Regular Board Meeting | October 9, 2023

001[Music] good evening the Cyprus Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees is now convened in a regular board meeting on Monday October 9th 2023 in the boardroom of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Mark Henry Administration Building located at 11440 matky Road Cypress Texas at 6 pm. I want to welcome the members of our audience and our television viewers to this meeting of the Board of Trustees as the Cypress Fairbanks Board of Trustees we are here to set goals listen to reports approve budgets contracts Personnel appointments and make policy for the district it is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions the management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent we have policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues this is a public

002meeting of the Board of Trustees not a meeting of the public the meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed audience members may not participate in the meeting outside the designated agenda items for citizen participation or public comment disruption of the meeting by any person including the audience is inappropriate and will be addressed by the board president or the board's Council as a meeting parliamentarian continued or repeated disruption of any board meeting by words or actions may result in removal or loss of the privilege to attend the meeting prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice during the course of this meeting the board May determine that a closed

003session is necessary in that event the board will will meet in close session to consider matters duely posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071 through 55108 for the Texas government code these proceedings are airing live on the district website they'll also be available as video on demand on the district website following tonight's meeting for the video to adequately reflect the proceedings I respectfully ask you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are turned off or in silent mode if you would check your phones like I am oh mine was on thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and for your interest in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District uh this evening uh other than those at the board di we have no elected officials

004or the representatives in the room we have no Boy Scouts and no girl scouts at each open meeting of the board patrons who have registered in accordance with the procedures established by bed regulation May address the board during the designated agenda comments period prior to the board's consideration or action on the item unless the agenda is otherwise rearranged by the board president during the meeting agenda comments will generally be taken prior to each agenda item also in accordance with procedures established by bed regulation patrons May address the board during citizen participation on any matters of Interest or concern that are not posted agenda items unless the agenda is otherwise rearranged by the board president during the meeting citizen participation will generally be held after reports and action items for detailed information and instructions on registering

005to speak under agenda comments and citizen participation please go to the district website at www.cfisd.net patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order of names listed on the screen behind me before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserve seats on the front row to my right when you approach the podium and as you can see there are two one to my right and one to my left you will see a monitor inside the podium when it is your time to begin speaking a digital presentation timer will be displayed at the top of the monitor the timer will be set in accordance with the number of speakers registered this evening there will be a 30- second and a 15-second warning light on the monitor

006to wrap up your comments invocation and Pledge of Allegiance the invitation for tonight's board meeting will be given by Larry wac interim pastor of Westway Baptist Church prior to Westway Pastor Larry served as a founding uh pastor of copper field church for 28 years and retired in 2019 he is married to Dr Pamela wac who is retired from lonar college they have three grown sons who attended School in cciir ISD their son Philip mlac teaches chemistry at Jersey Village High high school and their first grandchild is starting kindergarten and cfd this year members of Westway Baptist serve at sidge high school Fran Con Elementary and Wilburn Elementary thank you Larry and it's good to see you again thank you for being here this evening before the invocation I would like to introduce the Cypress Woods

007High School Air Force Geral TC Cadets who will be presenting the colors this evening performing this detail is Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Kobe England Cadet Captain Holden Palmer Cadet second Lieutenant Gerard Tes and Cadet major tristane hufman Huffman these Cadets present the colors to you under the direction of Master Sergeant USAF retired Christopher Soo at this time I would ask for you to please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance Heavenly Father we thank you for the opportunity to come together and be with these friends and uh Partners in education Lord we ask you to bless our school board we thank you for Dr Henry and his leadership Lord we ask you to uh guide the meeting that'll honor you we pray for wisdom and strength to carry out the responsibilities

008they must carry out help us to be good citizens and good stewards in cciir ISD we ask you to guide all that we do and we ask this in the precious name of Jesus Amen board vice president Julie hunman will now read the 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 student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing students to be 21st century global leaders we will now proceed with the remarks and recognitions portion of the agenda there are no speakers under recognition this evening item 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

009items of Interest Dr Mark Henry thank you Mr President before I start my uh formal comments I do uh want to add to what uh Mr Jackson said Larry it's so good to see you today uh we've had such a strong healthy relationship between the school and the faith-based community and Larry's a big part of that in my time here Larry's help serve on long range planning committees and and um faith-based committees and you know I uh Larry you'd be impressed I was paying attention yesterday in church and I wrote down a uh a scripture I heard from Proverbs from my pastor that said he is a shield to those who walk in integrity and I don't know anybody that walks with more Integrity than you do and thank you so much for everything that

010you've done for our community and Cipher ISD the month of September produced some great moments please enjoy this September recap video highlighting how our students and staff brought out the [Music] best [Music] up you know up you [Music] know [Music] as you saw from one of the little Clips there uh we were proud to host the uh Texas Education Agency Chief academic advisory council meeting on September 18th and of course the commissioner of Education was here uh at part of that time to uh visit and as he always does he said if uh if the entire state did things like Cipher ISD he wouldn't have a job so we were we were always proud to hear that and here's a video recap of that visit life Chang on September 18th the Texas Education Agency Chief

011academic officer advisory Council had the opportunity to visit several of cfi's campuses including the Carlton Center Cypress rdge high school and Arnold Middle School the visit included tea commissioner Mike Morra I actually love being able to visit classrooms and really the the entire system that is in Cypress Fairbanks this is one of the most well-run one of the the most effective school systems that we have in the state it's an example of what can be true when leadership is fully committed to delivering results for all children in all areas and so what I was able to during this visit was extremely high levels of student engagement both academically and in uh career and Technology education we actually spend a lot of time in special education classrooms so we we think about some of the resource

012room environments some of the in classroom supports that were provided in a in a pushin model um as well as uh some of the transition support what y'all have set up which is I think very unique is you have high school students these are Juniors and seniors that are going through their program EST for early childhood education uh and of course you have your very skilled teachers in the classroom at the same time but you actually run that as a a prek as an Early Childhood Center for you know paying customers as it were uh and um this is such a really smart way of both giving your high school students embedded work experience in in a field while also meeting the needs of of your community it's sort of a two for one special

013and that's one of those things that we just need to be doing everywhere across the state it's inspiring to see our committed Educators doing what they do best to help our young people become the best versions of themselves the bringing out the best character trait for the month of October is reliability thank you to all of our campuses for emphasizing strong character for all cfis students 25 cfd seniors representing seven high schools were confirmed as semi-finalist in the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship program the 25 finalists are among 16,000 students throughout the US who placed among the top 1% of appr approximately 1.5 million students who entered the Merit program by taking the PSAT during their junior year congratulations to all of our semi-finalists the annual college night was held October 3rd at the Barry

014Center allowing students and parents to meet with representatives from hundreds of colleges universities and Military and technical schools more than 2100 visitors attended the event watch this brief recap from college night tonight's our annual college night we have roughly 225 200 or so colleges and universities present this evening they're ranging from the East Coast the West Coast here down south as well as in the Midwest and believe it or not we have quite a few colleges universities from overseas president I'm just really excited about learning what's out there for me and exploring like what majors I'm interested in especially for me I'm interested in architecture so it's all about looking at the schools that are best fit for me and my plans in the future some kids can see it so far away but it's

015really very close so just to get here talk to some of the college recruiters and uh see what the requirements is and get them excited you know for his future 200 or so colleges universities Under One Roof which I think uh is amazing cfis continues to do amazing things tonight we see again and we've heard again from the recruiters that they bypass other college nights to come to the one that we host in cfd National School Lunch week is this week October 9th through 13th celebrating the national school lunch program that serves nearly 30 million children every day and the importance of healthy school lunch cfis SD's nutrition services team serves more than 105,000 meals each day this year's theme is power up with school lunch and they are celebrating by serving students favorite and

016new housemade items and highlighting the great work the cafe production Center and Warehouse team teams do every day October 16th through 20th is designated as national school bus safety week a public education program addressing the importance of school bus safety the 2023 theme is safely rolling to my destination a reminder that October uh Monday October 16th is designated as a school teach excuse me as a teacher workday I don't want to have that HISD prop they had today so I'm going to start that over a reminder that Monday October 16th is a designated teacher work day and a student holiday holiday during the week of October 23rd through 27th cfd will participate in Red Ribbon Week activities the national Family Partnership organized the first Nationwide Red Ribbon cam campaign as a way for people and

017communities to unite and take a visible stand against drugs the Red Ribbon campaign the largest drug prevention program in the nation originated in 1985 and used a visual display of red ribbons as a symbol of intolerance towards the use of drugs along with celebrating Red Ribbon Week cfd will participate in National bullying prevention month a nationwide uh campaign founded in 2006 by Pacers National bullying prevention center the campaign is held during the month of October and unites communities around the world to educate and raise awareness of bullying prevention Governor Greg Abbott has proclaimed the this Wednesday October 11th as Education Human Resources day a day to recognize the importance of human resource Professionals in education and celebration the impact that they made on students Educators and schools and again going off the script a little

018bit because I see several of them here today we've been celebrating our principles this month in October so any of you that uh are here today that are uh uh one of our 95 outstanding principles please stand so we can acknowledge you and that's all I have Mr President thank you Dr Henry item 1B the board will recognize MUD district 173 and 264 for the donation of funds to Copeland Elementary School for the purchase and installation of a new piece of playground equipment I was a mud board director for 22 years and for those of you all who are present thank you for your service to the community you protect a vital resource that everybody needs and for any family it's probably the second most precious resource that goes in that household the first being

019their children the second being potable water and then what you all do with the effluent as well uh returning it properly out to Nature and So for anybody who was elected mud board member and I'm thinking I'm looking at Scott Henry uh please join me out front so we can help uh recognize these wonderful individuals president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry tonight we are recognizing four mud districts for their generosity and support of copelan elementary copelan elementary school staff invited copelan families and representatives from four mud districts that serve the community to a picnic on the playground on August 7 17th to celebrate the installation of a new piece of equipment and publicly thank them for their help during the 2223 school year a part of Copeland's large playground equipment fell and had

020to be removed Stephanie burer Copeland principal along with Lori Alexander Copeland PTO president saw an immediate need to purchase a new large piece of equipment in time for the new school year but new help would be required to meet that need we actively participate in two fundraisers two fundraisers a year to help meet the needs for school for a piece of playground equipment this large we knew it would take anywhere from three to five years for us to as a school Community to raise enough money so we decided to reach out for help with the additional funds stated Alexander PTO president in addition to buying a new piece of equipment copin was able to purchase a shade canopy that will be installed over the playground piece in October we're so thankful for the support from

021our Copeland Families Our PTO and our four mud districts for their generous donations this piece of playground equipment along with the shade canopy will ensure that our students students have a safe and fun place to play during recess for years to come on behalf of cfis thank you for your generous donation to support Copeland Elementary and with the following MUD district Representatives please come forward mud 264 director Chuck Brandman and donise [Applause] Hoffman you want to do a group picture you can do some individuals mud 70 Buzz Lang and Stephanie [Applause] Peters and our last two muds look like they are not present but mud 156 Jeff Penney and mud 173 director Rick Raymore and principal burger and Lori would you please join them for a photo please here they're here oh come on up

022Jeff [Applause] penny6 James Robertson thank you very much okay now I'm with with the ladies yes I'm troublemaker I'm tell them CH tell them I'll help now we're all item 1 C the board will recognize ICI construction for the donation of funds to purchase school supplies for students in need presenter is Don trione and I would ask my colleagues Lucas scanland and Julie Hinman to step down to help with the recognition tonight we are celebrating a gracious humble business partner that utilizes its resources for this community to strengthen and enrich the quality of education for our students on behalf of cfd I am thrilled to recognize ICI construction and specifically Melody Kelly and Bart Cobb its president IC ICI has an ongoing tradition of donating funds to cfd at the completion of their construction projects

023this donation is designated for the purchase of school supplies benefiting EP Eon economic I Ally disadvantaged uh students ici's most recent gift of $10,000 continues the tradition of impacting the lives of students across the district ensuring all cfis students have an equal opportunity to succeed after the uh over the last seven years ICI has generously donated $170,000 to support our district ICI designs and constructs safe beautiful buildings that house our most precious assets our students on behalf of cfis thank you for your dedication to Bringing out the best in our community Melody Kelly could you please come [Applause] forward I 1D the board will recognize teaching and training students who have distinguished themselves by placing second and third at the Educators Rising National Conference in Orlando Florida on June 29th through July 2nd 2023 I

024would ask any of my colleagues who have taught on a paid basis for at least one or two semesters to please step down to help recognize these Rising Stars president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is a pleasure to present to you this evening the winners at the Educators Rising National Conference in Orlando Florida students would you please come up these students are from bridgelin high school and the teacher is Stacy Morgan winning second place for their project on the learning challenges of anxiety in the classroom are Allison barow Avery Owens and Lauren wac con winning third place at the National Conference for their children's literature book that they Illustrated and wrote in Braille are Ella Simmons and Victoria Mitchell but unfortunately Victoria was not able to be with us tonight these teaching

025and training students aspire to become Educators and they were competing in events that are directly related to their intended future professions they are getting experience and Excellence as we congratulate these future teachers from bridgelin high school we would like their parents friends administrators and teacher Mrs Stacy Morgan to please stand and be [Applause] recognized Dr Stewart do we know need to go ahead and get them four contracts to [Laughter] sign before we proceed with board comments we're going to take a three minute break in case anybody does not wish to stay for the the remaining portion of the board meeting I will tell you it will be scintillating and you will miss something very significant but if you want go ahead and leave now uh we won't take your name down that does not apply

026to anybody up here on the board [Music] Di [Music] yeah [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] so the that's your 30 second warning before we proceed with board comments we will review the addendum which was posted to the October 2023 board meeting agenda on Friday October 6 2023 addendum the board will provide an update on the superintendent search there are no speakers on this topic this evening a brief update on the superintendent searches in order as you know the board hired Thompson and Horton LP to help identify superintendent candidates further the board selected general counsel Mar Sims as facilitator focus groups were selected input was solicited received and reviewed by the board in addition

027online input was solicited from all and over 4,000 distinct responses were received the board had an opportunity to review all 700 Pages The Firm of Hanover provided a summary and of details have been added to the website the field has been narrowed and we will conduct first round interviews and then second round interviews for a smaller number of candidates this board will select the loan finalist and the new board will finalize contractual details this hybrid approach was selected by this board we will now proceed with board comments I'm going to start to my right Mr Henry thank you Mr President thank you and good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome M uh Mr Henry I'm very sorry I apologize uh we do have a speaker oh sorry I apologize uh we have one speaker Jennifer shanet

028uh Mr secretary are you ready very good I'll make it really quick under this agenda item board members can talk about meetings they have attended as well as community events I hope Lucas will speak tonight about the event he held yesterday in our neighborhood a campaign event for aishe and Deo he even wore a T-shirt and held a sign so I would like to hear all about that this evening if I could thank you Mr Henry and once again I apologize no problem one of the greatest pleasures of a role I have as a Schoolboard member is taking tours of schools this aspect of my job allows me to witness the very essence of every school school it's something I hold in high regard while we often receive reports highlighting the district's impressive achievements visiting

029school offers a unique perspective that goes beyond the M statistics walking through the hallways both students ministers guide me through a truly delightful experience from C Park to Samson to goods and the Masky I enjoyed them all even the ones that didn't call out listening to student council members share their deep affection for the schools and hearing the administration proudly remark on the remarkable accomplishment of the dedicated teachers and staff is very heartwarming I want to express my gratitude to all the ones of aring Heroes the lunchroom crew the tiess efforts of these folks go beyond the educational institutions I never miss an opportunity to convey my thanks and appreciation for their hard work also want to extend my heartful thanks to all those who had the privilege of interacting with with the numerous principles

030assistant principles Librarians teaches teachers coaches janers lunchroom staff even some parents who I recognized and of course the students each interaction is a source of inspiration and also Enlightenment special shout out goes to our own Matt and want to thank his staff for enlighting me our tour of our Transportation Center witnessing the efficient and Safe Transportation for our students to and from destinations with the district is truly eye openening our stateof art facility is a testament to the commitment to the Excellence and Logistics I must say though that the driving simulator for the buses was both accelerating and nerve-wracking experience I highly encourage every board member to go through it at their own Peril as a parent of a school child I have the privilege of witnessing the incredible Talent my own on our own

031schools during both football games and numerous band competitions held each month I'm proud to report that our sciare bands performed exceptionally well the bands of America in the other contest I enjoyed watching of course Sy woods but also bridgelin sfair S Ranch SCI Falls band and the color guard I admire the staff the students and the parents getting up at sometimes 3:30 in the morning like the parents and going and then not leaving till 1:00 a.m. the next morning congrats on some very great scoring and some great wins you know parents students have shown consistently and demonstrates that students who engage in extracurricular activities tend to excel academically they acquire these essential skills such as time management organization which helped them seamlessly apply to their school workor moreover participation in band and other groups offer

032a chance to forge new friendships and establish a deep sense of belonging within our school Community to all the parents and students I strongly encourage you to consider getting involved and stay involved in some form of extra creativity these rewards are significant you may never know that decisions one day may help ship your future in the right paths right here in cir ASD thank you for your attention as we continue to help to create enriching School environment for all of our students thank you Dr Natalie blasing game uh good evening everyone thank you for those in attendance and those watching thank you for your interest in our school district and uh the very important work we have educating our kids um I first I want to thank our school-based staff October is a really tough

033month in schools um the reality hits you've done all your assessment evaluation and you're really just at that place where you're brainstorming all the things you can do to make sure each of your kids um achieves what they need to achieve in the year and that just takes an incredible amount of effort and time and coordination and so uh teachers other school those who feed them them drive them there principls during principal's month um all the administrative teams that support on campuses thank you for all that you do I definitely understand that it's U not easy all the assessment and stuff that is uh required so that we can get a good picture of where our kids are and where they're going and so I definitely look forward to the data that's coming out of

034all that assessment and we do stand with you and at the state conference for administrators and Schoolboard trustees um uh the commissioner who also visited our district um was there to speak and I was very um excited to I wonder what he' be talking about he's been talking about reading for a while um but guess what he was talking about this time teachers are the single most important in school Factor impacting student outcomes not shocking is it not surprising teachers are so critical and I was very pleased that our commissioner is um really looking at data to see how can we best support how can we best compensate how can we best make sure that we celebrate honor and maintain the teachers we have and attract people to our profession it was so beautiful to

035see those young ladies tonight receiving an award because that is the future of our profession right there and they represent us well and we want to make sure that we are making our profession attractive trusting teachers as professionals to make decisions so that we can uh both serve kids well and attract people to our profession so thank you to teachers and all Campus based staff uh for your work I also want to thank the Barry cator and the cciir Federal Credit Union Stadium staff um I have also have the privilege and the enjoyment of having Friday night as a parent and as a trustee uh was even invited to um I am wearing red today do not mistake it for Langham Creek red because it is actually Crimson of side Woods a challenge accepted by

036my colleague here we may not have won the game but it was just such a wonderful it's just so wonderful to see the um the level of professionalism I want to uh celebrate Beth and her staff they def they go beyond above and beyond always to make sure that every Patron every parent has an incredible experience every student is safe um and that we are just having just another opportunity as Dr Henry always says to grow our students in our extracurricular and you just see it on such Grand display on a Friday night any of you who doesn't have a reason to attend go out there the weather's so nice and you just really get it's a refreshing to see the all the U potential and all the excitement and all the youth um of

037our district and what they're able to do and how well we support them in that also was a happy to see Pastor Larry he's gone now but uh Pastor Larry was uh one of the original pastors of the adopted school program for hair Grove um Copperfield church and Calvary Community Church have done that for 11 or 12 years and made such a difference in the school so once again I S I recommend any group that is looking anyone that can um Dawn Tryon is a has a great system for capturing but we recommend anyone who can to adopt a school because it's definitely one of the most um uh it's a very promising and tangible way to go ahead and contribute to the schools in our district to know that you made a difference also

038want to thank um this team that put on the college night um that was very well attended and it definitely was a showed our district well to colleges but definitely our students had an opportunity it was well managed the number of tables everything that allowed them to have a guaranteed opportunity to speak to uh recruiters and understand the different options ahead of them um and that is uh even seeing the video and understanding that they prioritize coming to cair night is just a benefit for our students and so I want to thank all the staff that put that on that's the end of my comments thank you so much Mr cabia um welcome everybody here um I want to start with this past weekend the weather was fantastic and my yard finally got rain um

039water bill been high for a little bit though but we got some rain that was great the games throughout the state throughout our district and area were fantastic um and I know a lot of people were out and about uh enjoying the nice change uh that was very well uh welcome um U got a chance to go to my last conference in Dallas and I got to go to quite uh a few sessions that I attended uh some were security but the district already does everything on the security level that they were talking about and then we went to I went to a CTE session and the district already does that as well and and it seems that it it's a very good conference to get informed but our district like commissioner morass said uh

040if many of the districts were like ours that he'd be out of a job because our district is absolutely run fantastic um got me wondering as we go into the final weeks our superintendent search when Dr h was chosen and he came from Galina Park and it's not necessary to pick a winner from a big District but just to pick a winner um in collaboration did he come here and make the district better yes but the district I would think also made him better and collaboration is what we have now working as a team uh together and and that is some foresight that I I like to think that this board can accomplish before we we get out of here uh at the end of fall um it was the last conference that the superintendent

041was would be attending and it was nice visiting with him as I hold him in very high regard uh as one of the best persons I have ever come across Barone um we're going to go back to what commissioner morass said um our community is diverse it's a very diverse how many dialects do we have Linda over a 100 different dialects in our community hard to believe but it is a very diverse community and um I applaud that uh it's it's a challenge always every day working with so many different uh backgrounds to come together for one uh go I want to go to the um big event later on this month is we have early voting coming up early voting means early voting before the November election it is imperative that the eligible voters

042we have here in our community go out and participate in what our forefather our fathers our grandfathers our uncles we all um fought for and uh pray for uh go out there and make your voice heard um please the employees of our district and Educators spend a little time and do a little bit of background checks just all you have to do and you would get steered in the right direction uh there were some very fine candidates running that will make excellent trustees lastly um like all of y'all uh I pray for peace in the Middle East um I've been consumed uh the last 36 hours as I visited there in 2018 uh the old city of Jerusalem and toine people that live there uh I visited with Palestinians Jewish people Christians no matter what

043they're there and u a very uh sad thing that happened over there and uh um we pray for peace over there it's going to be a while but um it's troubling knowing that we are very fortunate where we're at here we are in a good place and um I just wanted to end with that with our prayers uh going towards uh everybody involved in the tragedy that has happened over there in the Middle East Tom to my left Mr scandin thank you I'll keep my comments brief over the next month I'm sure as all of us will we'll have the opportunities to interact with our various programs and so I know that I'll be working with uh students in school as well as visiting um some of our after school activities and every time we

044do it's it's always excellent to see the unique culture of every single school when we go to our graduations you get the chance to see how every school has their own identities and we attend all of our football games attend those competitions that school culture comes out and thankfully gratitude to our principes and the staff on those campuses that help deliver that culture I'm very excited about what we're bringing uh I wanted to address something that you addressed Mr stabia this board is committed to finding a great candidate for our district and in this month we're going to be spending a lot of time together I'm sure no one is surprised by that we'll be spending a lot of time together working through tough questions and working with candidates spending time with them to get

045to know them working towards a great solution for all of us for all of our teachers our administrators most importantly our students and families so we are committed to being to presenting to the future board a candidate that is strong and will do great for this District so with that said I look forward to that process thank you Miss blackshire well we're into our second month of school and I would like to congratulate our principals our administrators and our teachers on uh such a smooth start to school I haven't received any phone calls or um heard complaints and everything seemingly has gone very uh smoothly and I congratulate our principls uh since this is our month to highlight them for the great job of leadership you know leading is not an easy job and not

046everyone can lead and uh Mr Arabia when you talked earlier I remember the comments of my my uh my my board chairman when I was named president of cair Federal Credit Union many moons ago and the thing he said to me was a smart leader surrounds himself with even smarter people and I took that to heart and it's what I always did and we were very successful and I feel that that's what Dr Henry has done with his administra ative team and I uh want you to know how much I appreciate um how you all work so greatly together it's really a privilege as a board uh trustee to work with this team um thinking back to Don Tron tonight honoring uh the the groups the mud districts that uh provided um equipment to Copeland

047Del Elementary we have a very great partners and education program in our district and uh I know my church has three schools we adopted and uh back on the September uh teacher work day I had the honor uh along with some other ladies from my church of serving uh breakfast tonas to the staff at Danish Elementary we had another group who had already done Kirk Elementary and ALC uh East but uh it's such a great program and it's just the little things that make such a difference for our teachers and our staff to let them know that that they are appreciated for what they do every day because I have not uh I've been in a classroom as a reader uh for 30 minutes a week but uh I know just uh serving uh as

048a bus buddy in years past uh really gave me a new appreciation for our bus drivers and uh what they um maybe should I say endure are go through from time to time uh with students but I really feel that we have a great group of Educators in cciir ISD and uh over the past month I've uh attended three different uh football games I got to watch bridgelin and cair and then uh SCI Falls and S Lake and then Bridgeland and I don't know who they played that week can't remember I was too busy watching my granddaughter cheer trying to find her in the group but anyway I want to give a shout out because I see the band performances I want to give a shout out to siles High School's band director they were

049amazing I can't I come from the uh as my grand kids would say the Elden days when I was in a drill team we wore wool uniforms here in Houston Texas I was a Reagan red coat if any of you are familiar it's now called Heights High but we we uh had to have straight lines and we were drum and bugle core and boy if we didn't have a straight line did we ever hear it from our sponsor on Monday so it was so great to see sights and March out on the field like I feel a band should and I was watching for those straight lines and they had them and so Kudos uh to the program at sakes High School Miss Bellamy y'all are doing a great job there and uh I look

050forward to visiting a few schools before uh I roll off uh the board in December but uh thank you very much for being here tonight and it would it's always a great night when we can celebrate Student Success like we did tonight thank you Miss hunman thank you Mr President since the last board meeting in September um I've continued my weekly mentoring of students at Sai Falls and Sai Park High School I was invited to read to students at Sheridan Elementary and at Hamilton Elementary where the um the topic of of discussion was how to be a good citizen so we we picked a great book about that and then we had some great discussion with students about what it means to be a good citizen I've started my official board visits uh I've been

051to Post Elementary Kirk Elementary Hancock Elementary Milsap Elementary and site Creek Elementary so or High School sorry cougars um high school so far um I was able to attend the yet conference at the berry C yet is our young educators of tomorrow um conference um we brought in 400 high school students who are on that pathway to become Educators themselves we brought them to the Berry Center to do professional development and so they got to do a PD conference just like our our teachers get to do and it was a great experience I think for them it really validated their decisions um to go into education they got to meet with college representatives for different programs and I think it was just very inspiring and confirming validating for their decisions and uh just as has

052been said before our future is in good hands with these future Educators um I joined uh staff members and chief academic officers from several other school districts at a dinner with the tea commissioner it's always good to network with other districts and to get that feedback about um our programs um they were extremely impressed with not just our CTE and special education programs but our new arrival centers as well uh I intended the first districtwide educational Improvement council meeting of the year so thank you to the 153 members who are part of that committee it's uh teachers parents uh community members Business Leaders who provide a uh counsel to our Administration uh when we have big decisions to make um as my peers uh have done I've attended several football games for Sy Woods S

053Ranch S springs s Park Jersey Village ciir High School and sidge so far I attended the September meeting of the community lead leadership committee um we received a thorough explanation of the 2023 star test results thank you Dr msas um as well as Pro proposed changes to the state accountability system which that's something we definitely need to keep our eye on and make sure that we're communicating these changes to our community uh I did jump after that meeting jumped into the lead golf cart for the incredible Cipher High School homecoming parade um that's a really unique event I mean that's our that's the mothership right that's our oldest high school and they have a fantastic parade that um the floats go by lampin Elementary and Arnold Middle School so those students were outside cheering for

054the players and the band and the drill team and the staff and it was a lot of fun and Dr Henry was the Grand Marshall with the top hat and the Sash and all the things that was fun uh and then end of the month uh greeting community members alongside our Cipher ICD police officers uh at the coffee with a cop event I encourage you to um uh attend those events if you can they typically hold regular get togethers at coffee shops around our community and it's a great way to connect with our officers and to give a have a chance to say thank you to them as well um because the the November board meeting is going to be unique due due to its timing um I'm just going to give a quick sneak

055peek of what's coming up next month um on Wednesday I will be representing cyer ISD on a panel discussion at lonar College uh I'll be on the panel alongside um trustees from Klein and Tomball ISD to talk about the importance um of the decisions that school board trustees make and the impact on our community so I encourage you to to check that out um I'm volunteering at the book fair at Wilburn I'll be at side Lakes High School tomorrow um as well as I'll be at Anthony metcafe Woodard and Farney Elementary uh also going to pop into joerger to read and the blle middle school is celebrating their 50th Anniversary this month so uh keep an eye out for that as well as dedications for Brosnahan Elementary and spra Middle School so that's it from

056a calendar standpoint um I just want to remind everyone to please pay attention to the special session that started today in Austin uh the governor called a special session the primary focus that impacts us is um the plan to have vouchers or uh they the name that they're using as education savings account but they're in essence vouchers this is a way for the state to divert money intended for public schools uh and redirect that money to private organizations that lack the same academic and financial transparency and accountability as public schools do so I encourage you to be informed about that contact your elected officials in in the within our state government and let them know how you feel about that um you you we've seen it remarketed as school choice and I think it's important

057that we understand that we already have school choice in Texas as parents we can choose to send our students to Public Schools private schools Charter Schools or home school um with vouchers or education savings account it's really the school's Choice the private schools will choose what students they will accept so if your student can pass the test and won't get into any discipline problems you might have a chance to get in with your voucher but it may not cover the cost of the tuition and you have to provide your own transportation so there's a lot of um inequities and uh inconsistencies um which doesn't feel very conservative to me when we're talking about public dollars going to um organ ganizations that lack financial and academic uh transparency and accountability I also encourage you when those

058bills come out to read them what we've seen in the past is that there's an added layer of bureaucracy where an or vendors or another organization even the state comp controller may take 3 to 5% off the top for administrative costs so it really devalues the value of those vouchers anyway so I encourage you to be informed be engaged and to to use your voice with our elected officials in Austin especially over these next uh couple of weeks when these uh vouchers um are being considered in the capital thank you Mr cabia yes um I forgot and I wanted to mention um at the state conference Natalie got a chance to uh do a presentation with some friends from another district and I wanted to applaud her for being brave and presenting on her uh

059on her session there her subject uh and she also had nine well attended sciare District employees and trustees uh there in attendance to wish her the best and her uh um request there to uh help serve there as well and on the last thing um no vouchers thank you I made all of my normal stops uh many of which uh I was at events along with my fellow colleagues tonight I'm going to to talk about only two items one political season is high upon us let us be clear that we want to be as accurate as we can be for example an elected legislature made a reference to me when I request ested from him additional legislation was probably going to be needed but let me remind him our policies and procedures were in place

060and being acted on long before that legislation of his was ever debated my Minister was wrong when he said that divorce was a pipeline to prison politicians are wrong when they infer that not passing the star test is a pipeline to prison as well the star test is not a life predict predictor I taught statistics at the corporate level comparisons do not make a correlation a correlation does not prove causality the second area that I wanted to touch on were key takeaways from the tasby conference I too wanted to say thank you to my colleague Natalie uh this board uh for the 12 years of which I've been a member we have presented I think at every one of the 12 tassat tasby conferences I was privileged uh to talk about prek but also about

061the Perils of being a fast growing district and so I appreciate the fact that board members continue to step up some of the sessions I attended that I thought were of consequence artificial intelligence the the basic takeaway here was being be cognizant of it and look for changes I look forward to the day in the near future where AI can be more useful in advancing attainment of students by being more focused to enhance strengths and Shore up weaknesses more successfully than that which is currently available when I was in grad school many years ago at Texas I actually was part of a grant to try and code some software in this regard and although that was rudimentary the possibilities of AI were clear then and they are clear now it is for the good and

062we will embrace it two revised and retroactive District campus evaluation standards the basic message uh from that panel dis discussion was keep positive let us remember that Cypress Fairbanks as a district has earned an a rating three times two of those with an asterisk the school my children graduated from was named one of the best in the United States but by the same token under the revised and retroactive eval new evaluation system it identifies it as being a very poor achiever for that reason but also others like it I voted in favor of the lawsuit and I'm pleased to say that the vote was unanimous by this board three the commissioner is all in on differentiated pay we have started the process it will continue it is a competitive necessity I will make note of

063the fact that our our neighbor has started to initiate differentiated pay among principles as a board we need to be cognizant of the fact that probably our pay scale at the campus Administration level may not be as competitive as we want it to be four Soro ISD has adopted an integrated teacher evaluation curriculum and student attainment model which is remarkably similar to that currently in use by Dr mcus in her Department what was significant is once they had adopted that model and had it ongoing with Fidelity for several years success started rolling in and their District just like ours in the Senate H hearings were recognized as districts that were doing far more with far less five exor ISD that I was privileged to visit with the board and admin as part of leadership tasby

064at that time the the concern was over the teacher shortage they unveiled their answer to the teacher shortage which is in their second year and it is proving to be successful I'm pleased to note that many of those pieces are already in place here and that some have been under review by Dr Stewart's group and I look forward to a more complete roll out of these and of course finally this is the time period where we get to say thank you to our principles Harvard University has come out and said with Statistics to back it up in all difference to commissioner Morra who I hold in high regard the one person on any campus who can do the most for student attainment is that principle and so to the campus leadership we are well aware

065that you are the ones who have to make it happen you have to guide your staff you have to Shield them from pressure and when times are hard it's your job to put a smile on their face the best you can so tonight I tip my hat to all of the principles but also their a team at our 92 campuses thank you item 3B of the reports portion of the agenda was presented at the board work session on Thursday October 5th 2023 I will now present item 3A reports in accordance with Texas Education Code and State Board of Education regulations the president of the board shall announce the name of each board member who has completed exceeded or who is De deficient in the continuing education required under state law our top earner of continuing

066education hours is Dr Natalie blasingame with 53.7 Debbie black she has 11.0 Scott Henry is 23.75 Julie Hinman has 43 hours Tom Jackson has 29.25 Gilbert Arabia has 15 Lucas scandin has 21.25 I am pleased to report that everybody on the board Das has completed the required hours in all categories with one odd exception that of team building we're required to have three hours of team building however we have had many sessions already with the entire team and had we planned better we could have called this team building so we have the hours in but we haven't quite been able to check the box uh prior to tonight's meeting I did contact each of my colleagues with the question do we want to schedule a team building for the current board or does it make

067sense to postpone that for the newly elected board and the soon to be newly hired superintendent uh I did receive responses back uh from all uh and if necessary we will schedule a team of eight training to satisfy this requirement that concludes that report the public hearing portion of the agenda was presented at the board work session on Thursday however we have one speaker for our item 4B our speaker is I say Indo Mr secretary are you ready very good you may proceed when you want Oh okay that's new and and please start the time over okay I came here tonight to say that teacher legal protections could be in danger if Cipher ISD becomes a district of innov of innovation I want to share the infro from tcta Texas classroom Teachers Association they nicknamed

068it the District of exemption in the in three districts Huntsville Big Springs Cel they Exempted themselves from the law that requires teachers to to employ teachers under contract even worse in Anthony ISD they exemp themselves from the entire chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code where they don't have to hire under contract they don't have to hire certified teachers even in core areas they don't have to follow due process when firing a teacher and they don't have to pay state minimum required salaries or provide planning and preparation periods if this can happen to chapter 21 it could also happen to chapter 26 which is a parental rights part of the Education Code if we do designate Cipher ISD as a district of innovation every exemption the ad Administration seeks needs to be 100% transparent transparent

069to teachers and parents and the board must vote on it otherwise people won't trust the district and we really need to have trust to thrive thank you that item 4B was the board will hold a public hearing at 6 pm. on Thursday October 5th 2023 to consider whether the district should develop a local Innovation plan for the designation of the district as a district of innovation we shall now proceed with action items portion of the agenda action items 5 a through 5e 5G 5j through 5p were moved to consensus at the board work session on Thursday I will now read those items five a the board will consider approving the minutes of the September 7th 2023 board work session no speakers 5B the board will consider approving the minutes of the September 11 2023 regular

070board meeting no speakers 5c the board will consider approving the minutes of the September 2023 special called board meeting there are no speakers 5D the board will consider approving an agreement between Harris County and Cyprus Fairbanks Independent School District relating to General and special elections to be held on November 7th 2023 there are no speakers 5e the board will consider approving the 2023 certified tax roles and estimated collection rates for 2023 to be 100% And The 2022 exess excess debt collection rate to be zero there are no speakers 5G the board will consider approving on first reading additions revisions or deletions to District policies there are no speakers 5G 1 CB local buildings grounds and Equipment management maintenance Revis 5 G2 gkd local community relations non-school use of school facilities reys 5j the the board

071will consider approving the issuance of a Career and Technical education teaching permit to applicants in L of standard teaching certifications as established by law no speakers 5K the board will consider approving the shared service Arrangement between Cypress Fairbanks ISD and lonar college there are no speakers five b the board will consider approving the granting of a temporary construction license to Harris County for the purpose of driveway regreting at swinky elementary school and authorize the superintendent or designated to negotiate the final terms and execute all related documents no speakers 5m the board will consider approving the granting of temporary construction agement to Harris County located at swinky elementary school along Shield Road and authorize the superintendent or designated to negotiate the final terms and execute all related documents no speakers 5n the board will consider approving

072construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractors and authorized the superintendent or design to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts as follows 51 2023 Barker Cyprus and West Green Transportation andeli a centers renovation no speakers 5 the board will consider approving bids and contracts and are authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item no speakers those sub points 501 cfd LTE 1:1 program Chromebook quote 502 demographic Services 503 installation services 5p the board will consider authorizing the superintendent to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Lamar University for student teacher placements those speakers finally if any board member wishes to remove one of these items for further discussion please do so at this time I see no interest if not I will now entertain a motion to

073approve the consensus items as recommended or amended Mr President I move that the board approves the consensus items as recommended motion has been made do I hear a second I second motion has been made and seconded uh is there any discussion on any of these items or comments hearing none I will now call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand allay it passes unanimously the following action items remained on non-consensus five V the board will consider the 2023 tax rate resolution to support the 2023 2024 maintenance and operations and Debt Service budgets by setting the 2023 m in interest and seeking tax rates there are no speakers this evening we had a presentation Thursday night and we had a very good discussion may I have a motion Mr President

074I move that the board um uh adopts the the 2023 2024 maintenance and operations and Debt Service budgets by setting the 2023 M and interest and syncing rates tax rates as presented by the district now this is a legal requirement did we get all the words Karen very good uh motion has been made is there a second a second motion has been made and seconded is there any further discussion on this topic seeing none all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Hol it passes unanimously 5H the board will consider approving a resolution to initiate the process under Education Code chapter 12a to become a district of innovation we have one speaker but I've been uh notified that that speaker will not be speaking tonight and so we have a presentation do we

075have a presentation tonight Dr no sir we do not have a presentation on this this is the uh resolution that kind of goes parallel with the presentation we did on Thursday we did have a presentation on Thursday I will now entertain a motion to approve the resolution go ahead go ahead president Jackson I motion that we entertain the resolution regarding becoming an investigating becoming a district of innovation very good is there a second I second motion has been made and seconded is there any further discussion on this item mrck I do we both do go ahead okay yes I just want to um uh we did have a lot of good discussion at the work session on Thursday I encourage anyone who's interested in this topic to please watch the work session on Thursday the

076video I think there was a lot of questions that were asked and answered at that that time um one thing that we um when we were discussing past uh discussions about becoming a district of innovation um one thing I recall even from before when I was on the board um uh we discussed the need uh to become a district of innovation in order to have local control over our own calendar um one thing that Dr Henry didn't mention on Thursday was we discussed uh waiting to see if the state legislature would change state law that would allow school districts to have control over their own calendar so that we wouldn't have to become a district of innovation to have control over your own calendar um we waited and we waited for several sessions and that

077has not happened which has put this put us in this position um in which that we are one of the only districts in Texas that does not have the ability to control our own calendar one uh thing that I uh that also gives me concern is in the last legislative session there was um some discussion it did not move forward of removing the ability to have control over your calendar from the DOI process that not even being an option for the plan um so that window would be closed and that was actually presented by a former state senator who used to be Head of the State Senate Ed committee and is now a lobbyist Senator a former senator Larry Taylor um and so I think there is a window that we need just to be

078aware of in case that that window is closed um in the future um see if I had anything else I wanted to talk about that I think that's it um I um I don't typically share how I'm going to vote in advance um I have a lot of concerns about this that uh have grown to better understand over my time on the board um but I think in order for the board to um make an informed decision there has to be discussion within the community and there has to be input from teachers and key stakeholders and in order to have that input you have to start the process and pull the committee together so um just because I may vote to move the process forward doesn't mean I necessarily support it but I think we

079need to make sure that we are engaging in the process that where we can get input from Key stakeholders and the only way to do that um in a transparent way is to pass the resolution and pull the committee together thank you Mr scandin did you have a comment sir I do sir echoing some of uh trusty hinman's comments in our presentation on Thursday evening we understood from Dr Marcus that the committee that we're actually recommending to do this is our deic committee which is comprised approximately two-thirds of teachers our Focus here is what's good for the district and we want to ensure that per hinman's comments that we understand we understand what the recommendations are going to be coming from that Community the community at Large pardon me we understand what the recommendation are

080going to come from that committee the community at large has the ability to discuss process and we get a chance to interact with not only our community probably all also other school districts that are DOI Community or districts right now as well as lawmakers we are going to be very transparent about what the recommendations are going to be and echoing Miss hinman's comments just because I am I believe is healthy to move forward and investigate doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to vote for doing it when it comes time so our objective here is to create a great environment and a position for our district to do what is helpful to our teachers our staff our parents our kids so with that being said it's going to be full transparency and we look forward to

081hearing from our community Miss hman thank you uh just one other thing I knew I had one more thing uh just to clarify if you go on the te's website and and um do a little bit of research on districts of innovation you will see the exactly the chapters that are of the TEC of the Texas Education Code that are eligible for waivers chapter 26 is not on the list you you cannot wave chapter 26 by becoming a district of innovation Dr blasing go um I um would also say that this is such a um an issue of community the input I was really pleased to see we had 4,580 or so people engaged in our survey to give feedback for our superintendent search and strengths of our system and the concerns they have and

082to me that was so powerful because it's a fresh listen a fresh ear to what is a concern or an interest of the community and so for this District of innovation I did ask early on I was intrigued by the idea of being able to be a little creative as a system um I did hear concerns uh around teach for teachers feeling Security in their jobs and we cannot afford for our teachers not to understand that they are protected and valued um so that is the only risk that we run uh the greatest risk I would say that we would run with this however um I felt comfortable as Dr msas explained I have served on the deic I know it's a a very um orderly committee and it has a lot of teacher has

083how many 40 there is a teacher from every single campus and and there are parent and and uh committee members represent every feeder pattern and so not every District committee do I think should be most heavily staff for teachers I think there's some things that should be you know different kinds of input but on this I felt comfortable understanding that this committee I know it's very well run by Dr masas and her team and it is obviously every campus has a voice that represents the teachers in their building and so that has helped me to under to feel um like we can proceed in the process with teacher voice really valued but I definitely um and thankful to our community and I like that we will continue to ask I hope we can continue to

084ask the community for input on uh issues such as this thank you Tom Mr Henry just a comment on on this um I I don't recall exactly but when we were doing the counter committee I don't remember this being a big issue I know that we all went up to Austin as well to advocate for the district if this was an issue maybe next time tell us and we will definitely talk to our legislators I don't think this is I know a lot of things are on the on the plate this year but if this is a big thing we probably need to go and change legislation and affect that change there more than anything um that's just my comment this is a good probably a good priority to fix beyond the other things I

085think we're looking at I think we're looking at two or three things but that's only my comment thank you I know when Dei first was uh permitted I spoke strongly I'm sorry DOI DOI um deic I spoke strongly against it uh from the board dis that was many years ago I did speak to the deic committee on two points one I wanted to explain why did I vote for the lawsuit to sue of the state agency but I also wanted to explain why I was in spor in support of investigating the District of innovation uh and while I was there and when I spoke a number of teachers did come up to me to express concern but the way the process works is if we approve the deic as being the committee they will have

086control over that which comes back to be presented to us and if they do not approve it it never comes to the board for consideration so that is the Safeguard but of course we as a board have to put that Safeguard in right and so that'll be one of the items we vote on tonight is there further discussion under 5H uh a motion has been made and seconded a discussion has closed I will now call for a vote all in favor of the motion as presented please signify by raising your right hand hly it is unanimous 5i here's the second part the board will consider appointing in Innovation plan committee to develop a local Innovation plan or decline to pursue a designation as a district of innovation there are no speakers on this topic this

087evening U Linda there is not another presentation no sir there is not I will now entertain a motion Mr President I move that the board appoint an innovation plan committee with membership to be determined by the administration to deliver a local Innovation plan or decline to per no to deliver a local Innovation plan or decline to pursue a designation as a district of innovation motion has been made do I hear a second I second motion has been made and seconded is there a discussion seeing none I will now call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Holly once again it's unanimous 5q the board will consider making a determination that good cause did not exist as required by law for Marlene Valdez David Jones Carlos alberado ortuno Tristina Saks

088and Deborah Denny to resign the respective employment contracts this item was discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551.074 on Thursday evening there are no speakers on this topic this evening so I will entertain a motion Mr President I move that the Board of Trustees render a finding under Texas administrative code chapter 24917 D that good cause did not exist as required by Tex's Education Code sections 21105 c 21.16 c or 21.2 one0 c for Marlene Valdez David Jones Carlos Alvarado or tuno tristiana saxs and Deborah Denny 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 motion has been made do I hear a second I second motion has been made and

089seconded is there any discussion hearing none I now we'll call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Holly motion passes unanimously we will now proceed with the citizen participation portions of the agenda 6A 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 just a reminder patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order and name listed on the screen behind me before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserve seats on the front row we have eight speakers this evening our first speaker is Dave

090Mahan Mr secretary are you ready sir you may proceed when you're ready thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is David man and I am both a Cypress resident and the father of a cfd student I would like to begin by thanking Dr Henry for all of your many years of service your sane and responsible leadership you sir are a master of your trade and you will be missed I am a well- educated highly articulate and high functioning member of society largely because of the well-funded highquality public education I received public education is key not only to Future economic success for our children but to Freedom and equality for all in our Republic if you don't understand that or believe it you have no business on a Board of Trustees the

091primary role of the Board of Trustees is to provide the governance necessary to preserve and wherever possible improve the public education delivered to all students in our community if you don't believe that you have no business on a Board of Trustees school choice is nothing and I know that's the legislature but how a trustee believes regarding school choice speaks volumes school choice is nothing more than a scheme to defund public education I am from Arizona where I witnessed firsthand the decimation of the public schools throughout the state under the guise of school choice as well as continued direct budget reductions there are now entire school campuses sitting empty shut down their students crammed into overcrowded classrooms at other schools in other school districts far from their own neighborhoods their parents are clamoring to enroll their

092children in other districts through open enrollment which further strips their home districts of funding if you support school choice or any other disruption in funding for public education you have no business on this or any other Board of Trustees the Board of Trustees is supposed to be nonpartisan but right now there are right-wing packs and other moneyed interests seeking to infiltrate the current election in this District some of them not even from Texas Please wrap up your comment sir to support candidates who seek to enforce dark ideologies religious zealotry and seeking to destroy the system from within the system those candidates and those who support them have no business on this [Music] board our next speaker is Francis Ramirez Romero good evening president Jackson members of the board Dr Henry and staff I wear my

093Community leadership committee hat as I stand here to speak about public school funding today began the first day of the third called special session in the Texas legislature as many of you many of you may know our state legislature started with a $32 billion Surplus at the beginning of the year when the 88th regular session began in January our state leaders prioritized this money to buy down property taxes at a cost of 18 billion 0 were allocated to our Public Schools even after the state used 18 billion to buy down to buy down School District tax rates they still have another 18 billion that could actually be used to raise the basic allotment which is the per student amount paid by the state so that our school districts can cover basic costs and pay their

094teachers and staff one of the top priorities for this third called special session does not include additional funding for public schools instead the focus will be on diverting more State funds away from public schools in the name of Education savings accounts or AKA vouchers whatever name they choose the effect is always the same taking much needed money away from our public education system the CLC will be advocating against any legislation that allows public funds to pay for private schools not requiring the same financial and academic accountability currently required of our public school districts we ask our entire Community to join the clc's efforts in contacting our state representatives and state senators to let them know the cipher ISD Community the community of the only L large a-rated school district in Texas opposes esas and vouchers

095join our text alerts by typing in at CLC 2023 to 81010 thank you our next speaker is Lisa abuka good evening I stand before you today as a parent in a title one neighborhood zoned to Hoover Joel Kayla and CI Springs to draw your attention to the lack of equity that is visible even from the streets as you drive past campuses I would like to contrast the experience at Hoover Joel versus that of one at Pope both Hoover and Pope opened in 2017 a second and third grade parent at Hoover Joel will need to know two different buildings two different principles two different buses two different sets of school rules policies procedures versus a parent with a second and third grader at any other school that only has to know one building one principal one

096bus and one set of rules policies procedures this in and of itself is unequitable instead of building Hoover as a two-story building to serve prek through pip prek through 5ifth like Pope it is a one-story building that only has pre-re through 2 there seemed like there would have been enough land to make Joel the home of the alc and build an equitable building but that was not the decision that was made over the course of this school year I would like to further present comparisons between Hoover Joel and Pope that tell the story of inequity at a ISD I plan to look at playgrounds boundary lines PTO and booster clubs and specifically the lack of standard standardization we need standards applicable across all campuses to ensure Equity because separate is not equal our next speaker

097is Julie Ricks I would like to petition school board members to put on the agenda and vote for a full-time chaplain position in cyfair ISD Texas has passed the Texas School Chaplain act that allows for State paid full-time chaplain position in every District but the decision rests with each School Board a full-time chaplain will change the atmosphere and signals bringing back basic moral ity that is a counter to the woke agenda the woke agenda is a vicious circle with evil being called good that has created so many problems such as pornography accessible in library and classrooms division victim mentality lack of respect for authority and oneself discipline issues teachers who had enough and left and in general a lack of morality and safety for all anti victimization instruction is example of the latest attempt to

098fix a problem created by the woke agenda again Vicious Circle Mark Henry the superintendent is fully behind the woke agenda and is promoted with his name literally on document suggesting parents opt in for the anti- victimization instruction for their child an optin option is a clue that the instruction is outside basic academic teaching and therefore outside the the realm of responsibility of the school stay in your lane and focus on academic Excellence why is Mark Henry rewarded for promoting and allowing a woke agenda resulting in a serious decline in our district by having his name on this building there is no way Mark Henry is worthy and deserving of the honor nor is his legacy to remember going forward restore our district and vote for a full-time chaplain and remove Mark Henry's name thank you

099our next speaker is Mark goby Dr Henry I understand you have suddenly become concerned about the data mining of sciare children through your sciare issued laptops interesting you only became concerned after your granddaughter was Data mind yet two and half half years ago your Administration knew full well these Chromebooks were data mining our children why did you not care why did you not care if 117,649 99 Cipher children you were more than happy to throw under the bus and let them get data mind let that data go your your Administration don't know where it is when we had conversations about this two and a half years ago all right they didn't know where the data they didn't know what the questions were being ask your it Department can only have one answer one answer all

100right uh it comes with a platform it comes with a platform where's what are the questions being asked we don't know who collects the questions we don't know where are they stored we don't know all right that's on you it's all on you as you walk away from here all right that Legacy will be part of you you might also want to realize now that uh your uh district is full of filthy books I don't know if you know that maybe you don't understand your granddaughter hasn't had to be forced to read one yet do we have to wait for that to happen do we have to have your granddaughter read a book about a grandfather molesting his grandchildren is that what it's going to take for you to look now I don't like to

101criticize cuz I don't know what's acceptable in your home and I get criticized a lot for trying to tell people you know how they should live in their home okay so I don't want to do that you might be interested to know all right your time is up good evening our next speaker is Jennifer shanet that sure is a lot to follow uh school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan free from party affiliation and bias all of that has unfortunately changed the choice for our citizens in the election next month will be to either vote for a group of bipartisan individuals coming together for the good of the district or to vote for a farri extremist slate the fans of the extremist slate call anyone who isn't farri a Democrat please insert a big dramatic

102eye roll my how far we have fallen in this nation for decades members of Congress have worked together often across the aisle they were civil and mature some examples of bipartisan friendships include Reagan and tip O'Neal Carrie and McCain Clinton and Bush Obama and Bush Orin hatch and Ted Kennedy Biden and McCain one of the more interesting Duos was Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and Scalia they spent holidays together with their families and shared their mutual love of Opera Scalia was once quoted as saying if you can't disagree ardently with your colleagues about some issues of Law and yet personally still be friends get another job for Pete's sake we can go from that quote to a recent one by Schoolboard candidate Todd LMP who said infiltrate and divide understand their tactics the only way I

103know how to cure cancer is to cut it out I certainly wouldn't want Todd as my oncologist you can't always cut cancer out sometimes you need months of chemotherapy Andor multiple surgeries sometimes early detection is the key knowledge is power despite Todd being part of a slate his campaign manager Monica Dean is actively campaigning for aishe and Deo and she was at yesterday's event with Lucas why isn't she campaigning for George Edwards there is so much overlap and the blurring of lines the citizens of cfd need to know what this battle is about decent citizens regardless of party affiliation need to join together for the good of our district vote like the survival the district depends on it because it does and I'm proud that Dr Henry's name is on this building and Aisha you

104should not have been laughing and clapping about that you don't deserve to be running for the board thank you our next speaker is Danny s our next speaker is NY coward Dr Henry president Jackson and esteemed Schoolboard trustees I serve as the proud president of the cyfair AF and as you've heard tonight the governor's special session be today one of the highest priorities within our local union is to protect public education by blocking anything harmful to the students that we serve we implore all stakeholders and especially all school board members to stand strong against vouchers or any other measures that further strips funding from our school districts like in many areas of the country but especially in Texas there has been a false narrative around failing schools but we know the truth the truth is

105our educators are helping our kids recover and thrive more than ever the truth is the last few years have been very hard for both children and Educators we are in a climate where everything we do is often politicized and misrepresent misrepresented for those that want to portray teachers as bad I don't know one teacher out there not one who's not trying their hardest to help our kids and close the gap the pandemic caused instead of banning books demonizing Educators or censoring Health curriculum we must be committed to continue the real fight for Cipher ISD we are tired of the pro voucher minority that has manipulated the term parent choice because it sounds great but it is not it is anything but it is very ugly so While others continue their politically driven attacks against public

106Ed We Stand Together addressing learning loss loneliness and literacy challenges and the majority of our union members are also parents and grandparents of our public school students the two parent choice and employee voice are not separate forces working against each other again we are one and I will close with this all cyer iy employees are the largest ingredient and huge part of why we are a destination district and this is why employee voice whether in a superintendent search or a Schoolboard race truly matters and can change the narrative for the kids that we serve I would like to thank everyone for being being here tonight and I would also like to thank those who are watching from home may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting so moved motion has been made is there

107a second second any discussion hearing none I call for a vote to adjourn the meeting all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Holly it's unanimous we are adjourned