Regular Board Meeting | April 10, 2023

001foreign [Music] good evening everybody I love the fact that people gather to converse and visit but now it's time for the board meeting the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees is now convened in a regular board meeting on Monday April 10 2023 in the boardroom at the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District instructional support center located at 10 300 Jones Road Houston 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 approve budgets contracts Personnel appointments and make policy for the district it is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions the management and day-to-day operations of the district are the

002responsibility of the superintendent we have policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues this is a public meeting of the Board of Trustees not a meeting of the public the meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed audience members may not participate in the meeting outside the designated agenda items for citizen participation or public comment disruption of the meeting by any person including the audience is inappropriate and will be addressed by the board president or the board's Council as a meeting parliamentarian continued or repeated disruption of any board meeting by words or actions may result in removal or loss of the privilege to attend the meeting prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled

003in the order listed on the notice during the course of this meeting the board May determine that a closed session is necessary in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071-551.084 the Texas government code these proceedings are airing live on the district website there will also be available as video on demand on the district website following tonight's meeting for the video to adequately reflect the proceedings I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that if you would do as I do and turn your cell phone off or in silent mode thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and for your interest in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District we have no

004Boy Scouts here tonight no Girl Scouts no elected officials but we do have Grace Henley representing representative Dr Tom oliverson in the audience here tonight are there any other staffers with state representative or state senators in the audience I do not see any we'll continue 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 are concerned that are not posted

005agenda item unless the agenda is otherwise rearranged by the board president during the meeting citizen participation will generally be held after reports and action items for detailed information and instructions on registering 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 orders of their names listed on the screens to my right and my left or your left and you're right before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserved seats on the front row to my right the invocation for tonight's board meeting will be given by Dr Kevin Pig senior pastor of crossbridge Christian Church for over 10 years crossbridge has been a loyal supporter of the district's best buddies program for

00610 years helping our elementary students get off at the correct bus stop the first couple of days of school crossbridge also partners with Feast Elementary School to provide volunteers and mentors Dr Pagan Jill his wife of 29 years have two sons who are CFISD graduates Dr Pig 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 the invocation I would like to introduce the Cypress Woods High School Air Force JROTC Cadets who will be presenting the colors this evening and they are Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Colby England Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Caden Stewart Cadet chief Master Sergeant Holden Palmer and Cadet Captain isan talamatas these Cadets present the colors to you under the direction the master sergeant Christopher Soto U.S Air Force

007retired at this time I would ask for you to please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance let's pray heavenly father I want to come to you tonight in the name of your son Jesus on behalf of this board thank you Lord for the the many members that fear you and love you and heavenly father I pray that you ordain them with wisdom tonight to be able to make good solid wise decisions for our children and heavenly father I pray for your peace your Shalom to reign in this place tonight as business is conducted heavenly father I pray that you are honored and your peace Reigns and I ask this in the name of your strong and risen son Jesus Christ amen all right I pledge allegiance to the flag

008of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all or or please be seated board member Scott Henry will read The District's vision and mission statement for the benefit of the audience 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 learn experiences preparing students to be 21st century global leaders we will now proceed with the remarks and recognitions portion of the agenda 1A superintendent 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 or items of Interest Dr Henry we have no speakers on

009this topic this evening thank you Mr President CFISD students and staff shine throughout the month of March please enjoy this March recap video highlighting how our students and staff brought out the best [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] the 10th Annual superintendent's Fun Run was held on April 1st and was an overwhelming success raising a record two hundred and ten thousand dollars for student scholarships Through The Cypher Educational Foundation uh thank you to Memorial Hermann Cypress for being our underwriter this year and everyone that participated our sponsors our community members staff and students who continue to support this event please enjoy this brief video highlighting the event [Music] it's a great day we had great weather a lot of student performances thousands of people running everybody got behind it this year [Music] what's a great feeling

010it's a great day for everyone to get out to be uh to get moving to get some exercise and then at the end of the day this event supports those students taking the next step in their educational Journey so it's just a great cause overall I think it's important because it gives others opportunities to like pay for their higher education and this is a fun event the community come out to and have fun I'm excited to go to college but I'm going to definitely miss this area I think she took one last homage to how I'm a cross-country Runner and I can run in one last 5K [Music] I really was touched by the overwhelming just response that we received from the entire District in the entire community and I just want everybody to know

011that I'm I'm so grateful in the 210 000 the beauty of that is the interest and investment money off of that will provide scholarships for students and perpetuity and it's not about me it's not about the Fun Run it's about the kids that are going to have an opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise the student services families and Tran transition team hosted their annual teamwork ambition perseverance tap spring break Camp March 14th and 15th more than 30 students participated in three fun-filled stem Adventures a team of 16 CFISD staff members guided students through the experiences while developing teamwork ambition and perseverance skills the camp was funded through American Rescue plan Grant funds Title One Grant funds and through the generosity of several Community sponsors Basketball Academy Little Portion Hermitage and cyfair Federal Credit Union our

012nutrition services and transportation departments provided additional support please watch this brief video clip from our tap Camp students [Applause] now that was brief campus teachers of the year as well as district-wide paraprofessional and support staff of the year were recognized at the 26th annual salute to the Stars Gala on March 9th at the Berry Center our own cfpd officer Eric Ward won the drawing for a new car from Northwest Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram congratulations to all of our outstanding teachers and staff who were recognized the CFISD career fair was held March 4 or excuse me April 4th at the Berry Center welcoming prospective job Seekers to a meet and greet style fair with hundreds of campuses and departments more than 1600 guests attended which was an increa increase of more than 700 from the year

013before check out this brief video recap of the event [Music] foreign it's just a great day we are back in the Berry Center for the 2023 CFISD career fair great turnout today people can come get all kind of opportunities from elementary to Middle to high school all of our departments paraprofessionals and any ancillary department so it's just great to be back together today and all Under One Roof the people here are wonderful so first and foremost just meeting all the wonderful people here we have some big positions that need to be filled and so I'm hopeful that we'll find someone good tonight my kids go to school here my wife is a librarian here I completed my student teaching here I believe this is a fantastic District so I just want to be a part

014of it my daughters are currently inside fair I love the school district and want to get and transition into Administration so I figured why not try and do something where they're already at school I love the curriculum base I love how and what's being done for them in education our superintendent Dr Henry he always is the destination District what that means for us is that when you choose to come to Cy Fair you're choosing not only an employer but really you're choosing a family and you're choosing a place where you're going to be able to grow your career and live your life here and stay with us throughout your entire career I am really excited about scifare I know it's one of the best school districts in the state I also really want to come

015home I graduated from JV in 2018 and it's just always been my dream to come back and be a part of like just the Cypress Fairbanks ISD family congratulations to Warner Elementary School for winning the CFISD name that book competition held March 28th at the Berry Center third fourth and fifth grade students coached by their Librarians represented 36 campuses after hearing a clue students had 15 seconds to identify a title from the list of 100 books this was Warner's first time competing in the contest and congratulations also to the regional winners including Burks Hamilton Joel Kirk and Millsap Elementary Schools Woodard Elementary School was one of four campuses in the Houston area to qualify for the read the final four celebration at the George R Brown Convention Center on March 31st the tournament style reading

016competition between third grade students from 390 Houston area schools resulted in Woodard winning fourth place overall the campus earned two thousand dollars towards new books for a school library please watch this video recap of the event to the final four started in September for the Woodard wolves this competition partnered with ncaa's men's final four promoting third grade literacy it is a huge opportunity for us to represent cyfair ISD scifares never participate in this contest so it's such a powerful experience to be able to represent the whole District to be number four out of 200 schools is like huge for us cfisd's Chief academic officer Dr Linda Macias spoke at The Fan Fest event about the Wolves impressive run over four us the whole Community the entire cyber community including at the district office that had

017all of us read including myself so what a great opportunity and reading the foundation to success so thank you so much for having us I think it's a powerful experience to have so many of our district leaders out supporting us today with Dr Macias out accepting the award on behalf of sibera we always say we'll pack all in we took every one of our kids to get here and they all know that that they can't stand alone because the pack is stronger than the individual and they know it very well now I love reading a thousand percent [Applause] [Music] our adults did not win the dance competition the 19th annual CFISD Air Force Junior ROTC pass and review ceremony was held March 25th at Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union Stadium the pass and review is a

018military tradition designed to display the Readiness of troops and their units to a newly assigned Commander more than 800 Cadets representing our 12 high schools and nine JROTC units participated and Jersey Village High School unit TX 20017 was the host unit and then finally we recently selected a new principal and I'm going to turn it over to Roy Garcia for that introduction thank you Dr Henry president Jackson and Board of Trustees in February we announced our inaugural principal for Elementary number 58 now known as Dr Carla Brosnahan Elementary Dr Renee Silliman former principal at Hemingway Elementary was announced as the principal this evening we are happy to introduce to you and to the CFISD Community our new principal for Hemingway Elementary Miss Crystal Hammond Crystal has 24 years of experience in the education profession she

019was an elementary teacher and literacy coach in New Orleans for seven years where she was selected as teacher of the year in 2003. in 2005 Crystal joined the scifare family as the teacher at francone elementary school she also served as a teacher at Andre Elementary and a teacher and instructional specialist at Durie Elementary Crystal has served as an assistant principal the past five years at Durie Crystal received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Orleans her master of education from Xavier University and her principal certification from Lamar University Crystal serves as a facilitator for the new administrator Institute participated in the aspiring principles Institute and has served as a summer school curriculum coach Crystal and her husband Gary have three sons Gary Jr Karen and Tyler graduates of Texas A M Stephen F

020Austin and Sam Houston Saint Sam Houston State University respectively Crystal enjoys spending time with family planning game nights and dancing you have a client back there she also Volunteers in the children's ministry at her church please join me in congratulating Crystal Hammond on her new leadership opportunity as principal Hemingway Elementary thank you president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry I am so honored to have the opportunity to serve as principal at Hemingway Elementary where dedication and commitment to our Student Success in every facet is evident and it's our mission to make sure our students recognize their potential and that we equip them with tools for the future I'd like to acknowledge my principals and mentors Miss Tamika Williams Mr Kenneth Henry Miss sage papiano and Ms Deborah Harbin thank you all for your excellence

021in modeling for me what it is to be a an amazing principle tonight I have with me my family my husband Gary Hammond senior my sons Gary Karen and Tyler my mom Claudia Pickett my sister Claudette Johnson and all of my family and loved ones thank you guys for your support I also have company I also have my Hemingway family and my durye family many of us have heard the quote by Dr Martin Luther King Jr that says Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can do that and so I'm honored to be able to walk the path of life that we all walk as Educators each and every day and with my Hemingway family I'm excited to continue that Legacy and spreading light to others around thank you thank you the board will recognize

022Haley stum from Bridgeland high school for being named the 2023 taje Texas journalist of the year presenter Ryan Hemingway CFISD Humanities curriculum coach and Mr Henry if you'll step down to help recognize Haley stump there are no pardon me sir there are no speakers on this topic this evening Mr Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is my pleasure to present you this evening with Haley stump from Bridgeland High School Haley will represent Texas as its 2023 journalist of the year and will compete to be named the national journalists of the year for the journalism Education Association the Texas Association of Journalism Educators reviewed many impressive portfolios from applicants all across the state of Texas in late February and the panel chose Haley to represent Scholastic journalism in Texas based on her creative and

023well-rounded portfolio presentation Haley will be additionally recognized that the JEA National Scholastic press Association National spring journalism convention this month in San Francisco where the national winner will be named Haley please come forward so that we can recognize you for your outstanding achievement I would like to thank her family members her advisor Ms Berkey Mr Smith and Ms Underwood and any Bridgeland staff that is here tonight for their support of Haley and ask them to stand as we honor this accomplishment thank you Haley we are so proud of you and the entire bridge and journalism program and we look forward to seeing you recognize at the national level it's not enough [Applause] thank you [Applause] once the board will recognize Cypress Park High School student Nicole Lee as the Texas forensic Association state champion and

024her coaches Tammy Rayleigh and Tamia Bryce and I will use presidential privilege to step down to help recognize since this was an activity I was involved in many years ago when I was in high school there are no speakers on this topic this evening once again the presenter Mr Ryan Hennessy CFISD Humanities curriculum coach again Mr Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is now my pleasure to present you this evening with Nicole Lee from Cypress Park High School Nicole was a state champion in poetry interpretation of the Texas forensic Association state championship at TFA State more than 200 private and public schools of all sizes from 1A to six eight competed against each other because of the rigorous qualification process to even attend the TFA state tournament is considered to be one of

025the most prestigious events in the nation Nicole's poetry performance survived the preliminary rounds and then several elimination rounds after which she was named the state champion with her win she becomes Cypress Park's first speech state champion Nicole was coached by Tamiya Bryce and Tammy Rayleigh Nicole please come forward so that we can recognize you for your outstanding accomplishments I would like to thank her family members Miss Riley Ms Bryce Mr Hecker and any of the side park staff here tonight for their support of Nicole and asked them also to stand as we honor this accomplishment thank you you only get to do this once let's hope she gets the state championship next year and then we can do it again she only [Applause] one day the board will recognize teachers who earn their national board

026certification in December 2022 our presenters this evening Dr Linda Macias Dr Tanya gory that we have no speakers this evening Dr Gorey how many teachers will we be recognizing tonight who are here there are nine teachers here tonight so we have nine total we have nine teachers board members what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask each of you to step down to recognize two that I'll step down because this is a very significant contribution so we'll start to my left Dr gory the microphone is yours good evening president Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry national board certification is the most respected professional certification available in education and provides numerous benefits to teachers students and schools recognized as the gold standard in the teaching certification profession the national board

027believes higher standards for teachers equals Better Learning opportunities for students it is designed to develop retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing Improvement in schools Nationwide with national board certification becoming part of the teacher incentive allotment many regional service centers offer fee-based cohorts in 2021 cyfair elected to start a free cohort for in-district teachers wanting to pursue national board certification in one year by national board standards candidates can work towards certification completing the first attempt of all four components in as little as one or as many as three years to retake opportunities provide a five-year window to achieve certification while the entire process candidates conceived this entire process on their own we are certain that the cohort undoubtedly AIDS in the journey the cohort process is rigorous as the teachers are nodding their

028heads saying yes the cohort process is rigorous and requires many hours of dedicated time but ultimately it's very rewarding one of the main characteristics of the cohort is to provide a forum through which candidates can find peer support as well as mentorship and guidance from current national board certified teachers within our district we have three certified teachers who served as facilitators for our cohort two of them are here today and I would like them to stand to be recognized Marianne dersh a cic at cyberant High School Mary Marianne achieved her certification in social studies in 2019 and Pearla Vega a third grade teacher at Wilburn Elementary School Perla achieved her certification in 2014 and she is certified as a generalist thank you upon being awarded certification in December 2022 the newly certified national board teachers

029jump in immediately to Pay It Forward by serving as mentors to the 21 candidates who are part of cohort 2 which is currently underway as a reference point here's some data for uh some data on our surrounding districts cyfair had 10 teachers certified in 2022 both Katy ISD and HISD had one teacher certify in 2022. spring Spring Branch Klein and Tomball did not have any teachers certified in with the level of success we are experiencing we will continue to serve our teachers through the national board cohort Mr Jackson Board of Trustees and Dr Henry it is my pleasure to introduce to you our 10 newly certified board board certified teachers all of whom receive certification on December 12 2022. teacher says I'll call your name please come forward Robin Cantara from Watkins Middle School who

030certified in English language arts Alina Castillo Jersey Village High School certified in English language arts Margaret Depetro from Cook Middle School certified in science [Applause] Mark Donahue Donahue roll Middle School certified in music [Applause] Kristen Escobar Cy Woods High School certified in social studies and history thank you Catherine Langford Forney Elementary School certified in literacy reading language arts thank you Ronnie Sadler Cy Fair High School Career and Technical education Alexandra Villarreal Cy Woods High School Career and Technical education [Applause] Rachel Waller Smith Middle School science our 10th teacher was unable to be with us tonight but I would like to recognize Thomas Clegg from Cy Creek High School who is certified as exceptional needs specialist thank you recognizing it takes a strong support system recognizing it took us a strong support system for our teachers

031to accomplish this task all family members and any members of their campus please stand to be recognized as well thank you we will now take a five minute break for all of those who are honored tonight you are welcome to stay for the rest of the scintillating board meeting but if you have other plans that's okay for you to leave as well foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] five minutes was up just a handful of minutes ago so I will ask everybody to choose to find a seat or to find the doorway and I welcome all of my colleagues back to the diocese item one e was presented at the board work session on Thursday April 6 2023 we will now

032proceed with board comments I'm going to start to my right this evening Mr Henry thank you president Jackson good evening and welcome I hope everyone had a happy Easter and a wonderful day off and Mr Henry just just a second sure we actually have a speaker on this topic tonight uh pepper and Hedley Paris pepper and Headley Paris so they're not here this evening so Mr Henry please proceed and I apologize for interrupting you sir no problem before I got elected I was involved in talking to our local officials and now as elected official I continue to do so as well in Texas just so you know our legislators only meet enact laws every two years so time to make that impact is very short you can't provide the relevant discussions unless you're at the

033table engaging with our elected officials as Ms Heideman talked about the last meeting and spoke about this very very eloquently I did truly enjoy a visit to Austin with our for their board members advocating on the issues that are important to all of us and every one of you one of those issues which is near and dear to my heart which is Special Ed as a parent of a special ed kid I know how important these programs are and how they directly impact our kids in The District in very important ways thankfully each year our district fully funds these programs but the state does not fully reimburse it the district the tune of almost 40 million dollars a year this needs to change I know I'll keep advocating for our kids the values of our

034community because that's my civic duty and it's also yours I would encourage you and everyone to exercise your rights speak with your officials about these issues that you are most passionate about and you too will make a difference thank you thank you Mr Henry and thank you for noting the 40 million dollar shortfall in funding are the fact that this District spends 40 million dollars more than what the state sends our way Dr blassenger good evening everyone thank you to all those presents especially during a four day weekend when the kids had a day off thank you for showing your care and concern for our kids our teachers in our community we appreciate that engagement and the recognition that education of our young kids is a critical and important issue um I have the honor

035of serving on the portrait of a graduate committee and um it is a privilege because every student deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential and exhibit all of those ideals that we're having our current portrait of a graduate and the one that we will come out of the committee with we hold high expectations for each child because we love each CFISD child and we want our district to be the best choice for each unique student and to support parents and their Guardians in helping them reach their full potential these high expectations are what we're working to Define in our portrait of a graduate and that's what we work towards as a board that's what our goals are to ensure that each child can reach those those ideals and their full potential um in always

036learning to try to be the best board member I can learning new schools I'm excited to share a new book that just came out it's off the press is um it's called great on their behalf by Eric Journey crabill this is someone I've been able to have training from in the past and they talk in here a little bit about our responsibilities and board and um so I was excited to share there's definitely critical things that we should do and uh having a focused mindset on students and their achievement clarifying the priorities of our community monitoring the progress continuously of how we're doing towards those goals and priorities aligning resources towards those and communicating those results and as we're busy in the season of outcomes and the season of budget decision making this book is

037really something that has helped me think through and be inspired by the role that we play as school board members I'm I'm also challenged by it because there's so much work to be done as we really look about defining our goals and our absolute priorities and so I look forward to learning more as I read this I'm hoping our board can do some training around these things and so that we can be the very best we can he's suggesting here that um student outcomes don't change unless adult behaviors change and I just really um think it's such a compelling statement we have such amazing adults that we're celebrating in our district and we have tonight and so I think we all deserve to be the very best for you guys our community and our staff

038to that end I want to say what an amazing event salute to the Stars was when we really take time to give a portrait and let the voice of our teachers be shown in those beautiful vignettes to understand their heart understand why they do the work understand why we are the best District around really is an amazing event I thank all of those who do the work those who are the sponsors for the event all those who sponsored tables I loved sitting with the teacher of the year and a a small business who supports our district with those sound devices that help the teacher's voice be Amplified it was great meeting her and so I just really uh thank all of those uh foundation and all those who put that salute to the Stars on

039but mostly our teachers and staff who are the real MVPs I want to thank the thousands of community members that was a long line getting into the bear Center parking lot for the superintendent's Fun Run Dr Henry all the staff that was out there working from early all the community members all the vendors all the sponsors it was a really uh it was great to raise 210 000 for scholarships because just this weekend I was with someone and they said literally in fact I can't remember where I was but literally the reason their kid got to go to college was from a foundation scholarship it absolutely changed the tricky of their family by getting that money so thanks to all and also just the community that's raised out there what fun being together a beautiful

040day ordered up and everyone that's how you build a family the CFISD family I want to thank Julie Henneman and Tom Jackson for really organizing a good legislative visit to Austin we have things that we uh priorities that we had all determined and we were able to work as a team to present those two legislators and we felt like they listened and it was great to be able to work as a body up there in Austin so I appreciate that work you guys did to organize us and as we head into these last few weeks of school I know it's a busy season in schools I've been there many times lots of years understanding what it's like to get those final grades those final push the testing season all the things it takes to get

041kids graduated and students through uh through the school year so I just I wish godspeed and and I hope you have all got a field up this weekend for those who had a three-day weekend thank you teachers for all you do thank you staff for all you do um it's really an honor and a privilege to serve you thank you Dr blessington Mr Sarabia yes I'm happy uh holy week last week and thank you all for being here uh this event um I I did attend a few events but from afar I had to stay in an outside setting for most of the last three to four weeks um got me thinking about our friend Debbie Blackshear and her uh ongoing tribulations I was unfortunate to did get the virus and um but I was

042fortunate enough to recover from it uh but of course as I was recovering my wife got it so um that's kind of how it usually goes so uh the month uh has been kind of short-lived for us and stuff though but very uh satisfying following my colleagues throughout social media and and applauding their visits to Austin and making significant strides in that in that arena for the funding that we're going to need here for the next coming year and stuff though but um anyways um happy Easter and thank you for being here guys and good job to my left Mr Scanlon good evening and thank you for attending thank you for a listening audience for logging on I hope everybody had a good weekend and excellent time with your families as a district and indeed

043State and Nationwide that we are aware of challenges that we have with our students and their abilities to meet at grade level in Reading in ela and as we come into budget season I've been speaking with admin and teachers uh for creative plans and how we can Bridge gaps that we see and I've spoken with multiple teachers and principals in the last month some of those have been planned conversations many of them not planned at parties in the community at Gatherings such as the Fun Run and uh you know when someone in the life of a board member when someone sees you they will grab your arm and it's our job to listen and so we do and so some of the themes that I heard I wanted to present this evening so one value

044add and there are four themes so the first of these is that the one-on-one time that our teachers get to encourage our students reinforce expectations that our students do have what it takes to be able to learn and overcome gaps in learning it's one of the primary drivers of our Student Success and it's high in terms of educational value that connection that our teachers have with those kids and the belief that our teachers get to instill into our children for our teachers who help those kids overcome the belief systems that maybe they can't do it or it's too hard it's it's critical and we need to protect those moments and it's part of our job as board members to support admin in Creative uh experimentational use that term in programs and finding new ways to

045protect those moments among our teachers so that we can actually see that benefit so as a board member I just wanted to State out loud to the admin and to all of our principals that are in the audience as well as teachers and teaching staff online that I and we we advocate for protecting those time windows and the attention that our teachers can devote to our kids it is the lifeblood of our district another theme process efficiency so in the Myriad of systems and processes and speaking to my technology colleagues that are listening Karen your team so there are many systems and processes that exist for a district of our size and through all those systems and processes it always comes back down to an individual classroom and an individual teacher where we have opportunities

046to streamline across those systems and processes I.E gaps of waste Etc in every company it always falls to the organizational front lines to connect the dots where the systems and processes themselves don't connect for us and so the burdens to figure that out usually fall to our teachers those that are on the front lines and our educational staff and principals so I wanted to make admin aware and I'm calling on you as you move into a planning cycle for your next year I strongly support a detailed and methodical plan on how we can review the teacher experience that we have going forward the principal experience how we can go forward for our core systems and workflows so that we can find new ways to introduce efficiencies to protect that time that our teachers have with

047the kids where we have redundancies that might not be adding value let's strip them out and I am very well aware that there are hundreds of processes that we're talking about here and one process might waste 15 minutes so in a room full of processes that each way 15 min waste 15 minutes how do you prioritize I realize it's a complicated ask however as your team Dr Henry looks at those scenarios you know I encourage experimentation it doesn't need to be perfect moving forward is good and so I just wanted to Advocate support for our teachers as you look for those opportunities to introduce those efficiencies next a focus on at level attainment for ELA and math and with that engaging in the community so looking back to our principles that are in the audience

048representing the literally so much staff behind you um as I've spoken with principals in the last month and teachers there are lots of touch points that our students have in the community lots of areas that they look to for affirmation am I doing well I heard one story of a young man that he his his moment of affirmation found fell outside of the home and outside of the school and I won't go into details because I promised that principle I wouldn't but I can say that when the student when a Community member told the student your grades are important to me and I want to see you do better that student worked to make sure that his grades improved in the second he was able to demonstrate a winning I'll use a word report card

049he ran multiple blocks to go show that Community member I did it and so for our principles being creative and reaching out to the community finding those voices that have influence in your schools it's important and I support that creativity and finding ways to reinforce a strong educational culture coming back into our schools the schools themselves can't do everything and we all know that it's parents it's community but I just wanted to mention I support that creativity as we do our Outreach to our community and the last point and I had a phone call today is on budget so as we come into our budget cycle as you've already heard it from Mr Henry and miss heinemann and all of our team we spent the last time this last week in Austin advocating for everybody

050here everybody in the sound of my voice and we spoke to a broad array of legislators we were very specific we clarified our District's position and where we had need and where we fit into their plans and when they talked about their options how we would how those options would affect us we surprised a lot of people I think and so as we've heard from our colleagues and you'll continue to hear from us for the rest of the legislative session We are continuing to be clear and we will continue to advocate so that we can have a better uh position going into our budget cycle come this June so that's my time thank you thank you Mr Scanlon Miss heinerman thank you Mr President since the last born meeting I continue to Mentor um students

051at two high schools also attended the cultural celebration at Wilson Elementary visiting with parents and staff in the Wilson Community I attended a parent engagement event at Cy Springs High School that was held one evening encouraging parents to visit the school and to take different sessions informative sessions about their students also attended The Cypher Education Foundation salute to the Stars Gala celebrating our teachers and support staff of the year attended the National Merit Scholars recognition very proud of the over 540 students who are recognized for academic Excellence at the national level I was able to visit libai middle school as well as attend the education committee meeting of a local political organization as a non-speaking guest and observer all board members were invited I visited the spring craft and garden sale at the Carlton Center

052held twice a year I encourage my colleagues to make sure you visit this campus you there you will truly see opportunity for all in real life I attended a junior varsity track meet we had our first kickoff meeting of the new ad hoc board committee um focusing on opportunity for all there were about 60 community members most of whom were parents beginning the process of determining what opportunity for all means in Cypher ISD I asked with all district-wide committees information can be found about this committee and all of our committees on the district website I attended the district-wide elementary name that book competition special thanks to all of our Librarians who made that event such a huge success and impactful for our readers I attended the superintendent student leadership advisory council meeting as part of

053the board listening tour and helped surf breakfast at Thornton Middle School as part of an effort to increase the number of students eating breakfast at school I'm very proud of the work being done by campus principals in partnership with nutrition services to improve student health and academic academic achievement Mr Jackson and I participate in The District School Safety and Security meeting my husband and I participate in the superintendent fund run such a fantastic Community event the best part are all the students cheering the runners and Walkers along the way I love seeing so much student engagement and um uh participation in that event it's the best part besides raising money uh as part of the board listening tour attended the community leadership committee meeting um and as my colleagues have said we did go visit

054the capitol to advocate for our legislative priorities we met with five of of our seven representatives and all three senators or their staff so it was very successful very productive I'll actually be going back tomorrow with a contingent of Trustees from across Texas to continue advocating and then finally I attended the district-wide educational Improvement council meeting again as part of the board listening tour so on another note there is a need to correct some misinformation that's been shared in our community and I apologize in advance for the additional time taken in order to address this issue at the recent community meeting held on March 29th and attended by two of my colleagues it was stated by the moderator that three CFISD trustees were officially invited to this community meeting and the others had the option

055of sitting in the audience this is false I was never invited or given the option to attend regarding the opportunity for all committee one of my colleagues who is also assigned as I was to this committee by the board president stated that I personally selected the members of the committee this is false if he had attended the meeting he would have known exactly how committee members were selected Dr Deborah Stewart reviewed the process in great detail for all participants he would have also seen that the vast majority of committee members are parents from across the district and they made attending the kickoff meeting a priority in the response to another question at that meeting regarding the selection process for district-wide committees one of my colleagues again stated that the chairs of committees select members again

056not true he did State correctly that our responsibility as trustees on the Committees is to listen to the community unfortunately he did not show up to do that just as he did not show up for the superintendent student leadership advisory council meeting which was held that same evening on March 29th or the district-wide educational Improvement council meeting held last week meetings he had signed up to attend as part of the board listening tour when asked by a Community member at the March 29 meeting if the board had received an update on the status of formal reconsideration of books both trustees and attendance said no this is not correct as part of the email bulletin every board member receives on a weekly basis from the superintendent's office every board member did indeed receive a memo from

057Dr Macias with this information on March 10th one of my colleagues stated that quote we've been woefully led by Administration we the board have woefully laid down our responsibility to the community and let them just run with it I would remind her that this board is responsible for governance not the day-to-day operations of the district the expectations of how we fulfill our roles and responsibilities as trustees are outlined in the board offering procedures that we all worked on together and agreed to his colleague also stated quote The Board needs to get off their butts get out and talk I would suggest that this statement is not only highly unprofessional but also somewhat hypocritical some of us do get out into the community more than just the neighborhood we live in and we don't just talk

058we listen our board operating procedures are intended to guide our work and our interaction there's an acknowledgment on the back that we all agreed to under the board member's code of ethics it says I will tell the truth under the section titled board communication with staff and Community the board operation operating procedures State quote except for the appropriate duties and functions of the board president individual trustees do not have the authority to act or speak on behalf of the board or the district without prior approval of the board under this section the board operating procedures State quote board members may serve on district-wide committees for ad hoc special committees the board president May assign a maximum of three board members to serve on the committee for its duration at the Community member meeting I am

059referencing a trustee aired her grievance at her committee assignment I would encourage her to address her agreements as to the board president instead of a group of community members finally I would suggest the district place the board offering procedures on the district website so that the community can see the expectations we hold for ourselves and for each other thank you Miss heinerman our last full board meeting which took place in March ended at 109 in the morning I want to express my deep appreciation to admin and staff who stayed until completion of the meeting and much later to wrap up as well as our officers who has always were the very last to leave I appreciated that people wanted to time how much air I breathed when I make my board comments I would appreciate

060appreciate it even more those who take note of what I happen to say for those of you who think I spoke too much by all means tell me what I should not have said make a list send it to me we can have a cup of coffee and talk about it as I mentioned when I was in Austin I welcome competition on a Level Playing Field Judy Kayla gave me a Level Playing Field I never proved worthy in her eyes and that's okay her advice was work a little harder Mr Jackson since last month I gave over 40 hours of board service with my regular stops some of the highlights included attendance at salute to the Stars I was privileged to host Lowry elementary to help honor their outstanding teacher this is my small way

061of saying thank you to all those who teach in our district I attended the 19th annual pass and review with almost a thousand Cadets in attendance we were honored that Colonel McGonagall commanding officer of Air Force JROTC out of Maxwell Air Force Base and the district Commander were both present this program builds service oriented citizens and it's a critical piece of the puzzle for academic attainment not only for the cadets but for those that they influence I also attended the National Merit recognition event as I have each and every year I want to say thank you to this District because not only do we recognize our National Merit semi-finalists we recognize all those who have National Merit recognition the high school and the district that I graduated from we recognized only the semi-finalists there were

062several of us who also would have been recognized in this District if the procedures had been somewhat different for the 10th consecutive year I participated in the superintendent's fun run which featured over twelve thousand registrations and raised over two hundred thousand dollars I managed to finish in the top 10 in my age category just don't ask me how many there were in my age category there were many highlights from the fun run but one that I will share with you was a visit with a mom who I'd never met before who's also a Marine her daughter will be graduating from one of our high schools this year she spoke both as a Marine with a strong military combat experience but also as a mom with highly supportive comments of principal Becky Denton her staff with

063whom she had interfaced and the culture which had been built on that campus it reminded me that whenever vocal individuals speak negatively about campus leadership on a campus there are many others who are highly supportive whose voices are much quieter and thus more difficult to hear I also sat in on the VIPs meeting for a review of Early Learning Center in great detail in our summer programs the CLC on an updated legislative matters as well as the School Safety Committee I want to say a big thank you to my colleagues who joined me for a 14-hour Day visiting with representatives and Senators on issues of importance to the district for which the board was in total and complete agreement I want to say thank you to my colleagues for knowing the material for being able

064to speak authoritatively and with specifics on the dollars and cents whether it's over 270 million dollars spent on Safety and Security for which we may not be in reimbursed under the current legislation even though that money will be made available to other districts or the 40 million dollar shortfall in special ed as well as the shortfall that comes about because we gave our homeowners the optional homestead exemption and we are a rooftop community so we do not have other avenues such as other districts that gave that optional homestead exemption to recoup the taxes that we are giving back to our homeowners 14 hours was a long day but more than that one or more of my colleagues have made multiple trips and of course one return just on Monday as well I also wanted to

065say thank you to the representatives and senators and their staff they'd listen to us even though in some cases we were challenged to understand how they were listening to us and however if you go back to what they had to say they heard what we had to say we just had to interpret what their words were I would be remiss if I did not mention that at the State Convention of the sons of the American Revolution Eagle Scout Matthew Westfall of Cypress Woods High School was judged not only the best in the state of Texas but in Orlando Florida this summer he will be recognized as the best in the nation as an eagle scout he only earned every single merit badge possible in addition to livestock showing in addition to a whole host of

066other High accolades that she's that he has received and then of course Cadet Captain Lenny Simmons of Bridgeton High School ROTC earned the first place in Texas recognition as an outstanding Junior ROTC Cadet but tonight I tip my hat to the Community Services director Don Tyrone and all of those who contributed to help make the superintendent's Fun Run the most successful in history foreign portion of the agenda were presented at the work session on Thursday April 6 2023 but we do have speaker this evenings on both items 3A the topic was the administration will provide a report on community programs which they did we have one speaker Stacy Demeyer Mr secretary are you ready thank you sir Mr Meyer good evening I really enjoyed last week's presentation on the district's Community programs so much so

067that I actually enrolled my two CFISD students in a session of Camp Captivate for this summer we're all super excited one part of the presentation left a particular sort of impression on me and that was how the Early Learning Centers are not only self-sustained but are producing a pretty substantial profit for the district my initial thought was how great this was our district along with every other District in this state is underfunded and any extra money is of course a win but then I started thinking about who the district was earning this extra money from and it just didn't sit well with me I know the district's elcs are more affordable than any other high quality child care options but everything is relative child care in the U.S is incredibly expensive and even a more

068affordable option is still over eight thousand dollars a year per child I checked the rates on the district's website I won't go off on Iran about our country's abysmal paid maternity leave options for our Educators but when you combine that with the high cost of child care it creates a tough spot for educators to be in they need as much support as possible and charging them over and above what the cost of their District Child Care is feels wrong especially when you consider the fact that they are already severely underpaid I would love to see the district use the profit earned from the elc's to expand the current program thereby allowing more District staff to enroll in their their children in these affordable programs and eventually when they are operating in the capacity the district

069needs the elc's should hopefully be offered at cost to District employees at least until they are getting paid the salary that they rightfully deserve thank you item 3B the administration will provide a report on the teacher incentive allotment the speaker on this topic is Danielle Cockrell good evening speaking on the teacher incentive allotment program at face value this seems to be a great way to Avo to award individual teachers who do what all teachers strive to do on a daily basis without the promise of something extra after peeling back the onion on the two-part plan real world application of such a plan has its flaws path one includes free national board certification available to teachers what is not being said is that the participants must pay nineteen hundred dollars in advance or over a payment

070plan to get a refund once they've successfully completed it in one year for me a single a teacher single parent of a college student that would put a strain on my finances plan two has two parts the CF tests are our appraisal program along with the growth measurement of the students that is yet to be determined most teachers work as a team developing great first-time instruction and Remediation I have been a part of two different incentive programs in my career benefiting teams and those benefiting individuals we like to think everyone will still work as a team if individuals benefit it doesn't happen it was evident when teachers felt they were being judged on Star scores teachers would plan together then go into their room and do what they needed to do to ensure their Student

071Success one teacher is not solely responsible for the education of students in their room it takes all pay all thank you [Applause] we will now proceed with item 3C of the reports portion of the agenda to receive the administration will provide an update on the 88th legislative session the presenters this evening Teresa Hall Karen Smith but we do have a speaker and of course the speakers always go before presentations our speakers Dr Tara Cummings Christian nationalist Republican for it just look at their bills like SB 1515 to require that every classroom conspicuously display a 16 by 20 poster of the Protestant version of The Ten Commandments extremists Screech about indoctrination and grooming in our schools yet they're apparently totally cool with teachers explaining adultery to four-year-olds and then there's SB 763 to allow religious chaplains

072to serve as school counselors without oversight by any educational or mental health governing body as a multi-licensed multi-licensed mental health clinician I understand deeply the need for such in order to protect the public in this case our children Christian nationalist extremists have told us endlessly that they believe children are being groomed and abused in our schools I specialize in the treatment of sexual trauma and here's something that we know one of the primary groups of child sexual predators include clergy Church staff and church lay leaders back in 2014 a Cypress family sued Second Baptist and Community of Faith for the sexual assault of their 12 year old by a youth pastor do you know where that Pastor initially met that child right here in CFISD where he was a mentor and very literally groomed her

073into joining his congregation where after he sexually abused her if parents want their children counseled by a religious chaplain they can take them to church otherwise we will trust the expertise and credentialing of our outstanding school council counselors please call upon our lawmakers to oppose SB 763 and SB 1515. finally let's take a look at our lawmakers votes State reps Rosenthal and Morales Shaw voted for ten thousand dollar teacher raises whereas oliverson and Schofield voted against the amendment unfortunately did not pass oliverson and Schofield also voted against prohibiting School vouchers whereas Rosenthal and Morales Shaw voted for the amendment which thankfully did pass over in the state senate Bettencourt sponsored SBA to create School vouchers without accountability to taxpayers the next time a lawmaker tells you that they support public education tell them to show

074you their votes and then we all need to vote accordingly thank you [Applause] insurance so he says here we have a presentation for us yes sir so let me repeat that because my mic was not on the yellow light was not working however for our speaker when the red light did come on you concluded your comments properly for future speakers if the yellow light doesn't come on I will ask our secretary to raise his hand so you can see when the 32nd Mark is our presenters tonight Teresa Hall Karen Smith are y'all prepared please proceed thank you president Jackson uh in April we had planned to provide the board a budget update however as you might well know it's difficult during a legislative session where there might be a lot of changes going on that

075have a financial impact so we are going to share with you what we know as of today and be providing you an update of the legislative session that has a financial impact on the school district it's likely that there may be changes that are drastic similar to what happened with House Bill 3 that's what we're hearing there could be that many changes that would impact like 2019. the uh in the 88th legislative session well actually this last biennium which is the one that we're currently in there has been record uh estimate of about 182 888.2 billion revenue and there's been vigorous economic growth as well as spikes in Energy prices which results in record sales tax revenue and it's the highest inflation in 40 years you probably have heard that there is sufficient Revenue to

076provide significant funding increase for public schools but some of the obstacles that we are dealing with is the spending limit and basically what that is there's two aspects to it is one they cannot adopt a deficit budget the legislature cannot adopt a deficit budget and basically they have something where they have they cannot exceed growth like in the state's economy or the population plus inflation so there's a legal spending limit there but there's also the perception with our legislators that we have received all the money that we need for several years because of the federal stimulus funding and also the dispute over vouchers may be held over some of the other some legislators heads as far as not providing additional school funding unless they provoke for something related to vouchers this just a slide showing

077the record budget increases that have happened uh the surpluses that have been there over the last several years but you can see with 2021 in 2022 and then 2023 and it it has surmounted to 32.7 billion dollars slide shows you the cost how how inflation has affected Cyprus Fairbanks since 2019 when the last time that they increased the basic allotment you'll see that Transportation has increased 20 percent and I will tell you the only reason it hasn't increased more is because we've gotten so many propane buses also students uh the the student devices the cost of those since we went one to one have increased 33 percent as well as general insurance policies have increased 72 percent one of the big ones is Property Insurance construction costs have increased 35 percent food service costs have

078increased 25 percent in health insurance 44 and this does not include the raises that districts would like to provide for their employees that have also been impacted by inflation but definitely highlights the need for an increase in the basic allotment as well as an inflation Factor House Bill one is the biennial state budget and this was passed by the uh by the house on April 6 and will then we'll go to the Senate next goes to the Senate it was uh approved the house approved it by 136 to 10 but there were over 400 amendments to House Bill one of which 86 amendments were brought to the floor for deliberation and one of note is the Herrero Amendment and this prohibited the use of public funds going towards private school going to public private schools

079through the voucher programs or anything related to a voucher program and it was approved 86 to 52. Ryder 82 outlays basically what they're planning to do with House Bill one which is 17.3 billion in property tax relief and although property tax relief is important what it does not do is put more money into public education nevertheless what will happen is the legislators will say they have put record money back into public education because what they've done is they whenever they uh have revived property tax relief then they put in the state funding shortfall that occurs because of that property tax relief in fact this was an issue during House Bill 3 where the legislator and legislature inflated increases on teacher salary increases and they utilize these the property tax relief to come up with those

080numbers in February I provided an overview of the school Finance system and I referred to the example of the size of our glass and that the fact that it has not grown property tax relief basically does not increase our glass and it stays the same they're also allocating 2.4 billion for increase in the golden Penny yield and the golden Penny yield is adjusted each biennium in compliance with statute and based on current law which could possibly change during this legislative session which could affect it the estimated gain to the district due to the increase in the golden Penny yield is approximately 15.6 million dollars they've also allocated 5 billion for other school funding increases that would be the basic allotment in teacher pay school safety textbooks which have a fiscal note of 842 million dollars

081small and mid-size allotment as well as various things such as the teacher incentive allotment teacher residency Pre-K for children of teachers and Mentor teacher allotment Etc as you can see there's a lot of priorities here and very little money left for increases in the basic allotment this slide reflects the what the basic allotment the the two-year Statewide costs to uh to that would occur for increases in the basic allotment of a hundred dollars to a thousand dollars you may recall that the both the board and the CLC legislative priorities are asking for a minimum of a thousand dollar increase in the basic allotment this has a price tag of 14.58 billion dollars the legislature would either have to put a majority of what has been allocated for property tax relief towards the basic allotment or

082they would have to agree to exceed the spending cap based on estimates of the legislative budget board just to keep up with a 14.5 percent increase in inflation since the last time the basic allotment was increased in 2019 there would need to be an increase of 900 in the basic allotment just for you it's kind of just a frame of reference a 200 increase in the base of allotment provides Cyprus Fairbanks ISD 21.8 million dollars both the house and the Senate versions of the property tax relief include additional compression or reduction of the tier one tax rate the house had additional uh 0.15 tier one tax rate compression which is in House Bill 2 and this is applied after anything happens in house bill one that I just discussed also there's a five percent appraisal

083cap on all real property and this is concerning for the district because right now it's currently 10 percent and where this would impact the district more is on the ins side or the interest in syncing side automatically on the maintenance and operations side there's a hold harmless however there's no hold harmless in the bill as we see it now so we're asking for a hold harmless on the ins side so what that would do is for districts that have already passed uh passed a bond election we model based on property values and where we think they'll be not knowing that they might limited to five percent therefore we might have to increase the interest in Sinking rate just to be able to if they take down the five percent with the cap also it's going

084to make it harder and harder for school districts to pass Bond elections in the future the total of the house side is about 17.3 billion dollars the Senate as I said as additional tax compression in theirs they um the Senate side is has an increase in the mandated homestead exemption from forty thousand to seventy thousand and on the over 65 from ten thousand to thirty thousand and there is a hold harmless that would be provided to school districts both on the m o side as well as the interest and syncing side it also exempts twenty five thousand of tangible personal property from Taxation and the total cost would be 16.5 billion dollars one of the mechanisms that we believe will probably be a way to look at increases in the basic allotment is House Bill

0853 how I mean house bill at 100 by King and it included a 50 increase in the basic allotment but because of uh re the com the committee substitute which I'll go over the changes that were part of the committee substitute and this is what we know now we have not actually seen but this is what was discussed on the floor is there they're saying that they recommended an increase of 90 which would be to 62.50 in fiscal year 2324 and then another fifty dollars which would increase it to 6300 in 24.25 and just so you can have a frame of reference a 50 increase in the basic allotment would provide Cyprus Fairbanks ISD 7.3 million dollars which is not even a one percent raise a 90 dollar increase in the basic allotment would be

08613.1 million dollars so coupled with the increase that would happen in 24 25 the additional 50 increase that would be 7.3 million or total of 20.3 million which is not nearly enough for based on what inflation has been such as what I shared with you on the 900 increase in the basic allotment there is also a requirement to use 50 of the increase in the basic allotment for salaries towards teachers counselors nurses and Librarians current Law requires that we spend 30 percent um also we're not real sure at this point in time there's committee discussions that will happen on which gains might apply to the 50 percent and this is concerning because previously it was a it was basically only the increase in the basic allotment that you had to be concerned about this may

087include an increase in some other allotments which we cannot use for salary increases so there's also a large increase in the minimum salary schedule as well as an increase in the small and mid-sides allotment and it was originally scheduled schedule scheduled to be funded through enrollment but the committee substitute changed it to funding through average daily attendance but they did reduce the charter gain also in the bill there is enrollment-based funding for certain allotments in the second year of the biennium I want to stress this is not enrollment in using enrollment for the basic allotment and just so you know if they utilized enrollment for the basic allotment we would gain about 57.7 million dollars it creates an allotment for schools that provides an advance math pathway as well as an increase in the transportation

088allotment from a dollar to a dollar fifty four per mile as well as the committee substitute added a special education Transportation will also be increased there will be a small increase in the compensatory education allotment as well as the extension of the formula transition Grant oops I think I went two did I go too fast let's see yep sorry there we go and then lastly the committee uh some of the additions to the committee substitute were which we're very happy to see a basic allotment inflation Factor based on a 10-year average of the inflation rate and the reason they went with 10 years is because you know we've had record inflation recently of 14.5 percent so they're trying to even that out so they can better plan for it also they're the special education committee

089recommendations would be added as well as a new Fine Arts allotment and then there the uh this they are going to add or it has in there adding a six golden Penny without having a vote of vote a tax rate election voter approval tax re-election currently we can have up to five golden pennies without an election so that additional golden Penny would probably yield us anywhere depending on the funding formula at the time 10 to 12 million dollars and also possible facilities funding for Charter Schools now I will turn it over to Teresa Hall who will continue discussing the bills that have the greatest impact on funding thank you Karen um House Bill 11 that was filed by Harold Dutton was heard in House Pub Ed last week there is a committee substitute for this

090bill like Karen mentioned with House Bill 100 we don't have the actual committee substitute available at this time so I'm going to kind of talk about the provisions as we understand them at this time although House Bill 100 was called or characterized as a teacher retention bill just you know based on Karen's discussion you know that it really was more of a finance bill because it addressed more of the allotments hb11 does address the basic allotment so we think one of these two bills will be the vehicle for plugging in that basic allotment amount in house bill one you know under that category for the 5 billion that was allocated we believe uh one of these two bills would be the vehicle on the house side for plugging in that basic allotment increase the 50

091increase as outlined in the original version of the king bill is also in Harold dutton's bill but Harold dutton's Bill really goes into more teacher retention provisions and you will see several provision Provisions there one is the penalty free resignation provision would be modified and this provision would outline specific circumstances where espec would be prohibited for issuing sanctions on a teacher's certificate for resigning outside of that penalty free resignation period it also focuses on on the teacher and Son of allotment is another Avenue for increasing compensation for teachers you saw tonight that we celebrated and recognized a number of our teachers that have earned their teacher incentive allotment designation through the national board certification this particular provision would also increase the minimum funding in the different designations it adds an additional designation for Effective teachers

092so right now there are currently three recognized exemplary and master and this would add an effective category it also would fund provide a funding source to tea to create basically a program for providing technical assistance to school districts for the development and implementation of a local designation system I can tell you firsthand working on this program with our team it's a it's it's a lot of work and we have actually used an outside consultant to help us in that development and work through that process uh creates an a retired teacher grant program and what this grant program would be managed by tea and it would be a means for trying to reduce the costs that districts incur for the TRS contribution when you hire a retired teacher in the past prior to last legislative session

093school districts were able to either reduce the retired teacher's salary or pass along that TRS contribution costs to the retired employee but that bill passed last session prohibited that so this would allow a grant program to be managed from a tea that would allow certain circumstances for you to be able to hire retired teachers without those costs teacher residency partnership program just to add to that the reason is caused a difficulty for retired teachers was because it cost the district about 20 percent more to hire a retired teacher so that pretty well shut out retired teachers because we could no longer to afford to hire them we we wanted to continue to correct that increase in cost made it next to Impossible yeah and that was that was Statewide because it was not only is

094the the teacher we were taking the teachers contribution in the district's contribution and having to cover all of those costs um the teacher residency partnership program uh this would this is something that we're really excited about I know our HR team is already working on this regardless of what the outcome is in legislation they have a plan that they want to bring forward of trying to create these Partnerships with approved educational prep programs to where we are able to compensate these college students that are in education prep programs and basically accelerate or gradually increase their field experience of being able to substitute provide tutoring work in the classroom and hopefully recruit those teachers to our district and hopefully also have better prepared teachers at the end of the program uh directs tea also teacher time

095studies I know Mr Scanlon mentioned this and a lot of the provisions outlined in House Bill 11 and I'm going through this one in much detail you're going to see similarities in another bill on the Senate side that I won't go through all the details but you'll see similarities in the teacher retention provisions and many of these come out of that teacher vacancy task force report that the state released just about a month or so ago so many of the provisions here are included there as we mentioned last Thursday when we provided the community programs report Pre-K eligibility to Children of teachers that will expand that at the state level for school districts to allow children of teachers to enroll in the pre-k program and then it expands the mentor allotment although we're so thankful

096for any funding that the state provides because we do believe in mentoring you can see that that really is not going to go very far in CFISD the max would be 40 teachers at two thousand dollars per teacher so we hire about over a thousand teachers each year and all of those teachers we want to try to assign a mentor to so moving on to Senate bill nine Senate bill nine this is also the Senate version of a teacher retention and there are some similarities and differences uh with House Bill 11 that I just mentioned the big difference between HB 11 and Senate Bill 9 is Senate Bill 9 does not include an increase in the basic allotment so the funding source for providing a race for teachers in this particular bill would be a

097raise of two thousand dollars a one-time salary increase I should say for teachers in districts over 20 000 students and a six thousand dollar increase for classroom teachers with districts under 20 000 students so we're real uncertain about the funding mechanism but it would not be an increase in the basic allotment based on the current language in the bill uh the other difference uh in this bill is that it would also require school districts to update employment policies uh to create a duty calendar for classroom teachers counselors nurses and Librarians and you can see there where it would require us to specify uh the days that the teachers expected to work right 187 days we know that but it also would require us to outline the supplemental duties that a teacher or one of those

098categories teacher nurse librarian counselor would be required to perform for more than 30 minutes outside of the instructional day that's pretty difficult those of you that have and all of you have a lot of experience and knowledge about how the day of a teacher goes so that would be very very challenging like SB excuse me like HB 11 it also prohibits aspect from sanction in a teacher for resignation outside of the penalty free resignation period under certain circumstances and then it also adds a designation under the local designation system for the teacher incentive allotment HB 11 was effective this one is called accomplished also technical assistance support for school districts increasing in the funding amounts teacher Time study The Residency cost and then a means for offsetting the cost for hiring a retired teachers so

099that's really uh that we believe those three bills HB 100 HB 11 and Senate Bill 9 are likely going to be uh the vehicles for trying to increase the invasive allotment or provide the vehicle for some type of funding for Teacher compensation because as you know current law does require any increase in the basic allotment 30 percent of that increase must be spent on increase in teacher compensation right teacher salary so this uh as Karen mentioned with the 50 increase that's in HP 11 it would be a 50 percent uh would have to go towards uh teacher compensation um this uh this slide I'm sorry is similar again to HB 11 you can see the Pre-K eligibility um all of the planning um the stipend for mentors not real significant changes okay also in hb1

100Safety and Security is another item that's listed as one of those items that will be used that 5 billion would be used for so there are a couple of different bills here that I want to highlight that we believe will be the funding mechanism for increases in the Safety and Security allotment hb3 by Burroughs you can see there this is uh only a ten dollar per Ada increase in the Safety and Security allotment the allotment currently is 9.72 cents this would only increase the allotment to ten dollars and you can see that with the extra increase a dollar for every fifty dollar increase in the basic allotment plus fifteen thousand dollars per campus it basically equates to twenty four thousand five hundred dollars uh for a campus which is not a significant amount of money

101for Safety and Security it doesn't even cover the cost of a counselor uh the other thing that is uh really concerning that we want to pay attention to in this bill is that second bullet requires an armed school security officer at each campus during regular school hours as you know we're fortunate to have a fully commissioned law enforcement agency and we um have a number of officers but we do not have an officer at every Elementary campus so this would require the district to hire an additional 59 officers the salary for an officer with their the salary of the officer plus their equipment is probably about 65 66 000 per officer then plus a vehicle so it would be over four million dollars additional for CFISD to meet the provision of this bill and again

102with only a ten dollar per student uh safety allotment you can see that that's not going to be sufficient there are some other Provisions there again tea would maintain a list of vendors and a certain technology that school districts could access and select from for spending their Safety and Security allotment which you know we don't have any issues with with that language what we do have concerns with in HB 13 again some similar Provisions this bill would increase the Safety and Security allotment to one hundred dollars per Ada significant increase but for CFISD who has completed so much of our facility upgrades what is concerning with this bill is that the funds can only be used to purchase tea approved technology or if you go outside of that for the bidding process you would have

103to follow that which is not an issue the most concerning thing is is that it does not have any current language that we could use that hundred dollars per student on any type of mental health support none of that is included as a possible expenditure for that Safety and Security allotment sb11 is the Senate version of Safety and Security this uh this particular bill is much more comprehensive it does cover a lot of different areas as far as a structure and a system for um auditing ensuring that school districts are complying with Safety and Security mandates the funding is again very similar to hb3 by boroughs the ten dollars per Ada and you can see that there it expands the role it really involves and pulls in the educational service centers like region four it

104would pull them into Safety and Security and also creates a division within tea and so at a regional level there would be that Regional School Safety review teams that would also be responsible for conducting audits very much like what they're doing now they're going around and conducting the Intruder detection Audits and then also tea would be very involved obviously at a state level with their particular division that would be over school safety additionally it would mandate record-sharing discipline record sharing of districts that if you are a student enrolling or withdrawing a student and sending it to another sending him or her to another Public School it would require the sharing of those discipline records threat assessments that information that may be pertinent to ensuring that you have a plan in place for a student that

105may have some struggles strengthens existing truancy statute and you can see some other uh improvements to the multi-hazard operations plan but again I think the most important thing that we want to highlight tonight is just looking at the funding piece for these bills because that is obviously what's going to be the most important thing is we're trying to develop our budget so uh Senate Bill 8 by Creighton this is also a bill that has the potential to impact hb-1 and the amount of funding that is available how that funding is allocated uh in Rider 82. as you know sb8 uh passed the senate floor on on last week and it's going to the house for further consideration the main thing about this obviously there's some parental right Provisions in the bill regarding Grievances and right

106to instructional materials the parent portal which is very similar to another bill 1605 that's been filed by chairman Buckley but what I really want to highlight on this one is the establishment of the education savings account that would create an eight thousand dollar payment to students to use for the what the the language says is it may be used for tuition and fees at a private school instructional materials academic assessments tutoring fees transportation for education services and educational therapies the current language would be for currently enrolled Public School students are students that enrolled in public school the prior year or students that are entering a public Pre-K RK I believe that there was an amendment or a change of modification to sb8 on the floor of the Senate that would allow a currently enrolled private

107school student that reaches a certain poverty level I think it's 200 percent am I correct somebody's nodding I think it's at 200 percent then uh that family would also be eligible for the eight thousand dollar education savings account um they hold harmless you can see the whole harmless is not for would not uh that we wouldn't be held harmless districts with less than 20 000 students would receive a ten thousand dollar per student uh hold harmless for every student that that left their District under an education savings account program okay and then there are some just some additional uh see and I wasn't reading my own slide I put in there the language about the amendment on the slide so apologize for that um okay so now I'm going to turn it back to Karen

108so for the 2324 Revenue estimate uh what we know right now obviously is current law formulas we also submit um in October of even number years every OCT we submit projections to tea attendance projections so that is a known of kind of what we estimate that to be but then an unknown is of course what is our allowed tax rate going to be property values what will happen with property values and then all of the 88th legislative changes um of course uh right now I I have uh 11 state aid templates that I've modeled just to let you know that's that's the extent of all the changes we're hearing about but uh you know distress what we've said before an increase in the basic allotment is the only way for school districts to provide meaningful

109raises to to all staff members and so I can't stress enough thank you all for going and meeting with legislators because we have to really push the fact that uh 50 which that's changed to ninety dollars but ninety dollars and then going up 50 the next year it's just not enough of an increase and a lot of these allotments they have restrictions and we can't utilize those to help towards salary increases so school districts hands are tied if they do not increase the do a large increase to the basic allotment so some of the factors just to remind you that would influence the budget is student enrollment because that determines the number of teachers that we would need average daily attendance and as I've mentioned to you before average daily attendance has been down since

110covid and for each one percent uh decrease in average daily attendance it's about 7.3 million less than funding for Cypress Fairbanks also the opening of new facilities as you know we will be opening Sprague middle school as well as Brosnahan Elementary in August of 2023 and so it'll cost us about eight million dollars additional operating costs to open those those campuses and then an increase in property values would affect uh our obviously tax collections but it also affects our compressed tax rate as well as record inflation especially if they don't do anything with the basic allotment and then our efforts to always try to address Recruitment and Retention one of the things that benefits I guess the district but it's also harmful to our students is our unfilled positions so sometimes we realize maybe not

111as big of a deficit because of the unfilled positions and then lastly the stimulus funding it will end um in September of 2024 and so we believe we'll have a small amount left to offset the deficit in 2324 depending where we end up this year it could be somewhere 35 to 50 million maybe to help us offset it but that's kind of where we're looking at right now so now Teresa Hall and myself are available for any questions that you might have first let me let me say thank you for a very thorough and detailed examination of these items I know it's a moving Target let me start on my right this time Mr Henry yes thank you very much and thank you Teresa as well for the information we had last week we do

112appreciate that um just one quick question I know like Tom said it's a moving Target and we also have reconciliation after that will happen as well and who knows what happened then on the page eight talking about the the five percent appraisal gap which is to me kind of huge there's a huge glaring thing which affects us I know you said you did 13 or something different models was that taken to one of your models as well I have I have I will have that ready when I come back in May but you know I'm so glad you brought this up because I think I failed to mention you know it's also on all real property currently the law is just residential so that makes it even more concerning because that would include um you

113know commercial land uh Timber minerals Etc so it's it's even worse because of the additional that it encompasses that's very concerning just to look at that and see how that impacts us especially from a lot of different projections so again I know we can't can't predict the future but um that one's very interesting but lots of impact thank you very much appreciate it Natalie a great presentation uh plenty of questions but no actual questions as we proceed and I did want to also appreciate the way you presented the information and gave the figure specific for CFISD Theresa and Karen as we went to Austin that was very helpful to speak in real numbers and um just appreciate you keeping a real eye out on the moving targets and keeping us updated thank you Gilbert thank

114you Teresa thank you Karen for all the information valuable information same here we'll just watch it to my left Lucas so we've already mentioned that these bills are a moving Target uh Teresa Karen what are your thoughts on providing is there a way that we could get updates as you guys get your updates could some of those be passed along to us just so we can like watch it and then we can reach out 100 okay because this it changes on a weekly basis thank you that's my main question Julie um thank you for the update things are moving quickly and changing I read um Senate Bill 8 on the way home today on the plane and noticed several changes uh to the education savings accounts uh that have been proposed including the uh three

115percent of the Comptroller's office will take off the top and then those education assistant organizations kind of the Brokers are going to take another five percent off the top so like when you start to look at these numbers they're not actually like it it does become an unsustainable entitlement program when you look to see um as they're skimmy money off the top to to even manage the program and it creates an additional bureaucracy in Texas um I also did notice that the hold harmless for the ten thousand dollars per student given to districts with less than 20 000 students that was actually extended to 10 years in the last uh yeah it's which is again unsustainable um and I think of note on that is when you say that they're going to offer a hold

116harmless for districts to have less than 20 000 students there's a thousand twenty five school districts in Texas over 930 of them have less than 20 000 students like it's all but a handful that would get an additional 10 000. per student on top of the 8 000 voucher retire so if the state has an extra eighteen thousand dollars per student to get people get kids to leave public schools and they've got plenty to put back into the basic allotment so that we can pay our teachers and our bus drivers and our nutrition services folks so um one question I have about that HB 100 by King you mentioned the uh 50 increase in the basic alignment was moved to uh 90 that's one time though that's not sustainable is that correct is that just

117for one year it would go to 90 it would increase by 90. 23.24 and right 24.25 they would add an additional 50. okay so and then after that there would be an inflation Factor if if it passes that's on the 10-year average okay okay so a teacher wouldn't get the additional let's say it's a a small bump in pay but it but then after two years it goes away no it doesn't go I mean it wouldn't go away I think what would happen based on the way it currently is is it would just if they don't have an inflation Factor then it would stay at the six six thousand three hundred okay which is a hundred and forty dollar increase over the biennium correct okay okay thank you for the information on the Senate bill

118that that brings in the uh savings account there's a cute paragraph in there that said that for any students who wanted to apply for the voucher they had to take an assessment test um and of course it doesn't say if that assessment test is on physical abilities or musical abilities or aptitude are intellectual uh is that paragraph still in there sir can you repeat that again Mr Jackson yes that's right students oh it's for Teresa so so when a student is the subject of being applying for a voucher they have to take a test it's an assessment test it does say it that as far as I know that provision is still included yes so so that means that a private school gets to take a look at the abilities and the attributes absolutely there

119are many states I always love to use the example of Louisiana where scholarships are given to gifted athletes to leave public school to go to a private school setting same thing happens in Florida and that and that paragraph in there actually helps to open that door even farther so that if you wanted to cherry pick and I have nothing wrong with cherry picking I would love to be able to be in a position to cherry pick right but I I really don't think it's a Level Playing Field if you can offer a voucher and people can come and cherry cherry pick our best and our brightest and use taxpayer dollars to cherry pick the best we have that's not a Level Playing Field uh but if there was a reverse voucher where we should go

120to private schools and offer them tax money to switch and we could could evaluate their students on an assessment test I guess I would be for that no I really wouldn't I mean that's just the silly waste of taxpayer dollars Mr Jackson just uh for a clarification on your your point about the assessment um according to the latest version of the bill the assessment actually information is gathered by the education assistance organization the ones that have been selected oh yes along and they also request the student records and so then they will pre-screen before the vouchers offered who then will have to go to the private school to apply so there's a pre-screening process that happens first well it says you have to be good enough to apply so you know that so if you

121expand that and of course the Bill's author his comment as printed in the Press said the sky is the limit uh so so I think I I have a clear understanding of what this what the uh author of the bill intends if this ever gets passed there's a hold harmless provision and I'm not certain I ever saw the specific language on the uh the whole hold harmless on property tax relief where we were giving the overview for the Senate increased homestead exemption the seventy thousand and over 65 and disabled to thirty thousand there's a whole harmless provision for school districts what exactly does that mean and how is it calculated and how long does it exist what and I'll say the formulas typically take care of it for you on the maintenance and operate operating

122site in the state funding template but on the interest and seeking side what they do is they pick a date and for this I believe they said it would be I'm trying to remember I think it is actually January 20th it may be 2022 but they go back and they pick a date and any debt you had in place at that point in time basically you're held harmless for any decrease that you receive because that posted exemption was applied but where it I guess hurts you is that you should be dead it doesn't promise but it does a pretty good job in comparison to what would happen with that five percent appraisal which so it doesn't damage debt that has been issued but for that debt that has been authorized but unissued we then have

123a stiff a different credit valuation based on ability to pay excellent thank you I will say that it was helpful when we went to Austin for my colleagues and I to be able to state with a great deal of specificity as to the dollar impact I I had the sense that the individuals we were speaking to were not accustomed to hearing such detail and certainly not detail in such significant numbers and each of us had we were all aware of the information but working as a team we each had a different voice and I guess the best example is it fell to to Scott to to talk about special needs children and every office we went into when he mentioned the 40 million dollars we were spending above and beyond I could see I could

124see the message on the face of the people who were hearing it whether they're elected official or staffers that they were amazed that the difference could be so large and that's every school district uh you know Mr Jackson that in the state I mean every school district in the state spends more money and of course because of our size it's it's a larger amount but it's every school district it impacts every school district the state and of course we were well aware of the fact that HISD first had an individual from tea appointed to watch over their special needs department and of course just prior to our going down Austin ISD was as well it makes me wonder if that had been properly funded would you have needed somebody from the state to go in

125to HISD into Austin and Mr Jackson if I may add one of the things we're watching is exactly how they implement the recommendations by the committee that looked at special education because what we're hearing there's a lot of changes in how they fund us but not necessarily a lot of extra money so that's one of the things we're being very cautious about I will say we did not hear extra money yeah we did hear that funding instead of on a per student basis might be on a service basis you're correct uh and I also heard as did my colleagues that uh our elected officials even though there was record surpluses they're all concerned that it might go away I guess at the drop of a hat they never use that language that's but that was

126the sense I I was left with so I was disappointed to to hear some of what we heard but but we did hear encouraging comments uh from a number of different offices that concludes my I think I'll add two questions but also my general comment uh and I can't express my appreciation enough to Teresa for providing us with the hard information but also to my colleagues who took the time to study it and be prepared when we went to Austin it does in fact make a difference so if I can figure out where we are on the agenda that'll always be wonderful okay you just have to get to that page we will now proceed with the action items portion of the agenda action items 4A 4B 4D and 4J were moved to the consensus

127during the board work session on Thursday April 6 2023 4A 4B 4D I will read there are no speakers who have signed up on these items the Border will consider approving the minutes of the March 6 2023 regular board meeting for B the board will consider adopting the resolution to modify adjustment and comptroller's property value assignment for granting a local optional homestead exemption for indeed the board will consider approving the superintendent's contract recommendations to issue probationary term and annual contracts for the 2023-2024 school year for teachers administrators and paraprofessionals for e4f and 4G there are no speakers on any of those the board will consider approving construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractors and authorized superintendent or designee to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts is recommended in

128the posted agenda item 4f the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and or authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item 4G the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and are authorizing disposal of surplus technology equipment as recommended in the posted agenda item question Council I did not read 4142 for F1 4f24f2a and 4g1 do I need to go back and read each of those individually or not you don't have to it for the purpose of the audience to know what we're talking about so they can follow along you can reference them but from an open meetings act standpoint you don't have to very good thank you the next three items 4-H 4i and 4J there are no speakers on those topics this evening the board will consider approving a resolution

129to suspend portions of FMH local for the 2022-2023 and 2023 2024 school years 4i the board will consider authorizing the superintendent execute remember random of understanding with West Coast University For Speech Pathology field placement 4J the board to consider authorizing the superintendent to execute a memorandum of understanding with the University of Phoenix for student teacher placement 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 amended Mr President I move that the board approves the consensus items as recommended motion has been made do I hear a second second has been made by Scott Henry so we have a motion that's been uh made and seconded we now have

130an opportunity for discussion or comments on any of these items let me look to my right questions comments to my left hearing none I will now call for a vote all in favor please raise your right hand if you're in favor the motion is unanimous with with one board member not being present please record Holly the following action items were placed on non-consensus and I would encourage the viewing audience to review the the board meeting the board work session because many of these items we went into in a fair amount of detail than we did have questions and comments from board members that I thought were reasonable and appropriate 4C the board will consider adopting a resolution opposing any mechanisms that reduce public education funding that was presented at the last session this is a

131standalone item we do have two speakers on this topic this evening first speaker is Francis Romero as you come up I'll remind you that the yellow light is not working I will have our secretary raise his hand when you have 30 seconds left Mr secretary are you ready okay Mercedes good evening Mr President Dr Henry and board members I'm here to speak in support of agenda item 4C opposing any mechanisms that reduce public education funding these mechanisms are commonly known as education savings accounts or vouchers it is important to fully understand what vouchers are and the consequences they can have on our school Community First there is no Financial accountability our state constitution currently prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars from funding private institutions for good reason the public must be represented in some sort

132of governing capacity to oversee the legitimacy of its spending isd's answer to a publicly elected school board and the tea private schools would not have this public oversight which leaves the door wide open for mismanagement of our taxpayer dollars second there would be no accountability for student performance Public School teachers must prepare all students to pass the star test to show that they are being held accountable for teaching and the students are being held accountable for learning private schools would not have this requirement but would still enjoy the state funding third but certainly not least vouchers would add an additional financial burden on the state's budget our state is currently ranked 49th in terms of public education investment it would be irresponsible and a snub to public education by adding this additional heavy expenditure at

133a time when a substantial increase in the basic allotment is critical and the legislature is not acting in in this type of urgency for this need we have made calls and sent emails the community leadership committee has sent out action alerts to many members in our community to increase this per student allotment by urging them to add an amendment to increase it from fifty dollars to a thousand uh and to no avail this has not happened a catastrophic consequence of a state voucher system would further deplete funds please wrap up your comments would further deplete funds from our current public education system so thank you for taking a stand for public education with this agenda item [Applause] our second speaker is Melissa Rao and before you come up Melissa not only is our yellow light

134not working our beeper is not working so so I will try and be your beeper and our secretary will try and be your yellow light good evening Dr Henry Mr President and board I think we can all agree that we want the best education for all students I think we can all agree that we want the best teachers teaching our students I think we can all agree that we want safe schools I think we can all agree that we want our students to graduate and become successful adults I think we could agree that we want the most competitive football team baseball team debate team Etc schools compete with other schools students compete for their graduation ranking why is CFISD scared to compete against charter schools participation trophies don't bring out the best competition does it

135brings out the best disciplinary policies the best teachers the best curriculum the best school ratings and the best students in states where parents have Choice education improves more states have jumped on the school choice vote this is about freedom for parents to choose it's common sense school choice does not ruin Public Schools it will make them better whether school choice passes or doesn't pass the district needs to take a good look at itself in the mirror and find areas it can make improvements parents aren't screaming school choice for no reason let's make software School District the best and everyone wins thank you may I have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended [Music] item as recommended guy here a second motion has been made and seconded we have a motion on

136the the floor that's been seconded now is a time for discussion or comments or questions let me look to my right comments Dr blasting game I have a question for Council do we have any purview in this area is this a legislative issue or is it a school board issue well um who makes a decision uh who legislates who can Empower choice or no choice well it would be up to our legislators if they decide to enact legislation did I answer your question yes thank you thank you to my left so I was traveling for work on Thursday can I have a little bit of clarification just for the audience and listening team members when we make a statement here about funding for vouchers from publicly available dollars what is that statement exactly mean Lee

137it's how we raise the money right now I mean from a combination of property taxes well not property section but it'd be from state aid I'm sorry um if public dollars are also include uh bringing in property taxes but that would not apply to this but it would be any state aid money brought in that's considered public dollars State funding at the legislative level okay it's all my questions Miss heinemann um uh I feel uh I don't have any specific questions about the wording um of the of the resolution I think my question would be for my colleagues just to make sure that everyone has enough information to to vote um yes or no on the resolution that there would be no need to abstain from voting well anybody is afraid to answer if they

138wish to answer I have a quick question um I know today we currently have esa's in Texas for special education which is near near my heart this kind of States implicitly that we can have that I'm sorry currently today we have esa's in place for Esa for special education and the way I read this it says for those districts who are having problems with special ed we don't want that to happen let's make sure I can parse it out because that is narrative to my heart sure of course special ed is important the way I read it says we can't have that and I'm going to make sure we that's in there especially for that right that's a great question uh Mr Henry so the way we currently Texas does have a very small um

139Esa for special education students but the requirement is that they must be public uh student public school students so it cannot be used outside the public school setting so that's the differential the current that esa's are currently being proposed in the legislation which we just got an overview for would be for non-public schools it'd be for private institutions and that is the difference kind of disagree because I've actually asked someone on this you can actually use actually for other outside sources as well so people who are approved by the DEA as well can be which are not public institutions so just so you know there is I know you said only schools but right it's really not a factual statement in fact I'm on their website right and you can be an improved vendor which

140means which I mean if you have dyslexia for instance and you only get outside testing and the school doesn't offer that because of where you live let's say you live in uh Texarkana sorry to pick on pick on you know maybe that's an offer that school doesn't offer just because you know we have that I know we're blessed with that we offer that to our other districts as well who don't have those things I just want to make sure everybody sure no and I believe if I correct that it's a thousand dollars and it's one time only it's not a continuing that would be available every year to parents another quick quick thing just since you brought special education that's such a so important is that if a parent applies for and receives a voucher

141or an Esa or tax credit scholarship for students to go to a private school they actually lose their parental rights uh guaranteed under state or federal law for special education services just just that's my only issue I have per se with that because I like the other things we've all talked about in often accountability transparency things like that I think I can all agree on so just give him my comments on to as a whole well to that point and I don't know if we can make a request can we make an edit do we need to make an edit to this point Scott do we need to edit the resolution itself to make room for that space I certainly think it makes sense to make an amendment that it does not have that the

142resolution is not meant to impact legislation that's currently already in effect I think that's entirely appropriate being the chair I cannot make the motion so can I make a motion to change that based on existing legislation does not affect that or resolution so an amendment has been offered as a motion that the resolution is not meant to uh impact any existing legislation before we can have a discussion on I need a second my second okay motion's been made and seconded so now we can have discussion on the item if we want we can ask Council for a council's opinion to me no I understand that that I'm handling Robert's Rules of Order properly I have no doubt about that no question to ask to the language of that and are you satisfied with that language

143does it seem to address what the board is talking about families of students with special needs and a limited circumstance to have if they're in areas that do not offer certain Services I mean that we are fortunate being not just in a large school district but in you know area that urban area that has a lot of services I mean you do have places in the state where they have to have cooperatives just to provide special education services you know within a large area so it you could just certainly say not to affect any current um I don't know if entitlement is the right word well right now the motion was current legislation I think is the term that we used other questions comments and and just for the viewing audience the chair is not

144supposed to make a motion and if I did make a motion I'd have to turn the chair over to somebody else so so that's what that minutia was all about further discussion are we ready to vote on the amendment so the way this works is you vote first on the amendment and the amendment either passes or doesn't pass then you vote on the motion either amended or not amended so hearing no other discussion I will call for a vote on the amendment all in favor of the amendment please signify by raising your right hand the amendment passes so we now have an amended motion help me out here do I need to call for a new motion on for the motion as amended yeah you're on the amendment so now the motion on the floor

145is the amended resolution thank you motion's been made as amended has been seconded I now is there further discussion on the motion as amended hearing none I will now call for a vote all in favor of the motion as amended please signify by raising your right hand all opposed please signify by raising your right hand did we have one abstention so we have Holly let that let the record show that we had five in favor one abstention and one not voting due to absence thank you item 4K the board will consider making a determination that good cause did not exist as required by law for Lori cortinas Ashley Garcia Ashley Las Marias and Monica Lugo to resign their respective employment contracts as I noted before Sharon Quint quinletti's name was removed from this agenda item

146after the agenda item was originally posted this item was discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551.074 following the board's work session on Thursday April 6 2023 there are no speakers on this evening on this topic this evening no further presentation of course may I have a motion to to approve this non-consensus item as recommended or amended Mr President I move that the board approved the non-consensus item as recommended motion has been made do I hear a second second motion's been made and seconded any discussion or questions seeing none I will now call for a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion passes unanimously highly with one board member not present the discussion portion of the agenda was presented at the board work session on Thursday April 6 2023 we

147will now proceed with the citizen participation portion of the agenda okay 6A per bed local patrons May address the board during the regular board meeting under citizen participation on any matters of Interest or concerns that are not posted agenda items individuals may only register to speak one-time per meeting and must register in advance just a reminder patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order of names listed on the screens to your right and to your left before your name is called please move forward and sit in one of the two reserved seats on the front row so our first speaker and I have two lists will make certain that the names are the same yep our first speaker is Aubry Adams Adams sorry about that hi I have some terial am

148I allowed to allowed too absolutely please give it to Holly thank you um hello this is my first time here my name is okay um hi again my name is Aubrey Adams this is my first time here I am a former Colorado mom a former host mom for youth in recovery I'm from Ground Zero of Pueblo Colorado of the marijuana drug culture expansion movement is what I call it my family was deeply harmed matter of fact it was destroyed by this movement and my community continues to be harmed I did a presentation a few weeks ago at the lakeside Country Club and the executive Council asked me to come introduce myself to you all tonight and see if there's something I can do to provide service for your District here to provide education on marijuana

149unfortunately THC products are legal here in Texas it's not very well known the hemp bill that was passed with the federal bill of 2018 the farm bill legalized hemp which legalized CBD and now the hemp industry is taking CBD products and converting them to variants of THC like Delta 8 Delta 10 and it's very complicated but these products are highly available accessible to students and parents in smoke shops gas stations online social media is now an open-air drug Market these products cause severe addiction psychosis which is a break from reality where people become delusional have hallucinations paranoia and they're correcting people's brains I am paid by a grant I have an organization called every brain matters I used to do physical therapy but now I'm trying to be proactive to prevent other families to be

150harmed so I'm here to provide any service that you might need some education I'm good with talking with parents and students I'm having open conversations and empowering them with the truth so they can make good decisions in their lives this is a predator addiction for profit industry and it's not just going to stop with marijuana so let me know if I can help you in any way thank you very much our next [Applause] our next speaker is Patsy Gillum start whenever you're ready okay my name is Patsy Gillum I'm retiree from Hamilton Elementary I'm currently on the board for the ice and sea foundation for safe police response as a board member I have had a loved one shot and killed during the Mental Health crisis by law enforcement we have been working on legislation

151to get Crisis Intervention training for all police officers that mostly has been accomplished the licensing Foundation would like to support the efforts of the school district in adding resources to your mental health program both for your students your staff and the families of the school my understanding is that these cards were used at the volunteer luncheon we offered them at that time so each card represents something different one card represents what a person should say to the first to the dispatcher when you call what information you need to give clearly of the mental health situation the other card is what you can request from the First Responders such as no lights and no Sirens the third card is to what to do when a crisis intervention trained officer comes to your house these cards are

152offered to y'all freely you can change them you can use them we give them out at our booths as cards like this for families to use um you can choose to do whatever you wish all right okay I'm done okay any questions alrighty thank you very much and and just for clarification we're not permitted to ask any questions our next speaker is Mary Thai our next speaker is Stacy Demeyer I think this is yours ready okay hello I'll be speaking tonight on the selection process for the board meeting invocation an email written by the district was recently shared with me that described the selection process I apologize in advance if I interpreted the email incorrectly but what I gathered is that there's a list of roughly 130 religious leaders from our area and every July

153an email is sent to this list informing them about signing up for the board meeting invocations invocation sign up is on a first come first served basis and religious leaders are continuously being added to this list there is no doubt that Christianity is by far the most practiced religion in cyfair I understand that scheduling is already difficult and to please everyone would be close to Impossible I understand there are certain things that will be out of the district's control such as last Thursday's working session which was scheduled over the second Passover seder as well as Ramadan I also believe that the district is really trying to accommodate a variety of religions this school year for instance had one student holiday scheduled on Rosh Hashanah the Jewish New Year and one scheduled on Diwali I like

154to think that this was intentional on the part of District leadership those sort of things have little flexibility though the invocations however can easily be adjusted to allow the district's diversity to be expressed it's very hard to find out on religion and sci-fi on the scifare area I've tried but from my personal experience CFISD appears to have a pretty substantial number of Muslim and Hindu students rather than a first-come first-served policy which statistically would produce a Full Slate of Christian invocations can the district Reserve at least one of the 11 invocations for a non-Christian religious religious leader additionally taking into account the large number of ESL students in CFISD it would be wonderful if at least one spot was reserved for a spanish-led invocation as well thank you thank you our next speaker is Alexi

155swarsky I am here to stand up for the children of sci fair ISD children are very easily influenced and damaged with even a little exposure to pornography local material has no place in schools concerned citizens and parents should not have to go through a lengthy process to remove sexually explicit materials from cyfair ISD classrooms and libraries often attempts to remove these inappropriate books and curriculum aren't successful with the material remaining in the school to harm students most of us love the idea of reading pornography anyway it's not me why the question is why are materials with graphic information on sex and sexual scenarios in the schools to begin with the purpose of the school is to educate children in academic subjects not sexual activities the public should be able to trust that schools are competently

156run with no immorality occurring the children should go home at the end of the school day as emotionally and mentally healthy as when they arrived at school The cyfair Independent School District is accountable to the families and taxpayers for just that there's no doubt that sexually deviant literature is highly inappropriate for children bringing children around sexual content is a targeted assault on their minds and bodies that should never be tolerated in a civilized society thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Lauren Dodge hi I'm Lauren Dodge a resident of Cyprus and a parent of two kids who will be attending schools in CFISD I'm here to talk about be smart a campaign launched in 2015 to promote responsible gun ownership in order to reduce child gun deaths gun deaths are now the leading cause of

157death for children and teens in the United States guns are killing our children accidental shootings mass shootings homicides and suicides these deaths are preventable according to research from every town for gun safety the 2021-2022 school year saw 193 incidents of gunfire on the grounds of preschools and K-12 schools a secret service study from 2019 showed that three-quarters of School shooters acquired their firearm from the home of apparent or close relative two months ago in Newport News Virginia a six-year-old shot his teacher with a gun from home youth firearm suicides have reached its highest rate in more than 20 years we know that someone with access to guns is three times more likely to die by Suicide we must encourage parents and caregivers to store their firearms properly not only will it save lives but it's

158the law in Texas per penal code section 46.13 making a firearm accessible to a child is a punishable crime the smart and be smart stands for S secure all guns in your home and vehicle M model responsible behavior around guns a ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes R recognize the role of guns and suicide and T tell your peers to be smart as be smart volunteers we can help educate the CFISD Community with B smart materials through a district-wide email to parents a link on the CFISD website and informational tables at open houses ncf ISD events we can get this information into the hands of every caregiver in CFISD Administration could follow the lead of Houston ISD and require parents to sign a safe gun storage acknowledgment form at the beginning

159of every year CFISD is the third largest school district in Texas promoting be smart materials and encouraging parents and caregivers to practice secure firearm storage will protect our children teachers and law enforcement thank you [Applause] good evening I'm Jen Williams I'm a teacher parent and taxpayer and sci-fair I'm here to talk about a bystander intervention training that we are offering so bullying and harassment has long been present in our schools when students don't feel safe in school their learning and mental health may suffer fortunately there are effective ways for staff and students to intervene that's why Cypress families for public schools is coordinate coordinating a bystander intervention training for our community bystander intervention training equips us with a menu of strategies for intervening when we witness harassment and bullying this menu offers choice so we

160can determine what feels safest and more strategic in any given situation how powerful would it be if every student and staff member in our schools knew they had options when they saw someone being victimized and felt confident enough to intervene to bring this training to Cy Fair cfps is Contracting with an organization called right to be they will facilitate a 90-minute session called bystander intervention intervention for youth how to stand up for others excuse me we invite CFISD students in grades 8 through 12 as well as their parents teachers coaches and administrators to attend and learn about the five D's of bystander intervention the training will take place on Saturday April 15th at 10 A.M on zoom and is made possible thanks to the generosity of Celebration Church and the Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast synagogue

161those who would like to gather in person for the training are welcome to join us at Lone Star College University Park I brought some Flyers tonight to share with anyone who's interested you can register to attend with a QR code on the flyer follow Cypress families for public schools on social media for more information on the work we do if you would like to donate to cfps to help fund our efforts to engage in form and unite our community in support of our Public Schools please visit our website at cypressfps.org we at fcfps believe students want to do the right thing let's support them by giving them the tools to do so thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Melissa Rao you've all heard of the three R's Reading Writing arithmetic the three basic skills

162taught in school somehow the focus has turned to social learning and away from educational culture and mental health issues have skyrocketed and now our students have poor test results in the areas of the three r's State assessments show more than 50 percent of 8th graders are not proficient in reading and math nearly 50 percent are not reading at grade level computers are not working as well as thought for learning they are distracting from learning they are a way for other agendas to be brought into the classroom computers have replaced thinking our students need books they need a set in every room and maybe even some extras so they can take one home books don't need batteries or charger which are easily lost or not working with books and paper on the table a teacher can

163easily can see exactly what the students are working on and what they are being exposed to there are no built-in games in a book let's get back to the basics of the three R's put books back in the class instead of turning the class over to a computer as we heard in one of the videos earlier tonight reading is a foundation to success thank you our next speaker is barika Dean so I'm handing out copies to the board including Dr Henry Dr Macias and Ms Sims regarding the handmaid's tale graphic novel that I filed on in December because apparently some of the board members did not receive it this document would have been due on March 3rd so this would have been in violation of the 10-day policy if these were sent out on March

16410th did Miss hinnamon try reaching out to those board members to see if they needed a copy instead of writing a speech to discredit them it's very unprofessional according to policy parents and taxpayers have to read this filth file a form noting all of the harmful content wait 30 days for a committee to read it while the book is still allowed to sit on the Shelf waiting on a determination why is it allowed at one school and not removed district-wide why would some kids be protected and others not blankets and fun home were removed why not this one there is no consistency I listed all of the harmful images such as the graphic scene showing people hanging from nooses with a picture of an unborn child around their neck another showed a graphic scene of

165a doctor raping a young lady in the exam room how about another scene where a man's wife is actually sitting on the bed next to him while he rapes a young lady a picture of a woman tied up with a gun in her mouth half-naked women serving drinks to men bloody scenes drinking smoking profanity the list goes on and yet the letter from the principal doesn't address any of these issues in fact the explanation is a mere copy and paste from the efe local stating it meets requirements for retention varying levels of difficulty and diversity of appeal there was also a book committee that we did not get a checklist for and Ken Paxton has requested you to release the names of this book committee but have you have not was the book even read

166how are we supposed to trust the process when there's no transparency given to parents and even some board members the library policy needs to define pervasively vulgar obscene profanity must be spelled out the age group for why needs to be split 12 to 18 is way too broad and the adult collection needs to be removed we shouldn't have to wait for a state law to be passed for cyfair to protect the innocence of children one scene please stop children cannot unsee these images please stop foreign our last speaker for the evening is Nikki Cowart good evening my name is Nikki Cowart I'm the proud president of the hardest working Union in cyfair ISD last month I was here speaking about the ways we can all advocate for additional funding for our amazing cyfair Public Schools

167as you heard tonight so much has happened during the legislative session since then and while we're still pushing for enrollment-based funding and changes to the budget in Austin we're also asking for you all to pledge to prioritize cyfair ISD staff pay raises with any additional funding coming our way we will provide the petitions that have been signed by teachers parents support staff parents and Community leaders we have heard from students also students that are sick of their teachers having to work second jobs at night and on the weekends another teacher resigned last week and we are hearing of others I have never seen it like this before School Employees and parents and board members must raise our voices together to support an increase in public education funding and a Statewide raise for all Texas School

168Employees and while salary is crucial in order to retain the teachers and staff that all students deserve many are considering leaving due to how they are treated the librarian upset that more than half the contested books this year came from one or two people the lack of the accountability in regards to behavior on the school bus and on campuses I say it here each month Fair pay reasonable workloads and safe working conditions are deserved by all and what happens in our Public Schools affects us all again we're urging board members right now before the May meeting to fight for our schools publicly by supporting an increase to the basic allotment and prioritizing scifare ISD staff raises thank you [Applause] Council Barney we have no need to move into closed session again this evening correct yeah

169we addressed the closed session items unless we want to talk about anything further on those unless the board does that being the case I want to thank everyone for being here tonight I also want to thank those who are watching from home I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved motion's been made well you know that was a little hesitation we can continue uh motion's been made and secondary to all in favor please signify by raising your right hand we are adjourned foreign