NISD Special School Board Meeting - August 4, 2025

001I'll call and tell them that we're >> Okay, guys. We're going to go ahead and get started. Um, we do not have mics. So, I'm going to We're just going to We're in a big space. This is the church. And so, um, it's like a church. Um, so we don't have mics tonight. This is the first time we've done a board workshop boardroom. Congratulations. And, um, just project, I'll say to the board, we had a meeting this morning with cabinet with big cabinet. So, there were 36 people in here and we couldn't hear it that well. Uh, we just realize you have to if you have a question, say it out loud. That mic right there is a sure mic. It is incredibly sensitive. It's a road mic. So, believe it or not, it's capturing

002everything once Keegan turns it on. Is it on? >> Should be. >> Yeah. Great. So, uh, so that will capture the meeting, which is what is required, but if you want people behind you, a couple rows here, just project the question. Jonathan will be leading the presentation. So, are you ready? We're okay. Go ahead. Y >> I call the special meeting of the North Coast Independent School District to order at 5:01 p.m. the record show for board members present that this meeting has been duly called and that the notice of the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 520. We'll move to uh item two on the agenda, public testimony on agenda items. And there is none. So it move to item number three which is the

003budget workshop proposed voter approval tax rate election theater which is this Tuesday. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm hoping I can see the screen. If not I've got it here in front of me. >> All right. >> So I think first we're going to kind of go through the efficiency audit mainly because well we have to and two because I think it's going to flow really well into the discussion regarding the Vader in the next section. So, I just want to get some highlights. Nothing from this has really changed, but we do just have to talk about it again. So, we'll try to go through it um quickly. Purpose is to assess the district's financial management basically our efficiency and how well we use our resources and then have we implemented best practices on adopting

004our maintenance and operations property tax rate. We completed this audit using fiscal year 2023 and prior. A lot of that data is so far behind 2023 the data we've used in this. And then the district data was compared with some of the areas of accountability, student staffing and finances. And we did that with some of our peer districts and state averages this year. The key information here um if you look at 2025 versus 2024 tax rate, you can see last year our tax rate was 6631. Currently, now some of these numbers may change slightly between here and our next meeting. I do not get our true MCR, our compressed rate from the state until tomorrow. So, it's this is based on my estimate calculations based on our property values. So, you can see right now

005looking at it, I think our M tax rate would be 6331. So, you can see it's about um 3 cents less. Um, and so our INSO would not change, so it would stay stagnant. The estimated revenue increase would be about $12 million. Again, I think that's the low end. We want to make sure we're conservative on that estimate. And then increase the property tax on the average home. You will see this a lot more later on, but I think it's a good point to bring up. Now, from last year to this year, even with going out for the Vader, we expect that the average homeowner will pay about $448 less in taxes for two reasons. Remember, we're going to compress the tax rate again, which is going to be a little over 3 and then

006add the 3 cents back in from the ber. And then also because the homestead exemption, it's on the ballot to go from 100 to 140. And then if you're over 65, there's actually one that's going to take you up another $50,000 if it passes. So they would bend an additional $90,000 exemption. So between those two exemptions, um we think that it increase the property tax on the average home would be $448 less. So if the vad are successful, the district would intend to use that revenue to implement smaller class sizes, restore some of the 25 staffing cuts in fine arts, maintain current academic, athletic, and fine arts programs, and continue to buy competitive teacher and staff raises, and retain and attract high quality staff. Now, if the vader were not so passed, the district will

007not be able to decrease the student teacher ratios or restoring of those program cuts and it will limit the ability to give future raises and stay competitive competitive with salaries and could even lead to possible reductions in program offerings in future legislative budget. Again, that goes back to the legislature and what they've done in the last four to six years. So, talking about the efficiency audit, here are the peer districts that we compared ourselves to. A lot of these are very similar to us in the area and some of those are outside the region. I always use them. Dripping Springs, um, Prosper and then let's see who else. There was another one I thought Prosper Lamar another fast growth district. And then of course these are the financial ratings for us as well as all

008of those districts. You see most all of them are aged. There are a couple that do not have an A for whatever reason. And then this one shows the district revenue. I brought this slide out because you're going to see this a lot in my later presentation, but I want you to see it now from the efficiency audit. And the last line kind of says it best. The district receives less revenue per student compared to the peer district's average and the state average. If you look at that number there, it shows that we were about 105. All of our peers around us and the ones or the ones that I list, they were about 109. And then if you look at the state average, it's 12,82. So you can see we're about $2,300 lower than

009the state average based on this data efficiency. >> So Jonathan, >> yes, sir. >> Is that based on their baseline being higher than ours and their compression is the same or less? >> The compression depends on how fast your property values grow. So the faster your property values grow, the faster your tax rate compresses. It basically, remember, we're allotted a minimum in the basic aotment and then there's a maximum tier. There's kind of like a little I call it a little range and every district must fall within that range. There's a whole bunch of factors that go into that. But because we are considered property wealthy, we get very little from the state where other districts that are property poor get more from the state. That teeter totter effect. And they're all within that range.

010Some of these do it because of other reasons. They have a lot more title students. A lot of this because they have what? Vader pennies that we don't have golden and copper pennies. So they're allowed to collect more revenue than we are. So that's where a lot of it comes from. But some of the things like title and other things like that can also have a major impact on. >> So Jennifer, can you go back to the slide please? >> I think so. >> I think that's I'm going to ask you a different way. So I'm a I'm a parent sitting there one of your future meetings and I'm going to ask why why are we giving $400 less and is that >> because of the state formula and because we do not have the

011Vader pennies. So, we are and you'll see it later on the Vader presentation. I think when we walk through it, I'm going to hit your points y'all are looking at because that's exactly the way we designed our presentation to hammer those points at the end. So, if you'll let me kind of really show that again and then maybe we expand all one. I threw this one in here too because it talks about fund balance and the importance of it. I think the the board is well aware of why that's important and as we continue to grow in our budget that fund balance needs to be increasing. I want you to see this was last year, right? We still have a little bit behind. We were at about 36% fund balance. If you look at the

012general side fund balance for our peers, they're about 26%. So that's where we have a little bit more in fund balance. That's one reason we could adopt the deficit we did last year. Other districts have done that and now they're going below that number. So it's very dangerous in my opinion. Kind of scares me a little bit. District staffing levels. Another big point that I want to show. If you look at that top line, it says teaching staff as a percentage. We as a district, 60% of our stat is teaching staff. Why that's important? Because that means it's going straight to the classroom. We have focused that to the classroom. If you look at the peer districts around us, they're about 55%. And then if you look at the state, they're about 49%. But remember

013how much more revenue they get too. So that's where some of that comes in. What this shows to me by looking at the bottom two is look at our students per total staff 9.34 versus peers at 8.29 and the state at 7.23. If you summarize all that, it just shows that we're super lean in all the other areas. We're maximizing every dollar we have in the classroom. And then if you look at this, I put this is the same thing it says here at the bottom, but I just put it big and bold. This is what the auditor said. The district is maximizing efficient use of staffing resources to serve students while achieving high accountability rates comparable to its peer districts. So I think if you go through this whole efficiency audit, it shows that

014we're very very efficient with our budget. That's the biggest part of the efficiency audit I wanted to cover tonight. Are there anything just on the efficiency? We're going to get way more into those numbers here in this next presentation. Okay, I'm going to jump into the other presentation. Um, you'll see here prop a um I think you we all talk about avader, right? We know what ovader stands for, but I think it's very confusing to our voters. So, we have looked at other things that we could call it and what we legally can say. This will be considered an operations funding. Prop A will be an operations funding on the ballot. We'll see a little bit more of that. So background to eliminate a $16 million de to eliminate a $16 million structural deficit from

015last year. What we had to do was we increased our class sizes and we reduced some student program staffing. If we were able to pass this Vader or operations funding prop, it would help us be able to decrease class sizes by increasing teacher and program staffing. So undo some of that that we did, continue to provide teacher and staff raises and we would be able to still decrease the M tax rate compared to last year through the statemandated compression. So you're going to see that again here in a second. This is a um you've seen this slide before as well. We talked about it last year, but in the 89th, we did receive more funding. That new funding total around $15 million, but the majority of that had to be used as pass through to

016teacher salaries. We didn't have any local control. We didn't have any say. We couldn't use for class size reduction or programs. We had to use it for teacher salaries. If you look at that, we only received about 2 million that was non-restricted in the basic law. So very minimum dollars we actually had any control over. And so with that, here's the state school funding crisis. We've talked about that for over a year now. These are a lot of the articles that we've talked about. You can see a lot of these are around us big dollar figures. And what I really appreciate on this slide is it also shows some of the things they looked at which I think you've seen before. Um, I'm just going to the first one that sticks out to me is

017Jetson consider cutting librarians in increasing class sizes. Lewisville deficit following a Vader closing five campuses. Cypress 77 reduced more than 600 positions. So, increasing class sizes. You'll see that all through all of these articles if you were to go through in this presentation. Those will be live where you can click on actually go see the article. So, if you want to go back and read those articles. The reason we put this in here is it is it's not a Northwest ISD problem. This is a state funding issue and we want to make sure we clarify that. So what would an approved leure fund? Again, it goes back to smaller class size allowing us to reduce the class sizing or student teacher ratio. It also will allow us to continue to offer the student programs and

018increase the staffing in some of those programs, some of which we cut last year. And then the last one is competitive compensation to retrain and recruit high-quality staff. In this plan, operations funding proposition. If it if it was to in the fall, if it's approved by the voters, the plan would be to use that $12 million in this manner. So 8 million of it would go back to class sizes in the program spend. So 67% of it would go back to trying to lower those class sizes and help with some of the program staffing that we had to cut. Again, lowering some of the classes. The other 4 million would be dedicated toward competitive compensation for future payraises and to recruit retaining other staff. We'll get a little bit more in the weeds on this

0198 million. So talking about class size and student programs, 6 million of that, and again, these numbers are going to vary some. Um, but six million of that would be used to implement smaller class sizes, which means we would be able to hire additional teachers and open up new sections to relieve larger class sizes, particularly in core subject areas. This would kind of be the proposal right now. um decrease the following grade levels for 24 students at the elementary two in second grade go back to 22 to1 in third grade go to 23 to1 and fourth grade back to 23 to1 the classes in kindergarten to second would remain at 22 and fifth would remain at 25 so those are the ones that we've had to make some adjustments to the last few years back

020and forth this would allow us to put about 67% of that back not all of it but about 67% based on those numbers if If you look at the middle schools, we would decrease the number of students a teacher sees from 180 to 172.5. I know that sounds like a weird number. How why half a student, right? But it puts back about 50% of what we took away in the last deduction cut. We went from 165 to 180. This will take us from 180 back down to 172.5. And then we would also do the same thing in high school. Where it makes a big difference is some of these classes in middle school. Right now, we're looking at some of the class counts. We're seeing some at the middle school that will exceed 36 students.

021At the high school, we see some that will exceed 40. So, being able to do that will reduce those numbers in those classrooms. Out of that 8 million, we talked about the first six. We're also the other two would be used to restore some of the staffing cuts in fine arts and maintain some of the current academic, athletic, and fine arts programs. One of the examples here we use fine arts as a big example because there's been a lot of talk about it is like ban we would come up with a staffing model that we could continue and make it consistent. So what you see here is at the middle schools we would put back the assistant director. So all middle schools would have a director and assistant director. A choir would have a director

022and assistant director. Theater would have a director orchestra a director and art would give two teachers. So it be consistent across all the middle schools. This will help us restore some of those programs at the high school level because it would give more flexibility some of those high school teachers that are having to go down middle school and we would be able to open up some of those things on jazz band if there was enough interest. So some of those programs would be able to return. The last four million would be able to generate that we would generate would be to continue to provide competitive teacher and staff raises. Definitely the priority is to retain and attract high quality staff. And so here's where we talk about it later. What we're calling this now is

023an operations funding election. That's what this money is used for. That way it doesn't get confused with the bonds, right? We're talking about operations funding. I don't think I have to get too far in the weeds for this. I think this group really gets this. Um, this will be more for the general public is what's the difference between a operations funding or vader and a bond election. We know the two different buckets. That's what this slide is talking about. So, I don't want to get too far in the weeds, but the vader would allow us to do things like class sizes of salaries and operational cost where bonds only allow us to do buildings. I allowed to cross those funds. Here is the proposal and tax rate information here. Here's our favorite little two budget

024slide, right? Maintenance and operations. As you can see, last year's rate was 6669. The proposed rate this year with the Vader will be 6631. You can see that's a 038 decrease. Remember I talked about the compression is going to lower 3.38 cents. The Vader bringing back three of those pennies back. That's where that decrease be a 038 for next year. Interest and sinking remain unchanged. So here's a good slide of talking about the differences and I'll show it better in another one coming up. But we would be decreasing by an additional 3 cents because of tax rate compression. That's going to be a and again that's relatively I think it's pretty accurate but I don't know until tomorrow when the state tells me what that number will be. But then we will come back and

025ask for 3 cents in the Vader. So again if you looked at the three the two tax rates proposed with vader would be a 6669 I'm sorry that's a typo actually proposed with vader approval be a 6631 proposed doino tax rate without vader approval 6331 tax decrease from 25 to 24 so this is where you would see a $448 increase on the average home the reason because of the homestead exemptions. That big increase in homestead exemptions, you apply the tax rate, you're going to pay less in taxes. If you did not have the Vader, instead of decreasing $448, your taxes would actually decrease $556. Now, that's a lot of information, but I think we'll summarize it here coming up. So, Jonathan, to be clear, uh, operations Prop A passes or Prop A doesn't pass. Either

026way, the tax the mountain tax should go down because of compression. I can guarantee it will go down in like Tarant County because their values are frozen. So, they're not going to see more and they're going to increase that homestead exemption 100%. Other counties, there is a potential that they could raise values. I haven't seen anything with the raise of values that still don't show a negative though. The values are not increasing like they had in our past. I don't want to say that there's no way it would happen, but some people may have improvements and things like that that would do that. But for the most part, everybody would see a tax rate decrease with or without the Bader Pass, golden pennies. So remember, districts can go after the remaining three golden pennies, and

027there's another eight copper pennies. The district northwest, we're only going after the three golden pennies. Those three golden pennies are worth more money for one and two, they're not subject to recapture. Those are local dollars. No matter what happens to our district, stay local. We have full control over those dollars. And we want to be very conservative with our taxpayers money. So that is why the district is only asking for the three golden pennies and none of the copper pennies. All right. Here's where I think the rubber meets the road really tells the story. If you look at this chart here, this is the top salary in the west side of DFW metroplex. And you can see Northwest ISD is around number 10 or 11. I can't remember where that is at 615. Now, remind

028you this isn't all of the school, right? There's a whole bunch more. This is the top of the top. So, we're in the top. We're in the top portion, but there is still we're still about number 10. So, you can see the ones ahead of us. Mansfield, Arlington, Fort Worth. Those are the ones ahead of us. My question is, and this is the question I board. If you were to bet how many of these districts here have gone out for baiters and passed them, it's a pretty good guess. Not exactly. The ones in the dark shaded have gone out for Vaders and passed them. The only one that has not right now is HD, who is going out this year for Vader. All the other ones have passed voter approved tax rate elections. Um, my

029right here. So, I think this is super important because you can see we're staying very competitive in salaries even though we have not gone after the Vader business. But if you look at this slide, this is the telling slide. This is what they receive revenue per student versus Northwest. We are at the bottom of revenue per student in the DFW metroplex. So we are trying to be extremely competitive and you can even see even like Mansville we're just about $1,000 per student different. You can do math pretty quick to see how many millions that is up to $3,300 less than ever at Castlebury. So, we're being very competitive with salaries and keeping our staffing ratio better than everybody else's. We're at the same as everybody else's while getting that much less in revenue. It goes

030back to the efficiency side. We have put the money in the classroom. That's why we had to make changes this year on the deficit. We have nowhere else to go because other districts are receiving a whole lot more funding than we are. Now, you may ask me again, well, how many pennies do they have? That's a great question, Mr. Schlitter, if you look at some of our area M tax rates, here shows the actual tax rates for those districts, we do not have them all yet because a lot of them have not voted on this yet. But what we know for 2024 is for these districts here, we are at the floor. We are the bottom. The other districts around us that we're competing with, some of them have all the 12 remaining pennies, some

031of them have eight, some of them have five. So, as you can see, that's where that additional revenue is so much more is because their voters have approved these elections so that they get the extra local dollars that stay local that allow them to do a lot more. And that's one reason we're going after the three billion people would like to go out to the free. Yes, sir. >> Does the MR rates here include the VA pennies? So, >> they do. Yes, sir. >> So, if you want to see what the compressed rate was, you would have to take that 12 and the 81. So it's right at 63. So 67. >> I have a thought on that presented to the public. If um on this kind of show what everybody's basic compressed rate is

032because it it can show how some districts states different rates for us but then you add in the rate of pennies for total at the end so that you can you can see >> definitely can do that. That's a good almost make it better visual >> and I and I and I think that's a great idea but I do also want to make sure we understand that teeter totter still works out. So those ones that may get a little more may get a little less from the state. It usually works out on the compressed rate the state where it gets you starts getting crazy when you get those extra. That's when the extra revenue starts to come >> because of this >> we don't get the vapor finish. That's a lot of this. Now there

033is some things like let's say Fort Worth will get a lot more title money because they have a lot more title students. So there is some of that as well. Um could be some have more special ed even though our percentage wise I think we're growing more or faster than anybody. I don't know that that's very understood but they could be a bigger district of more students if that's produced. I think the previous slide that Judy asked to see might be better after the right slide to show. Okay, this is the comparison and this is the result. >> Jeff, you got to speak up. Sorry. >> Where did that put us on? Why am I teaching? >> That is a great question and I need a crystal ball. First of all, all we looked at

034that on that chart was teachers. I don't a lot of districts haven't even set their teacher pay rates for next year even though they've adopted budgets. They're going to actually do retro pay raises because they couldn't figure out how to apply the House Bill two changes yet. We were able to do that already. So, I don't know where they're going to end up yet. That's the hard part. I still don't even know where they're going to end this year. So, when we talk about future years, I really had trouble predicting. The other thing about that 4 million is it goes a lot of different places because the way House Bill 2 was written was all the money only went to teachers. Some of this money will go to teachers, but it'll also have to go

035to librarians, counselors, and people that didn't get that money because now they're falling way out of market, and other districts are having to do the same thing. So, it's going to be a a tough balancing act to figure out what other districts do, how competitive we can be. But that's why that money is there to be able to make sure we can still recruit and retain both teaching staff and non-eing staff that's in the classroom. I mean, I wish I had that answer, but that's >> No, I I did. I'm just I'm looking at all this and I'm trying to do, you know, when I go out to do my life, I have to jump down people to to really understand the story individual. And so the story was ever and and I think good

036with all that. When I see the eight and four my mind. What's it going to actually do for the for the for the people that are on the fence out there thinking out how they want to work for this? Telling a story of this is what it's going to actually do for these for people here is far more important than the full >> and I think Anthony said that multiple times and me and him have had a lot of conversations. I struggle because I I can't predict it. I just don't know. Every day once these districts start putting out their comp plans, they start figuring out what their rates are going to be, we get the UEA report, we can start seeing where it is, then I can probably get a lot more specific on

037some of that. But it's really hard for me to say until I see that some districts really put a lot of value into I'm just making something up. Counselors this year and they increased their salary a lot and now we're way behind. So now I've got to figure out a way to pay it again. Or did they do it in principles? What if they do it in speech pathologist? I don't really know where the competitiveness is going to be until everybody else kind of comes down to therapy. And it's also comes down to hiring. Where do we have struggle hiring? Comes back to that conversation with each other. Where are we making the where can't we find someone to hire and how will we be competitive? So that four is kind of earmarked to continue

038to be competitive and continue to give raises and stay within the market. come up with a great answer right now, but that's we'll continue to dive through it more and more as we go. Just remember these are preliminary and I still didn't know the exact number because there's still not totally all the information on the 10 >> and the state their estimates they're missing a lot of information too. So it's kind of a but there's deadline. >> I think you bring up a great point. It's been the basis of a lot of our conversation and that is people want to know if I'm going to go vote for this thing, where's it going? And so yeah, and the biggest thing is, and we've talked about the $16 million in cuts, but starting on August 13th,

039people will walk into a classroom and they will see physically what that looks like with the number of students in the classroom. And that's why you see the bulk of that is about class size ratios and how we can structurally put some things. We can't put everything back in. We had to make those structural cuts, but that's the bulk of it is we can structurally u repair some programs that we cut and address class sizes. That's the big piece. And then the smaller piece, the other third if you will, the twothirds that we're estimating is what can we do to keep to be competitive with ours, you know, compete with our with our neighbors. And really, like Jonathan said, we're very curious to see how it shakes out and what UEA looks like. We did

040some things that other districts didn't do with zero, one, and two-year teachers. We also rolled our teacher pay scale where some districts didn't roll up a year or take a step. So, I can't wait to see how that shakes out. But there was so little local control on that that there's a very good chance a lot of the state moved similarly, but then when smaller districts got more than big districts and narrow that gap a little bit. So, we're this of all years, we're very curious to see what that competition looks like and what competitive salaries for teachers in particular uh look like. The other thing too on this is remember this is money that we would get every year, right? Those later finish 12 million this year maybe 12.005 next year, right? It just

041may go up because of grow. It allows us to maintain whatever structure we can afford going forward for hopefully two four six years. So we can't go too far into a structure put it all in there has to try to grow and then we have we come back and cut. So we have to really try to balance that as well. not knowing what the legislature is going to be for the next two, four, six years. >> You can guess. They won't be giving us a whole lot of money next cycle. I can guarantee you that. >> Another another thing that I didn't put up here on this that's a neighboring district that is what I would call very similar to us. What is it? Protect the name, protect the innocent kind of thing. But very

042neighboring district, very similar, fast growth. Their student enrollment is within a thousand of ours. They're fast growth. But because they have all of their gold, they have some of their vader pennies. I don't know if they have all the copper. I know they have gold with some copper. Their revenue for this year is 390 million. Our revenue was 351 million. So they have 41 million more to play with already. They also adopted or are looking adopting a $39 million deficit. That means their expenses are 436 and ours is 351. So that's $79 million difference in expenditures for two districts that are almost identical in size. So that's what we're trying to compete with if that makes sense of $79 million competing with a neighbor difference. So hopefully that kind of tells a little bit about

043how difficult it is. That same district their tax rate they're also taxing them on INS where we're in 42 cents they're 50 cents. So I think it goes back to people think that our tax rate is the highest. our tax rate is one of the lowest and if you look at fast growth and look at INS we really are one of the lowest with regards to fast growth and with our internet. So I just wanted to be out there that we are as efficient as I think any organization can be. I think it's just hard to really get people to understand that even they're not in looking at the last bit of financial information. This also came from the efficiency audit. You can see that over 80% of our budget goes straight to payroll. 11

044is contracted services. I use that because some of that's people, right? Um our janitorial staff would be considered a contracted service. Also, water, electricity, sewer, that's considered a contracted service. So, you can see that the bulk of our budget is in payroll and in a little bit maybe some utilities and there's not much left. Um and then I also put this in there that focus on the educators. We proposed 20% more than the state average. We looked at that on the other slide. And then just to show people again that our tax rate history, this is our tax rate for our M how it's gone down since 2019. We have compressed and compressed and compressed and we are at the floor the lowest legal tax limit in the state of Texas going into this next

045year. Now next year I can't say that yet because I don't know what it's going to be but right this year that we were just in we were at the floor. So this is just kind of showing that again in 2425 our tax rate was 6669 our INS was421 for a total of 1.08 if we do nothing on regards to a next year's tax rate will be 6331 again INS421 so you can see it would decrease to 1.0541 054. What will evader do the three golden pennies? That's what we're asking for. It would increase it back up to 6631 with the same 421 for 841. So you can see there how it's going down that 0038 2125 texture. And then of course you can see the equation down there at the bottom. Oh, that got

046skewed. That's not how that looked. Sorry. but it's the same information there. And then the last one shows the tax rate last year with the $100,000 homes that existed. So you can see the average home value was $500,000. You take out the $100,000 in 2425 and be 140 and 25. So your taxable value last year was 400,000. Do the math. 4,000 * 8 / 100 or square 100 = 4,351 in taxes. But now you have to take out the remaining 40,000 for 25. That same home, 500,000 goes to 360 times the new tax rate. It's 3,92 in taxes. So there's that $440 less in taxes. So I just want to show y'all that equation, how that works. Here's how the ballot language will look. The only three things we can control are those things that

047are highlighted. I can't change the wording on anything else. This is very confusing to taxpayers. You can see it says ratify the tax rate of dollar8. Okay, that makes sense. And then you see for a current year a rate that will result in an increase of negative.543% in revenue. What that is, it's looking at the revenue from last year from taxes and the revenue this year from taxes. even though we've been compressed and adding three pennies back. It's just the math of what that change is. So, we'll actually show a decrease in tax revenue for the district, but it's very confusing to the taxpayers to see increase of and I've got to put a negative%. And then the same thing at the bottom. It just shows how much money it will raise. We're estimating around

04812 million. We get more information as we go, but we really want people to see that this is very confusing. So Jonathan, can you use the word negative instead of dash? >> That's a good question. I don't know, but I'll give it a lot of people see the dash and go, what is that? A space out of >> I will ask our tax attorney if we can do that. I don't know that answer. I would think you could. So I will give him that answer to the question. And then of course, this is the one thing I know is completely accurate to the penny is the early voting dates and where it happens. Um, we do know the early voting dates and the election dates. We'll talk about that. Make sure the general public knows

049when those are. And that is kind of the presentation for the beta. I want to turn it over to y'all for discussion questions. See if I can hopefully answer them. It's a lot of information. efficiency. >> So, two things. The efficiency audit only has to be completed. It doesn't say how many times. It just says before you do a bait. So, we paid to do it last year. The taper report as well as some of the financials are about a year behind. So, last year we did it. We didn't do another one this year and pay an audit to do it again. Mainly because the numbers haven't changed much. We actually if anything probably got more efficient because but last year the $16 million deficit so did other districts but it didn't make sense to

050have a whole another audit and nobody's numbers really changed to pay for it. So we're using the same data as well as some of that data is not out on tax rates. I still know some districts will do it this year. You don't want to start trying to compare different years. So it is a little bit of a delay in tapering in those. >> Well, I think that like Jonathan said, all the data is going to be very similar. And then we've looked at can we update some of that that addendum and kind of let people know here's what did change, here's what didn't change. But uh if we were doing an efficiency audit right now, we wouldn't have that data. So Jonathan showing you everything we have right now. This is prospective to ask

051you to do this tell you something. You know, I think the big idea is the legislature requires an efficiency audit because they don't want school districts and boards to um waste money and and be very wasteful organizationally and then turn around and ask for the community to support that through additional taxes. So, it's really a big idea of in an audit, are you reasonably efficient or are you not reasonably efficient? And so, um, you know, year-over-year that shouldn't change tremendously, like John said, anything. We're we're more efficient today because we cut $16 million out of the budget. So, it's I think we we performed it in the recent past. It it shouldn't determine you you can or can't, but the law says you have to have the audit and you have to get information from

052that audit. So, I wouldn't think of the efficiency audit as the justification. I would think the class size ratios would be the primary or leading justification when folks say, "Hey, why are you going out for a bait?" This is why, not because we're efficient and we're not efficient. That's required by law. We're going to do it. I don't know if you guys have anything to add. >> We also talked to another district in Benton County that had gone out for a baiter. They didn't pass it. They went out again the next year. They did the exact same thing. Uh they used the previous uh efficiency audit. They did an addendum just to let people know this is what changed compared to the last audit. It is pretty expensive. So it didn't really make sense that

053the data is not going to change a whole lot when you were within the legal. Can you go back the slide where you showed minus $400? a slide further back you showed uh the amount uh with the Vader passes if it did pass something negative I think it was like 500 something >> so really regardless of what happens the taxes paid by the uh homeowners is going to decrease the only thing is we're asking them to have it decrease $120 >> if you do the math >> yeah It's kind of very similar to what we said when the debate we went out last time because our cash is going up to $10 more a month in theory. Yeah. >> So that's >> basically $10 less here. >> I I think that that cash for so

054for $12 million we're asking for $10 a month as PCA. >> Apparently we're not allowed to say that. Yeah. >> Is that right? >> Our our legal council says you can't say for a cup of coffee. >> I got you. >> And I can but I can't factually say here's the tax rate. Here's how the impact. So I can actually show it. >> So then there's $110 $120 difference. >> By the way, you can say whatever you want today once the board calls the >> Yeah. So that So yeah, so I'll say Yeah. So for $12 million, we're looking at costing the homeowner $120 is what what we're getting at. Um another pre the previous presentation you brought up talked about the fund balance percentage and why 25% is is important. We all know that,

055but I think the general uh constituent up there doesn't. So what to kind of explain the 25% is important because it's against their requirement. It helps with the uh the bond ratings that we get which helps us have to pay interest which ultimately saves you money saves them the homeowner. >> Both of those are correct, but I give you a third knows better than anybody. The state gives us money in September and then again in April and May. If we don't get much money from the state, I still have to make payroll July, August, September, October, November, December. And when do people start paying their taxes? December, January. So, it's a cash flow issue. I don't receive cash till I receive taxes. So, if I don't have a fund balance in districts, if they don't

056have fund balance, how do you make payroll those months? Because you're not getting much from the state. The majority of your revenue is in taxes that you get in January. So, there's a cash flow concern. We're nowhere near in that crunch. Let me just let me But that's the reason you have to have enough and saved. It's kind of like if you're a teacher, you only get paid once a month. You can't pay all your bills in the first of the month and not have anything left. You know, I got to have the rest of my I've got to make sure I have enough to get through January and have enough cash to pay all my bills until we get paid in January. >> As a constituent homeowner, I don't care. >> I wonder how

057much why why is it important to me in my my my monthly budget? And that's because a better interest rate makes makes it where we pay less interest down the road. So I think that just the message to where it hits them. I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. >> I would also argue it does hit it because we wouldn't be able to pay teachers. They would all enroll at school. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that be the caveat after the fact and it's a cash flow problem. But they but start with finish up and it's a cash flow problem. because of the way the state funds. It's not because the way we manage it, but the way the state fund >> and then I have to charge interest pay interest. Um, okay.

058Obviously, you're going to get some questions about uh same thing we always do, the bonds versus evaders. Why? Why not just take the bond money, you know, all that? But, uh, what I'm kind of curious about is how are we doing on our current bond? I know we built it for 8,400 students. It was proposed. How far along? I guess because the question I'm getting at is when's the next bond? How since we're going to do a var uh in this November, how much further down the road the next bond? >> I would say we're still a few years away. Um we're we're training well on path like we have been. um you know we did it for the next 8400 students because we didn't know was that four years 5 years 6 years we

059were hoping more towards five or six and that's where we're trending right now we haven't had the big years of 1500 student growth consistently so I think we're trending well at some point we have to come back out yes but I don't see it in the next next year >> Mr. SP about Mr. Daring I called you Jeff Waldo I apologize we're a board meeting so Mr. Daring Mr. Um we 27 is when uh all the elementaryaries, the middle school and the high school will all be open. So 27 28 school year is when we will have exhausted the vast majority almost all of the projects and definitely the big projects but you don't start your bond planning when you complete all the projects. There should be some overlap. So, um, it's 25, you know,

060definitely not 25, definitely not 26, but probably 2027 is when we get the gang back together and long range planning committee is looking at the next set of needs informed by the student group and we've continued to hit that 1,200. We keep hitting that 1,200, then, you know, we'll we'll have 8,400 in and I shot here in a couple years. because it's I guess what what I'm hearing is it's we still have a couple years so people have a breather before we ask for the next tax rate increase of something or it may not be tax increase. >> Yeah. >> Um but but I do like how um the overall message is compared to some other districts in the area and it's not good to show that this is where we are in Northwest. This

061is why we're doing it because of what's going on around us. And I'd like to brag just about everybody in this room sitting behind you is to make that happen, you've got to be super efficient. I mean, we offer some of the best programs. We offer as much or more programs than anybody around us. We pay as good as anybody else. So to have the best of all those things, but yet be the least funded, that's got to be pretty efficient. That means every department >> I wrote that down. But that's exactly what I wrote down to me. The story here is actually [Music] that getting that cost to build for them to do that and then next do think we have to be careful telling folks that their dollar will do meaning they are

062going to vote for their you it is going to take all that topic regardless if it's going right. I just think we have to be careful with with that and how that's presented. There are going to be some very sharp people out there. Look at that. But I go back to I think the story here is efficiency and where we're at compared to other people and what it means to do. I would agree I talked a lot about how do we get the message out to be honest and transparent where people understand yes you will pay less in taxes either way is it going to be as less if you vote for obviously not but we have to show both sides so we're trying to say from last year's taxes to this year's taxes who

063will be less from this year's taxes taxes if it passes versus this year's taxes if it doesn't pass yes it's more how do you really get that explanation out so I think walking through those slides a little slower. I think I probably went through a little faster this week. We can kind of understand a lot more, but really diving into that. >> I think we need to own the fact that we're asking for a three penny increase in the M tax. It may not be the net effect, but we're asking our voters, hey, we want to compete with all these other districts. Look at how much revenue per student they have. We're asking for three local pennies and stay local in your kids' schools. That's what we're asking. To me it's the story that's efficient

064doing amazing job in comparison behind all those categories you know and you explain and put that out all the time and then you'll still comments on social media or the past. >> I'm happy you brought that up because we've talked a lot about that in person, too. How do we how do we combat that? One of the things I think is hard is people go, "Well, if you wait by the build the building." What they don't know is if I don't build the building through the bond program, I am now paying for portables and who knows what kind of safety fencing and sidewalks and bathrooms and all these things. Jim is probably shaking his head in here somewhere. All these other things that we have to pay for the outside of operations because we don't

065have a barn and we don't have a place to put the students. And at some point, you can only fit so many people in a room. there becomes hazards in and that's what I think the general public doesn't understand is we're growing that fast that that's what happens remember the one year we didn't pass the bond we were a year late I think that year I had to buy 30 something portables just for that year one year delay on the bond cost me 30 portables which are millions of dollars a year so I don't think that that's an easy thing to show but that's exactly the fact >> so that's the point that question was if you knew that dollar amount to say made some dollars or whatever to say made million but came out

066of M which meant divide by 60 65,000 that's how many teachers became you know put into a teacher cost for a teacher comparable >> that that'd be good to know that number so that year it cost us >> and it' be hard to go back because I'd have to look at all the excess cost of concrete for those portables to make sure they were ADA compliant the bathroom air conditioners all the electrical all these other things that just come in and make it hard to safety fencing. >> They're less safe out there as well. That's a that's a soft target. >> You've got to add that comes out of the no because you don't have a bond program. >> So, we have a little bit of time uh between now and the August 12th board

067meeting. U questions I guess week and a week in a day. Uh please feel free to send those our way. This will be on the next regular board meeting agenda for consideration and it is our hard deadline. U there's a 78 day threshold required prior to the election. The election is November the we don't have another board meeting in between August the 12th and so again it'll be on there. >> Yes ma'am. Most definitely. >> This is a draft. Those those are estimated numbers. Tomorrow we get the tax rate. things will change slightly. Um at some point we'll get the language that goes on the ballot that will give us a precise amount based on a calculation of how much revenue would increase but that sort of 2/3 1/3 ratio whether it's 10 million 12

068million 13 million that's the general concept of where we're going to dedicate the the funding is that the right way to say >> I would say yes there comes a point though we may it may not be exactly it just depends on how much money I mean I would say close this portion of the workshop. Is this a I'm looking for Christ. We have to close this or we actually start agenda for the >> Okay, we just go into recess. We just need to take a five minute recess. Does there do you need to move and second for five minute recess? >> Okay. Five minute recess. Thank you. Are you ready to go? [Music] >> All right. I will reconvene um our team of eight training at 6:17 p.m. and I'll turn it over to

069our guest. >> All right. Well, thank you all for having me again. I really appreciate it. Beautiful building. I would have come for an outside session. Spend time with you all again. Yes. A great time last time. I did. I hope you did as well. Um nonetheless, we're here again to do ISO training. And I think if you recall uh one of the I guess privileges of doing it here in the district and not at a conference is we get to make it more about the district talk about some of the specifics. Um even ask a few questions related again to your district specifically. Um I trust that Dr. F is available and willing to kind of expound upon those things um if we need to. I know maybe someone reports often cheating on some

070of the standards and so if there are questions that we come up with and we have to get some answers later we can do that as well but I'll be going over the ISO uh content um typically again we deliver this in a commerce style setting so you might see some elements that lend themselves better to a large group but we'll kind of adapt and again give you uh chances to engage and go deep in the conversation Any questions so far? I mean this Monday um I may ask them this but I'm going to ask you what fail you to accept that appointment I was part of the education for a long time. all just in different but day issues they're having all the things that they're saying thank you shar I ask a question

071every stress opportunity talk And of course we got last question. Okay. Well, let's jump into the content and give you all a chance to engage. So uh this comes back from Senate Bill the mission we call and the push for the I guess there was to boards to uh really focus on this idea of strategic leadership specifically leadership that maximize student outcomes student performance along with that came some other opportunities to go deeper learn about the accountability system in a new way understand how hospital 3 goals going to impact here. But that's kind of uh I guess 2017 is when the first uh some of these kind of um if you've been through the training before, we encourage board members just to kind of think about content in new ways, maybe find some aspect of

072it um that still makes you say aha or still. Um be prepared to ask questions again, maybe even ask questions of each other. I think sometimes when uh folks just have little side conversations, it really does add to the overall learning experience. And of course, I'm going to get there and um you can take a break whenever you need. We'll have a couple breaks scheduled in, but I think you all know what you can do and I trust you take care of. So today we'll look at kind of again the kind of belief system the expectations but I'm curious if you have any going in what kind of questions goals aspiration expectations do you have for the session I've often wondered you know we try to measure success by scores instead of the whole student.

073So how do we as a board of trustees you know hit the targets but make this whole student test benefit to this society? I think it's a great question great thing to keep in mind as well. Um you know I'll point out very specifically that the way as you mentioned success is measured here. It truly is by accountability system but there's another dimension that we don't talk about and that's where I think the value of local control really comes in. I can't tell you how many times I've seen boards, you know, recognize the importance of the accountability system, but also set goals that just wouldn't have a piece to be measured by, right? Where they don't fit into the accountability system, but that's what they know the community. But I think you're right. There's a

074the demand to have this holistic approach when you think about success and how to truly break the progress and success of the school. Um, I would call this narrow, but it's very specific. And again, the state of Texas has expectations for students. I think they're wonderful expectations, right? They want kids to go out and be productive. They've identified some ways to despise success. But I think every board has to go a step further and say we acknowledge that step up to that challenge, but there are also some conversations we should have locally about how we define whether that's a graduate profile or otherwise. So, three parts. The first part that I kind of referred to, we'll talk about how success is measured and we mention opportunities for students to show success in those ways. And

075then we'll look at what that means for accountability. This is how the state defines readiness or measures of success. Uh how does that translate into a letter or rating for the district, for the campuses, etc. And then we'll jump to the last part after we talk about accountability part to the governance role. This is how we measure success. Give it a mean rating. What is a board's role in this? And we'll have some uh we'll go back to some of the research. Uh again, talk a bit about what you all are doing to kind of steward the success and resources here in your community and how you're um procuring the best opportunities for your students through your government decisions like the ones made today or about to be made up. So then we talked specifically

076about if you recall that Senate Bill 1566 mandate for boards to provide the strategic leadership. We're talking about how that works and again it'll look different in every district. So I would I'm looking forward to kind of hearing from you all. What are some of your strategic initiatives? I've been watching the beautiful warrior cycle through on the screen by the way. Nice touch. Um all this compliment boards when I see the goals written somewhere on the wall on placards. Y'all have a very nice vision that monster kids come first and then on that marquee I can see. Anyone can come and see us. I've been here an hour. I kind of know what they're all about just a watching go really. So if you imagine state of Texas has an idea of success for students.

077They want students to graduate here and to be ready for what comes next. If that's more education, if that's the military, if that's to work, they want students to be ready for what comes next. if they're younger kids and they aren't quite graduating, they still be ready for the next grade. And so they've defined readiness standards for those younger students as well. So you think about, you know, a graduating high school senior going to have some idea if they're ready based on um college level entry courses, how they placed on in the course exams or how they've been doing academically or again shipping off to the military, that kind of thing. But we don't want to wait until they're senior to determine if they're ready. So we'll see very clearly there are benchmarks and milestones

078for students to reach that the accountability system keeps track of to let us know that kids are on track and they're ready for what comes next. So again or might have to have something in life. So if we look at the first part those components of readiness those deal with the older students. Um the state identified three paths for students following up after graduation looking to college. We'll look at standards that they use to determine if a kid is ready for college. We'll look at how they define career readiness. I really like it. Some of the things I've been hearing more and more from this it's amazing. One board member told me that they have a kid who had just graduated earned a pilot license that said she can fly a plane but she can't

079legally drive it. That's remarkable. And it came about because kind of like question you mentioned how do we determine you know this broader scope of readiness. the board asked that question. Uh, one of the board members had contact with ADHD program and was empowered and just passionate about that that uh field and so they did some networking brought in some flight simulators and made some lessons plans on long story short aviation program. They're about this big. You think about thousands of districts. But that's one of the things that they've been able to accomplish because of those board connections and because they had a conversation about what community outcomes truly and to show that we are really thinking about these kids wellbeing um beyond state measures and appropriate approach to student development. Um and then of

080course we look at their action and as I mentioned we'll look at the readiness standards for the early childhood education. Again we can't afford to wait for the kids in 12 to 11 ready and then yeah I think they're ready for what you're about to face out there in the world. So if you think about we'll start with college readiness. Uh there are a number of entrance exams you can take. Um we'll choose the ACT for example. one of our staff members used to work with AC. So, it's a great connection point to kind of use as example. Um, they're doing regular research to make sure that the rigors of freshman level courses line up with certain scores on the ACT. In other words, if you score this on the ACT, there's a likelihood of

081getting this grade higher in the course. And they do that research pretty regularly to make sure they maintain that connection. So in this case they looked at the ACT English and they lined up performance with that ACT score uh with English professional level English composition course and they did across again the four core areas mathematics alignment college algebra. What they've learned is that there is a score you can obtain on the ACT that gives you a 50% likelihood of getting at least a B in a college level course and a 75% likelihood of getting a C in those college level courses. And again, if we're going to claim that kids are ready for college, we know there's an emotional component, there's a a grit component, there's just good oldfashioned common sense component. We can't measure

082them, but we know it matters. What we can do is again look at one measure, which is ACT, kind of get an idea of how kids perform statistically having earned certain ACT. Um and we give you know one example for business is a math section 22 in the math predictive performance. So here's the thing keep that 75% in your brain. I'm going to refer to that and I think it's pretty important. I'll make that connection later. Keep that 75% in your memory. Question so far pretty straightforward right? How do you know kids are ready for one measure? 28. I'll share a personal one of six kids. My dad was a engineer who resigned, went into education. He's also a pastor at the small church in my hometown. My mom stayed at home for a number

083of years and then went in education. He hired a principal. Um, other kids, there were five of us who just kind of buzzed along and got it pretty easy. One of them was a hard worker. Again, not matter, but if you look just at standardized test scores, she had the lowest of the six, but she was a worker. I would say in honor, she has done the best of almost all of us because she had a different level of focus, maturity, and grit. She could plan, and again, what I'm getting at is that, keep in mind, she's a manager, but we know there are more factors. So other way to know that a kid is ready for college, they can meet uh the Texas success initiative criteria to take any other tests in the reading

084and math. Um if they do well in the SAT and the ACT, they can be placed out of that. They are exempt or exempt from the TSI. If they get a three on AP exam or four on IB, then they are again showing that they're ready for the rigors of a college level course. if they complete dual credit, they're earning college level credits already. So again, an indication that they're ready, but they earned an associates degree or maybe they're enrolled in the onra online courses hosted by just the standard ways that we know a kid is ready for college. One thing that is new in this I was I used to say upcoming but it's in place now this current accountability system after the refresh. So think five years from 2017 2022 gave us a

085refresh which is where we are now. One thing that is new is this idea of a program of study and I like what this says is that we used to have what they call concentrators and this would kind of dip a young person could dip their toe in several different career paths explore depending on whatever certification that they can offer. It might be it could be a certified nursing assistant program. could be a number again, whatever industry based certification your district offer. The new rigor requires those students to go deeper and I'll show the specifics here in a second, but I want to kind of set it up now because the reason for this obviously is a changing environment. If your goal is to prepare students for what's going to come next, by the time

086they start high school and graduate, there's going to be a different set of demand in the world. So, TEA, SBOE, uh the higher education coordinating board, they're constantly looking at what the um industry demands and they're adjusting the the industry based certifications offered in high school to meet those demands and even kind of matching it to earnings, showing that there are higher uh earning potential when students going. So as well another one or two certificate again number values and then graduating advanced degree plans they're just gaining some skills that industry recognizes and that's the key point. This is not something that is determined by local criteria. Again these are industry recognized certification that they're learning. That's what gives them credibility to go out and give a job and manage. Um, we're going to go into

087a bit of detail and for the board members, um, you hire a superintendent, you hire someone, you hire someone else to get to the nitty-gritty of this, but at the board level is still important to understand because again, that strategic component will require you to engage some pretty um, some heavy conversations, right? We don't have a crystal ball. So, the best we can do is look at data around us and then make some educated guesses or make some decisions to support the decision. But one reason is that the CCMR data lags the actual reporting and the planning required. So for example, you're going to get your accountability rating for the class of um 2024, but you've already launched into planning programs for 2025, right? So the more proactive you can be in planning ahead and

088thinking about what people need looking at many years being a growing change and looking at the industry you know already before you even had the 2025 program right so the fact that you won't don't know really how you did until they're already gone and working means you have to be putting a lot of fun on how you're going to approach PCR the other thing is that it could be expensive to make pivots I know some folks are investing in really nice CTE buildings. Um, outstanding programs. Uh, but for some, they had to revamp their entire CCMR program because they were, uh, I think 80% of their students were earning their CCMR credit through certifications that are being phased out or subsided, right? And so some banking on Microsoft Word application or Excel and those phased

089out having to create whole new systems. Um, what are some of your darling or exciting CTE programs that you recall hearing from the guys or are you aware of? >> All of them. I like that. >> Yeah, we have a very robust CT program. It's where each high school has its specific academy that they focus on and then each comprehensive high school has pathways which is an elective every year. So there's that and then we have an early college high school. So we have multiple and for me from a teaching pathway to aviation I love there's 18 16 years >> yeah quick how many you have heard some of the amazing programs that you're offering and thought I wish I could go back just a few people not all of my people yeah I find

090myself happy for the kids going through them I don't think judgment is the work but uh but just you know Yeah. Go ahead. I one thing that I found interesting that I've noticed is that [Music] and and make sure you go to the awards for the graduates and I think in the last two three years the top 10 everyone are going to be neurosurgeons or I mean something just unbelievable and you're going to all these universities that state and less students just universities and that's a lot of >> but it does keep us on our toes keeps us moving changing finding new ways to you know support this financially facility resources that we have so good good kudos to excited By the way, you bring up a great point when you get here when you're

091talking about $16 million. One of the things we didn't touch is 16 funding, but it's opportunities and I'm prepared. We take the transportation, get places to go with families. It's [Music] lot of certifications, a lot of degrees. Cool. Yeah. One thing I love about my job is it's one thing to know about the requirements uh to establish program for the future and this to kind of see it on paper, but it's an entirely different thing to go to a district and hear a board talk about. And I don't know at what point students could really appreciate the opportunity to gain the skill or gain some knowledge that allows them to go on to be successful to earn to work. But I just hope that happens soon. Right. Soon after they realized, there were some folks

092really going to back making difficult decisions all so that I could come here, learn this, graduate, get to work. So I like the legacy of what it's scary sometimes because I remember back in one day I felt like I was up with the power curve and now I'm learning about stuff I didn't know existed. I'm thinking I ain't going to learn it. I'm going to stick with what I know and just ride the way all that space up so quickly and I'm glad that these young folks really know that we know and experience you have time frame but I think it's effective programs like this. Yeah, I'm an engineer, so we've hired a lot of the STEM graduates here. And it's always remarkable that I'm able to compare our graduates to other graduates from other

093high schools and colleges. So, it makes me really proud to see how our kids have the rigor and are able to compete in the real world. >> And I'm glad you shared that. I think it's one of the value of having diverse experience from the board. Anytime you can bring that industry awareness to that conversation makes a big deal. I mean that's a great test to be able to see that. Um the last one this kind of result kind of nails this point. Um you got to have conversations with your superintendent. You got to bring some really smart people. um give some report and talk about some updates and possibilities and options and direction and you all will consider deliberate talk about that and then you'll use your smart brains to make decision if you

094already for that reason you provide some detail more than what you would need on a regular basis with those conversations I don't think Mr. you because he doesn't really like to have conversations about CT that's mean he pushes pretty hard what else can we do for kids are we offering this I haven't heard about this stuff so yeah highly engaged heard so much easy and quick access to information. I mean, you almost have to try hard to not be a thing, but hard, really hard work is keeping up, making those decisions. Sometimes other journals get difficult. Kudos to love spout off. So um TEA's kind of statement on this idea uh if and when people ask why the rigor why the increased focus on the program to study um knowing it implications for what kids

095have to know when they come into that grade um is that again it's matched up the whole point is to be aligned. We're going to offer an industry based certification. We want that to mean something. We want you to go further in that area deeper in that area. deepen your knowledge before you continue. But it will, as you'll see, require kids to have a better idea of what they want to be and kind of what they're thinking about pursuing IBC by the time they get native. Again, there's a shorter runway by requiring, you know, four level four courses where level all that done and still kind of dabble around. So program as I mentioned it's going to be an increasing increasingly rigorous progressive uh course of study. It's teach based and you have to have

096a level four course and just like it before it ends in an industry based certification. So it's not like a general studies version of high school. You don't think multiple courses that sound good. It has to end in that certification. Uh the difference is the concentrator. These should be kids completing two courses in the same line of study. They got their credits. They were good to go. They could afford to experiment. Take a variety of courses. Now that might be one shortcoming. You used to be able to get more breath and check out a few more things with it being a now more rigorous approach. You kind of need to know where you're heading when you come in. Um, some districts are kind of giving kids more counseling, career counseling, we call it genetically in

097eighth grade. Maybe they're having to take courses that satisfy um a couple different paths. So, some prerequisites that are, you know, set put you on path to three different lines of study. Either way, uh it's important to think about that when you get to hitting nth grade. You're going to have to kind of deal with um I've heard some say it's a challenge. You know, we are working hard to make sure we don't distract kids without giving them a thorough understanding of what they're choosing. And so we want the pressure to be just adequate enough to help them focus and attract them to the resources. The conversation will be different compared now to the completer. Another way is concentrated status phased out August. It phased out past the 2025. And I remember the last several

098college days it was, "Hey, get ready. It's phasing out. It's going to be it's gone. It's here." And so this class um if he has some concentrators in there, won't have any upcoming classes and so they have to be completed again four plus staying line of study at least one level four course or level three. The rigor again as I mentioned not just random is to prepare kids for the industry to be changed to prepare them to earn more stronger contributors. Thoughts, comments? The uh I first heard about this change we were at the North Texas area association school board. They don't see that this was brought up. And and what what I don't like about this is you're now asking a 14-year-old to choose a a career a really a high school degree at

09914 years old to finish off careers. But what if they let's say county they get in they got two years at this I can't do it and but they want to do something else. So now and had a conversation with Dr. spouses will there'll be counselors will there be staff not not here but elsewhere that said no you really need to stick into accounting because we need that rating down the road or you look okay just go that way just go figure something you like to me that's all intct is go find what you want to do in life don't force a 14-year-old to make the life decision into a curve that may not work you know I give you an example veterinary study they they get to the point where now interning in a

100vet thing and now every day they're seeing animals being put down maybe hey don't want to hear that and but now we need to finish because we need that we need that school for the state and so that that's I don't like the change and I know you're just a messenger girl this came from someplace else but I just I don't think it's it's good for the kids >> I thought you I'll respond to that and we've had this conversation obviously Um, this is a way to have CCMR acknowledgement, not the way. Okay. >> And there's a bunch of different ways. So, at the end of the day, we Kelly Henderson and I have had this conversation. We're going to do what's best for kids and we're not going to be enslaving to something that

101might change in a couple years. So, it's it's a way it's one one direction. I'm glad you mentioned that because I tiptoeed around it respectively because again I'm a messenger. I want to honor um when I mentioned that you know folks are having to kind of appropriately encourage kids to focus without pressure track. What I was implying is to stay on the track because uh credit is needed, right? But the idea that the board would have a conversation and say we recognize that and we might take an accountability opportunity miss that but if it's better for kids we rather have a kid explore and learn from them that they can really use to shape the future beyond that um if that means we want to get a point in the system again the company and

102I same level of kind of angst and concern um man we want to make sure that we stay true to ourselves just about the point about the kids thorough education, real world education experience. Keep having those kind of stuff the kids might seem point. If you've been with us since 2017, I thought 78 certifications recognized by the state was a lot. Blew my mind. I mean, you're talking to a country boy small town who um admittedly laughed at his act teacher when he tried to open up some primer and spilled this purple dial with nice crisp white shirt. Um and I thought, "Oh, we're going to learn to wet copper and pipe fitting. No interest in doing it long term. It's just, you know, experience. We have like four or five things we can do."

103So 78 blew my mind, you know, almost 10 years ago. And then I saw list version number two. I'm thinking now they're just showing off. Who can think of that many things? I didn't know that many jobs, career things existed, right? I got to go fact check this. Could be AI. I don't know. Now the current version 256 recognized certifications and it's going to change. Things are going to get phased out. They've already begun working on this number four. What is changing? How AI disrupt some of this? we don't even know yet. um at some point I imagine an AI certification or some techniques would be on that list right you can only anticipate but the whole purpose is as that evolves we have to think about what it means for our um I'll show

104some of the ones that are facing but that list number four starts with class of 2026 be it was typically updated every couple years or so. Um there was a bit of a gap during co I mean kind of helpful time but it does have more involvement every couple years. So the class of 2024 they're gone hopefully they're already uh contributing paying taxes doing whatever they're doing this stuff but that was the last class that could have graduated with some of the stuff from list uh two. So list two applied to that for this upcoming class 2025. They could only meet the standards from list three. So again you think about some overlap, some change you fall off. They can only meet those IDCs that were going for this phased out the pass 2026 which

105will show up in 2027 accountability standards will be sum of three. whatever makes the cut and doesn't get phased out and then this new list that we don't have yet. So again, we talk about the board strategically engaging in the conversation that allows you to prepare for the future. Um just expect that conversation when no data are available. Yeah, it's growing change. Checking the move everyone. So you're preparing kids now that they don't even know you. The big question would be are there things so exciting on this board that we build out new programs on easily committed or we kind of face them in over the course of two years. Um who wants to volunteer to pick one of these questions just to discuss with this group for a couple moments? But you want to

106have a conversation with you get a few questions to kind of look at and bring back number two. >> Um, how do you decide to stay to offer your district? assuming you as a us [Music] part of what the hiring process is and and I I focus on this was the CT aspect of his knowledge of where where he to use our CT what's her official job u so she's abroad we're in the process of building high school number four right now and the programs we have with being right here in the Alliance portal. We got this uh inland force of an airport with being a suburb right next all these industries are here and so the it's really Kelly that goes out there to decide what do we how how do we feed this

107workforce out what program to study? So so now we have a trades academy that's starting in Northwest High School uh next year. Um, we're going to have automotive with a focus on electric vehicles and the automation that goes on the Amazon trucks for the high school number four and fingers crossed. And so there's there's some uh so we don't decide that. We just hire the right people that know what our our philosophy is. We just want to do what's the best for the audience or do what's best for the kids so that when they graduate they cross the stage and they go to the next phase of life running regardless of where it is go strictly to the workforce workforce to pay for college or go to be a step everybody else in college. to

108I like the way you said we hire folks to understand our philosophy. That's the word I mean it um make it happen. That's exactly right. The board um is an oversight. They're charged with that vision and they hire superintendent put together teams to make that true mechanics that was from a previous board member that's something we kept alive after he got he got down but it's great we're if you see all 18 meters that are here it's hard to get frustrated because that's our economy but there's a high demand for just right over here we trailer motors that are built that have diesel engines in them. So there's there's a strong demand for using. So yeah, so we feed our workers or feed feed what the industry's need to that Steve I remember when we

109had the American Airlines when alliance first began and Ross Perau Jr. would come in and they were telling us all these great things that were going to happen if we built these highways, if we built the railroads. And that vision they gave us, we're like, well, I don't know cuz we were pretty rural at that time. You know, we're beginning to grow very slowly, but man, once this hit, whatever promises they made, they exceeded those. So the vision that the board had was a little skeptical, but we bought into and part of that vision goes back to Kelly too is going out there and talking to the people and seeing their vision. >> So many ways ahead of the curve. I mean you were making those connections for actually kind of the system said, "Hey,

110this is a great idea. I got to admit I kind of smiled when you mentioned automotive classes and that uh career path you mentioned on electric vehicles. I thought man even that is so different on the farm I think clubs and things you can change stuff that you just that won't be a part of some automotive classes depending on what they do working on. >> We have a previous superintendent and this is before I was on the board. She made a comment preparing students for jobs that never existed and Dr. F says he even says that himself now we perpetuated that and that's so true. You don't know who knew the drone technology is going to be what it is today 10 years. So what are we going to be talking about? What job doesn't

111exist 10 years from now we're going to go under Trump. >> So we talked about career readings. You have again an idea. This is quickly green. If a student is earning an industry based certification, these are certification recognized by those employers. Again, eight district didn't make this up. One person didn't make it up. Um there conversations like you had with industry saying what should a kid know? What professional certificates are recognized in this industry? And then of course schools stepping up to the challenge to offer those classes and those testing, those final tests. um two that's a very good one. The next one option to show readiness for what comes next is the military kids and young adults can enlist and get that and you get credit for that. Uh one thing that is going

112to make it well going to make it easy for you is it used to be we had to go collect those deep fours but is going to take care of that for us. Thank you. >> Yeah. I'm always asking that question. I go, why don't we just get why don't just give us the data or if they'll let the recruiters walk in the building. Hey, bring bring us to the kitchen. >> I think the Department of Defense was some of these guys might go into special classes of service. want a listing out there. That makes >> sense. >> But but that's also leaves off uh ROC scholarships in college. It leaves off the academy kids uh West Pointmies. So that that's been a guy who's very friendly, but there's there's a whole group of kids

113that get left off that list. But no, that that's actually very listen for the districts. It goes directly to TVA. That was pretty straightforward. Uh we can talk a bit about the rich. I forget the percentage. I won't try to quote it. I don't want to give me but it was surprisingly low percent young [Music] recall in your discussion something I I it kind of occurred to me a couple weeks ago is there's a big I learned about Apple effect I retired air force so I but I enlisted in the army reserves paper college and then while collected the air force went activities from there But something I didn't know about it initially was a Hazel program which is for those who know it's really a GI Bill for Texas. You start military career in

114Texas. You keep your residency in Texas the entire time. Then you come back to Texas and you qualify for the Hazel. You can pass on to your kids. So Sarah Sarah title and Shane's finishing out 150 credit hours. That's that's a big deal. 150 hours of college big. I don't know why that conversation isn't had across the level. You could give more assistance if you said, "Hey, what do you get back?" You can get the GI Bill and the Hazel and they both give it to your kids. So, I say there's conversations if there's other That's great. Again, as I mentioned, if you are a freshman going through senior year, kind of know where you're living, but we got to talk about the younger kids, right? We're fifth mid n see how you're doing. Are

115you in the path or something? A little before we jump into that part, does anyone need a break? How are you feeling? >> Okay, I'm fascinated. Let's keep going. talking about my favorite subject. I didn't know kids are on the track um before that point and this I think is a really interesting discussion. I think it really makes sense but I don't know how often we think about this right in in the big picture. So I want to frame kind of position um the importance of early education in the scope of this readiness for what comes next. The goal again is to graduate and be productive and go on to new things. What happens after that? So um to determine the younger students ratings we have of course we talk about within that you have

116your the big ones like star text the final one and then you have your quantity. These give teachers some idea of how kids are doing. There might be a unit assessment, a homework assignment and minimum minimum in benchmarks typically to a year situation. Ideally, the benchmarks can be predictive of star performance. Not that star is everything, but again, it is a test that we have to take and so we want to know if we're preparing kids to be ready for STAR. The benchmarks we can give ought to be predictive of what this one is. So here's the part that I really like in terms of situating the importance of knowing um the value of the star among other things. But we talked about a certain score a student can earn on the ACC or performance

117on a college level uh college entrance exam to determine if they're ready. Again, statistically there are other factors that go into it, but just a number. If we take that SAT or ACT performance and we just backtrack it, if a kid needs a 22 on the ACT for 50% or 75% public, what did the kid earn on the EOC rate? What did a kid do in grade? So, we can kind of map it all the way down to third grade when they start the STAR test. And so, who's doing it on one grade? We'll pick sixth grade in this examples. six straight saw. We know the different levels the kid can score meat spray level. They can score at masters. That 75% likelihood that I've asked you to keep in your brain that's performing at

118the masters level. So when a kid routinely performs at the mast's level, they're setting themselves up with a 75% likelihood of getting uh a C in a cozo course or 50% chance of getting a B. So I hope that kind of puts it in perspective. We think about star school. What does it mean somewhat mathematically you can track it up to um predicted performance in a college level course. So there's some meaning to it. There's some significance to it. It's not just um an arbitrary assignment. And so a lot of times I hear board members when they see that they're thinking wow so we should be setting goals to see more kids in the master level. Not even weren't, but we often hear it meets grade level, but we kind of think our kids are

119meeting grade level. I think the biggest aha moment I saw was one district who saw this back in 2018 because it hasn't changed much. And she said, "That sounds about right. If there is a 50 or 40% likelihood of being of going on to the next level with little to no intervention, that explains why about half of our kids have been coming back home after college. They have about a 50% chance of success or 50% don't have a chance, you know, and so kind of connecting the dots. But again, as you know, there's so much more than going to what other skills did that student learn? How well can they graduate? What is the level of commitment? All the numbers. But if you look strictly at the numbers, it's kind of what hands out. So

120when your students score at the means grade level, there's a 60% chance they're going to go forward with little to no intervention. Um, as they score approaching grade level, they will need targeted intervention. This is where your RTI come in, your accelerated learning, all your additional supports for those students. Um the chances of upset next grade level bubble are just this dropped drastically about some very target intervention does not mean it's you flip a coin. It's pretty tough. Um they might go for but very hard. What kind of things should you do in the district here when you are just really focused on the growth of the kid? Not just the city struggle but all the kids. What are some of the philosophies here when it comes to seeing kid grow where you not so

121much where they start and where they go and even think about recovery as the other kid is not going to go forward approaches support. >> Got two former teachers right there. So I have the answers. >> Let's call them right next to each other school. pretty straightforward and again they're looking at the testim benchmarks give you some idea and then when those scores come out again we're going to follow up so we talked about the star and the connection um so the star is ideally set up to show us how kids are preparing or kind of getting poised for the next grade um how do we know that the instruction is being presented in a way that's conducive to that? How do we know that um the proper stuff is being taught so that kids

122can be successful on the spot? So that truly is a myth. So we have the TE's and the goal is for every instructor to teach the TE's. you hear, you know, from years back still narrative still goes on. Oh, school teaching to the test, right? I mean, it's not really possible because they don't know what proportion of the questions will be on a STAR test. They're going to be supporting standards or readiness standards. They just don't know. And so, while there could be some misinformation flying around, teachers are teaching the teachers. And there's a number of skills that students need to know. The textured essential knowledge skills, right? Those are the curriculum standards for what students should be learning. If the teacher taught thoroughly and well and kids learn them thoroughly and well, they should

123be prepared for any number of these basic questions. Well, yeah, any skills that's kind of tested on that on that slide. But those connections should be a lot and they work hard every kind of cycle to make sure alignment is pretty clear between Earth. They're closely aligned between the stars. So those are standards the way we test the standard soft. So we have this math question. Oh, much better to hear. >> In this example, we have a multiple choice question. And so the teach for this would be that kids should not do this question sample and learn how to answer that question. Instead, they're going to learn to divide whole numbers by unit fractions and unit fractions by whole numbers. And if you recall some of the way you divide fraction, they're pretty interesting. Multiplying

124the simple way we learn, right? But the kids need to learn that skill set. We don't know how that teaches will be tested or if that specific one will be tested. But here's an example of a question where that teaching the fifth grade question. But what else do they need to know for this particular question? But they just didn't give them a math equation. Wrap it up in there with some language and stuff. 35, right? I'm going to spend all this effort talking about King that there are two correct answers. Another fifth grade skill, this particular skill, the teachers would have taught those students to round decimal to 10 to the hundreds. In this case, you look at a number and you know routing principles how it works. You can pick two of those numbers

125that would have been correct if you routed them. So it's not just the ability to guess in this case two right answer required. Um there are drag and drop questions. Um again a variety of questions that I'll show you back on the slide duration of test as I mentioned they work hard to continuously improve alignment between the teams so that if they are taught well kids learn them well um they do well questions thoughts comments I think it's again worth noting that it's not just real math questions equations The second question the reading comprehension hazard made very important. So here's the changes that came about and they're talking about this now but um while they're kind of building they transition online assessments to it allow quicker data distribution results more and more where kids are

126completing work on computers so it's natural way they're learning and consuming information so why not test them in that same context environment um this is interesting when I went off my question here um we had an old patented bell home. Pack home and the dollar loaded. It was interesting. Um, I never touched a laptop until I got to college when we had designed a psychology and you're supposed to use a little track ball of the pad to go to a certain part of the screen and click it. I think it's like a reflex tested thing. And I was like, man, my sword is going to stink cuz I've never touched a laptop before. And I was interested in the other thing. So you think about the change the transition for some of these students if

127they haven't had technology at home. I hope they were getting it at school because that could have been a pretty pretty big shift into the other exposure was to take a professional level competition to place us. We were asked can you typically um propose from uh paper pin or computer? You didn't have a computer last week. I was like, "Yeah, I've done a little bit of reach." I've already started my draft of paper and then last type. I didn't have a step away. I was kind of back and forth. Um, but I got it quickly that the teacher or the professor was going to write as probably he said, "Oh, I typically draft from paper or a computer, but you're doing that on paper classroom." Again, those small things didn't matter to somebody. They added

128new question types in drag and drop, multiple choice, picture choices, that kind of thing. And then they also incorporate what they call crosscurricular passage in RLA, reading the language arts. I like this because the research shows that kids tend to um recall information better when it comes to learning. So, we did a unit on butterflies all throughout science class and then I get to the start and there's a question about butterflies, man. I've seen this content, this subject before. It's more meaningful. I'm going to have better recall of some of the information as opposed to seeing a new topic that might cover concepts that I've learned, but I'm seeing for the first time, right? Something I've been writing on all assessments. Was it 14? >> Yeah. Yeah. a couple of pad right now which is

129I remember years ago I saw a full US report and they told college dragons and asked them what is one skill you wish you could improve or something you can do more and almost all of them right I wish I were a better writer so it doesn't hurt to ask more especially all these kids they're all in text all these short stuff off talking about run. Oh my gosh. I mean, maybe just text edit really be hard. It's the grill among all the text. None of this stuff, right? I'm sure. So key learning, how do we know if a kid is ready for what comes next? The state has defined some standards. They say there are ways we can know if kids ready for college. They can take dual credit. They can score on the

130ACT. What else? Anything that stuck out to you? Don't worry about any quizzes. The TSI wraps, all that good stuff. That's great. That's what a kid wants. They know what it takes to show experience. It's not comprehensive. Again, there are just features I I'll say probably three more times and I'll do it. There are aspects of a kid's character that just have nothing to do with numbers that will be important when you think about predicting their success. Um, how do we know if the kid is ready for a career? If they've earned a certification that the industry recognizes and are willing to pay them 50 bucks an hour starting out and yeah I think we can say that kid is ready. They demonstrated that skill. They've been learning about it for four years in classroom

131setting. They took the test. They partnered up. One of our favorite stories to tell was a boardman. I think it was a few guys and this is years ago talking about this. She said one of their uh former students showed up at board appreciation month at the meeting and said, "Hey, I'm not here to uh use like a little car. I've already graduated. I've been working for the past year." And so I want to thank you. I earned just over $100,000 last year welding down at the shift channel and I know the work you all did in supporting the creation of CC programs. I really appreciate that. I thought that was an outstanding story and uh I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of teachers like hey connect with me on LinkedIn whatever the case

132may be but that's remarkable that they learn that skill they want to work and was having a grand old time um we just hired an employee and they were forming this guys and she I mentioned that oh yeah we have a great she went on to learning program so it's pretty neat to come see how that work. Yeah, that thing you should recognize that creates skill. Don't think they're paying them over 100 grand for nothing, right? To eat delicious sandwiches, right? Um or the military endless. It used to be you got um a score on the ASBA and you were you know signed up but if you didn't ship off to basic training you still got that that again [Music] that's how we know kids are ready um because she mentioned it our philosophy and

133the idea of the whole kid. What else would you say you take into account when you think about what could be better postsecary? What's important to you all of North what kind of conversations I had about how to support teachers and students and scholarship teachers. used to be in some quality decon. We shall just be happy. I like that idea. She's just having classrooms bring a lot of fun. They also kind of like kids that are driven to excel. I know that we had a kid from Baroness several years ago. He went to the Navy eventually went to the SE team. He was one of those that was killed in Somalia helping out his friend. So if you look at that, he's hero. So he instilled that in his parents all his teachers had to

134do something to inspire. >> Yeah. I think it was interesting with with our district. We have success success stories across all aspects. It's it's just not one school. It's multiple schools. I mean, just the other day we had a a soon to be junior just got second place in the US pretty big. He's not going to go compete in the world. >> Yeah. the uh the um we had a kid that just graduated Paul also from this high school is going to do some amazing things because of the a global class [Music] just uh the opportunities across all aspects sports fine art CT there's a there's a lot of success stories yeah so no matter what the kids buy at what their their future endeavors We give more opportunities to succeed. So true. This truly

135is the foundation. So we've learned how the state measures readiness for what comes next. You know, Texas has a vision for Seattle folks going to the world. Um, how did it translate into the accountability system? Again, you know what it means to be ready. You know, levels are all that stuff. How does that translate to accountability? So, I want to ask you when you hear grades like A through F, what is that B? >> You want an A. I like that too. I tell you what, you want that. Don't right I mean because it's a connotation associated with the a means that we have done something really according to the standards of their set are there does nothing on the criteria for how we >> good point I'll give you that for country. I would

136say that there is one I mean obvious one subtle disconnect that occurs in accountability system at points like this when there's a refresh ratio and I'll show you what those are from. Um so in terms of accountability the a ratings represent the better growth or performance which I like. into the fair system maybe don't get the don't get to control the kind of um the levels of preparation kids have when they come into our system. They live in our boundaries. So we enroll kids that come in ready if they come in kindergarten ready. They come in grade level two or three ahead or behind. We don't know. But the state says in those world we don't care about where they come in at. We want to see you grow though. They might come in at

137rock stars, rock stars, and they already do well. They're on a level and they hit the ground running. In that case, you will likely be rated on um the performance component. How did they score on those standard assessment? The other thing that's kind of mentioned, you already know there are multiple ways to show success beyond high school. It's not just college, not only multiple. And as you mentioned, what what are the criteria for getting the A? There are very clearly defined criteria. There's no force distribution. It wasn't designed in a way that only allow a certain four or 5% to get A's and the rest agreements on the program. It's mathematically possible that every district can get. So the thing that I wanted to mention the disconnect that can occur at times like this and

138accountability system has been reset is this right here. So it's designed so that an A represents performance consistent with long-term goals. What they're saying is that the long-term goal uh established by the higher education coordinating board was I think it's 60 by 30. They wanted to see um 60% of young Texans at the age of like 18 or 30 something have a postsecary degree or credential by the year 2030. That was a goal. So when they looked at the numbers needed, they concluded that 47% of graduating seniors um would test the baseline and we set a a goal for 60% of them who get increasing credit for that uh 60%. Right? I saw a C rep as the average performance in national. So in 2017 when they set it all up 47% of graduating students

139met Los M 47%. Again, that may not be the same graduation rate, but again, they got something. The goal was 60% of students that have that that we got 47% that the average C level you were getting from 2017 to 2022. If you had 60% or better, you were getting an A. They also assured us that the tough point would be static for you know about five years at time. And I'll show you what happened with the shift. Now those two words both or performance is how you rated the better three different domains. domain one student achievement and that is the star for younger kids is already star graduation 60 and some of the kids [Music] performance all just performance no growth component school you have additional factors to go into. So there were some

140scaling shifts in some parts of the program and then some calculation shifts. The calculations for graduation rate won't change to the best of the four or five or six year graduation rate and so that'll be consistent up to the class of 2022. Makes me think a change might come in the next cycles when this come over. There was a small shift in scaling. It used to be a 96% graduation rate earning you an A in that component. Now you need to have a 98% graduation rate in that component. And you can see again the uh sector percentages and the probability loss calculations the same but it's like sh in the state or the graduation rates increasing throughout the state. >> I can't tell you fact I don't I don't know honesty. Couple years ago I

141was deep into the data. Do you know how to Yeah. I don't know if it's been flat or kind of the report that came out in the last couple months trying to figure out. >> So it's either the regulator standard or stay higher standard. to give out. [Music] >> So to earn that calculation, the point of calculation, a student has to meet just one of the standards. They need not all just this year. They met their college credit standards. They had dual credit and had a discord and they were completely they earned an industry based certification. Is that kid? Yeah. What about this kid? Got a four. Look at the things that it was very I' got one for you. How about this one? They were concentrated on a sunset. Good question. >> It's a

142trick question. >> What's the graduation? >> It's a good question, right? What's the year? And were they part of that out of that 5% or 20 graduation window? Right. So they could be depending on the year and then if they were not over that cap the state did cap the percentage or in order number of students who graduated if they're only um satisfied only satisfied with the CMR. All right. So this is talking about this kind of kind of see where we are class of 2024 and they're gone like the previous um they could have met standards from this two or three um they had to be aware of the sun setting cap so again 5% or 20 graduates whatever the [Music] only for one of those. So hopefully they have another one if um

143for the class 25 they only met the standard if they met one of the IBC's off the virtually lists. Um they can still need concentrators. Remember that was the last time they could be concentrators. But this year's class would have to be um only the third list and then stuff we don't know yet before, but they got to be complet. And there are going to be some more certifications that are going to be phased out on that list that we just started working on. Um I didn't I don't think I have a slide here, but I'll kind of just give a quick bit of detail behind this. um the I guess the state notice that there are a lot of students who are earning uh these certifications um without taking the relevant coursework. In other

144words, they got a certification, they took an exam, the exam was easy enough to where they didn't need to sit through the classes. And so that's the nature of our students. They're more versed, better verse in technology applications and software. So they don't need classes. I mean, they've been in class, you know, the last five or 6 years on their laptops or phones, whatever the case may be on the internet. So, they just show up and take the test basically and they pass it. The state says, "Wow, the rigor and the preparation needed for what we want to see in the future must not be there if a kid can take this course on the test and do well, not fitting through the relevant courses. So, we're going to drop those, get rid of those,

145the OSHA, the Microsoft, the Sal, a few others in phase out. The bottom line is they want to see certifications that are rigorous enough that require you to go put your butt in the seat and learn. I think that's pretty fair, right? I mean, I think I want that for my kid. Hey, before you go, hey, Dr. F, what what accountability was just recently released? What was the most recent >> 23? So, uh, 24 and 25 will come out next Friday. >> Next Friday. >> 23 is the one that was under a lawsuit. >> And to be clear, a three panel judge, all three judges appointed by Governor Abbott, dismissed that lawsuit. >> The Which one, which year was it that was changed after the fact as far as >> 23? That was Yeah, they

146gave us a manual after and then it was I guess that first after the first year of transition which was 2223 we got the manual after. >> Imagine if we knew someone who could uh follow the bill that would say hey TA is going to change accountability and they got to give a year at least a year. >> They used to that was always the norm until vouchers became the political football. I'm speaking a little too frankly, but it's that's put when we >> That's when they weaponize, for lack of a better term, start. >> Yeah, that's unfortunate that elementary is only start. There's no other criteria to go off. >> There's so much more to a kid than any age at that age. rank is still kind of stop um I haven't five the

147number of graduates that can meet smart indicators only five this is huge all right um I think even if you've heard this before I know you It's still shocking. I hope it's shocking because it is shocking. My opinion is a fact. Um, so I mentioned the uh cut scores for the CCMR and how you got the the ratings back in 2017. 47% of the graduates met CCMR standards. So that was a new C. The goal was to see 60% that got you paid. Look at how this has shifted. 88% of your seniors now have the meeting smart. That means if you were 60% last year and you grew even 15 percentage points, you could have been expecting an A and outgoing system. You could even tell your community, "Wow, we grew tremendously." But you would

148not even be an A. would barely be even if it's >> that's remarkable to experience that much growth and still get Yeah. And so remember the 60% look at where it falls down. That's that's tremendous challenge. That's the disconnect I mentioned that occurs during the time of refreshing these and that's where the community just like not they have to be informed what it is what it isn't and I'm going to say certain things right they got to be informed about this as well because you could very well have experienced not you but a district a lot of tremendous potential right but wouldn't be represent here's the thing when they did the refresh um 85% of the students 65% understand. So they blew it. That is did really really well and then the tremendous shift. No,

149it was 85%. I I'll tell you that across the street. Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah, it was they thought 65 60% and we blew it 65. Yeah. So we shift all the way to 88% [Music] but that's remarkable when you think about that that >> and again in the past there's been a one-year moratorum on district >> and so amen you extended I blew it out of this. Here are some things that we encourage boards to ask the superintendent or board things to discuss. Doesn't sound like number one is the issue for you and if you have some that would give you a lot of Is there any questions I want to have this talk very com who's who's overc she's the CT director but >> yeah Bobby and Ed Shelstead that that team is is

150coordinating that um you know one of the things you you brought up well there's there's a couple but um the I just our Kelly Henderson our executive director is is pretty connected with the industry and um and what those needs are but also with what's going on CTE across the state and she works with a lot of other uh executive directors and so on in the state on helping she's in the conversation on trying to uh influence those lists that that are being built by TPA. But um we are trying to push that question number two, how students and parents are being notified of these changes. We have our pathways and our CTE um pamphlets that we put out every year. We're pushing down into the elementaryaries to make them aware so that they can

151start thinking about uh pathway decisions going into middle school. We're communicating with them in third, fourth, and fifth different opportunities that are available in our academy system. So, I like that she's super connected across the state. >> Yeah, I'm glad we do that because for with all the people we have moving into the district, you just have we have a lot of parents, but they they don't know what they don't know, especially if it's the oldest kid going through for the first time. So how when they get to eighth grade, in fact, I just had a Facebook conversation for someone who didn't know about the careers class in eighth grade. So now they're starting to learn about that before they get there. So they it's not surprising partners. I'm glad we're doing this. for the

152last four years, five years has had a goal to do more um kind of career inventory interest inventory counseling for fifth graders and I imagine they'll at some point phase in the younger kids they feel like it's appropriate. Yeah. Just giving them good idea what they want and then shaping things around them. Good. And then describe dimensions for example I think that before um kind of you know the philosophy behind it here's how we support trust experts and make them have connection have conversations and bring us good ideas but yeah that was just shocking I mean and this this is really important to help some community understand why the district improved made great progress but then seeing drastic shift came and again after the fact there's nothing about those graduates every graduate told you let's

153do any more just performance right the magnitude is growth and it has two components relative growth student growth relative performance relative performance is how you stack up against similar schools or campuses based on the percentage of kids in priority conscious. Um the goal is again to see kids grow jump a performance level. You get a point through that. They've gone through a couple iterations. You got a half point if they just didn't jump to a new level but you know grew um and then bonus points here and there but this is where we are right now. If a kid grows they count that grow from low for example does that meet to high does that mean? So still that same performance band where they've zoomed in and they're working for those growth within that band

154as opposed to saying one or two here the cut scored campuses 85% of kids meeting elementary class so I want to see the majority of this menu. So, here's how early performance look. This is the second part of the main sheet. On the x-axis, they'll plot the percentage of students in your district on pre-order lunch. So, make sure they're getting those scores in. They're still doing performance. And then on the y axis is the domain one performance. Again, that being star or other domain one components. If you plot those and you draw a little fit line through there, that line represents a C. And so districts that kind of fall on that line of 10 line will earn a C. One standard deviation above is your B to an A. I think question a lot

155of folks have is kind of a who are these people up there, the little tops that seem to defy the statistics. Um student needs to have the ability to go in kind of pick on some of those things that were just kind of the work they're doing. Anything obvious that jumps out of this when you think about what an A means over here versus a over here. Just kind of saying you recognize there's a link between the socioeconomics and performance. All right. Some questions you might ask. How did I do with the 45? Was it in school or out of school time? >> Yeah, we uh at elementary we did win time when we tried to build it into the day secondary. You know, we we did have actually a I guess it was like

156wind time as well here. U they had a I can't remember what we called it, but a rotation streaming for the mediation. [Music] >> Is 454 thing. >> It is. They just lowered the uh it's not 30 30 hours per subject anymore >> cuz wait for my wife's a teacher fifth grade teacher and she was pissed about this because it was taking time away from her instruction time to get to remediate kids. So it was instruction was being lost to remediate and some of these kids were at the time were parents who didn't want their kids to take the start. So it's not like they failed, they just did take it. So now she's having to waste innocence waste time. So that's why I was kind of curious as to it. You know, for two

157years it was there, but then it just sort of nobody thought about anymore. So I didn't know what happened to that. And I haven't played with it in a while. >> Well, because we have that one time built in the school day. >> Okay. >> We were able to I mean it did carve out time of the school day, but What is what is waiting time? >> It's just a a car for remediation for small group instruction where you can rotate kids. So the main three, if you recall outgoing system, it was ridiculous. Closing the gaps, they had 14 indicators. all had to account for these four I'm sorry four different um I'm sorry 14 different areas to account for these four indicators end up being like 72 or 73 different data points but they

158really focus I think it's name focus no more the 14 you know categories of students we're going to look at all students so again there expectation for all students in the gap but then the two lowest performing race and ethnicity groups from 2022 And then what they call high focus groups. You can see the students that call high focus groups just to be that kid can count twice if they met one or two of those, right? But now just this thing meet one of those uh criteria definitions, then they're part of the high focus group. And that drastically reduced we have a slide in there. I want to say down to 28 different indicators as opposed to some 72 different Um there's also some additional growth in domain 3. Um there were growth targets for

159different populations and you kind of either met them or you didn't. It's like a passport. You got a point or you didn't. But now they kind of stretch that growth out. That's long range targets out to 2038. And you earn points based on how you track those interim targets. So if you meet um two-year target or five whatever the case may be um that's consistent with expected growth you can get three you meet or exceed it. You can see again the different points you can award. Um it's worth mentioning because domain three really does shift the overall accountability system uh to focus more on growth. So again there's more growth built in. It used to be about um 30% of it had to do with growth. went up to 70% growth. Now just higher because

160there are more more growth opportunities that can be shown in domain three and I show those are some questions here [Music] what I need sounds like it might be an opportunity to meet those students need. So here's what I'm talking about. For domain three, here's an example of how they calculate it. You have your domain one and two, 70% come from that, but it's the best of those. So, you look at domain one performance. How do we do on start? So, objective performance. Take that aside. Put the number down there. Then we look at domain two, which had two components. Uh, student growth and relative performance. Whatever the high of growth or relative performance, you pull that out. Then you look at part one again and say what's the highest? Is it domain one or

161is it one of these components in domain two? 70% of growth of your score come from that. Domain 3 will just be again 30% of that rating. Keep in mind there are growth components in there too. Ends up being close to 80% of your overall rating could be attributed to how well you grow students. That's encouraging to me when I think about school's efforts like to just take every kid, find out what they like and what I need and then meet them where they are. So in this case, you have an A in domain one3. You have a B in 85 in your part two there. A C in closing gaps. Look at the better build% overall. So the highest of except um step out to the community the uh new accountability will be released

162soon. Here's what they're going to kind of along with it. >> Yeah, we we presented um at several board meetings where we were talking about the shift in the goalposts and so forth and then you know shared with our staff and published through Parent Square. This is this is what's coming. Uh we we have not put out that you know you're going to get two years worth but we will um a day or two ahead of hey we're going to release scores on Friday the 15th. So you'll see two years you know 24 and 25. So we'll do that soon. I tell you the little funny things like if cool was a me it would be this guy. I tell you, ever the gold with me, this was just classic example. This is what they

163used to be. >> That's just changing. I mean, just drastic. They just took it off the field. It wasn't just >> they they took it off in the stand. >> I was going to say they changed from baseball to playing cricket games at last two days. Crazy. If you want to uh voice your opinion, give some input as they are thinking about the next refresh, here's a way to do it. I checked your link still live, so I don't know how long they'll be taking data. Maybe, but uh it'll give you a chance to kind of get some opinions on what you want to see, what's important to you. Is it still live there? My dad's changing a couple hours. So what's measurement domain one? Yeah. >> Absolute performance on the start. How did that

164kid do on the start for older kids at CCMR? It's um the graduation to make a key growth. Did kids expected growth? They grow a year. Did they show growth over the course of a year? How did our campus do with the campus vendors like this? call them com districts for the cases in specific this will have to do with the kids who match your demographics those on the field three closing the gaps big shift there no 72 plus indicators you're looking at we're looking at a more focused approach closing the gaps the lower performing groups in 2022 and then those high focus high need situations where transient students in the fall All right, the last part home stretch home stretch somewhere sometimes stretch. >> Um, pretty straightforward governance components. We'll look at your role

165in this kind of back up some of the research. Um, again, recall from the beginning the Senate bill said board should be taking a strategic leadership approach to maximize performance. Um, here's what we think that means. We love to go back to the research, love, supporting, backed up experiences from our travels. We've done some research here on Texas board as well. Um, these hold true. These five five areas um have been consistently showing up in in multiple governance studies. There are specific indicators of boards doing these core areas that have again a particular student performance. clear expectation. We think that lines up with strategic leadership. What is it that we want? Where are we going? How well do we make that? Um, as far as statistical significance, number three is the most powerful one. Um,

166and specifically, how well does a board superintendent team come up with a set of goals and then monitor progress on those goals all year long and then make adjustments based on those goals and outcomes. those other four and three matter but just not as strongly correlated with those those two there. Um bill collected will have a lot to do with how um the board relates to the community keeping them informed keeping them engaged and sometimes business partners right just again how who are you engaging with this important education process. So we can require folks to have a vision. You've seen on your boards, right? You have the current reality. Obviously, one way to bridge that is with some goals. Uh the state said that the board has to adopt a set of comprehensive goals and

167kind of monitoring and progress towards those. You need not write them. We'll let him and his team write the goals, but you adopt some goals that kind of help you mind that gap whether it's CE or more holistic child. We were given some goals. Again, kind of stole the thunder. House Bill 3 says that every district has to have early numeracy literacy goals, right? And they have to also have to have some CCMR goals. Those were to be five-year goals with disagregating targets for different subopuls. And the board superintendent team, the district at the monitor progress, scored those goals and uh target was missed. Um there were some training that was provided for teachers to support that just in general. And of course you have to be an identified administrator for smaller districts that was

168typically the superintendent maybe an assistant student and then you have to be you have to release annual progress report based on those. I think I did publish as well on the website. Yeah. Everybody had the same set of goals. We talked about the reports of of of discussing what matters to a specific community. Every mission thinks their goals are not only what we need here. But again, just reminder the importance of local controls. You all kind of driving the process for here's an example of how those goals had to look. They had to be smart goals. The state wanted a baseline. They wanted a starting point. Um they wanted a target. Baseline is like we're saying they want a target. They wanted um a deadline and a specific population that it referred to. In this

169case, third graders, the subject there's a starting point. They want to see the percent level. Now, this is just stating a goal. the state that hold us accountable if we don't meet those rules. We're just holding ourselves accountable. >> Yep. So, there are no rules. They aren't going to come in here and check that one and this is an internal discussion. >> Okay. >> Um they do want to see it published like make sure >> because you mentioned earlier at the very beginning, you know, we we grow districts. We we we don't know what we're what's going to close to the door. So that that's going to depending on the goals that's could could hold us back. So that's why curious about that >> and you can adjust things as appropriate. >> I guess I

170want to mention they have to be written at the meets level uh criteria. So whether you administered math or some other test to determine this was on farm that's fine if it was predicted performance or connective tak which by the way we have that discussion about where level puts you. I think district need to kind of focus a little higher attention. Here's an example of how that Saturday have to have those. I still went to a few districts in the hospital never telling your just find something that's so fun I showed you. Here's some key questions you can ask this gentleman here. This is a question that you can ask in your over [Music] what will be accepted prior to school for outlines. I think if you're professional educators have a history, you know what

171those numbers mean exam for someone for the first time. What does that developing mean? Tell me plain terms. Oh, they are or they compared to other kids. Is it norm reference? Is it comparison of kids across the nation? Are they only criteria reference? Is only how our third graders deal against each other. We want to know those kind of details. Understanding what is important. I um I'll take it from I challenge uh some folks who say yeah they ask me to come and share is we're preparing kids to compete in a global society. I said what does that mean to you? What evidence do you have? >> And they kind of told me I said well at a minimum you want to have a norm reference test right you want to know if your kids

172are how they compare to someone in states or across you know in the globe. But that kind of just having candy conversation how do we know what the accountability component the law is solely pretty much that that domain there are different levels and you were tasked with keeping the district on focus in terms of pursuing that vision. This next part might sound a bit preachy. This is not ours. This is straight from the TVA. Um, TAZ does not, we are not a regulatory agency. We don't write a single law or rule or requirement. We just convey what the state is saying and offer you a credit for your training. This is straight from the CDA. um their version also and kind of kind of want to claim uh some government related questions and approaches when

173boards are looking at at data and so if it sounds preachy and kind of like pop it's not me I'm just kidding there um they have identified three levels of questions that they encourage board members to ask the technical and that is how something be measured and the key word is again how is it measured how we make a good reading the technical question, how we do it. And then they identify this tactical profession, how something is done. So we know how it's measured, but we just started the this new assessment is new to all of us. How are we going to, you know, phase it in so that every teacher, every grade level is doing it? Well, we're going to use the map. We're going to teach third and sixth grade teachers here to

174do it. Next year, we'll teach uh fourth and seventh and eighth. That's a tactical question. How is it done? How it's going to be done? And then finally, they have this strategic question. Key word they've identified is alignment. How does it align with budgeting, with the vision, other priorities, other initiatives across the the district? How does it align? Where do you think they encourage board members to spend most of their time? three. >> Yeah. In the strategic domain, but they in no way discourage boardman from asking technical questions. They encourage it and rightly so. You should understand how some of the specific needs are done in the district, but to make sure that things are tracking. They encourage board members to make sure they spend the time in that strategic question category. Now that you've

175learned this four minute crash course about these three kinds of questions you test uh let's [Music] here's some examples of questions you might Not that you're going to do anything about it because I got to see in a second. They're very strict on what we should should be talking about from boardman's perspective. But just so that you can have an understanding, engage in your conversations comes up and so they can make informed decisions. I'll show you. I'm going to make sure I get here. Here's the quiz. All right. What kind of question is this? Everything's technical. [Music] >> What about this one? [Music] dollar signific um they strongly encourage um the framing of questions and they emphasize like questions come from technical not just because the content but how you frame it. So what could

176be in that case a financial matter and it is strategic specific allocation or what uh three pending can do to our budget overall. So here's particularly right not avoid questions focused on providing advice, opinions or efforts to project manage. What they're saying is that there are folks who know how to execute the things and those who focus on you know and then those questions essential for spending system but timing even matters. So for example, and I kind of try to model this. If there are questions that pop up, I know in a district this size, there are cabinet members who are deeper into smaller specific areas and their focus might be operations or assessments or you know um and your superintendent would invite them to come present on some if you're a smaller system that

177does everything including box. Um the timing matters because the board members again are not discouraged from asking technical questions but they should be aware that if they ask questions the das is technical that student might say hey you know what I'll get that to you the next update right so again just providing that understanding that timing of the questions matter that might need some time to answer if it's a deep technical question um they also say that because the superintendent also has strategic perspective on they might not know everything details boards are encouraged to ask those level of questions but recognize that there might be need to go back and for all this came I don't know if you are aware but they basically uh deleted the database of providers those who are authorized to

178provide board training and they changed their requirements. You have to have a college degree now. Um and everyone had to kind of reapply to be able to present. So this privilege I have before you have to go back and reapply. Um I think the services were exempt. Um so we have to do fingerprint and background check. There's a lot of work done. And then take a test and then do an application. And so if TA says here's the state, here's how we credit it. I'm gonna frame it that way because I have a beautiful 40-y old daughter and a half. She has to have and she's got a so I need my stay intact. So yeah, I tell you right back here. All right. So you can ask those questions by all means. You have

179to have understanding. In fact, a number of researchers kind of point to this idea that the more you understand about how key levers look in your system, the more informed you are as a governance team. And they identified things like board members understanding how the district could support a workplace for staff, how they do shared leadership, how does that look in our system, what about professional development, how they look in our system and you know for other levers when they can answer you know how those look in their businesses like when I ask you different thing you kind of just round it off that kind of approach. So good um but yeah so ask those but don't live in that is a key takeaway. encourage us to pass. I bet y'all have one of these

180something similar. If you don't, here's a very simple generic one. District recruitment plans, capital improvement plans agencies come out at some point [Music] will monitor those. That was one inspiring story. I'm going to say spy. I'll let you probably know of a board member and it was said of her about a fellow board members. She literally reads every improvement plan and we have 84 campuses. She doesn't just get the gist of it. She reads every player and she asks at the time they didn't have this. This was years ago didn't have 58 lots of technical questions detail but that comes out your crew understand >> right that's a good executive summary >> business school is all about the executive summary for us right um they I mean we encourage you to we encourage you to

181put those assessments on the formative assessments have one and then there should be board self assessments on um the teaming requirement does encourage you to take a self assessment of your continuing education needs based on the state board of education framework for development. Um we give out one that fits that criteria. We have another one that I really like. It will the touchlessness model uh forming storming norming and performing kind of where teams are in their own personal journey to becoming the most effective version of themselves. We have them like that. I think it's need for teams to kind of look at and say I don't know where we are now. It's not a measure of performance because you could be in the storming stage but your level of productivity could still outpace the board

182who's in that performing stage. Again, it's your own measure of where you are in your journey to become the most effective version of yourself. If you are curious, I can send you the link. You can take it. I will send you a color report. You can discuss it as a team of eight in your own time. >> Uh forming, storming, norming, and then performing. And a team that just reaches that first stage, just got new elected, and they could have four veteran board members and one new one. Um they could be anywhere on the spectrum. The takeaway I think is worth mentioning is that research shows that when teams just know that there are different levels and kind of what the next steps are, they're quickly going to progress to those levels. And so again,

183it just takes cost you your time on the computer and fill it out. It'll create a color report. I'll send it to you with a brief curious. You can share if you want to. I'm sure you know he's like a little leadership means again goals providing oversight making progress it's important we're done all right aha moments questions and you want your city he's writing and while he's writing I And while he's writing anything he wanted to write down to ask and bring back to you. I think someone said chocolate put that I think we ask questions pretty much every board meeting and sometimes they don't have the answers so they always give them back to us. Well, then I'm going to return you back to your wonderful, productive, and rewarding lives. And I see you

184in Texas or somewhere around. [Music] And guess what? You don't have to do this on Wednesday night for 3 hours. [Music] >> But do you catch the update? You got that yet? the the update to the legislative session. >> Yes. >> So do that again on Saturday. >> All right, y'all. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Hang on. Y'all went to the SLI. >> Yeah, just go relax and go out to dinner and lunch. Have a good time. Well, it's pleasure to see y'all here. Beautiful building. Incredible work. Keep it up. >> Of course I am. Are you? >> I've done 5 hours. I get up. I get home at 2 a.m. I'm heading home. That's my goal every time. You're kind of a little bit too proud. I got to come on. >>

185Yeah, right. >> Thank you. My pleasure. Always. My pleasure. >> Good to see you. >> Likewise. I know, man. I recognize your brain. I recogize you. Congrats. Thank you. [Music]