001Th this this regular meeting of the WakeD 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 approved budgets, contracts, and personal appointments, and make policy for the district. We're not here to make management decisions or solve problems of individuals. Management is the responsibility of the superintendent or 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 and for your interest in the Waco Independent School District. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
002We're now moving on to a moment of silence. Now we're going the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If the board will please join me in front of the das on our special guest recognition. Good evening, President Vana, Superintendent Spicer, and board. We are here tonight to honor several impressive members of our um students and our staff. Um we're going to start with our pledge leaders tonight. Pledge leaders were students Taylor and Tyler Freeman of Waco High School. Taylor Taylor and Tyler are in the 10th grade and are hardworking engaged student athletes competing in football, baseball, and track and field. Both love English and are considering future
003careers in law. Key Jackson Freeman and Alfred Freeman, some very well-known Waco High Lions, are proud parents of Taylor and Tyler. [Applause] Next up tonight, we have our National Educators Rising Conference and Competition. Waco IC high school students in the future educators academy earned top honors and distinguished themselves at the national educator rising conference and competition held in late June in Orlando, Florida, winning first place in the nation in for inside our schools Spanish category. Jessica Lara It's a dynamic duo of Jessica Lara from University High School and Saul Torres of Waco High School. The Inside Our School Spanish event challenges students to produce a video highlighting an innovative strategy their school uses to improve teaching and learning. The entire video was created in Spanish and the students presented their work to the judges entirely
004in Spanish as well. Torres and Laura collaborated on a video showcasing the masked reader learning activity at Kendrick Elementary demonstrating its effectiveness in an engaging and creative way while highlighting their impressive bilingual skills. Kathleen Knight, coordinator of the Future Educators Academy. I know she's in the building. Please come up here and get recognized. and let her pop into that picture. Also attending the conference but unable to be with us tonight, we have um Sylvia Areno and Kareem Reyes from Waco High School. These two future educator students attended the conference and were selected um in a competitive process to present. So, we're really proud of those students as well. Congratulations, [Applause] Making a transition from one of our amazing CTEMIS, we're now going to start some fine arts recognitions. First up is our UIL State Theatrical
005Design Competition Champions. Waco IC High School students qualified for and competed at the UIL State Theatrical Design Competition in Austin. the following students placed in their competitions achieving the distinction of being in the top top six of 5A high schools in Texas. First up from Waco High School achieving a fourth in costume design, Miss Eley Lawson. Next from Waco High School, a part of a team and we're really happy she's here with us. Her whole team couldn't be here. Winning second in group design, Miss Sarah Townsend. The other students in that group were Elellanar Rhodess and Claire Prather. Um we also had another student um that did costume as a part of that group, Abby Sanders. She wasn't able to be here with us. Congratulations, ladies. UHS also had a student that um was received
006a championship um at that competition. Fifth in hair and makeup went to Miss Natalie Rodriguez who wasn't able to join us tonight. Congratulations Stay put. We're gonna add in your teacher, too. Mr. Millan Wise. Yep. Congratulations. Continuing with the recognitions for our amazing theater programs, Waco ISD high school students qualified for and competed at the International Thespian Festival in Bloomington, Indiana after excelling at the UIL State Theatrical Design Competition and UIL State OneAct Play Contest. We have students from both high schools in this um category as well. So, we're going to start with Waco High School. First up, Miss Elena Ages earned two excellent ratings for her performance in group acting and duet musical. Congratulations, Elena. Next, we have Miss Lydia Allen, who was a theatrical design, state honor, crew, and semi finalist. Congratulations, Lydia.
007Next we have Miriam Goodcham who received an excellent rating for solo musical performance. Congratulations. Next is Caris Henderson. Caris earned excellent ratings in group acting and duet musical. Congratulations, Caris. And back again for her second award of the night, Miss Eley Lawson was recognized with a superior rating for her costume design work. Congratulations. Next, we have Joshua Nelson, who competed in the Disney Live Entertainment Backstage Challenge and was also one of the state one act play honor crew representing Waco ISD in that competition as well. Congratulations, Joshua. Next up, Addison Ror received an excellent rating in monologue. Mr. Rashi Sharp earned an excellent rating in duet acting, a good in scenic design, and represented Waco well in the Disney live entertainment backstage challenge and in the theatrical design honor crew. Congratulations Katarina Telup. Katarina received
008an excellent rating for group acting. Congratulations, Katarina. Another returner tonight, Miss Sarah Townsen earned two superior ratings for duet acting and makeup design and one excellent for her solo musical performance. Congratulations, Sarah. presenting Angela Woods who received an excellent rating in duet acting. Congratulations. And unable to be with us tonight um is Miss Eleanor Rhodess. I do want to mention that Eleanor Rhodess received two superior ratings and she earned a Thesby award as she received one of the only 28 perfect scores in a category. We're so proud of her and we look forward to celebrating her further. Congratulations to these Waco High students and their teacher Liz Vermuan and Mr. Wise. Let's take a group picture for Waco High. While we're waiting for this group to get set, all district photos are available on our
009Flickr account as well. Next time we'll show printed cards. Congratulations. Keep holding. Keep holding. Bravo. Now it's time to celebrate our Trojans that were at the International Thespian Festival. Mr. Derek Thomas and Aven Anderson earned a superior ranking in the opportunity to perform a duet center stage during the closing ceremony. We're so proud of this tune. Thanks. We're gonna add in their amazing teachers, Miss Savannah Jones and Katie Davis. Come up here. We'll get a group picture. And if all that wasn't enough for honoring our theater arts programs, our next recognition for tonight is the Texas Educational Theater Association Awards of Distinction. The Texas Educational Theater Association is pleased to recognize individual school districts making outstanding contributions to raising the standards for theater education in the school district and the state. District and schools are
010encouraged to apply annually to receive this recognition for achievement, growth, and excellence. Earning exemplary status, that's the top status, y'all. From the Texas Educational Theaters Association Awards of Distinction in Waco ISD are, of course, our Waco ISD fine arts department under the leadership of Larry University High School Theater under the direction of S Savannah Jones and Katherine Davis. Come on up. Next we have Waco High School Theat's amazing team of Liz Remuan and Edward Muan Wise. Congratulations Our final group to for tonight, but certainly not final in our hearts and minds, is the one and only Hillrest Elementary's Paula Hoover, Kevin Rivera. And thank you, Principal Haley Dean, for being here tonight. I think we could make our own category for Mrs. Hoover, right? We're going to get a full group picture, too. We're looking
011forward to some great productions this year, y'all. This is going to be amazing. Congratulations. [Applause] >> Thank you. Our next recognition of the evening is the Texas Education Agency Title Three Leader of the Year for the State of Texas. [Music] As if she needs any introduction, Waco ICD's director of ESL and bilingual education, Mrs. Grace Benson has been recognized by TEA as the state's Title 3 2025 leader of the year for the incredible ways she supports bilingual ESL teachers, students, and families in Waco ISD. Grace's passion for service directly impacts more than just the 3,400 students receiving services through our bilingual department. She is the first to support any student or colleague. I know this firsthand and is a leader in the region and the state. Congratulations, Grace. [Applause] [Music] Okay, we're gonna hold and
012I think Mrs. Benson, would you like to invite your family up for to be in a picture? Mrs. Benson? >> Yeah. of course they were a part of the surprise announcement too for husband, daughter and mother. Thank you so much for sharing Mrs. Benson with us for all these years. >> Congratulations And tonight we're going to end on our community partner of the year. Magnolia is honored with the TASBY Standup for Public Education Award for July in Waco ISD. They are being awarded for their continued support of Waco ISD literacy initiatives and direct donations to the district's highly mobile students and families. Representing this amazing Waco organization is Justin Roselino or as he is known at JH Hines, one of our most dedicated stars book club volunteers and mentors. [Applause] Thank you so much. And
013trustees, while that ends my time with you for recognitions, Dr. Spicer is going to come here and start her superintendent report. All right. At this time, we're going to move into the superintendent's report. It is my pleasure to start us off tonight by celebrating a well-known and highly respected leader in our district and her well-deserved promotion within our team. Dr. Reita Keredine, Waco ID's assistant superintendent of human resources, has been a cornerstone of our HR team since 2020. In her expanded role, she will continue to lead key initiatives in employee engagement, recruitment and retention, performance management, and professional development. Dr. Keredine's leadership has been instrumental in advancing programs like the Aspiring Leaders Academy, mentoring campus administrators, and delivering impactful HR training across the district. Her work reflects a deep commitment to excellence and to service
014to others. Before joining Waco ISD, Dr. Keredine served as a principal in Fort Worth ISD for nearly two decades, earning statewide recognition for her transformational leadership and turnaround success. She also brings experience as an assistant principal, curriculum specialist, and classroom teacher, beginning her impactful career in Michigan. Dr. Dr. Keredine holds a doctorate in theology from North Central Theological Seminary, a master of theological studies from Bright Divinity at TCU and a master's in curriculum and instruction along with a bachelor's in communications from Temple University. She's an active voice in both state and national education circles and currently serves on the creative Waco board and the ESP comm community committee of the Texas Association of School Personnel Administrators. Please join me in recognizing and congratulating Dr. Dr. Reita Keredine for outstanding contributions and continued leadership in Waco
015ISD. Dr. Keredine Well, Mr. President, board of trustees, Dr. Spicer, and the entire Waco ISD community and family, I just want to thank you for this honor and this privilege to continue to serve here in Waco ISD as your assistant superintendent of human resources. And um I really would also like to thank Dr. Lopez, my predecessor, who definitely, you know, we worked hand in hand, arm in- arm, and he's watching this evening. So, I do hope that we are all making him proud and making him laugh just a little bit. Um, but, you know, we're really excited to continue this work and this journey and really wanting to re-imag what human resources can do for our community and for Waco ISD, all of our students, all of our employees. and I am very dedicated to
016making sure that this journey is not taken in vain and that everybody that we do serve um I am committed to just doing my very best and that's my promise to my parents. They're on >> right now. >> Thank you for sharing them with us. Next up tonight is my honor to formally introduce our principal of JH Hines Elementary. [Applause] Dr. Ebony Cousins brings more than 20 years of experience into public education to this role. Returning to Waco ISD after previously serving as our elementary math coordinator, Dr. Cousins most recent position was serving as an assistant principal at Castleman Creek Elementary in Midway ISD. Deeply committed to instructional equity, she has been recognized by the Texas House and Senate for excellence in math and science education and will no doubt inspire that level of excellence
017as a principal. In her, I see a leader that believes in the power of the J Hines community to inspire and accelerate learning and know that we are aligned in our passion to make every classroom a place of opportunity and academic growth. Dr. Cousins, I would like to invite you to say a few words to Dr. Spicer, our president, and the board of trustees. Once again, thank you for this wonderful opportunity. I'd like to first introduce my family if that's okay. Um, I have my husband here tonight. Stand up. It takes a village. My daughter Kai, my best friend, Valencia Parks, [Applause] and I wanted to do something a little bit different because it does take a village. I invited two of my families that I've served um their children because that's my why, the
018children and the families. And so I extended an invitation to the Brown family, if you'll stand, and to the Crane family. I've had the privilege of teaching their kids, Lyric and Legend, and they were more than willing to come out tonight. And so thank you for that. I just loved him. And I'd be um I'd also like to thank Dr. Glazeman in his absence for giving me my first opportunity in administration as the assistant principal at Castleman Creek Elementary. I'll be brief. Um I've been asked a couple of times why JHS and why now? My reply remains the same. If not me, then who? And if not now, then when? The work is tremendous, no doubt. But I am foolish enough to believe perhaps that in this moment, in this time, I was created and
019destined for just a time as this. Thank you. [Applause] My next introduction tonight is Dr. Craig Bulman, our newest West Avenue elementary principal. [Applause] Dr. Vulman is making the move to our West Avenue Elementary community from Cedar Ridge Elementary where he served as assistant principal since 2022. With extensive leadership experience across several districts, Bulman has led school improvement efforts, strengthened student support systems, and enhanced instructional quality over his 20-year career in education. He is known for his hands-on leadership style and collaborative approach with teachers and families to create campuses where every child feels seen, supported, and empowered to succeed. With more than 20 years of experience in education, Dr. Vulman has experience in leading school improvement efforts, strengthening student support systems, and enhancing enhancing instructional quality. At this time, I welcome Dr. Vulman to the
020floor. [Applause] Good evening, Dr. Spicer, Superintendent, President Valdana, and members of the board. Thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight for the trust that you have placed in the mess to serve as a new principal at West Avenue Elementary. is an honor to continue to serve in Waco ISD that has a has a strong commitment and reputation for reputation for developing community strength, dedication, and doing what's right for kids. I began my career in education over 30 years ago and I've had the opportunity to serve in many different roles over those 30 years. No matter the positions I've been, I've always been driven by the same thing. building strong relationships, creating a safe and welcoming environment for everybody who enters the building that I am a part of, and helping each and every student
021reach their full potential. And I'm excited to bring that same commitment to West Avenue Elementary. Tonight, I'd like to thank my wife for being supportive of being here tonight. And I also like to thank Miss Aaron Langy for three years ago giving me the opportunity to come to Waco ISD and welcoming me to her Cedar Ridge family and her personal family. Miss Lang is over there with her girls Emerson and Harford. And lastly, I look forward to partnering with our families and staff and district leadership to continue the important work of helping our students grow, achieve, and succeed. Again, thank you for this opportunity, and it means a lot. >> And I had a slip up. I said Craig, I meant Troy. So I apologize. I do know your name, sir. All right, last but
022not least, please join me in welcoming Jill Anderson. [Applause] As the district's new executive director of communications, a seasoned communications strategist and proud WGON, Jill brings more than 19 years of experience in a nonprofit municipal and higher education role. In her role, she has led teams in marketing, public relations, crisis communications, and community engagement across central Texas. Most recently, she served as senior director for the Baylor Center for School Leadership, where she increased visibility and impact through strategic storytelling, brand development, and stakeholder engagement. A certified accredited public relations professional, Anderson also holds an executive MBA from Baylor University. We I was waiting for that. I was like, where they at? We are so excited to have Jill on the team and appreciate her diving in at this exciting time of the year as we're preparing
023for our new schools to open. Jill, I'd like to invite you to say a few words and introduce us to your special guests. [Applause] >> Hi, thank you for that warm welcome, Dr. Spicer. Um, President Medana and board of trustees. I just want to say I am thrilled and honored to be chosen for this position. Um, and I'm excited to be working here. I want to before I get started, I want to introduce my family. This is my husband Sheldon, my daughter Sophie, and my daughter Bella. It truly takes a team, and they are my support. My 13-year-old making dinner all week, so I really appreciate them. I just want to say that in this short time, I've been here for like two and a half weeks and I've been able to witness the incredible
024talent of our faculty and staff. Um, it's just been a privilege to see them work and be able to see their passion for our students and their families. Um, and I love what I get to do because I get to tell those stories. I'm sitting over there and I'm like almost in tears because the amazing work that our staff, our faculty, our students, our families and the dedication of Waco ISD. And I'm excited to be able to tell the story so people can see what we see when we come to work every day. So, thank you for the opportunity. [Applause] All right. In just under three weeks, we'll be greeting students for the first day of school. Our annual back- tochool family fest is this Saturday, July 26th, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. University
025High School will again serve as a location for this single district-wide family fest. and conversations are already underway about maintaining the fund and excitement for a joint event next year at our new Waco High School. Registered students will receive a voucher for a free clear backpack with school supplies while supplies last. And we will again partner with Waco Minton County Public Health District to provide all school required imu immunizations. Before Family Fest, we are introducing the superintendent superhero run and walk 5K and 1K. This event is all about community wellness and celebrating the real life heroes in our schools. Whether you're a season runner or casual walker, this event is for everyone. Trustees, you got to text at 5:40 this afternoon as a reminder. Come dressed as your favorite superhero or create your own. Capes
026are welcome to the board. If again, if you have not registered, please make sure you do so tonight. We'd love to have you and your families there. Um, next we will have our meet the teacher. Meet the teacher nights are set ahead of the new school year. Elementary events will begin on August 7th, 2025 from 5:00 p. p.m. to 7:00 p.m. And secondary schools, including our middle and our high school campuses, are scheduled for August 11th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. That concludes our superintendent update. Thank you. We will now move on to item number six, information items and reports. >> Uh, Trusty Bleto, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, do you have any questions? >> Trusty, >> no. >> Trusty Davis, do you have any questions? >> No. >>
027Trusty Giller, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Trusty Patton, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Trusty Oo, do you have any questions? No. We'll now move on to item number seven. >> Seven, consent agenda. Mr. Bledo, do you have anything you'd like to pull? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there anything you'd like to pull? >> No. >> Mr. Davis, is there anything you'd like to pull? >> No. >> Mr. Gillery, is there anything you'd like to pull? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there anything you'd like to pull? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Oo, is there anything you'd like pulled? >> No. >> At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Motion by
028Mr. Gillery and second by was it Patton? >> By Mr. Davis. >> Second. Yes. >> All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? No. Passes. >> We'll now move on to item eight. Review and discuss budget update presented by Cheryl Davis. We're getting closer to the end this really hard here. Um, okay. So tonight we're going to look at the last update on the general fund budget before we bring the proposed budget on the 14th. So we're going to kind of look at some of the increases and and what um revenues and and all that have gone into this budget. So looking at this Well, this isn't all of it. So, okay. So, some of the presentation's missing. I don't know exactly. Um, anyway, so is it in your packet correctly? I'm sorry. Hold on.
029Yeah, it was in our board packet. >> Yeah, it's all in the packet. It's in the packet correctly. Yes, it's just not up here on the screen. I don't know. Okay, so tonight we are going to look at, if you can follow along in your packet, the enrollment and average daily attendance that are is being used to um adopt the budget. And then we'll look at preliminary general fund revenue estimates, uh, base appropriations, the cost drivers and rate increases that are incorporated into the budget, and then the cost of the proposed salary increases. And we're going to take a look at the health insurance plan because that's one of our big cost drivers. And then, uh, finally, we'll just look take a brief look at the, uh, budget calendar. So on our enrollment um we
030have the uh we're using an enrollment for 2025 2026 of 13,179. That is a decre enrollment loss of 187 from this year's enrollment from fall pement of 13,366. Now my projections are running very close to the demographers's projections for this. I think this is a pretty good number. Um, now the demographer does not project ADA and our attendance rate has come up a little bit. Um, our ADA for budget purposes was 11,000 of I'm using 11,502. Last year it was 11,645 that I put in for the budget. So that's down about 143. Not quite as much as enrollment because we actually had little bit of an improvement in the attendance rate um for the current year. The last two years it's been a little bit better. I'm using 87.3 going into next year it was
03187.3 this year. And as you can see on the schedule, last year it was 87. The year before was 86.2. 2122 was 84.6. So we have started to regain some of that attendance loss that we had during co Keep doing that. Sorry. Get in the habit. Okay. So then on the next slide, you can see what the um enrollment has looked like over the last uh few years. We have enrollment losses have been um about over 15 years. We've lost 12.7% in our enrollment. 10.3% of that has occurred in the last six years. So, it has really accelerated since COVID. Um, slowed down a little bit the last year or so, but still losing at a quite a bit of students each year. The one good news I think in this past year though is
032our cohort rate. So, at the bottom of that slide, you see our cohort survival rates. So that's the the measurement of kids that start out in kindergarten and finish in the 12th grade. And so for this year it it dropped a lot last year. That could be a factor still of COVID of those kids not necessarily finishing that had started kind and like I said comes from kindergarten not prek because not all kids go to prek. So, it starts with kindergarten, but so this year we were back up to 54.4%. Okay, see we're online again. So, we're up to 54.4% of our um of the survival rate for the cohort. So, that's a positive and maybe we'll be holding on to kids a little bit better over the next few years. Okay, now let's look
033at the preliminary U general fund budget. So right now we are projecting revenues of $162.3 million. That is 67.2 million in our local and intermediate revenues. We'll we're going to look at local and state and federal revenues in just a minute. 91 9 million in state programs and about three million in our total revenues for our budgeted appropriations. Right now there are 169.3 million and we have other sources and for those of you who are new other sources this is an operating transfer that we do every year because we have three pro well we actually have four but um one of them has always paid challenge academy always pays for itself because it's a a JJ um and then we have the day school for the deaf and we have Guama and Guaca the two
034gater And so they don't always pay for themselves. This is mostly goes to the day school for the deaf but also uh Guama is very expensive program. So we usually have to supplement that as well. And that's going to come down though because I've outrun their budgets now. That's going to come down in our final presentation on the 14th. So that leaves a net change in fund balance of a negative 6.7.6 million. Our beginning fund balance was 57.6 million and that would leave an ending fund balance of 50 just over 50 million. Looking at those those local revenues now, you'll see that the tax revenue has come down quite a bit. It's come down 2.7 million even though our values went up somewhat because of that increase in the homestead exemption for both regular homestead
035exemption and the over 65. Our tax revenues will be down about 2.7 million. There's not a lot of change in our fiscal agent fees. That's actually for running that challenge academy and day school for the deaf and all those we get a fiscal agent fee for that tuition. Um, I have that decreased about $52,000. We did generate more money uh this current year. We generated 182,000. I budgeted 150,000. But um all teacher classroom teachers children will be um eligible students for prek in the district for next year. So they we do have a few that are we have actually 31 um students that are in our preks that are paying for prek right now because they're not eligible under the under the old law. You had to be um low socioeconomic or limited English proficient
036to qualify. So we had about 31 kids that were um in our prek program. Not all of those qualify under the new program because they weren't all classroom teachers kits. So that's the only group that has been um the law has changed for. >> Cheryl, may I ask a question? >> Um I know that with the the law that classroom teachers kids can go to prek free. Is it been our policy that if you're a classroom teacher, your kids can go to Waco schools for free if you live outside the district? I don't know that answer >> for prek or for any >> for first through 12th. >> Yeah. >> Transfer. Yeah, they they transfer in if they're with us. So, yes. Like I can bring my child if I live in a different >>
037different district. Yes. Without paying tuition, >> right? >> Yes. Because they're just like open enrollment, if you will. But prek is just different, right? So, we do charge. >> Okay. Thanks. >> PreK, the reason that you have to charge is because you have to accept all eligible kids before you can accept ineligible kids if you're not charging. And so, one of the reasons, especially at the beginning when we had limited space for prek, um, and we had to accept all of the eligible kids first and we started charging tuition. Um, we looked at it the last couple of years and talked about maybe doing a free prek um because we do have more capacity in some of our classrooms. We don't get funding for the ineligible kids. So, we only get funding for eligible kids
038and we only get half day funding even though we have a full day program. Now, that has changed in the law. We will get some additional funding this coming year because we already are doing a full day program. >> Um >> Cheryl, what what's the God that's loud? Um what is the uh what do we get per student like relative to the ADA that we get for a first grader for preK? >> Well, overall, you know, we get the this what is it now? Six, we got the extra $55 6655 um for our basic aotment, but because most of our prek kids, they get half of that and it's based on ADA and preK also does not have the greatest attendance rate. But um because those the kids in prek, the eligible kids are low
039socioeconomic, they'll get the comped um increase for that. And then most of ours also might be limited English proficient, so we get some additional money there. >> Thanks, So I can't really tell you exactly for but it's close. So um the other thing that I have decreased for next year and I did I did a budget only a 2.5 million for investment income this year. We're ending up getting about four and a half million because the interest rates that they said they were going to lower that really didn't happen. We got a small decrease but not much. But they're now saying again that the rates are going to be going down. So I budgeted about three million, a little higher than last year, but I'm not that um I'm always cautious with that because that
040can go south in a real hurry if as you can see a few years back if I had went back a couple of years, you would see we were getting maybe $400,000 in interest revenue. So, uh, I just have budgeted 3 million for next year, hoping that it the rates don't go down too fast. Um, then on our rentals, uh, we were, uh, up a little bit over what was budgeted by about $70,000. I have budgeted a little bit less than that, uh, for this coming year because we had some, um, big rentals that probably won't be reoccurring. Then insurance recoveries, of course, that was just a one-time thing for some hail damage. May have that. Hopefully not because always costs us money. And then um our other revenues are basically pretty even with what
041they've been. You see that last line, that intermediate source revenue. I think this will be the last year that we'll get that $342,000. Um that money is from we did a land swap with the county for that land over there by Waco High. And so as part of that land swap, they are paying us monies out of the base and that that area that they're renting out. And so as they earn their re revenues on that, we get a payment on it. I think this is our last payment. We got a million dollars the first year and we've been getting between three and 400,000 after since then. So I think this is the last one this coming year. Then looking at our state revenues, this is where of course we have we've talked a lot
042about this. We talked at the last meeting about the changes from the legislature. So overall our state revenue should be up about $7.3 million. Now a lot of that most of that is targeted. So, um, I put there in because it's buried in all these numbers, so it's kind of hard to see, but if I had run the template through without all the legislative changes, with just the changes in ADA, we would be losing about $2.1 million because of the ADA decline, but we're picking up 7.3 because of the other changes in the law. And again, we've talked about this. You know, a lot of special ed went up about 2.4 million. Um the teacher incentive aotment, it's not in this projection because we have to qualify for it again. And when we qualify it
043and we know what that dollar amount is going to be for next year, then we will amend in the revenue and the expenditures because they offset each other. So I don't include that in this base budget. And then of course the retention the teacher retention aotment for salaries and support staff retention aotment school safety increase and then that aotment for basic costs. And then we have so the one of the other things that increases state revenue is because of those homestead exemptions that increase and where our property tax collections go down our local share goes up and so or goes down sorry our local share goes down and the state revenue goes up. So that last number that 2.2 million is because we're collecting less taxes again the seessaw that we that I show. though
044local revenue goes down, state revenue goes up. So anyway, that's about a overall about $7.4 million increase. Federal funds, this this is a little more sticky. Um, so I have it down about a million and a half dollars right now. This is this is general fund, federal fund dollars. Now, a a big reason that this is going down is because we in the current year numbers, we had the last of those ESER funds spent and so we took our indirect cost off of ESSER funds and so we had a quite a large you can see that in the indirect cost recoveries up above. It was quite a bit bigger than what it normally is. Um, the other area I have decreased is our SHARS revenue. That's been going down for the last We were getting
045about $2.5 million a couple years ago. We are getting about a million and a half this year. And I do know there's cuts to Medicaid. I don't know how they're going to impact SHARS at this point. So, I'm only budgeting about a million one for SHARS. your guess is as good as mine be on this one because I'm not quite sure what's going to happen with this. And then um our direct program revenue, this is mostly -ate because we filed um -ate for re-ate reimbursements on a lot of the Waco High and Tennis and that that new construction. So while that's going down, that is always offset by expenditures as well. So the expenditures went down too for that. Now, talking a little bit about just pure federal funds because they're going to impact our
046general fund to some extent or could. Uh on June 30th, the Department of Ed announced that they were um freezing, well, that's not really the correct terminology. They were impounding these funds that you see here. Title two part A, which funds a lot of our staff development. um title three which is our English language acquisition and our immigrant program and then title four which is a student uh support program. In that first column under entitlement you see what our new entitlement was or planning entitlement last year. We also in those funds get to carry over any unspent monies. So that second column is the carryover and then the third column shows what we had available for spending this past year. Now they've said we would will whatever we have left um se and these these
047programs go through September 30th. So whatever we have left by September 30th they're saying we should be able to spend out of the old grant. But what they have impounded is this new grant which is this million7 in the first column. Um they did release they had done the same type of thing with the title two u 21st century grants that funded the before and after school programs. They have now released those funds with some strings attached. Um I feel like we've already signed that certificate for that string those strings but um anyway so I don't exactly I there was um the GAO thank God for us accountants um the GAO said this week that it was unconstitutional to impound the funds in the way that was done. So they were talking about the 21st
048century, but I think the same thing applies to these funds that they can't be impounded in the way that this was done because they were already um legislated and should have been sent to school districts on July 1st and were not. So this we do have about $815,000 worth of positions that are funded from these funds. What we're doing in the meantime, normally we move salaried positions to the new funds as of July 1st. We're not doing that this year. We're keeping them in the old funding source until we kind of figure out what's going on. And we will be paying those salaries through September 30th out of that funding source. Whatever's left, they have said we get to keep as carryover. Um, we're just going to have to see how that plays out though.
049But this will uh impact staff development and um our students support the title four. We do fund a lot of um we social emotional learning some of our programs for that. We fund our lead counselor for that and um things we have funded some technology. This past year we are funding some of our uh PEK program teachers. we have moved them for the to the general fund, but there's just a lot of uh impact from not getting if we don't get these funds. So, that'd be another million7 cut if we don't get them. But hopefully with the way things are going, it sounds like it's a little more positive that we might. So this is looking at our expenditures and um by category of expenditure and you can see that um the biggest growth has
050been in our payroll costs which is natural because that is where those salary increases went in and that's pretty much the only increases we have in the district this year with maybe slight increases in um maybe supplies and materials but I think everything else is actually less than it was last year. We've made some cuts in all the other categories. But um that's just a little bit on what where the categories of expenditures and where that's occurring. So I also wanted to include because a lot of things get said and I wanted to include where some of our big cost increases have been over the last few years. And so I've got a few slides here. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them. Um, but I have included where the revenue
051has been and where the expenditures have been over the last what five or six years, maybe more. Um so our gifted and talented program in with house bill three in 2019 they cut the funding for that program completely and when they brought it back to at the next uh bienium after there was a lot of protest for that it was half what it used to be. So you can see that but when they brought it back or when they cut it from in house bill 3 in 2019 we're we were required to maintain effort even though they cut the funding we had to maintain effort. So, we have um maintained effort. I mean, it's gone down some with enrollments going down and it's back up a little bit this year with the salary increase, but
052you can see it just the revenue that we're getting doesn't anywhere near fund the program. Same you'll see with like career and technology. We have had this is a program we have had more growth in in our career and technology expenditures. Um we are still rece when we look at some of these funding sources career and technology um bilingual special education they we are required to spend 55% of the money we get on those programs. um we ha were able to take 45% to cover other costs of the district but we spend way more than the 55% and you can see that there has been even more of an impact at CTE that our expenditures in CTE are growing faster than the revenues are. And then special education has been has had probably the largest
053growth. Um at one point we were sort of generating more money than we were spending that this year as you can see it's right even the money that we're getting for special ed even with that new evaluation um piece that we got is equal to our expenditures compensatory education. This is one that had a major change in the law to where we it used to be part of that 55% of it had to be spent on direct program costs. Um whether that's going to continue I mean they the law they took the wording out of the law. So, um, we're still I still am spending the 55% just until we kind of know get some clarification on some things. But there's another one that we are actually spending more than the 55% on direct program
054and comped bilingual education. Um, same sort of thing. and and part of this is due to the salary increase this year and putting those into th the teaching positions. We've also had some big increases in bilingual ed this year for stipens. We've increased the number of sections of bilingual ed throughout the district and that those come with a stipen for that special teacher. And so that's most of the increase here is either that salary increase we got from the state or those stipens. And then early childhood education, this has had some significant increases as well. Um we are now spending a little bit more. So, I apologize a little bit for this one because this is a little misleading because the state used to make us only code some of these programs to the amount
055of money that they were giving us. And this is one that we were supposed to code it to exactly what even though we may have had more costs, we could only code just what they gave us because they didn't want it to look like they weren't funding us, I think. Um, so when they gave us the new money this year, I took that off and I now have coded all of the early childhood teachers to this program. And so it kind of shows that we actually are spending more than we're getting from the state even with the new money. And then dyslexia services sort of the same way at one point. Um, and we were paying for dyslexia services. You see uh that some of that big increase is because we moved it out of
056ESRE funds. I think because I had moved about a million dollars of dyslexia services to ESSER to use up some of that money and so we moved that back. But again, what we're getting for dyslexia services is not coming close to funding what we're spending. Will the uh the 2 whatever million that we're getting through special ed will that will that also be funded through will will it also funnel into this dyslexia I can't even say the word dyslexia services will some of that money filtered to this >> so we don't actually get special ed funding for it's now a special ed program is not getting special ed funding it's getting this dyslexia funding. So this is what you see. >> So that's earmarked for this. >> But this is now also part of maintenance
057of effort. So we have to maintain effort for special ed including this the dyslexia expenditures. So I'm a little concerned about the way that that's going to play out. I've been trying to hold the line on that a little bit. But yes, we're not getting even though it's now a special ed program, we're not going to get special ed funding for it. we just get the dyslexia funding. And then our college career and military readiness. This is one that we are as of this year, not before this year, but as of this year, we did get those numbers up and we have two positions that are funded from these funds. And so we are actually um making a little bit of money on that one. But like I said, this last year, we kind of
058don't know that number until after the fact. And so, um, we are, like I said, we're making a little bit of money and that's some of I'm going to probably recode some things that could be charged there to those funds. And then here's here's some non-program expenditures. This shows our school safety. We do get money from the state for school safety. And this is what that looks like. Last year was a little bit higher because we had a lot or this this past year that we just finished, we bought vehicles and we bought a lot of things and getting our police department started up. So, it's a little bit higher, but you can see how much that has increased over the last eight years and compared to our revenue. getting a little more revenue but
059still spending quite a bit more on school safety. Transportation um transportation is actually I was uh it went up it considerably last year. We bought a bunch of new buses last year. So for this past year that's why you see that big jump when we brought transportation inhouse and bought new buses. It went up quite a bit. That's come back down since we bought all those buses. So right now our transportation is just about half a million dollars higher than what we were spending when it was contracted. Service is better. But the good news that one of the things that will change these numbers a little bit, we filed our route services report with TEA this week and we're actually going to pick up $200,000 because of our mileage. I think maybe being reported better
060or Anyway, we're picking up about 200,000. So, that's going to offset this half million increase here. So, the increase only ends up being about $300,000. And I think that's um for the tradeoff with the better service. I think that was probably well spent. And then athletics is another area that we've had. We had quite a bit of increase back in what's that year? Shortly after, I think the year after COVID, we had some we increased um some sports and added some positions and all in athletics. Some of that has um come down a little bit. We had last year and the year before both years those are a little bit higher because of the schools opening, the middle schools and the high school opening. we did purchase a lot of new athletic equipment and uniforms
061and all with some of that money and um so that's why you see a little bit of more of an increase in the last two years and why that's kind of come down a little bit um for athletics. We did extend the days on some of the contracts of employees. Um, but I also, one of the things that was in there was a replacement schedule for the middle schools. We had started a uniform replacement schedule and uh about about $100,000 per middle school. When we built Carver, we bought new uniform. We had we had replaced them all when Dr. Kanan first came to the district, but then we built Carver. We replaced Carver's uniforms. When we built Tennyson the following year, we replaced Tennyson's uniforms. And so we put in money in the current year
062to replace as our Chavez so they would be on par with the other two middle schools. I had took that money though away from athletics this year because we are also hitting our band uniform replacement which happens every seven years. So, I used some of the NEA money to do Waco High's band uniforms this year, and I'm taking that money out of athletics to put it to university to do their uniforms next year. Sorry, Ed. >> You're like, really? Anyway, you had it for three years. So again, we talked we're going to talk a little bit about each of these areas and kind of what the cost is in the budget for some of these things. We talked about the kinds of increases we've had particularly in, you know, vehicle fuel and uh health insurance,
063our property insurance. Fortunately, we still have a increase this year, but it's more for the new buildings, not just the kind of rate increase we've been seeing. We already talked about the safety and security increases and then cost of living. We'll just kind of cover salary increases for that. So here's what the salary increase the impact on the budget. We talked a little bit about that last time on the base amount of salaries and the number of people that are in that and then kind of what um those zero through two-year teachers what the salaries were for those because they didn't get a salary increase from that teacher retention aotment and then down below I had calculated what that $430,000 that we got for the staff retention aotment what kind of increase that would be
064if we applied it to all those people that that was supposed to go to. That was a 69% increase for those staff. So what we then we looked last time also at what a 1% 2% and 3% increase would be um over and above the funding that we got. So a 1% on all that those other staff we had to do what we had to do for the teachers with the 3 to plus years of experience. But for the other staff what we would have done for 1% would be about 764,000 2% would be about a million6 and then uh 3% was about $2.4 million. So this is what we we did 2%. what's built into the budget right now besides what we had to do for the teachers is um a 2% increase. So
065what we did for the teachers that with five or more years of experience as they roll up for this coming year will get a $5,000 a year increase and that is regardless of whether they are full-time or part-time. The part-time teachers will get that too. And uh then for the teachers that are 3 to four years of experience, they get 2500. So what we did in this pay proposal for the teachers with one to two years experience, we're giving them 1,500 and then we're increasing our starting salary from 53,000 to 54,000 by $1,000. on our other employee groups. They're all getting 2% of their respective midpoints of their schedule and you can see those dollar amounts there. So for this uh administrative and professional, the only group that we could not use that support money,
066of course, we're way past that anyway, so it doesn't matter were administrators. The professional group there are uh staff like counselors and psychologists and and all the other professional positions that aren't considered administrators in ps. So that costs about 639,000. CL our auxiliary increase is 324,000 and our clerical professionals 288,000. There are some other adjustments that um Dr. care will cover when she covers the the uh compensation plan after this. But um that's basically it cost us about $4.9 million for the salary increase and then the re employee benefits on that $490,000. So uh the total cost of salary benefit increases about five a.5 million. we are getting from the state for those two pots of money 3.7 million. So that means the district picked up about a million8 for salary increases. >> Cheryl, um
067boy, these mics are live tonight. Um, with the legislature giving the salary bumps to year three and up, did that money also cover pensions and TRS? >> No, >> that that's what we we absorb. >> Correct. And so 589,000 of this money comes from that ABC allotment that they called it, that additional basic >> costs, whatever it was called. Um, so that's was what that money was designed specifically. They mentioned the benefits for the salaries because I think people raised a stink that the the salary money could only be used for salary and not for the benefits. And then it was supposed to cover like the increases in property insurance, increases in utilities. There were some very specific things that that money was to cover. >> Thank you. >> And we've spent it. Okay. So,
068um then the next thing just looking at some of our other cost increases that were on that other sheet what it was for this year. utilities. Again, we have locked in our utility our electricity rates until uh 2033, I believe. So, we don't have a lot of increases in electricity. And uh we've actually had the increases we had in water, gas, and electricity were offset by our new phone system and the decreases we've got there. So, we only have about $16,000 increase in those. our property and casualty insurance. Uh we were TASBY said they were going to be flat. Well, the rates were flat, but because of the new buildings for Tennyson and Waco High coming on, um we well, I guess Kendrick and and Waco High coming on this coming year, our property insurance
069went up about $200,000 on the um gas where they were the they were projecting a little bit of a decrease, but we actually I had to increase it a little bit because we had some debt deficits in the current year. So that's and we brought on transportation which we didn't have before. So that's about $38,000. The health fund and we'll look at the health fund in a little bit um is a million4 increase. And then um on state funding special education because we got all that additional money. Our increased costs in special ed are about $2.3 million. And other increases that we had include tax collection fees of 96,000. Who's our representative on the uh appraisal district board? >> Well, maybe you need to talk. So, I want to know if that 600 Wait a
070minute. What? I want to know how come our how come our share of the appraisal district's cost went down by a couple percentage points but our cost went up $85,000. So and uh part of it is that software and I want to know if that software $600,000 for software cost is recurring or not. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Anyway, so we had $96,000 there. our tuition cost for JJ A because we did increase participation there was a increase of 155,000 and then the advancedmies um the tuition this is not what we talked about that transfer that we do when they're in in the red this is actually we pay tuition from the general fund into Guam and Guaca for kids that are attending there and of course most of the kids in those programs are our
071kids so we have had an increase of 38,000 to the general fund for that. Now looking at our group health plan performance very frustrated with health insurance. Um so our um per employm per employee per month cost what so far this year has been $754.18. This last year that amount was $64643. Our medical costs have actually gone down. This is medical claims. They are this year 375.97 versus 53 um 95 last year. What continues to go up is pharmacy and our drug claims. um this they are 31620 pharmacy this year compared to 21696 last year. So we have we are self-insured. We have stoploss coverage. We have large claims threshold of 75,000. So when claims go over 75,000 we start looking start getting reimbursements for those. We have 12 members so far this year that
072ha are exceeding that by a million4. Last year we had about 10 members that were exceeding that but for a higher amount because we had like the second day of the year I think when we came back from Christmas vacation we had a insurance claim for a million dollars. So um we had a big claim last year that's driving that number. And then uh oh sorry that was our threshold. Our stop loss is at 150 for um each individual. >> Joe, can you explain that to me? I've never understood that. I know we have some kind of stop loss. So when when an employee goes above that that level, then the insurance company covers the rest and reimbures us. We buy insurance at and there's two different rates. There's an individual amount and then there's
073an aggregate for the whole plan, but our individual incident is $150,000. So if an employee goes over $150,000, we get reimbursed for the claims. >> Okay. >> Now the a we haven't hit the aggregate. I think we are say, you know, when I thought that million dollars was actually hitting in last year, I thought we might hit the aggregate last year, but we didn't. So, we're a long ways from hitting the aggregate. >> What is the aggregate? >> You would ask me that. I'm not sure what the aggregate >> round. I have no idea. I'm going to tell you a number. I'll look it up and tell you. >> Okay. >> So, so with this insurance that we have on insurance, am I correct? So if I was an employee and you know I have
074another hip surgery and it's $300,000 whatever the the 75,000 >> that's that's our threshold threshold >> monitoring them. >> So the 150,000 then is what you have. So the other 150,000 would come from the insurance company back to the district. >> Correct. >> Okay. We've had um we go out for coverage and we usually award that I think in November, October, November time frame. Um but we have had different companies that have provided our stop loss. Um this right now we're with United Healthcare as part of the coverage as well. We've had Sunlife and different ones before, but yes, we go out every year that >> and to get the stop loss. I have kept it. We looked last year at raising that to maybe 175 or 200. It would have reduced the premiums on
075stop loss, but I went in and estimated the cost of doing that. I mean, like I said, last year was a big year, but I still felt like we needed to stay at the 150 for the cost. So that stoploss insurance, is that filtered down to employees that go into their their monthly premium that they pay or is this something that we as a district bite the bullet on? >> Yes. No. >> Yes. To both of those. >> Yes, it goes. It's a cost of the plan. And so the cost of the plan is covered by both employer and employee contributions. And so we'll kind of talk about what those increases will be. >> So it's a shared expense. >> A shared expense. >> So looking at this plan performance and the total plan on
076this is by plan. The total plan May of 2024 we were at 116% of where we had budgeted. This year we're at 128%. Um year to date, this is calendar year to oh ex sorry that was the month of May. So calendar year to date we are at 106% last year 107% this year. Our high deductible plan that's a $4,000 deductible always runs really well. I mean as you can see even on the year-to-ate ones we're only running 85 84% last year 84% this year. um our Nexus plan which is a narrower network uh the deductible is 3500 on that and right now that plan is running at 111% last year and this year the EPO which is a $2500 PL deductible um which you know in turn has the highest premium payments for the
077employees as well that runs atund it's running right now at 187% percent of what was budgeted for the plan. It's um always runs real high. And so looking at this, this is what we're talking about for our monthly contribution rates for this coming year. It's basically a 9% increase. So a little bit of what um is in the budget presentation. We got this um finished up last week just shortly before I put this out. So, I did hadn't had time to run numbers through um the salary proposal again. So, I think this is going to save us about 220,000 because I was using 10% in the original budget. So, I think this will save about 220,000 to the general fund from those previous numbers. Um our so our premium will go from 55860, this is
078district contribution, to 608.40. Um that's an increase of $49.80. And then depending on what plan you have and what um what you're covering with your employee, spouse or children or family um that can range employee only um the con if you are in if you are in a high deductible plan your premium will not increase. the district will pay for the increase in that completely if you but if you are in like the EPO plan um that is in that plan has going from 20252 to 2223 so it's about a $20 increase. So you can just kind of see what that is for um employee spouse and an employee children and employee family. So, it's um pretty significant increases about 9% for all of the plans more than the salary increase which is 2% but
079it's only 9% of that amount not other entire set. So we talked last year about going with TRS and we were actually um exploring that to some extent. But one of the things that happened last year at the when we were looking at it in the fall is that TRS is under Blue Cross Blue Shield here in region 12 and they did not have a contract with Baylor Scott and White. So our employees would not we have a lot a lot of employees using Baylor Scott and White and because they couldn't we wouldn't be able to use it we decided last year not to continue exploring going with TRS. >> Isn't it also a five-year commitment? >> Yes. >> So >> is it still >> I I thought it was last year or year before
080when we talked about it was a fiveyear >> lock in it some change that happened but I remember all the details but there was a change away from there was still some concerns we pursued it too >> so but I I just think it would be relevant when it comes time for renewal that we check that out again and maybe Blue Cross Blue Shield has >> we're finishing our first year with United Healthcare when we're a three-year bid for that but I mean we could cancel at the end of the year um >> I think it would be worth looking at if if Blue Cross Blue Shield does include, you know, next year or the year year after if they include Hillrest, Baylor, Scott and White, >> but for this area, for Waco, I think
081ridiculous not a big problem. And for our employees, that was a big problem. >> And Temple, Belton, Kellen, I mean, Scott and White Hospital and Baylor Scott White, >> they couldn't negotiate a contract with them. So, didn't cover them this past year. when when we >> but it is something we can look at >> when we sign like a multi-year sometimes those insurance companies if you sign like a three or a fiveyear they'll give you a your your rate won't increase more than a certain percentage. Do we get that kind of deal like where it won't in other words it won't go up more than this amount but if you're below that you can negotiate down. Does that make sense? We have had that sometimes that we always seem to that following year it just
082like goes up sky magically. >> But um yeah we you we went the last three years not this past year but the three years before that we went with um Blue Cross Blue Shield and we had some promises in that bid and it was really the increases were much higher than United Healthcare. We have brought this down somewhat going back with United Healthcare, but part of that is because we also changed our pharmacy. We were with um who who was that pharmacy? No, we're CVS now, but the one before Oh, never mind. What? Whatever they were, I can't remember their names. So, um one of those big huge ones. we were with them and we weren't getting rebates. We were getting, you know, maybe quarter of a million, 250,000 a quarter, but since we went
083with CVS, we're getting like 750,000 a quarter in rebates. So, the other thing I we did this year, I still don't know what to do about this. Um, we do cover the weight loss drugs. We're one of the few entities that does. Most districts do not cover them, but we went into a program this year that if you were going to continue to re to get prescribed weight loss drugs, you had to join a and it's kind of in the financial statements. I kind of put an update in the financial statements about it, but you had to join a program, a weight management program with United Healthcare in order to continue receiving those prescriptions >> and didn't have a one-on-one dietitionian >> u counseling therapy or something. It looked like it was it was a
084great option >> and the reviews have been positive for the employees that are participating in it. Um it's still a little early to really I mean we only have information now. It started January 1. So we only have information through May through the first five months I think of the program and it took a little while for it to get started. So I don't know. I mean the one thing that we could still do is eliminate coverage of um weight loss drugs. Now, I mean, last year that was about there had been about a half a million dollar increase in that. I'm not doing that. Oh, okay. >> Someone's thumb was heavy. >> Anyway, so but we also because CVS rebates are as big as they are, we're getting quite a bit back in rebates
085for those drugs, too, because they are name brand drugs. I don't know. I like I said, I had somebody in my office last year crying when they she thought I was going to cut their weight loss drugs. Um, and I have seen people that it seems to be making a huge difference in their lives. And so it's kind of, you know, I hate to say because I'm the meanest person in the district. So I hate to say that I get kind of a soft heart on this issue, but you know, it's something that we may need to look at cutting and reducing it because it would help out this fund. I think some to some extent, but anyway, it's still in there at this point in time. Okay. So that's the general fund. That's kind
086of what that looks like. We have our um this is tonight on the 14th we will present the proposed budget and tax rate. I did last night get the values the certified values from the appraisal district very close to what we've been using. I think it's n% difference from the estimate that I had been using for this purpose. So the tax rate that I showed uh last month or the month before will be that same tax rate for this budget proposal didn't really have time to get that all all the numbers run through. I did re do my reports to tea today with that but um we will show those proposed the proposed tax rate and budget on the 14th and then um we will publish that notice in the paper on the 15th. It
087has to be in there for 10 days and then the meeting to adopt. We'll have the public meeting prior to the adoption and so people can come and complain about it if they want to or say it's great if they want to. Um and then we will have the meeting to adopt it right after that same night. Now, there has been some some of the experts or some of the consultants are advising not adopting your tax rate this early. And so, I'm going to kind of look at that a little bit to see we always have gone ahead and adopted it the same night uh because of the changes. And I I do seem to it does look like our appraisal district is kind of on top of getting those um exemptions in this year.
088So I don't know. I'm going to kind of look to see what that is. We do have to adopt a budget before we adopt a tax rate by law. So we'll just look and see if it looks like that's good enough information. We want to go ahead and adopt the tax rate. I don't think we have a lot of say in the tax rate, so we may as well. Uh anyway, so then the first year the first day of the fiscal year is September 1. We have to have a budget in place before then if we want to pay people. Okay, I'll see you on the 14th. We'll do look at debt service and food service and all those that >> Thank you, Miss Davis. You always thorough. We appreciate you. walk away as good
089>> mic drop as she walks away. >> We will now move on to item nine. Review and discuss and take appropriate action on regarding the 202526 composition manual presented by Dr. Kerine. >> Alrighty. Once again, President Vana, board of trustees, Dr. Spicer, we are very excited this evening to present to you our proposal for the compensation plan for 2025 2026. And before I begin, um I would just like to thank just a couple of individuals because this has been um a very intensive, laborious process for all of us working with Chief Davis. Uh Dr. Lopez made the promise that before he left that he would be working on this and he worked on it even after he left on June 30th while he was on the beach. And I would also like to acknowledge a
090couple of people in our department, specifically Alisa Mayberg for helping us with a lot of this work. And then one of our newest hires who was a previous intern, Matthew Holkkey. He is now one of our specialists. He also helped us crunch some numbers. So with that said, uh this is the fun part for you all. And following Chief Davis's presentation, we would like to go ahead and present to you our compensation plan for 2025 2026. And we are going to just briefly cover our salary adjustments, stipens, benefits, incentives, and then talk just a little bit about how we're going to support um our recruitment process, retention, and our employee well-being. So, as we are all aware with House Bill 2 and our teacher retention aotment, we are going to be giving $2,500 to those
091teachers with three to four years of experience and $5,000 to those with five years of experience or more. And classroom teacher does um it is defined as anybody who is working more than four hours a day. That includes those who are teaching in an academic setting, core content, and CTE. So, our proposal includes as some of the salary adjustments that Chief Davis did mention. Specifically, our zero-year teachers, we are increasing them by $1,000 from 53,000 to $54,000. Our 1 to twoyear teachers, we wanted to honor them as well with a $1,500 increase. And then you see that our three to four years are getting the 2500 and then the five plus at the 5,000 based on the teacher retention aotment. And then of course our proposal for the 2% um increase 2% raise off of
092the midpoint for administrative and professionals, our pair professionals and our auxiliary staff to include custodians and our cafeteria employees. Additionally, we are wanting to um provide um some additional money regarding our relocation reimbursements as we attract individuals who come from beyond our 250 and 499 miles parameter by increasing this reimbursement up from 750 to uh I mean from 500 to 750 and then 500 miles over up to $1,000. And this is something that we're really excited to advertise and market. We've also made some paygrade reclassifications and we're very happy and excited to announce that we are moving a couple of our administrative assistants from our athletics department as well as our police department up a paygrade from 207 to 208 and they are now being reclassified as executive administrative assistants. Our HVAC technicians are moving
093from a 308 pay grade to a 309. Our mechanics are moving from 309 to 310 and our police officers are moving from a 310 to 311 and everyone will be adjusted accordingly. >> Kine, have we always done relocation? I mean, I think that is a a very nice little perk for us attracting. >> We have. We haven't had that many individuals utilize it, but we have offered it especially for our teachers. >> So, have this has been several years going on. I just never knew that we offered it. I think that's cool. >> Thank you. For our stipens and extra duty, we do have a couple of additional pay increases and this is um based off of that 2% um increase off the midpoint. So, our counselors are moving up from 30 to 35. Library
094media specialists for extra duty pay will be from 25 to 30. Librarians are 30 to 35. And as you can see, our RVNs are moving up to 35. Our instructional specialists are moving up to 35 and our non-instructional professionals are moving up to 30. And to continue, our office clerks and receptionists are moving up from 1285 to 16. Administrative assistants and our central office are moving up from $1,550 to $20 for extra duty. Our videographers moving from 20 to 22. And our pack managers, because we now have one at each campus, will be receiving $6,750 for their stipens. And then a few new stipens that we've included in addition to all the other stipens that we currently have for our inclusion resource dyslexia teachers. They will be receiving $2,000. Our lead dyslexia teachers will also
095be receiving $2,000. And these individuals do have additional case loads. Our PE lead teacher, thank you, uh, Director Love, will be moving up to $6,000. And this individual does support all of our PE teachers across the district. And then our MCL3 from Opportunity Culture will have an $18,000 stipen and that is through opportunity culture which is separate for our benefits and insurance enhancements. Um, our contributions are increasing from $556 to 608 a month. And our flexible spending is moving up um the coverage from 500 a year, which will be $4160 rounded up 67 cents per month. So, with that said, the fiscal impact is going to be um an estimate of about 4.9, which Chief Davis did also cover. And all of this has been included in our 2025 2026 proposed budget. And so all
096you all have to do based on our recommendation is just approve our compensation plan. And that is our presentation. >> I move that we approve the 202526 comp compensation plan as presented. >> I second. >> All right. Ahead of me. I entertain a motion. It is motion was made by Mr. Gillery and second by Mr. Patton. Mr. Bleo, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Gillery, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Ela, is there any discussion? >> Uh, just a clarification. So, a dyslexia teacher has been teaching for five plus years. She's getting the 5,000 plus the $2,000 stipen. >> Yes. >> Excellent. Thank you.
097Any more questions? >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Passes. We will now move on to item >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Cody. We will now move on to item 10. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding hazardous routes presented by Miss Mon'nique Brock and Travis Jetum. Good evening, um, Superintendent Spicer, President Vidana, members of the board. Before I pass the mic over to Travis Jet, I first off would like to let everybody know that I I wish that uh, Miss Brock was with us this evening. Unfortunately, she had to step away for a family emergency. Um, so I encourage you to keep her and her family and your thoughts. Um, in the meanwhile, we do have um, Mr. Chetum here to present tonight. Um, but in addition,
098we have some of our amazing transportation staff members here. And before I give the mic over, I just want to take a moment and really celebrate this team. Um, last year was the first year, as you all know, that they came on board and we brought them inhouse uh to work as team Waco and they did not disappoint. Um, consistently we have received feedback on the improved service. Um, I think that Mr. Chetum is going to share some specifics when he embarks on the beginning of his presentation, but I just have to tell you it's been an absolute honor to support and serve this team. They work so well together and they keep students at the heart of what they do. as I've engaged in conversations with them, both their leaders and just the whole
099team, it's always about what the kids need, and I really appreciate that. And I have to tell you, that's not always common. So, we need to celebrate um and really treasure the fact that we've got such a great transportation team. I just wanted to make sure that you all heard that. We value you immensely. So, thank you very much. Thank you very Thank you very much for that introduction. Um, I just wanted to give a shout out. We do have several members here. Um, we have Patricia Williamson and Sha Robinson, our operations managers, Miss Esther Etcherson, our administrative assistants, and we are all very thankful for Miss Brock and wish the best for her family as she's been a great leader for us and works too much. So, I think we can all agree on
100that. Um before I hop in, I'm going to um just throw out a couple shoutouts to continue that. Just we're very proud of some of the work that um we've accomplished over this year. Um this slide just shows some of the shout outs we we've received. The top left one was that the MA program over at Baylor that represented multiple districts and they said that like our busing services and working with us was the easiest. So that's a big shout out. The bottom left was to one of our drivers that did a field trip. They went to go see a nuclear reactor at&m. Uh and then the right side was um one of the um representatives from region 12. Her grandson goes to Mountain View and he had such a great experience with our bus
101driver that he wanted to like write a note and make the illustration. So it's just lots of sweet notes um that we really appreciate. Um this next slide um some additional points is just general favorability has really improved across the district. Um thankfully we have gotten so many great comments especially from administrators when they see year to year what's happened um is a big difference. Middle school especially I worked at Carver two years ago and I'm telling you we were there after 6 p.m. a lot waiting to clear that school last year. I mean, I think the latest was maybe 455 for Carver. Um, and that was the rare occasion. Um, Tennyson had a little bit longer um due to a lot of other components, but I mean it was drastically different. So, we're very
102proud of that and want to keep on going. And finally, kind of leading to this conversation, um, thank you Chief Davis for the shout out. Um we worked hard with our data this year and um so we are projected about a 16% increase in funding based off of some of the changes that have been implemented this past year. >> So hopping into our hazards our biggest change I want to go ahead and start with the biggest one is Kendrick Elementary. So Kendrick, um, as you can see, you know, is back at its brand new building. That is great, but they were across town. And so they're at the old Indian Spring Middle School. So it was a 100% transportation rates because it was all the way across town. Now that we're going back to this
103building, when we compare the way the streets are designed compared to our other district or our other campuses, what our proposed boundaries for hazards are. Um so the north end is just Valley Mills which is the end of attend the attendance boundary. The east end is um I35 which are both nearby um and very clear at the attendance boundaries. On the west end our proposed boundary is the uh railroad tracks behind uh Franklin and then the south um boundary looks a little bit more wonky there. That's New Road. And what our practice is is on major roads when there's apartment complexes, we still serve those apartment complexes if there's no like easy uh sidewalk access. So that little notch you see there is the Tuscanyany apartments. So even though that's on that side of New
104Road, we propose to still provide transportation to that location. Um I'm just going to keep on going through and then come back for questions on here. And so you can see the green shaded area is what would be considered the non-eligible zone and then the red shaded area is what um where transportation would be provided. This next slide is continuing with Kendrick. I just provided a boundary where you can see Alta Alta Vista overlaid. So Alta Vista is now zoned to Kendrick when it is west of I35. So all students west of I35 would go to Kendrick. Um the bottom boundary in pink are the students that would receive transportation from Alta Vista. The top um area like a purplish or white section was Alta Vista but that would be in the non-eligible zone. And
105then that middle green section is the area that was Kendrick for South Waco. our proposal. Um so all of the students that is on the east side of I35 would be zoned to South Waco that was at Alta Vista. Um our proposal for South Waco is essentially not to change any of the boundaries. And the reason for that is because the southern boundary that would be going towards Alta Vista directly butts up with the circle and Robinson road or highway 77 which I wouldn't advise anybody to cross um by any means. I will continue that argument. And so therefore any former Alta Vista student on the east side of I35 would receive transportation as long as they're within that attendance zone. And so no changes. whatsoever to South Waco is what's being proposed for Caesar
106Shadas. This was a big discussion with our attendance boundary committees. One of the main reasons we discussed that is if you look directly behind the school, you'll see Kate Ross Apartments, which was zoned to Indian Spring and then to Carver. Um, which is always one of those awkward things when you talk about the idea of community schools and how do you build that is you would think some you know a uh community would be as close to the school as possible. That's at least the ideal. And so that was a big part of the attendance boundary discussion. There's also been a significant amount of infrastructure improvements the city has um put forth in that area. Um this is also you know home to the silo district and all of that area. So it's become very
107walkable in this area. Um so our proposal is that the railroad tracks that go down Jackson would be the western border. Um the southern border and the eastern border would maintain the same as we had with um Caesar Chavez before and then the northern border would extend all the way to the river would be the end of that is what's being proposed. Finally for University High School we recommend no changes. I bring it up just because with attendance boundary change um there will be additional students that are zoned to University High School, but this is already um pretty well bounded by hazardous roads and so we recommend no changes. Okay. Uh does anyone have any questions regarding any of those slides or things I can expand upon? I'll make a motion uh that we approve
108the resolution regarding the hazardous traffic conditions as presented. >> Second by motion made by Mr. Gillery, second by Mr. Davis. Mr. Bleto, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> No. Just thank you for all y'all do. >> Mr. Hillary, is there any discussion? No discussion. >> Mr. Atton, is there any discussion? >> No, sir. >> Mr. Oo, is there any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> It passes. >> Thank you very much. >> We will now move on to We now move on to item 11. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding House Bill 1481 required policy adoption presented by Dr. King Nose and Dr. Hamilton. Thank you. Good evening, Superintendent Spicer,
109President Vatana. We are here today to talk to you about amending um our current policy FNC due to the legislative changes um brought forth by House Bill 14A1. Um, as most of you are aware by now, this policy was put in place in order to reduce distractions for students during the school day and to minimize any interruptions during the learning process. Um, we do recognize as a school district that parents do have the safety of their students concerned at heart because of the phones. I did just want to point out that our school policy, our school policy and our student code of conduct and handbook has always afforded the students to have the phones just to have them turned off and out of sight. So, this particular policy that we're doing today is just going
110to expand upon what we already do. Quickly, I was just going to say it's also asking parents and guardians call the school's phone number to relay any urgent messages to their child, which is what what used to happen. Um, pre- cell phones. >> That is actually >> I don't know if anybody remembers that. I know I do. >> That's right. >> And you dialed your mom's number on the rotary phone. So, >> um, again, the exceptions to this are those that have those needs in their IEP or 504 plan. If they have a document from their doctor that says they need it, such as diabetic students, things like that, the nurse will have those on file. And then anything that complies with health or safety requirements as part of a law or our district's school
111safety protocols. Um, as we've already referenced, our personal communication devices will be turned off, stored out of sight during the school day while in the building and not be removed until leaving the school building as specified in our student code of conduct. And personal communication devices must remain turned off during the school day and then stored unless those devices are being used for approved purposes as provided in the policy. And the last thing that the bill requires us to do is to discuss consequences. Um, as I previously mentioned, not having a phone out during the school day has been part of our student code of conduct and our student handbook for years now. And there has been, um, if you have it and you get caught with it, the teacher takes it up or the
112administrator takes it up, um, take it to the office, call parent, you know, that sort of thing. So, what we're going to establish in the student code of conduct when we come back before y'all are the actual steps that we'll take, first violation, second violation, the specifics of it. So, once you approve this bill tonight for us to our policy tonight to go forward, then we'll come back with the student code of conduct and the student handbook outlined with the consequences and the steps for those >> which will be before the first day of school. >> Yes. Can I ask one question? What what defines school day now? Like I mean, if a kid is walking down the hall at Waco High or outside of the classroom, can they have their phone on? If we're
113at a pep rally during school hours, can we have our phone out? Is it what what defines school day? >> The school day is um from when they come into the building to when they leave. Now, based on the activities that are going on, we again, we've always had it where they can't have it app turned off. Especially at elementary, it wasn't as big of a big deal. Secondary, you know, lunch in the hallway and things like that. And our teachers were able to have the ability to say, "We're going to use it for this activity or like you said, it's athletics. They're, you know, outside with the band thing." But now, unfortunately, this particular bill, what it changes is it takes away our ability to determine when it's appropriate to have a phone on
114campus. This is making it to where we don't really have that choice. >> So, in order to not take the phone away completely, so they can't have it at all. We are respecting the fact that parents kids walk home after school, they need to have their phone. So, we're again keeping what it is. We just have to add that specificity now on first consequence, second consequence, what happens. >> Thank you. >> That I pull watches are a big deal. I don't have one, >> but but um knowing that that uh cellular devices, communication devices must be put away. That will include kids not wearing Apple watches. >> Again, >> 1981 specifically stated that. So again, we don't get to determine what they have defined as a personal communication device. >> And you guys are going
115and and I'm I know it's happening. >> I spoke with Dr. Kings null nullles. Um but you're going to have some way of knowing that Keith Gillery was warned in first period and I'm his fifth grade, fifth period teacher and he's warned again. But there's going to be some way to document how many times a student has been worn. >> Similar to the previous house 115 that came with vapes, we put in local codes into our system so we could track whether it was a THC vape or a non-THC vape. We will have a local code for a telephone confiscation so that we'll be able to track >> to track it. >> Perfect. >> I had a couple questions. One, so I just want to be clear. So even like during lunchtime if I'm outside
116in the courtyard it's lunchtime free I cannot use my cell phone >> options that they gave us to begin with is they can't have it on school property at all or if they do they can't we have to specify it has to be off and turned off we cannot see it at all. >> Gotcha. And what are we doing um to prepare students and families for this? So our communication department has already started sending that out. Once we start getting those um consequ make sure that they are well aware and we will also show some grace. Yes. >> Because as um every board member I mean every board meeting starts with Mr. Vana saying please turn off your cell phones. Some of us still forget even as adults. So we will be practicing that in
117the beginning to remind people have them up and out of sight. Turn them off completely. Just don't make it. >> Yeah. I definitely love hearing about the grace. I would suggest maybe some direct conversations with the kids when they show up on campus like some assemblies or something cuz I'm like I could see I could see you know it being on parents wearing on the website and we didn't read any of that and we showed up to Waco High and we were focused on what we had on that day and meet seeing our friends. So we didn't check the website to see if it was a new policy >> but it's going to be the same to do with all of it. We don't have that here. Make sure you remember this. All of those
118things, the clear backpack, it's just going to be that repetition of reminding everyone this new rule >> that again, you've always had it where you're not, you know, you're not have it out. This just now mandates we can't we don't have a choice and telling you where you can and you can't. It just has to be I mean off and stored >> while you're there. >> I entertain a motion to accept the HB 1481 require policy adoption. Do I have a motion? >> I think we have to I think we have to read it for what it is because you have to amend the board policy. Is that right, Peter? >> Yeah. >> So, I move that we amend board policy FNC local as recommended by administration. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Gillery, second
119by Mr. Davis. Mr. Bleo, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? Mr. Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> Yes. I just wanted to make it clear that we are complying, but this was not a Waco ISD >> decision. I just wanted to make that clear that we are complying, but this was not a Waco ISD idea. Okay. >> Mr. Giller, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Ocho, is there any discussion? >> Uh, just a thought that maybe we could include our state representatives numbers on any education we provide to our parents. That way they have it. >> We could put a QR code. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Passes. We will
120we'll move on to item 15. Announcements presented by Chief Cox. >> Thank you. >> Evening again, President Vida, Superintendent Spicer, board members. We are officially in fullon student registration mode. So, I want to say a big special thank you. I've been on several campuses um this week and I've seen staff and admin teams and all sorts of folks answering phones, setting up stations, getting families in there to register. You know, we have family fest coming up this weekend as Dr. Spicer highlighted. So, we really want families to know we want your names on those lists. We want you to come get those free backpacks full of um clear spice and come have a party with us. Run or walk too if you'd like to kick it off that way. But thank you again to the
121campus staff and the admin teams for how they're supporting families and working through those um online registration systems that we do have and helping us get ready as we prepare for the first day of school on August 13th. Ahead of that August 13th date, we're planning a really big party for our staff. Convocation 2025 2026 is August 4th. The communications team along with several campus and district partners are hard at work on preparations for what's going to be a party. Right, Dr. Spicer? I keep saying complete with the DJ. Be ready to come. Wear your dancing shoes, support your campuses, and be ready to have a good time and um get pumped up for the school year. Doors open at the convention center at 7:30 a.m. for attendees to enjoy um a great tradition that
122we're bringing in and merging as a part of the full employee convocation experience is our HR's annual employee wellness fair. So, thanks to the HR team for teaming up with communications and making sure that all employees have that first hour of time from 7:30 till almost 9 o'clock to visit vendors that are there to offer them some goodies, some swag, and to make sure that they know that um they appreciate Waco ISD employees. So, again, 7:30 a.m. bright and early Monday, August 4th, doors at the convention center will open and we'll start that party. for the board and for our admin team and leadership team. Our next regular meeting is August 28th, but we still look forward to a series of special meetings, new member trainings, workshops, and team building meetings that we have scheduled
123all throughout August ahead of that regular meeting. So, we'll see you back here on August 6. >> Yes. Thank you'all. >> Cox, the pep rally is >> Oh. Oh, yes. the um our athletics department and our um head football coach and athletic coordinators. They're planning a party on August 1st at the athletics stadium. Um thank you to Coach Foster and Coach Martinez. This is that's their show. Um they are organizing a true experience for Waco ISD all to come together. Um I I know I got to over hear how Dr. Spicer was talking to Coach Foster. He's got his run a show. It sounds like it's going to be a great event. Dr. Dr. Spicer, would you like to say anything else about that? >> I am excited about this event because this is what
124I've heard the first time that we're coming together as one Waco with University High School and Waco High School. So, I I want to specifically thank our two head football coaches for making this happen. We're going to celebrate both schools, both teams, all the cheer, the band, the drum, and everything. So, please come out, bring your families. Let's have a good time on a Friday night to kick off the school year, kick off football season, kick off academics. So we're very very excited and very thankful to our leadership at the campus levels. >> Thank you. >> Right. The white board of trustees will now go into close session at 805 this time to proceed to the Texas Open Meeting Act Texas Government Code Chapter 551 sections. 071.72.76 074.0821 0821 and 89. We anticipate taking action
125when we return. [Music] >> Renew a good cause exemption under Texas code section 37.0814 presented by Chief Cox. Thank you, President Vidana. A little bit of background information before um we prepare you all to take this vote. House Bill 3 passed the 88th Texas legislature in 2023. Um in August of 2023, we came before you um and shared that um wake the administration did not believe that the um that we could meet the standard of having a armed security officer on every campus as House Bill 3 had laid out. Um, House Bill 121 passed by the 89th Texas Legislature this year amended section 37.0814 to include the provision that a good cause exception claimed by the board of trustees expires. Um, so we are again bringing before you um the need to take a um
126action to renew our good cause exception under Texas Education Code section 37.0814. Um because despite the increased investment of significant district funds in successfully hiring police officers within the Waco ISD police department, the Waco ISD administration remains concerned about a lack of adequate funding and the high demand for qualified law enforcement personnel in Mlennon County and across the state ne negatively impacting the district's ability to be in full compliance with the technical requirements of the statute at all times. And considering those long-term funding uh challenges that I know we all keep talking about, the personnel shortages and the responsible contingency planning, it is the administration's recommendation that the board of trustees renew their claim of a good cause exception and develop an alternative standard which with which the district is able to comply. I will
127entertain a motion to renew the good exception under the Texas code section 3 37.0814. Do I have a motion? >> Yes, I'll make a motion. Um uh so it's a 37.0814. Is that right? >> All right. I make a motion to the administrative recommendation that the board of trustees renew the claim a good cause exception under Texas Education Code section 37.0. 0814 due to the lack of funding and a lack of qualified personnel. >> Motion by Mr. Gillery. Do I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Mr. Abduci. >> Uh Mr. Bleo, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Gillery, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there any discussion? >>
128No. >> Mr. Oo, is there any discussion? >> No. >> All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> It passes. Uh we will now move on to item 17. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to amend the district's alternative standard under Texas code section 370 0814 presented by Chief Cox. >> As we just um renewed our claim of a good cause exception under the proceeding agenda item, we are now going to um seek your approval of an alternative standard with which the district is able to comply. Um, our previously approved alternative standard has been in place for almost two years. Um, a proposed amended alternative standard plan has been developed by the district in which relevant safety and security contingencies for all district campuses have been considered. The plan um will provide for increased
129patrols and rapid response times among among other strategic details from the Waco IC Police Department and the Waco ICT administration including also city and county law enforcement partners. And due to the sensitive nature of this the safety and security matters involved in developing this proposed alternative amended alternative standard and the specific provisions that are included, the ad administration presented those items um in close session. Um the big point I want to drive home right now and that has been I think um previously laid out by um Cheryl Davis in her budget presentations for several months now is is the funding challenge. um since 2023 compliance with section 37.0814 for Waco ISD has included hiring 12 additional police officers and our 2025 2026 proposed budget will include some additional staffing measures that we would like to
130bring to the board. Costs associated with this continue to exceed existing safety aotments provided by the state since 2023. The district district's cost for armed security officers just for this one piece of our safety and security plan has exceeded the state state safety aotment by well more than a million dollars. Increases in the safety aotment provided during the recent 89th Texas legislature that we are grateful for will support the district's efforts to staff and operationalize a comprehensive district safety plan that complies with all relevant safety um state laws for school safety. However, however, school safety revenue for the 2025 2026 budget is projected to still fall short. And right now, we're projecting that will be short by more than $2.6 million in just Waco ISD alone. Without additional funding from the state, significant concerns remain
131about the long-term financial implications of compliance with section 37.0184. Um, so just want to drive that point home. But again, I stand before you right now um with the administration recommendation that the board approve the district's alternative standard under Texas Education Code section 37.0814. >> Mr. President, I move that we accept the administration recommendation. >> Did you say something? >> Okay. We accept um administration's recommendation uh to approve the district's alternative standard under Texas Education Code section 37.0 814. >> I second. >> Have a motion by Mr. Giller and a second by Mr. Patton. Mr. Bleto, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Abnusi, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Davis, is there any discussion? >> Just that you know we are happy to comply with another unfunded mandate. That's all. Mr.
132Gator, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Patton, is there any discussion? >> No. >> Mr. Ela, is there any discussion? >> No. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> This passes and we're adjourned. [Music]