001Trustees meeting March is theater in our schools month and what better way to begin our meeting than with performances by our senior members of the Belton High School Theater Department. Our first theater performance features Matthew and Gabe in their Texas Thespians National Qualifying Duet Scene. Both have been dedicated members of BISD since middle school. After them, we're going to have a performance of the I Love You song from the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee featuring Anais, JoJo, Ava, and Audrina. All of these phenomenal thespians are under the direction of theater instructor Melissa Steff. Please give a large round of applause for the theater showcase. What do you have in mind? Stay in foul. The game goes to... I'm going to play if you're going to be like that. Who serve? Huh? No grunts. Love?
002Why? Who's go? Why? Why not? What for? Foul. No synonyms. What all? What in God's name is going on? Foul. No rhetoric. To one. What is this all I have up to? Can you guess? Are you addressing me? Is there anyone else? Was that rhetoric? To all. Game point. Wait. What? Are you deaf? Am I dead? Yes or no? Is there a choice? Is there a God? Val, no non sequers. Three, two, one, game all. What's your name? What's yours? I ask first. Val, statement 112. What's your name when you are at home? What's yours? When I'm at home? Home? What home? Haven't you got one? Why do you ask? What are you driving at? What is your name? Repetition, two, one. Who do you think you are? Rhetoric game and match. Who's that? He
003didn't know me. He didn't see you. I didn't see him. I didn't see you. I hardly knew him. He's changed. You can see that. Transformed. How do you know? Inside and out. I see. He's afflicted. He's not himself. He's changed. I can see that. And Glean would afflict him. Me? No, him. How? Question and answer. Old ways are the best ways. He's afflicted. Yes, I know. You ask, I'll answer. He's not himself, you know. He is me, you see. And who am I? You're you. You're him? That's the point. Are you ready? Let's take it back. I am afflicted. Afflicts me. Right. Question and answer. How shall I begin? Address me. My dear Rosen... You've forgotten the avenue. My dear Gillenster. You will understand that what we are attempting to do here is a hypothesis
004in which I answer for him while you ask me questions. Oh, so you pretend to be him and I ask you questions? Very good. Oh, you got me confused. Oh, I can see I asked. How should I begin? Address me. My honored lord. My dear Rosencrantz. How are you today? Afflicted. Really? How so? Transformed. Inside or out? Both. I see. Not much new there. Delve for detail. Establish a background. Figure out the situation. So... So your uncle is the king of Denmark. And my father before him. His father before him. No, my father before me. So, let me get this straight. Your father was king. You're his only son. Your father dies. You're of age. And your uncle becomes king. Yes. Orphanage. Undid me. Undeniable. Where were we? In Germany. Use of patience. He slipped
005in. Which reminds me. It should. I don't want to be personal. It's common knowledge. Your mother's marriage. He slipped in. His body's still warm. So is hers. And with her husband's brother. She got close. She went to him. Too close. For comfort. That sounds horrible. It adds up. Adultery. Where do you go so far? No. Thank you Pretty quiet out there That was fantastic. Excuse me president Before we get started. Can I just make one comment? Sure that last performance was Transformational I felt like I was in there Whole other place You guys hit me every place emotionally I could be hit. Thank you so much. That was spectacular and gentlemen I'm not going to leave you out. You guys were amazing. Thank you Okay, I'm glad you said that because walking up the stairs,
006our board president, Mr. Alcoser, looks at me and said, oh my gosh, we have such talented students in public education. And I said, I'm kind of speechless after that last performance. And so thank you for recognizing that. That was amazing. Okay, I guess we'll get back on script now. The time is now 624 p.m. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening and for your interest in Belton ISD. Let's give the Belton High School Theater a big round of applause again. The Belton Independent School District Board of Trustees are now convening in a regular board meeting on Monday, March 24, 2025, in the Pittenger Fine Arts Center, located at 400 North Wall Street, Belton, Texas. A quorum of board members is present. This meeting has been duly called. A notice of the meeting
007has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. I want to welcome the members of our audience and our live stream viewers to this meeting. As the Belton ISD Board of Trustees, we are here to set goals, listen to reports from the superintendent, approve budgets, contracts, personnel appointments, and make policy for the district. This is a meeting of the Board of Trustees held in public. However, it is not a public meeting. Prior to this meeting, board members received information related to items on tonight's agenda. Agenda items may not necessarily be handled in the order listed on the notice. This meeting is open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed. These proceedings are being live streamed on the district's YouTube channel and will be available
008for review in the days following tonight's meeting. For the video to adequately reflect the proceedings, I respectfully request that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking and that cell phones are on the silent mode. If you would, please rise for a moment of silent prayer or meditation. Please remain standing as our students from High Point Elementary lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance in honor of the Texas flag. I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, one and only, with liberty and justice for all. I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one and invisible. Please be seated. Let's give these students from High Point
009Elementary a round of applause if you would. All right now we're going to move on to our items on the agenda. The first item on the agenda is recognitions and our communications department will take us and lead us through that process. Good evening. We are pleased to recognize our student pledgers for this evening. We have Kingston and Zion both from High Point Elementary. First grader Kingston loves reading and enjoys staying active outside. His friends would describe him as smart, kind, a great friend, and super funny. Third grader Zion enjoys playing on her tablet and visiting the mall. Her favorite subject is math and her friends describe her as funny and amazing. Great job this evening guys. Thank you. Next this evening, we would like to recognize our students from our showcase. And I'm not sure
010that I can even follow the board and do it justice. Your performance tonight was truly, truly amazing. And talented is an understatement. So thank you so much for being here with us tonight. We have Matthew Farwell, Gabe Rodriguez. Anise Lopez Rodriguez, Jojo Fogel, Ava Novak, and Adriana. Thank you so much. And of course, their amazing instructor, Melissa Stuff. So tonight, for the very first time, we are recognizing Theater in Our Schools Month. It was a perfect combination of the showcase and then also with a proclamation. We have, thanks to the Texas Thespians Association, every March they recognize it as Theater in Our Schools Month. And we have done a proclamation for you guys that we are going to give you in just a minute. The gist of it is that Belton ISD does hereby recognize
011and proclaim March 2025 as Theater in Our Schools Month. We got to see a snippet of your talent tonight, but you guys are amazing, and we know firsthand the benefit of having theater in our schools. I'm going to hand you this so you can have it in the picture. Thank you, guys. And it's only fitting that we have one more theater recognition tonight. We have five Belton High School students that are being recognized for earning the Texas Theater Scholar Award. We have Anise Lopez Rodriguez, Evelyn Morrow, Ailey Witt, Finn Malk, and Madison Frazier. Congratulations on this amazing achievement. And of course, their amazing instructor, Melissa Stuff. And tonight we are pleased, actually ecstatic, to recognize Stephen Melo-Orantes and David Shelburne from Belton High School for being named National Merit Finalists for 2024. We got to
012recognize one of you guys back in the fall as semi-finalists, but we are so proud of you that we can bring you back tonight to recognize you as finalists. And you are truly amongst the elite, 15,000 students nationwide. So absolutely incredible. Congratulations. And now we will recognize our Temple Rotary Educator of the Month. Lauren Rhodes is being recognized by the Temple Rotary Club. for her outstanding service to Belton ISD. Lauren is a reading interventionist at Hubbard Branch Elementary. She is in her 20th year in education and three of those years have been here in Belton ISD. Congratulations, Lauren. And lastly, I would like to recognize our department, oh, second to last, sorry. Department showcase is Business Services, led by Melissa Lafferty. Our CFO. This department does amazing things day in and day out, including processing
013vendor payments, managing payrolls annually, handling purchase orders, soliciting bids, fulfilling work orders, and delivering food and custodial supplies to campuses. This group is committed to financial transparency and have earned top honors from the Government Finance Officers Association and the Association of School Boards Officials International. We are so grateful for what you do. Thank you to our Business Services Department. And now, our final partner recognition. We would like to recognize Don Ringler. If you will please come forward. This is a very special partner recognition Don Ringler Toyota Partners with us through our CTE program in a variety of ways But this year in addition to that they donated over 41 thousand dollars of new automotive parts to Belton High School and Lake Belton High School Providing our students with hands-on experiences with state-of-the-art technology You guys
014support daily as we have students that are participating in apprenticeships at Don Ringler Toyota throughout the day and this is just an additional gift that is so we are so grateful for so we cannot thank Don Ringler enough for going above and beyond and we're truly grateful for your partnership So one of the values that our Board of Trustees adopted was that we believe the engagement of our community enhances the educational experiences of our students. And that last recognition particularly demonstrates that when we went out to receive that, we would have been thrilled to receive old used parts. right? We thought that's what we were going to pick up that day, and we're going to be thrilled to have those parts as a part of some of our CTE programs. And when we arrived, they
015were pallets of brand new parts, and pallets and pallets of them. And so it was an incredible gift that they gave to our automotive program. And so thank you to our partners, and we have amazing students. So not all were able to be here this evening, but coming in tonight, I counted, there were, we have at least 61 students advancing to state level competitions just in this past month and so super proud of all of our students. I shared with our students I don't think I've missed a single one of our theater performances. They're like professional. If you have not attended one for each of our high schools please reach out and I would love to make arrangements for you to be able to go to one of their amazing shows. So great job to
016them. Let's show a round of applause also to our National Merit Scholars. We have a lot to celebrate today. So kudos to everybody in the room. As well as our amazing educators. So thank you to both the Belton and Temple Rotary for recognizing excellence in our educators. And so we couldn't do any of this, and our students' experiences are because of the great job our teachers do. So thank you to our teachers and staff. Okay, now that we've concluded recognitions, we will give you a few moments to exit, unless you want to stay for the remainder of the meeting, which you're welcome to do that as well. Next on the agenda are public comments. In accordance with policy BED local, we will take public comments regarding items on the agenda at the beginning of the
017meeting, and comments regarding non-agenda items will be heard at the end of the meeting to allow the board to conduct business of the district. Becca, do we have anyone signed up for comments? No. All right. There being no public comments, we'll move to item four on the agenda. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding certification of unopposed candidates in order of cancellation for Area 1 and 5 for the May 3, 2025, trustee election. Yes, Board. State law allows entities without contested elections to avoid election costs by certifying the candidates as elected. We're here this evening for two documents for your consideration. The first is the certification of unopposed candidates. It states that Jeff Norwood, representing Area 1, and Manuel Alcosa, representing Area 5, are unopposed. And then the second is the order of cancellation states
018that unopposed candidates are elected to office according to the Texas Education Code. That's it, right? That's it. We're here asking you to approve the certification of unopposed candidates and the order of cancellation for Area 1 and Area 5 for the May 3rd trustee election as presented. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the certification of unopposed candidates? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. Okay. All right. Do we have a motion to approve the certification of unopposed candidates in order of cancellation for Area 1 and Area 5 for the May 3, 2025, trustee election as presented? Ms. McDonald, do I have a second? Ms. Lee? All in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 7-0. All right, moving on to Item 4B, consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding budget assumptions for fiscal year 2025-2026.
019Yes, Board. Thank you very much for the conversation we just had in our Board workshop. So Melissa Lafferty, our CFO, is coming to the podium. She's going to present our proposed budget assumptions, which just establish the beginning of the 25-26 budget. budget development process. The board is by law not required to adopt these assumptions, but that has been the practice of Belton ISD to adopt those publicly and that begins, even though we've been working on 25-26, it seems like all school year, that begins our process of developing the budget based on these assumptions. All right, good evening. Like Dr. Golden had alluded to, this is our starting point. Again, these are assumptions. There's a lot of unknowns right now with the legislative session and going into the 25-26 budget for next year. However, we're taking
020conservative approaches based on all of these unknowns. And for student enrollment, we are going to use a conservative projection of 13,584, which is our demographer's lowest projection for next year. We'll know more in the coming months what that might look like once he brings us new projections. Attendance, of course, will be conservatively budgeted. I'm using 92% applied to that enrollment to get to our ADA that we will use in our revenue estimations. And also looking at property value growth at about 8%. Last year, property growth was 12%, but in light of potential increases in that homestead exemption, this is a... a much more conservative number. And again, once we know true property values, again, it's a reallocation between the local tax collections and state funding. So historically, we usually start out at that assumption. And
021then once we know more in preliminary values, then we adjust accordingly. The campus allocations are built. Overall, the campus allocations were reduced 10%. Overall, some campuses will see more funding than they got last year and other campuses will see less depending on their projected student enrollment. Capital projects, we're going to try to plug away about a half a million dollars for those HVACs that unexpectedly go out on us in a school year so we're going to try to build that in also leaving our insurance premiums at four hundred and ten dollars per month for the contribution that the district makes on behalf of our staff and then our tax rate based on that eight percent growth rate is dropping about three point three four cents from the point 75.52 that we have for an M&O
022tax rate this current year. So again, more than likely that tax rate will change once we know those values and depending on where the legislation pans out as far as what they do with further tax compression. So with that, that would give us a total with our debt rate remaining the same. That would give us $1.11 tax rate. starting out. Again, more than likely, every one of these will change throughout the coming months as we continue to budget out the 25-26 school year. Any questions for Ms. Lafferty? Comments? What was that amount you said the tax rate would change under this table? This is under current law right now. It would be 3.3 cents. Okay. Just for around the year. That's good. A little over a 3 cent reduction. I just appreciate the conservative approach
023here under these assumptions and all the different factors that you've presented. It's really important for us to do this as stewardly as we can. We all want to see a balanced budget. So I appreciate your hard work. Yeah. Thank you for the work to put all this together and for the session that we had prior to this meeting I think this is far from ideal right I think but it's what we would kind of where we have to be for the moment with the number of unknowns that we have Right, I would love to be looking at assumptions, you know having some of these TBDs around, you know pay filled in for sure I would love to see You know campus allocations right the sort of the additional fairy dust that we can sprinkle on
024the campuses for programs that we've got going on there capital projects right I think is This is a challenging number, right? I mean, when you look at a commercial HVAC unit, right, that might be two or three HVAC units, right? And so I think this is really challenging, right? When you said conservative, right, I mean, no joke. And so, you know, thank you for kind of getting us here, and I know this is going to change pretty drastically as we find out more, or could change drastically as we find out more about what the funding situation looks like. We're hoping we can add to it. It's better to be conservative and come in good on a budget. I think I'd rather you be that way. Anyone else? Okay. So then we move on further. Do
025we have a motion to approve the 2025-2026 budget assumptions as presented? Ms. Bass, I have a second. Mr. Norwood? All in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 7-0. Now we move on to item 4C, consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding RFP number 2503-100-386 for driveway and storm drainage easements. Dr. Morgan has walked up to the podium. He's going to be here for the next two items because they are connected. This first one is regarding an RFP that we put out for a driveway and storm drainage easement on a piece of our property. Thank you, Dr. Golden, Mr. President and Board. It's my pleasure to stand here tonight to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding an RFP for driveway and stormwater drainage easements. Last summer in June of 2024, BISD was approached by
026a developer to ask about our interest in a potential for a shared use driveway at the development going in at the corner of 93 and 121 adjacent to BISD property. According to Texas Local Government Code 272.001. that any time the district is going to consider an exchange of interest in real property then an rfp needs to be given to give anyone in the in the community public or private sector an opportunity to bid on the proposal for us as a school district this typically is seen if we have some type of utility easement either for our own construction or a utility company that needs to run service across our properties for road work and right-of-way improvements and sometimes in this case from private owners who come forward and ask about the potential We did issue
027a RFP on March 4th, 2025, and proposals were due at 10 a.m. on March 19th, 2025. We received one qualified proposal, and that was from Mammoth Holdings LLC. In that proposal would be... the that we would have a shared driveway easement. The majority of the driveway for their development would be on the developer's property. There is a small section in the corner that would be on that would be on the property. The the firm mammoth would would cover 100% of the construction and maintenance costs for the project and then we would have the opportunity to use that shared use for a western entrance onto our second street property if and when we ever decided that that's the direction that we wanted to go and would be advantageous for the district. In addition, they asked for
028a short run on the western edge of our property to run an underground storm drain from the north eastern edge of their property to nolan creek which is one of the allowable ways that the city will allow for storm storm drain to to exit a property so at this time i would ask you to consider the administrative recommendation to award the rfp including the tenant rights and privileges for stormwater drainage access under bisd property and a shared driveway of somewhere on that same location to mammoth holdings llc any questions for dr morgan Comments from anyone? Okay. Do we have a motion to award RFP number 2503-100-386, including attendant rights and privileges, for stormwater drainage across and under BISD property generally located at 1012 West 2nd Avenue, Belton, Texas, 76513, and number two, a shared driveway
029somewhere on that same property to Mammoth Holdings LLC. Mr. Norwood? We have a second. Mr. President, please raise your hand. All those in favor? Passes 7 to 0. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Moving on to item 4D, consider discussing and take appropriate action regarding a resolution authorizing the granting of easements. Dr. Golden? So, Dr. Morgan is going to stay at the podium. This one is connected, and this is just asking for a resolution allowing us to negotiate the final terms of that easement project. So, Mike? Yes, but the timing of the RFP and the board meeting, we felt the best pathway was to propose a resolution that would allow us to negotiate final terms with Mammoth LLC. So I would ask at this time that we would like to pass a resolution tonight that
030would allow the district and staff to negotiate final terms and then bring that to our board president for execution at a later date. So we would ask tonight that you authorize the superintendent to negotiate on such terms. Any questions for Dr. Morgan on item 4D? No comments? Okay. Do we have a motion to authorize the superintendent to negotiate the final terms of the easements and authorize the president of the Board of Trustees of Belton ISD to execute any and all instruments appropriate or necessary to effectuate the granting of the easements? Ms. Lee, do I have a second? Ms. Bass? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Passes 7-0. Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Thank you. Moving on to item five, reports. A, academic progress report. B. Yes, so Gabby Nino has come to the podium.
031As you all know, she's our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. She's going to give us a progress report on writing. As you know, the assessment for writing has changed. The expectations around writing in our state have changed, and so she's here to provide you with an update. Good evening. going to provide an academic progress report informed by district benchmarks in student writing and as Dr. Golden shared with you all and we discussed over time there have been adjustments in how we're assessed at the state level in particular in the area of writing and in reading those are combined for a reading English language arts assessment As we learned last year when we were looking at our student performance data in English language arts, we noticed a pretty significant impact of writing on the overall
032student performance. And so we've been taking some strategic initiatives to make sure that we are prepared and improving experiences for students in particular in the area of writing. I want to draw your attention to this table just to make sure that I'm clear in communication about how we're assessing our students. We have looked at our interim assessments over time in our academic updates and just as a reminder the interim assessment is developed at the state level and we administer that with our students one to two times a year and it's a snapshot to give us a predictor of student performance and help us monitor progress with House Bill 3 goals but it does not include a writing component. So you all asked a question about that at the board meeting when I provided the reading
033update. Is writing included this time? And no, it is not in our interim assessments. And so because it is on the STAR assessment, we needed to identify a way within our system where we could monitor our progress with that shift and with the changes in how progress is measured. So we've developed district benchmarks. that are administered one to three times a year if we're just saying district benchmark in general. This one in particular has been administered system-wide in the spring related to writing and it's really helping us to identify significant areas for remediation that we might share as a system or at the student or campus level. and help us make curriculum adjustments as well because we're administering in alignment with our curriculum. We're really using this assessment to guide professional learning that we have
034with our team. As a reminder of the impact, the extended constructed response, and you'll see ECR a couple of times throughout this presentation, I wanted you to remember exactly how much weight it plays in the English language arts assessment. In grades three through five, the student responses on the extended constructed response have about 19% weight on the student's overall assessment score. In six through eight, it's about 18%, and in high school, it's about 16%. So there is a significant impact on the student's overall performance. We talked a bit about how the extended constructed response is scored, both in our last update for reading as well as over the summer, but I want to explain a little bit more in depth just to kind of frame it for you all. An automated scoring engine is used
035to score students' writing on the STAR test in that extended construction response. In order to calibrate with the system or how that automated scoring was set up, 3,000 student writing samples were used to evaluate through the rubric that was developed with the state, and those 3,000 writing samples are what developed the code in the automated scoring engine. Most of student writing is scored in that automated engine, about 75% in total. So that 25%, I want to help you guys understand exactly who is not scored by the automated engine. that is a handful will be picked to do calibration checks. And so there will be random writing samples that are pulled across the state that will be scored in by humans to see if the automated engine is still calibrated or if any recalibration is needed.
036In addition, we have the opportunity, if we have low confidence in the scoring, meaning we get a score back, we look at the writing samples, and we don't have confidence in that score, then we could challenge it and it would be reassessed by a human. but also the engine can kick some writing samples out and say the engine doesn't have confidence in the score that was associated. And then finally, any Spanish writing is scored by human scorers versus the automated scoring engine. So I just wanted to come back to that to contextualize for you a little bit how writing is scored. So Gabby, before we leave this one real quickly, so extended constructive response. I didn't hear you say responses. So when a student takes their STAR test, I'm a third grader, I'm taking it
037on a particular day. Am I doing one writing sample? that then calculates into 19% of my score or are there multiple ones? There's multiple. So there's short responses as well that might be following any given question. But there is an extended response where a student will have to read multiple texts and in most of those draw correlation across text to respond to a writing prompt. For clarification, because I think at some point all star tests went digital, everything went digital, and I'm not exactly sure what year that happened or if it all happened at the same time, but I'm assuming everything on this is digital and they must type these words. Yes, 100%. Okay. Any other questions so far? Okay. So I want to talk about the work that we are doing and have been
038doing all year long to support our students. And we're going to focus on the right side first, just around district learning that we've provided. First of all, we walked through what the rubrics are in our fall professional learning and gave our staff the opportunity to analyze some writing samples similar to what we did, thinking through the lens of how we would have historically rated student writing, what feedback we would have given, and then seeing how that compared to the way students are now scored. And so we did some professional learning with all of our teachers. but have embedded those constructed responses in all of our curriculum documents throughout the year, both extended and short responses. And so we've worked to naturally embed those writing experiences at the student level in our curriculum documents, and then
039we've also done work with our instructional coaches and our campus leaders as well. We have most recently provided professional learning for a second round with any grade level teacher who is administering assessments where students will take part in the extended constructed response. So our teaching and learning team, our English language arts coordinators brought all of the third grade teachers together. They had all administered a writing sample. They went through the learning again with our rubric and then they scored. and they spent the day scoring together and calibrating their ratings. So they would score each other's and give feedback. So that was the first time in our system that we had truly just stopped together as a grade level and done that calibration process. And so that happened with third, fourth and fifth grade teachers. as
040well as our secondary grade levels that administer English language arts assessments. So they all came together in grade level bands to calibrate writing and just go deeper with our learning. During this time, some trends were highlighted for us that were reinforced in that learning and will continue to be reinforced. One, that we've got to maintain routines in our practices. Students have to have opportunity every day to write throughout the day and we want to make sure that those are authentic writing opportunities for students and that we're analyzing them through the lens of how they will be scored. We are working very hard to make it authentic writing experiences. When I come to you all to talk about in the way that it will be scored, I want to make sure that you understand that we
041are not working to make the writing experience about the STAR assessment. But there are clear elements of the way we are scored that we would want for every writer to be able to do. For example, responding directly to a response. When I write, we want to make sure that the writing is actually responding to the question that was asked. And we do still see trends of students having fantastic writing that is disconnected from the question that they were asked or prompted. You may recall my daughter's writing that I showed you all was beautiful, and I was so proud, and she got a zero on it, and it hurt really, really bad. Whereas her brother's was not at all, and he had a six. because he responded directly to the response. And so we're really having
042to support through that and make sure that students understand there has to be a close connection back. And then also connecting to evidence within their writing. They have to draw back into those texts that they read to justify their thoughts and the writing that they are putting forth. So these are some of the things that we've been focusing on and those are trends that we see at the district level but in that learning because campuses were in teams they identified more specific trends directly associated with their campus and their students and they got support from our coordinators in what are the lesson designs that we would do to address these trends with our whole class with small groups of students and then most importantly at the individual student level what those needs were. As a
043result of this investment and continued work, I want to share a little bit of data with you and I want to call attention to the green color coding and the negative symbol in front of the number. So what we have here is the percentage of students that were scoring a zero on their extended constructive response. If you remember, that was something that was really concerning to us last year and it has a significant impact. And so what you'll see here is the percentage of students that had zeros in the 2024 star scores. And then based on our district benchmark, how we've progressed with the percentage of students who scored that zero. And so a negative seven means we have 7% fewer students who scored that zero. So a gain of 7%, 13% at middle school
044and 11% at our high schools. It is extremely important that I make it clear that this is a district benchmark and so it is not the star test but it is our best effort to give students across our system an experience with a similar prompt and to calibrate as a district based on the rubric that we have. So just some highlights that I want to emphasize, and I've talked about it a bit. This is not necessarily numerical, but I do want to highlight and celebrate that we have taken a systemic approach to investing in the writing practices in our classrooms. The fact that we have embedded data-informed practices, made adjustments in our curriculum documents to support teachers, come together as a system to really study it, I'm very proud of that investment. We had a
045student superintendent join us one day and without prompting she could describe all of these levels of investment without us saying exactly what work was happening. But she could speak to the tools that her teacher was using that come directly from our curriculum supports. We do see growth in student writing as evidenced by our district benchmarks at elementary, middle, and high school. Areas of need for us are really aligned to what we see in reading as well. Third and fourth grade students, ECRs, need more investment and more routine practice at third and fourth grade level. Those are areas where we see greater challenge at elementary. That transition to sixth grade and then English too. And those are the same areas that we see some trends that need investment in reading. And so we know that that's
046all together in an English language arts assessment. As a system, we're going to maintain our focus. I believe very confidently that we're doing the right work. And change takes time. Sustainable change takes time. But I believe that we are doing the right work. And I'm proud of the efforts of our team and our teachers and leaders. We are providing specific campus responses. So I described that every grade level team got to come together and identify trends for their specific team. Those were reinforced with their campus leaders. And then we are providing additional targeted support for any outlier needs that need intentional planning supports with those teams or teachers. So with that, I want to answer any questions that you have. Any questions for Ms. Dino? No comments? Okay. Thank you all. Thank you, Gabby. Moving
047on to Item 5B, 2022 Bond Projects Report. Dr. Gold? Yes. Dr. Morgan's coming back up to the podium. He's going to give you all a quick highlight of the progress that we are making. We are winding down on the 2022 bond. We certainly are, and tonight it's my pleasure to be able to share a little with you. You can see here two fantastic new spaces at Belton High School. That's the new wood shop, construction shop there in the renovated CC building at BHS, and then you can see the video studio there to the right. I will give some quick project updates because most of, as Dr. Golden mentioned, most of our... major construction projects are complete with the exception of the black box theater and instructional spaces at Belton High School and the Delta program.
048All of our other spaces have had students in since the start of school in August. So I'm going to quickly go through. an update at Belton High School and kind of tell you where we are to finish up the last bits of those projects. So in the black box theater, we do not have students in that instructional space yet, but we're down to really four items remaining. We're missing one door frame at the black box theater entrance. That's supposed to be installed in the first week of April. We have the commissioning of the theater lighting system, which is also supposed to be in the first week of April, as is the installation of the metal risers and theater seating. So in the black box, you have the performance area is in the center of the
049room, and then you have risers around it where chairs are set up for the spectators to watch the productions. The only item that we don't have the installation date on is in the curtain system in the black box theater, which will be important for us to have. to have the first performances there hopefully later later this school year the band hall edition is completely finished now with the installation of the sound doors within the last month so we are complete pending closeout items the cte edition just as well only has the commissioning of some video production equipment and complete closeout items and warranty warranty issues in the culinary department and in the CC building we are down to the in the completion of the dust collection systems and the new shops and the dust collection
050system and exhaust system in the welding shop the current welding shop both of those are supposed to be complete by the first week in April so we are seeing a rapid conclusion to the last little bits and pieces at Belton High School and that has really made a difference in the instruction we're able to deliver in the facilities for that campus. On to Lake Belton Middle School where we still had just a few pending items. It looks like all of the acoustic issues and the lighting issues in the new band hall were taken care of over spring break so that work has been complete. We're still missing one sound door. on one of the new ensemble practice rooms. A temporary door has been put in place, but we're waiting on the permanent sound door to
051arrive. It's supposed to be here by the end of March, which would be within the next week. And then Winger, there were some additional music storage cabinets or some storage spaces that didn't come in the initial installation back in February, and those additional, I believe it's six or eight units, will be installed on April 7th. All other construction work is complete there and in the athletic addition at the at Lake Belton Middle School as well. And in which runs me finally to Delta, as we've been informing you and as was the case in our last update, we're still working through some issues to really two major issues inside that have halted and delayed progress over the last 10 weeks or so. The structural inspections are to occur this week. and we should be able to
052proceed with the mechanical platform. This is an elevated concrete platform that will host most of the HVAC and some of the other MEP equipment for the facility that has been holding the project up. And then there's a second delay over some tracking. It's a metal building, so there's some slotted tracks at the top where as the studs go up, they connect, and that way as the... building gives a little with wind that it doesn't structurally damage sheetrock and things like that so we're hoping that our construct our contractor can work through these these issues quickly so we can continue get the building enclosed get hvac started and get everything sheetrock and finished everything should go very quickly once we get these two these two issues resolved uh just for transparency we are pushed back to
053most likely a mid-May substantial completion of the Delta project at this time. Energy audit and HVAC design, I mentioned in the... workshop earlier that we had we had commissioned an energy audit back in the fall we've gotten the first two reports back and that's for Pertle Elementary and for Belton Middle School we have reports that will be due that we will receive in April for DAP, BEX, Belton New Tech and then we will receive reports in May for Lakewood and Sparta and what these reports tell us really are They look at our current systems, particularly around HVAC, because that's what we have a lot of needs in our older facilities. And it tells us that if we go to a standard efficiency HVAC units, kind of what construction costs and utility costs or utility savings
054could be, lighting control systems throughout the buildings, what construction costs and utility savings could be, replace classroom lighting with LED fixtures. what original installation costs and what savings would be. So it's one of these things that as we as we go into these older buildings and we replace systems, what is in our best interest and what would what how much could we actually save for a year by going with a with a more energy efficient system? So we're excited to see those reports come in and those also align with an action that we're going to ask you to approve later tonight in the consent agenda. That is, we went out for an RFP on on HVAC and MEP design services. We had 12 mechanical engineering firms that submitted proposals. We have narrowed that to the
055selection that's recommended. And what will happen is that the information from these energy audits will be used by the firm that hopefully that we will use for our design. They will design HVAC. interior lighting and dehumidification projects for each of the facilities listed on the slide and then we'll be able to proceed with some of those in the coming months and have those ready to go for the next school year. And then finally, we haven't spoken a lot. We've had so many projects to cover each time we did a report, but I wanted to come back and give an update on portable classrooms. And I want to thank our fantastic purchasing department for kind of organizing these auctions that we've done of our portables. One of our most heavy priorities in the 2022 bond program
056was to... reduce our reliance on long-term portables on our campuses. We've had some portables that have been in use for several decades, particularly at Southwest Elementary and Miller Heights. And so as you can see, phase one, we had an auction and we auctioned off 12 portables. Right now we are in phase two. The three portables at Belton High School that we kept online as we finished the CC and the CTE facilities, those are now vacant. We're no longer using those for instruction, and they're actually out for auction right now. So anyone that's interested in portable buildings can place a bid with the online solicitor, the online auctioneer, and we should not. But based on our first phase, we feel confident that we'll be able to find a home for those three portables, not at Belton
057High School. And then our phase three will be the remaining portables at Chisholm Trail and the one remaining portable at Southwest. I will tell you, we've identified a need with our partners for a community resource center through our project Heartbeat. They help a lot of families. They work with some of the other local entities that provide for families in the area. Our community resource center will be more aligned for school supplies, backpacks, student clothes, and some short-term snacks and food items. And so we do feel like we're bringing stakeholders to the table, and we think there may be a plan that we use the remaining portable Southwest Elementary as a community resource center and locate it more centrally in the district to serve our families. And at the conclusion, we hope that our goal is
058to have an 83% reduction in the use of portables on our campuses. And that the only portables we still have in use, there are four listed at the bottom, two at New Tech, one at Sparta, and one at Leon Heights. And those were the campuses that were not heavily impacted by construction and renovation projects. And we have not. have not have a plan to take those four offline yet but that is ultimately a goal that we'll work to for the same reasons that we wanted to take the other uh the other 20 portables offline uh financial update because as i as i mentioned earlier we're still not ready to close out we still have uh small items at lake belton middle school belton high school delta um we are still around an estimated 3.7 million
059dollars in savings coming back from our gmp we that should clear up quickly as we get final billings and our auditors finish their process on those projects and then we still have around nine million dollars in remaining balance of work with funds available uh the land purchase you see does not reflect we're currently under contract for the Charter Oak property that was approved last month. We have not closed on that yet, so you'll see that number reflective of that $850 or so thousand dollars after we pay for closing costs and some of our assessment and feasibility of that project as well. And I just covered a lot very quickly, and as Dr. Golden mentioned, we are getting close to the end, but we still have some very important work left to do that was part
060of our bond programs, particularly in our Proposition 1. I would entertain any discussion at this time. Any questions for Dr. Morgan? Yeah, Chris. So when we talk about Delta, what's driving the delays with the Delta facility? Yeah, so it was a, really the primary problem has been this elevated mezzanine for the MEP, the HVAC equipment primarily, and a difference in, so. With the original plans were drawn there are certain areas within there that there's three or four ways that the contractor or the subcontractor can do that You just have to have shop drawings so that our in our third party engineer can review it make sure it's safe Make sure it's ready to go. So the issue has been with this mezzanine area getting shop drawings that our engineer and the design team and the
061architect all felt like was The way that it should be set up and it should proceed. So while we've had this hold up in getting a final version of this mezzanine, it has held up installing all the HVAC equipment. So you can't enclose the building until you have the HVAC equipment, and then you can't start hanging sheetrock and doing some of the interior finishes until the building is climate controlled. So really it's the elevated mezzanine for the HVAC equipment is what's been holding it in place. Anyone else? Okay, moving on to Item 5D, Board Highlights. No, no, no. Dr. Golan, Item 5C, Supertens report. I jumped the gun. Thank you, Mike, for that update on bond projects. As I go through my presentation this evening, again, I want to highlight, since we met last in
062a board meeting, quite a bit of activity has happened across our district. And I wanted to start with this picture because I know in our workshop we had a legislative update, particularly on bills as they pertain to public school funding. And this is just a group of fine individuals that went with us recently to meet with our legislators to take our shared priorities that were developed with lots of stakeholder voice. Many of the people you see in this picture helped develop those legislative priorities and so just a shout out to this group and real appreciation for them taking the time to share stories with our legislators around how school funding is really impacting us here in Belton ISD so that our legislators can really represent us as they're making decisions moving forward. This is a
063very busy slide, I realize, but there's been a lot going on. So, yes, Izzy is on your screen to the left. She was superintendent of the day. So we had a great time. She attends Leon Heights and had a great time. She spent the entire day with me. As Gabby mentioned, she actually participated quite a bit and was a great opportunity for us to talk about, okay, we think think we're doing all these things to improve riding, but how is it really playing out in her classroom? And she was not shy. She left me a little note on my whiteboard and asked me not to erase it. So if you're in my office, you will see that Izzy has left us a message. But she did a great job and really appreciated her involvement and
064engagement that day. You see pictures here from a night of champions, soccer. We had Reading Across America. Thank you to many board members that helped read to our students, had the pleasure of reading to this incredible class at Southwest Elementary School. I actually was in that class a week prior to that, and I stopped counting at about seven or eight incredible instructional practices that their teacher so seamlessly embedded in her classroom. So it was so fun when I found out I got to read to that class again. And also you see special Special Olympics basketball has taken place, Career Day at Charter Oak. Several board members were able to participate in Career Day at Charter Oak. I was as well, where I got to talk to students about how cool the job of superintendent is.
065And my favorite question was asking them what they thought I did for a living. Like, what does my day really look like? What do they think I do? A couple thought I was a medical doctor, and so that was fun hearing their thoughts on what they think I do during the day. But it was great fun to spend time with them. And then also Health Care Navigation Day at Baylor Scott & White. We have an incredible partnership just continuing to flourish with Baylor Scott & White and Baylor College of Medicine. And so our students have the opportunity to go there and have some really great experiences. Just to continue on some of the celebrations, everything from we took third place at the 2025 UIL Film State Competition. Our own technology department won a grant from
066Region 12, so super excited about the contribution of that grant and how that will further push forward our STEM initiatives at the elementary level. And then you see everything from our Bronco and Tiger Esports State Championship finalists. them. Had the opportunity to see our Belton High School Lady Tigers. They advanced to the playoffs so that was a fantastic beautiful night to see a soccer game and our Lady Tigers did a fantastic job and they've advanced. And then you see our Belton High School Theater advancing to Bi-District and we got a little taste of their talents this evening in their showcase before the board meeting. And then also, you see lots of campus visits. So thank you to our board for being in our schools and visiting our classrooms. So you see just a few highlights
067from our visits. It was great to have our students getting to actually talk to us about what they were learning and why they were learning it and why it was super important. And just my final remarks, I'll just do a reminder. So while Dr. Morgan did a quick update on bond projects, he highlighted some of the things happening at Belton High School. Our April board meeting is actually at Belton High School. So the meeting itself will be in the Belton High School PAC, and we believe we'll be working out a tour of some of our new facilities for y'all prior to that meeting. So more to come on that. All right. Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Golden? Comments? Thank you, ma'am. You're everywhere, as usual. I saw y'all there a lot as well. Okay,
068moving on to Item 5D, Board Highlights. Anyone want to share any experiences from the last month? Okay, so I got to go to Southwest, which is super, super fun, and read. I read to some first graders. They loved me. They absolutely loved me. One, my new bestie over there, Miss Emma, she was over my shoulder. And as I read the book about dinosaurs, I might, you know, improvise a little bit because, you know, I'm animated. And so as I was reading, she would let me further. Now, she already read that book and that those words weren't in there as I was paying attention. So she stood up next to me and was reading along with me. And as I added things or omitted things, she just, excuse me, Miss McDonald. Okay. We got through it,
069though. That was first grade. Third grade. They really weren't feeling me at all. They really wanted the story to be told so they could get back to their work. They were stopped in the middle of their work, and they wanted to get back. So I stood up and I talked very quickly and tried to engage them, and they were just like, please go. And so that was fun. Tour Chisholm Trail and Sparta. Over at Chisholm Trail, they had a couple of bragging points that I just wanted to mention here. Two of them, actually. One was that 62% of their staff improved their scores on the learning target walkthroughs consistently from round one to four. I thought that was kind of cool. And then the other one was that they were almost at 100% of students
070improving on the fitness gram. You know, you don't talk about PE a lot, you know, but that's wonderful. Our students are smart and they're fit. And over at Sparta, I got to participate in a math game that was similar to, and I'm probably going to date myself, the old game of concentration. I didn't really understand the rules, so I wasn't really winning at first, but, you know, we figured it out at the end. And then I also attended a groundbreaking at Family Promise. Thank you, Mr. Reckle-Preston. Appreciate that. and Temple City Hall meeting, and along with a few other events. So just busy, busy. Wow, you're everywhere as well. I got to go to the Temple State of the City last week with Dr. Golden, Dr. Morgan, and see the city's vision for the future.
071Really great, especially just the partnership that we have with City of Temple. Being a part of the capital visit, that was my first with our representatives, and I thought they went pretty well. I was really glad to have them give us the time to hear about public education and the importance it is for our community. And then just to add on to everything you kind of said, it was just a very, I think my favorite thing about being a trustee is the campus visits, one way or the other. And so getting to go to the classrooms at Sparta and Chisholm Trail. And I got to go to Charter Oak the other day for career day with Dr. Golden, and then Southwest Read Across America. And I got to read a book that the students picked
072called The Book With No Pictures. Have you heard of this? Anyone? Yeah. Okay. So at first it looks, yeah, pretty benign. It's not. So if you're ever going to read it, get ready to be very, very embarrassed. So the student, it sounds very boring because there's no pictures, but there's a lot of things it makes you do that you're not expecting, and it was a lot of fun. I'll share a few. Also got to read. I stayed over at Chisholm just since my kids were there, and I just stayed. And I love the way they set it up is through their library time. every class got to have a book read. So I stayed, I came to read to my daughter's class, and I thought, well, hey, I'm just going to stick around and just
073read to some more classes as they came through. So I got to do several classes over there, and Ms. Norfleet picked out some really funny books. And so it was just, I just, it made me really just miss teaching. Just being with the kids was so fun. And so just really enjoyed that. I would love to do that more often. I really would. Middle school track meets. I know I talk about sports because I have a son in middle school. But, you know, the thing about track is that you can pretty much watch all four middle schools participate. And so, and I love watching my kid, but I do enjoy thoroughly watching other kids, especially in track. Just watching them just get out there and put themselves out there and running a race that. Maybe
074they shouldn't be running the 100, but they're out running the 100. But we have some really talented kids across all four of our middle schools. I mean, it's really hard to believe that some of these eighth graders are actually eighth graders. I mean, just phenomenal. So track has been really fun to watch across the four middle schools. We got to do Hubbard Branch and Southwest Elementary. I loved getting to see. Speaking of the bond projects, The addition, just Southwest Elementary, it's like a whole new place over there. It's just the way they could tie in the new with the old, and it was just, I was so excited to see that and just the really neat things that are happening, really because of the new additions that they have over there. And then one last
075thing that I'll share that really wasn't board-related, but... is board related. Y'all know that our family owns RK Bass Electric. And Andy has done what's called a safety training day. And this was their second annual. And so they shut the job sites down and all of the employees. So we have about 180-ish come. We had it hosted at CTC. They have vendors across, I mean, all the electrical span of... Those, all the vendors. Okay, I can't talk the lingo or the jargon. But when I got there, I was so pleasantly surprised to see our CTE students from Belton High School came from the construction. And so they all had their Belton shirts on. And it was just really great to see them participate with our company to hear about not only safety. We even brought
076in a speaker. I don't know if y'all know Skeeta Jenkins. Skeeta came in and did kind of a big just pep talk about leadership. And so just, I mean, he was super incredible to hear. thinking that our students were getting to hear this was really just it was really awesome so that was kind of a fun thing that I got to participate in I didn't know that they were well I knew that they were coming because I'm married to Andy we talk we're busy but we talk but he was very he was very excited that his seat his seat the CTE students because y'all know Andy is very passionate about the trades and and loves Belton so we appreciate the partnership with CTE We appreciate y'all's partnership with BISD. Anyone else? Chris? Yeah, so I
077too got to tour some of the campuses, and usually I hit the campuses sort of more on the northern side of the district. I came to the southern part of the district this time, and I got to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences at the two campuses that I was at. I'm going to call out one of them now, Chisholm Trail, and Sydney Sewell and the team at Chisholm Trail are just doing some amazing things there. I was so excited. After I left, I'm like, let me go back to elementary school. Like, this is so much fun being here. You know, what impressed me so much was that, you know, the amount of effort that's going in from a... methodology, system, standards, metrics gathering standpoint, sounds like it could be utterly terrifying and really
078confining. That's not what I saw there. What I saw was just energy that was just off the scale and a complete alignment really from top to bottom, from the office out into the classrooms, just complete alignment as to you know, what are the goals? What are we trying to do here? How are we trying to do it? How are we measuring that? And just having a blast while they were doing it. And so, you know, I can say with, you know, all of my heart, right, like one of the things I did when I moved here was, you know, I toured a bunch of schools, right, and I tried to figure out, you know. what is going on with schools. I talked to administrators and things like that, and I can tell you, like, from
079that experience, I would have no doubt sending my kid to Chisholm Trail Elementary School, right? I mean, it's a great experience, and it's great to be, you know, to get out there and have that experience to kind of re-energize you about why it is that we're here and why this is an awesome place to be and why Belton ISD has great schools for our local kids. So just a great job overall. It really struck me. Maybe non-school related, but Rucker and I headed to the Texas State Chamber update at the Harris Community Center and got to hear a little bit from the State Chamber about what was going on from their perspective from a legislative update point of view. So that was interesting and enlightening to hear sort of a different take on some overlapping
080priorities. And then last item early, I think it's just a comment based on something you said earlier in the meeting when we were talking about recognitions. And again, in the superintendent's report, wow, are there some amazing things going on. We saw that today with our kids here. I think we were talking, there were over 60 programs, 60 CTE programs that have representation at the state level competitions. Holy mackerel. I mean, if that doesn't say something's going right. I mean, that's it, right? Like, awesome things are happening from the CTE perspective across the board. And it's given these kids the opportunity to do, to experience, you know, potential career, right? And figure out what they want to do and maybe what they don't want to do. But they're doing it, and they're doing it really well,
081and they're having some amazing experiences and representing us to the best they possibly could. So just so proud of the CTE experiences that I'm seeing going on. Anyone else? Jeff, anything? Yeah, I can't top all that. You know, when I listen to everyone speak about these things, it reminds me of why I'm sitting here, right? Why we're all sitting here. In Board Appreciation Week last month, I haven't had a chance, and I've never said this publicly, but Suzanne, I think you did it once. You had brought some notes back that kids had written, right? So I went through all of these. And I want to thank all the kids that took time to write a note. I can't go through all of them, of course, but I picked a few that I wanted to share
082with folks. And as I went through these, it reminded me of why I do this, because I don't have any kids in the district anymore. I did it one time. My wife doesn't teach anymore. So I asked myself, well, why am I doing it? Well, one of the reasons I'm doing it is to give back to the district that gave to me. I tell people that all the time. So I wanted to read a couple of these things just to share with you all here and to share more so for the folks out there that are watching. This kid says, Dear Mr. Alcoser, I want to thank you for using and sacrificing your time to advocate for a better school for us students. Thank you for bringing new programs to New Tech. You make school
083better for us students and not even for any pay. I hope you like this letter and it shows how appreciative we are of your work. So that was a kid from New Tech. Let me fast forward here to some of these others. Some of these are quite touching and I want to say this before I forget. And I didn't bring it. But there was a poster, and the kid didn't write down who, because a lot of these kids will sign their name. I'm not sure which school it came from, but it was on a whiteboard. You did? Yeah. It said, Mr. Alcozer, you are the man. And I thought, I thought, no one's ever said that to me. I appreciate that very much. So whoever did that, thank you for saying that. So let me
084read a couple more of these. Dear Mr. Alcrozer, thank you for being a representative for BISD. Thank you for being at Belton Schools. Thank you for supporting our school. And there were a lot of these. There were several of these where the kids said, P.S., can Mr. Evans and Ms. Jean's class have extra recess? So that was a, and I'm sure you guys saw that in yours, it was kind of a common theme among some of the younger kids. So a lot of very touching notes from these kids. I'll read one more. This is from a 10th grader at New Tech. Dear BISD school board, thank you so much for the differences you have made as a community of board members for BISD. Your support has given me opportunities to grow as an individual at
085New Tech. So just these short notes remind me, and I think it reminds all of us, as to why we do this. And yes, Chris, you're right. When watching these kids earlier, I thought, man, these kids are really super. Not just... but they're super talented. I mean, you just don't see that. I thought, I was telling Suzanne as we were walking up, I said, these kids sound like they were singing, you know, in a mic, but it was their own voice. So... Public education is alive and well, folks, and we need to keep it that way. If that's not just a small glimpse into what's done here at BISD, I don't know what is. I hope people appreciate that and see public education for what it really is because it is very special. Moving on
086to item six, consent agenda. Does anyone wish to... Remove anything or pulling thing from the consent agenda? No? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Mr. Norwood, do I have a second? Mr. Preston? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Passes 7-0. Okay. Now we move on to item 7, board request for new information and or reports. Board members, at this time, are there any requests for new information or reports from the administrative team? No takers. We now move to own the public comments regarding non agenda items back it we have anyone signed up none, okay That takes us to item 9 closed session Time is now 744 p.m And the board will now go into closed session for A, student disciplinary matter, Texas Government Code Section 551.082.
087B, personnel, Texas Government Code Section 551.074. Consider superintendent recommendation regarding termination and suspension without pay pending termination of Estevan Banda, probationary contract employee. Item 2, consider superintendent recommendation regarding termination and suspension without pay pending termination of Logan Dimini, term contract employee. Item C, consultation with attorney, Texas Government Code Section 551.071. And finally, D, discussion of district-wide intruder detection audit reporting finding, Texas Government Code Section 551.076. The time is now 8.33 p.m. The board will now reconvene in open session. Moving on to item 11, action items. A, proposed termination and suspension without pay pending termination of a Stevan Banda probationary contract employee. Is there a motion from anyone? Mr. Norwood? Mr. President, I move to accept the superintendent's recommendation to propose termination and suspension without pay pending termination. of Esteban Banda's probationary contract and further move
088that the record of this action reflect the following. Before voting on this motion, the board considered a draft letter to Mr. Banda proposing the termination of employment. The superintendent reviewed with the board the reasons for making her recommendation regarding the employee and the board considered the reasons and other information provided by the superintendent and that by passage of this motion, the board directs the superintendent to prepare for the board president's signature a final notice of proposed contract termination and suspension without pay, pending termination for Estevan Banda. and ensure that the notice is delivered. Directs the notice. Directs that the notice include the time, limitations, and procedure for requesting a hearing before an independent hearing examiner as required by the Texas Education Code. Directs the Board President to notify Eichelbaum, Wardell, Hanson, Powell, and Munoz, PC,
089of this action and requests the firm take whatever actions are necessary and proper in support of these proposed actions. And directs that a copy of this motion be attached to the minutes of this meeting. along with final notice of proposed termination of employment and suspension without pay, pending termination sent to Esteban Banda. Does anyone wish to second Mr. Norwood's motion? Mr. Floer? All right, unless there's further discussion, all those in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 7-0. Moving on to Item 11B, proposed termination and suspension without pay, pending termination of Logan Dimony term contract employee. Is there a motion? Yes, Mr. President. Mr. Motion. Mr. President, I move to accept the superintendent's recommendation to propose termination and suspension without pay pending termination of Logan Demony's term contract and further move that the record of
090this action reflect the following. Before voting on this motion, the board considered a draft letter to Mr. Demony proposing the termination of employment. The superintendent reviewed with the board the reasons for making her recommendation regarding the employee and the board considered the reasons and other information provided by the superintendent. and that by passage of this motion, the board directs the superintendent to prepare for the board president's signature of final notice of proposed contract termination and suspension without pay pending termination for Logan Demony and ensure that the notice is delivered. Directs that the notice include the time limitations and procedure for requesting a hearing before an independent hearing examiner. as required by the Texas Education Code, directs the Board President to notify Echelbaum, Wardell, Hanson, Powell, and Munoz, P.C. of this action and requests the firm
091to take whatever actions are necessary and proper in support of these... proposed actions and directs that a copy of this motion be attached to the minutes of this meeting along with the final notice of proposed termination of employment and suspension without pay pending termination sent to Logan Demony. Thank you, Mr. President. Anyone wish to second that motion? Ms. McDonald? There being no further discussion, all those in favor, please raise your hand. That passes 7-0. Okay, moving on to item 12, all action items, reports, and consent items for this meeting have been addressed. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 8.37 p.m.