001Good evening. I call this meeting of the Northwest Independent School District to order at 5:00 PM. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meeting Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551. The board will now convene in close session pursuant to Texas Government Code Chapter 551, including sections 551.071, 071 consultation with the board's attorney and 551.072 real estate matters and 551.074 personnel matters. Good evening. We're going to reconvene to our regular meeting at 6:31 p.m. We will move to the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. >> Would you all please rise? Uh I'm going to offer a prayer and I'll invite you to join me if you'd like. Please bow
002your heads. Heavenly Father, we come to you humbly, Lord, with thanksgiving for the many blessings that you've showered upon our school district. Lord, this evening as the board conducts their business in public, we pray for godly wisdom uh for the board as they make decisions that impact our kids. Lord, we ask you to help help us keep our eyes focused on what's best for our students and to live out our motto of kids come first every day in Northwest ISD. We pray for your continued blessing and your hedge of protection. In the Lord's name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Um please remain standing as we get ready to um do the pledge. And I'm really excited to uh invite two fifth grade students from Kate Granger Elementary School. Bryson Bosco, come on down. And Sophia
003Pjan, come on down. How'd I do? Okay. Uh let me introduce Bryson uh first. His parents, Christina and Brendan Bosow, are uh supporting him. Bryson is, as I said, a fifth grade student at K Granger. He enjoys or his favorite subject is reading. And I love this. He enjoys becoming part of the story when he's reading. That is so awesome. Um he also likes to play with his friends and his proud principal, Miss McAdams, said that Bryson is an outstanding leader. Um he's a house council officer. Uh he even started his own or started a book club this year and she appreciates the way he models the Wrangler way for others. Also Sophia Pine Pan sorry fifth grade student parents Abby and Christopher Pjan um her favorite subject is science. She loves to discover new
004things and how they work. So that's fantastic. She likes to play softball and Miss McAdams said Sophia is a leader and a problem solver. She's very aware of the expectations of our students at Granger and she strives to help others live up to the Wrangler way. She demonstrates kindness to all that she interacts with each day and and they're proud of both these students. So, would you guys please lead us in the pledges? I pledge algiance 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. >> Honor the Texas flag. I pledge algiance to the Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. >> Great job, guys. Can we give them a round of applause? Good job.
005>> You may be seated. Thank you. You guys hang there for just one second. Miss Murphy, our board president, is going to come bring you a small token of our appreciation. But y'all did awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you for being here. Appreciate you. Please remember. Okay, we will move to agenda item five, which is recognitions. >> Good evening, President Murphy, Dr. Fast, members of the board. As you all know, we're opening our first early childhood center in Northwest ISD this upcoming year. Our first center, our first school exclusively for pre kindergarten students. So, one of the important tasks with that is selecting the inaugural principal. And I think we've made a great choice uh at you know her already. So, this is more of a reintroduction. Uh, but the principal is Chrissa Oakley. She's
006been at Cox Elementary as their principal for the past seven years, and she's been in Northwest ISD for 17 years overall. But I'll turn it over to Chrissa to talk about herself. Well, if you know me, I don't really like to talk about myself, but I am going to talk you about talk to you about how excited I am about this opportunity. And so, I stand before you today truly honored and humbled to be recognized as the principal of Hicks Early Childhood Center. To open the very first early childhood center for our district comes with both um exciting opportunities as well as a great responsibility. We're not only building a school, we are laying the foundation for what will become a legacy. A legacy of future early childhood centers in our district that we will
007build upon and that we will continue to shape our students, our families, and our for generations to come. Early childhood is where it all begins. It's where our children first discover the love of learning, building relationships and where confidence and curiosity will start to take root. I am very proud to lead the way in creating a space that nurtures all of this and more. This recognition is shared with many hands and many hearts that will help mold this vision. district leadership, educators, families, and community partners. Together, we're creating more than just a space. We are setting a new standard for what is possible. Thank you for your trust and your belief in young learners, and I look forward to what we will accomplish and the legacy that we will build together. Thank you. Okay, that
008concludes our recognitions for this evening. We will move on to agenda item six, which is public testimony, comment on agenda and non-aggenda items. And we have two this evening. And I'm going to read this statement first. Public testimony and public comments are an opportunity for the public to address the board on any agenda item or matter not on the agenda on or not on the agenda board agenda. The the board may place reasonable restraints on the length of presentations so long as it does not unfairly discriminate among speakers based on viewpoint. People who wish to speak must have signed up and complete a public request to speak form before the meeting begins and identify the topic they wish to address with the board. Each presentation is limited to three minutes. Speakers requiring language translation will
009be limited to six minutes. Speakers should refrain from mentioning by name an employee or student about whom they are complaining. The first speaker this evening will be SA. If you please step to the podium. Good evening, President Murphy, Dr. Faust and the trustees. I'm Seda Say and I'm one of the candidate for Terren Appraisal District Board of Director. I have a written speech but I'm not reading that. I can email that to you. I'm here to tell you something that I shared at TCC on Thursday. figure out figure it out. There's new development. So in the last election cycle in 2024 all of a sudden TCC got 505 vote. Normally TCC votes range from 290 to 315 311. Figure it out. Instead of calculating votes based on $323 million, they calculated the weight uh votes
010based on $559 million on TCC side. It's 200 extra votes on TCC. Because of that, school districts around Taran County, 21 school district lost 118 votes. The uh your school district lost eight votes. Okay, eight votes. It's not a big number but in total it's a lot. Forward uh forward ISD lost 24 votes. Forward city council lost 29 votes. So in combined commissioner code lost 22 votes. Cities combined lost 60 votes. It might sound not too much for big entities but it's a lot and a lot for small cities and small entities where they have no say on the appraisal district. You get the calculation in September with the letter. Six uh six city councils has zero votes. 11 has one vote. One school district has zero vote. And Jordan uh and I just had
011the meeting today morning with uh Texas as her collector. actually his office called me if I can come to his office and he asked me about what the heck I was talking about and I explained everything to him and he talked have a meeting before me to jodon our chief appraiser and he confirmed that yes it's a fact and they knew it before they knew it before December 31st but they let it go and the seasoned politicians sitting on the tabboard benefiting the mistake done by some employees and not saying a word and not informing a texting entity. It's an alarm for you. Uh you are one of the entity going to vote. Uh I appreciate your vote when it's time for you to vote. I am on the ballot. There is only four people.
012So there is no policy and procedure to vetted the candidate uh for the entities. No one asked me from Northwest ISD if I'm running and what my views are. My time is up and if anyone wants to contact me or listen to me again, I'll be happy to do it. Thank you. Okay, speaker number two will be Rachel Talist. Is that right? I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Hello. Um, hello. My name is Rachel Toutfest and I'm here to help put a face to the families that the parents as teachers program serves and to tell my son Avery's story. We moved here from Seattle, Washington in January of 2023 with our then six-month-old son. We found the parents as teachers program through a stroke of luck and began doing home visits with Nicole Webb in January
013of 2024. Avery and Nicole hit it off right away. She was an instant hit in our household. Around the time Avery was 18 months, I began to notice some things about him and found comfort in bringing it up to Nicole, who always listened, gave advice, and comforted my worried mom brain. She never failed to remind me of the services she could look into for me and the way she could support us. Fast forward to the age of two and a half, and I was beginning to have more worries as I saw that my child was not meeting the milestones of his peers and struggling. I felt lost, and I didn't know what to do. I again found comfort in telling Nicole our struggles as a family and that was when she helped point me in
014the direction of Childfind. Little did I know at the time that this was the beginning of a beautiful journey for Avery. Avery had a full assessment with Childfind in February of 2025 and it was determined that he may have characteristics of autism. I brought this assessment to our pediatrician and we were able to get a diagnosis of level 1 to2 autism at the age of three. Because of this assessment and medical diagnosis, Avery is now attending early childhood special education at 7 Hills Elementary School, where not only is he learning, but he is thriving. All along the way, our home visitor Nicole was there for us, not only supporting our son, but my husband and I as well. Now, I tell you this story because not a single step of this journey would have been
015possible for a family like ours without the parents as teachers program. We had nothing like this in Seattle. And I often think of how different our son's life would look if we had not moved here and found this program. If it weren't for this, a family like ours would still be struggling to find ways to support our son and be on a wait list, waiting 6 months to a year to get him evaluated. This program is crucial for families like ours that find themselves in uncharted territory. Parents as teachers was the first step that opened the doors for us and made the journey of navigating autism a beautiful and supportive one. Because of this, I will forever have unwavering support and love for this program. I volunteer on the parent leadership council and I tell
016anyone who will listen how wonderful parents as teachers is and how wonderful Northwest ISD is. To say that this program has impacted our lives positively is an understatement. It has changed our lives and for that I am eternally grateful. This program truly makes a difference. Thank you for letting me share. >> Thank you for sharing your story. Okay, that concludes public comment this evening. We will move on to item number seven, the consent agenda. >> Madam President, >> Mr. Schlutoter, >> I'll first ask if any of the board members have any of the items they would like to pull off and discuss. Seeing none, I move to approve the consent agenda as submitted. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Schlutoter and a second by Dr. Roush to approve the consent agenda as
017submitted. All in favor 70. Thank you. We'll move to item number eight. Consider any item removed from the consent agenda and there were none. So we will move to nine discussion action item. The first item on that agenda is consideration of a teacher's late resignation without good cause and proposed complaint to the state board for educator certification for abandonment of contract. >> Yes, ma'am. We did have one educator leave our organization uh this cycle without approval from the board. Um so we'd ask the board to consider um making that statement to ESP. Madame President, >> Mrs. Hatfield, I make the motion that the board finds that good cause did not exist under section 21.210C 2110C of the Texas Education Code for Jordan Mock to resign his contract for the 2025 2026 school year, that the
018board did not consent to his resignation, and that the board authorizes the superintendent to file a complaint with the state board of educators certification to seek sanctions for his abandonment. Second. >> I have a motion by Mrs. Hatfield and a second by Mr. Daring that the board finds that good cause did not exist under section 21.210C 2110C of the Texas Education Code for Jordan Mock to resign his contract for the 2025 2026 school year and that the board did not consent to his resignation and that the board authorizes the superintendent to file a complaint with the state board for educator certification to seek sanctions for his abandonment. All in favor? 70. Thank you. We'll move to item B, the instructional materials adoption committee. Dr. Espinosa. All right. Good evening. I um bring to you um
019our really our timeline and our adoption committee for this instructional materials adoption for the bienium or for the proclamation of 2026. So I want to give you just a quick overview. The last math adoption was in and that actually expired in 2022, but TEA decided to delay the adoption for 4 years. So we have been um doing just a a band-aid to say, you know, keeping that same adoption um since then and it's it's gone well. But we will um be looking at the options that TEA has available to us as well as others. So as you can see here, TEA has identified a small number of publishers that are considered high quality instructional materials or HQIM. Those publishers are listed there. The publishers that I put in bold are the three that do span
020K through 5. That's a pretty important thing for us. We want to make sure that we adopt something that is the same K through five um because of alignment um because of language vocabulary. Want to make sure those things are the same all the way through those grade levels. Once you get into middle school, it's important as well. Um, but in the secondary levels, it is hard to find often to find a publisher that works for every content area in those upper grades. So, it's not as important there, but definitely key in those areas. We do anticipate more being available in November, so we're watching for that carefully, but we will look at other options as well. Oops, wrong way. Sorry. Um just a quick overview of the timeline. I'm not going to um read
021all of those out to you. Obviously, you can see them, but we will be sending a thought exchange out to all of our math teachers in the district for them to give us some initial insight and thoughts about what is important to them in an instructional resource. We'll review the guidelines with our committee and with coordinators to make sure that they understand what's um required within an adoption. We'll do a TEACS review to make sure that everybody understands what's there. There are no TEACS changes for math. Um so we are um not having to review those. We will review our adoption rubric and that kind of goes along with those guidelines but also what is key to um our requirements and our beliefs in NISD. The materials will be on campuses in November for all
022teachers to review. not just the committee. The committee is the go-between for the campuses in the district. We'll narrow down our options and publishers will present do presentations to the committee in January and then we hope to bring you um our selection in February for approval and then place orders in March. And then I listed I gave you a list of the adoption committee that was um nominated by coordinators and campuses. And you can see those here. They span all campuses have representation and all grade levels or content areas have representation as well as um some district representation. Of course, special education, technology, and things like that. You can see the district level there. And that is it. Any questions? This is a discussion action item. Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Espinosa? >>
023All right. Thank you. >> Thanks. We can entertain a motion this this evening. >> Madame President, >> Dr. Rous. >> I motion to approve the instructional materials adoption committee as recommended by the administration. Second, I have a motion by Dr. Rous and a second by Mrs. Hatfield to approve the instructional materials adoption committee as recommended by the administration. All in favor? 70. Thank you. That concludes the discussion action agenda for this evening. We will move to item 10, reports. The first report of the evening is the Northwest ISD Family Services District Effectiveness Report. Good evening and thanks so much for letting me come up here and give a report of the growth of the Northwest Family Services which actually is a newish name. Um in the past we were called family involvement and then most
024people knew us as parents as teachers but as our services have expanded we saw a need to have an umbrella name and with me being a big dreamer I have a lot of thoughts of how we could extend our um services to families in the future. So currently, Northwest Family Services focuses on early childhood um ages zero to five not yet enrolled in school and also prenatally. U but I've got dreams and uh you'll you'll hear about those. >> Did you did you dream of $5 million grant because that that dream came true. Congratulations. >> Yes, sir. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And we are thankful obviously that funding um has exponentially made our ability to serve families um wonderful. Okay, we'll go to the next Oh, I've got a clicker. I p I just I
025didn't get training. Okay, perfect. All right. So, tonight's goal was um to see to try to explore with you how our program aligns with Northwest visions and missions. Uh and so we know that supporting the well-being of children and families is the key to positive outcomes. And so, and we do that in our schools through counselors and amazing teachers and all the things. And so that's a it's a privilege to be able to visit with families even before they get in school. And I'll have to tell y'all, we hear all the time what our kind um participant here, Rachel, said. We hear, "I can't believe this. You we just can't believe that school districts offering such services." And so we really are a trail bra blazer. And I thank you because it wouldn't be possible
026obviously without everyone's support. Um but it's making a difference and I think the impact as you'll see in this report um is years and years to come of um of how students and families are impacted because of the services they received in those early childhood years. The protective factors is a framework we use. Um it's really the foundation of so much of our programming. We know that if anyone, children, parents um are building these five areas, then we know that the positive outcomes for children and families will be better. So throughout our programming, we have things that will build social and emotional competence for ch for families and children. And y'all know that self-regulation and that prek in the kinder is something that we are um totally aware of. We're working with parents and helping
027to build the capacity of those kiddos so that they get into prek and kinder and they really do have the ability to regulate themselves as they face the challenges of um being in school. And then social connection is so important for families. the kids, a lot of them, they'll call our center school. They say, "Here, we're we're at school." You know, because that's what they consider school. And as a matter of fact, one parent told me when they took their kindergartener to school this year for the first time, they're like, "Well, that that's not my school, you know." So, they knew that our center's our school. And of course, they're having a great experience at their um new school. So we work hard to create that social connection for the families, the children so that
028they're building um their ability to to thrive. Then concrete support will um I'll explain later how we help families with that. And of course the power of knowledge. And so with parents, we're always helping them with the parenting and child development aspect. So, somebody recently told me at a conference, they said, you know, every child needs someone to be crazy about them, right? Like just love them so much. But we need parents who are both just crazy about their kiddos, but they have the knowledge of the parenting and child development to be able to do that in a healthy way and health have healthy outcomes. So, we're we're really building that with families. And then of course the resilience aspect, building the resilience to make it through the highs and lows as a family and
029um for that child even moving into prek and kinder that they would have resilience. So this is how our program aligns with the core beliefs again that you know our our service um age is 0 to five and we hear all the time that we just cannot believe that that Northwest has this for for kids and we are really truly putting those kids first. We're all about supporting the healthy um behaviors so that we have healthy pregnancies and healthy brain development and healthy um growth throughout those years. We use milestones and developmental screenings to help parents navigate, you know, is my child on track? Do we need further assessment? Um, one of the main things we let instill in parents is we we empower them of the importance that they are as their first and
030primary teacher. And we're encouraging them that every area, every area of life is a learning environment. And so when we're at the grocery store, it's a learning environment. You don't need the fancy toys. Things in your home is our powerful learning tools. And so those are some examples of how we align to our core beliefs. A brief history um where we've been and where we are going. So in my understanding, I haven't been around that um this program that long, but in 2004, my understanding is we we did receive an early childhood grant and the district leadership, I believe Cindy Brown was part of that. Many of you remember Cindy Brown. She um and leadership decided, you know what, we could do say an early childhood um center or we can invest in parents and
031they chose the parent route. Uh so through the years they built staff and they started serving you know hundred families and then in 2018 160 with five staff and that's when I came on board and um and at the time um I was told you know Cynthia you need to find families that are not going to be okay there that that their kids probably won't be ready for school. And so we knew that asking families for to do home visits is a a big ask. I mean imagine I want to come into your home. May I come into your home which is a huge thing and serve your children and partner with you with your children. And and that we before we opened up our services to all families, the parent had to have our
032home visiting to um to get developmental screenings or to come to our very rich learning play to learns. And so I said, "You know what guys, we're going to we're going to open this up to the community and anyone in our community can get a developmental screening or come to our play groups." So at that time we were so excited if like 40 people came to our Friday developmental play group and we set up centers and you know with all the areas of development. Well soon that 40 turned into 60 and then 80 and then we're like oh we need to go to a second day. So, we added a second day and fast forward um you can see as the numbers just keep climbing and climbing. Um we have a play and learn this
033week as a matter of fact and we're anticipating over 500 families coming and so thankfully for this funding because we were tapped out honestly we were we were all working so so hard and we through funding these grants were able to hire people. we have now someone specifically for that parent child interaction event. So we're not pulling home visitors out of home saying are stretching um their capacities. Um so yeah, that was huge. That showed the need. Last time I was here, y'all said, "Well, what's your why?" Well, the why is the families and it's 100% the needs that they express. They're affirming to us of how impactful it is. And so we're going to continue to do that. And now with that new $5 million grant, we we we're now going from 13 to
03420 staff and we hired our first dad and we're very special um special excited to have that part too um to add to our repertoire of services. So continuing funding last year was 858 families served and um we'll we'll and again it's not the number I hope y'all know. Each family is a story like Rachel and I and and the the connection they're getting with our district because of it. Um I just believe is positive. The partnerships, the the way they feel about our district and we know so many of our families as they move on, they're they're serving their schools, they're on the PTAs, their kids are thriving. And let me show you how. This is a list of our services. Um, we've always had, right, those home visits, group connections are, playgroups, developmental
035screenings, and then connecting families to resources, whatever that might be. It could be child find, it could be they're low on food, finding the food banks. The um the family navigation, y'all, this is the so exciting because now we have three family navigators. Two of them are here today. Raise your hand. So they are specifically trained to do the developmental screenings with families um partner with them to see what are our needs and then they will help the family navigate those needs and but we now that we have the capacity we are starting our outreach to the prek um classrooms. So in front of you you see what we are passing out. Um the prek teachers are getting a little letter. Now, we've worked with Rachel and her team for a long time. I go
036to their trainings at the beginning of each year and we tell tell them about parents as teachers and how we can support them, but we didn't always have the greatest capacity to, but this year we we we have more capacity. So, we are are pushing out these services so um the teachers and the parents can know. So the the prek teachers receive these little letters just reminding them and of this new services we have and then they receive that developmental activity kit. Every year we produce a outreach material that we take to daycarees, pediatrician offices, um, libraries all over and we have a a kit like the sticker kit, the activity, um, to so that the families get an idea of how intentional we are with providing the developmental activities and what some of our
037services would look like. And then on the other side um of that flyer for families, it talks about our developmental screening. Um so we are have asked the teachers to send that out in the kids folders and then the family navigation flyer that you have. The teachers know that if there is a need, they can refer families to us. And that started at the beginning of the year. Actually, it was the assistant principal reached out and said, "We have a kiddo that can't make it an hour in prek." I mean, we're we're we're really struggling here. Can you meet with this family? And so, what a load we took off. That principal, we hope. What a load we took off. So, we went to that school. One of our navigators went and met with that
038family and explored what's going on here. What what does a routine look like? What does nighttime look like? What does it look like to have um your child ready for school? And so, we'll in future tell you some more impactful stories with that. But already we know it's a very positive thing and we're just so thankful to have the capacity to do that now. Um so programs, workshops, parent cafes is a wonderful support group based on the protective factors, all those good things. And yes, we still support our teen parents. If a student is pregnant or has a child, um both the me female and male students, we support them and navigate them to graduation and healthy outcomes for themselves and their child. Here's a few examples of the way we have learning experiences that
039um are unique and specialized so that the families can find their niche and enjoy um some of those activities. So our yeah start strong is a online course that we have been able to supply for parents. It's about social emotional development for the infant and toddler and building self-regulation. And that's just a couple examples of how we're strategic in providing the um learning experiences. I want to definitely hit on our our literacy. We are very intentional. Every event is going to have a literacy component. Every home visit has a literacy component. We leave a book bag with families and the kids are so excited they got their book bag, right? We're going to start some responsibility and and when we get back to the next visit, we go get your book bag. We're going to
040switch out your books and just building that excitement for reading. And of course, we talk and explore pre-iteracy skills with with parents. Um, so here is our staff. The big picture is our staff last year and then I'm slowly adding some of our new staff. We have five more to add there, but Marvin Grover is our new um early childhood fatherhood specialist. Camille um Venezuela is our new parent child interaction specialist. But our staff, we know that we could have beautiful places. That's super important. We we invest in those. Um we can have a great program and we're very intentional making sure our programming is amazing. But these ladies and this gentleman that we are have on our team now that is the foundation of um our programming and so I couldn't be more proud
041of them. Nicole Webb just recently received a international award for parent educator of the year. Um two out of over 3,000 well three sorry parent educators get it out of over 3,000 parent educators not just in the United States but worldwide. So we're very happy for that. But would you all stand up super quick and just tell them your name and your title? >> Family navigation specialist family. >> My name is Jamie. I'm the specialist. >> Thank you. I'm really building a diverse team. So Jamie's fluent in Spanish. We have three fluent in Spanish. We have one fluent in Portuguese. and I'm about to hire someone fluent in Arabic. Um, we'll just keep on building that because that's super important. All right. Um, engagement is is fundamental to be intentional about systems building. We work
042with coalitions. I'm on several um to make sure that we have a culture not just in our schools, not just in our homes, but our communities to have a system of health and opportunities for families to thrive. And uh and so I've already explained our outreach materials and some of the ways that we um go about doing that. Big list of impact. Um I'll let y'all peruse that. Uh and so we know because we've studied it, we've gotten some data already of the kids that have been through parents as teachers programs that they are um they're having less attendance um problems, they're at school more, they take heavier weighted classes, and then they also um have higher GPA. And so I would we also do a survey to the prek and the kindergarten teachers right
043around October and we say hey we know you're busy but would you pretty please fill this quick little survey out about you know so and so was in the parents as teachers program how are they doing in these areas such as all the readiness um skills and so we get fabulous feedback from them that those these kids are ready for school and so how we did that is in each school we have indicators in there now as of like last spring that help us track the kiddos who have now are now in school and um have been part of the the parents as teachers now Northwest Family Services. So what does the future look like? Um the funding source we have I mean I don't mean to brag but they're very happy with us and
044so we that's why we got the second grant. They they when I was at the training for it, they said, "We were so thrilled, Cynthia, that you that I saw Northwest D going for this new grant, um they very generously funded us because we have fidelity to the current grant, the Texas home visiting grant we originally got. And so they have more grants. They have a grant that has that would serve um all age kids from actually the school age kids with family navigators. So, with y'all's approval, um, in the future, we definitely want to go after that so we can have family navigators on campuses. Um, that would be a big dream. And then, of course, we'd love to have more of the fathers engagement. And there's a grant called fatherhood effect. That would
045also increase the amount of fathers we can um we can hire to participate in things, you know, lead things like watchd dogs and just continue to grow those programs. Um so we know when we support the families right we set children on the path to lifelong learning and success. So please if you have time this week we are partnered with the A department and we are having our play to group playg group at the um Kelly box um a far a depart sorry. Yeah right over there the Kelly box barn and um and if you have the time come and check it out and see the families in action because they're there we set the environment but they're there engaging with their children. Any questions? >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Thank you guys. >> Oh,
046yeah. >> Yeah. Sorry. I was >> Yes. >> going to wait to see if anybody else questioned. So, um you mentioned several times it's for ages zero to five, but also there was a lot of prek um teacher recommendations. So for the younger kiddos, say the zero to >> three or four, what what what families are you targeting there? Is it anybody >> as far as the parents as teachers program? And so could you kind of explain that a little more? So if I'm out in the community and I meet >> and I I think uh a year or two ago, I had a flight attendant that just moved in. Flight attendant I worked with that just moved in had a 2-year-old and I was telling her about this and I said, "I think it's
047for anybody to go. You should go check it out." But is that true? >> Yeah, it is. It is for anyone in the community. um they they just show up at an event or they can contact us and um sign up for developmental screenings, but it is truly for for any family. There's no qualifications. >> Okay. It's it's for that parents as teachers. That's is that more of a playroup type thing or is it just a monthly meeting? How does how does that work? >> Yeah, the parents as teachers model has four Oops. Oh no, someone has four components. the home visiting which we only have the capacity they can each serve about 20 families each. So you can imagine that um you know so there's a capacity there. We that's one reason we opened
048up everything else to families because we just we were full. We constantly are full. We have weight list and then the play group is part of what we call group connections. The and then developmental screenings and then the family navigators are the resource connections. Um we have workshops support different with mothers and babies support groups, infant massages starting this week. Um, we have so many things to support the families and all of that's available to the whole community. >> Okay. And then I'm looking further down the list and if you if you mentioned this I'm I'm sorry but what's parent cafe? What is what is >> Yeah. So parent cafe is a model with be strong um families uh organization and it's based on the protective factors. So it's an environment where we have a
049max of 12 fam 12 parents come and we have cards that have questions about the protective factors. There might be something of about how do I build social support? It's probably worded a little more fun than that. And then they sit in groups of four and they just share about how what what that is or how do I build resilience in my child could be one of the questions. But they're based on the protective factors. They have a whole deck of cards that um they just do two cards um each time because everyone's sharing. It's rich conversation and they're learning and encouraging, you know, um each other in their parenting journey. >> Okay. >> And as as far as the families that get involved in this, how many when they first get involved, this is
050their their oldest kid is doing this program. Is this brand new families to Northwest ISD or or to the area? Is is it most of them or is it do they already have an older kid already in the school and they found >> I would actually say most of them don't have older kids yet. A lot of them do but most of them don't. We the way we outreach, we do outreach in the schools, like I said, through the preks are when we go to we're going to several of the trunk or treats and we're participating, but we're looking we got our eyes for those babies and toddlers and so then we give the parents outreach materials. Um social media has been huge. Lots of great um ways that families have heard about us through
051word of mouth, social media, and our outreach. >> Okay. So, so for a lot of new families, this is their first um >> what am I trying to say? It's the first >> experience with the district experience with Northwest ISD. Yes. Thank you'all. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you for a lot of them. And um and that's why I just think it's so impactful. For sure. >> Okay. And then on this uh debt program, I think you mentioned it. Um can you talk about that more? And um and I'm kind of curious because I know Anthony and his team have tried to build the watchdog program. So will this in a sense help feed the watchdog program? >> Oh, absolutely. Because we're going to really encourage that parent to be very engaged in um their
052child as they move into the elementary school. Actually, the person I hired was a watchd is a watchdog over there at Clare Love. He's a Clara Love dad. Okay. >> Um and so we that's what we do. We talk about how do we partner with the schools and how do you be involved as a parent um to have your child have school success and and that's one of many things we talk about is that kind of leadership of watchd dogs PTA volunteering put your child to bed on time those kind of things. >> Yeah. >> So no roughousing before bedtime that dads like to do. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, is that what you're trying to teach that out of the dads? Well, what I said is dads, we like the rough house right before
053it's time for bed. >> And you're trying to tell dads not to do that. >> Well, then we got to practice our mindfulness breathing. >> So, we'll we'll find a plan for that. >> So, I I know you spent a lot of your your presentation bragging about how it impacts the kiddos going forward and whatnot, but I'm really impressed with how it impacts the parents and the relationship that they're building with Northwest ISD. And I think that's that's an amazing part of your program. So, Thank you. And I Yes, I should have definitely made that more clear. It is a very positive relationship between the school district. >> Okay. And it's a good presentation because I thought all it was was parents as teachers. I didn't know you had more to what y'all were doing.
054So, it was good to hear. So, thank you. >> Thank you for your >> do. Yeah. >> Appreciate your time. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Well, >> Madam President, >> sorry. Go ahead. I would like to give this program and these amazing family navigators a round of applause if you don't mind. >> You bet. >> Thank you all for coming tonight. We appreciate you very much. Okay, we'll move on to item B in the reports, the September financial report and quarterly investment report. Well, I'm starting to get a little uh think a little too much about this. Y'all always put me after the big good presentation. I guess I feel like I'm always going to bring it down. Um so, good evening, board. Um let's talk about our financials. Um this is as of the
055end of September. I would like to point out um on the revenue side, you can see it's up quite a bit. 5.78 to 14.49. A lot of that's due because if you remember as they compress our tax rate as well as the money for the teacher retention aotment that money comes from the state. We don't usually get a lot of money from the state but because of that compression and they have to make that up and the teacher retention a lotment we're getting more from the state this year and they usually pay in September. So we actually received some money. You can see here we received about 47 million from the state where last year we had about 15. But that's a lot due to the compression factor. If you look at our expenses, we're
056at 14.9% as of 15.9 at this point last year. I'd also point out, you can see we've only spent 52.4 million. This point last year, we had spent 52.8. So, I feel like we're tracking really really well. Um, but that doesn't mean a lot of expenses still have not come through. So, we'll we'll continue to track that. Looking at our food service, I'm going to say this is going to be a little bit misleading for the next two or three months. If you remember last year, we went through the TDA audit and we were having to redo the billing and so we went about three months without bills from Aramark because we were trying to get that fixed. So on our financials, it looked like we didn't have much in expenses. So if you look
057here, you can see it looks like we've only spent $90,000 last year with Aramark at this point and we spent 1.1 this year. So that's because of that billing with the TDA audit last year, but I think come Novemberish, if I remember correctly, maybe it was December, you'll see that even back out. I will say our revenue is trending well at for 17.5%. Last year at 18.2 and then of course debt service not much to report there because our taxes come in mainly December January and you can see we've collected about 6 of our revenue. We were 0.5 last year and then our expenses are 27.9 versus 24.5. Of course that's our debt structure. And of course we made our big payment in August. And that is the financials. Are there any questions just on
058the financials? >> Yeah. Sorry, I' I've got questions. Jonathan, uh just real quick, that amount per teacher from the state this year, what was that again? >> I'm shooting from the hit, but it was around $9 million. >> No, I mean per teacher. >> Oh, for teachers with three and four years experience, it was $2,500. And teachers with five years or more, it was $5,000. Teachers with zero, one, or two did not receive anything from the state. We did give a local aotment but the state did not fund any of that. >> Okay. And then obviously with the uh the election coming up with the homestead exemption that the possible increase from 140 did that is that going to impact the M side or we going to be have is there hold harmless from the
059state on that? >> Well we actually figured that remember the hold harmless is only really on the INS side. Remember the old teeter totter equation I give you losing state you're losing local taxes you gaining state money. So we will get some more from the state because of that. The biggest factor there though is um I just went blank. I started to say it and then I went blank. >> Welcome to my world. >> Property value compared. >> Oh, property value. I did figure that when I did my when I did the budget. We estimated that property tax exemption in there. I think it was about a $ 1.5 billion property value loss for the district. So that's already figured in our revenue equation. So it shouldn't have an impact. >> Okay. And then on
060the INS, I know that there was a hold harmless if we did bonds before September, but what is the amount that we lose going forward? Is it is this 25,000 in the hold harmless part? >> The hold harmless is being held harmless at the moment. The hold harmless is being held harmless. That's hard to say at the moment. What is different though is if we overcolct in taxes, so I have to be perfect in who's going to pay their taxes and the amount and everything. If we overcolct or undercolct the hold harmless, for every dollar we under collect or overcolct, we will lose some of the hold harmless money, which makes no sense to me. So if we actually underestimate how much we'll receive in taxes, and I overcolct taxes by about a million dollars,
061I lose a million dollars in hold harmless. So that's where that equation's going to be. I have no idea until it all settles out and how many how many people pay their taxes, what their property value is, all the factors. Okay, >> that's getting way in the weeds. >> I think there's there's more questions to that. I'll follow you up with that individually. And then only because you brought up with the food on the food the fund, the food service fund. >> Um I I know we've talked about it a few times over the years, but >> that and I've seen it it always pops up in social media, but that credit card feed so that people add is there because of the profits that are being made and having to spend money to get
062that get the debt or the the b the fund balance down. Is there any been any more talk on that? And this may not be a question for you, Jonathan, but Dr. Fouse, is there any more talk about >> that? >> The only fees that I can think of is if you load it. I'm trying to remember if I say this right. Bobby, are you back there? >> Is it if you load it online? >> Yeah. When you pay with a credit card through the app, >> you pay with a credit card. There are going to be fees because there's credit card fees, >> right? Yeah. Because I remember when my son was in high school, teenage boy goes through I tried to do the max because of the fee, but you he go boys
063go through it fast. really really fast. So, >> and I think you can pay in person where there are no fees, but if you want to do the convenience and the credit card, which we get charged, I think it's a fee. Bobby, am I saying that right? >> Yeah. So, it's a it's a onetime con convenience fee. So, one thing I am working with them, um, we worked on trying to negotiate the rates. They weren't willing to do anything with the actual credit card rates. Yeah. >> Uh, but we are going to enroll in an AC, which is about 75 cents cheaper per transaction. Um, so that would help. Um, but in the in the meantime, um, I'm also looking at other options as well to see who who wants to play >> with that
064with the fee being cheaper, but also will they be able to put in more money at a time because that was one of the things it was it was a for again teenage boys I think it was 150 180 they go through that pretty fast. So the so the fees >> I'll check on the cap. I wasn't aware that there was a cap on it. Um the biggest piece was is if there's a 20, >> there's not a cap anymore. >> Little small increments there. The fee is the same where you put 20 or you put 180. >> Yes, that I do remember that because I would always go the max but there's Right. >> But there's no cap. Okay. That was prior to 23 I guess. So >> Okay. >> But more more at
06511. >> Okay. Thanks. Thanks y'all. And that's it. Thank you. >> Yeah. And that's a tough one because any software we go to the credit card chump companies charge us. >> Yeah. >> So there's always a fee involved, right? Okay, we'll look at the investment report. I think I told you last time we will see a few differences in this one. So, this first one is you look in the middle column there, it talks about our income summary that shows how much interest andor um realized gain that we've made. And you can see here we made $13,94,680 from July to September. So in one quarter we made $13 million in interest. On this next page, I want to see if I see Deian smile a little bit from over there. Um you can actually see
066at the bottom how we've really laded out these securities. Um, for the last few years because of interest rates, we've actually been keeping a lot of it in textful because we've been making more money that way. With the talk of all the interest rate cuts, they're talking two, possibly three cuts. Um, we wanted to try to lock in for as long as we could. So, you can see here where we've tried to ladder out some of those securities and you can see 3 months we have about $99 million laded out. 3 to 6 months, $224 million all the way out to 9 to 12 months 315 million. So you can see the different ladings of those securities to try to maximize the interest over the next year in anticipation that rates could possibly drop. Um
067when rates were staying pretty pretty um steady if anything going up it didn't really make sense to this because the long range interest rates were lower than what we were getting in text pool. Um I think on this next slide you can also see how we did a lot of that. Um, a lot of that was in investment pools on the fourth or fifth line of 628 million is now down to 300 million because of all the investments. You can see how we've taken CDs up from 25 million to 720 million commercial paper from 73 million up to 132 million. So, you can see how those investments have changed during that quarter. And I think that's what I was kind of telling you. I think we laded out almost 700 million in securities. And then
068this is the last one I was going to show you. This is the the the lines that we kind of fight here. And you can see in red where Northwest is versus sixmonth treasuries and text pool. We've actually been really above that line for a while and fighting that line. But because we did these investments for long term, that rate drops just a touch in anticipation that those text pool rates and everything else will continue to drop at some point, too. Um it may not, they may stay pretty consistent, but you can see that last little dip on the end where our long-term investments are going to be slightly lower than text pool. Um, I think you'll see that change in the next three to six months and then we'll be higher than that and
069taking advantage of those drops in interest rates. Are there any questions I can answer on the investment report? >> I have a question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Does our investment policy allow for us to invest more than one year out >> in commercial in in actually in our um capital projects? You can do two years only in capital projects. So that little bit that's out there, I think it was really like two weeks past that year because I didn't want to go any further. But yes, our capital projects you can actually go over one year. You can go to two years. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Okay. We'll move to report C, which is facilities planning and construction report. Good evening board. Dr. Fast.
070Tonight, I just want to give you guys a little overview of our planning and construction departments and what they're uh looking into right now. Here's just a little update on where we are in the planning department on the projects that we're looking at um looking into re-evaluating the secondary furniture with opening up Barksdale next year. We wanted to make sure that we're putting in the appropriate furniture. It's been a couple years since we've done we've evaluated our furniture that we've gone through and um the planning department did a showcase a few months ago this past summer and we had a great turnout and got some good feedback. And so we're putting that those pieces in Barksdale to where when we open up the high school, we'll for sure have everything purchased that is um appropriate
071for um each classroom. They're also looking current last week we had an elementary showcase over at the McCra facility and it it was a good turnout. Not as many as we wanted, but we definitely got some feedback that'll be great for ROR um when we purchase for ROR um at the end of the year. And then we're still working on treeine and careway finishes. And so I have an elevation just to show you guys just to kind of give you an idea of what that those the new design is going to look like. And then our new ACT facility just going over um everything. So this is this is the classroom furniture that we've decided to purchase for Barkstdale. It get it's a different desk, different chair. We've gotten a lot of feedback with our
072current furniture. Um having wheels or swivel in the classroom, we've heard that it's a little distraction. This is more of a a swing or a just a movement back and forth instead of a full body movement. So, we're hoping that we get good feedback on these chairs. And then the furniture or the table is a different shape. Um, we're hoping that this works with our teachers. And we we heard that four a group of four is not well. It doesn't work well with in our classroom, say for math um with the current furniture. And so we were looking at furniture that had um more options um of groups um settings. Here's just a vision of what the McCra um building looked like last week when we had teachers come and test out um all kinds
073of furniture for our elementary. You can also see preks in there with the wood furniture. That's their play set. I think their kitchen is up there. And then this is our elevation of treeine and careway. We are planning to put a a spark of color um on this outside of the building, but we just not sure what colors we're going with. And so I just wanted to give you guys a little visual of what those um building the new buildings will look like in our um community. And then I believe I've shown you guys this, but I just wanted to um refresh your memory of our A barn. We're still looking at this and the programs that are going in this a barn um with um CTE and just hopefully we'll get those tied down
074soon so we can get that started. And here's our construction list. We are endless projects. Um just gives you a a range of where we are in the completion of all of the projects going on. Here's G this gives you a more visual of when in the year that we'll finish each of those projects. And then the here's the administrative annex building. Um it's framing's going up. They're almost out finished with the outside utilities. Um this project is an ongoing project. We started with this building and we renovated it for um our admin staff. So while we were building this building, so we had to renovate that building. Then we had to demolish the old building and then build this building. And now we're renovating this building for planning, construction, and and maintenance. It is
075a long process. and just know that we are on budget and definitely in or we're in budget on time um is the appropriate uh statement. Sorry about that. But um really excited to have um a specific building built for the facility planning and construction because they're currently in a building that was built in 1975 and um it's it's definitely seen its days and so it's I'm I'm excited to have that for our department. It's something that was built for them. This gives you a little insight of the framework. It's about halfway done. I walked it last week and it's looking it's shaping up pretty good. It's exciting. Prairie view, we are we've given all the playgrounds over to the campus. So now we're just doing we're just slowly moving out of the project out offsite.
076We're moving west where the trailers were and parking and just have a little bit of landscape and irrigation to do at our stadium. Uh renovate restroom renovations. Um the fixtures are going in this week, so it's it's getting close to to finishing up that project and getting it ready for um softball and baseball season. Here we have Barkstdale Barksdale, which we um interior framing has been completed. Still working on all the finishes inside. It's almost closed up. We're we're super close. And where you see the red or pink reddish um building at the wings, the three wings on the right, um they'll be getting metal um the metal um exterior metal panels. Sorry, lost my words. Um and so we'll start to be able to see the shape of that building and and how it
077will look design-wise and it'll be it's going to be beautiful. It's a great space. And then we have our football field in, just not turfing it yet because if we turf it, that means little kids will come on our site and and play football. So, we're we're holding off on that for a little bit. And then you see the tennis courts um on the south side of that. Here's an interior picture of the library. We show that every month. And you can just see it shaping and forming and the beautiful material that we'll be using in that um in that space. And this is your cafeteria. On the left, you can see across from the courtyard, that's the library. on the other side of the building um from the cafeteria. And this is our inside
078of um our academic wing. You can see on the right of that picture, that left picture, the tile work that's going in. So, our finished material that they look like there looks like to be um tile about to go in on the on the bottom end. Um and then the right picture is a classroom. That's probably the prettiest classroom picture you'll get out um with all the the floor to ceiling windows and the view that they'll have um from that classroom is going to be incredible. It' be hard to to learn stuff in there. I'd be looking out the window. Um high school 4, we're still working on slabs and steel. CMU every day we have a slab pour of some sort, whether it's drives, parking lot, slab. Um steel's going up constantly. Um the
079project is is going um pretty well um with all the regulations and everything that we're having to go through when it comes to the FAA. Um just few pictures, that's the stadium, the front of that, the grade beams, that's the indoor activity center and the locker rooms for the outside sports. Dr. Hicks early childhood center. Um this is about a week and a half old picture, but I'm pretty sure we have steel up um has already begun. So, that project's going pretty fast and it's um it's on time and um can't wait for that one to open. It's going to be really exciting. And Dr. Romer, as you see, the steel's up and it's almost completed the steel and next I believe the storm shelter will be up before Thanksgiving um at this campus. Just
080another view. And here we have Byron Nelson on the home side, which is the left of the picture. They're doing peers and then on the right side they're doing grade beams. So, they're starting um on the visitor side and then working their way to the home side when it comes to the stadium at Byron. This is just an overview of the pack and all the structural that had to happen on the e with the exterior taking off the um face of the of the building and working to get that steel in. And the second story um which you can see here um the second story where we'll have be adding the the seat seats the extra seats for the pack. Okay. Here is Eaton High School. We had to take down that stadium completely and
081move it to align it with the hallway that goes from the fine arts all the way across to the athletics. That's the entrance to the stadium. Um we got our permit about a week ago and so they're in full force um getting that one started wrapped up. And then our pack, we've actually poured the um lobby slab and starting on the exterior um building of the exterior walls. Any questions, friend? >> I have a question on the Byron Nelson phase one. Is that taking in a lot of the parking spaces? >> Currently, we are taking the parking spaces. Yes, ma'am. Um there will be parking on the east side of that stadium. It's just we're using it for construction right now. Um we do have parking going in on the north side of the practice
082fields. Um that's going to be where the VIP is going to be parking for um for that site, but we are very tight here. And we've also on the very east side of the site, we have over a hundred golf cart parking spots because we know that community is a golf cart community. And so that hopefully will help with our traffic as well and that people drive golf carts to the game and they go the golf cart route and not the main road. >> And and that's the same thing with Eaton. It looks like it's Eaton is a little different. We are taking over the parking that was in that space, but we are working on we're about to be pouring the grass that's just south of a Adams between Adams and the community. That's
083going to be all parking. And so that'll be for the the events at the stadium for helping with the parking. So we're adding a ton of parking at Eaton. Any other questions? Thank you, Sarah. >> Thank you. Okay, that concludes the reports uh section of the agenda. We'll move to the board president's report. Um I have early voting started today. Please get out and voice your opinion through your vote. And election day is November 4th. We'll move to the superintendence report now. >> Yes, ma'am. Just a couple things. We've got um football Thursday and Friday night this week. So, if you want to see Eaton come out and take on um Mr. Sproul's alma mater, Ulus Trinity, that's that's Thursday evening. Yes, sir. And then um our partners in education, our second uh partners in
084education offering this this football season. Byron Nelson uh versus Northwest. This is the second of three Thursday, Friday night. Get all the Texas football you can get in one week. Um not including college and NFL. Um also this week, uh half of Wednesday, all of Thursday, and half of Friday. Friday, I'll be at the TASMUS conference. I've been invited to participate in a panel of superintendent that are going to discuss how we're implementing the new laws from our most recent legislative session. That will be a barn burner. Um but um we're you know very very honored to represent the school district and talk about that program. Uh also not this week but coming up NEF Golf Classic October 29th. So um that's a huge fundraising project uh for Nef. They do a great job with
085that uh golf classic and we're excited to host that again this year. I think the tradition is and I know um I don't know if I see Nef but traditionally it rains uh every single time. So we'll see if we carry that uh tradition. That's all we have. Move. Yep.