001all right [Music] good evening the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees is now convened in a regular board meeting on Monday May 8 2023 in the boardroom of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Mark Henry Administration Building located at 11440 matsky Road Cypress Texas at 6 pm I want to welcome the members of our audience and our television viewers to this meeting of the Board of Trustees as the Cypress Fairbanks Board of Trustees we're 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 where policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues this is a public
002meeting of the Board of Trustees not a meeting of the public this meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed audience members may not participate in the meeting outside the designated agenda items for citizen participation or public comment disruption of the meeting by any person including the audience is inappropriate and will be addressed by the board president or the board's Council as the meeting parliamentarian continued or repeated disruption of any board meeting by words or action may result in removal or loss of the privilege to attend the meeting prior to this meeting board members received information relative to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice during the course of this meeting the board May determine that a closed
003session is necessary in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071-551.08 for the Texas government code these proceedings are airing live on the district website they will also be available as video on demand on the district website following tonight's meeting for the video to adequately reflect the Mercedes I respectfully asked that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are turned off or in silent mode and I'm going to take care of mine now thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and for your interests in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District we have no elected officials with us tonight but Grace Handley from representative Dr Tom oliverson's offices with us this evening
004we have Levi Simmons of Boy Scout Troop 533 in the audience if you would please stand thank you [Applause] and we have no Girl Scouts with us this evening at each open meeting of the board patrons who have registered in accordance with the procedures established by bed regulation May address the board during the designated agenda comments period prior to the board's consideration or action on the item unless the agenda is otherwise rearranged by the board president during the meeting agenda comments will generally be taken prior to each agenda item also in accordance with the procedures established by bed regulation patrons May address the board during citizen participation on any matters of Interest or concern that are not posted agenda items unless the agenda is otherwise rearranged by the board president during the meeting citizen participation
005will generally be held after reports and action items for detailed information and instructions on registering to speak under agenda comments and citizen participation please go to the district website at www.cfisd.net patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order of names listed on the screen behind me before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserved seats on the front row to my right when you approach the podium and as you can see there are two one to my right and one my 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 speakers registered this evening
006the timer will begin when you start speaking and when you say a yellow flashing light at the top of the monitor you will have 15 seconds to wrap up to your comments due to technical difficulties with the new timer we will return to the 30 second warning next month the invocation for tonight's board meeting will be given by Chris Hall associate missions Pastor Houston Northwest Church Chris and his wife Heather of CFISD teacher of two boys both attending a CFISD School Chris has served hnw's missions Ministry in various roles over the last six years and looks forward to continuing to invest in local schools in the years ahead Chris we thank you for being here tonight and for the ongoing support you and your church provide to our students in the Sci-Fi community before we
007have the invocation I would like to introduce the Jersey Village High School Air Force Joe TC Cadets who will be presenting the colors this evening carrying the U.S flag is Cadet Captain Edward mole on Right Guard is Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Cody Chang on Right Guard is Cadet Airman Aston Pentagon these Cadets present the colors to you under the direction of Nellie F Hardy senior master sergeant United States Air Force retired at this time I would ask for you to please stand for then vacation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance foreign let us pray father thank you for bringing us here tonight as we seek to better serve the students of this community help us all to be unified in seeking you in all things for we know that faith hope and love are
008brought a prayer away and you are capable and willing of providing these things to those who call you Lord tonight we pray that you would bless the teachers of sci fair that you would provide a supernatural sense of Pride and accomplishment as they long to see students they invest in have the Hope in the days ahead Grant teachers lowered the encouragement needed to know that they are more than just a new cycle a number or crowd control but shining examples of our community may as we a community cheer them on Advocate on their behalf and bestow upon them the honor which they are due thank you for the protection you've provided our students this year as the dangers of this world pursue their hearts and Minds we ask that you would stand in the gap
009so that their understanding of who you are and what you have called them to be May flourish help those that fear the days ahead by surrounding them with those that love them in whom they can trust God this District's leadership Lord and the decisions in which they make provide ways for your spirit to be reflected in the direction that they have for the staff and the students that whom they whom they lead help them to reflect the fruit of your spirit may love joy peace forbearance kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control be um at the in their in their spirit as they are pulled in directions from from all different areas May their attention uh be reminded that it is you and you alone that are good finally Lord we thank you for Dr Henry
010and his fine accomplishments that have developed this District into what it is today and be assured that there is a wonderful promise for the for the days ahead May there be many more to uh many to come and remind him of the great influence that he has made in in their lives and may he be encouraged in the days ahead um as we pursue the education of uh the children of this community it's in your son's name we pray amen United States order off foreign I will now read The District's vision and mission statement our vision at CFISD is formed from the acronym lead to learn Empower achieve dream lead our mission is to maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing students to be 21st century global leaders we will now
011proceed with remarks and recognitions portion of the agenda there are no speakers under this area for this evening and I would ask forbearance of my colleagues if we can move the items of record recognition around a bit we're going to start with the introduction of the new principle for Cypress Creek High School so I'm going to turn the microphone over to Roy Garcia chief officer for school leadership there you are Roy thank you president Jackson Board of Trustees in March Vicki snook house principal at Cypress Creek High School announced her retirement effective June 30th tonight we would like to introduce to you and to the CFISD Community our new principal for Cypress Creek High School Mr Martin Drayton Martin has been in the education profession for 23 years 17 in Cypress Fairbanks he started his
012educational career as a high school teacher in Fort Bend ISD Martin served as an assistant principal and principal in Van vleck ISD and a principal in Royal ISD in 2007 he joined Cypress Fairbanks where he served as an assistant principal at Cypress Ridge High School for eight years and the director of instruction for four years he has served as the principal at Cook Middle School for the past four years Martin received his Bachelor of Science from Grambling State University and his master of educational Administration from the University of Houston Victoria he participated in the leadership Partners Executive Education Academy at Rice University the aspiring principles Institute and was selected to present at the prestigious model schools conference he also served as a summer school principal for seven years Martin is and his wife laronda enjoy
013cooking and eating delicious food with interesting people we'll have to talk more about that one he enjoys community service activities with his fraternity and volunteering at the mission of Yahweh women's shelter an interesting fact about Martin he was named after Martin Luther King Jr because his dad wanted him to be a peacemaker please join me in congratulating Martin Drayton on his new leadership opportunity thank you Dr Henry the CFISD Board of Trustees for this Monumental opportunity I must first acknowledge God for keeping and extending his grace throughout my career because without him none of this would be possible I sat with my instructional team at Cook the other week and I got a quote from Carrie Reagan my science CCIS she said if you want to go somewhere fast go alone but if you want
014to go far go with the team I attribute this opportunity to everyone that has poured into me at this time I would like to Andrew introduce my mother Claudia Adams straightener stand up mama my mother retired with 52 years in education as a teacher and principal and she has a birthday coming up my mother will be 76 years old on May 11th she was born in 1947. and I just want to let everybody know we're going to take away her retirement status because last Friday she was substitute teaching in a seventh grade science classroom Mama thank you for teaching me how to connect with people and check on people and how to control my emotions it is an honor to follow in your footsteps and so today I'll say happy birthday and Happy Mother's Day
015very quickly I want to mention my dad who folded up his tent and went home in 2005. he owned a seafood restaurant in Gary Indiana which means I spent a lot of hot summer days peeling shrimp he taught me that our customers sign our checks I kept that with me today I truly believe that our parents and our Guardians pay taxes and those taxes pay our salaries and I tell them every time I meet with them I work for you I literally work for my community at this time I would like to acknowledge all of my colleagues my family and my friends that are here I want to acknowledge my Cook family please stand my bonus family my new family Psy Creek would you please stand at this time thank you my fraternity Brothers of
016Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated I appreciate you would you please stand and be recognized at this time my wife is on a work trip but her Sisters in her sorority the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated are also here would you please stand and one last person that I want to acknowledge that just came in a special friend 23 years ago we started this journey as baby teachers at Willow Ridge High School she is now an executive administrator in Alief ISD Mrs Chandra Kaiser so to Dr Henry and the CFISD Board of Trustees I commit to lead and serve with heart I learned that from a mentor principal her name is Stephanie Michelle at Cypress Ridge High School she told me to lead with heart and that stands for HRT high expectations resiliency and
017tough empathy thank you Martin thank you for those words we look forward to your continued leadership I will now turn the microphone over to Dr Henry so he can recognize two individuals for their new positions thank you Mr President trustees and those in the audience and those watching at home you know one thing that I'm probably most proud of is one of the things that I asked Roy to do about 11 or 12 years ago because we we had such a need to develop leaders because we were growing and there was a lot of turnover so I asked Roy to develop that program and I'm proud to say that 12 years later our bench is very deep and when there are openings like Cy Creek High School and and the other two that I'm about
018to talk about we have lots of capable people in fact the toughest part Roy is just picking one so thank you Roy for that work foreign first person I'd like to introduce this evening is our new Chief School leadership officer Christina Cole Christina is replacing Roy Garcia who also announced his retirement effective in June Christina's career began with two years as a bilingual teacher in Spring Branch ISD she arrived in CFISD in 1997 as a bilingual teacher and project facilitator at Fraser Elementary School serving four years before being promoted to assistant principal at Walker Elementary School and later Metcalf Elementary School in 2005 Christina was named the principal at holmsley elementary school serving more than 1200 students and 100 staff members and guiding the campus to an exemplary accountability rating for three consecutive years while
019being selected as Region 4 Elementary principal of the year in 2010. in 2011 she transitioned to Human Resources Director in which she supervised teacher Recruitment and hiring for the district while overseeing the student teacher placement and retention program she served in the role for seven years before being promoted to her current role as assistant superintendent for school leadership in 2018. in this role she supervises and evaluates 28 elementary school principals while recruiting interviewing and contributing to the selection of those Elementary principles Christina received her Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Houston and her master of education in education master of education and education Administration from Prairie View a m University she is a product of CFISD having graduated from Jersey Village High School she lives in the district with her husband
020Brad her children Blake and Christina they're both graduates of Cypress Creek High School really hard for me to say this next one and graduates of Texas A M University whoa and reside in Houston Christiana is a teacher at a post Elementary the coals enjoy going to the lake and Sunday family dinners in her free time Christina enjoys reading a good book being near the water and walking through the nature trails please help me welcome Christina Cole thank you I have a lot to say but I promise I will not um be as long as Dr Bosnian who is here tonight and I can never be as long as president Jackson so president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry thank you for this incredible opportunity to serve this exceptional district and this new capacity Cyprus
021Fairbanks ISD has been my home for as long as I can remember I received much of my education in this district and as you've heard I graduated from Jersey Village in class of 19 Nate my husband and I chose to raise our family here both my children attended CFISD schools as you've heard both graduated from Cypress Creek High School Martin you've got a job ah CeCe um we chose to live here for many of the same reasons that you on the diets and you guys behind me have chose to make this your home a robust a robust school system being one of those significant factors we selected the community because of its strong educational programs and politics aside this community consistently comes together to support each other and our schools although these days there are
022some strong opinions about how to educate our children and our students I choose to believe that the intent of these debates and these conversations are are all about what we generally we is that we genuinely want what's best for our children in this District we just have different ways to get there looking back at my life growing up I know without a shadow of a doubt that Cy Fair ISD provided me with a strong Educational Foundation my parents always valued education and the freedom that this country gave to us my parents left Havana Cuba in the early 1960s to provide a better life for themselves and the future of their children ultimately three girls they left their homes their businesses their friends their family and their wealth to start over enter the country legally and
023became naturalized citizen and as soon as possible my father began attending school at the University of Houston his degree planned and transfer over Cuban law has no application in the United States so he took up a degree in chemical engineering and he graduated in the early 70s and I do not know why or how I remember as a young girl going to the U of H with my dad talking to professors and somehow I remember Snippets of his graduation and I knew one day I would do the same and I did Goku's um I didn't grow up with the same love of mathematics and science that my dad did but I grew up with the love of reading and writing and always knew I would be a teacher I knew that I have a gift
024of being bilingual and that there was a need for bilingual teachers coupled with my love of reading and teaching reading I thought it was a perfect pair so although I did start my teaching career in Spring Branch ISD and that's a whole nother story I'll fill you in some other time I got back to CFISD as soon as I could knowing that I needed to come back home I've been here ever since and I can't imagine being anywhere else mainly because of the people in this community collaborative parents business partners the program we offers our students in the family atmosphere we create here we are the biggest district with the small town feel and I cannot tell you how often I hear that phrase what a joy it is to come to work each day
025to collaborate engage with many talented smart capable and resourceful individuals there are a few people that I would like to thank who have nudged me along the way and I'm going to start with erwan Wilson who hired me from Spring Branch ISD to Frazier as a bilingual teacher she gave me countless opportunities to lead where I was and in the building you don't have to have a title to lead and you don't have to change campuses Melissa Earhart and former principal at Walker Elementary gave me my first shot at being an administrator as an assistant principal Gene at Hoover for tapping me on the shoulder and encouraged me to apply for the principal ship when there was an opening at homsley elementary Debbie Emery for trusting me to lead the staff and students at holmesley
026elementary for being a mentor and providing perspective so many fond memories from hounsley Teresa hole for giving me the opportunity to lead the professional staffing Department as a director when she didn't even have an assistant superintendent for never tiring of my questions always listening to my ideas I felt for sure I wore a path from my office to hers that year she always trusted me to lead strong and to lead well Dr Deborah Stewart for trusting me and supporting me in that same role for encouraging me to apply in this position that I have now and for being open to my ideas and from my thoughts are y'all noticing a trend um Roy Garcia for allowing me the absolute honor and privilege to support and guide our elementary principles trust in me to be a
027part of a succession exceptional team and an exceptional team with exceptional team members Sherry mccaig Kenneth Henry Sarah Hardy and not too long ago Carla Brosnahan and Travis Fanning for modeling the leadership qualities that he expects to see in me and my team for being collaborative and always receptive again to the many ideas for his work and commitment to our leadership Institutes Dr Anthony our former superintendent who I appointed as one of my mentors whether he wanted to be or not he took my calls even after I left cyfair ISD and I'm sure I was a bit of a nuisance during a difficult time but that's okay Dr Henry for entrusting me with such an awesome responsibility for his genuineness his approachability for selecting me to join his team of capable and tireless administrators for
028believing in me and most importantly for allowing me to lead and support others Dr Henry I look forward to serving with you and supporting with you and our time left together to my friends who came out tonight you know who you are thank you for your support your encouragement in your love you mean the world to me I would also like to thank my family who is here with me tonight I will ask you to stand and you may sit once I've introduced you my mom is watching online so without her none of this would be possible so to my two sisters who I love dearly Sandra nevette say hi um and their children Connor who will be attending Texas A M next fall and little Parker and Adriana thank you y'all can sit um
029to my children Blake and Cristiana who you've already heard attendance attended Cypher ISD schools and graduated from Texas A M Blake in nuclear engineering Christine Christiana in education I'm so proud of the adults he have become for being kind responsible human beings you are both confident adults and contribute contribute positively to our community they are a testament to the great things that this District can do you may sit to my husband Brad we celebrate 30 years on May 29th can I hear it thank you for supporting everyone of my dreams the small ones the big ones the same ones the insane ones without Phil for being my greatest champion cheerleader and confident thanks for even waiting for me after 1am after a very long meeting um for your partnership and for letting me have my
030way most of the time thank you to the board to the Board of Trustees I look forward to getting to know you even better to being a resource for you when called upon thank you for your service to our district to our parents of Cy Fair ISD who entrusts us with their most precious and most loved family members your children our students I look forward to continuing to work collaborative with you and the district leadership to continue to provide a quality education for our students and our children to my department counselors nurses professional learning staff and support staff I look forward to working with you and getting to know you even better you're each a vitalable part of this District your direct and indirect contributions enrich our campuses and add value to the lives of
031our students and staff thank you for being a champion for icrcfisd students I'm almost done I promise principles you are second to no other principles in the state I've said it before the nation and yes even the world I'll put any one of our principles against any other because they are truly the best your ability to serve in a very complex environment effectively resolving multi-faceted problems and leading in this post-pendemic tumultuous world is nothing less than spectacular I look forward to supporting you guiding you and working together to give our students the very best education they so rightly deserve to my future team you guys last but not least I look forward to serving alongside you and working collaboratively in order to continue to enhance the wonderful things we already do in this District to
032be Innovative forward thinkers resourceful to be inspirational so that this District that I love so much continues to provide that top-notch education so that so many have come to expect I look forward to serving with you and continuing to lead a district that stands out among all the rest thank you for this amazing opportunity I'm incredibly honored and so blessed thank you again [Applause] now I would like to introduce our new associate superintendent and chief operations officer Matt Morgan Matt is replacing Roy Sprague who announced his retirement effective in June Matt came to CFISD in 2000 as the Director of food service a position he held for 12 years before his promotion to assistant superintendent of support services in this role he oversaw a staff of approximately 3 000 including the nutrition services operations print
033center distribution purchasing and transportation departments he was instrumental in the 2014 Bond program resulting in the addition of a new Transportation Center a 15-year bus replacement schedule and Renovations of multiple nutrition services facilities in 2018 Morgan transitioned to his current role as assistant superintendent of facilities in construction where he's responsible for multiple departments providing facility design and construction custodial energy management and maintenance services for the district and this role he leads the facility design and construction projects including the 1.7 billion dollar 2019 Bond referendum referendum while developing and implementing facility Safety and Security standards before joining CFISD he served as director of food service at Victoria ISD and associate director of food operations at Rice University he received his bachelor's of science from Texas Tech University and master of Business Administration from from the University
034of Houston Victoria prior to attending college Morgan served three years of active duty with the U.S army before earning an honorable discharge Matt's wife Cherie is a PE Aid at Pope Elementary they have a son Reese who graduated from Texas Tech and lives with his wife's wife Sasha and Sugarland they also have a daughter Keeley who is a University of Texas graduate all right and who teaches art at Quail Valley Middle School and Fort Bend ISD and his free time Matt enjoys golf Sporting Clays playing with dogs and his newest delegated hobby babysitting his children's dog please help me welcome the very brief spokesman Matt Morgan but I have a whole book to read Dr it's tough to follow Christina Cole I don't know that many words president Jackson Board of Trustees Dr Henry thank
035you for this tremendous honor I am truly humbled you know I've been working with most of the support facilities support departments and Facilities of construction for about 23 years I've had the opportunity to personally witness their leadership their dedication their hard work for the district not just in day-to-day operations but through numerous hurricanes floods ice storms and covid and I tell you what we have the best facilities and construction Department maintenance department operations Department Child Nutrition department purchasing department and transportation department and I could not be more honored than to continue serving that those departments in my current role Dr Henry thank you for your leadership thank you for your trust thank you for your friendship cabinet thank you for your friendship and your leadership this year's uh it's been quite a rag Mr spread
036you're in my chair please don't leave any crackers or crumbs and we'll clean it up I know some people no well it seems like just yesterday you and me were introduced at the same board meeting I think it was September 2000 both was it September 2000. I know but you got promoted in 2000 and they named us at the board meeting you me Rick and I just it's been such a it's gone fast it's gone really quick I appreciate your leadership and your friendship and I am perfectly aware that I have very big shoes to fill and I'll do my very best I would like to introduce my wife Sheree and you have to stand up too I'm going to implement the Christina Cole policy of my lovely wife Cherie of 32 years she has
037been a rock and so patient asked her about the last six months my daughter Keely who is a UT graduate Mr Jackson she is an art teacher and just beautiful and thank you for your support my son Reese and his beautiful wife Sasha both Texas Tech graduates Rhys is works for mercuria yeah I know I've got it written down here I know it's embarrassing didn't it son Mercury energy trade trading and he's a power analyst and Sasha is an elementary teacher in Fort Bend as well uh Ray you can sit down there I would like to introduce my daughter's boyfriend Ray Johnson he just he's graduated from law school in May so right congratulations but I have some extended family here too so if you are with Transportation Food Service facilities construction please stand up
038all the Departments I've got most of my all the directors here uh I I can't begin to express what a tremendous group this y'all can sit down they follow instruction relatively well what a tremendous group this is and how dedicated they are I sincerely appreciate this opportunity I'm honored humbled and looking forward to serving the district thank you [Applause] thank you Christina Matt and Martin truly the future looks bright and continues to be bright we're going to be recognizing students for their accomplishments and I'm going to ask the students after your name is called please remain in front of the diocese don't don't take your seats don't lose don't leave the building just stay up here recognition item 1B and I would ask Miss Debbie Blackshear to step down to help recognize these students for
039their accomplishments 1B the board will recognize the Grand and Reserve Champions named at the 2023 CFISD Livestock Show the presenter tonight Denise quebeca and I would mention that we have somebody's grandson who will be recognized tonight Miss quebeca president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is my pleasure tonight to close out our Livestock Show season by honoring our district Champions while the 29th annual CFISD livestock show was held back in February we waited until this evening to bring the Champions before you to align with the honoring of our volume buyer which is the next item on this agenda this is fitting since the buyer we are honoring purchase projects from several of our champion students students as I call your name please come forward and again Mr Jackson has res you to remain
040here okay without further delay I present to you our champions Jake edkin Grand Champion AG mechanics Madison treichel grand champion broilers Blake Wells Grand Champion goat and Grand Champion goat Showmanship Brandon Blackshear Grand Champion heifer and royalty show King Sophie Gunderson Grand Champion horticulture Amanda slayback Grand Champion lamb and Reserve Champion AG mechanics Gage Laskowski Grand Champion lamb Showmanship Pagan Hughes Grand Champion rabbit Faith Smith Grand Champion steer and our royalty show Queen Haley Polson Grand Champion steer Showmanship and Grand Champion swine Showmanship [Applause] Abigail Gonzalez Grand Champion swine Carson Krause Grand Champion turkey [Applause] okay all right you must be Brock Claire Richard Reserve Champion goat Gabriel Byrne Reserve Champion goat Showmanship Kylie Carter Reserve Champion heifer Showmanship Grace sawaki Reserve Champion rabbit Cheyenne Emerson Reserve Champion steer Taylor stock Reserve Champion swine Jesse
041Williams Reserve Champion swine Showmanship Carson Nations Reserve Champion turkey Joshua white our royalty Mr teen Korean fonte our royalty Miss team [Applause] and Garrett Lawson our royalty Top Hand I saw a social media post this morning that said the biggest misconception is people think that the animal is the project but in all reality the kid is the project while we are here to celebrate the success each of these students had with their projects I would be remiss if we did not also celebrate the success of the family members and campus staff who supported these students in this process would any family members AG teachers or other campus staff of these students please stand so we can congratulate you on the success of your projects this Mr Jackson with your permission I would like these students
042to remain up front for the next agenda item please do so may I proceed my pleasure to once again honor Mike and Darlene Gerard of Gerard company incorporated as recipients of the 2023 CFISD Livestock Show volume buyer award Mr and Mrs Gerard if you will join us up front drawing Company Incorporated spent 142 900 at the 2023 CFISD livestock show this was the most spent by any buyer therefore earning Mike and Darlene Gerard the title of volume buyer for the 15th time in the 17 years the award has been given this was also the largest amount spent in any one year by any one buyer since the beginning of our district livestock show countless students have benefited directly and indirectly by the generosity of the Gerards over the last 20 plus years students raise your
043hand if one or more of your projects were purchased by the Gerards this year or in the past while these students represent our Champions many more students with projects in the freezer sale and even the silent auction sold their projects to the drawers as well I would like my I have some additional representatives from the chapters to make sure that we had representatives from all 12 chapters here to present the Gerards with the volume buyer buckle please join me in thanking the Gerards for their continued support they truly are making a difference in the lives of our students thank you again and mark your calendars for the 30th annual CFISD Livestock Show and sale taking place January 31st to February 3rd 2024. okay you got it I was talking to the crowd but you too
044that would be important thank you students we're going to exit through those doors over there thank you all thank you and if you don't want to come with us we're gonna agenda item One D the board will recognize audio visual production students who play second at the State national level in recent competitions to help recognize these students I would ask Julie heinerman to step down our presenter this evening is Vanessa Coke thank you president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is my pleasure to present to you this evening audio video production students who recently received State and National recognition in the UIL State young filmmakers Festival are the sixth documentary State finalists CFISD had two AVP programs placed in the top two Cypress Creek High School and Jersey Village High School tied for
045second place I will recognize cougar Productions from Cypress Creek High School first students please come forward when I call your name and please remain there to receive your certificate Hadley Barcelona Alicia Perkins [Applause] and rain jaros if there are any family members friends or Cypress Creek High School staff present please stand so we can recognize you for supporting these students and the amazing AVP program thank you and congratulations again to you and your teacher Donna Allen for this amazing accomplishment now I'd like to recognize the other second place program jvtv from Jersey Village High School students please come forward when I call your name to receive your certificate Daniel Rodriguez Trevor bro and Bo Lewis once again if there are any family members friends or Jersey Village High School staff present please stand so we
046can recognize you for supporting these awesome students and the AVP program thank you guys and congratulations again to you and your teacher Brandi Milson owes amazing accomplishment it's a true Testament to the strength of our ABP programs in CFISD that we have two State finalists congratulations please exit to your left [Applause] and now last but certainly not least cdub media from Cypress Woods High School recently earned a silver standard of Excellence in broadcast Excellence from student television network for their October episode of their monthly School show cdub today students please come forward want to call your name so you can receive your certificate Walker Gibbs Nicole Howard Eddie Lopez Misty mutters [Applause] and Jaden red if there are any family members friends or Cypress High School staff present please stand so we recognize you for
047supporting these students and the ABP program thank you guys I am so proud of you guys and your awesome teacher Lori Andrade representing Cypress Woods High School and CFISD at the national level thank you [Applause] we now move to item 1e the board will recognize Cypress Ridge High School student away the wind who won first place in the FCCLA culinary arts competitor category and I would ask board member Gilbert Sarabia to step down and help okay Scott would you be the pinch hitter you know some of our board members are facing the same thing as some of our Astros s president Jackson border trustees and Dr Henry it is a great pleasure to present to you this evening acai Ridge High School Advanced culinary student why when who distinguished himself by placing first in the
048culinary arts level 3 category at the family career and Community leaders of America FCC La State leadership conference which was held in March 31st in Dallas Texas FCC La is a national Career and Technical student Organization for students and family and consumer science educations whose mission is to promote personal growth and leadership development through family and consumer science educations congratulations why thank you as we congratulate why for his accomplishment I would like to ask that his principal Mrs Stephanie Michelle culinary instructor Miss Richards and any family members president to stand to be recognized [Applause] thank you and Scott if you'll stay on the on the floor one f the board will recognize t-a-f-a students who won first and second place in the Tafe teach tomorrow state competition Dr Sharon Hogue will be presenting thank you
049president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is pleasure to bring present to you this evening the first and second place winners and National qualifiers from the Texas Association of future Educators also known as Taffy at their teach tomorrow Summit held in Round Rock Texas on March 1-4 2023. several of these students were able to join us tonight students please come up when I call your names from Ridgeland High School this teacher is Stacy Morgan national qualifiers will advance to competition in Florida this summer the students are Lauren Womack [Applause] Avery Adams Owens Allison Barstow Ella Simmons Toria Mitchell and again these students are National qualifiers and will compete nationally in Florida the first and second place winners are Ashlynn Young foreign Smith [Applause] Sophie price Ellie Horton and Kinley Thomas from cyfair high
050school the teacher is Crystal Stevens and they had a stomach bug at cyfair so she can't make it with us but the first and second place winners are Isabella Hernandez and Jasmine Jones [Applause] the Cypress Creek High School winners are Marin Davis [Applause] Brianna Meyer Emily and Alexandra Carter [Applause] is Christina Bramwell we are very proud of these students because they aspire to become Educators and they were competing in events that are directly related to their intended future professions they are getting experience in excellence as we congratulate These Fine students from Bridgeland high school Cypress Creek and Cypress Fair High School we would like their parents friends administrators and teachers to please stand and be recognized thank you students you may exit out that way please [Laughter] we are hiring 1G the board of recognized
051students who were recently recognized by the sons of the American Revolution presenter Dr Sharon Hogue president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry is my pleasure to present to you Cypher High School AF JROTC Cadet Laney Simmons [Applause] Lane earned the Texas Society of the sons of the American Revolution SAR enhanced Junior ROTC award at the state Society conference in Houston on April 1st 2023 the sons of the American Revolution is a non-profit nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting patriotism preserving American history and promoting education to our future Generations their ROTC awards are intended to Foster the principle of the Citizen Soldier exemplified by the Minutemen of Revolutionary War days this award is presented to jrc TC Cadets selected for having a high degree of Merit with respect to leadership qualities military bearing and general Excellence
052to reach the state level Cadet Simmons was required to complete an application documenting her class rank involvement in JROTC extracurricular activities and community service additionally an original essay was also required on the topic how JROTC has prepared me to be a better citizen of the United States the Texas Society of the sons of American Revolution serves hundreds of high schools throughout the state and each high school May submit one nominee for this competition following her nomination she was selected by the local Robert Rankin chapter of the Texas SAR to compete for and eventually win the state Society award for her JROTC accomplishments and Essay Cadet Simmons will receive a 100 cash scholarship from the Robert Rankin chapter and a three thousand five hundred dollar tuition scholarship from Texas SAR Cadet Simmons application and Essay will
053be submitted in a national competition and the winner will be announced in Orlando Florida later this summer at the National Congress of the SAR instructors are Lieutenant Colonel hired or Khan and senior master sergeant Michael Claiborne would Cadet Simmons parents friends family and instructors please stand and be recognized [Applause] thank you [Applause] in conclusion of our recognitions this evening Dr Henry will make remarks and announcements regarding the honors and achievements earned by staff and students in recent weeks and provide information regarding district and community events are items of Interest Dr Henry thank you Mr President trustees the month of April was a busy one in CFISD please enjoy this April recap video highlighting how our students and staff brought out the best [Music] foreign [Music] we celebrated employees who are concluding their careers at the
054annual CFISD retirement banquet held April 24th at the Berry Center please watch this video recap from the event [Music] to be able to serve to be able to lead in CFISD has been amazing you know start with the 93 principles that we have just love them to death the counselors the nurses the professional learning and that goes with so many different people and just being able to stay part of the Sci-Fi family what a blessing it's been wonderful serving the community in the school district for 26 years and I never imagined I would get here to this point but after 26 years it's been exciting and looking forward to our next chapter when I chose to switch districts this was the only District I wanted to come to the biggest thing that always jumped out
055for me was when we opened a brand new school or renovated an older campus is to watch those kids get off the school bus and see that's following their face and then they look at and say wow y'all did this for me and yes we did yeah we want them to be welcoming to our buildings and to be able to have a successful career here in Cypress ISD we nobody liked for anything every child had an opportunity to succeed [Applause] it was another great turnout at the 2023 student edtech Expo held April 20th at the Berry Center as students showcase technology projects in a variety of subjects and grade levels please enjoy this video recap from the event [Music] the student ethic Expo is a great opportunity for every student in CFISD to show off
056the technology that they used in the classroom foreign [Music] than just reading writing and arithmetic we do in fact have an eye on the future for our students our children to grow and have opportunities across a myriad a different fields [Music] we're very blessed that we're able to put the same type of technology in every single classroom so regardless of where the campus is in the district whether you're on one side or the other every student has the opportunity to access this technology thank you we could not be a successful School District without the help of our dedicated volunteers we celebrated them at the annual VIPs appreciation event on April 26th at the Berry Center check out the highlights in the video [Music] of our volunteers that help support our school district [Applause] students performed
057it was a great way to celebrate the entire school year and close with a happy strong ending to the year [Music] today is our bit celebration where we come together to honor those volunteers who have given at least one hour of service for the year for those of that have put in so much hours of service but then it's also that opportunity to really celebrate anyone who has volunteered time because our volunteers are really important to make sci fair work [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you National School nurses week is set for May 6th through 12th and school nurse day is May 10th we think our 92 School nurses six licensed vocational nurses and 62 Clinic assistants who go above and beyond to keep our schools safe and our students healthy the week of May 14-20
058is designated as National Police Week and May 15th is Peace Officers Memorial Day we thank our local agencies and especially our CFISD Police Department for ensuring the safety and protection of our students and staff graduation ceremonies for all 12 high schools will be held at the Berry Center May 23rd through 27th that's starting two weeks from tomorrow as we plan to recognize 9 000 class of 2023 graduates the full graduation schedule is available on our website and just one little hint I would avoid Barker Cypress that week and if you forget and get on Barker Cypress please no emails or phone calls from camps to academies to mobile libraries there are many extracurricular options available for students this summer visit the summer in CFISD block on our website to learn more students will be looking
059forward to this announcement the last day of school of the 2022-23 school year is set for for May 25th May 26 will be a professional day for staff we hope everyone has a restful summer for all our students and staff and then to finish it up about 12 years ago um this District was kind enough to offer me the opportunity to be superintendent in Cypher ISD truly a Capstone of any career because as I always say no matter what you are a superintendent a parent a business owner a faith-based leader whoever you are Cypher ISD is a destination district for all of those and they offered me that opportunity 12 years ago something I could could never imagine and I'm so thankful in the last 12 years have been just really great you know when
060I was growing up my father everybody always thought I'd be a minister you know like a church a preacher because my dad was and his dad was and we all have the same haircut so everybody always thought that would be my path well you know it was my path I just had a different congregation in my congregation with school districts that I've been able to work with the last 32 years as superintendent and I do view Cypher ISD as my mission field and it's my job to improve the lives of Children and Families and employees and make this the kind of place that's good for everyone and not everybody agrees with me but I think that public education is the backbone of democracy when we lose our commitment to educating all children no matter what
061ZIP code they come from no matter their ethnicity no matter no matter their sexual orientation no matter what their background is when we lose that commitment we will lose our democracy but you know as the scripture says there's a time for everything and it's my time to step down and let someone else leave this District so I've let the board know last Thursday and I let our district leadership team know today that I've submitted my I'm going to submit my retirement papers for December um 31 2023 that'll be 12 years excuse me 42 years for me and and public education and people say well what are you going to do because you've been you've been kind of in the center of attention for the last three decades and I said I don't know what I'm
062going to do but my wife told me she didn't mind if I retired I just couldn't stay at the house so so I might be wandering around looking for cars to wash or Lawns to mow but thank you I have felt all of your prayers and yes the last three years have been turmoil with covid and it would have been real easy to quit like many of my colleagues did over the past three years but covet can't run me off politics can't run me off people calling me names can't run me off because I love the people in this District and I wanted to be here to help us get through a very difficult time thank you for your prayers and your support [Applause] foreign Mark you are undoubtedly the preeminent superintendent in the state
063of Texas retirement is inevitable for all of us when the best retires whether in football or baseball basketball or education still at the top of their game it causes most of us to pause a pause to say thank you for baker's dozen of years with leadership and growth a pause to realize the void that is suddenly created and a pause to reflect on what might have been a pause to ask for a few more years but seasons change under your leadership a strong academic and financial Foundation has been built upon which future academic success is sustainable with new leadership it has been my honor and privilege to serve alongside you a man of high integrity ambition CFISD is the destination district for all and will remain one the board will begin the search process by
064soliciting requests for qualifications from superintendent search firms once the responses have been received we will schedule a special called meeting to select a firm and begin the process the process will include many different facets but definitely Community input Council Marnie do you have comments to make at this time or we save your comments now we I I don't have anything else to say about the process other than I will that the direction of the board get started with the rfqs please do so you are hereby Direction and colleagues I did to discuss with Council that it does not require board motion for her to proceed with rfqs and we will meet to decide when an appropriate time to receive the rfqs we will review those in public we will take a brief break at this
065point in time for people to congratulate those who remain here who have been honored and recognized and for those who do not wish to stay for the scintillating portion of the board agenda you may opt to leave five minute break please foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] that was more like around 12 or 13 minutes is now up we will now proceed
066with forward comments 2A board members may make comments during this portion of the agenda regardless regarding school's visited meetings and conferences attended districts and community events and initiatives are continuing education the board may not take action on items discussed we do have one speaker this evening William elley now just as a reminder it's two minutes we don't have a buzzer but you do have a light in front of you that lets you know when you have 15 seconds left and when your time is up Mr secretary are you ready yes begin when you wish Mr Kelly during this year's legislative session I've been quite interested in the political debate around parental rights and school choice I'm troubled with the Trans and public education especially the increasing exclusion of parents from important often difficult decisions that
067impact our children recent testimony in Austin from tasby explicitly claimed that they can make better decisions for our children than our own parents one teacher spoke about tasby training encouraging teachers to discuss issues like gender identity and sexuality with their students I believe we should always include parents in all sensitive issues related to their child it angers me that taskby will direct our board trustees Administration and teachers to keep information away from parents tasby is undermining parent-child relationships with their training and recommendations this further damages the trust between parents teachers in the district I do not believe our tax dollars should ever be spent to Lobby on policies that work against parents families and taxpayers shouldn't we work and to strengthen the family unit rather than undermine it we wonder why behavior in school has
068become so destructive and and violent teachers are leaving in droves when you cut parents out of the process and discourage teachers from having open lines of communication with parents the relationship deteriorates tasby's also doubled down on their relationship with the national school boards Association who know we know as recently compared parents that speak at board meetings as domestic terrorists their legislative testimony and continued relationship with an SBA raised some serious questions I certainly feel like tasby values no longer aligned with those of cyfair cyfair claims to be a destination District Cypher claims to lead the state I encourage the board to demonstrate that leadership and give serious consideration to ending the relationship with tasby thank you for listening [Applause] or comments now turn to my right Scott Henry thank you Mr President good evening and
069welcome thank you for everyone attending both in person and online I want to first start off by thanking all those involved in new building especially those who've helped make the last two meetings including it's been a lot of great success the countless hours of everyone involved is well noted and appreciated it's teacher appreciation week and it's a very special time to celebrate and show gratitude of the hard work and dedication of our teachers teachers play a critical role in shaping the future of our society by educating inspiring the Next Generation they don't only impart Knowledge and Skills but also serve as mentors teachers to vote countless hours to planning lessons regarding assignments and creating a wonderful iron environment for our students their tireless efforts often go unnoticed but teacher preaching week is an opportunity to
070recognize our contributions and express heartfelt gratitude we love our teachers because they are passionate patient and committed to making a positive impact in the lives of our students and also my mom's coming up her for Mother's Day just a side note happy Mother's Day Mom and she was a teacher as well retired teacher so thank you one of the highlights of this past month attending the retirement celebration as Illustrated in the video we saw earlier retiring teachers are integral part of our education system to dedicate their lives to shaping the minds of countless students over the years has prepared to move on the next chapter in the lives of this graduation it's important to move on and express our thanks to their service retiring teachers have left a lasting impact on the lives of our
071students inspiring them to achieve their dreams and become the best versions of ourselves of themselves they made a positive impact in the world by sharing their knowledge and experience also like to talk about the graduation that's coming up and soon our graduates will approach this academic journey I want to encourage you to finish strong the last leg of the race is often the hardest but it's also the most important this is your chance to Showcase your hard work your dedication and your presence of brought to you by this moment don't let the fatigue or complacency hold you back instead summon your inner strength and focus on your goals remember that you have come this far and you have what it takes to finish Finish Line celebrate your achievements but don't lose sight the task at
072hand with determination grit a positive attitude you can come over any obstacle and achieve your dreams pushing forward stay motivated and finish strong the future is yours and I can't wait to see the amazing things that you will accomplish thank you and have a good night Gilbert's Arabia welcome everybody and uh congratulations to the recipients uh tonight's Awards uh well deserved and splendidly handled as usual um congratulations to Christina and Matt on their new titles uh Roy's chair and everything was really nice punch there that was really good and to the retirees much deserving and uh I hope you find that uh pot to go there on the on the end that you're looking for especially of course with your grandkids and stuff I'm with Matt where I just babysit the our kids dogs so
073you know that's about it um I also want to touch on the uh um the random seems like uh um threats we get so and it could be every day depending on on the month at our different schools there's a lot of social media going on and a lot of uh of what's happening at that school is it is it really going on and uh and for the parents as a father of four kids uh I can't imagine going through that uh constant fear um of uh what might be especially with the uh the tidings around our state and the country uh with the um with the senseless violence put it that way um so today another high school got a uh how did you call it Mark a um I SWAT call yeah not
074inside fair but uh SWAT uh they got swatted I'm not sure what the preferred term is and it's the high school where my son teaches that at Lamar High School and and in River Oaks there in City Houston uh their flagship and ginger tells me hey do you see that just happened and I Conley um thank you for the better as always kind of relate to her you know we have had instances like this ourselves in our district and uh it's been looked into over and over we are fortunate in our district that we have the police force that we have and the people who run it and the staff that maintains uh throughout the district that uh every time we see it of course you're going to feel that um uh but with the
075confidence that that we have that we are better uh equipped to handle those and I relay that to my wife for my son Jared and then a a few minutes later he texts it because it was in the news and uh they were in the hallways uh checking things out and then he texted mom and dad were okay as false alarm and and and as a father much less a parent of a student I don't understand uh the swatting and what they get out of it because it's going around they even have the technology now to to put uh false high schools in front of a video declaring that it's at this place when in actuality it's not even in this place just false alarms um as trustees I encourage us to let the district
076and the staff do their job and relate to us as they always have the information needed we get constant updates of the going on throughout the district and yes the governance part of our job is to govern and not to get in the everyday handling of the district's job which this District we are a district a destination we we are a very good District had I don't understand some of the accusations that go on to the district I wish we could respond but we're not supposed to so um being said that going back to what I usually talk about are the events throughout the district I asked Mark in the baseball playoffs have started the softball playoffs have started side Creek High School which came out fourth in our district played the number one team
077in the City Heights High School sorry Debbie right they finished first in the district and they were heavily favored and Cy Creek went in with the losing record and we beat them too straight which was a huge upset huge upset and they Advanced to the playoffs and we're all excited there at the at the CC and everything else and stuff but to to um look forward to our children our friends the parents for the upcoming summer uh I wish everybody the best the very best to the colleagues up here um no ill will towards anybody have a great summer uh the next time we see you guys we'll be in summer break is that that's correct right the next board meeting yeah so um continue coming out continue sharing your feelings we may disagree but
078we want to hear what we disagree about and stuff and and hopefully we can find a middle I was asked um by an administrator about Dr Henry's retirement and I and I said remember I remember when my kids came all came out of college what were they doing they were looking for a job they were looking for a chance we just saw Award winners here that's the future those are kids coming out of college here four years they're prior to them they'll have a chance Christine is jumping into shoes there match dumped in Two Shoes there yeah it rolls around it Rose around it may look like how are we going to get through this but we do we do we actually do there's always somebody else to go I get hurt somebody else takes
079up uh and and it's next guy up next person up and that's what's strong about this District because there's always going to be somebody there because of the training the mentorship that's in place in this District uh just give us a chance to show you and this District usually comes through thank you Tom going to my left Debbie Blackshear thank you Mr Jackson and how great it was to see a room full of people tonight to see parents here to see their children recognize for their accomplishments over this last school year there's been a lot going on in our district lately lots of opportunities to attend year-end events the retiree banquet let me mention that first that was really a great evening and and I enjoyed so much circulating among the retiring teachers to find
080out what their plans were after retirement and I also wished them good luck because I turned them through the top things on my list after retirement are still not done so pictures are still not organized and all the closets aren't cleaned out yet but you know there's a there's always tomorrow when you're retired but I I do want to mention one teacher in particular and she wasn't at the event that night because she's a behind the scenes type of person and I hope I can get through this without tears and if I can I know you'll understand but tonight you saw my grandson Brandon recognize the almost six foot tall handsome young man and I want to tell you his story and how public education has played such a huge role not only in his
081life but in his parents life say Brandon was born with a speech disorder as he was growing we couldn't understand why he couldn't the only word he could say was no and you know it two years old I don't know why they learned that one first right but at two years old our family was wondering why he wasn't talking and my my son and daughter-in-law had taken him to different doctors and they said just give him time you know he'll get caught up but they weren't satisfied with that and fast forward at about two and a half they reached out to the school district and uh he was tested and at age three the day after his third birthday he entered the pp CD program uh it's a preschool program for children with disabilities is
082that correct Linda I always get the the acronym mixed up but anyway he started school he had uh he was at alt he had a bus that would pick him up and bring him home and uh we learned that he through the diagnostic services of our school district that he had apraxia of speech which none of us had ever heard of but through this special teacher Miss Miss Cooney he learned by the time the he entered December the 3rd I don't remember the uh I don't remember the year anyway it's probably about 2006 or seven and uh by the end of the school year he could say and sign the alphabet and he could begin talking he also received speech services through the school district and my son and daughter-in-law also did private speech um
083because he Brandon couldn't communicate he acted out which is normal for kids like that but we we kept thinking you know what's going on here what can we do it was it was hard to go out to eat impossible to go out to eat as a family because he just uh wasn't still wasn't communicating so uh I took him one day to um to McDonald's and you know how the kids loved to play on the playground and so we had lunch he played on the playground and um when it was time to go I said come on Brandon it's time to go and he shook his head no and just to fast forward the story you know I was that grandmother carrying her grandchild out with him kicking in screaming and people looking at me
084and thinking why can't she control that child well through through Miss Cooney we learned some important lessons of how how we help our our son our grandson and that with Children of praxia's speech you don't just remove them from a situation you count them down and so the next time I take him to McDonald's I say Brandon it's time to go and you've got two more times to play I gave him five minutes and I did that again Brandon you've got one more time to play and then we'll have to go that final time when I told him it was time to go he took my hand and we walked out of McDonald's and you know I I look back because of his speech he was a a shy and introverted little boy and you
085see the young man that stood before you today he's graduating from Cy Ranch in just two weeks he is a leader in his FFA chapter he has a spent four years in FFA and has raised multiple animals and had multiple grants and reserves because of his work ethic his teachers his his AG teachers at Cy Ranch and he is just achieved so much my point in this is I if we if Brandon and his family had lived in a small school district that didn't offer the services that we have in cyfair I shudder to think where Brandon might be today and so it's teacher appreciation week and I want to say thank you to all of the Julie Cooney's out there that have made such a difference in their students life and I would imagine
086that every student in our school district has had a Julie Cooney somewhere along the way if not more so thank you to our teachers thank you to our nurses and all of our staff that make a difference sometimes it's a custodian because they establish a relationship with a child uh let's see graduation I am so excited about graduation I say it every year this is my favorite time of the year when I see our students cross that stage signifying that they have completed their their formal uh school education and are ready to move on to the next phase of their life whether it be college or trade school going to work or the military but it is such a happy time of the year to celebrate with them their successes and uh let's see shout
087out to uh last week I attended the CLC committee and I want to thank that committee for all the work that they do on behalf of our school district whether it's advocating in Austin for public Ed or the many other things that they do thank you so much for your service on this committee let's see and uh baseball I went to the side Falls game on Saturday Unfortunately they lost but they really played their hearts out and congratulations to all of our baseball and softball teams that are in the playoffs and then finally I just want to say to our teachers and our staff and our students to have a great summer please take time to relax and have fun and do the things you don't have time to do during the school year but
088make it a great summer be safe and I can't wait to see you back here in August thank you Julie hunterman thank you Mr President um so normally I start with the since the last meeting and all the activities and it's been a very busy month because uh just the end of the school year is always busy so since the last meeting I went to Austin again to meet with our state legislators this time along with about 75 other locally elected trustees from across Texas even though we come from all different types of districts all different sizes all different uh issues and challenges we are all aligned with a common goal of increasing the basic allotment so that we can better fund our classrooms so that we can address the cost the increased cost due
089to inflation and to better compensate our teachers and all other employees working within our district along with Mr Jackson I attended the meeting of the Gulf Coast Association of area school boards held at our very own Berry Center it was wonderful to host trustees from the Gulf Coast Area and the focus of the meeting was primarily legislative and legal updates as you may or may not know School Board trustees are required to earn certain number of continuing education hours every year and it was nice to get some hours done close to home I Mentor weekly at multiple high schools and the end of the school year is always bittersweet it's fun to celebrate the achievements of the students that I've mentored over this last year but it's it's hard to say goodbye to them knowing
090that I won't see them again until we come back to school in August I had the opportunity to visit Truitt Middle School my first time there and was able to record a segment with their students for their morning announcements and that was very fun very they're very cool smart and talented students who lead the morning announcements every day on campus I attended the student educational technology expo at the Berry Center where students from elementary through High School share their technology projects including robotics cyber security Automotive Tech Health Sciences it was just an incredible experience and I was especially proud to see students from all of our campuses and programs across the district including the Carpenter Center so truly we find opportunities for all of our students students regardless of where they are receiving their education
091I participate in the first annual walk for the village organized by the Jersey Village Mental Health Alliance these students led the efforts to bring in local resource providers set up the walking course around campus had raffle prizes and worked together to raise awareness of the importance of mental health this all started with one student who was working on her Gold Award for Girl Scouts and she was focusing on student athletes and their mental health and it has grown and expanded to be a campus-wide effort now a special shout out to the counselors and administrators who support and raise up their student voices I also attended the retirement banquet which is a wonderful evening honoring those who served for so many years in our district students provided fantastic entertainment and we all enjoyed seeing the photos
092from when those teachers or staff members first started in the district to today and hearing about their special memories thank you to all who are returning this year and best wishes in your new adventures please come back to be a teacher Mentor or a sub I also attended the CFISD district-wide art show and it was just incredibly overwhelming to see all the incredible artwork that our students can create this year they organized the artwork they had it all mixed together so we had elementary middle and high school all displayed together and it was wonderful for the younger kids to see the art of the older kids and then for the older students to praise the younger students on their artwork as well um shout out to all the art teachers who nurture and grow their
093students talents and dreams and many of these pieces are displayed here in this building now I attended the annual events appreciation luncheon which is always a highlight of the Year congratulations to all the volunteers who were recognized for their many hours of service to our students teachers and schools thank you to the many local businesses and churches who partner with our campuses there are many opportunities to volunteer on our campuses and our community certainly steps up in a big way I was released after four long days of jury duty just in time to make it to the last district-wide educational Improvement council meeting last week thank you to this group of teachers staff members and parents who meet regularly to provide guidance and counseling not guidance and counseling but guidance and to provide counsel to
094our Administration on key issues within the district I enjoyed meeting with them as part of the board listening tour this year um we celebrated future Educators Signing Day with hundreds of students who signed letters of intent to receive their degrees in education each will be given the opportunity to interview with CFISD and return to our district as teachers after they get their degrees you know how they do signing days for athletes they know where they sign and they're going to go off to play in college well this is like that and it was just as big of a deal but it's for students who are going to school to become teachers so it was a great great event I volunteered at the Carlton Center planting flowers in the garden with students to get ready for
095graduation and I love that so many of our campuses have Outdoor Learning spaces and Gardens like this as a volunteer I was invited to the Cypress Ridge uh volunteer appreciation luncheon which was catered by their culinary arts to students from cyridge and Langham Creek high schools actually the student who is recognized tonight for his achievement at the state level was one of the students he has a very unique opportunity to work at top Restaurant in Houston I mean it's just so cool to see these students achieve their dreams and and set their sights on this unique career path I enjoy meeting so many other mentors parents and local church members who volunteer at Cy Ridge and finally I attended the charity seven on seven football tournament held at Cypress Park High School this last Saturday
096there were lots of teams from other districts there but Psy Park and side Falls dominated so one last thing I want to thank everyone who's been a part of the CFISD family this year thank you for all you do for our students and their families I'm so proud of all of our students all that our students have achieved this year from our littlest Learners at the Early Learning Centers to the students attending our 57 elementary schools 19 middle schools 12 high schools two ALCS the Carpenter Center the Carlton Center and the broad and the center I am proud of all of you thank you to all the teachers Paris support staff and administrators who share your hearts give your time and energy and focus on ensuring every student has what they need to reach their
097full potential and of course not just everybody works directly in the classroom right so we also I also want to reach out and say thank you for all your work this year for transportation Food Service facilities technology HR Support Services student services and of course Dr Henry's team it truly takes all of you working together to make this District so successful and I'm grateful for each and every one of you uh I would wish everyone a Happy relaxing summer but it honestly doesn't slow down that much around here over the summer with summer school and all the summer programs so I'll just wish everyone a relaxing and productive summer thank you our board continues to struggle with the concept do we want to be databased data driven or data directed you hear this in board
098comments these aren't so much disagreements but we all have to find our own way as to how much data means to us and how to interpret that data when I was in grad school at the University I attended I was a teaching assistant in statistics and then I taught statistics at the corporate level We Now call that metrics and in fact I was trained and taught to be a data minor and learned how to write programs in multiple languages to develop data analysis but at the end of the day it wasn't so much about the data it's what do you do with it and how do you interpret it and this is a challenge for all boards this board has been a leader in the state of Texas with being databased and so these conversations
099are in fact healthy but they milk they may feel a little discomforting and so I made the point that we have to continue to have these conversations I would ask a question there's a dear friend of mine in this room who about 10 years ago was willing to walk 3.2 miles with me when none others would the doctors told me don't take the walk and I felt it was necessary to do so she asked a question of me at the last board meeting why are we concerned about competition I would turn the question and ask it this way why is my party concerned about asking that robust accountability follows public dollars this is a conversation I'm sure that we will continue to have perhaps the next time on a 3.2 mile walk since the last
100board meeting I made 20 distinct and separate stops and now I'm Christina Cole I'm not going to tell you about all of them as many as I made there are at least half as many if not more where I could not make the appearance many of these were for JROTC which is a program that in my mind adds value not only to the student but to the campus I would note that pre-covered we had a high water Market 1200 Cadets and I would recall that on our very last pass in review our number count was 800. I am certainly open to any suggestions which might benefit this program because I see it as truly a force multiplier at the retirement banquet I visited with a number of tables to express my appreciation and to listen
101to heartfelt stories for those who decided this year would be their last there were two common threads with all of whom I spoke one whose love of students and the second was their service with Integrity their service will be remembered and missed at the bips London it gave me great joy to see some of our volunteers who contribute to support this District in ways that money cannot buy the resilience of our volunteers to persevere through a pandemic ice storms floods industrial explosions and the like is nothing short of amazing they truly make a difference the school safety meeting covered items regarding the state audit and we continue our success at phase one but we were ever mindful that ongoing vigilance is always required and we can never let our guard down concerns from the deic
102listening stop focused primarily on budget concerns and legislative issues I had no answers but at least I could listen I attended the rivers flows Foundation adoption of Lee Elementary our school adoption program by the faith-based community foundations and businesses remember remains an important and integral part of Staff support and student academic attainment I also attended two student showcases educational technology as well as Visual Arts show on the technology front our visited with our cyber security student teams a host of students who have employed virtual reality 3D technology and artificial intelligence for their presentation and understanding of aneurysms their empathy for those who suffer from this malady was most evident as they pursue their intent to follow a course in medicine two programs near and dear to my heart because my son was a participant in
103each or the Hunts program in Middle School robotics Hunt is a joint venture between NASA and high schools different products by our students have been at the International Space Station for many years now I smiled as I watched the dancing robots of the middle school competition it's certainly more complicated than those constructed by my son I certainly saw her Curiosity on the faces of the students but also those who are watching what these students were able to make their dancing robots do in the budget cutbacks of 20 we lost this program but I am pleased that we have it back and it is more robust now than ever before the Student Art and on display in this building was previously over at the Berry Center and I had the privilege of having one of our
104art teachers walk me around noting the objectives creativity and talent at the elementary middle and high school levels he noted that in each case a student was communicating their thoughts I also found it very important that our life skills students also had art that was on display I'll mention I was invited to a speak to a group that was closed to the public and on the day of the event I changed my mind at the event where three sitting board members in a newly announced candidate for the board this pathway is too similar to what certain HISD trustees walked down several years ago for which they were heavily criticized I choose now not to walk that path after the April board meeting a locally elected official in my political party made certain comments to one
105of my colleagues I'm I'm sure I was not meant to hear those I do wonder how well the we plan actions to advance student attainment and I know that that has to be at the center of what we all want the 30th anniversary celebration of Wilburn Elementary which I intended reminded me of Bubba's comments to persevere both through treatment and Recovery graduation is coming up and there is one student who's a senior who will not walk the stage she is currently in the hospital as my pastor noted her brain signal ceased and the physician did come out to talk to the parents to advise them of what had happened and amazingly a short while later brain function reoccurred even more amazing the scheduled organ transplant was then approved and brain function and eye movement has
106now occurred and I would say Mark I don't know what we can do about graduation uh but I would like to visit to see if there is some fashion that graduation can be observed in some small way I know there are issues about uh containment uh viruses uh but certainly it would be something wonderful I think if we could do and I'll visit more I do have names but not appropriate to use those at this time and so I'll close with a tip of my hat to mothers everywhere my mom passed almost 40 years ago due to cancer but I always think of her every Mother's Day and Mother's Day are always special for what you do for all of us sons and daughters and grandchildren and of course graduation is in fact a time
107to celebrate and rejoice and I welcome the fact that all of my colleagues will be up on that stage to welcome these graduates as they cross that concludes my comment in Christina Cole I had to keep going so you would not be embarrassed that your comments could have been longer than mine I would once again Ask forbearance of my colleagues if I can rearrange the agenda and present item 3D before 3A looking to my left okay 3D the human resources department will provide an oral report on the board monitoring system objectives there are no speakers on this topic this evening presenters Dr Deborah Stewart and Sharita Franklin microphone is yours thank you good evening president Jackson Dr Henry and Board of Trustees I am excited as tonight Human Resources is providing you with an update
108on human capital gold three objective 6 objective 7 and a short overview of HR functions at this time Sharita Franklin will you begin the presentation thank you Dr Stewart thank you Board of Trustees board goal six board goal objective six is to increase the number of bilingual teachers in CFISD one significant effort to increase the number of bilingual teachers was a review of cfisd's bilingual stipend pay compared to surrounding districts in the spring of 22 human resources and curriculum and instructions submitted a proposal to the superintendent and cabinet to increase the bilingual stipend from thirty five hundred dollars to five thousand dollars this past June the board approved the stipend increase as a part of the 2223 budget CFISD now ranks second among surrounding districts for bilingual stipend pay another strategy employed by human resources
109is to increase the number of by to increase the number of bilingual teachers is the development of targeted recruiting materials and targeted recruitment efforts used at universities and organizations with high populations of bilingual education students these universities and organizations include Texas a m San Antonio and Kingsville University of University of Texas El Paso and Rio Grande Valley New Mexico State University and the National Association for for bilingual education conference our bilingual student teachers are another effective recruiting strategy for bilingual teacher hires human resources and curriculum and instruction nurture this pipeline for bilingual student teachers through meet and greet sessions and the pairing of bilingual student teachers with experienced bilingual Educators throughout their student teacher placement lastly when our bilingual teachers are hired they like all first-year CFISD teachers go through a new teacher induction and
110mentoring program which is supported by a professional learning Department the cfisd's new teacher induction program provides bilingual teachers with a mentor professional development and Collaborative Learning opportunities as the new bilingual teachers acclimate to our District's culture next I would like to present board goal 3 objective 7 which is to to develop a plan to maintain a low teacher turnover rate according to the Texas Academic performance report the C the CFISD 2021 turnover rate was 12.2 percent in comparison to the state turnover rate of 14.3 percent for the 21-22 school year in CFISD the teacher turnover rate was 14.3 percent in comparison in comparison to the state's teacher turnover rate of 17.7 percent competitive compensation is one of our district strategies to retain teachers within the district the Board of Trustees reviews teacher compensation in comparison
111to surrounding districts every year during the adoption of the annual budget for the 22-23 school year the Board of Trustees approved a starting teacher salary of sixty thousand five hundred dollars all along with the one thousand dollar retention stipend for all teachers other retention strategies include Human Resources recognition of all first-year campus teachers and paraprofessional hires special education focus groups that captured feedback about why special education teachers leave sped classrooms and a review of our teacher our District's teacher Mobility based on the review of the teacher Mobility data Human Resources has identified the need to capture detailed data via an exit survey about why teachers are leaving CFISD other retention strategies for our teachers for our teachers include Mentor teachers and extensive staff development offerings another retention strategy implemented this year is our employer-sponsored employee
112assistance program the employee assistance program is a work-based Intervention Program designed to assist employees in resolving personal problems that may be adversely affecting their performance the employee assistance program gives employees access to solution-focused counseling services at no cost to them and lastly I would like to highlight the implementation of the teacher incentive allotment which compensates teachers based on student growth measures and the national board certification cohort supported by curriculum and instruction both measures are additional means of professional development and compensation for our teachers that concludes Human Resources board monitoring update I now would like to take a moment to share a video that shows a brief look into the work that human resources does daily to support student learning this next video shows a student's journey into becoming a CFISD teacher using the services that
113human resources provides our CFISD community I present to you human resources connection to Student Learning Human Resources knows teachers have a profound impact on the future of their students teachers fan the Flames of interest and passion developing in their young minds this energetic spark forges the connection builds and ultimately comes full circle for each teacher hired within sci-fi ISD was once a student themselves who received that same spark from their own teacher as our students grow in their K-12 learning environment Human Resources collaborates with school leadership and curriculum and instruction to support cyfair isd's High School teacher preparation program through multiple campus visits students engage with our recruiters to learn about educational Pathways and potential career opportunities within the district in April of 22 Human Resources implemented future educator Signing Day 163 High School seniors
114signed a letter of intent guaranteeing them a future teacher interview with Cypher ISD it's very fun to have the experience of being with kids and finding out if you actually want to be a teacher or not and then also like you get the field trip out at the end of the year and you get to hang out with your kids all day long upon High School graduation our teacher prep graduates are recruited to serve as para Educators on our campuses through Outreach efforts such as our virtual information sessions HR received over 15 000 para applications from those we hired 947 paraprofessionals for the 21-22 school year in addition to recruiting and hiring para Educators Human Resources facilitated the placement of 248 student teachers from local colleges and universities 91 of those students ultimately became classroom
115teachers in cyber ISD this year The Cypher ISD special education department partnered with HR to host our special education showcase during this event student teachers from surrounding colleges and universities visited a Robinson Spillane and thigh Woods Human Resources actively recruits college graduates and applicants with a minimum of 48 college hours to serve as substitute teachers ensuring continuity of education for our students substitute teachers are very important to our campus they work hard to ensure that learning continues in the absence of a teacher they are warm caring and are genuinely invested in helping our students succeed [Music] Prospect of cypheres talent management strategy is our University recruiting program HR representatives and campus principals actively recruit teacher applicants from universities within Texas and many other states alternative certification programs provide a growing teacher pipeline for our District
116Human Resources Works closely with ACP candidates as they progress through their certification process each year the HR team plans and hosts a career fair at the Berry Center this highly anticipated event gives over 1 000 visitors the chance to meet campus and Department representatives and explore district-wide career opportunities cyfair receives over 55 000 applications for positions throughout the district every year of those over sixteen thousand are for campus positions promising candidates are invited to the campus so principals can see firsthand how they will support and nurture our students HR and campus staff extend a warm welcome throughout this interview process we recognize each potential employee has an opportunity to work anywhere in the surrounding area candidates are choosing us just like we are choosing them once principals identify their top candidates recommendations for hire are
117submitted electronically Human Resources processes over 5000 district-wide recommendations throughout the year with 1400 being for teaching positions technology plays a pivotal role in how Human Resources supports its stakeholders HR leverages technology to conduct criminal history reviews for prospective and current employees I-9 employment authorizations paperless onboarding and campus transfers for teachers in Paris Human Resources is responsible for ensuring that all 8 000 teachers meet the appropriate certification requirements for their teaching or work assignments HR also ensures all eligible employees receive the board approved General rate increase and the Recruitment and Retention stipends issued during the fall and spring semesters HR also facilitates the federal and state entitlements of Family Medical and temporary disability leave at this point in time teachers and paraprofessionals you have a choice in terms of where you go what district you serve
118in and so we want to on behalf of our superintendent Dr Mark Henry our associate superintendent Dr Stewart our assistant superintendent Sharita Franklin we really want to thank all of the new staff members to our district for choosing to fight fair ISD whether we are identifying Creative Solutions to recruit special education teachers hiring bus drivers custodians principals peras or substitutes checking backgrounds processing family medical leave or the general rate increase our human resources team recognizes and is motivated by our connection to student learning through this connection we are honored to support the cycle of that energetic spark as it ignites every day in our classrooms I would like to take a moment to recognize the HR staff that's here part of this team that's here for you all will take a stand to be recognized
119and we have two of our our little actresses that are here Charlotte and Maya you guys want to come and say hi come here these are our future start for your students you say hi so thank you senior Maya see yourself in the video yes you say hi okay thank you girls they're the daughter Charlotte is the daughter of Melissa Lester who is on our team in the in the and Maya is the daughter of Jose Munoz that's on our team so thank you for that uh opportunity to share what we do to support students so any questions for me let me start to the right Scott no questions um just two things uh just some comments and thanks as well um I liked how you're you're going to do this search on retention I
120think French retention is important and thank you for doing that um the second thing is I want to offer my appreciation to both y'all to your team for going to schools and showing appreciated in teachers I see it on Facebook a lot and that's I'm sure they appreciate as well so thank you for doing that Gilbert outstanding job appreciate you and Deborah and your team out there and the brave two little girls coming up here at that age Brave um if you could offer some advice to the college sophomores and juniors who are trying to get their stuff in order what are two of the things that you would say have this ready and done and that way that some of the things that you look at immediately upon looking at all the in a
121multitude of resumes hmm well I would probably say anyone that's looking to be hired here get your pasture test if you can so once you're graduating from your your college or your University really focus on getting your certification because when the principals are looking at applicants they're looking at applicants that have at least started that process to be certified because all of our classroom teachers need to be on some sort of certification in the classroom so that's what I would say go on and finish that degree and then head right in there to get your certification well thank you very much I'm sure the uh for those who are listening uh can spread the word and make sure that uh they're certified and ready to come here thank you again your team Deborah thank you
122to my last Debbie um just a few uh comments first of all I want to thank the the entire HR department for all their efforts I know uh in these pandemic years the recruiting effort has become even more difficult so I applaud you for all you are doing and I love the fact that we have created a signing day for teachers to promise them at least an interview with sci-fi ISD and it's so gratifying so often I when I visit campuses to hear that t these teachers went to high school and just as we heard I mean Christina Cole graduated from Jersey Village high school and you know so many that come back and they come back because they value and appreciate the education education that they received here in Cy Fair and I think
123they're probably some of our our biggest cheerleaders um Sharita I look at the borgella objective about turnover and I know how hard we have been working on that and that it's really not necessarily just a education that is experienced turnover over the last three years it's any business she's you speak with and I I truly appreciate the fact that our turnover rate is lower than uh lower than the state average so what would you attribute our turnover rate to is there any one thing that you could say um when y'all meet with a teacher that's living leaving the district is there any one thing that seems to be more of a Common Thread right now the data that we capture shows that they're leaving for personal reasons and so that's why we're going to do
124a deeper dive to identify what those personal reasons are so then we can share that with District leaders so right it's pretty generic at this point because it says personal reasons yeah okay you don't hear Do you hear uh salary or benefits or anything like that that has not been an overwhelming feedback that we've received from teachers that it's about salary or benefits because typically when it is do we not lose them to private Industries so that was kind of a phenomenon for education in general during the covet time excuse me that people were exiting the education as exiting education for industry that is happening I mean that is very common across the board in all school districts yes we're all competing for the same people yes again great uh great report and thank you
125to your team for all your efforts thank you Dr Stewart Julie um thank you for an update on the board monitoring goals that are that HR has responsibility for I always look forward to updates for each of our different goals and I'm pleased that we are addressing human race resources this month um I think what I uh what I would ask is that you continue um to keep us updated on trends that you see in order for us to continue to stay competitive when I'm looking at um I mean I know we say it's not just salary but salary is obviously very important and when we um we're looking at how we compare with neighboring districts not just for first year but five year 10 year 15. I just want to make sure that we
126continue to stay competitive in those areas I um I would like to understand if the increase in our efforts to maintain our sped teachers and to continue to recruit if we're seeing some results from that I mean not tonight but just as we move forward because it's such a critical area my understanding is our number of special education or students receiving special service Education Services has increased greatly is that correct Dr Macias so um we have an increased need for special education teachers so I want to make sure that we're staying on top of that if there's anything else we need to know when we uh enter our budget discussions next month if there's anything we need to be aware of that we that could make a difference for filling those special education teachers positions
127we probably need to know that by then is that fair okay um I guess also just along with what Debbie was saying if there's anything that you are aware of that can help us in retaining our teachers and keeping them in the classrooms because they're such a critical need for us to keep that experience keep that knowledge keep those positive relationships and keep our teachers in the uh with us versus losing them to a private industry so any direction you can provide to the board we're certainly open to that will do thank you thank you for your presentation you know I feel like by the time he gets around to me I need to say do you want to sit down in the front row thank you also for the support that you give to
128our teachers throughout the District Scott you made an excellent point on that we can never stress that enough my colleague Natalie always asked the same questions and she's not here this evening I will ask her a question uh let us know if we think that raising the stipend for our bilingual teachers had a benefit and the benefit question really goes into two categories one where is were we successful in attracting more bilingual teachers and and there's all there's always been a shortage of certified bilingual teachers and the other part of the equation is is there in fact a benefit for student attainment one of our neighboring school districts that twice was the winner of the a broad Foundation Award which is a significant award their approach was to say that every teacher in that District
129had to be ESL certified and they took that approach because there was such a shortage of bilingual teachers from time to time we we talk about is that a a strategy of value and I don't know that we've ever decided that for us if that if that makes sense but I bring that up because that's an alternative and then the question I have for you I hear from teachers every year I've been a trustee the same question um that and I have difficulty phrasing this politely but that the stipend that we give to our bilingual teachers might be better served if the stipend perhaps was not as big and we could give some of that money to monolingual teachers so so when I when I speak to those teachers and I received that question again
130how would you have me answer I would say that we do a survey of the different stipends that are common amongst districts and we do some benchmarking we did that as a so the associate team looked at stipends across the board so we try and align our stipends to what is to the industry in terms of other school districts and so I would say that we're consistent in the stipends that we're offering and in order for us to meet the need for bilingual teachers that we're going to need to continue to be competitive with that stipend so if we were to lower this type that's why we brought the recommendation forward because we wanted to remain competitive for bilingual for bilingual teachers so I would say that the industry in terms of Education kind of
131has some standards as it relates to stipends and we are competitive in that regard so we're competitive but the the bottom end of the question is why why do we need to offer stipends for bilingual teachers so the other part of that question is not to be competitive why do we have such a need for bilingual teachers and I'm going to defer to Dr Macias because there's a part of the education requirements um Mr Jackson it is required by the state that we have a bilingual teacher when there are 20 or more students that speak the same language in a in a district not in a school in a district and and so I can and that that is a bilingual program from pre-k through fifth grade and uh she's correct that we struggle to
132find enough teachers to meet the required program and the program requires that that there is instruction a native language as well as as in the new language you know that that's really the the bottom line answer is the law tells us we have to do it uh I remember having visited with the superintendent of El Paso many years ago uh and was surprised to find out that they had to have German teachers teachers who were certified in English and German because the Air Force Base out there trained so many German Pilots German National Pilots another question that that I have so every year I always look at our turnover rate and my position is we always have to be State average and we have every year but I went back to 10 years ago and
133the turnover rate has increased fairly dramatically both for sci fair as well as the state I'm always a big believer you have to look at the delta so the change from one year to the next or the change from 10 years ago turnover rate to where it is now as percentage of the base turnover rate and although our turnover rate is better than the state it's better than the region that we're part of each and every year but still there is a fairly dramatic increase in that turnover rate so my question for you and it's an unfair question but I'm known for doing that so you aren't surprised do we anticipate that that turnover rate will continue to escalate do we see these signs that it's moderating do we see any signs that it might
134abate well without looking at the data for this year I think it will at least hold where it's at I don't anticipate that it's going to increase but we'll see okay and obviously as my colleagues have asked and applauded you looking further at the data so that we can try and understand better what's causing the turnover rate but that's true not just for us it's true across the street the state but when you take a look at that State turnover rate for lack of a better word that is crippling absolutely thank you for your presentation thank you Board of Trustees and thank you human resources team [Applause] item 3A the administration will present an oral report on the preliminary budget for the 2023-2024 school year we have three speakers who have signed up on this
135agenda item tonight speaker number one I say in the Mayo Mr secretary are you ready foreign Last Summer the director of guidance and counseling assistant director and the coordinator of middle school guidance counseling attended the ASCA counselor training conference legal confirmed this to me in November unless these employees paid for their own training and travel expenses to Austin for three days then this one's included in part of the budget for last year trustees I believe it is my duty to tell you what the training consisted of before you agree to something like this for the upcoming year it has the same theme as a new Department of Education guidelines the theme is a misrepresentation or misinterpretation of Title IX which prohibits sex discrimination the misrepresentation puts kids at risk and it's also unlawful to implement
136a sweeping expansion of federal law without Congressional approval Congress has not granted federal agencies the power to redefine the meaning of sex so you have no right to do it Title IX is about the differences between sex not their dilution to ensure equal opportunity and privacy among the Sexes like not sharing a bathroom or locker room with someone of a different sex forcibly at school the website courage asahabit.org has video clips and training slides from the asea counselor training the training teachers teaches counselors to view through a CRT lens to hide birth control from parents to be Master manipulators of the law the same thing the Department of Education is trying to do with Title IX and also the training claims that parental rights that raise children on the website I clicked on counselors then
137on behind closed doors where anyone could view the slides that tell counselors to report students that complain about being uncomfortable with transgenders to the school's Administration for bullying and harassment does that mean girls that get uncomfortable changing in front of male genitalia will now be branded by the school administration as a bully I think it does the training was in the same year the tea had our schools send out a counselor needs assessment survey that told not asked parents that their kids were going to get one-on-one group counseling and monthly counseling lessons that parents can only view if they take off of work and go view it at the school why didn't you inform the parents the counselor leads went to this training and why didn't you tell the parents they can opt out at
138this kind of counseling I think this needs to happen your time is up I asked the board to let the community know publicly if you plan on adopting these unlawful guidelines that were in the budget like you did last year our next speaker is Melissa Rao president Jackson Dr Henry and board last summer I saw lots of cfic ads on social media for months pushing registering for school was that was that expense necessary if a family moves to CFISD I think they will find their way to the neighborhood School I drive by Hamilton Elementary often and I see a school sign that looks like it hasn't been updated since the 1990s with all the peeling paint CFISD spends money on taj Mahal's and has spent money redoing a school parking lot twice in two years
139because the bond money was earmarked for it so unnecessary this room looks nice but practically speaking I can't see all of your faces for my seat so you probably can't see us someone should fix that bored take a close look at how and where our money money is being spent and be sure our tax dollars are being spent wisely and practically our students aren't going to say their success is due to the most beautiful stadiums schools or admin building their success will be because of the best teachers and getting the best education and PS since it's Teacher Appreciation Week May I add please consider finding a new way to discipline students that fail to do their work and deserve a zero instead of forcing teachers to stay after for a student that doesn't care you
140are punishing the teacher there you go Ms Blackshear and Mr Jackson there's a turnover thing so look in the budget find the money let's invest in our teachers and our students uh you know spend the money on a third party company to survey the the teachers and ask them what they think the turnover problem is and see you all June 20th at the next meeting thank you our next speaker is Danielle Cockrell thank you good evening I was in here in June of 22 when the board worked hard to pass the 2223 budget as the deadline Drew near and I appreciate the board's choice to not wait to propose a new budget this year this legislative session I've learned the impact Texas legislators have on school funding with the uncertainty of whether or not schools
141will receive additional funds for teachers raises I asked the board to reserve the right to revisit the budget as it returned pertained to staff raises should legislators authorize additional staff funds these funds should be shared among all those who impact Cypher students firsthand from the bus driver that greets them in the morning to cafeteria workers custodial staff prepare professionals to support staff and teachers in my 18 years as a teacher I know students come to school for various reasons reasons education not always being number one I could not teach my content without everyone who took is the lives of the student on a daily basis so please reserve the right to revisit the budget should additional funds be allocated for staff salaries to include all who impact cyfair students firsthand thank you foreign Smith it's
142hard to find you thank you the presentation is yours the president Jackson board trustees today I'll be presenting the 23-24 preliminary General operating budget developed by Administration based on current law of course we'll be bringing the final proposed budget to you in in June as you can imagine it is very difficult to provide a realistic overview when there are quite a few Finance related bills that have been filed and we are unsure of the budget impact at this time excuse me but some of the factors influencing the budget process this current year of course as you know the legislative session will impact many areas especially the budget in fact the impact could be the equivalent of that of House Bill 3 in 2019. also student enrollment affects the need for new teachers in the current
143budget because we staff based on enrollment also we are funded based on average daily attendance and average daily attendance has been down for each one percent decrease in average daily attendance the district receives about 7.3 million less than funding also we still have some available stimulus funding available which will help the budget for the 23-24 school year we believe will have approximately 45 to 60 million remaining in Esser funds that could be available to offset the 2324 deficit as was mentioned just in the recent presentation one of the important things to the district is recruiting and retaining quality staff as you know CFISD will be opening Sprague middle school as well as Brosnahan Elementary School in August 2023 although the bond funds pay for the construction of these new schools the general fund pays for
144the operating cost of these schools this includes the principal associate and assistant principals counselors and other core staff as well as utilities property insurance Etc we all have been impacted by record inflation and that has impacted the district too it has increased by 14.5 percent since the last time the state provided additional funding to the school district also property values affect the property tax collections that the district will have and also affects the compressed tax rate that the district will be would would have so as property values go up the state compresses uh the tax rate if it's more than two and a half percent unfilled positions have been higher than normal since covid and so that impacts it's a good side of the budget but that's not necessarily always good that we have these
145unfilled positions so school districts are funded by two major funding sources it's the property taxes and state aid and these two items make up if you will I discussed this previously our cup and our cup has stays the same size unless there is additional funding provided to the school district through the basic allotment all that happens is either there may be a difference in the makeup of that cup between property taxes and state a property values are determined by the Harris Central Appraisal District and that you're probably used to hearing Harris County appraisal district and they the name was changed and I've had a hard time remembering that the tax rate is composed of the maintenance and operations tax rate which is for the general operations of the school district as well as the interest
146in Sinking tax rate which is to pay our debt service associated with Bond payments the maintenance and operations tax rate is capped at a certain amount which is the uh it's the compressed rate plus no more than five enrichment pennies without a voter election and our district is at the the maximum of that of the maximum compressed rate plus the five pennies therefore in order to increase the tax rate it would require a voter approval tax rate election as you know the District offers an optional homestead exemption of 20 percent while that's very beneficial to our our residents it is mean what that does mean is we collect don't collect property taxes on that 20 percent the current uh State funding formulas uh they are set up in statute and the values are determined by
147the by the Comptroller they are influenced by items such as enrollment average daily attendance special populations that which that would be funding for us career and Technology special education and bilingual and similar programs as well as in the number of enrichment Penny schools we would have and then our property wealth the kurd state funding formula is not adjusted for the cost of living or inflation as you know the inflation is at its highest in decades and districts receive 6160 dollars per average daily attendance which is also referred to as the basic allotment although House Bill 3 in 2019 increased the basic allotment a thousand and twenty dollars CFISD only received 436 dollars and the reason that was is the old funding used to have a cost of Education index realizing that in certain areas of
148the state it costs more for the school district so for us we only got 436 dollars more as I mentioned in April the only way to provide meaningful raises to our employees and address the rising costs is for the legislature to provide a significant increase in the basic allotment this chart shows the increase in property values over the last five years the 2023 tax values are the Harris Harris Central Appraisal District see I told you I'd have trouble remembering that preliminary certified property values of 74.7 billion dollars and this is prior to any tax relief proposed by the senate or house such as the Senate version of increasing the state Homestead exemption from forty thousand dollars to seventy thousand dollars and then over 65 disabled from ten thousand to thirty thousand dollars and then the
149house version of capping the increase in the taxable value of real property at five percent versus the current 10 percent of homeowners with a homestead exemption and the thing to notice here is it's real property and real property includes commercial it's land Timber minerals and improvements whereas has been just residential the the district is about 62 percent residential the Senate version of tax relief includes an interest in Sinking or Debt Service hold harmless but the house version does not and that's why I'm mentioning the critical part about the real property and the fact that it would not have that because what it would do is it would impact ins tax collections that we would be collecting and we would have to actually in order to have the same amount of collections one of the things
150y'all asked me at the last board meeting when I shared this information with you is what would be the impact of capping at five percent increase in taxable values the district would lose about 13 million dollars if it was capped in property tax revenues and that would be equivalent of about a two cent increase in the ins tax rate just to collect the same amount of taxes now I'll review student enrollment which affects State funding based on average daily attendance this chart reflects the district's changes in enrollment over the last five years you can see the decline enrollment that was there in 20 20 21 do the pandemic and although our enrollment has recovered as I mentioned earlier average daily attendance is down it has not increased and is still averaging a little below around
15193 percent our typical average daily attendance prior to covid was 95 and a half to 96 percent enrollment is expected to be approximately 118 732 for the twenty two twenty twenty three twenty fourth school year the district was very conservative and our initial estimates here we go we always like to provide the board a comparison of CFISD teachers salaries compared to our neighboring districts cfis isd's greatest competition is probably Katie Klein and Tomball and although Katie's is slightly higher than the districts CFISD is paying above that of Klein and Tomball the district would love to announce salary increases sooner but that's very difficult during a legislative session when funding is unknown and a significant increase in the basic allotment is needed to provide meaningful raises for our employees this chart reflects the breakout of the
152general fund expenditures in the 2022-2023 adopted budget you as you can see here payroll is 90 percent of the budget this is in line with ever across the nation which is typically uh is 85 to 90 percent as you know without employees we would not be able to provide the services to our students and support our campuses raises are a significant impact on the budget and a one percent raise for CFISD is about nine million dollars last uh in the April board meeting Teresa Hall and I went over some of the various bills that affect funding as well as others that affect the school district I'm not going to go into detail on those this time but I will discuss the committee substitute House Bill 100 by King because this is one of the main
153Avenues uh or the only Avenue actually I'm increasing the basic allotment it was voted out of the house on April 27 2023 and then referred to the Senate Ed committee on May the second the items in this in-house Bill 100 are more than what has been allocated in house bill one it they add up to about 5.6 billion dollars in the amount that was allocated and House Bill 1 was 5 billion that's the Senate it's also more than the Senate has appropriated so the Senate will probably start off by trying to reduce cost we're hearing maybe down to about 3.5 billion dollars from the 5 billion so some of the questions we have is well how will the Senate approach scaling back and also will the legislature be willing to increase the funding that's set
154out in house bill one and provide more towards school districts than the 5 billion dollars uh the basic allotment in uh in House Bill 100 will increase 140 over the biennium as it's currently written that is 90 in 23.24 and then another 50 and 24.25 and that the amount of money that would provide the district over the biennium is about 20.4 million dollars and you can see that is much less use we have up here on the screen that um in order to just recover from 14 and a half percent inflation they would need to increase the basic allotment ninety dollars so this is considerably less I mean I'm sorry 90 900. this is considerably less than the amount they are allocating of a hundred and forty and then less than what the district has
155said we need as well as other school districts of a thousand dollars also a part of House Bill 3 was a requirement to use thirty percent of the increase in the basic allotment towards salaries of which 75 percent of that 30 percent had to go towards teachers counselors nurses and Librarians and the other 25 percent towards non-administrative staff House Bill 100 changes that to 50 percent of the increase also included in the bill is an inflation factor for the basic allotment based on a 10-year average inflation rate as well as a sixth golden Penny or enrichment Penny without voter approval and an additional golden penny for the school district um if we decided to access this access it is 16.6 million dollars it also includes special the special education committee recommendations as well as enrollment-based
156funding for most of the allotments in the second year of the biennium so that would be in 24 2024 2025 it also creates allotment for schools that provide an advanced math pathway an allotment for Fine Arts and allotment for book safety it also includes increasing the transportation allotment from a dollar to a dollar fifty four per mile for regular routes and increasing it from a dollar eight to a dollar sixty seven per mile for special education services as well as a small increase in the compensatory education allotment and then it also removes the cap for the fast growth allotment so what I'll do go over today are just those budget considerations that really if you will uh will need to happen um and those are an increase in campus staff which is primarily due to
157the requirements of what the services we need to provide for special education and bilingual Services of 14.6 million dollars and along with that would be the benefits Associated of 4.3 million also an increase in general supplies of a million dollars because of inflation and inflation has also affected utility costs for 1.6 million dollars the budget also includes the operating cost to open new facilities as I already discussed we'll be opening uh two campuses next year as well as there's several expansions that will be happening and repurposing of the instructional support center that is nine million dollars and then net increases in property insurance of which that went up 2.6 million dollars uh software licenses contracted services and other operating and these are all really related to inflation with the exception of property insurance property insurance
158is primarily because of the different disasters that have happened as well as we're required to ensure uh what the VA what it would cost to replace replace the items and so you as you well know property values have gone way up therefore that's why we're the cost has gone up with property insurance therefore uh as of now um the preliminary budget discussed tonight is based on what a stress on current law uh the increase in the golden Penny yield which is current law according to current law with the golden Penny yield now that could change but in House Bill 3 the golden Penny yield would yield us about 18.5 million dollars and the cost discussed in the previous slide for an estimated budget deficit of 110.1 million dollars and this is prior to accessing any
159of the remaining Federal stimulus funding available to the district I want to remind you that the deficit assumes that all positions will be filled all budgeted funds will be spent by the campuses and the Departments and it has a real conservative estimate for average daily attendance another thing is the budget removes the three disaster pennies that we had in the budget for the 22-23 school year if you recall we were allowed to do adopt disaster pennies in the year after disaster which was the winter storm Yuri however they're only allowed for one year it also does not include races or the retention stipend at this point in time since we are unsure of the funding impact of the legislative session we need to all reach out I've stress to our legislators to ask for a
160thousand dollar increase in the basic allotment and an adjustment for each year for inflation to properly fund the cost of Education so the options for the budget for the 22-23 2023-24 school excuse me is an increase in the basic allotment or other state funding as you know this would require a legislative action also modify the adjustment to the state property values for the optional homestead exemption if uh just a reminder of what this is is that in the way the state aid is paid out to us it assumes that we do not have an optional homestead exemption and that we are collecting property taxes on that 20 percent so if they modified that it would require legislative action at the beginning of the the session we were hearing a little about this that they that
161there was good risk that might be considering it but lately what I'm hearing is that's not on the table also we have the option where we could remove a portion or all of the optional homestead exemption if that happened it would require board approval and notification to the appraisal district prior to July 1st 2023 there's also the option to increase the maintenance and operations tax rate above the amount of the cap but if we did that that would require a voter approval tax rate election we also can utilize remaining Federal stimulus funds to help offset the deficit utilize fund balance or cut expenditures all of that which would be part of what the the board would vote on as far as adopting the budget in June if that was the case so basically the messages
162that we still need to be providing to our legislators is that the base basic allotment is critical for all school districts the six golden Penny helps many school districts those that have not uh had a tax rate election also we've had costs outside of the classroom that are also increasing and many of the bills are only kind of considering what's in the classroom but we've had costs outside of the classroom increasing and as we all know that you know budgets are being built now and teachers are making employment decisions now so we want our legislators to go ahead and let us know what type of funding bill will be out there and the money that will be available to school districts so we know what type of a budget to adopt and then without increased
163funding unfortunately Cuts could possibly be on the horizon so the the 88th legislative session uh is winding down and it is about three weeks away some of the most pressing issues have not even been resolved bills for property tax relief and education savings accounts or vouchers are still in limbo the budget is uh only the only Bill the legislature is legally required to pass during its 140-day session and it's yet to be finalized Bill killing deadlines are rapidly approaching the house committee's head until today to advance house bills while Thursday is the last day for the Full House to initially approve its bills and then May 20th is the last day for house committees to pass Senate bills and then when you get down to the end of the legislative session is May 29th Dan
164Patrick has accused the house of moving too slow during this session and has suggested he may force a special session if he doesn't get what he wants on property tax relief as well as the property grid reform he can uh not officially call a special session but he can enforce it by not passing key bills such as the budget the Senate moved the House's property tax bill into committee on Tuesday but the Senate's bill which was sent over in early April remains tied up in the house committees so now I will entertain any questions that you may have at this time I'll start to the left this time Debbie Karen I I I'm I'm going to make a statement and if I'm not uh expressing it correctly please correct me but when we were talking
165uh while a while back about the maintenance and operations part of the budget let me get to that page and uh the interest in sinking when we talk about our expenses for example this building came from bond funds what we improvements we make to our property come from bond funds those bond funds if we don't utilize them cannot be turned into maintenance and operations and us give teacher raises from that money that that money has to be used expressly for the items that were listed in the bond is that correct you're correct Miss Fletcher okay then um uh I believe it was 2021 that we uh gave a five percent raise to teachers is that correct I think it was 2120 maybe 21 22. okay okay because it was because and that's what I meant
166it was passed in that Year's that Summer's budget okay and it was largely due to Esser funds or funds that we had from the federal government that we were able to give such a large raise I would say it was a combination of things I mean number one the board wanted to go ahead well but yes we it allowed us to balance our budget you are exactly right that's the point I wanted to make is that we were able to do it because we had those federal funds available and of course this board wanted to do it because we knew how tough that school year had been for our teachers and last year we the raise was smaller because we were not in that same position to have the funds to give a higher raise
167yes okay okay okay just I just wanted to clarify that and make sure that our viewing audience and some of those present who may not be aware of that those facts of how those funds certain funds can only be utilized a certain way okay thank you great great job and and I will say I do not envy your position your department nor our position as a Board of Trustees and decisions that may have to be made going forward thank you Julie um Karen thank you for the information this uh each month you give us uh you've tried to fill in more this the spaces the gaps as we we work our way to to June to the the budget Workshop I'm going to just walk through the presentation and try to uh ask my questions
168Page by page so um when you were talking about factors influencing the budget process and you talked about available Federal funding you said you expect that we'll have between 45 and 60 million dollars of Esser funds left over yes that's my best guess of the amount that will be available and just a reminder they expire we have to utilize them all by September 2024 so but that's about where we think will be based on this current Year's deficit as we see it now okay will you have a firmer number by June absolutely okay okay that that's my question just to so we'll know exactly how much we have to use and we know that those funds had to be used in certain ways we we must apply those to certain um expenditures correct yes where
169and one of the items that we're able to utilize this for the ongoing operations of the district so that's um that's how we've been able to offset the deficit with somebody okay and we reserved these dollars we didn't spend all of our Esther dollars the first year we try to reserve some knowing that we were going to come to this point in this year correct we tried to spread them over three years right um when you mentioned in uh enrollment in attendance we budget based upon enrollment because we have to be prepared for every child to show up right we have to have a teacher for every kid who's enrolled that's correct uh just to make sure I had this number right for every one percent that our attendance is down uh our state funding
170is reduced by 7.3 million dollars and then you said our average daily attendance is down two to three percent this year it's it was actually that way it's since well 20 20 20 21 we saw you know we lost enrollment then we gained back some of our enrollment but since then our average daily attendance has been I'm talking about it it's not been just there but the year before also which is I mean obviously um we focus on attendance because we know that first time instruction in the classroom is most important to students but secondarily is that if our attendance is down we we do lose funding even though we've budgeted to have teachers in every classroom um uh on the third slide when you're talking about how we receive funding from property taxes as
171well as state aid you didn't include the percentage there is uh do you have the percentage how much of our district is our revenue is from property taxes versus state aid I I I can get I can check that for you but I believe it is about 60 percent little over 60 percent about 60 62 percent comes from property taxes with the remainder state aid okay so we had hoped with hb3 in 2019 that we would get to a 50 50 state aid versus property taxes but that's shifted back correct it did get to about 50 50 but uh what happens is you know as property values increase the state reduces State funding and what has been happening is property values have been going up over the last several years so they have reduced funding
172trade Aid funding because our cup hasn't changed sizes it stayed the same go ahead and just just as a comment there the state might very well pick up a larger percentage this year but they're not going to increase the size of the cup correct so they're going to buy down our tax rate but there's no additional dollars understood on that same page uh Karen you uh when you mentioned the optional homestead exemption the extra 20 or the 20 um property tax reduction that we offer to our taxpayers what is the impact of that um what's what how much less do we have available in our mno budget because okay if and number if we had never had the optional homestead exemption it would be about 90 million dollars however because if we got rid it
173ever got rid of the optional homestead exemption it would be offset by those people that have Frozen values which is people 65 and older so it would be about 73.4 uh million dollars that we would gain with that and what is the what's the value of the penalty that the state gives us it's a it's about 60 million so because we offer that to our taxpayers the state reduces our state aid by 60 million yes um so I had just some general comments I had written down about the different house and the Senate uh budget proposals you know typically um I don't often agree with the Senate but when I do um I I do feel that the Senate's um um approach of increasing the homestead exemption is better for school districts at least for
174ours versus the house version I do appreciate appreciate that house is looking to move some of the allotments to enrollment versus attendance-based funding and wish that that would also apply to the um basic allotment let me see oh I do have a question uh under general fund expenditures page seven so payroll is about 90 percent what is the most current percentage that goes into General Administration it's about 1.8 percent for General Administration and how about the administrative cost ratio it's um gosh I'll have to look I'd have to look that up it's a little over three percent it's like three I want to say it's three and a half percent around that okay so 3.7 percent so very low most of our of our expenditures go into and stuff we actually have the lowest uh
175administrative cost ratio in the state at this okay you said that the sixth golden penny is worth about 16.6 million dollars to US yes for Cyprus Fairbanks yes based on current law based upon currently but we don't know if we're gonna get that six Penny yet or not until right because that's part of the uh House Bill 100 and I did uh check to see um the amount with state is you know it the percentages is it is about what I what I told you about the about a little over 60 percent is local and okay the rest is thank you state so I will say you know house build 100 has some good things in it it has you know increasing the transportation allotments and uh an alignment for Fine Arts that's incred that's
176amazing um the challenge is that it has some things in it that you know the the the the extremely low increase to the basic allotment is is insufficient so I think when we're communicating with our state legislators we need to say thank you for focusing on public education and thank you for the good parts but just continue asking for additional uh increase in the basic allotment um one thing I want to mention on page 11 which was the uh when you presented the preliminary budget I remember when I was sitting in the audience for those years before I became a trustee whenever I saw a deficit it gave me heartburn uh it bothered me um but as I watched throughout the year when we do budget adjustments throughout the year that deficit goes away so
177we've we until well for as long as I can remember we've never ended with a deficit we've always had a balanced budget is that correct we we did have a year with a small deficit within the last several years but it was my it was very small less than two million dollars and um but once again we would have realized the deficits had we not had the Esser stimulus funding right right so the key is well and let me just also make sure I make them I ask a question about this page when you when you this preliminary budget I just want to make sure I heard you say this includes no raises yes no raises at this point in time because we don't know what the available funding will be so it's just currently
178where we are now okay um so then I guess the to your page of messages to legislators is that we do need an increase in the basic allotment and we absolutely need them to pass a budget including public Ed funding before at the end of the session May 29th going into special session will be very uh difficult on every school district in the state absolutely and we're you know we're concerned that it'll it'll make you know it's going to go to conference committee and when it goes to conference committee you know that's behind closed doors and no testimony is allowed we're just hoping that it's not going to go into special session I know I hate that it comes there's everything you know we have we have a voice all the way through the session
179until right then at the end when it really counts and then we don't get to see anyway thank you for the information thank you for answering my questions uh we have a lot to work on um in our budget Workshop meeting in June thank you going to my right Scott thank you Karen um a lot of my questions already been answered but I will ask um I know this when talking to Senators they talked about increasing the special ed budget is that in the Senate Bill hospital or both it's in the it's actually in that that house bill 100 about well I say it's in there as far as going with what the recommendations were of the committee uh basically a committee was formed to review special education cost as part of House Bill 3
180in the 2019 legislative session and so they've reviewed uh you know what those made recommendations but we're unsure exactly how much additional funding that would really be yet but it appears there's just there is a little bit additional funding associated with it based on the models that have been run thus far and you said right now we're looking at 14.6 million additional dollars just for next year as it sits now we need is that correct that's the increase in spending that number there 14.6 in campus that oh yes that's yes that's based that's based on staff um uh special education as well as bilingual to provide uh Services okay and my last question is um on the the fund balance what is currently the fund balance today it's about 520 million dollars thank you very
181much Gilbert as usual the colleagues asks great questions um going back to the Daily enrollment and I'm not sure you can answer this uh it was down three three to four percent um is that is that maybe a question for Teresa maybe is is that the average we had pre-pandemic or or is this still remnants of what we went through with the pandemic with uh Missing the daily enrollment by that percentage points I know Teresa may want to add something but pre-pandemic we were 95 and a half to 96 percent and now we're looking at 93 I believe you said any any um data to that we can uh go on on on the loss of percentages there and is there something that we're trying to to do we see um a pattern forming uh
182Dr Stewart may want to chime in on that I think I mean data to support this um I'm hopeful that the reinstatement of our exemption policy hopefully is increasing and improving the attendance rate at the high school level that this is the first year since the pandemic that we reinstated that and that attendance incentive is helpful in increasing that rate so Dr Stewart do you want to add any additional you know that's exactly what I was going to say that we're looking at the exemption reinstatement of the exemption and hopefully we'll see an increase in student attendance and we're also looking at a data dig to as we're doing with our teacher attendance to look at our student attendance and maybe be able to determine where they are and why they're absent and also I
183would add I think truancy is a huge Focus this legislative session also and I I know there are several bills that have been filed and that are moving through the process that really will increase um some of the um penalties if you will for truancy so I do think it's a Statewide concern and so we'll see what comes out of the session also to help incentivize more students to attend on a regular basis right um when we went into this the first time at the very beginning of the Pandemic those numbers were the crisis was the uh the children that were lost and we were adamantly going after them to find out where they were at and what we could do to to rectify the situation and as all districts were and we were very
184proud of what we came out with because we were far ahead of the other districts that were making the news about their uh missing students that may have left may have dropped out or or some other um didn't have access to the to the internet or something like that though but hopefully we can get that percentages back numbers back up and stuff the other question I had was the homeowners so is that when we apply that is they is that a one-time uh it's like can we lower the percentage that we offer to our community or is it if you're going to either have it you're going to have it at this rate or you're not going to have nothing well what would it would be a board decision and it would remain whatever the
185board decides until the board decides to change it so for example we've maintained the 20 optional homestead exemption and so it has stayed that way because the board has chosen to maintain it they may the board has chose to stay at 2020 or realistically we could change it if the board decides to to whatever amount we want that's correct those are my questions and thank you colleagues for asking yours very informative thank you they just share on this Honeyman you had asked I just looked it up what our administrative cost ratio was and last year it was it was uh 3.39 percent and Mr Henry I did look up um kind of what the models are showing on special education funding and right now what I'm seeing is about two and a half million dollars
186but this is based on just the model not understanding everything but that's just so you know excuse me Mr Jackson thank you quite all right um Scott let me let me ask you a question that you have asked that I've heard you've asked a number of times but let me ask a question of you um what approximately is our expenditure on special needs children that is not reimbursed by the state well right now we're what in the deficit by what 30 million a year is that right Karen yes and I will actually pull that up for you and provide that to you just once and I believe we're at once we pay about 170 million a year from what I understand so that's kind of the Delta between the two we'll be what the state
187pays as far as in federal government basis it might be just a bit more than that round numbers I'm pulling it up as we speak right here just one second the special education funding this would have been for um last year so you know how much we spent the funding was 80.5 Million but we spent 126.1 million so about 46 million more than we received so 46 million uh and when we were in Austin I Scott I appreciate that when we met with our legislators you pointed that out you also pointed out that we had no intention of backing away from providing any Services which is important but 40 million dollars a year is a big number it's important that we provide those services certainly districts here in Harris County a very large one had
188a conservator because they weren't providing a sufficient level of special needs and then down in the Austin area Conservatory has been announced in in the same area so it's important that we continue to provide the services that are required but that is a a massive portion of our budget shortfall which does not appear to receive much much benefit in the legislation Karen let's talk about fund balances Scott asked you how big the fund balance is and that's always an important question we have to know that however that's not a usable fund balance so 90 days we know that if you dip below the 90 days the state is going to get in your hip pocket the state wants to know why you're less than 90 days since we have a different year in is our
189minimum greater than 90 days yes you know the minimum would be 40 four months and fund balance what's really recommended is five only because we have two more months before we have tax collections coming in for a June compared to an August year end so if we use the minimum of four months before the state starts sending somebody to sit in one of your offices to look over your shoulder what portion of the fund balance do we have that's above the four months I guess I'm not following you there okay so you identified the size of the fund balance right if we roughly divide that by 12 months correct okay I see what you're saying well basically it would be about 33 of it that's not related to the four months that is usable it's
190you correct and so Dollar Wise how much would that be more or less I believe it's like around a hundred and right around 160 170 million would be that amount but of that because of our funny year end it's really the usable portion is really half of that correct and and that's a number that that's important for us to look at if we if we used up for lack of a better word already day fund a rainy day fund is anything above that five month mark and we'll visit some more on that in June we will be having a very long board session in June uh we will be having for the viewing audience that board session is going to start at nine o'clock in the morning just to give everybody plenty of advance notice
191about it we don't quite yet know how we're going to structure it but we'll have presentations we'll have breaks somehow we have to have board discussion which has to be done uh in public on camera and we'll figure that out as we go along and I'm sure we'll get more refinement on how much of that fund balance is usable but it doesn't take much of that fund balance of that portion above five months that is actually usable to use up particularly if we talk about any raises that's correct and really based on where we close to where we are you know we're kind of at that Mark right now if you look at it based on five months versus the four months I have a whole host of other questions but right now they're they're
192hypothetical because we we we just don't know where we're going going to wind up legislatively it appears as if salaries are some of the legislation requires salary raises to be given but it doesn't appear that there's a funding mechanism for it past one year so would that mean that those recommended salary raises would be more like bonuses if we don't have an ongoing funding mechanism yes and that's one on the Senate side Mr Jackson and it's two thousand dollars but it's only for the 20 23-24 school year so it's almost like a retention Spike stipend as opposed to uh salary very good thank you for the early analysis uh I know we would have loved to have started looking at this all the way back in February but we just don't have that ability without
193having some ideas to what the revenues is going to look at since this is so important I'm going to go back around to see if there's any follow-up questions I'll start to my left again anything from my left Julie uh president Jackson I just want to confirm what you said that our board meeting we only have one meeting in June it's June 20th we're going to start at nine o'clock and Our intention is to pass the budget by the end of that meeting correct we have no choice just clarifying uh back to the right any additional follow-up questions very good thank you Karen appreciate it Julie um Karen one one last additional question just to um clarify once we pass the budget on June 20th for the next school year we will have the opportunity
194to come back and revisit the budget and do budget adjustments is that correct that's correct and you know uh in years I mean I can remember one year where it went into special session many years ago and it actually involved funding for school districts and districts adopted a budget based on what they knew at the time put Provisions in there with their staff Compensation Plan to where once they got additional information if it went into special session that would allow them to do something once they knew what the funding would be so we could do that if necessary yes ma'am thank you we'll now move to item 3B the administration will provide an update on the high school health course for local credit uh Scott you asked a very informed question or statement at the
195last board meeting and I would suggest to our viewing audience that if you did not catch last board meeting go back and and listen to the the comments and observations and and questions because they are in fact pertinent we have 12 speakers for this evening on this topic after the speakers we will have a brief presentation as I understand an update from Dr Macias our first speaker is Courtney Wyatt you may be in whatever you wish my name is Courtney Wyatt I'm a resident of CFISD a parent of a child in the district and a health teacher at a coach Jersey Village High School for the last 10 years I'm here tonight to express my support to further share the importance and need for the high school health curriculum the positive impact of this course
196has on their students cannot be replicated or placed or taught by any other course topics taught in a health class inform students on life-saving procedures promote lifelong learning and increase one's self-esteem and self-worth as a teacher I build relationships through our sensitive and real life topics and become someone that many of my students trust and confide in I have discussed the possibility of no Health longer being an high school student with my students and they had a lot to say about it Nathan said by removing Health you'd be taking away valuable information and instruction from an age group who needs it most and that the removal of such an important meaningful class would be irresponsible Lilly stated in health we have learned a lot about everything real how to save people's lives how to help
197a friend who is struggling and how to seek out help for ourselves Health classes emphasize proper nutrition shows students how to create and maintain a healthy diet students learn about strength endurance flexibility and body composition all which support a physically fit lifestyle Sophie said I would never have learned this information at home I appreciate the fact that we have these important conversations in class an added benefit of high school health is the first aid in CPR unit students are taught life-saving skills that help stabilize a life in an emergency if needed Natalie said prior to health I had no idea what an AED was after the Hands-On instruction and practice on how to use an AED I feel like I could really help somebody savings save somebody's life in need these skills prepare students to
198help save themselves and and enhance the safety of their schools and communities students are introduced to dangers of Alcohol Tobacco drugs they learn the negative impacts of substance abuse Alex said after learning about the dangers of vaping I've worked hard to stop I would have never known the consequences of vaping the house in my body if we hadn't talked about it in class throughout the health course teachers provide students with information that hopefully influences change and attitudes by adding knowledge about topics and can enhance their overall Wellness my goal is to show students a greater understanding of positive actions towards alive living along thank you the next speaker is Brad bearwinkle I'm Brad bear Winkle I'm the department chair for health and PE at Bridgeland High School I spoke to you guys last Thursday and
199had a couple of other points that I wanted to make from listening to the board meeting last week after our presentation we were talking about the portrait of CFISD graduate and what are some of the new words that are coming out and I heard resiliency I heard empathy I heard Integrity I heard Communicator communication those are all not only words we use in our health class those are lessons that we teach in our health class and they come up over and over and over again whether it's the Integrity of being a great friend Integrity of doing what's right the Integrity of being a uh in a great relationship the empathy to understand other people whether they're overweight whether they're addicted to something we talk about communicating how do you non-verbally how your body posture nonverbal
200cues verbal cues all make the message more so that everybody can understand and these are all things that if that's the portrait of a scifare ISD graduate this is a class that is teaching that at the right point in time when their freshman in high school that they can grow with it I also heard that we were talking about SCI ferocity being a leader in this District or in this state well what I don't understand it I know we are a leader in this state but we're asking about what are other districts doing what are they doing this or are they taking away Health are they putting as credit why don't we take the lead why don't we take the lead and say that our kids mental physical and social health are very important for
201us and we're going to take the lead and require Health to be taught in scifarisd thank you our next speaker is Nicholas Johnson thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I come to you not only as a CFISD employee but also a CI CFISD parent um I am a health teacher at South Woods High School I'm also the head wrestling coach as well I would like to speak for a moment on the importance of Health in the CFISD curriculum I believe that our best the at our best a good health teacher is a supplement to our amazing parents that we have here um in this District but they are unfortunately there are some students that aren't as lucky as others um for whatever reason um they don't get that supplementation to where um that
202that they need like it's our health class is more than supplemental it's all they get is my point um and whatever I can do to help these students be to learn the whatever they need for my class that's what I want to be this is um you know this is where the Educators come in you know I have a whole hearted belief that health class is something that stays stays with our students as long long after finals and state tests have been completed from a personal Viewpoint there are aspects of health class that I still use to this day not because I teach the subject but because it's something that we all use every day the importance of the you know the human sexuality human sexuality unit is a small part of what we teach
203um but it's important you know things from the importance of daily grooming and personal hygiene to Nutrition Fitness the dangers of Alcohol Tobacco and drugs and the life-saving basics of first aid and CPR I asked the board please recognize the importance of the subject and also take into account you know the Educators and coaches I believe 61's the number 61. time is up 61 Educators and coaches that from the district that are certified time is up sir [Applause] the next speaker is Roman Durand um hello members of the school board today I would like to talk about why 9th grade health should remain as a core class and not become a local credit class first let me clarify what local credit means according to the Texas Education Agency it's a course not recognized by the
204tea as a requirement for graduation in other words it's an optional course that you don't need in order to get your diploma however I believe that health education is not something that should be optional or ignored let's think about it logically would you like to ignore your own health in the last few months I've taken health and I've learned a lot I learned about healthy habits bad habits calorie intake nutrition and most importantly how to do CPR although I am not officially certified I feel confident that if the I could I'm sorry I could potentially save someone's life if the need arises this is a crucial skill that everyone should learn regardless of their career aspirations or interests I've also learned the importance of physical health and mental health according to Wikipedia 70 million people
205in the United States are obese this is a staggering number that indicates a serious public health problem by teaching the impressionable children on how to eat right exercise and avoid the dangers of obesity we can take a step in the right direction and lower the obesity rate I would like to walk out of high school and knowing crucial things about my health and well-being that you can't get without health education is not a luxury but a necessity with that being said please consider keeping Health as a core class thank you our next speaker is Francis Romero foreign wow how do you follow that right um straight from the students who are getting this valuable course I just want to say as a parent when my two daughters were freshmen in high school they were both
206fortunate to receive the health health course curriculum in high school I am grateful for the knowledge that they gained in this class and it equally grateful that it was required to ensure that neither one of them would have missed out on such valuable information as such I am respectfully urging for this board to please keep this health course as a required course some of the reasons you have already heard which I'm probably going to Echo but the value in this course that these that our students are are gaining they are all pluses they're all benefits there's no loss there and I know from our Thursday meeting we heard some concerns about well you know we'd be at some of our students might be at a disadvantage because of the GPA but what I have to
207say to that at for anyone who is concerned about any detriment put on their students GPA is the value of this class equipping our children with the knowledge and tools that can one day mean the difference between life and death is far greater than what any GPA could do for any of them and I will I will close with this with this thought um anyone who is cons who is concerned and ready to throw the baby out with the bath water because of these uh small brief unit that our the course has on the human sexuality parents can opt out parents can opt their kids out of that if that is a huge concern there is so much more value in this course for that small part of it to be a deal breaker it
208does not have to be that way we need to listen to our teachers who have come up here to share their their feelings and what they know they are the professionals they know this course they know the value your time is to listen to them and our students thank you so much our next speaker is Monica Dean early last year I voiced my concern about the health class being a requirement to graduate so I'm glad to finally see it's on the agenda Mr Scott Henry was correct at the workstation tea specifically States on their website that health is not required to graduate but rather a school district may offer additional opportunities for students to select health education as an elective districts may offer courses designated for grades 9 to 12 in CPR instruction can be
209offered as early as 7th grade on the Tea's graduation toolkit page health is not specifically listed instead it only stipulates that five credits must come from electives in fact the only stipulation required for graduation is CPR instruction as Dr blastingame always says it's about giving family choices so by the district requiring a course that is not required by the state that is not giving parents and their student choices instead that is the district determining what they think is best for my child I 2 was that the Waller ID board meeting with Dr Macias where the board voted to remove Health completely Tomball has done so as well likewise Tomball and Klein among others do not require Health to graduate if the district removes Health but still needs to incorporate the teaks why not incorporate them
210like the character traits how about integrating a healthy habit of the week program such topics like healthy eating exercise good sleep the district already offers presentations to families on drug addiction mental health so is there really a need for this half semester class that part of it is actually an opt-in students actually can take a year-long course called principles of Health if they choose I hope the board considers removing health or at the very least not requiring it to graduate so the focus is on academics and other quality elective choices for the students [Applause] our next speaker is Stacy McDaniel I'm a Jersey Village graduate and I've been teaching at Cypher SD for 16 years I want to address some of the information that I heard in the latest boardwork session regarding the health requirement
211713 of our 911 seniors at Cypress Ranch High School have opted to not take an elective and instead have early release or late arrival of the 198 students remaining I'm quite positive that there are a number of students who remain taking classes because they need the credits to graduate Cypress Ranch is a community of high academic achievement and students who are committed to having the very best GPA but 713 of these students have elected not to take upper-level electives or electives at all this shows that a vast majority of our students aren't particularly concerned about having more courses and selection to take as one of our board members stated in addition the course that was suggested was personal finance which is something we already offer through our economics and Money Matters courses is that board
212aware of the many classes we offer as a pace teacher we spend weeks educating our students about the courses offered and is often so difficult for these students to choose courses because they are overwhelmed by the number of them that we offer GPA should also not be the basis for getting rid of Health graduation requirement many students who want to play the GPA game will put Health off until their senior year of the High School courses required only three are on level credits A Fine Art a PE and health and Pace combined together I calculated the required courses with the on level 0.5 Health Credit and versus a 0.5 AP or k credit and the difference was two one hundredths of a point this isn't with any of the six elective students are required to
213take so the impact would be even less when you add those courses into the GPA regardless of the health class being required or recommended it is relevant and important just that has been relevant and important for decades lastly information about the textbook should not be the sole purpose for moving an entire course especially when parents have the option to opt out or end of a controversial topic the students want to find information their parents deem inflammatory or not fit for the classroom they won't be going to the textbook they have the whole world at their hands all 12 principals have agreed that health is needed why don't we listen [Applause] the next speaker is Clark Denson good evening board what a nice Taj Mahal this is beautiful building I want to remind the board and
214the administration that certain agreements regarding the health curriculum were made in committee and we would like some Ironclad assurance that those assertions will indeed be addressed and brought back before some subcommittees for final review ultimately we're being asked to trust this Administration will indeed infatuate the changes agreed upon some of our faith in this is rather low who is ultimately responsible and accountable that agreed upon changes in committee will indeed be fully addressed it's been asserted in various PowerPoint presentations and so forth during board work sessions by the curriculum director that the health curriculum was required for graduation so you know if the health curriculum is not required by the state of Texas um you know my assertion is let's make it an elective there's just no need to have perceived Trojan horses that can
215bring in other curriculum that many parents do not advocate for so thank you for your time foreign thank you board members as I clearly stated at the Thursday work session the decision at hand was to retain the health course as an elective or eliminate as a required graduation credit note state law has not required a health course at high school level since 2009 in FYI state law supersedes the teaks MS Macias was well aware that the teaks did not require Health to be provided at the high school level she herself stated that she had spoken with other districts that had eliminated the course for high school or had returned it as an elective only this report is also confusing to me because Miss Macias and I sat in the same boardroom in Waller ASD as
216I had mentioned when the board voted to have health as an elective course we had both heard sboe Audrey young advised against using the good heart Wilcox text and the health course was not required for graduation yet I was shocked to hear and see and hear MRSA yet was a requirement being broadcast as such to the entire District the inferior was instilled in our teachers that they would lose their jobs when we are having difficult times recruiting and retaining our teachers why was this misinformation in fear attack is utilized many of the topics can and are provided in other courses such as biology and health as we just heard the coordinated school health program according to tec 38.013 has been required since 2001. this health program is only required for elementary middle school and junior
217high students it covers the major topics of obesity CPR mental health education substance substance abuse and requires parental involvement what better way for cfise to partner with parents than following the law even though it is required for Middle School parents still have to opt in for the human sexuality portion to the one teacher who testified on Thursday she was the parent for 300 students you are not their parent that's why the Texas legislator is providing a new law on parental rights even tea recognizes parental rights why doesn't Cipher Administration let parents make the decision with their child whether to take this course and I ask that you please not make this a requirement for graduation thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Linda natal foreign against making the health course mandatory for a number of
218reasons primary is that there shouldn't be near nothing Beyond Reading Writing and math that should be mandatory for every child with all their vast differences and abilities and interests their parents know them and have a stake in their life success that you do not it appears to me that the board is trying to make a decision based on antiques requirements that do not exist before Thursday's meeting was brought to the attention of the presenter that teaks no longer has Health requirements at a shack meeting at a Waller ISD meeting and again at Thursday's meeting when asked to cite what requirements she was claiming to reference she said she'd have to go look that up she'd had plenty of opportunity to look it up it is not there since it is not a requirement then we
219can certainly feel good about not requiring this course of students who would prefer to take advanced math or foreign language or music or sports or any number of other learning Pursuits in their preparation for college or life you're concerned that this might be the only way to get certain information to students whose homes don't provide it is misguided the essential information is already taught in Middle School schools are not families when a teacher says they are parents to 300 students to children that is not correct they are the hired teacher while it's a plus to have caring teachers schools do not know what's best for all students it's offensive to have the best to the vast majority of parents who actually have the right to the care and upbringing of those children we have reason
220not to trust on this issue for students whose parents would not opt in for the sex ed part of the health course there should be no testing on that knowledge but they were tested anyway parents were pressured to opt in being told that their students grades could be on the line if they failed in the testing the tea head is adamant that these students not be tested how can parents and other community members trust the administration when this is being done foreign t i watch Thursday's work session and I want to commend all the teachers who showed up to speak about the importance of health class and the teachers who spoke tonight as well Mental Health Nutrition Fitness dating healthy relationships tobacco alcohol vaping drug prevention first aid CPR those are all excellent topics for
221high school students to discuss as a licensed clinical social worker for over 25 years I believe this should remain a required course there are so many teenagers who don't have anyone to speak to at home I would much rather have them learn about these topics from certified teachers than from the internet alone the people pushing to make this an elective class seem to believe that the internet doesn't exist or that kids aren't already accessing it from their phones or from their friends phones or from the smart TV sitting in their family rooms people like to talk about the good old days well guess what everyone in this room who went to public school took health class they also probably had gym class every day emotional and physical health should be priorities for everyone they talk
222about flexibility of course selection that's just smoke and mirrors for power and control they think that their Evangelical beliefs and values are the only ones that matter they want to bubble wrap their children it doesn't prepare them for the real world at all if health class becomes optional what will happen to all of our wonderful Health teachers will they lose their jobs maybe down the line they along with art teachers may just be paid less since they don't produce any measurable outcomes or any concrete data by the way the art teacher comment came from one of our board members at a recent community meeting implying that art teachers aren't as important as math and English teachers it was an atrocious statement our society needs well-rounded citizens Public Schools play a big part in that it
223is education for all regardless of gender race religion or socioeconomic status every child walking into a CFISD school can access the same education as the kid walking in next to them we need health class we need gym class we need art we need music we need science we need history we need Common Sense unfortunately that's not so common anymore thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Christina Woods good evening I wanted to start by thanking Dr Macias for her comprehensive view of what it means to offer a high school health curriculum which includes the various critical areas covered the level of district-wide planning for course study that begins in eighth grade and the number of teachers that share this their expertise in teaching this require course of study in the district and of course this
224doesn't cover the amount of work that would go into realigning all of these areas of study if they had to be shifted into other courses if the health curriculum is no no longer offered then there's also the issue of all the teachers and and would they be able to retain their jobs so I'm here to ask you as the Board of Trustees to listen to our teachers they are the professionals trained in this subject matter and are engaging students on a daily basis on some of the most important topics of their young lives my question for those of you that are supporting eliminating health class as a credit is this and I want to acknowledge that two of our board members are not here and I think both of them do not support keeping this
225as a core class what is it about engaging students on such critical issues that stand to equip them with tools to support them in their emotional mental physical and relational Wellness decision making and their ability to be caring and helpful friends Partners family and community members that you're opposed to especially when Dr Henry and the teachers here tonight and last week that spoke pointed out that the class is an equitable way to make sure that all students have access to potentially life-saving information about their overall well-being if your problem with health with the health curriculum centers around sex Edge it's very clear that the district is following the state's mandate to make that course a study optional so if the district is offering the class in the Forum required and the curriculum required please clarify
226where the problem lies if your problem centers around the false belief that somehow taking an on-level class destroys an AP student's GPA which has already been clarified by Dr Macias not to be the case then you should be listening to your words because it sounds like you are saying that AP students somehow matter more than all the others their time is up I'm sorry I know you're being even though they're also being positively affected by that please stop [Applause] we now have a brief presentation from Dr Macias good evening president Jackson thank you for the opportunity to clarify some of the information that I shared on Thursday first of all let me let me start with the mention of the wall or ISD meeting the the June 2022 meeting that was said I attended I
227was not there I did not attend that meeting however the information that was read the minutes that were read from that meeting actually a line with what I shared on Thursday so based on the minutes that were read because I wasn't there the minutes that were read the Waller ISD board did what they were able to do as I mentioned the health course is not a requirement for grad first for is that a state requirement for graduation the health course is not a state requirement for graduation if you see the first bullet it says that it was removed from the state requirement for graduation districts were permitted to retain the course and could have it as a local requirement for graduation so if you go and look on the State website you're not going to
228see Health listed as a state requirement for graduation because that was eliminated as I mentioned as I mentioned there I did attend a Waller ISD board meeting I attended the July 2022 board meeting and I have the agenda from that board meeting here the reason why I attended that board meeting is because on the agenda was a proclamation for the high school health textbook and the high school human sexuality instruction textbook and since we were going to go through that process that in the fall which we did that's why I attended that meeting to see what the discussion was but I did not attend the June meeting so so we've I think we've established that the health course is not a requirement for graduation at the state level it is a local graduation at the
229district level and districts were permitted to retain that what was in question for us was this part if you don't if you do not if a district does not offer the health course as a as a local graduation requirement what happens to the tax are they required or not required that was what we went back to research because the other one I believe we had already established and so we did go back and we did some research and so the first thing we did is we went to the text and I think it was mentioned on Thursday that if you look at the elementary text it says that it shall be implemented if you look at them at the middle school says it says that the health tax shall be implemented if you look at
230the high school text it says that the text shall be implemented this is the confusion this is this this is the the the concern we along with other districts have function and have have worked under the impression that the health tax were to be implemented whether it was in a standalone class as health is or whether it needed to be embedded in different uh in in different content areas I have visited with several of my colleagues from other districts that look here locally as well that's actually across the state that have the same interpretation we did call the state our tea and I did visit we did visit with tea confirmed as was said on Thursday that it is a requirement for Middle Elementary it's a requirement for middle school that xiaomi is required but
231that shell does not mean required at High School and so what they shared was that if a District offers the health course then you're required to teach the hell text if a District offers a health course then you're required to teach a health techs but if a district does not offer the health course then according to RTA representative then you do not have to embed the text anywhere else so that was a clarification that we got for uh for ourselves the other thing that was mentioned on on Thursday was this piece that if you look at the health tax it says recommended for for students in grades 9 through 12. and it that is exactly what it says and it means just that recommend it for students in 9-12 for that grade level what this
232means is that you can teach it in another grade level like seventh grade there are some districts that teach the high school health in seventh grade or eighth grade that's what this comment means and I'm gonna give you an example whoops I just went backwards this is a course principles of business marketing and finance and look what it says recommended for students in grades nine through eleven we offer that course as a high school option in middle school because it says recommended that pertains to that level it doesn't say that it's just required for that but recommended I just wanted to just as you're looking at at the text that you have that knowledge that that's when it says recommended in the text it's for that grade level and it but it can be taught
233in another grade level as well so to to just quickly uh recap so at this point Cipher ISD has chosen to have the high school health one as a requirement as a local requirement for graduation the state does not require Health one for graduation as a graduation requirement at the state level Psy fair ISD has chosen to retain it as was allowed by the law as a local graduation if we because we have this course right now as a local graduation requirement we are required to teach the texts that are assigned to the health curriculum and again I would just want to reiterate that for human sexuality instruction you heard several mention that is a small component of the actual course and it is but the human sexuality instruction is opt-in parents can choose to
234further students or not have to not participate in any of the classes or participate in one session or two sessions and then finally what we clarified is that if the course is not taught so if the high school health course is not taught is not required then the texts are not mandated to be covered in another area I'm happy to answer any questions that you may any further questions that you may have before I ask the board for questions and comments I'm going to make a point of clarification I was requested to place this on the agenda I did not have it posted as a action item for tonight and that's because two of the board members are not able to be here this evening I think this is an important enough topic that the
235entire board should be present to vote on it so it's not posted as an action item it is it is posted as an agenda item but it means we will not have a vote on it tonight but we will I expect to post it as an action item in June because we'll have a full board at that time with that point of clarification I'll I'll now ask the board if they have further comments or questions let me go to my right to start Scott just a quick just a clarification Linda um I want to make sure I hear this right because the third two ways you know make sure it's very crystal clear you said if a health class is offered we must teach the T the text and then you kind of came back
236and said if it's required we must teach it I just want to make sure I understand it completely so I have that basis if we offer it as a class which I'm not saying we get rid of it we offer it as a class do we still have to teach to every kid in the school or only if they take the class I'm trying to make sure I understand that that that that depends Mr Henry so if the high school health class stays as it is right now which is a local requirement for sci-fi RSD for graduation a local requirement not as not the state requires it the local and the state allows districts to add additional requirements if they wish for graduation so if the course stays as it is a requirement a local
237requirement for graduation then we have to teach the text as they're listed if this if if the board makes a change and chooses to not continue with the health one class as a requirement a local requirement for graduation and makes it an elective then the only the only students who have to uh be responsible for the text or those students who participate in that elective class thank you that was my clarify so make sure I heard that right from you thank you to my left Debbie Julie very good uh so the next time we will visit this uh we'll be in June and that will be for a vote we'll have the full board at that time item 3C the administration will provide an oral report on the work of the portrait of a CFISD
238graduate advisory Council we have seven let me turn the page seven speakers on this topic tonight first speaker is George Edwards the Board of Trustees superintendent and District staff my name is George Edwards Jr and I was chair of the software diversity committee that was commissioned by the Board of Trustees to deal with diversity and the standards for student performance in the early 90s the original portrait of the South Fair graduate came from that committee and was a pledge from the school district to the community regarding the skills and traits that all side Fair graduates would possess the currency of the 21st century is knowledge the original portrait of the side Fair graduates provides for that need I will share with you some attributes contained in the original portrait the school district through the portrait
239pledged at sci-fair graduates would be effective communicators who could listen speak write read do math and handle technology they will be competent problems problem solvers who could identify a problem and get the information needed to organize and analyze analyze it to solve the problem they will be self-directed Learners who continually seek knowledge they will be responsible citizens who are honest respectful of others and participated in the political process they would be quality producers who had high expectations for their work and took pride in the in its outcome either as an individual or as part of a team I attended the meeting on Thursday and heard different things regarding the portrait these two these five these values are still valid today and I encouraged the board to maintain the original portrait as it truly represents the
240characteristics need to be successful in the world today thank you [Applause] are you ready our next speaker is Deborah Edwards to the Board of Trustees my name is Deborah Edwards and I was a member of the portrait of The cyfair Graduate advisory committee and the only person on the uh the only person in my theater pattern not to vote no on adopting the proposed version the original version of the portrait was a promise to the community from the Board of Trustees that all students would have a certain skill set when they graduated the original original document promised that all students would be able to listen speak write read do Mathematics and Technology the proposed document does not address education at all the proposed draft based in part from information obtained from Sonoma County California and
241Fairfax Virginia's portraits of graduates required that it requires such traits as curiosity Integrity resilience empathy and Communications one one of the things that I've learned in my almost 70 years of life is that if you don't stand for something you will fall for anything the proposed draft is nonsense and Waters down the spirit of the original document I am standing on the promise of an earlier Board of Trustees who proclaimed that they wanted their students to be educated and ready to meet the world on its terms I am adamantly opposed to the proposed document because I have black boys who have graduated from Cy Fair ISD they got an incredible education and they were ready for the tier one universities that they attended I make mention of black boys because currently this demographic is failing
242miserably and nobody is saying a word I pray that cyfair ISD will get back to the business of teaching its students how to read write do math and do math rather than trying to teach them how to feel and how they should feel thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Julie Ricks I don't know if mine's good compared to yours yours is awesome um portrait of a graduate should be abolished it's a waste of time and it's meaningless verbiage it's an attempt to distract from the primary focus of academics to attempt to refresh reinvent recycle portrait of a graduate is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig both committees portrait of a graduate an opportunity for all were authored and championed by woke leadership and are not the failed direction that is best for
243students confirmed by recent stats and Common Sense portrait of a graduate as well as opportunity for all black foundational truth and are backwards attempts to produce good character in students education is the foundation and education and Truth results in a moral compass quit playing politics and fortunate opinions on our children at school education not indoctrination it's time to move forward and away from all woke agenda and return back to a focus on basics of academic academics and general genuinely support a bright future for students [Applause] our next speaker is Todd Lacombe good evening my name is Todd lecompte I'm I'm a proud father of two boys that attend sci fair I wanted to talk today about the agenda item 3C portrait of a graduate um I wanted to share some information real quick 99.9 of
244businesses across the United States are small businesses that represents 30 33 million 200 000 businesses across America uh nearly half of all U.S employees are employed by a small business which comes it comes out to 61 61 million seven hundred thousand people and this I'm I'm pulling this information from a Forbes uh Forbes publication from December of 20 2022. uh at the last work work session uh the board president and Mr Scanlon uh had had a discussion concerning this um the the words uh problem solvers Content Mastery High processors of information and critical thinking uh were discussed at that work work session um the board president stated that uh when he has met with CEOs um that it is not a concern for these CEOs to hire people with those skills I'm here to basically
245tell you guys that that is that couldn't be further from the truth and that is there's a big disconnect between real world and and and and huge huge corporations 99.9 of businesses across the United States are small businesses and I think I think somewhere along the line the board president has been disconnected from reality a little bit um just wanted to say that problem solving should be kept in at the very minimum problem solvers that is that that's a great character trait for someone and we should celebrate that thank you for letting me speak today our next speaker is Judy DeHaan thank you again board members it says on the CFISD website that the purpose of the portrait of a CFISD graduate is to provide the environment and learning opportunities for all students so that
246as graduates they will possess the characteristics that will enable them to live meaningfully and successfully in society and the workplace how can we know this after the fact how can we measure the learning opportunities are indeed being provided prior to graduation the committee gathered and reviewed a great deal of data in a short time what any 1.2 billion dollar Corporation would want to do is measure and ensure they are spending the dollars wisely so how can we provide even greater guidance to our students and know that CFISD is the leader in setting our students up for Success how can we know that this wasn't just a project or a task in hope our students excel in the future regardless of whether they go to a technical business school college or enter the workforce immediately I
247have a couple of suggestions from my Performance Management and behavioral interviewing experience I can share first is a board member discuss the other 9 point at the work session and it was challenging to identify problem solving in the words and phrases in the character traits if others had difficulty as I with my experience in dealing with metrics and competencies did as well how will our students and parents it was presented that you used several out-of-state programs as a model what widely used business oriented vendors did you consider if our focus is on the future success of our students to be global leaders I offer we are missing a huge opportunity to take this program to The Next Step schools and businesses are interviewing and asking your applicants to show results or outcomes they were able
248to achieve in a given situation or task these skills knowledge and behaviors are put into big buckets called competencies therefore the cloud words identified could be mapped to competency definitions already utilized by well-known visitors such as DDI how could this help our students and CFISD advisors are already meeting with students about their work portfolios discussions about what to take why complete work and preparation for the future have immediate relevancy as mentioned competencies are also used in behavioral interviewing for future jobs in high schools CFISD could use this in tying to coursework and ISD goals your time is up this conversation and soar to Greater time is up [Applause] our next speaker is Jennifer chanet from I like to go on there we go the revised portrait of a graduate discusses the following top traits curiosity
249Integrity resilience empathy communication I am trying really hard to figure out why anyone would have a problem with CFISD graduates being encouraged to have these traits once again we are hearing about reading writing and arithmetic someone at Thursday's meeting said they need to know how to read if that's the case why are some of those same people trying to buy ban library books of course our graduating seniors know how to read of course they know how to do math one board member wants more clarity on the intent in regards to that scary word curiosity when he hires people he wants critical thinkers problem solvers and self-starters I'd wager some money that the people who fit that criteria are all curious I honestly never realize that words could be so scary words in library books and
250words that describe positive character traits he also talked about how he's going to have to explain a lot of this to parents in the marketplace the marketplace or the CFISD community that was a very interesting choice of words speaking of choice another board member referred to the Choice Movement she talks about that a lot which doesn't make a whole lot of sense because she then talks about about what amazing District we are she says we are the very best and the finest around some in the community and on the board and someone who wants to run for the board wants to do away with social emotional learning and I again have to ask why everyone is here tonight is aware of what just happened in Allen Texas we need critical thinkers we need problem solvers
251we also need empathy and integrity and resilience we need to stop screaming about banning books Chromebooks and the internet the following is a quote by Elizabeth lesser after 9 11 bulldozers was removed the evidence of Sorrow what if the smoldering ruins had been left there for a year our culture sanitizes any emotion that may slow us down or God forbid connect us to the pain of others but grief is healing so I would teach the art of grieving along with math and reading as part of an emotional intelligence curriculum starting in preschool if boys don't learn how to feel what others are feeling we will never get Beyond violence in war if girls aren't taught to find their voices their point of view will not be heard we need to do better as a society
252as parents and as human beings I will end by thanking Dr Henry for his years as superintendent you have been an amazing captain on this ship you will be missed you are leaving with an a rating and a gorgeous building that bears your name you've earned it all thank you our next speaker is Melissa Rao I appreciate all the hours and work that went into trying to make portrait of a graduate better as Dr blasagame said discussing doing anything to try and help the students do better is always something to celebrate our schools are the best but the best can always be improved on I am all about challenging the status quo and doing things such as investigating costs and expenses to be sure we are spending within our means and staying under budget and
253the government doing Sunset reviews to see if we should keep a state agency or not the results might say to tighten our belt or might say to keep the state agency it's always the right it's always the right pardon me is this on portrait of a graduate yes yes okay it's always the right thing to do things to stay accountable these these new headlines for portrait of a graduate curiosity Integrity resilience empathy and communication are good traits but as Mr Scanlon said employers are using terms like problem solving and critical thinking to look for Effective employees the board president appreciated the very hard work but also said the older words like problem solving have value and he hopes they find their way back into the document I do believe Content Mastery is as important and
254significant as it used to be let's continue to challenge our students to be the best they can be high performing High performing and start promoting the portrait of a graduate the way it is worded now I don't believe it needs rebranding or modifying changing the words is not going to help one bit and it only lowers the bar maybe if you if you promoted the original version conduct and grades would improve I would want to hire an effective Communicator competent Problem Solver self-directed learner responsible Citizen and quality producer I've never seen curiosity as a skill set on a resume we need to educate these kids to be employable I agree with George Edwards the writer of the original version let's keep it as is before decision is made how about we take both versions to
255100 employers and get their opinions how about we take this to the parents and get their opinions thank you [Applause] Roy is there any other presentation scheduled for tonight or not no sir there's not okay very good thank you we will now proceed with the action items portion of the agenda oh I'm sorry let me go backwards let me turn to my right Scott do you have comments particularly for graduate I apologize Gilbert comments let me go to the left Debbie yes uh I just wanted to say after speaking with several uh members of the committee we have decided uh to take the feedback that we received from the board last week and have another meeting to discuss those comments that were offered uh both last week on Thursday night before we asked for adoption
256of the revised portrait of a graduate and just to clarify we talk a lot about parental Choice there were parents on this committee so there were parents that worked and and were part of this finished product also uh one of our committee members mentioned that we looked at the portrait of a graduate from uh from Virginia and from Sonoma County we did that's part when I was in the Credit Union business when we were doing things we shared best practices and look to see what other people were doing although we looked we didn't craft this this new portrait of a graduate after what we read they are not the same so I just wanted to clarify that but we are going to have another meeting uh uh not set a date yet and we are
257going to review the feedback and take it all into consideration thank you Debbie and I apologize for for not asking board members if they had additional comments Julie do you have any additional comment I just want to reiterate what I said on Thursdays at Thursday's meeting when I said that I trust the process by which a committee was brought together representatives from across the district to work on this project more than a year ago this board wanted more feedback from the community and so we commissioned a survey and that survey was sent out and had I mean tremendous responses and a big part of that survey was feedback from the community on um suggested change it or uh feedback on the per the portrait of a graduate and it was really based upon that those
258survey results where then the board said with all this feedback it appears that the community would like to see that updated but but we we wanted more feedback so the survey results really led to the creation the this board to ask that a Community Committee be created and then it was put out to the community to volunteer to participate and um and then the board charged that committee with putting together a recommendation to the board so when I say trust the I trust the process I really do trust the process but it's based on feedback from stakeholders from the survey that was done a year ago from the participants of the committee um but I don't just trust the process I trust the people that participated I trust the facilitators I press I trust the
259um all the parents and community members who participated so I appreciate the hard work that was put into it um when you ask someone to do something for you and then they give it to you it's good to receive it with the way that it's intended and to receive and honor and uh and um and and accept their their work product um if the board wanted to write their own portrait of a graduate we should just write it our we should have just done that but instead we asked the community for their input and so I think it's important that we listen to our stakeholders we listen to the community we honor the process and the people thank you very good now we'll proceed with the action items portion of the agenda action items 4A
260through 4f were moved to consensus during the board's work session on Thursday more May 4th 2023 action items 4G through 4L remained on non-consensus vice president heinemann since my voice is gone if you would go ahead and read items 4A through 4f that are on the consent agenda please approving the minutes of the April 10 2023 regular board meeting 4B the board will consider approving the budget amendments for the period of January 1 through March 31st 2023. and please note if there were speakers or not yes I will item 4C the board will consider approving the the tax certification I say teaks is it tax I say thank you okay uh t-e-k-s certification 2023-2024 form no speakers 4D the board will consider approving construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractors
261and authorize the superintendent or designee to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts as recommended in the posted agenda item we do have one speaker Melissa Rao I urge the board to table the vote on the approval for electric bus infrastructure and any purchase of electric buses in order to spend more time researching the pros and cons especially the safety aspects no one wants an electric bus fire there are Health Care tactics being used to push electrification of our bus fleet if what they're saying is true then we should no longer use our present buses for transporting kids this is just Federal grant money looking for a solution I thought I heard grant money was to be used but this agenda says using Bond money electric school buses are not as cost effective or
262safe as we are led to believe the board president asked the bus rep last week about high water and the answer was not sufficient as water issues at the storage facility was addressed and not if a bus hit high water the investors of this bus company appear to be questionable please I'll send you data how much money is a school district receiving in federal funds for agreeing to start replacing their fuel Fleet with electric buses we still don't know maintenance costs per the rep too if we don't know the maintenance cost how can we really compare fuel versus electric selling battery electricity back to the grid is not feasible the demand on the power plants will create more pollutants the top speed is 50 miles per hour so these buses can only be driven in
263a neighborhood and not used for football games transportation to football games extreme temperatures hot and cold affect batteries of electric buses by reducing the life of the battery and reducing the range of travel the City of Albuquerque returned 20 buses ordered because of batteries overheating in hot weather these electric buses weigh tons more than a diesel bus so more wear and tear on the neighborhood streets are we buying a fleet subscription that handles the managing and the powering of our buses please table this vote for at least another 30 days if not months or longer the electric buses will be an expensive experiment spend this money on teachers and students instead please do not consent to this tonight I'll be sending you an email a night to 20 Page email with details I've been researching
264all weekend thank you thank you item 4d1 2023 Jarvis Transportation Center electric bus charging stations 42 2023 Thornton Middle School Paving improvements 4E the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and or authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item for E1 practices and procedure review and cyber security assessment quote for E2 property and workers compensation stop loss insurance for E3 yearbook Services there are no speakers 4f the board will consider approving the district's hazardous traffic conditions resolution as required by tea to receive supplemental transportation funding there are no speakers this evening thank you Miss hunterman if any board member wishes to remove one or more of these items for further discussion please do so at this time if not I will entertain a motion to approve the consensus items as recommended or
265amended Mr President I move that the board approved the consensus items as recommended do I hear a second second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion on these items hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly the following please the following action items remained on non-consensus 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 was discussed in closed session on Thursday May 4th 2023 pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening I would entertain a motion
266to approve this non-consensus item as recommended or amended so moved motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion on this item hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Holly motion carries item 4H the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Megan Swanson to her that her employment with the district under a 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 was discussed in closed session on Thursday May 4th 2023 pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening may I have a
267motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended I so move motion has been made do I hear a second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion on this item I would mention we reviewed these items in closed session these are always unpleasant to review these are always hard and difficult decisions whichever way we vote as board members none of us take these votes lightly with the step that has to be taken any other discussion before I call for a vote hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand how the emotion passes before I the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Michelle Benson that her employment with the district under a probationary contract is proposed for
268termination and authorized the president the board to notify Miss Benson of the proposed action pursuant to 2 1.103 of the Texas educator code this item was discussed in closed session on Thursday May 4th 2023 pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening may I have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended I still move motion has been made as their second second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion on this item hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand how the emotion carries for Jay 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
269termination and authorized the president of the board to notify Mr Barrett of the proposed action pursuant to 21.156 of the Texas Education Code this item was discussed in closed session on Thursday May 4th 2023 pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening may I have a motion to approve this non-consensus item as recommended or amended so moved motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded is there any discussion on the item hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand Holly motion carries item 4K the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Megan Dunn that it is proposed her employment with the district under a term contract be
270non-renewed it is further recommended that the president the board notify the teacher of the proposed action to terminate her employment pursuant to 21.206 of the Texas Education Code this item was discussed in closed session on Thursday May 4th 2023 pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening may I have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended I so move motions been made is there a second motion has been made in second day is there any discussion on the item hearing none I will now call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly item 4L the board will consider approving the superintendent's recommendation to give notice to Clover Bolden that her employment with the district under a
271probationary 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 was discussed in closed session on Thursday May 4th 2023 pursuant to section 551.074 of the Texas government code there are no speakers this evening may I have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended I so move motion's been made is there a second motion has been made and seconded is there any further discussion on this item hearing none I will call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries Holly the discussion portion of the agenda was presented at the boardwalk session on Thursday May 4th 2023 we will now proceed with the citizen participation
272portion of the agenda 6A per bed local patrons May address the board during the regular board meeting under citizen participation on any matters of Interest or concern that are not posted agenda items individuals may only register to speak one time per meeting and must register in advance just a reminder patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order of names listed on the screen behind me before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserved seats on the front row Mr secretary are you ready our first speaker is Jennifer Fung good evening my name is Jennifer Fung and I have a daughter in first grade at Gleason Elementary I come to you as a parent with two young children who we expect to attend cyfair ISD
273through college came here to bring your attention to the Staffing and retention situation at Gleason and ask the district to review teacher turnover at Gleason specifically what are the causes of turnover or mid-year departures and what does the turnover at and does the turnover at Gleason deviate from the elementary schools in the surrounding areas this year my child has had three teachers for a first grader this was upsetting that none of her teachers lasted more than two months and in between teachers we had a rotation of subs or the classes were split into other classrooms ahead of this meeting I sent each of you a letter discussing her experience in depth this year after our second teacher was removed I began asking other first grade parents what their experience has been what I discovered was
274that the entire first grade has had a similar experience five out of seven first grade classrooms at Gleason had their teacher either leave or be absent for an extended period last year this same cohort of students were reshuffled twice meaning some kids also had three teachers last year upset I spoke to parents with older kids at Gleason or attending Gleason in the past to understand if this was an outlier year or if this was an ongoing pattern what I found was over the years long-term teachers including teachers of the Year leave have left with increasing frequency our children are still young and we have many years of education ahead of us I deeply believe that the Early Elementary School is the time to capitalize on the excitement they have for school because the energy is
275what propels them through graduation into higher education ahead of this meeting your time is up [Applause] our next speaker is Linda natal IE excuse me suppose some nefarious person Illustrated a classic piece of literature a collection of Keats poetry let's say with pornographic images with the book qualify as a literature because of the literary value of the poems or would it qualify as pornographic because of those images the answer is literature does not Elevate the pornography to the level of literature the pornography degrades the otherwise inspiring poetry into a work of pornography this is a matter of law according to the U.S Department of Justice website obscenity is not protected speech under the First Amendment violations are criminal offenses also the standard for what is harmful to minors may be different from the standard for
276adults and offenders convicted of obscenity crimes involving miners face harsher penalties than if the crimes involved only adults I suggest you read the statement in your handout the Texas Penal Code also in your handout explicitly defines obscene as depicting quote offensive representations of ultimate sexual acts normal or perverted actual or stimulated end quote also included are depictions or descriptions of other lewd acts I'll let you read the details note that none of these definitions defined violations is allowed if you just couch it in enough non-sexual material one example in one book is enough to be in violation of the law if there is obscenity in it it does not matter what else is in it you cannot justify providing it to minors we have to wonder then why books in our libraries containing multiple instances
277of obscenities as defined in the law after being reported through your formal Reporting System still remain in the libraries scifare ISD is in violation of the law foreign speaker is William Ellie regarding the process for requesting formal reconsideration of Library materials one of the first questions on the request form is have you reviewed the resources in their entirety and in parenze it says if not please do so before completing or submitting this form really is that what is stated in the federal or state statutes one example of explicit sex is enough to know that the book contains material that is should not be made available to minors if there is obscenity in it it does not matter what else is in it you cannot justify providing it to minors cyfair ISD parents have read the
278materials in full filled out your forms and for formal requests for reconcilion than they patiently waited the chart that I've just handed each of you has seven those books that have been through your process all contains multiple pervasive examples of obscenity some in written and some in graphical illustrations the examples are unmistakably inappropriate for children but the response from the review committees expressed by letters from the school Province principles is that each of these examples is educationally appropriate this is not something we can agree to disagree on it is illegal to provide pornography to minors you're doing so you have Librarians who choose and acquire these books you have Committees of people justifying them in private meetings without minutes in violation open meetings act despite the Attorney General's directive to provide the names and the
279minutes your process of reconsideration has provided evidence it's in front of you right now maybe maybe each of you can read their entirety and make the Sci-Fi Community understand their educationally appropriate value however I would recommend you simply follow the law thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Clark Denson good evening board regarding the process for removing obscene books from our libraries we know pornography harms children we don't need to prove that Congress has outlawed it already it is disingenuous for the proponents of providing pornography to children to claim concerned parents or book banners as if though we were trying to eliminate Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird from our libraries we're not talking about First Amendment freedoms here we're talking about illegal materials that we all know are harmful to children if the
280scifare ISD school libraries are following your own policy requirements then they are providing the complaint the book and their response to the superintendent and the school board this also means the superintendent and the school board can be held liable for breaking the law your process for reconsideration has provided the evidence failure to immediately correct these serious errors puts you personally at risk of prosecution Mr superintendent if you care anything about your legacy fix this problem with pornography in the schools our next speaker is Julie Ricks foreign about student violence and cyfair ISD recently I've seen numerous testimonies of incidences of student violence against fellow students and staff violence is occurring across the board in high schools Junior High and Elementary happening on school grounds and buses big money is being spent to protect students from
281a potential outside threat but very little is being done to address the violence that is occurring inside of Cy-Fair schools there has been a moral decline in our society and this is a reflection on both parents and our education system parents are ultimately responsible for their child but during the time which they are in school parents are entrusting the school for their child's safety and Welfare these violent acts are happening on the school's watch it's on you specifically the leadership leadership has failed in academics as well as providing a safe atmosphere for students to succeed the school board has appointed and supported a grossly overpaid superintendent who should be held accountable not rewarded with a building named after him the primary focus of academics has been abandoned students and teachers have been abandoned the focus
282of the school district has not been on promoting woke agenda that includes CRT and sexualization of students obviously the anti-bullying campaign has not worked leadership policies are resulting in disrespect for authority and created in prison-like environment the prison-like environment has created fear and dislike for school amongst students you guys act like you're clueless why kids are that attendance is down kids don't want to go to school they're not happy they hate it they're scared I mean it's time to work time is up the next speaker is Sandra Roland Munoz dared dear board members and our SCI for ISD leadership here today I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to give you an update as a year ago around this time I stood before you a very broken mother and woman I was
283not only in fear but by my behavior and words were driven by that fear the pain my son was in the desire for suicide he had the frustration of the events surrounding that pain and the feeling that no one was listening was often overwhelming I want to stand before you today so that you will be able to join my husband my family our friends myself but most of all my son and the testimony that is his ability to overcome those chains that had him bound up believing that he was worth little to all who knew and loved him but most of all himself to our superintendent as parents we when we are Faith when we Face such issues as I did we want your direct attention and at times we get angry when we believe
284we are being ignored because we don't feel we have been heard I want to start by thinking you your choice to delegate superintendent Roy Garcia along with others taught me that you are a man of wisdom through this wisdom I had the opportunity to not only be heard but most of all support supported as I advocated for my son your team of leaders truly went above and beyond as they not only supported me making the right choice for my son but Mr Garcia went a step further and aiding me with resources through our district that have had a major impact on my current health as in October of 21 I suffered a stroke while living with what felt like a never-ending nightmare that my son was dealing with today I stand before you a healthy
285whole woman who has rejoiced in being a part of her child's recovery through the transferring of my son from his old high school to his new one I am thankful to say that my son has overcome his depression anxiety and anger issues as a December he was removed from all medication and the bip that he was placed on prior to his transfer my son is an active member of his high school football team whereas a sophomore your time is up Miss Holly please give them my letter please give them my letter please read it because I want to thank y'all our next speaker is Todd Blum hi yes I have uh students at Gleason Academy in first grade in kindergarten and I like to Echo the sentence of Miss Fung earlier about the teacher turnover
286concerns and I'd like to speak kind of uh specifically about the second teacher that he had the teacher you know things were kind of crazy for a little while and then all of a sudden we get a new teacher and we start getting weekly uh newsletters about all the things that they do every day we're getting follow-up emails the the reports are great they're very specific I talked to my son he loves the teacher the teacher is obviously very devoted very very uh positive with the kids it's a great situation then all of a sudden in mid-march the emails just stop right there's no communication whatsoever and it was a teacher that if she was leaving on her own volition I assumed she would have said hey guys you know I got some problems whatever
287nothing all right so I assume something happened she got fired right so go to principal Malone song get an appointment she says no no no she's not fired I assure you this is a personal matter and and she will be back we expect her to be back don't worry this has nothing to do with the school or the district she is perfectly fine I apologize this overlaps with 4K because I just found out tonight that teacher was Miss Dunn and she's actually was fired so she was not coming back I don't feel like she was probably ever going to come back so now I feel like I was misled about that and obviously I was very disappointed that this is the second teacher that was fired and she was a very good teacher and I
288would love to know exactly what happened because I mean unless she was like an Ax Murderer at night or something uh you know and even then I'd be like well it was only a night right so uh I mean whatever happened I would implore the board please go back and and maybe review that and and find out what happened because I I think I think maybe he got Buffalo there and uh and and take a look and and whatever the problem is here there's something bad happening at the school and things are not I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach something's not right please look into it and see if you can get it fixed thank you thank you our next speaker is I say in demaio it's Aisha in the Mayo
289trustees let me be as one as possible you have the power to remove pornographic books from school libraries Spring Branch ISD did just that recently so why is cyfair board hiding behind book review committees trying to prolong and draw out what is painfully obvious to all parents children should not be exposed to dangerous books that contain sexual material I want to read the law to all of you hiding behind book review committees which are Mr Jackson Miss Blackshear Miss heinemann and Mr Sarabia the others Mr Scanlon Mr Scott Henry and Dr blasingame have all said publicly they don't support these books in schools and I thank them the law reads as elective representatives of the people the trustees of an independent school district have the exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management
290of public schools of the district subject only to laws expressly delegating authority of the tea or State Board of Education this is in Texas Education Code 11.151 B accordingly the financial policy making Authority on library books at an independent school district rest with the district's Board of Trustees not the superintendent principal or school district and I believe Dr Henry is the one who allowed the book to come in so I don't expect him to take them out even though he can again this is not about banning books as some Community activists try to suggest Banning books is a generalized term being used to deflect from the real issue at hand and that and that is removing books that contain clear and legitimate graphic illustrations and texts that are not suitable for children when it comes
291to indoctrinating and potentially harming our children we as a community should always move towards our children's well-being in the Forefront books containing sexual contact do not belong in Cypher ISD why is this so controversial and why is it taking so long as a citizen I ask the only person with the power Mr Jackson that you make an agenda item for next month for next month's board meeting for each member to vote how and if they support sexually explicit books in school libraries your time is up that's the only way we will truly know what you guys think [Applause] our next speaker is Ryan Lamb and I come to you to you not you me oh Ryan lamb okay hello hello it's been a long night y'all but I hope everyone is having a good time
292because I know I am it's the end of the school year and more specifically the end of my high school era and personally I am ready to close this chapter of my life with the AP test season ending and finals just around the corner I thought it would be a good time to extend some much needed gratitude to my teachers who are currently two coffees away from drinking themselves into a caffeine-induced coma first I gotta mention the one and only J money or more probably known as Mrs Monroe fun fact she's a water teacher of the year she makes a 7 A.M English classes tolerable after a late night study session at her food parties like janeman's giving and j-munduation give me a lot of Joy next is my economics teacher Mrs McCarthy y'all I
293hated that class but she got me through that and that was a feat in and of itself so thank you very much Mr Satterfield is by far one of the best teachers out there his federal government class is one of the most engaging and informative classes I have ever been in and this combined with his dry Millennial humor has made for a fantastic experience and I highly recommend this class if you attend bridgenheit Britain High School I have been attend acquainted with Mr beanstra my calculus teacher for quite some time as he is the bridge and high school marching band visual technician he is a comically overquired qualified teacher for using p-brained high school math students and I'm eternally grateful I got him for such a difficult class I have been in choir for only
294one year but my three teachers Mr fee Mrs Noel and Mrs Nelson have gifted me with an unforgettable experience I did not realize I'd be joining such a talented choir program which has given me the tools to pursue musical opportunities in college life saving the best for last of course is the three M's of the Britain High School band mciner Marco and more these three have stuck by me for my four long years and have been unimaginably influential in my growth as a person and y'all won final silent Applause for our soon to be retired superintendent and Superstar say that 10 times fast Dr Mark Henry he has done a stupid amount of things for our school district and if you've ever been to a football game you know he's a real celebrity especially among
295band kids so thank you thank you for allowing me to speak today and Dr Mark Henry I hope you have many uncomfortable the next speaker is Monica Dean three years ago the district signed a 33 million contract for Chromebooks as it comes up for Renewal what type of return on this investment have we seen learning on these devices certainly has an improved reading or math scores in fact 41 percent of third graders in our district cannot read a grade level thus we cannot continue with this experiment how can we expect our children to think outside of the box when they're staring at a digital box all day we need to get back to basics let teachers be the main source that children learn from and provide input to not on a device and we know
296these devices are being used to data mine our children through surveys apps and now the star I have provided you with the flyer with a QR code for research on the negative health effects that technology has on children and yes cell phones are problematic but the district can only control what happens at school not at home blurry vision headaches and back pain from carrying these devices all day are some of the complaints from my child how about the dangers we can't see the emfs the radio frequency radiation exposure from all these wireless devices and Equipment inside the classrooms Wi-Fi routers Bluetooth devices contribute to more than 50 percent of the total exposure this can have detrimental effects upon a child's physiology so just think about our schools we have upwards of three thousand children on
297wireless Chromebooks daily what will the health effects be for a child exposed to this radiation all day long for 12 years if SB 2141 passes it will remove devices from at least K through five but until then I suggest either removing or making them stationary devices to be used only as teaching tools for keyboarding Internet safety or learning about tech for K-8 or hardwiring every school to reduce the rfrs and lastly how about forming a tech safe school committee to address these various various issues we have [Applause] our next speaker is by Mar esteem board I come to you today as a parent of two children who expect to attend Gleason Elementary and as a graduate of Jersey Village High School I can personally attest to the high quality education.sci fair ISD provides um which
298is why I come to you as a concerned parent and alumni my son's teachers have had a profound effect on his growth education and self-esteem we started first grade with a highly qualified and beloved teacher by January my son informs me that his teacher has not been to school in three weeks and he was concerned for her well-being I asked a front desk what happened to the teacher and only then did we get an email that the teacher was not coming back and would be out until April it would be another two months before we hear back that she is not coming back and for a first grader that is eternity and he was utterly heartbroken he's been Guided by a substitute teacher who returns [Music] um work incorrectly graded I have to assure him
299that 64 is indeed greater than 50. as I spoke to other parents of the Boy Scout Pack 866 in tigarden we learned that um other parents and students at the school have had the same issue and my situation is not unique as parents were frustrated by the lack of communication from the school in the district and my son's worries about the fate of current kindergarteners who enter into first grade this fall and he asked what will happen to them when they don't have teachers to teach we have the same question what will happen to these kindergarteners who now enter in first grade when there are only two teachers to teach we need certified teachers not substitutes Gleason has more than double the amount of teacher toner turnover for the district and the state is it
300normal and what actions have the district taken to investigate and remediate the situation the number of teachers who leave mid-year signals a different a deeper problem I know parents who do not consider Gleason to be your time is up we ask you that you look into this matter thank [Applause] you the next speaker is Nikki coward as the president of our Union I couldn't be more proud more proud of my home District where I grew up knowing Gerald and I made the right decision in raising all four of our boys here how grateful we are knowing my kids and your kids have the best teachers the best bus drivers the best food service workers the best librarian and coaches it has been my pleasure to collaborate and work together with a great superintendent also we
301didn't always agree on everything but believe it or not our meetings never ended with a handshake always with a hug trustees it's up to you to please stand with us now we very much appreciate Dr Henry and the CLC notifying our community about what is at stake with the proposed bills and amendments in Austin this session but the session isn't over we need each of you to be the strongest advocates for our Public Schools as humanly possible we still have time to fight to make sure our schools get what they truly need and deserve the unfunded mandates being voted on will hurt us most of all the fact is our union members have made thousands of phone calls to legislators sent hundreds of letters to the Capitol and testified in person more than any other
302session in history no matter what dollars are coming our way only the current school board members get the final say on what a pay raise in sci-fi will be what are the costs to our school district to recruit hire and train a new educator and how much does this process cost each school year for all vacant positions quality employee retention and respect is vital respect means a voice in local and Statewide decisions about our schools but respect also means a paycheck that reflects our worth respect us or expect us thank you our next speaker is toddler comp hello my name is Todd lecompte I'm a father of two boys in the 10 sci fair I just recently spoke with a couple of Educators and I promised I would put something together for them this message
303goes out to all the parents parents please talk to your kids uh this um this is in reference to the number of fights that are occurring in high schools across the Cy Fair in addition to that there was also a report that someone actually reached for a gun and was tased that was one of the students so I'm just I'm just one again let you guys know this is what I've heard I don't know if it's a 100 reality but I want to let you guys know right so parents please talk with your kids this type of behavior is happening in our schools daily especially in high schools discipline issues are the number one reason why educators are leaving the field from those that I've met with personally I sometimes get videos sent to me
304of fights that occur do people really think that teachers and students feel safe I am a huge supporter of public education both my sons have attended Cypher Independent School District since kindergarten we're asking teachers and staff to break up fights daily they don't get paid for that and sometimes the adults breaking up the fights get hurt I will not post the videos I have the students fighting but let me be clear the UFC May want to recruit some of these kids in one of the videos one kid looks looks to be having a seizure after falling to the ground this is the reality in the next video there's a girl standing on top of on the ground Standing On Top of the the other girl pounding her face this is the reality this is not
305funny and I will not stay silent I had a conversation with an administrator a few months ago and she told me they who is they they hate it when anything posts anyone posts anything bad about the school district really as a parent I want transparency shouldn't all parents expect transparency from the school district I want students and staff to be safe I realize kids make mistakes that's part of being a kid and growing up my kids my family and I are not immune to making mistakes my concern is that we learn from them and not repeat the same mistakes your time is up your time is up sir [Applause] the next speaker is Mark goleby John good morning no it's not that late I'm just kidding uh it's quite an edifice to uh Eagle Mania
306here tonight there's quite a building quite a building in March of this year Carroll ISD voted to withdraw their involvement in the Texas Association of school boards more commonly known as tasby this was a very courageous move that I would like Cy-Fair School District to consider doing the same part of their resolution included points that tasby took eight months to announce the end of its membership with the National School Board Association that had sent a letter to the president of the United States suggesting the Department of Justice education Homeland Security perform an expedited review of the actions of some individuals attending school board meetings that could be the equivalent of a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes second they said tasby actively promotes through training and conferences divisive political ideologies as professional development opportunity
307for school district administrators and board members tasby was established in 1949 as a voluntary non-profit Association to represent school boards and claims to have all 1025 independent school districts as active members tasby is funded by these members using taxpayer dollars and is in essence a taxpayer-funded lobbying group tasbi provided fees and services are readily available on the free market Carroll ISD believes competition would improve the services at a lower cost as school districts have a fiduciary responsibility to their taxpayers through this effort the school board indicated its withdrawal from tasby and directed their school superintendent to issue an RFP for obtaining Risk Management Services and to actually pursue other needed services this step by Carroll ISD is not only physically responsible it is a prudent course of action that the Cy-Fair School Board should consider
308taking their time is up perfect [Applause] that is that concludes the the number of speakers who have signed up for citizen participation 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 adjourn this meeting Mr President I move to adjourn motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion is adjourned