001All right, it is 5:17. I call this meeting of the Mount Vernon Independ Independent School District to order. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that the notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 551. Sorry, stuttered through that one. All right. Do I have a motion to certify the agenda? Motion. Motion made by Linda. Do I have a second? Seconded by Kathy. golf. All right. And we've got the birthday boy leading us in prayer tonight. I think Coach Floyd's going to lead us in a song, a birthday song, right? Okay. Will you pray for us? Yeah. Uh Lord, we just thank you for today. Uh Lord, I just ask
002you be with us tonight and let us make the best decisions. Um Lord, watch over these kids and the teachers and get us through the end of the year and just watch over them this summer in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you and happy birthday. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all the flag to thee. One state under God. one. You know that till we started doing the pledges, did we? Reminds me of Robert. All right. We don't have special recognition tonight. All right. We don't have No, ma'am. No special recognition tonight. Okay. No special recognition. All right. Now we have possible actions to approve and adopt an order canvasing the election returns for
003the May 3rd, 2025 trustee election. And place three, we had me um running unopposed with a grand total of 493 votes. And place four, we had Donnie Richards with a grand grand total of 414 votes and Aaron Sanders with a grand total of 238 votes. Do I have a motion to adopt the canvas canvasing of the elections? Motion. Motion made by Linda. Do I have a second? Seconded by Kyle. All four. So, okay. All right. At this time, we'll need to swear in Mr. Donnie Richards. Mr. Donnie, if you'd come up. Miss Jessica will swear you in. Hey, she goes real fast. I'm trying to slow it down. Oh, sorry. That's right. You have to swore back in as well. There you go. All right. I do that I will faithfully execute that I will
004faithfully duties at the office of the school of the office of the school for the operating school district of the state of Texas and and will do to the best of my ability and will do to the best of my authority preserve preserve protect protect and defend the Constitution defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of the state and laws of the United States Amen. [Applause] But I will faithfully school district of the state of Texas of the state of Texas preserve protect defend the constitution laws of the United [Applause] Connie, welcome to the board. Welcome. All right. Now we have the reorganization of board of trustees officers. Is there a nomination for president? I nominate. Is there a second? Second. Second by Kyle. All four. All right. That's seven out. And then
005is there a nomination for vice president? I would like to nominate Bradley. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second it. Seconded by Mr. Richards. All four. 7. All right. You'll have to and everyone get nominated. Linda Linda did both nominations. Okay. Kyle Kyle second move. No Donnie seconded or I mean coach. Sorry. That's right. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. All right. And is there a nomination for secretary? I nominate Josh Jordan. All right. Is there a second? Second. Second by Linda. All four. All right. 7. We'll be moving. Congratulations y'all. We'll be moving down to information item. We have our shack summary first. Yes, we do. Maker is gonna give that for us. You come right come right here to the podium. Yeah, I've got a mic there. Hi, I'm Tracy. I'm the uh shack
006adviser for Mount Vernon ISD and I want to give the shaq summary for the 2425 school year. On August 14th, we provided uh first aid and CPR training for coaches and PE teachers. On October 14th, Aurora Health was here to provide uh flu shots for the staff and students and there were 68 participants. On October 16th, the Fantastic Truth presentation was provided to first day first grade students by uh the theater students and the Masonic Lodge provided uh each student with dental hygiene kits. On November 7th, the elementary PE hosted the annual turkey trot for students. On December 11th, uh the Debbie Gone Foundation provided EKGs or cardiac screens for students in grades fifth through 12th and staff members and 35 people participated in that. On December 18th, Aurora Health was back to provide to
007provide uh immunizations for staff and students and there were 25 participants. On February 11th, there was a Shack meeting and topics included information on school safety and district vulnerabil vulnerability assessments and information about the partners resource network for youth with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities was provided. On February 13th, uh Christ St. Michael's mobile asthma unit was here to provide free asthma screenings to students and the district receives grant money based on student participation. On March 20, I'm sorry, March 10th, Aurora Health was back for another immunization clinic and 13 students participated. On March 11th, there was a SHAK meeting. topics included information on wellness and nutrition, health habits for the brain, CPR and allied health and smoke alarms. On April 8th, um there was a shack meeting and several agencies including the
008child advocacy center and CASA or courtappointed special advocates for children and safety agency discussed the services they provide and uh the role of volunteers. On April 11th, uh, UT Health was here to provide mammograms for the district. On May 6th, stop the bleed training was provided for 7th grade through 12th grade students by DSHS. On May 8th, Aurora Health was back for another immunization clinic and 10 students participated. on May 12th. Today, uh the puberty program, Always Changing and Growing Up, was presented to fifth grade boys and girls. And recommendations for the 2526 school year include offer CPR as needed to students and staff, host the following events for students and/or staff, immunization clinics for staff and students, EKG for staff and students, asthma clinic for students, mamograms for staff. And another recommendation is to
009provide emergency kits um including first aid supplies and bleeding control supplies for each classroom. That would be about 180 to 200 uh kits and provide an emergency tote for each campus, administrative off. And that would include like first aid supplies, bleeding control supplies, and command center supplies. Uh the approximate amount of funds needed for to make all of these kits is 12,000 to $15,000 based on the quotes and research I've done. So that is it. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you, Mr. Dicker. Thank you for your information. Roman totals as of May 5th, we were at 1570. 1570. from last year. Yes, ma'am. Campus department updates. You want to go first? Yeah, we're surviving. Thank we had um our I don't know. We're just going through it right now, y'all. Middle school and spring.
010Um we had field trips coming up. We have we had a teacher celebration um all last week. Then we had our teacher awards ceremony. It was fun. It was fun. Will you tell a little bit about that? I want to hear. I've heard it was this is for teacher appreciation week. It is for Well, it we we've done it all year. We've always done kids celebrating their awards. Um so we just took a little extra time to make sure that our teachers got those awards, too. We set it up like the whole real deal. It was awards. They got to walk. Everyone got something that was really specific to them. They got little trophies and certificates. And then we had superlative awards. Um we had tons of stuff donated um for prizes. There was 25
011prizes that we got to draw for. Um, and it was just one of those things that, you know, our our teachers sit through it for our kids. So, I felt like our kids needed to sit through it for our teachers. That's awesome. They got their whole stage. They they enjoyed it, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. It was really It was worth it. It was worth the time and effort because I think the they just felt the the appreciation because one week is just simply not enough. Um, so anyways, we did that. We have field trips coming up. It's been a while since we've done field trips with all grade levels, so we're a little anxious and nervous about that, but it'll be fine. We're going to Splash Kingdom. Help us. Um, we
012have just about everybody going. There's a couple behaviors that are not going, but everybody else is going um paid for. We had a lot of sponsors that paid for kids that couldn't afford it. So, it's just really good day to be a survivor, not work in middle school, but surviving really is amazing. We are surviving. So, Mr. came and said he's ready to take everybody to slide. Okay. So, it seemed like we were just here. Um, we had our math and reading night was just a family night. We had about 60 families come. We knew it wouldn't be greatly attended just because of all the games and things going on, but they had a really good time. And we gave away we did bingo for books and they were able to win books to take
013home with them and some card games and things. It was our interventionist did a really good job of putting that on. On Cinco de Mayo, we had our bilingual night. We had about 125 people and all of our bilingual classes either performed or did presented their projects or their artwork and we fed them. We had um a Garcia called and got donations. So, we were able to feed the families for free, which was very nice. Miss Contras's um son provided all the food. We celebrated our teachers last week. We had a a Wizard of Oz theme and so they all enjoyed that. We've had two different preK kindergarten roundup. Our prek numbers are strong for next year. Everybody's wanted to come to school and we've uh gave them an opportunity as an as an incentive
014if they get all their paperwork done. We invited them in for a sneak peek. So they came on Friday. I had a teacher come up and our administrative staff. We took them on a tour of the school. We let them play on the playground just so that they feel comfortable. And for our firsttime parents, we want them to feel welcome and feel like that they're a part of our school. Also, we've had two of our three field days. We'll wrap that up tomorrow. We had to reschedule third and fourth grade because of the weather last week. So, we'll finish that up tomorrow. We are setting through lots and lots of meetings, making plans for kiddos for next year, and we are finishing strong. We have a couple more positions to hire, and then we're all
015hired out. So, we're in a much better position this year than we were this time last year. So, we're really excited about that. So, thank you. Thank you. I'll be fast. I got tagged in. I don't know where Mr. Glover is, but he's probably happy to go to Austin. As we know, when that play is in Austin, they'll perform uh Thursday afternoon. I don't know the time. Wednesday, Wednesday. Okay, I wrote down the wrong thing. Okay. Yes. I don't know. This time of year is we've we're concluding banquet season. I was telling Kyle, we have different seasons here. We have the postseason, we have banquet season, then we have graduation season. So, uh, and we have hiring season. We have two two slots left. Um, if you know anybody, um, you know, science or a,
016you know, send them to us or health science, one of the two, whatever that fits in. Um, of course, we had teacher appreciation week. We had all kinds of food. Tardine barbecue between the banquetss. Uh, because we had our academic banquet last week. What else did we have? We had egg banquet. We had National Honor Society induction and presenting of the stoalls to the seniors. That's always cool to uh if you haven't gone before to because the seniors choose somebody. I don't know if y'all know. And then they kind of tell about why they chose that person where there's it's usually a staff member and it's pretty cool to watch that and why they chose them. And Miss Wararez by far is always even though she's hard on them, she's always she has the most
017requests to do. Um anyway, so we have band concert Thursday. We've got backyard ser this is all out of order. We got backyard service um Sunday at the First Baptist Church uh 6 o'clock I believe. Masonic Lodge senior lunchon is Thursday at 12:30 I think. I'm going to get with Max to double check that. Um we've got uh two of our juniors were selected for uh good citizen awards and they've been invited to that and and the dinner. um Thursday night for that. Um athletic banquet on Monday, senior week all next week, senior final exams are being finished up this week and senior week they've got all kinds of things going and planned and some will be with me so they can meet graduation requirements. Um 84 of our students earned their IBC's just in
018April or since April. Uh we had two do the health um what is it? Um, I can't remember what it's called, but it's the healthcare one. Uh, two of them passed it and we've got two or three taking it this week, I think. Uh, so that's exciting. And then graduation, you know, Donnie dust the suit off. You get set up there center center stage with everybody. Um, if I left something out, I'm sorry. We just have a lot. It's a sprint at the end. Is anybody that's worked at the high school knows it's a sprint to get everything put to bed. schedules, planning for next year, and you know, and celebrating the seniors and not forgetting anybody along the way. Any questions? Anything? If I left anything out, I don't know. I always have a
019running list. It's usually this time of year a six or seven day work week for me. Thanks, Mr. Trains. Yes, sir. I don't know if you mentioned tennis, regional tennis, but Mr. Bates wanted to let you know that he was he really enjoys your respectful girls. Thank you. They enjoy him, too. I've got to talk to Mark about getting this information to throw out, push out to people, you know. He just wanted me to He knew I was going to see you tonight, so he wanted me to relay that information. Pretty good. Well, thank all of you guys. Hang in there. Tell your staff, hang in there. We're almost to the finish line. Thank y'all. All right. and our construction update. Is Lou online? Lou, are you there? Yes. Y'all hear me? Okay. Hey, Lou.
020Can y'all hear me? Yes, sir. Can you hear us? Okay. Uh, good evening. How's everybody? Um, we'll start with the middle school addiction. We are final pain this week. Um, I know they started the ceiling tile insulation today. Uh, sprinkler beds they're installing as well as uh I know they set up the scaffolding for the exterior brick on on area A and they're going to begin uh install the insulation board for the brick that's behind the brick. So, that's going over there. Um, unit B, which is the auditorium. The four year's done, but we're getting inside the auditorium and going to put a scaffling uh dance floor for we call them. So, we're going to start putting in the sprinkler heads in that ceiling as well. Paint uh that I think that's going to start
021uh getting set up first of next week. Um area uh units D and E, which is the cafeteria fine arts. Um, for for unit E, which is the fine arts/storm shelter. I know they had a slab schedule that was poured last week, but I think that got shifted to Tuesday, Wednesday this week. So, you should see a foundation here by the end of the week. Um, they are doing some uh underground plumbing, electrical over in the kitchen area as well. And then you'll start seeing uh hopefully next week laying out the following week you'll start seeing uh foam go up which is the insulated concrete form concrete wall that's part of the storm shelter. So that's what's going on D& area. Uh unit F there's not much I know they got a sanitary line over
022there that we had to replace and upsize. And then our unit G, the Amar facility. We're continuing to the to drill pier. So hopefully hopefully one day we'll get out of the rule in the pier business, but we're we're getting closer and closer. That is your update on the construction. Any questions, comments? Questions? All right, Lou. Thank you. You're welcome. Y'all have a good week. Thank you. Kind of follow up a little bit with that. Um first probably first week of June, possibly as soon as schools out, they're going to take over the upper uh road up there where the handicap parking is in front of admin. Uh they'll take that they're next thing they'll do is they're going to pour the concrete on that curb so that there'll be a transition from basically the
023boulevard into the front of the middle new middle school. Uh, so there won't be any parking up front like going into admin. Um, we'll we'll move as soon as they finish the middle school edition. Ashley and her folks will move into the new offices. As soon as they move, we'll transition admin into their old offices. Uh, we'll take uh we'll be located uh in Ashley's office, Miss Glover's office, the nurse's office, Miss Walker's office, and then kind of the teacher workroom. So, we somewhat all be kind of right there together. Uh, admin, that's where we'll be located. Uh, we will come in once they start construction on that part there. Um, and tearing that part down to redo the U inside of the admin. We'll all have to come in through the middle I mean
024from the middle school as well. Uh, so there will really be no entrance through the front there for a while. Uh, that'll probably be more into the summer. Um, also as soon as have that done by school just in the summer. No, they'll be that that'll we won't admin remodel won't be till probably next spring sometime. So we'll for most of next school year we'll be still in the middle school area with all interest that way. Yes, ma'am. Um also soon as school's out, they're going to start working on this fire lane back here in the back. Um they're going to start on the middle school end and work this way so we can have summer school, excuse me. So, in your summer school, that way as soon as summer school is done, they're going
025to take over this back high school parking lot kind of where everybody's parking. I'll communicate that with you for basically I don't think it'll affect June's parking for the board meeting, but July is it could. And I'll let you know, I'll give you a heads up on that of what that looks like. But they are needing to redo that fire lane uh through the summer to have it ready for school start when we come back, which will do a little bit of parking lot work there as well. They've poured most of the sidewalk here um along the road uh that we're doing and they are got forms up to and extended they're working to extend the um long jump triple jump to make that more usable. They've already laid the forms for that. They're about
026to do concrete. So, we've moved the sidewalk coming around across the bridge which will be the new visitors entrance coming in. Um all of the exterior fence that Helis is yet that still has to put up has been taken down. So, we're waiting on Helis. I'll go move there in just a second. Um the vendor you approved to do the interior fence, they took all of that fence down today and um hopefully by the end of the week, first part of next week, the interior fence right around the track should be uh put back up. Um with Helis, talked with Drew and his um they're going to we're still having some issues with water underneath the um um with the restrooms underneath the football stadium. Uh they're going to do some more concrete work to
027get all the water to go to the drainage. We've got some that's holding and therefore going in. They've taken they've done some work that's taking care of water going in the women's restroom. Uh but there's still water uh getting in and pooling in the men's restroom. So they're going to do some uh concrete work to get that to move to the catch basins to hopefully finally take care of that water issue there. Um they're still um shooting to be finished with visitors dressing rooms around the end of this month. As soon as soon as they finish that, they'll do the fence and then we'll punch list and maybe finally get to a finish line with with Helis. So that's kind of construction. Of course, we'll folks will be having summer things going on all together.
028This wall here, I apologize it's not finished. It's scheduled to be uh our graphic that we'll put on this wall that we'll have for future board meetings is scheduled to be put up on Friday. They'll be here. Of course, we had to send down all the um um liquid nail that held up everything else and um they're scheduled. Water water boy graphics supposed to be here Friday. Um so again, there'll be ongoing things throughout the summer as well, but that's kind of a construction. Any questions for me in regard to construction wise? anything. Okay. All right. Um, information item E, our updated 2023 district ratings. Uh, these are I'm I'm not sure this is for those in attendance as well as anybody who watch YouTube. Um, there were several schools throughout the state. Mount Vernon
029had chose to be one of them that um brought suit against TEA and the commissioner in regard to the 2023 uh academic ratings. Uh that had gone on for a little while um finally a judge ruled in favor of TEA stating that those uh results could be released. So we just got two-year-old data um that we want to report. Our elementary was rated a B. Our middle school was rated a B. Our high school received an A rating. And our district as a whole was rated a B as well. Um 2024 ratings uh our uh there's a lawsuit uh for with those still in court right now. Um I would anticipate since 2023 was released that 2024 probably will not be too far behind. And therefore uh I would I don't know this so don't
030hold me to this. I would think probably end of summer possibly looking at 2024 results and then shortly thereafter and maybe even before we might get 2025 results. U again we're we're proud of our staff and our students for the bees. Uh but again that's two-year-old data that we've already our staff has already done a good job and our students have as well of working through that information um making making um corrections were needed and working with students who needed some additional help and moving through that. So, but again, so we had two campuses with B's, one A and district overall as a B. It was a high B. Yes, ma'am. Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, part of the reason we and this because this was a while ago that we did this,
031we um as a board at the time approved for the lawsuit because what the uh what they did was they changed the formula. So even if schools weren't performing under what they were, they were going to be knocked. So even if we were B, it doesn't necessarily mean we went down. It just means they changed correct the formula. Um well they so they changed they changed basically the rules of the game after the tests were already taken. And so that was the commissioner did not follow some things in statute and some times that he was required to and that's why that's why this several schools um and attorneys wanted to move forward with that and I think they had a very good case. Um but nevertheless, the judge ruled in favor of commissioner and TA
032and so the results were released. So very proud still of all that was accomplished because that's still pretty pretty great compared to what they did. So all right, we are moving on to anyone for open forum. I did not see anything for open forum. Okay. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Motion made by Linda. Is there a second? Seconded by Kathy. All four 7 and then we'll move on to our action items. Action item A to consider and approve a delegating hire authority to the superintendent for contractual personnel for the remaining month of May and the months of June and July of 2025. Any questions on that? Give Donnie a little information on that. Yes. Is that you want to or do you want to or whichever way
033you want to go? Uh we as a um have done this as a in the past as a board just so when they already need hires they don't have to wait for our next board meeting because when we're getting into the summer months they usually the principles need that authority to go ahead and get it done. So we've delegated that authority in the past and uh we're having that discussion to continue with that. So is there do you have any questions or do you want to explain? say so I communicate that with the board as a whole when when those come in as well. So normally what happens as you see on tonight as you see on tonight's agenda there's under control professional contracts as recommended by the superintendent. We'll bring those I make that
034recommendation the board acts upon those. This authority here allows me to go ahead and sign those contracts and officially hire those people without having to call basically a weekly board meeting to try to do that. Now, this year, thankfully, we don't have we our principles have done a phenomenal job. We don't have near the openings uh that we that we sometimes do. Um so, like I said, we're in a if nothing changes, um all three campuses are in a pretty good position. Just looking for one or two people and not overall. How many overall? How many how many are you needing, Miss George? I have to wait till the 15th to recommend one, but I already have that person and I already have the other one. So there's two two positions. I've got I've got
035good applicants so we're in good shape. Okay, Miss Bates one specifically two if we consider the bilingual position too. So it's four. I think high school's got two positions. So six, we're looking at six right now. Hey, congratulations to Wow, that's really good. That's true. Okay. Yeah. Any any questions on that? Any further explanation? So, when's principal appreciation week? That's every week. I just got a massage certificate today, so I'm good. All right. If there's no further questions, um I'll make the motion to approve the delegating hiring authority of the superintendent for contractor personnel for the remaining month of May in the months of June and July 2025. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Linda. All four. Thank you. All right. Action B. Consider approval of BB local policy update amending the election
036cycle year's future dates. What you see is you have that in your board book in blue is the corrected dates that had not been updated in a couple years. Just actually the last the last position date um election was held for that for positions three and four. So as you see positions one and two uh will be on the three-year cycle of 2027, 2030 and 2023. Positions three and four on the three-year cycle of 2028, 2031, and 2034. Positions five, six, and seven are on the three-year cycle of 2026, 2029, and 2032. So, that's just a local that's basically update a local policy. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the BB local updated uh policy amending the election cycle years? I'll make motion made by Kathy. Do have a second. Second by Linda.
037All four seven. Thank you all very much. It is now 5:50 p.m. and we will convene to close session for personnel matters pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.074 to address legal concerns, implications, and questions regarding the posted agenda items pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.071. All right. It is 757 CN. Do you have any uh contracts for us? Yes, ma'am. Um, so these are recommendation for new hires. Uh, Annie Coffee, Courtney Udy, changing positions. Uh, Haley Daly, Jamie Reid, Laura Owens, Abigail Bland, Brock Miller, Cameron Miller, Julian Germaine, Nicholas Gibson, Terry Fitch, and Tom Kaye. Uh, moving to the Dean of Students position, coach Scoach at the middle school. Okay. Any questions on those? I do. I have a motion to approve the personnel contracts as recommended. Motion made motion made by Linda,
038seconded by Kyle. All four 70. Thank you. Are there any resignations at this time? Yes, ma'am. Resignations to acknowledge are Elizabeth Woods, Amanda Dunan, Brian Jacobs, Stacy McMahon, McKay Mson, Joe Sawyer, Christina Tina Thomas, and Cassie Ham. This meeting is adjourned. It is 7:58 p.m. Thank you all very much. Have a good evening.