Board Work Session | May 4, 2023

001[Music] thank you there we go good evening and welcome to the new boardroom the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees is now convened in a board work session on Thursday May 4th 2023 at 6 PM in the boardroom in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Mark Henry A.D admin building located at 11440 matsky Road Cypress Texas for the purpose of reviewing that portion of the Monday May 8th 2023 regular board meeting agenda designated as action items and to hear designated reports and recognitions posted in the meeting notice as required by Texas law Off Script Mark we really ought to change that and just say the Dr Mark Henry as opposed to Mark Henry Eddie what's you say on the building does it say Mark in the EDD it does back to the script

002I want to welcome the members of our audience and our television viewers to this meeting of the Board of Trustees as the Cypress Fairbanks Board of Trustees we are here to set goals listen to reports approved budgets contracts Personnel appointments and make policy for the district it is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions the management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent we have policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues this is a public meeting the Board of Trustees not a meeting of the public the meeting is open to all who wish to attend and to 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

003meeting by any person including the audience is inappropriate and will be addressed by the board president or the board's Council as a meeting parliamentarian continued our repeated disruption of any board meeting by words or actions may result in removal or loss of the privilege to attend the meeting prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled on the order listed on the notice during the course of this meeting the board May determine that a 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 551.071-551.084 the Texas government code these proceedings are airing live on the district website they will also be available as video on demand on

004the district website following tonight'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 cell phones are turned off or in silent mode and I'm turning mine off right now thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and for your interest in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District this evening we do not have elected officials with us we have no Boy Scouts and no Girl Scouts with us this evening the invocation Pledge of Allegiance vision and mission statement remarks and recognitions the invocation Pledge of Allegiance vision and mission statement remarks and recognitions board comments portions of reports and citizen participation will be presented at the regular board meeting on Monday May 8 2023. at each open meeting of

005the 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 in the order of each agenda item for detailed information and instructions on registering to speak under agenda comments please go to the district website at www.cfisd.net patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order of names listed on the screen behind me before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserve seats on the front row to my Right audience left when you approach the podium and as you can see there are two

006one to my right and one to your left you'll see a monitor inside the podium when it is your time to begin speaking a digital presentation timer will be displayed at the top of the monitor the timer will be set in accordance with the number of speaker number of speakers registered this evening for this evening's meeting there will be a 15 second warning to wrap up your comments that will be corrected to a 30 second warning for Monday's board meeting and we do have a few distinguished guests with us this evening and these are some individuals who who helped make it possible for this building to be here tonight Outsider taxpayers of course who who the largest thank you goes to pbk and team led by Eric Smith are you in the audience and Eric

007I think you have your whole team with you and this this won't happen every night but please stand up you have a nice voice and and please introduce who's here with you this evening us Sarah Stoneman why so and then with Satterfield and ponticus they were the project team for this building Charlie Foote vote rather John Marshall thanks both of you all for being here that this is truly a wonderful evening we will now proceed with items 3B and 3C of the reports portion of this agenda item 3A and 3D will be presented at the regular board meeting on Monday May 8th however we do have a speaker this evening for item 3A item 3A the administration will present an oral report on the preliminary budget for the 2023-2024 school year our speaker this evening

008is Melissa Rao I don't see Melissa maybe she's coming Monday okay 3B the administration will provide a report on the high school health course for local credit presenters Dr Linda Macias and Dr Heather Bertman we have a number of speakers nine to be precise our first Speaker this evening is Sarah Mueller or it might be Sarah Miller and you can correct me when you get to the microphone so before we start how how do you pronounce your last name properly it's Sarah Miller very good we have a new secretary for tonight for the timer but I already went over the regulations the difference is there will be a 15 second notification to let you wrap up Miss Miss Heineman are you ready yes just another note that you will see a yellow light flash on

009the monitor in front of you letting you know when you have 15 seconds left and then at that time wrap up your your comments okay thank you the timer will start when you say your first word okay I'm Sarah Miller I'm a health teacher at Cypress Ranch High School and I've been there for 12 years good evening Health has been a long-standing requirement for students in our district in both in most other surrounding districts I ask you today what purpose would removing health education serve I am passionate about teaching this content because I witness with my own eyes as a teacher as well as a coach the various struggles that our students face daily Health provides students with tools to save the lives of others CPR and first aid are critical in sustaining life until

010medical help arrives regardless of socioeconomic differences throughout our district all students are taught these skills free of charge our students should feel prepared to provide assistance in the situations that occur both in and outside of school in addition mental health concerns and risky behaviors like drug and alcohol are two additional topics I believe are incredibly relevant to our current students if we don't educate students about oh sorry in addition mental health concerns risk and risky behaviors like drug and alcohol are two additional topics I believe are incredibly relevant to our students if we don't educate students about mental health who will Who will help students understand the pathway to seeking help who will help our students understand that seeking help isn't wrong or for the week who will help our students develop coping skills when

011situations arise the benefits are clear and every child deserves to have supportive adults helping them develop these critical skills and habits setting students up to thrive should be the school's biggest priority and the health curriculum should be a part of it thank you for your time our next speaker is Ashley King afternoon today I want to talk to you the board about the importance of health education the health education processes of teaching its students how to live healthy lives by making informed decisions about their physical mental and social health how to recognize warning sides and themselves and in their peers and how to seek help when you need it this includes teaching your sons your daughters your grandchildren the students that you swore to serve by being a CFISD board member I want to share

012some statistics from the World Health Organization the CDC drug abuse statistics and the DEA globally one in seven 10 to 19 year olds experience experience a mental disorder accounting for 13 of the global burden of disease in this age group according to new data in 2021 37 of high school students reported they experience poor mental health during the covid-19 pandemic and 44 they were reported they persistently felt sad or hopelessness in the past year the leading cause of death among adolescents 15 to 19 years according to the CDC are as follows accidents homicide and suicide 70 to 90 percent of out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest die before reaching the hospital youth drug abuse is a high profile public health concern with at least one in eight teenagers abusing illicit substance in the past year and

013lastly the DEA laboratory has found that of the fentanyl lace prescription pills analyzed in 2022 six out of the ten now contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl this is an increase from the previous year of 4 out of 10. these are just some of the important topics that we cover in health and can prevent by health education we try to instill these students that your health is the most important asset without good health it is difficult to pursue your goals and dreams to enjoy life and to be there for the people that you care about learning Health in high school can help you establish healthy habits that will serve you and the people around you for the rest of your life most people have this misconception that it won't happen to me or that

014you can just learn it at home but unfortunately this is happening throughout our district and these topics are not being taught or enforced in the majority of homes I believe that with the health education we truly make a difference in the lives of students of CFISD so that do not become one of these statistics thank you foreign carrier so coach carrier's not here so I'm Brad bierwinkle I'm the uh department chair at Bridgeland high school for health and PE so just a minute okay I'm sorry our next speaker is Brad bearwinkle thank you guys for having us here first of all I am Brad beer and Columbia I'm the department chair at Britain high school for PE and health I would have wrote something down but I'm old and I'm blind and I couldn't read

015the writing anyway so I'm going to have to talk from the heart a little bit here the reason why we're here you know it stems from the the new textbook that's coming out that we're trying to vote on and everything else and we know how worried people are about different words and textbooks and what may be being taught to their sons and daughters and I'm here to say I've been I've been 16 years in this District teaching health and what we cover the topics that we cover when we talk about mental health there's a mental health epidemic with our kids we talk about nutrition there's an obesity epidemic with our kids we talk about Alcohol Tobacco and drugs there's a fentanyl opioid epidemic with our kids we talk about relationships you know there's so many

016words from covid and whatever you believe or not there there are things that are happening to us communication wise that are different than they were three or four years ago and in health it is the only class that we have in high school that covers all these topics we're not here to go to the right or to the left we all teach right down the middle we teach write the we talk about what's what's pertinent what's going on and I just want to assure you guys that a book is 400 pages long we have health for one semester and we can't cover all 400 pages so we cover the very most important topics and those are the mental health the nutrition and fitness the Alcohol Tobacco drugs and the relationships that the way healthy relationships

017that our students should have so health is a great course it's the only course in the uh high school that covers it and I hope that you guys want to keep it thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Jeffrey kachemara and pond did a really good job with that by the way count commander and fonte thank you sir it's long um forgive me I'm not I'm not reading a text message I just text I typed it on my phone because I I've been making multiple adjustments uh it's it's a it's a an interesting conversation to me because uh I stand here as a 22-year veteran teacher 21 years of that I was an English language arts teacher so I've been involved in conversations about the content of text and whether the content of that text

018especially the sensitive items if the uh if the value of the text itself is worthy of teaching if these sensitive items are fall within the context of questionable right so I've had those conversations in english team meetings I've had those conversations with with administrators and board members about if if the text itself is that inflammatory that the actual quality of the material no longer holds value then the text is emitted but no one would have ever discussed the conversation of deleting English language arts from a curriculum in order to protect the kids from a text that could be modified emitted find another text that that matches the the context that the teachers are attempting to prevent sorry to provide without that material in it um I am a father of six four of which are

019going to graduate from Cy Fair ISD um and and to me as a parent and as a teacher it is a unique conversation uh the world that we live in with with increasing sedentary Lifestyles obesity and obesity related illnesses uh in a room of self-medication with prescription over-the-counter and illegal drugs is becoming more rampant uh it just it becomes concerning to me that we would fall within the context of possibly throwing the baby out with the bathwater when everybody in front of us is explaining how how integral health education is to our kids sir your time's expected our next speaker is Kelly Clare sir good evening my name is Kelly Claire and I'm a graduate of Jersey Village High School a 25-year Employee Of The Cypher ISD a coach and health teacher Cypress Woods high

020school as well as a resident of the district I'm also a parent of a current sci fair student and a Sci-Fi graduate thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss some of the concerns tonight with the board and other stakeholders have in the district that have with regards to the health classes being taught at the high school level after viewing last month's board meeting my conclusion was there's a very small portion of the health curriculum that concerns some of the board and other members of the community that Beast being the Hsu it's such a small piece and it shouldn't overshadow the good that comes out of this class we teach about diet nutrition exercise we discuss the dangers of Alcohol Tobacco Vape use since covet our mental health units help students identify signs and

021avenues of support when dealing with a multitude of mental health issues however as a coach the unit that I'm most passionate about is our first aid unit when I taught CPR just last week I asked my classes I said how many of you know CPR and out of all of my classes six kids raise your hand um looking at just one freshman class uh from any one high school we're gonna we're gonna demonstrate and teach CPR first aid AED training through our health classes over 800 students I don't know of another class that exposed to the students those sets of skills that could literally save another person's life in an emergency it seems to me that by eliminating an entire Health course you'd be eliminating a tremendous amount of good that this course provides uh

022I would like to invite all of you the health classes I would whether it be this year next come observe and experience what our students learn throughout the semester day in and day out thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Lindsey Hodges hello I'm Lindsay Hodges I'm a health teacher at Cypher high school and I've been teaching for 23 years here are some of the things our students have said about our health classes at scifare I've realized I'm not alone it has helped me with my everyday life fast food and drugs and alcohol aren't as glamorous as people make them sound I'm okay even when I'm not and I have support I know I can save a life now I wish I understood how much this class would mean to me and I would have

023started paying attention a lot sooner 97.3 of our students remember and recognize all the units Hsu isn't one of them the curriculum we get to teach we get to teach our students allows them the opportunity to learn and better understand their growth and development as teachers as as teenagers excuse me it gives them the ability to explore and navigate through their potential as high school students in a safe environment in our health classes we teach confidence and respect for self and others we dive into setting boundaries and having healthy relationships with family and friends we discuss good sleeping habits the dangers of too much technology and the effects both can have on Mental Health we get comfortable with the idea that it's okay to not be okay sometimes but we also learn that we must

024find solutions for getting better our students learn that Fitness and Nutrition go hand in hand with feeling good about oneself and good habits lead to even better mental health they get a chance to learn and simulate the life-saving measures of first aid including CPR and get the needed practice to perform those measures under pressure we share the reality of tobacco alcohol and drugs not only in the fully developed body and brain of adults but how harmful they are to the undeveloped brain and body of teenagers at the end of a full semester of discovering and learning about themselves in the very basics of how they can exist in life we hope that they walk away a little more confident at being curious at all the great things that they can learn in a school environment

025a little more comfortable and doing the right thing and making good decisions and a little braver when standing up for their values and their beliefs when faced with negative peer pressure our goal as health teachers is to help our students achieve all of theirs thank you our next speaker is Judy DeHaan good evening board members and thank you for allowing me to speak at a recent board meeting to discuss a human sexuality Health curriculum it was suggested by board members to not require the health course as a required credit for graduation I was at Waller ISD board meeting last year where Linda Messiah so it's also in attendance when I um when I was when it was voted to amend their graduation requirements to make their health course an elective thereby allowing flexibility for students

026to seek other electives supporting their interest in college aspirations in 2009 Texas state law was changed removing human sexuality Health as a required course for high school we want CFISD to be the leader as the third largest District in the state yet over one half of the districts no longer require this course for graduation by continuing this requirement it further hinders those who are Advanced who are in advanced level coursework as it is classified as an on-level course the GPA and credit are affected and puts them at a disadvantage in comparison to other districts why is this an issue board members in parents expressed concerns about the inability to adequately review the good heart Wilcox resource material and curriculum bullet points cannot provide the complete content of the 823 page text being used let's be

027clear the teaks do not require but is only recommended as a health course at the high school level or require the use of good heart Wilcox a district May write their own curriculum or use other resources promises were made during the board meeting that revisions would ensue of the GW resource and curriculum yet there was a no accountability process for the Shack or the board to review approved proposed changes parents want to be able to support their children's education as they see fit and that matches with their values board members then offered that they would support a modification of requirement as a required course for graduation because of these concerns the solution is clear students should be given the opportunity to earn other credits or endorsements for graduation that will enhance their academic achievement by

028removing this requirement the board can ensure that the CFISD maintains the a rating for academic Excellence by modifying this graduation requirement this policy will go far in elevating the CFISD graduation thank you very much our next speaker is Holly ashilar and please correct my pronunciation of your last name well I have to admit I'm kind of like the gentleman before I have old eyes and if you can see my font okay on my notes um I signed up on my phone so it's my name is Holly schooler Holly schooler oops laughs hello my name is Holly schooler I am here tonight into capacities first as the parent of three of my own children and then as the parent of the over 300 plus children whose lives I have the honor and opportunity to impact through

029the year tonight I hope to offer the board my unique dual perspective in order to keep the health course in our curriculum as a local credit I think we can all agree that during the formative years teens establish habits and foundations of Health through identifying healthy choices and risky behaviors we all share the same goal health and happiness so the learning opportunities available to them are personally accessible as a parent to my three children I actively discuss with them good choices and bad choices not only the consequences they will face but the impact that those who know and love them will face as a result of their choices I merely plant the seeds check their progress nurture and continue the dialogue and celebrate them as I will my own senior as she walks across the

030stage the 24th of May and into the next phase of her life you know who has also been her parent Ed the seeds checked her progress and is available with the continuing dialogue her health teacher the impact of the curriculum the knowledge and wisdom of the teacher and the discussions in the class reinforce the foundations as we parents initially lay down please do not Rob our children of the knowledge that will undoubtedly Empower them to make the right choices the CFISD mission statement charges us as teachers administrators and support staff to maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing students to be 21st century global leaders leaders not merely participants in life and this is only possible when they are healthy and avoiding risky behaviors I employ implore you let's choose not

031to obliterate this relevant learning stuff please stop thank you thank you Dr Macias you have a presentation for us good evening president Jackson trustees and Dr Henry this evening for your request I will be sharing information about the high school health one course um this course as as you've heard already is a 0.5 local graduation requirement in cyfair ISD before I actually oops before I actually knew anything here let me see there we go there you go before I actually get into into the details of the course I want to make sure that we are all clear about the the setup of this course so we have the larger part of this course is the high school health text that is that is the the foundation the bulk of what is covered in this course

032the smaller portion there that you see is a human sexuality instruction text or teaks the high school texts are required so they're required to be taught they're not optional they can they do not have to be taught in a standalone course but they are required to be taught the human sexuality instruction texts are opt-in as as you know parents decide to opt their students into all or different lessons of that course and in fact the board determines where the human sexuality instruction will be taught in Cypher ISD and you recall I think somebody mentioned just a couple of months ago you are you approved a textbook to be used for the curriculum to be used in the high school health for the text and also for the human sexuality instruction so I have it broken

033up like this because you have held the texts that are required and then you have the opt-in human sexuality instruction it is that is not that is not required it's opt-in but the other is required so I want to give you just a little bit of History regarding regarding this course so in the 2010-11 school year the the health course was removed from the State graduation requirement by the Texas Education agent the school the Texas uh the State Board of Education actually but as I just mentioned the help texts are still required districts were given an option to continue uh providing the course to retain the course and in Cy Fair along with other districts throughout the state and in our surrounding districts many districts chose to keep the course because they already had certified

034teachers that could continue delivering the instruction and the text had to be covered and uh and as I just said it is a 0.5 local graduation requirement now I think you've heard through some of our our speakers today these are the main areas that are actually covered in the health in the health course and I'm going to talk about health not human sexuality instruction because that is separate I'm just talking about the actual Health course and so you have we have mental health and in that course there will there is instruction regarding coping mechanisms uh social emotional environment actions that promote positive negative self-esteem personality time management mental disorders treatments interventions addiction anxiety disorders schizophrenia suicide all of these are the sampling of the topics that are covered in this in this uh unit we've

035got the nutrition and fitness area as well in there they talk about the body composition and flexibility muscular strength and endurance cardio respiratory endurance types of exercises metabolism calorie weight training injuries how you prevent the injuries they talk about eating disorders they talk about diet so lots of important lifetime lessons that are taught in in this area we also have dating and and healthy relationships that's covered in uh in this course so dating expertise Haitians abuse myths regarding dating they talk about healthy relationships and setting boundaries and and they talk about families and types of families they talk about marriage and and child abuse and communication and ways that you can get counseling all of that is covered uh in in this area and and then there's the tobacco alcohol and and uh and vaping

036so they talk about the psychological effects of withdrawal syndrome talk about smoking and and and the harmfulness of that and tobacco and uh and vaping they they talk about um examples of alcohol abuse uh drinking and pregnancy alcoholism they talk about how to get help they talk about peer pressure and how and how you can work through that and how you can support peers as well and then drug prevention you know they talk about drug abuse and and illegal and legal medications uh narcotics they talk about designer drugs vaccines antidepressants antibiotics it's a whole array of different uh topics that are useful to our students now but also in the future in first aid and and in CPR they our kids can be certified in CPR in in that class and in fact I forgot

037to mention this these this picture here is actually former some former students who took health and there was a story about them several years ago because they were they saved a life in the neighborhood pool and they credited that to having the skill set that they learned in health the CPR class and and their opportunity to stay calm and uh and keep everybody calm while medical assistance came to them so I wanted I just put that picture uh in there for them oops and all of these lifelong important lessons are taught with a Texas certified teacher so our teachers take this content seriously and they believe as you heard in the value of this of of this course so I wanted to walk you through a timeline that shows the process that has been evolving

038since the fall regarding our current eighth grade students who at this time are on target to have health high school health as a graduation requirement so if you so if you look at the at the Timeline you can see that this process begins in the fall and in the fall we have a uh a curriculum that's called the advise you curriculum and during this time our students are learning about endorsements and graduation requirements and CT Pathways and electives and they're beginning to work on their four-year plan in January there is parent informational meetings and and the feeder high schools are providing activities and elective fairs so they can know what what courses are out there and course selections and then in March the campus teams and parents start reviewing all of those selections and Staffing

039allocations and hiring begins and the master schedule starts falling in place and in may they finalize Staffing and Master's schedules I share all of this with you because these students have already made their course selections and health is in that four-year plan already and in fact some of our students are rising 9th graders will be taking Health this summer because it is an option to take Health between your 8th and 9th grade year as as a uh as rising 9th graders so all of this is in place now teachers have been hired for the different courses that are need to be selected so with what I just shared we actually have two graduating cohorts at this time that uh that would have help as a graduation requirement one is the class of 25 26 those

040are our current ninth graders and so most of these students already took health so they took Health in ninth grade or they might have taken Health in summer school last year's summer school and some of them have not taken health some of them have chosen to wait to take the Health Credit so they may take it in their 10th grade year or 11th grade year or their 12th grade year there are some that fall in that category and then we have the class of 2627 that's the class that I just showed you the timeline for that group of students some will take Health this summer most will take will take Health next year as ninth graders and then some will take health as a 10th 11th or 12th grade student so I thought you molecular

041information about our teachers so we have about 60 teachers who are teaching one or more periods of Health three of those teachers have only have a health certification they don't have any other certification 15 of them have health and a p certification six of them have health PE plus a non-high school certification so so they can if they don't teach health or PE then they have to either drop down to the elementary or the Middle School level to be able to teach in whatever certification they have and then 36 of them have Health Plus different certifications at the high school level thought you would like a little input with what our high school principals have to say about the course all 12 of them support keeping high school health all 12 of them and these

042are some things that that they that they have shared uh you can see you can see they talk about uh that the curriculum is is is there for Healthy Living and and positive and a positive lifestyle they talk about mental health issues they talk about losing kids to to suicide and drug abuse they talk about their teachers believing in in this course they've shared that they have students who have OD'd and and then the parents in the community have questions about how parents are being informed and how students are learning about these risks and they're able to share with their community and their parents that this is covered through the health class they have concerns about how the scheduling would work we have some courses that are that are that are also have credit but

043not a lot of them this course pairs up with with the pace course they have concerns regarding uh is it are we possibly going to have an excess of PE teachers and then as as has been said already they they feel that that the the health cores uh just being able to get that CPR certificate benefits the entire community so I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have questions let me go to my right Scott Henry thank you Mr President Linda I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind um you mentioned on here on the page four the content for healthy living in reference teaks 2.8 and three and five uh what sub chapter of the teaks are referring to please I need to look that up uh Mr Henry

044and I can have that for you on Monday I think you're looking at chapter 115. because I talked to three different state board of education members this week and asking specifically that question was what requirements and teaks are required for students since House Bill 5 eliminated Health in Texas and they all had a puzzle look on their face and said there are no teaks required for any students in health for Texas students House Bill 5 eliminate that and I said well I see in antiques in chapter 115 Section 1 Section 37 and 38 which goes in high school health classes the only thing it says it does reference the things you're talking about which I believe is what you're talking about we can clarify that later but the thing that they said was a section

045A Stu this course is recommended for students grades 9 through 12. not required however Middle School says required Elementor it says required so you might want to double check that because I did also look Louisville ISD Klein ISD Waller which I think you're at Waller's meeting when this happened but the chief epidemic officer actually said recommended the board that remove for students I have their board minutes agenda to complete high school health in order to graduate this is not a state requirement for graduation provides students more flexibility When selecting their course selections and then I want to go ahead and make a motion that was from June of this this last year I do have the state requirements as well and I don't see help on here as well so that's why I'm a little

046confused on this I also looked at esc's a couple esc's and they all had FAQs on health is not a requirement and that the State Board of Education three people said that 50 of all schools in Texas do not even have health as a requirement um so that's that's my confusion I'm you say one thing but I want to make sure if we get that really clarified to us so we can make a really good decision going forward because if it isn't it takes that's one thing but if it's if you're referencing chapter 115 sections 11 and 12 is not required in a state of Texas according to three State Board of Education members so the text that we have are the ones that are provided to us from the Texas Education Agency and I

047can print a copy of those and have them for you on Monday and the some of the districts that you have referenced um I have talked to as well and in fact we just talked to one this week who is who is eliminating the um the health curriculum but they are not eliminating it for a cohort that has already begun with that curriculum and in fact one of them has actually changed the course that they are are taking I'm looking for diving in here but when I looked at that I've got there's texts that go along with that so I'm gonna have to go back and pull that information for you and the text that that are uh that go along with that course are very much aligned to just the health text that we

048also have but I will get that information for you thank you very much Linda Natalie I just want to start first by saying happy birthday to our colleague Scott tonight a great way to spend your birthday we appreciate you being here and I also want to thank the health teachers and coaches who came you guys are true MVPs and your heart for our kids and their physical mental and social uh health is appreciated um I did have a similar question Linda so maybe when you provide that information Monday I know that I was a principal in Spring Branch when we made when that law came out and we made the decision to make it an optional graduation requirement and I do not remember there being a teaks discussion and having to take those into English

049or science or anything of that nature so I had the exact same question about whether those were really required or not within the change after that code and so I'll look for that answer I'll bring I'll have that for you on Monday because there are standards for the for health so I'll bring that for you on Monday um and I also um I had the question then about my own daughter did pace and health and you know we did that without incidents and we um you know appreciated actually that sequence of a way to introduce kids into our high school experience but I do think that I also didn't vote for the the human sexuality textbook and then the concern was it was going to be in every classroom no matter what so I did

050I appreciate that comment about separating those things out about what what is offered where um so I thought there was some wisdom in asking that question about you know what are um what are ways to look at these things um and then also I wondered about other Innovative courses I went to the TA website just listening at what are other semester courses I know there's a lot of interest we've heard at board meetings about like personal finance other areas of development of young people that might be something that could be offered at the choice of a parent that could also be a semester course to go along with the pace class so I wondered if we've looked at any other courses what we have in our current I know there's not a lot I've looked

051in our current course catalog but what other courses might be out there looking in the TA list of innovative this is not even just other courses just the Innovative courses I see certain CTE things that hit some of these Health mentions that we've had from our teachers today I see some that hit some of the um let's see um actually several in here that that hit at the different areas that are other approved courses that may be able to other ways to teach the content with the depth and then I'm also intrigued by the mention about Advanced you know the advanced credit that's available for certain classes knowing that this does give kids an unweighted option so I would love to see what we have available what might be some other things being offered another

052uh districts in our region that are once one semester electives or Advanced one semester electives and we we have looked at at that Dr blasting game and we do have some courses uh we have other course I should say that that are have credit not just the the pace or the health we have other courses as well we've also looked to see if there are other courses that are not available for ninth grade but for 10th and 11th that we could restructure a little bit so that they might become available as well if if uh if that's what the board chose for us to do thank you I think that's all my questions appreciate it to my left Lucas to all of our health teachers and professionals thank you I hear your heart and uh

053thank you for your time this evening to testify I think my questions have already been answered or actually not answered but asked by my colleagues so I have no questions at this time Debbie I also want to thank all of our health teachers that are president present tonight because your passion for what you are teaching your students and uh what they are learning is very evident in I know sometimes we assume because we consider ourselves good parents and uh what we take care of teaching our kids what needs to be taught that every parent is doing that and that is not the case we have many students I am sure that can benefit from this and not only that but unless your kids were different when mine were in high school they didn't think I

054knew anything and if it came from me it couldn't be right until they got into college and on their own and they finally discovered that you know Mom and Dad really were smart and did know something but I think we have to look at our student population overall and we need to be teaching what benefits the majority of our students and not just a few I question Dr Macias I know the last few years summer school has been free is Health a class that could be taken in summer school that would be free or is there a charge now ma'am right now all everything we offer in summer school is at no cost appearance okay so a student because I believe my my two grandchildren up two of them I believe took it in summer

055school a few years back but you know it's in summer school and it's free so if a parent was concerned about a GPA then uh they would actually if they took it in summer school have a an additional half credit would that be correct that is correct okay okay well you answered my questions thank you Julie um thank you very much for the report and for the information about the course and and I will echo my colleagues it's it's so helpful to hear from the actual teachers in the classroom as to how you feel about the course and about how you feel about the value for your students because you're the ones in the classrooms the kids every day and so you get that immediate feedback I'm assuming from your students about whether the information

056is valuable relevant and um um and impactful so I appreciate your sharing your perspectives um speaking of relevant valuable and impactful when looking at the list of teaks that are covered through the high school health class um I I uh Mental Health Nutrition and fitness dating and healthy relationships tobacco alcohol and vaping drug prevention first aid and CPR these are all topics that are incredibly value valuable for our students to learn as a parent just as Debbie mentioned it's it you know we do our best to teach our children but it's so helpful when the when that teaching is reinforced at school um there may be some kids who don't receive this information at home but even if they do it is very helpful for them to hear it again or to hear a different

057Source or to hear their peers share information stories um to so that they can really support each other and support what's being taught at home by the parents so I definitely see value in that um if these I guess there's a question that teaks are actually uh or texts are actually required or not if they're required by the state and and these school districts are not teaching a health class they have to be putting these somewhere else so it's going into do we know where those where it's going into in other school districts we asked that question and it was very vague we surveyed some school districts around us and it was very vague as to where those um texts might be placed some of them said some would some would go into PE but

058the PE techs have changed as well and they're more robust so it's pretty pretty packed so that would be a challenge as to finding an alternative place to put those teaks if they are required by the state okay thank you for answering my question you're welcome as always thank you for a good thorough presentation I too appreciate teachers coming here to speak Lucas I heard things differently I heard questions asked and I heard questions answered uh so I would disagree with your characterization that you're waiting for answers to questions that were asked that were not answered I take a little umbrage at your response but we all have we all get to say what we have to say right and you said what what you wanted to say in that regard uh listening to what

059you said Natalie it appears that you did in fact find where some of those takes might be covered in other areas but but we'll see I know Scott just your your assertion is that these are not teaks that are required and and we'll say to uh whether or not tea actually requires these uh we do follow what tea requires us to do and and of course that that is in fact on the agenda tonight that's an item that we're covering so knowing what what's required to be covered and then actually covering it is also very important beyond that I have no other questions well I do have one you said you have surveyed other schools do you have a list of schools that require uh health and those that do not for local credit I

060I do I'll share to Mr Jackson that I'm going to actually call the TA to see if maybe I missed something regarding the the requirement of the of the text so I'll do that before Monday as well so we start we we got information for a number of schools um Aldine is one that that has had it and is keeping Health as as a course um Katie also has Health as a course and it's based on what we learn from them they're going to continue that as well Spring Branch is also one that is keeping Health as a course we did we did a note that right around us Klein as I think somebody shared is is uh not keeping Health as a course they're looking to embed the the text there they've told us

061they're looking to embed the text in other areas some of some of these schools provide the health the health course in seventh grade which is something you said Mr Mr Andrew I'm going to actually do it in seventh grade but they're looking to see how they can provide or where they're going to embed the uh the text um in there Tomball is uh has removed it as as a course but they are going to continue for the cohort that has or that already has start or have already has taken health or some have and continue that until that cohort graduates um and again they want to make sure that they have it they don't have a GPA disadvantage in there as well so they're just some of the ones that we we contacted spring branches

062is uh does not do it they they cover the text through um some through PE some to once a week some through guidance and counseling and some through advisory there wasn't one that we contacted that didn't say they were looking for a way to cover the text Linda a question about GPA if everybody takes a course does that put any student within our district at an unfair competitive Advantage no it does not uh within Texas is it on a class-ranked perspective or is it on a GPA perspective with GPA GPA and class rank is all within a school it's not compared to another district is that even compared to another school like from some of cyfair sci fair has 12 high schools and each one of them one of them has their class rank within

063that high school not with other schools well then we actually had that conversation a number of years ago when we did away with the Mastery concept that was a pilot at Langham Creek I know parents at other schools felt that the students at Langham Creek were given an unfair Advantage by uh Turtles being able to make grades that rabbits make I know parents who I'd never met before from Langham would stop me routinely to say thank you for having Mastery because their children needed just a little more time I know all about it my sons was an undiagnosed dyslexic he can do the work but it typically took him about twice as long as anybody else he was a first-class turtle and still is a pretty first-class turtle um so for the GPA it is

064always a concern for a parent but I don't know that it necessarily measures up from a College admission perspective if we talk about the military is that a concern for the military the GPA right or do that or does the military have their own tests that they admit military has their own tests that that they administer the ASVAB test [Music] you know something I brought up my rookie year is as a trustee and I've always wondered about it one of our neighboring districts actually gives k-level credit for fourth year participation in band and Orchestra but also in JROTC and also in athletics um and I know that we parents at that time felt that Dave Klein students an unfair advantage over our students here in sci fair because they could have higher grade grade point

065averages if their students were in those four-year programs but also know that I tattered with admin about it and admin told me it wasn't an issue but I was never convinced that it wasn't an issue uh I think my view now is is entirely different than it was at that time the I do like your point Natalie about having additional classes that could be innovative I think that that is something that we need to have an eye for going forth I don't know if it's a single semester or a full year I I've brought up before numerous times that when I was a junior in high school my school board decided that technology was the wave of the future and many people grumbled and moaned and they said jobs that are available today will not

066be available in the future and so they required us all to take a course in programming now it was very rudimentary but by the time I made it to college it stuck with me that this was in fact important and I learned multiple languages I probably should have picked up Spanish or French but instead I I probably learned five different programming languages but it was because of what the school board did when when I was in high school so so I do see that as very legitimate trying to see where should we be going but of course the challenge is who do we find to teach those courses as long as we're on that point I am proud to say that we finally brought robotics back you brought up Innovation my son and he graduated

067in 2000 when he was in Middle School took Robotics and coding in middle school and as part of the cutback those courses all went away and and finally we've been able to add add those back I heard Natalie you have a follow-up question and then Julie you mentioned you have one so Natalie your first uh thank you Tom wow the Mastery issue at Langham was before my time as a Langham parenter on the sport and I would definitely like to have that conversation I think that is an incredible direction for kids in our schools and so I'd love to hear more about what we did how would why it didn't proceed and how that conversation could be continued because I do think the um the GPA game and all the ways we learn for the

068moment and especially given after the losses after covet and all the digital learning a lot of the research is showing that kids aren't retaining the learning done in that way and so I think the Mastery concept is amazing Linda my question is there's I think there's three distinctions in a class not two so we have keep as a course so for example Aldine and Katie and Spring Branch ISD they're not requiring it I know as a fact because I was there as a high school principal when we made that decision so you're saying to have it as a course offering versus when you said Tomball removed as a course because to me there's another option which is just that it is a course offered maybe one even a lot of kids take because it's got

069incredible value in their physical mental and social health but right now as it is exists in cyfair it is a required course is that correct for every freshman that that is correct Dr blasingame and so some of these uh as I said districts have kept the course some of them have removed the course some of them have made the course an elective how many of them have it as a required course for all freshmen in the district do you know that as a graduation requirement for all between Katie Aldine Spring Branch Katie we asked if it's required for graduation and the answer was yes so that may be the only one that has a graduation requirement I mean there may be others out of the ones we asked yes yes so that's what I guess

070about Katie Katie shared that yes it is a graduation requirement some of them shared that uh they have it as an elective that really I guess I guess my question would be if it's an elective that's a choice right kids get good to choose if they if they take that or not but if the texts are required they're going to be embedded somewhere else so they're going to get in their elective and they're going to get it somewhere else yeah so I guess that's my my where I S why I asked the question is because if we have content I want us to be the best choice for every parent and especially in an increasing environment of choice I want a hundred percent of cyfair kids that live in our district come to our schools

071because we're the best option so if it's a required course with content parents are on on uh are not settled with or they don't want their kid to have to be required to take or have exposure to that is why I asked the question because the course uh like I just said my own daughter had incredible value for my child um and I made that but it wasn't a choice but if I now have content that I'm not comfortable with that's the that's the the rub for me is this place where it's an absolute requirement and I don't know that you know that's not really the way I know it is in Spring Branch as an example that you gave so that's why I asked the question and just on a side note this whole

072idea of a fourth year k-level Athletics option or band option I think that's really cool I'd really like us to have that discussion as a presentation really in our GPA how we do that what we've done different over the last anything we've changed any Master anything we've tried to see how we could really look at the graduation especially since we'll hear about a portrait of a graduate and really finding how do we use Innovative courses and how do we use our course schedule our course plan our graduation plan to develop the kind of graduates we're looking after in innovative ways so I really appreciate I look for that information on Monday about those teaks because I think a lot of this hinges on are those teaks really required and where and then that would be

073you know that's some information I definitely want to have so Dr blasting game the The Districts that we found that are keeping it as a requirement are all Dean spring Katie and Houston ISD and I was looking to see where where the teaks were and uh Mr Andrew I'm not sure if you mentioned but it's in chapter 115. and then the other thing is it just hit me is at the State Board adopts when they adopt textbooks it's for teaks required courses and so they adopted a textbook for health as as you know so just a couple of comments about that Julie you're next um I actually didn't have a question but since now I've been given the opportunity to talk um just to follow up on your uh comments uh Natalie we will continue

074the conversation about how we calculate GPA we've had some preliminary conversations about um changing the way we calculate gpas um and um we'll continue those conversations the they those it requires a lot of thoughtful consideration as well as you can't start anything right away with a with a group of kids you can't say starting now we're going to change our GPA process you have to because those gpas start to be calculated as 7th and 8th graders and so as we continue those conversations with how we calculate GPA moving forward we just need to be very thoughtful and concerned about how we do that and and I look forward to continuing those conversations with Dr Macias Scott thank you Tom thank you Linda for verifying the information chapter 115 which again I confirm with three different

075state board of education members you can call the TA as well that is not a requirement for for teaching any kids in the school district so again I just want to make sure we have clarification so we know going into it we have good information because if we're have to do something we when you do that especially since we're certifying that later I will make that I will make the call to verify yep just get that clarified because again I did did call on that to verify that because if you look at subsection uh one 115.38 and letter a and I have a printout here if you'd like to look at it um it does say it's recommended not required and again it's um the idea here is not to get rid of help it's

076just to give students more options and credits for other things I looked up earlier uh there's a bunch of AP courses that kids can take now that are half credit courses that would be a great option for a lot of kids again not not mitigating or saying anything's bad about health I think it's a great course but just giving kids flexible and options for parents out there so thank you for looking up Linda thank you very much thank you any other comments questions to my left yeah I just have one Lucas uh and addressing your comment earlier um I think the question is related to exactly what we're discussing just now which I heard at the beginning of the conversation that Linda was going to follow up and determine whether or not text was a

077requirement so I'm also looking up I went to the website and as you said Scott and reading from a general requirement students shall be awarded one F credit for a successful completion of the course this course is recommended for students in grades 9 through 12. it says this course so I have a remaining question that I'm looking for Dr Macias to answer whether or not the texts are required Mr Henry thank you Mr President and trustees and and I hear all the conversation required recommended uh I I get that we should know whether it's required or recommended but are they the kinds of things that every young person should know entering adulthood Mental Health Nutrition and fitness dating and healthy relationships tobacco alcohol vaping drug prevention first aid and CPR the exact things that are

078being taught that that most of our kids that have trouble fall into and we're not going to be part of the solution we're just going to say go take a financial literacy course or take some AP course these these need to be taught because we can't guarantee in every home that these are addressed and yes there's ways to opt out of of some of these but these These are fundamental to good young citizens though I mean it it doesn't matter if you have financial literacy if you're on drugs or you're obese and you've never you've never uh talked about it or studied that so I I am totally on board that we ought to keep the curriculum whether it's required or recommended thank you [Applause] 3C the administration will provide an oral report on the

079work of the portrait of CFISD graduate advisory Council the presenters are Roy Garcia and Dr Glinda Horner we have two speakers on this agenda item this evening our first state speaker is Deborah Edwards to the Board of Trustees I am Deborah Edwards and I was a member of the portrait of the Sci-Fi graduates advisory committee I was the only person in my feeder pattern who voted against the proposed changes I do not believe that the portrait of a cyfair graduate needs to be changed in any way the original document addressed a skill set that will never change listening speaking writing reading Mathematics and Technology the proposed document does not address a education at all the proposed draft based in part from information obtained from Sonoma County California and Fairfax Virginia portraits of graduates require a

080student to have such traits as curiosity Integrity resilience empathy and communication nothing was mentioned to the committee that incl included the ability to read write and reason Cypher isd's job is to educate students not to teach them how to feel the only thing about the original document that stayed the same was its name in the proposed draft was its name portrait of a cyfair graduate one of my favorite scriptures is Matthew 18 and 6 and it says but if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a large Millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea now since I got 28 seconds left before I take my seat and say good evening I just want

081to say one thing I have always been psycho scifare I have grown children who came up under the portrait of a cipher graduate who know how to read write and reason and I want that from every child no matter what economic background whether they're blue green gay straight or upside down they need to know how to read thank you all [Applause] our next speaker is George Edwards the Board of Trustees the superintendent District staff my name is George Edwards Jr and I was chair of the South fair ISD diversity committee that was commissioned by the Board of Trustees in the early 90s to deal with diversity and standards for students performance the original portrait of a sapphire ISD graduate came from the diversity committee importantly the original portrait of the South fair ISD gradual was

082homegrown it was created and put together by sci-fi ISD residents the portrait outlined the academic and citizenship characteristics we want all of our side fair ISD students to post to possess upon graduating from side fair ISD the portrait was approved by the Board of Trustees the currency of the 21st century is knowledge the portrait was designed to be an evergreen document and if you compare the characteristics shown in the futures of jobs report showing the top 10 skills for 2025. to the characteristics contained within the original portrait of the software ISD graduate you will see that they closely match in closing I would encourage the board to maintain the original portrait as it truly represents the characteristics that sci-fi RSD graduates need to be responsible and productive citizens of society thank you thank you we

083now have a presentation from Roy Garcia and Dr Glenda Horner thank you Mr Jackson just quickly I want to just share and then Dr Glenda Horner will begin the presentation we've got several members of our committee that will present the work that started back in uh mid-march and just want to give you an opportunity to to take a dive into what we did do and everything associated with that and then finally come to the the recommendation and our proposal and moving forward with the portrait of a Sci-Fi graduate so with that said Dr Horner thank you Mr Garcia president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry this evening we will provide you with a report on the work of the portrait of a CFISD graduate advisory Council as you may recall a district-wide survey was

084conducted last spring and sought feedback from a randomized sample a parents community members and staff Elise and Associates worked with our technology department to distribute the survey in batches by ZIP code to parents community members and staff not only did basilis want to ensure a geographic representation of the district but also a demographic representation including representation by ethnicity economically disadvantaged and at-risk indicators based on results from the survey two ad hoc committees were formed portrait of a cfic graduate and opportunity for all both committees launched this spring this evening we'll focus on the work of a portrait of a CFISD graduate advisory Council the charge of the council is twofold first to review the portrait of a CFISD graduate and determine if modifications are warranted and secondly to develop a marketing rebranding plan for the

085portrait of a CFISD graduate Mr Roy Garcia and I serve as facilitators for the group the membership structure includes trustees as facilitators we collaborate and consult with the advisory Council coordinators to include Dr Linda Macias and Mrs Debbie Blackshear as well as each as we plan each meeting trustees Dr blassingame and Mr Scott Henry attend observe and participate in the meetings the council membership includes representatives from the 12 High School feeder patterns accounting for 83 percent of the council's makeup additionally 17 percent of the council's comprises key central office Department Representatives those who desired to serve on this particular Council or committee 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

086groups include representatives from our 12 High School feeder patterns and central office Representatives the selection process included the following considerations first we began by reviewing all submitted applications we noted duplications across committees as some applicants also applied to serve on the committee for opportunity for all we wanted to make certain that we were formed as those committees were forming at the same time thirdly as we began to determine membership we created a High School feeder pattern table to ensure that all 12 High School feeder patterns were represented and all stakeholder groups were at the table next we noted single applicants in a category and included them automatically next we noted two or more in a category then we looked for diversity of experiences and reasons for applying to make the final determinations and finally if

087there were no applicants in a particular category we reached out directly to our high school principals and middle and high school middle and elementary principles as well and colleagues to encourage applicants to apply because we wanted to make sure that all feeder patterns were equally represented if you serve on the council would you please stand and be recognized we realized that time is a precious commodity and we are grateful that you have chosen to invest in this work thank you with the backdrop that launched the work of the group in mind local business owner parent and advisory council member Mr John koreshi Mr Sean Qureshi will share with you what was accomplished in The Advisory council's first meeting thank you Glenda our full advisory Council convened on March 21st for the initial kickoff meeting as

088a first step in coming together as a group we adopted five Community agreements that were guide our work and best ensure that all voices were heard throughout the process members agreed that we represent others in our work consider our stakeholders and not solely our own interests every voice is important listen respectfully even if you disagree with the idea we can say whatever we need to say but we should do so with kindness we should seek first to understand and then to be understood and finally our goal is to build consensus in other words we must strive to achieve a mutually acceptable level of agreement necessary to move ideas forward at the March 21st meeting We examined three key pieces of information the futures of job report feedback from the first from the CFISD stakeholder survey

089conducted last spring and the current portrait of a CFISD graduate we first reviewed the future of jobs report the world economics future of jobs report seeks to understand the current and future impact of key disruptions of employment levels skill sets and recruit recruitment patterns in different Industries and countries it does so by asking the Chief Human Resources officers of today's largest employers to imagine how jobs in their industry will change over the course of the next five years specifically what do these individuals perceive to be the soft skills needed to enhance interactions career prospects and job performance the report is published every five years the skills in these time segments represent the reports published in 2010 2015 and 2020. we discussed the skills trending up down and emerging we noted that according to the report

090the projection for 2025 is that skills demanded in the workforce will grow increasingly more complex for the first time complex problem solving fell from the number one spot while resilience stress tolerance and flexibility emerged interestingly the latest report was published in October 2020 several months into the pandemic we began to imagine how even more complex skills might become as we look towards 2030. the second key piece of information the group considered included results from the 2022 spring survey respondents were asked several questions about the current portrait of a CFISD graduate the first question we looked at allowed the respondents to provide an open-ended response to the characteristics that they felt best described a successful student who graduates from one of our high schools and we also looked at a question that asked the respondents to

091rank the five portrait characteristics here's a representation of the data collected from the question blue represents most important and gold represents next most important parents ranked competent Problem Solver as the most important while community and staff ranked responsible citizen as most important both groups indicated effective Communicator was the third most important characteristic finally self-directed learner and quality producer ranked fourth and fifth respectively amongst the five traits the final key piece of information We examined was the current portrait of a CFISD graduate we were provided a brief history of the current portrait we learned that the original portrait was created in the 1990s by a committee of dedicated individuals like ourselves the original document features five traits or soft skills initially the document was widely utilized in the classrooms and with students however and to no

092fault of any individual the focus of the portrait faded over time table groups noted that while which traits that they believed remained relevant and those that no longer seemed as relevant as you might anticipate naturally the group began to see connections between the key pieces of information as we move toward closing out our first meeting we documented feedback in the chalk talk activity that would be used to help inform the next steps in our process the chalk talk allowed all voices to be heard as a process to pose questions to individuals for written responses because it was done in complete silence it encouraged thoughtful contemplation ultimately the group came to a consensus and determined that modifications to the current portrait are warranted as a final action a writing team was formed to begin to draft

093modifications to the current portrait the following were selected by their respective feeder pattern or central office Department to represent them on the writing team our committee's facilitator spoke at various stakeholder meetings after our first advisory council meeting they informed each group of the advisory council's work beginning with campus principles and various other district and campus administrators followed by the district educational Improvement committee the deic includes 93 teachers representing each campus District level staff parents businesses and members of the community including Community leaders the information was also shared with the superintendent student leadership advisory Council which included student leaders from our high schools their final stop was speaking with the various stakeholders represented on the community leadership committee all along the way stakeholders were asked to respond to a simple single prop if you have mentimeter

094the question what is an essential soft skill or trait of a successful CFISD graduate this allowed respondents to reply with up to five traits in all over 400 voices were heard and the information gathered helped them inform the work of of our group next Mrs Meredith Akers parent Community member Elementary campus principal and product of sci-fi ISD who will share with you some of the work in which the writing team engaged John following our first meeting as a full advisory Council the writing team gathered we centered our work around the greater group's recommendation to modify the current portrait of the CFISD graduate we knew that we represented others in our work so we carefully examined all of the feedback received thus far and looked for avenues that allowed us at the same time to maintain

095the intent and spirit of the original document we broke into smaller groups the writing team broke into smaller groups each group examining either the feedback and input from the chalk talk the stakeholder feedback from the mintemeter survey or exemplars from other districts one of our smaller groups examined the feedback and input are fellow advisory council members offered in response to four questions posed in the chalk talk because there were multiple sets of the same questions posted around the room the feedback from each was compiled into a single document for easy viewing one of the questions posed what squared or agreed with something you already knew yielded such responses as resilience and Stress Management are essential to success and we need to be speaking in modern terms that our students understand and find relevant another question

096asked what are you seeing from a new or different angle this yielded such responses as hard skills are virtually useless without soft skills and how much the world has changed since the original portrait was created another question asked what is still circling around in your head to this question council members added responses such as updating the language based on the evolving times and how much harder more complex and more demanding it is to be successful today and finally to the question in what direction should our group go respondents added such things as make the portrait less wordy and more inclusive and focus on developing students who can adapt and persevere another of our small groups reviewed the responses from the mentimeter survey question what is an essential soft skill of a successful CFISD graduate responses

097reflected over 400 stakeholders who were each given the opportunity to share up to five traits their responses were fed into an Excel spreadsheet and synthesized into a word cloud formation a word cloud also known as a tag cloud is a visual representation of words Cloud creators are used to highlight popular words and phrases based on their frequency and relevance the word cloud provided another of our small groups with quick and simple visual insights that led to more in-depth analyzes using the generated Excel spreadsheet allowed for deeper analysis the smaller group reviewed and combined the data into one column that listed a number next to each characteristic then the list was sorted alphabetically and some words were renamed to common word stems for example words such as communication Communicator effective communicator and effective communication were all

098renamed as communication next the group created a pivot table a pivot table is a powerful tool to calculate summarize and analyze data that lets you see comparisons patterns and Trends in your data from the generated list we could easily see that survey responders were at minimum twice as likely to indicate communication as a necessary soft skill the third small group examine portraits of a graduate from across the country through our exploration we gathered potential marketing ideas and ways in which other districts incorporate their portraits of a graduate into classrooms across the districts and even into the Greater Community we were drawn to the simple Innovative eye-catching designs the intentional use of the pronoun you and yourself in several of them and a focus on student-friendly language in the description of identified traits are smaller groups

099then came back together as a full writing committee to debrief our findings as our evening approached a close we compiled a list of traits that we discovered within the shared findings then we were given five sticky dots each to use as our votes for the traits that resonated and reverberated within the feedback from stakeholders we were reminded that we voted the way we voted was to reflect the greater groups we represented and not solely our own interests and our own experiences our votes revealed the traits that would serve as the basis for a modified version of The District's portrait of a CFISD graduate the top traits included curiosity integrity resilience empathy and communication next Jonathan Gutierrez who is a Community member a product of CFISD and serves as a high school assistant principal will share

100how the writing team proceeded from here thank you Meredith our riding team returned a week later and picked up where we left off we brainstormed and envisioned what our end product might look like and sound like in our conversations organically we developed our own original structure that would help us stay on course and best ensure that a Common Thread would connect each trait the written structure that our writing team designed includes a hook or attention grabber a sentence describing the trait with the student cast as the hero and a brief final sentence meant as a launch or call to action again we knew that we represented others in our work so we framed our ideas around the feedback received thus far and looked for avenues that allowed us at the same time to maintain the

101intent and spirit of the original document using the agreed upon structure we broke into small groups and divided the five traits among ourselves to begin drafting descriptions after each small group completed a draft of their assigned trait we came back together shared what we created and continued revising each description always ensuring that the descriptors carefully followed the agreed upon structure structure we designed for the purpose as we closed our meeting we made initial plans for sharing these drafts with the full advisory Council a week later on April 17th we came together with the full advisory Council for the purpose of gathering feedback around the modified portrait of a CFISD graduate that the writing team had drafted the larger group followed what we call the feedback carousel several copies of each of the five traits and

102their descriptors were posted around the room council members moved at their own pace and provided specific written feedback on flip chart paper posted beneath each trait the next evening the writing team gathered again the feedback gathered the evening before was then compiled so that our writing team could discuss and revise the statements as a team we carefully reviewed the feedback while we appreciated the many accolades and positive comments that our fellow advisory council members provided we narrowed our Focus to constructive feedback because we wanted to improve our draft before tonight's presentation we met again with the full advisory Council and shared our revised descriptors next Abby gave ushausen will share a recap of that meeting she serves as a Communications specialist in the Communications Department is a member of the CFISD community and is a

103product of scipher ISD foreign thank you Jonathan we gathered with the full advisory Council on April 26 via Zoom the platform allowed us to capture feedback from the group using the chat feature the meeting was structured so that we could highlight the changes made to our first draft and show how we responded to the feedback we received as we shared the chat feature allowed us to gather in the moment feedback from our group take a moment to review some of the feedback they offered foreign excuse me after reviewing and responding to the latest draft of the modified portrait The Advisory Council reached a consensus and turmined that we were ready to report the group's work thus far and as we've recounted for you this evening the work we engaged in has far-reaching potential to influence

104and shape our district we are both humbled and honored to be part of this work we realize that when our students succeed we all succeed and yet the future will ask more of them than it did of us so we set out to discover what soft skills and mindsets today's kids need to succeed After High School we gathered feedback from hundreds of stakeholders and asked them which traits are most important for cfic students like The Original committee that gathered in the 1990s we worked collaboratively to ensure the modified portrait will enable graduates to live meaningfully and successfully in society and the workplace it's an essential vision of where our students are headed and how our district will follow as we shared previously we centered our work around the greater group's recommendation to modify the current

105portrait of a CFISD graduate we know that we represented others in our work so we carefully examined feedback received thus far and looked for avenues that allowed us at the same time to maintain the intent and spirit of the original document with this in mind let's take a look at the modified portrait of a CFISD graduate curiosity dare to wonder no matter your interest explore Limitless possibilities and bring them within your reach discover your creativity and dream big integrity be honest and trustworthy when faced with a tough decision choose to be the best version of yourself at home on the job and out in the world have the courage to do what is right even if it is not easy or popular resilience learn and grow from challenges even through failures or difficult circumstances persist

106and adapt to find new Solutions choose to learn from every experience advisory council members saw comparisons to Quality producer incompetent Problem Solver from the original document they also noted post-pandemic that resilience is of even greater importance empathy think of others and how they feel despite our differences seek to understand those around you and see the world through their eyes look for opportunities to serve and support advisory council members noted that empathy is something that's needed to be a responsible Citizen and effective Communicator they also noted that empathy and responsible citizen are both about how to accept and deal with diversity foreign 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 greater

107group shared that this trait Echoes effective Communicator with the original they pointed out that the original states who successfully uses the levels of communication skills demanded by the complex and ever-changing World while the new version elaborates on how to communicate by listening for understanding with care and with respect they added that these are such important concepts for today's environment additionally they also picked up on the intentional language of the new and specifically the phrase whether through writing speaking body language or technology they indicated that the barriers in communication are removed in this phrase as not everyone has the same abilities and for curiosity The Advisory council members noted a connection to self-directed learner and competent Problem Solver from the original portrait they also noted that Curiosity captures many of the more discrete attributes outlined in

108the original and then before we move on I will share um from Integrity the greater group Drew comparison to responsible citizen in the current portrait indicating that the statements beautifully Blended the idea of responsible citizen without bringing out the best character traits the potential is that this provides a real sense of continuity through the years and with those programs now that our group has completed the modified version of the portrait of a CFISD graduate we are ready to begin planning and implementing a marketing and rebranding plan for the new portrait our goal is to be able to roll out the modified portrait of a cfic graduate when the new school year begins thank you all for your time and consideration Mr Jackson and Board of Trustees were open for your comments and any questions you

109may have no doubt I expect to have some let me start to my left Lucas first thank you for the team and the committee for all the time that it took to do the work write communicate with each other and work through this task I do have a question when I look at the pivot table I see a few items Problem Solver is listed above the term resilient empathetic collaborate And yet when we look down to the notes written in handwriting the term problem solving is not on that list while items that ranked beneath it were on that list and I did hear that their the understanding from the presenters this evening is that the term curiosity and resilience seek to embed or embody that idea so I just like a little bit of Clarity

110on what we're trying to declarity of intent please thank you Mr Scanlon the um actually we looked at the group looked at several pieces of feedback so that was one of the pieces that they looked at so we didn't make all of our decisions based off of that one particular list if that makes sense okay so what we are seeing in our presentation the pivot table itself represents other pivot tables that were also gathered no the pivot table represents the feedback from the minty meter survey got it okay I um this is not a question but a comment when I'm hiring and when my colleagues are hiring we're looking for terms called critical thinking problem solving those are terms that we use today to identify whether or not someone is going to be able to

111be effective in the marketplace they're not using terms of curious and um I understand a little maybe not fully yet but I understand a little of the path to get to these terms of curiosity and resilience while those are noble terms and I agree with them being of value I am challenged with what I perceive as a gap of not embedding two ideas of critical thinking and problem solving which I find at least in my experience in the marketplace to be some of them more really what separates High performing stakeholders from lower performing stakeholders and the ability to be self-starters and get something done so I think I need to understand the path a little bit better and so I expect through the rest of the conversations that we'll have with colleagues that I'll have

112some additional Clarity so I'll hold any other questions or comments for now thank you Debbie well as a co-coordinator I really don't have any questions but I do want to publicly Thank The Advisory Council for all their work that they did I will tell you that being in that room of people first The Advisory Council as a whole uh when they are looking at this and dreaming and looking at all the data presented the um the I don't want to say the electricity I think is a word in the room was just tremendous and then I attended several of the co-committee meetings with the writing team and at the first meeting I just looked at them and I said their work had been powerful that night and there was a lot of thought that went

113into this and uh I you know I feel that a lot of this goes uh respects the work done originally by our uh portrait of a graduate committee and I applaud Mr Edwards for his hard work but uh you know it's been a it was the 1990s when we did the original one and students today are different than students back then and that what is most important is for us to be relevant to them thank you thank you Julie um I absolutely want to thank the members of The Advisory Council that worked so hard to um to combine your different perspectives and ideas and thoughts and and and even more importantly to represent others um you all were not representing just yourselves you were representing um your communities and you know while sometimes the output

114uh we as individuals may not feel a connection to it because we weren't part of the process we trust the process we trust that you all worked so hard and you represented your community as well and with Integrity um and I I not only am I grateful for your work but I I trust you and I trust the work that you did I'm excited for um a new portrait of the of a graduate that respects the our legacy and our foundation where we've come from but also focuses on on where our students are going in the future and I'm so thrilled to see that I mean that students were part of the process I mean what better input to have than from students because they and from recent graduates right that know you know what

115is expected of them in the workforce and truly our goal is to prepare our students for the future so anything we can do whether it's we feel it's 100 perfect or if it's not the way I would have said it but it's the way you said it and that's that's where the value is and anything like this that we can use to help give our students some guidance um on what the kind of people that we want them to be as parents and as teachers so I'm just I'm just very grateful for all this work and I'm so impressed that you did so much in such a short period of time thank you let me turn to my right Scott I won't belabor what Julie just said but I am very thankful for the effort

116put into it I mean I was part of the email strings uh got spammed all the time before all the means we had and you all had so I'm very appreciative of the time and effort uh and the hard work um it was put into it because I know a lot of hours were were dedicated to this and people's personal time uh outside of that so I'm very thankful for that I know everything from my part because I was part of that committee so I'll ask you more questions but thank you Natalie uh it was uh being an observer of the process I did appreciating meeting new people and just such a high quality caring group of committee members from across the district seeing people sitting in feeder patterns meeting each other as well it

117was a pleasure to be a part of that as I look at the product I do uh I get excited about um I'm always excited about our kids and how we prepare them but I also uh reading it with a lens after our speakers spoke I really was struck by um the thought about reading and math and where it sits and if we have one job as a school system the one job is to make sure kids can read and do math and so I was kind of reading the language and I realized as I looked at the one about communication I kept hoping it would show up in one of them as we went across the different traits and so I think oh maybe communication is where that reading piece would be and kind

118of wondering about the math piece and I didn't see maybe it's as strong there as I would hope and then I got went back to we have the dot the data we um gather up every year as we have set our goals and we do our superintendent evaluation and really when I look at academic achievement you know we had some celebration and meeting our Target and the overall number of kiddos who are approaching meets and Masters on Star but we're still in progress at Target objective four achieve or exceed primary grades K through two reading and math grade level targets meaning the campuses that have at least 80 percent of their students Meeting those targets was still in progress we still were in progress with campuses having 90 of their students achieve exceed or make

119progress toward the expected reading level we're talking k235 and we're still in progress in the graduation rate and we're still in progress um in advanced course participation for our economically disadvantaged group of students and so to me I do I am afraid that we could be shooting after these characteristics which are absolutely what I want for my own child and then still not have it be super clear that we are educating the children in reading and math as well and that is part of our responsibility if we're saying the portrait is our promise to you as a student in our district no matter what if you're in economically disadvantaged if you're Latino if you're a black if you're a white hispanic Asian mixed race doesn't matter our promise to you is that there's something we're

120handing you to leave out of this place and if we do not promise you that you've got the foundations of reading and math I am concerned that may be a little bit of a miss so maybe that's some language that could be addressed in there Dr blassingame as one of the coordinators for for this committee I too question and was was looking for where is the content for in in this in this portrait but as the committee worked it's embedded throughout all of these pieces together is the expectation that we're going to develop those students who are reading on level those those competent problem solvers those critical thinkers all together piece all of it piece together because I too was looking at that as well and then the other thing is that all of these

121characteristics that our students internalize at because that's how they're going to make sure that they see themselves I think uh uh Mr scannon you've you've you've talked many times about kids believing in themselves and kids being able to to articulate that all of these together those expectations for our kids to understand so that they are able to articulate that and truly know that they can become the readers and the mathematicians that is expected here in Cypher ISD I appreciate the comments I do appreciate your comments I do wonder about the measurability then as well so if we took these characteristics and had metrics associated with them that let us know that indeed we're achieving the portrait of a graduate that may be a way then for those to be kind of um because that is

122our job as the board we're supposed to get the community's values and what they want for their graduates and then we're supposed to put that into a way that we hold ourselves accountable for doing it us board members accountable for doing it and so I do um I don't know how do we use this you know I know we haven't we talked about marketing plan but then how do we put legs and feet on this how do we measure our success for it how do you hold us accountable voters to say you didn't do it go you know or okay thank you stick around longer to help our kids be the best graduates they can be for the marketplace and for the life for their families for being good you know good citizens and all

123the things that we're talking about so maybe there's another whole piece to this work that would actually give it that kind of um and kind of like this right I mean we are this is a robust document we created to see whatever the administration accountable hold us accountable in the same way do you think the measurement is the graduation rate Dr blasingame for is a portrait of a graduate do you think the measurement is the our students graduating and the expectation the targets that we that we set forget for uh for graduates did you ask the wrong girl you know I love data in school days in all the ways we measure kids so I don't think I can answer that so flippantly absolutely if we don't graduate them but you know what graduation no

124longer is our actual goal and you can see some of the Choice Movement what happened why it even came on to challenge School Traditional School Districts was because they promised something beyond graduation they started talking about to and through college we in Spring Branch ISD said t24 we no longer measured ourselves just at graduation rate we said how would we get a technical or two-year or four-year degree so I think there's other measures that we've talked about Clearinghouse data I think someone brought at your um she was right on there with her Clearinghouse data looking how many actually get through not that I think that's the only measure but that is a measure so I think that'd be a great conversation to have probably longer than we can do at the dice tonight but I

125think we're doing an amazing job I mean my I'm a parent too I've got a very well educated kid who's going to be prepared for and has those traits and and I look question that reading it too like what are the things we haven't have not done well between the partnership me the parent first and then us as a school district and so I'm not suggesting it's because we're not doing well I just think that I would make sure that the main thing is also measuring the main thing doesn't make sense but it's much more than just the main thing and for a student who readings not a struggle for that would be too low of a standard you know for to say that if a kid like Tom mentioned his kiddo with dyslexia that

126was still then we owed that to him as well to make sure that was something that got fluid so I do think um I think graduation rate is part of it and I think we're in the right direction because we're discussing this and to me what I'd like to say is that what I celebrate most is that we're once again talking about the kids whole kids characteristics about kids I've been um like everybody up here I've been in part of the accountability movement from when I entered my classroom in 1992 as a bilingual teacher was the just the birth of when we started to do testing and high stakes accountability and I think most of us will as Educators would say we lost our soul a little bit in the middle we had to go

127after things we have a district a few miles down 290 that's going to be taken over because it didn't meet star scores for a campus or a couple of campuses and so we can't ignore that but we also are once again focusing on what is the product what are the kids the human beings the well-rounded individuals we're going to produce so I celebrate our work here I celebrate our work here um I just think it's it's going to have other pieces that join to it and if we make this the promise to every kid then none of the other things matter it doesn't matter red or yellow black or white all of us left here with something amazing we left here with a promise to you that you're ready for the world in this way

128so that wasn't a question do you want to make it one um are we billing can we do the work and my answer is yes I think we can we're an amazing group ready to do great work are you done thank you sir yes um Lucas so I'm going through an exercise as we've been speaking looking at the terms of critical thinking and problem solving and so just taking up problem solving and trying to map these ideas of resilience curiosity communication and empathy I can get on board and it's not that anybody's seeking my personal opinion I'm just trying to wrap my brains around how would I think about this as an employer clearly when someone's a good Problem Solver they have to have resiliency within themselves to be able to go after a problem

129and courage to find a different solution so I understand curiosity they've got to be willing to explore ideas from different lenses to be able to seek to understand clearly they have to be able to communicate to collaborate part of the collaboration is going to have empathy I have a personal preference that I wish that I saw more of the problem solving in it because I'm having to dig really hard to get there and it's I feel like it's something that I'm going to need to explain a lot to parents in the marketplace over and over and over and over and over but I do see elements of it throughout the document regarding critical thinking so again resiliency to be able to believe in oneself to be able to unpack an idea and to explore it

130as well as the ability to have curiosity so you can see through different lenses but when I look at this I I and perhaps this is my you know and looking to my colleagues a little bit maybe for some clarification so when I read this it really it sits with me as a vision statement which can have things like okrs behind it which would be more measurable so we have our how we perform as a district graduation rate Etc I'm trying to I'm trying to find a way to translate this into more real world application I find these values and these traits valuable and that these would be embedded in what we would want our graduates to have I just I'm not seeing as concrete and ideas I would wish I could see but if

131I dig for it I can get there kind of and I'm feeling better about it as I talk through it I just wish it I read it a little bit more clearly so and all that being said you know to miss heinemann's Point regarding the process I get the process of having to look over the monitor to see you guys um I understand the process I understand that your faces represent lots of other faces that were involved in this process and it's that it was hard and it took a lot of time and disseminates ideas through lots of different folks lots of different lenses I get all that and I appreciate all that I think these are important components to have I I just wish I saw a little bit stronger language around those two

132different ideas in my area I see analytics I see hard Sciences I see incredible amounts of things that we've never been asked to do and and as I've interviewed kids for college over the last 10 years as I've interviewed kids for Harvard and the resumes that I've seen and as I've interviewed kids that have gone to trade school and the expertise that they have and the knowledge and the skill and the way that they have to pick information up it is faster than what I had to do as a kid that is for certain and it's going to continue to accelerate over time because our children are just exposed to more and more and more I don't think I have any further comments or questions but I do deeply appreciate this team foreign did you

133have comments I did um Dr blasingame and I'll do respect um I do not believe that everything necessarily has to have a metric to it I the fact that our graduation rate and cyfair ISD is higher than I believe most districts within the state if not all of them uh speaks clearly of how we're doing we all know there is room for improvement and and on the eight years I've been on this school board I have seen us working hard and seeing our numbers go up now that said the pandemic pandemic was a totally different situation and to me that we have to kind of set to the side and take that into an account but uh you know what where we're really going to measure this I believe uh and I don't believe we're

134necessarily going to see it when they walked across that stage it's going to be in the years to come as they do enter the workforce as they do become involved in their communities as they do become responsible citizens and then how do we measure that I mean for those we had a uh I was impressed with the number both the parents and uh School District Personnel that served on the committee were students of sight fear ISD and had gone all the way through and some of them that were somewhat younger didn't even know a portrait of a graduate existed and that's why I think part of the concept of marketing it and and maybe breaking it down even so that we have one for elementary age student or a middle middle school student but we

135that all lead up to that portrait of a graduate but this group was not only concerned learned with the students that would be graduating would be going on to college but with those going to trade schools and even miss Acres brought up and I I never even thought about that but her concern was for her special ed students you know how was that going to look and how were we going to relate that to them so that they understood as well and metrics while metrics are important I'm not sure that this is something that other than the graduation rate that can be measured for 10 years out when we see what they're doing with their lives because I can tell you that um you know just looking at my own sons and how they came

136out of school and how one of them is a president of of a business and you know serves on different committees and and is real involved in his church and his community I know we can measure him but you know it takes a while because they become business people they become young parents and I think to your uh to your point uh Lucas as being a a retired business person yes you do look for those traits in a person and sometimes though those traits are not there when they're young they develop them as they go through you see changes as they go through college and then you see changes again as they become married and a parent and it's an evolving situation so Glenda are you getting tired of standing up there so tell you

137what I have a few comments but go ahead and sit down it's okay I didn't want to be disrespectful and I appreciate that you know you know I often wonder if we shouldn't have something like a a bench up there for people to sit on I I do want to say that I resent if any of my colleagues call and answer from any of the people that serve as being Flip or flippant I don't think anybody gives us a flip or flip an answer and quite frankly I resent that that's a mark of how HISD board board boards have operated over the past 15 years it is not a trait that I admire it is not a trait that we should have uh I know where we are a very young board we're the youngest

138board that's been for cyfair for probably 20 years we all have growth I most of anybody uh but we need to be careful we need to be careful uh on the on the topic first let me say to everybody thank you for contributing your time your work was a lot more fun the committee I was on I I was privileged to tell the district how to cut 20 percent of the cost I was privileged to recommend to the board positions to be cut stipends to be cut that was no fun at all what what you're doing uh is much more meaningful than what I engaged in but I do understand the process I time I understand the the time commitment as well uh Lucas I I heard you loud and strong I want to hold

139on to the Past I want to hold on to what made me successful uh uh you know Content Mastery High processing but the more I talk to Executives who are much younger than I those are not the skills that are valued uh which personally kind of kind of hurts my soul it's sort of like if I had to start over all over again but I find a place in this world I don't know uh I'm not comfortable because I want to hold on to the past with the new words that are being used it will take some getting used to for for the viewing audience every trustee sat on a committee except for myself I was not on any committee and in fact I was warned by general counsel I could not even go to

140the Committees to observe even if I said nothing because that would be a violation so so I I approached this evening with some degree of anxiety I do trust the process having been part of the process before I know the process works I remain discomforted by the words because they're not words of my generation I was late born my dad came ashore on D-Day never not words of his generation let me tell you none of them but as I read the Wall Street Journal these are the words that show up in the Wall Street Journal day after day after day I would like some of the older words to somehow find their way back into this document I think there's value I do agree that what our students do after they graduate is of import

141ant I can't believe that Content Mastery is not as as important as it as it used to be but Lucas you pointed out about chat GPT I've talked to University professors about it it's not going away the the question is how do you use it and all of a sudden it means Content Mastery is not as significant as it used to be content utilization but that gets me back to some of the old words like problem solving um but I do trust the process even though I lack Comfort level in hearing the words I know good people were on this some I know some I've never met but I too I do trust them and I look forward as to as this progresses and has its rolled out it is important I appreciate spending the

142time I'll open it up to further comments because I'm sure folks have other comments uh yes sir last time I called you mister the first time I called you EDD this time I'll call you call me whatever you want to so this time I'll call you Mark just about that in case people don't understand coming out of the 21-22 school year Austin ISD was a b Northside ISD was a b Plano was ready to be Spring Branch was ready to be Klein was ready to be HISD was ready to be there were two large schools in the state of Texas with an a rating kdisd and cyfair ISD so if you listen to some of these comments this evening you would think we would be found lacking that's just not true we're a high performing

143District so I want to make sure people know that well and Mark that's a valid point of the 25 largest school districts cyfair was right third among the 25 largest I know that as a board member but also as a citizen I thrilled when Spring Branch had their bold initiative and they talked about how they were going to increase the impact of their graduates after graduation but also know after a few years they came back and said for you they failed that that approach was not effective which I didn't want to hear because I I like their Concepts I like their words but words and Concepts have meaning and we have to understand how we use those and Mark it is a good point we are a high achieving District we should not treat this

144District as if it is a failing District that it's an HISD District or some District that the tea is ready to move a conservatory in inform because that's not Who We Are and I'm sure we will continue to have these these conversations and discussions but the I've always said and our current commissioner agrees with me but so does the priority commissioner we have to look both internally as well as external those external comparisons make the internal comparisons they lend validation to them and so by all external comparisons we are doing an exceptionally fine job in this District the internal comparison say let's do better but compared across the state compared against our demographics there is no district with our demographics that comes close to what we're doing in any category doesn't mean that we don't

145have Improvement them the Improvement is not measured by quarterly assessments but in longitudinal growth and that longitudinal growth is in fact there Mr Jackson Julie uh thank you I just I've been I appreciate the good conversations and I've just a couple of thoughts that have come to my mind um in regards to metrics and measurements we have a very robust board monitoring system that um uh that I think provides uh meets that need for those metrics and and um those key measurements and looking at these um the portrait of a CFISD graduate as it's proposed it just made me think who is the target audience of this who is this who is this designed for and I and I know in the past um when the original work was done they were it was put

146on posters it was in the hallways it was in classrooms and students saw it and teachers could reference it and so I'm sitting here thinking like okay if this is on a poster or if it's used you know if it's um in the hallways um how will students connect with this and I think about the students that I Mentor at various campuses if they saw a poster that said be a better critical thinker or be a problem solver I don't know that they could apply that in those moments I mean those are really good words and we understand what they mean but when they're when they see words like learn and grow from your challenges persist and adapt to find new Solutions learn from every experience have the courage to do what is right even

147if it's not easy or popular be honest and trustworthy I think those are words that we that students can connect to um so I see a lot of value in that if that's who we're trying to to influence and to encourage and to grow so just my my thought well I'm sitting here thank you Natalie the I I think there's an interesting question in um Can two thoughts exist at the same time can you be the very best and still want to be better I think you can be the very best and still want to be better and that's why I think that's the privilege of serving in cyfair um as a a bigger parent in sci-fi first being a taxpayer citizen but also serving on this board is that you can be the very

148best and still ask the hard questions to see who where are we not working we're working better than any system I know and I've worked in systems I've worked in the area I know people across the state so I I have set it up on the record about 100 times saying this is the very best and finest District definitely in the region I don't know others as well but we are a fine fine School District so please make sure when we ask the critical questions that's actually what we're supposed to do we're here to ask the question to say is there any last kid that we haven't figured out what to do for and what do we do for that kid and because I it doesn't come out expressly in the data but if you

149do some math you find out we still had last year on 2122 accountability data better than any District around this number is not worse than any District around it's better but we still had 9409 economically disabled manage kids who took the STAAR test in grade three through ten 9409 who didn't reach the the status of um approaches so which is considered a passing score so I just say that for that parent of that kiddo I just want to ask the question is there anything else we can do for you not because we're not a beautiful amazing District because no other District can do it we can ask those questions because we have such an incredible staff such an incredible Administration such amazing teachers because we do care like our health teachers were here talking about

150way bigger things they're concerned about in the health of our kids in the well-rounded nature of our kids we're a position to be the one District that can do this because our issues are less they're smaller we're better we're more amazing and so I just want to say can those two thoughts exist can you be the very best and still be better I think none of us would have signed up to for this thankless unpaid job if we didn't believe that to be true and all of us signed up to work for that and our amazing Administration signed up to work for that to come and they made it this District they made it the school Mark Henry on this building is because they made this the district where we can have the conversation about

151the few kids left behind and so I'm super proud to serve it's not criticism it's nice and easy to have the those conversations behind closed doors because it's safer I understand I was a principal I had the scores on my shoulders I carried that weight I know what it's like it's public your public reputation and shame but we are amazing and still we have some work to do for a few kids that we haven't got there yet so let's do it together we don't have to fight each other for that let's get it done foreign is yes we have achieved High the goal is to achieve at a higher level as trustees we always have to be careful what words we choose words have meaning the manner in which we place those questions have meaning

152agenda item 4A the board will consider approving the minutes of the April 10 2023 regular board meeting there are no speakers on this topic this evening may we move this to the consent agenda Ollie where is Holly there you are there you are you know just like I'm holding on to the Past I'm holding on to the old Board Room yeah I kind of liked it when I could see you right there 4B the board will consider approving budget amendments for the period of January 1 through March 31 2023 there are no speakers this evening Karen do you have a brief presentation where is Karen no sir she did switch sides however we had a full and complete package in our board book let me to look to the left any questions yes nedley I

153just was interested in the source of Revenue let me see if I can find it I tried to screenshot but then all those pages when it said that we had a state program Revenue State program revenues from tea in the amount of 281 140 on page um I just wonder what that's what that was me I'm sorry it's on page oh what is this five made no no not five excuse me on page seven of the report um the line item 5820 is the budget code there I am looking for that I'm coming to look oh here okay this is just this is related I'm sorry this is related to food service it's just a little bad amount of the state revenue that we get related to food service thank you yes it's just food

154service Karen I always have my standard question uh is there anything in particular that you want to draw our attention to um I think the only thing that I would share is that's a good thing is that uh when the budget was first adopted uh interest rates were not looking very good at the time so we had less than two million dollars in the budget for interest income but um are interested you know you know the rates have been going up and so it's gone from it's about 20 million dollars that we had this year so that's been a nice pleasant surprise thank you and that did show up but but I think it it needed to be highlighted so I appreciate that may we move this to consent looking to the right left Holly

155please foresee the board to consider approving the take certification 2023 2024 there are no speakers on this topic this evening presenters Christie Geron Dr Linda Macias questions only let me look to the right questions to the left questions Linda I have a question um it's unpleasant but it has to be asked so in this content because it's my signature that goes on this document I noticed and I'll do that I've sent signed 10ks and 10 q's and s1s so I know who they sue if anything goes wrong first question is there anything to do with critical race Theory involved in this curriculum that I'm certifying no that is not a part of any of the texts okay um there's a section in there where we could have gone to an outside source that would review

156our material but I noticed when we checked the boxes that we did not do that comment should we do that why didn't we do that do we need to do that some of the the items or textbooks that are that are listed here are actually on the commissioner's list and the espec on sbec and this yeah State Board of Education and and uh and others are not I am confident that we have uh qualified Professionals in every content area that are well versed in the texts and uh along with teachers because everything pretty much that we select we have a teacher committee that's a part of it so I'm confident in in their analysis and my analysis of the material that we have and that it meets the text very good then one other question

157and I'll change the the style of this time Dr Henry uh you are the superintendent and do you believe that that we can in fact make this certification yes sir very good that being the question I think that answers all my questions may we move this to the consent agenda looking good and Marley for this as part of the motion do I need a motion to authorize me to sign or or will I already have that authority to sign the um approved so someone other than the board president I would probably recommend more specifics in the motion but generally speaking when the board signs off on something it is typically the board president very good thank you for Dave the Border consider approving construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractors

158and authorize the superintendent or designate to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts as recommended in the posted agenda item there are no speakers in this topic this evening we do have a number of sub points I'm going to call each of them and then ask for questions or comments for day one 2023 Jarvis Transportation Center electric bus charging stations that was a fun read 42 2023 Thornton Middle School Paving improvements questions Scott yes I have a question on the uh the charging stations for whoever filled that yes sir if I can't answer it we'll get Dr Smith on here no problem um how long does it take to charge a school bus like I said if I can't answer I'll get doctors Dr Smith sorry to push your buttons should we ask Roy

159good afternoon uh with a bus that's pretty much out of charge on a slow charge system it's going to take roughly 8 to 12 hours on a fast charge system it can take as little as four hours and so if you do a slow charge system what's the um what's the mileage what's the maximum range of US Electric school bus on these that we're procuring there it's about 110 to 120 miles and our average route morning and afternoon combined is about 90 miles so I guess and how many buses do we do we authorize last time I forgot the number 10 and buses yes sir so I guess we can't use these buses for long-haul rounds correct we'll also have our diesel gasoline our propane buses that we can utilize for field trips and I

160saw in here at the charging stations for 60 watt and also 920 watt is that correct sir the the charging stations in here are for 60 watt and 120 watt correct yes sir we have one 120 Watt and 460 watt Chargers that were that we have already procured and how many buses can you charge at one time two each one of those each one of those can charge two at a time two at a time how many buses 10. so we'll be able to plug in all 10 at one time oh we can't okay that was my question great Bank Insurance um and are these um I was reading some some articles about this because it's been in the news a lot are these a smart charging stations whereas they cycle through and they intelligently

161do this because I know the cost of electricity is pretty high right now yes sir we can actually have we'll have a dashboard where we can actually charge buses uh at whatever time of the day we want off peak hours during peak hours we can actually funnel a charge to a specific bus that may be lower and do a faster charge on that bus to get it ready for a route we'll be able to control that from a dashboard on our on our computers okay and the last question is the battery in these these buses what's the average cost of replacing the batter in these I'll have to get back to you on that one I can't remember the average cost off top of my head I know they're warrantied for seven years with an

162expectancy of 12. okay if you get that just curious absolutely yes sir thank you very much yes sir Natalie um thank you uh interesting I'm not sure there's one question maybe we don't know yet but one of my questions was when in seeing that we now added the charging and those I wondered the expense uh how much it cost us in totality for this these buses versus a traditional bus and then also maybe I'll give both because I know we haven't lived the benefits yet but what are the benefits versus you know what are the benefits or not I guess well going from a internal like a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle to an electric vehicle you're moving from a lot of moving parts to very few moving parts so you don't have the engine

163you don't have the oil changes you don't have the volatility of gasoline diesel fuel prices that you have to budget for and I have to go back and ask Karen for more money when fuel goes up so we don't have to worry about that piece of it talking to some other school districts who have been running electric buses for an extended period of time seven ten years they're seeing a significant cost savings we're fortunate where we bought these buses on Grant so a 390 000 bus effectively costs us the same price as a diesel bus and the overall cost of ownership for an electric bus at full cost can be comparable to a diesel bus over a 10 12 15 year span and that just comes with the traditional maintenance you have to do on

164a diesel or gasoline vehicle brake changes oil jobs regular preventative maintenance you don't have that on electric vehicle effectively we're going to be changing lights we'll change the brakes with the regenerative braking brakes on electric school buses have lasted seven years plus without having to change because you're basically one pedal driving the vehicles because of the regenerative braking so overall cost of ownership on the on these vehicles is going to be significantly lower and uh districts who have operated these for several years have seen that thank you looking to my left Lucas I'm going to beat Tom to his question this is a I'm looking at the bid amounts so the winning bid here for Highland electric fleets yeah I knew that was happening so I'm looking at the bid and generally speaking this the

165winning bid is 641k it's about 46 percent of the second lowest bid at one million one hundred ninety nine thousand and the others are above that all you know basically double what's the confidence that we have that we're not going to see change orders in the future that raise that amount significantly do you trust this low bid that is a huge margin of error or distance between the other bids that is a huge margin and that was the question I had when the tabulation was brought to me so we scheduled number one Highland electric fleets is a national company that does this all over the country they purchase electric buses lease electric buses they provide infrastructure for electric buses so when we saw this number we got with our architect engineering team we had it

166scheduled a zoom meeting with their CFO their CEO and their local representative we had uh Mr Crawford in the room Mr Smith in the room and Mr Smith has been or Dr Smith I'm sorry this one's so easy you're letting me answer it isn't it uh Dr Smith in the room and we talked to him about this we made sure we went through the entire scope of the project made sure that all their numbers were good were good we expressed our concerns they assured us that they had captured everything within the scope of this project they could meet this in budget and on time so we're recommending that award okay have we used this vendor before we have not I'm assuming that this is the answer is yes here but I'll ask it anyway so

167in your discussions with other districts had they used this vendor before they have done a lot of infrastructure and electric buses throughout the country again Dr Smith is very familiar with them I think he said several conversations with them at National and state conventions as we've gone through Rapid construction Cycles just generally speaking when you're doing your budgeting what do you typically bake in for people that need to do change orders or something goes awry from plan well we have a contingency we usually do about four percent of the contract amount for contingency and is that usually hold yes sir any other questions we're going to ask I'm done thank you sir Debbie so I didn't hear you specifically say this but I can I assume correctly that we checked references with other specific school

168districts as to uh the questions that Mr Scanlon asked about you know reliability and and uh that those that we did that that's part of our evaluation process okay submit their bids they submit references yes ma'am and then if I recall correctly from the 2014 Bond uh the life expectancy of our other types of buses is about 12 years is that correct so this is the same okay thank you and what we're purchasing here are not charging stations this contract is for the infrastructure for the charging stations that were awarded in the grant so that's what we're doing here that's true the so so there is one question and I do have to tip my hat Scott well well done well researched as well as Lucas those are the questions I would ask um Natalie

169would remind me those questions have nothing to do with academic attainment uh but but yeah we do have to get the kids to school um so so once again I'm I'm holding on to the Past for electric uh charging stations do we have any concerns about high water no sir uh number one this is Jarvis Transportation Center this is the new one that we're doing this in and we did a lot of mitigation when we're doing this project we have a new detention Pond out there so we're not concerned okay thank you yes sir maybe we move this to consent looking to my right to my left Holly 4E the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and or authorizing purchase orders that is recommended in the posted agenda item there are three four E1

170practices and procedure review and cyber security assessment quote for E2 property enworkmen's compensation stop loss insurance for a three yearbook Services there are no speakers on any of these this evening let me look to my left this time Lucas questions thank you while you're thinking let me move to Debbie no Julie um I do have a question regarding 4e1 the practices and procedural review and cyber security assessment quote um it's actually the opposite of what uh Mr scalen asked earlier um the the vendor that was selected is actually significantly higher than the others um and it I appreciate the additional backup information that was provided um and it appears that there was a very thorough process to select that vendor is is there additional information you would like to share with us regarding that I

171mean I'll take a page out of Matt Morgan's book and invite Paula Ross okay to the podium did you actually sit on the very last row yes sir I did okay to address your question uh the district issued a request for quotes for qualified candidates on the Cooperative list and we had three responses one uh respondent uh withdrew because their contract on dir um expired the second um the second lower cost respondent was a very good uh response and we had actually did a best and final between the last two but the the selected or recommended vendor is a very comprehensive approach to look at our Network and cyber security holistically with that just a couple of points they have they're proposing a 22-week assessment in three phases phase one would evaluate the current security

172policies and determine the design Effectiveness and government governmental policies phase two would evaluate our current security controls and phase three would perform vulnerability and assessment so we felt like this comprehensive approach would be more effective and I appreciate that explanation because I mean as we've discussed as a board cyber security is a primary focus for us and for the district so I appreciate that we are investing in a partnership um with someone who can really dig into that and provide us with some good information so thank you certainly no just point out I mean we talked about this earlier this very issue why the low bitter and all bids aren't the same when we're selecting Consultants especially you want the best consultant to meet the needs of the district and I'm comfortable that we we

173made the right decision here so thank you thank you Natalie may we move this to the consent agenda to the right oh Lucas you have a question I'm sorry microphone thank you uh echoing something that Scott just said and as someone who's been doing consulting a very long time I would run for the hills for someone putting the assessment phase that low because they're not answering the right questions so I I am much more comfortable with the approach that you took Paula and what you're recommending here especially for the needs of our district and just for the audience um every day we're getting more intrusion attacks every day people that would attempt to be bad actors or just simply make bad decisions or you know mistakenly submit to a phishing scam that just increases so

174I'm agreed with the rest of my colleagues I support the approach here this is money well spent that's going to protect our data our kids our teachers one closing comment if I will this company has worked with several K-12 and higher ed throughout the state and across the nation and there's a very large school district on the west coast that September of 2022 was compromised and this company came in and is helping them to remedy their environment thank you Paula and and that's a good point we've been very fortunate that we have not had a major breach that doesn't mean that one won't happen uh what experts in the field have told me it's not a question will you or not you will the only question is one of time and your job is to

175push it off into the future as far as you can before it actually hits uh I appreciate the questions from my colleagues because I think they're right on point so may we move this to consent agenda right and left Holly if you would please uh we're now down to 4f the board will consider approving the district's hazardous traffic condition resolution as required by tea to meet to receive supplemental transportation funding no speakers on this topic this evening questions only looking to my rights Scott Natalie Lucas Debbie Dooley move this to a consent agenda to everybody Holly consent agenda 4G and there are a host of these vice president heinerman my voice is just about shot so if you would handle 4G through 4L of reading these also identify if there's a speaker or not on

176any of these okay and then I'll pick it up at that point thank you yes sir 4G the board will consider making a determination that good cause did not exist as required by law for Patricia babineau Jennifer benegas Stephanie gallaghanza Stephanie Hollis Leslie Jack Julia Robertson Carrie Rogers Pamela shin and Marcus Stevens to resign their respective employment contracts this item item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening 4-H the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Megan Swanson that her employment with the district under probationary contract is proposed for termination and authorized the president of the board to notify Ms Swanson of the proposed action pursuant to 21.103 of the Texas educator code this item

177will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening 4i the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Michelle Benson that her employment with the district under probationary contract is proposed for termination and authorized the president of the board to notify Ms Benson of the proposed action pursuant to 21.103 of the Texas educator code this item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening 4J the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Rick Barrett that his employment with the district under a continuing contract is proposed for termination and authorized the president of the board to notify Mr Barrett of

178the proposed action pursuant 221.156 of the Texas Education Code this item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening 4K the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Megan Dunn that is proposed her employment with the district under a term contract be non-renewed it is further recommended that the book that the president of the board notify the teacher of the proposed action to terminate her employment pursuant to 2 1.206 of the Texas Education Code this item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening item 4L the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Clover Bolden that her

179employment with the district under probationary contract is proposed for termination and authorized the president of the board to notify Ms Bolden of the proposed action pursuant to 21.103 of the Texas educator code this item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening we will now proceed with the discussion portion of the agenda 5A the board will discuss the superintendent's evaluation this item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers on this topic this evening the way this works we were all we have a board monitoring system which is primarily a monitoring system for the district but it's an evaluation system for the superintendent all trustees were requested

180to present a written evaluation submit that I requested additional time because not all trustees had time to submit that that written evaluation I'm pleased to report that all but one have in fact submitted that written evaluation as as requested 5B the administration will discuss the district-wide Intruder detection audit report findings this item will be discussed in closed session this evening pursue it to 551.076 of the Texas government code um we will review this in Greater detail in closed session but there is a brief presentation to be made this evening the presenters would be Chief Eric Mendez Scott Hudson and Teresa Hall and I don't know who's going to go first I suspect it'll be Mr Scott Hudson good evening president Jackson Dr Henry your microphone Placer oh hello all right there we go start again

181good evening president Jackson Dr Henry and Board of Trustees I'm here this evening to provide an update on the state's Intruder detection audits for that have occurred since last month's meeting as a reminder the director from the governor was for a 100 percent of all school districts to be audited with 75 percent of that District's campuses completed by the end of the school year and we are getting close to the approaching that goal I have some updated information from what you see on the slide um there are 60 campuses that have now been audited to date and there have been no findings during phase one of the audit at any campus and an additional correction there are 13 not 14 middle schools that have been completed 33 campuses have successfully passed All Phases of the

182audit during the time period indicated on the slide 12 campuses were completed with eight campuses passing All Phases of the audit and four campuses having findings the corrective action plans for those four campuses were discussed and approved at the district Safety and Security committee meeting on April the 27th that completes my report any questions and remember colleagues we can answer we can ask all kinds of very detailed questions in private but but anything that that was presented in general can be asked this time if there are any questions clarify for the board and the audience when you state no findings for phase one what that includes though sure during phase one the very first phase is when the state auditor approaches the campus unannounced and attempts to gain unauthorized or unsecured entry into a campus

183and I'm very proud to say that out of the 60 campuses that we have had audited there have been no phase one findings I would make the observation that of the other findings we have certain standards within the district that are higher that are not required and so not all of our campuses live up to those higher standards that we set for ourselves and we'll just discuss those more in private but the major one is could an intruder gain access and at no point in time on any campus thus far we still have some to go has that unidentified person been able to do so and that's that's it now granted we have other layers that we put in that we want to be tested but the primary layer that is required of all has

184not been penetrated so thank you Mr Hudson president Jackson uh yes sir one comment not a question just for the viewing audience part of this intrusion process means that we have uh uh each campuses has each campus has processes they use correct to be able to support a discipline among the staff to keep doors shut such as these doors and prevent intrusion and so just identifying some of the creativity that our principals choose to use one of those programs is Watchdog dads and so I would be remiss if I didn't mention my own principal my daughter's principal sitting in the first row where um as a watchdog dad you were told this is what you're going to do and part of that process is check every single door check every single lock and that is

185done every single day so thank you Miss Bakers and for all of our principals out there and just isolating that part of the reason that we have this kind of result and it's we're not doing it necessarily to pass a test we're doing it for the safety of our kids but the test helps validate what we do all the time anyway correct I'm grateful that we had this result it simply reflects our discipline so thank you thank you good comments Julie did you have a comment no um tonight I I reminded my colleagues to watch their words there's a gentleman sitting in the second row a little to my right Mr George Edwards former trustee my rookie year he made a point of one time calling me a couple of times after board meetings suggesting

186that I needed to be careful with my word choice so George I appreciate the advice you gave me I think it was good advice it took me a while to understand what you were telling me nobody's ever accused me of being a fast learner but the rewards I needed to hear and they may have been unpleasant for you to say but I needed to hear those just like I felt it necessary to to make comments tonight in the same vein it's something we do for each other as trustees and we do it for the the benefit of this district for our children and also our staff I would like to thank everyone for being here tonight and I would also like to thank those who are watching from home may I have a motion to

187move into closed session so moved has been motion has been made is there a second second motion's been made and seconded any discussion before we go into closed session uh Mr Jackson I just yes sir I just wanted to thank again pbk I've been here 12 years what a beautiful building they designed and have put together that's going to last the next 50 60 years so American team thank you so much thank you everybody we are adjourned to closed session this board will not reconvene an open session this evening but if you want to hang around do so good night