001Meeting 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 and approve budgets, 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 if you have not already done so. We appreciate the time you have taken to join us and for your interest in the Waco Independent School District. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment? >>
002Okay. Thank you. We're moving on to item three. to review, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the resolution of wage payments due to severe winter weather presented by Dr. Spicer. >> Thank you, Mr. President. At this time, I'm going to ask uh Miss Sherry Smith to come forward and lead us in this discussion. >> Good evening, President Vana, Dr. Spicer, members of the board. The administration has come to you today to ask that you approve a resolution for wage payments due to the severe winter weather that we just recently had. Um this would consist of two separate uh pieces. Um we would like to continue wage payments to all regular employees, contractual and non-contractual, salaried and non-saried, including long-term subs who were instructed not to report to work during those three days. And also institute
003premium pay for those uh employees who came to work to make sure that the buildings were safe and that our our parking lots were in good shape. And so we ask that they can be paid at time and a half during the time that they came in during those three days. Do you have any questions? >> Just for my education, like how does how does that work? So like a teacher, if we tell a teacher, don't come to school on Monday because of snow. Um I'm assuming they they fall under regular employees. Like they're just technically would not be paid for that day without us approving this. >> We're made it up at the end of the year. >> Got it. Okay. And then just out of curiosity, do we have a is there a
004dollar amount for the time and a half stuff for >> Okay. But we don't have like that number today. >> No. >> Okay. That's okay. >> Yeah. But the payroll hasn't run yet for for that time period yet. >> M. Smith, that will uh this resolution will include Paris, cafeteria, everyone hourly, >> all district employees. >> Thank you. >> Including long-term subs who aren't technically district employees. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. SW. Is there a motion? >> Move. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Patton, second by Mr. Davis. Mr. Bledo, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there any discussion? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Elro, is there any discussion? >> No.
005>> All in favor say I. >> It passes. Uh we're moving on to item four, approve resignation of Trustee Gillery. >> So moved. >> A motion by Mr. Davis. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Patton. Um Mr. Bleto, is there any discussion? >> Can I just say thank you to Mr. Gillery even though he's not here? Um, as someone who's been crazy enough to wade into politics and typ uh schoolboard politics, I will say um it is not for the faint of heart. And so uh I want to thank Keith and and Tracy and his family uh for being willing to give so much time uh really in a tumultuous time in public education uh leadership through the bond package. Uh, and so I know he's not here. Um, but
006I'm thankful for his friendship and his leadership on behalf of the district over the last five years. >> Mr. Ab, is there any discussion? >> I do actually. I wrote a note. You know, it's like feels like an Oscar night, but I'm I'm I'm not a good I like to improvise, but I thought this night is a special one for me to write my my thoughts down on a piece of paper. I want to say before we accept this resignation, I want to say thank you to Trustee Keith Gillary. Keith, you have served, if you're hearing me right now, one day you will hear maybe in an hour, I hope. You have served this district with heart. You did not just show up for meetings. You showed up for people. You stayed present. You worked
007hard. You brought real care into this role. And it makes sense because after all, you're a firefighter. service is not just your just what you do. It's who you are. You brought that same steady commitment and the same heart of uh for community to this port. Thank you for your time, your effort and the love you have for this district and this town. I wish wish you a very very very best of luck. Very I mean best of luck, not very best of luck. And we miss you. Thank you for everything, >> Mr. Davis. >> Uh yes. Uh, I won't give a long speech. I've already talked to Mr. Gillery. He knows how I feel. I'll just say, uh, publicly, thank you for your service uh, and being someone the community can count on. And
008I just, uh, we we'll continue that work. We appreciate your time here with us. >> Mr. Cotton. >> Yes. I want to say thanks to Keith and to his wife Tracy and their family for sacrificing their time for this district. And um Keith is an outstanding community volunteer and um his passion and his focus has been greatly appreciated and we will miss you Keith. >> Mr. Oola. >> Yeah, like Mr. Amnusi, I wanted to say a few things. I really wish Keith were here. Uh I was looking back through some notes and I um Keith and I first met in March of 2022. I called him up so we could get some coffee. I wanted to know what I was getting involved in by running for the school board. And when I left that conversation,
009he shook my hand and said, "Good luck and and get ready to get to work." Um, and he was right about that because it's it's a lot of work. Um, Keith and I always haven't seen eye to eye on issues, but um I' I've learned a lot from him on my time on the board. um specifically that um some of you have heard me say this publicly uh the best decisions especially the most difficult ones are are made by the most diverse groups. Um also, um you know, I just I piggybacking on what uh um Taylor said, you can look at the state of education right now, public education, and see those challenges is just insurmountable. Um and the work that that's needed to to fix it impossible. And then there's people like Heath and
010the rest of you volunteers on the board who still do the work anyway. Um, and I I really admire that. Um, so yeah, again, I want to say thank you to Keith and to Tracy because it is a family that gets involved when someone's on the school board. And wish him the best of luck and uh all the success in the world in his new position. And just to give you a little bit of insight into how weird my brain works sometimes, um when we go to these schoolboard conferences that we have to go to every summer, uh it's really kind of an amazing experience because you've got 1,200 school districts or something like that across the state of Texas and half of them are all in a room together. And sometimes I look around
011and think, you know, this is just a really amazing experience. But if for some weird reason a brawl broke out, um there was no doubt in my mind that that Waco SD would come out on top. >> We were all going to run behind Keith. >> But but I have to say without Keith on the board, I'll give us 5050 now. So yeah, we're going to miss Keith. We're >> Yeah, I just want to thank him and wish him lots of success. Yeah, I just would like to, you know, I sent him a message, but I'd like to thank Keith. You know, he was doing stuff in the school district even before he got on the board. And um what's this? Is it lit lit? >> Oh, wo. >> Lit Waco, you know, the lit
012Waco and and I think he has also had a scholarship. So, yeah, he he'll be missed. And you just thank him for his his service, him and his family. All right. All in favor say I. I. >> I. passes. We're moving on to item five, review and discuss vacancy of district at large trustee. >> Have a works just fine. Good evening, President Vana, trustees um and Dr. Spicer. Um it is with a heavy heart for all the reasons you shared that um I am standing here um to help facilitate y'all's discussion. Um now that there is a vacancy in our atlarge place six having y'all having accepted um Mr. Giller's resignation. We uh have the opportunity to discuss how you would like to proceed with filling that vacancy. Um under state law vacancy occurs when
013a resignation is accepted by the board or the eighth day after the receipt, whichever occurs first. We've obviously accepted that resignation. Um you will have the opportunity now to discuss if you'd like to move forward with either filling it with by appointment or by special election. Um because more than one year remains on his unexpired term. That's in May of 2027 is when he would have ran again. Um state law requires that we that we take an action to fill that um vacancy no later than 180 days after it occurs. Um over the past decade, both methods of either appointment or um special election have been used to fill a vacancy. Our mo take y'all through a very recent history as I look at several of the faces. Um the most recent vacancy was filled
014by appointment in May of 2025. Um my understanding at that time listening to y'all's discussion, it was a decision driven by the fact that the regular election had already passed and the next May election was more than 180 days away. Um, in contrast, um, when a vacancy occurred in late January 2023, that was the lovely Miss Emily Ayazetti's, um, resignation, the board chose to fill the position by special election. At that time I was also present and my understanding from the conversation then was that there was sufficient time under the election law calendar. I have my copy of it right here. um to add a special election to an already ordered May election. Um allowing voters to directly select their representative was cited then as in other instances that y'all have gone with uh the
015board has chosen um to do a special election to fill a vacancy as the preferred approach when feasible um to hold a special election in May of 2026. State law requires that the board order the election as soon as pract practicable after the vacancy occurs and no later than February 21st. Um, should trustees approve as a part of your discussion tonight, we do have this next action. There is an action item listed. You also get to table that. I want to be very clear. It's just there because you're hearing how close our timelines are and it is still practicable to order it if you so choose. And with that, it I leave it up to you. What what how would y'all like to continue the discussion? >> I have a question. So, um, we've already
016ordered a May election and we've paid the fees that are associated with it. Adding this to the ballot, would it increase? Will we owe additional funds? >> It's not anticipated because one of our um general election races is already an atlarge race. So, we're we already have an atlarge. We're already going to the whole Waco ISD. >> So, no additional funding. Uh we have we have the time to where we can put this on the ballot in May and let people decide. Just wanted to make sure that those things >> we are days away from the the deadline. Yes. >> Any do you any Mr. I guess was Mr. Bleto is there any comment discussion or thoughts? I have a little bit of a concern just as someone um who just ran a campaign a
017year ago. Um I know how hard that is and how much time it takes. Um especially if you've never done it before and that first month um is very very difficult and very overwhelming. Um, I'm leerary of putting people in that position. Um, that's just an initial thought that I have, >> Mr. Abnusi. >> Thoughts that I have. I was, as you mentioned that, Chief Fox, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There you go. As you mentioned it, I was uh I did I wasn't appointed or am trustee that who was appointed in in June of 2025. So I did look at the process. I'm looking at the process from the from some of the things you're saying. I do understand but at the same time we also understand that it's as we all
018say it's an elected uh uh position. We like to hear the votes. We like to hear people's opinion. And um but at the same time looking at from in the same uh token I would say uh we have currently uh two uh trustees. We had our trustee Gillery that was appointed in 20 I believe 2021 by the board. >> He wasn't appointed. He wasn't appointed. Me and Keith myself and trustee Gillery were both elected in 2021. He won his atlarge race. I won. >> So he didn't he wasn't appointed. >> He wasn't appointed. He lost the race and then he came back again, ran again and won. >> Was it? But right that's what I thought. I was two of us. We were thinking has happened in the past. So yeah, my mistake if I
019got that wrong but 2019 being is that is that correct? My having the dates right that our president Vidania was appointed by the board. Am I right about that? >> Yes. >> Correct. So we bottom line we have some of the best people who we have appointed through this process. Now uh that being said I uh my hesitations are the timeline. I feel like it's a short timeline to this May election. So that's what I'm thinking right now. pretty much I am on the more leaning towards the appointment at this point. >> Mr. Davis, do you have >> uh Yeah. I mean, uh I'll be clear. I've been clear every time we've had to go through this process. I'm always going to be against the appointment, especially when we have the timeline that affords us
020to put it on the May ballot. Yes, I understand. I've ran a couple campaigns running one now as well. So I understand the time and effort that it takes. But I do think um if you have the conviction to serve on the school board, then that's a part of it. You know, we have things that make us feel better as board members and and you know, pull at our heartstrings and then we have some hard days and I think an election is a good thing to prepare you for what's coming ahead. So, I do think because we have a timeline that allows us to get the word out, let candidates decide if they want to run, file, and then the people decide, we shouldn't take the decision out of the people's hands. I wasn't here
021when we appointed uh President Vana, but I was here when we appointed uh Mr. Abnusi. And the reason why I agreed for the appointment, it was because we had longer than 180 days and we could not leave leave that seat vacant. I don't see to me it would be us taking away the community's decision by deciding to do an appointment. I hope we're all I hope you guys are hearing how I feel too since we're having like a group discussion. But um I I I think it would be horrible for us to take the decision away from the community when they can make their own decision. >> Mr. Patton, >> I have no discussion at this time. >> Sir, Mr. Ela, >> when when is the deadline for us if we wanted to to >>
022the last day to order a special election to fill a vacancy is February 21st? >> February. When is ours next? >> That's a Saturday. So, >> it's our next board meeting >> after that, >> which um yeah, I'm I'm just I wish we would have known about this few weeks ago or last month. I don't I'm not sure. I don't want to get in Mr. Gilly's business, but you know, when when he accepted his position there, knew he wasn't going to be with us. U we Yeah, I I'm along the same lines as Taylor on this. I just feel hesitant to, you know, if we had three or four people lined up, you know, for signed up to run, that kind of thing, I I would probably feel different. Um, but yeah, I'm leaning towards
023appointment if that's what we're discussing. >> I did have a question. How would we have three or four people lined up? Like, how would that be a possibility? Like we you said if we had three or four people lined up you could see us doing it but how will we have three or four people lined up? >> I have just accepted >> I went ahead and yeah looked at the timeline for when we did um Mr. Anne's appointment. Um so let me just go over that and tell you like if you're if you're trying to look at the different timelines, right? The we we don't we're not as in as much control of the special election piece that's why those timelines are pretty explicit. Just for example, how the timeline worked for the appointment of
024Mr. Abnusi. Um we uh Mrs. Cordwig announced her resignation on May 15th. There was a special meeting to discuss vacancy of district 2 trustee um listed on a special meeting agenda on May 27th. Um and we sent out as the district communication um on May 30th about the board's desire to receive letters of interest to fill the vacancy. So there's several days in between there, right? Um with the deadline that May 30th communication said the deadline to submit letters was June 6th. Um I remember sitting in the office anxiously awaiting because maybe not Mr. Abnusi, but several folks waited till that last minute. We didn't know what we were going to get right with the appointment process until those letters did finally come in. Thank you. Um this we held a special meeting for interviews
025um June 17th and Mr. Abnusi took the oath of office at our June regular meeting on June 18th. Um so that was about a fiveweek process from appointment to um or from resignation to appointment. And and it did include these phases of discussion and looking at your options. Um one thing to your your question a little bit about people um I'll say lined up. One of the things that will happen if you choose to do the special election, um it opens up tomorrow and so they have until March 3rd, whoever in the community if you so choose to apply to run. So they have a different timeline and I'm not sure if you're aware of that, but they have a different timeline than the other ones because those were called earlier. I'm just making sure
026you knew that. >> Yeah. I mean I you know I feel like um I mean this falls perfect with like they said we've already we have an election already going on. Um we are elected officials. I would hate to take it away from the public when they have the opportunity with with Mr. Raj and some of my appointment was over the summer and it's a little different to call an election with with with that timeline and I guess with I guess you would have to pay the >> county to do that and we have you know and like I guess I I forgot about Miss Isetti. I didn't know if she was appointed or election but >> that that is I think how we um got Mr. Patton. Yeah, it's if it falls, you know,
027I just feel if it falls when an election where we don't have to pay the county to run a special election, it's already there. And I've so we're elected officials, you know, we I don't want to take it away from the people when there's an opportunity that they can do it. It's not like it's in the summer where we would have to pay to have it and all that. So, I understand kind of the summer appointments, but you know, have it and but but right here we we have it set up. There's, you know, they it's already going on. We have nothing like like you said, we have we would not be paying any extra money or anything. It's already all there. I would I would hate to take it away from the people on
028when we have an opportunity to let them decide who they want in this seat. Can I can I speak to that point for just I don't I don't love the notion of like we're taking it away from the people. I understand the sentiment, but ultimately um the law affords us the ability to appoint someone. We are elected officials and the law affords us as elected officials the ability to appoint someone. Also, Mr. Anusi, Mr. Vana, um, Miss Aazetti, people who have been appointed in the past ultimately go before the voters. You were on the ballot this year and so ultimately >> was mis >> correct. So ultimately I I understand I I do understand the sentiment. Um, but I also think that the law gives us a choice. And so we are elected officials and
029entrusted with that choice should we choose that route. So >> I I do want to say that I understand that legally we have the choice, but that doesn't mean we're taking it away. We're not taking it away from the voters. If we choose an appointment, we are literally not giving the voters a chance to vote on filling the ATL large seat. That's what it is, plain and simple. Regardless of how we want to slice it, we have a choice to either as a board decide to fill the vacancy or as a board to allow the public to vote and fill the vacancy. They have to March 3rd. That's plenty of time to decide if you want to run and get your ducks in a row. I feel you would have to do the same thing
030if you were going for an appointment. You would have to decide that you're going to go for the appointment. You would have to prepare, write a letter, prepare for the interview. So, I think that u again we've already paid for the election, the timeline legally force us to be able to do it. I think it would be great for the community to be able to decide. We've had several appointments and all of those appointments we talked about people running. some people got unseated after they were appointed to the board the very next election. So, it's I think that's even more of a reason instead of uh to try to have some stability on the board. It would be great to have someone who's elected and can and can put in the work. And again, this
031is it's not an easy job. I think all of us can agree on it. So, I think that this is a good uh show to the community that you're serious about being a trustee for Waco ISD, that you're willing to engage in the election, and you're willing to engage in the people. >> And I I want to say um I it's not I mean, I know everyone understands it. It's not a lifetime appointment here. I mean, we're not taking an election away from someone. You're just delaying an election if you appoint someone. Um, if that person doesn't work out, then either way, the community is going to speak when Mr. Giller's term is up. >> To your point, Mr. Choa, if someone was were to be appointed to fill the vacancy, they would run >>
032when his term is up. >> 2027, similar to Mr. Abnusi running again. Thank you. >> Mr. Abnusi, for the record, it was a few months. We're talking about a year. So, it's a it's a difference. Like, we're putting all these things together. That was I think the big that was a big difference. in our discussion with abnuci was the timeline. We said, "Hey, it's too long of a time with no trustee with a vacant spot." That's what we all agreed on. But I'm saying right now, we have opportunity. The spot wouldn't be vacant for a long period of time in the community. Community could decide right out and we don't have to have a back and forth. We don't have to have a temporary person in and then changed out. We can let the community
033decide. The seat won't be vacant. for much longer. May 2nd is almost here. So that's that's just my thoughts. I think we we go with the community and we let the community decide. >> Can can I ask a question of Lena? So if we wanted to or Elizabeth, if we if we wanted to appoint somebody, when would that happen? My understanding is that we would like if we table the next motion, if we don't take up the next motion, if we don't order the special election and we don't decide to call another special meeting, we could return to our regular meeting and have a discussion there again and outline a time frame by that point for an appointment if that's what you would like to do. >> Yeah. >> So, am I correct in saying
034we would have the seat filled quicker? >> Not I was going to say it >> because Trusty Gillery doesn't his resignation doesn't take in effect until May, right? So, we wouldn't be able to >> until we >> But it doesn't go in effect until May 2nd. So, correct or am I not understanding explain Go ahead. Correct me then if I'm trying to get some understanding. >> The the resignation is effective when you accepted it. It's the earlier earlier of the time of acceptance or eight days after he turns it in. Just just for timeline sake, Miss Miss Cordawig resigned at the May board meeting in 2025 and Arash was sworn in at the June meeting in 2025. >> Right. So I I I think and I'm going to invite my lawyer friend because one thing
035we know is Elizabeth Cox is not not a chief and she is not a lawyer. But um so I think what Mr. Davis is trying to point out is the holdover doctrine and I know there's been some discussion about it. So I printed uh the board's BBC legal policy. So I'm just going to read it verbatim. Um a public off all public officers shall continue to perform the duties of their offices until their successor shall be duly qualified i.e. sworn in until the vacancy created by a board member's resignation is filled by a successor. The board member continues to serve and have the duties and powers of office and continues to be subject to the nepotism provisions. a holdover board member may not vote on the appointment of his or her successor. So that's the
036only thing they are not allowed to do um if that's the route we go. But so I think that's what Mr. Davis is alluding to that >> I was just only bringing >> with President Quarterwig she was leaving immediately. It sounds like trustee Gillery has given us the option to continue serving if we were going to go with an election and then that person could replace him. That's what I was trying to explain. I think Taylor, my only hesitancy about the timeline is that especially if we are going to put out a call for letters and things like that, like you I I think a fiveweek timeline is great. Like we would definitely want to provide the two to three weeks time from when we announce that we're accepting letters to have people be able
037to submit them to then have you be able to interview people to then and then you know summer board meetings and things like that as we get as we get closer to May like the timeline gets crunched because we have our May board meeting pretty quickly and we do a lot of these election related board meetings. So it it could still be within five weeks from probably the February board meeting. >> Can I I want to add more just bring up the fact that this is an atlarge position. It's different from I think when I was appointed there was three of us three with Mr. Arash Amnusi. We're going to have I'm pretty sure we're going to have a lot more to to go through than the three my you know when I was appointed
038there was three people that that ran for there was more for that large when Robin Houston was appointed. There was more I tell you the number, but there was more than three. And you know, so we got to take that into consideration that we understand that when Mr. Atluse, we interviewed three people cuz that's that was for a district. Yeah. And so now we're talking about an atlarge position that we could I mean we could have over 20 30 interviews in a timeline of not not just a timeline that but also we have daughter has cheer games. Your kids probably have uh I mean we got Hillrest plays. We got all kinds of stuff going on that we're not going to be able to say oh we we're not it's going to be hard to
039schedule if we have over that many people sign up for an atlarge because It's not going to be just the three or two like my district and Mr. Amnusi's district. We're going to have a lot more for that large. And uh everybody knows right now we this is a big time of we got spring break coming up. We got I mean so many school events with everything. Yeah. And everything. I mean you got the UIL this weekend, right? I mean, so spring spring going into summer is just so so much going on with kids and we all have kids in the district. So I I'm thinking I'm imagining and we have an overwhelming amount of applications and I'm not going to I'm going to want to interview all of them. We're not going to say
040well we'll we'll take you know we'll we'll draw some kind of guideline and take No, we're going to interview all of them. So, I'm just looking at the the time restraint on that because it's not going to be like my district where it's just a few applicants. It's in that large position. I I'll add to that. Um, you know, I agree with what you're saying, Jose. I do. Um, but, you know, if we have one applicant, if we have a hundred applicants, doesn't matter. I mean, it's what we signed up to do. I mean, I'm giving up a pancake fundraiser tonight because I have to be here because I've made I've committed myself to to the board and that's just what we do. I mean, we're all taking time out of our lives. So, >>
041and that's exactly why I think they should file for office and >> so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we exercise our option of appointment. >> I'll second. >> Is that on the agenda? I just want to be clarified. So what will happen is um you won't move on the next item. >> You table the next item. You would make a motion if it's not on the agenda. We can't approve it. Okay. >> I I think motion to table. >> Motion to table. >> And we're where we are. So revisiting second. >> Got a motion to table by Mr. Ooa and then a second by Mr. Leto. Mr. Bled. So, can I basically what we're saying is >> Were you asked if I had any discussion? >> No. When you hire
042your vote in the table who we're voting to table it, right? >> I vote yes. >> Yes. >> No. >> Yes. Yes, >> the motion to table passes. >> We're journed at 650.