001[Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening the cyprus fairbanks independence school district board of trustees are now convened in a regular board meeting on monday september 13 2021 in the boardroom of cypress fairbanks independence school district instructional support center located at 10 300 jones road houston texas at 6 pm i want to welcome the members of our audience and our television viewers to this meeting of the board of trustees as the cyprus fairbanks board of trustees we are here to set goals listen to reports from the superintendent approve budgets contracts personnel appointments and make policy for the district it is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions the management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent we have policies and procedures in place to resolve concerns and issues
002this is a public meeting of the board of trustees not a meeting of the public prior to this meeting board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda agenda items will not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice the meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed during the course of this meeting the board may determine that a closed session is necessary in that event the board will meet in closed session to consider matters duly posted for this meeting as permitted by sections 551.071 through 551.084 of the texas government code these proceedings are airing live on comcast channel 16 and the district website they will also be available as video on demand on the district website following tonight's meeting for the video to adequately reflect
003the proceedings i respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are turned off in silent mode thank you for taking the time to join us this evening and for your interest in the cypress fairbanks independent school district i would like to take this opportunity to recognize our community leadership committee members who are in attendance this evening ryan irving did you stand thank you ryan dancia lloyd where is she there you are you just waved and you need to stand up we need to see you there you go what is it well okay i'm sorry danica that's why you weren't standing right okay i'll learn and we also have this is awesome on the front row a boy scout troop uh number 61. where do y'all where do
004you meet okay uh we have would you stand up harrison edwards matthias bao miles g jackson tyler nellis mel heine haney and blair haney thank you all for being here we appreciate you being here tonight and now please stand as dr older tree gives us the invocation from tonight's board meeting we did not ask a pastor to show up because of the possible rain and we did not ask the flags to be presented so you are standing and then we'll stand and remain for the pledge dr ogintree let us pray heavenly father holy is your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we ask that you would bless our meeting tonight we thank you for this district we thank you for the success that we've had through
005the years we thank you for every employee we thank you for every student we thank you that we have a district that wants to educate each and every child please give us wisdom on this board as we make decisions and bless dr henry and his team as they make daily decisions for the betterment of our district we ask your blessings upon debbie blackshear who we miss so dearly please continue the healing process so that she can return and be with us and we ask you as this tropical storm heads our way that you would keep us all safe that we can return to the educational process we ask these things in our savior's name amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands
006one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice you may be seated i will now read the district's vision and mission statement for the benefit of the audience our vision at cfisd is formed by the acronym lead to learn empower achieve dream lead our mission is to maximize every student's potential through rigorous and relevant learning experiences prevent preparing students to be 21st century global leaders dr henry will make remarks and announcements including honors and achievements earned by the staff and students in recent weeks dr henry thank you mr covey just one announcement this evening for the sixth consecutive year bain elementary school was designated as the top participant in the cypher educational foundation's donate to educate program which allows cfisd employees to give a payroll deduction to the cfef to generate money for student scholarships
007nearly 60 percent of bain staff participated in the program for a total donation of nearly eight thousand dollars thank you mr covey thank you we'll now proceed with the public comments portion of the agenda patrons who are duly registered for policy bed local may address the board and make public comments on an agenda item during or before the board's consideration of the item the board may allow public comment on agenda items at all meetings the board will continue with the remaining agenda after the registered patrons have had an opportunity to speak we have one speaker on the public comment part uh and i'm probably not going to say this right ac in in demayo very good hello first before i speak i'd like my speech to be transcribed word for word um last time i
008spoke it was mentioned that i spoke but not disfavorably towards character strong which i do feel failure to honor this request is considered a form of censorship and is illegal according to your bylaws now i'd like to speak on cyber security tonight because there are two huge red flags i see with this agenda item the first red flag is the board is voting to give their power away to dr henry in regards to selecting a cyber security program the wording on this agenda item was removed this afternoon and changed why is the board trying to centralize power to dr henry when we vote for them to make decisions as a group to represent us the second red flag is the current state of privacy in regards to cyber security why on earth is the board
009voting tonight to give away their power to select a cyber security program to dr henry his expertise is in education i think the agenda item to give all the power to dr henry is odd and i'm wondering if he plans on giving the contract to any company in particular i'd like it to be made public what program is selected and why my second red flag is i think scifire has overstepped its authority in regards to the home access center we need a new program all together because right now any teacher or administration official has access to any of devices logged into the home access access center and included is that is access to the camera internet history and you name it so if a child has logged in at home and forgets their teacher or
010administrator can watch them in their room and see anything on their device we need a new program that doesn't use editoring any monitoring software that has this access better yet why don't we just get rid of it the teachers tell me my children are being required to be in the chromebook for 35 of the day why did the board approve this this gives more way for the internet to teach our kids instead of the teacher i do not really believe the internet is better than our teachers anyway please do not give please do not vote for dr henry to get sole authority on cyber security thank you [Applause] we will now proceed with the board comments portion of the agenda 5a the board member may make a comment during this portion of the agenda without
011prior posting being required comment items may not pertain to the character of any students staff or board member and may not be discussed or deliberated upon at this meeting board members do i have anybody gilbert go ahead yes in the past month since um before slightly before school has started i was had the ability to go out to several campuses and um and and visit in a roundabout way so uh but i did and get to go to a few of the sporting events and stuff and what i saw was um what i saw was it wasn't quite yet back to what we hope it is but it's a start and i want to applaud the uh the staff uh for getting us back there and then as i peered out and saw the parents
012in attendance and the uh and the fans and stuff it it was uh refreshing and i just wanted to pass that along uh i talked to many of these students and many of them had no idea who i was at at any point or anything and i just asked simple questions how you doing how did the school year start with you guys and even the uh employees there or the educators you know how were things going and you know uh and they gave back honest answers they had no idea who i was and stuff so i was just kind of going around watching you know at least over a dozen uh activities and stuff and it was quite refreshing to see that compared to where we were at last year uh and then uh some
013were mass and some were not and but almost everyone was socially distanced as far as they knew when there were too many in a group and but nobody told them anything and they did their own diligence and stuff and it was nice to see that they were taking a responsibility on their own and stuff anyway i just wanted to pass that along and then uh traveling out to seeing a football game at the berry center and i didn't make bridging like i had hoped to though but the same thing there and it was really refreshing to see that see our community come back in a vibrant way and it's and it's and it's it's growing and i just wanted to share that with you uh some some good news and stuff like that though so
014anyways that's just my take thank you thank you gilbert mr jackson some of the stops i made since the last board meeting included our summer school graduation very robust with four times the numbers we normally see the student who provided the commencement comments noted that their drive to graduate taught them many lessons but years later they would remember among all of them that they learned grit very impressive once again this year i was a bus buddy the opening day of school the first day of school is one of my top highlights as a trustee i visited with feast where my children went and principal dr jerome gave me a campus tour to see the new construction chat with students and teachers my key takeaways pre-k and k classes were robust that's a tribute to the
015trust parents place in the principal and staff of that campus about 70 80 percent of the students and staff chose to wear a mask the students were genuinely happy to be back in school i asked the fourth and fifth graders what they thought of their new school some of their words and i told them i would repeat them tonight awesome great unique takeaway number four construction dollars were well spent interesting numbers the positivity rate for our district with voluntary mass wearing is the same as another large district with mandatory mass usage that achievement is attributable to students parents staff and overall leadership on the subject of mask we have parent choice we have employee choice we follow the law we follow the advice of counsel and laurie my dear cousin of 40-year teacher of education
016who passed away the first week of school from covet i wear my mask tonight for you our summer school program at no-cost appearance with almost 25 000 students a four-fold increase 37 000 e-book readers that would not have been available were not for the support of the community our algebra summer camp had 1500 students in attendance it's already the best of its kind in the entire state of texas and that was a three-fold increase from a pre-covered year it speaks to the fact that the community and our parents want our children to achieve and not be a lost generation and sadly i also have to mention the concept of threats folks threats really aren't appropriate doesn't matter where you direct them just not appropriate i was coded three times in the hospital with md anderson
017threats don't impress me during a night of social unrest my car took two bullets while i was driving in the district violence doesn't impress me either passion is good but let's keep it within the ballpark and so tonight i tip my hat to those members of the staff and our parents who work diligently to keep our positivity rate as low as possible and to keep our students engaged thank you mr president thank you mr jackson dr argentry thank you mr president i had the privilege of uh being a bus buddy this year and uh the privilege of taking my grandchildren to school and picking them up after football practice and i just want all of our students in this district to know that i see how hard you work to achieve all our parents uh
018who are concerned about navigating this pandemic and the health and safety of your children and getting them to and fro school all the teachers the parents the counselors the custodians the food service workers who make daily sacrifices for our students i see you and all the principals who make those tough decisions to make our campuses work i hear you i see you i care for you and it's one of the reasons i am happy to support the recommendation to give additional sick leave for all of our employees we have a great district i'm glad to be a part of thank you ms heinemann thank you mr president um one of the things i look forward to at the start of a new school year is volunteering as a bus buddy just like many of my
019colleagues here bus buddies write a school bus for the first day or or two of school to help ensure students get off at the right bus stop this year i was a bus buddy for sheridan elementary and mcphee elementary schools the first days of school are always hectic and campus staffs were working very hard to implement dismissal procedures it was very much like trying to herd cats and puppies and goldfish and monkeys and sloths maybe a few of those memorable experiences included waking up several sleepy kindergartners visiting with ethan who may be the most polite young man in any elementary school in the district and learning that a brilliant fourth grader named lily her little brother the bus driver and i all have the same favorite color which is purple not just any purple it's
020lavender speaking of this bus driver this is part of an email i sent to dr kane smith the director of transportation i want to share my experience with mrs danielle trevino of the west green transportation center i had the honor of being a bus buddy on her bus last week for two days mrs trevino is an excellent bus driver she drove cautiously and had already memorized her routes before the first day of school she clearly explained many safety procedures which gave me an even greater appreciation for our bus drivers most importantly she had already started learning her students names and their bus stops this is particularly admirable because these are new routes for her this year she spoke with a patient warm voice as she welcomed students by name and recognized siblings she reassured one
021student that we would not leave until his little sister was on the bus she ensured our littlest learners were sitting right behind her or with an older sibling if they wanted to and didn't rush her students even when our departures were delayed mrs trevino did not become flustered when some of the older students became a bit rowdy and loud she addressed them calmly and asked them to use their level 1 voices because of her approach they responded immediately and respectfully i am grateful that our students are in her very capable and caring hands we are lucky to have her as a cfisd bus driver next many families in our community including mine are deeply impacted by mental illness like depression and anxiety mental health is just as important as physical health and often it's hard
022to find resources when you need them in a time of crisis or concern just googling isn't very effective or helpful i encourage everyone to visit the cfisd mental health resource fair being held on october 6th at the berry center from 4 30 to 6 30. if you cannot attend in person a list of resources can be found on the cfisd website you can look under departments if you look under the police department there's a list also under guidance and counseling there is a list i just noticed there's a camera there's also a very lengthy document a resource guide that lists resources in our communities next when i went to back to watch the archived video from last thursday's board work session i observed a couple of things number one i touch my hair way too
023much when i'm talking that's why i laughed i just did it that's just this is a demo especially when i'm agitated setting a second thing i observed is setting setting a school district tax rate is an incredibly complex process that isn't just about the tax rate percentage which is the part that we partially control it's about property values that are set by the harris county appraisal district it's about local versus state control and how the state legislature has slowly been chipping away at local control by consolidating power at the state level at the board work session last thursday we talked about how cfisd offers true property tax relief by offering an optional homestead exemption of 20 percent off your property tax yet the state penalizes the district and reduces our state funding because we aren't
024collecting more taxes for them when i say optional i mean that it's optional for cfisd to give it it's something that pass boards and this board have decided to offer i am guessing that the majority of taxpayers don't know any of that instead the school district gets blamed for high property taxes when in actuality we are take taking steps to lower them i believe we have financial transparency but transparency without clarity and understanding is ineffective we need to find better ways to help taxpayers better understand their property taxes my annual rant and the conversations i have with friends and community members at work or in the grocery store aren't good enough i am challenging us to try to work on that finally i have been reflecting on my time on the school board i've served
025for two years and i have learned so much and i'm still learning it continues to be a very steep learning curve or maybe a roller coaster is a better description before i ran for the school board i attended almost every work session and formal meeting for three years i can count the ones i missed on one hand i felt i was well prepared to serve because those meetings helped me to build valuable relationships with staff and community members who were also in the audience i learned about how the agendas work and i gained confidence in the many times i spoke to the board during public comments if you are running for the board or you're thinking about running for the board in the future and you haven't attended meetings in person regularly i'm wondering if
026you know what to expect if you know what you're getting yourself into honestly and i say this not to be smart snarky but because i care governance is different than management the board doesn't run the school district the board ensures that it is run well it requires a strategic perspective while also having in-depth understanding of school finance and school legislation it requires trustees to make hard decisions impacting 116 000 students 15 000 employees and their families while maintaining empathy for multiple divergent groups of stakeholders it's hard and it's important and sometimes it is overwhelming i believe trustees must be mission focused versus issue focused maintaining our focus on our core mission of educating students is the only way we can do this work and i say work but you all know that we're unpaid volunteers
027right we have to run for election but in order to be unpaid volunteers and i have a funny story about that last weekend or the weekend before i was visiting my oldest daughter in florida at college and i was reading the local paper um that their governor is withholding the trustee's salary for not following his executive order and i'm like salary what is that they get paid forty six thousand dollars a year we are what is what's going on here you guys we are missing the boat somehow i could use that paycheck for sure but anyway i am so i was so excited to be elected as a cfisd trustee in the first few months were certainly the honeymoon phase then the pandemic hit and has been a lot less pleasurable for me it is
028rewarding to be a part of this community and this school district i am proud to serve as a trustee it fills my bucket which is good because right now that bucket is full of holes and is hard to hold on to our school district isn't perfect but it is good our students their teachers bus drivers maintenance our police officers our nurses and our administrators are good people doing good work let's keep focusing on the good and on the mission and finally because you know i always say finally twice i don't really mean it the first time um i want to send out much love to debbie blackshear we do miss her and we cannot wait for her to come back and join us on the board thank you sorry that was so long sorry like
029my colleagues i also participated in a bus buddy and anyone can participate in bus buddy so if you've never done it it's quite an experience it's a lot of fun i will say that i did the sweep of each bus to make sure there were not backpacks our bottles are trashed left on the floor i guess you might call it the janitorial situation but i just called it a sweep uh it was a lot of fun and working with those kids and watching them and pretty much the exuberance in pre-k and kay they're so excited to be in school it's just it's amazing and a lot of fun now like my colleagues this past saturday was the 20th anniversary of 9 11 invasion of terrorists on the american soil watching many programs i was taken
030with diane sawyer's moms and babies and their look back at 20 years of losing a loved one on that horrific day i can vividly remember being a student in the 50s having bomb threat practices as we all felt the russians were going to attack many built bomb shelters and the bomb threat drills i still not sure getting in the hallway putting your head between your legs was going to save you very much but that's what we did khrushchev the former prime minister of russia even said we will take america without firing a shot we do not need to invade u.s we will destroy from within in the 60s the vietnam war in the 70s the gas shortage and the economy break down in the 80s we saw the tearing down of the wall in germany
031and in the 90s that short war in iraq and we're all familiar from 2000 on up so many struggles from without and some from within and yet i'm moved by the optimism the love and the hope that i saw come from these babies that were born prior to during or after the 9 11. what i heard was a reading of many names of lost people from planes as first responders in the towers at the pentagon and the names of americans not differentiated by race class economic background educational background they were americans none were singled out for anything other than being a heroic or a victim of this brutal attack but simply americans they were brought together by tragedy yet choosing hope over defeat it was a time of solidarity being american americans on a plane
032destined for some specific target in washington d.c coming together to stop the plan and save lives while giving their lives for the greater good of america one news reporter even commented that in his many travels worldwide he could always pick out an american in a foreign country we may not be a specific ethnic race but we are americans are we perfect no way are we seeking continuous improvement always khrushchev may have thought he knew how to take over america and some things may have even occurred that make his statement seem almost possible but i believe in the american dream and hope i feel that is still in the hearts of america across our great nation and those working and enjoying other lands the tragedy that occurred on 9 11 was despicable and yet the american
033hope is resilient our american legacy lives on continually evolving and improving yet having a realization that our american spirit is our greatest unifying street god bless the heroes of the victims of 9 11 and their families this day will never be forgotten and their memories and lives will live on forever thank you we will now proceed with the citizen participation portion of the agenda 6a patrons who are duly registered per policy bed local may address the board regarding matters of concern interest to the district and 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 tonight we have a number of speakers and we will start out with nippa kamdar kamdar can you hear
034me okay my name is nipah condar i'm a nurse practitioner i'm a community health nurse educator at ut and i also conduct my own grant funded research as a nurse scientist but i'm here today in my most important role that of a mother of two cypher isd students i have two points i wish to make today i have reviewed the lead safely policy carefully and i've identified a mistake in error under prevention i see self-monitoring quarantine isolation and vaccine but i do not see mask when i read further i found that mask was listed under mitigation to define mitigation it is what we do once an infection has occurred and we are trying to minimize damage masks are by definition prevention it is a basic primary prevention practice to reduce the spread of airborne diseases
035this is scientifically demonstrated and proven by evidence it needs to be moved from mitigation to the prevention section and whoever has advised you that mask our prevention is mitigation i would love to speak to them to correct their mistake the second thing is messaging i understand that abbott has placed a ban on mask mandates i'm not here to argue that but your messaging can be more clear we educate by modeling and last week or two weeks ago i heard a coach tell a parent teacher a parent conference that your child does not have to wear a mask why is that type of comment okay but the inverse not okay i also saw administration walking up and down in front of new new parents for a ninth grade um presentation not wearing a mask but telling
036the parents that if your child shows up at the mask on monday they will not be ridiculed i appreciate that i'm sure that person meant it with good intentions but the message should have been we encourage the children to wear a mask on monday please thank you miss kamdar thank you i'm sorry and i apologize to you i should have told you our policy and procedure so i pause that and i'll let you go a little bit longer thank you very much thank you just for those who've never been here before we have the lights over here you're given two minutes at 30 seconds before the end the yellow light comes on and at the red light you are to summarize and complete your your thoughts next up is ryan irving sterving [Music] good evening
037superintendent henry president board of trustees called scythe fair community my name is ryan irving jr i'm a former cfisd student who has lived in the district for 22 years i'm a current honor student senior at the university of houston i'm a clc member current candidate for the scifi board of trustees and advocate for public education i'm here today to speak about unity just two days ago marked the 20th anniversary of 9 11. on that day we lost 2996 people 412 first responders gave their lives as an act of courage none of those people gave their lives none of those people that gave their lives for others cared about the differences but rather were human differences can bring people together or tear them apart when i think about our different when i think about our differences
038as a community i tend to think about the district's motto opportunity for all being a recent former student this district model means to me an opportunity for every student no matter your gender religion ethnicity economic status or sexual orientation our educators staff and our educators and staff do not care about differences but rather how to provide this model for all of our children let's take the motto and apply it beyond our schools this community is strong because of our differences no matter our differences we all come together when it comes to public education because of our children we may have different ways of getting there but at the end of the road we all have the same goal in mind which is to give our kiddos the best education possible let's unite one another not
039divide if someone has a different opinion listen to that person disagree sure but then find a common ground let the topic of public ed be an opportunity for all of our voices in closing we must remember that it is okay to have differences in opinion it is okay not to see eye to eye but let's also remember to love thy neighbor because we are thy neighbor if you can remember anything from the speech remember this our fundamental differences are what make us say fair let's move forward and unite together strong schools equal strong community thank you danny moss hi my name is danny moss before my time begins i'd like for this to be put word for word in public transcript i would not like to be paraphrased or summarized as citizens spoke failure to
040honor this request is considered censorship and is illegal by your bylaws so i just want to get that clear my name is danny moss i am a former student i'm a former educator i've worked for this district for many years i have resigned for multiple reasons if anybody in this room would like to see my resignation letter i'm more than happy to share it publicly i may not be an educator with you guys but i am still a concerned taxpayer i was recently made aware of several statements made by a sitting member of our board john ogletree i did not come to debate you cannot reflect on anyone on the board okay a member on your board a member on your board who i won't name um i'm not going to debate i'm not i'm
041not here to debate it but i would like some clarity and i would like to know where each of you stands on his statements or this person's statements i would like accountability as to where you guys stand because some of these statements i'm sure can be taken in multiple ways with the community i am positive that over the 300 local law enforcement members that i talk today specifically would like to know as well as imagine being compared to kkk it did not sit well with most of them as you know elections are coming up seats are for grabs we want to know as taxpayers how you stand so i am going to ask on record and request that each of you tell us how do you stand on these statements do you agree with this
042statement quote yesterday's ku klux klan members are today's police officers and councilmen yes or no do you agree or do you not agree as a board member i would like to know where you stand on this i would also like to know why we are being told as trump supporters that we have to apologize for his quote ungodly behavior it's unacceptable to me and it's unacceptable to isolate your voters who vote for you i do not condone this i'm not here to debate thank you miss moss [Applause] donna stallone my name is donna stallone i appreciate you all being here and giving us the two minutes to speak the last time i was here i was concerned about the um the inability or the unwillingness of you all to hear what we all had to
043say so we had a tent set up we had approval to be set up at the pit stop so that parents could be heard and i was shocked to hear and understand that marnie sims had made a phone call to have us removed the manager there felt very threatened she then called the owner of that establishment and said that there was a group of rednecks acting hooting and hollering out in the parking lot and disrupting the peace if this is the accountability and transparency that you all have i shudder to think that this is the governing body that will be looking at social emotional learning over our children i would appreciate are you willing to look me in the face now and tell me that i'm a redneck and that i was disrupting the piece
044because that was my son once again we made the statement you need to make your statements but not direct to anyone did you hear that you know what my time is up here but i think a lot of your time is up here too thank you miss india mantle i'd like the board to publicly condemn the following two no place for hate lessons that were taught because they teach critical race theory the first lesson i'd like condemned in a few middle schools the anti-defamation league lesson plan about lonnie chavez instructs teachers to elicit the following definition of racism the disrespect harm and mistreatment of people of color based on the made-up idea that white people deserve to be in charge and treated better i compared these definitions to the ones from dictionaries not one mentioned
045white people not one mentioned people of color the definition taught by scifir is not in line with reality the reality is anyone can be racist the definition provided by scifir is very divisive it tells children that white people are racist and think they deserve to be treated better just because the color of their skin is the board aware that white people cannot also not be racist why are you allowing dr henry and sci-fi isd to continue this program the second lesson i'd like condemned in a lesson for pre-k four-year-olds to fifth grade it shows a scenario where a black teenager is applying for a job at a pizza place and a white man is holding up a big sign that says sorry we don't accept people like you four-year-olds have no idea what applying for
046a job even means why is this being taught how can a small child reconcile this lesson with what they know i think they are learning that they won't be accepted that's the takeaway why make a child feel like this is this part of your social emotional learning that you're spending millions of dollars on i deserve a response as a taxpayer and a mother and the board has quit responding to me entirely the last three meetings i've spoken at i've gotten no response this isn't even legal i don't believe please publicly condemn this and get it out of our schools and bob covey it has occurred has it occurred to you that the board by allowing dr henry to promote crt is destroying america from within thank you very much russia from destroying america within is
047the irony lost on you [Applause] jan williams this is my first board meeting it is crazy y'all have a hard job thank you for having me tonight i am jen williams i was a special education teacher for seven years before staying home to raise my kids today i'm here to concern obviously my my concerns with face masks and the lack of a mandate i understand what we are under with governor abbott i'm sorry my voice is shaky i am nervous i don't do this for fun um but i also know as an educator that we are a very creative group of people and i feel that if we really wanted something we could make that happen i know we can't i've done it before we have lots of outs scifir has given elementary schools the
048option of virtual learning in a masculine zone but this is not what the majority of us parents want we want our kids in school safely what about our middle and high schools to get kids they don't even have the option many students identified with special needs per a 504 plan or an iep are legally obligated to being provided a free and appropriate public education but if they are unable to safely attend school then how are we meeting the needs of this population community is a part of our curriculum at cfisd we teach it is our responsibility to be a community helper to take care of our community to value our community this is our opportunity to show that we value the health and well-being of our community community members both young and old last year
049i homeschooled my son due to the lack of data from covid um seeing how successful we had been i decided to send him back without masks it's not an option it's not safe we live with my father he's immunocompromised my son wants to be in school more than anything he wants to be around kids and it's not a safe choice for our family my kids don't have the option to be vaccinated we ask that the mask mandate be implemented immediately we ask that the reporting requirements for positive cases be classroom specific we ask that students be given the option to enroll temporarily in online education so there is no pressure to be on campus with a positive coveted case i won't go over i appreciate your time tonight thank you for all you do thank
050you william ely thank you board members my name is william ely and i'm a parent of two in scifire isd is the board and the community aware of the regular pattern of defensive statements in the public square by one of our board members does the the board feel these types of statements are appropriate especially from an elected policy maker for the district how are his views represented in policy making that impacts our children these public statements include yesterday's ku klux klan members are today's police officers white evangelicalism is nothing but slave holder religion six things that white people say that highlight their privilege riots are the american way in reference to police killings this country was built on bad theology with white men holding bibles wesley hunt is a trump republican don't be fooled he
051may share our hue but he doesn't share our view i said what i said white evangelicals are complicit in madness divisiveness and evil if you want to understand white privilege just watch the videos of the insurrection on the u.s capitol grounds when will the white pulpit be repulsed by the taking of an innocent black life as they are by the taking of the life of an unborn fetus these are not a few generalized statements and there are dozens more they were made over the span of years just a few months ago and they are offensive you are on you only removed some of them when you filed to rerun for office my grandmother taught me that an apology includes a but and if or however it's not really an apology at all these statements contradict
052the district's commitment to opportunity for all you should not be running for office again respectfully you should resign and this board should demand it [Applause] michelle allen [Applause] michelle allen hello i don't have a speech or anything written but i am a for former cypher isd student and i also have three children two of which have already graduated and moved on one in second grade after reviewing the curriculum and doing my research for myself on the crt it is evident that it is being taught excuse me in the schools and the whole curriculum needs to be revamped um bottom line i mean there there's nothing more to i mean discuss other than it needs to be completely revamped and in addition there needs to be term limits on all of these positions julie ricks hello
053that's my daughter i'm so proud of i have so much more to say and you've given me so much more ammunition tonight but i'm going to stay with this since i'm on a time limit i'm here and i know many others agree to make known my strong objection and change the current curriculum regarding crt or anything similar being taught in this school district we absolutely do not want our children being taught crt it has no virtue it's a partial truth that is taken out of context because the entire history of our country is not told both the good and the bad and how it continues to be overcome over the years crt plays on emotions and feelings rather than facts and truth and some of these people with masks and vaccines need not do emotions
054and feelings truth and facts crt divides rather than unites crt is racist in itself and judgmental crt and is an opinion a political stance that sidesteps the constitution and does not belong in our schools schools stay in your lane and do not try to undermine the authority and the responsibility of parents government in this instance schools do not take the place of god and the responsibility and authority he has given parents the majority of parents are good loving parents and those who are not we have laws to enforce a school's purpose is to teach the basics of reading writing and math and a side note common core math must go i witness my grandson doing a math problem using common core and it's ridiculous and severely lacks common sense thank you very much it's deserving
055when the last board meeting and motivation very much appreciate you being here thank you thank you thank you ma'am thank you i pay taxes too man no no ma'am we can cut the mic man please go sit down ma'am please go sit down ma'am ma'am please go sit down or i'm going to ask for you to be removed ma'am please go sit down ma'am please go sit down ma'am please go sit down ma'am ma'am please go sit down ma'am please go sit down you ma'am please go sit down we only have two minutes and we are trying to be respectful and ask you to please go sit down now ma'am this is ma'am ma'am this is the last time i'm going to ask you officer can you please ask this lady to leave thank you
056ma'am i'm sorry ma'am ma'am thank you she can she can stay i just just would like her to to honor the process thank you no i just need her to stop disrupting i'm not gonna kick her out no yeah yes yeah so we can honestly we have policies and procedures and if you don't know those you need to study them so thank you okay well if you know them guys we're never mind we're just trying to go forward with the meeting we're moving along ma'am ma'am thank you let's go ahead and go forward and ma'am i'd be happy to talk to you after the meeting okay action item uh 8a the board will consider approving the minutes of the august 5th 2021 regular board meeting any board member have any concerns okay not you're not
057up 9 a action items non-consent the board will consider approving the 2021 certified tax rolls and the estimated collections rate for 2021 to be a hundred percent and the 2020 excess debt collections rate to be zero is there any questions on this this is moving to uh consent man you're not part of this meeting and so no this is a meeting that we have in the public this is a meeting that we have in the public but you guys are not part of the meeting and it's actually a violation of the law to disrupt the meeting and we're trying very hard to allow you to remain and we're trying very hard to allow you to remain and so i need you to sit down and stop disrupting the meeting ma'am ma'am this is the last
058ma'am this is the last warning this is the last warning please have a seat thank you oh thank you the board consider approving on first reading editions revisions or deletions to district policies 9c1 cv local facilities construction revised 9c2 dea local compensation and benefits compensation plan revised 9c3 ehbaf local special education video and audio monitoring revise any questions on this moving on to consent the board will consider approving second reading additions revisions and deletions to district policies 91 cqb local technology resources cyber security revise 9d local 9d2 ehb local curriculum design special programs delete 9d e3 ffg local student welfare child abuse and neglect rev 9d4 gkd local community relations non-school use of school facilities a revised do we have any questions or concerns on this it's on the consent 9f the board will consider
059the approval and execution of the replant of kayla middle school mr sprague presented on thursday any questions on this it's part of the consent 9g the board will consider authorizing the superintendent ra's designee to negotiate and execute the contract for the procurement of natural gas any questions or concerns on this one it's on consent 9h the board would consider awarding bids and contracts and are authorizing purchase orders as recommended in the posted agenda item mr powell presented on thursday any questions moving on that included 9h1 five compartment trays and other non-food items for nutrition 9h2 automotive supreme body todco waltco maxson and canape parts and labor 9h3 groceries and general merchandise 9h4 paint and miscellaneous supplies 9i the board will consider approving an amendment with texas a m an agreement excuse me with texas a
060m university to establish an affiliation for the purpose of providing practicum experience to texas a m university students any questions on this board moving on 9j the board will consider approving the interlocal agreement with harris county resources for children and adults hcrca to provide services for one additional youth service specialty any questions on this if any board member wishes to remove one or more of these items for further discussion please do so at this time if not i will entertain a motion to approve the consent items as recommended are amended mr president i move that we adopt the consent agenda as presented or as amended thank you mr jackson do i have a second thank you gilbert any uh questions or concerns if not all in favor raise your right hand that's unanimous 9b the
061board will consider the 2021 tax rate resolution to support the 2021 2022 maintenance and operations and debt service budgets by setting the 2021 m o and interest and sinking tax rates any questions for ms smith if not may have a motion to approve the non-consent item as recommended are amended mr president i move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 1.3392 which is effectively a 1.80 percent increase in the tax rate and further move that the board approved the resolution adopting the tax rate and levy ad valorem taxes for the year 2021 as reflected in the resolution for a decrease in the actual tax rate of .0163 or 1.63 cents thank you miss jackson may i have a second second thank you dr ogletree all in favor
062i'm sorry doc i mean there you go dr jackson help yourself my colleague miss heinemann spoke on this and in board comments it bears to be repeated when the optional homestead exemption was adopted and it was done so at the request of austin this district was told don't worry about it you will not be penalized and early on the penalty was paid back and then the state ran out of money and could not afford to to diminish the penalty anymore about 10 years ago tom pickford who's currently undergoing treatment for cancer met with one of the state senators representing our area i was in the meeting as was teresa hull and a few others and he he reiterated to our state senator about the penalty the state senator acknowledged that we do have a penalty
063and then tom said we aren't asking that it be taken away we are asking for a reduction lo and behold that state senator working with the then cfo of the district worked to diminish the penalty somewhat and that somewhat was significant well the state senator is now lieutenant governor is no longer in charge of drafting legislation and the penalty has come back full force it is now 17 million dollars it happens because the state says since we gave the optional homestead not only do you not get the money you didn't tax which is fair but we're going to play like you receive that money when we make the allocation and that's a penalty and i would certainly request our state senator to examine that calculation and perhaps diminish the penalty on a going-forth basis thank
064you mr president thank you anybody else all in favor raise your right hand and that's unanimous thank you 9e the board will consider authorizing the superintendent to add additional local leave sick days to board policy dec local for employees for covet isolation for the 2021-2022 school year are there any questions mr president i move that the board of trustees authorizes superintendent to add additional local leave days to the dec local for employees for co-bed isolation for the 2021-2022 school year and the amount and for the duration determined necessary in the superintendent's discretion thank you doctor oh do i have a second i second thank you miss heinemann any questions all in favor raise your right hand that's unanimous thank you and now we'll proceed with the superintendent's briefing portion of the agenda dr henry thank
065you mr president trustees more than 140 cypress fairbanks isd graduates celebrated earning scholarships valued at 681 thousand dollars at the sci fair educational foundation 2021 scholarship reception on august 3rd at the berry center the cfef has awarded more than 10 million in scholarships to more than 2 100 cfisd graduates since 1970. the cfisd police department completed its second year of the junior police academy this summer during which nine and ten-year-old students participated in activities that gave them an inside look at cfp at the cfpd the academy featured sessions at site springs and cypress ridge high school a total of 58 students participated as dr ogletree miss heinemann said earlier a total of 175 community volunteers participated in the annual cfisd bus buddies program held on the first two days of school august 23rd and 24th
066the outreach program invites community members to ride buses and assist our young riders in reaching their proper drop-off points and certainly we thank you to all who participated in being a bus buddy a reminder that friday september 24th is a designated teacher work day and a student holiday and to end on that as you all know tropical storm nicholas is moving into our area and tomorrow we will not uh all of our facilities and campuses will be closed i know scouts y'all are terribly upset about that this evening but tomorrow will be a non-school day and all of our facilities will uh be closed and hopefully we'll be back in school on wednesday let's pl let's pray that it moves through quickly thank you mr president thank you and now this meeting is adjourned [Music]
067you