Formal Board Meeting 4/11/22

001[Music] good evening the cypress fairbanks independent school district board of trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on monday april 11 2022 in the boardroom of 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 cyprus fairbanks board of trustees we are here to set goals listen to reports approve budgets contracts personnel appointments and make policy for the district it is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions the management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent we have policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues this is a public meeting

002of 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 of 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 counsel as a meeting parliamentarian continued or repeated disruption of any board meeting by words or action may result in removal or loss of the privilege to attend the meeting prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled listed on the notice during the course of this meeting the board may determine that a closed session is necessary

003in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071 through 551.08 for the texas government code these proceedings are airing live on comcast channel 16 and the district website they will also be available as video on demand on the district website following tonight's meeting for the video to adequately reflect the proceedings i respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are turned off as i'm doing now 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 i would also like to take the opportunity to recognize our community leadership committee members who are in attendance this evening and we

004have tana lamb here and also ryan irving and i also believe we have a former board member bob covey also in existence thank thanks to all of you all for attending the invocation for tonight's board meeting will be given by track star dr doug crinkle pastor of the family of faith lutheran church working through scifire isd the family of faith has adopted copeland elementary school where pastor kringle's wife amy kringle is thrilled to serve as an art teacher dr kringle also serves on the c-pop committee at copeland elementary school thank you dr kringle for your ongoing support of the district and for being here tonight before the invocation i will introduce the cypress springs high school air force jrotc cadets who will be presenting the colors this evening carrying the us flag is color guard

005commander cadet captain preston grant carrying the texas flag is cadet technical sergeant jasmine diaz the u.s guard is cadets second lieutenant shane garza and the texas guard is cadet second lieutenant karen garcia these cadets present the colors to you under the direction of major jerome frederick retired and technical sergeant retired marvin waterman at this time i would ask you to please stand for the invocation and followed by the pledge of allegiance we make our beginning in the name of the father son and holy spirit amen lord in heaven we thank you for blessing us with a successful superintendent fun run this last saturday blessing safety and the joy that was provided to our community and the scholarship fund we thank you lord also as we come to a day off friday that you would remind

006us of the word sacrifice we thank you for the sacrifice of board members and tax paying public and teachers and staff members and faculty and the students and their families that we might have an excellent community where children and youth learn and develop their god-given skills to the benefit of us all lord we pray that especially on friday as we also recall the great sacrifice of our lord and savior jesus christ on the friday we call good lord we also pray that you give us great joy joy eternal that you would remind us as we approach sunday and easter day that joy is your gift to humanity and we pray lord that we would always have hope and joy and peace the kind of hope and joy and peace that you give us may it

007be in our community help us lord as we go to graduations and see the joy of graduates and as children matriculate to the next level of education give us that joy lord that comes from you now we commend this meeting to you and pray that you would give us wisdom from above that our community would be wisely served in christ our savior's name we pray it amen amen so um i pledge allegiance to america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all right now please be seated i will now read the district's vision and mission statement our vision at cfisd is formed from the acronym lead the lead empower achieve dream lead our mission is to maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant

008learning experiences preparing students be 21st century global leaders we will now proceed with public comments agenda item three a patrons who have duly registered per policy bed local may address the board and may and make public comments on an agenda item during or before the board's consideration of the item the board may allow public comment on agenda items at all meetings the board will continue with the remaining agenda after the registered patrons have had an opportunity to speak patrons who have registered to speak this evening may see the order of their 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 reserve seats on the front row and once again to remind everybody these are timed and so

009when you have 30 seconds left the yellow light will come on when your time is used up the red light will come on and we ask that you promptly conclude your comments our first speaker this evening is dr cameron krausen all right hi all right so in relation to respecting educators and their meaningful expectations and resources in the classroom we as cte teachers need tools and materials to prepare students for the 21st century including more up-to-date materials textbooks and instructional software for example computer science feels very underfunded in the classroom we need rigorous learning materials to prepare students for industry and that can include materials including certification prep documents for preparing students for careers and ways to bridge gaps between the core and the cte subjects so that's all i have to say all right

010thank you [Applause] our next speaker is icy m diego wait a second in demaio was that better i shay in dimeo into mayo hi tonight i'm talking on agenda item 9k 3 instructional materials textbooks ebooks workbooks and teacher material i want to not thank a board member who took extra care and effort and worked and went out of her way to get the book flamer back in our libraries after it was pulled by the bridgeland high school administration if you look at this book at the online resource library you'll see it was available to middle school and high schools something happened it was me posting about the book and another woman speaking about the book and for some reason some schools took it off some didn't but i know for a fact a woman who's

011in the sci-fi civic alliance which julie heinemann i think is a founding member she was put on this facebook group days after the last school board election along with democratic house rep john rosenthal and also a loser of a dem of a house race brian henry and also somebody running for esd9 tommy belez and also tana lam who assaulted me last board meeting in january that i testified to last time so tana talked to the school librarian got the book flamer put back in libraries and julie heinemann seen the post let it happen so how do we have two different community groups speaking out about a book and then this community group called cypher civic alliance talking to librarians with all the support of these organized politicians behind them and the book is back who

012is in charge that sci-fi civic alliance or parents thank you very much [Applause] our next speaker is danny ray moss okay hi my name is danny moss i'm a former educator here um the book in question flamer i just want to let you guys know because i don't know if the public is aware of some of the content so if you're offended don't come for me these are the people in charge here's one of the quotes oh sorry i didn't know that you and mr miyagi were an item have fun sucking each other's dicks ladies you pencil dick okay that's one of the many sexual references uh somebody else is going to speak later there's a reference to drinking ejaculation out of a bottle in this book but yet our leaders know about it and

013seem to think that this is acceptable and okay this is in violation of texas state law this is harmful to minors this is available to middle school and high school we have proof and documentation so as public you need to let it know that this is this is what is this uh we are a data driven district okay we go by facts where is the facts and evidence that this is acceptable or okay what is it teaching our kids social emotional learning is that is that what's going on here because i'm going to go on a limb and say that that's not social emotional learning i don't i don't know what that is but that's not it does it follow a teak this is an ebook okay this is available publicly to our kids this

014is one of many books so i suggest parents start standing up and getting involved thank [Applause] you our next speaker is alexi swarsky yes i am here to speak on agenda item 9k today um commissioner of education mike morass sent a letter to governor abbott saying as noted in your letter there have been several instances recently of inappropriate materials being found in school libraries this is unacceptable and the students of texas should not be exposed to this harmful content he emphasizes the rights of texas parents tea guidelines i'm going to read some excerpts from their guidelines the district shall recognize that parents hold an essential role in the education of the children and have the right to guide what their children read all material should be appropriate for students texas penal code 4324 describes harmful

015material as material whose dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the period interest of a minor and sex nudity are excretion and is patently offensive to what is suitable for minors no library material should be used if it contains content that can meet the harmful materials standard and some library materials as you are used in classrooms among others books in cypher isd libraries including one in middle school include offensive books tokyo google and flamer the legal responsibility for the purchase of all library materials is vested in the board as board members you can be held legally responsible for violating federal laws including harmful to minor laws sentences can include lengthy prison terms to encourage parental engagement the district shall make the selection process of library materials readily available for parental review with the list

016of all library materials posted online on the district's website and the content of all materials available for district review during reasonable hours specified for such review when acquiring new library material content not previously acquired and i suggest that books need to be reviewed that we currently have in the libraries the district level librarian our designee should submit a list to the superintendent for inclusion in a board agenda so i expect to see new library books listed in a board agenda not just that vague listing of agenda items that are in today's agenda yes please wrap up your comment texas law and tea guidelines and state board of education guidelines hold the school board members responsible for not violating laws offending minors i expected thank you [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is donna stallone so last

017week i got a letter from the english department regarding an upcoming book choice the glass castle this is the first time i've ever received a letter with a book review so to speak and it says because of the realistic portrayal of janine jeannette wall's childhood the text includes some profanity vulgar language and references to physical and sexual abuse while i appreciate the transparency now where was this type of review when my son was given this book to read several years ago i'm upset that i didn't do my due diligence instead of trusting what was given to him was age appropriate and of course did not i did not know that it would include sexually explicit material since i had this book at home i thought you know what i'm going to open this up so

018i come to a page randomly it says one night when i was almost 10 i was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts at first it was confusing i just want to play a game with you a man's voice set i recognized the voice he tried to walk us home from school and had given brian a magazine called kids on a farm with pictures of boys and girls wearing only underpants pervert i yelled and kicked at the man's hand we decided we would go on a pervert hunt and just like that demon hunting except the enemy was real then dad came home and we told him what had happened and he said he was going to kill that lowlife son of a he and brian and i went out on a serious

019pervert hunt and then another random in the locker rooms i'd been in the white women always seemed embarrassed by their nakedness and wrapped towels around their waist before slipping off their underpants but here most of the women were just buck naked and others had pillowy behinds and huge swinging breasts so i immediately contacted the teacher and told her my daughter would not be reading this kind of material was there any other choices she sent me some other choices two of them had to do with physical and sexual abuse luckily i found one that was an uplifting about a boy that was going to climb mount everest but will scifir clean up the campus and online libraries and choose to be educators instead of groomers [Applause] our next speaker is donna stallone um i'm here to

020testify on 9k on instruction instructional materials and online library textbooks and ebooks i i do have a concern about the flamer book that is in our libraries it seems to be somewhat controversial and i need some clarification i'd like to see some case studies which proves that this material and content is going to be helpful to our children just to read one page from the book it says we are we are it's a group of boys and they're saying we are each busting a load into this bottle if you do not come you have to drink it give me that i'll show you how for clarification for those of you who may not understand that means he's going to masturbate and ejaculate into a mountain dew bottle mountain dew i don't know that i'll drink

021mountain dew again i don't know how many of you are up to that challenge but it doesn't seem to be very helpful in teaching our kids how to compete in a global market under the harmful to minors act if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive or it violates the harm to minors it violates this act texas penal code chapter 43 24a2 if it describes harmful material that is utterly without redeeming value for minors you're against you're you're you're running things against the law i'd like to see the data and the case studies that prove this material is educationally necessary how it will improve our social dilemmas that we have and how this content will help our children compete in a global market and i'd like to see it before our next board meeting thank you [Applause]

022our next speaker is julie rex hello i'm speaking on 9 d [Music] the board will consider approving reinstatement of its financial and my answer is no absolutely no funds available programs are not free they come with strings attached and sci-fare already has satisfactory funding for its needs and doesn't need to be beholden to any group where is the accountability should the board give authority and sole discretion to the superintendent 9f it's about getting funds for cobit 19 or something my answer is no longer a crisis or threat doesn't belong as part of education and needs to be left exclusively to the medical profession 9d is about funds for teachers and employees scifir absolutely absolutely needs good teachers and they definitely should be compensated accordingly but the good teachers are being run off because leadership doesn't

023have their back as far as academic standards respect and discipline under current leadership the bar has been lowered from keeping and recruiting teachers of moral values with a focus on academics to those willing to embrace a woke agenda that focuses on racism and sexualization of our children to create an atmosphere and have the best teachers in sci fair the leadership must return to the focus of academic excellence and the curriculum overhauled back to the foundation of basics thank you [Applause] our next speaker is stacy de meyer hello i'm stacey demeyer and tonight i'm speaking on agenda item 7a the demographic update pasa's presentation on thursday night was incredibly insightful i don't know where y'all will be ten years from now but i'll have one student in seventh grade one in tenth grade and one a

024few weeks away from graduating high school for the next 15 years i will have at least one student in cfisd and so i'm highly invested in the future state of our school district two things in past's presentation stood out to me first scifire's expansion is slowing and eventually our community's population and therefore increases in student enrollment will stabilize and second year after year charter school enrollment has been expanding in our area these two factors combined can potentially lead to negative consequences for our district and its funding as dr henry so wonderfully put it quote charter schools can determine how many students they want we have to account for every child that lives within the confines of our district end quote public schools cannot turn away students because they don't have the capacity to serve them

025they must grow along with their community and with this growth comes increases in the district's expenses i don't have enough time to go into detail in the negative ways charter schools affect public education but it's pretty clear that if charter school expansion continues our district might be dealing with a scenario where it has a capacity and therefore cost that is higher than its student enrollment and therefore revenue it's pretty clear that if we as a community do not stand up to the recent attacks aimed at undermining public education including book banning false accusations of crt in the curriculum and the constant attacks on our teachers then we will be left with a school district that is not receiving the adequate funding it needs we need to support pro public education representatives and we especially need

026board members who are not actively trying to take funds away from our district by supporting and publicly endorsing school choice voucher loving politicians thank you [Applause] our next speaker is dr tara cummings i want to thank the district and pasa for the incredibly comprehensive informative and fast fascinating demographic report presented at thursday's work session i can't imagine how complicated and ineffective long-term or even short-term planning would be without that kind of data in response to the report one of our trustees commented that she's committed to making cfisd the very best choice for all families i'm glad to hear that but i'm a bit confused and concerned considering some of the anti-public ed political candidates that she and our other new trustees have publicly endorsed knowing that charter growth is a threat to our district and

027public education in general it's imperative that our trustees mind their votes accordingly and that the community continue to pay attention to such the same trustee also stated that in the future she hopes to see underutilized campuses quote used for things that families want although i agree that the district must be judicious and making decisions about the facilities our facilities now and in the future the primary priority and the factor that sets us far and above other educational options especially charter and private schools is the commitment to opportunity for all the promise that all students regardless of their zip code campus or circumstances are afforded exceptional and equitable educational opportunities speaking of equitable how about them equity audit recommendations as a parent partner in education which according to our new trustees makes me the primary stakeholder

028in education what i don't want is something along the lines of magnet type programs cfisd doesn't need lotteries in order to provide a world-class education to every single one of our students opportunity for all means just that thank you our next speaker is judy duhan good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak on 9k this evening community members have spoken numerous times regarding the importance of transparency surrounding board decisions at the last board working session an agenda was provided which did not provide any subsequent attachment links and it still does not so i ask we don't know what you're voting on and regarding the policies and the contracts this evening i was informed when i questioned it last week that it was a change in the board management program and the decision had

029been made by legal counsel to allow board members to see prior to public was the board aware of this decision and approve it and if this is not correct please advise when does the public get to know when and what you're voting on after the decision is made one i think the board should be concerned about and ensuring they receive and allow public comment in the instructional materials contract vendors that is if they are been listening like you have heard tonight the community outcry of the pornography and sel inappropriate content in our learning resources and library materials and finally we all want cfisd to be considered one of the best schools like dr henry said in the state the optics however are not as positive considering this lack of transparency questions arise when we see

030in the news felony indictments for other isd staff members as well as county staff members in making contract vendor selections without oversight a houston chronicle article discussing incestuous dealings in harris county government that mentions communities in schools houston and heb and others my point again is cfisd is our community and we want to do our part in oversight to ensure we are the best school district in texas thank you [Applause] item 4a under the recognitions portion of the agenda was presented at the board work session on thursday april 7 we will now proceed with items 4b through 4e under recognitions i request that the cfisd board of trustees recognize a cadet in the scifire high school afjrotc program did someone want to give them yes so scott henry and dr natalie blasengame if you would

031step down to help in the recognition of this cadet [Applause] the scifir high school afjrtc program services students at both scifire and bridgeland high schools one of the cadets from this program was accepted into the afjrotc flight academy the flight academy allows aspiring young aviators to get their private pilot certification at no cost to the cadet during an eight week summer course at partner universities cadet major tomas caruso if you step forward please is a bridgeland student who was nominated and selected to be sent this summer to university of maryland eastern shores cadet caruso is one of 200 air force jrotc cadets around the world to receive the scholarship from headquarters air force junior rotc maxwell air force base montgomery alabama more than 1300 cadets applied for one of the 200 scholarships there are almost

032120 thousand high school students enrolled in air force junior rotc programs at approximately 170 high schools in the u.s and overseas the scholarship covers transportation room and board academics and flight hours required to potentially earn a private pilot certificate valued at approximately twenty two thousand five hundred dollars the instructors are in the audience and would the uh captain scott thomas and senior master sergeant michael claiborne stand please [Applause] trustees if you'll take your seat luke scanlan and julie heinemann if you will help recognize our next cadet please i request that the cfisd board of trustees recognize a cadet in the cypress ridge high school afjrotc program from the cypress ridge high school jrotc program cadet donnie ho would you come forward please received a three-year army scholarship worth up to a hundred thousand dollars the

033instructors are lieutenant colonel hyder khan and senior master sergeant james core would you stand please [Applause] gilbert arabia if you will join me in helping to recognize the next group of cadets i request that the cfisd board of trustees recognize the cypress falls high school air force jrotc team who obtained exceptional significance in their participation at the cyber patriot competition which is open to high school cadets worldwide cyber patriot is the air force association's national youth cyber education program created to expose and inspire k-12 students toward careers in cyber security or other science technology engineering and mathematics industries and disciplines the competition consists of a series of simulated cyber threats to computer systems each competition round lasts about six hours as they resolve multiple cyber security scenarios the competition takes place over a series of

034multiple weekends the air force jrotc program at site falls high school fielded a team in the cyber patriot 14 competition that competed against approximately 1850 other teams worldwide this team of seven cadets scored high enough to earn first place in the silver tier all services division against all rotcs across the globe students when i call your names would you please come forward sarah medina alexis suertas is alexis here alexis [Applause] itzel hernandez [Applause] and julia monahan i think she's not here okay john gawkel is the team captain logan estrada i think he's not here and abigail martinez [Applause] the instructors are lieutenant colonel chris eckles and chief master sergeant reginald merle [Applause] thank you these are always very special moments for us as trustees when our students excel at the very highest of levels congratulations

035once again to our all of our students that we recognize this evening the superintendent will make remarks and announcements including the honors and achievements earned by staff and students in recent weeks dr mark henry thank you mr president trustee cfisd audio video production students in collaboration with our district video production team recently compiled a highlight of cf isd happenings in the month of march please enjoy this brief video that illustrates how cfisd is bringing out the best [Music] so [Music] i've got that so [Music] blind [Music] [Applause] as that video shows there's lots of great things going on in scifire isd the scifire educational foundation hosted the salute to the stars event on april 5th recognizing our campus teachers of the year and district-wide paraeducator and support staff of the year in addition we named

036an elementary and secondary teacher of the year who will represent cfisd at the region 4 celebration later this spring ellen cummings from swinkey elementary school and sarah smith from bridgeland high school were our teachers of the year congratulations to these district-wide honorees and all of our campus winners on this tremendous achievement congratulations to the pope elementary name that book team for winning the cfisd name that book competition held march 29th at the berry center the contest features teams throughout the district facing a series of questions giving clues about different books and being asked to identify them pope won the competition in the ninth round by correctly naming the book the amelia 6 by kristen l gray congratulations also to runner-up post elementary and third place teams alt and copeland elementaries ryan linton a langham creek

037high school student was selected as one of 100 nationwide recipients of amazon's 2022 future engineer scholarships [Applause] it was valued at 40 000 in addition ryan will participate in a 12-week paid programming internship at amazon after completing his freshman year of college julie heinemann board vice president was elected to the texas association of school boards board of directors and an interim position representing district 4 position 5 thank you julie for representing cfisd at this state level i would also add there's not any video on it but we had a very successful superintendent's fun run this past saturday it's just it's become a great community and event and i have stated that as important as it is of raising scholarship money for students it also helps bring our community together one of the things that we

038strive to do is to have even though we're a large district we try to function as a small town so thank every i thank you all so much for coming out we raised enough money that we made a presentation of the cypher educational foundation of 125 000 uh which was uh certainly our great team here in cfisd that helped put it all together so just thank you community for always supporting cfisd and for seeing the good in us and for helping us bring out the best at this time i'm going to turn it over to roy garcia who has a couple of announcements to make thank you dr henry president jackson and board of trustees last month we announced laurea novosinsky as our new principal for elementary number 57 and tonight we are excited to

039introduce two new principles to you and to our cfisd community we will begin with kirk elementary i am happy to introduce katie ford as the new principal of kirk elementary school katie earn you can go ahead and talk yes katie earned her bachelor of science in elementary education from abilene christian university and her master of educational leadership from stephen f austin university she recently received her certification in school management and leadership from the harvard business school katie participated in several cfisd leadership institutes including the teacher leader the aspiring administrator and the aspiring principal institute she has served as a mentor for new assistant principals and is currently serving on the teacher incentive allotment full advisory council katie is in her 15th year in the education profession serving as a teacher at horn and francone elementary

040for a total of eight years she was a behavioral interventionist and a primary instructional coach at tips elementary and has served as an assistant principal at farney elementary the past six years she began her principalship at kirk on march 21st katie and her husband brandon have two children knox who is a sixth grader at goodson middle school and faith who is a third grader at farney elementary katie enjoys reading baking traveling and teaching sunday school at her church please join me in congratulating katie ford president jackson board of trustees and dr henry i am honored to serve as the principal at kirk elementary and if i could say anything about my past three weeks there's that i've learned that the staff at kirk elementary have the biggest hearts for serving their community and i am

041thrilled to get to work with them each and every day to prepare our students learning today to lead tomorrow and i want to thank them for being here to support me tonight and they're right over there i would also like to take a moment to introduce my family my husband brandon my son knox and my daughter faith they are my biggest supporters and i i couldn't do what i get to do each day without each of you so i love you all very much um i also want to say uh thank you to my farney family for being here and and growing me as your leader for the past six years it has been an honor to work with each and every one of you and um i know that we will continue our relationships

042forward and then my parents are also here this evening my sister is also an educator at hamilton elementary she's here to support me and then my in-laws as well so i just you know thank you so much for this opportunity [Applause] thank you katie our second principle to introduce this evening is our new principal for andre elementary school carmen lozano [Applause] carmen earned her bachelor of science in interdisciplinary studies and her master of special education from sam houston state university and her principal certification from lamar university she is currently pursuing her doctorate of education at the university of houston carmen participated in the aspiring principal institute and has served on numerous district committees she's in her 16th year in the education serving as a teacher at holmesley and hemingway elementary she served as an educational

043diagnostician at andre and aragon middle school in addition she served as an assistant principal at truitt middle school and cypress park high school she also began her principalship at andre on march 21st carmen and her husband abe have two daughters annabella who is a seventh grader at aragon and christiana who is in the fifth grade at berks elementary carmen enjoys spending time with family and friends hosting cookouts watching sporting events and crafting please join me in congratulations congratulating carmen lozano [Applause] president jackson board of trustees and superintendent dr henry thank you for this opportunity as a product of cfisd and a graduate from langham creek high school i'm honored to serve in this capacity as the principal at andre elementary where we were going to continue to cultivate a community of excellence where we are

044empowering our students to succeed i would like to thank all the principals that i've had the opportunity to work with and their leadership as well as my colleagues and also in addition my support system so here i have my husband abe lozano who is the principal at watkins my daughter annabella who is at aragon christiana who is at burke's elementary and then my sister is an educator as well at frank cohn my parents are here supporting me as well and then my extended support system with my in-laws that are here my sister-in-law that's at pope elementary some friends that are at cypress park high school and then i see many familiar faces in the crowd from various places that i've worked at including truitt at cypress park where i was currently at so i see

045all of you i know lots of people are streaming and i don't want to forget anybody at from any of those places that i've worked at including you know homeslee hemingway and then also at andre and they said once a leopard always leopard and i'm so excited to be back [Applause] normally we would take a break at this point in time but we aren't going to because we have another item of business of significance that we need to address before we we do that before we proceed with board comments portion of the agenda we will review the addendum that was posted to the april 2022 board meeting agenda on friday april 8 the addendum the board will consider approving the name of elementary school number 57 dr mark henry will make a recommendation thank you

046mr jackson trustees and i'll just say this when this particular person who i know it's still a huge secret when i call their name if they would uh stand up while i kind of read a recap of their career it is my pleasure to recommend to you leora sue mcgowan so as you probably figured out not all of these people are leora sue mcgowan [Music] we i recommend her his namesake for elementary number 57. sue spent 26 years working in cfisd prior to her departure in 2012. during her tenure in the district sue served as a mentor and role model for numerous campus administrators sue's education career spanned 40 years starting in 1974. she began as an elementary teacher in carthage isd teaching one year before moving to nacogdoches isd where she taught kindergarten for

047two more years her career brought her to houston isd in 1977 teaching a year at crockett elementary school before transferring to wainwright magnet school where she taught eight years sue arrived in cfisd in 1986 teaching one year at holmesley elementary school she then transitioned to secondary education teaching two years of reading english language arts at liebe middle school in 1989 she accepted an assistant principal position at blough middle school and served three years including a stint as a summer school principal at cypress creek high school in 1991. in 1992 she opened hamilton middle school as the campus principal and served 13 years she was named the inaugural principal of cypress woods high school in 2005 and opened the district's eighth high school campus in the 2006-2007 school year she remained at cypress woods until 2011

048when she resigned to take an educational leadership position in illinois she closed out her educational career as an assistant superintendent for east st louis school district serving from 2012 to 2014. during her time in cfisd mcgowan helped hamilton earn exemplary status from the state accountability system for more than 10 years she in turn built cypress woods into an exemplary campus and branded the 212 spirit that has defined the campus ever since she helped lie by and blough middle schools earn blue ribbon status during her five years there she led hamilton to receive region 4 middle school of the year and just for kids 5 star school honors mcgowan served on the illinois district committee and helped write the state grant for the middle school sig grant leading to 10.5 million being awarded to two middle

049schools she was a race to the top lessons learned presenter at the no child left behind conference in illinois an exemplar state a webinar presenter and a member of the texas principal leadership initiative board of direct directors upon returning to texas sue continues to serve as cfisd principal coach and alternative certification supervisor elementary school number 57 will be located on tuckerton boulevard boulevard in the parkland village section of bridgeland community and is set to open in the 2022-23 school year and all i would add to that is what separates sue is she's a culture builder and she built a strong culture at hamilton that continues today in fact one of our board members as i was talking to him last week he said i i know hamilton is good and the current principle is great

050but there was something deeper there and that goes all the way back to sioux and then woods this to this uh this two 212 spirit uh you can you can see it uh you can literally feel it when you're on that campus and around the young people and uh campus staff and and families at cy wood so sue on behalf of scifir isd thank you for all you've done and mr president before sue says anything i want to make my recommendation to you and i'll let the board take it from there mr superintendent we have received a recommendation may i have a motion to approve the addenda agenda item as recommended or amended mr president i move to approve the addendum agenda item as recommended may i have a second a second motion has been

051made and seconded are there any questions no questions we will now take a vote all in favor please raise your right hand the motion carries [Applause] foreign thank you for the recommendations to become a namesake of a school usually my voice carries as most of you know right um it you know my parents were educators uh i know that they are here with me tonight my dad has a is a namesake for a campus in nacogdoches my mother was a teacher who also taught me and so education has been something that was just i was bred as an educator and i truly internalize the need to create that quality education top education for every single student that we serve and we didn't take that lightly we took that seriously we made it a top priority

052each and every day each and every hour each and every minute of the day and i think it was reflected in the good things that happened on that campus at campuses academically athletically fine arts the whole thing kids knew that they could belong to things and they did a great job of being active and being supportive the wildcats and the tigers were just their quality and 212 and they know it and they knew it today began very special as a wildcat was the photographer this morning and so that was just kind of neat i'd like to introduce my husband of 42 years lonnie mcgowan [Applause] my sister a retired teacher from diagnostician from scifir jerry flowers my niece tony mcdonald my nephew eddie mcgill my nephew derek reeves and his wife rachel wow my cousin

053kim porter and kenley you know we all have extended families i have families okay so my very best friend from third grade as darlin norris and her husband jerry my goddaughter demetria and get this people i have to go here next because i have my divine interventionists on earth and my spiritual leader father bruce from saint cuthbert episcopal church [Music] and his lovely wife catherine bonner and then my next families randy and sharma duck we raised our children together the spiller family and oh boy my son's in-laws who are better friends to me than they are probably to him please stand up and be recognized the williams and white families to all of you who have allowed me to pour into you and to all of you who have poured into me i say thank

054you the ogue mckay family also an extension of my family with god children of the the girls and also um i'm just looking most precious uh community service leaders and great community for support for cypress fairbanks isd my sorority alpha kappa alpha [Music] alpha alpha eight omega chapter of alpha kappa alpha thank you sorrows for being here i wanted to be sure that i did that appropriately people that i have mentored and people who have mentored me i see among the groups tonight and i thank you for that and oh boy while i'm the namesake of the campus the story and the journey was ours thank you 212 wildcats please stand and hamilton tigers please stand [Applause] my what a journey lots of hard work we worked hard we played hard we loved each other

055we cried together we built something very special and it wasn't about sue mcgown it was about us and we're still on that journey as i watch each of you grow and i do stay connected so that i know i expect that the same thing that same quality standard will be held throughout thank you for all you have done and thank you wow god bless me with all of you i have to remember to push the button we will now take a five minute recess and of course that five minutes because we have a number of people here who may want to talk to other people may stretch a little bit but i will call everybody back in after an appropriate time so marty may may we proceed i have your permission yes i'm sorry i'm

056back in my seat you're ready thank you we will now proceed with board comments 5a any board member may make a comment during this portion of the agenda without prior posting being required comment items may not pertain to the character of any students staff or board member and may not be discussed or deliberated upon at this meeting i will start to my right mr henry thank you mr president thank you for everyone being here tonight and thank you for everyone being here online as well my congratulations to all the honorees tonight it was great meeting everyone especially to our newly named schools as the end of school is drawing near as i talked to to many teachers and kiddos this past month instead of counting down the months they're now talking about counting down in

057days to our kiddos i want to suggest that maybe you start don't give up the hard work is still ahead of you i want to give you some encouragement and although some of you are looking forward to graduation they'll be here before you know it let's don't forget to let's don't forget to finish strong i want you to stay encouraged and focused for some of you as you stand before the threshold of your biggest adventures of your life graduation just think about this and i heard this this week on paul harvey was pretty interesting it says 20 years from today half the products you're looking at today aren't even in dictionary right now it's pretty interesting to think about your time is very limited so let's don't waste it let's don't waste that time let's

058don't be trapped by the dogma which is living inside the results of other people's thinking don't let that noise of others drown your down of your own inner voice and most important let's have the courage to follow your own heart and your intuition and be strong as martin luther king once said you don't have to see all the steps of the big suitcase staircase suitcase only one thing about vacationing let me repeat that martin luther king once said you don't have to see all the steps of the big staircase all you have to do is see the first step and start climbing them now is your time kiddos let's get out there and let's take it and as i start in the very beginning let's finish strong that's my encouragement to you thank you dr

059blasey thank you so much wow sue mcgowan what an inspiration i'm still a little emotional about that i think she we could all learn from her i'm going to set a two-minute timer because our citizens of the district are given two minutes i'm not sure i'll make it but let's try uh since state girls is given two minutes i'm going to attempt to do it in two um because those are the people we're elected to represent and um i'm going to uh make a point about our representation of voice um i would like to propose that the board review our policy around the number of speakers allowed during citizens participation in other parts of the board meeting i believe voice parent community student teacher staff other voice is critical to the board's role in determining

060the vision and values of the district i've surveyed the policies and practices of large urban districts in texas and i will tell you that of the 35 that i took data down on as far as the number of people allowed to speak the time allotted other rules pertaining to public comment of the 35 15 had no limit some had seven per item 60 25 32 30 20 only 2 out of the 35 allowed 10 people to speak so i would love for us to be able to have a chance to revisit that and see if there's a way that we can get more voice being the third largest district in the state of texas going to keep talking quickly two minutes goes quickly last month i requested that we uh that discipline be on the

061board agenda my express purpose was to respond to the concerns voiced by educators parents and students i look forward to healthy conversation around that item in the future so that um our wonderful administration can lead responses that support our teachers in our classrooms and teach our students about responsibility and appropriate boundaries i would like to request a literacy level report during our june meeting when we have end-of-year reading levels and once those have been recorded i was pleased to get data in february at the district-wide level and i look forward to hearing about those the results of the amazing plans for refining interventions that happen as a result of the last data as we make decisions around resources and budget approval this spring into summer this data will help make informed decisions about the resources

062matched to the highest need areas and because there's just a little time left our spotlight teachers are an inspiration attending that session just reminded me why i choose to volunteer my time in this way i'm so proud of the incredible parents um i mean incredible teachers that make us the best choice for all our parents we appreciate our teachers that was two minutes you should have tied me gail back that's kindness on the board member compadre thank you mr sorobia yes um welcome everybody and yes congratulations to everybody um honorees tonight i wish we could have those kind of evenings all the time um besides getting around and seeing multiple events the passing review uh earlier uh was outstanding uh got to sit down and sit with miss bellaine who um started the program i

063believe that's right the jrotc and during the review which was outstanding and finding a way to get everybody involved she was looking to create a leadership program and my god she sure has and stuff beyond all dreams here um also finally got to attend a national conference where the last two years we were unable to get to pandemic and made a lot of uh different sessions um spoke with uh fellow trustees and educators from washington oregon of course california where we were at utah dakotas wisconsin illinois maryland georgia many other states and we asked a lot of the same questions and it was nice getting together to go over the challenges that we face um but it was a really um good thing to have attend i want to brag about our admin team here

064our leadership team here uh dr linda macias um so on the fourth day at eight o'clock in the morning when everybody is leaving the conference was their time to present cfisd was going to present on behalf of the college academy here we have in our district so i think dr henry was jokingly saying i'd be surprised if we get 10 or 12 people there at 8 o'clock in the morning as me and natalie were passing out the programs at the doors that they entered i was astounded around 8 15 8 18 i counted around 48 representatives from around the country attending their their presentation on the college college academy and it was superb um again it brought a tear to my eye this this program that uh that dr marcias had started with the help

065of the district and the and the team here the kids are graduating with their associates and should i spoil your thunder are you going to stay at about higher so as we look for substitutes and and this time of need we are actually employing this the students that graduated last year as substitutes now because of their associates oh my god it was like the the the questions that came up to dr macias and the team after the meeting and they stayed after to answer more questions from people around the country how did you start she had every answer there was for how you started this program word was funded at uh a b c all the way down to z uh it was extraordinary and i'm so proud to be there uh as a cfisd

066trustee because we were in the limelight again and to you dr macias and the team dr tom jackson presented along with dr henry and he had a at the end of the of the session the next teen coming over was from north carolina and they had kind of the same accent so they kind of figured they had same kind of family somewhere along there though but by god it was a a proud moment and i just want i can't tell you how proud it was of attending that conference and seeing the team succeed in means that i never thought of before though congratulations dr macias and the team [Applause] since the past month i've given over 40 hours of service to the district special joy was salute to the stars as is my want i

067was a table sponsor i hosted live eye middle school where each of my three children attended the teacher of the year was a science teacher and a cfisd graduate and the daughter of yet another district science teacher it was a night to applaud all that is good with public education in our district we celebrated those who persevered with excellence through covet and zoom amid the currents of academic and social learning losses literally the morning before i was in san diego along with two of my colleagues presenting at the national school board conference with dr macias and dr henry regarding the college academy approach to sci fair although mark and linda did all the heavy lifting i was happy to contribute a trustee's point of view and share observations gleaned from hours of assigned reading thank

068you linda and a very special three-hour student and staff interview stop at cypress lakes high school where it all began i give my coveted tip of the hat to all who participate in the success of this program the scifir approach is to take programs initiated by other districts and modify them to fit the scifire business model to create effective and efficient outcomes the college academy now has over 2500 students enrolled spread across each of our comprehensive high schools all seeking to earn a high school diploma and an associate science college degree while maintaining the ability to participate in co or extracurricular activities of their own choosing all of this without the need for a stand-alone building or segregation of staff and students sidestepping some of the deleterious effects of a charterer magnet program it is

069also jrotc recognition time of the year and so i was in dallas and then made several stops at the berry center in this regard despite uniform shortages from supply chain issues and covet hampering drill practice the cypress ridge cadets led passenger review it was both sharp and well attended i attended military banquets for psy springs i parked bridgeland scifir and sai ridge this program as my colleague noted was the vision of carolyn spelaine and is an important piece of the puzzle for academic attainment for all students visiting with the students staff and campus leadership is always a special occasion at these events in january and february as part of our review of the board monitoring program the board discussed discipline matters and took the steps of the removal of a major social and emotional learning

070program permitted far greater student discipline referrals while voicing continued support of both our police force force and mental health resources to be at budgeted full strength pre-coveted our alternative learning centers seldom approach half capacity when i would off script when i would turn those i often wondered aloud to myself how can we afford having these facilities when there are so few students well now i'm proud to report and that's a little tongue-in-cheek that both of these facilities are brimming with students eager to redress and return to their home campus one of the jobs of trustees are faced with the evaluation of the superintendent long before the creation of lone star governance by tea or xg by tasby this board created a board monitoring program in conjunction with senior management to help chart a path going

071forth and provide a means of evaluation of the superintendent in fact board members of this district presented at that very first tasby xg to show what could be done most trustees across the state as i learned never participated in the evaluation of a ceo and this is a steep learning curve evaluation cannot be done in a vacuum and only has meaning within a broad context i will share with you my thoughts dr henry has done a superb job in leading this district through the second round of the pandemic granting flexibility to parents not offered by many other districts in our area all the while student attainment dramatically outpaced the state and esc and remained ahead of its cohort comparison group the upgrades for technology and mental health that were planned before the pandemic clearly answered

072a tremendous need while the fiscal conservatism of the district provided flexibility that few other districts possess i stamp his evaluation for the year under review as exemplary i apologize to viewing audience and my colleagues for exceeding my word limit this evening and i promise i will be back on my diet next month but a concluding comment for those of y'all who were able to be at the superintendent fun run it was a grand affair i must admit my daughter who ran a 10k in austin her time for the 10k was only slightly better than my time for the 5k but once again a good time during the past month as we celebrated many of the successes of our district and now mr scanlon thank you president jackson teachers parents students stakeholders and board members so

073thank you for attending tonight and i'm so excited that we had such amazing recognition this evening that's always really fun and so rewarding it's wonderful to see all the the new principles getting recognized and the student achievement which is astounding and then mrs mcgowan being recognized and named that was really fun and so it's wonderful to be able to do all those things and i'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it so i like to always highlight when i've had an opportunity to visit and an honor to visit one of our schools and so recently i was able to visit and was invited to attend watkins middle school and it was interesting and we don't have them here at the moment because prudently they left dr abe lozano and dr felicia hayes

074and the oh there's dr hayes stand up thank you so much great i was looking for you earlier i didn't see you all right so they invited me out and it was a wonderful affair and so i'm going to highlight a few things because i think it's important for the community and the parents and the students to to hear some key things that i observed and so during our tour dr hayes and dr lozano they showed me around some key aspects of how they think about a classroom and so me as someone who is interested in management skills and studies and especially as applies to just helping people to succeed i was really keenly interested so one of their key focuses is the ability to transition a student from elementary school learning style into middle

075school and high school learning style and i thought that was fascinating and very appropriate and so what does that mean as we go and visit elementary schools you see things on the walls there's things on the walls everywhere and it's because we learn based on location we kind of group concepts in a physical space everybody does it that's one of the things one of the methods that we learn by and so as they brought me into a sixth grade classroom dr hayes and dr lozano pointed out that as a learning tool they continue to put key math concepts and this was a math class i was viewing key math concepts at specific positions around the room and they were consistent in the way that they would do that so that the students who have been

076used to learning in an elementary school environment and used to that method of being able to look at certain spaces to gain ideas and help reinforce constructs that they could look at a spot on the wall and use that as a trigger of how something should work and so i thought it was remarkable that they're so aware that they need to help students make that transition from how you learn in elementary school to middle school and they on purpose made steps to make sure that that happened so i thought that was wonderful and i really appreciated that next so we discussed i asked them how do you you know how do you support your teachers and what's the focus that you have and so we agreed that it's really an upside down pyramid that they

077viewed them as a leadership team viewed themselves as someone who's supporting all the teachers and i know that's the common element but it's always great to hear and they show the process that they use to support their teachers i asked what does that look like from a practical standpoint and so they showed me the data that they had on scoring for students in a specific classroom and they help the teachers in the classroom by doing the data analysis for them of where their students were at so that the teachers could come in and review data that had already been set out to figure out is someone meeting level attaining level they need some specific help and it enabled the teachers to have an additional data point on top of what they practically know day in

078and day out with that student it helped give them a data point that they could choose where to focus and what concepts to focus on and so dr hayes that was a wonderful process that you led us through and there was another component that they wanted to mention is that coming out of covid and now this year back from covid most of our teachers especially well all of our teachers it's been hard and that's an understatement and it is uh it's not to be trite and i don't mean to say it lightly it's been really challenging but they also use this method as a way to expressly show a victory when the student moves from one level and they improve to the next that they use that as a celebration point for the teachers so

079that they can celebrate with them and help the teacher understand that they've had success and sometimes the teacher finds out in the meeting that oh a student is now attaining where they were not before what a wonderful accomplishment to be celebrated in front of your leadership so that was awesome something that i thought was profoundly important is that when i visited our last class it was a seventh grade science class and so there was a young man who was extremely eager to answer a question and i asked you know i made a comment i said man that student is just he's so bold and courageous and dr lozano said yeah you should have seen his older brother he knew the family and he was at a school previous working at i believe psy park if

080i'm not mistaken and he knew the older brother of that student and had the opportunity to reach out to the parents one day and while on the phone he and his dad recognized wait a minute we know each other i've spoken to you about your other boy and so we saw this generational courage to be bold and defined learning and to have courage in learning and so on that point dr hayes and dr lozano brought forth a key idea that they have in the way they approach education in that and i want to get this correct they stated that we need to instill a belief in our students that they can learn right now that that foundational skill was so important and i can think in my own life growing up there's many things that

081i failed at and we're not going to go down a list but many times i had to work to try to overcome and it was a courage that i always had but i never really figured out where i got it from that i could figure something out if i didn't understand it and so they on purpose are working to instill that courage that their students can understand they can learn and they can be aggressive in pursuing their own improvement and i saw evidence of an in class and it was wonderful to see so dr hayes and dr lozano and the lozano family it was a remarkable culture that you were building at watkins middle school and i'm so appreciative of it and you're so much of what is going wonderful with our district and i

082wanted to take a moment and highlight it for everybody and put it out there for your teacher family thank you [Applause] and so in closing um as we're coming to the end of the year and for our teachers know that we're listening and that we're behind you and that we will find creative ways to continue to support you for our parent community we're looking for better ways to engage and we're going to continue those conversations and take action on them and so we look forward to ending this year very strongly and then getting ready for next year thank you [Applause] miss blackshear yes thank you uh good evening everyone it it was i think when we can see the success of our students and and recognize them and honor that success it's always a great

083evening and indeed it was a great evening to honor a great educator as sue mccowan with naming a school after her it is i've known sue for many years and it is a well-deserved honor first i'd like to congratulate my colleague julie heinemann on being elected to the tasby board of directors congratulations julie and then uh i believe uh tom or mr jackson uh talked about salute to the stars which was held last week unfortunately because of my continuing recovery from covid i think this was in the history of a salute only the first one i have missed and it broke my heart to do that but it was just way too big a gathering for me to take that chance but i do want to let all of our salute teachers know how much

084i honor you how much i respect you and the job you do every day in the classroom making a difference in the lives of our students we cannot say uh give enough gratitude and thanks to our teachers and their support staff and administration it's a it's a team effort and i believe we do it well in scifire i also want to congratulate another successful superintendent's fun run i've been around so long that i remember when we first started that and i have to share with you i've been on the board of the cypher educational foundation probably for about 30 years now but that was the brainstorm of dr henry when he came to this district how could we raise more money for scholarships for our students and i remember the first one i think we

085were hoping for 10 000 and i don't remember the amount 33 and just look where we have grown and gone i mean gosh 125 000 how many scholarships that will endow and what a difference that will make in the life of graduating graduating students from scifir isd and i'm i'm excited as we go into this final run of the school year there's a lot of things exciting going on tomorrow night we'll recognize our national merit scholarship rep students and then uh of course there's many end of year events coming up and then finally graduation i did since i'm not able yet i don't have the strength to walk the halls of the schools i am doing uh campus visits by phone so since the last meeting i visited with liz miller at swinky elementary and

086if you've never had the opportunity to meet liz she is a phenomenal principal and has a great staff i had two grandchildren who attended swinky and went all the way through there and then i also visited with liz woods at salyard's middle school and liz is also a just a phenomenal educator and principal in our district so i'm looking forward to the day i'm a long hauler i'm eight and a half months into my recovery it's not going as fast as i want if you know me you know that i'm used to being in the middle of everything and participating and it has truly uh been a trial of patience but hopefully uh in another 12 months or less i'm praying i will be back doing all the things i love visiting schools and being

087able to participate in more events but uh thank you as uh parents and stakeholders uh for your participation in our meetings and again a big thank you to our to all of our educators and our school district staff for what they do every day don't ever doubt but you make a huge difference thank you miss heinerman thank you okay i'm going to admit something that may seem weird but here it goes i actually go back and watch the board meetings on the board on the district website does anyone else do that oh yeah okay i'm not alone excellent i find that i may learn something that i've missed or i hear something differently than i did the first time after reviewing the work session on thursday night i want to extend extra thanks and gratitude

088to our chief financial officer karen smith and her incredible team for the hard work they have put into ensuring we have access to federal funds sent to texas for the benefit and needs of our students and teachers this has taken countless hours and strong financial acumen while also maintaining the high standards of transparency and accountability expected by the federal government our state government the tea this board and our community our district has repeatedly received the highest rating by the state from the state for financial responsibility integrity and cost effectiveness many folks may not realize that fact or not be aware of that fact and maybe sometimes we take it for granted so that's why i want to recognize you this evening um highlights since the march board meeting i did attend the first board of

089directors meeting for the texas association of school boards tasby is a non-profit governed by locally elected community members business people parents retired folks from across the state this organization provides relevant cost-effective services to over one thousand school districts in texas so that we can offer exceptional educational opportunities to the five and a half million students in texas i'm honored to serve on the statewide board and to represent the cypher isd community i also have visited several times the carlton center which is a specialized program serving students with disabilities including life skills classes and specialized vocational programs i have been honored to work with them in their courtyard garden and to support their craft show i've a couple of times i've had coffee with a cfisd cop at a local coffee shop these are outreach events

090that our police department have been has been holding in addition to coffee with cops they're also hosting junior police academy summer camps this summer and the explorers program which is an after-school career education program for high school students who are interested in careers in law enforcement they're also having the open house on monday april 18th i appreciate that our cfisd police department is working so hard to build those positive relationships with our community i snuck in and visited for a little while the wilburn elementary school spring festival which is so much fun so many families having fun and i also attended the salute to the stars teacher of the year awards the videos that are shared at that event are so moving when we hear our teachers sharing their their why why they work with

091kids what motivates them every day it's so empowering and inspiring and encouraging they truly do make a difference every day as ms blackshire said lastly the superintendent's fun run that was held this saturday perfect weather it was a huge success it was such a joy to see literally hundreds of families and thousands of people having fun together outside and enjoying that time together i especially love seeing all the student volunteers on the 5k and 1k courses they were wearing their athletic jerseys and their school colors and they were cheering for everybody and you could see the little kids looking up to those awesome big kids on the run in case you missed it there was a very special group of student volunteers who were working the 5k water station as runners went by they cheered

092do it for dr henry and let me tell you when dr henry showed up at the water station in person it was like a celebrity had arrived it's nice to see how appreciated and admired our superintendent is by students not just the band kids but the athletic kids too i love seeing the different campus teams taking photos together and the student groups performing it was fun it's so fun when kids see their teachers outside of school it's just like it's another celebrity sighting i enjoyed visiting with so many parents and families and employees everyone was having a great time and it just felt normal it felt like old times when it comes to citizens participation the fun run and the family festival is the best kind thank you [Applause] i would have to have an

093addendum of my own principal april wright will never forgive me if i do not mention that i was at the 40th anniversary celebration of lowry elementary where my kids attended school i moved into copperfield before lowry was actually built and longing bell stopped at the bridge i did wear their t-shirt that night to one of the military banquets underneath my my formal attire we will now proceed with citizens participation as a reminder of our new process if you have registered to speak this evening you will 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 reserve seats on the front row closest to the podium on my right agenda item 6a patrons who have

094dually registered per policy bed local may address the board regarding matters of concern interest to the district other than the character of any student staff or board member the board may not act upon any matter that is not listed under the action item portion of the agenda to participate registration is between 5 30 and 5 50 pm on the day of the board meeting at the entrance to the cfisd boardroom i have the list in front of me our first speaker this evening is jen williams good evening hi i'm jenn williams secretary secretary of the thai fair civic alliance i wanted to take a minute to thank the district the district and the amazing sci ferris librarians for following the protocol for all books of concern throughout the district there is also a protocol in

095place for online access i've heard that some parents and board members have concerns about books in our libraries my questions for those concerned is this do you know what your kids have constant access to on their phones friends phones um that's where my concern lies like video games computers parents can help by teaching their kids digital citizenship um also by modeling that having them charge their devices in their parents rooms overnight so they have a shot at a good night's sleep and by monitoring their social media good things are happening in our thigh fair isd libraries children come to the library to grow a love of reading and a love of learning here's just a few things happening in our libraries in the district at copeland elementary children have the opportunity to read to the

096library dog trixie at truett middle school the students used social media to cast their votes for their favorite book and they are currently showing off their student poetry board in the library walker elementary finished up their successful books fair to get more books into the hands of kids i'll end with this quote by tom engelberger a school library is like the bat cave it's a safe fortress in a chaotic world a source of knowledge and the lair of a superhero thank you [Applause] our next speaker is monica dean recently my child was asked to take a survey from pew research in one of her classes without my consent it was titled political topology quiz are you a faith and flag conservative progressive left or somewhere in between some of the 16 questions asked were on

097a scale of zero to 100 how do you feel toward democrats how do you feel toward republicans what's your opinion of the us best or worst country how much do white people benefit from advantages in society that black people do not have do you think greater social acceptance of people who are transgender is very good for society are very bad according to cf legal and education code 26.006 no student shall be required as part of any program funded by the doe to submit a survey analysis or evaluation that reveals protected information and that first right listed under the ppra is political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the parent or the student's parent parents have a right to inspect a survey by a third party before it's administered by a school likewise ferpa bars

098the disclosure of personal data and students records to third parties without parental consent however as of late ferpa has been weakened allowing school districts to share data with others like vendors consultants administrative contractors in which they give them the title school official or contractor and they use another loophole allowing for non-consensual disclosures of personal information labeling them studies is the district using any of these loopholes is the district paying for any of these so-called school officials to conduct surveys is the district getting paid in exchange for my students data i would like to know who ultimately received my child's answers without my consent the data mining of our students is very dangerous will the district send an opt-out form to all parents to end this dangerous exploitation of my of our children side note for

0997th grade parents the email for comprehensive sex ed course should have the opt-in choice only and hb 1525 says those opting those not opting in will not be required to take a test [Applause] our next speaker is tana lamb i thank y'all for having me here to speak i'm going to speak about the supreme court specifically how it has ruled numerous times that our kids have first member amendment wise west virginia state board of education versus barnett 1943 the supreme court struck down compulsory flag salutes in schools as a violation of the first amendment tinker versus des moines 1969 supreme court struck down mary beth tinker's suspension for refusing to remove her black armband protesting the vietnam war stating in their opinion it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional

100rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate board of education versus pico 1982 the supreme court rejected efforts by a town school board in new york state to strip objectionable books from public school libraries justice brennan at the time nominated by republican president eisenhower wrote the majority opinion stating local school boards have broad discussion in the management of school affairs but such discretion must be exercised in a manner that comports with the transcendent imperatives of the first amendment students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate and such rights may be directly and sharply implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of the school library our precedents have focused on not only the role of the first amendment in fostering individual self-expression

101but also on its role in affording the public access to discussion debate in the dissemination of information and ideas while petitioners might rightfully claim absolute discretion in matters of curriculum by reliance upon their duty to inculcate community values in schools petitioners reliance upon that duty is misplaced where they attempt to explain extend their claim of absolute discretion beyond the compulsory environment of the classroom into the school library in the regime of voluntary inquiry that holds sway there and the definition of voluntary inquiry is meaningful libraries are defined by this ruling as places of voluntary inquiry meaning it's not really part of the curriculum or compulsory thank you [Applause] our next speaker is julie rex all i can say to that is wow parental rights and thank you natalie blasting i'm not going to say your

102last name right but thank you for uh bringing attention to the time issue and it creates a level playing field and my thought is as long whoever takes the longest up here is how long it should be for us the human sexuality class is part of science must be totally removed from the curriculum in every grade this class way oversteps the bounds of academics is not necessary how is it justified in the goal of producing students to become contributing members of society as adults what possible career does it aid in them in having a job at disney you don't want it said out loud that you're teaching seventh graders they were talking about books and library i'm talking about what's in the class you're teaching seventh graders about oral anal vaginal outer core sex and

103other perversion along with pornographic material found in libraries because you don't want to say it out loud because it's convicting shameful and wrong the board is responsible to parents students and teachers accountable for overall policy direction and curriculum and the deterioration of academics should have never been allowed the board is responsible for choosing a superintendent that adheres to the vision of academic excellence [Applause] our next speaker is ryan lamb [Music] okay hey y'all how's everyone doing today what's crackalackin so i'm a student at bridgeton high school and i will be speaking on my experience as a gay person wow okay so just so you know being gay you kind of have to learn how to roll with the punches at school i mean it's kind of like a fight for survival both figuratively and literally

104especially in the very iffy bathroom life sometimes you walk in the bathroom you might get smacked you might get pushed yelled at one time someone poured some thing over stop i pray to the skylords that it was like a water bottle and not like poop water because that would be really nasty but anywho i want to mostly speak on the fact that there seems to be a large push against like teaching lgbtq plus things or even just experiencing it at school let's be real here kids are gay kids are transgender kids are like anything other than straight and the issue with not allowing them to experience fluidly is that they're going to feel ostracized when it's constantly pushed against them like let's be real here teachers can talk about what church they go to their

105husband and wives if they're straight if they're gay uh they're gonna get attacked on facebook but um it's happened like several times already and like what does that teach kids that we we can't really be gay at school we can't be gay in real life i mean i've gotten yelled at by old people at cvs that was fun not really i got yelled at by truck people driving by also not fun but the main issue is that this it isn't teaching positivity to people gay people should gay people transgender people should feel safe at schools and they're not feeling safe we don't really have literature for ourselves we don't have history actually no they did teach the stonewall riots on one slide in history class which is like crazy to me that they would even

106remotely teach that because it's never been mentioned to us ever they keep it out of the curriculum as much as humanly possible but anywho i want to say you don't really know what it's like to be part of the lgbt club blizzard so please spread positivity thank you [Applause] our next speaker is stacy demar hello it's me again uh similar to last month i'm speaking during citizen participation to advocate for a diversity equity and inclusion committee in our district this concept is something that was recommended in the equity audit report and will not only benefit the community but will be of great assistance to the district as well please consider forming a committee with a focus on dei as soon as possible so that our district can get to the important work it needs to

107be doing during the next school year additionally i would like to add that the lack of folks from marginalized groups speaking at these board meetings to advocate for equity in our district is not indicative of their lack of interest or desire to do so rather for months these board meetings have been an extremely hostile environment especially for our black community members do not assume silence equals contentedness please let me know if i can assist in any way thank you our next speaker is jill milkovich good evening ladies and gentlemen i was here in january and spoke about off-campus pe and was asked to come back to give you a little bit more information i provided a handout when i came in hopefully you receive that and it outlines off campus pe in more detail because

108i understand that that's not something that everybody knows about but dea has created an off-campus pe program and there are two types there's category one and category one provides a student with the opportunity to participate in an olympic caliber sport 15 hours a week and they miss one class period a day and there's also category two which offers a similar opportunity with a student participating five hours a week but they do not miss any class periods either option would satisfy the current high school pe requirements for sci fare currently scifir does not offer off campus pe category two although our neighboring districts offer both category one and category two in march 2021 i contacted the district to better understand why we did not offer off-campus pe category 2 and i was told that it is

109not closely aligned with the training time requirements for end-season uil sports it seems reasonable to assume that since the state of texas purposely created an off-campus pe program that it is not to be compared to uil these are separate programs developed for specific purposes to serve all students within the state and make opportunities available to all thank you ladies and gentlemen [Applause] our next speaker is norman woodward thank you dr henry i became involved in the mentoring program about three years ago through the efforts of uh mrs aragon who happened to just move in thank you and uh i asked her who she was where she was from she said she grew up in the middle midwest with a school across the street now i said moving into our retirement community which is right across

110the street from aragon and said you haven't come very far in this world have you but it's in a few uh weeks she was challenging us to get into a mentoring program i joined several others did but i'm the only one that's still doing it out of our facility and this is my third year i have not had a problem other than learning what goes on in the classrooms but this year it's not just at aragon i've conducted a random survey around the area each of you have a packet or will get one okay and uh i find the about a 60 40 maybe a 70 30 uh accuracy or participation of schools flying their flag the outside flag every day every school day let me put it that way uh i have seen today

111there's a little note i put on you that at 1 30 this afternoon when there's been no inclement weather that the flag is still not flying and that's despite the two boy scouts said that they will be out there every morning to put it up i don't know what's going on i'm hoping that this the you will address this issue because all schools were built with tax money all schools have flag poles out in front that paid with tax money all schools have flags that were bought with tax money and this place should get the proper respect for our national flag which is part of citizenship 101. [Applause] well i have a second opportunity and i don't think i'll be any more successful the second go-around i i probably need a little coaching um i

112see india motto no okay try it i say in demayo okay wait wait your time hasn't started yet i say i shake i i say into into mayo very good thank you wait wait wait i say in demayo yes better okay don't feel too bad everybody messes up a lot um so i'm back up speaking again and since julie heinemann was shaking her head during my testimony about her being an early founding member of the scifir civic alliance i want to share my evidence brian henry who ran for the democratic texas congress position in 2020 and lost is also a father who comes here speaking out of the meetings tries to get people to join sci-fi civic alliance he welcomed julie i want to personally welcome c cipher isd trustee julia heinemann to the cypher

113civic alliance okay this was on november 9th 2021 a few days after the election i also want to share tana lamb's post stating that she had got the librarian to put flamer back into bridgeland high school we had the book banning crowd take to take their pitchforks to the book flamer the schools have pulled it for review but i have spoken to our wonderful high school librarian and was put back on our shelves i want to remind everyone tana lam assaulted me at a board meeting right outside these doors in january i testified to it last time and my letter said thank you for participating i asked the board to take action and to show people that you cannot be a bully and get away with it but that is not what happened and if

114you guys uh want to look it up her case number is two two four one zero zero zero three zero three eight eight this actually happened and i filed it with the police officer about five feet from these doors over here so it really happened you have a community member who is in a leadership position who was recognized on thursday's work session and i kept asking why you keep recognizing and not recognizing the assault i want something to be done about this and i don't want her in charge of what the librarian's putting in the library she is assaulting people at board meetings thank you [Applause] our next speaker is mark goldbee very good thank you members and i appreciate the response to my inquiry from the last meeting and so i do appreciate that

115feedback as the scifire board of trustees chooses to defer to its general counsel marnie sims in some of the conduct of these meetings it is only fitting that the board be made aware that an ethics complaint has been filed against ms sims with the state bar of texas while the scifire board has delegated this role to ms sims she has conducted herself in a manner to intimidate speakers she has used this authority from the board to bully presenters in the hallways outside the purview of the scifire board the rules she invokes she then enforces in a capricious manner depending on whether she favors the point of view being presented or in some cases it almost appears if she has a personal favoritism for the presenter she has admitted lack of knowledge in certain aspects of

116legally conducting these meetings defined by the board as in the public not of the public this conduct while may be acceptable or even encouraged by the board does not need to be tolerated by the parents advocating for their children this behavior seems quite outside the ethical conduct for a texas lawyer hired by a public institution and whose salary is supported by the taxpayers of the district thank you [Applause] reports portion of the agenda was presented at the board work session on thursday april 7 2022 so we will proceed now with the consensus action items portion of the agenda eight action items consensus 8a the board will consider approving the minutes of the march 10 2022 regular board meeting the following non-consensus action items were moved to the consent agenda during the board work session on

117thursday april 9-d the board will consider approving the restatement of the interlocal participation agreement ipa with texas association of school boards tasb risk management fund to enable participation in one or more of the funds available programs and authorize the superintendent or designee to execute all necessary documents related to the tasby risk management fund 9e the board will consider approving the superintendent's contract recommendations the issue probationary term and annual contracts for the 2022-20 school year for teachers administrators and paraprofessionals 9-f the board will consider approving an inter-local agreement between harris county and cyprus fairbanks isd for kobe 19 rapid antigen test 9g the board will con consider approving on first rating additions revisions or deletions district policies 9g1 cfd local accounting activity funds management revised 9g2 cqb local technology resources cyber security revised 9g3 fde local

118admissions school safety transfers revise 9-h the board will consider approving on second reading additions revisions or deletions to district policies these are as follows 981 ch local purchasing an acquisition revise 982 che local purchasing an acquisition vendor disclosures and contracts delete 983 efd local instructional resources field trips delete 984 ehb local curriculum design special programs ad 985 ehbaa local special education identification evaluation eligibility ad 986 fmf local student activities contests and competitions delete 9i the board will consider approving a memorandum of understanding for one of the districts university's partners abilene christian university 9j the board will consider approving construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractor and authorized the superintendent or designated to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts as follows 9j1 2022 ben bradley police department and telge

119elc portable relocation infrastructure 9k the board will consider awarding business contracts and or authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item these are as follows 9k1 athletic equipment and supplies 9k 2 hazardous waste disposal 9k 3 instructional materials textbooks ebooks workbooks and teacher materials 9k for printing services 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 would like to make a statement i would like to in regards to 9k 3 correct a false statement made during public comments using my name so we're not open for discussion so emotional emotion has been made to accept the items as amended or as presented

120we now need a second all second motion has been made and seconded uh discussion may now be entertained on the floor miss heinemann thank you i do would like to correct a false statement made during public comments using my name while there is a board policy oh this is in regards to 9k 3 instructional materials textbooks ebooks workbooks and teacher materials while there is a board policy and a district process for reviewing library books i have not been a part of the review process for any library book because it is not part of my role of governance regarding a facebook group i am a follower i follow several different community groups across our community just to stay in touch and to see what's going on in our community i am not involved in the management

121of that particular group that was mentioned i am not a founder and i'm unaware of the post that was referenced tonight is there other discussion to the right other discussion to the left hearing no other discussion i will now call for a vote all those in favor of the consensus agenda as presented are amended please raise your right hand motion passes the following non-consensus action items remained on non-consensus 9a the board will consider the adoption of an order authorizing the issuance of the cyprus fairbanks independent school district unlimited tax school building and refunding bonds which may be issued in one or more series living attacks and providing for the for the security and payment thereof providing for the award of the sale thereof in accordance with specified parameters and enacting other provisions relating thereto may

122i have a motion to approve this non-consensus item as recommended or amended president jackson i make a motion to approve this non-consensus action item motion has been made is there a second motion has been made and seconded are there any questions hearing none we will now take a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion passes 9b the board will consider the adoption of orders authorizing the conversion of the cyprus fairbanks independent school district variable rate unlimited tax school building bond series 2014 b1 2015 b3 and 2017 a2 to a new rate period authorizing the preparation of a remarketing memorandum and enacting other provisions relating thereto may i have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended so moved motion has been made is there a second motion

123has been made and seconded are there any questions hearing none we will now take a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries the board will consider modification of attendance boundaries for andre elementary school for the 2022-2023 school year may i have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended so moved motion has been made do i hear a second second motion has been made and seconded are there any questions or is there a discussion hearing none i will now call for a vote on the the motion all in favor please signify by raising your right hand motion carries 9-l the board will consider approving the extension of the existing lease agreement between cyprus fairbanks isd and miller oil oil and gas this item was discussed in

124closed session pursuant to section 551.072 at the board work session on thursday april 7 2022 may i have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended so moved motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded are there any questions hearing no questions we will now take a vote all in favor please signify by raising your right hand the motion carries and now dr henry will provide information regarding district events and items of community interest thank you mr president trustees just very quickly we've talked quite a bit about it about the fun run on saturday it was a great day but i'd like to give kudos to dawn tryon dawn was the chairperson of our event she just did a great job of organizing our committee

125and making it happen and then i think we have a brief recap video from the event look for the really athletic guy it's me [Music] so [Music] well i mean the people out here it's great and all the activities there are i love this community everybody came out today they were just excited a beautiful day a fun event a great cause i got a pb 23 18. i enjoy track and doing other sports so i decided to work the past two years has been a paramount example of how we can support each other every single day in our homes in our community in our schools in our place of work and this is an event like this where we underwrite it we want to be front and center to do that 125 we set a

126record this year we're going to clear over 125 dollars that will go directly to fund a scholarship with the sci-fi educational foundation under the name of the superintendent's fund run so everybody that was out here today they are part of funding scholarships for deserving students here in cypher isd [Music] not so athletic as i saw that video the 18th annual cfisd air force junior rotc pass and review ceremony returned on march 26 at cypher fcu stadium the pass in review is a military tradition designed to display the readiness of troops and their units to a newly assigned commander more than 1 000 cadets representing our 12 high schools and 9 jrotc units participated in cypress ridge high school unit texas 20028 was the host unit and i can say you know when we talk about

127all the great character traits that we want our young people to graduate with they learn those in athletics they learn them in fine arts but they also learn them in programs like ffa and rotc so i'm certainly glad we have that program available the cfisd career fair is scheduled for april 28th from 4 30 to 6 30 p.m at the berry center an opportunity for job seekers to meet and greet campus and department leaders in one convenient location please watch this brief video featuring a testimonial from a current teacher who once visited the career fair when i went to go visit the career fair there were a lot of principals administrators as well as teachers who are new to the field just like how i was if you are looking for a job and you're

128looking for employment here in cypress fairbanks isd the career fair is a great opportunity they were guiding me into different directions to where they needed future teachers so it really opens the door into different career paths that anybody who is seeking a career can come and get information it's going to be a fun night april 28th from 4 30 to 6 30 be sure to bring plenty of resumes it's been so rewarding being a teacher here at cfisd [Music] luckily lucky for us this board has always been very supportive of our employees here and we're still a destination district so we'll have several hundred people out there looking for careers and if you're looking for a teaching career certainly we would invite you but there'll also be opportunities in nearly every skill or field that

129you can imagine so come out and be part of our career fair the cfisd police department is hosting an open house for the public on april 18th from 9 to 11 a.m at the department headquarters on taylge road celebrating 10 years of the department's existence the cfpd is also accepting applications for the junior police academy which returns this summer with two sessions open to students age nine through 11 who are interested in learning more about law local law enforcement and go to our website to learn more and i will say this that we in the past we've only had one session because there's such interest in such demand we've added a second session so uh con congratulations uh to chief mendez and his team for putting together such a great opportunity for our young people

130a reminder that friday april 15th will be a student and staff holiday and that monday april 18th will be a teacher work day and student holiday enjoy the long weekend and we look forward to seeing you back safely on april 19th thank you mr president agenda item 11a duties of a public official under the discussion portion of the agenda was discussed in closed session during the board work session on thursday april 7 2022 i would like to thank everyone for being here tonight and i would like to thank our viewing audience at home we are now adjourned [Music] you