurance I am positively honored to have been chosen as the next principal of Joel Elementary following a long Legacy and a legacy in front of me as well I'm thrilled to continue working with the Joel community and to inspire lifelong Learners right alongside our talented and passionate staff it's always a great day to be a Joel Jaguar go Jags all right I believe that concludes my report fantastic amazing thank you welcome um congratulations to everyone what a an outstanding High Energy Smart committed group of people um it's exciting to uh be a part of it and to uh support you on your journey we will now take a short break and if those uh yeah this is an opportunity uh will be about a f minute break if you'll set
044the timer please thank you e e e [Music] thank you very much we're back from our break and uh we will proceed with board comments item 3A board members may make comments during this portion of the agenda regarding student achievement District progress and data Community input and concerns observations from school visits meetings and conferences attended district and community events and initiatives or continuing education the board may not take action on items discussed um so we will uh begin with board comments why don't we go down to this end of the um Das with trusty Hinman thank you um welcome back to everyone in cyer ISD and happy New Year the 89th legislative session started this week the state legislature meets every two years for only 140 days so the next 140 days will be critical
045for our school district for our 118,000 students 19,000 employees and 600,000 local residents I've posted the district's legislative priorities again on my truste Facebook page and Pinn it to the top so that folks can find uh detailed information about how cyer ISD is underfunded and by how much hopefully this information will be helpful for you when contacting state legislators legisl legislators to advocate for Cipher ISD our students employees and Community need you to contact your state elected officials to encourage them to pass legislation that will fully fund our schools over the break I spent a lot of time in the community and had an opport opportunity to sit down um with teachers across the district and so teachers I want to say I see you and I hear you I understand that you are feeling
046frustrated tired stressed out overworked underpaid and micromanaged we have to change that on Monday we heard that the administration is taking some steps to reduce the administrative workload for teachers I'm not sure it's being felt yet at the teacher level but I hope it will be soon and that more can be done our teachers cannot wait The District administration with the board's support needs to take real steps to address teacher concerns improving the work environment and the morale of teachers will have a ripple effect on other critical employees such as par professionals campus administrators and most importantly our students this should be a priority I won't talk about a specific agenda item in my board comments but but I will make a general comment about board governance in the two most recent School Board elections
047much was said by members of this board before being elected and their handlers about the board at that time being a rubber stamp board it seems to me that this board isn't actually in danger of becoming if not already a rubber stamp board for the policy subcommittee's personal and political agendas policies brought to the board for consideration should be one driven by a well OD need or benefit for students or staff or by need to comply with changes in the law two based on widely understood and recognized topics that impact the overall success of the district and its students and staff rather than a reaction to a political hot button issue or cultural War topic and three thoughtfully crafted to address the specific needs in this District not cobbled together from policies adopted by other
048districts we are leaders not followers unfortunately once again we will be discussing tonight a proposed policy that is based on outside anti-public education influences personal bias and political agendas this is not good governance thank you trusty comach good evening cyer I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday season and a wonderful new year it's been such an honor to serve the district and Community for the last 13 months I've learned so much and have more to learn I appreciate our families our teachers our staff our maintenance Personnel our transportation our Administration our maintenance and our Police Department I wanted to encourage H as the things that were shown tonight that we have a livestock show coming up we have a dance showoff we have robotics competition we have many things that people can attend in
049the district and this is a way uh to give back to the community by showing support in these areas I do want to clarify something that's been said a few times from the Das that we don't need to create policies and there are no problems in various areas when that is not the case it is the board's Duty and responsibility to pass policy according to the state laws and guidelines and local as needs are discovered we want to help protect our students and our staff we should always be reviewing policies in our district to see where we can enhance eliminate or improve our job is to educate students in sciare and improve their outcomes that is our absolute Focus I also wanted to give an update on the academic safety Envision and planning committee uh
050currently in our transportation area we have 56 vac driver vacancies 17 attendant vacancies with 57 which is 37 drivers and 20 attendants in training we've had a total 415 applications since November 11th um about after going through the process it takes about four weeks um for the training to take place and I'm very happy that as uh Matt Chief Operating Officer Matt Morgan said to make a request to increase our salaries a 20% pay increase because we have openings we need to be able to fill these openings in order to staff any other routes for consideration it can take up to four weeks or longer depending on how long the process uh takes with the paperwork the interview the references checked submitting drug screening and background checks and then classroom and driver training uh only
051about 20% of the drivers that go through actually go through all of those steps and complete it so we need to continue to encourage everybody to apply in our district to be a bus driver uh maybe work that and work another job in the district part-time as well um and to uh to encourage people to apply because we have an 85% retention rate in our district which is very high and we're very proud of that Dr Blas and game and myself will be meeting with Chief Operating Officer Matt Morgan to look at the Hazardous routes to assess the areas that need the most attention again the current positions need to be filled in order to address shortages in the these other areas we hear you we know there are still concerns with the transportation in
052our community and we know that the uh safety needs to be addressed and we are working on that um in our district we thank you for your patience we thank you for working together with us as we try to solve our transportation problems in the district um also in the academic safety and vision planning meeting we did Cover uh vision and planning um looking at our our mission and vision statements uh we did get an update uh which was presented on Monday night and if you haven't seen that I encourage you to go back and watch that uh where Dr gory showed uh I'm sorry where the group showed Community uh relations on guardrail 3 if it was a great uh presentation um thank you to Teresa Hull Don Trion Joe werly Scott Joel werly
053Scott Tucker Nidia stoval Nicole Williamson and Devon Perry and then also Dr gory shared an update on strategic plan goal one uh with the results of test scores and those results are going to be shared um and then we also had a shack update and then we also covered Safety and Security and then we had our transportation update that I just shared with you I went to the opening day of the 89th legislative session and communicated with several legislators about our district and I will be visiting more during the session along with our board and cabinet to address the budget needs in our district and to make sure that our legislators are aware of the needs in sfair and that we would like to work together with them to solve our budget issues I want
054to encourage our business partners our faith community service organizations and our citizens to help in our schools we're working on collaborating with our Administration on a reading program tutoring mentoring and Global volunteers many of these have been in placed but we're going to try a targeted approach to help Dawn and the community relations department to be intentional about getting as many people in sciare volunteering will make the difference in our district and will bless our students and will increase our reading and comprehens attention and you will see the district rise up um not only in test scores but in student happiness and wellness thank you so much thank you trusty comb back uh trusty L comp welcome back everyone um hope everyone had a great New Year and holiday uh break wanted to uh just
055kind of share a few things um looking forward to the spring semester finish in the 2024 2025 school year strong uh had a few visits uh recently at Brenan Elementary uh staff was focused and working diligently when we visited classrooms and walked down the Halls we have a fantastic group of Educators and staff at Brosnahan I observed one of those talented teachers taking advantage of waiting time doing flashcard drills while some of our littlest Learners were in line in one of the hallways it reminded me of a saying what's the difference between ordinary and extraordinary it's those five extra letters that little extra makes a huge difference in helping guide our students along their path to amazing I wasn't able to meet with Dr Renee s uh San day due to a scheduled District meeting
056but I look forward to meeting with her soon I also want to thank Forest bars one of our brahan school counselors and also some of their student leaders the Bronco ambassadors that gave me a tour of the school and the drawings that made for me that day as well the kind gesture is very much appreciated had an opportunity to meet with uh principal Reginald Mitchell at Thorton Middle School last Friday I was impressed with his passion towards his staff and students and education in general it is apparent that Reginal has appreciated thoron from the interactions we had with staff and students that day Reginald is a fine example of what being a servant leader is all about thoron Middle School in our in our school district are fortunate to have a person like Reginal leading
057one of our middle schools at MC Elementary I met with principal Sharon Whitfield after meetings she had uh with parents that day Jennifer swallow one of the assistant principls uh gave me the tour of the school I wanted to thank her for her time and conversation that day and for the conversations I had with other members of the staff at MC students were full of energy Friday but visited some classrooms there's a math competition during uh during the day uh during during that during lunch and uh seeing the kids uh excited at year on their classmates with something special to witness so I want to thank the custodians at each of those schools for keeping each campus in tiptop shape I'd also like to thank the cafeteria workers for the job they do daily ensuring
058that the food preparation areas are clean and for serving at least 1,400 Mills daily to to uh to students on each campus um I also want to uh focus on uh let's see uh December on December 12th through 14th the Barry Center hosted the 15th annual Houston Methodist SI Hoops Invitational uh was able to attend one of those uh games it was sidge versus SC Ranch I think Sy Ridge became was a Victor U was it SC Springs was a Victor that that that game S springs and S Ranch top boys basketball teams from across the state participated in the tournament uh want to congratulate uh send a congratulations to sa Creek for finishing third in the tournament and SII springs for winning the consolation champ Championship proceeds from the tournament benefit the cciir Educational
059Foundation providing scholarships for cfd students the first weekend in January the district welcomed athletes Nationwide to the Barry Center to partic participate in two incredible events the nation's largest boys and girls Invitational wrestling tournament and the cfd Invitational Varsity men's soccer showcase not only are students exposed to top talent but these events bring student athletes and their families from across the United States to our community um show uh show showcasing our incredible school district and facilities and positively contributing to Local Economic Development while eating at restaurants staying in hotels and shopping at our retail locations in girls basketball the SC Springs Panthers traveled to New York City where they they defeated the number one ranked preseason team in the nation we look forward to watching the Panthers this season and keeping our fingers crossed that
060we will see them in San Antonio in March in 176a the scif Falls lady Eagles are currently in first place and I also want to note girls softball's just getting started and I'm looking forward to baseball start uh starting at the end of the uh end of this month and I want to just send good luck to all our athletes this season and I also want uh to to finish up I just want to encourage um our our our business partners have expanded we've increased business partners uh don tri's done a great job this this uh this the first semester so far as far as getting additional Partners to advertise with us and and uh adding business partners also want to thank all the additional mentors I think we doubled doubled amount of was it
061a double the amount of mentors uh so incredible um Community um engagement um and I just want to encourage uh the folks that are in the audience and also uh viewing at home to really uh focus on our advertisers and trying May if if you maybe to look look a little bit more into their companies and try to do some uh you know obviously giving them some business it's again I I can't think of a better example of our community helping our community so that's all I got for tonight thank you uh Mr scanland trusty scanland thank you all for coming and I hope you had a great holiday and New Year's and I look forward to a wonderful spring semester congratulations to our new principles you are so important to our district our principles
062are some of the first to arrive and the last to leave every day you work tirelessly for our communities and our schools thank you for bringing out your best so our students can bring out their best I'm looking at my daughter's principal right now I am so lucky to have an incredible principal in Dr akres and she represents what is common across all of our principles is the heart of servant leadership in our schools our schools our teachers work tirelessly for our community I can think of so many examples too many to name it's not fair if I did but I am so appreciative of the work that goes on on our campuses every day I look forward to my community visits next week and I want to say to all principes thank you for
063inviting us out to your campuses your input from your staff from your team your teachers help us to understand how best to support the district you are the life blood of the district and we look forward to hearing you and communicating directly to admin on your behalf Dr gory I'm very excited to work with you your excellence and your leadership reputation pred you and I look forward to going down this journey together and I look forward to seeing the creativity as we look at our current uh capabilities across our district and how better to increase our learning opportunities for kids as well as giving them new standards to attain and inspiring them to get to those levels so thank you this is going to be fun I'm looking forward to the live Cipher SD Livestock
064Show the dance off my daughter's one of her very much very much her favorites uh the wrestling and comping coming robotics competitions I was not able to attend the robotics competition that was held recently each of these programs challenge our students and they give our students a chance to express themselves attain new uh challenges is to find out what hard work looks like and how to collaborate with team members there is so much to be excited about across Cypher ISD and every single weekend there are dozens of things to do there's simply not enough of us to cover it every single weekend but we look forward to being able to highlight where we can and give a shout out that is well deserved I look forward to looking working with our legislators during the current
065session in finding solutions to increase funding to our schools and I have a lengthy update from our finance and operations subcommittee so I will skip any other comments and get straight to the update so the finance and operations subcommittee met on January 9th and so I'm going to go through a few topics uh by way to share what we talked about in preparation for this meeting and the meeting uh our work session on Monday so regarding the approval of the voluntary insurance broker it's agenda item 6 H1 amena BS reviewed the RFP to obtain a qualified broker for voluntary employee benefits I.E dental vision and this request is going to our board for this meeting to take action the goal is to secure better plans for our employees at lower costs Administration requests board approval
066of a oneyear contract Fe effective February 1st 2025 with Hub International Texas Inc with four automatic one-year renewals Hub holds Platinum level contracts with major insurance carriers ensuring the best best pricing and benefits for Cipher istd employees according to the cfo's update uh questions will be addressed uh in this session and we will be taking action as necessary regarding Revenue generating opportunities uh reports in 5B and guard whale 3 so this past Monday we heard from Teresa Hull Joel weckerle Devon Perry Nicole Williamson Don tryan Scott Tucker and Nidia stoval in providing an update on potential Revenue opportunities it was an amazing discussion our team did an incredible job I'm looking for Joel he was here earlier he's somewhere but Joel and team Dawn you guys have done amazing work and thank you very much
067for being creative and looking for opportunities to utilize our assets appropriately regarding our budget calendar Karen shared a draft of the 2025 2026 budget calendar leading up to our discussions in June and so we gave her a little bit of input but we are I can assure the community that we are already hard at work in getting ready for our budget discussions this June as well as capturing information that we learn from our legislature this session Char's update Caren Smith and Amanda BS reported on additional reductions in chars federal revenue cyer ISD has filed an appeal of the 2022 cost reduction and will appeal the 2023 cost report the federal government seeks rep payment of UN allowable reimbursements stemming from a 2011 oig audit of Texas hhsc resulting in Texas HS hhsc requesting $314,999 from
068Cipher ISD Cipher SD is working with Walsh galagos on both appeals and repayment Jetty agreement Karen Smith gave an update on the jobs energy technology and Innovation Jetty act application submitted by NRG which is under review of the state com controller a three-party agreement among NRG cerd in the governor's office is expected to be recommended on January 15th 25 2025 initiating a 30-day board approval timeline anticipating a public Hearing in board consideration of the jetty agreement at the February 10th 2025 board meeting Bond refunding so the district sold refunding Bonds on Tuesday January 14th to refinance $346 m340 th000 of existing series 2015 and series 2015a bonds which will provide over a$ 21.9 million in interest savings through 2020 2036 although the interest rates have been increasing in recent weeks the markets have stabilized on
069the morning of the bond sale and the underwriting team led by RBC Capital markets decided to enter the market earlier than other transactions which did prove beneficial demand for the bonds was strong and the underwriters received orders for more than two times the amount of bonds being offered which was a better performance than other transactions in the market the result was a true interest rate pardon me the result was a true interest cost rate on the bonds of 3.41 five% including Insurance expenses the district's Bond ratings were affirmed at aa1 and AA by Moody and S&P the bonds are guaranteed by the Texas permanent School fund and therefore will also carry the highest ratings for MIP for municipal bonds of AA and or AAA and AAA Transportation update you've already heard some of the update
070from uh truste comback so Matt Morgan dis discussed with us the bus driver vacancies applications and CDL training figures and recent pay increases have Pro have improved our vacancy rates and the committee will monitor Staffing closely during the upcoming budget discussions we are seeing an uptick in driver applications and so we are both fulfilling current driver V vacancies as well as learning the correct pay rates in order to address those vacancies going forward so that we can prepare for our coming budget discussions in June regarding Surplus land agenda 7D Matt Morgan outline vacant and surplus land in the district including a potential 26 acre sale to the Chimney Hill Mud this sale will be brought to the board for consideration today and under item agenda item 7D discussions of the additional Surplus land transactions will
071be taking place in Clos session before any public board action in conclusion these updates reflect the committee's commitment to optimizing District resources and despite a lean administrative structure Cipher ISD aims to position the district for long-term success protect asset value for future families in Cypher and pursue savings through disciplined financial management and strategic planning thank you uh thank you um trusty scanland uh secretary Ray you ready to go I am Madam vice president um good evening it's great to see everyone in attendance this evening for the first formal meeting of 2025 there's plenty of great things in store for our wonderful district and I'm looking forward to what 2025 has in store first of all thank you for everyone involved in that absolutely heartwarming School Board video that appreciate video I don't know if you
072guys noticed we were called Sigma so according to my nth grader that means we're cool so I we certainly appreciate that um very thankful for the Girl Scout cookies the scouts couldn't be here tonight because are answering the higher calling of preparing for cookie season and we're very grateful for that um 2024 finished strong with another great bradam Center celebration of success last month um what a great facility with dedicated teachers and staff I always enjoy my interactions there there we get to see kids off to a bright and exciting future which uh contrasts with another December event we had which is our very own cfd officer Ward making his last call before heading off into retirement and how cool was that so we had chapters both opening and closing in cfd as we brought
07320 2024 to a close but 2025 is off to a strong start first off welcome Dr gory we look forward to working with you um as our new Chief academic officer uh also welcome uh Marshall Peters to the assistant superintendent team congrats to our new principles Blakes Ley and Stouts uh just thank you for stepping up and taking on these important leadership roles principal feedback to us on our camp campus visits is absolutely invaluable and so we're so grateful for people taking these leadership roles and providing all this valuable feedback to us this past Monday night we received a very thorough presentation on the district's fundraising and community outreach goals um thank you to everyone involved in developing that presentation and report for those watching those attendance I recommend everybody go to last night's presentation
074to see all the hard work going into those initiatives um I look forward to the new round of school visits sporting events Fine Arts robotics competitions all the great things going on in our district right next door is the rodeo art at the vpack center just a great facility I love the rodeo art U Expos Exposition and the vpack is so fantastic because parents can actually see their kids art in a gallery level atmosphere so we're so blessed to have that facility for everybody and of course on the Forefront of everyone's Minds The 89th Texas legislature is off to a start um this week I had the privilege of presenting before a well attended cfis Community connect meeting the district's legislative advocacy goals uh I wanted to stress to the entire community that it's all
075hands on deck to Advocate to advocate for funding increases in cfis uh I wanted to update the group that we're making great strides and getting champions for cfis in Austin in particular uh representative Hull has filed House Bill 1153 and representative scoffield has filed House Bill 558 to address the local homestead exemption formula that's currently costing cfis north of $60 million a year annually on the Senate side Senator beton court has filed SP 568 which among other things makes significant changes to the special ed State allotment uh we consider this a solid Bill and look forward to support Senator beton Court in these efforts on also on the Senate side Finance chairman Joan Huffman has filed sb260 which will increase the school safety allotment I along with other District leaders had a great meeting with
076Senator Huffman and we look forward to support her bill and and identify any areas of improvement as well um as everybody can remember we we're looking at four major buckets of funding that we're focusing on the local homestead exemption Transportation Safety and Security um and special ed excuse me so those are the four buckets that we're looking into as a governance committee report the committee met last month and this week um we reviewed the bills I just mentioned we developed uh next steps and meetings with key legislators to discuss and advocate for these Bill among other initiatives the committee review proposed changes to the district Vision vision and man uh mission statement and made recommendation to the as avsp committee review uh we also looked at the superintendent evaluation process and we're recommending it take
077place in August of this year uh the committee was also provided with with a hot off the press report on School District mandates also labeled the cost drivers in public education it's a packet about that thick as you can imagine uh we plan to review that document representative olivon has asked us to help identify any mandates or regulations the legislature can tackle this session with a particular focus on teacher time um activities and we will have another meeting uh next month with the governance committee and that ends my board comments Madam vice president thank you secretary Ray um and I I will make my board comments I'll try to go quickly and I will also provide a report from the teacher retention and recruitment committee um as we approach the day of honoring of true
078leader um Dr Martin Luther King Jr I'm inspired and deeply committed to pursue several goals for our incredible and our important School District um Dr Martin Luther King said I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation will will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character um to ensure equality and reaching high expectations for each student um and I say Beyond just the opportunity to reach it but actually ACH achieving strong outcomes such that all students score at the meets or the Masters level in our system um is a a key focus and there uh should be no achievement Gap ultimately between African-American Hispanic bilingual Specialists or any group of students in cyer ISD and to trly to truly
079close this achievement Gap and and uh some of you will have uh seen the presentation that was offered at the meeting on Monday and that will give you data to support this but to truly close this it's going to take all of us to help All Ships Rise um we know that when kids can't read they cannot properly develop the content of their character and reach the full potential and so as you could see watching the workshop meetings and last month's board meeting presentations as well we have a lot of students and the thousands of students who are not able to read on grade level and this is something that I feel like or could not pass star in the language arts or the math area and so we cannot um so it cannot be
080just the expectation but the commitment hopefully for us to we are supported we are called to provide the resources um but we do need make sure that we are um supporting students to achieve the high expectations um that we have set for them in our new strategic plan and an example do um trusty comc mentioned was this idea of um making sure like what's something we could all do together to help all students a volunteer reading program really being able to focus on um there's a new data report that um we were presented thank you Dr gory and Dr Maas and their transition we are starting to track kids who who left the grade level before not reading on level and now we know who they are and we're checking every other month we're getting
081a report to say are they growing and I know it's going to take everyone it's going to take a lot of us to be part of that work in order to help all children read on level because it's a one-on-one or small group on-one Enterprise and it's a patient uh work over time to make sure students are able to read and so we um um if it's in your heart uh to help students uh go ahead and uh as we form the committee go ahead and apply to be a global volunteer and there's an application process and that way um as uh Dr um Killian and um the beautiful team that presented from Community engagement as they really work to build the program then you'll be ready and we can know that we can go
082out as a community and um and support our students and make sure all can read and we'll train you there's I mean this is It's really mostly an act of of heart and then we can let you know how it is and we'll help to make sure those students are growing um a lot of us consider ourselves or some doe social justice Warriors and I guess I'm disturbed when we do have issues um that we're you know we show up for policies around you know parent um rights and that kind of stuff but I do hope that we can really be voices for our disenfranchised students who since 2015 we've had a persistent achievement Gap in our student groups and I hope that we can all really rally together um to do it to see
083us really tackle this issue uh together um because there's really no disagreement or dissent when it comes to the idea that we all understand students have to learn to read um so it would be really amazing if we can all come together put aside social ideologies and just help kids learn to read in our district um there are still issues though that we do need to uh make sure have been taken care of and I um have uh a personal um query to find out a little bit about the board resolution that was that was um signed in the past it's one that was addressing skin color without addressing equality and Excellence um asking for Clarity on the action to remove the resolution from our district um we hopefully it can it's been replaced by
084our strategic plan that we all voted on that is something that is core to making sure all students are growing and learning um but the even though it was removed from the website I don't know right now if that was actually removed by the board um because it's still posted on many campuses as and Facilities I'll make visits across the district and so I would like to know legally what action do we need to do to to remove the resolution it was voted on by a previous board does that mean this Board needs to vote to take action um because I do want to make sure it's a resolution has the power to even direct how departments operate and so that's something we do need to make sure we clear clean up uh I'm seeking
085input um I'll ask the board you know we'll look and see what we need to do based on that um because it doesn't honor the wisdom of MLK for us to go directly and goes directly against house bow 3979 which was passed in the last legislative session um so I do hope that we can clean that up as we move forward to just focus on kids and their reading after all all this Dei stuff has not actually that was passed by the pass board it doesn't actually changed the data we put a resolution in place but the same achievement Gap still persists it's persisted and persisted and so I would like to see it's not really rocket science let's just um change take remove those ideas and make sure we have every single student reading
086on or above grade level I'm going to skip a little bit of my notes in order for timeline but um I do want to address buses I appreciate um trusty Kat's uh uh addressing this um I do hope that um we have been we uh honor the board and the commitment our president I did ask for this agenda item to be on the uh uh on the agenda for the last two meetings I do understand it was the holidays and taking time to really go through the applications but I would like to see us put the dangerous um routes and or the the put that back on the agenda to see if that's something we have to take action on since we voted on those definitions and see if we couldn't create a tiered system
087for adding back in routes in order to um as we were able to hire and and with a real U push to get that done quickly and so I do look for us to continue I appreciate we'll have a meeting um with Mr uh Morgan and then we can see how can we come back and address it what do we need to do as a board I do think ultimately I'd love to see all bouts restored for kids I don't think kids should be Crossing busy roads like Fry Road on the way to school and so I do hope that we can take quick action on that and continued action on that um based upon the fact that we're able to recruit incredible numbers and I want to thank the transportation team um it's quite
088a complicated um Endeavor hiring a bus driver um but they are um hammering away at it um and we appreciate the effort it's always our job to really fight regression to the mean that's what happens in bureaucracies right um we um if we do what we've always done we don't really get a change and if we do what we've always done we end up in a place like we are now with the fiscal cliff where we had to force a vote about denying kids a right to school because of our financial situation it's not a new problem um and the fact that we're having to have a discussion about the finances at that level um is uh is a challenge to us and we need to do was something that was passed on from past
089boards to us and now we have to deal with it and so I am asking for um we have it's a lot of work to be done and I'm asking if we couldn't have some workshops on uh budget this coming year that are uh whole board workshops as we uh really appreciate an our committee structure it's been amazing we've been able to get a lot of things done to be a district where the board is involved in decision- making as we were voted to do as the constituents elected us to go and do um to meet the values they elected us to um Institute and so I would love it if the committee can uh we can have some and when you have a board Workshop that's done in the public and so that's the
090transparency for everyone to be able to see the budget um because I think we have to ask the critical questions things have to be done a little differently um we have hope with the report we've had from our um our governance committee but uh we have to continue to ask all the questions about finance and not regress to the mean not just do it the way it's always been but really ask the critical questions so that we can make sure we achieve those the Excellence and equity and Excellence for every student I did spend also time at the capital um so that we could Advocate uh for our system and our funds and our resources it was very interesting I feel like there's a very um there's a Grassroots effort and a real big theme
091to say hey we the community are the ones with uh you know we're going to we want people to do what we voted them in to do and we want them to um really hold the values that were done and so I just my my commitment is to make sure I'm here to represent the students the teachers the community of this District to make sure that we are having the most excellent education for each kid um I think I will um I just want to say thank you to our Shack members uh tough job um thank you for your level of of commitment and deliberation on topics for our system I want to thank our campuses for the beautiful messages um for board appreciation our kids are just so precious and our staff and teachers
092so thank you for that um the rodeo art I I just the feeling the pride of the art teachers in that room uh they're just so proud of their students I think that's my favorite part as much as the art is so beautiful so I just want to thank our art team for um and our VPC team for the incredible work that was to get such a professional show up and I want to thank our Administration for the uh very thorough um presentations last meeting but also just the the work that's being done um great work um and a final note will be on curriculum I would just like to um put out for discussion to the asvp committee that we look at the Blue Bonnet curriculum um that the state has put out um
093it is if we we had a report last meeting on the start uh results and our midyear benchmarks and we know that the test will be aligned with the curriculum the state creates and so that's important that we look at it um we have discussion about the rigor of it and the alignment of this and I had a concern that there was no Spanish uh materials but um I've heard now that there will be Spanish materials by March um and so I I would really like us to take a look at that to see how fast or is not computer-based we're hearing a lot of concerns out of the community about kids being on on devices uh a lot and um and then even the harmful effects of that they're starting to study so um
094that's something I ask that we put on the agenda for our asvp and and continue to discuss um the options um and a final comment I'll say is a final quote um from Martin Luther King and that is I have decided to stick with love hate is too great a burden to bear um I love our students I love our community those who agree and those who don't agree um I think love will pass will is what pays the way to uh educational Excellence for each student um now I will provide the teacher retention committee meeting notes some of the um thank you uh to the administrative team Teresa Hull and everyone all the team that works on this some of this was presented in a little bit in but this will be a little
095bit more detail uh during the presentation on Monday night so you can look to that um we met on January 9th and uh we were looking at the teacher Time study and action plan that the Administration has literally taken all the workload on and and done and um the the report was studied um and and it was given a report under ra 3 that you can watch from Monday um and um the biggest themes that came out in the teacher Time study were administrative workload and instructional planning and support these were the things where teachers said help we need help um so uh we have there's an incredible amount of action and activity going on around that I'll share more here um but there everything is being continued to be discussed teacher time and all
096those issues so we can say how can we make sure that we take that burden of our teachers we also had a report on exit survey data for anyone who left our system last year to figure out why are people leaving our system and um uh we uh heard about the Hanover Hanover we actually got a professional team to do our exit survey so that we could make sure we got the most like people would be uh willing to give the information so we could have an honest survey and we asked what reason contributed to them exiting what reason would they have to remain in the district and it was done um in this last summer um and with well July 23 to 24 we did 708 responses and the survey was optional but 60%
097of the respondents were teachers the five reasons people cited were personal reasons 39% work rated stress and burnout and these they could pick more than one um feeling under values and other and then they left some 20% um to pursue roles in different districts so of the five reasons um the most influential were uh at 20% personal reasons work rated stress and burnout was at 14% And to pursue other roles at 7% so we have an incredible amount of information and really what was positive too is what encourages people to stay here and better compensation and benefit that's 35% of the respondents said better compensation and benefits so that's the challenge of this committee back to the finance committee back to every committee that we will continue to see how can we better compensate and
098how can we be creative to look at benefits in any which way we can to make sure our teachers are not overburdened by that cost and then the co-pays Etc also 23% of respondents said improve student discipline procedures and enforcement um and then better work with 21% and other 17% um so we are continue to stay um we want to encourage people to stay through looking at our benefits our discipline and our work environment um we'll continue to work this and we already have action which I won't announce um it'll come through Administration but there's already a tangible steps they're taking to help our teachers um to reduce workload and um also uh want to give a TIA update uh teacher incen of allotment is money that comes straight from the state for teachers who
099are performing incredibly well we waiting on our first data to come back but the push is there to see how can we get every area every teacher and every content area access to be able to as soon as possible access to TM money for their excellence in teaching um we also continue to look at Strategic Staffing plan for those schools that are harder to staff or more remote highly Title One and issues like that and I appreciate the creativity of our superintendent he's always a he always has a yes in his Spirit to figure out how can we solve it he knows our teachers are the most important um people in our district he cares and wants to see and so I appreciate the committee and the group and being always having a yes uh
100for uh for getting the most we can and the best we can for our teachers and then um in a lot of the campus visits um uh we ask as how can we get new teachers and a lot of the principles report on their pa professionals their teacher assistance in the buildings being really great and so we continue to push and design and I want to applaud the team for creating um Associates and teaching degrees and they're working with other university Partnerships right now with looking at Lone Star uh and Sam Houston State University to work on programs and right now we have one through Texas te that's Texas Tech that's uh right there ready so we continue to want to honor those who've worked in our schools and and give them the pathway to
101education and the flexibility to finish the program um so that is a report from our teacher Recruitment and Retention committee we could do nothing um better than to make sure our amazing teachers stick with us and that they find us to be the best place to work thank you okay we will now proceed with citizen participation um on the agenda and I'll turn it over to our board secretary Mr Justin Ray to continue all right we will now proceed with the citizen participation portion of the agenda uh per bed local patrons May address the board during the regular board meeting under citizen participation on any matters of Interest or concerns that are not posted agenda items individuals may only register to speak one time per meeting and must register in advance tonight we have eight
102speakers each speaker will be given 2 minutes I would ask that you go ahead and sit in some of the seats up front before as you are about to come up and speak our first Speaker tonight will be Jill Center good evening trustees Dr kilan thank you so much for letting me speak tonight the mission of this board reads we will maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing students to be 21st century global leaders District go 2 is for a safe and healthy environment and reads the district will provide a safe disciplined and healthy environment conducive to Student Learning the Federal Protection of pupil rights has given parents the right to inspect their children's educational materials since 1978 Texas Education Code 26.4 and 008 also give access to official records healthy
103transparency builds community and collaboration however certain proposed policies and practices brought by this board on the agenda have Twisted the transparency into a bludgeon that allows individuals to pillage curriculum instrumental material instructional materials and rather than encouraging learning that prepares global leaders they stifle healthy debate compromise and democracy rather than focus on the business of legislative priorities and building a district that provides a safe and healthy environment for all precious time and energy are being diverted to embolden what I can only describe as bullying none of which maximizes a student potential please build up our district rather than pursue policies that might tear down even a single student thank you Austin mcgaan uh thank you it's very frustrating to witness the hypocrisy of this school board month after month you say that you want parent
104involvement but when parents fill out a survey overwhelmingly supporting keeping Health you decide you don't actually want that parent input when two or three parents raise concerns to you about pronouns you decide you must act when nearly 7,000 parents tell you that they want to keep Health that sample size isn't big enough it was 75% which is more than anyone on this board was elected by I'm willing to bet that more people people I'm willing to bet that more people have shown up here today and protest of your new policy than have ever emailed any member of this board confused about pronouns or or any other facet of this issue you say you you say you want to attract teachers but they all complain that there's too much compliance paperwork and this policy will only
105create more for reasonable accommodations you must have paperwork to document it the majority of people showing up today are going to be speaking out against this policy policy but you're not going to listen to them if you had the courage to put up a survey about this new policy you would find that most parents in this District are against it which is why you'll never do that Dr Killian tells us that when we're talking to legislators who don't want to listen to us we should still try to be kind and I agree with that but I am exhausted by the constant attacks on this District the constant need to go after our students I'm sick of hiding you hiding behind the shield of parent choice while robbing us of the one choice we all made
106when we chose to live in cfd the choice and decision to be in a good school district that cares about our kids their safety and their education above your agenda thank you Timothy Ro roses Timothy Timothy roses okay Julie Ricks two sorry no no no V BOS is it V bsh okay Julie rigs and if you see your name please move down to the front hello I am requesting that the Ten Commandments be put posterized in every classroom as done in Louisiana and it be put on next meeting's agenda we are a product of our choices but without knowledge we make uninformed and ignorant decisions and the Bible says we perish students future well-being depends on making good choices but this is made difficult when knowledge is kept in in knowledge in full is kept
107and hidden from them because of fear and bias the Bible is the bestselling book every year and of all time therefore Common Sense dictates that for reason and its knowledge should be included in basic academics of public education students are not receiv an equal opportunity in public education to learn Biblical history and its life lessons the T 10 commandments is an opportunity to have a visual aid and help equip students in making informed decisions we have a mandate from God to teach our children in Psalms 78 5-7 and God commanded our fathers that they should make known to their children that the generation to come might know know them that the children who would be born that they may arise and declare them to their children that they may set their hope in God and
108not forget the works of God but keep his Commandments [Music] [Applause] amen Mark gby Mark gby guys no no no no no no this is everybody please please please everybody please respect the proceedings and act into Quorum thank you Mr gby you have two minutes good evening my name is Mark gby and I try to advocate for the Texas taxpayer uh the packet of information in front of you covers two issues one it presents an allotment of $1,500 for homeschool children to participate in U by the adoption of 105.10 31 I Cann out speake to whether the $1,500 is adequate to allow for the children to participate but if it's not let me know I'll be happy to visit with our legislature to find out these are funds that are being available to the schools
109it is a force of funding to uh enhance the uh the participation and bring in children who are homeschooled and private school red a Texas Senator asked me why cyfair was not participating and I just told her I would try to find out and get get back to as what as to why cciir isn't part of this so if yall are looking at it you may already be looking at it so be happy to provide that information second is information regarding property tax abatements and exemptions that are cheating taxing authorities of having properties Exempted from the tax base this is all part and parcel of corporate welfare that is run a muck in Texas I was instrumental in Reading Texas of chapter 313 and nefarious program of property tax abatements the scheme the schemes outlined
110here are even worse than those I demonstrate how two of these Exempted properties in the cciir school district shift the tax burden to the remaining cyfair Property Owners which are primarily homeowners what what we see is that by exempting these properties it shifts the tax burden to the equivalent of 240 homes for my comproller primary I issued that we should have elected representation on our Appraisal District Board of Directors we now have three Representatives on the Harris County appraisal board and I'm sure we can get their attention and have them fight for these get rid of these exemptions thank you for your time Mr gby okay thank you Somaya price smaya price Jared hedler so I'm coming here once again to ask that b service be restored to all students about two months ago I
111requested from cfic to provide me with a list of information how many children have been struck by Vehicles this year cfd responded that they do not track this and they have no ability to track this so I started Gathering the information myself and analyzing this I used information from the news CFI Ste letters to parents and the Texas Department of Transportation crash report query system I found 14 instances of children under the age of 18 getting struck by a vehicle this school year eight Middle School Age Two Elementary age and four high school age nine of these incidents were labeled as failure to yield right away to pedestrian this means even though the child had presumably a safe passage to cross a street for example a controlled Crossing uh they were struck by a vehicle
112anyways he say the bus routes cannot be restored until you fill all bus vacancies there were many more bus driver vacancies in the past years but you were able to still provide bus servers to all children getting them to school safely we are 56 bus drivers short now Matt Morgan stated in the November work session meeting that in 2022 2023 your CFS cfd started with 14 5 bus driver short is the bus driver shortage a convenient excuse to continue to not provide service I would like to say I feel it's just tragic that children's safety have become a budget reduction item parents and kids should never have to worry about how to get the school safely please restore bus service immediately before another child gets hurt thank you [Applause] [Music] okay item 4 a uh
1135 a excuse me the reports portion of the agenda was reviewed at the board work session on Monday January 13 2025 however we have two speakers this evening for reports um so our Mr secretary okay well I'll do this administr we will to the 5A the administration will provide a report on formative assessment data our speaker is Jen Williams good evening my name is Jen Williams I'm a special education teacher at the elementary level data data is imperative to drive instruction no one would refute that however I have some concerns with how we collect and use data in our district first the special education population all falls into one category but we have so many ways for students to qualify for special education services for example students who only receive speech services but no other
114academic support are included in the Special Education data our resource students who we have collected years of data on and have as an IEP committee decided should decided should receive modified curriculum and are also expected to take grade level District assessments how is this good data the data collected for students receiving modified instruction indicates that District assessments are not appropriate how are we using using the data to make informed decisions my students come to my classroom to thrive after years of failure in the general education setting yet I'm required to give them assessments they will fail why do we want students to look and feel like failures we need to do better for them [Applause] um we have uh item 5B the administration will provide an update on the progress of strategic plan guard rail
1153 community relations our speaker is Francis Romero good evening members of the board Dr Killian and administration as a community member and parent of two Cipher ISD graduates I would like to add to your Praises of our amazing staff who presented the report on strategic plan guardrail 3 community relations engaging our entire Community to take part in our school district through the adop to school and global volunteer programs is pure genius and set cfis apart from the rest of the school districts in our state it makes us better and stronger as a district when the village has its back this added pillar of volunteers and sponsorships has made and continues to make a huge difference in in the lives of many of our students and teachers boosting them with positivity love and support thank you
116to all of those who have continued to make these programs a success especially I would like to praise the efforts of our community engagement staff Don Trion Patricia sepa our campus principles and faculty our PTO and our VIPs who have always and never ceased to think of ways to encourage our parents and our families to be a part of their child's education and in their school Community as a former PTO president and vip's executive board volunteer myself I understand that economics can play a big part in parent participation at school and that not all parents can be present even if the desire is there but the village of volunteers who can be there show up for all of our students so thank you and keep doing the great work that you've always done and continue
117to do thank you uh the board will now review consent agenda items during review of the following action items any board member May remove one or more of the items um at which time these items will be addressed and voted on individually if any board member has a question regarding an agenda item please ask to be recognized on consent agenda items consent agenda item 6A the board will consider approving the minutes of the December 5th 2024 regular board meeting 6B the board will consider approving the minutes of the December 9th 2024 special called board meeting item 6 C the board will consider approving the afjc agreement between the Department of Air Force and cfd the board will consider in 6D authorizing the renewal of the clinical affiliation agreement with Texas Women's University suceed the board
118will consider granting a temporary construction easement to Harris County 6f the board will consider approving construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractors and authorize a superintendent or design to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts as follows 6 F1 the 2024 sa Lakes High School renovation and 6 F2 the 2024 Sai Ranch High School renovation 6G the board will consider approving and authorizing the superintendent or design to enter into the miscellaneous professional service contracts related to the following project project 6 G1 2024 s Lakes High School renovation HVAC test and balancing services and item 6h the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and or authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item 6 H1 broker services for employee benefits 6 H2 commodity processed food for nutrition
119services and 683 steamer an oven for nutrition services may I have a motion so moved I'll second uh we have a move and a second um all those in favor of approving the um uh non-consent agenda items sorry the consent agenda items uh please raise your right hand Holly that's six to zero thank you uh we will now proceed to the consent agenda items the board will consider approving on first reading the additions revisions or deletions District policies um policy 7 A1 is dce local Employment Practices and other types of contracts revised 782 is De local compensation and benefits leaves an absences Revis 7 A3 dgb local personnel management Rel ations employee complaints and grievousness revised and 784 fa local parents rights and responsibilities add we have speakers uh and I will hand it over
120to our secretary uh for speakers thank you this evening we have 33 speakers on this non on this consent agenda non-consent agenda item each member will be given one minute our first speaker is ausome Macwan uh thank you Madam Secretary Mr Vice President on Monday miss scantlin or Miss LMP proposed a policy where because some parents were confused as to how the district would manage pronouns and or nicknames fnally Miss scanland did not mention that the parents she had interacted with had never once mention pronouns to her parents who presumably saw nothing to be confused about likely there are more parents here today in protest of this policy than there have ever reached out to miss scandin in stress over trans kids M Mr blaming game is quick to point out that this policy is
121in line with another District personally I choose to live in this District so that does not seem like a race to the bottom I'm interested in kids wanting to go by their chosen name and pronouns isn't something new and certainly isn't something that requires paperwork meetings or parental notifications the idea that Alexandria needs to ask you to go by Alex is asinine thank you Jill Center one minute is not enough time to dig deep in all I feel about the proposed policy 7 A4 so these were my top 10 thoughts 10 the definition of discrimination is the unjust or Prejudice treatment of different categories of people nine the definition of prejudice is preconceived opinion that is not based on actual fact or experience and to cause harm or injury that results from an action or
122judgment eight segregation is an act or state of setting someone apart from others seven the policy is redundant and covered by other policies that do not discriminate or segregate six it breaches the Texas education teachers code of ethics that states an educator shall not intentionally knowingly or recklessly treat a student or minor in a manner that adversely affects or endangers their learning physical health mental health or safety of a student or minor five it threatens works by OV Shakespeare wolf wild Walker El Frank balm it holds up 20th century Western cultural beliefs about gender as a standard and discredits all other inter interpretation teach with concerns already have HR options the language on the survey is too broad and the definitions are made up and circular murky and leave them open to interpretation that fails
123to distinguish fact and opinion thank you Serena [Music] [Applause] aru good evening my name is Serena she pronouns I am here on behalf of equality Texas which is the state's largest lgbtq plus advocacy organization I am very concerned about the proposed policy on parental rights and responsibilities which I believe will harm lgbtq plus students in this District this policy risks forcibly outing students to unsupported families which can lead to unsafe home environments Mental Health crisis and homelessness it also denies the existence of non-binary and trans students um erasing their identities and making schools less inclusive the lgbtq plus community especially trans youth already face alarming rates of bullying violence and suicide policies like this do not protect children they make them more vulnerable if this board truly cares about the well-being of students it will
124focus on pressing issues like reinstating bus routes to prevent further tragedies instead of targeting marginalized communities thank you your time has expired Mo [Applause] Hatfield my name is Mo Hatfield and my recent and I am a recent graduate from cfis I also happen to be non binary according to a 2024 survey from the Trevor Project 46% of trans youth have seriously considered suicide in the past year and 14% have attempted suicide 65% of trans youth have felt discriminated against due to their gender identity in the past year 16% of trans kids found school to be more supportive than their home environment in the past year and trans students who found their school to be gender affirming had significantly lower rates of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation this this policy revision would remove the existence of
125a huge group of people from all school materials including optional library books how does not letting students know about other people prepare them to be 21st century global leaders this policy will hurt students physically and emotionally do you want to be responsible for something that will cause harm to students why are we focusing on this and not students and their reading thank you Alysa Sr good evening my name is Alissa Sr and I currently a junior here at cciir high school aside from the blatant issues of and Equity that arise from this policy I asked the board to look to the facts when we saw a policy similar to this one implemented in KD ISD the district was investigated by the feds for violating protections under Title 9 and now Katie is at risk of
126losing Federal funding cciir simply cannot afford to do the same we have children walking literal miles to school this is our reality and this is what the Board needs to be spending its time trying to combat not engaging in identity politics we think that this not only affects my trans classmates but every single student in cair in so far as we l we risk losing federal dollars and allow policies like this one to continue to be passed so board members I implore you to drop this and instead craft legislation that strives for the ideal a world in which every student has equal protection and equal opportunity thank you Xavier [Applause] Benson hello I'm Xavier Benson a junior at Cipher High School I am completely appalled by the words that I read in the policy plan
12778.4 it is nothing short of dystopian this policy is explicitly hateful and has absolutely nothing to do with the education of the students of cfd I would like to point out that KD I who put a very similar policy in place is currently under federal investigation for violating Title 9 regarding sex related discrimination I promise you that if this policy is put into place cfis students will take the same action against kdis putting you under federal investigation the students's pronouns have no effect on the learning environment no effect on the quality of education and no effect on teacher ability to teach this policy has no reason to be put in place other than hate for lgbtq students of cfd if put into place these policies will have harsh mental health effects on the students and
128their teachers being forced to report students and detri detrimental effects on the home life of the students evolved the district has no place forcefully intruding in students home lives and lastly lgbtq students are more than four times likely to commit suicide than their peers this is what thank you thank you your time has expired I'd like to say I'm dis Kim William Choy Kim [Applause] sorry good evening my name is William Troy Kim and I stand before you today as a student and member of decipher Community I will Begin by acknowledging the great work this board does for the district but I know my time here is brief so I'd like to take this opportunity to outline just one component of 7 A4 that I find problematic and that I hope will be of concern
129to you as well that component is the penultimate heading regarding censorship of material adopting and supporting gender fluidity this not only continues a dangerous perversion of information availability and knowledge Freedom that this board has instituted since it began book bands in June of last year but also threatens to eliminate clubs and organizations that serve as an important anger for members of often marginalized communities regardless of your opinion on gender the cfis board should always strive to protect each and every student an aim to which this policy serves as a direct antithesis as Madame vice president said earlier tonight it is important that we support this INF franchise students in our district so please consider this question today what threat did this radical policy abate it's contrarian to the very concept of Education thank you your
130time has expired uh Nathaniel [Applause] Burkhart over the past few years I have watched as the national status quo has devolved into a direct attack on my community I must say I hoped cfis would be wiser I hoped the students here could feel safe I hoped this District would do what it should to protect its students and help them flourish as individuals these proposed policies directly oppos that data from UCLA estimates that 1,600 trans students in your district will be affected by this policy and according to the Trevor Project less than one in three of them consider their home a place to express themselves as they truly are it's easy to deduce that parent notification and this invasion of our privacy is potentially detrimental to the majority of us who live in unaccepting households an
131adoption of this policy would be a failure you will have failed your duty as board trustees to create a positive and inclusive learning environment for us you will have hurt us all and contributed to the stigmatization of our existence school should be a safe place for every student where they do not feel like their existence is threatened these policies would only shame and ostracize us and you cannot erase Us by removing our books from libraries Jared [Applause] Burton oh okay okay all right my name is Jared Burton and I'm a senior from kdd as president of my high school's sexual G Alliance Club in kdis the district from which this policy was lifted the most common answer that we receive when inviting people to join us is no I can't risk my parents finding out
132not every student goes home to a loving family who supports them No Matter What by outing them they could be kicked out of home physically harmed or worse and under this policy teachers must choose between their job and their students safeties in World War II researchers studied the damage sustained by aircrafts returning from combat and recommended armoring the areas that had been damaged most by enemy fire however there is one major flaw in this research they were only paying attention to the aircrafts that made it back not the ones who didn't those were the ones receiving fatal damage trans youth are much the same the people you see in this room are merely the ones who are safe to speak out the voices who would be most affected by this policy are not in this
133room tonight I hope you will keep this in mind students staff and you will all be miserable if this policy passes look what's happened to my district we're under federal investigation please reject his proposal and put your focus back on the education of your students please thank you Timothy Rosas Timothy roses Olivia pin Rod I strongly disagree with this proposed policy this will affect students like me as I'm gender floid however I am lucky enough to have accepting parents who love me regardless of my gender identity other kids like me in this District are not as lucky having this policy in our district could lead to more train trans kids getting abused or even kicked out of their homes because their parents don't accept them for who they are lead to higher self har rates
134among trans students even and even lead to higher suicide rates among trans students all due to no longer feeling safe or loved at home school is a safe space for those trans kids that can't come out to their parents or family taking that away from them and enacting this policy will harm them in the long run this is not what I or many of us want for me or my classmates you're supposed to protect me and in individuals like me do the right thing make the right decision Christian Kimbell as a parent I am raising my kids to be thoughtful independent critical thinkers and if we want the Next Generation to be competitive on a global level our Public Schools should be focused on doing the same tell me how many students were better prepared
135for real life by limiting what they were allowed to learn in school none Texas currently ranks 46th out of 50 states in literacy and you want to waste precious resources Banning books and requiring Educators to forcibly out their students to potentially abusive parents or RK losing their jobs cruel does not begin to describe this pointless policy it may come as a shock to some but there exists a world outside of your home that our children will one day have to make their own way in if you want to put your kids at a distinct disadvantage in that world that is your perogative but you do not have the right to put everyone else's kids in this District at the same disadvantage as this policy explicitly States parents have the ultimate responsibility to protect the health
136and well-being of their children I believe that a strong educ fostered in an open-minded and loving environment is the Bedrock of the health and education of my children who are you to say otherwise David Lopez David Lopez Mandy Giles Mandy Gils Julie Ricks John I'm sorry Mandy yes okay thank you my name is Mandy Giles and I'm the founder of the social impact business parents of trans youth which serves families in the Greater Houston area including cciir ISD at Monday's board meeting I was surprised that Dr blaz and& game recognized my professional expertise supporting families of transgender kids especially because she's the one who proposed this policy harming transgender kids she wanted any support to take place outside of school translation we're going to kick your trans kids to the ground at school but we're
137happy that there's someone else to come pick them back up my organization wants to see trans youth safe and included everywhere and we wouldn't have to help your families if their kids felt safe and welcome at school because that's not happening with this discriminatory policy that would make Cipher ISD a cruel and dangerous place for transgender students thank you Julie Ricks to exclude parents from any process or decision regarding their child represents a nefarious attempt to undermine the family structure and unity consequences legally and financially reached beyond the child and are ultimately the parents these are facts so to bypass parents and give trusted adults that have no financial responsibility and can walk away at any time without consequence power to keep things secret and hidden from parents is outrageous it has been established that
13818 years of age is considered an adult it's not reasonable to expect a child to be mature enough to make decisions with their future in mind it's unconscionable for a trusted adult to advise or have a undo opinion in life decision with possible devastating consequences without a parent present a choice made in secret must and can wait until adulthood thank you your time has expired thank you my question is thank you Julie your time has expired Natalie Torres good evening members of the board my name is Natalie Torres and I am a former educator here at sciare ISD in my experience the situation created significant tension as I was navigating policies and expectations that conflicted with my personal beliefs and professional judgment the challenges I face then reflect the broader issues we see in classrooms
139and society today where there is increasing pressure to reference individuals by gender genders other than what God created male and female the the shift has raised complex questions about identity respect and the role of Educators while it is essential to create a supportive environment for all students it is equally important to have clear thoughtful policies that address the implications for educators students and their families with that being said I urge and support the board to consider and to provide clear Guidance with respect for all by addressing every person by their biological gender which God created them thank you for your time karuna AAR hello my name is Caro AAR and I'm both the engagement coordinator at the ACLU of Texas and a deeply disappointed cfis D alumni I'm here to voice our opposition to fa
140policy parents rights in the limited time I have I'm asking you to consider a simple question who does this policy hurt does it hurt the 1600 trans students in cfd who are being denied Fair access to bathrooms sports teams and equal treatment under the law does it hurt teachers by creating a hostile learning environment that forces them to potentially disclose in violation of the Texas administrative code and require them to demand access to students Private health records does it hurt every member of this community's First Amendment rights by denying them right to information and access which yes the government is allowed to disagree agree with or dislike but is not allowed to outright censor the short answer is yes as you will hear from the brave students here tonight this policy hurts all of us
141if you'd like to have more information more than the minute I'm provided as to why it's harmful and why potentially it's illegal I urge you to look at the letter the ACLU of Texas sent you morning thank you aywa Ali opinion all opinion there you are thank you in in this District I grew up with queer students who couldn't come out to their parents due to threats of emotional and physical harm rejection and even homelessness I know close friends who have become arranged from their families because of coming out of transgender and others who have effectively had to live double lives in between school and Home in order to not be persecuted for their self-expression this policy will propagate these issues by completely censoring information about transs and non-binary individuals and creating a hostile environment
142towards queer students besides that issue I feel as though this policy creates an unnecessarily complicated environment for the faculty who are expected to enforce it my name is aano Al opinion while I have never had to go by another name I know my friends who also have non-english names often use nicknames and these names don't always correspond to their gender or whatever that means ultimately you know policies like these not only oppose both scientific and historical information about transgender non-binary people but also put queer students who live in unsupportive households which unfortunately is many at real risk please do not repeat the mistakes of districts like kisd um who choose to put reactionary beliefs about some kind of transgender Boogeyman over the safety and personal expression of their students thank you Jennifer Loren Jennifer good
143evening my name is Jennifer Loren and I've been a cyfair district resident for almost 30 years with two daughters graduated from cyfair high school I've been a recent Mentor for three years at Hamilton mdle Elementary I'm here this evening representing the largest regional Democratic Club in Harris County the Cypress down ball Democrats in less than 48 hours we assembled these members you see in blue behind me because we wanted to show our concern about the concept of asking teachers to break their safety bond with their students my mother a lifelong Texas public school teacher was a safe space for many of her students she would be absolutely appalled as we are that teachers would be required to Nar on any of their students because they confided in them at the most recent public count there
144were 5,000 kids in F care in the Houston region some of them within this District every child needs an understanding caring person in their life and rarely but sometimes that's not their parent it's a teacher as Miss Rachel says every child needs just one caring person in their life in order to succeed please allow the our teachers to fill that role where needed thank you dapne Sanchez dapan Sanchez hi um I am a graduate of Cypress Falls uh High School graduated in 2011 and I currently have a trans family member who is a student at cfis um I am here to urge you to please um not enact this policy that would forcibly out students to their family um I am happy that my sibling was able to confide in me uh about their identity
145but this is something that not everybody has the ability to do and I think that to approve this policy would be to deny a safe space um for students in the district um so I just came here to say that um thank you Matthew Duarte the under 7 A4 the section titled biological sex specific spaces is I believe meant to protect people however there have been no verifiable reports of transgender persons assaulting anybody in public bathrooms on the opposite end transgender identity is the fourth highest reason for hate crimes in the United States the best policy to keep people safe in bathrooms is to allow transgender students to use the facilities they are most comfortable with and punish any student who commits any act of violence under this policy although I am legally male as
146a transgender man I would be required to use the girls restroom despite this making many girls uncomfortable allowing accommodations to be made for transgender students to be allowed to use gender neutral or staff bathrooms or changing facilities would help keep transgender students safe especially after a non-binary student died of their injuries after being severely beaten in a school bathroom after a policy similar to this proposed amendment was implemented these amendments are not necessary and if it were to be passed it would need to be revised before going into effect because it is terribly written Isabella Columbus isabella2 okay sorry we go by that one we'll do Isabella and then it's Martin correct got it go ahead Isabella hello and good evening uh my name is Isabella Columbus and hold on sorry as someone who has
147friends in the transgender Community coming out to their families is a mainly talked about topic with different outcomes one where they have parents that are completely fine and accept them for who they are and where parents are opposed to it and parents will typically disapprove or belittle them and how can you say that you want a school to be safe and yet Implement something like this sorry I just okay well I just wanted to say that it's unfair to everybody in I don't know what I'm saying I I just wanted to come out and speak out for all the trans people in my peers my friend that's here tonight and yeah I'm just done thank you Martin Scot Martin Mar SC yes Hi I hi I'm Martin scota I'm a teacher parent of two kids
148in c fisd and a coach this is dear students your teachers care about you we want you to feel comfortable confident inspired and happy the board's lack of understanding and fear around gender identity and lgbtq issues is translating to animosity and meanness some people in this community need to be reminded that Jesus as he States in his Beatitudes wishes for us to be gentle kind patient and understanding of one another to students who are searching for their identities including those that are grappling or already confident in their gender ID gender identities know that almost all teachers wish for you to be safe and confident at school if the board passes this policy know that there are thousands of teachers that stand with you thank you Cody Z [Applause] one who has solely attended and graduated
149from the cfd system I am frankly appalled at the Brazen transphobia and qu uh I'm so sorry and discrimination that this proposal poses many queer teens live in severe fear of dangers they'd face if they were outed against their will it shows the board's willingness to throw the Safety and Security of students in the wind when faced with the opportunity to push their reactionary agenda I truly urge the board to look at the room and drop this hateful proposal immediately to avoid the same pitfalls as KD [Applause] ISD Tammy sandal I'd like to know why cair ISD is not creating safe spaces for our children why are we heading down a road of Witch Hunt against our children I'm tired of the school board pushing their Christian agenda this school district is comprised of so
150many different cultures and beliefs this school board should not be focusing on pushing a single ideology I don't care if these kids are trans it doesn't matter to me what I care about is a quality education for every student y'all need to focus on what is important and if you're an educator who can't handle a gender identity you are in the wrong profession thank you Mike Evans Mike Evans Kylie MCN good evening I am a member of the Harris County lgbtqia plus commission and I am deeply concerned about item 7 A4 on tonight's agenda in our role on this commission we represent a diverse group of communities across the entire County and help to elevate those perspectives this is a misguided policy and uh has the potential for serious harm including emotional and mental distress
151for those who are not ready to disclose their identity it also has potential consequences for children who will no longer see their schools and classrooms as safe spaces where they can feel supported in their Journeys to becoming who they are we reject the idea that this policy reinforces parental rights and instead view it as a dangerous overstep this intrudes on children's ability to self-expression and exploration thank your time has expired thank you Danielle [Applause] cochrell good evening tonight I will be speaking to the second par paragraph under accommodation plans um from the teachers perspective besides academics teachers are also responsible for a few other items such as looking for signs of abuse and neglect bullying mental health issues human trafficking and substance AB abuse and now you want me to out a student to their
152parent I am not qualified to do anything other than to inform who is going to go back and support the parent who's going to support the child what if the child I'm sending information into an unsupportive home and I'm in essence putting a Child In Harm's Way teachers are on the front line we are not qualified to do more than just announce this information students should have the freedom and the access to qualified counselors to qualified Personnel in order to share this information and then together with the parents come up with a plan as a middle school and high school teacher I've seen students go through many phases trying to find out who they are they may start the school year as a blonde then go to black hair purple hair and at end Brown
153thank you thank you Nikki [Applause] coward I have been with the AF Union American Federation of teachers in some capacity since 2004 over 20 years now and all of them in cair and in 20 years not one time has an educator or a parent approached me or contacted our Union office regarding the pronouns or sexual orientation of a student or even a fellow colleague this is ludicrous our educators are home tonight grading papers or coaching on a court and yet this is our Focus here tonight the truth is our educators are too busy already helping our students learn to read and to write and are worried about them getting home safely and having a warm place to lay their head at night maybe just maybe this school board should be hosting additional meetings about teacher
154retention and school funding since that is the real crisis so so shame on you shame on you for even considering adding one more thing to our teachers plates and shame on you for wasting precious time with this useless your time has expired Linda [Applause] nutall I'd like to speak in favor of the proposed parental rights policy at Monday's work session the similar KD ISD policy was referenced the news story that followed mentioned that the effect of the KY policy was 23 students in that District being outed to their parents last year let me rephrase that 23 sets of parents did not have their rights abrogated by the school district who otherwise would have there are many supposed rights that a minor child does not get among them the right to publicly change their identity while
155enlisting the schools to keep that a secret from their fit parents it was mentioned threateningly that kdd is under investigation for civil rights violations and we would bring on such an investigation here but which is better fight an investigation that will verify our policy adheres to the law or fight some 23 lawsuits annually from parents families whose parent and child relationships were seriously damaged because of the school thank you your time is expired thank you Brett Robinson to the staff here W uh here and watching from home if this policy is implemented in Parental notification makes you uncomfortable you should know that the policy includes an exception which is in cases of suspected abuse the policy provides you the discretion to assume the possibility of abuse and as I argued on Monday it's a huge
156red flag if the parent does not already know that their own child is having questions about their identity to the students targeted by this policy you need to know that you are not alone there are organizations who have your back and it may take a Google search but they are out there a representative from equality Texas spoke for you today so did the ACLU and they are standing by ready to defend you and your rights the Trevor Project is also an excellent resource last I want to thank all the speakers today for your courage in sharing your stories thank [Music] you Diana Martinez Alexander oh okay zo McGee sorry sorry my name is zo McGee and I am a student at kdd living under almost the exact Pol policy that you are considering implementing tonight
157there is no benefit of this policy as a student teenager I can assure you that children of any age do not keep things from their parents for fun they do so because of perceived danger a conversation that occurs safely does not require the intervention of a teacher it will happen naturally within the family when the child feels ready a child that is afraid to tell their parents they wish to go by a new name likely has a reason to be scared this policy has put 36 students from my school district in D in danger and preventable stress so please consider the students that you yourself could be causing fear and harm by in implementing this policy by implementing this policy you are also putting the responsibility of possibly harming students into the hands of teachers
158who only do this job out of love for kids and the hope to do good by them none of your employees should have to choose between the safety of kids and their livelihood do not be the district that forces this choice on him instead be the district that chooses to do right by both your students at faculty thank you Diana Martinez Alexander Educators can do a lot of things they work miracles however hurting kids with this policy does not align with my professional value vales trans kids should not be painted as criminals period so this goes out to whoever needs to hear this kids you are valued and precious people care about you we see you and want you to thrive whatever happens with this policy people are here alongside you someone wise said if
159you have to make laws to hurt a group of people just to prove your morals in faith then you have no true morals or faith to prove I am I am a proud public educator in cfd and I'll send the rest of my comments to your email thank you JY Williams teachers use an incredible amount of discretion every single day to handle new situations at the rise we do not need to be micromanaged if a student request that we call them by a different name or use a different pronouns all we have to do is make a note and practice what the student has requested teachers are not asking details about a student sexuality as was insinuated at the board work session you care about students opinion on having Health as a class you talked
160about the results of the data right but students don't know what they want to be called or who they are I find it very ironic students of CFI cfd know that we your teachers will always support you just as you are and Carol TR tros has decided to send in her written comments and so that ends our speakers okay all the speakers okay uh all the speakers on a we will now proceed to speakers on 7B go ahead and vote on it second yeah the script okay um is there discussion on item motion a second okay we need a motion in a second on item 7A I move that the board approve on first reading the additions revisions or deletions to District policies DEC local Employment Practices or other types of contracts revised DEC local
161compensation and benefits leaves and appes revised DBA local personnel management relations employee complaints grievances revised fa local parents rights and responsibilities addition second uh it's been moved in second seconded do we have discussion yes trusty Hinman thank you um I do have some additional comments to make um as well as some additional questions um first let me say that I fully support the rights of parents and their ultimate authority to guide the beliefs and protect the health and well-being of their children within the constructs of a public school system second I acknowledge that this policy is in compliance with current Texas state law with that said this policy is significantly flawed first it's mistitled calling it parents rights and responsibilities is deceptive this policy says very little about parent responsibilities if we're going to create
162a new policy for parent responsibilities what about issues like accountability for regular attendance at school respect for teachers upholding the student code of conduct supporting disciplinary consequences or ensuring drugs and Firearms at home are not brought to school by the students you know real issues based upon based upon the statement of reason for the need for this new policy it appears that the policy committee should perhaps be working on a teacher policy not a parent policy Todd you said you had talked to teachers and they were uncomfortable with dealing with students um who may ask to be called by different pronouns or names Natalie said that no one could answer the question about how teachers should respond to students who may ask to be called by different pronouns or names so why are we creating
163a new policy to remove educational and voluntary inquiry materials why are we creating a new policy that targets students why not address the specific need as expressed for providing guidance to teachers this policy does however address parents rights by restating parents rights already found in Texas state law other cfis policies and in opinions given by the Texas Attorney General in many ways this policy is redundant and adds bureaucracy confusion and inefficiencies it is the new content that is concerning for students parents and community members in cfd the board has received many emails from across the Community from students parents grandparents retired folks of all the emails we we received not one was in support of this [Music] [Applause] policy this policy this policy does not use standard generally accepted definitions for terms defined in the
164policy this policy targets a vulnerable subpopulation of students that alone should be disqualifying for a policy that will be implemented across 96 campuses it's been stated by want to make sure we know that we acknowledge here that 23 students in a neighboring District was outed by The District in the first few months of implementation is that the intention of this policy other new content in the policy is censoring instructional materials that mention gender identity regarding involuntary inquiry and library books this new policy alludes to Prohibition of library books that include characters or content related to gender identity this would violate Pico and the First Amendment rights of students new content also appears to be targeting student clubs and organizations that require a school sponsor Todd is this your intention of this policy you guys are
165out of line please don't this is not a community discussion at this point sh okay I'll keep going there is a subsection attached kind of kind of SEC as a secondary thought about information collection or surveys in this policy I want to ensure that this is already addressed in other cfd local policies it also in this policy doesn't clearly Define survey does this include morning check-ins is this online uh surve only is it written is it oral raise your hand if your favorite food is pizza it's very unclear and and I'm concerned that the lack of clarity again causes more confusion inefficiencies board policies are intended to implement state laws set for public schools and to provide guidance to the ad Administration on expectations for meeting the goals set by the board as Marne says
166board policy provides the general direction for the district while the administration provides the specific road map and directions this policy is very specific to a very specific concern raised by a handful of teachers who Todd talked to those specific concerns can and should be addressed at the administration level not the board level speaking of the administration level we've talked about how the board sets policies and then the administration creates regulations to implement the policies typically the board is not involved in creating or reviewing regulations because it's on the other side of the fence right it's we stay in our lane another way to say it is that Dr Killian and his employees are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the district again not the board's role however if this policy is passed I will request
167to see the regulations created to implement it here's why I have some concerns what will the process and documentation be for outing a student will parents be notified by email or a phone call will the documentation be part of the students records will the counseling department be notified so as to monitor for abuse and homelessness what is the process for a teacher to request accommodations relating to teach a certain student this is a slippery slope if a teacher can say I don't feel comfortable teaching that kid what about a teacher who doesn't feel comfortable teaching that kid or that kid is the next step going to be calling or emailing a parent if a student is seen walking down the hall holding hands with someone of the same gender on Monday I said that as
168a trustee and an active member of the CFI Community I'd not had one person reach out to me expressing a concern about this issue and I want to rephrase that as a trustee I have had many people reach out to me about concerns for our schools I talked to teachers I talked to parents I talk to retired Folks at the coffee shop I talked to people at my church the topic of gender identity or fluidity has not come up when the stakeholders I talk to share their concerns this new policy is not a priority we have other more important issues to deal with it's disingenuous to sit up here and say that safety is your number one priority or that student achievement is the main thing or that special education is a focus and then
169turn around and pass a policy that does not make kids safer it does the opposite that does not contribute to academic achievement and that targets vulnerable student subpopulations because the proposed policy is lacking Clarity I would move that the policy be tabled and the board sub uh committee either work on it to clean it up or even better move on to more pressing [Applause] matters are there are there any further questions are there any further questions okay we will take a vote all those in favor of item 7A please raise your hand all those opposed please raise your hand Holly that's five for and one opposed thank you okay uh we will now the board will consider um item 7B approving the Shack's recommendation to remove Health as as a required course for graduation we
170have speakers and I will hand that to our secretary thank you Marty one more time what's the threshold between the one to two minute 15 15 it's 15 15 okay so we have 14 speakers each speaker will receive two minutes our first speaker is Austin mcgaan hold on a second hold on a second Austin sure floor is yours um the point of a public school is to prepare students for the future and to create a future of a future ready generation for the good of society part of that is requiring students to take classes that they might not think are particularly beneficial a survey was sent out that was poorly worded but the results of the survey were still very clear 75% of respondents wanted Health to remain a requirement you can stop looking at
171the survey data at that question because the second question only matters if you decide to get rid of Health as a require that's the only time it matters if it should be an elective or not um the board is pretending like the data isn't clear by saying the sample size isn't big enough now statistics is an optional math class so many of us may not have taken it but given the sample size and the respondent ratio of 10% of the initial population then the zv value of the survey would be 3.38 which means the uh the margin of error would be about 1.5% which means this is a very accurate survey this is a very good survey to figure out what the parents want and 75% of them want you to keep Health as a
172requirement there's three people up for reelection this year on this board not a single one of them got even 50% of the people who voted for them of the population that voted voted for them so that result is less valid than the one that says 75% of us want you to keep Health I've heard the argument is that we're giving Parents Choice but we all know that isn't true I taught computer science which is one of the only klev electives in sciare about 65% of my students took that class entirely because of the GPA boost and I knew that I was aware they came in having no interest in computer science that was a thing I had to tackle every year students are not going to take Health if it hurts their chances to get
173a good GPA that's why it needs to be a requirement because they need to take it because not taking health or not paying attention to health is how we get policies like the one you just enacted Jill [Applause] Center hello again a health class should be a requirement for graduation you've been presented statistics student feedback teacher responses and parental input I'm adding my voice to those health class as a requirement would address the necessary teaks without overburdening another class's curriculum the Lessons Learned can provide a student information to recognize and avoid addiction disease and sexual consequences they learn about a healthy lifestyle and how to to maintain it finally it provides mental health information in addition to physical health as a requirement provides guide rails to youth transitioning to adulthood and skills and knowledge that
174will serve students and be a part of their day-to-day living more than calculating the function of a parabola thank you Mo Hatfield based on the discussion at Monday meeting this decision could go two ways the first being health is kept as a graduation requirement and the second being that health is no longer a graduation requirement and is instead made into an elective I'm going to bring up some questions and concerns that I have with making Health an elective one most of the information learned in health class are tees and the class that it would make most sense to add those tis to would be biology biology is a star tested subject do you really want to try and add more required material to a star tested course from my understanding most of the current health
175teachers are also coaches are you prepared to access these excess list these coaches like was done with Librarians last year when Health enrollment plummets if you make it an elective if so how will Sports programs stay functional without their coaches since most of health is teques many people would find it to be a useless elective because they would just be learning everything twice if health is made into an elective students that care a lot about their education won't take it because it would be a GPA hit and those who don't care about their education won't take it because they won't see the need for it if health is no longer a graduation requirement the kids who would benefit the most will also become those who are least likely to take it I urge you the
176board to leave Health as a graduation requirement as a former student from of cfd I benefited greatly from my health class and use many of the things I learned on a day-to-day basis thank you Julie Ricks health class should be nothing more than elective if that and not the current status as requirement for graduation Natalie was correct in stating that there was a serious lack of trust among parents trust is given initially but when it's violated it then must be earned it has been exposed disguised in health curriculum is the human sexuality section of which extremely inappropriate material was being used and taught added to that I learned from my grandchildren and saw a picture that students had been passing around of a male teacher dressed in a pink tutu that was the person assigned
177to teach the class I can only imagine what the students thought the district must have higher standards in this shared Health material should be limited to things like proper hygiene good Nutri nutrition dangerous subjects and not necessarily a dedicated course but rather referenced in The Sciences the reality is that Health classes outside the bounds and focus of basic academics and definitely should not be a graduation requirement thank you Jennifer Loren president of the Cypress tombal Democrats again here in blue we just got very motivated for the elections this year we are here because of our concerns about pulling the opportunity for students to learn about health as it relates in particular to sex education and how to prevent pregnancies and STDs which have doubled in Texas from 5 years ago doctors blame this increase on
178a lack of awareness about this disease do we not want to protect our kids from these harmful but easily preventable diseases in 2022 our state's teen birth rate increased for the first time in 15 years the CDC reports that quality school health education programs are shown to decrease substance abuse increase help-seeking behaviors for mental health and improve academic performance let's continue to equip our children with the education they need to be healthy productive members of our society Wendy Cohen I'm here today regarding the removal of Health as a graduation requirement as the parent of a 13-year-old and a shack member I believe the information provided in the health curriculum State Board of Education approved and very rigid is vital to Preparing our kids for adulthood our kids need to know about nutrition to avoid Eating
179Disorders our kids need to learn about mental health to better take care of themselves and respect others our kids need to learn about illegal substances that could have a devastating impact on their lives removing Health as a graduation requirement will push state required items to other classes that are already limited with curriculum time if this class becomes an elective students that choose to take this class will receive repetitive instruction in other classes which is a waste of our already limited instructional time the other elective class that would be offered don't provide the same value as health and our kids deserve better than what this board is considering while I understand GPA are important other classes offered don't help those wanting to play the GPA game as there's only one proposed class offered that would provide
180a higher GPA level for ninth graders as a parent that completed this survey and raised concerns about the wording of the survey from the beginning I find it disheartening that this board would not listen to 75% of the parents that responded when I raised concerns about the wording of the survey and the confusion around it I was told question two is secondary to question one I believe many respondents viewed question two as if you don't require it at least offer it as an elective but three out of four parents want it required you have not listened to parents consistently Librarians buses textbooks please if you want that trust back then your time has expired thank you thank you Christian [Applause] Kimble good evening my name is Christian Kimble I'm a proud alumni of cfd and
181I'm currently raising two beautiful children a 2-year-old and a two week old who will no doubt one day go to school in this District uh I just want to apologize I'm I I was so wrong about you guys I just I mean to listen to all of those impassioned students students current and former teachers Educators parents in this District their concerns about the parents rights and responsibilities policy and then listen to truste henman's impassioned analysis of the shortcomings of that policy and then immediately turn around and pass it without further discussion I just it's cold and I thought maybe that meant that y'all were a very far right board but I I was wrong because I would think that such a strongly pro-life group of people would do everything in their power to reduce the
182total number of abortions in this state however the proposal to eliminate health health as a requirement for graduation in this District proves the exact opposite I mean you're smart people you'd have to be to reach your position right you must already know that it's been empirically proven that comprehensive sexual education combined with widespread access to contraceptives dramatically dramatically reduces unwanted pregnancies and by extension abortion in this state but now you're planning to take away the only resource that so many students have to learn about these things by removing health and by removing sex education as a requirement for graduation I mean it's it's kind of uh counterintuitive I would think because as PE if people were less educated they're going to have more sex there's going to be more pregnancies and therefore more abortions it
183may be completely illegal in the state now but that doesn't mean people are not going to go out and have them illegally which puts women in danger or go to another state to have it done legally the only reason the only reason I could think that you would do that is that you saw the number of abortions in our state and you thought those are rookie numbers we got to pump those numbers up so if that truly is your goal then congratulations you did [Music] [Applause] it Martin Scot hello my name is Martin Scot I'm a parent to two kids in cfd a teacher and a coach in CF FD health class is argu arguably easily arguably one of the most important classes in high school I taught the class for a little bit a
184few years ago and enjoyed how thoroughly engaged my students were this is a class that if taught right gets a lot of student Buy in because the material is directly relevant to the current and future lives of the students I won't go into the many topics but there are so many and so important what's especially interesting is how the course can be driven by the health questions and other interests of the students health class benefits the entire Community a society of knowledgeable young people can make healthy choices bad choices burden a community they can result in crime abuse of others High insurance claims and increased health care costs for everyone to name a few please continue to make health class mandatory and find ways to make it even better thank you Francis Romero good evening
185members of the board Dr Killian Administration I am here tonight to offer my feedback as a parent of two Cipher ISD graduates who greatly benefited from the health course you may have already made up in your minds what you're going to decide on this item but I ask that you consider for a moment what I have to say on this issue parent to parent before making your final decisions many parents May perceive the health courses offering little to no value for their child a generic insignificant course that takes away from their child's GPA standing in the way of their child getting into the University of their choice but I'm here to tell you different the value of this course is immeasurable because it educates our students on some of the scary realities in this this
186world that we would want our children to know how to handle as parents we do the best we can to prepare our children for this world however sometimes it takes e experts to really make these lessons resonate with our children we want them to be prepared for the unexpected from an early age and Beyond as you well know life doesn't stop presenting its challenges at high school graduation it only becomes more complicated the scope of relevant topics covered by this course especially for those of you who have daughters can make all the difference in their preparedness and resilient I as a parent of two daughters I was especially grateful for the unit on un identifying an unhealthy relationship both of my daughters were able to help friends of theirs who were in unhealthy relationships with
187their boyfriends and because of the health course and this specific unit my daughters were able to help their friends identify the red flags of a bad relationship and so I am grateful because my daughters had the courage to do that to help their friends but they also had the knowledge to do that thank you your time is expired thank you Connor [Applause] Barnes good evening board I come here to Advocate on the behalf of keeping Health as a required course for graduation as a bridgland High School freshman I took Health last semester because it is half your course while I understand that some students may find the class boring at times me included I truly believe that this course teaches valuable life skills that some parents may not bother to teach their children subjects included
188in this course such as what drugs can do to you and why you shouldn't do them or how to not suffer from unwanted pregnancy or St s are things that should continue to be impressioned on young minds like mine students also learn coping skills to deal with the rising epidemic of mental health issues that will end up helping them later on health empowers students to be able to make informed decisions that they may not be able to otherwise you say you want students such as myself to be prepared for life but by removing this class we will leave cfd worse off than we came in also mental health topics should be expounded on as the rates of anxiety depression and suicide has risen among teens since the pandemic not to mention the rates of teens
189identifying as trans such as me non-binary Etc is higher than ever and there are rates of suicide there it's terrible peers that identify as normal have way lower mental health and safety are really all that matters I would like to leave you with this just because my fellow students and you may not want us to take this course doesn't mean we shouldn't I take you I thank you for taking the time to listen to my side and I hope you have a good [Music] [Applause] night Mike Evans Mike Evans Mark gby good evening once again um some of you may be familiar with the quote from Animal Farm that all are equal but some or more equal than others seems that could describe an attitude among us here it would be all voices are equal
190but some voices are more equal than others the issue was a vote coming down to a 54 decision that one of the votes should somehow be negated I can tell you there are plenty of five four decisions that are made that I wish could be negated One Voice more equal than others also feels it is the sfair Board responsibility to give the children the tools and the resources they need including the ones that their parents may not choose for their own child the one voice wants to be in every living room because it knows better than all the parents of ciir what to include in their child's tools and resources didn't we hear tonight there's nothing but respect for the parent parents choices is cair eliminating Health instruction no it is allowing parents to choose
191if this is a tool and resource they need for their child from the sciare school district but somehow this voice has become an all knowing voice that knows the tools and resources a parent needs for their child and therefore mandate that health care and health class be in the curriculum I thank you [Applause] I apologize if I say this name incorrect but it is um Anana Ali opinion hi uh because I have more time now uh just for some context I graduated from Cypress Ranch High School in 2022 and I run a kind of like sexual health initiative on the University of Houston campus so we do sexual education and then we distribute Sexual Health Resources we've given away like 1,400 boxes of Plan B and 3,000 condoms so I know that health education plays
192an extremely important role in reducing risky behaviors and promoting lifelong healthy habits even with current health education I regularly meet graduates of this District who don't understand basic information about consent Sexual Health Nutrition or ma managing emergency situations I can only imagine how much worse it would be when this information is fragmented uh across other courses students deserve a class where this information is focused on and emphasize in order to be able to exercise their agency and be well equipped for handling the circumstances of life and it's not just about these students it's about the safety of other people too we do not need more young men on campus who don't understand consent um I don't think an extra few months of Journalism is worth the effects of removing a dedicated health class from the
193required curriculum I'm highly concerned that teachers and other courses as well will lack the expertise or the time to effectively address the important and sensitive issues in health and I urge the board to honestly consider the impact of this decision on not just students but on the health of well and wellness of our community in general thank you Wendy [Applause] Johnson good evening my name is Wendy Johnson and I'm a parent of three teens who have um are or have gone through cfd I am also in a unique position to be a shack member um this um and I've also served on the subcommittee for actually screening the health one curriculum that is now in effect um that came in in 22 23 um lastly I am a substitute for middle schoolers in our district
194um I do just want to take a brief moment from my speech to say no matter what um side of the spectrum that you are on the human um sexuality instruction will always be taught no matter if health is an elective or if it's required class it is part of Texas's requirement along with some other mental health things and some other so just putting that bit of information out there so um as you are considering whether to keep high school health as a required course I encourage you to consider focusing on the attributes of the curriculum itself and its great benefits to each high school student in our community based on my in-depth review of this newly adopted C curriculum I believe that it has been been expertly crafted and adapted for our specific students
195in cfis by our curriculum team per what uh you guys approved for adaptions um we I think it will have wide impact for our high schoolers in the present and in their future at one point in education there was a trend called teaching across the curriculum I meant to help reinforce Concepts um and I believe that this is one of those I think that they need to hear it from home they need to hear it from the counselors they need to hear it from peer leadership classes they need to hear it from coaches and teachers um also I'd submit that such things as healthy communication conflict resolution personal safety setting a budget are covered in this class and it will help them pass the test of life I believe it is a wise Pathway to
196heavily consider the merits of our health curriculum in its entirety as a decision um is made in in tonight this curriculum helps greatly in fulfilling our district mission statement of preparing students to be 21st century global leaders thank you for your [Applause] time okay on item 7B may I have a motion I'm I move that the board option two remove Health as a graduation requirement and offer the course as an elective second are there any questions seeing none we'll take a vote all those um in favor please raise your right hand all those opposed please raise your right hand Holly that's a four four and two against thank you we now the board will consider item 7 C appr approving a request to tea for a low attendance day waiver may I have a motion
197I move that the board approve a request to tea for a low attendance day waiver may I have a second second are there any questions then we will take a vote all those in favor of item 7 C please raise your hand Holly that's 64 none opposed item 7D the board will consider approving the sale of approximately 26 acres to the Chimney Hill Municipal Utility District I move that the board approve the sale of approximately 26 acres of land of the Chimney Hill municipality Municipal utility district and authorize a superintendent or designate to negotiate the final terms and conditions and execute the purchase and sales agreement and any related documents necessary to complete the transaction a second are there any questions okay if not let's take a vote uh raise your hand to signify approval
198of item 7D that's six thank you Holly item 70 we do have a speaker to this and this will be taken into um that it will include the name of an employee and therefore we will do this in uh with closed session so um I I would uh would can we move to move 7e after item do we just need to go to close session now yeah we okay uh the board will adjourn to uh close session to consider item 7e which is the board will consider making a determination that good cause did not exist as required by law for Mar for the uh individuals listed in this board item agenda to resign their respective employment contracts clarification Madam vice president we're moving into an executive session to hear the speaker however we will actually
199conduct the business in open Chambers correct so should we go ahead and go back to close session hear the speaker so than you so um is there has there been a motion made to adjourn to uh executive session um Mr secretary just for clarification I think we we have another um close session item for expediency would you like to consider both of those consolidating them yes yes and so we have an addendum with another closed session um Dr blasing if you might want to consider okay that um the board will also take action on a following addendum item 1 a the board the board will consider a determination that good cause exists to suspend the employee listed here without pay while on administrated leave pending discharge second all right so let's may I have a
200motion that was 1A agenda 1A this is also to close session that was theend so the motion so are you asking for a motion to move into close session yes okay yes we're looking for a motion to move into close session I'll make the motion move into close session a second all in favor to move into close session raise your right hand okay the board will now recess into close session we will return to the Das e e for yes let keep running 2024 on was ready okay uh the board will um uh the board uh uh adjourned uh closed session at 9:27 p.m. and we're back in session at 9:30 p.m. um to consider the items uh that were discussed in close session first item is set item 7e uh can I have a
201motion I'm move that the Board of Trustees render the finding under under the Texas administrative code chapter 24917 D that did that good cause did not exist as required by the Texas Education Code sections 21 105c 216c or 21210 C that the individuals listed here to to resign their respective employment contracts and notify these employees in accordance with the law that the district is submitting a complaint to the State Board of educator certification for contract abandonment I have a second second okay are there any questions okay we will take a vote all those in favor please raise your right hand all you that's six in favor we will now consider item 7e um do I have a motion oh sorry excuse me 7 F can I have a motion I move that the Board of
202Trustees approve the recommendation to notify individual listed that his employment with the district under a probationary contract is proposed for termination and to provide him notice of the same in accordance with the law may I have a second second are there any questions okay let's take a vote all those um in favor of 7f please raise your right hand that's six Holly thank you and item 1 a addendum 1A um may I have a motion here you go got it oh good okay I move that determination that good cause exists to suspend the individual listed here without pay while on administrative leave pending discharge may I have a second second no questions we'll take a vote all those in favor please raise your right hand I'll leave that's six thank you um i' like to
203thank everyone for being here tonight and I would also like to thank those who are watching from home may I have a motion to adjourn so moved second second uh all in favor of adjournment raise your right hand that's six Holly thank you very much good night everyone