Regular Board Meeting | June 20, 2023

001[Music] foreign [Music] good morning the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees is now convened in a regular board meeting on Tuesday June 20th 2023 in the boardroom of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Mark Henry Administration Building located at 11440 matsky Road Cypress Texas at 9 00 A.M 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're 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

002a public meeting 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 of 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 so the privilege to attend the meeting prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on today'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

003a closed session is necessary in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071 through 551.08 for the Texas government code these proceedings are airing live on the district website there will also be available as video on demand on the district website following today's meeting for the video to adequately reflect the proceedings I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that you do as I do turn your cell phone off in silent mode which I have just now done thank you for taking the time to join us today and for your interest in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District with us today we have one boy scout Timothy Elmore of troop 277 are you in the

004audience here we are [Applause] we also have Claudia ornelius out of congressman's Congressman Hunt's office I need to say that two times fast I think thank you for being here with us this morning 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 the 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

005during the meeting citizen participation will generally be held after reports and action items for detailed information and instructions on registering to speak under agenda comments and centers in participation please go to the district website at www.cfisd.net patrons who have registered to speak today may say the order of the name is 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 over to my right when you approach the podium and as you can see there there are two under 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

006in accordance with the number of speakers registered today the timer will begin when you start speaking and when you see a yellow flashing light at the top of the monitor you will have 15 seconds to wrap up your comments the invocation for today's board meeting will be given by Tim Hill executive Pastor Bear Creek Baptist Church Tim is a graduate of Stephen F Austin State University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served churches in Texas for over 33 years he has lived in Cyprus since 2008 with his wife Jennifer a librarian at Hamilton Middle School and their daughter Caitlin a 2018 graduate of Cy Ranch High School and a graduate of the University of Texas in Tyler thank you Tim for being here today if you would sir the microphone is yours everybody please

007rise leaders who do such a great job of not only seeking to do what is right but what is best as they serve and as they lead and as they make decisions so I pray for all those in attendance those that will be listening those will that will be presenting and God I pray for our board I pray that you would give them wisdom in this full day of making decisions God we trust you we know that if any point in time we lack wisdom you tell us to ask and you'll Grant it to us so God we seek you this day and we give you thanks and as I conclude God I want to thank you for Dr Henry and for his wife Cindy and for the impact they've had on our community God

008I pray that you'd bless him in this transition and God I pray most of all for Cindy is Dr Henry Transitions and God I pray that as they invest more time into their kids and their families that you'd fill them with joy and and God we thank you for all that he's done and that this is his home and he'll continue to have an impact in our community in the days and the years ahead I pray this in Jesus name amen amen and while you're standing if you would the American flag if you'll join me in the pledge I pledge 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 please be seated board member Dr

009blasingame will read The District's vision and mission statement for the benefit of the audience Vision at CFISD 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 remarks and recognitions today superintendent Dr Mark Henry 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 are items of Interest Dr Henry thank you Mr President good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today unusual to have a morning meeting like this but I'm glad we're having it in the

010morning because we may be here most of the day so and certainly I appreciate our volunteers up here on the diocese and the time that they give without any any pay so thank you all for uh also volunteering had a great year in CFISD so just a quick recap video of the 22-23 year [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] are you ready ready for me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] as always we certainly appreciate the talent of our Communications team and and many students also help with these videos so we appreciate all of their work the class of 2023 graduation ceremonies took place between May 23rd and 27th at the Berry Center a total of 956 graduates from our 12 high schools walk the stage nearly 58 000 guests attended the class of 2023 commencement

011exercises while 65 000 others live stream the graduation ceremonies in addition to earning their High School diplomas 511 seniors from 10 of our high schools also graduated with their associate degrees from Lone Star College Cy Fair through the CFISD College Academy please enjoy this brief recap of our graduation ceremonies [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] the first summer class of the CFISD Police Department's Junior Police Academy took place June 5th through 9th at Campbell Middle School please enjoy this video highlighting a great program [Music] foreign it is a program that we run during the summer it introduces Elementary age students into the life of a police officer we do physical activities we do classroom learning we invite our other community helpers out to explain their jobs such as the fire department DPS helicopter comes out we

012are having HPD swap so just to have kids look at us and see that there are different Realms of things that we do within our job titles so every morning we go out to the football field we stretch as a unit they jump over a six foot wall and it's basically teamwork getting their bodies used to working and moving one of my favorite Parts about junior Police Academy is the drill that we do you'll practice drill like left face right face about face it'll get progressively harder as you go the drill is something that we learn every day and it is to give the kids a look at like military style I get to meet new friends over the summer and I get to meet like police officers I learn like new things it's important

013to me because you never know like what's gonna happen so then that's when you actually say somebody's life we have had a fingerprinting class crime scene and we will have K-9 come out social media bullying laws some people just don't know really what they do and it's not all about arresting criminals they do a bunch of stuff with the community it's probably one of the best choices I've ever made Virginia Police Academy is so much fun I get to learn a lot of new moves and I get my exercise in I have trouble making friends so jpa is something I can connect to it'll teach you discipline the offices here they're great to be able to give back to the community to show that we're not just a police department we are community helpers CFISD

014human resources department will hold a paraprofessional and support staff job fair on June 29th from 9 A.M to 2 p.m at the Berry Center we have several positions including Paras Community programs maintenance operations nutrition services transportation and cyfair police department available on-site interviews and application assistance will be available visit the district website at cfisd.net for more information CFISD schools and Facilities will operate under different hours throughout June and July the district will be open Monday through Thursday from 7 A.M to 5 30 p.m and closed on Fridays this week with Monday being a holiday we are open Tuesday through Friday 7 A.M to 5 30 p.m during the week of July 4th through 8th schools and Facilities will be closed on Tuesday July 4th and operate under normal hours 7 30 to 4 30 on

015Monday July 3rd and Wednesday through Friday July 5th through 7th as mentioned the district will be closed Tuesday July 4th in observance of Independence Day a reminder that fireworks are prohibited on District property the CFISD police department will Patrol the district's premises during the holidays please if you observe anyone violating those requests contact the Cy-Fair police department at 832-237-2373 we recently named two principals so I'll turn it over to Roy Garcia for these and his last announcements thank you Dr Henry president Jackson and Board of Trustees it is always exciting when we have we have the opportunity to announce new principles to you and to the CFISD community and as Dr Henry said we have two principles to introduce to you today and we will begin with our new principle for Lee Elementary School Miss

016Laurie Johnson okay [Applause] Lori has 22 years of experience in education all in Cypress Fairbanks Lori started her career as a fifth grade teacher at Sheridan Elementary and in 2002 she moved to Burke's Elementary where she served as a second and fifth grade teacher for 10 years she has served as an assistant principal for the past 10 years at Burke's Lori received her Bachelor of Science and education from the University of Houston and her master of education from Sam Houston State University Laurie is a former teacher of the year has served as a summer school principal served as a mentor for new assistant principals and participated in the aspiring principal Institute Lori and her husband Brian have three children Tatum who graduated from Cypress Ranch and the University of Texas Cassidy who will be a

017senior at Langham Creek High School and Sam who will be a sophomore at Langham Creek Laurie's hobbies include include traveling reading and attending musicals although she shared that most of her free time is spent as a dance and theater mom please join me in congratulating Lori on her new leadership opportunity [Applause] good morning president Jackson Board of Trustees Dr Henry thank you so much for this opportunity and privilege to be the next principal at Lee Elementary I have been able to meet with the parents staff students at Lee they have welcomed me with open arms they are fiercely proud of their successes and their traditions and I am honored to move forward and continue to be a part and become a part of their successes and in those traditions and carry on what they love

018thank you so I have with me today I don't know if I'm too far away um my family so this is my husband Brian my daughter Cassidy my son Sam my daughter Tatum lives in Chicago she's in school so she can't be here my my mother Barbara my sister Leanne and my aunt and uncle Mary and Roger rivette thank you guys for being here they without them you don't get anywhere so um so they are all in for everything that I do so I always love and appreciate everything that you that you give and then I don't know I know Ann melonson was here for me this morning and um just to say thank you to the people that um you know that are here like Ann that has been a wonderful mentor and Carla

019Brosnahan Stacy Everson people that I couldn't do without so just a thank you to all of them I love them as well thank you [Applause] our final principal announcement for today is for our new principal at Cook Middle School Miss Danielle Sebastian foreign has served in the education profession for 18 years she started as a middle school adapted Behavior teacher in Bryan ISD and also served as an elementary special education teacher in Katy ISD in 2010 she joined CFISD as a campus content instructional specialist at Truett middle school and later served as the Director of instruction helping teacher at Truitt Danielle has served as the Director of instruction at Cook Middle School for the past nine years she received her Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary studies from Texas A M University and her master of

020education Administration from Lamar University Danielle is a former teacher of the year and a certified trainer for Blended learning she served as a summer school principal participated in the Executive Education Academy at Rice University and participated in the aspiring principles Institute Danielle and her husband Doug have two children Dean who will be a junior at Langham Creek and Adam who will be a freshman at Langham Creek Danielle's hobbies include traveling camping with her family and simply exploring new places please join me in congratulating Danielle on her new leadership opportunity [Applause] foreign Jackson Board of Trustees Dr Henry thank you so much for this opportunity to continue to serve the Cook Middle School Community it's been my absolute pleasure and joy to be a member of that Ranger family for the last nine years and they

021are an absolutely amazing group of kids staff and community and so it's my absolute pleasure to continue to work with them to continue their traditions and their commitment to Excellence I'm excited about collaborating with the staff there because they are a highly dedicated group of professionals and there are kids the Rangers are like no other kids there are I would invite all of y'all to come out and meet them they're lovely I also want to take a moment to thank my family and introduce my family because they are our biggest supporters and I know that they have been on this journey with me since I started as a classroom teacher so I want to start first with my husband Doug of 19 years our wedding anniversary was actually yesterday so and I like to tease

022the middle school kids I met him in sixth grade so you never know so be nice to everybody and then from there my oldest son Dean who is going to be a junior in Langham Creek he's a member of the marching band and then my next time Adam all right Adam who um is going to be a freshman at Langham Creek and is also going to be a member of the marching band and so without them I wouldn't be able to do all the things that I do and then I have a few people here that um mean the world to me so I want to start with just saying thank you for the mentorship of the previous principles of Cook Middle School Miss Maggie Wiley and Mr Martin Drayton thank you for all of

023the opportunities and the learning and the growing that they provided to me and then these are several fantastic Rangers here and I appreciate each and every one of you and so again I just want to say thank you for this opportunity I am beyond words and Beyond thrilled to continue to serve this community thank you thank you we will continue our announcements in Christina Cole we'll take care of the next one I'm Delight delighted to introduce Irene Ruiz as a new assistant superintendent for school of leadership Irene Irene will work alongside our dedicated principal to assist and supporting staff and students Irene has more than 20 years of service in education with most of those years in CFISD Irene began her careers at bilingual teacher in Northside ISD before moving to Arlington ISD as a

024teacher and then being promoted to assistant principal upon joining CFISD in 2010 Irene served as an assistant principal at Moore Elementary and then was promoted to principal at M Robinson Elementary in 2013. while at M Robinson she and her staff achieved incremental growth each year and earned five tea a distinction destinations for the 2016-2017 school year in 2018 she was named to her current role of director of community programs in this role she has led more than four thousand more than 400 staff at 56 campuses and five Early Learning Centers while managing a budget of more than 10 million this year nearly 4 000 students were positively impacted by the leadership of her exceptional team additionally Irene created a Leadership Institute to develop Future Leaders for the Early Learning Centers Irene earned her Bachelor's of

025science communication and communication studies from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master's in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Texas at Arlington Irene and her husband Mario have been married for 12 years with three loving children Brian Yasmine and Victoria during her Spare Time Irene enjoys running watching sports sports games such as Cowboys Longhorns and Astros and traveling to visit her family I look forward to the contributions and positive impact Irene will make supporting our team our elementary campuses and collaborating with District departments please join me in extending a warm welcome to Irene [Applause] good morning president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is truly an honor and a privilege to be here serving in this role supporting our outstanding principals and campuses when I joined the CFISD

026family 13 years ago I knew I was joining a great District but I never imagined the incredible opportunities I would have to learn and grow under such impactful leaders along my journey who invested in me leaders like Laura Harmon who hired me into the district at Moore Elementary and took me under her Wing as I began to learn all about the great things in CFISD Stacy Everson who was my awesome AP partner together a longhorn and an Aggie office divided but oh so United as AP partners Roy Garcia who interested me with a principal ship at M Robinson Elementary and who always encouraged us to lead with kindness and be the model Don Tryon and Nadia Stovall who served alongside with me to help lead M Robinson to success along with our team Donna Shepard

027and Dr Carla Brosnahan who supervised and guided me through many firsts as a principal and many unique situations Gina Guidry who served as my mentor and answered my calls anytime I needed her Betty runnell who is actually here today who served as my coach during my first years as principal and shared so many of her nuggets of wisdom with me during that time the many many department and principal colleagues at all levels that I've been blessed to work with and collaborate with over the years Teresa Hall who believed in me and entrusted me with the community programs Department Sharon Barnes who supported me as I transitioned to my director role Christina Cole who supported me through both my principal and director positions Leslie Francis who trusted my decisions asked me those tough questions and quietly

028cheered me on along the way and of course Dr Henry our Fierce leader who always reminds us why we are a destination District because of the people here who love students and truly believe in opportunity for all I must also recognize the incredible staff at Moore and M Robinson Elementary's for allowing me to learn lead and grow with them as we worked hard for our students staff families and communities and most recently our community programs team starting with our Administration team Chrissy Richter Nadia Stovall Adam Leal and Stephanie Bates our curriculum coordinators Tracy Peters and Jairo De la Torre are phenomenal ELC directors and our fabulous Club rewind coordinators together with them our department staff and our program staff who make the magic happen at the eel season and Club rewind and to my future

029School leadership team Kenneth Henry Sarah Hardy Dr mccague and Christina Cole thank you for already embracing me and welcoming me to the team I look forward to learning and serving with you I would like to recognize my family and some special people who are here supporting me and my husband Mario thank you our dear friend Dr Ike agba he has been through many highs and lows with us and especially during my mother's Cancer Treatments he was there at non-stop for us Brian our son Brian and his girlfriend Becca Watsky she is a they're both went to Psy Ranch and she is also a teacher at Woodard Elementary and of course Betty rennell are phenomenal my phenomenal uh principal coach so we appreciate her and then we have a lot of our department staff here as

030well if our community programs team I see Melanie Dabney over there who was so crucial when I first joined the Department and Melissa Lester of course all of our current Community programs team on both sides um so once again thank you for this incredible honor and I look forward to continue learning empowering achieving and dreaming in CFISD I promise to pay it forward and continue investing in others just as many impactful leaders have invested in me thank you [Applause] I think Matt is next president Jackson Board of Trustees Dr Henry I am very proud to introduce Jesse Claiborne as the next assistant superintendent for facilities and construction Jesse has worked in commercial and K-12 construction for 21 years including eight in CFISD he started his career as a project manager for urban Construction in Denver

031Colorado in 2002 and 2008 it became an estimator for Heartland Acoustics and Interiors Jesse came to CFISD in 2015 as a project manager he was promoted to senior project manager in 2016 and director of technical Field Services in 2018. later that year he became director of construction Field Services where he was responsible for leading a team of seven project coordinators one special projects manager and one warranty manager in 2022 Jesse moved to director of project management leading a team of eight project managers and three project secretaries overseeing the construction of new projects and renovation projects Jesse graduated from Texas A M University I was waiting for the whoop did you do that Jesse with a degree in construction science in his free time Jesse enjoys spending time with his family playing disc golf and working

032with children at their church I couldn't be more proud to introduce Jesse and just working with Jesse over the years if you look at his bio he has been promoted and moved from leadership position to leadership position I have very high expectations of Jesse he does a fantastic job I'm so proud of him so please join me in congratulating Jesse on his new leadership role [Applause] president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry first I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this incredible opportunity I'm honored and thankful to be named the assistant superintendent of facilities and construction I'm looking forward to supporting and serving alongside the district's operations Maintenance and Facilities departments to provide the best educational environment possible for the students and staff of scifare I'd like to thank Roy

033Sprague for his 26 years of service and Leadership to cyfair's facilities and support departments next Matt Morgan thank you for trusting me with this leadership opportunity I look forward to continuing to work with you additionally I would like to thank the maintenance operations and Facilities teams and everyone who works so hard day in and day out often late into the evenings and at night to keep our facilities in great shape most importantly I'd like to thank my family for their love and support here with me today is my wife Hunter my daughter Hannah and two sons Eli and Ezra also my mom and dad Howard and Sandy Claiborne and my sister Ashley Claiborne thank you all again and I look forward to working with each of you [Applause] we will now proceed with other recognitions

034out of Congressman Wesley Hunt's office we're privileged to have Claudia ornalius here to recognize Dr Mark Henry's for his years of service the CFISD and marked during this recognition I'm going to ask you to go ahead and step down on the floor as opposed to staying seated because not everybody can see you when you're hiding behind that that computer screen Claudia thank you so much for this opportunity Dr Henry president trustees I am here on behalf of Congressman Wesley hunt to present a congressional Proclamation for superintendent dark Dr Mark Henry for his outstanding achievements over the years so if I may read the proclamation in honor of superintendent Dr Mark Henry whereas Dr Mark Henry is retiring after 12 years as superintendent of the Cypress Fairbanks ISD and 42 years in public education becoming one

035of the most distinguished superintendents in the state of Texas and whereas Dr Mark Henry is recognized for his extraordinary efforts in educational leadership by promoting high quality academics facility Renovations prioritizing student safety and expanding a Victorious Athletics program winning seven state championship titles and leading scifare ISD to emerge as the state's largest a rated School District and whereas Dr Mark Henry's Innovative strategies have overseen the passage of two separate billion dollar Bond programs from 2014 to 2019 that provided funding for student growth Transportation upgrades and safety expanding the school district from 84 to 93 campuses and 10 000 students and whereas Dr Mark Henry is recognized is a recognized champion of student safety and helped to establish the scifare ISD Police Department which has now over 120 police officers patrolling the schools and whereas Dr

036Mark Henry is a true public servant known for his community involvement having served in 2018 as the chairman of the scifare Houston chamber the sci fair Chamber of Commerce and is currently a trustee for the cyfair Educational Foundation leadership committee remaining selflessly committed to the Cyprus community and now therefore I Wesley hunt member of Congress representing the 38th congressional district of Texas due hereby declare May 8th the day that Dr Henry announced his retirement as a day to recognize and honor superintendent Mark Henry signed God in Texas Wesley hunt member of Congress foreign if you would stay on the floor trustees I want you to join with me down on the floor for this photo opportunity this opportunity really only happens once every decade or so this is very special Mark was previously recognized at

037our state capitol by resolution signed and proffered by every member of our delegation committee but also representatives from other districts where Mark has served so trustees if you would please join me thank you I would also mention that the congressman has reached out and would like to have a meeting with the entire Board of Trustees and so I'll visit with Mark and also Marnie uh you know if the entire board comes together that means we have to have a posted board meeting but there are certain exceptions for educational situations and so I will visit with Marnie to make certain we cross our T's and Dot our eyes and Marnie thank you for waking up I always appreciate it when council is awake and father there thank you once again for being here very special occasion

0381C the board will recognize students who won first and second in state at the UIL state track and field meet our presenter for the first time in a new capacity is Virginia Flores and I would ask trustee and baseball coach Gilbert Sarabia to step down and help with the recognition this was made for shorter people I'm gonna lean over a little bit president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is my pleasure to be be here this morning representing our athletic department to present to you a group of athletes and coaches that achieve the absolute highest levels in the UIL competition and boys and girls track at the UIL state track meet held on the campus of yes the University of Texas May 12th and 13th I truly appreciate the time that you are

039affording to us to publicly recognize these deserving highly deserving individuals the first young athlete that we would like to recognize is Lily Hardin she is a junior from Bridgeland high school she was a silver medalist in the hundred meter hurdles Lily had an outstanding junior year at Bridgeland and we are so excited to see what her senior year has in store as a Bridgeland bear as Lily is being recognized I would ask that her principal Mike Smith and any of his administrative team and her coach Tom Kennedy as well as any of her family members that are with us please stand to be recognized [Applause] you have to take a picture now nice try again our second athlete to recognize is Miss Celeste Robinson she is a sophomore from Cypress Ranch High School and was

040a gold medalist in the 100 meters Celeste is a two-time state qualifier and as a sophomore we're excited to get to see Celeste compete for two more years as a Mustang as celestas appear to be recognized I would ask that her principal Dr Mike Manus and any of his administrative team and her coach Chris hoffpauer as well as any of her family members that are with us please stand to be recognized and I will point out that Mr and Mrs Robinson who are here make sure you stand I know you're they are also employees here in the district so Mom is a speech pathologist at Cipher high school and dad is one of our campus athletic coordinators at Campbell Middle School so excited for them too thank you our third athlete to be recognized is

041Alex ornelas he is a senior from Langham Creek High School and was a gold medalist in the 300 meter hurdles Alex is a two-time state qualifier and has been a fixture on the medal stand throughout his career Alex will be taking his talents to the University of Illinois where he will compete for the fighting Illini as Alex is being recognized I would ask that his principal Dr Martinez and any of his administrative team I know his coach recently took another job up in the Round Rock area we're going to try to get him back but his court I did see his coordinator on the campus coordinator coach Thompson is here and I would ask that any of Alex's family members to please rise to be recognized thank you yeah one of our state champions could

042not be here today but we are going to recognize her at our August board meeting that is Miss Riley Hampton as we conclude this portion of the meeting I want to thank the board and Dr Henry's administrative team for the support of our athletic programs celebrations like this would not be possible without your Collective efforts thank you [Applause] item 1D the board will recognize NASA's hunch program hunch stands for high schools United with NASA to create Hardware this program is one of our many valued industry partners with students in CFISD our presenter is Denise quebeca president Jackson Board of Trustees Dr Henry while other items on today's agenda will give us the opportunity to celebrate Student Success at State contest we submitted this agenda item to give us the opportunity to celebrate student accomplishments stemming

043from one of the many Partnerships we have with local industry these Partners play a key role in cfisd's ability to offer robust programs of study in more than 30 career Fields having these Partnerships in place benefits both our teachers and students connecting with those working in the industry allows teachers to stay in touch with what is current as they select materials and design lessons while our CTE teachers are Masters at their craft students being given opportunities to collaborate with those currently in Industry only accentuates their learning across the district we have teachers and students working side by side with experts from hospitals veterinary clinics automotive service centers architectural firms real estate agencies and the list goes on this provides opportunities for student learning to go beyond the traditional classroom this organization partnership we Spotlight today

044is unique in a couple of ways one it impacts students in a wide variety of CTE programs including areas like architectural design engineering fashion design culinary arts and Manufacturing two it not only takes the learning beyond the classroom it takes it out of this world that organization is hunch high schools United with NASA to create Hardware while I could have come with the PowerPoint full of facts and figures we figured it was best to allow some of those closest to the program to share their insights and success stories please enjoy this short video punch is high school students United with NASA to create Hardware basically what they're doing is they're partnering with over 500 schools throughout the United States NASA hunch gives us a problem and we have to come up with we had people

045in people in design there's a there's a different people who work on this when we first got introduced to NASA hunch it was pretty exciting because we had multiple projects to choose from like it was like a table a chair and then you could investigate how insects would be on the moon I decided to choose the lunar habitat chair last year when I was in fashion one they told us that we would be working with NASA so I decided to take fashion two and we are making these pockets for the International Space Station so each pocket goes on like a bigger toiletry kit for the astronaut in the space station so we make the pockets and sew them and another school is going to put them on really valuable for uh for NASA so because

046our high school students are involved we have people here that went to sci fair ISD so the fact that they are seeing people that work at at Nasa hopefully it brings them up to the idea that they can start and do their same kind of engineering that they want to do here as well I think it's neat that we can partner with NASA hunt it gives me a little taste of how engineering really is I will be working with NASA over the summer five days out of the week to work and sew with the ladies who come to our school throughout the school year the teachers work with the students and we end up picking the best students to stick with us and work through the summer internship it has to meet our tolerances and

047standards that NASA set for all flight hardware and so that's what the kids learn here Hands-On you feel like you get a grasp on what it'll be like if you ever get into the engineering field everyone I talk to they always uh they always say like oh I wish I had something like that in my high school and because I did I mean it led to me getting my current job at oceary Space Systems essentially I like work for NASA you know what I mean it's it's really cool to see something that I built with a bunch of my friends is going to be made and put in a place for the public to see to BS semi-finalist as well as just getting that signature from Glenn Johnson and NASA team I feel like it

048puts me over a few other students during my time at cfic and hunch it really taught me more than just I was well above what most people are jump started my career probably you know 10 years when you add on the extra opportunities like we got to go went here we got to go to her firm and talk to her and then you add NASA to that it's amazing [Music] wow the excitement in the student Stories We heard in the video reminds us of why we do what we do and that Student Success in CFISD goes beyond state test scores and trophies the students interviewed are just a sample of the countless students across the district who are getting a jump start on what comes next by taking advantage of opportunities to learn with industry

049equipment and materials are nationally recognized certifications and trained side by side with experts all at a fraction of the cost congratulations to these students and other students who patted their resumes this year and thank you to organizations like hunch who help make it possible in CFISD CTE we encourage students to stop asking why would you and start asking why would you not take advantage of all CFISD has to offer thank you you know something that was missing from the video I I was permitted to to make a video a few years ago on our CTE program and so I literally spent hours seeing what we had for CTE and I learned about hunts my son when he was at Langham Creek High School participated in the program that preceded Hutch and went to NASA with

050other high school students from around the state but what I always found interesting these students have made products that are at the International Space Station that's pretty amazing but when I spoke to the students I expected them to be thrilled that what they made was in outer space and what they told me they liked most about the program teamwork completion of a project so so it's always interesting when when you talk to students that that I as a trustee I think we're doing one thing which is producing future astronauts right but the students were more uh had a different view of the value of this I do think that that once they're older they'll look back and say wow we really did build something that literally went to outer space a a wonderful program but

051Denise as you pointed out this is not just our only program that excels at a very high level and so we now move to one e the board will recognize the cosmetology and fashion design students who place best to show first or second in the skills USA state competition and before you start we have about 26 students so I am going to ask my trustee Julie heinemann if you will step down and help recognize the first 13 and then I am going to ask my trustee and colleague Dr blassingame to step down to recognize the second 13. and I'll let the two of y'all try and figure out who right how to count to 13. we did have a few who couldn't make it today with the time change from 6 p.m to the morning

052so it is it's fewer than that but we do have Representatives here from our state winners very good please proceed president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is a pleasure to present to you the first and second place winners from the cosmetology and fashion design skillsusa state competition held March 31st through April 2nd in Corpus Christi Texas some of these students were able to join us today students please come as I call your name and as I'm doing all of these I'll just apologize ahead of time on the pronunciations I'll do my best from Cypress Lakes High School the cosmetology teachers there are Danica Reyes Smoot and Diana Torres the students who distinguish themselves are more romantic thank you Karen Cornelio [Applause] Jewel Aguilar [Applause] and Tristan sinville [Applause] with the instructors parents

053and administrators from Cypress Lakes High School please stand to be recognized [Applause] okay all right from Cypress Park High School the cosmetology teachers are Darla Drake and Norvell Curry the students who distinguish themselves are Audrey Eckles [Applause] Jada Eccles [Applause] Destiny Presta [Applause] and Jaden Solomon [Applause] with the instructors parents and administrators from Cypress Park High School please stand to be recognized [Applause] from Cypress Springs High School the fashion design teacher is Danielle cager the student who distinguished herself is Kelsey Patterson [Applause] would the instructor parents and administrator from Cypress Springs High School please stand to be recognized foreign photo we congratulate these exceptional students and we thank the board and Dr Henry for honoring our talented cosmetology and fashion design students today [Applause] item one f the board will recognize the technology Student Association

054that's TSA students who placed first or second at the state TSA competition I will ask Lucas Scanlon Scott Henry and I will join the two of my colleagues my son actually was recognized by the board when he was a graduate at at Langham Creek for winning first place as well as best it show it at TSA so this will be a privilege to see other students with this honor so Scott if you and Lucas will join me foreign president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is my pleasure to present to you Cypress Fairbanks ISD industrial technology students who place first and second at the technology Student Association State Convention held April 13th to 15th in Fort Worth Texas several of these students were able to join us today please come when your name

055is called from Bridgeland High School the industrial technology teachers are Josh Simmons Devin Murphy David Laughlin and Jesse Puente the students who distinguish themselves are illian Alana [Applause] Christian Valadez [Applause] Jonathan Van Duzen [Applause] with the instructors parents and administrators from Bridgeland high school please stand to be recognized foreign Cypress Creek High School the industrial technology teachers are Tracy Blackman Michael Daniels and Clyde Salzman the students who distinguish themselves are Ariana Dixon [Applause] and Isabel utai [Applause] with the instructors parents and administrators from Cypress Creek High School please stand to be recognized from Cypress Park High School the industrial technology teachers are Cornelius Cooley Spencer Heasley Lewis islin and Bob McIntosh the students who distinguish themselves are Atta awanda [Applause] Angela Carranza [Applause] with the instructors parents and administrators from Cypress Park High School please

056stand to be recognized [Applause] from Cypress Springs High School the industrial technology teachers are Michelle delday and Glenn winstring the students who distinguish themselves are Sharon Amah [Applause] Angelie bazaldua [Applause] Leonel Guzman [Applause] Laura Nussbaum and Jeffrey solace [Applause] with the instructors parents and administrators from Cypress Springs High School please stand to be recognized from Truett Middle School the industrial technology teacher is Jeff Osborne the students who distinguished themselves are Carson Gray [Applause] caliburn man [Applause] oluwag junilo o Luman Finn I think I left the syllable out I apologize of course with the instructors parents and administrators from Truett Middle School please stand to be recognized [Applause] okay can you get Lucas okay let me pick up pick up Lucas pick this up I think we're blocking Mr can look does everybody pick up Lucas

057[Laughter] [Music] we congratulate these exceptional students and we thank the board and Dr Henry for honoring our talented industrial technology TSA students today thank you we will now take a brief five-minute break so that anybody who does not want to stay for some of the more scintillating aspects of the board meeting can leave but we also have time to recognize and congratulate our new principles thank you welcome everybody back that five minutes always tends to be a little longer than than five minutes or so but it's well worth the time we will now proceed with board comments let me start to my right Mr Henry thank you Mr President and good day to all of you I hope you each had a very wonderful Father's day and a great start to summer break as the

058summer unfolds I encourage you to make the most Easter time whether it's catching up on courses at summer school indulge in a good book or simply reconnecting with your loved ones first and foremost I'd like to extend my heart folk congratulations the individuals being recognized today the new principles the new system superintendents to all the kids as well your achievements are are commendable you're not truly and proud of your accomplishments also like to congratulate our recent graduate graduates and wish you the very best as you Embark in a new chapter on their lives beyond High School the ceremonies at the Berry Center were executed flawlessly I must acknowledge the tremendous effort put by the individuals of teams involved This truly this event truly reflects the hard work and dedication of numerous individuals since the last

059board meeting had opportunity to attend several School Board related train sessions both National and Regional levels these experiments have been incredibly enlightening as I had the privilege of listening to experts engaging with my fellow board colleagues on a range of topics from student outcomes to reading improvements one particular Insight was a class focused on accountability to responsibility and let me share with a couple of takeaways that this individual talked about I said one of the reasons boards veers away from a strategic role is because of due to lack of sufficient or accurate information it says by prioritizing another bullet point was by prioritizing our growth in accountability plans we can address issues of retention and enhance our capacity issues and the last was CR was was it we crucially recognized the community as our customer

060in that 70 percent of the people who don't have kids in school pay 90 the school taxes he went on to comment that too often we often talk to them only when we want money before concluding and I'll keep this brief because we have a lot to do today I'd like to express my gratitude for the transparency demonstrated during our superintendent search as a result decision we made available online the presentations were being received today from the search firms and rest assured because I hear this from the public a lot that we'll continue to keep the public informed throughout the process VR dedicated webpage in closing I'd like to thank each and every one of you for an unwavering patients today and our lengthy yet very essential board meeting your presence here and your dedication

061is cause is greatly appreciated thank you Mr President Dr blasincan foreign I just want to share that as my sincere privilege to serve my community the parents of our students the students our staff our community members our local businesses all the citizens of CFISD we truly are destination District we truly are the strongest District around and I'm committed to serving our district without excellence and to make sure that each Patron each each individual student reaches their full potential in our system is I also want to just offer again congratulations to the 8 956 graduates of cyfair was a beautiful I want to congratulate the staff the team the district Deborah your team everyone what a beautiful professional and [Music] um honoring process for our graduates and that is part of our goal goal is to

062graduate students that we send ready to um to fulfill their full Destiny the full purpose so thank you to the team um and congratulations to those students and all those behind them at our schools our staff you could see the incredible care and professionalism of our high school principals our high school teams our entire District team through the graduation process so again congratulations to all as a trustee today as we do Embark upon the process of budget and all the other ways of aligning resources I too like Scott I'm reminded of training that I've been given and participated in and one of the things that's most near and dear to my heart is our improving and evaluating student outcomes so that we can ensure that students reach their full potential and so I'm very excited

063as data will be coming in we know we've had a shift in the testing program but to really be able to dive in and see data and understand how we'll get that data throughout the year and and really drive to ensure that each child is on track to reach their full potential and one of the I thought I would share a little bit from training that I've participated in our job you know as a board obviously is to adopt goals and priorities and monitor success and school systems exist to make sure that the students are successful and so I've been trained that our jobs are to clarify our priorities which is to identify Community Vision and values to adopt a board goals and restraints a second job is to monitor progress to have board goals

064that spend time really looking at a continuous Improvement culture around student outcomes our job is to align resources we see we set our goals to around and they align in evaluation of the superintendent in the budget in our board time use and educator distribution and finally to communicate results our job is to make sure that our board goals and our progress towards them is shared with the community that we do community engagement regarding that and we do board self-evaluation and our board has really good I want to congratulate Tom and the team that's been around and serving we have really are ahead of many systems and really being able to set board superintendent evaluation and board evaluation and self-evaluation to really make sure we're driving our progress so I really look forward to the opportunities

065to continue that culture of um that professionalism so we make sure and and that is why I mentioned this because today we are looking at the budget and our job as a board is to look at student outcomes and align our budget towards those goals and make sure every student carries off everything they need has to be able to fulfill their potential in this world so I'm excited about today's meeting because yes it is not the fun part as Tom said it's the it's the business of school and look the room cleared out so yay those who are here for the for the grunt but that is our take our my responsibility very seriously and this is what I'm here to do today and so I thank you for all of you who are here

066um and I also just want to close on a statement when it comes down to it the parents of our students actually Scott and I were discussing and training a tasby where really what works for All Families what works for Latino families and families want the same thing families want safety they need their to know their children are safe and so that's something I intend to continue to ask questions around and be able to support my own child is in these schools our children are there but more than that it is a peaceful thing to allow children to reach their full potential that they know they are safe and families look for opportunity um some families like mine I'm a first generation immigrant we came to this country for opportunity but every child doesn't matter

067how many 50 fifth generation six whatever American every child should be able to achieve and that's why I do stand committed to opportunity for all um for everyone that is my commitment for safety and opportunity for all thank you so much Gilbert's Arabia welcome everybody um congratulations to our graduates again uh I Echo our my trustees um words there uh iffy and Debra did an outstanding job along with the berry staff and the admin group here our graduations are second to none I've been to a few uh around the last few years and um and that's a Credence to Mark uh the superintendent um if you guys don't remember a few years ago and the the height of the pandemic and a lot of other districts were not doing graduations or doing through Zoom we

068had ours we had ours outside and they had a schedule in the morning in the evening and we had the kids walk across it was uh trying to get the right weather at times when it even would sprinkle we had Teresa and her admin staff out there trying to dry out chairs of 800 chairs before graduation and making sure the waters were all placed running out there with cases of water to make sure that the kids and the families were taken care of that's dedication and and again our grad our graduates congratulations but the staff second to none as always Deborah and if he and the rest of the team um I like to uh this is a good part of the time when we have the uh the the celebration of the kids and

069uh their achievements uh gold medal winners uh the senior uh Langan kid going to Illinois uh one girl that's only a sophomore and still going uh going to run again another one the junior I mean those are unbelievable uh accomplishments along with the Bridgeland softball girls who went quite far uh and the Cy Woods baseball team and then all the other uh young uh men and women that were participating in their various events I congratulate them all uh I want to thank there was somebody I saw here today I hadn't seen them in about that say 25 years and it's the Howard Claiborne the father of the appointee here he helped train me 35 to 40 years ago and what was then Southwestern Bell and when I saw him he was working with my brother

070Richard who passed away in a terrible accident in 83. and uh and it was uh nice seeing him again the his son and daughter have certainly took charge and that shows good family bearing and Howard is a great person and I saw um or Roy spray talking to him he's a good man and I just wanted to acknowledge them I hadn't seen him in a while but he is uh of good people and his son and daughter are certainly taken right after the family and their congratulations to them today we're going to be in a long meeting Hopefully this wasn't the highlight of our meeting and we'll continue to go through the process and get um get our work done we're going to be um give us a chance it's going to be a little

071rocky at times but give us a chance there's always uh the day the sun always comes out the next day for safe travels for everybody when you're traveling and seeing your family or wherever you're going say travels to everybody for the summer and our summer school students and our Educators who are working those summer uh camps and schools and congratulations mark on your distinguished award here and at the uh at the Capitol and lastly this is Rory Garcia and Roy Sprague's last board meeting and these two gentlemen have helped shape this district and community over the years when you go I said it before when you go by the district somewhere you're going to see Roy spray not only at the his namesake school that I maybe he put special attention to I'm not sure

072and stuff yeah pretty close watch but he's all over the district and uh and this is going to be his last board meeting I want to wish him the very best in his family uh LSU Tigers and all yep and uh and also Roy Garcia who has helped shape this district with the appointees over the years of numerous principles and whatnot and and shape those families he has also you know moved families in one way or another and always for the positive these two gentlemen will be sorely missed but as mentors and great leaders themselves they have shaped their predecessors to take over and I'm sure we have as much confidence in them as we did Roy Sprague and Roy Garcia your last board congratulations on your retirement or wherever you may go Mississippi State

073and LSU and stuff so we'll be hanging in there I won't say Cowboys though so I can't go that far though anyways thank you Tom and again congratulations gentlemen I will now go to my left Lucas Scanlon is your microphone working all and so I call in from sunny Florida and pardon me is jets fly overhead because I'm not too far away from Air Force Base amazing timing so first I want to say congratulations to all of our graduates it is always a pleasure for me when I come out to the community with my own family foreign and I see a young person behind the cash register helping me check out or you know working in any of our local businesses I ask you know are you in school or did you just graduate and

074so I find out that they did and I'm always greeted with war and respect beaming Smiles confidence all the things that we would hope for and I know that there's so much more behind those Smiles but I'm always so excited to meet our graduate and look forward to hearing of your stories but then your families to all of those who are now retiring Dr Henry who uh the gentleman that I call Roy squared Roy Garcia and boy and all the other people who are retiring we went to the retirees banquet congratulations as you guys and ladies all enter into your next chapters I look forward to hearing the stories I am certain we will see you around because you will not be able to resist coming to support The Cypher ISD family and we will

075welcome you back with open arms thank you for your many years of dedication your heart and your service as someone who is a prior teacher as we go into our budget discussions today I understand working within the opportunities and the resources you have to do the very best for your kids and we want to do our very best for you and for your family so as we work today and we take in all the considerations and work with our own set of constraints we're going to do so with all seriousness and do our very best for you and for your families and for our community our kids so with that I will keep my comments short and brief because we'll all be doing a lot of talking today I'm sure thank you Debbie Blackshear thank

076you good morning and that's that seems kind of strange to open with good morning for a school board meeting so this this is a first in my eight years to uh start a meeting this early but um I want to say congratulations also to all our graduates if you know me and listen to me speak you know how much I love graduation and this year was no different uh the graduation ceremonies were just absolutely amazing and I remember at the first graduation was Cy Falls and I was sitting beside Luke Scanlon and I looked up there and I said look this is the why this is why we do what we do to see our students go through school be successful and be prepared for the next journey in their life and I feel like

077we've prepared them they're ready for the next chapter and it is just my graduation is my one of my happy places and I was so excited because last year because of my covet I only was able to attend one graduation and this year I was able to attend nine out of 12. graduations so for me that was important and I enjoyed every bit of it I know people look at me when I say I love graduation like I'm crazy because how can you sit through all those graduations each one is different each is unique the students remarks are different and it just gives you such promise for these young people to know that they will be our next leaders in this crazy world sometimes so congratulations graduates you did it and uh keep doing it

078go on to your next phase in life and be successful and come back to cyfair um I also um I want to address something I heard at our last board meeting I heard one of our patrons and I I think maybe he was a parent speaking about a fight that took place at one of our high schools and I just want to caution everyone please do not believe everything you see on Facebook it's not true this gentleman talked about it and said that the officers had to tase one of the students our officers do not carry tasers okay they do not carry tasers I verified that and some so often the information is correct and we even had um incident where one of our board members saw one on Facebook and it didn't even happen

079at our school once we checked so please check if you see something on Facebook that's concerning to you call up here and ask to speak to administrator and verify that it even happened because they don't and another thing um he was concerned about the fighting in our schools you know I'm going to tell you right now we do not have a class fighting 101. okay we don't encourage that in our schools and we talk a lot about parents rights and I am all for parents rights and parents being involved in their students education it is very important but there's also something called parent responsibility and we have to be hold our young people responsible and accountable for their actions because we don't encourage fighting we don't want it to take place in our school that

080whatever that background is comes from another source whether it's the kids that they are hanging out with think that's a way to resolve issues or maybe I've heard parents say you know if you get hit you better hit back or I'm gonna I'm gonna hit you when you get home no no that is not the way to resolve conflict and so I guess you know I'm just saying please verify verify information because everything you see on Facebook or Instagram is not necessarily true then um going on to something more pleasant I want to congratulate all the people that we um that were introduced today is new leaders in our school district principals assistant principals uh assistant superintendents what an exciting time for these individuals and the thing that makes me feel so good is that

081we have such a strong mentoring program for uh our staff and and Roy Garcia I know you had a lot to do with developing uh that program and inspiring principles and you know it is so good to see when you have uh when our our employees have opportunities to uh to grow in our district uh be successful and then reach higher levels so congratulations to all of them and uh congratulations to Roy and Roy on their retirement it's been a pleasure I've known both of you for a number of years going way back before I was on the school board so thank you for your leadership in this District we are better School District because of both of you thank you Julie hunterman good morning um the uh my own really well let me back

082up uh yesterday I had coffee with a friend and I actually uh patted myself on the back a little for having my board comments well planned and typed out so that I could stay on task and then I printed them this morning and left them at home so but it's okay because I really only had one thing on there and then I wanted that's different than what has already been shared in regards to um what's happening in our district and I just wanted to say thank you to all the folks that are working on summer school the administrators principals teachers support staff that are working with our students over the summer to help kids who maybe need some time and some extra effort to catch up or to stay to maintain their progress that they've

083earned or to maybe even get ahead so just thank you to everyone who's working hard over this summer I appreciate it and then also Dr Henry mentioned um that uh he was acknowledging the board as volunteers who are not paid and what we saw this morning that's how we get paid it's recognizing and acknowledging the success of our students whether they are successful in academics Athletics Workforce preparation that's that is the payment at least I feel that way it's very fulfilling not just to see them graduate and cross that finish line but to know that they are so well prepared for their Futures because of all the different opportunities that we we provide and that they take advantage of and make the most of like working with NASA or architecture engineering all those things that

084we saw today and so that's that's the payment in my heart so thank you my colleagues have spoken eloquently about graduation I would add that the graduations at Carlton and the celebration at broadacom Center helps illustrate that truly we do have an opportunity and more importantly a helping hand for all students I would encourage all of our trustees I know you can't make all the the graduations but please put in your schedule for Carlton and brodingham the stories that you see move past you will both tear at your heart but remind us why we make opportunities for all students I would point out that of our peer Group which is the five largest school districts in the state of Texas that Cy Fair has the highest graduation rate at the four-year level but also at

085the five-year level truly it's an accomplishment and it says that we are on the right track oddly enough on June 7th I was on vacation and I went through the Anne Frank house the reason why I mentioned June 7th is that's the day my dad came ashore in Omaha Beach my dad's unit liberated a concentration camp my uncle who survived the war despite being in a wheelchair for the rest of his life his unit also liberated a concentration camp and it saddens me when students display symbols of Hitler's regime it happens every year it can't be stopped but knowing the sacrifice of my dad and literally millions of other Americans it always saddens me when that happens we will be talking about the business of the district going forth I too attended training but what

086I remember is not the most recent training but training I attended a few years back it was the superintendent of Dallas who conducted the the seminar he's now the superintendent of HISD he made a couple of observations one he scoffed at the CFISD business model our model has always been one of incremental Improvement uh he indicated that is not the crushed approach that you needed bold changes some of his changes included closing of schools but he supported the concept that you constantly have to weed out the bottom 20 percent of teachers and principals and of course that was popular in the business world for a while particularly at the firm's Arthur Anderson as well as Enron it did not turn out well for those two farms and I don't know that the bottom 20 percent

087rule is the appropriate approach for business model if you hire properly then you want to retain every one of your teachers and every one of your principals as a board like all boards we always struggle with what direction do we want to take HISD I have always said has been a great laboratory for new ideas and although I love their new ideas I really don't want to bring their ideas or at least most of them into our district HISD favors balkanization they did this by opposing zoning so HISD doesn't have zoning rezoning and the creation of specialty schools not quite a flavor of the month concept but something along that line as we know their business model of Education ultimately failed there's Concepts sound wonderful but in practice they have not been able to make

088those work from my perspective the vote we took on zoning and this for this school district was do we follow the CFISD model or do we follow the HISD model the majority of this forward said we will follow the cyfair model and reject that of HISD a couple of closing comments the CTE program that we highlighted today is exceptional when I did my analysis of CTE an interesting statistic that stood out those students who took at least one CTE course graduated at a much higher rate than those who did not and it reminds me of what the students in the hunch program told me participation in that CTE course taught them teamwork but also also completion of a project from an idea stage to Ultimate completion and finally of course I want to say thank

089you to to the people one of them's gone on my left who had the biggest Smiles today Roy Garcia and Roy Sprague the work that you have given to this district has truly been exceptional Roy of course you and I knew each other as band parents and Natalie yes I will push the Langham Creek button one more time right golden County I think it's about it yep yep um but a simple thank you is never enough but that's all I have to give to the both of y'all and with that I will conclude my comments and let's get on with the business of the district we will now proceed with the public hearing portion of the agenda item 3A the board will hold a public hearing on the adoption of the 2023-2024 budget at 9

09000 a.m on Tuesday June 20th 2023 the presenter is Karen Smith prior to the presentation we have two speakers who have signed up on this topic the first is Melissa Rowell Mr secretary or are you ready with your timer we're ready okay well it's 15 seconds now our next speaker is tanzanico Williams ladies and gentlemen I'm not really nervous enough so so just a minute while we reset the clock okay ready begin good morning president Jackson Dr Mark Henry members of the boarding guests I'm test Nico Williams president of sci-fi tsta Nea ladies and gentlemen on the board or stand before you today to address the critical issue of Staff compensation and advocate for a well-deserved pay increase for our dedicated Educators as a concerned member of the community I strongly support the Texas State

091teachers association's call for higher salaries for teachers and staff in Texas and I would like to highlight the key points they have raised first and foremost raising All-Star salaries is crucial to attract and retrain and attain retain high quality Educators in increasingly competitive job market offering competitive compensation packages will help secure and keep the best teachers in our district this in turn will lead to improved student outcomes and overall academic success furthermore providing Fair compensation for all staff will help address the issue of Staff turnover it is important to note that while ta has not really released a specific statement on staff pay raises they have provided guidance to school districts on using federal funds from the American Rescue plan Act of 2021 to support Student Success These funds can be used to attract and

092retain high quality teachers and staff it is worth acknowledging that sci-fi has received approximately 280 million the district has already taken commendable steps to address the impacts of the pandemic on education and support for students as I conclude I urge the Sci-Fi ISD board to seriously consider the need for a pay increase for all staff by raising salaries that will attract and retain Educators reduce turnover and ultimately graduate top-notch 21st century global leaders thank you and Karen before I give the microphone to you I'm going to ask Dr Henry if he has any opening comments or cares to make in and you may or may not uh yes Mr President thank you um I can say is a 32-year superintendent and the budget where we've tried to prepare for the 33rd by 33rd years of

093superintendent it's most difficult ever uh to to be honest the the state has uh shown a lack of concern for public education in the state of Texas they've neglected us uh because they're too uh busy fighting in Austin and we've kind of been left out of the mix and and I can tell you when I was in Galena Park a dozen years ago and the state was facing a a very very difficult Financial time I was the first person that told our community and told our staff look there's no money available but that's not the state's fault it's just a downturn in the economy so we need to just take our medicine and do the best we can to prepare a budget to take care of everybody the best we can that's not an excuse

094this time there's over 33 billion Surplus at the state another 15 billion plus in the rainy day fund and again the battle over whether or not to um to finance a voucher system that will have no accountability and it'll just be handing people money has has got public education in the uh in the Crosshair and so Karen's going to present a very difficult budget today uh luckily we've got some Esser money that's going to help us for 23-24 and uh but but I know that as Karen is presenting this I just want to say the numbers ain't Karen's fault we we still do not have a a major bill yet to fund public Ed and we've been told that it probably the special um the the special session won't occur into September and you know

095why it's going to occur in September because teachers will not be available to come speak at the Capitol they'll be back in the classroom so I'll just say it I'm man I'm going out anyway it's it's it's irresponsible Insidious what the state is doing the public education right now so with that Mr Jackson those are my comments well I guess you did have something to say after all Karen you know I always want always look for you on the left side where you used to be it's kind of hard for me to find you over on the right side the microphone is yours thank you president Jackson uh Dr Henry for your comments and Board of Trustees today I'll be presenting the 2023-24 proposed General operating budget developed by Administration school districts are required to

096have a public meeting to discuss the proposed budget unfortunately the 88th regular legislative session that Dr Henry alluded to ended out ended without final approval of legislation to increase public education funding I will discuss what has passed later in this presentation we do anticipate the governor will call more special sessions although we're hopeful that they may have some money allocated for public education since it is already earmarked for this purpose in the Appropriations budget there's still a concern as Dr Henry mentioned about vouchers in it being tied to any additional funding for school districts so until then we must build a budget that is based on current law the key areas considered during the budget process are to retain and recruit quality staff to preserve the quality of instruction and services as well as prioritize

097student and staff safety and I went over some of these factors uh during the May presentation and as you know the legislative session will impact many areas of the budget so I will only go over just a few areas here key areas that I want to highlight such as student enrollment affects the need for new teachers so we our budget is based on hiring all the teachers that are allocated in the budget and then school districts are funded however on average daily attendance our average daily attendance has been down two to three percent since the onset of the coronavirus epidemic Esser funding is only available to offset our deficit for 23.24 as those funds are are expired the use of those as of September 30th 2024. uh they also we have included in the budget

098the opening of news facilities and I want to remind you that uh you know the when we build campuses that comes out of bond funds however the cost associated with the operations of the campus that comes out of the general fund so those costs are included in there uh those costs are some examples are like the principal an associate in assistant principal counselors nurses Etc Dr Henry already mentioned about the text the Surplus the Comptroller estimated the Surplus for this biennium will reach 32.7 billion dollars and they are also anticipating that the end of this biennium the rainy day fund will actually increase to 26.4 billion dollars you know that's a total of 59.1 billion with no additional funding provided to school districts last uh time I presented uh I also shared with you the

099inflationary cost that the school district has incurred since 2019 when they last increased the funding per pupil inflation has impacted the district in areas such as transportation that increased 20 percent since 2019 as well as property insurance that has increased 72 percent this slide shows the two-year Statewide total cost of increasing the basic allotment from a hundred dollars to one thousand dollars the board in the clc's legislative priorities have asked for a minimum of a thousand dollar increase in the basic allotment with a price tag of 14.58 billion the legislature would either need to put a majority of what has been allocated for property tax relief towards the basic allotment or agree to exceed the spending cap you may recall in a previous presentation uh I mentioned to keep up with 14.5 percent inflation since

100the basic allotment was increased in 2019 there would need to be an increase of nine hundred dollars in the basic allotment this was through 2022 however the Texas Association of school business officials has updated projections through 2023 and indicated that we would need an increase in the basic allotment of twelve hundred dollars to keep up with inflation a committee substitute House Bill one is the biennial state budget Appropriations Bill and it was signed by the governor on June 18th as you may recall the bill includes 17.6 billion for property tax relief of which 5.3 billion was set aside for tax compression and this is tax compression that is in current law uh that was passed in house bill 3. no bills passed as the vehicle for allocating remaining funds and the legislature is at a

101standstill on how to best provide property tax relief in the first special session also 2.4 billion was set aside for an increase in the golden Penny yield which also is in current law that was in House Bill 3 that was passed in 2019 that amount it yields us about 18.5 million dollars also 500 588.5 million was set aside to limit TRS Active Care Health Insurance increases to 10 percent 1 billion was also set aside for TRS benefit enhancements such as one-time supplemental annuity payment for certain retirees and to provide a cost of living adjustment to eligible retirees contingent on enactment of legislation there is 5 billion that was set aside for public education however the House and Senate could not reach a compromise on House Bill 100 which was the vehicle for allocating a majority

102of the five billion dollars House Bill 100 included a slight increase in the basic allotment modification of several of the special program allotments from average daily attendance to enrollment as well as modification of the special education allotment in several new allotments included in the 5 billion was 300 million for school safety which was in House Bill 3 and then 500 million for Quality instructional materials Senate Bill 30 which is the supplemental Appropriations bill was signed into law by the governor on June 9th this bill sets aside funding from excess funds in the current biennium it's kind of similar what I would equate to our amended budgets when we bring to you budget amendments 1.1 billion was provided for school safety grants and then 2 million will be provided to tea to regulate School library books

103House Bill 3 on Safety and Security was signed by the governor on June 14th the bill increased the school safety allotment from 9.72 cents to ten dollars per average daily attendance which provides approximately an additional thirty thousand two hundred and forty dollars along with fifteen thousand dollars per campus the total new funding based on these two items would be approximately 1.4 million dollars and as a reminder the district spends approximately 43.5 million uh in the general fund alone on police mental health intervention team and counselors there was discussion about increasing the school safety allotment to a hundred dollars per Ada but that was not ultimately included in the final version of the bill the bill does require armed school safety officers at each campus during the regular school hours Board of Trustees may claim a

104good cause exception based on the lack of funding or lack of finding Personnel but there must be a plan in place for an alternative standard special session of uh what is being called the special session number one legislators are limited to passing legislation on property taxes and border security the two Chambers continue to be unable to compromise on the best approach for providing property tax relief the house version included additional tax compression of 16.2 cents whereas the Senate version increased the homestead exemption from forty thousand dollars to a hundred thousand dollars as well as additional tax compression of 10 cents it is doubtful the government Governor will add any additional items until the property tax relief plan is settled in fact the governor has vetoed bills indicating the bills will be reconsidered at a future

105special session only after property tax relief or education Freedom legislation is passed as you can see in this slide total property taxes and state eight funding has decreased from 2020 to 2023's adopted budget by 7.1 million resulting in less funding available to cover expenditures according to House Bill 3 passed in 2019 School District mno tax rates will be compressed to the lower of the state compressed rate or the local compressed rate when property values per student increased by more than two and a half percent the more property values grow the lower the compressed rate or the base MMO rate districts will report there are property values late in Late July to the Texas Education Agency and tea will calculate the local District's compressed tax rate uh probably in the first week of August the preliminary

106Harris Central Appraisal District values reflect a 9.91 increase in property values since cfisds value growth exceeds the growth that the state had in their state compressed rate the district's local compressed rate will be lower than the states therefore taxpayers will see a decrease in their 2023 tax rate State 8 is based on the current year comptroller's values versus the values provided by the appraisal district this slide reflects the salary increases that the board has approved since 2013-2014. District employees have received a raise for the last 10 years as a reminder in 2022-2023 teachers were provided and also Administration a two percent raise and a one thousand dollar stipend para professionals and hourly employees were provided a two percent raise in a two thousand dollar stipend general fund expenditures are 85 to 90 percent of payroll

107Across the Nation for CFISD payroll was nearly 90 percent of our budget in 2022-2023 as a result you can only imagine raises have a significant impact on the budget a one percent raise for Cyprus Fairbanks ISD cost nine million dollars based on our current pay scale the cost included in the 2023-24 proposed budget are increased in campus staff of 14.6 million of which 12.5 million is for various special education staff to provide specialized services to our students as required in the student's IEP and federal law other increases are an increase in benefits and teacher retirement of 4.3 million an increase in insurance premiums of 2.6 million and increase in utility costs of a million and then the operating cost to open new facilities that I mentioned earlier of nine million dollars the remaining 2.1 million

108is for net increase and Harris Harris Central Appraisal District fees election expenses contracted Services General supplies Etc due to inflation the proposed budget tonight discussed is based on current law the increase in the golden Penny yield which is in current law as well as the cost in the previous slide for an estimated deficit of 107.4 million prior to accessing the remaining Federal funding available of approximately 65 million resulting in a deficit net deficit after Federal funding of 42.4 million the deficit assumes all positions will be filled and all budgeted funds will be spent the general revenues consist of local revenue of 619.4 million which is mostly property taxes as well as state revenue of 423.8 million which is comprised of State funding and the TRS on behalf and then Federal funding of 27.1 million which

109is comprised of our school health and related Services that's a reimbursement for Medicaid expenses associated with services to special education students ROTC and then indirect costs on grants other sources of 200 000 represents revenues from auctions are operating expenditures are expected to be approximately 1.2 billion dollars based on the expenditures previously discussed 67 percent of expenditures go directly to the classroom in the form of teachers aides and other items to support the classroom if you include instructional support and District Operations to support the classroom then it is 96 percent only about 1.8 percent is spent on Administration in addition to the general fund the district must also adopt a budget for The Debt Service fund and the food service fund The Debt Service revenues consist of local revenues which are tax collections to make the

110district's Bond payments during the current year and then State revenues consist of the hold harmless the state provides when voters approved increasing the homestead exemption Federal revenues consist of the subsidy for the district's qualified School construction bonds and the expenditures are for the current year bond payments Food Service local revenues consist of a la carte sales and then the state revenues reflects a small state meal matching amount that for reimbursable meals from the prior school year Federal revenues consist of the federal reimbursement for free and reduced meals and commodities and expenditures reflect the cost to run the Food Service program and utilities for our kitchens The Debt Service expenditures that you see here are relate to the requirement for governmental entities to separately track leases and software subscriptions so what are the options for the

111budget for 23 2023 2024 and really 2024 2025 also it is to increase the basic allotment and or other funding that would require a a special session for that to occur just to highlights and one of the amounts that had been mentioned by the legislature was increasing the basic allotment by fifty dollars and that would provide about 7.3 million dollars also to modify the adjustment to the state property values for the optional homestead exemption and what this would be is our state aid payments that we receive assume that we do not have an optional homestead exemption therefore if they modified it then our state eight payments would take that into consideration this would require legislative action and there really was no appetite for this during the legislative session but if they recognized a hundred percent

112it would provide the district about 62 62.1 million dollars the other option would be to remove a portion or or all of the 20 optional homestead exemption this would require board approval and notification notification to the appraisal district by July 1st the district loses approximately 49.2 million in the general fund alone for by providing the 20 optional homestead exemption other options is to increase the maintenance and operations tax rate this would require the board to call a voter approval election and also um this in for the taxpayers to to pass the election a a voter approval uh tax rate election of our remaining 12 pennies that we could access that uh by state law would provide us about 105.8 million dollars one thing to note on this though with all the taxpayer relief being discussed

113the last time taxpayer relief was passed the legislature did not allow a vatre in the year following uh unless you had already been in the process of pursuing a vatre also we could utilize the remaining stimulus funds which was shown in our proposed budget to help offset the deficit this requires the Board of Trustees approval and it would give us a about 65 million dollars we could also use a portion of fund balance and what is recommended by uh whether it be the general like government Finance Officers Association as well as our rating age Bond rating agencies is a minimum of four months in expenditures and fund balance for school districts that have a June 30-year end we can also the district is also planning to form a committee to discuss efficiencies sources of new

114revenue and potential budget cuts in preparation for the 2024-2025 budget and not having Federal stimulus funds available as I mentioned earlier the district has experienced two to three percent reduction in average daily attendance similar to other districts in Texas since the coronavirus a one percent increase in average daily attendance would provide the district an additional 7.4 million dollars our expenditures uh it's very difficult when ninety percent of your budget is payroll so that is something that we would have to be evaluating so the message to our legislators still continues needs to be uh some of the items these items listed here because they've been relaying these messages with the special session such as increasing the basic allotment it is critical for all districts to have additional funding to provide the necessary resources to the classroom

115and raises to for our staff there was initially a six golden penny that was in the uh the bill the house bill 100 and that would that would be very is helpful to the school districts also um also cost outside the classroom are increasing so they need to realize it's not just um just the cost within the classroom budgets as you well know are being built now for June 30 year ends and school districts with the August are building their budgets and teachers are making their employment decisions now so without increased funding from the legislature Cuts could be on the horizon for school districts throughout the state of Texas so now I am open to any questions that you may have regarding the presentation Karen thank you and I'm going to do what I did

116last time we had our budget discussion I'm going to turn to the more senior side of the board first uh Julie heinemann if you would start with any questions you may have thank you Mr President um Karen and to your team I know you've been working non-stop on running all these different numbers and scenarios including many that I've been sending to you over the last two weeks and I do appreciate that very much um I mentioned I left my notes on the printer that's what happens when you stay up till 12 30 running numbers and and scenarios yourself and but I do have some of my notes with me so I'll try to to work through what I have here um uh this uh I I appreciate all that you're you're doing to try to

117show us the the full situation the scenario Debbie and I just mentioned to each other on the side that I mean this makes us sick to our stomach that we're in this position as Dr Henry said we don't have to be in this position the state has so much money they just haven't um made the choice to fund public education which is article 7 of the state constitution is at the state will fully fund public schools in Texas so I I I encourage us all to hold our elected officials accountable to the State Constitution that that they are responsible for funding public schools and they are currently um not fulfilling that that uh constitutional requirement with that said I still remain optimistic I think we can try we can figure this out um obviously our

118expenses are up and our revenue is down so that puts us in a deficit so the the challenge is how do we create a budget that will support our priorities our goals for our students um I know you've presented a budget that does not include raises I absolutely we must have raises in this Budget moving forward so we have to have raises so we in looking at all the numbers and all the scenarios that you provided they answered all my questions Karen and thank you again I I feel that we need to um have a three percent raise across the board and then we need to figure out how to pay for that okay um I I asked Karen and her team to run different scenarios as if we if we did like a tiered

119structure where we we tiered our raises if we didn't provide raises to um the our our administrative level our executive Administration I'm sorry team I just wanted to know what the number was it's it's 250 000 it doesn't save us so uh I'm sorry I just but I I did want to just see what the numbers would be I've only here I know right it doesn't affect you much but it affects a lot of other people who spend so much time and energy and effort um uh pouring into our school district so I just wanted to see like that number um it's not it it's more important that we look at providing raises to all of our employees especially teachers to make sure that we do continue to recruit and retain the best in our

120classrooms because that's that's how what impacts our students the most so um so looking at the options Karen that you provided obviously increasing the basic allotment is the number one choice we would have right and that we don't have control over that our state legislators do so we need to hold them accountable to do that but we're going to move forward assuming that they are going to fulfill their estate constitutional requirements that's how I feel That's The Optimist to me that they are going to come through in terms of modifying the adjustment to state property values and I'm on slide I don't even know what number that is it's the first slide where you talk about options for the budget see oh I just saw my face up there um that's a weird feeling uh

121keep going one more no two one more yes okay so the second one modify an adjustment to state property values to O for AG I do not I my personal opinion is I do not want to make changes to the oag which is the third option um at this time I don't feel that during the legislative year that it is appropriate for us to be removing property tax relief from our taxpayers that's up the state legislature's responsibility and they need to get their act together on that we provide property tax relief to our taxpayers and we want to do that we're doing what they should be doing so sorry so I don't feel like we should do that third option um personally in terms of modifying adjustment to the state property values for ohe what

122that means is that because we offer property tax relief to our taxpayers 20 off your property tax assessment um your what you pay your property taxes on the state penalizes us by 62 million dollars that would close the gap on our deficit and almost pay for a three percent raise I ran the numbers last night that we would almost close the deficit and have enough for three percent raise if the state would remove the penalty for the property tax relief that we give to our taxpayers Karen I know you said that there's not no bill has been filed yet there was no interest in that when our board went to visit Austin and visited our elected officials we met with Senator bettencourt's office and they are Senator bettencourt's office is aware of this penalty and

123they they acknowledge it so I guess I would call on I know Scott has a relationship with Senator Bettencourt you know maybe there's still time one of the good thing is about the state not getting their act together on property tax relief is it's not done yet there's still time for Senator Bettencourt to add this to isn't there right there's still time right where he could add that to the to um property tax relief like Teresa's giving me this look like oh my I think the call is limited on what they can include related to property tax relief I think that's yes for the special session but what about for special session two well they haven't called that so it would depend on the call that the governor what he includes in the call for

124the special session I guess I would ask our Senator Bettencourt who lives in Spring Branch ISD who's also impacted by this penalty that perhaps work on a call or a legislative action that would remove this penalty um so that we could continue to provide property tax relief to our taxpayers but without the penalty that's that's creating this deficit in our budget okay that was when I that's one thought um I I personally don't support having um a Tre at this time obviously we'll use our um our leftover Esser funds and Karen thank you for reserving those funds you stretch those Ester dollars over as long as you could knowing that this fiscal situation could possibly happen so thank you for that foresight those funds are going to expire so now is the time where we

125will use them and thank you for for maintaining that long-term perspective I appreciate that in terms of utilizing uh now I'm on the next page in terms of utilizing the portion of the fund balance foreign what is the dollar value of one month of fund balance I'm based on uh looking at the proposed budget let me pull that for you sorry I didn't I that will actually have that right there um based on the proposed budget it is 98 million 16996 or basically 98.2 million okay that's one month so because of the our fiscal year being July 1. we might we're it's recommended that we maintain four months correct so I have two questions that all right maybe I'll probably have three but one is um does that four months is it is it at

126one moment in time or is it an average over the year it we typically what we look at it's is if we look at it what is it at your end because that's how the Texas Education Agency looks at it when they're looking at things like the financial Integrity rating system of Texas right so um at the end of 23 24 based on the proposed budget that would be uh 392.7 million dollars just I just want to add one thing to to that on a on a positive note yeah if if the state does decide to fund for enrollment that's a huge help to us yes and then I would also remind the board that fortunately or unfortunately uh we have four or five hundred positions every year that go unfilled because we just can't

127find people which on average I think Karen told me is another 20 million dollars yes yes sir that's correct that's correct well and that goes and and absolutely what I'm why I'm asking about fund balance is I know we we want to the board has expressed we would like to maintain for months fund balance and we've received that guidance from our financial advisors my question is can we what how much can we pull out of fund balance if we need to to pay for these raises now until the state comes through for us well um we would be able I guess you could say with the with a raise we would still be within four months fund balance in 2022-20 at the end of 23 I'm sorry at the end of 2024 June 30 20

12824. right however we would not have four months in fund balance in 24.25 right because we would no longer have stimulus funds to offset it right right so you're looking at a two-year cycle I'm looking at just this year how we can we can pay for this okay that makes sense um before I leave the fund balance question um school districts who have an an August one fiscal year start they only have to maintain three months fund balance is that correct that's it's the recommendation it's not a requirement but it's a recommendation and it's because we have to wait two months longer for people right right so um how hard is it to change our fiscal year date well we could do I'm just trying to find money I'm shaking the couch cushions we would

129have to do that in adopting the budget and we would have to let tea I know I can't remember what the deadline is but one of the things that happens with that when you do that you have additional months so it actually is a one-year hit to fund balance so it doesn't it won't it really doesn't help okay again I'm just trying to I'm looking for golden Penny silver pen any copper pennies any pennies I can find and that's one of the reasons Miss Heineman a few years ago a lot of districts went from August 31st to June 30th because it bought them a little money got you okay I wasn't aware of that okay my uh I think my last thing I was going to mention was exactly what you just said Dr Henry

130is if um in a future special session if the state legislature will reconsider funding schools on enrollment versus attendance that would be a huge help too because clearly our fixed cost our payroll costs are all based upon full enrollment based upon enrollment not attendance we have to make sure we have teachers and classes and buses and everything as if every student was coming to school every day so that would be something that again we would encourage folks to share with our elected officials okay I think that's all I have right now okay thank you Karen thank you Mr President Debbie Blackshear well is there anything left you did an awesome job Julie uh I probably have um more comments than anything and I too support uh Julie in the three percent raise for uh our

131teachers and our staff and uh looking at this budget and I just want to point out to teachers that let's say back in what let me find the slide Senate Bill 30 which the governor has already signed has uh 1.1 million I think in there for uh safety which I totally support but it has two million dollars for library books for tea I'd just like to ask our teachers how does that make you feel that while our governor and lieutenant governor talk about supporting teachers our governor has already signed a bill more concerned about library books than it is about funding our schools and paying our teachers adequately what does that tell you about the priority in our legislature it really just as Julie and I were talking it makes me sick at my stomach

132to see sometimes the priorities our government our state government places rather than on what is truly important which is funding our schools so just like Dr blasingame says we're interested in outcomes of students we've got this big Surplus in our government and they're playing games and uh I'm sure part of that is that he's he's holding I feel like this is my personal opinion he's holding us hostage because he wants other things and his priority is charter schools and that that impacts uh funding of public schools I don't care what they say anyone that you know has anything between their ears knows that public schools will be impacted by Charter Schools if we give money to Charter Schools no accountability it doesn't make sense we passed a bill on on um so tea can look

133at library books but the most important thing is our teachers our students and there's no seems to be no priority there so I don't know you know our our people have to start really getting involved in elections because you can see the impact on our district today as we talk about uh budget and money and looking for sources I don't want to take away the homestead exemption either because that's that's important to our taxpayers and it's hard to take away something that they've had for years and that's I think that's also um uh part I know people moved to cyfair it's been proven through the cyfair Chamber of Commerce because of our school district but also the fact that we have a homestead exemption is important to to uh people too so um Karen you

134and your staff have done an outstanding job with what I is what what is just a Monumental task before us with the budget and uh you know with their being not knowing what is going to happen with funding we do have to pass a budget today so hopefully um we'll be able to come back maybe in August or September and re-look at that and things will look better but I'm just I'm really truly disappointed in our state legislature and um the in incident significance they have placed on funding are our classrooms and giving us funding so that we can pay our teachers adequately because we know how hard they have worked through you know the pandemic and and things have changed since the pandemic and we we have needs we have a lot more needs

135for our Mental Health Services those have become critical um after the pandemic and I would just encourage everyone to please get involved in contact your representative and talk to them about this important issue and I'll quit rambling thank you Lucas Scanlon thank you all so my comments will be brief so we have to maintain a competitive District I support examining what we need to do in order to approach a three percent raise and I say that in the spirit of Arts teachers our Administration the three percent doesn't come close to tackling the inflation problem that we've all felt college that we're doing our best and I want to see we can do creativity or creatively to find a path to get there two I don't wish to disturb our homestead exemption I don't support any

136changes there personally I making that decision would impact people and their ability to stay in their homes when they're also you know our communities experiencing the state of inflation pressures that everybody else is I do appreciate the recommendation to form committees regarding where can we find new efficiencies I like the suggestion by Ms heinemann on looking at what could we do to change our fiscal year you know that's an interesting option we've just mentioned it Dr Henry I'd like to hear and better understand what are the pros and cons we've just discussed it for a couple of seconds in this meeting you know perhaps this evening or later this afternoon we can hear more about what those pros and cons might look like so generally speaking we need to find a way to tackle this

137year so I would support working through this year with the assumption that we're going to use our federal funds for many federal funds to tackle the ability to cover our deficit as well as provide for that raise and then having a longer time period in the coming year to better understand what do we need to do in 24-25 for my comments for now Gilbert Sarabia Karen thank you for your um and your staff for the tough job that presents you what do we have right now in our fund balance um we our fund balance is about 520 million that would be approximately it it's under um it's around a little over it's around five months a little over five months five and a half used to be higher but as our expenditures go higher then

138it reduced the number of months of expenditures and fund balance right the um I totally agree with uh Julie opening hoping that whoever's in charge can take away our penalty uh that would greatly help our district I'm usually quite positive but in this one I'm not sure if uh that uh will come to fruition we do have a chance like Debbie said coming back and um August and September with hope that things have changed and stuff and we were certainly hope hoping for that I would like to see the three percent I would I mean the question to Julie if you're looking at the three percent does that look does that consists of a stipend also uh Karen can answer very specific questions but based on the numbers I was running in with her answering

139many of my questions over the last couple of few days um it does not include a site statement a stipend because a stipend is a one-time bump I was trying to focus more on a long-term raise for employees and three percent um to me is a minimum it I mean to me that's a minimum I I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't go I wouldn't suggest if we're gonna do a raise it has to be at least three percent ideally we would want it to be more but at this point we're just adding to the deficit right so we're trying to until we can increase revenues um lower expenditures which is going to be very difficult to do or um ideally have some relief um from the state legislature right if I heard correctly the uh

140one percent raise would roughly come out to almost 10 million yes it's uh 9 million assuming the same pay structure scale now and no increase in starting teacher salary it that would change if we increase starting teacher salary right and I know it's a tough situation I would love to see the three percent raise but um the Esther funds that exist that you're going to use um that can be used as we had before for a stipend is that right it could but then it would reduce the amount of money offsetting the deficit right I understand that part though but that could be a stipend uh where it's usable in that regard if we find the money somewhere else yes and it would change the months in fund balance that we would have to recalculate

141right um so I do like Julie's idea I like to see the three percent with a stipend and we can work through that um it's going to be a lot of work looking into the numbers and stuff with that comes up so anyway um voting has consequences we have to get our community out to vote they have to come out to vote and make sure that they are held responsible the ones who are basically holding us hostage as Debbie said thank you Tom Natalie blessing uh thank you for the hard work preparing this and really a good little education that you gave us and summarizing um the action to this point in Austin and our local situation um I have two priorities personally as I represent our district I would say teachers are the most

142important people in our school system teachers or who brings the rigor relevance relationships teachers are the face of opportunity for all and so I would support the the most generous raise we could give to teachers and paraprofessionals as a school leader um I could not most of the glue of what happens in a day is also the functions that are held by teacher assistance and and paraprofessionals in our building as well um I would support a race for all staff I could see a differential one I've lived that before when maybe Administration could have a different amount or percentage um at a you know threshold of earning to that of potential can you please put up slide five that shows the um cost of inflation school cost inflation 2019 and 2022 Slide Five yeah I'm

143just trying to get no problem moving slowly it has a little lag sorry it has a delay this one or sorry that's it okay oh sorry there's maybe one behind you went back okay I apologize um why my top priority would be uh making sure that our staff our teachers our paraprofessionals and our staff um have are able to access a raise is right there on the screen everything that happens at our macro level of the school system is happening I bought a car this year I paid more than sticker um teachers are paying Insurance on their houses on their cars on their health teachers have to live in a home as far as construction costs teachers have to eat teachers are you know we work at trying to get the health insurance costs uh

144you know moderated that I know my kid went just a quick little checkup last week and I know how much I spent um so as parents and as individuals and so that is why I supported everything that is inflation to our system is inflation at the and as a teacher I worked a second job I read water meters every other weekend in Austin so that I could um you know buy the things I need to buy that was before I had a family and a house and all those things um so I would say that that's a priority and then a second priority for me is our taxpayers um teachers are also our taxpayers and we're hearing Scott and I were having a conversation about teachers who are being priced out of their homes basically

145we may be able to stay up here that we're having a we decreased tax rate but we did not decrease taxes for the people in our system that's the teachers but that's all taxpayers so I definitely want to prioritize those two things making sure there's relief to our taxpayers and making sure that our teachers we can we are the destination as Dr Henry always says for teachers as well and that is our most critical resource and that's where um you know that's just a business decision at some point so I do have several questions and um one is uh let's see I have many questions so the 520 million and fund balance I appreciate the comments on my colleagues they were really great questions I brought that up I think last year at this time

146and we were very emphatic about why we needed a large fund balance um and so I know as the financial person that was there was reasons why you stated that we wanted to have I think we said at that time six months I think I know we're saying recommended for and this June budget year is a new news to me I don't really know about that I probably need more explanation but is it three months required and four recommended there's not a an official requirement there is a the financial Integrity rating system of Texas pretty much concentrates on the equivalent of what I would call three months of you know they look at number of days cash on hand as well as where it should be the like I said the four months has to

147do with just the fact that it takes longer before property taxes come in for a June 30-year end and Dr blassing game if I could add to Karen's response also the four months is important because it affects our bond rating that's where I was going to go I would never want our first rating we cannot afford our bond with especially with the new session where the funding is not guaranteed and the rates are not guaranteed I really appreciated what you've done and you've done as far as our what you shared a meeting or two ago about how we've maintained a rating there so basically I'm hearing you say four months we could if we want to be safe and make sure our first rating is what it is then it's four months correct and the

148and the thing is I'm so glad Dr Henry reminded us of the bond rating because when your bond rating is good then it's cheaper when we sell bonds and therefore it reduces the impact to the taxpayer yes to my second priority so so okay then in my mind to me four months is the requirement and the minimum I'm intrigued though at the um I feel like we still are after 32 years in education I'm we never had money like we did with Esser ever I'm afraid it came so fast that sometimes a way you could use it towards student outcomes is never that efficient and that always kills me but the fact that we still have it it's not lost on me that that's 65 million and Esser is seven times what we would need

149to give if a one percent raises nine million dollars then we're still not even spending all our Esser just on teacher raises right we're doing the math right correct right so that's I mean that's just uh something that this could have been so bleak um but I just thankful that we still have that little cushion um and because we still absolutely are dealing with the effects of covid you mentioned attendance and I think that's an incredible opportunity for us to I'd like to hear more from Administration on plans for how to really impact and communicate with our public and ask them for their help and bring them in because kids did learn different habits during covet and families did too about you know really going to school is it necessary I'd also like us to

150look at incredible a creative instructional Arrangements that allow attendance to be counted even for kids who don't maybe want to come to a building every day I think we have to get creative around that virtual options and such as that that could be something that serves kids and still gives you choice to families and also gives you um you know Ada or attendance credit for attendance for a student makes sense I think that would require legislative change though um okay explain um to get any right now there's not the ability for us to get counted for attendance for virtual um education wow it's only allowed uh with the uh called the Dr Henry that virtual school that that there's only one scenario that's vsn only which that's interesting okay and is that something we can

151apply for do you know is that anything allowable in any pathway no no okay that's just a second question I know we're doing budget but I just how we provide choice and make sure we capture as we really dive in and have a committee and look at how we can increase attendance and and talk work with our community I think we will find some people decided that going into a building isn't there like you know maybe there was some other arrangements and so just being able to really exploit what would work for families okay back to budget sorry that was the program a little bit but um can I Karen you mentioned it now I think Julie or Debbie asked the question what were our budget first I know we're coming to the close now

152June 30. what do you think is the budget versus actual total expenditures what was that Gap that Delta between what we actually budgeted like Dr Henry mentioned the teachers and positions we can in 2023 ending this school year okay I just want to be sure 22 23 ending now okay our original uh deficit that we uh that was adopted was 109 million uh the deficit before accessing Esser funds was is about 70 million dollars of which that difference uh what that in what that difference reflects is unfilled positions plus moving the stipend from the general fund budget to Esser funds so 39 million dollars basically in in difference between budget and actual correct but like I said 22.7 million was moved to Esser funds so it's probably you know a little bit it's under that

153amount probably closer to 25 to 30 right in that little range but and this is oh my own head's catching up with my own head so I need your brain so the idea of this because we have this year the 63 65 million and Esser still um that scenario as far as moving and the deficit it's it's fair to apply this idea that in essence if we were not able to hire I hope we can but that it could be similar next year you're correct okay correct 39 million so I'm just in my head that's a sort of a play on well no well that's not the unfilled I would say 20 million related and then the other costs and savings and other things great okay um can you also give me an amount on

154the enrollment versus attendance amount I'm not I'm not sure how much was it we lost in attendance if and then how much more would it have been at enrollment um our our average day if we were um where we used to be pre-covered pre-covered we ran between 95 and a half to 96 percent average daily attendance um if we were at that level depending on the year that it's happened it would be about 14.7 to 21 million more dollars depending on where we fall in our average daily attendance thank you I'm not sure it's necessary to uh the grander decision making in the original decisions we'll need to make but have we um can I get budget information by school and student outcomes like how much we spend I know we had a discussion a

155couple months ago for example the high schools that were smaller when we couldn't fix the zoning necessarily like we wanted to the efficiencies of scale to make sure that opportunity for all was there for example an art teacher maybe if a school's smaller they can only have one that does the CTE courses but maybe not the other courses kids want just in their program so that is there a and I've had this question with Linda before you know the the schools with most poverty have the hardest struggles overcoming like literacy challenges and math challenges and so I'd like to see the spending I'd like to see that we don't just go gross in how we spend as a system can we get efficiencies on how we spend around need and making sure the kids with

156the most need are also getting their how the budget looks so a school level by outcome like school did this their outcomes were this and the budget was this we and and I don't have that particular information but we do budget more towards schools that are economically disadvantaged um and that is part of our um actually in our budget book on the per pupil allocation that we provide we provide more to the campuses that are economically disadvantaged than to the campuses that are not economically disadvantaged and do we know if it's working I believe it is I believe it would but I'd like to know like how do I know where's the data to start can know is that which ones are those should we adjust more or less or do more of or less

157of so Dr blasting game when we obviously Karen provides uh the budget for for all of our schools but then any additional funding that we have for example stay comped State company has provided a campuses based on their needs so we look at their at their data we look at the reading level reports we look at the at the state data and then based on that we assign so many state comp positions to them if the same thing happens with the Esser funds it's not it's not by chance that that we have Sr money we took that as our money especially that 20 that was required and divided over three years to make sure that we had money each of the years for systems and programs that we were going to uh to implement so

158it's always done based on the date that the academic data that we have for kids so a couple things one is um that raised the second question let me decide which one to address first um okay so first is um I think that's it's the right thing to do and it's I think I trust you as a professional and the things that you what you bring and do in programming are excellent and and you were thoughtful and so but I need data I would like to have a report for every school up at the end of the year reading levels What would the end of the year star scores knowing that this year's a new star so I'm not you know not going to be um so I'm not going to jump and scream about

159that I understand that's compared to others and we need to look at that and then I want to know did it work I know when I walk campuses I see an incredible amount of interventionists and people helping kids but I need to know if it's working or not that's how we make it so then as we make final decisions about how are those enough is that enough for those campuses then the second thing is right then we just said we spread the Esther funds over uh three years which thank goodness it was unimpitious that's why we're sitting here and the first thing I asked was wow Esther could actually cover three percent raise however that means I'm taking that directly away from that intervention that I'm not sure worked or didn't work yet with data

160so I need more data to be able to really see are we hitting the needs of the kids who need it most and then what are we doing what's the impact of take if we spend Esser on raises that teachers are the most important person kelp student achievement go up but what other factors mattered and so uh you know what will happen as far as our student outcomes if we shift some of that money that's maybe Karen I can share with you that if if we get the direction from the board to provide a a report regarding you get the reading levels already and if you want us to add Mr Jackson the number of additional positions that they that they get and what positions they're for we can certainly put something like that together

161and I'd formally request of my president I hear that often if the board wants to so I'd really like us to see if we could get data yeah I can't get that for you today but I get it and we don't have the the state data yet either but we can we can we can the board the board directs says we can certainly put something like that together that shows the additional positions uh that they get I think I think for this past year you know the 22 21-22 school year I think the fact that the scores perform the schools performed so well with all of the obstacles I think tells you that that that uh they did that the resources were put in there for them um obviously we're waiting for results for this

162this year with a different type of obstacles out we were hit with but we could do something like that I visited one of our schools it was under Improvement um Ms Corey back there and the most beautiful principal and what I was most impressed about the campus was really the relationships with children kids were so happy they knew everyone's name they were celebrated so that's what made that school work um but that I asked the friends what what you know what board action could be supportive I tried to ask that when I go and it was like they did have some positions and she did cite that's why um their campus was over to come out of low Improvement and into high Improvement I mean to high a high uh outcomes and so that's my

163decision I wouldn't want to shift I need to know what's working not working and if those are in place and it's enough and then we would have to be careful that we didn't make an inner you know inadvertently make a decision that didn't continue to give us those outcomes because that's we're here remember I said our priorities are you know that wasn't my thing we are here to clarify our parties and monitor the progress of our students and school ultimately is about their academic outcomes and so that's why I asked those questions so it'd be wonderful I hope that the board can support a request just to see I think we're doing amazing work and that campus was an example and even those campuses that end up needing that support there was such a positive

164report on the ground for that work just making sure we don't impact it okay and especially given we know what's going to come back with new outcomes any new tests given online with writing done the way it is um we expect there to be a need everywhere a greater need suddenly because we changed the game on kids and and schools and us so okay another question I had um I'm trying to keep him at the big budget level and then just some specifics that are program related changes in the tax rate um trying to form my question Karen um actually I'll have to leave that question to later I think um let me shift to a question about um Natalie if I may we're not proposing anything on the tax rate right now that that

165won't happen until uh September or October I did have then just let me asked a question and I don't want to talk too long get my colleagues a chance and then maybe I'll ask more questions afterwards um the money um the safety dollars uh Debbie alluded to those um the 1.1 billion in school safety grants the other Hospital three 300 million for school safety I'd like to hear um I have questions just about where we're how that's intended to be spent or where the planning happens and how eyes an individual board member can get more information about the the plans around safety as a priority for our families I'll answer I'll answer it General and then if somebody wants to step up and be more specific but we way out spend the money that we're

166going to receive so we're we're way above and beyond what the funding that the state's going to provide just to give you an example we spent well over 200 million in the last 10 years making our schools more secure so if you took that 200 million out of the 1 billion they're allocating across the state we would have one out of every five dollars so I I think we're going to use it to help offset a lot of the great things that we're doing uh or Eddie anybody want to add to that um we do have a Safety and Security presentation uh in on the agenda today so we'll be able to get a little more uh um specific rather about the expansion and enhancements that we're making to our safety and security measures uh

167but as Dr Henry mentioned such a minimal amount that we're receiving with the Safety and Security allotment that I don't know that we have it earmarked specifically to one intervention or one measure but just to continue to offset the costs that we we currently have and you'll see the very extensive plan that we have oh good so I'll just I'll just plant these questions and probably they'll be answered there because it did pass that we have an officer hb3 did pass and it was signed by the Governor end of last week every campus as an officer and we did the math when we visited Austin and it's largemath yes and then the second thing is were the some of those dollars were given to very specific interventions correct in the way the money was earmarked

168at the state um we're really continuing to try to analyze that uh as far as the officer piece uh you're correct that there is language in the bill that specifies that an officer be present at each campus during uh the day but there is an exception uh there is a a standard as far that the district or board can adopt uh as an exception to that standard that allows when there are no funds are not available or qualified personnel it's not available that the board can approve an exception and in speaking and chief is not in the room but he had the opportunity to speak with um John Scott who's the chief Safety and Security Officer for tea and kind of shared with him our current plan and model where we have the zones and

169Patrol officers that monitor our elementary campuses and he felt confident that that met the standard that is included in hb3 but that's good to hear because I felt very good about this safety plan and I do want to compliment to Dr Henry's comments around the spending and the priority as a parent over the years in this system before I was involved at this level I could tangibly see and feel the measures that were put in place the Excellence bubble which was done and far ahead of the state's requirements far ahead of those new Senate Bill 11 was it seven seven or eleven that put more requirements about committees and Reporting in place so I um I'm commending the commitment of this system to that's to the safety of our children which is a priority for

170our parents um but I and I'm you know I felt like uh I was concerned about within this and prioritizing teacher raises and how that might impact our ability to do that so um okay um I look forward to the safety presentation and I just have another one that maybe doesn't need to be addressed super fully today that I am intrigued by on page 16 the increase in campus staff the 14.6 million that's 12.5 million for special education um just would like a little more detail about exactly um I don't know that any federal law changed I'm hoping we just see that there's more need for kids to make sure we're giving a level of service to all students that meets their IEPs and allows I know one concern I've had concerns you know around

171um options of advanced coursework for special ed students and um you know how that is is impacted by being able to have staff that supports kids in classroom and that kind of stuff and so if I could get a little bit more information about that 14.6 million um it it included like special education teachers uh adaptive behavior um you know as well as life skills dyslexia the visually impaired um some high intensity paraprofessionals in classrooms support speech pathologists diagnosticians psychologists and Dr blasting game just to kind of give you a little perspective on that our special ed numbers have grown tremendously so uh in one year we grew by a thousand six hundred and thirty three that's like from April to April and then just just through the end of May we grew another 462

172special ed students and then uh you probably know that that there was a change uh in the law Barber that that that speaks about all dyslexia identifications have to go through the special ed Arena first as they're being as they're being identified so it is it is it's the needs of our kids and and and as you know it's it's it's not uh one teacher to one child always sometimes it's two or three teachers or a parent or a child so so it takes a lot of Staffing but that is a significant growth in our special ed population I fully support this and I understand especially given the federal push on Texas and that the cap that was kind of placed upon schools and if we have every child reach the full potential opportunity for

173all I fully support that need I'm glad to see it um what I would like I would love to be able to have access as a board member to the kind of analysis that happened there um you know you said that we looked at life and dyslexia and Beyond Paris and speech and like just that level of information about what the numbers were where they're going how many are this that the other because um it's going to take you know that kind of level of work and people on the job doing it so thank you for the work you have done on that um and any more you know visibility for us on those things will be amazing well Natalie if I may add it's it's so important for us to remind our legislators to

174fully fund um some of these areas you know uh the state funding that is provided for special education is 80.5 million dollars and we spend 126.1 yes when we took our tour of in Austin to talk to our delegation those numbers were staggering I've thanked you last meeting to for providing in such a visual way our CLC was another group that was putting it out there but it that is a staggering difference and there's so many things that are not funded at that level so thank you for that explanation on Special Ed I think that might be let me just double check um oh on to the optional homestead exemption um I really like the idea I would hope it could be I'm not sure the legislative process either but that could be discussed because

175there was some hope um there was attention there were some people who had statistics around those who were under that optional Homestead those that were under a recapture or not and so um I but I don't also would not want that as that second priority as I said taxpayers um uh the taxpayers being considered in our budget and I would look at efficiencies and those kind of things before I want to look at the optional homestead exemption okay I think that concludes my questions I may have others as others ask questions because they're you know iron sharpens iron I appreciate it Scott Henry thank you and thank you Karen very much for your time I'll try not to duplicate my questions but I have some clarifying questions maybe you can help with and I do

176appreciate the handout we got earlier which talked about the state allotments this might be a good document to actually put online so people can understand how much we are paying towards things the state does not fund on that special education kind of follow-up on Natalie's question I know I think someone mentioned 126 is what we spend and the state provides us 80 million this 12.5 million is that additional would we get any recapture by are we any money back from the state on that you're talking about the pay payroll related payroll yes sir okay thank you that was my question yes sir awesome that's no additional funding that's just the cost I want to make sure just to clarify that um as to the three percent raise I figured that up is what around 27

177million is that correct that's correct if we don't change the starting teacher salary if we change the starting teacher salary then it'd be a little more than that depending on what the board recommended on that starting teacher's salary and what I remember correctly is 42 million deficits that's about around 69 70 million somewhere in that range is what we need to make up is that correct What's the total we need to oh oh oh our total deficit that's part of the budget right now without a raise is 107 million 107 million so if you added I mean before Esser though that's before Esser if you add Esser with it you're correct now I'm following you I'm sorry no Mr Henry no trying to get so I have all the details in front of me so

178we can make good oh you're right the 42 plus the 30 which would be over 70. yes you're correct so in regard to hp3 I know you put in here that we can qualify for not getting the extra police officers at each school as is mandated uh and you said did I hear you right it's 1.4 million is it yes the additional funding from hb3 is estimated to be about 1.4 million and our current school safety allotment that's just added to our school safety allotment is about a million so that's 2.4 million dollars when we spend over 40 million in our general fund towards police officers the mental health intervention team and counselors thank you for just things I had that written down um what other questions I have I think that's it the one

179thing I will say is um for the board I let's says are watching by the way our meeting today so I will just suggest maybe your comments you make towards them give them constructive comments of how they can make changes um might be a good thing for us we can tell them and direct them in the right way who might be a suggestion I would make going forward just just an FYI on that but and and I and I do think one constructive criticism has been fund uh the ohe and maybe talk to what programs also like special ed is a big thing for us I know for us safety I know that's the 1.4 million we didn't get received you know unfunded mandate those are things they need to hear is it's the unintended

180consequences of their actions sometimes our nearest action and how that affects us especially like recapture and things like that how can we help them help themselves because it's a big it's a big animal it is a big animal but the the but the I mean the most constructive criticism and I've told this to all our legislators I'm not being secretive is inflation as Karen has shown over the last four years what's what's happened to us and there's been no increase in the basic allotment so um that that's you know the biggest the biggest thing they can do for us is increase the basic allotment and it'd be one thing if there was not funds available but there are funds available yeah thank you I have a a number of questions as well but first I

181want to go back take a look at the big picture trying to see some board consensus one of the board decisions we have to make is do we want to use the federal stimulus funds to help offset the deficit so I heard some supportive comments I heard and and when I mentioned specific names by all means correct me if I'm wrong but I heard supportive comments from Julie and Debbie about using the federal stimulus funds to offset the deficit Gilbert I don't remember hearing anything from you on that so is that a concept that you support because we will take these vote by vote but but by what I understand do we have a a consensus I do support the uh the funds being used to offset any deficit but I was also asking if

182those funds can be used as an additional stipend which would take away from the Gen from the the balance but looking if we could fund the balance through another option maybe if we look into it where we go three percent with a stipend that's what I was asking okay just a possibility and my next question to uh Karen would be what would a a thousand dollar stipend to the all the employees look like and and money and the money uh issue what would it look like so I know how much money would be taken away from that extra fund if we could do that that may help the following year the 24 25 year be an additional 16 million dollars for the one thousand and then for 500 would be eight million then I would

183imagine okay that that's my question then Scott I don't remember hearing you mention support or no support for that that concept I would have a support for it if that's what Finance agrees is the best option that was a question I was going to follow up late on the end is what are the pluses and minuses of these options what put us in a good position going forward based upon unknown terms of what the legislative may or may not do and what would set us up for Success versus get us in a pickle later on I would say you know using the stimulus funds to offset the deficit would definitely be the route to go because that uh you know it just it reduces the current year deficit and the impact that would affect us

184in 2425 and be less money that we have to look at what do we do if if the legislature doesn't do anything because right now it's just unknown then I would be a supportive Tom Natalie same question I think I'm going to ask that tax rate question and then come back to the answer for that so what change in the tax rate would it take to cover the deficit um well the deficit right now you know without Esser is 107 million and that 12 cents in the tax rate we give us 105. so it would take uh doing a voter approval tax rate election for the full 12 remaining pennies available that we just have a couple million to cover at that point if you did that correct okay um so Tom it's a complex

185question to me because I have not been given data enough to know the causality of the money being spent that's Esser for student interventions and how that would be impacted in order to understand I want teacher raises and I so um then it but because then it would come down to sort of the only way then to have keep our amazing staff and make sure they're empowered to continue to have the students grow and attain and Achieve um it might be that we'd have to dig deeper into our instructional strategies how we teach kids to read who teaches kids to read how we cohort kids how we structure you know classroom time even the things the state puts on us for how much time has to be spent doing social studies science this and that

186which I'm not you know reading a math and so I feel like it's a bit complex for me but ultimately in the end teachers are the answer and so if the question is would I be in favor of using the Esser funds for the budget deficit because we're giving teachers raises or just in general it is however you wish to address it I just want to get the the board to focus on this one specific item yes I think I made in my comments the statement that I would support using Esther funds for Budget yes uh and Lucas I think I heard you indicate that you supported the use of the remaining Federal stimulus funds to help offset the deficit is is my memory correct on that okay uh Mr Jackson can I clarify one

187thing or maybe it might help Dr blasting game Dr blessing game the there is a required 20 of the Esser that must be used for the instructional needs that you just spoke about that is still in place for next year excellent so all this money that Karen's talking about this 65 I'm sorry all the 65 million does that already have the 20 taken out no correct Karen that no money is super predicted for next year that's 65 million is after the 20 so what we looked at is what was already allocated out of the Esser funds such as the 20 um and that's the remaining unallocated unspoken for is the 65. what wonderful news okay that's an easy yes yes so so I also support using the remaining stimulus funds to help offset the uh

188the deficit particularly because we are in fact using that which we should to enhance academic attainment on behalf of our students I'm not asking for a boat audit right now but I think I have General consensus to move ahead on keeping this in the Financial framework of using the 65 million offset the deficit I will make an observation and I'm going to ask uh mark this question I saw what Tomball did I also saw what Pasadena did and I've seen what some of the other districts have done I'll make another comment 15 years ago our predecessors were in a position similar to this and I think one of our predecessors is sitting in the audience now I think 15 years ago or maybe 17. um our predecessors were very financially prudent and were able to

189uh restrain cost but what happened is our salaries drifted from being at the high end in the region down to the middle and slightly below the middle and so for the past 12 years we have made a conservative effort to increase salaries for sci-fi to try and bring them up to the top end of a competitive range Within our our region market and so the question I have for you Mark and and tomball's a small District uh so they are not going to dictate however the new superintendent for Dallas is certainly Making Waves with pronouncements of salary increases um do you anticipate that we need to increase our starting salary and if so what are different decision points for us well certainly to stay competitive now we'll say Tomball did give a very very nice

190raise in their District but all that did was catch them up to us so they're about equal with us now maybe a little ahead a little behind I'm not sure the exact figure uh and then Klein just voted you may have seen yesterday I think to give a four percent raise now that moved them ahead of us and certainly we do complete compete with Tomball and Klein and Spring Branch and Katie and HISD we we compete with them for teachers but we we've managed to stay in the top quarter over the last decade and um you know personally for me I think you have to up that starting teacher pay if you're going to give a raise uh you you need to go ahead and expand that little bit of money because when we go

191to college fairs you want to have that starting teacher pay that is competitive with uh people uh around you certainly the budget deficit has has me concerned but I can say of all the districts that I have visited with they're all in the same boat we are but they're they're trying to hang on to their people and I know when Stewart was here we used to have budget planning five years at a time now we just try to survive from year to year so I I think that's what we're trying to do now is balance a a fair employee raise being conscious of the deficit and I and I can tell you I was on the other side of town when we did it last time but Cypher had to go through some pretty pretty

192serious Cuts we're already in the process we know how to do that we're going to have a committee together uh and and we're going to lessen the impact of the deficit in 23-24 so that we're in better shape in 24-25 so a couple of comments one I remember the cuts because I teared that that committee to come up with with the cuts and and then I had to face people uh later as a trustee whose budgets are cut sometimes as much as 20 percent um so your recommendation to the board is that we increase starting salary do you have an idea as to or should I go to either Linda or Karen as to a recommendation for us to think about for an entrance to starting salary or are we talking about a thousand dollar

193uh increase or 1500 increase uh you know my if my recommendation and you're looking in that three percent range is to go to 62. I think we're at 60.5 isn't that right that's correct and and I uh Dr Henry you had asked me to look at the several options in a three percent raise if we go to starting teacher salary of 62 000 uh would be 31.2 million compared to 27. and it's 61.5 it would be 27.6 but the reason it's so much more when we get to 62 is we're dealing with some of the uh not enough difference in the steps you know on the teacher scale when you go up to 62. so that's why it's that um yes I'm glad you mentioned the scale and what that does to impact I have

194been a person recruiting teachers and I definitely know that we have to have a number that looks good in those fares but I also have the also want us to be every time we say that our experienced teachers which I if I can tell you the magic of lamb Creek High School is teachers that have both experience teaching the content I know how to build relationships and no message that we send to our experienced teachers in this budget process would be worth it so yes both what are the sacrifices what else would we have to do in order to make sure all teachers are given um or you know because we looked at the inflation that's happening to your teachers that are have uh you know 25 years experience as much as the one who's

195coming in off this you know into the profession and we want to keep them in the profession so Karen I have now that I have a sense of what the board's consensus is uh one that we want to use the federal stimulus funds that are not already allocated to offset the deficit there is a general consensus for arrays I have counting noses I think to my left there are three that support a three percent cons concept to the right Gilbert I know you were specific Natalie although you were non-specific you generally supported and Scott I think I heard the same from you that you were generally supportive so I hit Karen with a series of step-by-step questions saying I may or may not ask these and that's really what I'll I'll share with my colleagues

196I do for every board meeting I hit uh the the associates and when I look at something I say I may ask this then again I may not but I don't want them to be blindsided as as much as possible so I thank these step by step will get us to a manageable decision point for the big numbers so let's roll through these uh and of course I have to chuckle whenever I ask a question I always come up with my own answer and generally my own answer is Right On Target this time it was not which has kind of embarrassing uh but but let's go through the questions first what is the current year fund balance as of June 30th 2023 Mr Jackson that should remain at the 520 million dollars or 520.2 million

197because of offsetting the deficit with the stimulus funds however portion is restricted resulting in spendable fund balance of how much of a 509.5 okay million now to to go back and remind us total expend expenditures for the year ending is how much uh for um what we expect for or what they were at uh June 30th 2023 they were 1 million 120 I mean 1 billion 124 million 758 152. one month of reserves is approximately how much uh see one month of reserves because you have to take into account the proposed budget right which does not include a raise at this point in time uh would be 98.2 million okay four months of reserves is approximately how much uh 392 uh 0.6 million okay next question how much in reserves do we have above the

198four-month level uh let's see based on the proposed budget once again because that's all I had to look at at the time it's uh 75.2 million which does not include the raise at this point how much is the 23 24 deficit after Federal funding it's up 42.4 million based on the current proposed budget that I presented how much are reserves over four months do we have after offset of the debt of the deficit um let's see I want to be sure I'm understanding what you're saying there [Music] um we would have um after offsetting the deficit so above four months at June 30th looking at June 30th 2024 we're looking at 75.2 million which includes the deficit net ambassador of 42.4 correct correct correct the deficit in 2425 is approximately 116 million and that includes

199the additional cost you gave us to open an elementary school and then some some other miscellaneous items that's correct in 2425. now eating into the four-month reserve and giving a three percent raise just like I did last year when I talked about a race just like I've talked about every year as a trustee it's one thing to talk about the raise current year but then we have to find out is it sustainable yes sir um so I'll let you carry us to to the finish line um I know I I know in general what that number is but let's see what does it look like when we roll that three percent raise in and where we are on that Reserve number at the end of June 30 of 24 and then we'll chat about where

200are we June 30 of 25. um if you did it based on not increasing the starting teacher pay it would be 4.39 months and I think I have it here if we increase the starting teacher paid to 62 000 let's see it would be four point I'm sure I have that right but you know we I did do it at that 4.39 months that's correct and then at June 30 of 2025 assuming stasis on a new money coming in we would be roughly at three months of reserves that's correct and so I think we can assume that something is coming in from the state we have no idea how much but this tells me that if the board wants it would not be financially imprudent that's almost like a double negative for a three percent

201raise at an increase of starting salary because at June 30 of 25 will have reserves of approximately three months and there's a lot of good things that can happen between now and then so is so do I have the numbers right you do have the numbers right okay so so that is what those are the numbers that I wanted the board to have in your mind when we approach making a decision and and I love to focus on the reserves because it's you know it's that that big picture number but as a as a board that's really the only thing we can grapple with Natalie I'm like you I want to be down in the weeds yeah I want to know how many people were buying but for these decisions unhappily we have to be

202be way up in in the air I'm not going to call for a vote on that um what I I do want at this point since we've we've moved forth to to the numbers both at June 30 of 24 but more importantly June 30th 25 let me see what other questions the board members happen to have and this time I'll go in reverse order so let me start with you Scott you're asking for questions Toms right clarify and and and from a board Focus standpoint uh and we can change it but what's on the table is a three percent raise and an increase to starting salaries of how much to 62 from 60 500 to 62. okay and the fact that at June 30 of 25 we'll have three months of Reserves and so the

203microphone is yours sir and just to clarify that number as well and that's with a fully staffed is that correct that is correct that is correct which won't happen right well that's that's why I want to ask that question and so and I I know Deborah don't always do it no and two Roy's are leaving so that leaves us wow with 600 let's just say it's that number 600 what is that what's the dealt on what's the I'm sorry if we don't fully fully staff just because the economic reasons or reasons what would that what number that could that be for a year I was the number that has been running the last several years is around 20 million which would help get us you know help us out with is you know with where

204where we really are you know being above three months okay that was my only question on that thank you Natalie I always think to the worst case scenario out front and then make the decision so um I think priority is teachers being well compensated and um tax um you know not over taxing our citizens what given our we made decisions about boundaries and rezoning to equalize our schools out till a certain year that seemed like it was nice I was happy since it was my first one that we weren't gonna have really tough things uh too soon so really what is going out for Bond if we have four months of bond if our first rating could be impacted by this decision how many what kind of bond forecasts or how many bonds are we

205going out for to where if we got a lesser what would it cost us in in the rate that we got for our money in the bonds if we went to three months not four months of reserves just just um we actually have an item where we're going to talk about that a little bit later but uh our schedule is probably in 2025 uh we'll need to go out for another Bond program time for the state to help us out a little bit okay I love that answer thank you so much Gilbert yes um of course I was looking for four percent but in lieu of the fourth percent there is going to be a bump in starting hopefully a bump in the starting teacher pay so I can totally accept that concept of compensating

206our teachers and being able to go to um I can't not battle but to go head to head with our neighboring districts with uh a good uh starting point and not losing out on the better Educators coming up that we are district of destination and so I can live with that I think that's good we're working together and that's even more important so let me go to my left Lucas um I uh so Juan thank you for your question Natalie uh where my head was going Dr Henry was if we do go with the three months what is a negative potential negative impact for about sales and so recognizing the state has the opportunity to give us Aid between now and then what I heard earlier was that we're not crossing a line that we

207should not cross regarding calculations for our fees and our risk rating is that correct if we go down to a three-month Reserve um it I'm not sure the exact impact it would have on our bond rating they recommend four months in fund balance um based on a lot of times if you can explain a healthy plan it doesn't affect it but I honestly unless I was going through a ratings call could not tell you that they do always ask me our reserves and how much we're going into fund balance um so that is a common question that we get every single time and we have I guess we have one more Bond sale left out of the 2019 that would occur in 2024. Dr Henry can you give us any perspective on the months of

208Reserve that you see among other districts our size in the state we we have a much healthier Reserve than most uh large school districts we've made that a conscious effort over the past decade in all honesty uh Mr Scanlon we've done that to prepare ourselves for the situation that we're in right now you know just like you do at home we've been putting money back for a decade for Hard Times the the difficult uh what's difficult for us right now is there's really not a reason for there to be hard times so that's what we're having to come to grips with and so asking a further question Dr Henry is that us moving to a three percent Army three-month Reserve what is the risk that you see right now when we contrast or compare across

209other districts in the state where do we fall most folks go into the same type of approach with a three-month Reserve well I think that again as Karen said earlier that's kind of across the board whether you have a July 1st or a September 1st um um budget budget year uh but I I would say most districts shoot for a three-month Reserve certainly you would like to have a little more than that but in in this day and time three three months is is a very very healthy reserve and uh so I I feel confident that it in all honesty uh uh Mr Scanlon even though I won't be here uh in this role I'm very confident that that number will be larger than three months uh although I probably just gave Karen a stroke

210I think it's going to be much larger than three months because the the beauty uh to me is the legislature has a chance in 2023 with a special session and they have another chance in the winter spring of 2025 to address this situation so we got two bites at the Apple uh before June 30th of 25. okay okay thank you so generally speaking Tom I support our approach that you described and moving to a three-month Reserve Debbie uh well Mr Jackson I really don't have any questions because I feel like they've all been addressed just to comment that I do uh fully support increasing starting teacher pay and a three percent increase I wish I wish that we could do a five percent like we did a few years ago but you know we do

211have to be financially prudent with our taxpayers money and I think three percent is what we can have we we can manage to make happen and that's what we need to do Julie um uh first answer question uh Mr Jackson yes I support uh the current discussion on increasing starting teacher pay and the three percent raise and utilizing the uh Revenue sources that we know are available now um one thing I just want to share if there's some question about bonds and our bond ratings all of our bonds are guaranteed by the state um and then the uh history no ISD has ever defaulted on their bond payments so that's there there's there's some security and safety in that we went to our Washington DC and advocated for an increase in the IRS for the

212cap on that so I feel confident that um uh even with a three percent uh reserves um which is not until the end of 2025 we would still be financially secure and able to meet our um our debt service requirements um also just when we talk about reserves this is really I mean I think of our fund balance as a cash management account we use that to make payroll during those months when we don't we haven't received our property tax revenues and our state funding yet so it's not that's why I asked is it a fixed moment in time or do we look at it uh over a period of time or as an average and I understand that we look at it at the end of our fiscal year but knowing that that rate

213that number can fluctuate throughout the year um and um my final comment is uh I was able to attend the first day of the leadership um conference that we held here at the RR at the at the Berry Center and one of the sessions I went to was about servant leadership and it talked about collaboration and I just want to acknowledge and recognize that our board has done a great job today collaborating and sharing ideas and thoughts and listening to each other and working towards a solution that we can all support moving forward so I just want to acknowledge that collaboration thank you yes earlier if I could just do a one quick follow-on is that I support the three-month Reserve approach as well as the increase in starting teacher pay and teacher pay on

214the the three-month Reserve I would remind my colleagues that one of the school districts that was taken over by the tea one of the citations was that the reserves had fallen significantly below three months uh so so I always have that three-month Mark not even as a Reserve balance that's kind of a zero balance that we really should not drop below now I will I will note um when our colleague who's in the audience when they had to live through a 20 percent budget cut the Reserve balance dropped tremendously it's hard to cut 20 percent when you're when you're a salary driven entity uh and reserves were rapidly used up that's not where we are today um I will disagree with almost everybody on the board on the question of the oat um as I

215mentioned last year we should have reduced our ohe by three percent five percent our taxpayers would not have felt it because of the increase in property values and the compression it they would not have paid any more in taxes um I know when most of us went to Senator bettencourt's office his was the only office that acknowledged that there is in fact a penalty the way we trustees use it for the oat and staff at his office did indicate that perhaps there might be some form of for lack of a appropriate term of art some type of reimbursement of that penalty and and as I mentioned that meeting you have to start with conversations before anything that can happen but I disagree with my colleagues Financial the CFO putting my CFO hat on and certainly

216I was one for the bulk of my professional career the right thing to do is to is to cut the ohe by three to five percent but there is absolutely no support for that idea I have looked at the numbers if we cut it by five percent it wouldn't give us that much money it would give us about 10 million dollars year year over year uh but it would not increase taxes at the at the standard average house rate of 300 000. um so so by making that change we wouldn't be driving anybody out of their house however I brought this up last year and so I gave everybody on the board the opportunity to to speak up and indicate some degree of support for the idea and there was virtually none uh so the

217way that I structured the agenda for today I went ahead and took this off as a boating item for today today's the only time we can vote on it because the decision has to be made prior to June 30th um but as I said last year we we had an opportunity that we missed and I guess my persuasive skills are sadly lacking because I couldn't convince anybody else on this board that that it was a a good idea I do think we have consensus on how to address raises and how to address the federal fund the application of federal stimulus funds to help offset the deficit it does not appear as if there's any appetite to require a voter approval tax rate election and these are all the big the big items managements indicated that

218they'll be forming a committee to take a look to see are there ways that we can reduce expenditures I already know all all the easy ones you know so all we have to do is go back to the report that I gave to the board I guess 13 years ago now and there won't be many new items in there basically uh you cut positions you cut stipends and then you cut programs uh but this board did not take the HISD approach during that 20 percent cut and Fine Arts and Athletics were not cut at any school I will note that we do not have a small school exception of which HISD has but we do send more dollars to to those schools that are Title One schools so now let's go around for the next

219round of of questions and our comments uh-oh Marnie is falling asleep over there but that's okay we we don't need counsel just yet so let me start to my right Scott do you have a other questions comments I have one one last question um India let's say the legislator goes ahead and gives us a thousand dollar increase in the basic allotment could we come back months from now and then maybe give a stipend or give another pay raise at that point uh whatever that might be yes how would that look in fact we've actually got it in the language uh when the budget is adopted uh to allow for that that if there's something legislatively that changes then we could come back and do something and we would just have to amend the budget and

220in fact the the language in the bill initially when they were looking at um I I can't remember if it was House Bill 100 but they did have language in there to allow school districts to basically adjust because of legislation um so in ketchup so to speak so there was some language at one point in time so I've heard that if they do something in September that they would probably have something like that but then we also have the language that uh when the board adopts the budget also thank you Natalie such a great question Scott um I just want I was being reminded of the very compelling argument I was given here a year ago about why even when covet hit why having that large fund balance was such a an asset for us

221and so Scott's question kind of helps me answer that thought about could we make sure especially the first writing that if they would be able to be adjusted I hear incredible support for public education from the legislators I speak with and this year I spend time in Austin with our group and separately with different things and I don't see people being anti-education I see people wanting us to make sure kids can read and do math and shift from social constructs more to just doing the job of being you know the public school system educating children so that they can reach their full potential and have opportunity and so and be safe and we saw a lot of funds be approved for safety so I will say I believe money is going to come that's why

222I'm a little even though I you did convince me Karen last year that having a little bit of a fund balance was good so I would love to see that we would get the money flowing in we'd be able to make sure our children achieve uh well and then we'd be able and the funds flow in these directions once we see data per school about our kids and the efforts we've had and if they're working and then we also shift a little back over to fund balance to make sure we're safe there so I'm very hopeful for what's going to come to us from Austin and I'm and so anything we do in the budget maybe even that's some of what we start to prepare Tom I think you have excellent questions and ways of

223thinking about it to see what would it look like and how could we answer tax concerns we'll have um in this budget you know that we're passing because I think some people would not like to see you know it'd be so close or um that we're not even addressing changing spending at all so I think that would be really smart foresight for us to do but I do feel like truth is this budget we all thought about this fiscal cliff I think Esther funds because what you did back in which you did and I lived it as an educator as a school leader trying to figure out how I was going to do the work for kids and make sure we had every child able to read without those people those key roles and people

224so I feel pleased actually I think the task before us is not as difficult as it could have been but I also commend our colleagues it's a great great questions and a great group that has the kids and the teachers at first in their mind Gilbert no questions I was going going to my left Julie you started this off Debbie Lucas no questions uh echoing some of the sentiments and and thank you for your question Scott I believe we'll be able to I have hope in special sessions coming up and in our second Flight of the Apple so taking a good approach for now and it's going to be sound fiscally and good at our family [Music] so that concludes the the public hearing portion Mr Jackson can I ask a quick question just make

225sure I understand um so I will move forward just to be sure I understand that we're moving forward with the three percent and the 62 starting teacher salary because what we have to do is come back to you and show you the information by function because that's what's required of the board so I just that's what we need to move forward with correct yes ma'am that that is the overall consent okay I just want to be sure thank you sir um and for the viewing audience um it will take Karen's group between four and five hours to prepare those numbers to come back to us for us to have a vote um and for the board sadly the way it is we get only one bite at the Apple so my instructor so if anybody

226has any objections to my instructions that I just gave to Karen now is the time to speak because when she comes back we only get to vote Yes or vote no we don't get to make any more changes okay okay thank you thank you time for you to get to work okay it is 12 57 morning now that you've awakened again and I appreciate it um is this a good time to take a a break for lunch yes no so there we will not take a break for lunch we will proceed with the agenda and I'm glad you uh you were awake to answer that question at least not hanging my head um as stated earlier agenda items will not necessarily be handed in the order listed on this notice we will rearrange the agenda

227to begin with discussion item 6A followed by action items five y five Z five double A and five H in that order 6A the administration will discuss the district-wide Intruder detection audit report findings after a brief presentation this items will be discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551.076 of the Texas government code there are no speakers on this topic today the presenters in no particular order Chief Mendez Scott Hudson Teresa Hall whoever's going to grab the microphone chief I believe it's me sir good afternoon Dr uh I'm sorry president Jackson Board of Trustees Dr Henry we're going to cover the Intruder audit the Intruder audited Intruder detection audits let's get that right for this last go around with the state as you can recall we've had this occur all school year long where the

228state has sent inspectors out to do Intruder detection Audits and so if we could go to the next slide since the start of since the state audit started in September 73 campuses had been completed 45 elementary schools 16 middle and 12 high schools 40 campuses have passed all four phases 22 corrective action uh verified and approved 11 corrective actions needed closing out the school year and that's part of what's happening today the Safety and Security committee has met on the final campuses that we need to bring before you today and you will you have received that information and again if you need to discuss it we'll you know we'll do it in closed session during the time period of April 14th through May 19 20 campuses completed nine campuses passed All Phases 11 campuses with

229findings again the district Safety and Security met and reviewed and approved the corrective action plans for all findings on 6-6 2023. so that is where we are to date it's my understanding that these audit detections audits will continue into the new school year and so we can expect to do this all next school year at every board meeting any questions alrighty and and Gilbert just as a reminder these are questions that are appropriate for the public as opposed to closed hearing very general in nature okay for our viewing audience and for our our attendees here um our district is um compared to in the state as leading in this area or um well I don't know the results of other districts so every school district is the same as us they they get their results

230and and their findings are in closed session I know that we make every attempt to lead the district and say TN security and I'm sorry the state and so we want to be that that leading agency as we move forward across the state with every school district that they rely and look to us for for answers on how to provide Safety and Security for our students the best way possible have you been approached by other districts on how we do things here uh several uh it's not uncommon for us to get or for me to get phone calls from other school districts not only in the state but Across the Nation on how we handle uh Safety and Security for a large school district you know being the third largest school district in the state

231and based on our numbers we're pretty large compared to most school districts Across the Nation it's not uncommon to receive phone calls for guidance and advice on how we provide Safety and Security and help other districts and am I correct in um that the what the legislature was asking for all districts to now adhere to we've been at the Forefront with this for a few years already uh yes so the way we provide our our Safety and Security we do it in a layered approach and so everything that we provide to a campus is done with the mindset of keeping an intruder outside of the academic areas of a school and so this board in BR in previous boards in the last Bond elections with putting in different levels of security with fencing with the

232security vestibules with academic doors with bullet resistant glass with Intruder locks and walls and separating open campuses into a potted environment so that there's walls and doors protecting them is all in order to provide time for First Responders to contact an individual who means to cause harm outside of the school yes thank you chief for your time and all your staff and for this taking care of our employees and students Theresa with all the money we had spent over the past few years in my opinion way ahead of what other districts have done is there any chance of us getting reimbursement on that money uh Karen and her team there are some security grants that were included that allocation or allotment that's included in SB 30 which is the supplemental budget bill that is Grant

233funds that allow for some reimbursement to school districts for completion of project facility upgrades those kind of things but there was a certain window of time I believe that is applied so some reimbursement not full reimbursement because we started this so long ago but Karen you may have the amount that we've received and then I'm not sure if we're going to be eligible for any additional yeah I would have to check on that because I think that's actually maybe a separate Grant amount because there was some money allocated already that we've already applied for and this may be a little bit different uh money but I can check on that and find out and have that yeah we're trying to get uh Clarity uh obviously on the the specific requirements uh for the different funding

234allocations I will say that there was another bill that passed um and I think Mr Morgan and his team have been looking at that language that's requiring uh Panic alarms or alert buttons in all classrooms and as you know that is a part of our Safety and Security but in our elementary floor plan we only have the Panic alert buttons in the pods and not in individual classrooms within the Pod so I think until we get more clarity on the rules and the standards of you know we're uncertain of whether or not we're going to have to add additional ones but I know they're looking at it already as far as trying to see the feasibility and the amount that would be included okay thank you Teresa for that and Karen uh for that uh

235information there and of course for our police staff here thank you Tom yes dadler um I definitely appreciate all the work it's an incredible um it's an incredible lift with how many humans we have in schools big humans little humans to I mean down to every single classroom door um these these um these audits are extensive and a high standard of safety and so I appreciate all the work that's done I do have um just a question on when it says 11 correct in actions are there any other any schools that had findings that have not had corrective action plans reviewed yet like per after the June 6 special called meeting and so you're asking if any campuses have not been done yet well it says that there's 11 corrective actions needed were those addressed

236in what we had at the safety meeting or there's still some more that we're going to see no ma'am we made sure to get everybody covered because of the timeline that was required uh and that and because there's not a board meeting in the month of July our campuses did a fabulous job in making sure that their corrective actions were taking place or taken care of within that last day or two of school and even a day or two after school had ended to ensure that we met the timeline to get before the board so that we could provide our report to the state as required great job and I do have another question I'd like to ask but I'll ask that privately across the line of Tom's line of what's okay thank you so

237much 5y the board will consider making a determination that good cause did not exist as required by law for Mariah Henry and Kristen Toliver to resign their respective employment contracts this item will be discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551.074 5z has been removed from the agenda five double a the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Nicole Graves that it is proposed or employment with the district under a term contract to be terminated it is further recommended the president of the board notified the teacher of the proposed action and determinator employment contract pursuant to 21.211 of the Texas educator code this item will be discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551.074 5H the board will hear presentations from the superintendent search proposal finalist and consider taking action to

238select a consulting firm to conduct the superintendent search after the presentations this item will be discussed in closed session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.074 presenters today Marnie Collins Sims she is now finally smiling at me which is always nice JG Consulting and Thompson and Horton Martin the microphone is yours yes thank you Mr Jackson and I'm going to invite because I see Mr Garrett sitting in the audience and Dr Fraley I'm going to invite you to the podium to be our first presenter and as you are aware and Mr Wright has your um clicker I'm sure it's got a a more formal name and I think you are active from the podium here on the right is that oh you got it Leslie thank you it's on thank you is there a timer a

239long half day for everybody so anyway nonetheless good afternoon as Marnie indicated I'm James Guerra I'm the president CEO of JG Consulting joining me this afternoon are two of my colleagues the uh honorable Mr Alton Fraley and Mrs Holly Maria Flynn villaseka so members of the board um Dr Henry who stepped away want to acknowledge your service and also wish everybody in the audience a happy belated Father's Day it's an honor to be here with you this afternoon I'll be briefing my remarks because I'm really third chair in this process Mr Fraley and Miss Flynn villiseka will serve as your principal Consultants but we are Texas based I reside in Georgetown but we have representation here in the Houston area so I'll go through a quick overview and a high level kind of uh walkthrough

240of what we do in our core competencies and give you a little more insight to Who We Are oh and it jumped ahead way ahead see if I can go back to the beginning sorry thanks for indulging me I don't know how it ended up so far ahead okay so this is the team um I indicated that uh Mr Fraley Mrs Flynn Villa second and myself will serve as your primary consultant all right a little bit about us this is our mission statements very straightforward and and to the point there are a few words I like to underscore and highlight as it pertains to the search process one we provide an equitable process not only for you as trustees elected officials for your community members your staff and your students but we also adhere to

241a very inclusive and transparent process we believe in inclusive inclusivity and transparency as it pertains to our process so nothing that we do will not include and will always include your input so it's a very collaborative process in nature we will seek your input and your directive as we support you in this endeavor we work at the will of the board so it's important for us to acknowledge that our representation to sci fair ISD is to you as elected members of the board and ultimately the community members and students and staff that you serve impact can be measured in many ways I think one of the greatest attributes that you have working in your favor and your advantage as a school system in a community is that you have a superintendent with the storied career

242it's something to be said this day and age with the sitting superintendent who has served as long as Dr Henry we've had the Good Fortune of representing other superintendents other school districts who recently retired and who have left the profession and joined Mr Fraley in the recovering superintendent environment most recently the Alief Independent School District Mr Chambers we conducted their superintendent search just finished with Colleen Independent School District where Dr Kraft served for more than 11 years and the list goes on and on Dr Thomas Randall and Lamar Consolidated so we have good representation in the state and I like to use baseball analogies since the Astros and others are doing so well here representing us but we're batting thousand so we have never failed a superintendent search and that's something we're very proud of

243and as the owner of the firm incredibly proud of the team for holding that shingle very high I mentioned some of the districts and jumped ahead but most recently you can see some of these across the state I mentioned a-leaf Colleen represented my hometown in Austin ISD San Antonio Independent School District Houston ISD and Socorro ISD a lot of stories can be shared with you this afternoon but want to be mindful of time but we'll share with you that hearing some of the remarks today about Houston ISD there were some trying times during that search we conducted that search in its entirety during pandemic myself and Mr Fraley and others on the team conducted more than 200 Community engagement stakeholder meetings during the onset of covid because it was still hot and heavy where there

244weren't many engagements like this where we can convene in person so we had to use all of our resources available to engage the community engaged students and staff to solicit their input as we developed a profile that was reflective of all voices uh so really proud of the effort that my team put into conduct that search some of the differentiating factors that you'll hear from us today include those four bullets on this on the right side earlier I mentioned an inclusive and collaborative process we utilized what we refer to as an on-demand interview portal we subscribe to a platform called modern hire they were recently acquired by higher view if you're familiar with some of these tools they're very common in the private sector but essentially what they do as a board they enable you

245to review and to vet and to screen candidates along with us and our team to better understand what skill sets experiences these superintendent candidates possess so we're going to present to you not only the artifacts of the application materials which include letters of Interest resumes academic credentials verification forms all the above all of the standard items that you would normally see each of you will receive an iPad when we present the candidates you'll have an opportunity to review all of those digital artifacts in addition you'll have access to the interview on demand interview portal there's simply four or so questions one question might be what Drew you to the position of Cyprus Fairbanks ISD and how does this support your long-term goals and aspirations so it gives you an idea of who the candidates are

246it's treated much like a standard interview without replacing the in-person interview so this is just a preface or a preliminary to the traditional interview experience but it gives you an idea who they are before you choose to bring them in for an in-person interview the second component this is at your discretion by no means do you have to use the second differentiating feature for us we have a cognitive test which identifies three key areas their cognitive ability their motivation and their personality it's also known as the Wonderlic assessment but it's just something that we use as an aside but again by no means do you need to use that the surveying tool that we use is through our own subscription through our CRM we subscribe to Zoho we can administer as many surveys As You

247Wish applicable to this community I'll give you a recent example in Colleen who we recently supported in their Community we had four different surveys one in English Spanish Korean and German being that Fort Cavazos formerly Fort Hood is there a lot of foreign languages spoken in that community in real time we could administer as many surveys as you'd like working closely with your your staff your Communications Department and creating a unique search page accessible on your District's website I noticed that you've already taken some some steps in securing and developing a web page we would simply create a complementary supplemental page that again in the spirit of transparency gives your community your staff and your students an opportunity to see where we are in the major Milestones of the superintendent search and then the other

248piece that I I failed to mention we just recently in the last couple of months launched superintendentsearch.net so we are the owners of a new job board a new platform we are texas-based but we are a national firm we've conducted superintendent searches executive level searches and the like across the United States there are 22 representatives of the firm in Texas with more than 50 across the United States so we will leverage every resource that we have to recruit the best talent to serve as your next superintendent this is a screenshot of what the on-demand interview experience looks like those are the four questions that we utilized in this case this was Houston ISD when Mr house was hired by the Board of Trustees there very direct very simple they're timed questions you'll again will have

249access to that experience when we present the candidates to you this is a screenshot of what the one score Wonderlic assessment looks like I mentioned that there are three areas if you think of a stoplight green shows that the candidate performs really high in that level yellow is considered somewhat cautionary and Reed is a hard stop or no the superintendent search portal that I mentioned is our new website and again it just enables us to cast a much wider net but as I stated early on we work at the will of the board so one of the questions we will ask you when we begin the process what is your appetite for conducting a national search do you prefer local Regional candidates are you open to us recruiting Talent from afar and again that's that's

250at your discretion the survey simply looks like this we can disaggregate all of the data and provide it into a very meaningful report when we create the leadership profile and for us that's synonymous with the job description we will present the draft profile to you publicly so that way again everybody can see what we're doing and then we'll also as a supplement to that provide you with a summary a synopsis of everything that we've heard from the community engagement meetings so the first part of the executive Search process will be to understand what it is you're looking for in the qualities characteristics and traits of your next superintendent and as we start to learn from you we'll also ask you who in the community both internally and externally can we hear from who should we

251listen to as we gain all this incredible input and feedback we'll begin to synthesize that information create a profile that is Meaningful and reflective of this community and then while all the while we'll have a number of surveys and again as many languages as as you like so that will work simultaneously as we're working with your staff with you the students and also your community members here are some recent statistics I'm sure you're very aware of the challenges and complexities of the superintendent role today as I stated earlier you're in a very very good place you've had a long standing superintendent you're one of the the most renowned districts in the country I've heard a lot of tremendous things today that we can take away and use selling points when we're recruiting talent and it's

252not lost on us all the tremendous work that you're putting into this but these are just some statistics for you to reflect upon but by no means is this something that is necessarily a correlation to what you're experiencing now it's just something that we have to acknowledge in the work that we do just in the state of Texas alone there are 70 superintendent vacancies so we as a firm are very intentional with the school districts we serve I mentioned that we had just completed the Killeen ISD search we have two other searches right now that we're conducting across the country in their rounding third against use a baseball analogy that's Las Cruces public schools in New Mexico and then the Hutto Independent School District in Central Texas so this team is fully dedicated here I

253mentioned that we have a number of Faculty members in representation when we dedicate ourselves to a particular job it's the folks that you see before you so that way there's no overlap and we're not competing with one another our recruitment channels again can be very varied in terms of our exposure and how how far and wide we want to reach we most most common will work within the traditional sectors so recruiting Educators those who have served as teachers principals central office administrators sitting superintendents we've conducted more than 30 superintendent searches across the country during the last eight years and all but uh two times have this the boards that we've represented hired what what we would consider a non-traditional candidate that's somebody who might have served as a CFO an attorney or not the traditional

254pathway that we we would normally see here in the state of Texas we also work with Business Leaders philanthropic leaders we're currently being considered to potentially represent a non-profit in education for their CEO and then other public sectors we are a Diversified Group we've conducted city manager searches in the past we've represented other entities within education as well we have strong ties with all the national organizations and their Affiliates double ASA the American Association of school administrators the association of Latino administrators superintendents Council of great City Schools National Alliance of black school Educators you name it so East Coast to West Coast we represent all of these groups plus their state affiliates now the timeline that I put together this is simply working backwards understanding that we haven't met with you individually so getting an

255idea of what your backwards mapping and planning looks like theoretically our searches generally could take anywhere from four and a half to five months we understand that there is a Runway according to Dr Henry's imminent departure but we want to be mindful of what your intentions are and your plans are so I want to be clear that this is just suggested it's by no means written in stone but for us four and a half months to five months is typically the kind of the full length of time that we would need to be consistent with our best practice uh one of the things that is a bit unique to us as well is we work very well in an earned media space that screenshot that you see on the left is is me and the

256board and Colleen they did a preliminary press conference because it had been some time since they had to go through the same process that you're embarking on now so as Dr Kraft was leaving to take his new Post in Northside ISD they wanted to be very deliberate and intentional about how to communicate what their plans were with their community members and their staff and their students so they did a very good job of setting up a press conference so they had certain media Outlets that are there local in their Community we entertained and filled questions and we were just very forthcoming with what the intentions were and the screenshot you see on the right that's the work that we did with Houston ISD myself Mr Fraley and Dr Flores were in the audience and supporting

257them so this was at the tail end of their process but utilizing the resources we have and being transparent again in the spirit of collaboration was very helpful so I will pause there and if I can ask if we play just a quick clip of of a recent testimonial that would be helpful I don't know who's con there we go thank you for indulging me this is my comeback start yours at purdueglobal.edu JG Consulting is a Powerhouse they put you in a position to compete at very high levels and I've been a superintendent now going on my sixth year and I still have a very strong relationship with the firm so it's a long-term family type environment with JG Consulting my name is Dr Jay a Gonzalez and I'm superintendent of schools for McAllen ISD

258we're a high performing School District we have approximately 21 000 students in our district two-time a rated we're in the post-secondary Readiness distinction and we also earn the financial Integrity rating system of Texas we have multiple Blue Ribbon Schools so very proud of the community and the staff and we're excited about the future in McAllen ISD if you look at the number of superintendent positions that are available in the great state of Texas or Across the Nation they're extremely limited so you're getting into a very very highly competitive environment so my experience in working with the firm was one in which I felt like I was important and I felt like I can ask any question that I wanted to and all my my questions were important to them so that was good to know

259and when I went into the process I knew that it was going to be a process that was well thought out if you look at the individuals that work for JG there's a lot of practitioners so they truly understand the intricacies of the education process because they've been in the game so that makes it one in which when you're an educator and you're applying for a superintendency you want to work for a district that that you fit with and this firm is going to make sure that they're going to put you in a position to get you there okay thank you and I believe that concludes our the quick overview so I think if it's appropriate we'd like to answer any questions you might have and I'll invite my colleagues to to join me let

260me start to my right Scott Henry thank you for your presentation you mentioned earlier I think I heard you say 70 current people are looking for superintendents right now of that how many do you all have do you think around that number so that's a statistic at least that I'm aware of here in the state of Texas so right now we only have one and that's the Hutto Independent School District and who will be the lead consultant from your farm business Mr Fraley second chair and then respectively third chair to make sure yeah and currently how deep and wide is your pool of candidates you have today I mean what is your I know you're we hear that but can you talk to that please absolutely um so our respective Network across the United States

261is in the thousands it's typically a district this size will generally draw somewhere between 50 to 60 candidates and again without having a crystal ball that number could vary but this is the third largest District in the state it's again follow filling big shoes but that is attractive to many sitting superintendents not only here locally but across the U.S so one of the reasons why we selected you all to come speak is because of your public engagement your process for engaging the public and getting them involved can you maybe talk that just for a few minutes of what y'all do and how you'll engage the public to get information first they're coming to you all as a former sci-fi ISD parent and elected room to this August body as well 1999 stayed on the board

262so really appreciate seeing you all here today Dr Henry and and uh congratulations to you for your long career and and your uh exit of choice one of the things [Laughter] unusual now one of the things we do we first begin by meeting with each of you individually and getting your perspective on the profile of the superintendent I love to lead town halls with your permission in the community we will ask you to identify individuals and organizations and maybe even facilitate hosting some at different sites around the district every opening anybody wants to come and we use that to build a profile draft that we'll give to you all as a board that you will finalize as the profile that we use to post a position we get a lot of input from the community

263and that helps begin to generating the ownership process because superintendent works for the community on your behalf and they need to have ownership in that process of that profile so that when you decide because it's totally your choice who you hire is your choice they have input and kind of saying we look for these types of things there are certain questions that we ask and they provide feedback we draft it bring to you all you edit and then ultimately you approve it and then we post it and so but uh but that engagement process is very extensive uh as extensive as you want it to be and depending on your timeline in the last question I'll leave it to other people's do you all offer training or coaching for us as Board of Trustees to

264to ask questions to maybe say screen out people and I know you'll do a lot of screening beforehand but do you all give us uh some analytical information that might helpful to give us the good information to ask questions we can at your school whatever you guys want you can do I'm a certified ta trainer board training but also just having the conversation with the board to talk about those things that we can coach you with that certainly thank you very much Natalie thank you great presentation um actually I think it was Prezi and it didn't show up in here very well so I definitely would like us to get a copy to be able to consider later um so some of my questions are along the line uh that 200 engagements in a large

265District next door talking about the size of our district you talked about a typical four and a half to five month timeline town halls or something I was I've been very interested in seeing us doing really having two-way communication with the community so I'm very excited about the opportunity um have you done those in such a way where it just becomes I'm not sure if all of our community our Latino Community maybe our uh this idea of superintendent search versus like just saying hey what's working in our schools for your kids and what else do you want to see um how have what's the flavor of those town halls and can they be in uh is I know you're creating a job profile out of it but really are you creating um a referendum to

266us as a board about what our community wants us to set our goals around the questions that I've used in the past have done just that where they've gotten the community to talk about beginning first with their aspirations we don't we don't begin with problems with it's aspirations problems are in a context aspirations that they have we ask for those types of things we ask them for celebrations then we ask them for challenges and opportunities then we ask them to kind of talk about the characteristics of a potential candidate as well and that does give a good message to the board I do believe sounds exciting and then those engagements to me is there a way for any single not just chosen people that we know and have relationships with but that each singles parent

267citizen would have a chance at some point to have had multiple opportunities to engage with us and then the timeline question on that comes up if what we did recently in Lamar Consolidated we had uh in the color Track Town Hall meetings that were open to the public we had uh those folks live in the audience we had some that could come in virtually as well so we'll have not only the groups such as maybe you chamber conversations folks like that that you identify maybe local pastors organizations folks like that as well but also just open Town Halls as well and I noticed you said software in multiple languages do you also have opportunities in multiple languages for Community input in those Town Halls yeah we do absolutely and just Flynn Villa Seca it speaks

268better Spanish than me afternoon I I would be more than happy to help co-facilitate some of those Town Hall meetings in Spanish I'm fluent yeah okay and the one thing I'll add just for clarity's sake um so with like Lamar Consolidated Houston ISD and others here in the Region 4 area due to the size and the complexity of these Town Halls we create a macro and a micro kind of environment the larger group meetings if it's appropriate at the will of the board and with your your staff's support we can consider a hybrid format where we're there engaging the community in person live all the while those that can't be there physically can join us virtually we've used things like YouTube Facebook live what other for Forum format udem appropriate with certain guardrails and constraints

269to maintain an effective meeting we can do all the the wedding planning and and get those details coordinated orchestrated to where it's an effective meeting this week where I'll be working in Las Cruces we're doing public forums because in that state it's an open meeting state so open meeting laws so we're actually required by law there to interview candidates publicly so that kind of environment we've learned a lot because Mr Fraley and I have done quite a bit of this around the country and some of the best practices we can share so it's a good question to gather digital feedback as well as spoken feedback in those sessions so you have that and then do board members are it's a listening tour of the system or board members typically part of those engagement sessions some

270yes some know it depends uh we have one community of where they felt the board would be too too intimidating the staff of the folks who will come and uh and as we had board members there to kind of provide a welcome next question on the um interview portal on demand are we able to customize questions because I think the someone having to think and share their on the spot is very powerful and so those can be customized because I you know you've already given sample questions so they're saying some people could anticipate but we'll be able to ask questions so maybe we're very specific to our system absolutely yeah it's a bespoke kind of opportunity or process where we can customize those questions um and and they are timed one thing I did fail

271to mention as a candidate you're allotted two to three minutes to respond so you have to think quickly on your feet and you treat it like you would a standard interview however it is a timed exercise and there's no one on the other end so the three of us are not there to ask the questions use your device whether it's a laptop a desktop a tablet of any sort because it's device agnostic but the candidate is required to answer in a timed and a time to response back to all of you avoided the timeline question I'm not sure the last time we had town halls I mean I know they did it when Dr Henry was hired you may have been I don't know when you were on the board versus Tom was I'm not

272sure so so knowing that that has not you know we haven't gone out broadly across the system and spoken with people um does that what what how does that impact the timeline that you think in that four and a half to five or six or seven or whatever month process that we're talking about yeah it's a fair question and again um it really depends on looking backwards so if you had an end goal in mind of when you would like to name a superintendent to serve in this role we typically work from the backwards kind of point of view working backwards however a district this size it could take three weeks four weeks a full month of community engagement depending on the number of groups Mr Fraley referenced you know faith-based groups you have your

273chamber other elected officials again the macro micro both internally and externally because we'd like to hear from your principals both at the elementary secondary level if you have student advisory groups we like to learn from them we're going to meet with each of you for an hour at a time to understand what it is you're looking for it's a lot of information we can meet upwards of 200 different groups over the course of three weeks could be four weeks again dependent on what your vision is we're going to customize the timeline according to what your aspirations are and I would say July frankly we don't even have a meeting in July because so I don't see that as a month we can use because everyone's away there's holiday vacation principles Elementary's get three in you

274know High School the principles getting a two or one week and so I feel like engaging staff and families in July isn't very effective and I'm not sure if that's the first part of the process but that's part of why I asked that question then I I'm interested in this Wonderlic I guess if it's required people do it that's pretty pretty um interesting and what do you how much have you found that that played a role in who ended up being searched or how many how many districts use that part of the process very few we were looking at other avenues to differentiate our process because it is unique it's not something that most of our school board Partners choose to utilize during the vetting and screening for us and and I'll just speak for

275myself I don't speak on behalf of my colleagues I like the cognitive piece of it because the artificial intelligence of the assessment does align to the job profile and the job description so it picks out certain characteristics or attributes that we will Define together and it'll call out some of those things where their spot not as a candidate or maybe there's some areas of weakness perhaps but ordinarily most of our school board Partners choose not to but again it's it's it's an option in the menu for you to choose from we had three kids mention chat GPT and their graduation speeches so hey how's your I guess in all these processes okay I just have one um let's see I'm trying to not take my colleagues done so let me see if I have one

276more question um actually I'll leave my questions there thank you so much Gilbert thank you guys for coming out and presenting um one one question I had will you or can you or have you routinely look back into the background of the uh candidates and in a way to where um since the last three or four years have been tumultuous to seeing you know how they handled the uh pandemic issue um how did they handle the the freeze if they're low located here in Houston and uh Texas um how did they handle the uh the opposing views that were presented to them uh wherever they they may be at um have you routinely looked up um these questions or can you actually we've actually had board members ask those questions during the interview process good

277um I think where we're at now in the state it's going to be imperative that we know a little history on how they handled it not only I'm sure they're going to be extremely qualified otherwise you wouldn't bring them to us but a little bit of in-depth background to see the tough questions and the tough issues I'm very proud of how Dr Henry uh studied performed during these last three or four years so I've been quite interested in and knowing some background and depth sure absolutely and I will share with everyone that we engage with the third party the company is Baker Eubanks and so their sole purpose as an organization is to conduct thorough background checks and we incur the cost of that so we do not only the reference checks and your standard

278betting and screening that any executive Search firm uh what it would do but we hire them to go even further so they'll check everything from credit history verifying academic credentials looking into the different municipalities where he or she may have lived and worked professionally or just lived personally and those reports are very robust so I would tell you on average each report that we'll get back for the candidates can be anywhere from 40 to 60 pages but that's again for our benefit and for yours we want to bring forward every bit of information that we uncover so that as a board as a body you're making an informed and educated decision but the other thing I'll also underscore is the fact that we will talk with the references that the candidates will not necessarily list

279on their resumes or their formal packets our network is very Broad and very vast so the benefit of working with such a a vulnerable group is that we can speak with folks who aren't necessarily going to be listed for public consumption within their packets so that way we can determine if there's anything that we need to know we can bring forward and we can share that information with you and our verification forms require if there's any sort of impropriety they have to disclose in writing what the issue may have been in their professional history in fact one things also is that having served as a state prisoner here in tasa I'm still working at Tas as an executive coach there aren't many folks worth knowing that I don't know about Arcane found out about So

280and I've already been contacted by some just saying will y'all do type research I said I don't know well if you do please keep me in mind in those three I was certainly keep in mind and there are others that I probably would not encourage them as well as much well thank you for answering that and like it's not necessarily going back into delving into every make sure they have a super clean slate I just kind of wanted to know uh they're in that and what they had how they handled the last few years and stuff so during the actual interview process you're able to craft some questions that would allude to can you walk me through how you handled X part of the pandemic or the freeze what did you do when schools were

281you know kids couldn't come to the schools because the operations were down how did you handle that what were some of the alternative plans that you had in place ready to go so students wouldn't you know those kinds of things but you can we can you know work together to craft those questions right and those may be some of the questions that maybe Scott might have been referring to like can you give a heads up on this is our first uh superintendent search what are some of the questions that need to be asked and and stuff like that so that way you can kind of lead us in that direction thank you very much to my left Lucas I mean so thank you well you know Tom you may want to go to somebody else

282and come back to me with all this noise right next to me if it's coming it's coming Debbie thank you again for your presentation um for school district our size how many applications or candidates do you think uh you'll receive um if I may I'll just say based on his you know using historical data um it could be anywhere from 40 to 60. um and that's just based on on our own experience I can't speak on behalf of other groups but when we present the information if we're ever to receive any sort of uh inquiry from any of your local press whether it's like Community impact or any of the local folks every week we will share with you as a matter of an update we've received X number of candidates representing X number of

283states the number of women represented in the pool and the number of men are this but again based on size and our own experiences I'd hedge my bets that it's somewhere between 40 and 60 without having a crystal ball and that's a good healthy pool and how many do you anticipate that you would pass on to us um it that could vary we're going to look for the talent and the candidates that most closely fit your leadership profile and again giving you recent examples it could be 12 it could be eight but we're not withholding any of the candidate information so you'll have access to all of the candidates but as far as our firms practice we'll rep we'll provide to you who we feel are the best fit from the total pool whatever that

284number is but the Delta will be accessible to you as a board so we're not withholding any candid information key Julie thank you very much for the very thorough presentation I think after the great questions that my colleagues have asked in your presentation and then the original response to the RFP I think we have um a lot of great information and understanding of the value of your services and what you would bring to a partnership with our boards thank you you're welcome Lucas back to you thank you so again echoing many of the comments and questions that we've already had um and double Downing we would look at this as a partnership with our board so we will be relying on your guidance on what questions are we not asking that we need to consider

285and bring forward I myself have been in Consulting for 20 years so I'm looking forward to the true consulting which is what questions are we not asking your key recommendations on the Thunder experience and what works but just not comments that I've heard from Natalie you know Dr blessing game Community engagement is going to be very important to us uh echoing Gilbert's comments on what how did they handle themselves in the past for some key decisions obviously We'll be asking those through the interviews but getting some of those is your perspective as well because you're going to have a nice broad look at all of your candidates we'll be looking for that impact that your team can bring to us and I look forward to this discussion thank you we do appreciate your being here

286sorry to keep you waiting um the board does move but sometimes we take time moving so I so I appreciate your patience you mentioned that you have a hundred percent success rate and congratulations on that point if you measured it in terms of tenure of your place positions if we looked at how long the superintendents you had placed at each of those school districts what type of story would that tell us a great question so looking at the holistic picture our firm is approaching nine years of service so I found the group in 2014 we conducted our began our very first search in the winter of 2015. some of those same superintendents are still serving in their respective roles today there have been three instances here in the last two and a half years were

287the superintendents that we've successfully recruited and placed have taken a promotion to a larger organization a larger system now there were two instances in full Candor where one of the superintendents we recruited became very ill but within our our contractual commitment to you we have a guarantee so if should the superintendent serve for less than a period of time two years we'll conduct a search in its entirety at no cost at all to the community although we weren't obligated in this particular instinct since Mr Fraley and I actually felt it it was it was best for that District in the community we honored that guarantee even though it was somewhat of an anomaly and then there was one other instance where the superintendent that we recruited went to serve in a different capacity altogether he

288chose to pursue a different calling and but we honored our commitment there so if you look at the total holistic picture of roughly 30 superintendent searches only three times but a couple of those were promotions where the superintendents moved on so all to say the average tenure of a sitting superintendent district this size is 2.8 years but if you look at our length of time of operational service of roughly nine years majority of the superintendents we've recruited have exceeded five years when Gilbert talked about background checks I'm reminded of the fact that in the Greater Houston standard metropolitan area there have been two school districts for for lack of a better word there's been hiccups in the background of the superintendents that were placed uh and certainly when I think of background checks that's exactly

289what I'm hoping would not happen in our case this district has has been very fortunate in that we have a long history of high quality superintendents each of whom came to us to meet a different need and a need that was probably not identifiable by the board but a way to address the unknowns coming up but none had unknowns in the in the background certainly I was attracted to your firm because of your successful placement of districts within Texas and the reputation of those superintendents that had in fact been placed and I do want to say good to see you again it's it's probably been well sir about three or four years I'm thinking oh no I remember the last time you and I chatted it was shortly after we had been identified as an

290honor board it was within three or six months after that so welcome back we certainly appreciate your service as a trustee but we we also appreciate your service as a as a superintendent into the education of all children within the state of Texas um will you also be doing an evaluation of our district and potential needs of this District to see if the perspective candidates could answer those needs and I'll give you a very specific example um I was not a trustee who was permitted to vote on Dr Henry because I wasn't on the board I was a part of for lack of a better term citizen Focus Group clearly what we knew at the time this District was moving rapidly from being one of Greater affluence and more of a Anglo population to a

291rapid orientation toward a much Rising population to free and reduced lunch and also in exploding Hispanic population Mark came to us out of Galena Park where he certainly had experience in that area uh but the ability to read the tea leaves in the future is certainly something that you would hope to be able to match up with the superintendent who comes the superintendent who preceded Mark David Anthony his skill set actually matched that which we needed and then of course before him was Rick Barry and he needed somebody who could say oh we're going to more than double what do we need to have to address almost uncontrollable growth is that something that that you bring to the table or is that what you're looking to the trustees to read the future and the tea

292leaves and go back to you and and say well this is these are the challenges that we see and this is what we expect you to find for somebody who can address those challenges two things one we can look at demographic studies and hear the projections and all that we're also doing the town halls we'll hear from citizens the community they'll talk to us about some of the uh aspirations and and challenges so to speak uh years ago I was hired in a neighboring School District sitting right where you guys over the same challenge and uh the challenge for me was to understand that that District like this district is the destination District folks move there on purpose for something you need a leader that understands that it can help welcome folks who come here

293but also preserve what they came here for and there's a challenge that the community has to be a part of you must articulate Who You Are and before you want to be and work and welcome folks but maintain those standards and engage folks in ways that continue making this allowance to remain the destination District very good thank you and if I may the only the other thing I'd like to add to again no one will know this community as well as as you the members who live here we're fortunate on our team Mr Fraley has served in your respective role and has been a sitting superintendent so we have the benefit of of his knowledge and his brain trust but understanding what it is that all of you want will help us go along our

294path to recruiting the talent that fits your hopes and aspirations for sci fair so it'll be important in that collaborative approach to really understand what what is our drive and what direction do we need to go if I can be very personal my daughter my firstborn in her career in Cypher Ashley she got engaged three weeks ago to a Cypher graduate they're looking at homes in South Fair because it's where they want to be and she's tasked me since she knows I'm interviewing this morning Dad find somebody good so does that conclude our questions gentlemen and lady thank you for being here today we look forward to ongoing conversations as we pursue this path thank you ever so much thanks everybody good luck thank you thank you and Tom as a professional courtesy the other

295firm was they're waiting outside so I've sent Harry to go get them they'll be right in right and while they come in I'm going to uh ask for a five-minute breaking case anybody needs a restroom break there is one restroom available to the board okay you fat I didn't hear you that's a smart move stand up get the circulation I had to get up I had to get a charger here thank you let's go ahead and reconvene the board will now hear a presentation from the superintendent search proposal finalist Thompson and Horton gentlemen the microphone is yours well thank you Mr President members of the board I'm David Thompson we very much appreciate the opportunity to be with you today this is Dr Mike Moses I'll let Mike introduce himself in more detail in a

296moment we've actually been watching your budget discussion we watched the entire presentation I'm sorry I would say uh if we have seen many around the state but I want to commend your staff and the board for the uh for the detail and the uh just the the very much on point discussions you had about taking care of your staff teachers and other important staff and uh and uh oh I would report to you is you're not alone there are many districts all over the state that are having very similar discussions I am a lawyer in private practice our Law Firm Thompson and Horton we have offices in Houston Austin Dallas and Fort Worth we've had the opportunity and it's been very honored for many years to work with the Cy Fair district from time to

297time on many important issues but that's not why we're here today Dr Moses is a long time personal friend and also a very distinguished educator I let him tell you a little about his background but when Mike was Commissioner of education for the entire state of Texas monthly did describe him as the best appointment that Governor Bush made during his Service as Governor but when Mike left as commissioner he and I begin to discuss how we could assist boards and districts around the state and provide some value and so we started about 22 years ago working with districts to assist boards as you go through superintendent searches and we've done right at 200 searches over that period of time we are not a full-time search firm Mike has had many other professional obligations over the

298years and I'm a practicing attorney and certainly have many obligations so we focus our attention every year typically five to ten districts where we assist boards as you go through searches our proposal does include a representative list of some of the districts that we have worked with you will note that our Focus has been larger school districts and particularly some of the large higher performing Suburban districts All Over Texas we have had the great honor to assist your board into previous searches we help the board when the board went through the search and selected Dr David Anthony and then we were extremely honored to assist the board at the time that Dr Henry was hired as your superintendent and we would be remiss today Mark if we didn't commend you on your outstanding career in

299the great contribution to have made not only in cyfair but to the whole state of Texas the leadership that you personally in this District have provided has been greatly recognized it will be greatly missed but we we commend the board the district and uh we know that Mark's leaving some big shoes to fill um I am an edge an attorney both of our daughters are public school teachers I tell people I could not get either one of them interested in being an attorney they had higher aspirations so as a family we are very committed to Public Schools Mike why don't you introduce yourself and say a little bit of word a little bit about your background members we know you've already had a loan meeting today you have a number of other matters to discuss

300I'm going to promise you we are not going to filibuster you've had an opportunity to see our proposal we'll we'll highlight a couple of things in it and then respond to your questions thank you David good afternoon members and thank you for the opportunity to be here it is an honor uh I want to underscore uh what David has said uh and with regard to the board having had the opportunity to work in this District previously and having watched you today thank you very much for for your efforts and for your service and um having been commissioner I know how much these jobs pay and uh so I applaud you and appreciate you and I'll also add my uh associate myself with David's remarks about Mark it's kind of hard to do having known him

301as long as I have uh but I I do admire and commend him for the work that he has done here I have relatives that live in this school district and I'm in and out of this school district uh on fairly frequent occasions and I've watched with interest the growth of this district for a long long time and have watched uh how you and your predecessors and Mark and his predecessors have led this district and have much admiration much admiration also for your students and for the performance that I continue to see here for your accountability rating it's obvious that you take great pride in what what takes place here and so I'm very happy for you uh I'm I'm an educator I hope I'm still an educator I hope I'm still learning uh but

302I have been for over 45 years have served as a superintendent in four different districts in Texas including the Lubbock and Dallas districts and I did have the privilege of serving as commissioner of education and was appointed two terms uh and confirmed two times which was probably lucky for me in any event and I spent some time as a deputy Chancellor at Texas Tech University system as David said we've been doing this we enjoyed doing this we enjoy seeing great school districts work with great school leaders and do good things for boys and girls and for taxpayers and so forth so we're delighted to be here David you want to start and talk a little about the search yeah why don't you cover a little bit of the just presenting information you probably already know

303this and uh but the environment that we are in in terms of in the market for the superintendency today has has changed dramatically over the last two or three years particularly um since the pandemic and it's changed a little bit of the dynamic you already know this is a very important undertaking if you get this right a lot of other things can go wrong but they will be made right if you get this decision wrong it gets really hard to make everything else right so getting this the selection of the superintendent right is extremely important approximately 1200 school districts and charters in our state we our turnover is usually about 15 percent a year about 125 a year maybe 130 will get closer to 200 this year and looking the other day I saw that

304we were sitting around 70 vacancies in Texas uh nationally it's the same kind of turnover is being experienced our average tenure is five to six years and obviously this district has enjoyed and we're very proud of you for enjoying the the tenure that you've had of your last two superintendents we think that the representation of your District to outstanding qualified professionals is critical and we pride ourselves on representing you in the right way in the most favorable way so as we've already said we we are not full-time search consultants and and we do know I will say at the outset the uh the other firm you interviewed Mike and I did not watch their presentation um uh as a professional courtesy uh they uh we know them they are professional friends and colleagues and and

305we think I leave them but we do want to emphasize a few things that we believe we do a little bit differently than full-time search firms and that we would offer to do for your board again we only handle a very small number of searches a year we limit ourselves to where at any given point in time we are only working with at most two to three districts at one point in time and we do not work with any two districts at the same time who are basically competing for the same group of candidates so we try to customize and really focus our approach to meet the needs of us of a particular District just very briefly recently this year we just finished working for example with Northside ISD which is probably as comparable to

306cyfair as any other large District in the state and we also worked with Kerrville ISD obviously those were two very different communities but they both hired very outstanding individuals who who I think will be very successful in their communities my background's an attorney obviously Mike's background as as a commissioner as a superintendent as an educator we do believe we have a robust Network and we will diligently recruit outstanding individuals to be considered by the board and one thing we have always done and we believe we were the first Search Group to ever start doing this and that is we always make known to the board and discuss with the board every single person who expresses an interest in being a superintendent in in your District or being an applicant all right yeah I need to

307go out we we don't just kind of bring you our friends and family that's not the way this should work you will see all of the candidates we've never worked with the district that was not able to successfully complete the search process um you have our references and our proposals I want to emphasize on behalf of our Law Firm our client is the board it is not the candidate we certainly always wish the candidates great success to follow up on a comment Mike made it's very hard for boards to be successful if the superintendent isn't successful it's hard for the superintendent to be successful if the boards aren't successful so it is a partnership but our client is the board on behalf of the district we have some recommendations based on our many years of

308experience on things that work well in searches but it's ultimately your search it is not our search and and obviously we will tailor it to fit your needs Mike you want to talk about the timeline sure we like to work with the board to establish a timeline it kind of creates some discipline for the search we also like to say that a timeline is a tool it's not the master as we said it's your search so to the extent that that needs to be modified it certainly can be but it gives us an idea of what we're shooting for you didn't show me how it says Advanced high high tech we this is just if you'll notice the top this says suggested timeline and that's exactly what it means but it just gives you an

309idea of what some of the activities that we we think need to occur and again given the announcement that Dr Henry has made and his timeline we we kind of operated with that timeline and worked backwards this just kind of gives you an idea of some of the things that we think need to happen include including meeting with the board including advertising and who you would want to average ties with and whether or not you want this to be National or state advertising we have some thoughts on that we also invite outstanding people to certainly to apply for the job but also we're looking for nominations of outstanding people we think we have as David said a pretty robust network but we like to be sure and we are also interested in finding those experienced

310superintendents people who are in the power stroke of their career but we're also interested in identifying rising stars as well so um there's some there are different ways of going about trying to get the right people in the pool to be to be examined um we've got some suggestions there and you can tell you say well why is that timeline work that way well if you go look forward if you say you go to November 1st or thereabouts and you start trying to work backwards and to even now make it go backwards that one that right there if you say well we've kind of got to have a we want someone in place by November well we've got to get a a contract approved we have to have a 21 day waiting period before we

311can enter into a contract when we name a loan finalists so you back up those days and then you say well what's got to happen uh to get to the point so by October 2nd we could do that well you've got to be conducting interviews you can tell there in September and you've got to have some time where the deadline to meet a deadline for applications well it's time for the board to review those that have indicated an interest in the position so we kind of work backwards to get to a timeline this is by no means anything other than a suggestion but it kind of gives you a road map of what it might look like to get to a point whereby uh late fall you could have someone named for the position again

312the timeline is is a tool um it's not a master this just gives you an idea of the advertising that we would do again if desired those are some of them those those internet sites are the ones that people uh hit often in terms of looking for professional growth we don't just leave it to this though we've already indicated to you we personally contact individuals uh I want to say one other quick word about this this is a fantastic District I'm I'm being very just very honest with you it's a great district and we would all say there's a lot of people that would like to be considered there are what I call Pretenders and there are contenders uh the universe of people who can do a job that is with this large this sophisticated

313get smaller and smaller as as the district size increases it's very flattering to say oh we'll go get we'll go get a hundred applications uh we'll we'll go get a lot of people to apply I think you're going to be more interested in the quality than the quantity of candidates in a job like this and that's not to say to that we won't get good numbers but we we will be looking very closely if we were selected to assist you we would be looking very closely at people who are very successful in their current position and that have a real track record of success and that we think is very important uh you can see there you know we encourage you to if we're selected to let us be your agents and to handle communication

314for you and we welcome everyone we don't discourage anyone from uh asking to be considered but we say again this is a this is a job that Demands a lot of expertise and a lot of professional skill um we won't discourage anyone uh we might invite up to 30 or to 50 candidates and that might be on the high side in terms of the number of people again that you can expect to to really be able to consider please keep in mind the turnover in Texas has been significant you will get out of state candidates should you wish to consider out-of-state candidates and we have David and I also know people who have left Texas and gone on to be superintendents out of state seen the error their ways would like to come back to

315Texas uh and we we do stay in touch with those individual individuals but we will ask for nominations and uh from people that we know in the profession that we think know where the difference makers are um anything you want to say about recruiting advertising that I've not said okay we'll keep it moving then uh you want to talk about Community engagement why don't you say a word about that so getting an opportunity for your community to be engaged to contribute their thoughts on the search is obviously always important in any in any Community whether it's a large District or a smaller District but I want to say a word for just a moment think about all the titles that we use in America for elected officials just think about it president Congressman senator governor

316council member go down the list there's only one term that is really unique and we use it in the context of Education what do we call elected officials in education that is different from every other elected official a trustee because you hold something in Trust you hold your community's children in trust you hold in many cases the future of your community and trust your community has entrusted you to make decisions on their behalf so Community engagement is important but remember this is ultimately a decision that will be made by the by the individuals who have been given that responsibility and that is the board with regard to community engagement a couple of decades ago everyone would have said well we do community forums you know we do we do what some people euphemistically describe as

317Open Mic nights where any individual could show up and for two three four minutes share their thought and they go on um and we can do that if you think those are important now what we have found and what we do is is do online surveys and engagement and what we have found is you get a lot more participation uh when you give people an opportunity to participate to a survey of the that's that's linked to the district search on the on your home page then by doing the in person simply because you're accommodating people's schedules they can do it at different times if you need to do some of the in-person stuff we certainly do that but we're going to very candidly tell you you're not gonna you're not going to get as much

318participation you're going to get a lot more feedback with some of the the tools that people are are used to using these days and they're frankly fit in people's schedules better now in addition to that Mike and I've always done something that we believe is very unique that's focus groups and we've done that previously in your District we ask each board member to identify 9 10 11. um what I'm going to call opinion leaders in your community a diverse group teachers campus administrators parents taxpayers um support personnel members of the faith community other elected officials students identify a diverse group and when you take all of those names what we then do is work with you to divide those into small groups typically 15 to 18 individuals that we conduct very intensive one and a

319half to two hour guided conversations with where where we actually have is as opposed to just everybody getting a chance to get up and speak for three minutes and then leave you actually get a lot of feedback and a lot of interaction we capture all of those comments organized it and and what you can tease out of that are themes priorities that emerge over over the course of of many many hours of interaction that boards frequently find to be very helpful and very valuable and we do that in addition to again using online tools to allow anyone in the district who wants to participate to give that input so we do want to we do want to get the community input you are going to want to see that Community input what we would emphasize

320to you is remember at the end of the day you are the ones who have been entrusted with the decision it is your responsibility and prerogative to ultimately make that decision I just want to re-emphasize what David was saying there this is your search we've given you an example of how we think Community engagement works we we will mow the search to fit your needs in terms of community engagement but we think that what David has described is something that is important we begin to wrap up that we we do confidential searches it's obvious that someone who's doing a great job where they are now would probably like to to keep that opportunity in that position if they're exposed publicly they're compromise would be a better word then they are not likely to want to

321to be an applicant for this job or if they think they're going to be compromised that means you lose out on the chance to talk to talented people or people who may be doing a great job and someone you would want to consider so we asked the boards that we work with and David and I maintain the confidentiality of candidates and we will certainly follow the law and there is a law we've already noted that requires you to release the name of the finalists 21 days before you can enter into a contract we will be very Mindful and respectful of that but we won't do anything that will compromise you as a board our compromised candidates from you're getting to consider them for this professional opportunity we asked for a letter of interest and a

322current professional resume in Vita candidates will tell us much more about themselves in that format and we can ask in an application and you will get a much better view of the work that someone is able to offer to you um and as David said when the debt the the deadline has come and everyone has established candidacy we meet come back and establish the day to meet with you and share the names of every single person who has established an interest in the position so as David said this is not just our friends and family it's not uh it's it's who all established an interest in the job and so it's something you will see anything you want to add to that uh one bit of information that we we can obtain some boards we

323have the option to obtain it if your board finds it uh valuable we do work with hilco and Dr D Carney we can do very detailed data analysis of the performance of The Districts where individuals are serving now or have served in the past there is a that that would be an expense some districts find that information valuable and we can do it but that's another bit of information that could be made available to help with that if you uh if you wish as we've already said we will discuss with you every single person who establishes their candidacy we don't filter anyone out we have a very detailed process we'll then work with the board to narrow down to the individuals you wish to bring in for initial interviews we will personally check all of

324their references we will check the references they list and we will check references they don't list and and so we will make any information about the individuals that we have we'll make available to you boards typically do at least two rounds of interviews we will work with you to establish those we'll work with the candidates to to make it as smooth as possible General operating rule treat people the way you would want to be treated you're going to interview multiple people at the end of the day you're going to hire one person you want the individuals you don't hire to walk away going what a great District what a great group of board members I learned a lot simply by being able to go through the process so that's our goal is to is as

325your representatives is to treat all of the people that might choose to be considered in the process treat them the way you would want them to be treated we want them to be your cheerleaders when it's all over um again we'll we will work with you the district is required to do a criminal background check obviously we will work with your staff to make sure that's done we'll do Financial checks uh and we'll also do in this day and age social media checks just to make sure uh that that the candidates that you are really focusing on uh don't have something unexpected in their background that that you need to be aware of uh if you have a need for a site visit we will work with you and the candidate to facilitate that and

326many boards have found now it's less necessary simply because so much information is available outline but if you wish to do it I will work with you on that and our proposal also includes if you desire to work with you and and to develop the contract for your new Superintendent at no additional charge that's included in the proposal it just so happens we have an attorney on that yeah so or or we can hand it off to to another attorney if if you wish some boards want us to do it some boards I would like other people to do it but we include that um one thing we do that that we we think has always been unique you don't owe us a penny up front there's no there's no payment up front there are

327no periodic invoices at any time during the search you will get one invoice at the end of the search when you are done and you are happy and that invoice will cover our fee and expenses it will include the expenses for any candidates you bring in to interview we will actually our Law Firm reimburses them so we carry that expense and then we will include it in our final invoice to use so you don't even again in terms of confidentiality you won't even be clearing invoices through your business office with the name or identity of individuals own them our fee is thirty thousand dollars plus our expenses our expenses are very reasonable Mike and I I usually stay with him if we're in the Dallas area he may stay with me or with his relatives

328in your District if we're down here and the only real expenses are going to be for any candidates that you might choose to bring in and uh and we won't know obviously who those folks are until we get into the search and then for any advertising that you might choose to do Mike anything you want to get about we have a guarantee on there we've never had to invoke we've never had to use that uh fortunately although we offered to do it at one District where the superintendent uh chose to leave it was really after two years but I think it's in the proposal that if someone leaves after a year we would do a prop we would do a search free and if there was two years we would do it half price again

329fortunately we've not had those circumstances the Allen superintendent left and went to Katy after that period was over but we still helped Alan and I think at a pretty reduced fee but uh I think you can tell from what David subscribed we're not mad at money but we are professionally we value the relationship with the boards and the districts and we value the relationship that we have had with this district and we would want you to be happy and be pleased before we would ask for anything okay Mr President members of the board we were open for any questions you might have let me start to the left this time Lucas gentlemen thank you for your comments and thank you for your discussion um your experience shines through and uh the Candor and the manner

330in which you you know describe how you'll collaborate protect confidentiality manage the fees it's appreciated um can you speak a little bit further on how you found your experience in getting Community involvement and you know you spoke to a little bit of the format on how you've gone about in the past how boards have wanted to do it and then how you've seen it done where you felt you got we received the best feedback can you elaborate there a little bit please yes sure and thank you for your your kind comments we we know that there are some districts and fewer and fewer we've we've worked with one large District that wanted to do community forums and and as what later the board president called an open mic night because everybody got up and talked

331and told the board what they wanted and it was pretty much uh someone that would lower taxes raise teachers salaries get the test scores up and it was um it's it's the bar was pretty high in fact it was probably impossible uh I'm not sure how much the board cleaned from that uh and I'm I'll say you since it was in public it was the Fort Worth school board but I think that the uh what David has mentioned that when you basically have a nice link on your District website to the search with your budget your information about your student performance information about the board about the district and you have a place where where citizens can go and offer input with maybe some specific questions that you'd like to see them comment on I

332think that gives you more meaningful information than perhaps a forum if a forum is needed we're happy to to work with that although I will tell you most of the people who come to a forum not interested in talking to David and either interested in talking to the members of the board so that's something that I think you have to consider we think the focus groups where you have and and David did a great job of discussing that where you have a student a parent a teacher a taxpayer a faith-based leader elected official and you don't put all the teachers in one group you mix everybody up and you get a very rich conversation because David and I asked them questions and they get to hear each other's answers and they may walk out of

333there saying I had not thought of that I didn't know that's the way parents looked at it I didn't know that's the way teachers I didn't know that's the way kids looked at it it is a it's it's a nice way and I've at the risk of sounding um immodest I think boards get a lot of positive feedback or at least they tell us they do from those kinds of sessions with people and because it just brings people to a guided conversation rather than just come just talk uh Michelle and I hope that helps answer your questions we're open to anything that will help the board in this process but we also owe it to you to tell you what we've seen work and and work effectively yeah very good uh Tom those are my

334questions and comments thank you gentlemen Gabby well the question I asked earlier was already answered in your presentation and thank you very much for being here and for your very thorough presentation and uh I like your approach to the focus groups because having just recently worked with a committee that was made up of all these different student parent teacher I can see the benefit of that I think it's a very good approach we've we've actually had multiple districts tell us after they've seen the results of the process that they want to use that same process for other types of decision making you really do get rich information and people get to listen to each other right absolutely thank you Julie um gentlemen thank you again a very thorough presentation I like how um you've shared

335some of your anecdotal experiences because that really helps fill in the the spaces um from your original response to the RFP and to your presentation today so um I took notes and I look forward to the board getting together and and getting our heads together as we move forward thank you very much to my right Scott Mike David thank you very much great presentation um I think you helped us you consultantly helped us with a lot of things we thought differently at least I thought differently you know I appreciate that in your presentation uh the community voice and input is important but help me think in a different way has helped me lead to different maybe a different approach so I appreciate that you mentioned early on um you said the market has changed does

336that mean that the number of candidates are smaller talk more about that if you don't mind just give us a little your experience I think I mean first of all this is an outstanding District you've had great success great stability for a long period of time it will be an attractive opportunity for um for for school leaders but think about timing I mean you know a majority of District searches kind of occurred during the Spring with the idea of making changes right at the end of the school year over the summer right now so that's kind of one big window another window is kind of in the fall kind of starting in October maybe doing searches in the fall with the idea of somebody coming in early January so just from a timing standpoint you're

337kind of behind one one of the biggest Cycles you're a little ahead of the next kind of cycle if you will which which could be good a number of individuals and we're going to be very kinded with you there are a number of individuals that that would have come to our mind as potential individuals first High Fair that in the last several months accepted other positions or decided to retire you know so so I mean that's kind of a just and that's going to occur whenever it is but the the pool the pool will be probably a little smaller simply because of some of those changes but as Mike said earlier the real Focus needs to be on quality not just sheer numbers and we do think you will get very outstanding individuals who will

338Who will be very interested in talking to you about this opportunity just just real quickly last year Dallas turned over four turned over Plano turned over Arlington turned over uh Grapevine Colleyville turned over Keller has turned over Colleen has turned over North Side San Antonio has turned over as David said what happens and that that does not mean there are not good people out there but there has been a lot of change and a lot of movement uh just like one of your great challenges that that y'all were talking about is paying teachers and teacher retention your T who your principal pool is comes from teachers superintendent pool comes from usually principal so there is a domino effect that you have to take into account again I hope David and I would last thing I

339would want to do is be arrogant about anything my wife would say you don't have a reason to be arrogant about anything but we think we enjoy a good enough of a network that we can recruit some outstanding people this is a great job and we can and it'd be a privilege to represent you and talk about this kind of a district but we would also want to just balance that with there's been a lot of change in the profession there will also you say well Mike you just mentioned some Texas districts yes there will be some out-of-state candidates and you will want to evaluate those we always say there's two things that make Texas pretty unique one is the state school Finance system the other is the state's accountability system and so whoever comes

340from outside Texas needs to come prepared to talk about those type things if they're going to be able to visit with you in a way that is Meaningful for your District's future I hope that's helpful it is very helpful thank you very much deadly uh truly honored I have a lot of respect for both of you as professionals we've been in board rooms never directly interacting because you've been on the other side of the diocese but um and thank you for your leadership at the state level and um and uh even the humility upon which you bring yourselves um so I do have a couple of questions I think what you just said to us is that Dr Henry has to extend his stay through May I'm bad but you know what it was such

341a sad moment last graduation why don't we just give it one more round because I do that did raise some questions so one of my first things was about timeline and you know this we hope to have another person of that caliber that lasts that long and so limiting our pool by middle of the Year search was a concern anyway um and so but also on timeline I um the tool not the master I was intrigued by the concept of and you've started to address it with Scott's questions about Community engagement but it seems like it was driven you know from the date backwards and I'm not sure the community engagement part first I thought the community engagement part didn't have necessarily enough meat to it um and then I understand but what you said

342you actually have some wisdom on how that process works um but I do have questions about Community engagement it might not be and because I trust the wisdom trust in front of me it might it might be that there's two things I'm trying to do so I'm emitting a bias up front um but we have up in a community a citizen and owned my home for 22 years in the district I've been a parent of a 17 year old and there hasn't been I feel like because we've been able to be amazing without too much two-way communication we've had this sort of chosen groups of people in Forum type groups and committees formed to support political you know messages to Austin that kind of stuff and so there's been a lot of select committees maybe

343not exactly like that but there have been those and there hasn't been that much Community conversation literally we have not been out asking people and I've had I've been a fan of the idea of community roundtables it may be you have so I guess my question is um what could you see as you've said you know they come up with you know walk some water you know heels you know people because of the fact that they're going to raise lower the taxes and Rays of this and that what could you propose as a format for a community engagement forums and sessions that could yield us a good profile of a superintendent and but more than that aspirations of the community so that we would have that to launch on because that is our job as

344the board as you said trustee right what there are two ways two big ways that boards go about developing profiles and just think about this one way is the board sit down on the front end and you plan yourself and say okay here's what we want and you kind of work out your profile on the front end before you even get far into the search we really don't recommend that um whenever we were married to whoever we're married with we probably didn't start with a list to begin with OR at least I didn't know I know my wife didn't or she wouldn't have wound up with me but We Believe here here's here's the way it ought to work is you get all of the community input from multiple means and and I do want

345to emphasize that you know if if y'all need to do community forums it's your search we'll do this what we're telling you is that using the online virtual form you'll tend to get a lot more comments than people who will show up physically at the end person that's been our experience what we then do is go through all of those comments and what we're looking for and what we would ask you to look for are themes and patterns in other words the priorities naturally emerge during the course of collecting the input from all of the citizens again ultimately the board could look at that but you're going to see three four five real priorities begin to emerge just through the process of doing that and then we will tailor around those to develop a profile

346and and that's really the way community input ought to work it guides or informs the board but ultimately it doesn't it's not a substitute for you actually evaluating the candidates and ultimately making the decision so if forms were used could you propose a format for those that could be useful what we what we typically do is try to try to pose again in our guided conversations we we we try to make sure nobody dominates everybody gets to participate everybody gets to talk but everybody gets to listen and we use we have a series of questions that we use in that guided conversation so if we were doing an open forum we would probably put those questions up as suggestions for people to tailor their comments to and we would actually use those to guide any

347online responses now ultimately people who show up at an in-person Forum they're going to say whatever they want to say but but you can at least give them some prompts if you will that um would hopefully help tailor the comments so that it so that the board gets useful information that's helpful I do feel like there's I mean just it's such an it's you don't get this Opera hopefully we don't get this opportunity but every 10 or 11 years to actually have conversations about our community about what they value and their priorities and and their values and what they're looking for so I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity and so that's why I'm asking those questions what could that look like because that is we need to hear a fresh voice from those out

348there and this is a it's not going to be a missed opportunity in my opinion so thank you for that clarification given that question and if if the board had Community engagement sessions or you know uh more of a really receiving feedback and making more people feel engaged in the conversation even if it's not as many as you get on the online survey how would that impact our timeline and then I'll just leave that timeline conversation out there because this mid-year thing worries me and so what could it look like if we weren't if the best qualified people were maybe not really available yet you try to use your time efficiently and multitask and so if you look at any timeline and you're going to have the period of time during which you're advertising the

349position and that's typically going to be 45 to 60 days somewhere in there you use that period of time while you're actively advertising recruiting candidates you also do your community engagement during that period of time so that it you're not stacking things in the search sequentially you're doing things contemporaneously during your search process to make the best use of your time thank you so then looking because I think July is always dead in the water that's why we don't even have a board meeting in July right so in this we're busy advertising in July and then so we would have to look at this timeline a little differently probably the timeline again the first date you know it's kind of like it's kind of like his trial lawyer in Marnie and and Harry know this

350you start with the end in mind what are what are the jury questions and you work backwards from there um you know you need to figure out the day when you want your new person to actually be present and you build your timeline back from that point to the present so that's all our suggested timeline is is it it we literally said if you wanted the new person here by November 1st here's what the flow would look like if you didn't want the new person here till January obviously that's different or if you wanted the new person by October 1st it's going to look really different you know because there are certain things that have to take place during that period of time but but all the timeline is is really intended to give you

351is if that is your end date in mind here's what it would look like to get to that point and and touch all of the steps that you need to touch in a in a well-run search perfect thank you lots of wisdom I think um that oh you mentioned this analysis of student outcomes that really um Tickle My Fancy um and you said there was a cost associated with that since this is our only presentation I hate talking about money in public I'm middle class enough not to to I like to do that however one of the costs to really have an in-depth analysis of the outcome someone produced in their system you know it would it would depend on how many people were analyzing districts for I mean obviously if you're analyzing the performance

352data for a lot more districts it's it's going to be more if it's down to your last three four candidates that you're really focusing on it's not going to be as much analysis for as many districts again we we work with folks who are recognized experts in this area and and the cost is going to be I think because you're already in the Texas School Alliance you're probably going to get the friends and family a discount on that we'd be glad to talk to hilco about that but I think you might find that valuable for your for your candidates that you interview and I don't think it's really cost prohibitive and it's it'll it would be I think very nominal but we would tell you up front ahead of time before you're obligated but I

353I think you're going to get a lot of information at a pretty reasonable does it just use public available data or do you get into like reading levels and kind of more there's inputs outputs and outcomes right like the outputs part it is dated that probably is publicly available but it is an analysis of that data in a segregation and and looking for longitudinal Trends within the data uh that's the real work with Clearinghouse included breeding levels Early Childhood all those kind of separating different Readiness etc etc student groups yeah you're going to get an analysis that's not readily available okay great thank you that's all my questions I appreciate it Gilbert thank you gentlemen for being here a great presentation first of all thanks for getting Mark here for the last few years appreciate

354that um a couple of questions that I um I brought up to the last uh group here one was I liked your your background check of course I I assume everybody's going to do that the question I asked them as well as ask you will you give us a little bit of in-depth background into the last few years on how they handle pandemic if they're from Texas I mean uh the freeze any of the um how they corresponded with uh people who may think the other way things like that so that way we have a little in depth on how they handle it and and that way we can have a little reading going into the person coming into the meeting yes your wheel professionally we'll go we'll go back several years and we will

355address some of the hot topics like CRT library books and issues that have been before the public the VAC mask wearing vaccinations covid and so forth get a little bit of an idea of how those issues have been handled so we can discuss that with the board one other thing I would also add we will offer to you we David and I have a battery of questions of about a hundred questions and they're broken into about seven or eight categories of school Leadership School administration without going into a lot of detail with you today but we when we come and meet and talk with you about the individuals you'd like to interview we help you prepare an interview Pro and for the interviews with questions you can use them or not use them but we

356think you'll find them pretty valuable you can customize them to Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District but I think it will also it it helps us know what questions asked candidates but I think it will help prepare you for an outstanding uh interview time and the interview is extremely important extremely important uh with the candidates but we'll help you get the kind of information that you want but it will also provide you some some follow-up prompts and questions to to delve further into the candidate's background yes thank you for that answer I I believe that was going to be the next question one of my colleagues asked before would you be able to offer some guidance and some questions because for most of us it's our first superintendent search so we would appreciate it that line

357of questions a big part of what we do and we didn't emphasize it in our presentation is we work with the board to prepare you for the interviews thank you our view is is the board ought to really this is this is the most important decision you make I mean just think about it you get to make one Personnel decision that's going to affect the lives of thousands of people and you want to be ready to do it well and so our goal is to have you prepared at every stage of the process so that you are you feel confident you feel comfortable you feel ready for every stage as you go through the process we'll spend quite a bit of time with you preparing for the interviews as Mike said we have we have

358a battery of I will say legally approved questions that you can tailor or use to to guide you in in the whole range of of operations of a school district including community relations including board superintendent relations Finance Personnel Etc so we will work with y'all that is a big part of the focus is to help you be prepared at every stage of the process including for the interviews thank you the last question I had was um I know well from what I heard from from you guys was that there has been a lot of hiring going on lately in this in this subject here and say we missed out on a few uh just how the ball Rose you did bring up something earlier you know um with the size of our district and where

359we are at a district of destination and stuff do you will you be um sending us anybody who and I'm gonna put this in baseball terms okay uh will you be sending us anybody uh like an an Altuve who's established underway a few more years or uh Tucker who's in the prime where he's at or like you said an upper Comer like a Jeremy Pena who's who's busting at the seams and you can see stardom all over him he wants to play for the Texas Rangers God darn it and Marnie got teeth yeah let me say about that we will recruit a diverse pool of candidates for the board and and we hope that when you decide if we were asked to assist you in the search and and we go through this process and

360you look and we review all the candidates and you will see that we have recruited people from all ethnic backgrounds men women and people that are in different points of their professional careers I mentioned people who are probably you know very experienced very experienced I would consider Mark to have been an experienced superintendent when he got here um you may find another group of candidates that I I would say those are the people you call are in the power stroke of their career they're just about to hit the that point where they're going to be really strong for the next 10 or 15 years and then occasionally you find that Rising Star somebody that is the Superstar that is there that has not emerged but is about to and we've got them on our radar

361screen and and you say well we're okay who are we going to interview well we're going to interview about six different people and some of them are going to be at different stages of their career and some of them they're not all going to look alike and and that I think is what gives you a really rich field to to consider and think about in in terms of the needs of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District and its boys and girls good I appreciate that answer and to clarify for the ladies here just because I name men doesn't mean I I want a man it's a woman man whatever the best person is for the job we do encourage the boards ultimately your decision we encourage them forward to interview a diverse group of people

362as Mike said don't interview six people don't look alike yeah that's right to their career enter you'll learn something by talking to different people even if you don't hire them simply talking to people at different stages of their career will be helpful to you I appreciate those answers very good thank you very much Tom as my colleagues thank you for being here commissioner I would would mention that another busha appointee who I counted as a good friend Jody Lee Giles Jr has spoken very highly of you and that was even before I met you as well and and everything he said about you all positive comments all turned out to be accurate so thank you a H you know just just one conversation again to say to all of you thank you for for your

363service my son I had David talked about I started I have two boys one's an attorney in Fort Worth the other one's been living over in Round Rock here he was on the Round Rock School Board and that's the reason uh when I kidded Hill I knew how much money school board members were making uh when he talked to me you've got kids today that are five or six years old that are in your schools that have a life expectancy of about 78 or 79 years so if you want to stop and think about that for a minute you as trustees and the superintendent that you're going to hire are going to make a difference in the lives of a lot of kids until 2094 95 96. and all the people that they touch and

364that they touch and that the others touch and that the teachers touch and that Mark is touched for a long long time so yeah this is pretty big decision and that's the reason that we close with strong superintendents want to work for strong school boards and strong school boards want strong superintendents because your impact is going to be felt for a long time with these kids thank you very much for letting us thank you before you leave I do have one question um and it's a tough question but I think it has to be asked my colleagues have asked all the others that I would have having served this District two consecutive times are you too close or do we need a fresh set of eyes well I think that's your decision to make um

365in you know the if if you think about the last two superintendents that we helped the board with uh Dr David Anthony and and Dr Henry they're very different personalities very different leaders I think each of them had a very long good service in the district and and they brought different things to the district at different times in the in the life of the district I think Mike and I uh would would hope that our familiarity with the district is beneficial and the fact that we know the district well will will really help us not only identify candidates that we honestly believe would are worthy of your time and attention um but but frankly will also help us as we try to counsel you through the process we hope our familiarity is a positive and

366and if it becomes anything less at any point in time we would expect you to tell us say this that yeah we would I would always want y'all to be happy and and feel like you've been well served and the truth of it is with David Anthony with Mark Henry um we're really proud to have been involved with those and if you think that's that's been beneficial then I hope you think we've been beneficial but we're going to be respectful of any decision that you make very good and we hope we have an opportunity to work with you but even if we don't even if you choose the other firm we're here for you we're going to be your cheerleaders and we wish you a great result and a great success in your search thank

367you gentlemen thank you may I have a motion to move into closed session on agenda item 6A 5y 5z 5 double A and five h uge motion has been made do I hear a second motion's been made and seconded all in favor please raise your right hand Holly motion passes thank you Eden seconded to reconvene an open session the time is 4 15. oh my God we are now back in an open session we will now take action on items agenda items five y five Z five double A and five h ype wife the board will consider making a determination that good cause did not exist as required by law for Mariah Henry and Kristen Toliver to resign the respective employment contracts this item was discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551.074 may I

368have a motion to approve this non-consensus item as recommended or amended I'm so moved motion has been made do I have a second second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion um one question do we I don't know where anybody hears me do we need to read the motion because it contains a name or and that's what I was just saying I was um I was going to say we should um actually the motion the agenda we have suggested emotions I think on there and so um why because it's it is a non-consensus item but we would need specific action okay okay I meant to mention that when we came back out okay do you have it Julie I do five uh I move that the Board of Trustees render a finding

369under Texas administrative code section 249.17 D that good cause did not exist as required by Texas Education Code sections 21.105 c 21.160 c or 21.210c from Mariah Henry and Kristen Toliver to resign their respective employment contracts and notify these employees in accordance with the law that the district is submitting a complaint the text to the Texas Board of educator certification for contract abandonment I'm not going to ask for a second just yet Marty is parliamentarian we already have a motion and a second on the floor um may I use the modified Robert's Rules of orders to have that motion withdrawn so we can entertain this new motion yes and you can do that by notices as the board president uh so we are withdrawing the prior motion that was seconded that's on the floor so

370that has now been withdrawn we have a new motion on the floor I will entertain a second a second that motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Hollow the motion carries thank you 5 a a once again this will need to be a specific motion as drafted the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommend recommendation to give notice to Nicole Graves that it is proposed her employment with the district under a term contract be terminated it is further recommended the president of the board notified the teacher of the proposed action to terminate her employment pursuant to 21.211 of the Texas educator code this item was discussed in closed session pursuant to 551.074 I will

371entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move that the Board of Trustees give notice to Nicole Graves that has proposed her employment with the district under a term contract be terminated motion has been made is there a second a second motion has been made and seconded any discussion hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly 5-h the the board has heard presentations from the superintendent search proposal finalists and and we'll consider taking action to select a consulting firm to conduct the superintendent search this item was discussed in closed session pursuant to sections 551.071 and 551.074 I would entertain a motion to approve one of the two firms to be engaged no go ahead no you you're I move

372that the board select Thompson and Horton to conduct the superintendent search for the district motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion on this topic gotta make a statement yes that counts as a discussion yes I'd like to thank both firms for coming out and I believe both were very well qualified and their presentation and their ability to name our next great superintendent nicely said other comments before I call for a vote hearing none all in favor of the motion as presented and seconded please signify by raising your right hand that motion carries Holly the board will now proceed with the reports portion of the agenda item 4A the administration will provide a written report of the school health advisory Council known as Shaq

373the annual activities through the Board of Trustees we have one speaker on this topic Linda natal foreign I do not see her the presenters will be Roy Garcia and Melinda Hood Mr President this questions only written report are there any questions Julie um thank you for the written report and the update on the work of the shack committee I want to take time to thank the members of The Shack committee for their service to our district I do have one question and that is now that the work of the committee has been completed as requested by the board is the committee then dissolved and then if there's a need for say a future board to has a need for a shot committee then do we convene a new committee the committee is is not dissolved

374we have the shack each and every year we will determine later this summer if there are any vacancies and then we have a process for filling those vacancies so it is an annual requirement that there's at least four Shaq meetings throughout the the school year so we will move forward with that thank you item 4B the administration rule present an oral report on the work of the portrait of a CFISD graduate advisory Council we do have one speaker before we have a presentation Monica Dean okay so while we are focusing on our attention on which portrait of The Graduate model is better the one with concrete ideas like Problem Solver or one with abstract ideas like curiosity we are missing out on the most important piece of information that we need to be focused on

375and that is Portrait of a graduate is actually a national program created by a company called Battelle for kids and its key strategic Partners like Ed leader 21 a pioneer of 21st century skills Global movement or all Gates funded organizations the portrait of a graduate program was incentivized through Essa and is being used to fundamentally transform the purpose of Education shifting curriculum assessments and school accountability away from academics and towards social and emotional learning through personalized compensate competency-based learning this newly proposed POG model is solely based on the castle model framework the whole school whole child model while SEL may appear harmless it's not the deceit is in the delivery of these competencies the purpose of SEL is to change the attitudes values beliefs morals and worldview of each student as of 2020 it's now

376referred to as transformative SEO the so-called 21st century skills will not be measured through a core competency lens but rather through an equity lens the Viewpoint that America is systemically racist this new POG model will open the door for lessons and intrusive conversations into classroom on Race identity and gender and will have nothing to do with enhancing traditional skills I'm calling on each one of you to do your due diligence and research its relation to Castle its roots in cultural Marxism and what the detrimental effects this will have on the quality of Education if this continues or the new model is adopted we have a presentation from Roy Garcia thank you Mr Jackson I will turn it over to Abby in just a minute but just to remind you back in May at the board

377work session we did I have a presentation about the work that the CFISD portrait of a CFISD graduate advisory Council had been working on and then based on feed to back that was shared not only from the board but also from the community we brought the council back together the writing team back together and we wanted to share with you what has taken place since that time on May 4th so Abby okay president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry this afternoon after a brief recap of last month's board presentation we will provide you with an update on the continued work of our group as you recall a district-wide survey was conducted conducted last spring and sought feedback from a randomized sample of parents community members and staff basilis and Associates worked with our technology

378department to distribute the survey and batches by ZIP codes to parents community members and staff not only did basilis want to ensure a geographic representation of the district they also wanted to do a demographic representation including representation by ethnicity economically disadvantaged and at-risk indicators based on results from the survey at the current Board of Trustees requests two ad hoc Community committees were formed portrait of a cfic graduate and opportunity for all both committees launched this spring and this afternoon we'll focus on the work of a portrait of a CFISD graduate advisory Council the charge of this council is twofold to review the portrait of a CFISD graduate and determine if any modifications are warranted and to develop a marketing marketing rebranding plan for the portrait of a cfic graduate Mr Roy Garcia and Dr Glenda

379Horner serve as facilitators for the group the membership structure includes trustees as facilitators Mr Garcia and Dr Horner collaborate and consult with the advisory council's coordinators Dr Linda Macias and Mrs Debbie Blackshear as they plan each meeting trustees Dr Natalie blassingame and Mr Scott Henry attend observe and participate in each meeting the Council of membership includes represent representatives from the 12 High School feeder patterns accounting for 83 percent of the council's makeup additionally 17 percent of the Council comprises of key central office Department Representatives those who desired to serve on the advisory Council completed a brief application that was available on the district's website applications were posted in early October and closed in early March applicants indicated which of the stakeholder groups they represented these stakeholder groups included representatives from each of the 12 feeder

380patterns in central office Representatives the selection process included the following considerations the council facilitators and coordinators began by reviewing all submitted applications and noted duplications across committees as some applicants also applied to serve on the opportunity for all advisory Council which was forming at the same time as they began to determine membership they created a High School feeder pattern table to ensure that all 12 theater patterns in all stakeholder groups were represented on the council they noted single applicants in a category and automatically included those as council members next they noted two or more in a category then they looked for diversity in experiences and reasons for applying to make final determinations and finally if there were no applicants in a category they reached out to principals and colleagues to ensure additional applicants and ensure

381that feeder patterns were adequately represented if you serve on the council would you please stand and be recognized knowing that time is a precious commodity the district is grateful that you have chosen to invest in this work [Applause] at the mayboard at the May meeting of Board of Trustees we provided you with an update on the work of our group along with a proposed modified version of the portrait of a CFISD graduate at the conclusion of the presentation you provided feedback because we realized that the work in which we engaged has far reaching potential to influence and shape our district we gathered again as a writing team to carefully consider and discuss the feedback received next Jonathan Gutierrez a Community member a parent a product of CFISD and a high school assistant principal will share

382how the writing team proceeded following the May board meeting thank you Abby before gathering with the full advisory Council the following members representing their respective theater patterns or central office Department met to consider your feedback as pre-work we viewed last month's board presentation and noted patterns and Trends in your feedback then we came together as a team we centered our conversations around the feedback reach consensus regarding any additional revisions to the proposed modified draft of the portrait and broke into smaller subgroups to draft any agreed-upon revisions in our smaller groups we drafted a launch statement a closing statement and an additional trait the aim of the launch statement is to introduce the modified portrait while the closing statement is intended to recognize the original portrait along with the makeup of the group responsible for the

383modified version in response to the feedback and ongoing reflection an additional trait was added to further complement the modified portrait prior to coming to you today we met as a full advisory Council to share our proposed changes and seek the greater group's feedback and support for moving forward then immediately following the full advisory Gathering we made a few small changes as a result of their feedback next April Paredes a Community member parent and high school special education teacher supervisor will share the updated draft reflecting these proposed changes thank you Jonathan as you recall our original draft presented at the May 4th boardwork session contains the traits of communication Integrity curiosity resilience and empathy in our conversations as a writing team we first considered whether or not changes to these five were necessary ultimately we determined

384that they each represented the feedback we had received along the way and described Our Hope for graduates of CFISD itionally by examining further what today's Workforce is looking for and its employees it was confirmed that these traits show up as values among some of the most respected companies and institutions across the globe they are timely relevant and reflective of what both natural nationally renowned and local employers seek in their employees we've provided you with a list of Fortune 500 companies and their corresponding company values along with a few articles of Interest let's consider some examples communication create productive dialogue even when Stakes are high listen for understanding while engaging in conversation whether through writing speaking body language or technology share your ideas with care and respect for all viewpoints the November 2022 edition of the

385Harvard Business review expounds on the importance of communication as a critical soft skill in the workplace by offering that in the age of knowledge ideas are the foundation of success in almost every field you can have the greatest idea in the world but if you can't persuade anyone else to follow your vision your influence and impact will greatly diminish and that's why communication is necessary among the world's top Business Leaders leaders who reach the top do not simply pay lip service to the importance of effective communication instead they study the art of in all of its forms writing speaking presenting and constantly strive to improve on those skills for example while Jeff Bezos was building Amazon he put a premium on writing skills in the summer of 2004 he surprised his leadership team and banned

386PowerPoint he replaced slides with narrative narratively structured memos that contain titles and full sentences with verbs and nouns Visos not only is not alone among top leaders you cannot over invest in communication skills written and oral skills says former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nui who now serves on Amazon's board she goes on to say if you cannot simplify a message and communicate it compellingly believe me you cannot get the masses to follow you learning to learning is a process of sharing engaging with and responding to new and different ideas communication whether through writing speaking body language or technology is a powerful tool in the classroom and it's fundamentally Central to the acts of teaching and learning integrity be honest and trustworthy when faced with a tough decision choose to be the best version of yourself at

387home on the job and out in the world have the courage to do what is right even if it is not easy or popular when it comes to Integrity Coca-Cola Walmart Exxon Mobil Chevron Ford motor Verizon communications Google Kroger MD Anderson and General Electric among countless others Center their Workforce around this key trait on its website General lecture offers this observation Integrity is reflected in our three leadership behaviors act with humility lead with transparency and deliver with Focus always with unyielding integrity MD Anderson describes Integrity through the lens of service to others by stating we work together to Merit the trust of our colleagues and those we serve for students that means being honest in academic situations despite pressure to succeed listening to their inner voice about what is Right behaving in ways that earn

388the trust of the people around them and standing up for those for others in social situations curiosity dare to wonder no matter your interests explore Limitless possibilities and bring them within your reach discover your creativity and dream big according to a 2018 article published in the Harvard Business review leaders should hire for curiosity model inquisitiveness emphasize learning goals let workers explore and broaden their interests and have why what if and how might we days doing so will help their organization adapt to the uncertain market conditions and external pressures and boost the business's success curiosity is a core value in Ford motor and kahoot a learning platform many CFISD Educators use one Ford employee shared on their website I think it's great that the company is encouraging us to continue to learn ask questions and just

389be curious about everything around us Ford motor goes on to describe curiosity this way we approach the world and each other with a sense of interest and wonder we are humble enough to know that we can learn from every situation and actively question to understand and think critically kahoot shares this curiosity is part of human nature and it lies at the heart of all great Endeavors it is what turns Learners into amazing leaders and keeps those leaders learning ABB and international technology leader in electrification and automate and automation lists curiosity as a value as a company they describe curiosity as the belief that there is always a better way and that we can learn from failures and successes additionally Red Branch media based in Omaha Nebraska holds curiosity as a value one employee said curiosity

390is a path of Discovery and openness it's constantly being open to trying new things or reimagining older ones in a new way to see if change changing something will make it better most of all it's challenging yourself to always be on a Learning Journey so that you can continue to grow and help those around you grow too another shared curiosity compels us to discover what has until now remain unexplored in a working context curiosity allows you to step outside the traditional processes and see if things could be done differently more efficiently or creatively in the classroom curiosity becomes a key trait as Educators we recognize that students engage in the learning process when they drive their own learning curiosity is a driving force resilience learn and grow from challenges even through failures or difficult circumstances

391persist and adapt to find new Solutions choose to learn from every experience increasingly working environments means organizations want employees that are adaptable and resilient when hiring new Talent you may think Technical and interpersonal skills are all that matter but in a stressful post-pandemic workplace resilience is an increasingly sought after skill gallup's 2021 state of the global Workforce report put it front and center as employers rethink their workplace in 2021 and Beyond they have lessons to learn from 2020 most importantly leaders need to recognize employee well-being and engagement influence on work Workforce resilience tapping into resiliency and resiliency and teaching and learning and pushing students to develop resilience is key to school Success and the healthy development of students empathy think of others and how they feel despite our differences seek to understand those around you

392and see the world through their eyes look for opportunities to serve and support PBS Health taking care of others at Costco taking care of our people at Home Depot caring at JetBlue Airways and Care at Baker Hughes according to Dan Brennan VP at Baker Hughes whether you're building and deploying digital technology or supporting a globally diverse organization to be productive and safe showing empathy translates into social Trust for years heb's disaster relief units have lived out its heart by serving hot meals as well as providing showers supplies and mobile pharmacies to natural disaster areas when hurricane Harvey was on the horizon heb's disaster relief units were prepped and ready to serve the thousands of meals a day sorry thousands of meals per hour two Texans that may be in need empathy allows students to see

393the world from another person's perspective and develop compassion for others it's a vital component of learning and can help students build relationships communicate better and resolve conflicts in review these traits are timely relevant and reflective of what both nationally renowned and local employers seek in their employees with these connections at the Forefront of your thinking we ask you to consider the proposed revisions made to the modified portrait that we previously presented the first notable addition is a portrait launch or opening statement we wanted to communicate that the portrait reflects and in turn complements the district's mission and vision statement let's take a look Cypress Fairbanks ISD will maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing them for graduation and lifelong journey CFISD Scholars will lead by exhibiting the opening statement will be

394followed by a list of proposed traits and their descriptors as you can see the aim of the launch statement is to introduce the modified portrait intentionally we've connected the district's mission and vision statements to the modified portrait in the closing statement you'll see that we spell out the acronym lead the second addition to the draft is an additional trait Innovation after reflecting on the feedback from the May 4th and 8th board meetings reviewing the surveys and data collected from stakeholders the future of jobs reports and various articles we determined that while problem solving and critical thinking were embedded and inferred within the proposed traits we wanted to ensure that they were stated explicitly and concretely within the document let's take a look at this additional trait innovation develop new ideas or methods as challenges and

395opportunities arise use your Knowledge and Skills to think critically in be a problem solver improve the world around you as a committee miniature the necessity for graduates to think critically for solving for solving problems and for coming up with new ideas and opportunities the aim is for students to use their acquired Knowledge and Skills reading math writing as they seek careers in engineering robotics welding Automotive Maintenance cosmetology culinary arts or whatever field or occupation they choose in a way that improves the world around them we believe the addition of the trait Innovation creates a complete portrait of a CFISD graduate you'll find that Innovation shows up as a value for Conoco Phillips CVS Health United Health Group Walgreens IBM Hewlett-Packard Disney Microsoft and HEB Microsoft believes that technology can and should be a force for

396good and that meaningful Innovation can and will contribute to a brighter World in big and small ways HEB is always looking for better ways to serve its Partners customers and communities and making their lives better in describing Innovation they boldly say we are relentlessly dissatisfied with the present as Educators we can leverage innovation in education to improve student outcomes from a purely academic standpoint as well as develop those soft skills that students need to be successful in life the last proposed addition to the modified portrait is a closing statement the final statement has a four-fold intention first to recognize the original portrait second to honor the various stakeholders students teachers parents business owners and Community leaders who guided and contributed to this work third to communicate our hope that students take ownership of these traits

397as their promise and finally to tie back to the district's vision let's take a look the CFISD portrait of a graduate was developed by a committee encompassing students Educators parents business owners and Community leaders across Cyprus Fairbanks ISD to establish a shared vision of soft skills and traits our students need for success first developed in the 1990s the current CFISD portrait of a graduate honors the original portrait and creates a framework that is inclusive of all students in our rapidly changing world our hope is that graduates will take ownership of these traits as their promise to the community for the type of citizens they will be throughout their lives learn Empower achieve dream as you heard earlier CFISD produced nearly 9 000 graduating seniors for the class of 2023 and you also heard that over

398500 also received an associate's degree from excuse me Lone Star College sci-fi through our College Academy program The Advisory council's hope is that future graduates will take ownership of the modified portrait of a CFISD graduate as their promise to our community for the types of citizens they will be throughout their lives your feedback and that of our community LED this group toward an even better version for your consideration in closing now that the group has completed a modified version of her portrait of a CFISD graduate they are ready to begin planning and implementing a marketing and rebranding plan for the new portrait the goal is to be able to roll out the modified portrait of a CFISD graduate when the new school year begins Mr Jackson and members of the board please feel free to

399direct any questions and comments to today's presenters as members of the writing team myself as one of the advisory Council facilitators and Dr Macias is one of the advisory Council coordinators before I uh go to the left or right to ask questions I'm going to use the chair's privilege this is a much improved document this is I don't want to say Head and Shoulders better because that would would tend to diminish the initial work product but this is dramatically improved I think this document addresses the concerns that I issued you may note that in some of my comments today I did in fact address some of the traits here I mentioned the firm Enron full of talent tremendously talented people lacking integrity Talent without integrity production without integrity has no value but by adding innovation

400you clearly said this is a forward-looking document you know last time I spoke on this I said how would this fit for my dad let me tell you driving force for my dad's generation often referred to as the greatest generation was always integrity first and last Innovation replaces what I was I was a Content master well in today's technological world you need content awareness you don't need a Content encyclopedia and that's where Innovation comes in I know this was painful to go back and re-examine your work and I apologize for asking you to do it but by golly I am very proud of the changes that you have made and I can say I wholeheartedly endorse and cons and can support what you have done having said that let me turn to my left and

401go to our single Dimension man at the far end Lucas thank you Tom Tom sentiments I think this this I tell I tell everybody that I work with that I'm a Believer in emergent ideas ideas that have a beginning and there are opportunities to improve you gather feedback and then go from there so I'm never afraid of draft and I always encourage folks that I work with for the first time when we have to release the draft there's an element of trust that goes with placing a draft in front of someone and I think your team did a great job in taking in the feedback and creating this document I wholeheartedly support the addition of the word Innovation I think it captures what I'd hoped we will be bringing I know that in my own

402Consulting in our company we spend a lot of time working on Innovation and it will be a very important in fact for those that have the bigger and fortitude and courage it'll be a differentiator for our graduates coming forward as they take on new jobs and new careers and fields of study that don't even exist yet and that will be there tomorrow so I applaud the team and I support this document Debbie Blackshear Mr Jackson I would like to say my comments for the last okay please very good Julie um a fantastic job great work I appreciate all the time and energy that the Committees the writing committee the subcommittees the and the full advisory Council put in into this update and modification of the portrait of a graduate I found um the addition of

403the opening the closing stock statement very helpful and beneficial to really uh put it in a in a way that it gives it meaning and purpose and it and it puts the responsibility on the students to take that on and to and to use that and I see this as something that we can use every day in our classrooms and in our in our schools and in our homes with our kids so I just I am grateful I appreciate your listening to the feedback from the board and for um and making the the changes I found it very um inspiring the addition of all the evidence you know from the businesses to back that up I appreciate that too um it you were certainly looking to show us validation for those ideas and and you

404you'd certainly prove that through that evidence but those are things we also hear not just from the business world but from the non-profit World in our faith-based community those are all things that that are not just from the for-profit business world but that we see um in every facet of our lives so thank you so much I also support the new portrait of The Graduate thank you let me turn to my right Scott I have no questions thank you very much Natalie uh I also want to express appreciation to the team and some Stars within and the grander committee uh for the commitment of time and for the great facilitation even through the biggest rainstorm that came through here in a while our Zoo meeting was blown up um and actually the community was blown

405up in some areas over that there were trees down and stuff so um I just really appreciated the resilience that was shown by the group in uh sticking through it to get it done um I actually had an interesting conversation things that were food for thought as an individual just as a person always open to what's best for our kids I was in a school in Singapore that have been formed by a mother who just what school was not working for her child so we got to tour the school and I asked her what was it you know her daughter was now like 23 years old helping her run the school and I said what was it that made you pull her away from the school system and she said her character so that struck

406me um as you know very interesting and not surprising but interesting and also I had a conversation on a bus in Vietnam with some they're actually uh pastors and that serve and volunteer in Spring ISD and they mentor and support students in like a ninth grade mentoring program similar to one we have and um we were having a discussion about those qualities that aren't always measurable you know and how those can't how critical some things are I would say for me a very important aspect of my life is Faith and you can how do you measure that right but it's very important and then I had another conversation with uh a gentleman from Fort Worth area um and so they really were good conversations just outside of the context and a whole nother place to

407see what is it you know what are you building what do you value um so some things that make me a little more comfortable here this idea about preparing them for graduation and a lifelong journey there are some criteria upon which you're a graduate right which have to do with your literacy and your math skills um and so I do think the framing of the opening comments is a little bit helpful to make sure that we're the main thing is the main thing as well as you know the kind of character our kids have and I appreciate the idea at the bottom as a promise to the community um I do think measurability is is necessary in some things and I think we have to be purposeful about how we do it but I do

408understand up to Julie's comment about that students take some ownership of developing to the kind of character they are I did go back and do another check um I appreciate now that we have we have writing speaking listening problem solving I'm not sure what reading is exactly still maybe it could have been in communication I think that listening speaking Reading Writing are four cores of the English language arts you know curriculum and then we always have problem solving and thinking critically so that one is maybe something I would have liked to see there but I definitely appreciate that this is shaping up in something that's aspirational that's something that can look at um you know that can motivate students in the classroom every day as Julie says so I appreciate definitely the the the framing

409that was added to it and so I don't really have questions other than maybe I would like to have seen or was your discussion around reading or not being in there listening speaking Reading Writing and critical thinking yes and we tried to um address that in the opening statement um when you graduate or when a student graduates they are they are Guided by the teaks the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and so every graduate is going to have that and we are certain when when Dr Henry certifies graduates they have to have that this is in addition to that but we put in there rigorous and relevant learning experiences we we specifically chose those words in there to address that specific item that was our thought on that and we did discuss that and then

410writing is something we've had people present here at the board we've had people present here families saying I'm a kid graduated and couldn't write so that was called out here and I know the new teaks and the new testing and all that's trying to address writing as a as a whole um so yeah I guess it's there uh I would like to see that kids could read be super explicit again that that is covered through the teks and and the Knowledge and Skills and as a graduate that is they are required to do that awesome thank y'all for thinking through that I appreciate it great answer yes sir sorry Gilbert um I agree totally with Tom uh quite a um achievement by a group that put in many hours and congratulations on a job well

411done and to all who participated so Roy back to you where do we oh Debbie I'm sorry I wanted the last word Tom first of all uh being one of the coordinators of this group I want to publicly Thank The Advisory Council and especially the um the subcommittee the writing committee who I said it before and I'll say it again did a powerful job and I wish you talk about great minds in a room it was so uh inspiring to watch them at work and when we came back together I sat in on the meeting uh they embraced the feedback that we had received and there was discussion and you could just see the brains churning and going to work how can we how can we improve upon this how can we address the feedback

412and uh thank you Abby and April and Jonathan today for doing such a beautiful presentation of the work and giving explanations of how we arrived at things and Natalie to address your concern about reading we felt that you know as Jonathan said it all of that is implied because they have to pass the teaks in order to graduate and I think you know our concern is that we've always said we want well-rounded individuals and a lot of these traits if we help guide our students towards these traits maybe there'll be better learning maybe there'll be less behavioral issues maybe there'll be less fighting because all of those traits I mean when you go through uh empathy and resilience I mean how inspiring and encouraging to our graduates because that is part of their education we

413not only want bright intelligent children who know how to write and read and do math science history but we want them well-rounded we want them to be good citizens we want them to be good people we want them to be kind to be empathetic and those traits in my mind in creating a well-rounded individual are just as important as the basics in reading and writing and mad because yes we can teach that easily but some of those others are a little bit harder because some kids may not have experienced that in their homes and we're giving them something I think even higher to strive for and to accomplish and uh thank you you know Thank The Advisory Council but thank you writers for just the way you just pick this up and you immediately knew

414what you wanted to do with this and that we needed to have an opening we needed there was discussion that they needed a uh the critical thinking the problem solving the Innovation and that we needed to also honor what has been done in the past by the previous uh committee the first committee and you know while um I know this will last for a while probably 10 or 20 years from now there'll be another group of people presenting because times change and but all of those I think are reflective of the values that we want in a cyfair ISD graduate yes Natalie definitely wanted Debbie to have the last word but I would say I think that's an interesting um I agree actually these are more important in the end but if we didn't also

415give a kid literacy and obviously graduating we would assume there's a level of literacy um but if we did not do the main thing school was called to do then we also then are they more important right which came first the chicken or the egg right so if I give you um this opportunity to develop you know communication Innovation Integrity curiosity but I also don't ensure that you get the foundational skills what have I given you as far as your opportunity to have a lifelong journey that's fulfilling and I I think it's not as much at the graduation but how many drop out right what's our dropout rate we're amazing and we outperform other places or along the pathway before graduation all those on-ramps and opportunities to access the foundational education as well so I

416think this is beautiful and it's in what we're and and that's why we're uh you know from from kindergarten on is what will be emphasized to our kids but you know we tied it uh to to our uh to lead and I mean into our to our mission statement we talked about rigorous and relevant learning and so I think you know you want it spelled out but it's implied there I truly believe that Natalie and I think everyone in this District uh puts the value on on the basics as well as these other things because yes that's a teacher's job is to is to teach the basics but as as you well know being in education too that most of our teachers our APS are more than just teachers and APS a lot of them

417are doing some parenting to those students as well second parenting let's say April I just wanted to add a little bit as as Jonathan mentioned when he introduced me I'm this I'm one of the special ed administrators at one of our high schools and we from the very beginning when we first met one of the biggest pieces that we wanted to provide in the these modifications was an inclusive document to include all students you know there are of course graduation requirements of many of our students but some of our students have a modified graduation plan and they are not going to leave cyfair literate but they can still show empathy they can still have curiosity they can still have communication skills that's one of the reasons why we included whether it be by writing speaking

418technology body language that was very specific it was because this document is for all students and so the graduation requirements are what determines whether or not people have met those and as I mentioned all students are included in this document and some of our students are going to graduate on a modified graduation plan and so that's kind of where we tweezed a little bit and why we did not include very specific words because we did want this to include all students that graduate from our schools great Point thank you so Debbie you wanted to have the last word do you have any words to give us ultimately and these three people have already stated uh this afternoon and again I Thank The Advisory Council I thank Dr Horner for for um her helping lead us

419along the way and Dr Macias and Roy Garcia for their help in this process and uh thank you uh for today's presentation an amazing and awesome job I'm proud of this document very good Roy do you have anything to add I don't want to I don't want to step on the last word very good we are now going to take out of order item 5V it was pointed out to me nobody else knows this it's 507 we started at nine o'clock this morning 5V the board will consider authorizing and ratifying the superintendent's procurement and execution of all necessary documents under the emergency exception in section 44.031 of Education Code and CH local needed to remediate and or repair damages to bang Elementary School caused by an unforeseen construction defect there are no speakers on this

420item today only questions looking to my right got to learn this again 5V be Victor b as in Victor okay let me go this way Julie um uh one quick question in the backup documentation I didn't see a cost do we not know what the costs are at this time or do we know what the costs were but you don't want to tell me just kidding I would love to know what the cost were and I would love to share it with the board but I don't know we're still investigating okay but this is what we're what we're being asked to do is to make sure that once we've well we're gonna we're doing repairs now and that's why we're asked you're asking for funding that's correct okay so it's not like not unlike Yuri

421when we came to the board authorization to make any needed repairs in order to get school open right and then we came back and gave a report later right feel like this will be done right we'd love to thank you for describing what the David was so stop tapping me I'm talking um and uh I'm trying to finish my sentence and can you also confirm that um that it will be repaired in time to open school um for the fall semester so the damage uh occurred when we were demoing casework internal case work on an external wall yeah the wall collapsed and what we found is it had four inch CMU there was no support at the bottom no rebar very little support at the top it had been spot welded and attack welded instead

422of four welds so the whole exterior wall on the classroom Wing is suspect and we are investigating that trying to come up with our a e team to provide a solution that we can Implement in order to get school open in August we're confident that we can come up with a solution to get school open we just need authorization to make the repairs uh thank you for that information is there any uh can we go back to the original um contractor that built that wall the school was opened in 1990 I think our statute of limitations may be up uh Spa glass was a general contractor uh we'll certainly investigate that uh we need to go back through we just this just happened week before last we've been to an investigation we need to go

423back and check the design documents to see what was designed how it was constructed and then we'll make any we'll get with general counsel to make any decisions okay and you'll keep us informed yes ma'am thank you some follow-up questions on that uh has this happened before anything similar to this yes I believe at Lowry we had an instance where the brick ties failed and we lost the brick veneer and we went back in and put new brick veneer on and brick ties not quite this extreme I don't think the exterior wall collapsed but we did have to go do that uh secondly the the follow-up question is do we have any concern that this could be systemic I.E for this particular contractor if if they were not following best practices did they do other

424work for us and is it possible that a similar issue could be elsewhere small glass is a pretty reputable company they have built other buildings for us especially around that time frame we've have no indication that there are issues with the other campuses we have renovated those campuses and this is the first time we've had an instance like this okay Natalie mine was a similar question because we use those prototype buildings you know like we'd build several I'm not sure how many more are like bang at the same time well I think Hamilton was built in 1990 what else really you can recall I think we had a total of eight uh prototype or completion buildings of that prototype that we've prototype and that Builder not that building yeah I just want to make sure

425we check I remember being um in principal in Spring Branch and when Stratford High School had a huge wall collapse as well and um they couldn't get it ready in time for school so thank you to that commitment I definitely will approve anything we need to today to keep it moving I'm just going to make sure just you wouldn't want to luckily it happened when kids weren't there making sure that could happen I guess this was the best time we're in the midst of a renovation we've got a general contractor on site just to follow up at Hamilton we're doing a renovation too so we've had no issues like this excellent it should be definitely it should be an isolated situation yeah fantastic thank you other questions hearing none I will call for a motion

426to approve this non-consent item Mr President I move that the board ratify and or authorize the superintendent to execute all agreements contracts and or purchase orders necessary to procure goods and services under the emergency exception in section 44.031 of the Education Code and CH local which are needed to remediate and repair damage to bang Elementary School caused by an unforeseen structural failure and by this action determined that the delay created by using the traditional procedures in chapter 44 would substantially impair the district from completing the emergency work necessary to promptly resume classes and school activities motion has been made deserve second motion has been made in section in any discussion hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly so anybody who is

427waiting around to hear about 5V if you want to leave now you can but if you want to stay please do so I don't know that we're serving dinner but we might be okay item 4C we covered in closed session this is a different report different report foresee the administration will provide a report on Safety and Security measures presenters Kenneth Henry Chief Eric Mendez and Franklin Sampson thank you for the light it's easier to see ready all right uh president Jackson Dr Henry and Board of Trustees it's a pleasure for us today to share an update on the safe and supportive schools committee with you and some of the concentrated and collaborative efforts that have been made to keep our students and campuses safe if you recall this committee was born from the threat oversight

428committee that was referenced in Senate Bill 11 of the 86 legislative session and was later added to the Texas Education Code with specific requirements for members to have expertise in areas that impact the threat assessment process our initial committee was created with members based on that requirement and we met on August 30th 2022 to have the first meeting the group was expanded after that initial meeting and we really Dove right in and truly committed to the process throughout the year we started out with broad challenges that the district was facing regarding safety and then discussed some specific programs and interventions that could support those needs the committee operated with three very specific goals in mind to identify current challenges in the area of Safety and Security to review current mental health and behavioral initiatives and

429most importantly to determine some enhancements and modifications needed to better support student mental health and behavior in the coming years you've previously been presented data from the 2022 CFISD stakeholder survey given by the basilis group if you recall 32 percent of parents thought that student discipline was the biggest or the next biggest challenge that faced CFISD 44 of the community answered student discipline and 76 percent of Staff answered student discipline student discipline was the highest ranking challenge in all three groups the board listening tour in 2022 also gave stakeholders a voice in giving feedback regarding student discipline while just under half of the respondents at 46 percent indicated that they noticed Improvement nearly a third of the respondents at 31 percent indicated that they had not noticed an improvement in student discipline you've also been

430presented these four findings in the fall 2022 board listening tour open-ended response coding analysis which was provided by the Hanover research group of additional survey questions to the question of what are some of the biggest challenges or obstacles for the district in terms of student Behavior 59 of the total respondents answered student attitudes and behaviors 22 percent answered School in action such as lack of consequences to the question of what ideas would you like to share to improve student Behavior 47 of the total respondents answered accountability and 46 percent answered more support and resources for staff students and parents further Insight from the open-ended questions showed that respondent groups expressed several consistent concerns including frustration with negative behaviors such as bullying vandalism and violent Outburst concern for understaffing and its connection to teachers and administrators

431feeling overwhelmed as related to consistently managing student behavior and most respondent groups agreed that parental involvement was the key to effective student behavior management So based on this analysis several recommendations were given additional training and resources for staff and regarding student Behavior the examination and implementation of disciplinary policies to promote more consistent Equitable and restorative outcomes creating more opportunities for students to reflect and share how the district can support them and improving staff recruitment and retention and at this time I'll turn the presentation over to Chief Mendes okay so part of what we've done year to year I believe since Santa Fe is we have this strategic plan that has prevention identification intervention response and Recovery I'm going to cover prevention so some of our current measures that you can see up on the screen

432include obviously the law enforcement presence that we have with cfpd you know we have improved our campus facilities I talked about that earlier today limited access points clear backpacks the metal detectors we require the ID badges but not just with the ID badge information on the back of the ID badges we now have the suicide hotline information for our students code of conduct and student handbook some of the others that aren't related to the police department bringing out the best character education it's our account guidance and counseling department the mental health minute created by the mental health intervention team they promote that and push that out in an email the digi save digital citizenship of course we have our standard response protocol standard reunification method we follow the National Standard with the I love you

433guys Foundation our safety awareness training for our staff and the new store staff orientation uh some of our other current measures again we use the Sci-Fi tip line and of course our newest uh part of the Sci-Fi tip line is the new text a tip where an individual can now text in a tip to us and not just utilize it through the website or through a phone line they're able to actually tip text in a tip again we partner with our Fusion Center here in Harris County for social media monitoring as well as our investigative group within the police department does social media monitoring our Psychological Services Department provides services for our students again I've talked a little bit about the mental health intervention team but we have members on the team from the police

434department the counseling department and the psychologists that provide additional resources for our students when they've been in crisis and help them transition back into the school setting suicide risk screenings in response the behavioral threat assessments uh psychological first AIDS and Behavioral Management pilot and well-managed schools and that's something that we've we are currently doing response and Recovery every campus has an Emergency Operations plan and we have a district-wide Emergency Operations plan we're required to provide that information at the school safety center which we do and we do it every year that we're required to do it and we from memory this last go-around we had no issues and our plans were accepted by the school safety center this life space Crisis Intervention training our crisis response team and then again communication with parents through school

435messenger and I believe I'm turning it over to Franklin at this point what portion will cover identification and intervention as well as a response and Recovery for this coming year we'd like to expand our current pilot of our well-managed schools this training will or the training of this program is a research-based classroom management framework that provides a school-wide common language for classroom teachers to use when teaching and addressing behaviors we currently have three campuses that utilize this program and we'd like to add three more middle schools along with seven Elementary campuses for this year during the 2024-2025 school year we'd like to on board for additional middle schools and bring on two high schools for a total costs of a hundred and ninety four thousand dollars as we continue to do our very best to

436identify those students and intervene in a positive and productive manner additional support staff is required to make things happen in an efficient manner the first additional staff request from the committee would be an additional licensed chemical dependency counselor our district currently has one at this point to service all of our campuses so the benefit of having to is pretty obvious the additional lcdc license chemical dependency counselor would collaborate with campuses regarding substance use prevention create and Implement new initiatives to promote substance-free campuses the the cost for the additional lcdc will be in the range of roughly sixty thousand dollars the second request from the committee is a licensed social worker to assist or expand our current mental health intervention team their primary role will be to facilitate follow-ups with students who are who had a

437previous crisis more specifically those who suffered from suicidal ideation or had a desire to harm someone else this person will provide consultation for staff as well as for parents and others as they continue to collaborate err as we ask of them to collaborate with the administrators and counselors on our multiple campuses they'll also work with the Columbia suicide severity rating scale as well as sea stag better known as the comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines the estimated costs for this position will be seventy thousand dollars next we'd like to expand our mental health intervention team with an additional psychologist we currently have two they will conduct mental health related research and training support the CFISD crisis response team consult with campuses on an ongoing basis and this will also will also benefit from this because they

438will conduct mental health and safety evaluations and provide special education support the cost for that position is seventy one thousand dollars lastly in addition to the other requests for positions the last one is the 20th youth service specialist we have attempted to obtain 20 a total of 20 and prior years and Harris County was not able to do so but they've all given a commitment that they are willing and ready to provide that additional youth service specialists if you would please bear in mind that the digisafe initiative is underway through the guidance guidance and counseling department where we focus on digital citizenship and that's why you see on there also the red flag technology filter which our youth service specialists assists with that initiative where we're taking a look at students or flagging students if

439you will that express some type of concern as it relates to suicidal ideation or threat in addition to that the advanced tool that you see on there Vape sensors we'd like to add those to our campuses across our district and hopefully somehow find a way to intervene and of course make sure that student and family receives the support that they need now regarding the response and Recovery with an ongoing the ongoing need to educate our students in many different ways the committee came to a consensus that life space Crisis Intervention would be a wonderful tool to assist with teaching consistent strategies for de-escalating crisis situations life space Crisis Intervention equips staff and students building verbal strategies to turn crisis situations into learning opportunities for young people who exhibit challenging behaviors our district currently has three

440trainers we're proposing that we add three additional trainers this summer to train roughly 90 administrators which will mostly consist of assistant principals the total cost is going to be 58 500 to make that happen as we continue to remain in a proactive stance we'd like to expand the availability of the opioid antagonist most of you may be familiar with the product called Narcan but that is just one of others that are available but we'd like to provide that for each campus and place them in the clinics on our multiple campuses across our district currently our police officers have them but we just like to expand the availability of the product we'd also like to initiate at some point in time and we're not saying that we start this in August but the committee agreed that

441we'd like to expand the or excuse me initiate cfisd's own sober High School in the near future it will be an opportunity for a limited number of students to take advantage of receiving quality CFISD equality CFISD education along with the additional services to assist them as well as their family members with what we deem wrap around type of services on an ongoing basis and of course that would include certified teachers director of principal and lcdc life coach and many other individuals who will help those students as they progress along at this time we are here and ready if there are any questions can I uh provide some clarification I think something important to note uh the difference in can we go back to the different initiatives between the initiatives for 2324 expanded initiatives and then

442the ones for proposed which are future the initiatives that are included in the expanded measures for 2324 we have funding for that those are not budget requests for the 23-24 school year there was already a plan and some I think it's cehi funding that we are using uh for the training and also for the crisis intervention training and those positions the proposed measures are different we felt like it was important for you to know as a board and for the public to know that we're continually looking at our overall Safety and Security plan and we have identified areas where in the future of funding is available that we need to have consideration for some of these additional staff members we started work as Franklin and Kenneth pointed out we started work in meeting and identifying

443the areas of need throughout the course of the year we were hopeful that the outcome of the legislative session the Safety and Security allotment would be much greater than it ended you know there at the towards the end of the Finish Line we were up to close to a hundred dollars per Ada and we were hopeful that you know we were going to reach that level with Safety and Security obviously that was not the outcome but we kept the information in the plan just so that you would see more of a strategic long-range plan that we have in looking at our safety and security measures so I didn't want Karen having a heart attack over there because her people were all back there working on the budget so just keep in mind expanded measures for

44423 24 were good we have a plan we have funding source for that and then the proposed measures are for the future so just wanted to provide that clarification foreign questions going to my right Scott I know that house bill 3908 talked about Fentanyl and ensuring that sixth grade through 12th grade had that built-in was that a funded mandate do you know you know I am not I have to be honest I am not 100 certain on that we have our legislative update uh tomorrow actually and I'll get more detailed information on all the bills that passed I know that the provision that we included on the opioid I never have a easy time saying that uh the opioid antagonist measure Melinda hood and Marnie have been working on including that provision in our policy

445and so I think they were looking at funding sources for providing that to our campuses but I think that is outside of any legislative funding that we may receive state funding be curious when that's enacted and I think it was in law September maybe we look at that because that's an important thing going forward for kids especially I mean my daughter's been offered drug many times and it's becoming a problem unfortunately are you speaking specifically about the training or it's an awareness campaign has to give to all kids in high school basically don't do drugs kind of thing but to look out for things not to do right correct that's a I think it's important part of teaching kids the right way right early I think earlier sixth grade is earlier once they're in high

446school it's too far but I think earlier is better just my opinion but thank you very much for your presentation Natalie I I appreciate the presentation the ideas and even the proposed initiatives getting us Thinking Out To The Future and uh you've mentioned life coach if we would have a potential sober high school program is that anything we've using currently for the students in discipline settings or what would that look like it sounds really enticing well that's that was just a recommendation we do not currently have life coaches that's just part of the model if you will Across the Nation as we've researched some they have an lcdc but they also have someone that can can walk them through those other areas of life as we provide those wraparound services sounds so wonderful I'd love

447to support that process Gilbert outstanding presentation guys great job no questions Lucas Debbie Franklin can you tell me um how many of our students have committed suicide over this past school year do you have that number I do not have that number off hand man okay that is just something that I continue to be concerned about because I've known of several personally this past school year and uh it just seems like still coming off of the pandemic and kids being isolated and then you know the problem that continues with bullying and uh you know kids feeling like they're not some of them feeling like they're not loved uh I just I guess I'm just interested in knowing what our counselors are seeing and and you know maybe threats carried out um I don't know at

448some time Mr Jackson if we might want to have that type um of report if anyone else is interested but I'm just concerned for our kids in this state of their mental mental health and well-being and uh you know and and some of your proposed measures and bringing those extra people in because some of it is just you know it goes back to the Fentanyl and the opioids and you know unintentional you know that they don't realize the consequences of of what they're doing sometimes so anyway if you don't have those numbers that's fine but it was just something that that I am interested in as a board member and let me say this this lecture that we there may be a suspected suicide but we do not ask for an autopsy or ask for

449the report excuse me from the coroner's office and out of respect we have not request that from the family right right so for us to really find out if one died by Suicide we would have to receive that report we can suspect that okay but for the actual numbers that would take an addition additional measures to do so and we've just respected the privacy of the families okay thank you Julie um first of all I am grateful and proud of all the work that our district does to support the Safety and Security of our students staff and our community before we're even talking about things that are proposed or things were expanding you shared with us a long list of things that we do as a district and that is something that's unique to public

450education Public Schools not all schools do that not even all public schools do that but that's something unique about our district that we care so much about our students and our families and our staff that we invest so much in the Safety and Security of our students um I wanted to ask a little bit about the Behavioral Management pilot well-managed schools do we have any results from that yet or is it because we just finished one year or what do we have an update on that everybody foreign would probably better be able to answer it but because this is our first year I just know do we have any sort of feeling um we had three campuses and we are collecting data okay um and so we plan to in August bring you a report

451of where we are at first glance okay but obviously not at that we're looking at expanding it to three middle schools and seven elementaries this year absolutely and we actually had a few more campuses that wanted to participate but we take our example a little bit from curriculum and we wanted to start smaller with the pilot and be able to evaluate the data great thank you thank you welcome and opposed um support through additional staff I mean obviously we're in a we're in a challenging financial situation being able to afford our current staff I see value in all of these additional staff people that you have requested I have met our licensed chemical dependency counselor and she's phenomenal but it's a big District 93 campuses and she does a great job as one person but

452if we could double her it would be fantastic and I know um to Scott's point about educating students and parents about drugs and substance abuse and substance use she she does a fantastic job but many of our campuses are trying to reach out to families and doing events at night and doing events you know during the day I think the more that we can educate our students and our families our parents on these issues it will help and whether it's legislatively mandated or you know we take that initiative and do it and continue to do that ourselves I think that's important um this is interesting adding a social worker to mhit that is really a very um you know you think that team is complete but that's actually a piece that was missing and so

453I appreciate your thinking of that I think about our social workers that work with our students on our campuses and the value they bring every day particularly at the high school level and to think of adding one to that team I think that's it fills a gap that I didn't realize existed so thank you for sharing that with me I absolutely support that um uh Vape sensors uh a hundred percent I think that the more that we can do to um put up barriers to for students to vape or bring Vapes onto our campuses the better we can't necessarily control what happens outside of our schools but to help create more additional deterrence on our campuses as well as the training as to why they shouldn't do that I think that's really good um the

454Narcan opioid antagonist um that's something I've been asking Teresa about for I mean I don't even know how long and we were following that legislation and it didn't pass but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it right correct I think again uh Marnie and Melinda have been working on a policy to bring to you that would provide that or have that available on our campuses that's fantastic and I'm grateful that I I met with our with some of our officers I knew they had it but just having one more Source on campus whether it's to help a student a staff member a parent or somebody who walks up to the parking lot which has happened so to be able to save someone's life I think that's fantastic and then finally this idea of a sober

455High School that is interesting and that's the first I've heard that discussed or brought up um and I know I have a friend whose child left cyprusd to go to um they actually went out of state um so I'm curious as Franklin how many students do you think would we serve in that at a sober High School and when we say sober High School help us explain that does it make we don't have drinking high schools and Drug high schools and it's over like we're this is for students who right can you explain that because this is not fast times original and I no problem for the majority of those uh programs that are across the state well there aren't that many let me say that there aren't that many but the ones that are

456out there they try to keep the numbers small so when we say small roughly 30 students or 40 students or so that way there can be a focus in on those students because we're talking about at that point a student that is not functioning well on a comprehensive campus so we surely want to hone in on assisting that student who may have an addiction or similar and then find a way to meet that student's needs as well as the family's needs so this is specific typically for students who have suffered through addiction or are suffering through that and they are looking for a place to go to school as they work through that yes ma'am and the end result hopefully will be that student either going to a two-year four-year school or college or university

457or trade school also teach that students some skills and also an opportunity for us to educate that student on what's available out there because sometimes they they aren't aware because many times with substance use it's not just that student who's struggling it's the family as a whole so part of that sober High School's focus is going to be to also bring that family to a point where they can be successful in society not just focus on the individual student talk about opportunity for all and some you know we think about all that we offer to students and we even talked about opportunity for all for kiddos maybe who have special needs but opportunity for all also includes students who are struggling with addiction and we don't just punish them and kick them out because they

458got busted for something and we throw them away we need to try to help them and help them achieve their academic goals because that's what we're here for that's right okay thanks for bringing that to us I appreciate that and can I just share again on all of those items that is not for the 23-24 school year except for the ones that we mentioned specifically as expanded measures but for those proposed initiatives again we'll continue to look for other funding sources for some of those be it Grant funds or other federal funds that may be available to allow us to expand those initiatives but we just felt it was important for you to see kind of our learn our long-term plan for Safety and Security in some of the areas that we would like to

459hopefully include in the plan in the future one very quick question Debbie hidden at it you would not be proposing any of these steps if we did not have a need correct president Jackson that's correct sir very good I didn't need a quantification of it but just needed to have that on the record thank you sir I'm going to take item five BB out of order the board will consider the adoption of the 2023-2024 budget including the 2023-2024 staff Compensation Plan the presenter is Karen Smith thank you Mr Jackson um before we look at the budget real quickly I just want to take a moment and thank Amanda Bowles Melissa mciner Patrice Lang and Rebecca Flores they've been up there working very hard to make sure all this happened plus last several months but then

460also Ron Wyatt in Human Resources he's been in our beck and call and I really appreciate it and Sharita has just provided us all the support that we need so I just want to thank those people first I'm ready to talk about the budget if uh Joel if you can I don't have a clicker if you don't mind going to the next slide this is the revised cost of considerations the only change that you see here is adding the 31.2 million for the salary increase of 3 percent on greater of midpoint or base and increasing the starting teacher salary to 62 000. next slide this information is exactly the same showing the general fund revenue of almost 1.1 billion next slide this slide has been revised to include uh the 31.2 additional million dollars for

461the salary increase so that changed our uh deficit to 138.6 million dollars before Federal stimulus funding for a revised uh deficit after the federal stimulus funding of 73.6 million dollars the next slides uh next three slides are just we are required to adopt our budget by fund and function so this is just the function levels for the general fund of which you'll see a majority of it is an instruction uh if you'll go the next Slide the next area where we have quite a bit is in the plant maintenance and operations which is 8.3 percent of the budget and then the final slide you will see here the remaining items by function and one of the things we're required to do is indicate the amount that's used for Accelerated instruction and that is 12.8 million

462dollars we have to allocate money towards that before we can allocate any other money in the budget and then the next two slides if you just quickly show those The Debt Service and then the Food Service fund have no changes so this is the budget uh unless you have some questions that would be presented to the board for adoption I'm going to start to the left Lucas I actually can't read anything that's on screen so I'm going to be listening by Braille to what you guys ask very good Debbie Blackshear Julie Debbie I mean uh Karen's sorry Karen can you go back and put up the the slide okay no no no wait wait wait yeah before all the buy function I don't see the presentation on here um keep going like all the way

463are you looking for one of the slides from the previous earlier okay oh stop right there okay oh okay and then can you go okay now go forward okay keep going sorry okay that's the one I was looking for okay I just need to see it it's what we talked about we talked about that it would increase the deficit by 31.2 million correct and that okay that's exactly what we talked about okay thank you Karen Scott Natalie it's fast I think I have no questions um I'm gonna look at my photos I took Gilbert can you go back to that first ring three percent I think yeah Joel can you go back to the first I think he's wanting you go back forward yeah go back go went back where you were thank you and

464we don't have enough no no you do not because we just uh updated this PowerPoint thank you Karen so where does this leave our projected fund balance as of June 30 24. that's a minute that think that let me make sure I have the right numbers here just a second with that and then the immediate question after that is how many months of reserves do we have as of June 30th 24. okay let's see that would leave our fund balance um I want to be sure hey man I've got the wrong amount just a minute I'm sorry I have so many different scenarios here I want to be sure and pull out the right things it would leave our fund balance at the end of 2024 at 4.4 months okay expenditures at the end of

46520 but at the end of 24.25 it would be at 2.94 months very good okay so the numbers confirmed what we thought it would be yes yes after you ran it very good um Lucas did that answer any questions you had yes I have no further questions earlier and uh I'm clear thank you very good um hearing no further questions I will call for a motion to approve and this is item 5bb if anybody wanted to look up the actual motion I moved that the board adopt the 2023-2024 budget including the 2023 2024 staff Compensation Plan the Board of Trustees reserves the right to amend the 2023-2024 compensation and benefits plan after the start of the fiscal year as required by law or administrative rule or if determined to be in the best interest of

466the district if additional funding is provided by the state legislature is there a second second discussion uh is everybody satisfied that the extra language is what we want exactly okay very good uh hearing no further discussion I will call for a vote all in favor of the motion as presented and seconded please raise your right hand Lucas is your right hand up it is Holly please record that the motion passed unanimously Lucas it is where you are it is now 653 did you want to sign off at this point with your leaving uh coach serebi I think may be leaving as well and um yeah and thank you for this I also wanted to make sure that I heard the other items that we've already discussed so I appreciate the work in our collaboration all

467day today it's been an honor to serve and and thank you for giving us a full day plus some of your vacation time uh give my regards to your family and my apologies bye-bye goodbye okay we will now move to item 4D the administration will provide an oral report on the status of the 2014 and 2019 Bond programs there are no speakers on this topic today the presenters are Matt Morgan Karen Smith Paula Ross is it five days Dr Henry I have 87 slides and I'm talking slow I heard what you said this will not be that long I thought you might I'll wait okay I ran you off Gilbert president Jackson Dr Henry Board of Trustees thank you for the opportunity to provide a brief update on the 2014-2019 bond it's as you know

468I'm sweating through this the 2014 Bond passed in May of 2014 for 1.2 billion dollars this Bond consisted of six phases Space six included Renovations and Elementary 57 in elementary 58. Renovations were complete in August of Elementary 58 contract was awarded in June of 2021 it's now the Sue McMichael McGowan Elementary School and it opened in the school year 23-24 Elementary 59 I'm sorry Elementary 58 thank you Julie Elementary 58 was approved in June of 2021 and will open in the 2023-24 school year as Dr caller Brosnahan Elementary School it's located along Clay Road just west of Fry Road and I believe with the completion of this school this will be the last project in the 2014 Bond the 20 2019 Braun program was approved in May of 2019 for 1.762 billion dollars originally we

469had seven phases in the 2019 bond with phase seven ending in August of 2027. we have taken the phase seven projects and moved them to phases five and Faith six in order to shorten the bond so we are projected to finish phase six in 2026 the reason for this were inflationary pressures that we have been under undergoing since the covet foreign of 2019 and also overlapped into phase six of 2014. we had a lot of projects that were going out to bid that were 2014 bonds but as we got into design on 2019 we realized that we were going to go do the work for the 2014 work and then come back in and tear it out and do the 2019 work so we held those projects back we combined bond funds from 14 and

47019 for more complete projects if you think about it what we're doing in most of the elementary schools is the Safety and Security scope the impact resistant glass at high traffic areas additional lockdown buttons video phones card readers on exterior doors classroom phones exterior door numbering and to date we have we completed the classroom phones in November of 2021 and to date we have installed 7 349 classroom phones so every classroom in the district has a telephone we also hardened the main front desk by adding impact resistant glass creating transaction Windows to provide additional layer of security for our receptionist the installation of security fencing was completed all elementary schools last fall fall of 2022 we also completed several Middle School and High School fencing projects around Portables we'll be completing the remainder of the

471middle and high school fencing around Portables this summer and fall we address class open class security for open classroom concepts by creating PODS of two to six classrooms with doors including Intruder lock sets and impact resistant glass on the side lights this is Emory and Hemingway most of our schools that redone elementary schools all look the same it was a have been great projects if you walk into one of our renovated schools there's not a whole lot difference between the interior of McGowan Elementary and one of our new renovator elementary schools the 2001 Bond phase included Renovations baseball softball Renovations High School band Towers Replacements exhibit Center science Resource Furniture Replacements and prepaid tanks for transportation centers we completed SCI Falls Psy Ranch Cy Ridge baseball softball fields in January of 2021 we completed all

472but Cipher High School band Tower Replacements in 2022 the exhibit Center was completed in January of 2022 it included a 8 96 965 square foot Edition increased The Arena seating capacity from 398 to 1096 new restaurants New dressing rooms an addition of 40 pins this was our 2022 rag show it turned out really well the installation of 18 000 gallon propane tanks was installed in all Transportation centers and this project was completed by January of 2022. phase two included Renovations more baseball softball the new administration building the Visual and Performing Arts Center a new Transportation Center that brought again Center a CTE Edition and Middle School 20. we completed Cy Creek SCI Lakes Jersey Village and Langham Creek baseball softball fields in January of 2022. we awarded a contract for the Vigilant Performing Arts Center

473and the Mark Henry administration building in April of 2021. these are car photos of the construction and going ongoing in the Visual and Performing Arts Center we've got the auditorium seating in we're putting carpeting in finishes are going in the main foyer we anticipate this project to be complete at the end of the summer it includes a 1500 seat Auditorium small theater dance room Visual Arts room and lobby with areas to display Student Art the Mark Henry administration building is complete we've finished moving our last group of Staff in in the last couple of weeks the last groups that moved in with the first floor that would be human resources payroll and insurance so we have everybody in the building the only groups remaining at ISC ISC West are fine arts which will move over

474to the vpac when it's complete and then we also have the tax office at ISU West so this building is about 225 000 square feet includes administrative offices boardroom Digital Cinema Studio and Conference Center I don't know if you remember what this was out here before we started construction but it was a driving range and a large wooded area and this is a time lapse of the construction process and I honestly wish it had gone this fast I'd have fewer grayer hairs Dr Henry wishes to have gone this fast too but it's been quite a transformation over the last couple of years thank you and just like that Dr Henry we're done Jarvis Transportation Center contract was awarded in September of 2021 it was completed in May of 2023 staff has been moving in over

475the last couple of weeks I believe we're going to start running summer routes for the second session it's located on the corner of Cy wood or on Jarvis and Woodsville Lane Boulevard next to side Woods High School it will accommodate 200 buses it also includes a training center for training our drivers broadacom Center Edition was complete in August of 22. this included a 12 000 square foot addition to the existing CTE building to include Labs shops Place shop space along with outdoor space for projects and demonstrations I don't know what this school is I don't know how that got in there the contract for the Roy Sprague Junior AIA Middle School was awarded in May of 2021 and it's scheduled to open for the 2023-2024 school year and well Gilbert left but I can assure

476you that no major modifications have been done to this building after contract award to accommodate Mr Sprague it's located in Bridgeland next to a Bridgeland High School in Wells Elementary and will complete the educational Village site in Bridgeland it's going to be a beautiful facility phase three included Renovations more baseball softball Renovations and a Ben Bradley Center expansion we are all the renovations are under contract and will be in phase three Renovations will be completed this summer August of 2023. this is Bridgeland High School's new baseball softball complex this is Sci Park and this is Cy Springs these are the last three other than Cipher high school that we needed to complete so all high schools other than Cypher High School have brand new baseball softball complexes the contract for the Ben Bradley expansion was

477awarded in May of 2022 and will be completed in the fall of 2023. this includes a twenty thousand twenty two thousand square foot Edition and interior renovation we're adding additional holding rooms more storage for records more office space for officers and a new Dispatch Center phase four includes Renovations which will be complete in 2024 Elementary number 59 the Sci-Fi master plan and the scifare multi-campus renovations and the repurpose of ISC and ISC West phase four Renovations are all under contract and will be complete August of 2024 and we're currently in design on ISC repurpose ISC West and IFC repurpose the cipher Master site frame we got a lot of questions about this one because it is a large project we broke this up into three packages package one was site mitigation package two was a

478Boulevard for massive telge package three were athletic fields and Tennis Courts we're also going to be renovating Lampkin Elementary Cipher High School Arnold Middle School and Maybelline Carpenter Center package one was awarded was approved by the board in 2 February of 2022. it includes a detention pond vaults under a future parking lot that's underground detention vault sanitary trunk line from Masky to tell to the Telugu lift station and this project will be complete in July of 2023. package two was awarded by the board in February of 2023 and we started Construction in March of 2023. this includes off-site mitigation it says 19 acre detention Pond north of Cyprus North Houston it is for floodplain mitigation it also includes a new Boulevard from old Matzke road to telge tie-ins to the existing parking lots of Cypher

479High School a new parking lot above the detention vault student parking lot and a band parking lot substantial completion of the whole project will be December 2023 however the band and student parking lots will be completed in July of 2023 for the upcoming school year package three were the athletic areas we awarded these contracts of the board meeting in March of 2023 it will include baseball softball fields substantial completion on these fields will be December of 2023 it also includes football field the new football field reoriented north-south tennis courts practice fields and substantial completion on the entire project will be August of 2024. the construction on the football fields will start in December of 2023 and the practice fields will be ready for practice July of 2024 and the substantial completion on the remainder of

480the project will be August of 2024 ready for football season then we'll move on to Lampkin Elementary which will be another Elementary reservation which will include our 2019 Bond Safety and Security components a complete Boulevard to Cypress North Houston from the new Boulevard uh relocation of the parent drive to the west side of the campus Cipher High School is currently in design we anticipate substantial completion on that project in August of 2025. Arnold and Maybelline Carpenter will kick off design in November of 2023 construction start in March of 2025 with a substantial completion of August 2026. the contract for elementary 59 was awarded in October of 2022 it will be opening for the 2024-2025 school year this building is located in the Mira Mesa development along Mira Mesa Drive and West Road it's going to

481be a beautiful facility they're making quite a bit of progress out there they're out of the ground they're putting up Steel in Mason phase five or will we include renovations to our the remainder of our elementaries and we'll start getting into the middle and high schools and some of our support support program buildings and we're also going to construct a well that's on page six I'm sorry phase five was the last of the elementary campuses we also get into a lot of support buildings and athletic facilities we started design on phase five last month and we're scheduled to complete phase five by August of 2025. phase six will be the last phase of the bond program and there will be renovations to most of our middle and high schools and those Renovations will be complete

482in August of 2026. we're also going to construct a support services storage building on the Perry Road Site which should be complete in December of 2024. for transportation we have completed the 12-year bus replacement cycle 100 of the buses were replaced and as of March 2022 the existing GPS Hardware was replaced in August of 2022 and that's it has so that has been complete and new bus purchases with three-point seat belts is about 74 complete just a quick note on that we next year we'll be running about 675 buses for our routes we have 762 buses with three-point seat belts so all buses on regular routes will have three-point seat belts our police vehicle replacement schedule we have completed phases one through four purchasing a total of 71 vehicles and we're currently working on the

483procurement of 13 vehicles for phase five and now I will turn it over to Paula Ross for an update on the technology Bond thank you Matt there we go air gap air gap refers to servers or networks that are not connected directly to the internet the goal is to ensure that our Network our system backups are physically isolated from our Network in the event that our network is corrupted or compromised our backup data is protected last year we reported on air gap and we reported that 75 percent of our servers and data were complete were protected today we're reporting that all data has been replicated and this project is 100 complete Hub switch replacement in the event of a network connectivity failure our district-wide network is designed to provide High availability with connectivity to two

484data centers we have geographically defined seven sites within the district that are currently identified as hubs these hubs provide connectivity to both of our data centers the network switches that provide this connectivity to both the data centers has been upgraded with newer Hardware Aruba Wireless the district has a robust wireless network that supports more than 12 000 wireless access points today we've uh with Bond 2019 we have three phases of our wireless network upgrade phase one is the wireless back-end controller which was completed earlier phase two was our clearpass upgrade which was also completed and today I'm reporting on phase three which is actually the replacement of removal of older wireless access points and installing newer ones we have completed about 95 percent of our elementary campuses 50 percent of our middle school campuses and

485about 30 percent of our high school campuses with the back-end Aruba wireless upgrade that I mentioned earlier we were we were piloting something called network access control network access control will provide enhanced security on our Network by eliminating blind spots that are so that our team will have visibility of all devices on our Network our initial pilot for network access control has been running in monitoring mode for a small subset of campuses the next step of this pilot is to enforce these policies this fall at the subset of campuses run it run it that are currently running running in monitor mode this will alert our team when an unknown unregistered device is plugged into our Network replace administrative devices new replacement devices have been distributed to approximately 30 percent of our administrative users the replacement

486of an administrative device is based upon our current five-year replacement cycle Horizon's virtualization this solution supports virtualized desktops and applications we are currently testing the solution in several areas but I would like to highlight two different areas the first is providing students with the ability to execute a more robust software application using their Chromebook device an example of this would be a student using a Chromebook to access CTE curriculum software or digital art normally software applications that require a robust more robust Hardware number two we're providing remote access to our Network in a more controlled and secure manner for example our district supports a wide variety of software applications an example would be HVAC by providing a virtualized access method we can provide the hva support vendor access to his system his or her system

487without additional security concerns foreign data center upgrade did I skip one data center upgrades uh several Hardware upgrades and security focused projects have been completed at the data center level one project that remains is our F5 load balancer project load balancers Aid in the distribution of network traffic across server servers our load balancer environment is being upgraded and expanded to include additional security features to protect applications such as our finance system and our student information system Enterprise electronic document management this project has completed phase one or the scanning phase for documents for the Departments that move to the new Mark Henry admin building we are currently conducting an audit and reviewing each Department's online environment before proceeding to phase two which will begin implementing Department workflow management last is data governance data governance framework creates

488a set of rules and processes for for collecting and using data we currently have identified 19 data domains approximately 40 percent of the identified data domains have been completed including registration and enrollment special education planning projections and res codes attendance and Health Services we're currently working on approximately 16 percent of the identified data domains which include which include bilingual behavior and discipline student assessments and course catalog at this time I would like to turn over the presentation to Todd Sepulveda for an instructional technology update good evening I'm going to share the instructional technology portion of the technology Bond the last year I shared with you that we've completed phase one of the one-to-one project putting 115 000 or putting a Chromebook in every student's hands currently we're in phase two of that one-to-one project which

489is replacing the Chromebooks all those that have aue and aue stands for automatic update expiration we are currently replacing the light speed sound systems in every classroom at this time we've completed elementary and middle school campuses um they they are completed in high school high school campuses are going to be scheduled to start in the fall of 2023. so we're really excited about that we are also I need to move forward here we are also replacing the Promethean panels So currently all levels of English language arts so that's Elementary and secondary have been replaced and we will complete Elementary totally by the end of the summer secondary science we will start replacing secondary science in the fall of 2023. we've also started to replace teacher laptops Elementary has completely been replaced all teacher laptops have

490been replaced a secondary English language arts have been replaced and we will pick up with secondary science in the fall of 2023 and then also every new teacher that comes online they get a brand new laptop as well and then we have the brake fix that is going on ongoing and then lastly the hover cam so those are being replaced as needed and as those go offline we have stock and we're replacing those so at this point I'll go ahead and turn it over to Karen Smith thank you the 2019 Bond authorization has 315 million in unissued uh bonds left after the last Bond sale that happened in April some of the items influencing the interest in Sinking tax rate I'm not going to go over all these particular items but these are all reviewed

491during the bond referendum process and help us determine we use these assumptions to determine what our maximum projected increase in the ins tax rate will be so some of the items that are primarily influenced that are like for example property value changes whenever property values increase then that lowers the interest in Sinking tax rate needed to be able to repay our bonds also one of the things we discussed tonight the underlying Bond rating and that does decrease the amount of our borrowing cost in conjunction with the permanent School fund guarantee also we try very hard to structure the amounts of our bond sales to provide the least impact on our tax rate and then also the optional homestead exemption that does impact the ins side of the of our tax rate of our our property

492values also when possible as I said we try to be careful and minimize what would impact the tax rate but it's important to know that we're required to have an ins tax rate that we must have one that is enough to cover the debt service payments for the current year as you can see here in the 2014 Bond authorization we projected or told taxpayers that we thought we might have as much as a four and a half cents increase in the tax rate uh of course we were very fortunate and with with property values being where they were as well as being careful of the different uh sizes of the bond issuances we were able to actually go down a penny on the tax rate based from what we told taxpayers was a 2014 Bond

493so it was at uh 41 cents and we went down to 40 cents and then with the 2019 Bond authorization we told taxpayers we expected a possible increase of three pennies and so far it has remain it's still at the 40 cents and this slide just reflects that the tax history over the last 10 years and as you can see the total tax rate has decreased since the 2019 Bond authorization was approved by the voters and I believe it's time for questions from any of the teams if y'all have any questions going to my left Debbie Julie I just want to say thank you for the update it's great to see these projects coming to fruition and um and just a note I want to make when we talk about replacing things like technology it's

494because there's a life cycle there's a very short life cycle on that on that technology so the bond uh the life life span of the debt matches the lifespan of the asset and so as those assets are reached the end of their lifespan we replace them and so that was built into the program and that's so that our teachers and our students have the most effective and useful tools in their um in the classrooms so just want to reinforce that thank you Scott gladly thank you for a present for a very excellent presentation that's very thorough next 4E the administration will provide a written report on their Cooperative purchasing fees paid by the district for the 2021-2022 fiscal year questions only looking to my left Debbie Julie Scott Natalie Thank You For Preparing the material

495the board will now review the following action items 5A the board will consider approving the minute to the May 8th 2023 regular board meeting there are no speakers on this item today you know normally when we have two board meetings we move items to the consent agenda in this case we don't really have a consent agenda so we'll be taking these and voting on these individually so may I have a motion to approve this non-consensus item as presented Mr Jackson I move that the board approved the minutes of the May 8 2023 regular board meeting they have a second motion's been made in second year is there any discussions hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion passes Holly 5B the board will consider approving

496the budget amendments for the period of April 1 2023 through June 30th 2023 this is questions only there are no speakers on this item we have all this information in our board book any questions hearing none I will call for a motion to approve the budget amendments as presented Mr President I move that the board approved the budget amendments for the period of April 1st 2023 through June 30th 2023. motion's been made is there a second motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion here and then I would call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly item 5c the board will consider approving a resolution for the commitment of the district's fund balance once again we have information in our board book this is questions

497only there are no speakers is there are there any questions for clarification of this or is everybody satisfied with what was in the board book I believe so I will now entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item I move that the board approve a resolution for the commitment of the district's fund balance motion's been made deserve second second motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly 5D the board will consider approving a list a qualified financial institutions broker dealers investment pools and investment advisors that are authorized to engage in investment transactions with the district this is questions only there are no speakers on this topic once again as I have for each and

498every year I have to recuse myself because I have a conflict of interest because I have an investment in one of the firms which is greater than the amount permitted by law that also means I cannot handle this portion of the agenda item so I will turn that over to vice president heinemann thank you Mr President at this point I will accept a motion for this amendment or for this agenda item a move that the Board of Trustees approve a list of qualified financial institutions broker dealers investment pools and investment advisors that are authorized to engage in investment transactions with the district a motion has been made is there a second thank you Debbie emotions had made a second is there any discussion seeing none we'll now take a vote all those in favor please

499raise your right hand and there is four and uh four and one abstaining Holly thank you and at the end of the board meeting I will present the required affidavit to be notarized and filed as appropriate I received a text message saying that perhaps we did not vote on item 5A the minutes um but it's my recollection that we did Holly and it and it passed item five e the board will consider approving engagement with Weaver and Tidwell LLP to perform construction audit Services there are no speakers on this topic questions only are there questions I have one which is an explanation I requested that we put this item on the agenda our chief operating officer has retired it is considered best practices that when the Chief Operating Officer retires that you have a it's

500not a special audit but it is a I'm not going to use the term of art but it's a specialized area of audit and more than that this is a very interesting audit because there is what I call a reverse audit what I mean by that is the auditor not only looks at what happens here but they go out to the contractor and look at what's in their files this is a you know probably the the best type of stewardship audit that you can have um I did have I did request Karen was it five or six years ago when we had a policies and procedures audit as it related to construction yes sir and and what policies and procedures related to uh there were unhappily a couple of frauds that happened in school districts

501as it related to wire transfers and so the question was do we have policies and procedures in place that would prevent that from happening here and so that audit was completed in policies and procedures were in place that the frauds that were perpetrated could in fact not happen here and that's simply because we don't do use wire transfers but more than that could it be done with checks and once again you have some specialized audit procedures where you check the authenticity of the companies that receive payment so once again A specialized type of audit that's not using the proper audit term but I think it identifies what we're talking about from a lay perspective this type of audit is the same is in the same framework I will now entertain if if there's no other

502discussion yes please um I appreciate very much this um opportunity I think that um you know anytime there's uh such large amounts of money and a large system and a change of guard it's great even as a campus principle activity funds just at that little level it was always an audit and a clean coming in so that people could understand um and I feel uh actually I really feel like it'll be really good um learning process to see this reverse audit section where the the businesses and our system uh the records are there um I actually had a similar request I was going to make and I guess I asked a question what is our procurement Software System what how does all at the procurement contracts for the system I think sorry it has to

503go green there we go job sorry um so we use the district's Financial software to do purchase requisitions and purchase orders for the actual contracts themselves and when we put something out for bid it goes through a company called ion wave um which is there were basically two competitors in procurement software like that ion wave and bonfire bonfire just recently purchased ion wave and then for the actual management of those contracts we actually have a committee working right now to implement a contract management software system right now that's pretty much tracked manually or on Google Sheets yes because the request I have was one now this year and I had a couple of um I was going to do my quest that sort of was like an audit in that way because this is just

504construction but really just trying to understand all the um yeah everything that was procured and the process by which it followed and so I'm going to put the request out in an email I'm not sure if the um if it's possible in the internal system or not and to see how much of that information we could get but I for me in these budget decisions especially if we're going to enter into a committee where we're going to have to figure out if there have to be cuts into the next year I really really want to understand that that fine level how we're spending down at those we get the report that's required by law to say by category um so anyway that's why I was asking I don't want it to be an onerous request

505but I definitely need some information to understand how we spend in our internal procedure so and maybe even the same thing as the superintendents coming in that's that giving them that opportunity to understand how we look in the procurement Arena so anyway I think I'll do about email maybe it's not totally it's but it's in the same vein of this idea of really understanding how we operate financially and and where we're spending our money so um thank you that may be a little hard given that information but we'll see how we can do it Dr blessingale just and Karen correct me if I'm wrong part of this construction audit we'll look at the construction procurement process correct absolutely so we're going to audit that process as well and that's something our Auditors look at every

506year when they do our external audit since that's some of our high dollars that we spend they always pull contracts to make sure that they have been properly procured I had because I've asked for some information just in general trying to understand this and I know that actually the area where they were not companies this is what's construction related and so maybe it's because we kind of have a manual process but that's great a really looking forward to that information that's great I really look forward to the information that we'll get through that audit thank you for proposing that other questions comments discussion I would entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item as presented Mr President I move that the board approved engagement with Weaver and Tidwell LLP to perform construction audit services a

507second motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly 5f the board will consider a resolution approving the district's investment policy investment strategy the investment officers of the district the independent sources of instruction related to investment responsibility for the investment officers of the district and investment training hours once again the information is in the board book there are no speakers on this topic today it is questions only oddly enough in my distant past I was a public funds investment officer so I had to go through all of this training as well as the the different steps are there any questions foreign do we Karen do we have a Prohibition against investing in derivatives yes sir

508we do uh the reason why I always ask that question is about 20 years ago there was a massive loss across the United States where different educational entities invested in derivatives severely impacted the university fund out in California and and the lawsuit was massive uh I would entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr Ms policy and strategy the investment officers of the district the independent sources of instruction relating to investment responsibilities for the investment officers of the district and investment training hours do I hear a second second motion has been made and seconded one other comment I would make we are required as trustees to review the quarterly investment report that comes to us not in the board book but in a separate transmission from Holly motion's been made and seconded all in

509favor of the motion placed signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly we now move to item 5G the board will consider approving a resolution an agreement supporting the application by KMP USA LLC to the U.S foreign trade zones Borden provide a letter of non-objection for such purpose there are no speakers on this topic today questions only any questions on this item once again we have the contract and we do have a bit of explanation in the board book Karen I would ask you um would you briefly explain what this is all about and absolutely absolutely we received a request from KMP USA to uh for us to approve a foreign trade zone and the Port of Houston the Port of Houston Authority requires that um in order to give a foreign trade zone

510that all the taxing entities that it would affect have to actually provide what's called um it's a non-objection letter associated with becoming a foreign trade zone so uh what our particular agreement is is in lieu of taxes we are made whole uh for any lost taxes as well as any lost state aid and they will also reimburse us for the calculation fee that has to be done to look at that typically because they already uh this company already has a Freeport exemption and uh the difference between the two is a Freeport exemption back when the district approved it once you approve a Freeport exemption it cannot be removed so it's automatic if somebody wants a Freeport exemption it cannot be revoked and that's for personal property for goods that are detained in the state for

511175 days or less and it provides a a tax exemption for businesses that store Goods in Texas for sale outside of the state this particular foreign trade zone does require specific approval that the district have to Grant and so what it does for KMP is it relieves them even they're willing to go ahead and reimburse this and make us whole because it they it prevents them from having to pay the duties at the port and excites Federal excise taxes so that's what the request is for and then the agreement that you see there very good I would entertain um I had a question yes go ahead I'm sorry no that's correct that's all right um Karen do we have any other agreements like this yes we have three other foreign trade zones so this would

512be our fourth okay okay thank you other questions Natalie okay uh hearing no other questions I will call for a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move that the Board of Trustees approve a resolution and agreement supporting the application by KMP USA LLC to the U.S foreign trade zones board and to provide a letter of non-objection for such purpose motion has been made do I hear a second motion's been made and seconded in a discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries how they we are now to 5i I don't know that my voice is going to last all the way to the rest well I'll say the board will consider approving a request for the Texas Education Agency low

513attendance day waiver for September 13 2022 and May 5th 2023 in response to the decline in attendance rate at several campuses due to unsubstantiated threats to student safety there are no speakers on this item today it is questions only once again we have detailed information in the board packet any questions or comments make one comment this is an isn't there the school district needs needs to apply for a waiver due to low attendance on a particular day in this case because there were threats unsubstantiated threats made on a particular campus or campuses this is another example of we're being funded by enrollment versus attendance we wouldn't have to we wouldn't have to go through this process of requesting waivers for these specific days just happened I would entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item

514I move that the board approved the district submission of a Texas Education Agency low attendance day waiver for September 13 2022 for Cy Falls High School and a second waiver for the following five campuses that were impacted on May 5th 2023 Lamkin Elementary Reed Elementary Cook Middle School Cy-Fair high school and Cypress Ridge High School motion has been made deserve second motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion on the item hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries on it 5j the board will consider approving the memorandum of understanding between Harris County Juvenile board and Cypress Fairbanks IST to participate in the JJ AEP for the 2023-2024 school year no speakers on this topic questions only we have information in the board

515book and what's interesting is the cost to us on a per child basis that we pay to JJ and when you look at that cost and compare what we've received from the state of Texas there's a tremendous difference if there are no questions or comments on this item I will call for a vote to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move that the board understanding between Harris County Juvenile board and Cypress Fairbanks ISD to participate in the JJ AEP for the 2023-2024 school year motion's been made is there a second second motion's been made in second in any discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly item 5K the board will consider authorizing the superintendent to execute a memorandum of understanding

516with the Lamar University for student teacher placements there are no speakers on this item and this is questions only any questions comments hearing none I will entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item I move that the board authorized the superintendent to finalize and execute a memorandum of understanding with Lamar University for student teacher placements motion's been made is there a second motion's been made and seconded any discussion hearing done I call for vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly 5l the board to consider Health as a requirement for graduation we have five speakers on this topic this evening and Natalie Blackshear will serve as a second I'm sorry blessing game will serve as a secretary for this matter our first speaker is Monica Dean Madam Secretary are

517you ready or not just yet yes okay please proceed I am here to voice my concern again about the health class being a requirement to graduate as stated before tea specifically States on their website that health is not required to graduate but rather a school district may offer additional opportunities for students to select health education as an elective course districts may offer CPR instruction as early as 7th grade in fact the only stipulation tea requires for graduation is CPR instruction some districts that have removed the health course as a requirement have seen a drop in the enrollment of this class why is that is it because families are deciding to take it in eighth grade or over the summer or so their student can focus on more valuable career path or desirable electives like Fine

518Arts or or Athletics it was mentioned at the last meeting that Health was more important than a financial literacy class please show me the studies to back that up the district must make decisions based on facts not feelings removing health is a graduation requirement is about giving students and their families choices in determining their own education path I hope the board considers at the very least not requiring it to graduate so the focus is on the core academic subjects needed to to succeed and allowing families to decide what electives they deem important not the district [Applause] our next speaker is Judy DeHaan our next speaker is Robert Flannery our next speaker is Stacy McDaniel our next speaker is Alexi swarski are there any questions or discussion from the board on this item hearing none I

519would entertain a motion Mr President I move that the boardroom of Health as a requirement for graduation for the 2023-24 school year motion has been made is there a second a second motion has been made and seconded is there discussion on this item hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor of approving the motion as presented please raise your right hand all against the motion as presented please raise your right hand motion does not carry the vote is three to two against the motion as presented 5m the board will consider approving the list of advanced courses for exemption purposes 2023-2024 there are no speakers on this topic questions only is there any discussion hearing none I will call for a motion to approve this non-consensus item I moved to approve the advanced

520courses for exemption purposes for the 2023 2024 school year there's a typo on it okay motion's been made is there a second motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing nuns I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly we're now to 5n the boat the board will consider approving the attached list of facilities for off-campus physical education category one for the 2023-2024 school year no speakers on this topic questions only Linda please explain what category one is and is there more than one category foreign yes uh yes Mr Jackson there are two categories there is a category one and a category two the one that is in our policy is a category one and this is really more of Olympic caliber type

521type activities it it uh uh it is activities that might lead to that type of of uh of action um it it's a minimum of 15 hours per week of Highly intensive professionally supervised that's a big key there of supervised training and the facilities and the instructors are are really their supervised they're not surprised but they're they're evaluated by as we go and we visit to make sure that this is truly it's truly happening and uh the allow the allowment for this really is is that kids can miss one hour per day and they really cannot miss any other classes during that time period very good thank you uh any other discussion or comments on this island if not I will entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move you've image

522list of facilities for off-campus physical education category one for the 2023-2024 school year motion's been made is there a second second motion's been made and seconded is there any discussion hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly 5-0 golly the board would consider approving the navigating life for students who are deaf or hard of hearing and the methods for academic and personal success Maps Innovative course offerings for special education no speakers on this topic questions only once again we had information on this in the board book any questions hearing none I will call for a motion thank you to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move that the board approved the navigating life for students who are deaf or hard of

523hearing and the maps Innovative course offering for special education motion's been made is there a second second motion's been made in seconds it is there any discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand it carries Holly thank you for the assist Natalie 5p the board will consider authorizing the superintendent to execute the renewal of the 2023-2024 interlocal agreement with Harris County for specialized services at the academic behavioral school or ABS West no speakers on this topic today questions only any questions comments hearing none I call for a motion to approve this non-consensus item I mean that the board approved the 2023-2024 interlocal agreement with Harris County for specialized services at the academic Behavior School West motion's been made is there a second motion's been made

524and seconded all in favor PlayStation 5 by raising your right hand motion carries highly 5-q the board will consider approving the renewal of the 2023-2024 interlocal agreement of Harris County for school-based Therapy Services no speakers on this topic the matter is questions only hearing no questions or comments I will call for a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move that the board approved the three 2024 interlocal agreement with Harris County for school-based Therapy Services motion's been made is there a second motion's been made and seconded all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly 5r the board will consider approving a request for our Texas Education Agency waiver that allows the district to train staff on various educational strategies to design to improve student performance in Lewis student

525instruction for the 2023-2024 school year no speakers on this topic it's a matter of questions only any questions do we add Mr President yes um Dr Macias can you just please let everybody know we know what this is for but can you just give us a one sentence explanation of what this is yes earlier um this spring you you approved the instructional calendar for the 2023-24 school year and part of the calendar includes four uh professional development days that are within the calendar and uh the state requires that we submit a waiver to the to them requesting these dates because they also counted us as instructional minutes I will now entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item oh sorry I moved the board approve the request for a Texas Education Agency waiver to allow

526the district to train staff on various educational strategies designed to improve student performance in lieu of student instruction for the 2023-2024 school year it's been made is there a second second motion's been made and seconded all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Harley we're now to 5S the board will consider approving the memorandum of understanding and agreement with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board thcb Texas A M University related to the advised Texas College advising core program no speakers on this topic questions only in the board book we do have a rather nice explanation of what this is although I did have to Google it to make make certain I understood in further detail I'll entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item board approved the memorandum memorandum of understanding

527an agreement with the thcb Texas A M University related to the advised Texas College advising course program motion's been made is there a second motion's been made and seconded I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand done Holly that one passed we're now to 5T the board will consider approving the 2023-2024 illocal agreement with Harris County resources for children and adults hcrca for the services of 19 youth Specialists no speakers on this topic today it's a matter of questions only no presentation any questions comments yes um frankly I know you're way up there so but that's okay you may be able to just shop from there um you mentioned in your earlier presentation that I thought I heard you say that Harris County did agree to to

528sharing 20 youth um service specialists with us was that for this coming school year did I hear what I wanted to hear did I because we could amend myth amend this to be 20 if if we could Harris county is willing to bring on board one additional one to bring us up to the total of 20. yes ma'am I'm sorry attorney Michael she said it's not included in the budget so if I recall it's 40 42 000 no yeah forty two thousand dollars is our share correct and and here's Kelly except 42 000. is that correct oh and we just passed the budget so you're saying we'd have to amend the budget to add 42 000 to the budget I think we're just saying it's not part of the budget and you're correct it is

52942 000. yes 88 dollars the you service specialists are going to be paid out Esser funds that was already planned for previously the additional two or one or two was out of Esser funds correct and so we we have that out of the Esser funds that additional amount that was requested I believe it was one or two this year one okay so we this needs to be a sustainable position so correct Okay so okay well let's hope that in the fall when we amend the budget After we receive additional State money we could consider adding this and take that to amend this then and then this agreement with Harris County would that be possible the last time yesterday we did so we did kind of the same process we did when we got to add

530the 19th one didn't we yes okay okay thank you so I think the number stays I think the number stays at 19. I will entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move the board approved the 2023-2024 interlocal agreement with Harris County resources for children and adults hcrca for the services of 19 youth service specialists motion's been made is there a second second motion's been made and seconded in your discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand it passes Holly thank you 5u the board will consider approving a resolution to join and participate in the interlocal agreement with the Region 5 ESC and authorize the superintendent or designated to execute all necessary documents related to the interlocal agreement listed no speakers on

531this topic questions only do I hear any questions comments so we do this we've done this before but I think it's always appropriate the question is what Educational Service Center are we in and are we using a different ESC than the one that we are part of so we are in Region 4 ESC um The Proposal is to do an interlocal with the ESC in Region 5 primarily for technology purchases we do cooperating Cooperative purchases with our odsc but Paula Ross has some specialized needs which I'm sure she'd be more than happy to come down and tell us about it thank you very much so our Educational Service Centers offer different services and Technology would like to take an advantage take advantage of an agreement with esc5 because they will be offering an internet peering

532service that we might like to take advantage of in the in the future an appearing service will give us a direct connection with Google Microsoft and Amazon web services without commodity internet very good thank you we we often have these agreements with other esc's but always whenever we go out of ESC number four I always like to highlight for the viewing public we have all this information in our board book I will entertain a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr President I move that the board approved the resolution to join and participate in the interlocal agreement with the Region V Education Service Center ESC and authorized the superintendent or designee to execute all necessary documents related to this internet interlocal agreement motion's been made is there a second motion's been made and seconded is

533there any discussion hearing none I call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand and the motion carries on this Holly we're now to five b 5V has already been addressed we will now move to five w the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and are authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item we do have two speakers on this topic this evening our first speaker is Marianne Jackson foreign against using tax dollars for new student devices as a taxpayer for over 25 years in this District I have seen enough harmful effects of Technology on children and the high cost to taxpayers is unwarranted since 75 percent of the families who live in the district do not have children attending Cypher schools I believe our voice matters

534for the past few years I've been meeting with families since I fear and throughout Texas one common denominator with all these families is the one-on-one devices too much information is hidden from parents unscrupulous vendors are slipping in personal surveys and big tech companies are mining students data for profit in Austin I recently shared a pros and cons handout on one-on-one devices I brought a couple handouts with research on this topic for you and gave them to Holly are any of you familiar you're with the harmful effects of Technology on students one-on-one devices have negative effects on the young children need movement human interaction and proper amounts of sleep however excessive screen time affects many children's physical and mental health they do not need to spend most of their time at school on devices then go

535home and be on devices instructional time is being wasted Away by allowing students to play on games and watch videos on their devices families share that their children have failed classes because they chose to play games on their devices instead of completing assignments it is obvious to many Why students are not being successful in the classrooms today it is obvious how harmful materials like pornography is getting in front of young minds Why students are distracted from their school work and why there is an increase in cyber bullying Why students feel isolated and why so many young children are addicted to their devices is that it invest the money in classroom teachers we know okay thank you our next speaker is Jen Williams that's good evening now I started with good morning originally my name is

536Jen Williams and I'm a special education teacher in sci fair I'm speaking today on agenda item 5w18 regarding student and staff devices as well although I greatly appreciate the devices and thank you for funding them for our students they're a huge asset to our kids we all know that teachers are grateful for what you have approved for a raise but we're still underpaid and overworked I mentioned the previous meeting that there is far too much on our plates we're asked to do more and more and more every year well this is an opportunity to lessen our burden please please consider allocating a device for all of our paraprofessionals that work within our special education programs our amazing paraprofessionals who again are thankful and still severely underpaid and often overworked could help collect data in real

537time while supporting our students this will help both the general education teachers and special education teachers while ensuring we are keeping the most accurate excuse me accurate data on our students thank you for your time vice president heinerman would you please read items 5w1 through 5w-22 okay got it 5w the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and or authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the post agenda item we just did that 5w1 art and art and miscellaneous school supplies 5w2 athletic all activities student accident Insurance renewal 5w3 bananas for nutrition services 5w4 commodity processed food for nutrition services 5w5 dry grocery for nutrition services 5w6 Farm to school produce for nutrition services 5w7 fresh and frozen bread for nutrition services 5w8 Frozen and refrigerated food for nutrition services 5w9 fruits and vegetables for nutrition

538Services 5w10 Group term life accidental death and disability insurance renewal 5w 11 hazardous waste disposal 5w12 modernization of elevator equipment at the Berry Center 5w13 multifunctional device copier lease maintenance and related services 5w14 pictures and photography services 5w15 processed produce for nutrition services 5w16 School liability privacy and information security and automobile insurance renewal 5w17 software for star test analysis 5w18 student staff devices accessories and software 5w19 software license equipment services and maintenance renewal agreements and or expansion 5W-20 transport cabinets for nutrition services 5w-21 vending Beverages and snacks 5w22 whole produce for nutrition services thank you vice president since there are multiple items on here the way we're going to handle it is I'll ask a motion to approve I'll ask for a second once emotions been made and seconded I will then ask if any

539board member wants to remove one or more of these items to do that I didn't see things okay so that's how we'll proceed so first may I have a motion to approve this non-consensus item Mr Jackson I move that the board award bids and contracts and or authorized purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item motion's been made is there a second second motion's been made and seconded does any board member wish to remove any one of these 22 items to be considered separately hearing none I will call for a vote on this motion as presented and seconded all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries I I would make a comment conversations with my colleagues we are all concerned about the amount of time that students spend on computers

540the state law does require students to be tested on computers it does require parents to be more Vigilant and it also requires teachers to be more Vigilant I mentioned in the past I visited with with a parent and referred the parent to council and also to technology and the situation did occur where a bad actor was able to be invited into their device via a cell phone that the student had hooked up with the device we did in fact have a lengthy discussion about step additional steps that technology can take to try and keep Bad actors out but I think this is an ongoing Quest by technology the state has indicated these are here to stay and it just requires all of us to be additionally Vigilant we are now to items 5x the board

541will consider denominations for the Region 4 position to have large District member seat on Tasman board of directors in early May prior to the board meeting Miss heinemann indicated that she was going to resign her position from tasby I opted not to put it on to the May board agenda for various reasons we do have it here in June if anybody has an interest please visit with me we I will post this to be voted on in August should anybody wish to take this position um any other discussions comments yes links are interested I'd be happy to share the experience and what I learned in my one year of service on the tassy board and you know the best way to really understand how an organization works is to be a part of it and

542to you know it's just like serving on this board we really understand how a school district works and so I would encourage any of my colleagues um uh to consider taking this on there is one more year left in the term so it would be for one year um and but then obviously could be renewed so um we are fortunate because of our size that we are guaranteed a seat on the tasby board of directors and so I would encourage um uh my fellow colleagues again to consider it and I'm happy to answer any questions our current uh Commissioner of Education served on tasby oddly enough at the same time that that I was 142. uh item five BB the board will consider the adoption of the 2023-2024 budget we have already adopted the budget

543so we'll move to 5 CC the board will consider a level four appeal burden and Tobias of a level three decision which will not be heard this evening this item will be considered during the August 2023 regular board meeting we already had information regarding this in our board packet we will now proceed with the citizen participation portion of the agenda 7A per bed local patrons May address the board during the regular board meeting under citizen participation on any matters of interests or concerns that are not posted or gender 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 today may see the order of names listed on the screen behind me before your name is called please move forward and set

544one of the two reserve seats on the front row we have 11 who signed up however there are two at a minimum two who have already left and so we will take it in this fashion Natalie if you will serve as a secretary for us and this time I didn't give you the last name of Blackshear so our first speaker is Shani adebayo our next speaker is Monica Dean it's already on as another school year comes to close I want to ask each of you sitting up there on the diocese to reflect upon cypheres slogan slogan bringing out the best and ask yourself did you bring out the best for children when you brought in the no place for hate campaign and signed an equity resolution canceled dances and concerts for children especially for the

545seniors of 2020 masked the children after the Mandate was lifted required children to sit in a classroom Mass surrounded by Plexiglas staring at their Chromebooks while listening to their math teacher how about allowing campuses to be made into experimental vaccine clinics or promoting these experimental shots to the community handing out gift cards at the Berry Center did you bring out the best for children by stalking the library shelves with sexually explicit books so innocent children could access them and yet they still remain on the shelves as we speak and online how about allowing an after-school Club to invite a drag queen to speak week did you bring out the best for children by exposing them to harmful material on the Chromebooks or tenets of CRT and lesson plans how about not holding children accountable for

546their grades absences violating the dress codes and allowing little or no consequences for out of control discipline as parents voice their concerns we were shut down Mike's turned off or gas lit for questioning the district for simply wanting answers and what's best for our children so as some of you finish up your tenures put away your Awards and some run for re-election know that you will be held accountable I ask you what Legacy are you leaving did you bring out the best in children or harm them in the process our next speaker is Tamika Donovan this is for Mr President Jackson and Mark Henry my name is Tamika Donovan and I am writing this grievance on behalf of the 35 page letter that I've sent to your boards and that I've sent to your District

547with no response on behalf of depriving my son of his education who's not a dropout never chose to drop out this is not who this kid young man is instead who they chose to make him out to be without a split second of giving themselves the opportunity to know or understand him and the situation instead the choices were made to Gaslight and remain uniform with an excuse ready following a cover-up if the use of a monument stands for something why lie bully and discriminate a child and his family to cause it to be nothing how can Cipher ISD present that they are a monument from the bylaws and the way they're written when the actions cause them to be unethical representing this Monument of nothing slash something my son and all other students has to

548wear these IDs around their necks stating if you feel suicidal call this number however the lead by example cyfair ISD is the negative enforce that's causing the mental emotional impact to inflict the actions of the suicidal decisions for kids for the people that's bothersome if you change the bylaws and add positive force then we will save other innocent lives by stopping the bullying and the mental force from the antagonizing school and their staffs that they're inflicting I'm sorry this that Marvin Ray Washington Jr and his family is experiencing should Open the Eyes to a world unity and most definitely to Cy Fair ISD no one has the right to dictate human beings legal rights [Applause] our next speaker is Mark goleby it's only 15 seconds thank you for this opportunity at a recent event a

549board member made a comment at not seeing this material or a similar statement that left me kind of baffled I can only assume none of you have seen this material and that might be by Design in this way when the excrement hits the rotating air mover you can claim plausible deniability and throw the Librarians under the bus for this vile vulgar material in your sci-fi libraries I'm here to end your delusion you've been headed three examples not only examples of detailed sexual acts but of graphic portrayals of suicide techniques at a time when teenage suicide is unfortunately epidemic you are planting this savagery into the children of Cy-Fair when teachers are being arrested it seems weekly for inappropriate contact with students you are housing books detailing sexual acts with minors details that may prove too

550tempting for an unbalanced adult and too provocative for a young child seeking identity and acceptance yet here on your campuses are these very ideas being promoted at every level of the sci-fair school district some in sophomore thinking like to pretend we voice these concerns because we want to ban books this absurdity can be a dismissed and that no one is asking these books be taken out of bookstores or confiscated from public libraries it is concerned to Define appropriate reading material for young minds in our Public Schools it seems consensus that Hustler magazine does not belong on periodical shelves in our schools and I was unable to load a Kate a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover in the Cy Fair collection it's as vulgar and vile as these books so I would think getting sci fair

551board approval would be easy to be obtained by this willing group of board members finally I introduce to you Mr Bisby just so you know Mr bisbing was given 20 years for possessing child pornography I just wanted to make sure that y'all are aware of this as you've been warm many times of your exposure to the possible prosecution of having these materials you can no longer behind your behind some pretendency you've never seen this content and as teachers are taken away on every increasing numbers you two are not above a reproach thank you our next speaker is Brian Henry our next speaker is Marianne Jackson 40 years ago I began my professional teaching career back then I never thought that I would be attending board meetings or speaking to the public after retirement but here

552I am again I have serious concerns with cyfair's curriculum the reading dual credit English SEL Health sex ed to name a few speaking at board meetings because my local school government governing body isn't protecting children isn't a pleasant situation for me knowing what I now know I just can't sit back and let the insanity continue my heart goes out to families dealing with educating their children so why have I been addressing this board since 2021 in 2020 after the overzealous lockdown in our country I noticed many parents on social media begging for help to unmask children that abuse was dead wrong I will never forget what the leaders in cyfair did to the families over those couple of years in 2020 one voters chose three new CFISD school board members because of divisive declarations on

553the district website and curriculum materials which supported Marxist sentiments now in 2023 principals don't want to remove books with trauma-causing pornography from their schools how did these books ever get into Cy-Fair schools student discipline is out of control dress codes are non-existent childhood innocence seems to be no of no value to District leaders there is a globalist UN Agenda in play in Cypher and it's obvious to many of us parents and taxpayers need to protect the children I use these various helpful websites to help me stay informed texanswakeup.com familiesengage.org and conservative cfisd.com I am one of many community members who won our public schools to improve greatly I'm at I'm against School vouchers and esa's I want our public schools to get back to the basic academics thank you our next speaker is Julie Rex

554our next speaker is Alexi Swarovski our next speaker is Christina Woods for being here so long today thank you for your service I'm here asking for transparency in the selection of volunteer members of The District's Library materials committee Bethany Scanlon wife of trustee Lucas Scanlon was appointed to this committee even though she already already serves on the shack there were 800 eligible committee applicants yet miss Scanlon was chosen to serve by a trustee here's a few of the divisive Behavior she's engaged in on behalf of the district 28 reconsideration book reconsideration requests at middle and at the middle and high school level demanding the names of those that serve on the campus committees that rejected her requests even contacting Ken Paxton's office in order to out these committee members many who are whom are District

555employees co-opting and even stealing the names of pro-public Education organizations and groups holding Community forums with three specific board members serving as panelists as though these meetings are aligned with the district toddler Conte who's a board candidate is the moderator from the scanlon's community forums and was also selected to serve on the library materials committee certainly the board can see how these appointments might look to the public clearly there was an abundance of possible committee members without partisan and divisive Tendencies or that have a Personal Agenda or ideology that they intend to force on the district let's keep CFISD focused on the needs of our students not on the distractions created by adults and finally exactly I would like to thank everyone for being here today and I would also like to thank those who

556are watching from home may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting [Laughter] motion has been made is there a second all in favor raise your hand we're adjourned I thank everybody for being here