May 14, 2026 School Board Meeting

001Heat. Heat. N. This regular meeting of the Waco Independent School Board is hereby called to order. All items which may be discussed or voted upon this evening have been posted as required by state law. I extend a warm welcome to those present and to our television viewers. The board's purpose is to set goals, listen to reports of the superintendent, approve budget, contracts and personal appointments, and make policy for the district. We are not here to make management decisions or solve problems of individuals. Management is the responsibility of the superintendent and her staff. I ask that you turn your cell phones to silent alert if you have not already done so. We appreciate the time you have taken to join us for your interest in the Waco Independent School District. As part of our board operating

002procedures, the Waco ISD school board follows 10 guiding commitments that help our focus on students and community. To begin tonight's meeting, Secretary Patton and Trustee Bleto will be reading a guiding comment. Secretary Patton, will you start us off? >> Certainly. Thank you, President Vidonia. Uh, our guiding commitments, unified voice. The board speaks with one voice after decisions are made regardless of individual positions during deliberation >> and student- centered decision-making. Decisions will be guided by what best serves students learn students learning, well-being, and future success. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. BLT, Mr. Patton, uh, do we have anyone signed up for public comment? >> Any the whole thing? Any person wishing to address the board of trustees during this period reserved for public comment at the board meeting must sign up to be heard. Public comment

003at all board meetings will be conducted in accordance to with board policy beed local. Public comments are limited to open meeting agenda items. Individuals who wish to participate during the portion of the meeting designated for public comment shall sign up by completing and submitting this form before meeting begins. Each speaker comment shall not exceed three minutes per meeting when necessary to accommodate a larger number of individuals wishing to address the board. An overall time limit for public comment may be established and the time allowment to each speaker may be adjusted accordingly. The board may not may not discuss any issues or act upon any issues that are posted on the agenda for tonight's meeting. If an issue mentioned is listed on tonight's agenda, the board will defer discussion of the issue until appropriate time during

004the meeting. Rules of order and decrim will be enforced during the public comment period to ensure sign efficient meetings. Unlawful or disruptive conduct, including interrupting scheduled speakers, speaking out of turn, or interfering with the rights of others, will not be tolerated. Each participant is legally responsible for the content and consequences of his or her own statements. Um, Mr. Will Fipps. Good evening, school board. I'm Will Fipps. Live at 11:05 Wessex and I am the proud brother of Everett Fipps. I just want to use my three minutes to uh just tell you all a little bit about him. I have the honor of knowing him longer than anyone in this room, believe it or not. Uh since he was born, we have been close friends and we were roommates in college. And I just want to

005take my time to say I'm really proud of him for stepping out and volunteering for this position. To give you a little bit of background about Everett, he's a man of honor, a man of integrity, and a man of character. We were born and raised in Lebec, Texas, but we spent a lot of time in our youth growing up in Waco because we were Baylor fans and Baylor people. So, we spent a lot of our time coming to Waco to visit and uh we ended up being roommates in college at Baylor together. And I graduated and left and Everett graduated and stayed and he always would call me and tell me how great this place was. I moved to Atlanta and I said, "No, the big city, this is where it's at." He said, "No,

006Waco is where it's at." and I moved to a very small town in rural Indiana. I said, "Hey, I figured it out. This is where it's at. Small rural town." He said, "No, Waco is where it's at." And when I came back and visited him and I saw what was going on in the city, I was amazed. And I said, "You know what? I got to give you credit. For the first time, you're right. This place is amazing." And he convinced me to move back to Waco. And he is that passionate about this town and this school district. He has two kids here that are going to go through Waco ISD. And I love him. I'm super proud of him. I'm an advocate for him. He loves the kids of this school district. He will

007be here for all kids. The Waco ISD schoolboard mission is to advocate for those kids and to give every student a fair chance at a great experience. And I believe that he will put his time and effort behind that wholeheartedly. He will be available to the citizens of this school district and he's going to be amazing. And I'm just here to say my my dad was on the school board and now he's going to be on the school board hopefully coming up soon. And I'm just really proud of him and I don't need to waste any more time, but thank you guys for giving him this opportunity. And Everett, love you, man. Proud of you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Next, we have Mr. Joe Nesbbit. Dr. Spicer, esteemed trustees, thank you for uh I

008think this is the first time I've I've been here. I'm a lifelong Waco and resident of Waco. Uh graduated from Waco High in 1993. Did the Mountain View uh Carver Lake Air 9th grade center trek that many of my friends did as well. Um, I read in the paper about what's going on here, um, with the appointment of Everett Fipps, and I think it represents the beauty of our country. I think uh, I read an article and the the article said that there was a stalemate. I may be using the wrong language. It's a very difficult decision. And I thought, man, that's pretty impressive that people held out and held true to their beliefs. And uh not everyone agrees. There was no rubber stamp. You get back together, get in the room, and uh and

009Everett Fipps is what emerged. And then I read the paper and I was I'm not really on social media, but I was some comments were shared. And you know, I I I love the fact that both that Waco feels so passionate about the leadership in our school district that were willing to argue about it. I think that's a beautiful part of our of of our society. There are is a system in place. We don't always have to agree with the way that the the the ball rolls out and the that the the coin turns. We don't have to agree with it, but we're going to move forward. What is wonderful is three people came forward who were willing to and wanted to serve this district. And so, I'm here to just say thank you for

010disagreeing, probably arguing. I wasn't in the room, but I know some of the people sitting up here, and that's why you're there, because you're passionate about the way you feel about this district. I'm I'm thankful for the work you do. It's not easy. Nobody signs up for this role with some political aspirations of grandeur. You do it because your heart and and you love children. And so I say thank you with my remaining 38 seconds. I looked at the agenda. I see that there's Texas Science and Engineering Fair, Future Educator State Competition, Texas State Solo. I think that means there are a bunch of students who are going to be given awards and recognized for some really cool accomplishments. And I would just say congratulations. And when you hear people say you're the future, that

011is true, man. That is so true. And and proud of all y'all. And I hope you have a great summer because school's almost out. I'm out. Thank you. Stephanie Cordawig. It's fun being on this side. I also really tried hard to whittle it down to three minutes, so I hope I make it. Um, oh, am I already started? Good evening, Waco, uh, board of trustees and superintendent Spicer. As someone who once sat in those seats, I want you to know I come tonight with compassion, gratitude, and absolutely no desire to trade places with you. Having once served on this board, I know two things to be true. One, uh, no one fully understands this job from the outside, and everyone still thinks they can do it better from Facebook. I want to thank Mr. Bledo

012and Mr. Abanusi for their service and for Mr. Fipps for stepping forward to serve on the WakeD board. Mr. Fipps, when I read your resume and I looked I expected you to be up here. Sorry. When I read your resume and looked at your years of service in this community, I saw what this board saw uh someone with both the vision and the skill set needed to help lead Waco during an unprecedented time. TEA is breathing down our necks and public education, especially Waco ISD, is under enormous pressure, as evidenced by the handing of two of our elementary schools to a charter system. Because I have sat in the seats you now occupy, I recognize that the decision you made was not only courageous, but demonstrated tremendous integrity, not the lack of it. Serving in

013this role is far more demanding than anyone who has not sat in the seats will ever fully understand. and yet it remains one of the most important responsibilities in our community. I also think it's important to note that this board has been an allmale board for the past year while three positions recently went uncontested. With tea site set on WakeD, it's imperative that you square your shoulders, fix your vision on what must be done, and do whatever it takes to steer this ship in the right direction on behalf of our students. Don't listen to the noise. Sometimes that noise looks like gaslighting, denying your experiences and disregarding your intentions even after you have clearly stated them. Sometimes it looks like virtue signaling, masking bullying tactics. In the end, they are simply often tools used to

014oppress voices and intimidate people into silence. Please do not listen to these ad homonym attacks or hasty generalizations. They are in themselves logical fallacies. Square your shoulders and set your face as Flint to the future. Years ago, I was told not to listen to the loudest voices, but to seek out the people who were impacted by our decisions. I found them and they wanted three things. People to love their children, educate them, and provide opportunities that previous generations did not have. Terico recently said, "We live in an era of corruption, the rotting of something from the inside. for-profit social media algorithms sewing division in our communities and turning neighbor against neighbor. That's social corruption. The ties that bind us together are unraveling. And then he asked the question, how would our world be different if

015we truly saw human beings as expressions of a divine source? I believe that question is worthy of asking as we move together forward together as a community because at the end of the day the work before the school board is not political administrative. It's human work. It's the work of shaping lives, stewarding opportunities, and protecting the future of children. Thank you again so much for your willingness to serve this district and this community. Thank y'all. We're moving on to a moment of silence. Please bow your heads and take a moment with me. Thank y'all. Next, we'll move on to the pledge of allegiance. Leading our pledge of allegiance this evening are Mountain View Elementary students Iris Horton and Emilio Alvareo >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

016which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dr. Spicer and board of trustees, would you please join me at the front? Thank you, Iris and Amelio. Okay, we are thrilled to have Iris and Ameilio join us today. I'd like to take a moment to recognize them. First up, Iris is a fourth grader with a passion for reading. Outside of school, Iris enjoys dancing at All That Jazz Academy, spending time with her friends and sister, and traveling with her family. Her teacher describes her as kind-hearted and an excellent leader at her school. Iris is not only a Mountain View junior librarian, but also a morning announcements anchor, and she participated in the UI in UIL this year. When she grows up, Iris dreams of becoming an engineer. Thank you, Iris.

017Next we have Amelio Alvareo, another enthusiastic fourth grade student who loves science. When he's not at school, Alio enjoys practicing baseball and attending church. He also likes riding his bike, reading, and playing video games. His teacher notes that he has a kind and caring heart and is a wonderful friend to others. Alio works hard in school and is a proud member of the Mountain View Junior Librarian Club. Also, he hopes to become either a Major League Baseball player or a police officer one day. We appreciate these remarkable students and their families. Special thanks to Kimry and Joshua Horton as well as Marissa and Angel Ever Alvareo for being here to support their incredible children. We also want to thank Carrie Detliffson. I think she's behind the principal of Mountain View to support her students. Thank

018you. Do the families want a picture before we move on? Thank you. Okay, I'm so excited. This is May. It's the end of school and we have so many students to recognize and celebrate tonight. So, we are going to start with the Texas Science and Engineering Fair. Um, we're delighted to recognize and celebrate the achievements of our remarkable Tennyson Middle School Atlas students who recently participated in the 2026 Texas Science and Engineering Fair which was held on March 27th and 28th. Um, so I'm going to go through and name everybody and I believe this is Genesis Gillery. Okay. So, I also want to congratulate Vera O'Brien and Allison Perez. They took home first place in junior division for their project in engineering technology. And then um Sophie Arthur and Genesis Gillery right here. Um as

019well as Rachel Maxiel secured the second place in junior division for their innovative research in material science. Um their collaborative approach and analytical skills showcase the great potential of our young scientists. And then I also want to mention um Emily Solano and Elizabeth Fox who earned a third place in the junior division for their work in behavioral sciences. >> I don't want to forget to mention um that this would not have been possible without the guidance and support of our dedicated staff. So, I would like to thank Leslie Sigura, our Atlas research teacher, and Leslie Cannon, our Tennyson librarian, for their hard work in teaching and preparing these students for the regional competition. Okay, next up, Waco is proud to recognize our future educators who participated in the Texas Association of Future Educators state competition

020on February 26th. So there was a total of 34 students from the future educators academy that traveled to Dallas to participate in the competition at the Teach Tomorrow Summit. They showcased their talents across 19 different categories highlighting their exceptional skills, creativity, and potential as future educators. By the end of the summit, our students achieved remarkable success. Impressively, eight students in four categories have qualified to advance to the National Educators Rising Competition. Additionally, three students earned gold, nine silver, and 21 bronze awards. And you can see all of them up here on the screen. I know everybody wasn't able to make it, and so I'm going to list off the students who were able to make it, but I want to also recognize these students as well. So for um qualifying for nationals inside our schools

021category is Anna Enrique Enrique. Did I say that right? Um Anaise Scalan and Alejandra Bettinort Rodriguez in the public speaking category. Kendall Lampin and Monica McNeel in researching learning challenges category. Diego Martinez and then Kendall Lampin also. Um then the following student received a silver award for inside our schools. Kareem A Reyes. Congratulations The photos will be available on our Flickr albums probably tomorrow morning. Yeah. Okay. Of course. Okay. Next up, and this is near and dear to my heart, too, because I'm a band mom, but um we have the Texas State Solo and Ensemble State Qualifiers. We're going to start with Waco High. So, Waco High School is proud to announce announce that 68 members of its Lion Pride band participated in the UIL solo and ensemble contest held in Temple this year. The

022students achieved an impressive total of 45 medals, including one superior rating. In addition, 17 students have qualified for the state solom ensemble contest held this month. Okay. Again, we have so many students and with band um and all of the different activities, some were not able to make it. So, I'm going to um do my best to get everybody who is here. So, um the TMA region honor mariachi is Christian Agular. Okay. For region honor band and UIL state solo and ensemble is Israel Vaughn. for region honor band. Nerie Vega also for region honor band. Juan Pedra for region honor jazz region honor band and UIL state solo and ensemble qualifier. Sai Tandy and region honor jazz Ezekiel Aoyo. The following students qualified for UIL state in solo ensemble. Luke Hammerly, Montreal Robinson, Lily Rose,

023Michael Manaka, Kime Reyes. All right, please join me in congratulating all of these students for their hard work and dedication. We also want to thank band director Tyler Sage for being here to support his students. >> Okay, please join us with the board and we'll get a picture of everybody together. Really quick before we get started with university, I wanted to shout out Kathleen Knight. I made an oversight and I want to make sure that she knows that we appreciate her and everything that she does with the Future Educators Academy. Thank you, Kathleen. Okay, we're excited to celebrate University High School's Trojan band. Also, so the following students qualified for Texas State Solo and Ensemble Competition. Um, and these we have again a long list of amazing um artists. So today we have for region

024concert band and UIL state solo and ensemble Gabrielle Ramas Ramirez Jr. Okay, one second. Okay. Is it okay for UIL state and solo ensemble Rodrik Watson III? Okay. For UIL state and solo ensemble also Soshi Garda. Diego Martinez. And we also have Diego Martinez. Okay. As they line up to get a photo together, please join me in congratulating these wonderful students for all their hard work and dedication. I also want to thank uh their head band director Archie Hatton for all of his work. Hey, also with University High School, we are excited to congratulate the speech team for their outstanding performance at the UIL academic region contest. This marks the fourth consecutive year that a student from University High School will represent the institution at the state competition. Deari West achieved second place in the

025pros category sec securing qualification for state competition and Michelle Via earned fourth place in the poetry category becoming the state alternate. Thank you also to Savannah Jones, their UI academic sponsor and teacher, who is here to support her students. Congratulations, guys. Next up, we have our community partner award. This month, Waco ISD is excited to honor GG's Flower Hut as our community partner for May. Their long-standing commitment to our district has made a significant impact and we feel incredibly fortunate to have such a generous and dedicated partner in their foundation. Over the years, GG's has supported Waco ISD in numerous ways, including sponsoring a prom dress and suit giveaway for the past three years, providing homecoming moms and bineers uh sponsorships, corages and bineers, excuse me, and beautiful floral arrangements for our prom attendees. GG's

026also offers floral classes for students of all ages, including members of the 4 club and those interested in steam projects. Our students have gained valuable work experience through opportunities at the flower shop and have the opportunity to earn their community service hours by participating in various projects as well. We are deeply grateful for the lasting impact that Gigi's Flower Hut has made on the Waco ISD community. Thank you for your unwavering support. That's all for our recognitions. Thank you. Thank y'all. We'll be moving on to item five, the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Board of Trustees. Next week is graduation. We're looking forward to a milestone moment as we celebrate the incredible class of 2026. University High School ceremony will lead the way at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 21st, followed by Waco

027High's graduation on Friday, May 22nd. Also at 7:30 p.m., both ceremonies will be held at the Waco ISTD Stadium. Yes, we are watching the weather. To ensure a safe and celebratory environment for all of our families, we will be enforcing a clear back policy. So, please note that. We ask that all attendees plan for extra time to walk through our security protocols, including metal detectors, before you enter. Board members, we request that you arrive one hour at least prior to the start of each ceremony, and that's 6:30 p.m. Dinner will be provided as we prepare to celebrate our graduations, our graduates, and their success. Congratulations, graduates. Summer school and other programs. Summer 2026 is just around the corner and at Waco ISD we are ready to keep the momentum going with a season full of

028learning and discovery. Our summer school adventures officially launched June 1st through June 18th. We've designated four high energy elementary hubs at Kendrick Lake Air Provident Heights and JHS. While our secondary students will be doing their thing at Tennyson Middle School and Waygo High School. The excitement continues with our specialized deep dives through late July including camp read a Lot language acquisition MA and ESY which is extended school year program. We're also thrilled to offer the math venture challenge where students can tackle math daily using manip manipulatives sent home and track their own progress um on a personal log. Plus we will have camp in Invention which returns to engage our DT learners. And for the first time ever, Guaca is hosting a junior clinician camp to introduce fourth through sixth graders to the incredible world

029of health sciences. We're even taking the learning directly into our neighborhoods with camp story time. We'll be out in the community at Estella Maxi, Kate Ross, Baron's Branch, Kendrick Park, and Parkside. It's the perfect summer outing where students can hear a great story, complete a comprehension activity, enjoy refreshing popsicle, and take home free books to keep their home libraries growing. By teaming up with partners like the YMCA and mentoring alliance, we're ensuring every Waco family has options for a meaningful and active summer. From math challenges and healthc care lessons to stories in the park, we're making sure our students continue to grow and learn all summer long. Get ready. Summer 2026 is going to be a bright one, and we cannot wait to greet our students there. Next, we'll have our foundation grants. The Waco

030Education Foundation Surprise Patrol recently completed a whirlwind two-day tour that demonstrated the growing strength of our community's investment in education. Building on this momentum of previous years, this year's grant cycle surpassed last year's totals, reaching a new level of support for our classrooms. By the end of the funfilled two days, the foundation had visited 15 campuses, awarded 45 individual teacher grants for more than 70 applications, and distributed a total of $155,000 in direct funding. This noteworthy increase in year-over-year giving brings the total amount awarded by the foundation over the last 15 years to $2.6 million. That's something to celebrate. Anybody? These figures are a direct result of the dedicated work of the foundation's board and our community partners coordinator Stephanie Hines. More importantly, they represent a collective promise from the Waco community to our educators

031that if they have a vision for innovative learning experience, we will find a way to fund it. We are grateful for the continued partnership of organizations like yours that understand the value of investing directly in the hands of our teachers. Thank you all. And lastly, I want to talk about our teacher incentive aotment. Coming off a wonderful teacher appreciation week, I'm honored to share a more tangible way. We are recognizing the excellence in our classrooms through TIA, which is teacher incentive aotment. For the 2025 2026 school year, 90 educators earned new or higher designations, 47 for the first time, and 43 who pushed themselves to a higher level. Our human resource team celebrated these amazing achievements with surprise check presentations in classrooms across the district earlier this month. These 2025 2026 designations bring our district

032to a total of 337 TIA designated teachers, a number that has grown every single year for a total of $4.2 million in compensation to these high achieving teachers. Breaking these impressive numbers down, the average payout was about $16,000. The highest individual payout reached $30,552. Most notably, we now have three master level teachers achieving six figure salaries while staying in the classroom. In the last 5 years, 24 teachers have reached that prestigious master's level. This data pro proves that TIA is doing exactly what it was intended. It's rewarding our best and ensuring our most effective teachers stay right where they have the greatest impact with our students in the classroom. Congratulations to these incredible educators for continuing to set the standard of excellence here in Waco ISD. Thank you. >> We'll move on to item six,

033information items and reports. Trusty Bleto, do you have any questions? >> No, sir. >> Trusty Abnusi, do you have any questions? >> No, sir. Trusty Davis, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Trusty Patton, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Trusty Ela, do you have any questions? >> No. >> We'll now move on to item seven, the consent agenda. Mr. Bledo, is there anything you like pulled? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there anything you like pulled? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Davis, is there anything you like pulled? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there anything you like pulled? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Oo, is there anything you like pulled? >> No. >> At this time, I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Do I have a

034motion? >> I move. >> Thank you, Mr. Patton. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Bledo. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That passes. Thank you. We're moving on to item nine. Review and discuss and take appropriate action the on the contract for the virtual school presented by Dr. King Nose. Okay. Good evening, President Vidana, Dr. Spicer, members of the board of trustees. Um I think it was maybe the last board meeting uh that I was here to speak with you all um seek your approval on further exploration of the option a virtual school for Waco ISD through um any of the viable resources and we have uh found our resource that we want to propose with you all this evening and that is Texas Connections Academy.

035This allows for a continued evolution of Waco ISD's school of choice portfolio. Some of this might be a bit of a review, but just to catch everybody up, um I don't know that I mentioned the top piece here last time. Virtual learning has grown 1,200% in Texas over the last decade. And I think that this is a very important point to take note, especially when we look at some of the um expanded choices that are available to families in today's world. One of the things about virtual school is it meets the needs of a more diverse range of learners. One thing we learned when we went through COVID is that there are some students that really thrived through the online learning experience. In the 89th legislative session, Senate Bill 569 now allows expansion of school

036choice options, which helps us serve a greater population of students within our community. And while doing this, it can address multiple needs of our district. So, our top choice is, drum roll please, Pearson's Texas Connection Academy. And there are several reasons why. Number one, it is a turnkey option at no cost to our district. Um, that's really important when we think about how we are maximizing our resources in today's world. Um there is a projected 40 to 50,000 students across Texas who are now considering virtual options as we move towards next year and beyond. And Texas Connections Academy at HISD earned a B rating last year. So we know that they already have a viable curriculum that serves uh students in Texas. Well, this is a high agency pathway offered to students in our community.

037It provides personalized learning through live lessons. They also provide advising and counseling for students who enroll. There's 504 special education and elelll services as well as services for gifted and talented advanced coursework pathways as well as career and college readiness. They also offer options for things like virtual clubs and social activities to make sure that the students have an opportunity to connect with their peers um and build a network that way as well. Additionally, the Texas Connections Academy handles the day-to-day oversight of the organization. They provide highly qualified certified teachers. They provide technology for their enrolled students. So, that would not be anything we would be responsible for. And they provide a position to our district to handle the PES reporting and attendance reporting. So, I just wanted to review a little bit of what

038it is and what it's not because I want to make sure that we are clear on this. Um, what Texas Connections Academy offers is a turnkey program for Waco ISD. It is boundless. It provides another option for families to meet specific needs and it is asynchronous and flexible. What it is not, it is not an emergency Zoom where we pivoted like we did once before. This is definitely an evolved situation, an evolved process, and it is meant to be a permanency for students who choose to enroll in the program. It is not a DAE or an alternative school setting. It does not replace Monasuri and it is uh not separate from Waco ISD. They would be a part of our district. So when you think about the Waco ISD's personalized learning choices, we have several.

039If you look at the program types, and this is why I was talking about it being an expansion of our school choices. We offer traditional programs. We offer current specialized programs. We offer our PEC CTE pathways and we offer now if you all so choose to approve a Texas Connections Academy. And if you look at the locations, you see the curricular focus and the entry requirements. They are all different and unique. The benefits for Waco ISD, our intention is to launch a full-time virtual program starting in this fall of 2026. Students from across Texas are eligible to enroll in the program. This provides a unique opportunity for us as we choose to expand our enrollment. Waco ISD receives a sponsorship fee that's based on program revenue. And this directly the direct benefit from this partnership

040is it allows for enrollment growth while we are currently and showing a historical record recently of losing some of our enrollment. And it also allows for us to um to expand our accountability through the work that we have with um the partnership. So if you look at the terms that we would be engaging in with the partnership, the statement of agreement is talking about a 5-year partnership. In year one, we would have students in grades 3 through 10 enroll in full-time virtual learning. In year two, we would expand to add grades K through 2 and 11th. Our proposed Texas Connections Academy at Waco projected enrollment would be about 2,500 students. And I just think it's important to note that the virtual students cannot exceed 50% of the enrollment of our district. This proposal supports all

041four of our priorities in our 2030 strategic plan for Waco ISD. And my recommendation uh is that you as a board vote to approve the statement of agreement we have uh engaged in creating with Pearson's T Texas Connections Academy. >> Questions? Yes, sir. >> Two things. If we approve this, when will uh families be able to sign up? Um, well, I think once we have your approval, we go back into and and by the way, we do have representatives here, so thank you all for being here this evening. Um, but we would go back to the drawing board as far as talking about what that looks like. They handle a lot of the um, publicizing. We of course are going to work in partnership with them to have links accessible. Um, but I don't know

042that I have the exact answer for that until we are able to take the next steps once you approve. >> But it would be if we approve it will be for next year. >> Yes, absolutely. Second question, I see year two, we're going to add K2 through 11. Are we going to add 12 year three? >> That is the plan. >> Okay. It just wasn't listed. >> Sorry. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Question here. Sorry, Dr. King's. Um, >> yes, Dr. Abnusi. >> So, >> I mean, see, I lost the train. I don't know what I want to say now. No, just quickly the idea of uh I'm just I'm a math guy and I just when I look at numbers I just want to know what's uh there was

043a mention of no cost. >> How's that the no so what is there catch? I mean how do we let's say we get to I was writing some numbers down two 2500 is the limit >> how much of that uh uh uh will go as part of the allowment that we have for the students each student how much of it would go to the peers how much will go to the district do we kind of have a >> we have we would get 3% >> not to exceed $250,000 >> not to exceed 250 and then they will get 97% of the profit y >> operational costs schedule 10 of that the board packet. So that that is so so it's not going to cost us anything at that that level. >> No. No sir. >>

044Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you Dr. Kos. Do I have a motion? >> I'll move. >> Thank you, Mr. Bledo. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for the second. Uh Dr. Abnusi, is there any question discussion? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Bleto, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> Mr. Phipps, is there any discussion? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Phipps. >> Mr. Pat, Mr. Patton, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Alcho, is there any discussion? >> No. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Passes. Thank you. We'll move on to item 8 oath. Would Mr. PZ, Mr. Joe Cho, and Dr. Nuci join me down. Thanks for paying attention. All righty. As a notary public, I'm honored to administer the

045oath of office. Please raise your right hand. In the name and by the authority of the state of Texas, please repeat after me. I state your name. do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully execute the duties >> of the office of trustees >> of the Waco Independent School District of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this date. So help me God. Thank you very much and congratulations. Congratulations. Oh, no. We're moving on to item 10. Review, discuss, and take appropriate action on the bond funding strategic incentives presented by Mr. Jerry Allen. Good afternoon, President Badia, Dr. Spicer, members of the board. Um, I'm here tonight to um it's my really my pleasure to tell

046you how what we are planning to do with and hopefully that you will agree with this. Um, our strategic facility advance um enhancements for advancing our district priorities. Um, this is completely bonded. So, we're not talking about any other funds, just bond funds. And, uh, we talked about this a little bit in the April meeting. We took your comments and uh came back to the and now we're ready to present what we have for you. So, first project, athletics. Um our athletic facility modernization. We're looking at $6.23 million that we're requesting out of bond funds to um completely do the entire project. And this is an all-in uh not to exceed budget. And you can see that number at the top of the slide. Um, this would be for the university high school turf and

047track. And what we would be doing is adding field turf and renovating the track. And this would correct years of um inadequacies that that are with that field um either through the uh flood plane that we have or just damage that has been done over the years to that field. And you can see in the pictures on the side that we have there where a student is actually stepping inside of one of those cracks. And um that's that's pretty telling of of what they're having to play through. And we're calling these the coach's classroom because these are the coaches classrooms. When we're talking about this, they're they're they are um working every day to make sure our students succeed. And so, um we want to do the turf and track at University High School. We

048also want to take care of the tennis courts and renovate those. Um and then also add four more so that we can have intercolastic play at that location as well as uh our university our Waco high school location. So this will bring parody to the high schools that we have right now. So um and then Caesar Chavez Middle School, we want to replace the turf with uh natural grass, do all the irrigation that's inside of that and then also re um just redo the track around the outside of that. Now, we've we've spent a lot of money of safety grant money putting up new fencing around that track and now we want to give it something to protect. So, um our community uses that a lot. So, we want to make sure that we're giving

049them something that they can use according to how we are doing it. But we also want to make sure that we put the irrigation in there to make sure that we don't go back to the way we're doing it right now. Um, so again, this this provides value for parody, our student welfare, and then compliance with with UIL standards. We're looking at phase one starting in May and in June, coming back with competitive sealed bids, um, and then coming to back to you in August um, with some type of um, what we want to do and which construction vendor we're going to use at that point. And then we're looking at a facility launch in July of 27. So, that'll take us a while. We're hoping we can get it done quicker than that, but

050we want to give ourselves plenty of time to make sure we do it right. Um, the second project that we would like to do is dedicated weather resistant canopies at four of our locations, State, Lake Air, Monastery, Brook Avenue, Provident Heights, and Mountain View. Um, if you've ever stood out in front of a school at drop off and pickup time in your suit as an administrator while you're dropping off kids at 100 degree weather in in August and um or when it's pouring down rain, you know that it would it really does damper the entire day when you have to dry kids off and you're going to have teachers that are out there all the time. So, um, and getting just completely soaked. So what we want to do is provide these canopies to our

051teachers and our students so that our parents and we're not also not creating a backlog of um cars that that at the drop off time. So um this is a student welfare issue just site functionality and family safety. Mr. Patton, you look like you have a question. >> I thought we were adding Waco High School. >> That's coming next. Yes, sir. Okay. >> Yes, sir. that project will be uh we're going to design, survey, test if we need to. Um this is again this is steel pipe and and red steel that we're going to be adding to this and we're going to be matching some of the existing things. So it should not um be that long of a of a project, but and we're hoping to to complete those over the summer, but it

052may run us into just depends on the weather and it depends on on availability. So, with that, we're giving ourselves until March of 27 to get these done. So, um we just wanted to make sure that you guys understood that. And this is an all-in price as well at $500,000 for those four campuses. Okay. Um the next one is facility standards and security needs. So, we've got three new schools, Waco High School, Kendrick, and South Waco. Um with moving into a new house, you have some things that you find that you need to do, right? So, we we've seen now that through our plans, we what we thought covered all of our bases with cameras or card access. We now know that the natural flow of the building needs a card access at a different

053place or we need a camera at a different place or we've got new TEA standards that now require us to do certain things um on the lower course of the building. So, we will need to have some money to redo that. Also with HVAC and energy management, there are a couple of different um items at South Waco and Kendrick that will need to be brought up to our standard that were not our standard during the time of planning. So um also with that Mr. Patton is the canopies which we will wrap into the second project but for the scope of this it is an improvement to those three existing. So I wanted to list them on this slide versus the previous one. Will the canopies at at these schools be uh well specifically white hot

054will that also be completed this summer as anticipated for the four elementaryaries >> depending depending on the scope of work that we have that's a that's a little bit different because we do we we have a brand new school we want to make sure and there's nothing existing there that we can match but um we we can we can attempt to get it done this summer that's our that's our goal but again um We're going to try to get it done. We're giving ourselves until March to get all of them done, but we definitely want to make sure that we get them done. Good. >> Okay. Um at that at this point, this is just those three projects, but you can see this last project is $650,000 is what we're giving ourselves as an all-in

055budget. And so, um if you guys have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them. If you look at our strategic priorities for student, staff, community, and financial oper operational efficiencies, you can see that the athletic modernization meets all of the standards. So does the elementary canopies and so does our facility standards. So um every dollar that we have in these remaining bond funds. By the way, I want to I want to just give a shout out to our award-winning finance team, Sher Smith, um our CFO and our construction team, Kevin. Is he's here? Kevin over here for for what they did during the bond project to allow us to get to this point where we had remaining funds that we could use on these projects. Um we anticipate that this is going

056to be a really good good thing for our kids and it's something that not a lot of people not a lot of districts are able to do. Um but these guys did amazing work with investments and amazing job with uh managing the budgets. Um also with the athletic facilities just a side note at this point if you guys approve this we will have touched every single secondary campus with that bond fund. So at that point, every single secondary campus has gotten a piece of that bond fund. So we want to make sure you guys understood that. Yes, sir. Any questions? Okay. I have a comment. Um so um again, I just want to reiterate what you said, thanking everyone who was uh costconscious enough to to actually have these funds left over to do these

057projects that we need. Uh, Coach Williams and I had had some discussions and I hadn't been over to the Waco High practice field in several years and didn't realize how bad it was. Um, and then it's as bad as it looks. And I'm glad you put those pictures in there to show >> Yes, sir. >> what our kids are practicing on. Um, >> University Yeah, you said Waco, but you meant university. I knew what I knew what you meant. >> Yeah. Uh, side in an interesting note, I did get a call today from the head of the Waco Tennis Association who happens to be a former student and her main concern was what are we going to do with University High School's tennis courts. So, I was very proud to tell her that she could

058go back and take credit saying that she strongarmed the board, but I'm glad we have the opportunity to get all these done. All right. All right. At this moment, I'll entertain. Oh, thank you, Mr. Allen. Do I have a motion? >> Thank you, Mr. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Patton. Dr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Bledo, is there any discussion? >> Mr. President, I need to abstain from the vote. >> Thank you. Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Fibs, is there any discussion? Mr. Pat, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Oo, is there any discussion? >> No. >> All in favor? >> I >> passes with Mr. Bletzel abstaining. >> We all said I. By the way, I don't know if you

059heard us all said I. Yeah. >> Thank you, Jerry. >> We'll move on to item 11. Review and discuss priority one-2. create and s sustain safe and supportive learning environments presented by Dr. Suzanne Hamilton. >> Thank you, board president, Dr. Spicer, and the board. Welcome, Mr. Fipps, to your first official fun of sitting back and listening to us all night. Um, I'm here to talk about um our district priority for 1.3, which is to create and sustain a safe and supportive learning environment. For the first one we have it is the implementation of our tiered multi-tered systems of support with fidelity and consistency across the district. Um our baseline for the tier one and tier 2 and tier three are up there. Last year we used tier three only in our special ed um with

060our special ed students at tier three. This year we used it districtwide. So we're looking at our outcomes going on. We have made strides in reaching those goals in all three of our tiers. Again, this year was the first time we did tier three across the entire district for our tier one. Again, it is a um phases of implementation. We are in year three. We should be reaching sustainability. That is if everything stays and remains constant. We know in education that is not true. We have teacher turnover, student um students switch around and we have leadership turnover at campuses. But we are consistently building our systems. I said this earlier. My husband's watching hopefully is. If you are a Spurs fan and you know coach po Oh my goodness. Coach Papovich, he says it's a

061system. You build the system and no matter who's in the playing field knows how to play it. So we are building a system in Waco ISD for our interventions. So no matter who comes into the school, they're able to follow that system. So, our tier one district averages right here on the your left are what we consider tier one interventions. Those are our connections, our skill building, acknowledgement. The graph on the right shows you where we are. The green is where we have really high scores and the oranges red is where we are um still working on things. An acknowledgement feedback is where you are giving acknowledgement to those students when they are doing the things that they should be doing. Our corrective feedback is usually what our brains are wired to do because that's

062when someone does something wrong, we're quick to tell them, hey, that's not the way to do that. We need to do something else. We're working really hard at tier one to recognize those students who are following the directions that are doing the things they are supposed to. We can equate this to the AB honor role when people get recognized or perfect attendance. So, we're trying to increase that dayto-day encouragement of our students when they're coming to school doing the things we expect them to do. This is our um breakdown of how our campuses are doing. The um dotted black line is sustainability and the red line, the dotted red line is our district average. I want to draw your attention to the bottom at the green square. That is all of our secondary campuses. Our

063secondary campuses has made the most growth in tier one than they have had since we've started this. This is our third year. So, I really want to give a shout out to our secondary campuses. We have seven campuses. Oh, thank you. We have seven campuses that are at 70% and two are at 80% fidelity. And this does include um WY. We do have those services that we expect when the students are at our DAP. This is our year-to-year comparison. When we are looking at the fidelity of our program, I want to make sure that you understand this is not discipline data. This is not the amount of incident referrals or something like that at a campus. This is the amount of times that when whether it's Miss Freeman and her team are going out and

064looking for stuff, they look weekly looking to see are we seeing all these um these programs in place, these systems in place. Mr. Abnusi, I know you're out there a lot. You run into them quite often. We have um the system that we use. They come in once a year sort of like snapshot and they go out and they independently go visit all of our campuses. They go look for tier one, tier two, and tier three interventions. They talk to teachers. They talk to students and this is their fidelity check. So, think of it. It's the same way as we do snapshot for accountability. This is a snapshot of one time that they're out looking at our systems. This is our tier 2 systems overall. This is the um targeted instruction for that tier 2

065student. That is a smaller group than our tier one. Again, we're looking at check-in, checkout, our skill instruction, and our feedback. This is our campus indicators by that. And again, you can still see the dotted red line and sustainability. Again, secondary school is rocking it. I'm not saying it elementary is not for any my elementary principles in here. I see you call your I'm just saying >> you're rocking it at Parkdale. But secondary campuses are making huge strides. Neither Wake Ohio or Carver are here, but if you have not been there to see some of their systems in place, I encourage you to go out and see that. They are also making great strides for them. Again, yeartoyear. This is also a much smaller group of students that you're looking at when you're looking at

066those interventions because again, tier one's everyone. Tier two is um a smaller group. Tier three, this is for your top three to 5% that need the highest needs for these students. Again, check in and check out and skills instruction. We are making good strides in this too if you by looking at the percentages there. Again, the green box shows growth in all areas because as a district, we grew exponentially in tier three resources and instruction that we are doing with our students. Now to switch to the discipline side, um the discipline data validation manual comes out each year. They give us indicators that we are we use our discipline data to make sure that we do not reach a certain threshold in that area. When we really when I originally came to you with our

067strategic plan for our for our part of our department, we based it on the disproportionality rate of African-American and Hispanic students in discretionary DAP placements. That indicator was taken away in December this year by TEA. So, we can no longer use that as a marker. But we still have the discretionary DAP in general. It does not break it down by ethnicity and gender. However, we still track that in our department to make sure that we are keeping on top of that and we do not want those numbers to go up. What was replaced was indicator number two and indicator number three, the unauthorized out of school suspension for students that are coded homeless and the unauthorized out of school suspension for students that are under grade three. This 89th legislative year also gave us new

068codes and extended our ISS length. And so we have a little bit of play when we do have um students that ex um exhibit those behaviors that need to have that kind of consequence. Um so what we're going to do the next okay the next slide. So what we're going to do is we're going to move that rate. I did want to point out that the standard rate for disproportionality under the indicator 7 is 3.5 and we are at point we were at 61% last year. This year we are at 42%. So again we are watching any discretionary placement that comes through student management which is under our umbrella to ensure that those placements we have done all of our MTSS if they are special education special education is involved. We're making sure that all

069of those things are done before we are placing them at DAP. Indicator 2 is the one for students who are coded as homeless. In 2025 we had 163 students that were suspended. This year we only have had 19 so far. Again, we do periodic checks every three weeks on discipline data and we meet with the office of school leadership and the executive directors with those principles to make sure they're looking at their data and we're not um these numbers continue to go down. The same with students that are under grade three. Last year we had seven and this year we had zero. This is just a chart showing how it's um the disproportionality rate has changed throughout the years from 2023 on. The same with our numbers for suspensions and um yeah suspensions. The safety

070part of what we need to do as part of implementing and maintaining our yearly support and training with updated legislation, district policies, procedures, and best practices for behavior, discipline, and safety. Do we have like fans? Everybody, I'm feel bad for y'all. Oh, this needs to be updated. Actually, our intruder audits are now 100% complete. We have had no findings this um this semester. Our district uh vulnerability audit that Mr. Jerry was actually talking about about the 3M film, that's the only thing we have left in this year's 4-year audit to get that done with TEA. Our DAR tool is our three-year internal audit that we do. It has been completed. I will we will have our safety and security committee on June 11th as required to report to them and then I will bring it

071back to y'all in the June board meeting to have you look over at President Vana and Dr. Spicer will have to sign that and then I submit it to TEA. All of our safety drills are complete for the year. Our EOP and our annex were submitted and accepted by TEA um by Texas School Safety Center. Next year the annex they do an annex every year. It will be for reunification. We've already started that process. Um we have two currentus. One tonight you approved. Last month you did the other one for Rapaort and Vanguard. So that way we have reciprocal umus with them now. So that way they're Raport's three um campuses and Vanguard if we need to use them. We are we have that along with what we already have with the city. Um for

072our department, our focus will be differentiated coaching. We're looking at that administrator training based on those fidelity scores from those um campuses. Again, if we have turnover, if we have um changes, we're able to go with them, show them how they've done before, fit them into that system, and then train them up on how to keep that going. Our MTSD is strengthening. We have partnered with region 12 for our res restorative practices on a few um campuses this year. We've worked with them on other things, but starting next year, we are going to have uh restorative practices that are coming in with region 12 through a grant that Mrs. Freeman wrote and received word that she received it today to where we are going to start um doing that on our campuses and training our

073pair of professionals on how to do that. We currently already go on walks with our instructional partners where we're looking for the fidelity of our behavior um our behavior modif um our behavior in the classroom along with the instructional stuff that they're doing and then policy compliance um has now come under our umbrella as well. And so being able to look at those reports, train administrators on how to read them, and making sure that they understand the importance of accurate coding for attendance, discipline, and behavior. I mean, attendance and behavior. Thank you. It's been a long night and my mouth is dry. >> Question. Yes. >> Just a quick one. You mentioned that you do uh discipline checks every three weeks. Um, just out of curiosity, like year-over-year, do you find that there's more discipline

074issues during a certain time of the year or >> Well, yes. Yes and no. I think it really does depend. Sometimes it is right before testing just because I think people are so stuck. They're where they're they're in their room and they're doing stuff and they're they're so focused on that sometimes not taking that or the frustration of having to take a test or right before breaks right before Christmas, right before Thanksgiving, right before spring break. Into school. Yes. >> Yes. Everyone is um into school ends up being a little bit more lax everywhere. Everyone's like, "If we could just get to the end, we're all in this together." So, >> I was just curious to see if there was any way we could sort of get ahead of that, but it seems like an

075impossible. Yes, we can always do that. You've been a teacher. I've been a teacher. Sometimes it's also it's not just the students, it's the adults, too. It's like everyone's ready to let's just get to the finish line. So, it's all the way around. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Hamilton. >> Next, we're moving on to item 12. Review and discuss key special education findings from the Texas Academic Performance Report presented by Miss Washington. Sorry, Dr. Hamilton went before me. She's a little taller. So, >> okay, perfect. Well, good evening Dr. Spicer, President Vana, and board. I'm in Ketchy, Washington. I'm the executive director for special education. So today I'm going to come and provide an update on special education as well as cast our vision and tell you a little bit about

076our progress. As you know the work that we do is truly and firmly steeped in our mission and our vision of the district. Okay. So before I can tell you about where we are, I'd like to provide you with a picture of where we've been. So in the fall of 2024 when Dr. Spicer came on board. She um engaged in learning walks that took place across the district and the city. She um met with students and teachers, parents, community members, district leaders, both internal and external. Um on those learning walks, she learned a few things. So, I'm going to talk about those. Some of the glows was there was clear evidence that our our folks have a heart for students. They're deep rooted traditions as well as dedicated staff. Some of the growth areas was

077the department. And so let me go back and even say specifically about the special education department. Okay. So um for the department and the campus some of our processes and procedures needed to have uh some detailed intervention or support. So she commissioned Stson and Associates in the spring of 2025 to come in and perform an audit that would be districtwide. Right? So here are some of the findings from that audit. From that audit, we established what we like to call the north star for our developmental reorganization based on five quality standards for service. leadership, instruction, staffing, capacity building, and family engagement. Um, so I'd like to sell uh um share a little celebration that recently um we have engaged in a folder audit. Um and so the findings of the foder audit have revealed we

078have made substantial district-wide improvement um compared to our audit in June of 2025. um particularly in the areas of a present levels of academic achievement and functional performance statements a PLA so that is just special education speak the PLA um achievement rose from 84% to 100%. And also in our PLAs um evidence of data based evidence that was also um sourced or that's a part of the PLA to strengthen it rose from 8% to 100%. So that is an achievement for our team. Before I can go any further, I don't do this work by myself. So I would like to introduce the team. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Um I truly have enjoyed working alongside them and the work that we've engaged in. So part of that sets an audit um some of

079the work that came out of that was we engaged in a team retreat to make sure that we could um all come together plan strategically about what we need to do moving ahead. Okay. We've also engaged in ongoing professional development as a team as well as we shifted our our model our campus support model. Now, we as a team don't do all of this work by ourselves. We are supported by 22 diagnosticians, 22 speech and language pathologists and their assistants, five school psychologists, four board certified behavior analyst, two registered behavior technicians, 11 AR or um admission review dismissal facilitators and nearly 300 teachers and pair professionals. So, we are grateful. Thank you. Okay. Because I'm not advancing at all. I appreciate you. Okay. Thank you. So, just to kind of give you a picture of

080special education in the district. Um, so you can see these numbers now are taken from snapshot. So, they have ebed and flowed since to date, but I wanted to make sure I could provide a solid picture of what the state has as well. So our district total at snapshot was 12,958. Of that 2740 were students that receiving special education services and that's roughly about 21%. Okay. And so this is how our population is also divided out across our elementary campuses and our secondary campuses. Okay. Now instruction that's one of our strong tenants. So as you know that um what happens in a classroom is considered tier one instruction. So the district has done a wonderful job of enhancing and supporting tier one instruction. But what happens if our students need a little bit more? They

081then move into multi-ter systems of support or MTSS. That can happen either in academic side or on the behavioral side. When students don't make sustainable growth or it's spotty growth sometimes then it triggers um for a parent or a teacher to say we might need to we suspect that it might be something more that then triggers an evaluation. So that's where we come in. If the if the students qualify then they receive SDI or um specially designed instruction. Okay. Evaluations. In 20 in 2024 25 school year the district completed nearly 800 evaluations. 632 of the students qualified. 166 of the students did not qualify. Um to date for 2020 for 2526 school year we have done 512 evaluations. 403 have qualified and 109 have not qualified. Okay. And this is just another breakdown of those

082same evaluation numbers across our um school levels, private schools. >> Can I ask one quick question? Yes. >> What would be the >> That's a pretty u pretty significant drop in the number of of students. What would be the reason? Do do we have a reason for that? >> For the evaluations. >> Yeah. The number of evaluations, >> right, >> year over year? Yes sir. So last year 2425 was the last year that students that may have been receiving 504 services for dyslexia could be evaluated and then added to the special education um side of things. So side of the house. So that may be some of the reasons why our numbers were a little bit higher because of that. Right. Now, private school evaluations. In 2425, um we performed a total of 30 evaluations.

08314 students qualified, 16 did not qualify. In 2526, to date, we have done 21 evaluations. 18 have qualified and three have not qualified. Sorry. So now we're going to pivot and we'll talk about the taper and um and the report that was made in in January at the January board meeting. So at the January board meeting, it was reported um about the the accountability level of this of the district. Specifically, the special education part department has met with a need substantial intervention. Now, I would like to preface this by saying that this data has a two-year lag. All right. But what does need substantial intervention mean? What does it look what does it um um what is it determined by? Special education, we get a special report that's that's outside of the taper called U

084resultsdriven accountability or RDA. The RDA is comprised of several different components. So there are some indicators of course star scores for our students, graduation rates, dropout um and dropout rates for our for students with special education um compliance with federal laws such as timeliness of evaluations and transition services as well as significant disproportionality in any particular area as well as just data integrity. Okay. Now RDA is broken down for the special education department is broken down to um three domains. We have domain one academic achievement, domain two post postsecary readiness and domain three disproportionality. Okay, in those areas you can see our rates. We were able to choose what areas do we want to make sure we pay special attention to and target because the district was also targeting reading and math by adopting a

085new math curriculum as well as new reading not a new reading but enhancing our reading curriculum. It was in line for us to chart that course and to follow suit. So we have targeted star of reading as well as our math scores. Okay. Then you can also see our total for disproportionality. So what are we doing to support or to um to help correct our pathway forward? Some things we've done and I've talked about that is again the new curriculum and the instructional practices that are already happening within the district as well as engaging in monthly professional development coaching sessions and handinhand behavioral coaching and supports for our campuses for staffing and capacity building. One thing is really important is for for us to shift from a silo to a unified system. So we're shifting

086away from those are your kids, right? Or separate environments to these are all of our kids and what can we all do to better support all of our students, right? This helps and this is this is helped through um interdep departmental collaboration as well as um strategic support from TEA in our capacity building because again we want to reduce the amount of turnover that we have within with our teachers. Um, we're also targeting having just in time coaching where we're right in the classroom coaching when the situation is happening as well as we're getting targeted support from the region center region. Now for the fun part. So we're also want to make sure that we are reaching out to our families and our community. So some of the things that we have done are listed

087here. We've engaged in we've hosted a special education night, two of them. We also hosted dyslexia night and this year for the first time we hosted a speech night which was very well attended. Um we've also increased our parent communication through multiple modalities and for the 2627 school year we're going to launch a special education parent advisory committee. The parent advisory committee is a volunteer-run organ partnership with the school district just to help improve the educational experiences, some of our programs, and even may help drive some of the policies. So, we're looking forward to launching that. looking ahead in some of our strategic goals. Goal one, continue that unified instructional ownership from again from shifting from siloed programs or special education programs to unified system. Goal two is behavioral integrity and support to reduce disciplinary

088removal rates and maximize instructional time. Goal three is timely and substantive evaluations. Again, we want to ensure 100% compliance with federal guidelines. and go for family and community partnership. We want to move from just communicating to having authentic partnerships with our families. >> Are there any questions? >> Yes, ma'am. Um looking at the uh needs substantial intervention. >> Yes, sir. >> As you said, Miss Washington, it runs two years behind. >> That's correct. Um, I know that we we put money forward for an audit and what that was in 2025, fall of 25. >> The audit started in >> personal audit, the internal spring. >> Yes. >> Um, I think it would be beneficial for the board to see results of that audit. We have yet to see that. >> Absolutely. And I would I

089would like to see that and um just to know what our audit showed, our strengths and our weaknesses. >> Absolutely. >> And I think that will be a very strategic >> Yes. >> move forward. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. Just a quick question. Um the well attended and I love that community partnership by the way. Thanks for doing that. That's fantastic. Every time I hear parents being involved in their uh children's lives, that makes me super happy. Do well attended. Would we say is there a number of like a percentage- wise the ones that you invited? Do you know approximately how many attended the I mean it was an invitation I'm assuming was sent to them or >> Yeah. So it's an open invitation. So how we um we use the

090parent square to of course support all of our to send it out to all of our parents. Um, also our speech therapists are very well connected with their families and so they some of them made personal phone calls to call families and have them come out. So I believe that we had roughly about >> I mean not not I don't I don't want an exact number. >> If if you're happy with the percentage again I feel like this math sometimes kicks in. You always want numbers but >> Yes. Yes. But one thing that we want to do, of course, moving forward is um to make sure that our parents know that these opportunities are here. Our speech night was to showcase but also help our parents be able to understand how they can do these

091very same activities at home with their family. >> Fantastic. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> I just wanted to encourage you guys. I've got a um a special special education son who's uh finishing up third grade going into fourth grade and um just want to encourage you guys that like what you do really does matter as a parent. Um, and just thank you for the dignity um, that you show him. And he came into kindergarten non-verbal um, and now he chats a mile a minute. And so just thank you guys so much. Um, and also that is what makes public education so special. Um, because he would not be accepted at many at many private schools in Waco and and we take all of these kids and so thank you guys for all

092that you do. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Miss Washington. Next, we're moving on to item 13, review and discuss facility renaming presented by Elizabeth Cox. >> Thank you, President Vidana. Dr. Spicer, trustees, EC will work. Okay. Um I'm before you tonight at the um request of another trustee to help facilitate a review and discuss of a facility renaming. The purpose of um my standing before you tonight, we will review policy CW local, which is our board policy for naming facilities um and also help facilitate you all having a discussion of a potent of a potential process for renaming Caesar Chavez Middle School. Our guiding policy CW local again is about naming facilities, not renaming specifically, but it is our um policy that we follow when we are naming a facility.

093names should reflect, according to the policy, a residential community served, the local geographic area or feature, a person deceased for at least 10 years. We believe that following this policy supports consistency, transparency, and fairness, and sticking with those um three itemized um ways in which we develop a name um helps do that. CW Local also has other provisions that may not necessarily apply here um that I didn't want to not mention. It has a donor exception. The dedication plaques we've gotten to celebrate at um the 2021 bond program projects are also laid out in the policy. And there's also information about partial facility renaming or naming, excuse me. Um there are process requirements listed in CW local. Um it states that we should open um this up to any district resident to suggest a name.

094um we must list it on two consecutive board meeting agendas and the board may vote at that second meeting. Um partial naming which wouldn't be what we would be considering here requires something called the campus decision-making council's recommendation. We did this when we um recently named the wait room at Waco High School for Andrew. Now to some key considerations for renaming specifically CCMS. Um we do suggest that we um align with our CW local policy. Um, we also suggest that we take in community input and set sentiment. Um, ultimately we really want to um direct you to the awareness of our state level expectations and TEA guidance on instruction. Pretty quickly after um the news story that prompted this discussion um came out, tea issued guidance of how we were not to discuss um the

095individual um or anything related to it, not to follow the TEICSS, not to have any sort of celebration and to just kind of pass it over. Um at that same time though, TEA has not required us to address facility names. Um so when we take into consideration um what is in a name or what might go on with a brand we also really want you to think about the impact on the campus identity and continuity and then unfortunately the thing we always end up at costs um when trying to look at what um sort of costs might we incur should we rename the facility um some of the obvious things are the campus campus signage exterior interior you know the the um signs that you the outside on the building. And then what I have

096featured up here is a photo when you're walking into the facility, some of the window decals. Window decals, fairly minimal expense. Um signage outside a building, a little bit more intensive. Um logo and branding, depending on how you proceed with the naming. Um if we are changing the colors, the mascot, or anything else related to the acronym, middle schools often use their acronym, right? CCMS, um, CMS, anything like that. Um, they often use and that's what you'll see on some of their materials. Athletic uniforms. Um, we recently outfitted two middle schools as a part of the 2021 bond program um with new athletic uniforms. So, uh, Miss Smith pulled the costs for me and it was more than $80,000 per campus for those athletic uniforms. And I think that is just something to consider um

097because that doesn't then take into account like all the t-shirts and every all the other collateral that others have had that was just for a uniforms package. Um the next two items that I have up there are not necessarily financially intensive, but those are the things that we start thinking about as the team in this room and elsewhere in this building when we um have to make a name change. Um and they're very time inensive. So treasure intensive are the first three, you know, are costs. time intensive are kind of the other two of trying to think through all the different ways and places and things that we'll have to be manually changing. Um, if you make a name change, um, I was asked by another board member what we mean by operational materials. We

098do expect that if we were to change the name um we will have to go before TEA and and submit some official documentation and go through a process um like that to then be able to change over all the ways that yes they look at us by a campus number but there's also other systems and ways that like if you think about Sentinel or other things that they recognize a campus name through. So ultimately costs will vary based on scope, timing, and how we phase any implementation option and if we do proceed with a renaming. Um I had a little bit of fun trying to think through all those considerations I just listed. And if you were to choose to um prioritize us going through a renaming process, let's consider some geographical connections that would

099still fit within the uh Eagle, the Purple Eagle CCMS brand. Cameron Creek Middle School, Cedar Creek Middle School, Cotton Creek Middle School. There are lots of great connections. Um Cameron Creek, obviously Cameron Park is not too terribly far from the campus. It is a name that we are associated with at um in Waco. >> Dr. Spicer runs that lap every day. >> She does. She's she's going to be swimming in it not too long. >> Like I don't know why. >> That iron woman up there is about to swim. Um I'm gonna have you out there. >> I I won't go too much further down that road, but yes, there's you see there's options clearly. Um I I think that we would to follow CW local, we would engage the community through a virtual survey

100and then we would suggest that we review you all review those results as a board and take action at a board meeting. Um so those are considerations we have for you, but ultimately this is a discussion for you all to let us know how you'd like to proceed and how you'd like to prioritize this. >> Thank you, Chief Cox. A couple of questions. Well, one question. One. Yeah. Um, we are not required by TEA at this time to consider a name change. >> Correct. We were just required to throw out all the TES to make sure we did not host any. >> So, we didn't mention that person. Mhm. >> If it's not in violation of TEA, I think we have so many more important things going on right now. And also in light of

101the potential costs, if we're going to if my colleagues here want to do this, my suggestion would be we look at this in October and November when our typical uh packets are less full. We're we're bumping up at the end of the year. August will be budget. uh if this is not a pressing issue through our state government realizing the cost that would be and the time that it would take for technology and maps and whatnot, I would prefer that we postpone this to another time. >> Sorry. And thank you. And have you heard anything about the community that involves this? Are they really concerned about this issue? Have we heard anything from them? >> The one individual who has asked me about this and brought it up to me um is not here tonight.

102It's Mr. Hoover. He's at Willie Nelson. So, he's literally the only person. >> He's literally the only person that's brought it up to me directly before we added this agenda item. But as far as a community that kind of not not many of them and we we sent sent talking points to the campus encouraging people to submit comments to us and we've received >> That's fair enough. Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> I just have a comment. So I'm the one who brought it up. Um and the reason was because when these accusations came out my my original ask was can we just at least take the name down? I was not aware of everything involved um especially the significant costs involved in renaming the school all the way down to like you said the

103cheerleading uniforms that would have to be changed. Um I am glad we're having this this discussion though and I guess I guess really want to make it clear that we do not condone any of the actions um or accusations uh that were made against Mr. Chavez and if we could change the name. We would probably at at very significant or small uh very little cost, very little time. Um I'm sure we would make that decision as quickly as we possibly could, but I do want to thank you for for putting this out there and I'm glad that we're having discussion. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you. Now, item item 14, announcements presented by Elizabeth Cox. back. Um, first and foremost, uh, I want to say, um, again, good evening to Dr. Spicer, trustees, and

104referee Vana. I have a special request, um, from Rian and Settles and all of the amazing team with uh, our special education department that helped plan last night's most amazing night of the year in Waco ISD. Um, Mr. Mr. Vana was not alone in signing up to ref our um unified basketball game. Mr. Davis, we know you were unable to be with us. We appreciate you Yeah. considering it. So, who stepped in? None other than Chief Goodman. So, thank you very much and thank you to our special education department and Rian and Settles and um I think all of our student services team. I think it's a it's a true collective that make that um really amazing night in Waco ISD possible. Thank you. Um as Dr. Spicer shared in her superintendent report, we are

105just one week from graduation ceremonies and the excitement of the countdown to end a successful school year is in full effect. I think almost every elementary campus it feels like is field day tomorrow. So if you need to come out and run with some kids and students, >> yeah, show up for field day. We were at Provident Heights um today and they specifically said inflatables. That's not I don't know if that's you, but that's not me, but I mean, go out to Provident Heights. Um, this Friday night, we will be celebrating all of our campus teachers of the year and naming our district elementary and secondary teachers of the year at a special event planned by HR at Waco High School at 5:30 p.m. Graduation rehearsals are taking place next um the first part of

106next week. And if you are a part of any of the special scholarship awardings that we do through the education foundation, the Waco High PTSA, all sorts of other groups, um just keep track of those times for graduation rehearsals. Setup starts for that tomorrow as well. Um Tuesday, May 19th, we will host a um reception honoring our 2025 2026 retirees at the Cambria Hotel. And Friday, May 22nd is just around the corner is our final day of school for the 2025 2026 school year. and it is an early release day for all you parents out there. Um, I am so grateful for the chance to serve again and end another school year here in Waco ISD. I look forward to seeing you all at these end of year celebrations. >> Thank you. Um, the White

107House DA Board of Trees will now go into close session at 7:40 this time to pursue the to the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551, sections 071 and 074. We anticipate taking action. No action. No action when we return. At 8 at 8 o'clock, the board will reconvene in open session. Next, we're moving on to item 17. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the reorganization of the board of trustees. >> I make a motion that uh to nominate Jose Vida as president of the board. Make a motion we nominate uh Angelo AOA for president. >> Second. I want >> Sorry. Second Jose Vida. ask for we'll take a vote now. Mr. Arash, >> you want the name, sir? >> President Jose Vidia, the current president, >> Mr. Bto. No, >> Mr.

108Davis. >> Yes, >> Mr. Fibs. >> No, >> Mr. Patton. >> No, >> Mr. Let's Mr. Ooa. >> Now we need a second. >> I'll second. >> Right. Um, voting for Mr. Ooa as president. >> No. >> Mr. Bledo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Davis, >> no. >> Mr. Phips, >> yes. >> Mr. Patton, >> yes. >> Mr. Ooa, >> yes. >> So, Mr. Ela is president of four three. >> Uh, open for vice president. I'll nominate Mr. Davis. There a second. A second. >> We call for the vote. Mr. Well, there's no Mr. >> Yes. I mean, uh, Mr. Mr. Davis. Yes. >> Mr. Bledo. >> No. >> Mr. Mr. Davis. >> Yes. Mr. Fibs. >> No. >> Mr. Bton. >> No. Mr. Eloa. >> No. >> Is there another nomine? >> I'll nominate

109Jose Padan as a vice president. >> I'm declining that one. Is there another nomination? >> I'll nominate Jim Patton. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Mr. uh Abnusi. >> No. >> Mr. Bleto. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis? >> No. >> Mr. Phipps? Yes, >> Mr. Patton. >> Yes, >> Mr. Ooa. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Patton, just your new vice president. And now open up for secretary. >> Is it any nomination for secretary? >> I'll nominate Jose Vana. >> I'll decline on that one. Is there another nomination? >> I nominate uh Taylor Bledo. >> Is there a second? >> Yes. Second. >> Okay. Mr. Abnusi. Yes, >> Mr. Leto. >> Yes, >> Mr. Davis. >> No, >> Mr. Fibs. >> Yes, >> Mr. Patton. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Ela? >> Yes.

110>> All right. Good evening, Secretary. Mr. Buto, >> we'll call the meeting at 8:04. Take a break.