Formal Board Meeting 12/13/21

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] the cypress fairbanks independent school district board of trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on monday december 13 2021 in the boardroom of the cypress fairbanks independent school district instructional support center located at 10 30 300 jones road houston texas at 6 pm i want to welcome the members of our audience in our television viewers to this meeting of the board of trustees as the cypress fairbanks board of trustees we are here to set goals listen to reports from the superintendent 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

002this is a public meeting of the board of trustees not a meeting of the public prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice the meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed during the course of this meeting the board may determine that a closed meeting is necessary in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071 through 551.084 of 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

003the proceedings i respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are turned off or in silent mode which i am going to do now and i have thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and for your interest in the cypress fairbanks independent school district i would like to take this opportunity to recognize our community leadership committee members who are in attendance this evening and when i call your name if you would please stand nancy frankel hannah lamb stacy anderson ryan irving the indication for tonight's board meeting will be given by dr evelyn ogletree executive pastor of first metropolitan church affectionately known as lady o lady owes joy in life is spent speaking to all issues concerning today's women she has a dynamic ministry

004to women of all ages and stages each year she leads the women at the feet of jesus conference and has been the keynote speaker for conferences for women throughout the united states and abroad in kenya africa and brazil lady o is a former teacher in hisd klein isd and cypress fairbanks isd we thank you dr ogletree for being here tonight before the invitation i would like to introduce the cypress ridge high school af jrotc cadets who will be presenting the colors this evening cadet colonel donahoe 12th grade cadet major core commander cadet major genevieve thomas 12th grade cadet staff sergeant alessa garcia 10th grade and cadet staff sergeant kyle kaiser 10th grade these cadets present the colors to you under the direction of hyder khan lieutenant colonel united states air force retired at this point

005i would ask for you to please stand for the invocation first and then the pledge of allegiance with the word for word of prayer father god we just thank you now for this day god and we just acknowledge your presence for you are the creator of everything heaven and earth everything that is on there even our creator we humbly acknowledge you at this time and god we ask your presence at this board meeting we ask that you would just bless the superintendent god the president and all the board members and all the teachers and people that we have given authority to to take care of our children and god we ask that you would just give them wisdom give them god the knowledge and the boldness to be loving god and to be able to

006train them up in the way that you have called them to to go that is your word god and we ask that you would just lead us and guide us god that's we may do a great job with your children god and we just thank you for the privilege of being able to be in the scythe fair school district and to be in positions to be able to care for your children bless everybody in this district god bless all the people that are here tonight god and let them look to you for direction and wisdom to be able to carry on this board meeting in a way that would be pleasing in your sight and that this district will always be an opportunity for all god we thank you for it and we ask your

007blessings in the name of jesus we pray amen arms of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign ready cut post forward hard please be seated board member debbie blackshear will read the district's vision and mission statement for the benefit of the audience our vision at cypher isd is formed from the acronym lead to learn empower achieve dream lead our mission is to maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences preparing students to be 21st century global leaders the oath of office and the reorganization of the board was presented at the board work session on thursday december 9 2021. we will now proceed with the recognitions portion of the agenda dr henry will make remarks and

008announcements including the honors and achievements earned by staff and students in recent weeks dr henry thank you mr president trustees congratulations to students from woodard elementary school hamilton middle school and cypress woods high school who placed first in the annual superintendent holiday card contest winning designs were selected for more than 238 entries across 85 cfisd campuses in the elementary school category woodard elementary first grade student nicole nguyen won best of show for her watercolor and acrylic paint piece titled winter visitor in the middle school category hamilton middle school eighth grade student kate zao won best of show for her digital art piece titled moonlight magic in the high school category cypress woods high school senior daniel montefar won best of show for his digital art piece titled the magic of show we certainly thank all

009of our students who participated in the contest and congratulations again to our winners the bridgeland high school volleyball team completed a record-setting season in the state tournament falling to eventual state champion san antonio brandeis in the state semifinal round on november 19th in garland this was the lady bear's first trip to the state tournament congratulations ladies and i was there along with many others and certainly just the way they competed and the way they cooperated everything that we want our students to learn in extracurricular activities was on full display and kind of a sad glad thing i'm going to finish with john uh taylor john raise your hand back there y'all turn around y'all look at john john taylor is retiring from cfisd after 26 years and 28 total in education he came to cfisd

010in august of 1996 as the coordinator of media technology john helped build the district's public access channel cftv comcast channel 16 and supported the high school avb avp programs as an industry expert john is a master at tinkering repairing and has one of the most creative minds truly gifted at shooting and editing video he has not missed a single board member meeting in 25 years in his position this is more than 570 board meetings but before i finish it up just i want to say john is truly a good christian man he's someone i've been uh proud to know the last ten and a half years great family man great father great husband and he's been a great colleague john congratulations [Applause] [Music] does that conclude your comments sir yes sir i'm sorry thank you

011sir off script john i will not be at your retirement celebration i will still be mired in class picking up the last of my 10 hours of required continuing education but know that my thoughts are with you as well as my appreciation for all the service you have given to our district much appreciated we will now proceed with the public comments portion of the agenda patrons who have duly registered per policy bed local may address the board 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 and just to remind everybody when our patrons come up to speak

012you do have a time limit involved when the yellow light comes on you have 30 sec 30 seconds to wrap up your comments and when you're out of time there will be a steady beep it would be nice if we could play a music like they do at the oscars but but we aren't there yet all we have is a beep our secretary gilbert's arabia will be in charge of the push button so first is monica dean miss dean [Music] uh before you start my time i just want to make a disclaimer that um i will be spelling out some graphic language uh because i don't use this type of explicit language in my daily vocabulary um and before we get started which agenda item are you speaking on typically you say intensity is what

013um it's for the safety and healthy environment on the campus improvement plan so your your comment would need to be directed regarding the campus improvement plans the specific campus improvement high schools that i think well the campus improvement plans that were reviewed on thursday so it would be about that it says about this because there isn't any explicit explicit language in the campus improvement plans that's why i was seeking clarity not in the plans but what i have found in the campuses that are in the campus improvement plans on the campuses well ma'am then then you would need to be in citizen participation this is about the specific agenda item the campus improvement plan specifically said that it the campus improvement plans that we discussed on thursday for the safety and health i read it

014from tennessee right but under the agenda item and so it would be the items in the campus improvement plan if you have a comment before the board adopts the campus improvement plan so there's something that in the campus employee you don't want me to speak on gennady i'm i'm just making sure that you're signed up in the right spot because if you're speaking on something that's not a campus improvement plan then then you would not be signed up in public comment so if i signed up for this and you're saying i don't you don't even know what i'm going to talk about do i just move to the citizen participation well i am basing it on what you said you said you're going to use language that's explicit that you were reading from the campus

015improvement plan language and that's there's not any explicit language in the campus improvement plan so i thought maybe we're signed up in the wrong spot improvement plan it just talks about on the campuses to provide a safe and healthy environment and what i'm going to talk about three isn't it so you're gonna suggest something to be added to the improvement plan uh but that's that's a that's not the campus improvement plan the do you understand what i'm saying like the campus improvement plan it's an agenda item and so you don't want me to talk about this now i would like to be moved since i signed up and got here on time i would like to be moved to the citizens participation i think citizen participation is full um you can i believe because i

016think they had a drawing but i've not and this is a meeting of this is this is a meeting of the board it's not a meeting of the public and so i'm gonna ask you to please be respectful so what do you do in situations where i've already signed up for something and now but ma'am you would need to sign up for if you're signing up for public comments it needs to be both places you would sign up for citizen participation if you're not speaking on a specific agenda i am tennessee on the safety and healthy environment of our campuses but do you you said you don't even know what's in the campus improvement plan i'm just speaking about the different campuses but that's if you're just speaking about the different campuses that's not the

017campus improvement plan that's can you move me to the citizen participation not this month but i can next and just could month take the language yeah we want to hear it i don't even know what she's going to talk about i just understand it's not about the campus improvement let me talk and you would find out well that's why i started asking you when you said i'm going to use explicit language and that's why i was making sure you were in the right spot i'm it's it's a few words that i don't personally say i was going to spell them out i'm just giving you a disclaimer i guess i may version of it said that and went on with my speech i was being respectful and and i appreciate that and i'm not try

018i'm trying to reciprocate and so that's why i'm seeking clarity on what you're speaking about because the campus improvement plans are targeted objectives and then there's goals under each and so the point of public comment is to share anything you would like the board to consider prior to taking action on that item and so if there's something so that's i'm just trying to help direct you to can you speaking the other part because i would like my chance to speak since i'm here on time and signed up i would like a chance to sign up for citizen participation i signed up for this one if i'd known i was supposed to sign up for both because i might not be able to speak i would have done that and i believe there were more that's

019the reason i'm saying i i saw them doing numbers so that would lead me to believe they were they were full um and i answered someone else's question earlier and it was my understanding that they were full but ma'am if you were speaking on the key i'm trying to direct you to speak on the campus improvement plan i'd like to hear it really bad i want to know what somebody wants to give their spot and citizen participation i guess i should have signed up for that well if the kids are hearing obscene language i'd like to know we should be able to hear it with the kids here so so you're not speaking on the campus improvement plan you wanted to speak about campuses in general and that would not be part of the campus

020improvement plan i'm not i'm not trying to dissuade you from speaking i'm just we have rules about who speaks and when our next speaker is david barker and sir what agenda item are you speaking on 10h and which one is that that's the properties the sale of the sell the property the access properties i'm david barker i'm a precinct chair of 126 which includes a portion of cfisd an elected official i'm here to represent the parents and taxpayers within my precinct i'm addressing agenda item 10h it relates to the cell of 6.2 acres on winford and northwest houston this property is part of a large campus that includes the stadium campbell height middle school food services and transportation for scifir why is a property adjacent to such a large campus considered excess there is a

021likelihood that this property will be needed in the future it should be retained once sold it will be much more expensive to replace even if it were to be sold the board of sci fare has fiduciary responsibility to parents and taxpayers to sell the property for market value this is good quality commercial property hcad values for adjacent properties are between three and five dollars a square foot this is being sold at less than one dollar a square foot why did the board accept this sell on one bid of 250 000 when its market value is in excess of 800 thousand dollars did cypher use a commercial realtor to list this property why does it appear that the appraisal was done after the bid who contracted the appraiser why would the apprai why would the appraiser

022so undervalue the property at 112 000 is the appraiser an uninterested party did the fact that trustee blackshear sits on both the border side fair and also on the board of the buyer have any influence on this decision finally sci fare is not a charity it is not acceptable to de facto gift parents and taxpayer property to another entity the loss of this property for future expansion and services or the sell for less than market value steals valuable resources from our parents and students based on all this information the parents and other taxpayers deserve a full accounting of all real estate transactions for the last 20 years thank you [Applause] the next speaker is dr tara cummings uh hi i'm dr tara cummings i'm a parent and a member of cyphers i'm a parent and

023a member of scifir civic alliance i want to thank dr ashley claiborne for her very helpful presentation on campus improvement plans last week at the work session and also thank the district for their transparency in posting every single campuses proposed improvement plans on the website for the community's review it's so important that each campus have its own individualized improvement plan given this that strengths and needs vary from campus to campus and as mr jackson alluded to during the work session it's crucial that the specific goals and objectives within each plan be both tailored and feasible for each specific campus because a target for a particular academic proficiency set at say 97 on one campus may not be appropriate or achievable for another campus so i was really glad to see that they are specifically tailored

024to each campus it's also imperative for us to develop a thorough and accurate understanding of the relative differences and disparities in the strengths and weaknesses across our campuses without such an understanding improvement plans are doomed to be incomplete and off the mark i believe that the pending equity audit results have the key to such an understanding and to ensuring that our future campus improvement plans are optimized for effectiveness and equity i anticipate that the data will provide important information around why particular campuses have greater needs for improvement than others and i further anticipate that systems level inequities account for some of the disparities that we see across campuses it's my understanding that the results of the equity audit are slated to be shared after the holidays i'm very much looking forward to those results and

025going forward i urge the district to utilize the data to better address our current disparities and gaps to begin to work toward equity and to fully honor and embrace the incredible diversity of our district and community thank you [Applause] we will now proceed with the board comments portion of the agenda i'm going to start to my right scott first off i'd like to revise and extend my remarks from the last time um my wife reminded me that i forgot to uh when my wife my mother-in-law my mom went here to thank them for being teachers in the district and i'm gonna see them during christmas i might be in trouble so um my mom was a teacher of disd for over 40 years and i want to thank her for her service and my mother-in-law

026was a teacher actually here inside fair so thank you for service so i got that done so good i get some turkey for christmas um thank you i want to thank first of the people of scifire for the very great privilege of taking the seat i also want to thank god too as well for all of his praise and thanks as well to my wife i want to thank her as well for all the sacrifice she made during this campaign my three kids my daughter who was very sick during the campaign was in the hospital for almost two months um i'm wonderful friends and family um and the voters in my campaign team my tireless voter volunteers and my sincere uh heartfelt thanks and gratitude for those people along this journey i met so many

027different people i met lee macleod from tomball who was a great mentor of mine who's a trustee there i'd met uh martha dixon uh he's a great trustee over in humble uh i'd met john welch from lamar i've met the gentleman from little elm i met lots of different trustees along this way who've given me some great advice of course i've met here great people here as well but a lot of them have the same thing in common their parents who really have a desire to make a change a difference for the children and they want to serve their community and make a difference and we all saw that across the country if we all saw that kind of the surge we saw across the country and the voters spoke really boldly and loudly like

028never before and that's what we saw in the turnout like we saw here in the board races and they really expect us to hold those commitments to our community i think we can all get around some very common goals which is really the values that we have with inside fair right which those values are transparency back to our community which is around governments and accountability uh respecting family boundaries i think those are very common focusing on academics i think those are pretty things that we can focus on right one thing i heard loud and clear which was uh around curriculum in fact i heard one parent said i'd like to be able to work on math again with my kid which is so difficult nowadays and one thing i heard very loud and clear from

029teachers which was bringing back respect in the classroom for teachers providing with them with the necessary tools so they feel empowered again so they can better connect with teachers with students again you know when i moved here over 20 years ago we were the crown jewel of of the region and we still are don't get me wrong but things have changed so dramatically within this district uh we have to develop we have to evolve because let's be honest it's changed in 20 years quite dramatically we have competition in our own back door in fact we heard of a new private school cropping up on our own back door now and we have to quite frankly we have to evolve as well and the great thing is we have the right administration we have some of

030the best teachers quite frankly in the world right here inside fair i look forward to working with this new board i look forward to working with this great administration we have in place i look forward to working with the taxpayers as well but most importantly i look forward to working with our students for them because they're the most important things i'm going to work for thank you very much mr president [Applause] natalie thank you tom um i want to offer my sincere appreciation to the voters of cfisd for their support and i do pledge to represent your voice your choice and your values on this board first i want to speak to the teachers of cfisd the most important resource that we have in the true heart of our school district teachers like kylie hall

031mary bonovich dr cameron crossin john reed anthony rangel andrew sai at langham creek high school and librarian tony williams at aragon teachers who go out of their way to teach with excellence and build positive relationships with their students teachers like glenn represent the best of our district the amazing teachers in our schools and i pledge to honor our teachers and my decisions and to work to bring joy back to our profession i also want to publicly affirm my commitment to all the students and to unity i've spent a career loving and serving all students from diverse cultures backgrounds faith traditions etc with excellence and i won't stop now i will hold myself and all of cfisd stakeholders to high expectations for each not all but each student in cfisd i do not support the resolution

032of equity which calls our district and by virtue of the staff and students systemically racist i don't support theories that divide us i pledge to fight for equality of opportunity and make sure every student in cfisd is growing and reaching their full potential and i know that we can do that together i also want to make a statement about our curriculum by my definition all material that is district created purchased or provided for free to the teachers of our curriculum i mean of our district is our curriculum and i pledge to make sure all aspects of our curriculum are vetted for our community values honor parents and our nation and do not um teach students ideologies that cause them um to not like each other and that do not match those of their home i

033also want to appreciate our campaign team the many many volunteers who gave up their time and treasure to engage voters we had to work longer and harder to overcome some fundraising from our incumbent pac and many of that money came many of those dollars came from outside of cfisd including thousands of dollars from individual employees of companies who are vendors to this district on contracts that come before this board for votes i hope that we can address campaign finance or board ethics reform ensuring that trustees must abstain from voting on agenda items for from firms who funded their election or re-election campaign through a pac or individual contribution the voice of the community members and parents of cfisd must be elevated in the election process last but clearly not least not least important i want

034to thank god for the opportunity to serve him in our community i pledge before god to uphold his standards and purposes above all politics and pressures god loves the little children and the big ones too and i pledge to protect their hearts and minds in the educational process please hold me accountable to these pledges and find my direct email address and phone number available to be shared with you i hope to serve you very well [Applause] gilbert hello everybody welcome first of all i want to um welcome our new trustees welcome guys we hope to be working with you guys as a good team here and stuff like that so welcome um also uh i was out and about this past month i did see around some of the campuses after encouragement from our superintendent

035that i could go by and see some of the athletic facilities without having to look over bearing so i did and they they look magnificent roy the the the construction going up around the athletic facilities are just outstanding um there's can't wait to envision that first throw if it comes uh on on behalf of the trustees as we did last year and stuff so it looks great also this weekend uh we hosted uh the uh cfisd uh basketball invitational for men's basketball and i took in quite a few games there um you know i got to see uh side park got to see saif all side lake side ridge side fair um i probably left out a couple psy ranch the main thing what i saw throughout the district was representation of our staff and

036our athletic athletic directors throughout the area in support and running a huge tournament not only local and out of city uh state-ranked teams coming in to play i believe i cite fall eagles lost in the finals is that right to state rank mckinney by one and coach flores has a wonderful program over there at side falls they did outstanding job what i also saw was our focusing on our coaches and our um we have a lot of coaches and i was trying to see how many coaches we had per team and they were into every bit that they could get i mean from the days when we used to bounce the ball i mean scifir had two guys that were six nine or six ten uh side lakes had another guy that was six ten

037and i was just like astounded by the athletic ability of the 610 guys being able to dribble and shoot from afar like a guard and it was just really a really good thing to see the community involvement throughout the area coach amen did i say it right theresa coach amen he threw the tournament uh he's the ex-basketball coach from langham creek uh and so uh he he did a great job of hosting the event as did coach cepeda and his arrest of athletic directors throughout the area so i want to commend them on a well-run recognized uh men's basketball tournament and hopefully we can get the ladies involved with the tournament i know we don't have one for say right now for the ladies but hopefully we can get them involved they seem to travel

038and do their business uh traveling and stuff i think it's a time director coach flores was talking about so but hopefully we can get them involved at the same time but seeing the the kids out and about so much different than a year ago so much different and seeing the uh talking with gentlemen and ladies from abroad and of course bragging about our district and everything else uh again um thank you everybody for showing up uh our educators and our students i want to wish them a merry christmas safe travels to all and to you guys as well thank you so let's move to the left lucas thank you so first of all uh again to my wife who's watching i just want to say thank you very much honey her support during before and

039during the campaign was invaluable and for all the days and nights and weekends that she allowed me to come and participate in this effort she supports our board completely she's 100 behind all the activities that we're going to be going through together she's my biggest cheerleader and i'm her biggest cheerleader so i love you honey for all the people that came aside myself scott natalie during our campaign thank you i can't begin to list all the names but we see all the faces and it was truly humbling to have people come alongside the simple vision that we cast to reflect the values of our community and to support the collaborative nature of this board with our parents taxpayers teachers students and we're grateful to have the opportunity to do so i will continue to work

040with our community my objectives right some things that were very important to me i was a teacher my undergrad is in education and throughout my education in the houston area at university of houston and at rice university i clinic as a clinician i taught in our fine arts programs and during that time and as a band director at may creek high school and junior high i worked on managing classrooms i know it's important to our teachers and so one of the reasons it became important to me to run was to help support our board support our teachers and enhance and support the management of the classroom to give our teachers the tools that they need and support deborah and team in enabling them with the tools they need to do the things they want to

041do so i heard it over and over on our campaign trail we have opportunity to improve and i will support that vigorously focus on academics we can all agree on those and we've done such a great job we have students that and as i was a clinician i had students that were on the low end of the social economic curve in in different high schools and students that were on high end and i focused on challenging my students where they were and giving them something that they could feel successful about doing where they were and so you know this notion of equality my focus and that point is to make sure that all of our students have a challenge that's reasonable for where they are and that they have an opportunity to grow they have

042an opportunity opportunity to be inspired and in so doing that they become the better person that they hope to be so i look forward to working with our admin our teachers our staff to be able to make that goal come to life and continue to grow and lastly safety creativity our students need to be focused on our academics and we need to make sure that messages in the classroom encourage empower them without diminishing others if i can say it that way and so i'm committed to that and i look forward to fostering creativity and giving all of our students athletes or student musicians and artists those opportunities to make them some of the best in the nation i know exactly what that means and i look forward to continuing to work with all of our

043fine arts programs and giving them the tools that they need in our wonderful and very rich community that's even outside the school district the ability to have new ideas and new ways of doing things and so working with rice university etc so i'm a collaborative leader and i look forward to finding a way to sit down and building a strong feedback loop between this board our administration our community and our parents and our teachers and we will find ways to improve and together we will work towards those goals and we'll be very transparent with them as we do so i thank you and i look forward to working with this team [Applause] debbie yes well i'm certainly excited to hear the comments tonight from my fellow trustees because it's clear that we all want to

044work towards the same goal and it's a goal that we have been striving for one of the reasons i ran for the school board i guess it was six years ago now is because of the quality education of our district and we all want to ensure that our students receive the same quality education and that our district remains uh the top provider of that education in our area and in our state um it's a great district i've always said i love my school district and my three uh my two boys and my five grandchildren now have all are my boys grew up at cypher high school and and lampkin and arnold and my grandkids are have attended uh sci-fi schools from day one and all are receiving quality education we're not perfect but we are

045always striving for perfection and i would also like to say that if you don't know me you know that my passion is for education and for kids in our community and that is why i ran for the school board it's why i serve as a trustee on the cypher educational foundation and it's why i serve as a trustee of psy hope and i have never nor would never use my position as trustee to influence anything regarding any of those organizations i want to say to john taylor i think he's ducked back in but john congratulations on your retirement also for those who don't know me i was at sci-fi federal credit union for 28 and a half years there he is and the last 18 and a half is serving as president and john thank

046you for your service to our district i mean you know everywhere you go you see john and his camera whether it's at a school activity a function whether it's at a football game a basketball game a salute to our salute our heroes john has been just such a stalwart in this district and provided such a valuable service to our district as we were growing and john it's been a pleasure knowing you and working with you through the years whether it was at the credit union or more lately of the school district but just want you to know how much we love and appreciate everything you've done both for this district and for our students and then finally in closing i want to wish all of our scifir isd family and community a very merry christmas

047i know it's been another interesting start to the school year and i remember last year when we were at this point and just so thankful we had made it through the first semester without having to shut down a school because our safety standards in the school were good and they were working and we did so successfully throughout the school year and just to let our staff know how much we appreciate what you do every day the job has never been as challenging as it has uh since the beginning of the pandemic and you know you everyone has done great whatever the kids needed they have done and natalie there's a whole list of teachers we could we could talk about who have just been real rock stars throughout this pandemic and continue to do so

048it's definitely a profession you have to love for sure and just i want to wish everyone a merry christmas and a safe and healthy and happy new year [Applause] julie thank you first i want to welcome the newly elected trustees to the board i encourage you all to begin your terms with open minds and open hearts as you learn about governance and about our great district while it's a huge responsibility and can be overwhelming sometimes speaking from personal experience it's an honor to serve our diverse community i look forward to working with each of you and together as a team of eight i was a weekly volunteer in my daughter's elementary school for seven years truly one of my favorite places to volunteer was in the library i worked the morning shift so i got

049to be there for the pledges and the moment of silence to say prayers for teachers and students and to celebrate birthdays the library is truly the heart of our schools helping kids find a just right book just right meaning for the reading level and for their interest was a highlight of my week for many kids the library and their teachers classrooms are the sole source of their books in elementary school in middle school my kids loved to read and they read for pleasure they didn't play video games or watch much tv but they read a lot once they were in high school not so much uh they how they spent their time evolved to spend more time more with friends and activities and their phones and and just too busy um than with books but

050when they were assigned books or allowed to select a book from a list of options i always tried to read the book too even if it was after the project was over so that we could talk about it i have been pleased by the books my children have been exposed to and have learned alongside them about characters with very different experiences from ours as well as found similarities in our own life experiences our school libraries are managed by highly educated well-trained professionals who are devoted to supporting the educational process of students while the standard curriculum is driven by the teks as set by the state board of education and there are instructional materials that are specific to those teaks libraries offer other sources of enrichment these books are optional they're to be selected by students

051with guidance from their parents and teachers are all books and libraries just write books for all students no of course not but all students with guidance from their parents and their teachers should have the right to find just right books for themselves when i was in middle school i actually wanted to be a librarian like my kids i loved to read and i spent a lot of time in the school and the local public library in my little town now libraries are often busy places filled with technology and social gatherings i actually get to eat lunch once a week in one of our high school libraries with a student that i mentor many students spend their lunch hours in or lunch break in the library reading talking with friends meeting with mentors and getting extra

052help from support staff i share all this to encourage parents and community members and state legislators who are concerned about the books provided in schools and public libraries to talk directly with librarians and with school leaders and with students learn about the formal process of how books are selected reviewed and if necessary removed by our professional librarians the best way to learn about our libraries is to volunteer in one i've had several school visits over the past month highlights include helping parent volunteers decorate for a fun family night at adam elementary looking at the amazing student art that's on display at cy ranch i got to go to a theater rehearsal at cy ranch i got to observe a literary circle discussion led by students at sci fair high school and it was phenomenal the

053respect and intelligence on display in this high school english class the hour of code at danish elementary school library is phenomenal these kids are coding using bots and robots and it was incredible what they could do at such a young age the learning experiences and resources being offered to the kids at danish are just incredible and i'd love to see that growth taking place i also got to meet a teacher at adam who is celebrating her 40th year teaching at adam elementary school that's incredible i met several new teachers who started as perez and they fell in love with teaching so they've actually gotten their certification and are now full-time teachers i've had two key learnings so far from my school visits one principals are so very proud of their schools and of their teachers

054every principal i talk to beams with pride and brags about their teachers teachers please know your principals think that you are amazing and they love you and they appreciate you the second thing key learning so far has been that this has been a hard semester kids are having a challenging time adapting to being back in person and to being held accountable for their academic requirements and their behavior the academic has had the academic the pandemic has had a weird effect on student behavior and it's taking some time to adjust to being back in a group setting at school as uh principal godbort told me to right before this meeting godbolt told me we just have to love them right we're just gonna have to love them through this as they adjust to getting back in

055school and being together a friend of mine has a student in elementary school who will be going back in person in january for the first time since march of 2020 she has been out of school for almost two years she's excited and happy to go back but it's going to be an adjustment for sure so teachers and parents we will need lots of patience and grace for each other i've also had some amazing interactions recently with community members i got to spend time at a football game with the mom and dad of a 9th grader who has more school spirit than anyone i've ever met i'm inspired by his resiliency and joy for life and for school in spite of significant health challenges when i think of opportunity for all i think of students like

056him who may struggle with physical or learning challenges yet have every right to achieve their educational goals i was invited to the seyfalls high school orchestra winter concert by the parents of a student who's friends with my youngest daughter in middle school the girls went to different high schools so they sort of lost touch but these parents reached out to me and asked me to come see her senior orchestra concert i'm so impressed by the talents of our fine arts students and the quality of their instructors who are often exceptional performers themselves i got to visit with the mom of a fifth grader who needed to interview an elected official for scouts a bonus is that she's also a teacher in the district i enjoyed answering his questions and chatting with him and his mom

057as i always say the future is our future is in good hands um i also cheered for the psy falls basketball team in the finals at the cy hoops invitational this past weekend highlight was talking with one of the players on the team he was part of a group of freshmen that we mentored um a group of high-risk kids that i mentored when he was a freshman and now he is one of the star basketball players on one of the tops basketball teams in the state and i'm so proud to see all that he has accomplished and it's another reminder that those extracurricular activities are so important for kids it gives them a place in school it teaches them accountability it teaches them goal setting it gives them pride and so the extracurricular activities are

058so very important for our kiddos whether it's athletics um or fine arts and also being a mentor to students can be incredibly rewarding for both the student and the mentor it's mentoring a student is a great way to better understand the issues that our students are facing every day finally i just want to say merry christmas and best wishes to all for a new year filled with love friendship good health and peace a few years ago i stopped and visited a church and the pastor of that church suggested that i pray with him and so i did it was not what i wanted for the district but to pray for what was my purpose no voices came to me but i will as i shared with him and i haven't shared with many others that

059an image of a bridge came to my mind and i thought who wants to be a bridge all that happens is people walk on you but perhaps a bridge can serve other purposes as well i made all my normal stops as i typically do one that i would like to highlight is i was invited to a jrotc military banquet to speak which is unusual because they almost never do that what they didn't know is that at their very first one i was invited to speak and i found the words that i used and they were good then and they they were good now i remain a strong supporter of this program it doesn't matter which one i go to it is emblematic of my support for all of them it is a program that looks

060to develop citizens who are leaders who buy their mission statement are committed to serve their community and our country my various conduits in different school districts around the country have been reduced for various reasons however i still hear from teachers in other districts and although we all know that academically our students may have lost anywhere from half a year up to three or four academically i also hear that they have lost anywhere from half a year to three or four in terms of social functioning and so i'm well aware that our teachers and our campus leadership are all stretched by their capacity to love our children i went to another personal item and i really don't do this very much i went to my cousin's memorial service and a young teacher praised her because before

061laurie would present content she made an effort to make a connection with the students and and she taught at a a school that was full of opportunities but her approach was she looked at all of them with love so much so that that high school where i graduated from dedicated one of their halftime performances to her this past fall but it reminded me that our teachers do the exact same thing going above and beyond and i just wanted to say thank you to our teachers in that regard as well after our thursday night meeting i did visit with senior management but also touch base with each of our trustees we will revisit the resolution in the at the first of the year we've never done this before i will be visiting with council to see

062exactly how do we go about it but we will revisit many people have different interpretations of what's written the words are there and the words are in fact specific we will revisit it come the the january time period other than that i want to say welcome to the new trustees a challenge i have for all of us this board twice has been named the outstanding school board in the state of texas it is a worthy goal i think the seven of us are up to the task and we are judged by our peers across the state to be able to reach that goal so so i welcome the our peer review as we strive to that and i wish happy holidays to all of our students our staff our campus leadership and our senior leadership

063as well so i thank you we've taken a little more time than normal with board comments but that's okay i think we all had something important to say and let's now proceed on with the agenda the next part of the agenda is citizen participation patrons who have duly registered per policy bed local may address the board regarding matters of concern or 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 and so the first on my list is stacy de meyer am i free to start okay good evening everyone my name is stacy de meyer and i am a parent in cypher isd i wanted to speak tonight about jewish

064representation or lack of it in our district but first i want to praise and thank my children's music teacher miss pfeffer i hope they told pronounce that name right at keith elementary during hanukkah miss pfeffer included a segment on dreidels and her class for that week this made my children so happy because it's not common for them to see their jewish culture represented outside of our home to those teachers who strive for inclusion in their classrooms thank you for the most part though being jewish in this district comes with certain inconveniences for example because jewish holidays are not a part of our district's calendar my children end up missing schoolwork in order to observe their holidays another example is the inclusion of a christian prayer before every school board meeting a prayer that i'm happy

065to stand for out of respect and i was especially happy to stand for for ladies tonight i'm a reasonable person and i do not expect the district to accommodate the small number of jewish students that it has i completely understand why certain things are the way that they are i do however draw the line at recent anti-jewish events that have taken place in cypher isd i draw the line at the villainizing of the adl a group that was founded by jews to fight anti-semitism after the holocaust i also draw the line at board members running a campaign on christian values and implying that the others are somehow inferior we have seen the mailers and flyers and we are appalled this school district serves the public cypher isd has muslims hindus jews agnostics atheists and many

066others this is not a christian school district i and many others are watching closely to make sure that this district remains a district for all students regardless of their religious background and i am prepared to hold board members accountable if needed thank you for your time and service [Applause] next on my list is joanna smith i didn't expect to be um coming so soon because i know it was about 10 people was supposed to be in front of me and i was prepared to wait actually i am working in cyprus isd i'm a business teacher but i kind of substitute and i'm here today to speak about some things that are happening in the community and i think the board needs to be informed on this because it's going to affect your numbers as well

067we're going to have students who probably will be leaving the school system because what we have is a scam going on and unfortunately we get people who are in positions of power and they take advantage of people who don't have power what we have is attorneys who are coming into neighborhoods i don't know if most of y'all remember the 2008 housing crisis and during the 2008 house crisis a lot of people lost their homes what what happened is the developers left they didn't do the hoas correctly and they just stopped i guess they didn't get money from the bank so they stopped well these attorneys are coming into the neighborhoods now in the community acting as if they were the developers they're foreclosing on these individuals homes if you go to the harris county district

068website and look up bear creek meadows which is part of your school system as well you will see default judgment default judgment foreclosure and i was just in a state of shock so i went to the secretary of state to find out who these attorneys were and i found out that most of these hoas have been revoked that means that they are dissolved and they're coming in setting up fake elections and when they set up a fake election and then they would send notices to the parent that they hadn't been paying their hoa when there was really no hoa ever established so i have contacted the fbi i have contacted our attorney general who said get out into the community let the community know that this is happening i'm going through different schools tomorrow i'll

069be speaking with hidalgo's office as well i am a master of public policy i also have a master's in business management and leadership so i've been i understand compliance very well miss smith please conclude your comments oh i'm sorry oh it's time okay so i just wanted you guys to be aware what's going on [Applause] our next speaker is tamara shanklin and please correct me if i mispronounced your name thank you and my um i'm tamara tamara shanklin um i i graduated from uh at sci-fi high school and i'm currently an employee at cypher high school and i want to thank the board and dr henry and miss martin our wonderful principal and our staff and amazing school and district thank you so i have written a poem that i wanted to present to dr

070henry our phenomenal and renowned superintendent written especially for dr mark henry the past two years have been more formidable and challenging than ever known life has immensely changed in ways that were unforeseen everyone had to meticul matriculate days vastly and commensurable cfisd has been exceedingly blessed through the attainments of our phenomenal and renowned superintendent he's amazing in indeterminately indefinite ways even on his most arduous days he always has a prodigious smile on his face as daily he leads cfisd with utmost grace he's continually extending christ's love and peace to all he knows and meets he transcends all expectations through his perseverance vigilance and humility he fervently embraces every day to him every day is the lanyap way his spirit unceasingly emboldens every child every day his heart is filled with so much love and compassion

071that's discernible to all he brings out the best in all of us through his astounding devotion to all students and staff in all 92 schools he's always enriching our lives through h2o he affords the freedoms for all to thrive he has left a lasting legacy that shall eternally withstand all who supervene cfisd shall forever be grateful for all of his remarks please finish your opinions to our district and communities thank you dr henry [Applause] we we are not ken either our next speaker is kathleen shearer good evening my name is kathleen sharer and i'm a member of the scifir civic alliance i'm here to praise our cfisd teachers and to advocate for continued support from the board our teachers frequently work well beyond their contract time to ensure students have the best possible educational experience

072cfi teachers plan innovative lessons tutor after school create beautiful classroom environments call home to update parents on their child's progress grade assignments meet with colleagues to collaborate and catch up on paperwork for their special populations just to name some of the tasks that they pour their excuse me that they pour their personal time and energy into the job is so demanding that our teachers often must choose between being present for their own children and for or for the children they serve when i stop to think about the commitment and dedication it takes to be a public school teacher i am filled with gratitude but i am also concerned between the challenges of teaching during covid and the hostility and fear-mongering around crt civics and book lists we will continue to experience an ever declining teacher

073morale and worsening shortage our previous board made sure our teachers received raises and coveted leave work days were built into the calendar to give teachers more opportunities to plan and grade and i am so appreciative of those efforts i call upon our new board to continue this work so that our teachers know how much we value them let's treat them with respect let's compensate them fairly let's recognize their efforts let's be careful not to make a tough job an impossible one our teachers working conditions are our children's learning conditions thank you [Applause] our next speaker is melissa rowell i want to welcome the new trustees and congratulate the president mr jackson and thank all those who are serving i'm a proud mom of two cypher graduates i noticed that the board meetings i've been attending

074that the texas flag is brought out but we are not reciting the texas pledge so i would like to see that happen since it is the law and the district should be an example for the skulls the current student handbook page 75 discusses both pledges and the minute of silence compliance with the texas education law section 25.082 subsection b requires both u.s and texas flags to be displayed in the classrooms and for students to recite the pledge of allegiance to the u.s flag and the pledge to the texas flag each day and of course as protocol we stand for the pledges students need a parent note to opt out subsection d says the school district board of trustees shall provide for the observance of one minute of silence at each campus following the reciting of

075the pledges of allegiance during the one minute period each student may as they choose reflect pray meditate or engage in any other silent activity each teacher in charge of students during that period shall ensure that each of those students remain silent and does not act in a manner that is likely to distract another student given all that i am wondering how are the schools or the district keeping teachers accountable of complying with the law do some schools even have the full minute of silence or is that time shortened are there teachers that don't recite or stand for the pledge teachers should be the example do teachers teach or let students talk during the minute of silence or do they require silence we say the pledge is out of respect and being respectful is a character

076trait we definitely want our students to have we also need to be complying with the law thank you [Applause] this will be a challenge and so i will apologize for mispronouncing your name before i even attempt our next speaker is i say india mao and so before before you speak uh please tell me how to properly pronounce your name it's ishay and demayo i say wait wait i can do this i say in demayo yes thank you thank you very much um tonight i want to address the parents did you know you can view your child's schoology from your own device i think all parents should be interested in doing this because of the story i'm about to tell when i told several teachers this story they all had the same reaction their eyes almost

077popped out of their heads our sci-fi isd general counselor's response was that it was a normal teacher behavior please be the judge parents and board too here's a story i spent the last three to four months finding out if a parent can log into the home access center and view their children's schoology i went to weekly appointments at my children's elementary school to view lessons where the principal said i would get the lessons and there would be a computer provided the only thing given to me at these appointments were things outside of schoology while confused i still continue to ask for schoology lessons and even brought in the chief of staff on the emails with the principal because she was so helpful in listening to my concerns still week after week no schoology lessons the

078iit desk told me twice that schoology is quote not a service provided to parents i decided to ask one of the tea or all my kids teachers the course code for schoology to see if that would work some gave me the code most ignored me outright but one did something very strange she deleted her entire schoology deleted it from day one everything was gone her entire system of record for what she taught all eight-year-olds deleted hours after i asked for the course code are these the actions of a transparent teacher is the general counsel's response normal for teachers to respond this way please take a look at your kids schoology i've listed the steps on actinaction.org on the parent empowered parents tab there are six easy steps i can tell you how to do this

079and it only take one hour to find something that a crt political or pro-vaccine just last week a parent found a pro-vaccine video that said the pandemic would only be over if we all got vaxxed and no mention of natural immunity thank you very much [Applause] our next speaker is rebecca wenstenhoff good evening my name is rebecca and i want to thank the board for this opportunity to speak um many people here many people in the audience keep expressing gratitude towards teachers towards board members and i agree with all that one group that's been completely left out is our students as we conclude another academic semester which is now the fourth semester in the third year impacted by the challenges of covid i want to say that i am proud of your hard work and

080your resilience i know that the last couple of years have been difficult trying to learn grow and define your identity as challenging enough as it is but you have done it while complying with public health protocols the uncertainty of natural disasters the anxiety of social media and the threat of gun violence what a world you're growing up in i hope you have a restful joyous and safe holiday and i look forward to the start of another new year and i'm extremely excited to celebrate the class of 2022. thank you our next speaker is desiree estala lowe wow i'm surprised you got my name right most people don't um good evening my name is desiree style low and i'm speaking on two things the first one is off campus pe i request the inclusion of team

081sports my son has been playing hockey since he was five years old and he travels to other cities to compete and would greatly benefit for going to a morning skate out in bel air the skate starts at 5 45 and ends at 7 15. um the second thing is the school start time i recently came across an article that says that adolescents need between eight to ten hours of sleep at night and uh my middle schoolers get up about six o'clock in the morning uh the article also stated that um it's more difficult for adolescents to fall asleep before 11 pm because of all the hormones that are going through their bodies and i would like the board to take into consideration for middle school and high school to possibly start around 8 8 30

082and also with that giving the families an education on the benefits of getting proper sleep and other factors i have i printed out some articles that have some information on that and some um some of the uh the factors that will would be good for for these students um can i leave that with you guys certainly yes okay thank you [Applause] our next speaker is judy dahan [Applause] and i'm also thank you you got it very easily this time i'm not my last name so i appreciate that and good evening everyone i'm here and to the board thank you for allowing me to speak with you over the last several months the board and community has recognized that there are shared goals and opportunities which can be realized for the advancement of cfisd academics as

083mentioned on thursday our hope is that we can collaborate with for the benefit of all of our children regarding policy changes and improvements curriculum material legislative requirements and changes to just name a few the benefits to be realized for the students district school board and employees will be an increase in creativity efficiency involvement job satisfaction student attendance and academic proficiency there are many entities involved in the current educational process as we know the parent is the primary driver of ensuring their children receives the best education it is incumbent upon these entities to acknowledge the importance of the role of the parent and adjust their focus and interactions accordingly when roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined and communicated redundancy and confusion can occur we've seen tasby and nasby overstep their role and responsibilities of recent

084and identify parents as domestic terrorists when speaking out against crt and pornographic curriculum tasby has no jurisdiction and has only an advisory role in this process parents rights were not part of the conversation when tasby signed off on the letter during the national association sent to the doj as a result 26 states have dis distanced themselves to date 12 states have put their child and parents first by actually withdrawing from the nationals i'm sorry the national school board association what is the action plan then to seek out and engage parents in drafting the cfisd goals for 2021 and 22 and placing the parent as primary driver as elected officials your role and responsibility is to the families of cypher and we look forward to the board taking the lead in this endeavor [Applause] our next

085speaker is melissa palomares good job saying my name thank you hi my name is melissa palomares i have lived in cyprus for almost 10 years and have four children from high school to elementary in cypher schools i'm also a very active and wildly busy volunteer for my children's elementary campus my passion being mostly for the science resource center and the library and which i am the volunteer chair for um today when i went to work in the in the elementary library i found out a beloved book had been pulled from the children's hands not the shelves their actual hands they were taken from the children who had checked them out while it's under review from the district this particular book is one of matt krause's 850 books that he compiled a list for claiming they

086might make students feel discomfort guilt anguish and other forms of psychological distress after reading firstly i'd like to say that this particular book drama by reina telgmeier is so loved and so popular we can't even keep it on the shelves for more than a few hours tops it is constantly in rotation there's lines for it all the time second i would like to ask that the district please ask all librarians all librarians in the district principals parents and students what their thoughts are on the matter before making a final decision on whether you're going to keep some of these books off of the shelves um two librarians giving their opinions does not represent the majority of the librarians or the students we need to hear these children and the librarians who provide them with such

087a deep love of books and how they actually felt when reading it i can tell you how my daughter felt after she read that book she requested the entire series as a as a christmas present back in the fourth grade remember that inclusion and representation matters let's move forward not back and censorship is not for thinking thank you there we are we will now proceed with the consensus action items portion of the agenda and before i go to the script for the viewing audience we utilize a consent and non-consent agenda so during our work session we'll go through each of these items and if the board wants to move any of the items to the consent agenda we do so if the board any one board member may move an item off the consent agenda

088to be non-consent so the way this will proceed is i will read everything that has been moved to the consent agenda i will then ask for a motion i'll last for a second after it's been made and seconded the board can discuss the items on the consent agenda after discussion has been held we will then vote on the consent agenda items may be removed by the board from the consent agenda from the decision that was made last thursday so we'll proceed 9a the board will consider approving the minutes of the november 8th 2021 regular board meeting the board will consider approving the use of existing electronic signatures on all checks until the new plates for the board of trustees officers are received and b the board will consider approving the administration's recommendation for the establishment

089of attendance boundaries for elementary school 57 effective for the 2022-2023 school year tennessee the board will consider approving the campus improvement plans for the 2021-2022 school year 10d the board will consider approving the shared service arrangement between cypress fairbanks isd and kph consolidation inc doing business as hca houston healthcare north cyprus 10 e the board will consider approving the attached list of facilities for off-campus physical education category 1 for the 2021-2022 school year 10-f the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and or authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item the next items will be 10f1 through 10f9 i will read them sequentially automotive chemicals parts and supplies central packaging for nutrition services cleaning supplies for nutrition services cte vocational lab supplies equipment and housewares electric service bucket and lift truck service

090fine art supplies and equipment musical instrument repair point of sale system request for proposal small wares for nutrition services 10 g the board will consider approving construction proposals and contracts paid from bond funds to the recommended contractor and authorized the superintendent or designee to execute all necessary documents related to such contracts 11 g1 2020 food production center renovation now if any board member wishes to remove one or more of these items for further discussion please do so at this time so before i ask for a motion does any board member want to remove any of these items for further discussion hearing none i will now entertain a motion to approve the consensus items as recommended or amended so typically i'll go ahead and say this since we have some new board members you would say

091i move to a pr to approve the consensus items as recommended or amended mr president i move to approve the consensus items as recommended or amended may i hear a second second the motion has been made or seconded this is the second time we can have discussion does any board member wish to discuss any of these items the motion has been made in second good hearing none i will call for a vote will all board members who wish to approve the consent agenda do so and signify by raising your right hand the motion passes the following non-consensus action item remained on non-consensus the board will consider approving the sale of the property previously declared a surplus located on winfern road near campbell middle school desai hope and authorized the superintendent or designee to negotiate the

092final terms of the sale and execute all contracts and related documents for closing are there any questions may i have a motion to approve the non-consensus item as recommended or amended mr president i move that the board approved the sale of the surplus property located on winfriend road adjacent to campbell middle school to the highest bidder and authorized the superintendent or designee to negotiate the final terms of the sale and execute all contracts and any related documents for closing do i hear a second second motion has been made made and seconded so we have a motion on the table this is a second opportunity to have any discussion is there discussion hearing none i will now call for a vote i think dr blast and game header i'm sorry policy cdb legal just understanding when

093um when the sale of land is considered for the benefit of the school district as far as budgeting in a year with a balanced budget um so i just raised that question uh about the um what was the what is the benefit to the district of the sale of the land and that's a good question i was actually hoping that that you would ask for one of the uh new trustees would ask because we declared it surplus back sometime so we in mr sprague whose office um helps us manage um all of our properties including any surplus property we have i definitely want him to chime in but i recognize from the community's perspective sometimes it's confusing some of the details we do have a few pieces of property across our district that either when

094we purchased it was you know part of a larger site and we didn't need to develop at all or we thought we might need more for drainage than we did but this site and royal have the details on the specifics has been unused site for quite some time and we do every once in a while consider whether or not we will release and sell surplus property it's always a concern when it's adjacent to in a dista an existing school site and we hang on to them for sometimes like our the wood splain when we bought it from the hagar family they were we didn't need it all but they only wanted to sell it in one big chunk so we bought it all and now we actually are putting another um transportation facility and honestly

09515 years ago when we bought that i don't think we would have thought we would need that but this is the shape and and where it's been really we've never sold it because you never you know right next to a school site um you want to control what is there so we did consider declaring it surplus but we put significant restrictions on it and that's in the back up so the board has the benefit of that but for instance uh community members may not so i appreciate the the question from the patron about um you know what's going to go right next door the cost when do we just like you said dr blasting game when do we sell and so the significant restrictions that we put on it was it can only be for

096recreational um use and so we thought if we've had this other situation next to an elementary school where a municipal utility district came in and built a walking track and a park so we looked at it and we said well it's a benefit to the community in that area it it helps the property be useful but we put significant enough restrictions on it from a deed restriction standpoint that we don't have to worry about you know a mini-mart going up next and you know increasing traffic or something like that and so when you put significant restrictions on a piece of property it does affect the value from a appraisal standpoint an easement for instance across a property can decrease it by as much as 50 in value we put a deed restriction as far as

097we limited the use to recreational only it would immediately it would revert back to us if it were to be sold again um and that if it's not developed within i can't remember within five years then it would revert back to us so that's the reason when we had this outside appraisal company give us a value they said well with those types of restrictions you've removed about 90 percent of the value and so that's why they valued it and what you see in your backup but this the community partner that came in we thought there might be some other you know youth groups or some other community groups that might be interested in developing it maybe a mud but the only group that we heard from was cy hope and as you all know because

098you're familiar with that group they do a significant amount of charitable work for students and families in our district so that's why the administration we recommended it as a win-win but that property actually was declared surplus back during the summer when we looked at well if we could have a community partner develop it and make it something beneficial for the community in that area we get some income for it it doesn't sit vacant but again we were going to wait and see how the bids came back and if it was something that the board wanted to do so that roy i'm going to let you i did a roy sprague i talked without breathing normally it's roy that talks without breathing yeah we also looked at it from a long range facility plan standpoint and

099that's the reason why it was recommended to be declared as surplus because we do not see any future use from the district standpoint for that parcel and when was it declared access it was uh june of this past this year it was june 2021 i believe we came to the board for that and when you said it reverts back to the district uh council that what does that mean we purchase it back at a higher price we would purchase it back at the same amount that we received thank you it's um a legal mumbo jumbo it's called a reversionary interest and so it actually attaches to the to the deed and i have one further question what was the process for selecting the outside appraiser this appraisal firm we've used before as recommended by marnie

100in our past years and they seem to be very well respected in the industry and we selected them to uh perform the appraisal for us just a group that we've um um what is their current name roy it's um integra royalty services okay it used to be jll yeah they do appraisals for um on a lot of um uh public entity property so that's why i was familiar with them within the industry but it's been quite a while since we've had that we haven't used them in a while appraisal so just to be clear very small minority of people could actually buy this piece of property because the restrictions you put on is the deed restrictions if they do buy it they don't develop the way we want to it comes back to us as

101certain time period yeah i would say the the pool of people who would be likely interested in it that developing it for recreational purposes um would be small you're right mr henry that's and that's part of the reason is that you want it because of where it sits in the location for our facilities we wanted to control that right which makes sense and that also makes sense why the appraisal value came in under market value as one of our patrons mentioned thank you for the clarification you're welcome now there's one other uh this is a review and perhaps a council would answer is this a review done in public or is this a photo session well we we may have to remember boy there it is there is a provision i think it's um 551.072

102um where you can discuss the value of real property um and uh the purchase of real property in closed session and so we may have discussed some of the uh that in closed session but any action and then i think we did have some discussion in open session i'm gonna have to go back and refresh my memory mr jackson but the value part would have been enclosed yes sir and i can't really talk about it because it's in a closed session that it's illegal to talk about what's impossible other than it happened and those are fairly robust conversations uh and at some point in time all seven of us the newport will go back to the pre-closed session they are robust and questions that get your mind questions that community members will have we ask

103but i just can't tell you what we asked uh are there further questions or comments hearing none we do have a motion on the table that has been seconded all in favor please signify by raising your right hand the motion is passed mr president i abstain from voting thank you for noting that for the record and for the record miss blackshear does not have a personal conflict so she wouldn't under the local government code wouldn't have to abstain but she wanted to just so that there was transparency she elected to do that i did not advise her to do that and now we will proceed with the superintendent's briefing portion of the agenda last one of 2021 the 12th annual houston methodist psy hoops invitational wrapped up on saturday december 11th at the very center

104the 2014 boys basketball tournament helped raise funds for the cypher educational foundation which provides student scholarships and staff development grants mckinney high school won first place in the three-day tournament as said earlier they were actually ranked number three in the state and beat sai falls by one point in the championship game cfisd schools and facilities will be closed december 20th through the 31st for winter break monday january 3rd will be a professional day and students will return on tuesday january 4th and certainly i wish everyone a safe and restful holiday break during the break as i always do i want to remind everyone celebrating the new year's festivities that fireworks are prohibited on school district property the cfisd police department will patrol the district's premises during the holiday season citizens who observe such violations or

105who observe such violations or request contact cfpd dispatch at 832-237-2373 just a couple of more things that i want to say and just i would say to mr meyer just last year we had a rabbi that presented a prayer at our board meeting and certainly anyone who's interested in praying before our meetings if they'll contact miss sims she'll be glad to get you in the rotation and then secondly i would say um i hope all of you will continue to remember uh the poor folks in mayfield kentucky and other areas who have um just experienced devastating losses not only to their communities but to loss of life and and i would say and i was thinking about it this weekend i said you know we've got lots of little problems here and there but uh

106there was no song you used to sing when i was growing up and it was it was called count your blessings and i think if all of us added up the blessings on the plus chart and the minus chart i think the plus chart would come out higher than the minus chart so we might have little differences but we have so much more to be thankful for and we're uh blessed to be part of this community i'm proud to be working with this board and this school district i'm proud of the team and these wonderful people over here to the left who support our campuses and who run our campuses every day and those that are not required to be here this evening also so i could stretch this out another hour in 20 minutes

107but i won't do that i'll let y'all get home and parents and community members thank you for being here today i appreciate you and god bless you thank you [Applause] wait i'll do it again we're now adjourned thank you [Music] you