001All right, I think we're about ready to call this meeting to order. I call this meeting of the Pearland Independent School District Board of Trustees to order on December 9th, 2025 at 5.01 p.m. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. Let the record show that Trustees Johnson, Scheffler, Carbone, Weimer, Murphy, and Carter are present. At this time, I'll throw the mic over to... Trustee Chris Scheffler for introductory remarks and pledges. Dr. Scheffler. All right, please rise for the pledges. And if you'll indulge me for a brief prayer. In the name of the Father. Sorry, I have to use my right hand, and
002that's also how I hold down the mic button. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing us together tonight. Thank you for this wonderful time of year that we call Advent as we get ready for the Christmas season. Thank you for all the gifts that we have in this community and all the generosity that is shared for our giving tree, for our organizations that are out there making sure people are warm, people have food, people have shelter, making sure that all of our students are taken care of. Thank you for all the teachers and the administrators and the staff, the custodians, the groundskeepers, the maintenance men. and women that are out there making sure that everyone stays safe, and that we have functioning facilities where we can continue to learn and hopefully produce good students
003that will go out into the world and do amazing things. We ask your blessing upon our community as we await the coming of our Lord Jesus here on Christmas Day. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Okay, so I'll try and be brief. It's December, and there's, as you can tell by the full room for a routine school board meeting, lots to celebrate. And it won't be labor, all of those, we'll announce them each in their own time. But it's sports teams, it's dance teams, it's scholastic achievement, it's incredible feats. There's just so many things that we're blessed in this community that, I mean, this room's getting to be too small sometimes for some of these meetings with the number of students that we get to honor and sometimes some of our teachers and administrators as
004well that receive various different awards. I do want to highlight something that I think is fantastic. It hits close to home because it affects my family. Our fine arts programs, and both of our high schools that have marching bands both placed within the top 30 at the state marching competition. One of them came in fifth in the region for the Bands of America competition. And those are at the high school level. But next week, we have a junior high band. that's going to travel to Chicago to perform at the Midwest Clinic. I don't know if everyone understands the gravity of that. There's 17,000 people that attend the Midwest Clinic from around the world. It's a massive, massive ordeal. Bands send in tapes from all around the world in order to get selected for this. And
005there are five junior highs that get picked. And our junior high, Pearline Junior High West, got picked for the prime spot in the evening to perform. And I'm just, I'm so proud of him because, and it's kind of bittersweet for us because I have one son that played in the band that made the tape. The band that makes the tape doesn't get to go. And another son who gets to go on his big brother's efforts. So anyway, y'all keep them. It's a massive ordeal to take a bunch of junior high kids that far. They're going to take chaperones and teachers and all this stuff, but please keep them in your prayers for safe travels. It is going to Chicago in December. So I don't know if you've seen Home Alone. That just comes to mind.
006But anyway, y'all please send them your support and your encouragement, and hopefully everybody comes home safely after a wonderful performance. Thank you, Dr. Scheffler. All right, so at this time we're going to move into the board recognition part of our evening where we get to celebrate our students and their achievements. So board, I'll meet you up front. If you're unable to stay until the end of the recognition, we ask that you please exit quietly. Photos will be available later on on the Pearland ISD Flickr account. The Prancers. The Pearland Prancers team achieved a monumental first for Pearland ISD, capturing the overall championship title at the Texas Dance Educators Association West Houston Drill Team Assessment. The assessment brought together 39 6A high school drill teams from across the region. After preliminary evaluations, the field was narrowed
007to the top 10 teams who advanced to the final round. The Pearland Prancers delivered a powerful, clean, and captivating performance that earned them first place overall, securing the contest victory. Here to introduce our Prancers is drill team director, Macy Lopez. All right, we're gonna start with Anne Marie Barcelona, Anne Bryn Bryant, Isabella Butler, Marissa Ceballos, Kenley Christensen, Corey Comer, Emmy Cook, Layla Dacey, Olivia Dahlkamp, Ruby Dow, Kaitlyn Forrest, Madeline Fuentes, Keala Garcia, Juliana Gonzalez, Carly Goodwin, Olivia Hacker, Miranda Hoso, Vera Jenkins, Kyla Jones, Lauren Cardner, Jordan Linares, Sydney Maddox, Ashlyn Memoree, Avery Nathans, Heidi Padron, Emilio Pyle, Isabella Ramirez, Whitney Rivette, Lexi Rolls, Chisela Rueda, Olivia Suarez, Gabriela Sweat, Savannah Taylor, Miley Thomas, Emma Thompson, Olivia Thompson, Tondi Vereen, and Reese Wagner. And our awesome assistant, Kyla Lyons. Go ahead. The Prancers are going to
008be outside near the Pearland Proud sign, and they're going to take a big group picture. So parents, if you want to join them, please do. And y'all can get some pictures as well. And one more time, congratulations to the Pearland Prancers. All right, now that we've completed the board recognition portion of our meeting, we're moving into public comment. And this evening, we have no public comment speakers and also no board comments on the portal. So we're moving to board presentation of the teacher incentive allotment. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you for being here. All right, board, if you'll remember, when we did our progress report for the strategic scorecard, we did talk about TIA, and the board asked if we could have a presentation to help that explanation, and we have our resident expert who quickly
009put that together and said, let's go. And so we are here. Presentation will be followed by any Q&A questions you may have, but I promise you what Lila will do. is an amazing presentation for you on TIA and she has come on board from us from Region 4 and we are lucky to have her. Thank you so much again for being here tonight. Thank you. Can you all hear me okay? Good evening members of the board and community. My name is Layla Cubriel. I am the coordinator of teacher services in the Human Resources Department and I'm here today to provide you with an update on our teacher incentive allotment local designation system. Funding was passed through House Bill 3 to provide an accessible way for effective teachers to earn a higher income while still remaining
010in the classroom. There are two pathways in which a teacher can earn a designation. One is through earning their National Board certification, and the other is through a district creating a local designation system. Here in Pearland ISD, we are in year three of implementing our local designation system. There are three designation levels, recognized, exemplary, and master, and I will talk a little bit more about those in just a few minutes. Teachers can generate allotments anywhere from between $3,000 to $32,000, and there's annual additional funding for each designated teacher. The state requires that at least 90% of the funds go towards teacher pay and districts can retain 10% for costs associated with the implementation of the local designation system. And here in Pearland ISD, that is the model that we follow. The funding prioritizes hard to
011staff locations, so TEA provides greater funding for areas of higher needs and rural campuses. And then once again, 90% of all TIA funds must go towards teacher pay. And once a teacher earns a designation, that designation is valid for five years, as long as they remain in a teaching role. Currently, our eligible teaching categories for the 25-26 school year are grades one through three, reading and math, utilizing iReady. Grades four through eight, reading and math, Algebra I, and ELA I and II, utilizing STAR. This includes pairs and resource teachers who provide direct instruction in those above teaching categories. and they must also, like every other teacher, meet all the additional eligibility requirements. Does this also include teachers who push into classrooms for, what's the word I'm looking for, inclusion support? So right now we're working
012on a plan to include those teachers, especially at the high school level. so that we have the similar system across the district. Okay, so we don't have inclusion teachers yet, but we're working towards that and at the high school first and then moving down. Right. So right now it's just PEARS and Resource who provide that direct instruction. Thank you. You're welcome. In the 26-27 school year, right now we are currently we're piloting with grades five through eight science, biology, grade eight social studies, and U.S. history. And we're piloting that so we can add that as an eligible teaching category in 26-27, utilizing a beginning of year assessment and then the end of year star results to compare student growth. So we would submit our application in April of 2026. And if that gets approved by
013TEA, then we would have our expansion and we'd be able to collect data for that group of teachers in the 26-27 school year. And those teachers would be eligible for a designation in spring of 2027. So as we think of expanding our eligible teaching categories, that is top priority right now. We want to ensure that we have a plan in place so that we can eventually include all of our teachers as an eligible teaching category. So in order to do that, we have to have a couple of things in mind as we consider those groups of teachers. When we think about the groups of teachers and the measurement of the assessment of their student growth, we have to have a valid and reliable growth measure. And that growth measure has to align with the standards
014of the course, follow all of the state and district guidelines for administration and scoring security. The questions have to represent an appropriate level of rigor, and there has to be a range of question levels. And it has to accurately measure what's taught over the course of the year. So an expansion process example you'll see at the bottom of the slide. We typically pilot an assessment and review that data. Then we submit the expansion application to TEA and the following year we collect the assessment data. So I have a question about that. What about things that are difficult to evaluate like art and band and theater? So the great thing is, since I've started here, I have started to meet with different departments and also teacher groups and our DEIC committee so we can determine how
015we can move forward with those courses. There's also a lot of resources that the state provides us to look at and assess and see if it's something that we can implement in our district. And I'm also part of a committee across the state that comes together where we can ask questions and see what other districts are working on and how we can include that in our LDS. So we're continuing to do research to see how we can incorporate all the teachers. Yeah, I'd like to keep looking into that because I know those teachers tend to even put in more hours. Definitely. Thank you. So to jump off that, the goal is by... fall of 26, so next fall, that any eligible, we've gone across all subjects, everything, and submit every single possible. Right now we're
016working on a plan to have... included all of our eligible teachers, but that won't happen by the spring. The plan will be ready and it'll tell us, okay, if we have this eligible teaching group, like for example, art teachers, this is the year we plan on implementing an assessment and collecting data to add to our application. So what this timeline here on the screen that you see is this year we're collecting data on the current eligible teaching categories. We'd submit that data is going to be submitted in the fall of 2026. And then in the spring of 2027, TEA would approve our data or our designations. And then in summer, we'd be able to distribute those allotments to the teachers. So that's for the current eligible teaching categories that I shared on the previous slide.
017Thank you. And I should have asked this question because I don't see it in the report ahead of time. Do we have a list of all eligible teaching categories across the state? Say Kyle ISD has done for ninth grade world history. That's not listed currently. Do we have a list of all those? We show what we're doing right now and what we're looking for, but as Trustee Carter said, is there a district that's already doing band or is there a district that's already doing? Because if you go back a slide, 26-27, we say we're going to do grades 5 and 8 science, biology, grade 8 social, based on the star, but world geography, which... I assume is taught at the high school level. Is that teacher's not eligible based on any of these plans, but
018is there a district across the state that's found a way to take advantage of TIA and take in, look at that, is there a comprehensive list that we could see? Unfortunately, there's not a comprehensive list, but like I said, the meetings that I'm able to attend with the districts from across the state, I'm able to ask questions and get their feedback and see what's working for them. But unfortunately, there's not a comprehensive list right now. TEA is the only one that has access to everyone's plan. But you can go on districts, and there are districts that have expanded TIA more than we have. They've been in the program longer because there were cohort groups as this came on board. There are some districts that have gone whole hog, and we... We question that a little
019bit, because it does have to be valid and reliable, and you have to be proven. And if you get a little wonky with your data, then you begin to lose your designations, and you begin to lose TIA. So we are slow walking it the best we can to make sure we get all of our teachers, but you can see it is a process to get the data collection, the submission, the validation, and then the distribution. Completely understand. I just, if we could find a way to find every eligible teacher the opportunity, because looking at the slide before kindergarten is left off, you could, you start looking at subjects, and I just don't want to see teachers jumping for TIA when there's an opportunity in the future to, if they're moving from grade A to here
020just for those allotment, what are the opportunities as we go forward over the next couple years? And that is the long-term goal, is to have every teacher that, every teacher. be able to qualify and be eligible for TIA. We just have to go through the process and figure out how do we do that. Like Ms. Carter mentioned, for fine arts, for CTE, there are difficult ways to validate student growth. I just don't see that in the timeline of when we would know all, is that fall 26 that we'll know all eligible? If I look at that timeline, it's on the screen, fall 26 we're submitting, do we have a... a date or timeline in mind that we will know all those eligibles as we slow walk it? Do we have an idea when we wanna
021explore every possible one? Well, I guess I'm confused when you say all eligible. I shared with the board the timeline that we currently have published to where we are rolling out and which designations and programs we're looking to qualify in future years. Truthfully, when you say all eligible, all teachers are eligible if we have in place an approved process that has been approved by TEA. Are you asking what our timeline is for us to have all teachers that are eligible to be in the process? We are working through that, as she says, when she meets with all our people and figuring out how can we do this. But we don't have a, we're not looking for fall 2028. We haven't designated a date that we are going to try to give that complete advice. We
022don't have an end game to where we can say 2030, every teacher will be eligible for TIA, if that's what you're asking. It is. But I wish there, I mean, I don't want it to be that we just keep exploring this. Like, it would be nice to have an end date knowing that by fall 2030, we've explored all possible TIA incentives. And I know that things change, but that would be helpful to know when we're going to, if not, it's just going to be every year we're going to look at this presentation and say fall 2027, we're exploring more and more opportunities. No, no, this is actually rolling out new TIA designations. That's what this timeline is. We did our initial one, we piloted and programmed or are asking for approval for the next set
023and then in the next years we'll do the next set. We will continue to do more teachers as we have availability to validate the process. We're not just exploring it, we are looking for ways to validate more teachers to be eligible. Okay, but fall 26 we're only validating what's on the screen, that. I'm trying to figure out when we're gonna validate everything. every possible opportunity. And we don't have a date for that yet. No, because we have not determined a way to submit to TEA for validation yet. That is what we are researching to figure out. What can we put forward that will allow us to collect the data that's valid and reliable and will be approved for TEA and TIA? And I think that that honestly like going to the TASB conference this past
024or the TASB board meeting there's a lot of talk about TIA. Mike Morath is coming in talking to the TASB board about those things and many districts are struggling especially in those course works that are not star tested to find a valid and reliable assessment because what I learned in talking and I'm sure you may talk about this a little bit the calibration piece of this is that in the presentation here tonight? Not today. So there's a piece of the calibration part of all of this that it's one thing to just have an assessment, but the assessment also has to align with teacher performance and the calibration has to be such that it's valid and reliable is the best way to explain it. And districts across the state. Dallas ISD apparently has found a way
025to test every possible or find an assessment and for the teacher and for the data collection for the students that makes it that all of their teachers are TIA approved, but they're not easily releasing that information. And just because it works for Dallas ISD doesn't mean that it's something that we already have in stock and barrel to be able to move forward with in our district. So. This seemed very straightforward to me the more I hear about it, but the more I learn about it the more complicated this process is as far as finding the correct assessment tool and the Calibration of teacher assessment to be able to tie those pieces together And if you get out of line with that then you risk losing the entire TIA support for those teachers that have already
026received those benefits. Right. If we submit data one year and we're not validated, then none of the teachers will receive their allotment for that school year. And so that's why you see this so slow moving. That's why it's really important that we have time to do the research and ensure that it's the right assessment that we'll be utilizing for whichever group that we are proposing as an expansion. But I think with that, as you see the uptake of more and more districts exploring these options, the more reliable assessment tools are going to be brought forward, and then we can incorporate those and move forward. But I think there's a real struggle in understanding what those assessments are right now. Yes. Is the way I understand it. It's a process, and there's not a lot of
027options available at this point. and your question about wanting a timeline. So. Yeah, all I wanted was when we would have all the assessments done for all the different grades. We don't have that right now. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so I'm going to talk a little bit about designations now. If you look on the left side of the screen, you will see the TEA allotments. Those are updated each April. So those will be updated next semester. Remember the formula that the formula is based on awarding districts higher allotments where there's higher needs and rural campuses and those districts and campuses receive more funding. Something new is so on the left side you'll see the current designations. On the right side of the screen, we are adding or the state is adding a new designation
028called acknowledged. So this is going to allow us to designate even more teachers as we move forward. And this will take place next school year. So the data that we are collecting this school year and submitted in October, we'll be able to assign this acknowledged designation for the 26-27 school year. and the allotment amounts have gone up for recognized exemplary and master. So in the 24-25 school year, 165 teachers in parallel ISD earned designations. And in the 25-26 school year, we're estimating to have over 200 designated teachers upon TEA approval. And do you happen to know off the top of your head or maybe Mr. or Dr. Berger does about how many teachers we have that could be eligible that maybe aren't designated yet? We don't have that right now, but I can get that
029for you. How many do we have in the district? Around 2,000 or, yeah? 1,300. 1,300? Okay. So we're a little over 10% or so, 15%-ish, somewhere in there. Okay. As I said earlier, here in Pearland ISD, we follow the state recommendation of awarding 90% of the allotment to the teacher. And that allotment is generated and awarded to the teacher minus their TRS contributions and fringe benefits. And then 10% is retained by the district to support the implementation of TIA to help offset salaries, consultant fees, assessment expenses for current and future subject areas. Last school year, in the 24-25 school year, we designated teachers that generated an allotment of $1,555,298. And in the 25-26 school year, we anticipate estimating to generate over $2 million. I really appreciate your time today, and if you have any questions,
030I'd like to hear them. What if you have a teacher come from another district that's achieved a TIA designation in an area that we're not currently designating in in our district? What happens to a teacher like that? So if we hire a teacher that's already designated and they're going to remain in a teaching position, they are still going to generate that allotment. Once a teacher generates that allotment, it's good for five years, as long as they remain in a teaching position, even if they transfer to another district. that doesn't have them as an eligible teaching category. And even if we don't currently have a testing tool, so that testing tool is just for initial recognition of that designation? In that district. So say I teach CTE in another district, I earned my designation two years
031ago, and I come to Pearland, I'm still going to generate that allotment for my campus in Pearland ISD. Once you're designated, then you're designated and there's no further testing protocol to maintain that designation? Not for the five years. Once the five years is up, then we look at the data again, submit it to TEA, and they might get a higher designation, a lower designation, or not designated after the five years. So for example, if there was a CT, since you used that example, and they were designated elsewhere, and then they reached the five-year threshold, and we're not testing in that area, they could basically lose revenue or lose their bonus check or whatever, allotment check, if we're not yet designating in that area. That is correct. I know there's some questions and I get them
032from the board of, well, other districts are doing this, why aren't we? Other districts are, when you look across or in these meetings, sometimes what other districts are doing. may not seem to be as valid and reliable when we investigate it. Is that true or false? That is correct. And that's another thing to keep in mind. There could be districts who have 95% of eligible teachers, but they could have submitted data and it came back as not validated. So that's important to consider as well. We here in Pearland have done a really good job of calibrating with t-tests. and taking things slow, implementing the assessments that meet the needs of the students. So I do agree that y'all have done a wonderful job with that and we're just gonna continue to look at other districts,
033see what's working, but keep that in mind as well. Just because they have a lot of eligible teachers, it doesn't mean that the system is valid and reliable. So as far as the teacher pay component is concerned, 90% of it has to go to teacher pay. But that doesn't does that offset salaries that on top of the salary they're already getting from parents Okay, so this is this is supplemental to the salary they're already getting paid So do you have teachers like knocking down your door to try and get qualified? So we have outlets for them to give us feedback. I have meetings with the teachers. And if a teacher reaches out, I'm always open to hear what they say. And a lot of them like to say, well, at this district, I see this.
034Could this work for us? So I always take any feedback back to our committee and then to our DEIC committee as well. Yeah, it's an average from this last slide, $10,000 a teacher, you know, who couldn't use an extra 10 grand in their pocket. So very cool. Dr. Scheffler, that goes back to my statement, is that the more teachers that we can explore, the faster we can explore this, the more of our employees are eligible for that $10,000. And it's a way to retain, recruit more employees on that end. So I applaud the work we're doing, and I just encourage us that the sooner, the faster we can explore all opportunities, the better for our employees across the district. What is the pivot point, do you think? What is the pinnacle point at which... We
035will feel comfortable like we've done the background work. We understand this system well and then like we pivot to aggressively attacking TIA for teachers. Can you define kind of what we're looking for or hoping to achieve to kind of turn that corner? There's not really a pivot point at this time. At this time, it's really thinking about what is going to be best for our students, for our teachers, and what is going to give us that valid and reliable data. So it will take some time to ensure that we're on that right path. So that kind of part of my question, and I guess I didn't state it explicitly, is can part of this be crowdsourced? It sounds like they're bringing you ideas of, hey, I know so-and-so ISD is doing their art teachers and
036they're validating it this way. So I'm sure they're bringing you that. Is there anything that the teachers can be doing? Do you have like a rubric where if they go out and they research this and they're able to fill in all these questions, boxes and bring that to you for then you to put your eyes on with the committee that they could then maybe be put into the pipeline we don't currently have a rubric right now i'm just collecting their feedback through surveys and conversations with them In that process, because when Layla goes to these cohorts and goes to these conferences and goes to these districts, we do lean on that as well as our superintendent groups. I ask them, what are you doing? How are you doing this and where is this? And so
037there is a risk-reward with that, but there's also, you have to purchase those assessments or you have to figure out what assessment can we use and what do we need to bring on board to make that happen. So we are... as aggressively as we can feel comfortable pursuing those because we do want 100% of our teachers to be eligible for this. And please know that just because you're eligible doesn't mean you get designated or earn the check because we have teachers that are eligible but did not earn the designation either because of student growth or because of evaluation. And so we will continue to push this as fast and as hard as possible because I hear it from Ms. Carbone monthly when we meet, if not more. and I hear it from you up here
038that we want to retain our teachers and TIA is a way to do that because we cannot always give the 4%, 5%, 8% raise they may need, but if we can give a $10,000 bonus, well, why wouldn't you stay in Paralympic ISD? Well, and at the same time, it's not. I mean, as she made very clear, if they leave the district, the money goes with them. So retention... The fact that we'll go and fight for them, I do think, and sure, would they connect the dots of if I leave, this will follow me. But, I mean, if it's, they're designated for five years regardless of where they go. It's only a retention tool if we're the ones in there swinging for them and trying to get it. And our campus, our campus principals also are
039trying to be innovative in how they do schedules. Because in order to be one of the already designated or eligible criteria's we have, you kind of have to be a teacher of record. And you talked about inclusion and everything else. And so they have worked with their schedules as best they can for teachers that hold the certification to kind of give them a class. Because you only need to have one. And so they've worked their schedule to make sure that as many teachers that can be are. in an eligible teaching criteria to meet the designation. So we are innovatively and aggressively doing it as much as we can. But I would say that Layla is always not hesitant, not a barrier, but she wants to make sure that we are correlated, we are calibrated, we
040are valid and reliable because we don't want to move so fast that we lose it. True or false? True. been districts that you've seen that have lost the designation is what I hear you saying. They've gone a year without being able to designate because their data did not validate. Yes. And do you see finances or budget as a constraint to this process? Like we're not allocating resources that are needed to push this process forward? Not that I have been aware of. So it's not like more money on this topic would would expedite the? Well, one, the board graciously approved the position that we currently have to allow us to do this. And the other is if assessments are brought forward, like if we need to go out and purchase maps for the entire district so
041that we can have a beginning of the year and end of the year assessments, then yes, I would have to come before you and go, we need a budget impact to purchase this assessment for all of our classes. to clarify the money that we get if we generate two million dollars this next year that'd be a minimum of two hundred thousand dollars give or take dedicated that could go to salaries but also can that cover that software with the assessment expenses for current and future subject area? Can it cover software and stuff, or is that a separate? It can cover an assessment. Is that what you mean by software? Like the platform? Yeah, if we have to use an assessment tool, as Dr. Berger said, that 10% can be used for that. So the more
042money we get into the TIA, the more money the district gets, that's more money that we can put back to utilize for more TIA assessment tools. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about this. Also, for those that are watching, that they know we're pursuing it and that they... They know that we're advocating for them and hoping to move this process forward. Thank you for your diligent work in this. I know it's an exhaustive role, especially as you're kind of creating something as you're moving and like flying already. So thank you for all of your efforts and whatever we can do to support this ongoing growth. I think you hear loud and clear. We're here for that. Thank you so much. All right, thank you again, Layla, for being here tonight and for that information.
043We're gonna move to new business now. I have consent agenda items one through 11. Anybody interested in asking questions about any of those? Yeah, I'm just trying to get back to my actual agenda here. Yes, sir, no problem. My questions will be quick on A2, A4, and A10. I believe mine were four through 10. It was all the items that listed Dell. I'm sorry, you said, Sean said 2, 4, and 10. I'll wait for Dr. Scheffler to get caught up. Okay, so it would be item 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Like I said, all the items that say Dell. What's left is 1, 3, and 11. Motion to approve the consent agenda's items only 1, 3, and 11. i have a motion by trustee johnson for consent items 1 3 11 a second
044by trustee murphy any further discussion on those items hearing none i'll call for a vote all those in favor motion carries 6-0 with trustee stuckey absent this evening all right we're just going to go in order trustee murphy item number two Yeah, just a quick question again get a chance to go into detail on some of these consent But can you just give me an update on the floors at Turner? I don't I didn't see that's coming out of the bond So is that just it is yes, sir. The But yes when we did the the bond proposal with the bond committee the stairs in South and Turner were bond project I'll have to go back. My apologies. I thought it was coming out of the general funds, not. No, sir, they are bond proceeds.
045But our experts are before you if I am incorrect. You're talking about item number one. They're bond funds? They are bond funds. Sorry. Item number one of item number two. Is that what you're talking about? the floors and stuff, the stairs at Turner. Yeah, item two is the, consent agenda item two is the purchases, President Carbone. I think they're looking at that one and then pulling all the different lists off that. Yeah, no, that's my mistake. I think there was some consent agenda items possibly pulled that. Mine is for consent agenda item number two. I'm looking at the list of the $100,000 aggregate. That was the number I was routing out there. So I guess just for future, so I save some time, how do I know that this is? coming out of bond, not
046general fund. Yes, sir, I'll provide for you again, but I've given the financial accounting structure that shows the funding code. And so the 241 will show you that the funding code is bond proceeds. It's in the agenda packet. And also the fund itself, 624 is... for bond projects. So anything, any fund that starts with a 600 account is bond projects. So we actually list it and itemize it on item 12. And the budget code starts with 624. Okay. So I guess the difficulty is that, not difficulty, I could ask this ahead of time if I had time, but at the bottom it says funding, I see general fund and I see other funds. Right. When you have this many items on a deal, it's not clear where they're coming from. So I'll just send you
047an email ahead of time. Right. So, for example, on item 11, you'll see the budget code starts with 199, which is general operating. But if any budget code that starts with a 600 account, it's typically fine. We should all have those budget codes memorized by now, right? All right, so what I heard you say, Dr. Scheffler, is that you're in this item number two of approval of procured budget purchases. Over $100,000. You have questions about items five through 10 within that item. Yeah, and forgive me. I was still having technical difficulties trying to figure out what I needed to be saying here. No worries. So we can go ahead and make a motion to approve consent agenda items five through nine. and then go back and answer your questions regarding the rest of the things
048in two. Let me double check real quick. Two, four, and 10 was what Murphy pulled. Okay, I agree with pulling four for sure. I didn't have a problem with five. Yeah, no, I would be okay with that. So I would make a motion to approve items five through nine from the consent agenda. Second. All right, I have a motion to approve items five through nine in the consent agenda and a second from Trustee Carter. Okay. I'm sorry, I wasn't sure who it came from over here. All right, any further discussion on those items? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. All right, Dr. Scheffler. Are we still discussing item two? We are still discussing item number two. You got your questions answered
049on item number two? Okay. So I just wanted to kind of point out and ask some questions. There's a lot of items listed under the aggregate purchases that are for Dell branded products and related services. It totals over $4 million. And so that was kind of, most of these are, some of it's laptops, a lot of it seems like it's classroom material, desktop machines, CTE machines. I would just like a little bit of a breakdown of what we're spending $4 million on. So yeah, these are all from the bond. The only reason it's broken down into so many different quotes is that's the way it came in from Dell. They did some pricing. They're into fiscal years at the end of January. So they give us different pricing on these specific models, and they broke
050the quotes down. in a way that it had to come in as separate items. Otherwise, it would have been one lump sum. The machines in there, you have a combination of all CTE labs, but between the CTE labs, you have some high-powered machines, ones that have to run things like 3D modeling, that type of thing, that need a high-powered machine. You have some standard ones that are more business-oriented machines. You've got classroom student machines, classroom teacher machines. Classroom student machines are laptops versus desktops with two different quotes. and shared machines. I've got breakdown here as well. Shared machines would be things like badge printers, tardy stations. That's the smallest one. If you look through the list, the tardy stations and other shared types of machines is the smallest. Smallest quotes like 200 machines out of
051that list. I think I said teacher machine in there as well. So the main teacher station in each classroom. So this was in the bond calendar breakdown year by year. Yeah, I just wanted to highlight, you know, this is I know the public voted for this and it's all approved You know It's four million dollars worth of computers and at least a lot of these are things that are gonna be anchored in a classroom that people can all use together and And kind of do group learning on not have to haul back and forth to home But this is this is the cost of technology. I mean, this is really what we're I think our first one we did the one-to-one was like 10 million total right and this is just one chunk of the
052bond that we're starting to roll into. So thank you for helping us highlight that. Any further questions on consent agenda item number two? Yeah, I did not pull this, but now I just have a question since I'm looking at it. On the IT related to the stadium, there's some acronyms related to the Wi-Fi, and I'm just curious if somebody could tell me, maybe I missed it, about what BB stands for. I see Fieldhouse. So it's like... This is Paralyzed East Stadium BB. So they broke the areas down when we had them price it out. The reason this did not come up last year, this is actually part two of the Wi-Fi changes going on right now. The Wi-Fi replacement across the entire district is going on. But E-Rate will refund us for anything that's an
053instructional area. So we did that last year. And this is the non-instructional areas. And we had them break it down by area. So BB would be baseball, SB softball. Gotcha. Thank you. Yeah. Those are the areas. It's just that. The different physical locations inside the area. Thank you. I just saw it as stadium, thinking it was just the Pearland Stadium and then wanted to make sure. So it's other facilities in that area as well, not just. Concession areas. Thank you. All right. Any further items on procured items of $100,000 or more? All right. Hearing no further questions, I'll call for a motion. I have a motion by Trustee Murphy. Second. A second by Trustee Johnson. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0
054with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. All right, we're moving to consent agenda item number four, the consideration and approval of renewal of the contract for commercial property insurance coverage. Dr. Berger. You want me to, yeah. My question on this was just, again, the decrease in premiums of almost 400,000, it's good to see. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't lose or change any of our coverages, meaning those apples to apples of the previous coverage that we had from last year, meaning we didn't get the decrease because we went down in any coverage or up in any deductibles. Yeah, I think when we proposed we proposed the cap a few years ago on the On what the Commission could be one of the things that we said was that if y'all could say with
055some money somewhere Then we'd make sure to kick some of that back over and and share that out So I got no problem. We're saving almost four hundred thousand dollars Commission goes up thirty thousand. Um, that's good math in my book. So I'm happy with that You good. All right, I'll make a motion that we approve it as presented I'll second I have a motion by Trustee Murphy, a second by Dr. Scheffler. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. All right, we're on to item number 10, Trustee Murphy, consideration and approval of affiliation agreement. You had questions? Yeah, I just was, this popped up in the paper. I was just trying to understand exactly what this
056was. I was wondering if you could give us a quick understanding of this. interlocal or this agreement with HCU and the other. They work together to fine tune the MOU to get it over to Janiece for approval. This is simply allowing universities to send us their student teachers either for observation or for the actual clinical teaching experience. That's all I have. So I'll make a motion to approve. I have a motion by Trustee Murphy for item number 10 on the consent agenda. Second. A second by Trustee Sheffler. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Snuckey absent this evening. My apologies, sir. All right, now we're moving to the regular agenda, item number one, consideration and approval of fiscal year 25-26, budget amendment three.
057Dr. Berger. Yes, ma'am. If you pull the general fund budget amendment number three, you will see there's only one adjustment of $120,000. It's moving from 11, which is the instruction account, to 81, which is the facility acquisition and construction. Really what we're doing is we're just making sure that we are in the correct fund, the correct function. This is for graduation expenses. Previously we haven't needed this in 81 and now that we're doing upgrades and renovations at Pearland Stadium for graduation related to audio and video streaming and everything else we need for graduation to take place all we're doing is adjusting the function but it is kind of a wash. We're just making sure it's in the right data controlled code. Any questions on this item? I'll make a motion we approve this item as
058presented. Second motion by trustee Murphy second by trustee Scheffler. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none. I'll call for a vote. All those in favor. Motion carries six zero with trustee Sucky absent this evening. All right, Dr. Berger, consider approval of library books for purchase. Yes ma'am, this is once again going back to the approval of district library material in compliance with Senate Bill 13. The list of library books you have are broken down by level, elementary, middle school, junior high, and high school. They have followed the required 30-day public posting to where we can have community members review the library book material list and have any objections that are listed. There were no objectives listed on this set of library books or library material by the community. And so we bring it before
059the board for final approval. Thank you, Dr. Berger. Can you please give us an update from the conversation of last month with the conversation with Follett Destiny? Yes, ma'am. We met to discuss in the parent portal portion of Follett Destiny. A parent can search the title, the author, or the subject, and it will pull all of the books. But for the parent to... limit what their child can check out, they have to individually check each book, which can be tedious. So what was asked is if we could get a subject search and then a select all. Ms. Leggett, Dr. Allen, and myself met with representatives from Fallout Destiny before the Thanksgiving break. We asked them to program that or to set it up for us. They said they would review it. They believed that they
060could. We have a follow-up meeting with them tomorrow where we hope they tell us, yes, we can do this and we will implement this. That way... Parents can go through or guardians can go through and type the subject say for example I don't want my child to read any books about murder they could type murder It'll pull up all the books and then they can just select all that way they don't have to select their each individual book So once they do that then we will communicate with our community that they now have this process we will also share with them all of the subject headings that are Encapsulated in fall let because they may not know what to search and so then they can see this subject headings and if they see something they
061don't want their child to read, they can search that subject heading, select all, and then they have better transparency and control of what their child is reading. Thank you for that update. So we won't know for sure until probably the January board meeting whether we've been successful in pursuing that with Follett or if we need to go look for a different system. Well, for... Board comment, yes, but I hopefully will let you know with the weekly update on Friday because we have our meeting tomorrow. Okay, thank you, sir. All right, so I'm looking for a motion for consideration of approval of the December library books. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second on the table. Any further discussion on this item? I will say I'm going to vote for them, but there
062are two middle school controversial books, one named Kansas City Chiefs and the other Dallas Cowboys. But in good faith of voting, I'll allow them here. You should not kick a fan when the team is down, sir. Cowboys and Indians, right, Sean? Got something against the Old West or something. Any further discussion on this item? I have a motion by Trustee Murphy, a second by Trustee Johnson. Carter, my apologies. A motion by Trustee Carter, a second by Trustee Johnson. Thank you for that clarification. I'd like to point out one thing that I've noticed with these lists, and it's that I know that it's the interest that drives it. A very large number of these seem to be mangas and comic books and graphic novels and whatnot, and I know what my kids are bringing home from
063the library. And on the one hand, I'm kind of torn. It's like... maybe that's what they want to read and actually get some reading. But then on the other hand, is it really, is it quality reading? You know, I don't know. And so I've looked into, I've tried finding, and everybody's got their own opinions on it. Like some people think it's garbage and other people are like, oh no, but kids will actually read it. And so maybe it increases their reading proficiency. I looked at the next list that we're going to have and on the high school list, less than 200 books on that list and something like almost 150 of them are that kind of a book. So even at the high school level, it seems like the majority of them aren't traditional books
064like what you and I grew up with so much as picture books with words. So I don't know. I'm kind of struggling with that a little bit just personally. that struggle but also our libraries are meant for extra reading and so I know that in our classroom curriculum we're getting robust exposure to classic literature and other depth of literature and so if this is what our children desire to read in the libraries then I guess I'm okay with it difference of opinion all right we have a motion and a second on the table any further discussion Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. All right, Dr. Burger, review information related to SB 546. Yes, ma'am. This is one of the 89th Legislature's
065gifts that keep on giving. So Senate Bill 546 deals with updates to the Texas Transportation Code to require that all school buses transporting students be equipped with a three-point lap-shoulder seatbelt for each seat. position, including the driver. And so what the rule is telling us right now is we need to do an inventory and a cost report that needs to be reported to the Texas Education Agency, but also needs to be reported to the board. Based on that, the district makes a recommendation of whether it is financially feasible to retrofit or buy all new buses. And so before you, I have our Director of Transportation, Mr. Keith Kopp, who has a presentation that he would like to present to you that will have a detailed inventory. and a cost report as required by Senate Bill
066546. And then I would like to propose a resolution for the board to approve. All right, well, good evening. The presentation, is it up here and loaded? Or am I gonna act it out? Okay, it's 30, okay. Talk amongst yourselves. There we go. All right, well, good evening. I'd like to say I'm pleased to be here and share this information, but I'm happy to be able to provide some clarity in where we are with this. So Senate Bill 546 is addressing seatbelts on school buses, and I want to start out by giving a little bit of background on where we are. School buses have been designed since 1978 with the idea of compartmentalization to keep students safe on the bus. So that's tightly spaced seats, energy-absorbing foam backs, so did not require seatbelts to consider
067it a safe vehicle. In 2017, the Texas legislature updated the requirements to require three-point lap shoulder belts, which is what you have in your personal vehicle, the traditional lap shoulder belt, to require that on any bus that is model year 2018 and newer. As a district, we have been in compliance with that since 2019. We have been purchasing buses that were in compliance with that. However, Senate Bill 546 that went into effect September 1st of this year does remove the qualification of that 2018 model year and newer, and it applies to any bus that is used to transport students. And so with that, it does require... either a retrofit or a replacement to ensure that every vehicle is equipped with lap shoulder belts for every passenger. And so what's outlined in what was passed in
068Senate Bill 546 is that the Board of Trustees make a determination on whether you have the financial capacity at this point to go and make everything compliant today. That would be, and we'll see these numbers in a minute, but 126 vehicles that are not compliant. And then following that determination, then report in a public meeting, which we're doing tonight, summarizing our district fleet as far as what's noncompliant. and what the costs associated with that would be. In turn, the district reports that information up to TEA through the Sentinel system that we use for Safe and Secure Schools reporting. And then in turn, that is reported by January 1st of 27 to the governor and legislature so that they can get sticker shock on all the districts across the state of what that might be. And
069so with that, let me give you a current status of where we are with our fleet. As of December 1st, 2025, and this does not include any buses that we have scheduled for auction coming up in the January, February timeframe, we have 99 regular ed buses that do not have seatbelts equipped. That includes spare buses, athletic buses, some route buses that all fit into that number. We have 27 of our special needs vehicles that are equipped with lap-only belts and don't fit into the three-point lap-shoulder belt category. And then all total, we have 62 vehicles that are fully compliant with Senate Bill 546. And you'll see that line there with three vehicles for CTE. Those are the little white minibuses that are operated now by CTE for... extra trips and things like that that they
070use within their department. But because they are vehicles that are operated by a school district, they do have to be in compliance with this. So with that, we have 188 vehicles that are broken down in these categories. And that does show that we have 126 that are not in compliance at this time. If we were to go and replace all of those vehicles in one shot, at our most recent purchase price of $150,000 a bus, we'd be looking at about $18.9 million without price increase. And we know that if I were to get quotes today, it's not going to be the $150,000 that we just most recently purchased. Currently... Thanks to the capital renewal plan, we have been on a rotation to purchase 12 buses a year so that we can refresh our fleet. And
071following that same timeline, it would take 11 years for us to achieve compliance. Now, we do have the option for a retrofit. Some vehicles qualify based on when they were manufactured, how they were engineered to begin with, and those types of things. So some of those vehicles, those 126, we have the ability to go and have seats removed, seats replaced that are compliant, and it does become a lower cost per vehicle for that. Now... Some buses cannot be retrofitted because of their age. We do have seven of those 126 that the manufacturer has said based on the model year bus, they will not retrofit those and have them engineered to meet standards. So with that, we have 119 out of that 126 that are eligible for retrofit, but there is a cost involved with that.
072And so when we look at the cost. These are the most updated quotes that I've received from the two manufacturers, Thomas and International, that would be doing those retrofits. As you can see, a full-size 77-passenger bus, one manufacturer's almost $41,000. The other is $32,500 per bus for those retrofits. For that WC bus, that stands for wheelchair-equipped bus for our special needs fleet. significantly lower cost of retrofit because we're talking shorter bus, fewer seats, so, you know, 18.5 to 21.3, depending upon which manufacturer that is. But there's still a hefty price tag at 4 point, basically $4.3 million for that retrofit for those 119 that can be retrofitted. Now, I will say on this next slide, there is a little bit of a... typo there when I copied stuff over. So that number that you saw
073in the previous slide looks like it actually was fixed. So that typo, forget I said anything about the typo because it was fixed there. I'm just keeping you honest. But some considerations with this retrofit is the fact that parts availability is approximately 10 weeks from the time a PO is issued to the time that they can actually deliver those parts. And then it's about 60 labor hours per vehicle in order to do the retrofit. Now, we also have to consider that this is 126 buses for Pearland ISD. You look at all the other districts around the state that are also in that same situation. We're going to have a very difficult time trying to get manufacturers to provide the parts, provide the service to be able to do this. It's going to be a monumental
074task. All of our Thomas buses that are listed up here, those are 18 to 23 years old. So we would be investing through retrofit $2.9 million on buses that are already beyond our typical service life for a bus. The international buses are all 7 to 14 years old for the retrofits, which are still within our typical 12 to 15 year service life for a bus, our average of what we should be keeping a bus for. So when we summarize all of this together, we're looking at the 126 noncompliant buses with a replacement cost today for all of those at $18.9 million. Considerations are that's a large number of buses to replace at one time because 12 to 15 years from now, we'd be coming back and saying, hey, we have 126 buses that we need
075to replace again, and you'll laugh at me. So that's not a reasonable thing to do. Plus 12 to 18 months from order to delivery when we purchase buses. Retrofit costs significantly cheaper at 4.28 million, but we are committing money to some older vehicles, strained availability of parts and installation, and then we still have the seven buses that can't be retrofitted that are going to have to be replaced as part of our normal replacement project. So, good news, I know, but any questions that you have regarding this? I do, I have a question. So when they, when you... do the retrofit. The problem in the past where this law was originally passed and we reviewed this years ago was that when they retrofit a 77 passenger bus, that number of seats shrinks, reducing the number of
076kids that we are able to pick up, which thus affecting the bus routes, which would also require us to hire more bus drivers. So is that still true to where when you price the retrofit for these bus, that number may, I think, went from 77 like down to 56. And do we get to, if that's the case, do we get to price that number in, which means that's an additional cost because now we don't have enough buses, which means we have to buy additional buses, additional fuel, and hire additional bus drivers. Right. So... It's not the same circumstances now as it was then. The technology that they have developed for the seatbelt-ready seats, the foam in the seat compartment itself, it's not as thick as it was, so it didn't reduce the number of rows
077that you get in the bus. Plus, they're designed now for really three elementary students per seat. They have three seatbelts on that bench, which, when we route, For the most part, if we're going to put three students in a seat, it's going to be at the elementary level. For the most part, at our middle school, junior high, high school level, we try to route for that two, on average, number of students per seat. So we're really not reducing our functional capacity by doing this. But that's really, I mean, just the functionality of that, of a three-point, the shoulder and lap harness that you have to fit for a kindergartner and you have to fit for a high schooler. I mean, that, I... I will say that they have really made some improvements in the design
078of it. Just like we have in our cars with the adjustable height shoulder strap, we have that on the buses as well. It slides up and down so that it does fit the student properly. Okay. Was there, I feel like I already know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask it for public record anyway. Was there any cost associated that the legislature gave us to equip these buses and to make this right with the requirement that they gave us to make seatbelts? So at this time, there is no funding available, no magic pot of money or anything that is going to come our way. Right now. Part of the way it's written, and there are actually two pieces that are going to expire as of 2027. In 2028, it'll expire. And that's
079really the information gathering piece. And that's what really, that's where we're at with this law right now is we're being tasked to let them know what is the scope of the problem that has been identified. You know, I have my ideas on what could happen with the information when it shows up. There may be a sticker shock, and, you know, the legislature says there's no way that we can fund this, and they have the magic to make changes and make that section of the law go away. They may come up and say, you know what? That's a lot of money. It's a lot of vehicles, but we've got this money. We can fund it. Or something in between where they may say, no, it's an unfunded mandate, but you can go get grants and donations
080to cover the cost. So there's a whole spectrum there on what could happen. But right now, there's no magic pot of money that's been identified for you. So essentially an unfunded mandate at this point in time. And what's the conversation been about, you know, seatbelts are only as useful as, like, if they're across you. Who gets to enforce all these kids buckling up and sitting in their seats nicely? Well, that is also the fun part because in the, you know, education code, it does have an expectation of if the vehicles equipped with seatbelts, the students are to wear them, and it should be enforced that way. There's some philosophical questions on it as far as... Are you going to suspend service for a student for not wearing their seatbelt and potentially place them in a
081less safe form of transportation to get to and from school? Are we defeating the purpose? But what has been interpreted as the expectations is... we place expectations on our students that if they are riding a bus that has seat belts that they're to be used and the driver's responsibility as we have trained our staff on and reminded them of that responsibility is as the student boards the bus, you remind your students, have a seat, put your seatbelt on. before you leave the campus in the afternoon to start delivering students home, you do the flight attendant walk. Walk to the back of the bus, put your seatbelt on, put your seatbelt on, remind kids to put their seatbelt on. We're not going to physically put the seatbelt on them, but we are going to do due
082diligence to do those reminders. Do adults sometimes forget to do those things? Yes, and we remind them to. to take those steps. So the expectation for use is there. And as far as what those consequences and how you can ensure 100% application, it's hard to correct human behavior. Any further questions on this item? All right, so Dr. Berger, what are you asking of us tonight? So we have, what I'm asking is the board to... See that one we can't feasibly go out and buy 126 buses One we don't have the 18 million dollars into the capacity of buying 126 buses now puts us in the phrase of having about 126 buses later. We have a phase-in model now with the CRP. We buy 12 buses a year. We have different options of phase-in plans. There
083is a hybrid option to where we continue to buy 12 buses a year. We just had our CRP meeting where we're reviewing what we're bringing to you in January. And Mr. Kopp said to help with this process, can we move to maybe buying 15 buses? And if we have the funds for that, that can expedite the compliance threshold that we need. If the board would would prefer we could buy those 15 buses and maybe do some retrofitting to help us with the compliance piece But what I'm asking of the board to consider or to approve is a resolution that goes back with this Fact-finding data finding mission to TEA that says right now We are not financially able to be in compliance with this law as presented We will continue in our due diligence to
084bring buses on board that have the seat belts We can continue to look at retrofitting the buses as need be based on the years of service. I do not want to throw good money after bad or old buses. That will be up for retrofitting, so we go out and spend a million dollars to retrofit some old buses and in two years those buses are gone because we've done the CRP process. So ultimately I'm asking the board to consider the resolution to let TEA know the data that we just presented to you. and to say that at this time we are not financially able to be compliant with Senate Bill 546. Any further questions on this resolution? Yeah, my only question on the resolution, and maybe this is more the power, so we have buses with
085seatbelts, more buses are being added with seatbelts. How do we decide which route in which students get the seatbelts and those who... for the next five years aren't gonna have seat belts. I'm just curious how that might not be available right now. If that's available, what routes we choose for seat belts and which ones we choose without. Well, as far as assigning vehicles to routes, there's not specific consideration given as far as this route requires a bus with seat belts and this one doesn't. If we had a different geographic makeup of our district where we had significant distance discrepancy between some routes versus the others, it would be clear cut. If we had... a different terrain, a different type of roadway that we were driving on, it'd be real clear cut. What we do is
086we assign buses to routes based upon, right now it's the driver's seniority as, we look at the driver's seniority to rank the buses based on age. And so a driver that's been here longer is going to have a newer bus. Once they have that bus assigned to them, it's going to stay on that route for about three years before we just rotate again. And so we start phasing those in. That helps us to be able to ensure that on our routes we're putting the newest buses that we have on the fleet on our routes and then constantly looking at it from that standpoint. Is it specifically tied to a group of students or an area? No. Yeah, so it's fair to say it's divided equally. I mean, it's not equally. It's not one route, one
087area, one campus is getting more seatbelts than others. It's based on a pretty well thought out formula. Thank you. Yeah, we have it spread across the district, yes. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, hearing none, I'll call for a motion on this resolution. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion by Trustee Johnson and a second by Trustee Murphy. Any further discussion on this item? All right, hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. Thank you both so much for being here tonight and for that information. Dr. Berger, consideration and approval of additional personnel. Yes, ma'am. We normally don't bring additional personnel this late, but we are asking for the approval of one pairs. aid position at Magnolia Elementary. We had a
088student move in in late September that needed a one-to-one aid, so we brought on a temporary paraprofessional to fill that need at that time. Since then, the program at Magnolia has continued to grow from 18 students to 22 students, and we still have that one student that needs the one-to-one support. So we would like to take that temporary paraprofessional position and make it a permanent position as presented. So we're asking the board to approve one aid. position for the PEARS program at Magnolia. Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion by Trustee Scheffler, a second by Trustee Murphy. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. Dr. Berger, consider information related to Senate Bill 11 and approve
089resolution. Yes, ma'am. Once again, it's like Santa Claus, the 89th legislature. Senate Bill 11 authorizes but does not require a school district's board of trustees to adopt a local policy establishing a daily period of prayer, reading the Bible, or other religious texts on the campus. Adoption of such policy requires a specific recorded vote by the board and so that's what we're doing here. What I'm asking the board to consider is to approve the resolution to take no policy action, to adopt no policy related to Senate Bill 11 while still affirming a student's existing legal right under state, federal law and how we run our district to volunteer. themselves to have a student initiated religious expression, meaning we do not need a policy for this to be happen because it can happen now without a policy.
090So I'm asking the board to consider to take no action in a recorded vote related to Senate Bill 11 and approve the resolution to say such. And just to clarify, we are required to take a action. It's either to say we're not gonna take action or that we do want to institute such a policy, correct? Yes, sir, that is the way the law is written. Traditionally, we would not have to come before the board to take no action, but the way the law is written, I have to bring it before the board for a recorded vote to either say yes, we are going to pass a policy or to say no, we are not. Any further discussion on this item? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to support the resolution. And I mean, it's, I don't
091know, it seems kind of clear cut. You know, we've never really dealt with that in schools, at least not in our lifetimes. And there's all sorts of different religious texts. What would you consider a religious text? You know, because that could get pretty far ranging and pretty wild. And so, yeah, I think that it only makes sense that we just continue to let students be who they are and worship how they see fit. I agree with you and concur. I think more government oversight over something like freedom of religion is not where we want to be. And so I think we need to continue to emphasize that our students can practice religion as they see fit. I'll motion to approve the resolution as written. Second. I have a motion by Trustee Scheffler, a second by
092Trustee Carter. Any further discussion on this item? All right, hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent this evening. All right, that completes our regular agenda this evening. We will move into exec session now, at which all staff that aren't required to be in exec session with us can feel free to call it a night. The Board of Trustees of the Pearland Independent School District will now convene into a closed meeting to discuss the following items posted on our agenda this evening as allowed by Title V, Chapter 551, Texas Government Code and or Education Code. The superintendent will present for the board's consideration or discussion of the following matters. Section 551.071, 074, 076. No voting will take place in the closed meeting. Any action the
093board wishes to take as a result of discussions in closed session will take place. after the board reconvenes in open meeting. It is now 6.26 p.m. And those that are leaving tonight, have an awesome Christmas holiday. We appreciate you and thank you for all the work you do in Pearland ISD. We convene an open session at 7 p.m. No action was taken in closed session. I will call for a motion. I move we accept and approve the superintendent's recommendation for employment of personnel as presented. Second. i have a motion by trustee johnson a second by trustee carter