001She's running. All right. Good evening. Um, call me to order May 27th, 6 p.m. At this time, pledge of allegiance on Texas. Can you lead us to purpose? Yes. Oh, heavenly father, we come to you in prayer, Lord. thanking you Lord for another day that thou has given us. Father, at this time, Father, we ask that you will guide us, Lord, in this school board meeting. Father, give us the wisdom and the knowledge so that we can make good choices and and be able to come uh as a group, Lord, in accordance, Lord, to what's best for the students and the staff of Progress ISD. Thank you for everything, Father, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Guardian, Miss Millless M. Go ahead, man. Good evening, board. Good evening, Progresso. Evening. Uh, of course, everybody
002knows me. I hope. My name is Alicia Pña. And, uh, I like the fence. It's really nice. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I like it, so that should be enough. Anyways, the reason I'm here is because um I know everything already slowed down about soccer, but I haven't forgotten. Uh is any gonna You don't have to answer me. Is anybody going to be responsible or liable for what happened? I know most of you know what happened cuz I did tell some of you from the very get-go what could happen. So, um I would like to, well, not me, but I would like to see what is going to happen in the future. And um I'm very proud to be here in Progresso. And uh I'm going to mention two names,
003Mr. Costante and Mr. Haramo. They went to school here. They played here soccer. So why don't the board Why don't we hire head coaches like uh the baseball coach, Mr. Serda, very productive, very, you know, um Mr. Mr. Haramo, he went to state. So, you know, he's a little bit of motivator. Let's bring in our own people here, you know, to have better um how do I say it for our children cuz they are our role models. Mr. Haramo and uh uh Mr. Costante and also like um I said, welcome the new board. I like this picture. Okay. And uh with that I leave it at that and have a good evening and off to practice I go. We have 67 children. Good. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anybody else? Well, that's all
004right. Perfect. At this time, we go to B1 the recognitions of the UIL students. Good afternoon, Mr. Board President, members of the board community. It is a great honor to recognize our UIL students. And at this time, I would like to present our UIL sponsor, Mr. Rodriguez. Let's give her a round of applause. I haven't been here. Need the spot. help. Um, I thank you for letting me come and help. Um, well, not help, but recognize some of the UIL students who work really hard all year. Um, regardless of what's going on in the um, athletic program, UIL academics is still very alive. I try to keep it alive. And there's a group of uh young ladies who um exceeded and gave their time and dedication and passion and they were very successful. Um about
005two or three years ago we qualified to state. We qualified again this year and placed at state. So I want to bring that up to the table. And um before I present them, I just want to say thank you to the parents for lend lending them to to the UIL program so that they can uh you know uh further their goals because I know they they can be home doing things for you and spending time with family, but you let them stay in practice and then they're successful and we'll take it out um they will take it out in the future to help them. And a round of applause to the parents. Um so first I just want to recognize the the writing team. Um and um sorry I don't have these Kayla Sanchez was
006an alternate at for regionals, so she's not present, but she did um she did compete at regionals. Um Jelle Ramirez, he is a freshman. a freshman who I just um said, "You're coming with me." And she came and she was made it to regionals. She was not afraid, but she was encouraged by her sister, so she was okay. the third person in our writing team and in literary criticism does very well. She's the only person in lit crit, but she's advanced to regionals twice and um in the writing events. Um, Gabriel Ramirez The next four students um they won the district title for spelling and vocabulary. not a very easy none of the events are easy but um one of them made it to regionals and then also made it to state and and I'll
007start with the team um team members uh Valerie Oay Okay. Daniela Moreno. La Rodriguez. So they were and I still need one more person but um just remember that the team won district. They were able to represent us also at regionals and then uh from regionals Lisa Lamas made it to state. Got fifth place. just to end this is um probably you know that's I think this is my 29th year here at Progresso ISD and I don't think we have visited state in academics since at least 30 years with uh Mr. Salenas I don't know if some of you know Mr. Selenas, he took a math student, but uh I'm very happy that this group of girls can represent Roesseso with pride and um I just I just wanted them to be recognized here. So,
008you know, we're doing good things in academics. Thank you. Okay. At the time we go to district reports. Mr. President, members of the board community, good afternoon again. I'm going to start with graduation. We'll finalize all the plans uh today in executive session, but we are having the graduation on Thursday, May 29th. Uh as soon as we finish the meeting, we're going to post uh the information on Facebook and we're going to call the students and the parents. Also, we have the employee banquet on May 30th at 10:30. Uh we're going to have it there at the auditorium. We're going to send you the invitations if you can join us. Again, this will be on Friday, May 30th. At this time, uh, I would like to pass the microphone on to Dr. De Los Santos.
009He's going to give us a summary on the tax election that we're planning to do in November. So that way you can uh have a better understanding of the numbers. Good evening, President Ramos, trustee. Now, members of the audience, my name is Anel Maranes. I'm with Isla. We're financial advisors for debt related matters, but at the same time, we also try to advise with other financial opportunities that might be out there for the state. Uh with me is Dr. Miguel Los Santos. Uh he's been around with the district for so helped out the district, uh former superintendent from the region, uh 27 years. So, uh, we're happy to be here in front of y'all and present with y'all some information that might be of importance to you all and and an opportunity to proceed forward
010with. Uh, first of all, congratulations to the new board members um on the board. Um, so we're just going to uh present a little overview. I know it's going to be overwhelming, a lot of information that we're going to go over currently, but we're going to talk about school finance. how how do you all get funding for the for the biggest responsibility that you have as a board of trustee is to provide the the best you can for your students but ultimately what it comes down to everything takes dollars and cents um dollar and cents locally that's revenueed and from the state and federal level. So your tax rate here um when we talk about tax rates and that's one of the biggest responsibilities that you have as a board member as you talk about
011the budget is looking at setting a tax rate. Well, there's two components to that tax rate. Whenever you get your bill in in November for for if you own a home, you're going to get one line item that says Progresso ISD, it's going to have a whole tax rate. Well, that tax rate is actually made into made up of multiple parts. Uh, one of the parts is your MO tax rate, your maintenance and operation tax rate. So, that tax rate is is dictated by the state primarily. And I'll take some time. Yeah, he can move. I know, Mr. Pency. So, so that tax rate, that maintenance and operation tax rate, a portion of it is dictated by the state depending on your values primarily and and how much they could assist you um in order
012to fund you for your district. You're right now the districts are are funded approximately $6,100 per student. Um, so what the state says is, you know what, depending on how much your value is, uh, if you reach that $6,100 per student, uh, you're we're not going to get any more state aid. If you don't, if you're below that $6,100, then hey, that's when the state comes in and says, we'll make up the difference and we'll make you bold to make sure that you get that amount of funding. But primarily, that's that's just a basic U component of school finance. So M area that's a bucket of tax rate bucket of levy that you collect and that's utilized to pay for the light and pay for majority of your teacher salaries. So 80% of budgets uh
013for school districts is made up to pay salaries for for all all the employees of the district. The re the remainder is like I said lights infrastructure all types of other needs that you might have. So that's what the M tax rate is primarily utilized for. Then you have another section, the INS, interest and syncing tax rate. So the INS is voter approved. Voter approved by your constituents. So whenever you go out for a bond, this bucket is solely for the interest and syncing of those bonds for principled and interest of those bonds. Um so that's how you get that second tax rate. So when a voter goes to the ballot and goes and and says yes to a bond, well essentially what they're saying is we are allowing the school district to tax us
014at tax us at any rate needed to pay the debt service for that any particular year. So that's going to vary. That tax rate also varies. If your values go up, it'll vary. If if your values go up and you're 88, your student enrollment goes down. That means you're going to get less state aid because the state is saying, well, now you're becoming as values go up and student state student enrollment goes down. They're saying you're wealthier by student, so you're able to take on more on on your behalf. So that's something that unfortunately has been occurring in the last five years, a trend here in the district. Your values have been going up, your enrollment 88 has been going down. So unfortunately due to that trend the the state on the INS side says
015we're we're going to get less state aid because we're seeing you as wealthier person. Obviously uh that's not the case in reality but that's that's how they see it. So these two M and INS tax rate makes your whole total tax rate. So we're going to look just a quick INS debt overview. Um this is your current outstanding debt. This is the the debt that the voters have approved um on different types of bond issuance throughout the years. Um as you see you you have the debt going through 2022 and and you have the debt profile on the bottom the little bars um through 2033. Then you starts dipping in 2034 2035 and and so on so forth. But currently in principle the the district has roughly about 22 million in outstanding bonds currently and
016that's what the district is paying on annually about $2.1 million annually on that service. So that INS tax rate it has to be sufficient to pay that 2.1 million um until 2032 and then it decreases. Um, you're going to have another slide there that just shows different breakdown by by your different bonds. Um, and then I'm going to move over to the historical tax rates and taxable assessed value. But as I mentioned, your tax rate is made up of two components. M and INS. If you see on the top, the M has gone from 91 cents, 99 cents, 87 cents, 67 cents, 78 cents. So over the past five years since 2019, there's been this thing called compression that the state started uh enforcing on school districts. And what compression does is saying you're going
017to have to lower your M tax rate. Um so let's say you're getting $100 and your local levy is collecting 50 of those dollars and they saying okay we're going to give you 50 to make you make to make a hundred. Um then what happens with compression is saying we're going to give tax relief to the taxpayer. So now you're going to collect $40. We're going to give you 60 now, but you're still only getting 100. So So that's and that's how compression works. So then it goes down to 35 and so on so forth. So that's why there's been a lot of fluctuation on your M tax rate. But there's a second component to that tax rate that we'll talk in a little bit. The M now has two components also. It has a
018tier one and a tier two component and and those two make up your M which we'll talk in a little bit and why why that's very important because it's something that that the district will need to analyze and look at moving forward into the November elections and we'll discuss why in a bit. Um and again mentioning the INS component 35 26 45 51 51 that has gradually gone up um due to the fact that we did have a new bond uh that was issued out here out here in 2021 for the school district. Um so that debt came into play into 2023. It had deferred principal a little bit deferred principal on there. So that's how it was structured at that time. So then now you have a tax rate of 51 cents on that
019INS side. But at the same time, the state is currently helping you out with 32% of that total. Remember I mentioned you have 2.1 million uh annual debt service. Well, the state pays for 32% of that. Um and then the local levy pays for the rest on that colle. But that does fluctuate. Again, that also depends on your values and your enrollment, your your average daily attendant. But any questions on your tax rates? Just want to take a I know quite a bit on there on your tax rates there. But your tax rate has has maintained steady even with new bonds um that were issued going from $1.26 to $133 and then currently at a$130. So um you have had yeah some increases due to uh new bond debt that was there new new payments
020that that the district took on but u it has maintained and decreased over the over the couple years because of the compression from the state that's mandated to pull you down. Can you explain to the community what a bond is so we can all be clear? No, definitely definitely. So a a bond is is a debt instrument. ultimately a loan um a loan that the district takes on on behalf of the voters and and that has to be approved by the con constituents of the of the district. So, um, when a when a board goes out and, you know, they hear their the community needs, they put it on the ballot and that's for the voters to decide, hey, we want to get taxed on these certain projects and we're we're okaying and we're approving
021um getting tax on these certain project and we will pay uh from our our property taxes um to pay for this this debt, this this loan that we were receiving um on behalf of the district. So ultimately, yeah, a bond is just part just a loan taken by the district on behalf of the voters if they Thank you. Question. Any other questions on this part? Any other questions? No. So, as we mentioned, values is an important component on on what you levy um here in the district. So your 125 preliminary values currently uh your if you go down on that chart there there's going to be a a limited adjusted taxable INS and a limited adjustable taxable MO and the adjusted adjusted taxable that's actually being taxed um on on from the district. We don't
022have that. Okay. So that's what being taxed. Um so you have a total market value of 63 million. But then after exemptions, homestead exemptions, all other types of exemptions, over 65 exemptions, what actually out of the 63 million, what you're able to actually tax on and collect on is roughly anywhere right now is preliminary. It's anywhere from 260 million to 309 million. Um there's about 50 million that's being contested that's still under review. Um typically you'll get majority of that as taxable value. Um but just being conservative, we're we're going to be utilizing 285 million for the purposes of of this prelim preliminary analysis. Um another thing to note on on taxes on your homeowners here in in any district, school district, right? you get your your your tax bill, you have multiple entities on
023there, but one of the benefits for the school districts is homestead exemptions. Um, currently they're at $100,000 and the state is looking at putting it on the ballot again in November to increase that home homestead exemption to $140,000. Um, so the average taxable average market value home here in Progresso ISD is roughly $168,000. But for school district property taxes, they're only if they have a homestead exemption, they're being taxed on only $68,000 of that 168, right? If it goes up to 140, it's going to be Yes. Correct. That's correct. So, that that is for if that's why it's important uh if you do own a home, get a homestead exemption anywhere you're at. Uh because you you get that benefit. Um, but yeah, once it moves up to 140, that you'll you'll only be taxed
024on approximately 28,000 on the current taxable. Can you explain that in Spanish because I think people are watching on YouTube. The homestead. principal. Um, Yeah, you did good. way. Uh but yes, uh so so for that's that's the one component with school districts and on on the taxes that that homeowners again that's only on homesteads. Um so make sure you have that. Then we're going to look at the breakdown of taxes here. As I mentioned, you have a component. If we look at that first row here that says 2025, we're going to go from left to right and you have that component, the MCR, maximum compressed rate. That rate is dictated by the state. They say, "Hey, this this because of your values, this is where you need to be. 6192 is what you currently
025have to be at." Um and then beyond that required amount, the state says you have a tier two, which is also called enrichment pennies. Um that tier 2 enrichment pennies gives you more state aid if you decide to tax yourself on them. That's an optional amount of extra pennies that the district could utilize to one levy from your local tax base and two to get more state aid as well. Um, so there's only 17 pennies. Um, eight of those are golden. And the reason they're golden is because they have a bigger yield. They have a $129 yield per per watada. And then that's it gets more complex, right? Because now what's Wada? U so you have your ADA average daily attendance and then you have your weighted average daily attendance. So the weighted average daily
026attendance what that means is you have every student counts as one and then that's your basic ADA and then but then you have special programs you have career technology you have special education you have you know at risk students so all those different students carry different weights so technology student might carry a 1.2 they count for 1.2 two students, you know, special education, they might count for 1.5 students and so on so forth. So then your water, your weighted average daily attendance is actually bigger than what your actual ADA is. So your your water currently is roughly at 2,131, which is roughly about a thousand more than your 88 and your actual 88. So So that golden and copper pennies are based off of that water. And again, they yield more. So you you had
027them this year, and the reason you had them this year without going out to the voters is because every time there's a disaster and a disaster declaration by the governor, um you know, we've had hurricanes, windstorms, floods, and things of that sort. So every time there's a disaster, the district is allowed without voter approval to actually take advantage of these pennies in order to utilize them. um and and you know sometimes you have you have roof issues because of those storms or the disasters or you have other infrastructure needs that you need to address because of those disasters. So they allow you for one year to maintain those pennies. So that's what the district has been doing for the last uh five years I would I would expect. Um we've had multiple districts throughout the
028valley almost everyone in the valley um has utilized disaster relief. um about 80% of them two years ago went for a a vader a voter approved tax rate election to permanently keep these pennies. Um and they were majority approved um throughout the the valley. Um so this is something that's commonly utilized and something that commonly that districts do is utilize either through disaster relief or go out to the voters to keep pennies. So again, your MCR 6192, your tier 2 at 17 cents, and that makes your total M rate at 78.92. We just had a a storm. Mhm. Is that going to count? So that's one thing that that we're looking at and and we're discussing if if it's going to count for this coming year or the following year. Yeah, that's that's what Yeah,
029we're checking with legal on that. So, because it's it's on the tax code, so it goes by tax year. So, it'll have to be for the following year, which will be 26 27th this unfortunately. And we're still we're still trying to see if there's an opportunity for this year of any disasters, but I I've been reviewing I I couldn't find any. I don't know. Um okay, I'll go with Yes. this point. Yes, it'll be a permanent uh again with the disaster relief when you ever utilize that option, it's a one-year uh deal and then you have to revert back. So, you could only keep five of these pennies uh out of the 17. So, if this is something, for example, if we can't utilize these options, you would reduce your golden and copper pennies to
030only five pennies. So you'll be losing 12 pennies and and what do those 12 pennies mean to you? And that you've been you you've been utilizing these 12 pennies for the last again handful of years. These 12 pennies means approximately 1.7 million in in local and state uh revenue. So that is something that if the district lost out on this, they they you would have to adjust your budgets by 1.7 million less. And and as we know, we've been seeing a lot of stuff on the legislation. There's been a lot of movement on is there going to be more aid for school districts? And yes, there there is to a certain extent as far as but it's going to be restricted as far as teacher salaries. Hey, we're giving you more, but you got to
031focus on teacher salaries. Or hey, we're giving you more, but you got to focus on special education. We're giving you more, but you got to focus on current technology. Then outside of that, outside all that funding, what's left for the districts to utilize at their discretion is is very minimal. Um, so as you know, since 2019, I mean, everyone's been facing it. Uh, we've been facing with inflation, different cost of of infrastructure needs, and so that that still doesn't need a whole lot to address other items that that are crucial to the district. I I know there's some House bills that are in the Senate now. Would that affect these totals any after approval or not? Uh I mean do you guys know have information yet? There might. I mean there's the the major finance
032bill that's still holding the Senate passed the version. It goes back to the House to look at their version and approve it if they could make more amendments which could which could help much more you get or how much less you get. Uh but yeah, we're still in a holding pattern uh right now. But what it looks like from all the versions that have come out is everything's going to be dec anything anything that you're going to get extra in revenue is going to be designated to certain uh so it's not going to really allow you forunately it's not going to be Now, do we know how they're going to word it on the election part? So, that's you're talking about our election this. And so, I'm going to work with them for that. Yeah.
033Yes. Well, and and currently you're it's it's ultimately asking the voters for you to maintain the same revenue that you're receiving today. You're already receiving this 1.7 million currently through disaster relief pennies that have been utilized. So, it's actually it's asking the voters, can we maintain the same revenue that we've had to to budget with for the last five years? and then or or you're you're going to have to do reductions of 1.7 million somewhere in your budget. Um and like I mentioned 80% from I mean all over the state is ti salaries some component. So this one is based on a12950 or the oh the the tax rate oh sorry yes so your tax rate current today is $13029 um if approved if you go forward with the a VAT your tax rate actually
034still maintains at at that$130 mark um INS if you see that's the one thing that fluctuates just because of your values and what you're getting in state aid uh we won't know that that final um this is a conservative number. It might be lower but we won't know the final until values come in which is in late July late July the the final values taxable values come in. So that's that's when we'll have uh that number and also the MCR the MCR there won't be there might not be a whole lot of fluctuation there but that's also something that the state will give us and provide us with that number um August 2nd first week in August but but what it looks like currently the tax rate will remain the same um as this year
035and we start telling the community you know this uh tax election reflects that we're we're not raising taxes. We're living at the same and that and that's and that's the the what if the district decides to proceed forward. I mean, we would we're obligated to just get factual information and that's that's the facts that the tax rate actually will decrease by, you know, a a tenth of a penny. Uh but but when we say this is kind of where we get into the semantics of it versus what we got to publish versus happening in effect, your tax rate remains changed. Yes. But it's still considered a tax increase because you're moving beyond whatever compression is happening that we're still required to legally say it's a tax increase even though it's the same tax rate that
036just because without it it it would be a decrease. Can you do a workshop for the community? Like most most definitely. We're we're here to to assist and and and guide because I think that would be like a perfect Yes. opportunity and then is that part of the that part of the language that goes out to the community presentation or is that the language? So both. So the whatever we p so the ballot will say increase but whatever we publish we cannot say a tax uh we can't say that we can say our tax rate remains the same but the somewhere in the print we can't mislead it and say that it's not it's not because it's considered or I guess just do the presentation present to the community explaining it and then explaining to
037them This is what the the actual ballot will and we'll work together with legal administration and we'll we'll put a together. I agree. I agree with the past like this is your current value example of your house and with increase this is what it's going to be. We could definitely do that as well. That's okay. Just so they can see. Yeah. and and and you know and going into going back you know this is something the district has year after year in the in the last five years as far as budgeting is concerned and they've they've lived within their means I mean they've actually they're they're rare to see today uh you know audits that don't have a deficit on on their on their books and you know last year's audit you know they added
038about 700,000 into your fund balance so the fund balance has been increasing but just because it's been increasing. Again, I mean, you you do want to have reserves of of at least 90 days in there into your fund balance. Um, out of this legislation, there's always unfunded mandates that come out that essentially gets popped on us. the last uh in in the last uh legislative session, you know, we had a lot of security uh requirements that district needed to meet um with security staff and other other infrastructure that even though they they provided $15 per student, right? Or it was like uh like $15 allowment per student, you could buy one camera at the end of the day with what they provided, but they required so many things. Um, so there's there's a lot of
039items out there um in legislation that that you know we'll be monitoring and administration will be looking at, but the fund balance it's always it's always great to have that healthy fund balance because we don't know what's going to come out of session and um and then revenues at the end again revenues are tied to your your ADA and your enrollment and your ADA. So you could project something at the beginning of the year, but at the end of the year, if that doesn't come through, then then they're going to have they're going to ask for their money back and they're going to do a settle settle up u on on those revenue sectors. Um so that fund balance helps, you know, pushing some of that. Uh but the district's done well in in the
040past few years, uh maintaining that fund balance, keeping it healthy, monitoring it, and again, I mean, we see it in the news uh locally. Uh I face it with other school districts throughout the state from El Paso to Austin where you know they're we're taking out loans to just make payroll the next month. So it's it's uh it's got hard since 2019 on trying to maintain schools and keep them operating as they should. Um everyone's doing what they can. So um that's one thing I I I do commend the the staff here and and the board that's been here that as well looking keeping a close eye on that budget. Uh but going back the reason we're here today and proposing this this tax rate and this tax rate election is is to maintain I
041mean you mentioned yeah they been doing good with what they have but you do a $1.7 million reduction then the board and the admin will find when would the elections take place? So good question. Um so on the next slide you will have these elections can only be in November. Uh currently there's also current legislation today's the last day till midnight. Um there's a bill out there that will restrict all election to November. Uh all type of elections but for TRE specifically there they could only be November either way. U so if a TR passes in November you get that state funding that same year it passes. Um you don't have to wait till the following year. Uh so the date to call the election is August 18th. Um that's the last day you call
042the election for November to be on the November ballot. Typically there's an efficiency audit that's required by the state. Uh but then you get a two-year waiver uh from having to do that uh because of disasters that occur and the governor we just have the flooding disaster. So the the district does have a two-year waiver um to forego that. Um, again, we'll check with legal to make sure that that's that's uh accurate, but if it's something that still the district wants to do, that's something that could at its own option consider. Um, we'll continue to analyze the budget and tax rate with with administration and come before you whenever needed to look at uh this this VAT TR and see really I mean we'll see what the end of this uh session comes up brings
043as far as funding and other types of reforms for districts. Um and then if a district decides to go forward with the TR uh we we'll develop that community uh uh communication strategy uh to be utilized so we could be uh in line with legal and in line with all that. I mean based on the date looks like we have two board meetings. So the sooner you guys can set up the the work the workshop for the community. I mean, we could always do a special board meeting before the 18th, but you know, it's only So, I think we would have we would have to call the election first before the workshop. You would have to call the election first on the 18th, and then after you call election, you could have the workshop. Yeah.
044Or we could we could even call election next month, right? As long as it's before the 18th. Uh 30 days. I'm sorry. You're right. Yeah. Can you find out? The sooner the better. It'll be better. I have one more thing. Can you summarize what would happen if we didn't have these? In summary and in short, go going back to that that last slide that reduction in million. You'll have a reduction in your tax rate by 12 cents. But because you have that reduction in 12 cents, you also won't be levying uh from your local levy, which is 336,000 uh from those 12 cents. Uh but your state aid, you won't be receiving that other 1.4 million. So the state's pretty much saying if you're willing to tax yourself uh that 12 cents and levy 336,000
045we'll provide you with 1.4 million uh for a total of 1.7 million. So it'll be a reduction from your budget of 1.7 million as you prepare for this coming year for 2526. So the actual revenue would be 336,000 and we get the rest from the state. Correct. A couple of points. One, u when when referred to the 168 being the average uh home value, uh just a reminder that to get to an average of 168, there's a large number of homes that are under 140,000. So, anyone that has a home $140,000 or less that files and is approved for a homestead exemption, most people who are owners would do that will get approved uh would pay absolutely nothing in in school taxes. Also, one thing he didn't mention, and it'll be provided later on the
046literature, is uh 65 and over who have a a exemption, if you will, will have their 140,000 if it goes to 140. Then an additional What's that? What's the addition? 65 and over another 40. So anyone that has homes of 180 and less who is over 65 would in essence not be taxed at all by school. So but that all of that will be provided uh in the information that goes out to uh the other is uh I have referred to the word levy. Most of you are new. Levy means collections. when he says uh levy is elections are what you get from INS you made me question myself but thank you thank you Mr. Los Santos and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you so much. As part of the
047reports, we also have an HVAC report. Uh I was pretty sure that you got some calls last week because of the high school. So I wanted uh for train and Mr. Garcia to be here. Um good afternoon members of the board. Good afternoon and citizens of Paris. Last Wednesday night, there was a storm that rolled through and uh interrupted the power to the chillers. Two of the chillers went down were the two chillers that were running uh uh they didn't restart because their onboard safety uh safeties wouldn't allow them to restart. So we were informed in the afternoon that uh the school was getting hot. So we mobilized within the hour. We showed up. Uh when I say we, I mean AIM mechanical and brain uh sent technicians out here to assess the problem. Uh
048during the restart they found that one of the condensers one of the chillers condenser motors had burnt out and uh so they had to be replaced and the other chiller that was running that was still off was off on the safety because it lost communication with the system. So once the u technicians uh found the the the problem they started fixing it. It took him about 5 hours to restart the chillers and once they came back up the school cooled down which was Friday morning. Oh, that's under warranty. Correct. I'm sorry. Everything's under warranty. Uh, no. The the old chillers. No, they're not. No, but the the new ones. The new one? Yes, the new There's nothing wrong with the new one. It was the two old chiller one and chiller three. Okay. Which are
049the existing chillers. Yes. Uh, every time there's an outage, uh, the system itself to prevent it from getting further damaged, it'll just stay down. We have to come out here and find out what's wrong with it, restart it correctly. They won't restart automatically. You know, something could be like in this case, there was a condenser motor out. If the unit starts without the condenser motor, it'll overheat and burn the compressor, cost more money to fix. and and and and the power issues you're having. I mean, you guys been having them for years. Every time there's a power outage, you know, something happens to one of the units. Actually, in this building itself, we lost three compressors during an outage. Any questions? Is there any way to fix that? Well, actually that's a inherent problem that
050A has for some reason their their service and I guess does you have a EP or is it Yeah, for some reason their their uh transmitters where they send power out, you know, they automatically shut down during sometimes if they uh lose just part of the power which is a single phase, you'll lose a compressor or something that's running. So there are devices that are called search suppressors that can be installed onto the systems to prevent this from happening. Uh I think uh we we propos we proposed that last year to the district and we're still waiting. Is that going to be more cost effective than actually and and for all for all district or one campus or I'm assuming it's for the it's for the the district. Yeah, the high school. I believe it's
051the high school. 500,000 on search protect. I mean I I'm an electrician so I I know about well it's the MCC panels over there those those systems are however old the school has 20 years I know that in this on this one building the transform up there that's on the pole costs the compressors and how much does it cost to fix each one to see if it's actually a better deal you know that for us to fix one sorry if something burns down like is it going to be more costly to replace that than actually put the search protectors Well, I forget how much we paid for that chiller. I think the chiller was like 400,000. So, you lose it. I mean, how many running, right? Well, it depends on depends on the time of
052system. What what well and this is more into the details, but what what uh brand of search protectors that were you guys quote when when the the the actual there's two two things. The search suppressors are for the individual equipment for each individual unit. Okay? So, it's a device that basically monitors. You don't want a search. Why don't we Why don't we put it on the panel then? Cuz the that you need the 400,000 the bid that we got from Metro was for replacing all the MCC's in the mechanical room. You know which I'm talking about the big panels that service the entire entire Okay. So, the quote for the 400 not it was it was 400,000 not for the chiller but to replace MCC's. Yes. Okay. And that that was like two years ago.
053I don't know what the current value is right now. I know that the only person that responded or the only company responded was Metro Electric out of Brownville. I saw that we only got one person interested in that. I'm sorry, man. We didn't get other bids. Um we could probably, you know, solicit more bids. Yeah, I think that would be I mean that would be better. That way we can compare. How can we make sure that the companies answer this is not what is that trend? We don't get a lot of bids like I did notice that when I was reviewing the documents I know I said why do we only have one company I mean we need to have other companies that was two years ago right? No, no, but even the recent will
054be more for the finest. Yeah. Was that engineered in I'm sorry. Was that engineered the plans to change out the MCC or kind of like as as build? No, no, we we uh we actually this is what you're given with the train company. Um, I believe that when who did the survey? Okay. I think I think your your engineer record was the one that found that panels were bad. And they are they're 20. Oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah. one leg goes out. Uh usually, you know, you lose a leg, you know, you lose the compressor, you lose fan motors, whatever. How much are we paying this time to fix all the everything that got broken? Uh I don't know. The train company uh train existing. So you guys came out on like on time material
055or like a service call. Ouch. Yeah. Do we have a service contract with you guys? Like service rates? Yeah. Okay. Right. Well, I mean, just something to look at since it seems to happen frequently. Right now, what you need to understand is that we have a contract and has a contract with well had a contract with the district when we installed the new chiller and all the air handlers, all the BV boxes. So, some of this stuff overlaps. So, like when I say it overlaps, you know, if there's a unit that goes down, it's still under warranty. We handle it. Warranties lower in December. But uh like existing stuff like those chillers and stuff that's that's not Yeah, that's that's not a change order. Any other questions? Thank you. In reality, they're they have been
056very very good to us. Um sometimes we don't pay them. I tell them, "Hey, this is for free cuz we paid you $3.4 million. bill. Let's see the bill. Um, last report. I have uh Mr. Lasso here to give us uh report on the turf. Good afternoon board. Uh my name is Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Uh my name is George Lasso with uh Fulcrim Consulting Services and today I'll be giving you a report based off my observations of what I found today and also speaking with the Helis Construction. Basically the field and um the track are basically nearly complete. They are basically nearly 90% complete. all the today they did the installation of the logos and of the soccer striping which they completed today and also they were planning on doing the infill for the
057track which will be completed by June 4th. One of the things that they were recommending was will the graduation part will the graduation be held at the football field? The superintendent clarified which will will be there and that is basically it. If you guys have any questions happy to ask. So we're okay to have the graduation. Yes. Basically they said like the fields are basically already. It's already ready for graduation which will be this and they will have everything all cleaned up. Just just real quick, they decided not to work on the track yet until after Yes. the graduation because we didn't want any situations with titles and stuff like that. So, uh during executive session, if we decide to have it at the stadium, I guess right now the problem is is it going
058to rain? Not rain. If it rains tomorrow, what's going to be the situation? But we'll discuss it in any questions for Mr. Lasso. Well, I'm sure you guys are going to be turning in application for payment and I know I just came in, right? But I like to see the schedule of values of the of the project if possible if you can and I don't know who who do you guys turn it into to Mr. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'll talk to Superintendent Phil. Thank you. One last thing. We have a training in San Antonio uh beginning June 11. If you're going to go or you're interested in going, please talk to Marisol. I'm going to pass out the hours that you need, especially for the new ones. It's going to have it here divided by
059the certain hours. Uh and we'll be giving you uh specific reports on this. Uh if you need certain hours, we'll let you know how to take Mr. Pacina already emailed you about the cyber security. This one is one hour. If you can finalize it before the end of the meeting would help us. Awesome. Great. Thank you. Yeah, I really do that. Wasn't that hard? That's all we have, Mr. President. Mr. President, this time we're going to be three t overview 2025 nomination. Uh, Mr. President, members of the board, we have the nomination there. In fact, we we got the information from Dr. Sylvia Sanchez Garca. uh she's already there as part of asby. But if you look at the second to the last page before we go to B4, it has the positions director, district,
060and term. In region one, we have three candidates. One is Estster Cardardosa White, Rudy Corona, and Sylvia Sanchez Garca. And she's the incumbent. get one more information ladder. I think that would be the best. I think we got a lot of read. I think we can do a motion to All right. Did you vote for her? Did you comment? No. Thank you. She um I'll make a motion to nominate. Hold on. Hold on. Okay. Any other questions, Mr. Perez? Most Martinez. No. All right. I'll make a motion to nominate Sylvia Sanchez for Casby director position. I second. Motion by Miss Flores, second by Miss Martinez. All in favor say I. I. All say name. Motion pass. Strategic plan. Mr. President, members of the board, as I mentioned, someone's back. We're working on creating a five-year
061strategic plan. And we got two quotes. One is from Mo Casey. And uh Mo Casey is charging between$7,000 to 12,500. Repeat it again. 7,000 7,000 to 12,500 depending on the number of U sessions that we would like to have. And also we got a quote from Dr. ET. He is charging 1,200 per session. I did have one question on the sessions. Why why I mean how how why do we determine how many sessions to have? Uh my my suggestion would be uh to go with six sessions regardless of who we choose because we want to start from scratch. We I would like to have a meeting with the board first so that way we can work on the different goals that we have as a board for the district. Then we would do teachers and
062staff, students, and then we would go with uh community members. So that that would be my suggestion at the end of the day. Uh would be up to you. I mean because the the Casey one it has seven meetings right on there. Casey has seven. Yes. And then on ET it says four to six. Four to six. Depending on if we do four we'll miss the other two and vice versa. If we do six will meet the seventh. Yeah. Depending depending on on In reality it's up to us how many sessions we want them to come and present to the community to students staff. Uh they just put it like this. If we want to go with seven and you want to choose Dr. ET, she uh charge just the extra $1,200. I'm just wondering
063why not all sessions are required. You know what I mean? Like if they have they have a description, they have uh hours and so on and so forth. I think I think Mo Casey has more experience. I mean that's why they already have a plan and a timeline. Yes. And I know Dr. ET is kind of new. I mean I don't know. I I've been part of Mo Casey as an administrator at the other district. I really like the structure and the way they they ran things, but that's just my opinion. Well, I like Dr. ET. I've seen her trainings, too. So, my opinion, too, is she's a very good presenter and it is a lot cheaper. She did a good job. I've And I've seen her for EB and Elac and she's good for
064that. Yes. And and and it's just the approach that you want. Mo Casey would be more formal, you know, to the community, but they're going to be here presenting as it is. I think Dr. ET is more hands on more bilingual. Yes, correct. I've Well, I'm just Yeah, we No, no, it's fine. That's bilingual important. Yeah. Yeah. Especially with our community. Yes. And she is real hands up. So, that's me. Any other questions? Any other questions about or any suggestions? I like Dr. I like a very good Mr. Pettis questions. Home you good? All right. At this time? Yes, we do. I make a motion to choose Dr. ET and company. Motion by Miss Martinez. I second it. Second by Mando. All in favor say I. I. I. Say n. Motion passes. All right. At
065this time we're going to see one memorandum of understanding by and between West and Parisd. We have Miss Korea here with us. President members of Go ahead, ma'am. Good evening. Um, either of the two first or which is C1, C2, Miss Cord? Yes, you could do C1 and then you could jump to C2. Uh C1 is just I I'm don't know if our new members are aware, but we've been doing um a few years with an MTSS tier, UT Austin, uh a grant that I had done a few years back, and it's just a cohort. And so um they've helped us be like a model site for intervention for like two. So they offered us, we just finished a grant for autism and um building like comprehension skills in some of our students. They did
066really well. Doesn't cost us anything. and then they offered um us another grant. So I applied for it and we got it. It's now too improved because I know that we've been struggling with English one and those scores at the secondary. So um this program's from Washington. They are evidence-based, but pretty much in a nutshell, we don't have a and it's not going to cost us. We don't have a tier 2 um green a really good intervention program. I know that they used to do like ice station and that but that's still not as great. But this program it's just it's called REA apprentichip for academic literacy and learning. They called it um RA for all. So pretty much it's a curriculum with them and there's another curriculum um it's designated for eighth and nth
067grade. So it would be a two-year project. It's not just for special education. So this grant is for everyone. So at the tier 2 level. So as long as they're not more than five grade levels behind they could qualify for it. Um, we planned or I thought that it would be best to use it for kids who failed seventh grade star than going into eth. I talked with Miss Molina, she agreed with the two. So, we would start it with them. Any seventh grader who fails the star would be our star, our tier 2. And um, that's perfect because those are some my dyslexia screener kiddos that I have to work with. So, that curriculum actually is covered under the dyslexia curriculum. So, we'd be getting two things for one, but we'd be able to
068help all tier 2 kiddos. It would be free. Um their curriculum, all we had to do is agree. It's part of like um US Department of Education and innovation research grant and they would provide all staff training. Miss Molina or the district, you guys could choose who the actual teacher, she had one person in mind. And then for an interventionist, they would get paid $1,500 for their time this summer for for the professional development, any travel that's required for year one. Year two, they'd give them $500. And then if she chooses to have an instructional coach, they'd give them $1,500 because um to kind of keep it going. And hopefully, like we said, the curriculum's free, training's free, and then um I'm just saying if it's approved, it'd be great because we'd save on a
069tier 2 district-wide um intervention for it's for reading, um language arts, literacy. It's pretty much to build literacy skills. And so um and our teachers would get really good training. It's it's only for two though. But like I said, Miss Molina, the district could decide who that would be. Just asking approval. It would save us money on a tier 2 program. It's it's a study. Um what happens there too is that not all the kids will get selected, you know, with the study. So the following year, the eighth grade would carry over to high school. They'd continue to do year two and then they'd start the next year um with the kiddos who didn't get selected. So because you have to do a test trial and then the next all kiddos still would get the
070intervention. It just be one would be an early start and then we'd have the late start. I've done the program SIPS at the high school with my kiddos. So this is combining both SIPS and then the um the reading apprenticeship. So SIPS is really great. So this one's trying to say let's get SIPS together with this one and it's a very um language based very fun. It takes them back to the basics elementary level. But the thing is that whatever teacher you're going to have has to have a lot of time to actually implement the plan. We have a intervention period at at at um DTMS already. So we designate the 45 minutes a day. This does require 45 minutes 35 to 45 minutes per day. So Molina and I have already worked on that.
071Right now we were using that time to work on the social emotional learning curriculum. But we feel that instead of the social emotion and learning curriculum for those, I think those kids, it's only going to be the tier 2 kids that fail the star seventh grade would now be our eighth graders. So those would be getting this intervention. Um it's max they say about 25 per class. So if she has more than 25 fail it, I know we want smaller, but 25 is but if it's it's not highly recommended, but I'm saying it could go up to 25, but let's just say we have 75 because I hope not, but you know what I mean. then we could break it up and have several classes um and the schedule and she would work that into
072instead of them doing a computer-based program with the pair, no offense, they'd be getting instruction from a teacher who's trained and a curriculum. So when we talked about it, we'd rather have that if you want scores to go up, I don't want to be mean, you've got to use something evidence-based and with a teacher, not a computer program. And the computer program is going to cost us money for the program plus the prepare prepare professional running it. So instead of doing a lab, it would be like direct teaching. No. And I love it that it's free. I mean, we want free free. We want free right now. We just heard about the only thing is the implementation that we're going to follow through. That's that's my only concern. It would be our only um tier
0732 intervention at this point. So, I mean, I'm I'm hoping I always have to report the intervention for dyslexia. So, I can use that program for dyslexia and tier 2 because I also have another dyslexia program that we do with Scottish rights and that's not in here, but we're in part of another grant. They didn't require your but our current dyslexia teachers, we applied for another grant um region one's going to pay for their training for Scottish rights and um they're going to pay the teachers also um $1,500 which is nice um for a whole week training and then they're going to give us a $2,000 curriculum and um because I can't do the same program for both you know that. So then that one they're going to get paid. So, I did select two
074teachers, one from PE and elementary because I think our babies that the little I could only pick two people. I think the little babies we got to build it when they're little and then these would have this one here secondary. So, that that was our plan. But that one it's going to follow them through, right? Like seventh, eth need another year. These actually it would it's the current seventh grade right now. Whoever failed STAR reading test would be the ones selected for the eighth grade pilot. So it would be eighth grade for them and then it carries to 8th grade to 9th. It's the same cohort of kiddos. We start the next year with the kids that did not um get selected for year one. They're still going to get the intervention. They're just not
075going to get it. It's called early start and late start. It would be only for any next year eighth grader. That makes sense. Yes. Only eighth graders. Correct. And then if you if we like it as a district, they do offer a year three. They only difference is they only pay us the teacher three uh $500 to keep doing it for year three. Um which is fine. I mean to me the district still doesn't pay anything for their curriculum. So this would be provided by the reading teacher. Whoever Miss Molina and the district decides would be their teacher. And then if you guys want to do an instructional coach, I can have a teacher and instructional coach participate in it. I like both because we never know if somebody leaves then we have the backup
076person. coach can do it or the teacher can do it, but they'll allow two um staff to get trained and get the stipens for it also. So, at this point, I'm new. Um they don't have y'all don't have instructional coaches. We have reading intervention. Yes, for reading. We just uh I think they were paying a lot of money for the the program. I believe it was I Station. Um but again, I I I'm still um believer that a real person's better than a computer program. And it saves you money. But I stationation is for all the students, correct? I believe, but I stationation has tier 2 interventions that they were using the same program to go more in depth for tier 2 as we were doing in district. Pek and elementary do different because we're
077part of the tier model site. So we're all trainers of trainers at Pek. Um their admin for um the tier metal center. It's MTSS. I don't know. I mean in your district you've heard MTSS. So we're actually year three going to Austin in June. So every year we get trained by UT Austin and tier metal center. Myself, Miss Garcia, Miss Vanova, and Sun. I believe we're bringing in Santos Mad. It's my neighbor and then um Miss Molina. We were trying to move this intervention program to DTMS already and then high school. Hopefully we'll jump on board. That's awesome. Thank you for applying for that for us. Yeah, thank you. I do have a couple of notes. Uh so, so you you mentioned right now that we've we already have it, but we have to vote
078on it again. Is it like a renewal or a No, no, we don't have this one. This is a new one. We're part of a it was a grant offered several years ago called um MTSS and was a tier cohort. Um Progresso was actually one of the only districts that was part of tier. It's a program with UT Austin, the tier metal center. And so we were on it. I think I did it first and then I asked Tech if they'd like to join on and we didn't have a really good tier intervention program and so I know I oversee special ed but I also help with like intervention. I'm also in dyslexia 504 so it's kind of like let's all be on the same page kind of thing. So we actually have and I
079don't I'm sure they're getting ready to present it like a an MTSS um handbook and manual so you can see all the work that's been done and how our kids get tiered through interventions. So, we start them early on. How do we screen? So, we screen all kinder and first grade for dyslexia. Right now, we're testing. Um, that's a good thing. We're looking at about 200 kiddos coming over to special ed for 504 dyslexia. So, all that one and a half 80 should bring in some money for the district, too, because now they'll be um instructional rangers 41s. And we currently in the past weren't getting any money for dyslexia students. So, that that would be what the other gentleman was talking about would help us. It's not 1.7 million but but it's a good
080amount that you'll get um one and a half8 for them on theou the work shops are that would they be here in the district or is that the one you're talking about UT and all that? No, no. The UT Austin they they also pay for ours. So we don't bring it. So UT Austin and and um MTSS is here. It's it's a conference we go. It's three days in Austin. They pay everything for us to go. So we go get trained by them. And then every month we have meetings there via Zoom and then we have a coach from UT Austin that comes and coaches our like our elementary teachers and ourselves. So we work on um what are they doing for tier one, tier two and then we just revive bit. Um this year
081our focus was behavior um and um on the school site for the district. So I also helped them with that. So we've been doing a lot of behavior, really good things with behavior. And just in case you're not aware, progress is you should be very proud. We have zero behavior units, one kid on an FBA and practically 90% of kids in inclusion set. So that's very I mean you can go ask any district. I don't think there's another district without a behavior unit. like your staff's really good about just handling it on the funding for the teacher and maybe that's a question for Miss Gordon and Mr. Dante. How does that trans How does that So you can get creative directly to the teacher right now I I would have to once we pass it
082I would have to sit down with Miss Molina to see who is she's going to choose but right now reading intervention they're getting paid through title one that's we're not paying it from 199 we're federal I think he means like the trainings all of this is paid to them and the so so not one penny because it's a grant not one penny would cost the district and on top of that they'll give the teachers $1,500 for their time. So, they'll pay any kind of travel. I know we spoke on it. Anything the district would pay for travel, they'll reimburse it. Um, it's not because they're providing their curriculum. They're saying we don't want to cost the district any money, so that way we do it. So, they'll give us their curriculum, but they'll train our
083staff and any anything that comes associated with district will pay zero for it. And they're going to give the teacher you all select $1,500 and the coach $1,500 for their time because it's in the summer. So whether it's in Washington or whether it's in Dallas, they were telling me they're they're from Washington. They're trying to get it to be in Austin if possible, not Dallas or the two. They're trying to see how many other districts are going to that qualified for it and and and who school board approved it, of course, and then they'll let us know where the training is. But they do need to know as soon as possible so those staff members can be informed and then they can travel. Sounds like a great opportunity. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank
084you. Yeah. So, it's gonna be this. That's theou, right? Correct. Yes, sir. And I I put it in there. Um, and that way you can look it over. I do have like a little hand out if you guys want later, but it it it would that is the actual in the back once we decide how many hours they lost or if you have to get a substitute or anything, then we'll put the numbers depending on whatever the rate is for extra for them. Right. Any other questions, lad? All right. At this time, I'll need a motion for C1. I make a motion to approve theou understanding buy in between west and pis yuz motion by Martinez. Second second floor say I I motion passes. Thank you. We go to C2 that's yours right? Yes sir.
085Go ahead. Yes ma'am. So this next one is that we currently have um four babies, well not babies, they're all ages, four students that live in ProgressoD who are deaf and heart of hearing and ProgressoD currently does not have um the services to be able to provide the students um the interpreter and uh the services these babies need. Um so we do a a contract um with these kiddos and with Macallen Regional School for the Deaf. Um right now um you I broke down the salary for you because we actually had one more ad this year and I have getting consent for another child um tomorrow um who also receives ECI services from um for DHH services. So right now currently if um we are paying 45,500 it's the funding source I put you the
086163 and this other little baby will be three. So she would fall under either a consult or AI infant direct. So that would cost us another 75 to $8,000. So we'd be looking at 53,000 to 53,500 from our budget. And that does not include what we pay for two staff to take the babies or all ages. I just call them babies and transportation, all that other stuff that comes with transporting the kiddos there. So, I'm not sure in future you want to reconsider and look at what would cost the district better, but um I'm just saying next year we're we're looking at about 53,500 for tuition cost to Macallen ISD. What are we doing now? Or we don't have any we we don't I have one kiddo that is here, but because he his um
087cognitive ability is so low, he he wouldn't benefit from signing or interpreting services. That's what Macallen RCD offers is the interpreting services all day long to the kiddos. Um, and so this little guy, he's he's he he wouldn't understand or have the cognitive capacity. So, he stayed here. So, we have four others that attend there though from all ages up and we're getting another child next year. Excuse me. uh on the one that attended the three of them. We have four attending. But you said that you one didn't attend, right? Well, I have another kiddo. That would be five. Yeah, but this what you're doing now. You said without this being approved. No, this one is a renewal. We've been using this exist. All of them are attending except except for one child that wouldn't
088benefit from um the services. So sometimes a committee can decide does this baby really need interpreting services and they teach him sign and they interpret all their classes in the genet setting or or low incidence whatever placement they're at but the RD committee would determine do you need to go to RSD benefit from your educational process this little guy is so severe and profound um he has other disabilities so he would not understand signing or be able to he doesn't have the cognitive capacity to learn to sign so he wouldn't so we use like symbols or objects to communicate with him. So that's why I don't send him to Macallen ISD. These other students that are there, they're very capable of learning sign and um so we paid for them to be able to go
089to the schools that provide signing services. So okay, you you've had this already and and last year we've done this for the past seven years, six years that I've been here, but probably before that. And so who you provided transportation to these kids, correct? We bought a van and and then the transportation and then it's a bus monitor goes also. So it's a bus driver and the monitor because um our kiddos are very tiny. So it's already in the budget. So it's increasing. Yeah, it's in budget but it's going to increase for you. I just want to let you know we increased it last year. Only being the the amount you know. Correct. So last year we were when I met with you all we were looking at 31,000. Next year it's going to go
090up to 53,000. Oh that's what I just wanted to let you know. Is is it better to hire a teacher and service them here? Because you said there's a bus driver and there's a parent. Yeah, but we have to add the 53. Depends on the age gap like what are the age gap of the students? It it would if you could find a signer. It the the law just requires that I have somebody who can teach sign and interpret for them. So I don't know what the rate I'm just saying it would be something for you to consider now that we're we're increasing and I have another baby coming on board. We do plus the safety I'm concerned the travel and the safety of the kids that would really help is we look we could
091start you would need interpreters just to be able to um like I said one of them is in high school the other one will be in high school and then I have two elementary somebody before August right you would um I mean you can always come back on the agreement it's just we need you would need to assign somebody who can sign to be able to do that with the in their gened ed classroom. It would not be one person. It would be one for high school, one for junior high, one for correct. Probably and I think that's why before it it wasn't cost effective. We need four. Yes, we would need four. So you're talking about more than different grade level $200,000 plus. It doesn't have to be certified teacher, but you need somebody
092who can sign. It would just so based on the parents that have attended this, they they're satisfied with the way it's been like the program. I don't mean there the the regional day school for the death's amazing. Okay. Okay. I mean, I' that's why I've always said yes because they also have a death community and we don't have a death community here. So, these kiddos together and they um one of our high school boys is playing football and he's going to be driving next year. So, Oh, wow. Um and and and just for the record, transportation is amazing. During that flooding, we were out hours together and they were taking care of these babies and the parents were so pleased they they made it home safely. So there there's never been a concern with our
093transportation. I love it. All right. Yes, ma'am. I make a motion to approve the interlocal cooperation agreement with the regional day school program for the deaf with malen ISD. I'll second the Martinez. Uh motion second by Martinez, second by Mr. F say I. I say nay. Motion passes. Mr. Board President at this time uh if if the board would uh somehow give the opportunity to jump to D5. They've been here since we started the meeting. At this time we have D5 presentation by West Pharmacy PBM on affordable healthcare. We apologize for that. Last questions. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, board members, citizens of Progresso. Um we are here today to give you a presentation on Waco Pharmacy Benefits Management Group. Um, I had the privilege of meeting with some of you guys uh who are
094on the board previously a couple months ago. Um, let me introduce myself. My name is Patrick Gonzalez. We have uh owner and pharmacist of Westco Pharmacy here, Sam Garza, along with partners Lonnie Guerrero and Joey Tronoso. And together uh we are uh Westco PBM. and we're here, our intentions are to place a bid uh for the uh health benefits uh part or the PBM part of the health benefits for progressive IST employees. Um, as some of you guys might uh remember, I came last year um to present amenity direct care. And basically my mission with any presentations that I bring in are to present uh easy affordable uh easy access affordable access uh to healthcare for employees uh of Progresso ISD. Um so with through conversations that I had with Mr. Coronado. Uh, one of
095the biggest concerns that he had for employees was the cost of healthare. I believe 40% of the employees are on the healthcare. The other 60 are not because affordability reasons. Um, and so we want to make that accessible. Um, so Wesco PBM is a local PBM group. Okay. The main purpose that we were created was to again create easy access and affordability to health care here in this region for this demographic. And we believe that our PBM plan is able to uh meet all of those requirements, right? And our hope is that uh with the affordability that we bring that more of your employees will be able to take advantage of healthcare. Uh and then number two, of course, affordability. It would be less for you guys overall because PBM is already included, which means
096more money for you guys to put towards other projects in the district because it would be saving money on that aspect as well. So, um without further ado, I will bring up uh Mr. Sam Garza and uh and Mr. Lonnie Gertle and together we'll kind of go over what the plan looks like and how it might benefit you guys moving forward for next season. Hello, my name is Lanto uh superintendent board members and guests. Thank you for this opportunity. So way if people don't really understand what a PBM is inside your health insurance plan, you have your medical part, your pharmacy part, which is called the PBM pharmacy benefit network, and you have your labs, then you have your hospital and deductibles. So what we're here to do to kind of save a lot of
097money to go back into your pocket to the ISD or to the school board. Example, if you have $500 it costs for per employee, about 45% of that goes actually to the pharmacy network automatically. And so let's say $500 40% is probably like $230 approximately. So that's what you're paying out of pocket to go straight to the pharmacy network. That's going to cover all the prescription drugs and stuff like that. On our end, it's going to cost $97. So, we're a pharmacy benefit network, but with this network, we also have other services that we'll be explaining to you. So, again, we're not taking away from the medical, we're not taking away from the lab, we're not taking from the hospital. We're just adding our other services to our pharmacy network. So, good evening, uh, Progresso
098board members, superintendent, guests, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Sam Garza, Dr. Sam Gara. I'm a licensed pharmacist. Uh I have over 20 years of experience. Currently I'm working at Westico Pharmacy and we also own the other guys pharmacy here in Westico. Um I'm here to discuss today our pharmacy networks. Uh like you said there's a lot of talk about PBMs and how you know they're the middleman. So we decided to to start our own PBM that works more for the people uh than instead of working for themselves uh because uh they have been extracting money from local doctors fromarmacies uh and uh at the end of the day it just it hasn't worked. So our our mission really is to revolutionize health care um by delivering accessible affordable
099highquality care to everyone everywhere. Uh Optimd offers a unique valuedriven pharmacy network model designed for simplicity, transparency and broad access. Uh our solution features a fixed capitation cost per member uh and their family that covers unlimited medications eliminating the barrier to co-pays, deductibles, prioritizations, and exclusions for pre-existing conditions. And there is no lifetime limit for any of the members. lot of information on on this slide um that we're about to pro uh to provide but do know I'm going to try to stick to the the main thing which is that is this is very affordable take the mic. Right. Improvise. Improvise. All right. So, really quick. There we go. Awesome. So, me. Uh, so again, this is a member. Maybe not. Now, it wants to work, right? That's a little delay. this. Sorry, I work
100at a farm. Yes, I can read the packet by page. Let me go by let me go with the with the packet. That'd be easier. Well, we have the presentation. Yeah. Oh, all right. Sorry. Sorry about that again. So, this is a member plan. Um, and so it only costs 97, which is really the the key point of this whole thing is that it's $97 and that includes up to seven family members. What's great about this is that you can add anybody in the family. We don't require social security numbers. We don't require any type of documentation. So, this helps a lot of the people in the valley of course that may or may not have documents for some for some reason or another. Uh and so because of that, uh it's like I said,
101it covers up to seven people and that's $97 total. So, it's not 97 per person, it's 97 total. Um and they have the same amount of access as the the primary member does. So, this is going to help not only the the the employees, but also their family. and they have the same access so that the tele medicine special uh specialist messaging pharmacy savings dedicated support and no co-pays no deductibles no prior prioritizations so you can go to the next page uh this is the program overview um it's very comprehensive so they have 24hour services uh telealth services so really anywhere where they are it doesn't matter if they're uh within the city within the state within actually really really anywhere where they're at they can access this because it is online. It's a 24-hour
102service online. Uh the pharmacy benefit of it is there's over 1,100 medications that are actually at zero copay, so they don't pay anything for the medication. There are some medications, there are over 4,000 medications that are less than $15, which is super affordable. There's also a a uh brand uh component of it where they uh pay I think it's like 50% or less the cost of the drug um by 80%. and it reduces by 80% because we do get special pricing because of the amount of members uh that are in the program. And so uh but really the the the and they have a support system and that they're able to really navigate the the um the uh the healthcare journey to to a more pleasant uh experience that they are currently having. So again
103the next slide tells you a little bit more about the services. Uh again it's 24 hours uh a day for seven days a week. You can uh have uh mental health, dermatology consultants, sexual health treatments, hair loss, dermatology, thyroid management. Um it's it's insurance free privacy. So basically uh we don't share any of this information with anybody. And again, since we don't ask for social security numbers or anything like that and it's HIPPA compliant, there really is no issue with with uh you know, if the system gets hacked or something like that, which we've seen a lot of a lot of that happening with, you know, uh DHR was down for a good while because of it. Uh because of this, there's very minimal amount of impact to the patient because of the fact that
104we really don't ask for a lot of information from them. Um so we'll go to the next page. I'll try to be as quickly as possible, but yes, we've been here all day. Uh some more things that it covers, heart disease, uh diabetes, mental respiratory, special a specialty care for men and women, general wellness for pain and inflammation. Again, over a thousand drugs that are free, and 4,000 that are less than uh less than $15. So, it's very, very affordable. And again, I want to hone in on this. It's $97. So, it's only $97 per month per employee, and they can add up to seven people on that plan for those $97. So, they're getting these are these are virtual visits. They are virtual visits, correct? Yes. and they have access um to pretty much
105anybody really specialists you're talking about um uh counselors to psych psychiatry um and I'll go over a little bit more um to the uh on the next pages a little bit more what kind of services they are but they pretty much have access to anybody really at any moment of the day and they can have as many visits as they want many times of the day you want to see the doctor seven times today for whatever reason you can still $97 you're not going to get beat for every single time that you visit with a Yes. specialties that we encountered I guess every encounter is dermatology as you know it's a six or eight month wait here in the valley actually in the United States to see a dermatology so with ours you have three
106free a year see other uh a lot of other diagnos you can see so that's that's included with it so that's one component we really wanted to hammer home because a lot of kids suffer from you know acne rosacea the parent you know men and women you know thinning of the hair like that so that is one again is added benefit to this. It's not going to cost you extra but every employee you up to seven people three visits a year virtual with dermatology and we'll explain the AI how that kind of works with that. Yeah. So piggybacking a little bit of what what Patrick said the last thing we want to do is remove from what you guys are already giving. Well, this is just an addition to um which is really a very
107affordable plan because most of these plans are are way more expensive than that. Most virtual visits um even with with current employees they they restrict the amount of visits you can have per month or or per day. With this one it's unlimited really. Um and the reason why it is so affordable is because it is AIdriven. Uh this AI technology that we're using is not proprietary to anybody else other than to the program itself. So it's not like JPT or anything like that. Uh it it works in a way where you're able to chat with with the AI as you would with any other human being. You'll talk to it tell it hey you know this is how I'm feeling today. I'm feeling you know very very stressed. Uh I have not been able to
108sleep. Uh I'm seeing some hair loss. And based on the conversation that it has with you like a regular person or regular doctor doctor that uh visit that you would have it was it's going to give you the probability of what you may have and then there it would link you with a physician uh a tele doctor uh uh visit of the the the intended uh ailment that you may have. So, and you could because it is AI generated and I'm not sure if you guys have uh used AI a lot of it, but it's it's it's almost indistinguishable as talking to a human being now. And so, you'll be talking to it like, "Hey, I haven't been sleeping." As well, what's going on? And you tell them, "Oh, this is what's going on." Okay.
109And then, so, have you been eating? Well, yes, I have. What medications are your I'm on this. You're able to upload lab labs pictures. You're able to to basically upload anything to it, and it'll be able to really quickly um uh analyze it and give you a percentage of like 80%. this is what you may have thyroid disease or 90% this is what you may have. But because it's not a medical doctor, it will put you with a doctor that will be able to look at all that information and more quickly assess you and be able to give you a diagnosis and more quickly give you a medication. And so the access to it, it's it's much much quicker, more affordable, and uh and um a little bit more um uh what's the word? Accessible
110for the patient, right? It's quicker. It's on your phone really anywhere where you are. like you could be out of the country, you'll be able to do it online. Of course, medications will only be available in within the country, but you a you're able to see a doctor internationally because it's all online. How much do our do our employees pay now per month? We haven't given that information um just yet, but I assume from experiences with other districts and other municip municipalities, I mean, we are going to be a fraction of what you guys are currently paying right now. One of the other things I wanted to mention is one of the difficulties hurdles I I encountered when promoting the needed direct care which is another uh program which offers easy affordable access was change.
111Right? A lot of the uh the employees here they just they're really hesitant for change. A lot of them are going into Mexico. They've been doing that for years. That's why they chose not to. Well, we're bringing to uh the table is something that's even more affordable than what their options are would be in Mexico. And we're able to add people. Now, if you guys decide to go in through the bid, right, there's going to be the AI component of it. We can come in during the beginning of the year and we can kind of guide the the uh the employees on how the AI works. So, they have an idea of, hey, this is what I'm paying for. This is something that I can take advantage of. This is how it's going to happen.
112So, we have like no qualms about coming in and guiding and doing present and presenting that part of it is. And you're going to find they're going to find, hey, instead of having to take time off to go to the doctor to be told something that I could have been told in five minutes and taking the whole afternoon, I have access to this thing that's going to take Yeah. during your lunch break. And I'm going to have a doctor tell me, hey, this is what it is. And they're going to send the prescription. It's all included in my plan already. That's something that we can we a lot of companies we're dealing with. We can save it between $50 to $100. That's the range. So, how many employees do you have here? Example, $280 300.
113Let's say 300. So, let's say highend $100, that's $30,000 a month we can save you. So, times 12, we've already saved you about almost half a million dollar. That goes back into your budget. Low end, $50. And that's the average. Again, it all depends on on the plan that you guys already have with the other companies. But again, that's the average savings you can have that goes back into your pocket. Basically, these other companies, PBMs, we're taking that money and just kind of running with and do other things. We're here to give it back to the community, you know, so you can invest it back. Yeah. And so when it comes back to the AI and I know with especially with our community because you know I I work at a local pharmacy and I
114understand how it is sometimes to be able to educate the patient of you know trying to change or or add different things to you know that we as a pharmacy feel like hey this is going to help out the patient but the patient's not as receptive. I understand the whole AI component of it. It seems very new but the great thing about the AI technology now is that you literally are talking to it like you would a human being. So you don't have to customize it to like, well, I have to relearn how to be able to have a conversation with a bot. It's not like that anymore. Now it's like I said, you go talk to it. I mean, it even it can it even has humor in it. So if you tell it
115a joke, it'll be able to understand that you're joking. Um, and so it that's how great this new AI um component of it is is you're able to speak to it like you would like your friend. You could, you know, and and it would be able to you can add as much information as you want or as very little information as you want. the more that you give it, the more likely it's going to be able to give you a better uh uh percentage of what that diagnosis may be and be able to put you with a physician online again um that is able to to uh to talk to you about that specific ailment that you're having. Um uh we're on the next page which says member support which is very important is what's
116what's the use of having all this technology? you can't reach a human being, right? At the end of the day, even though the AI is is is pretty close to a human being now, it's still not a human being, right? Sometimes we just want to talk to a person. I'm that way, too. I'm the type of person that skips those prompts, you know, when you're calling the pharmacy or when you're calling your doctor, just 0000 human, human human. So, we have uh different types of supports. The the care um the care navigation is important, you know, so we can talk to somebody that you want to talk to them about scheduling an appointment and all that that we have there. Uh we have that there. A specific number dedicated for that. pharmacy concierge. They have
117questions about the medications themselves. We have a number uh specifically for that patient advocacy. If you're having issues with your bills, uh we have people that will be able to talk to you and be able to help you how to uh negotiate any fees, have second opinions and review your medical bills, we have a a very specific number for that. Um technical support, if you just don't understand the the program, how it works, and how to get to it, um we have a dedicated team specifically for technical support as well. Last question you might ask is like, well, how easy it is to to activate this benefit. It's super easy. Um, all we need, like I said, is your name, your date of birth, and a contact information, preferably an email, right? That's really all
118we really need from you. The more you can share, the better. You know, it's it's better communication between the not only the physicians, but the pharmacy. Um, but again, it's those three requirements are what we need. We don't need your social security. So, you don't have documents, it's okay. um if any of your brother, your sister, we really don't care who you add to this program. It could be your SWRA. It doesn't even have to live with you. You have seven people. That's who you can add in there. And so, um that's that's the most important part of it. $97 and you can add up seven people, your two girlfriends or you can, you know, we're not going to ask those types of questions. We just need se, you know, you have up to seven
119people. Um so, you do you log on to the portal, you add the seven people. You can even put their pictures on there if you want. uh and they have the same amount of access as as the the main member does. Um, next page is is pretty uh self-explanatory as well. Like we were talking about it, what kind of things we can do is a 24 hours virtual care um skin conditions, respiratory. Again, you can upload pictures and the AI system would be able to to know uh what it is. You can even do that now with Google as well. I know you guys know, but with Google, you could if you upload a picture of a rash, it could tell you like, hey, this is more likely what it is. And so, it's getting
120very it's getting very intuitive um um uh uh with all the with the new AI. So the next one is primary care and dermatology which was talking about again uh we can treat things like acne, eczema, rash, a lot of those things are are very um very sensitive to people you know when it comes to skin because that's what what most people when you interact with them the first thing they see is is you face. And so for a lot of people it's it's a very sensitive topic and uh it's one thing that we really want to you know if people are losing their hair or having issues with their skin or their nails it's something that we really want to want to make sure that we help them because at the end of the
121day that also uh affects your mental health um you know capacity as well. One of the last ones is mental health services psychiatry psychology OCD panic disorders. Um there's uh access to licensed therapists 24/7 365 days a year. Um and and the number of sessions is determined based on your clinical needs. Uh but there's also a support line of course for immediate help. Um the last page, well, one of the last pages is the special uh specialist access and pharmacy benefits. Again, like we said, for $97, you get access to a,000 free drugs. Um and so uh and then in 4,000 drugs are less than $15. Um and you have support uh uh medications for psychology, dentistry, sports medicine, alternative medicine, uh opthalmology, endocrinology, dermatology. Um and so all of this again it's I know
122it it seems very redundant because it really is the the the the really the the big thing is that you can get seven people on this plan for only $97, which really is unheard of uh to be honest with you. Uh yeah, and the the last page uh just to you know as a little cherry on top if you have a furry animal a furry you know son and daughter that you you know that you want to add on your plan you can as well. So we do have uh veterary access 24 hours again uh no unlimited consultations for your dogs or your pets. Um and then there's also savings cards for your pet pet meds where you can bring it to your local pharmacy or get it through the online uh pharmacy as well
123through us. Uh, and that's all covered through this that same program. Yeah. And so, um, lastly, I just want to thank you guys again, uh, for taking the time today. I know it's been a busy day for you guys. You have a lot a lot of things in your your day agenda. But, um, in closing, I believe that this proposal has the potential to make a meaningful impact for yourselves and your employees. um uh just to be able for them to be able to get, you know, access to care at a more affordable price and and really at any time of the day. So, thank you guys. Can can I say something? Yes. Real quick, uh what what other districts are there any districts that you that are implementing or they decided? There's about seven
124of them. We're talking down here in Texas right now. Say North Texas. Texas West Texas here in the real Grand Valley too. It's kind of a new a new program we're bringing out cost savings because we got together again we're pharmacies you know doctors and we're healthare healthcare is greater but how many here in the valley right okay Thank you. Right now this is just presentation just you know we don't have to vote or anything. Yeah. I just wanted to know the is there any way that you can show us like how it actually works like log to I can um I don't have access right now but I can I can send you guys a like a a small video of how it is. It's I mean it's super easy kind of like logging
125into really like your Facebook or anything like that. You're gonna see the homepage. It's gonna say talk to my doctor, talk to my pharmacy, or talk to uh to uh a health um mental health. And then you'll click it and then, you know, you'll virtually and the AI component is on there as well. So, if you want to go straight to talking to your doctor, you go straight to talk to your doctor if you already have one that you've been conversing with. But if you haven't, let's say it's the first time and or maybe if it's not your first time, let's say you've done so, we have patients that use, you know, the services a lot. And so let's say to him today for whatever reason you're having a headache, you just go straight to
126the AI and you choose the AI part of it and it'll open up and it'll say, "Hi Sam, how are you doing today?" "Well, I'm not feeling very well." It's like, "Well, what's wrong with you?" "Well, I'm having a headache." "Well, what did you eat today?" "Well, I haven't eaten." It's like, "Well, um have you slept?" "No, well, I haven't actually." I think I've only slept like, "Well, how many hours did you sleep?" "Seven hours." And it's just having this conversation back and forth with you. I mean, if you want to chat with it all day, you could. You know, it's free. Um, and then at the end, like I said, once it's ready, once it has enough information, it will pop out that diagnosis and say, hey, there's an 99% chance that you just
127need to eat something, right? Uh, or maybe take a Tenol. Um, but then there's that 80% like, hey, you might have cancer, something like that, right? Which hopefully not, but and then it'll direct you like, would you like to see a physician today? Yes, I would. And so it would tell you on there and it'll list you at least six doctors that you can see um for that specific ailment that you're having at that specific time. And it could be just a primary care doctor because you do just have a headache. Um or it could be a migraine specialist or it can be, you know, somebody with um uh thyroid issues or whatever it is that the the program thinks that is it is what it is. But of course, because it is a program
128and it's not an MD, the actual diagnosis does not come from the AI. It comes from the actual phys physicians themselves. It just uses all that information that you just uploaded uh to be able to make that diagnosis a little bit quicker than it would be going to a doctor, then sending it to the labs and then having to go back and then going to, hey, you know what? Let me see over here. All that's done in a really quick chat. So the there's over like 11,000 farms in United States that they can go to. Let's say they're in California or Washington. They just put in the zip code and it'll have their pharmacy of course wherever they want to go by. And let's say down here, I don't know, say there's a pharmacy that's
129not on our on our on our services. If the p most patients go there, we can actually get a contract with them so they can feel free to go there. We're not going to take away their service. The actual pharmacy, it's not going to be like the medication won't be like delivered to them or they have to wait for that. So, they can actually go to a pharmacy. Yes, ma'am. That's what I'm saying. So, let's say again, I don't know if there's medical pharmacy in town, but let's say that's the majority they go to. It's on our contract. We'll give a contract with that pharmacy so they can keep on going there. We're not here to take away their pharmacy of choice. Could be HB, Walmart, CVS, but we're hoping like everybody goes independent. All
130right. Any other questions? Questions? Thank you guys. Thank you so much for the presentation. Informative. Right. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we go to I'm sorry. I was going to ask you uh on this PBM is this is like with our cover provider is this a cart service that we have where we can app member has But we we'll talk about that RS component when they offer insurance like I said it's kind of bundled together. So most plans, example, group loss shield is going to go with CVS care. So that's called the PBM. So they already kind of bundle that already. So that's why I'm saying so we're here just take out that PBM part. We're not here to mess with the medical if they have a doctor, hospital or labs. We
131just they're going to tell you they can't unbundle it. That's not true. Truth is, you guys have the option to kind of pick your own medical, the lab, your pharmacy, and your hospital network to let you know. Again, these are big corporations and they kind of work together. We're just kind of here to help out everybody. It's on the pharmacy PBM. That's all we're doing. But again, our offering is the pharmacy side along with all those other components that help out. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. Uh we go to D1 review fire alarm proposals. President, the district went out for proposals for purchasing co- vendors. Uh we reached out to six vendors. Uh two of them had follow-up questions, but only one submitted a proposal that was Johnson Controls with
132the proposal was for $159,000 627. So Johnson Controls, I know Johnson Controls very well. Uh they're another corporation of Seammens out of San Antonio. And Johnson Controls is uh they have they do all the fire alarm and for for Utrgv directly. So anything that has to be done at Utrgv, we we have to hire them directly. But that that's besides the point. But I know they're expensive though. like they're compared to other vendors that do I know that um for West Elementary. So that was another question. Is this for one campus or all of them? This is for the high school. This is the high school. Yes. Uh last year or this year we went out for bids for West I believe right and two vendors submit a proposal which is alarm and controls came
133up lower. Okay. Who were the other vendors? I don't have a list, but I can definitely if you can interested to see who who came out. That's what I was going to ask too. It would be nice. So, even though they don't they didn't submit it. It's good to know the other if you could give us that information. Now, if you don't feel comfortable because there's only one, we can extend it. Yes. Go back. When is the the deadline? Because I know we only have the summer. I mean, hopefully we can get it. Yes. And I know it's going to take some time to mobilize on a project like this. Did they give you a timeline? Um we we actually we've been working for them uh since January because uh we had the visit from
134the fire marshall. Uh so um we can definitely go out for bids again. Uh maybe put some newspaper on this one. I guess it goes back to where they were mentioning about we always only get one bit. Like do you Yes, we we actually reach out to those vendors. Uh-huh. But do you figure like why we always get one bit? Like is it because we take a long time paying them? It's usually everywhere like that. As of right now any it's sometimes less bits coming in small school districts because of the cost, right? If they're they have they have resources to put up to work, right? and Progresso with three or four campuses, you know, puts out a bid and they have a neighboring school district, you know, with 40 50 campuses, right? They're going
135to redirect resources to where they can get volume of sometimes. So, unfortunately, you're not in the same boat. Um, we with the other small districts we work with, that's often the question that comes up. It's we only got one or we only got two. And what we've learned as we question these things, it's sometimes it's a costbenefit analysis to the company themselves where to mobilize the workforce they need for something like this might not be in their costbenefit bottom line interest. Wait, when do we need to have for the fire marshall have this? Right now we have what what is called the fireman crew where um we actually use the some of the security guys at night where they're go um we we keep a lock every hour. Um so that's what we using right
136now. But I mean to finish this to approve and you're saying what's the date for us to fix the completion date that he gave? They haven't given us a commercial but I know that I think before the school year starts again to have it done. Yeah. Yeah. When they're little kids. done install install. I know they took like maybe I believe a month or two months for I mean I mean let's just try my my opinion is take take it out for for I mean put it out for bids again and then if we have a special meeting if we have to have a special meeting we'll have a special meeting just to to to get the the the numbers. Do you guys agree with it? Yeah. And also we'll bring you the list of
137companies that we have called even even if yes cuz he's going to say that you're using his numbers and we've been waiting since January. So I don't see why I think going back to Yes. Because that's the only thing that for example like for example if I would bid out if I would bid out and I knew and I find out that I was the only bidder and then you're going to re bid again and then he's going to say you know what he's they're using my numbers he'll pull out he won't bid again and then we won't have anybody we can bring a GC in and have it bid or we can bring in an electrician to have it bid. I mean this is this he can come in as firearm can come in
138as a subcontractor. You know, the the one of the other things that I was looking at on page five, it says with no down payment requirement yet. On page six, it has a deposit of 50%. Which is $79,000 of the of the proposal. Zero, but then it's but then it doesn't include a lot of other things that that they're It has a list of of all the material that's going to be installed. gets to reuse wire. Again, there is no troubleshooting. And I and I'm again, I'm in construction, so I know fully well what they're talking about. But if one of their devices doesn't work, they're not going to troubleshoot it. We're going to have to hire somebody to come in and and troubleshoot it. They're just removing and reinstalling and re-terminating, right? So, that's
139that's another thing that we I know when when they did the north, they they did all the troubleshooting, everything was working perfectly. Marshall, we have to provide that report. I mean, if they do it, it just says that this proposal does not include any electrical, any rough in any uh troubleshooting. We don't have anything. I don't think they have It doesn't work. So, if nothing happens, that's why we're using even the insurance won't cover. But so, we've had a one hour thing. So, we haven't had them how long? It's been a while. Oh, yeah. And this was never brought up before. Yes, it was. Didn't have the what? Didn't have the money at the time. I mean, I don't the monitoring service is another thing that the yearly contract that we need to get through.
140Monitoring service is another thing we need to look at. I just think that I know that's a part, but I just think the next time they you just ask for a real detailed scope of work. But the thing is that what if they pull out and then we we end up with no one. That's the other. That's the only And then if something happens, we actually have a fire. Uhhuh. Mhm. If the consensus here is that maybe they won't bid again and and if everybody here thinks that we're okay, I'm I'm I'm okay to go accept that down payment. That is a lot down payment. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Why don't we make a motion? What Mr. Pettis says with with contention contention of the of the the this and tell them that we're
141not going to give them I mean you'll be awarded but you will not get a down payment mobilization purposes 5 to 10%. Right. But Okay. So, so usually in construction it breaks down to 40 60%. 40% material, 60% labor. So, at 50% they're already a little they're covering themselves all of all of their material. But if we do maybe 25 30%, you know, I mean 25 is a huge Oh, I know. I know. They're they're know 25 is good. I think 25% would be Can you note that, please? All right. That's good. All right. Do we agree? Ladies and gentlemen, I second. All right. All right, guys. I need the motion by the motion to legal recommendation on D1 fire alarm proposal. I second. Motion made by Mr. Pettis. Second Martinez. All in favor say
142I. I. Motion passes. At this time we go to PNC uh insurance renewal. Yes sir. The property certificate renewal. Vendor is TY. Uh the the renewal rate is 596, $182. Uh this is a decrease almost 9% from last year. Last year was 656. I was going to ask you, have we ever taken this out like out the door and checking out other people to see how what they would cost us? We did besides uh I'm going to say years ago, right? Years ago. But it's because I see every year every year it's more and more and more and more and more. Yes, I was looking at that. It's just it's just my opinion. I mean, I don't know about this year's there's a reduction of decrease today. And honestly, with that 9% decrease, uh, if
143that's if they're decreasing 9%, maybe the other ones would will get a bigger to look at other options, you know. I think I think let's look at let's No, let's just when approval, how fast does this get? I know it's June. What was it? Right. You lie lie first. Oh well. Yeah. Damn it. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah, I mean if it's you don't think we get proposals by the next board meeting June two weeks and yeah let's do that I mean let's just get another number I mean that sounds real they should this should be it should be Good. Right. Oh, okay. Once uh we go out for bids, then they're going to have to submit their own uh new we just get that for this year and you start working and looking for next
144year. I know that and it went down 9%. We don't risk it. But Mr. bad point. I mean, if if they went down, imagine other PNC people. Risky and and this is TASBY. It's rare TASBY going crazy. Two years ago, we did that and it was very hard for us to get actual companies to submit the proposal. Got this one, somebody else, and it So, I think we should go with this one this year and then work. That's just my opinion. And then get more options for next year. Next year with more time with more time because right now fresh rush. No, I mean any other questions? We go with it and next year we work on I just wanted to I just wanted to see another number. I mean Yes, for sure. I mean
145that's the only thing that could save something out of them. And if nobody submits, nobody submits. But then the risk is that what if they come back with a proposal at a higher rate and right now they're decreasing it instead of increasing it. Oh, I think I will go 60,000 on our budget would would I mean is that like u if let's say they come in at the same rate 60,000 it's already in the budget though right we weren't accounting for the decrease no part I mean obviously we'll take any savings that we can get we are at 55% of the budget five months in I mean, if you guys want to go for it, I I think so. Get one more time. Let's take a vote on it. All right. We have a motion.
146Uh I make a motion for the property casualty and liability insurance renewal. I'll second the motion. Motion made by Martina, second by Mito. All in favor say I. I. I. All say nay. Motion passes. At this time we go to D3 one. D3. Yes sir. That's the depository contract renew as well. Uh this is renew for two years. Back in 2021 we went out for bids for um depository contract which is our bank where we hold our bank accounts. This is the renewal for 25 2025 to 27. We get two in addition to this one we get an additional two more year. Are there any fees with Long National Bank? Uh, we do, but we also they also require to have a a minimum amount. We usually keep like a million dollar upset the fees.
147Okay. As long as we have the amount. Who Who are the signers now? Right now we have Mr. Ramos and uh right now it's only Mr. Ramos because of the election. Oh, so then we would need two. We would need to Yeah. That's why we have one more, right? Yeah. So the checks have a twoline signatures will they now or they have already they have the bank has always just processed them. Yeah. I don't know why they do that. Do they do that with us too? Yeah it's it was Miss Vel but of course with the cabin the votes and stuff like that. That's what's in the agenda. So we could Yeah, we have to change it up. Any other questions? All right. I will need a motion for the renewal guys. I make a
148motion for the depos depository contract renewal. Second motion. by Mrs. Martinez second by Mr. Cost in favor say I I say n motion passes at this time authorize the bank bank signatures yes sir um basically authorization to assign two uh bank signers uh last year like like I mentioned it was Mr. Ramos and Miss Yel. So now it would be um the board president and the board secretary. Okay. Right. Any questions on that ladies and gentlemen? It would be Mr. Ramos. Yes. All right. I need a motion and both M. I make a motion to authorize the bank signers Mr. for Juanj Ramos and Miss Yadira Flores. Second motion by Miss Martinez, second by Miss I. I motion passes. Casters total cash dispersements for the month of April is $750,7187. And this does not require
149approval. Ladies and gentlemen, review your books. If you have any questions on any kind of dispersements, this is the time to do so. On the direct energy, sorry, anybody going to go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. On the first page, direct energy, I I see there two two uh accounts. Yeah, for some reason those um um those accounts they were divided into two. I think one of them was the new building, the fine arts. Um I think uh the other one was the elementary. At the end of the day, they have the same rate. Okay. What do we do with creative arts studio? They provide um the kung hunto. Okay. And so that that's I was looking at that one too. So for January, February, just for two months, we pay $8,830. Get the teacher
150for the district. Yeah. I actually have it as part of the Please. I don't get I don't get how that would work out. I I believe that's um they do high school and middle school. The other thing I had a question about Marayan. He got uh reimbured,750 was safer travel. What was it? It says semifinals. Semi-finals. What page? I'm sorry. It's on page five of 16. So, actually, I was going to bring that up. So, it it's just odd that it has like uh even numbers, 1750 and then like 250, not like any cents or anything like if it's a reimbursement, but it should be Oh, right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good question. Um, okay. On that one, what we do when they go out to You can't do the checks to the kids. So when
151we go out for a state uh u outside the district, we actually provide them for with a check so they can choose where to go to eat. But we give them the the allowable rate. So this is actually for the kids. Yes. But you cannot provide a check to the kids. Usually I know to find a restaurant or they have to go practice. So you have the log where they check out the money. Yes. Okay. So it wasn't for him, it was for the kids, right? Okay. And then we have the fence payments right to the contractor and all that payment. Mr. Any questions on the custom version? No. Mr. Pa, any other questions? Could we see the schedule values for the fence project? And then uh I have a few. No, I think that's
152it on that one. Costa. No, just wanted to note that on the creative on the studio because then I see also October through December was $13,000. So just like on those couple of months it was already 21,000. So yeah, we're spending about uh 48 to 50,000. So we'll be better off with a teacher actually four because we would have they're doing for DTMS and high school. They're doing forico for DTMS high school unless we hire one for chlorico for both campuses one for or just give them a more goals and be a little bit we could do that. I'll bring it. I talked to the principles. Principles like it because students are going to UTRGB and to different events they're playing. Miss should come back and be the teacher. How long are they? I actually
153have my sister that's they're there from Monday to Friday. They do a rotation of uh three hours at high school and then four hours over here. It's like a four. It is a So if it's good that it gets the kids out of the norm. They do. They do. But I I I agree with Miss Austa. There are certain things. Yeah, we we we can do a better job. Talk to them and get Yeah, we can do a better. I'm just saying because I'm going by the feedback that I got by some parents and I was just going to say uh on the the person that's helping them, he's or it's a stipen or how does this uh program run? No, we we pay him on hourly basis and and we have about 60 that
154they're two that go to the high school. So, it's a student. So, it is a rotation. Okay. 3 hours and four hours. Sir, one of the parents approached me about the kung hunto that we're not providing uniforms for them that they have to purchase their own. That's a very good point. Let me go back and check. Yeah, that was a concern and and I've had it on on my mind. Thank you very much for just improvements maybe just Yes, that's it. Any other questions? All right. Can we Can can we mention just make comments on it? What about lack lack of payment? There's some uh some teachers that are missing reimbursements that caught up to my attention. I don't know why the delay or um you can meet during exe and I I'll check with
155finance try to on top of finance uh in May is pretty busy month but we'll take care of Thank you. Haven't any questions or questions? All right. Awesome. F2 investment report. Yes, sir. Um total invested for for the month is 10 million 552,000. Uh current earnings is 37,000 with uh brings a total balance of 10,590. What was that number again? 10,590,000. Any questions on the investment report? No. No. Mr. Pettis Costa. All right. I only detain a motion at this. Make a motion to approve the investment report. Second. Motion by Miss Martina. Second by Mr. Cost say I. I say the name pass tax collection report. This our total tax collection today is 3,228,000. Uh total outstanding taxes 878,000. And we currently collected 85 almost 85%. I just have a comment to say that's really
156good compared to the way it was in 2023. I was surprised that it was very little affected that year, but I think I mean that's that's really good. So hopefully it will continue. Yes. Any other questions? No. I need a motion to for the tax collection. I make a motion to approve the tax collection. I'll second the motion. Motion by Miss Martina. Second by MTO. In favor say I. I. I. Motion passes. At this time, budget update. Mr. Res is budget update. Uh total revenues received as of April. um 13 million. Total expenditure is 12 12.5 million with the encumbrances of 1.9 million in this uh review. Any question on the budget update? I do have a comment. So the budget was 18.4. We're at We're at 14.5 we're we're 5 and a half months
157in. We have to get No, no, actually. Actually, our fiscal year runs from September 1st. That was my That was my next question. Yes. To August third to the end of August. Okay. So, yeah, we're almost finished with with the fiscal year. We just have June, uh, July, and August. We'll probably be at budget under budget maybe 2 million two.5 something like that. Hopefully we're good. That's it. Thank you guys. Motion budget update. Yes. I make a motion to approve the budget update. Motion by Miss Martinez. Second. Second by Mr. K. Say I I I passes F5 2025 2026 budget information. Yes sir. We have u our first workshop of the year. I know Mr. Mariana did an excellent job presenting uh cash collection property value. Uh basically this is the budget elements for the
1582526. This is only um preliminary numbers. Uh the values hasn't been certified. Uh we haven't received or or compressed tax rate. So these just preliminary values for the coming upcoming year. Uh we're projecting enrollment of 1,290 students uh with an ADA of 1,182. Uh on this page we we actually included a historical data for the past 40 years. You can see how um rest has been doing with enrollment in ADA. The way we calculate um all enrollment is basically we use the task task uh templates. We basically enter our enrollment by by grade level and and the template provides the projected enrollment for the next uh four years, the attendance rate and the projected age. Let me add something there because um we're we're planning to do intensive recruitment during the summer. We're going to
159go to knock on the houses. We're going to talk to families. We're going to invite their family members to come to our district. One thing I noticed is as as our seniors are graduating, we're talking about 120 students, 113, 115. Our prek generation is at 40, at 50, at 60, then kinder, it's at 70. Uh I don't know if you read it, but even uh President Trump was trying to pay $5,000 for families to have more kids. So, we're seeing the declining uh population. It's it's happening and and and we were having this conversation. Uh last year, two years ago, I would go to HV and I would spend $200 on a weekly basis. Right now, it's going to $380 on a weekly basis. So, I can see why families are thinking of having more
160and more babies. So, uh that that is going to be our strategy right now. We want to tell everyone, hey, we're an open district. bring your cousins, bring your uh bring him over. Uh but I wanted for you to know that that is happening and and and I don't know if you're seeing it here in Progresso, but just looking at the numbers, families are not having as many kids as they used to in the past. And I think also um when they they enroll at the schools like PE, they need a training where they actually they're following through with the process correctly. Because I remember when I was here and maybe it's correct now, we would sometimes deny the enrollment because we weren't following the process. I mean, just we all need to be on
161the same and it goes back and I was talking to Mr. K about this. It goes back to customer service. She has a good point. She has a good point because people call us and like, hey, but she has a good point and we're open. Why would you even ask for Well, is by law. Do we have to have that? Yes, we need to, but I think it's just the pros. We don't get into liability. It can be utility bill from Donna. I'm like, really? It's open. Yeah. So, just just customer service. Definitely. Yes. Recruitment. That's right. We're talking about ADA. Maybe we can just have a form and then back to the budget. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Property value like explaining as well. This is only preliminary numbers. We using the 302 million this which
162is uh property growth of almost 5%. for compressed tax rate we estimated to be a 6269 which is a decrease of almost 4 cents from last included the template that that's the one that the TEA the state uses to calculate uh for compress rate or on the tax rate um again mentioned uh for M we are estimating 7469 INS is uh 0.5546. I do want to uh mention that like uh we do get an increase with a plan increase from 100,000 to 140,000 of the homestead extens homestead exemption. Uh 65 and older or disabled get an additional 60,000. So for for them will be a $200,000. Their house is worth less than 200,000. they don't pay school taxes. Um so basically on once all this information information is certified and approved by u the compress
163rate by the state uh we enter all this information which is called the state a template and that state a template provide uh the district with revenue projection. Um and then from there the the the ourselves we have a internally we have a template uh of how we distribute the information to the campuses for that budget to the campuses and I put an example there for uh state compensatory basically and uh our entitlement as an example is two 2 million uh the expenditure compliance a million144 uh we deduct the payroll pipelines in that tutorial. over here in administration. Then what whatever is left we forward that uh we give that to the campuses for operation. In this case is 244,000. That way we distribute to the campuses is based on enrollment. We can we come
164out with the percentage based on each campus um enrollment and multiply that to whatever balance was after payroll and tax and and stipen in tutorial. Now the campuses they distribute that to to their to the accounts based on of course uh campus improvement plan and prior years. That's what I have for the budget worship. Any questions? Can you include this in the packet for this is like this presentation? Uhhuh. In this packet for Oh, yeah. Yes, definitely. Thank you. All right. Any other question, Mr. Kamis? That's it. You have any question for Mr. All right, and gentlemen, it's 8:27. This time we go to executive session. Session is going to last more than