Formal Board Meeting 11/08/21

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening the cyprus fairbanks independent school district board of trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on monday november the 8th 2021 in the boardroom of the cypress fairbanks independent school district instructional support center located at 10 300 jones road houston texas at 6 00 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 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

002concerns and issues this 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 session is necessary in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551 zero and 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

003video 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 getting my cell phone out are in silent mode so and i can't get it done in my pocket okay well if it goes off i'll turn it off okay thank you for taking the time to join us this evening for your interest in the cypress fairbanks independence school district i would like to take this opportunity to recognize our community leadership committee members are in attendance this evening if you're not familiar our community leadership committee meets once a month and they learn more and more information about our district and they represent a number of facets from our community uh would you please stand frances romero francis there you

004are thank you marlene lobrick marlene thank you stacy anderson thank you stacy ryan irving there he is thank you all very much the invocation for tonight's board meeting and bill gafford bill i'm sorry i didn't where are you where are you bill okay thank you okay the invocation for tonight's board meeting will be given by rachel smith director of youth evangelical this is from my church and i can't even say the word youth evangelistic and catholicus that's wrong i'm sorry rachel tell me what that is thank you catechist i practiced it in there and i didn't make it at christ the redeemer catholic church rachel has worked with middle and high school teens for 12 years students at her church come come from all over scifire school district and she enjoys helping them to find

005a home and a place of belonging in addition to working with these students rachel helps coach adults to be mentors and work with either small groups or individual students to provide leadership training ongoing mentoring and support during these tough years of their lives thank you rachel for your ongoing support of our district and for being here tonight before the invocation i would like to introduce langham creek high school af jrotc cadets who will be presenting the colors this evening carrying the american flag cadet rohel sorto carrying the texas flag cadet carly suarez the right rifle is cadet viset and on the left rifle is cadet alex alexa zavala these cadets present colors to you under the direction of paul k mark's lieutenant colonel retired united states air force the invocation would be first and then

006the pledge please stand before you tonight and just ask that you would pour out your blessing upon us we ask especially that you would bring a spirit of peace into our hearts among this room and into all the board members for their seemingly impossible decisions that they have to make for our district and lord we ask in a special way and that you would be with us that you would help us to come to know you more that you would bless our little corner here in cypress texas and most of all lord god we thank you for the board and everything that they do for us specifically for the three outgoing members the service the time and the dedication they have given to us we asked tonight that you would give all of them the

007wisdom of solomon understanding hearts that we would better serve you each and every day we ask all these things in your most holy name amen amen forward arch r i pledge allegiance to the lie of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for right face forward heart you might be seated board member dr john ogletree will read the district's vision and mission statement for the benefit of the audience dr ogletree our vision at cypress fairbanks independent school district 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 thank you dr ogiltry we'll now proceed with the

008recognitions portion of the agenda dr henry will make remarks and announcements including the honors and achievements earned by our staff and students in recent weeks dr henry thank you mr covey congratulations to the bridgeland high school girls cross country team which placed 11th at the uil state cross country championship november 6th in round rock they were joined at state by cypress ridge high school runner devon simmons and cypress springs high school running runner manny vela who both finished under 16 minutes and 20 seconds in the boys race congratulations to bridgeland cypress woods and jersey village high school marching bands for advancing to the uil state marching band contest being held today and tomorrow for class 6a in san antonio all of the bands qualified for state after advancing from the area one contest on october

00930th in katy congratulations to our talented student musicians and directors on this fine accomplishment two of our volleyball coaches recently achieved significant milestones congratulations to cypher high school coach donna bennati for earning her 800th career win on october 1st and congratulations also to cypress falls high school head coach kathy stevenson for achieving 700 career wins on august 19th a couple of things that i don't have on my list here but i'll uh go ahead and say cy woods plays uh bridgeland tomorrow for a chance to go to the volleyball regional uh tournament and that will actually be played at psy springs high school correct uh tomorrow afternoon so we're excited we're going to advance at least one team from our volleyball uh teams to the regional tournament and we also have six boys football teams

010that will be competing thursday and friday this week in the first round of the state football playoffs so lots of good things going on in extracurriculars thank you dr henry we will now proceed with the public comments portion of the agenda 4a patrons who have duly registered per policy bed local may address the board and make 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 so we would begin with alexi and i think it's swarsky did i say that right yes i am commenting on agenda items 2b and 4 cypher isd's vision and the issue of public comments first i

011want to read from the 2021 2020 and 2021 texas association of school boards handbook public participation must be allowed and this is commenting on house bill 2840 which was passed in the 2019 legislative session a government on body including a school board must allow each member of the public to address the body regarding an item on the agenda for an open meeting to address the body at the meeting before or during the body's consideration of the item i was not allowed to speak in the july meeting total of speakers from the public were limited to 10 that was illegal and i want to comment on the vision statement it's a wonderful vision statement i want to comment on the empower and the dream part of it martin luther king said i have a dream that

012my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character no child should be judged by the color of their skin i read a quote by one little girl not in sci-fi isd but a nearby school district who told her mother she was born bad because she is white she was taught this at school this is not acceptable we can't in empower and give students a vision if they are told other if they're told they're one race and the other race hates them which is totally untrue or if they are told they are a race that is born bad and hates the other race none of that is true anymore we went through the civil rights

013movement i've studied that and we've conquered the vast majority of those issues and we don't need to go backwards thank you thank you kimberly edwards hey everyone has the clock started yet yeah okay i'm here for the agenda item aa curriculum is suffering in fairbanks it's suffering at a deficit these papers that i got off your website this is for the proposed legislation and this is for the fact finding we need to scrub on these fact finders forensically as far as this proposed legislation we're doing a lot of big but it ain't nothing being put into correct how we have 92 schools and we ain't got enough teachers to fill them how we inundated with subs and my baby has three of them in our core classes now i'm coming to the board of grace

014i'm coming to asking y'all to help me before and get ahead of the train i've worked with dr macias this has been the only person that has helped and tried to render aid but you have under individuals that are undermining we have individuals they have their own ideals and they're not it's not going to work see this system where we focus so much on big business that's over infrastructure all of these bond referendums what are we doing for curriculum the sats is a prehistoric test to me when somebody is pressuring my child to take it and she hasn't had any type of prep course for why are those stats being projected i'm trying to understand i i love sci fair i haven't had any any real problems until we got into high school where you

015have individuals that don't want to listen to what is correct and what's right if dr maciels is setting forth uh a curriculum that's going to help us why would you have anybody to under demand it i feel like that's resistance and it's a pleasant a special place to heal for those type of individuals that prey upon children that retaliate we out of the business of retaliate we supposed to be working together we just got through praying about under god we trust these are precious souls that god gives us the boy didn't give me my child it can't govern me over the sovereign rights of what what i am to be a parent now if you want to advocate i'm a special type of advocate for you because i've been working for with this lady but

016you have individuals that are undermining her everything that she said for so i'm asking the board to come forth and help dr macia so we can get there get it back on track thank you [Applause] christine finger hello first i want to say thank you for surfing on the board i know it's not an easy job i'm here to draw your attention to section 11c2 of the agenda i have questions and concerns about the added and changed verbiage to the district policies regarding the emergency care for students schools have never provided medications to students before it has always been the responsibility of parents to provide any and all medications for the child with a signed form including advil or tylenol why is the district now going to purchase certain fda approved non-prescription medications to administer

017to students on the emergency basis what medications would be purchased and administered you need to provide a complete list of medications what do you consider an emergency the emergency treatment form was signed at the start of the school year if this is passed when will these changes be applied will parents be notified of these changes and asked to sign a new form this is the emergency treatment form mandatory to attend school this verbiage essentially allows the district to give my children whatever you deem necessary in a situation that you deem an emergency or as you require this could include the coven 19 vaccine that just received emergency use approval for five to 11 year old children the timing of these changes right after approval and right before new board members take office is highly suspicious

018what guarantees can be given that my children will not receive anything such as the vaccine that i do not agree with either intentionally or by accident i urge you to please take a moment to do your own homework and look at what has been reported on the vares website by accepting these changes to the district policy you're opening pandora's box i have no problem with homeschooling my children to protect them from this however this is being slipped in and many parents have no idea of these changes that you're considering to approve i'm here to fight for the safety of all our children and to the right for parents to decide what's given to their children it is our job as parents to protect them thank you for your time and consideration thank you natalie blessing

019game good evening i'm speaking to item 11g first as a 20-year resident of the district i want to express my appreciation to john ogletree don ryan and bob covey when i moved to the district in 2001 about the average time of when you guys started serving we had 63 497 students and now we have 117 200 students we went from 20.9 economically disadvantaged to 54.3 your dedication as volunteer board members has gotten us where we are today a great platform in which to continue to grow in a positive direction with the voice of the voters in mind to this effect i request that you postpone a decision on item 11g voters across our district have expressed their desire to have a voice in the system with two-way feedback not just one-way communication the current marketing

020item 11g does not seek feedback but rather tells others what to think the firm freed hired to pass the 2019 bond does not offer survey services i understand the desire to tell a story in the face of competition however we need to hear the voice of our parents students teachers and community members in order to prioritize our actions as a board when we address these needs then we have a story to tell plus our constituents will tell the story and become the best word of mouth advertising we can have i recommend we defer this almost half million dollar marketing campaign and reassign the budget line to surveying we need to hear the voice of our parents students and teachers maybe a customer customer experience survey student surveys family and community engagement surveys teacher experience surveys

021i would suggest we look to an independent research firm that can work in collaboration with the board and administration i think we'll benefit from really hearing the voices we want to become everyone's best choice not fight the concept of choice but basically become the best choice for every family please delay the decision on item 11g thank you [Applause] scott henry good evening my name is scott henry i'm one of the new elected board members i'm here to speak about 11e the new collaboration with the herc organization to study our kids and to put the practice of closing the social economic gaps with education the principal researcher on this project if you look on the internet you can just do two clicks you can find out very quickly this person really is involved in really equity

022which is really about really quite frankly some really bad things if you look on the internet about social economic things radical type things on quite frankly things i don't even talk about here in our meeting the voters elected us to get rid of crt the voters elected us to get rid of some of the radical things that were happening within a lot of things within all across the country herc is funded by the circuit organization this is a huge red flag in my mind quite frankly my kids are on facebook way too much i don't want them looking at my facebook and i don't want them looking at the kids with inside fairy either quite frankly texas passed a law in fact getting rid of zuckerberg within texas politics that should tell you something right

023there there's something interfering our elections which is wrong those policies should not be in here i'm asking for your consideration to please put this on hold do not put morning any more affiliation with them i know it's not a funding issue but i think we should look at that even further plus the data quite frankly and no my time's not even going yeah that's fine i'll quit just a second uh quite frankly also too i would like to say from a cyber security person the data quite frankly is not even stored with inside fair i see there's a huge security risk in a big cyber security issue as well it's wrong for sci fare our kids should be studying not be studied thank you very much [Applause] william ely [Music] thank you board members i'm

024going to speak on the same thing it's also 11e my name is william emily i'm a parent of two in the district doing some basic research on the houston education research consortium i find some concerns i would like to ask the board for more details on the need and priority of the memorandum before any vote is taken for starters herc's mission is educational equity does this mean equal opportunity or equal outcomes second the memorandum's description of herc is seemingly harmless but far from sufficient level of detail for scifire parents to understand the specific intent especially given the significance of the data privacy concerns third section 10 identifies the financial arrangement specifically i raised concerns with the chan zuckerberg initiative a brief review of their home page quickly points out their investment priorities among others include

025racial equity diversity and inclusion aren't these the same items that has caused the concern in the scifire community in these last several months weren't these the primary concerns on the ballot in the recent election if we are concerned about closing the educational gap and i assure you we all should be the social economic development does it not make sense to address the safety and security concerns of the community first safety and security and social economic development are highly correlated these are the facts our communities if they're not safe good teachers will not want to work here businesses will not want to invest here parents will not want find good jobs here and our children will struggle struggle to learn these are the facts do we really need more research on these things is it really

026the responsibility of sci-fi or any isd and aren't these policies highly politicized i'm sure herc does some great things however this memorandum lacks sufficient detail on what exactly will be included in the research and specific data required to support it therefore i respectfully ask the board to defer any vote on this item until more information is provided to the side fair community thank you [Applause] we'll now move to 5a any board member may make a comment during this portion of the agenda without prior posting being required comment honors may not pertain to the character of any students staff or board member and may not be discussed are deliberated upon at this meeting gilbert do you have anything yes um welcome everybody here glad everybody got to get over here and enjoy our meeting here first

027of all i was out and about throughout the district uh as always and different functions something i forgot to mention last month as is kind of similar to the month before i want to give thanks to our educators as i visit the different venues and get to see our children and uh families out and about they are out there it's um very enthusiastic but i i did not mention that last time but i i do see them here uh athletic director uh ray cepeda and his staff are outstanding and i wanted to mention that last month but i did and i on the way home i was like but um as i go out to different venues throughout the uh the city there seems to be someone there from the district it is nice to

028see representation there always in support of our students in any venue that they're um trying to advance in also um i'm wearing pink today shirt as uh as i was getting dressed this is for doctor for mr covey uh i was thinking of him i was getting dressed and sure enough i see him he had his pink shirt on there so i was uh you know just thinking of him in that way i have my my aggie towel for mr ryan here and stuff uh he was dearly being missed and i asked dr ogitry if i could uh still call upon him for his uh wisdom that he um passes along very wholeheartedly i want to thank all three of the gentlemen for their selfless contributions to the district in the last years as our

029district has grown throughout with many achievements um i want to thank them for all their their volunteering it's it's very special what they did and i and i congratulate them and their accomplishments and the mentoring that they did to get us to where the sci-fi district is an outstanding district in this in the state and nationally recognized throughout the country thank you mr jackson [Applause] this morning i was at houston national cemetery to say goodbye to a friend that others called sarge or coach or teach i mentioned this because we salute all veterans on november 11 whether they're in the audience or up here on the board dies i also mentioned it because i recall in prior election contests that i stood for robust co-and extracurricular complement to academics and reminded voters that coaches were

030teachers also not all share my view i attended both the battle of the berry in the uil marching contest at area as a show of support for our performing arts i was a high school band dad for eight consecutive years one year's color guard mom in charge of the flags and the uniforms and don't you know that was interesting trying to have follow the two deep leadership when you're trying to get 50 girls measured for a uniform was most interesting but we got it done off script for the band parent equipment crew i want you to to understand you don't really qualify as being part of the equipment crew until you've had to carry a xylophone into prison stadium or rice university or waco stadium at state contests when you get to push it on

031wheels be sure to thank your booster clubs and also the voters because now every high school has an equipment ban that years ago when i was a band dead only the rich kids around the state could afford it makes a difference once again this year as i have every year i've been a trustee i attended salute our heroes fundraiser for the sci fair educational foundation this organization provides scholarships to hundreds of graduating students helping them on their very next step in life and then lastly i want to thank everyone who chose to vote in the november election this is not a constitutional right but rather a privilege to be exercised if you don't exercise it you're always in danger of losing it i look forward to welcoming the newly elected board members in person when

032they take office and i place calls to all three to offer the same tonight i would also like to express my sincere appreciation to three existing board members who will be leaving during your tenure academic attainment for all students increase as did graduation rates despite ever challenging changes in demographics but more importantly you were on the board when you had to approve twenty percent budget cuts across the entire district but still somehow keep the district whole you could have chosen to cut fine arts as a very large school district did that we know but you chose not to you could have reduced athletics but you chose not to and somehow you managed to keep the teachers in the classroom and you kept academic attainment front and center during one of the most trying times that

033other districts were not as successful and that is in part due to your leadership and of course in terms of closing the gap which is something that we're all concerned about during your tenure every major subpop group had a 90 percent graduation rate which is truly remarkable but it's a tribute to incremental step-by-step improvement that takes years to put into place and years to support and so i so tonight i tip my hat to you bob and to you don and do you die your contribution of ours cannot be measured most people will never understand bob all the trips you took to austin for the benefit of not just our students but for the students everywhere across the entire state of texas or everything don that you did for athletics will soon be forgotten and

034nobody will remember what we do and john of course you stood firm to make certain that academic attainment was within the grasp of all students we appreciate that we will remember i tip my hat a second time thank you gentlemen [Applause] miss blackshire good evening um you know i have had the honor of living in this community now for 40 44 years and as being a part of sci fair federal credit union i have enjoyed a close relationship with the school district and with the various superintendents and leaders before the group we have here tonight and having known both bob and don and dr rowe long before i was ever a trustee and having the opportunity to work with them in different capacities i am so thankful that we have had their leadership in this

035district and as dr blasingame pointed out earlier how we grew from 63 000 students over 117 000 students today and that just doesn't happen by accident it happens by leadership in this board of trustees and also in the administration and to bob and don and dr o i want to thank you for your leadership in this district and for the mentor that you have been to me for the past six years you know i often say i had served on clc and and a number of other bond committees and other uh committees through the years and so when i became a trustee i thought i was pretty well prepared and that i knew a lot about this district and what i did learn very quickly was just how much i really didn't know about this

036district and i am so thankful that the three of them were here to help to help lead me and i feel like i'm a much better uh trustee today because of their leadership and their mentorship and i'm just a little sad that our new trustees coming on will not benefit from your leadership and your mentorship but i just want to tell you how very proud i am of the three of you and how you um have led this district and i feel like i know your heart for the district having served with you and they're you know looking back over the many years inside fair i honestly cannot can say i can't think of three better trustees than the three of you thank you miss harmon um i you know i always try to share

037a really a story that's inspiring of one of our students and i have a great one for today but i'm going to save it um for the next meeting because i i also want to just share my thoughts on our three trustees who are leaving the board after today as a parent of cfic students i have enjoyed and appreciated the foundation and the legacy that they leave because my children have had tremendous opportunities both through fine arts academics and athletics and as well as just creating giving them opportunities to be good productive citizens and so as a parent i'm grateful for your leadership and what you did for our district for our families as a trustee just for these last two years i have learned so much in such a short period of time dr

038o i am grateful for your calm voice and your calm presence um and speaking truth and always keeping us focused on student achievement um i i've it's been an honor to get to sit next to you on the diocese um don ryan i'm going to out you tonight so hear it here it comes uh you know you know he right you know he's he's so funny right he makes us all laugh he's always joking but don ryan is truly one of the smartest people i've ever met he's brilliant but he hides it behind that joker that jokey you know right he's hit that wicked sense of humor but he's very very very intelligent um and i don't know that we'll ever be able to do boundaries without him right we're gonna have to consult with

039him to help us with um with boundary changes um thank you for being always being there for me and uh helping me speaking of white before i leave dr o2 my favorite memory of dr o uh it's not a favorite memory it's a traumatic memory but uh a couple years ago we were at a conference and i received a call it was some bad news about my um my youngest daughter right two years ago and doctor oh literally held my hand in the kitchen of a restaurant and prayed for me and that's the only way i got through that experience so thank you and please keep me in your prayers okay good um and then bob bob no one has a bigger heart than you no one has a bigger heart than you for your

040family for your friends for the district um you your legacy is that you just give 100 of your heart to our kids and to our community and you are much loved and you always will be thank you dr o thank you mr president i all today i was wondering should i write something out and i came to the conclusion that i shouldn't i write out my sermons on sunday and my wife told me yesterday the sermon was too long so i said i said i better not write anything out formally but i want to say i thank god i'm a blessed man i have had the privilege of serving sci fair isd for five terms wow and i want to thank uh because of the time i must thank my wife and my children and

041grandchildren uh for putting up with all the meetings and when when i first started on the board our meetings would last until 11 30 at night and so we've come a long way we've come a long way and uh so i thank my family and i thank my church god's first metropolitan for all the support uh that uh the members of first man leaders have given all through the years it has been wonderful i've been blessed in the five terms to have uh selected two great superintendents i thank god for the time that we had with david anthony and then after his departure to choose you dr mark uh and you're a great leader great christian man family man is it's been great to to be around you and to work with you and um

042i want to thank all the administrators that uh down through the years that uh have been a part of uh dr anthony's 18 and now dr henry's 18 and uh that it's been it's been great to see your heart uh for the for the students of this district your time and and the long meetings that we've had that you've had to stay at and your reports and it's been great of course all the principals and teachers and everyone all the personnel at the schools it has been great uh to cover so much ground to see this district expand to be at all the school dedications and to have uh being the games and the all the different concerts and programs i have some very cherished memories and god has been so richly uh blessing and

043extended his grace to me and the board to serve with all the board members that we've uh i've had on our aboard uh to have all the the meetings and to go to tasby and to uh to have the uh learning experiences and to argue some points every now and then with each other it has been great the relationship uh will be uh long-lasting and uh uh i i see everyone as a friend no enemies in in all of the time that uh i've been blessed to uh to be on this board and uh i'm looking forward to uh the next horizon that god has for me i told everyone i thank everyone who has supported me in this campaign who contributed to voted to pass my name in my cards around and and and

044for all the well wishes after the results of the election came in i wish the uh the winner uh congratulations uh the other night on thursday night formally and i i shared with everyone that gosh i have no regrets and i have no tears uh over my time uh i believe i've made a significant uh difference in this district uh and that will not be erased and my prayers for this district i will continue to pray that this district lives up to its motto opportunity for all and i pray that there will be no reversal of the idea of trying to make sure that we deliver to every child every child we cannot be afraid of equity it means where there is lack make sure that the lack doesn't exist anymore it doesn't mean taking

045away from one child to give to another it means making things right for everyone making things fair for everyone every board meeting i stand and proudly say the pledge the pledge ends with liberty and justice for all that means wherever there is a lack of liberty wherever justice does not exist that we should do our best to make sure that it becomes a reality for every student um i'll be praying for you all and uh i'll uh be around god bless you [Applause] so serving as president i've made this mistake a couple of times and i'm going to do it intentional tonight because he'll never be called this again dr ryan oh man i feel like i'm getting a glimpse at my funeral it's i'm like wow it's gonna be pretty good i'm feeling okay

046about it now plus mark goes good luck following that after john finished i'm like yeah i don't have a prayer uh unbelievable and uh you know tonight's really a celebration for me it really is i don't 21 years ago when i was elected to the board uh my goal was to do what was in the best interest of the students in the community and actually my second goal y'all will probably believe this was to have fun doing it and that's kind of the way i was raised my parents said look if you're going to do something have fun or don't do it and so i've had a blast i mean i obviously i love to laugh i love to make people laugh uh but i'm also passionate about this community and these students and so

047i kind of hope that came through i've served with some uh remarkable board members that too many to name that were just uh great mentors to me uh and kind of led me along the path on what what it means to be a board member and and what it means to to stand up for every student in every square mile of our district and i think that our board has done that and i think we've done it very very well uh thank you all for the kind words tonight uh that was uh no one ready for that but that was very nice uh and then also i have to echo what john said we we got to hire two remarkable men uh as superintendents and david anthony and and dr henry and uh they they've

048kind of set the ship in the right path in the way that we're going and we'll continue to do that i have no doubt we have unbelievable leaders uh on our campuses and uh and that's truly a blessing you know the the greatest gift i've received from serving are the friendships that i've made uh and i look out here and hear and man i'm blessed i'm beyond blessed so thank you [Applause] well it's it's going to be difficult to follow up on all that amy you know don i've never heard you be so eloquent so that was awesome i know an amazing night uh because my wife was a teacher god love her she taught for over 30 years in sci fair uh i became the dorm or with the dorm the the homeroom mom

049or i i would go in and read and i mentored and i i volunteered in these schools from the time my kids started until they graduated uh when they got into high school i got to serve as president of a booster club and president of a coral club which is a rather odd thing to do but it was also fun and after the last one graduated it was amazing because i was sitting home one night and the principal at sci fair high school called and she said what are you doing i said well we're watching tv and she said okay you sat on your butt long enough i need you to serve on the 2001 bond committee uh and i said okay fine i'll do that which was an awesome one and that's kind of

050where the berry center came from uh there was a lot of negativity out there about the berry center and here it is producing money it is having uh how many four five six thousand events a year it is a remarkable place we have awesome graduations it is phenomenal what we can do with that center and there were naysayers that didn't believe it was a good thing and here we are we are lucky to have it i will also say that when i was after i did those then i was asked to consider running for the board because someone was retiring and much like miss blackshire said i got on here thinking i knew everything about the district and i sat there for a whole year afraid to even make a second because this whole district

051was so big compared to the small part that i really knew and it was phenomenal how the thing was working as well as it did and that was under dr anthony and then we had the luxury of hiring uh dr henry and dr henry came in here with a whole different kind of feel and vibe he was as intelligent as dr anthony but he had a little he made us feel like we were intelligent and that was uh that was pretty nice i gotta tell you it was remarkable uh i you know we've seen so many many changes here and i am so proud of what we've done i've got to tell you my family god love you are sitting out there again uh and you know i strap them to the tv on monday

052nights to watch the meeting and they uh i'm sure my grandkids are loving every minute of this uh i will tell you that my grandson explained to me that i didn't need to do cat in the hat while he was in middle school he would just assume i not show up so that's okay bryce i'll be there your junior year i'll do it again but i just i love you all so much and kathleen god you put up with me i'd i'll never forget the first board meeting we had and we had a closed session and i went home it was it was not terribly late i went home kathleen was already in bed i kind of been she goes what's going on i said oh no we had a closed session what'd y'all discuss

053and i said i can't tell you and she said what do you mean you can't tell me and i said well there's a closed session i can't tell you this she wasn't happy for a while i'll just tell you so then i would just make stuff up about a closed session so she didn't know we'll i'll i'll evaluate later can we okay but i one of the things are the many things that we have seen is how this community has come together to support education our our board i am so proud of them for going out and visiting different schools you don't see that with boards all across the state of texas even in small communities they're never sometimes never allowed to go into the school and yet our board goes out there and they

054visits they take 11 to 14 and we rotate and it's just fabulous because you get out there and you get to talk to the administrators you get to talk to the teachers and talk to them about what do you need what are you looking for i always used to say other than money what would you like you know and then you get to talk to the students and there's nothing better than getting down uh and on a knee and talking to a student and listening to what they're doing and how excited they are about learning that was amazing being able to attend conferences and us being able to build networks across the state of texas and even across the us my gosh scifirs reputation is remarkable out there and i know there's some people don't

055believe that but it is true and i've listened to it and i've heard it and i know the reason people move here is a lot for education i've loved having meetings with our texas and our federal legislators on a face-to-face basis and talking to them about sci fare and carrying our challenges and our successes and letting them know what's going on and inviting them to come in here and walk into a classroom and just watch watch what's happening and i can tell you ninety nine percent of the time they are completely amazed i have i can't say enough about the colleagues that we work with on this board and dr dr henry you're just awesome i love that we have our goals that we set and that we monitor them and watch it this district

056has a rich rich heritage of educational excellence that is known across the state of texas and the nation and that's attributable to the community support administrative insights and applications and especially to our vast teaching staff and how wonderful the job that they do and i will also i'm going to talk to everybody out here just quickly marny you are by far the most preeminent education lawyer that's out there and i heard that from kelly friels he says it over again of course he's proud because he trained you and he knows what he did linda macias i can't think of anybody else i'd rather do a session with and present sight fair than you and i just think and i know mark was our he was our thinking he's our candy guy you know he he

057looked pretty you know but you and i had the intelligence i'm just saying teresa i don't know how you got so intelligent because you are just amazing at what you you know everything's going on with the legislation and what's happening and you keep us informed roy you're just good looking i just can't you know i'm just i'm proud to work with you and what you do in the secondary karen we didn't think anybody would be as good as stewart and here you stepped up and you are as good and better so thank you so much then i'm going to turn over here joel i'm not going to talk about you because you're just ugly royce spray there is nobody out there that handles facilities like you do the amount of different facilities that we have

058built and the renovations that you have put through are phenomenal and just your being able to stay on top of it just unbelievable and deborah god love you i've loved every minute of the graduations we've gone to and how we've worked together and what you do with the student services you are a phenomenal person we are very lucky to have everybody and holly you are the best secretary in the whole world i love you to death i want to thank you all very much for being the community that supports us i am not going away i'm going to be watching i'm sure i'm going to be reading bryce i'm going to be reading in your school and i just love the idea that scifire is an opportunity for all because i totally believe in that

059thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to serve thank y'all citizen participation patrons who have duly registered for a 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 let me repeat that because there's been some misinformation and miscommunication we cannot react to anything that is not on the agenda so if you're expecting us to give you an answer that's not something that we can do and that is for the open meetings act of texas so our first uh speaker is monica dean monica all right i'm looking at this uh in may of this year i received

060an email with one day's notice stating that my child's high school would be a vaccination site for 16 and over there were no details on safety protocols it simply stated that the either the parent can show up with the child or they can bring a signed consent form and provided a sign up genius link i immediately contacted the school with my concerns but got no response why would the district want to put themselves in a position not only from a liability standpoint if a parent didn't actually sign a form but also putting children in harm's way such as having a life-threatening adverse reaction on school grounds recently a 16 year old in louisiana was given a coveted shot at his high school without parental consent and now they are suing the district so now that

061the fda has unethically approved the shop for five to eleven-year-olds against the advice of hundreds of doctors and scientists i urge the district to avoid using our schools as vaccination sites going forward for this age group or any other and also to avoid encouraging bribing or coercing of this dangerous shot to students shockingly last week my child was asked in one of her classes if she ever received a flu shot how is asking a classroom full of students about their medical history appropriate under the federal statutes of hipaa it is a violation and a criminal offense because the manufacture of these shots has zero liability if your child is injured or dies the burden instead could be placed upon the district because the shots were administered at the school so i would urge the district

062to protect our children from possible harm at school by refraining from using our schools as vaccination sites in the future thank you ms dean william carter good evening my name is william carter and i must say that i am very excited about addressing the board during the citizens participation time on a manner that is extremely important and very significant to the citizens of sci fair that is the naming of a school a new school or building in the scifire isd district for a deserving african-american man who has served this district and community in an outstanding manner such an event would be the first time in the school board's history that a school or building would be named for an african-american man it should be a man who is a role model for students it should

063be a man who not only is a role model but i'm sorry i'm a little nervous i've never done this before it should be a man who is a role model for students teachers staff and administrators and the community it should be a man who pushes for high quality schools and fairness for all sci fair students in addition this man should be a voice for children of color and the underserved he should be a person who develops relationships and partnerships with higher education and provides hurricane relief centers moreover he should be a person who builds playgrounds and provides school supplies for children in need he should be a man who provides school food banks for families and a clothing pantry through his church he should be one who establishes a leadership academy to help produce

064leaders in the community and finally he should be a man who developed the watchdog program thank you mr carter i have to close you right many citizens would like to with many citizens would like to witness a new school building named for a man who has done all these things dr john d ogitry thank you so much [Applause] alexi swersky am i saying that right how do you pronounce your last name swarsky okay very good hey okay thanks okay i am commenting on items two b and four and i am starting off with reading another portion of the house bill 2840 passed in 2019 may not prohibit public criticism this is the law in texas a governmental body may not prohibit public criticism of the governmental body including criticism of any act omission policy procedure

065program or service this prohibit prohibition does not apply to public criticism that is otherwise prohibited by law now i'm going to speak about what's up there learn empower achieve and dream i feel that any teaching whatsoever of critical race theory teaches lies and hate hatred and takes away from all those four goals i have a grandchild who is black she is loved and as loved we we have eight grandchildren we love them all just the same tremendously thankfully they all live in houston and we see them all the time critical race theory would teach her that her family hates her what a horrible thing to be told and to believe um it's a huge lie because we all love her very much she has many aunts and uncles and cousins and they do girl sleepovers

066and it would be a lie when my late mother and i went on a civil rights tour in alabama we went to the voting rights museum in selma we crossed the edmond pettis bridge we went to the rosa parks museum in montgomery and the civil rights museum in birmingham which had the bars from the jail cell that martin luther king was jailed in he and other people including viola luiza a white woman from michigan who left five children motherless because she was shot in the head by the ku klux klan while driving a black man from montgomery to selma in march 1965 in the height of the civil rights movement our country has come a long way towards addressing racism and we don't want to go backwards please eliminate any teaching of crt in sci-fi

067schools thank you francis romero [Applause] hello president covey dr henry members of the board and administration i'm francis romero vice chair of the community leadership committee but more importantly i'm here as a parent of a scifir isd 2018 graduate of sai falls high school and a current junior at sai falls high school i usually sit here in the meetings observing listening taking notes to stay informed on the decisions that are placed before you that would inevitably affect my children and the remaining hundred and seventeen thousand plus students in scifire isd schools but i could not sit here today quietly without telling you thank you this is a sincere thank you for volunteering your time all of these years mr ryan dr ogletree and mr covey for putting in the long hours every month preparing for

068and participating in the monthly board meetings and the committee workshops thank you for volunteering the numerous hours that it took behind the scenes to educate yourself on our school district and on state policies to get the job done that needed to be done for our students our teachers and our staff more importantly thank you for your genuine heartfelt commitment to our district you were all at a stage where in your lives where you could have been anywhere but you chose to be here as a mom of two students one graduate and one currently in psy falls i thank you from the bottom of my heart as a parent but also as a as a leader in this community and we will still be here so i wish you well enjoy your families your retirement we

069got this stacy anderson board members president kobe dr henry and administration team i know all of you and have for a long time i want to thank you bob don and john for your selfless service to this district you have volunteered uncountable hours of your time and energy in support of this community and we appreciate your service over the years you have had to work through some very challenging situations and the leadership you have shown has made scifire isd the destination district that it is though it appears this board is always in agreement in actuality that is rarely the case at the beginning of any discussion the three of you are very diverse in your life experiences perspectives politics skills and interests what is true is that you are all willing to work until you

070reach consensus this requires compromise trust a willingness to listen and to learn and to consider the perspective of others working for consensus is good though very different people you and all of this board really are unified and doing what is best for kids rarely is there a clear solution to a problem that perfectly fits the desires of everyone involved students parents teachers staff and taxpayers you have done a great job of considering all of these stakeholders and balancing priorities effectively thank you again and best of luck with whatever big thing is next for you we all know you will continue to make a difference in sight fair brian henry good evening my name is brian henry and i'm a sci-fi isd parent first i want to thank the departing board members for their years of

071tireless and selfless service to scifire isd you have set an example for future board members to follow second i want to inform the community about a new organization that has been formed by concerned students parents and educators the psy fair civic alliance or cfca is a non-partisan organization committed to improving civic health and promoting civic harmony within scifire isd this group has formed as a direct response to the intense partisanship of the recent school board election challenges to the separation of church and state and hostility to diversity inclusion and equity while cfca is nonpartisan we are unapologetically committed to anti-racism religious pluralism and equality for members of the lgbtq community cfca aims to defend the values and promote the practices integral to democratic self-government in a diverse society public schools are the lifeblood of democracy

072because they prepare young people for participation in self-government and sci fair civic alliance intends to be a voice for those alarmed by recent threats to our civic health and civic harmony you can join cfca on facebook and we look forward to having an ongoing presence at scifire isd board meetings thank you [Applause] constant say rai say rai did i say that right not not good they say thank you thank you i'm here today in the honor of dr altrey i worked really hard to help him on this campaign and for dr dr ryan and covey because i believed in your theory i believed in all of you um i have three children and the main thing of my children was their education we i moved in neighborhoods that education was the number one now i

073have a grandson that's insightfair we've moved to site there because of the education now i want to say i want to thank all three of you for your hard work and your dedication i also want to ask your permission in any future school to name it after dr oaktree for his hard work it just can't be just overlooked as being something that he didn't he's done a lot of achievements also i asked that um that scifir will consider um you know the new the new team that's coming on that they work fairly for our children keep the model keep the model the new staff of our education for all because it's so important so your model means a lot to this new trustee that's coming aboard and we ask that you just uh work with

074the parents grandparents all of us and we trust you in your decision for the education of our children and the education for all and once again i want to thank all of you for your hard work i think every last one of you should have a new school honored in your name your dedication it says it all thank you [Applause] julie ricks hello i'm not here because i don't have anything else to do and i don't think any of you all are here for that reason either but i've been coming for the last several meetings and the atmosphere seems to have changed tonight which is good and unfortunately it takes an election to do that but parents are coming out here we have issues we're here to talk about the issues that uh make you

075all accountable and to solve problems so we all come but i thought last time i came we can't even start with that none of that means anything until there's some respect because respect goes two ways and i see y'all um i've been ushered i've been escorted by a policeman going over my two minutes but i see you all up there chit chatting and today's special i understand that and you know congratulations for years of service it meant truly but until you respect uh you sit up there and take as long as you want to chit chat and have us under the gun for two minutes so there has to be some respect shown for the parents first and so we can come together so we can all be united and let it be about the

076children and solve problems but there has to be some respect and equal time and i don't know about this lottery deal either but and if from what i've read some of this has been illegal that everybody should have gotten to say something so i think until uh the respect issue and the time allotment however it goes works out needs to be addressed before any of these other issues mean anything to y'all because what we say has to mean something and there has to be some respect on both ways thank you [Applause] the public hearing and discussion portions of the agenda were presented at the board work session on thursday november the 4th 2021. since we have eric smith with pbk here this evening i would like to ask permission from the board to rearrange the

077agenda to consider agenda item b of the addendum to approve the name and signage package for the new administration building may i have a motion mr president it is my honor to make this motion i moved at the new administration building be named the dr mark henry instructional support center thank you mr ryan may i have a second i'll second that thank you all second out second i second and i'll second and i second anyway no we need to vote we need to vote all in favor raise your right hand and that is unanimous okay hey bob henry this was truly a surprise and i somehow they slipped it by me i don't know how but i i can't tell you how thankful i am you know i spoke to a group of band kids

078last friday as they were getting ready to go to state i got emotional and i felt so stupid that i got that i got a got emotional but it was an emotional week and the reason it was an emotional week is because um three of my best friends and and people that i love and respect and i'm not going to be serving uh with them anymore but i know that the three people coming in are of good good heart and they're going to make good good board members but it's hard to say goodbye to folks and for y'all to do this for me i mean i've been at this 40 years 31 as a superintendent and this definitely caps it off i do have my family here and you can see it was a surprise

079and if you look at my family take a look at my family my family looks like america my family looks like my family looks like texas um and i'm proud of that i'm proud of each and i've got one grandchild that's not not here and she's also a mixed race uh a biracial child and i and i wish she were here but i got a pretty family don't i and just like they're my family those of you out in the audience whether you whether you work in cypher isd whether you're on this board whether you do business with scifi or isd whether you're out there and you can't stand my guts that's okay you're still my family i haven't had any fun through covet either but we've tried to do our best and we we

080have a motto in this district of opportunity for all and it does take more resources for parts of our community than other than other parts of our community that's all equity really is is making sure it's not trying to make everybody equal is trying to make sure that those young people that may need a free or reduced lunch program they have that so that they're not hungry during the school day for those that need health service is trying to make sure that they're well so that they can learn the same way that those kids that have access to health care so i'm for equality but i'm for equity too and equity in the sense that every child in this community uh deserves an opportunity to to succeed and it's been my goal over the last

081ten and a half years in the last 40 years as an educator to make sure that every child has that opportunity and thank you all for being with me on this journey i really do and i've told people this you know we built our uh cindy over here on the left is my wife of 39 years 39 and a half years we built our home in in cyprus because we love the idea that everybody thinks everybody that this community thinks that every child deserves a chance and as you can see on this front row i've got lots of young people in the school district and they all need a chance so thank you board you've you've really honored me and uh marnie and theresa and the rest of you y'all will be disciplined because i

082did not know this was coming so thank thank you mr president [Applause] yeah but hey hey say something about dan being here [Applause] uh in attendance tonight is pbk architectural firm dan eric would y'all stand is there anyone else with you guys and they're the ones that uh have designed the uh new instructional support center now known as the henry which that that that acronym is not good it's hicks i don't i'm sorry we're gonna have to work on that that's it uh and the the visual art visual and performing arts center so thank you all very much for being here and for letting us know we needed to move forward thank you very much all right we are gonna i'm sorry you uh is that what you mean a break okay i was about

083to say we're gonna take a break but because don's in a hurry dr don's in a hurry tonight we will take a five minute break and i'm counting thank you i'll proceed with the consensus action items portion of the agenda 10a the board will consider approving the minutes of october 11 2021 regular board meeting uh the following i'm sorry oh i missed it i'm sorry dr macias excuse me uh 8 a the administration will provide a report on the opportunity gap created as a result of the covet 19 pandemic dr macias and dr clayburn good evening president covey board members and dr henry this evening we'll be sharing with you data from the 2021 state assessment it is difficult to provide comparisons with this with these data because it's not complete data many of our

084students did not participate in the assessments and we received reports from campuses that our students were completing the assessment in record time nonetheless this is the data that we have and the data that we studied after we share the star data we will share with you the beginning of year data so dr claiborne will continue with the presentation and show the star information to begin the data presentation let's review how far we've come since march 2020 when the covet 19 pandemic began in march of 2020 traditional in-person instruction moved to learning at home may of 2020 saw the star and eoc canceled by the state during the summer of 2020 the district provided all summer programs virtually and free in september of 2020 the district was fully open and we provided both face-to-face learning and

085cfisd connect for virtual learners star and eoc assessments returned in april and may of 2021. once again in the summer of 2021 the district provided all summer programs free of charge in both face-to-face and virtual settings this august scifire was once again fully opened and temporary virtual learning was offered for kindergarten through 6th grade students on september 3rd 2021 the performance reporting division of the texas education agency noted the following regarding star and eoc data from the 2020-21 school year information gleaned from the data helps pinpoint areas where students need accelerated learning opportunities similarly participation data provides demographic information about who did and did not take the star in light of covid19 learning conditions and should be considered in context when reviewing the results while direct comparisons with star data from previous years may not

086be appropriate because of varying participation rates and shifts in instructional settings due to covet 19 the data provide an important temperature check that allows texas districts to track and address student recovery in the short and long term it is for these reasons that this evening we will not be comparing the 2018-19 star data to the data reported in 2020-21 we will report the data for scifire versus the state of texas for 2020-21 only the data displayed for you now depict the testing participation rates for scifire in yellow and for the state of texas in purple typically participation in scifire ranges from 99 to 100 percent the drop in participation rates may be attributed to the way students attending school virtually were asked to test the texas education agency did not offer the star virtually for

087these students they had to come to their home campus to test on february the 4th 2021 the texas tribune interviewed the commissioner of education during this interview the commissioner was asked whether or not students who were virtual learners would be given the opportunity to opt out of the star assessment due to concerns about coming to campus the commissioner mentioned that families who were concerned about sending their student to campus to test would remain with remote instruction on a testing day he noted it was not opting out of star testing it was opting for remote instruction he went on to reiterate the point that the texas education agency did not have the logistical ability to administer the star remotely the data displayed before you now are the star eoc data for the english language arts reading

088content area for the all african american hispanic white and economically disadvantaged student groups at the approaches performance level these data combine all grade levels tested the yellow bar displays the data for scifire and the purple bar displays the data for the state of texas these are the star eoc data for the mathematics content area combining all grade levels tested the yellow bar displays the data for scifire and the purple bar displays the data for the state of texas the data for writing in grades 4 and 7 are displayed before you now next are the data for 5th and 8th grade science combined with biology finally data for 8th grade social studies is combined with u.s history now we will review data for the meets and masters grade level performance standards please keep in mind that

089the percent of students passing at these levels will not be as high as those reaching the approaches grade level standard once again the data displayed on the yellow bar are for scifier and the data on the purple bar are for the state of texas all campuses are working on increasing the number of students reaching the meets and masters grade level standards as reflected in their cip target tables before you now are the data for the five largest districts in texas as well as two of our surrounding districts the first column depicts the district name the second column the total number of students enrolled in the district followed by the percent of economically disadvantaged students then you will see the percent reaching the approaches grade level for all grade levels and content areas combined split by

090student groups unlike subsequent years district accountability ratings are not displayed this is due to the fact that all districts and campuses across the state were given the not rated declared state of disaster rating for the 2020-21 school year so now we're going to share with you the beginning of your data that um for the 2021 school year so this is this is the the benchmark or the dpm that we just gave at the beginning of the school year now while we still have students learning remotely it's a much smaller number than we had last year so with these data we will compare the passing rate for the january diagnostic and the passing rate for the beginning of year dpm now i want to remind you that that the when we provided the january diagnostic last

091year as i said we have we had a lot of kids that were still learning uh from home and we didn't have much uh test security in place but it is the more complete data that we have at this point also the january diagnostic took a look at the fall semester so what was taught during that fall semester and the beginning of your diagnostic that we just completed is actually looking at the whole year that prior year for elementary and for middle school so we're gonna we're going to do some comparisons with that data but i did want to share with you those parameters that we had in place so ashley we continue with that please before we begin with the data presentation we would like to take a moment to explain how the data

092were calculated tonight we will use data based on matched pairs for instance in the 2021-22 school year student a may be currently in grade five for this school year we evaluated the beginning of your benchmark data for grade five the student's current grade then we looked back to 2020-21 to determine how student a performed on the fourth grade january diagnostic we'll begin with kindergarten data this is the only grade level in which we're not displaying matched pairs because not all current kindergarten students attended pre-k in 2020-21 our current kindergarten students took the m-class assessment at the beginning of the year this assessment measures things such as phonemic segmentation fluency and word reading fluency at mid-year we'll measure actual reading levels for this group as we move to primary reading we'll begin using matched pair data

093the yellow bar displays the percent of students meeting the independent reading level standard for our current first and second grade students and the blue bar displays how these students performed on the 2021 january diagnostic as kindergarten or first grade students for elementary reading the yellow bar displays the percent of students meeting the independent reading level standard for our current third fourth and fifth grade students and the blue bar displays how these students performed on the 2021 january diagnostic as second third or fourth grade students as we transition to secondary data the measure will move away from reading levels and will look at an overall score of 70 percent or higher cypher isd does not chase the star when we review our locally developed assessments therefore we set the standard for this assessment closer to the

094meets performance level as opposed to the lower approaches grade level standard the yellow bar displays the percent passing at seventy percent or higher for our current sixth seventh and eighth grade students and the blue bar displays how these students performed as fifth sixth or seventh grade students on this slide the yellow bar displays the percent passing at 70 or higher for our current english one students and the blue bar displays how these students performed as eighth graders here the yellow bar displays the percent passing at 70 percent or higher for our current english ii students and the blue bar displays how these students performed on the 2021 january diagnostic as english 1 students now let's move to mathematics we'll begin with kindergarten data once again there are not matched pairs so the data are only

095for the beginning of the year benchmark the data before you display the current percent of students that met the district math standard next we have primary math consisting of matched pairs and evaluated at the 70 or higher passing standard the yellow bar displays the percent passing for our current first and second grade students and the blue bar displays how these students performed as kindergarten or first grade students for elementary math the yellow bar displays the percent passing at seventy percent or higher for our current third fourth and fifth grade students and the blue bar displays how these students performed as second third or fourth graders for middle school math the yellow bar displays the percent passing again at 70 percent or higher for our current sixth seventh and eighth grade students and the blue bar

096displays how these students performed as 5th 6th or 7th graders our final set of data this evening are for current high school algebra 1 students the yellow bar displays the percent passing at 70 percent for these high school students and the blue bar displays how they performed on the january diagnostic as 8th grade students before i go to the next slide i wanted to note that you probably are or have noticed that our math scores are quite a bit lower than they've been in the past and the the state of texas the districts and all around us as well took that was the biggest dip that uh that was taken was in math and it's not surprising because math is really built upon upon concepts and skills so you've got to have those concepts and

097skills in place to kind of be adding for math so that's definitely an area that we are working on and are going to make sure that that our kids get those uh the skills and concepts that they have missing so i want to continue the presentation and talk about the plan what are we doing as a district for academic recovery what are we doing to address the opportunity gaps for our students so i want to start by just reminding you that we have been working on the gaps on the opportunity gaps uh since summer of 2020. so you may recall that that's the summer that summer school was provided free for all for all uh students and all parents and we added programs that we had never had before we added some literacy programs and

098some math programs for students who were just right there right there at the at the line of failing or just barely passing we've always had programs for students who are not doing well but these were programs for kids that actually were okay but we knew that they needed some more support and more interventions so we had that in place in the summer of 2020 and then again this pla this past summer we also provided summer school free for all of our students who were interested in participating and you may recall that we had about almost 30 000 students in summer school into in the summer of 2020 and this past summer as well so as we started considering our plan for addressing the opportunity gap that learning loss we went back to our framework for

099student achievement and so this is actually the framework that we've had in this district for many years many years we modify and we adjust but it is what's kept us on task and focus on student achievement in our district and it's a common curriculum common planning and common assessment so we went back and evaluated and reviewed each of these components and made sure that we were making the adjustments that were going to be needed to address the learning loss that our students had suffered as a result of the pandemic so i'm going to start with the curriculum so research says that the curriculum is one of the most powerful things that will make a change in student achievement and in addressing the learning loss one of the most powerful aspects that will make that will

100make this change and so we went to look at our curriculum so the first thing that we did is and we do at this app every year actually we reviewed our current curriculum are the are we meeting the standards are we meeting the texts that that we are required to teach by law and are we addressing the the the uh deficiencies that we are seeing with our data that's the first thing that we do every year with our curriculum and that was no different this year but within our curriculum we did go in there and we made sure to embed critical standards from the previous grade to make sure that our students were closing that gap and so with our curriculum we're able to teach we have a student in fifth grade for example we

101and and they were in fourth grade last year we can't just stick to fourth grade that they missed because they've got to learn the fifth grade uh text as well so we made sure that we've got that fifth grade uh text that curriculum built there but we are weaving in those standards from fourth grade as well that our students missed and are needing to to be successful so that's called scaffold those are those scaffolding skills we also adjusted our scope and sequence in the curriculum so that we could provide longer time for processing and for review time for our students and then we went in there and we enhanced opportunities for those best practices so a small group instruction and collaboration and classroom discourse we have most of our kids back now so kids working

102together and learning from each other that peer that peer communication that's so important for for our students and we enhance the learning and student engagement within the curriculum as well and then technology integration we wanted to make sure the technology was embedded into the curriculum not that it was an add-on and so with our one-to-one chromebooks that we have there that was very very important for um for us for our students now we build our own curriculum we don't buy a curriculum and we don't use just the standard curriculum we use curriculum resources and from there we build we build our curriculum for scifire and we call it our common curriculum but it's really our standard curriculum and then our teachers take that curriculum and they made adjustments and modifications to differentiate and meet the

103needs of their students in their classroom so the second component of our framework for student achievement is that common planning and right along with it is building capacity for our teachers building capacity to make sure that we have quality first-time instruction happening in those classrooms and so we've had different opportunities for for our teachers to build that capacity this summer we started with the digital learning conference and i mentioned our one-to-one initiative that was a big focus how do you use technology in the classroom how do you use how to use those chromebooks it's we want to make sure that we're not having kids just sit in front of the computer the whole time but there's a purpose for the technology but there certainly is that face-to-face and and uh instruction live instruction from the

104teachers as well so that was the focus for that one oops sorry let me go back one there we go and then we also had a new teacher literacy academy that was for brand new teachers in the primary grades and in the elementary grades and that was an opportunity for the for the teachers to learn our curriculum to teach them so that they understood how they can scaffold the previous skills and be able to provide those supports and identify those skills that that uh that our students are or had that learning loss in and move forward with that so we had that as well and then and then we had our august professional development and that professional development was specific to the teaching assignment and teachers received training on identifying skill gaps and how to

105weave that targeted instruction into that current year's content we also have just in time professional development for our teachers so that goes on all year long and this is this is providing them their opportunity to prepare for upcoming units in the curriculum so there's time to create resources and activities and differentiate for kids and then take that right back into the classroom the next day that's what they're called just in time professional development and that is scattered among the school year for for our teachers and then one thing that we added that we also added this year was closing the closing the gap teacher academy we're actually using some of our esther funds with that and and so we've got academies for math reading and science for uh for our teachers specifically geared at strategies

106that are aimed at at addressing the learning loss of our students so common planning is a standard in our district and so our teachers take the professional development that they've learned they take the curriculum and then they do weekly content planning with their other teachers in that grade level or that content and so they're again addressing the uh the instruction that's going to be happening in the classroom how they might deliver they're sharing ideas and uh and then they're talking about how to differentiate for students to meet everybody's need during that time as well this school year you may have you you as well you know because you vote on this you know that we have five teacher work days built into the curriculum and those days were built in to provide teachers additional time

107for reviewing data for planning with resources and different activities for upcoming lessons and to prepare those lessons that are focused on the needs of all students but specifically the learning loss that has occurred with our students the last part of our framework for student achievement is our common assessment the research says that we have to have assessments to monitor and adjust the instruction for our kids we need to know where they are and make those adjustments for them throughout dr clayburn shared with you the data from our beginning of your benchmark you all you all know that data drives the instructional decisions here in this district both at the district level and at the campus level as well so we have we have the dpms or district progress monitorings very similar to the benchmarks and

108then we have checkpoints that fall in between those dpms we have 3d pms a year so those checkpoints fall between those dpms and those checkpoints are that piece of the research that i shared that you have to monitor and adjust for students who are struggling and to be able to address the opportunity gap and so we've got those checkpoints in place and then the teachers and the administrators take all that data and they mine that data we call them data digs and so basically they're going they're they're uh they're looking at their data you see a picture down there the mining of the data they're they're looking at the data they're seeing where each individual student is what the needs are of this individual students and then developing an instructional plan for those students so

109on that on actually on these pictures you see the mining the data you see in the back some an achievement board back there with each student and even even all the different uh risk factors for that student and the trifle that you see here is actually a reading levels chart so they actually you'll see them throughout throughout the school so they they will list all students and then they proudly move the students as they're progressing through their reading levels and so all of this is working addressing the opportunity gap and then goal setting we we are we have worked with our teachers to goal set with with their students so it's very common that you see our teachers sitting with the students and talking about their data creating that ownership for their data and said

110and the student and the teacher both setting goals the goals may be as simple as at the next for the next uh checkpoint the goal may be to increase or to get two more questions correct or for the next marking period maybe the child improved by one reading level so though that's the goal setting that's with the child and with the teacher to make sure that we're addressing any of the needs that students may have now in addition to the personalized instruction that teachers provide in the classroom we also have some district-wide initiatives happening at all of our schools one of those is closing the gap time so at all of our schools you will see that there is 30 minutes of supplemental time that is called the closing the gap time this this during

111this time it is an opportunity to either address learning gaps or challenge advanced students and it's interesting that we have run across a couple of teachers who have shared with us and these are um advanced level dual credit teachers and have shared with us that during this closing the gap time it has given the opportunity to actually work with students to be able to to build some of those that skill set that they're missing so that they can be successful with those dual credit classes so it's 30 minutes i said a day at the elementary it's every single day at the secondary it's for uh four days a week that they have they're closing the gap time and then every campus has accelerated instruction and actually house bill 44 45 45 required that we provide

112accelerated instruction we've always provided accelerated instruction for our students but house bill 45 is very specific about that that instruction and it says that any child who felt any of the star assessments needs to have a minimum of hours of accelerated instruction and it needs to be over specific material that's designed as supplemental instruction and then they even have in there that uh the the prefer that really the law says three students to a group unless a parent signs a waiver allowing for that group to be larger and so this again is addressing the instructional uh the learning loss for our students and then of course we've always had tutoring but we're enhancing that that are through our trainings for our teachers we are providing them with resources to do focus focused tutoring for uh

113for our students many of our campuses also offer saturday schools and then a new initiative that we're kicking off in january and this is actually uh dr henry's idea and his guidance we call it leaders in action and so basically just like the rest of the world we're having a hard time finding tutors and and to to come in and support our our uh our campuses so we're going to provide an application process for our high school students for them to apply to be tutors for our campuses and so there'll be an application process and interview process at the district level we will provide training on strategies for reading and math and then we will those applicants will be in a pool where campuses can pull from hire these students and then even do more

114training on their specific the specific uh uh resources that they're actually using and we will pay we'll pay these students so that's an initiative that we're working on and we should be kicking it off in january and that should provide us a good number of uh of tutors and we're we've actually already started uh tapping into our high school uh unto our high schools and and the different sponsors for the different groups so that we can make sure that we're going to get a good group of students who are going to want to be a part of this initiative and then we've also as additional resources to address the learning gap for our students we actually we also added some additional digital resources the state actually purchased four districts m-class and amplify for certain grades

115and then we purchase for the four other grades amp class is basically an assessment system so we're able to get immediate responses for for our teachers regarding different assessments and interventions and it also provides uh information regarding dibbles and dibbles is is is a dyslexia program and so it also addresses that as well and then amplify is actually a reading program and so this this is new this is new for for our campuses and then they also provided a math program called st math now some of you that had that had younger kids you know probably in the last eight years or so you may remember gigi and so gigi is kind of the mascot for st math and so the state purchased this for us and it is it's a great program that provides

116uh critical thinking for problem solving and it's very engaging as well so we're excited about sd math and then we also purchased a program called amira it's it's an hmh program and amira actually provides reading support for kids as well so it determines a level that the child is in the child can read to to uh into the system or vice versa and then the the system can also recommend different different books or different stories uh engaging stories for the student to read and then finally with with the digital resources schoology so all of these resources and many others our parents and our students can access via schoology so for additional support at home to to assist the students in closing the gaps you can go into schoology and actually all of our parents have

117access to schoology so there's there's uh you can get access to through the home access center or if you go to the schoology site on our website there's information there on how to get access and our parents are basically able to see all the resources and activities that the teacher has in schoology the only thing they can't see is quizzes and tests but other than that they can basically see anything else that's in there so basically we have learning happening everywhere so this is our nature trails and our third graders are fit or in fifth graders at any day are out at the at the nature trails and and so they we we rewrote the lessons for for the nature trials to make sure that we were building on concept that they may have missed

118in science uh you'll see some pictures of students using their chromebooks out there as well and then a really exciting information i think is that these students are providing are collecting data that is then being provided to the high school for some other high schools courses and then again more learning everywhere beyond the classroom walls in in our flex spaces or collaboration spaces students where their chromebooks continue with their learning or even outside outside right outside the building they're also continuing with with their learning again working at closing those gaps we also provided some additional supports for our campuses to address the learning gaps and so we provided supplemental staffing for our campuses they had they did have some choice in in in what what their needs were but basically they either got an additional

119allocation for class size reduction so to provide smaller class sizes or reading or math interventions interventionist to work with students or content specialists to support teachers in their planning or be in the classrooms also with those teachers and then also to hire retired teachers we have we have some awesome retired teachers in our district that that uh that we want to to join us and help support our students fact i see one in the audience right now that i may talk to later today to come and support our students with specifically math and reading initiatives and then we have our instructional and ed tech coaches our district coaches and right now our instructional coaches have been either teaching in the in the in the temporary virtual learning or subbing but in january they will be

120back out at campuses planning with our with our uh with our groups with our grade level teams and then also supporting in the classroom with personalized coaching for our teachers and then also supporting students with their learning now many of you know that we have had the monitor school process in place for several years now that is a process that we ourselves develop to uh to address the needs of campuses that are not meeting the standard that we have set for cipher so the minimum standard they're not at least at the minimum standard that we have for sci fare and so these campuses are a part of this monitored school process and you can kind of see there in the graphic what it is that we provide for this campus a lot of support a

121lot of intervention a lot of visits a lot of a lot of additional data collection and data review um out there but even with the modern school monitor school process to to address our learning laws we also enhance that so this summer uh the teams went through out seven weeks of a personalized coaching so that they're able to coach their teachers to become better teachers we also provided summer school at those campuses with a six to one ratio to make sure that well their kids are getting the support that they need but also to reacclimate them back to to the uh to the campus uh this is what november so in september i guess when i spoke to you i talked to you about the the ebook challenge that uh that we had in place

122this summer and and we had great response and i shared with you that we were going to do the same thing this summer well we decided to do it earlier so we're kicking it off in in uh in january actually to to create an excitement and more opportunities for students to to be reading and uh and we're really excited about that we're going to have challenges so that's kind of what the librarians came up with the challenges or the information there on that board and so we'll have prizes uh to be able to give our our students to keep them motivated and interested in reading we all know that the key to success for our kids is reading and so we need to do everything that we can to keep them reading and so i'd

123like to end our presentation with one of our younger e-readers hi alyssa hello what are you reading on your chromebook stargazing from the name that book list oh i love it i was looking at the book on there do you like using your chromebook to read ebooks yes what do you like about it i like that you can bring it anywhere and like you can connect and where you can you can also have it your hair and your headphones on they can read it to you that's awesome have you read a lot of books on your chromebook what are some of your favorites the one and only bob and stay all right thanks for visiting with me so that concludes our presentation on the data and our our district and campus plans for closing the

124achievement gap and i really need to get cred give credit to our campuses because they they take all this all this information all this data all of the resources and do a great job of supporting their teachers and monitoring that great instruction is happening in the classroom i am happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you dr macias miss heinemann you have anything doctor overtree thank you uh dr macias for the report i just want to go over a few things in this report um and the initial uh data that you revealed it breaks down whether it's in reading or math it breaks down all then african-american hispanic white and then economic um why do we break down that dr ogletree we want to make sure that all kids are being successful

125and actually the state challenges us with that when the state provides reports for us with the taper reports or different other state reports they provided that format as well they they provided by the different uh target groups and so that gives us we break it down as well with our data because that gives us uh the view or the look at where we need to continue providing support and resources so also dr ogiltry just to add to that at the federal and the state level if we don't meet certain uh goals in each of the different subgroups we could be considered a failing district okay thank you and that's that's the point uh there's been this argument that we shouldn't be breaking all these groups down and just treat students as students and just and

126leave it like that but this is required by the state as well as federal government yes sir now uh we bought 117 000 was 116 000 chromebooks right okay and we we had others we had enough yeah we had we hadn't had all students yes i think that's where you're working and we gave every student right that is correct okay so that's equality right every student gets the books they got chromebooks and they also got internet access if the if they didn't have the access that's equality that's everybody got one but data we we do everything by data right and data reveals that there are differences among groups is that right yes and differences that need to be addressed if we want to educate them right that's correct uh we don't pretend like every group

127and every student is the same it would be fair to say that data reveals inequities data reveals that we have student groups that are performing uh at at a much lower uh level than than other students and if we re if we really want the students to learn we don't just pretend like they all are equal and all the learning and everything is fine we we enact programs we a mirror we we do all of this to try to meet to close the gaps is that right yes we work to meet the needs of all of our students and that's why we have the data digs yes sir does data also reveal that every student every school campus is different that that there are some things that you may have to do more at one

128school than you do at another data reveals that we have campuses that are performing higher with their different target groups and other campuses okay all right so um i just wanted to to bring that to light because this idea that equity is wrong just just equality just give everybody a chromebook and let everybody come to class everyone have a teacher that's going to do it and it's not going to do it thank you ms heinemann thank you for the very thorough report dr macias my only comment is um looking at the data the concern about the learning whether it's loss or learning delay the numbers are very concerning i think i need to remind myself and others that we talked about with the pandemic that it would be a two to three year recovery cycle

129that we couldn't this wasn't something that we could close those gaps so quickly there were gaps that existed before but now we're seeing those gaps across all of our student populations so um while the numbers are very concerning um i think we need to remember that this is a marathon not a sprint and it is going to take additional resources and efforts to get to help our kiddos get where they need to be so they can continue to move forward just just to touch on that also uh miss heinemann is i think we were a little surprised when this all started that the the students that actually did not return to in-person learning were primarily lower socio-economic kids and a higher percentage of minority children so our gap got greater because we know that the

130best learning tool is a professional teacher so yeah it's going to take a couple of three years but scifir isd has a history of closing the gaps quicker than anyone so i'm i'm optimistic that's all mr ryan you got anything nope miss blackjack dr missy macias when we're talking about the different breakdown of groups where do our students with learning disabilities fall into this are they just mainstreamed into those numbers i mean they learn obviously in different ways and uh at different levels so how do we how are we following how our students with learning disabilities are measuring so we have that data broken out as well this black shirt we always break out all all the data everywhere we can we break it down by our special needs students we break it down by

131our english language learners tonight we shared the report with the with the groups that we typically share with you but i can certainly uh provide you with the information on our special needs students they also they're certainly a concern there as well we had many of them that were also learning uh remotely and were not doing well i would like to see those though yes we can we can probably do that mr jackson thank you for the report uh good information information and data is always good whether we like the results or not this is our internal audit as it were so you know i always enjoy that i always look at the delta clearly it's inappropriate to compare to last year other than just an abstract but i look at the deltas between us

132and the state because both population sizes are very large it indicates on here that for each major subpop group that we are required to look at by the state and the feds we outperform the state is my reading of that correct that is correct so if we if we look at the delta of the outperformance in some of these it actually looks like the delta of the outperformance is larger than it has been in the past uh have you all done that analysis or comparison we so we did look at at his history of past history one of the things that we've been looking at is the 2018 data because that was the last year when we really had uh an accountability system where all kids took the start test and so we've used that

133measure you may recall that that year the district actually earned a 92 in in in the raw number and so that that uh uh that pinpoint that data point is actually what we've been working with our campuses since last year we want to get back dr claiborne says black back to whole that's what we've been working at to get to get us back to whole back to when we when when our students were performing where we earned a 92 percent rate when we look at that at the at the star data and we compare it to the 1819 you see a difference there mr jackson but it's so hard to make to make any type of conclusion because not all kids test it right however the the comparison that i'm talking about is a little

134bit different so if we take a look at the delta current year between us and the state both large populations compare that delta to the last time we had testing data the time period you're talking about once again scifir in the state once again back then we outperformed because this board has established that as being a minimum standard that we always want to meet or or attain more of is by major subpops outperform the state have we looked at the delta of this year's comparison and compare that to the delta of the last time we had a meaningful data comparison we've not run the delta analysis however we can run it but i understand what you're saying in that it looks like even though we were lower than where we have been in the past

135we're still we made gains compared to the state precisely i mean and i haven't gone back to take a look at it in detail but that's my recollection is we've widened the gap compared to the state because we all had to put up with virtual learning we all had to put up with the pandemic that is correct and our losses were not as large as those at the state level right yes sir we can pull that information we would be happy to run the data analysis for you so now that the real question is so i believe that our losses were not as great as the state you'll confirm that but anecdotally we think that's correct the question is do we think that the programs that we put in place address that or were our

136kids just somehow drinking better water for before she gives you some cni answers i i think one of the reasons that we performed a little better is we had a higher percentage of kids that came back to in-person learning as the school year wore on so that's at least the first reason well then dr henry you are in fact anticipating my next question so so thank you for giving me that segue and that is actually what i what i was going to share is that the fact that we had students uh in school from the beginning from the 2021 school year the fact we had students in school and we kept getting students back throughout the year uh i do believe was helped help uh our data when uh when you look at it also

137our campuses you know they never stopped working mr jackson they continued with their small group instruction they continued with identifying students who needed needed support uh they were sending they were delivering things to to to homes uh our staff here were going to homes and may and and getting the the parents logged onto the computers so there was so much that was happening to make sure that the needs of all students were being met and uh but we didn't we didn't stop providing the supports and the systems there was still tutoring that was happening both virtually and and uh and and face-to-face and so i think that all of those pieces that that were known for in cypher those continued to the best that we could and i think that uh i think that the

138data reflects that uh you know obviously i'm not accustomed to sharing this type of data with you it's difficult for me to to share this type of data with you but i can assure you that and i have the campuses support with this that we are moving forward and and we're going to close that gap as soon as we can and we continue monitoring adjusting to meet the needs of our students one another observation that i made when i toured the campuses clearly our title 1 schools had a lower in-class participation rate when i visited our campuses toward the end of the year our affluent schools were almost back in full participation in school participation i mentioned to the principals then and i'll mention it now on camera i think it's a tribute to our

139principals that they were able to have a larger in-class participation rate than the state they built that trust with the parents the parents became comfortable permitting their children to come back to school despite a very real pandemic and a very real virus so it's correct so merely the fact that the data reflects that we widen the gap with the state is not by happenstance you all work to deliver it now the next question and the commissioner like you know none of my questions are original right i steal from everybody so this is the the question the commissioner came up with will we be able to compare our virtual kids versus the the state virtual kids and our in-class kids versus the state in-class kids is it possible to capture that data yes we actually uh

140as part of our or uh looking at the data with the with the dpms we actually pull data on our virtual learners and uh our face-to-face students but but have we been able to compare that to the state virtual or no we have not but that is something that we could we could do yes we're currently waiting on the state to provide us a list of our individual students that are currently inside fair and their learning location last year now whether or not they're going to release the state data i can't say to that but we are waiting for them to provide us with our data for kids that we had and kids that are new this year and then of course we will work to get the state data as well and that data

141will be for students who were in a uh virtual remote setting for fifty percent of their instructional uh time that it's not gonna be all kids it's gonna be those that were or we don't i don't believe it's going to be all kids i believe it's going to be those that were uh and that's what they've shared with us 50 of their instructional year was in a virtual setting and i asked that question at a tasbee seminar i was at and and received much the same answer we really can't move forth until we have data from the state be able to move forth um so that covers the the virtual versus in person the i know that math scores were lower i don't see that the delta gaps were lower uh this this district is

142the anomaly in that we have a higher participation rate but also a higher achievement rate which should not happen particularly in math particularly in algebra now this presentation you aggregated the data does that anomaly did it still happen again this year for the algebra kids and and and for the viewing audience the reason why it's an anomaly is we have a higher percentage significantly higher percentage of our eighth graders taking algebra than the state and they still manage to outperform which all kinds of large number testing says does not happen but did it break down because of virtual learning and the pandemic i think we have that data with us yes the data i have are for algebra 1 students all testers so that would include middle school and high school algebra 1 testers our

143students were at 86 passing so while it's not our usual high 90s it was still in the 80s and how did the state do and the state i apologize you do not have the state data for algebra 1 before me so so would you pull that for me yes sir i'm sure the answer will be what we expect it to be but we have to ask the question to to make that comparison even though it's a pandemic year we all suffered through through the pandemic thank you for preparing the schedule for us comparing us to other districts that's something that john and i asked for you all to do many years ago and i'm glad that it's back i note that in the comparison there is one school district that has higher scores than we

144do no surprise but once again for the viewing audience and here's an unfair question for you karen as cfo do we remember how much more money katie receives per child than we do um tom i would have to actually uh go check that and the reason being is because now with house bill 3 it's not as easily easy to compare that information but i could i could get that for you but it's it's different because of for example they get uh fast growth allotment they also get tran uh you know so there's things they get we don't get so it's kind of hard to do a comparison right however if i remember right about three years ago they were receiving seven to eight hundred dollars or more per child for each and every child in

145the entire system yes and and tom charter schools operating within this cypher isd receive about double that in state aid somewhere around fifteen hundred dollars per child more than we do right ten years ago it was a thousand dollars more but instead of that gap being smaller that gap is actually widened uh but money does matter you know i'm really proud of you all and y'all are really good but money still matters at the end of it and that concludes my questions and comments and bob as always i can't tell the difference between my questions and my comments either did i say that gilbert it's arabia i'd like to start with an outstanding report by by the staff there outstanding um on one question here on the student achievement personalized learning there was the accelerated

146instruction part at least 30 hours of supplemental instruction for each subject in which student did not demonstrate satisfactory performance the 30 hours how is that broken up for that particular student it actually has to be continuous and uh and so our campuses are providing that we have we we do have parents who uh are not interested in in in doing the the accelerated learning but that is a state requirement and not only is a requirement but they're very clear about when it can happen so it can't happen like you can't pull a student out of reading class to provide this additional uh reading support it's got to be supplemental it's got to be outside their core content areas so we're able to do some some groups when parents are are allowing us to do more

147than three students at you know at the secondary we have classes that are in addition to our core classes where it's really more in enrichment accelerated type class period and so that actually counts towards this as long as the parents allow us to do more than three students uh to a teacher right so we have some of both we have some parents that that are saying no i want three students to a teacher and so typically that has to happen before school or or after school and then we have some that have said we'll we'll we'll do the the you know the the larger group and we can do some of that in closing the gap time because that's 30 minutes of outside of their normal uh content areas and that's required by the state

148you said yes sir okay it's very specific very specific okay great great answer uh on our summer school so the last couple of years we know we've been in in the 30 thousand uh numbers already and those are our highest numbers we've had before uh typically typically before our free summer school that we provided in summer of 2020 we had anywhere between somewhere around right around 8 000 students in summer school and then once we did the the free summer school we actually got closer to the 30 thousand so you do see the response of the community trying to get trying to help get their children back and back into the classroom and and furthering their education and closing that gap um other than summer school what other periods of time during the year can

149they do these extra classrooms and study study parts well as i said throughout throughout the year we offer the accelerated learning we do the closing the gap we do before and after school tutoring uh campuses do saturday school i mentioned that we're hiring the student uh students uh high school students to serve as tutors as well so we we have opportunities to be able to provide support for our students right okay retired teamwork but we have a big retired teacher program that that i mentioned but even with all of that we still have struggle some to find uh um additional staff to pro to provide some of that uh accelerated learning and tutoring support and from our training in dallas uh this fall i think that's throughout the whole state that we heard it's just

150a quite a struggle at this time to getting that uh help um when we first started the the first year of the pandemic there was that two to three year gap that julie had mentioned that we always anticipate it's going to take two to three years do you see that gap shortening a little bit or at least because that was a big conversation in dallas also with between within the conference there of where it might have started and then where we might be at now well as dr henry said it could be a two to three year uh time period uh to close uh the gap as a result of the pandemic right we're always optimistic and we we uh we're planning to address this need over the next two years and i'm hoping that

151that within two years we have our students back to where we were back in the 18 19 school year that is that is our goal as a curriculum team and that's what we're working that's what we've been working towards with our campuses exactly um i want to congratulate you guys on a great job at anything the board can always do to to absolutely assist in your uh and your job you know we're we're always going to be here and a great way to use those escrow funds that you're using and stuff i know that was you were itching to get into it and stuff for a while so it's nice to see that um the fruition of of of it all come to a head and everything else though um great job ladies just just

152to add to that mr sorobia think think about someone who started uh kindergarten in 1920 the school year 1920 they have not had a normal school year yet think about a freshman who started as a freshman in 1920. they're juniors now and they have not had a normal i wasn't talking about your graduating class so so uh you i mean there hasn't been it's still not a normal school year right and i i believe teresa brought it up and one of the other meetings uh there's a lot of the pre-k kids that didn't come back and were we were anticipating having those pre-k kids from the get-go just like you're saying now uh when we get them back they're you know there's going to be that gap there and stuff so but again outstanding job

153on on preparing everything and we wholeheartedly support you as here at ward and stuff so well and and i'll say this i promise when it all shakes out in a year or two um scifire will be leading the pack of of being back uh to normal thank you gilbert and just to piggyback on what gilbert because that was my one question was the 30 hours of supplemental uh instruction where do we get the teachers from that do that that has been the the challenge mr covey so depending on when we're doing the accelerated learning it's our teachers who are providing uh that additional uh accelerated learning and additional support for our kids either before some before school some after school uh some during the closing the gap time that's where we're using our retired teachers

154that's we're gonna since we can't find more dr henry's idea was and then let's let's let's grow our own here and so that's why we're tapping into the high school students and and doing the the interviews and and then having that pool of tutors there as well for for our kids requirements for k to eight i'm sorry i can't do it three three to eight three to eight um third or eighth grade students okay now one more question all the digital resources that you have and just just my question is on schoology and i i've heard a number especially during the period of time that we were going through this election uh i heard a lot of people say they didn't understand schoology and yet do we offer parents help in understanding schoology so they

155can help their own kids absolutely on uh on our website we have a number of videos that guide you through every aspect of schoology that parents can can watch and go through but also if they will ask at the campus level they will also help them with that or if they call us here we will act also helping guide them through that okay that's what i thought i appreciate the report and one final thing uh and you probably don't have this but did we see any of our charter schools uh coming back into public ed this year i know at one time we used to see them right around testing because charter schools like to get rid of kids they don't think are gonna test well so they sent them back to uh public schools

156so did we see any of that we did see some that i heard about but i don't i don't have a number for you i would have to go back and ask dr stewart to help me pull that number but i did hear of some we we welcome everybody i know whatever you want to do well we want everybody here and say fair i know i appreciate it thank you all very much for a great report uh just always knows you all are working for the betterment of all of our kids thank you yo a final question and we're going to know whether it's a question or a statement on this okay linda you've been talking about curriculum adding curriculum software that sort of thing how much of your curriculum focuses on no place for

157hate zero weight weights what z what why is that well we do not eat my our curriculum instruction department does not use no place for hate as a resource for curriculum we it's not it's not part of the curriculum that it's not part of the resource or curriculum that we use to um to build our curriculum the activities that were used uh were not facilitated from our department uh doctor still can give you more information on that through student services but it's not through curriculum and instruction we do not use no place for hate as a resource so is that because your curriculum is takes based yes sir our curriculum is completely based on the on the standards thank you thank you may i add one more thing uh mr covey yes ma'am uh this

158year with our principals we talked about meeting the challenge um getting all of our kids back on track like they were back in 1819 and so they did and so they all received this pin that says challenge accepted and so we have accepted the challenge to do whatever we need to do to meet the needs of all of our students and get everyone back on track thank you all very much appreciate it now we're uh moving on to action i'm sorry is there something else did you say okay i'm sorry the board will consider approving the minutes of the october 11 2021 regular board meeting the following non-consensus action items were moved to consent during the board work session on thursday november 4th 2021. the board will consider approving the district's 2021 comprehensive annual financial

159report and the single audit report and accept the auditor's report on the district's general purpose financial statements and the single audit for the fiscal year in the june 30th 2021 11b the board will consider approving the budget amendments for the period of july 1st 2021 through september 30th 11c the board to consider approving on second reading additions revisions or deletions to district policies 11 c 1 dec local compensation and benefits leaves and absences revised 11 c 2 ffac local wellness and health services medical treatment a revised 11d the board will consider approving a resolution pursuant to the education code 29.9091 to operate a local remote learning program in accordance with the statutory requirements 11e the board will consider approving the memorandum of understanding between cyprus fairbanks isd and william marsh rice university regarding the houston

160education research consortium 11 if the board will consider approving the shared service agreement between cyprus fairbanks isd and the methodist health center's dba houston methodist willowbrook 11g the board will consider awarding bids and contracts and are authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item 11 g1 marketing services request for proposal 11 g3 zonar annual service agreement 11 h the board will consider approving the renewal affiliation agreement with lone star college to fulfill the curriculum requirements in collegiate registered nurse rn and licensed vocational nurse lvn programs through clinical placements if any board member wishes to remove one or more of these items for further discussion please do so at this time and if not i'll entertain a motion to approve the consent item is recommended and are amended mr president i move that we

161approve the consent items as recommended and or amended thank you mr ryan may have a second i second thank you miss heinemann any uh questions or concerns mr president yes sir uh on 11c2 we heard from the community my reading of this i don't see the community concern but do we have somebody who can talk to this so eleven dot c dot two ffac local wellness and health services medical treatment revised uh in particular the language that says and reflect that the district shall seek appropriate emergency care for a student as required or deemed necessary mr jackson i can give you a little information about this and then if there's anything in addition that miss sims wants to share she definitely is welcome to do so first and foremost this is uh texas association the

162school board's recommendation uh that uh based on the guidance from the the texas department of state health services and there really are four areas you touched on one of those and i'll just mention that based on what you shared we we do require and will continue to require parental consent for the administration of all medications so wait wait so let me stop you there say that again we require and will continue to require parental consent for the administration of all medications there was a piece talking about an emergency situations i can give you as a as a parent of two students that graduated from sci fair that participated in athletics one needed epinephrine due to severe allergies she ran cross-country and that was a consent that i had given my wife and i had given

163to the coach in the event that she needed that when an emergency occurred if she's out on the course things of that nature my point is we're always going to make sure the parent is aware of that in that emergency situation we only administered prescription medications that was something else that was part of this with a health care provider order and again with consent from the parent so the parent is aware when we're giving medication to students at school many times parents may give that at home but there are some medications that it requires for those to be given while they're in school as well and that's where that communication is with the parent the only time we're ever going to give medication as an example that i shared with my own child where that

164did occur we're not going to expect a call from the coach in that emergency because we've already given that permission to give that an emergency situation and and this has been the regulations for some time i believe right when i visited with our director of health services ms gordon there was not a major change here with the practices and the procedures that we had in place correct i know when i was a band dad one of the trips i was on we were at the tomball parade and we had a type of one we had a student who was type 1 diabetic and he collapsed and happily the permission slip was there in hand as was the injection that needed to be made and we had somebody who was authorized to take care of that

165and the child's life was literally saved but once again there was a signed permission slip and that was in the box on the bus so so continue i don't know so what so one of the concerns i heard expressed was that vaccinations would be given without either with or without parental do we give vaccinations on campuses uh this is not part of this particular revision i think what we have mentioned is regard to vaccinations is that it was brought up for high schools that were they were offered at our high school campuses but parent permission uh is needed for that likewise for the the child vaccinations that are now available we are not going to to give a vaccination without parent permission the parents will make that decision if their child if they want their

166child to receive a vaccination and how how do we determine that we actually have parental permission uh with the example of the the cova vaccine moving forward uh with the elementary we're going to make sure that we have that permission from the parent both on the phone and also look at what we need to do to ensure that that parent is the one that is giving us permission to do so so so bob so i don't i don't have a problem with this but can we pull this out and postpone that to another to to the next meeting with me yeah i want to pull it out but i i only have one voice so so one voice is not sufficient to pull it out is there anything is there any reason sorry okay go

167ahead no did we decide and did we make this up or did where did this come from uh no sir we did not make this up this comes from texas association of school boards their recommended policy revision and those areas that were uh mentioned were where the revisions came into play but again this are these are procedures that we already have in place the covit vaccine aspect of it is not not part of this and for the coveted vaccine the child vaccine we're going to for example we we have that available at the berry center what is the date of that um miss hall listed on the website saturday and that's where parents will come with their children and for that reason to get the vaccine and just a comment there the text association of

168school boards is basically suggesting this because of laws that have been put into fact right texas department so it's not that they're making this decision they're right and that goes back to the texas department of state health services and the guidance from the texas department of state bob i withdraw my request thank you mister i also want to point out that this is a revision we already we've already had this in there this is strictly revision on on the wording within there probably to address the pandemic and other things it's it's not something brand new that has been thrown to the public and the fact that i'm i'm glad someone spoke but what they spoke in regard to they were uninformed about when this has been on the books for a number of years so

169thank you tom for withdrawing it because i would definitely like to move forward okay we have a motion by mr ryan in a second by julie heinemann all in favor raise your right hand and that's unanimous thank you the following non-consent action items uh remained on non-consent and were presented in closed session at a board work session on thursday november the 4th 2021. the board will consider a level 3 discipline appeal of a level 2 psych creek high school decision made by the discipline review committee this item may be discussed in closed session pursuant section 551.071 and 551.082 the appeal hearing was handled on thursday evening may i have a motion to uphold rescind or amend the decision made at the level 2 hearing mr president i move that the board uphold uh the decision

170made at level two thank you mr ryan may you have a second second who did that oh thank you mr jackson do we have any comments mr covey i just want to point out that i wasn't present here thursday night i did watch the board meeting online so therefore i voted on the earlier items but since i wasn't present and did not go into closed section session i will be abstaining from voting on these last two items thank you very much and i'm going to do the same thing so the two of us were not here thursday uh therefore uh we have a motion and a second all in favor raise your right hand we have five four and two abstaining eleven j the board consider our level three discipline appeal of a level two

171role middle school decision made by the discipline review committee this item may be discussed in closed session pursuant to section 551 point zero seven one and five five point the appeal hearing was handled on thursday evening may have a motion to uphold rescind or amend the decision made at the level 2 hearing mr president i move that the board uphold the decision made at level two thank you mr jackson may you have a second second uh thank you gilbert all right any questions or concerns and mr president yes just to comment for the viewing public these are always difficult and painful decisions to be made the the hearings are always difficult and and painful to hear but it is part of the job and these two are no different than any of the others that

172that we hear thank you sir thank you appreciate it uh no other comments all in favor well i'm sorry i'm going to do the same thing again and i believe miss black sure is so we're abstaining all in favor please raise your right hand that is five and four and two abstaining thank you very much before we move to the superintendent's briefing portion agenda we'll take an action on a remaining addendum agenda item a the board will consider approving the district improvement plan for 2021-2022 dr linda macias and dr ashley klaber mr covey just very briefly i just wanted to share a little bit about the district improvement plan and just just so that just a reminder that when we when we uh prepare the improvement plan we review campus and level district district data

173we also request feedback from the dic so we've done that and actually reminded and got additional feedback from them and then we share that feedback with our assistant directors associate superintendents and the directors as they're also preparing uh their components of the dip and then once once the board uh if the board approves that that it goes online and then this is a live document next month we will actually bring bring forth to you the uh the campus uh information so the the campus improvement information and uh we'll discuss that with you but both of these document both of these documents actually are living documents okay that's the brief presentation is it yeah okay i like it uh and now we will proceed with the superintendent's briefing portion of the agenda dr henry will provide

174information regarding district events and items i'll make a motion i'm sorry that that we approve the plan as presented by oh i'm sorry dr macias second thank you thank you all thank you all for carrying me on any questions or concerns okay all in favor raise your right hand that's unanimous thank you now can i proceed okay we'll proceed with the superintendent's briefing portion of the agenda dr henry will provide information regarding district events and items of community interest dr henry thank you mr covey schools throughout the district will pay tribute to our community's greatest heroes our veterans this week is that we observe veterans day on november 11th thank you to all the veterans in the cfisd community who have served or are currently serving our nation cfisd schools and facilities will be closed

175the week of november 22 to the 22nd for thanksgiving break i wish everyone a safe and restful holidays as we spend time with loved ones and reflect on our blessings and i hope everyone will travel safely and and come come back to us what is that the 29th uh of i don't want to give the wrong date there will be people not showing up uh that monday after uh thanksgiving i'll just say that and then the the final thing i'd uh say uh three gentlemen up here it's your last meeting and uh as the orchestra director said on the titan titanic it's been an honor so thank you now that was a nice thing that he said uh it has been a joy and honor for all of us we are now adjourned thank you

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