001Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for being here this evening. I call this meeting of the Pearland Independent School District Board of Trustees to order on April 8, 2025 at 5 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 the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. Let the record show that Trustees Scheffler, Carbone, Weimer, Carter, and Francis are present, with Trustee Kuhn absent this evening for an illness, and Trustee Murphy is on the way. All right, we're going to get started with our pledges and introductory remarks by Trustee Carter. Stand for the pledge. I just wanted to make a quick introductory remark. Thanks, everyone, for coming. I'd like
002to take this time during School Library Month. To celebrate our librarians, I spent a few years volunteering in the library at my boys' schools and watched the magic that they created every single day. Sutherland Middle School students would watch the presentation that the librarian gave and then suddenly become energized running to the stacks afterwards. Librarians are definitely some of the unsung heroes in our district. I trust their knowledge, their extensive training, and their dedication to enriching the education and lives of our kids. So. I'd like to applaud our librarians. Thank you, Trustee Carter. Okay, now it's our favorite time of the night. We get to recognize our students. So we're going to have student recognition if everybody wants to move up front. Dowland, thank you. Okay. At Pearland ISD, we have endless reasons to be
003Pearland proud. Tonight, it is our greatest honor to recognize achievements that fill us with pride. Parents, please stay with us until the last minute. We are here to help you. We are here to help you. We are here to help you. Before the last honoree is recognized, if you are unable to stay until the end of recognition, we ask that you please exit quietly. Photos will be available on the Pearland ISD Flickr account later this week. Tonight, we have with us a group of individuals that completed our distinguished Pearland ISD Aspiring Administrators Program. Participants were nominated by their campus principal to take part in multi-session program. focused on becoming an administrator, please join me in welcoming our future leaders. From C.J. Harris Elementary, Rainbow Lewis. From Massey Ranch Elementary, Valerie Torres. From Jameson Middle School,
004Tammy St. Andrew. From Sablatura Middle School, Melissa Vera. From Pace Center, Dr. Kathy Goodwin. And from Pearland High School, Shalonda Metz. Group photo. Let's go get a group photo with the board. Yes, here. You can be right up front if you want. Okay. We'll put you right by Ms. Jenny Francis, Ms. Carter. And y'all hold up your certificates, show them off, and find your hole. Come on up. That's perfect. Okay. That's good. Awesome. Thank you. Wow. All right. While all Special Education staff members deserve our heartfelt appreciation and dedication, the Special Programs Department is proud to highlight six exceptional individuals tonight with the Difference Maker Award. This prestigious award recognizes the profound impact these educators have had on our students with Pearland ISD. To introduce each of our remarkable award recipients, please welcome Christy Weddington,
005Director of Special Education, special programs. Thank you. It is my honor and absolute privilege on behalf of our special education leadership team to recognize these six outstanding teachers who work tirelessly every day to support our students and to make a difference in their lives. Our first teacher tonight that we would like to recognize is Sandra Hawkins. She is a resource inclusion teacher from Carlston Elementary. Our second teacher is Caitlin Owens. She is our 18 plus live teacher at Pearland High School. Our next teacher is Jessica Rickley. She is our social connections teacher at Magnolia Elementary. Our next teacher is Stephanie Routon, a BSI teacher at CJ Harris Elementary. Our next teacher is Casey Streeter, resource inclusion teacher at Rustic Oak Elementary. And our final teacher is Talisa Word, a dyslexia teacher at Rogers Middle School.
006Georgia Stevenson finished fifth in the state with a total of 1,125 pounds in her weight class. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia, and she is a graduate of the University of Georgia College of the North. This is power lifting. She qualified for the state meet for three consecutive years and placed in the top five twice. She was the second place finisher at the regional meet and is the new regional record holder for the squat with the lift of 500 pounds. Georgia's personal best for the year is squat, 500 pounds, bench press, 285 pounds, and a dead lift of 385 pounds. She is a resource inclusion teacher at Clarksville Elementary. Our next teacher is pounds. Mark Petralza finished fourth in the state in the 308 weight class at the state meet with a
007total of 1,850 pounds. This is his second consecutive trip to the state meet in Abilene. After placing second in the regional meet this year, Mark's personal best for the year is a squat 765 pounds, bench press 530 pounds, and a deadlift of 566 pounds. Titus Brooks qualified for the state meet after meeting the qualifying total at the regional meet by totaling 1,500 pounds. Titus's personal best for the year is squat 620, bench press of 355 pounds, and a deadlift of 620 pounds. Jaden Tarver qualified for the state meet after meeting the qualifying total at the regional meet by totaling 1,465 pounds. Jaden's personal best for the year is squat 610, bench-press 315 pounds, and a deadlift of 575 pounds. Graydon Phillips qualified for the state meet after meeting the qualifying total at the regional meet
008by totaling 1,517 pounds. Nom gone to behemoth, Billy Sorenson did his job. Jaden was an orange and fifty pounds. Graydon's personal best for the year is squat of 600, bench press of 420, and a deadlift of 530 pounds. We can come on out. Make sure to show off your medals. Hold up your certificates if you have them in hand. Any parents? Awesome. Thank you. Congratulations. This season, DHS Cheer attended NCA regionals where they earned a bid to the NCA High School National Championships. They competed in the JV non-tumbling division. This is the first national championship in Dawson's history. Here to recognize the team is head cheerleading coach Chelsea Duggan. We are super proud of our athletes and even more proud we had one of the top 10 scores of the entire competition, which is like
009hundreds of teams. So we were really proud of what we were able to accomplish. This is my assistant coach Cassidy Page. And then I have our senior junior coach Kaylin Doherty, junior captain Carolyn Kahn, junior Riley Curry, junior Caitlin Hay, sophomore Chloe Hatter, sophomore Karis Tuffley, sophomore Logan Cross, sophomore Maggie Brown, sophomore Kaitlin Davis, sophomore Nicole Salisbury, freshman Kinsley Hightower, freshman Leah Garces, freshman Brooklyn Davalos, and freshman Britton Bland. As long as Mr. Berger is our flyer, we're down. That's right. There we go. Perfect. One, two, three, smile. There we go. Parents. ISD recently celebrated students earning places in Texas Music Educators Association all-state performing groups. 19 high school musicians proved that practice makes perfect by reaching the highest level possible for Texas music students. These all-state students participated in three days of rehearsals. In
010addition to the national music event, there's also an international music event to be held during the NCU Music Association's first international music fair. This year there's a big array of events and events. That's a big one. These are all big ones. You can see the landslides. And you can see the music in that area. Next in is our leader in the music environment. We have my friend the one who's the great DJ. You're growing your head. She has such a nice voice. Let's see her speak. All right, we have Ethan He on E-flat clarinet. We have Caroline Mao on B-flat clarinet. Calli Mung on B-flat clarinet. We have Devin Sajoud on B-flat clarinet. We have Devin Salju X from the singing group. that was oboe have constantine senyak on tenor saxophone dylan wagner on trombone
011eris zow on b-flat clarinet and then for choir we have cameron conway singing alto and then efren zow on violin hold up your certificates all right yeah go ahead that's all we're good thank you congratulations brian dick dick of it dim kovic i practiced this beforehand and look at it band director at phs will now introduce all state band students we have our sophomore josh anito percussion senior jackson firking on trombone it is the second year as an all-stater we have our illustrious four-year all-stater which is a very very hard thing to do anthony macias on alto saxophone and madeline shoemate and on french horn sorry about that from our administrators teachers staff in the community we take this moment to thank each of you for your work you do and for helping us to
012build peril and proud thank you okay we're um by the request of miss thompson who has to get to another meeting we're going to move the pta report up in the agenda this evening so i just want to thank our pta council for their partnership and thank you for being here tonight and sharing a little bit about with us about what the pta has been up to and how we can partner with you moving forward good evening my name is jennifer thompson i'm the president of the peril and isd council of ptas i want to thank you for this opportunity to share the state of our council report and the amazing things pta is doing in our community i'd also like to recognize my other council board members that are here i have jennifer bidlack
013who is our scholarship chair heather campo our treasurer and renee rogers pratt who is our vice president of leadership the mission of pta is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children everything that pta does revolves around this mission the pale and isd council of ptas has five delegate meetings each year these meetings include the council board of 17 members the pta president delegate and principal from each campus and district administration the purpose of council is to inspire support for all ptas and to help them develop leadership potential of pta members promote pta membership foster collaboration between our local pta campuses and advance texas pta's goals programs and initiatives pale and isd has ptas at 19 of our campuses these are all run by
014an amazing board of volunteers working hard for all pearland isd students all of our local ptas are good in standing are in good standing with texas pta and they did so before the deadline we are proud to be a part of this success this is a notable achievement and the result of hard work by all of these ptas i would like to share some of the goals that we reached this year we started off the year attending launch texas pta's annual leadership conference this is a weekend of amazing training networking planning and opportunities to celebrate the work of ptas across the state council provided shirts to all attendees from parallel isd to create a sense of unity and to show that we're all on the same team we were also able to gather in a
015suite and share materials and a suite for members to gather to discuss what they were learning and to eat the pta membership in parent isd is at a five-year high we currently have 4 646 members across all campuses and 13 of our local ptas have an increase over last year i hope you've heard about that we created a new community partner membership program this year it allows one person to join any or all of our local ptas in one transaction with no fees we also have a multi-party membership program that allows one person to join pta and this makes it easier for our community members administration and our families to support multiple ptas the different recognition levels are golden pair partner to join all 19 ptas diamond pair partner to join eight local ptas and
016green pair partner to join four local ptas we attended texas pta rally day in austin on february 24th 2025 we had seven pta board members two students and one superintendent that attended with us the day included caucuses for students and adults a rally on the steps of the texas capital and meetings with staff and legislators the swap shop clothing closet moved to a new location at 7343 bailey road it's open one tuesday evening and one saturday morning each month families can receive a voucher from their campus counselor to shop for items at the shop clothing shop and the shop is also open to all peer landmark isd families and staff to bring in clothes and swap them to your favorite shop when public health and safety help your needs are in great condition today we
017are about two hours away from our office to them items. Volunteers and donations are always welcome. To close out the year, we still have several big events coming up. We're hosting a candidate forum for the upcoming school board election. This will be on April 16th at Jamison Middle School. It's open to all community members and we hope that you're able to join us. Then we have our second annual volunteer appreciation dinner on April 17th at Turner High School. This event allows us to celebrate the outstanding contributions of PTA volunteers from all across our district. Their dedication has made a lasting impact on our schools and on our community. All local PTAs can nominate two volunteers from their campus for volunteer of the year. Local PTA presidents, principals, district administration, and our board of trustees are
018also invited. Then lastly, we have Reflections is the national PTA art recognition program and each local campus can participate in that each year. This year, council received 24 entries from our elementary school and elementary school through our high school campuses. These are in categories such as drawing, photography, music composition, and choreography. We're excited to announce that this year in combination with the Chamber of Commerce, we're hosting a pop-up gallery to recognize and let our community have a chance to see the talent that we have in our district. This is going to begin on April 21st and there will also be a reception for students and their families on April 28th. And lastly, please join us for the next event. We're going to be hosting a pop-up gallery for the next event. We're going to be
019hosting a pop-up gallery for the next event. We're going to be hosting a pop-up gallery for the next event. And lastly, please use these QR codes to connect with and join our PTAs. The work we do is important and we can't do it without the support of everyone in the community. Thank you again for your time and for allowing me to share just a few of the great things that PTA is doing in Pearland ISD. And I have to run out like for the meeting, but I will have a handout on the table that includes all of this in the QR codes so everyone can grab one on their way out. But thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ms. Thompson, for being here tonight and for the partnership. Really appreciate you. All right,
020moving along to the budget training and workshop for fiscal year 24-25. Dr. Berger? Yes. It's up. Okay. If anybody is following along, the legislature is in session. Lots of bills are coming to the floor about school funding. So, yes, we're going to be doing that. And we're going to be doing that in the next few weeks. So, thank you again for your time. And I have a handout on the table that includes all of this in the QR codes. So, everyone can grab one on their way out. But thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ms. Thompson, for being here tonight and for the partnership. Really appreciate you. All right. Moving along to the budget training and workshop for fiscal year 24-25. Lots of bills are coming to the floor about school funding. So,
021you may be asking, why are we having a budget workshop when we're not real sure what school funding is going to be? Well, we have to plan ahead. So, a lot of this conversation may change, will change. We're going to talk about current situation where we are. We'll talk about some what ifs and looking at House Bill 2 and some of the funding formulas and some assumptions that we've made at the district. This is a similar process that we have done in the past. And so, I will try to make it as simple as possible. And I will try to make it as simple as possible. And I will try to make it as simple as possible. You in the back have control or I have control? I'm going to move. All right, looking at
022the school funding current climate. This is looking at the 89th Texas Legislature update. So, we're going to start with this so you have a frame of reference of what may be coming. House Bill 2 has been gone through committee. They are looking at increasing the basic allotment by $395. Of that, 40% of that increase will have to go to school funding. So, we're going to look at how much we're going to be making in the future. So, I'm going to stop and we'll come back and we'll come back and we'll come back and we'll come back and we'll come back and we'll come back and we'll come back So, 40% of that increase will have to be spent on compensation with 75% of the 40% math equations for teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses, really wanting
023to focus on teacher compensation and making sure that the funds that they are giving to public education do funnel to the classroom. What they do with these bills is they do something called runs. So, two organizations have done a run on all of the details of the bill for our funding source based off our ADA, our Tr서, our students that are here, and our populations. A Moak and Casey version and a TASBO version are slightly different. So if you look at the Moak and Casey run, it's an increase of about 8.9 million. And if you look at the TASB version, it's an increase of about 11 million. That's if it passes through the legislature as is. There will be changes, there will be adjustments, there may be adds, there may be subtractions, but as it
024is right now, this would be the impact of House Bill 2 if it passes. Looking forward, just getting a lay of the land, if you Google public education and school budgets, you are going to see deficits across the board. There are conversations about why there are deficits and the size of those deficits and decisions that school boards and districts are having to make. This is just an outline of districts in Texas from Aldine all the way to Round Rock that are either closing schools, have 10 million to 30 million dollar budget deficits and shortfalls that they are predicting, under current funding laws. So funding elements that we're looking at in Pearland ISD. Obviously, we have talked about, we were once a fast growth district. We are no more a fast growth district. Our enrollment continues
025to either plateau or decline. We are looking at a projected enrollment next year of 20,668 students. That's a decrease from our snapshot of about 194 students. With decisions being made in the legislature, we are looking at a projected enrollment of 20,668 students. That's a decrease starting next year. We are looking at a projected enrollment of 22,7 これ We may lose some to the ESA program, but as the proud superintendent of Pearland ISD, I will tell you that we are going to gain some. Because we're going to get out there and sell Pearland ISD for the great things that we are, and people are going to come here. Dr. Nixon is working through our transfer portal. It is closed, but we are working through new transfers. We had a report today, and there are several new
026students that are coming to Pearland ISD that were not here before because of the great things that we offer. But the enrollment decline does impact funding and the calculations for that. One thing that is important to know is that the 20,668 is not the number you should use if you're doing the math to try to figure out what the basic allotment is. We are funded off of ADA. So right now we're at 95%. So you have to take 95% of that if you want to do the math. Just a reminder of what is happening in our school district. We have more students graduating than we have a kindergarten group coming in. There is a gap of 631 projected gap of seniors that are leaving and kindergartners that are enrolling. And so we continue to try
027to make sure people understand that Pearland ISD is a destination town, a city, as well as a destination district. And we continue to push for students to come in. But birth rates are important. And as you can see, our kindergarten class is lower than our graduating class. Property values continue to rise. And you can see the CAD certified values versus the T2 certified values. We continue to have that property value growth increase. As you know, the state legislator is looking for ways to lessen the burden of our property taxes. And with either an increase in the compression rate or an increase in ways that taxpayers can reduce that. But we do have a $12.1 million projected growth. This is just to give you an idea. People ask, where do we get our funding from? We
028are not a property rich district. Although you saw what we had there. Some districts are a recapture district. We are not. Our local revenue is projected to cover 41.5%. This year that we're currently in, this fiscal year, it covered 55%. State revenue sources are expected to be 59%. This year, they're 36%. Why you may ask that is happening. It is because some of the compression that is expected to happen, the things that are going on, state revenue will take over where local revenue falls. The big issue is the federal revenue. We used to have 9% of the federal revenue source with everything that is happening in our federal government. We are expected to have 0.16 of our federal revenue coming in. So we are losing SHARS funding. Our ESSER funds are gone. All those federal
029resources are not projected to be here. So it does impact our budget planning forward. So here is a summary of state funding under current law. So if you look at 2024 and the projected, because we are in 2025, and projected, you have a budget amendment today that we talk about. We have a strong 2025 budget. We're expected to have a $10 million surplus due to the budget decisions you have made and the support of our community with the VADER and the bond. But if you look forward to 2026, we have a revenue drop from Tier 1. You can see that as well as a revenue drop from Tier 2. That comes from the sources at the bottom, the ASF fund, and what that is, it's not the foundational funding for schools. It is a different
030funding from the state that is a protected funding source that basically looks at all their investments and the money coming in, and then they allocate certain portions of that to public school. Well, they have downgraded the amount of money they expect to get from that for next year. So we are projecting a loss of $4.4 million from that ASF fund. Also, due to enrollment declines in the foundational funding program, we are expecting a loss of $4.4 million from that ASF fund. We are expecting a loss of $4.2 million in revenue. And then in the federal, we're expecting a loss of $700,000. So you put that together, that is the differential between our projected revenue from 2025 to our projected revenue for 2026. Pardon me, question? Yes. Are these projected revenues factoring in any increase to
031the ADA? No. No. This is based off of the... Everything that you see in our... Our first budget workshop is based off that projected 95% of the 20,668 number that we're using. So just like this year, if you remember, we had a budget amendment, and we came and we did some true-up because we had more students enrolled than we thought would, and we had more funds coming in. That's also part of the budget amendment today. Part of that enrollment increase is the state funding that you'll see on the budget amendment. So if more students do come in, obviously this will be a different number. But based on the number we expect to be here at the start of school, this is what the budget is based off. But this is current law, not inclusive of...
032This is current law, not inclusive of any HB. We have slides in here to show the HB, but this is current law. So any extra funding that were received, this will be augmented as we go along. Once again, we are predicting what may happen in the state legislature, and I think you can win at Vegas more than you can win of predicting that. So when we look at budget development and all the things that are happening, this is the budget timeline. Obviously, we're here... We're here in April with our first budget workshop, and May we'll come back with our second. In June, we will come back to look at adopting the budget, but we will have two board meetings in June. The first meeting in June, we want to talk about compensation and present the
033plan forward to you, hoping we have more information about our funding sources, and then we'll have a second board meeting in June to adopt the budget. Always in a legislative year, we push this back because we want to make sure that all the laws have gone through as much as they can, and we have the most clear information possible, before we either push compensation to you or adopt a budget. We also have to make sure that if any of the funding regulations that come out that have compensation attached to it, we don't want to make a poor decision if they come out and say we have to do something in addition to what we already approved. So we usually, in a non-legislative year, have an estimate of what we're hoping for employees to expect in
034the following school year, and that's usually in the May meeting, correct? Correct, but you will also see it in this meeting. Okay, and then because there's so much up in the air still, it's likely that we won't be able to finalize that and give our staff a number by the end of May, correct? What we are hoping, and what I'll get to on the slide, was to ask the board that while you will not approve compensation plan until June, if we can communicate to our employees, this is the minimum expectation that we're going to ask the board for, which is the 2%, which we have been doing, pending, state decisions. It may go up, but as a superintendent, as a district, we are going to ask the board to approve a minimum of a 2%
035GPI across the board. There may be adjustments, there may be stipend adjustments, there may be an additional 3%, but it's all depending on what the state legislator does for funding. So we would like to communicate that, but also let them know that it will not be approved until June and May change. It all is pending board approval. Thank you, sir. So this is a slide you've seen. These are assumptions that we make. Obviously, the revenues are based off the student enrollment that we talked about with the average daily attendance of 95%, the taxable value we have, the taxable growth that we have, and the homestead exemption. This may change. As you know, in the legislature right now, there is a law to increase the homestead exemption. So once again, items here may change as we
036go forward, but this is under current law and current information. Dr. Berger, our current average daily attendance rate? Is 95%. It is currently 95%. Yes, ma'am. It's about 95%. It's about 95.4. Prior to COVID? Prior to COVID, we were around 97, 96.8, 96.9. Do we have any reason to believe that we might, are we on an upwards trend of continuing to get better at that number? First semester, we were hitting some good targets. Second semester, we have seen a decline in attendance. Some of the issues are now that we're moving into testing and some of those things where students don't come to school if they're not testing. So the testing environment also doesn't help us with ADA. So we do seek waivers and also have late arrival for some of our students, but we have
037seen a little bit of a dip in the second semester. I did see where there was a proposal to do away with how they calculate and not do ADA versus just enrollment. Yes, sir. There are some bills out there to move us from ADA daily average attendance to enrollment, but while I champion those, I don't think there is a good probability that they will come to fruition. Yeah, none of them have been heard in committee at all on the education. Or on the Senate warehouse. Right. On the expenditure side, these are assumptions. Once again, these are assumptions that we're making. If the board approves these, this is what will happen. So again, I'm talking about the 2% GPI, and that is basically what someone would think of as a raise. Everybody's going to get a
0382% raise based off of the medium salary of their job family. This is a future request pending state action. So anybody in our audience that is listening or any of our employees that are listening, please know this is the threshold. This is the threshold minimum that we're going to ask the board for. But if more money comes in from the state, we are going to ask for more to make sure that our teachers are compensated and our staff are compensated. That number there is the amount of a 2% GPI cost is 3.1 million. The line there where it says a 5% salary savings factored into projection. If you'll remember, we've had conversations about the ebb and flows. We'll come before you and say it's going to be an $8 million deficit, and at the end
039of the year, we're at a $12 million surplus. Well, the salary savings, the salary savings was always caught up at the end. When our CFO took over, we wanted to true up the budget. So when we present to you, we're presenting as factual a budget as we can without any of that, what you all used to call magic money, but this is a salary savings. So we did a 3% salary savings in the forefront last year. Looking at the trends, she feels comfortable, we feel comfortable factoring in a 5% salary savings at the front to pull it out and not at the end. So that is factored into this budget. So that is factored into this budget. So that is factored into this budget. Your stipends request will come to you. If you remember, we
040presented compensation last year. We adjusted some equity adjustments so we said we would come back this year to address stipends. HR department has done a wonderful job looking at stipends and working with departments, and that number to address stipends to increase them to market value is about $310,000. The equity adjustment is on top of the 2% GPI. That's when you do a GPI, you look at job families that are out of work, or employees that may not be where they need to be through years of issues. of issues and that's 1.5 million again this is a future request not something you're approving tonight yes sir do you know specifically since you're putting this on here what you're looking at as far as the equity adjustments is it specific group it's all group this is inclusive
041of everybody it's teachers administrators auxiliary everyone so it'd be we look at every job family every classification and two across the board with a two percent gpi it would cost us 1.5 million to touch every job family so what do you i'm not understanding what you're adjusting to to market to yes sir to other districts to um to market to the median uh value of that job family if i'm saying that correctly dr tall camp will correct me i mean i know it's you're just putting it in here as a possible yes we'll probably talk about it at a future date so right now a bulk of the equity adjustments in the 1.5 million is looking at teachers with certain years of experience we do anticipate that that may be a requirement if house bill
0422 passes in its current state so we're kind of anticipating that but there is some cleanup in our other job job families if you do gpis correctly you're always going to have a little bit of cleanup to do just because of when people come in in a fiscal year can we also add to future budget discussions um it's obvious in the rhetoric by the legislature that tia is going to be an emphasized area for our staff to get reimbursed um there's what's the plan for creating more assessment protocols or i'm not using the right verbiage i know that expansion of the tia so right now we only use star testing we are our wonderful uh hr and and bonnie shard our tia leaders are already expanding that for next year we want to use uh
043the diagnostic of i ready for both reading and math and we want to do in all the elementary levels and then we are looking for other ways to expand at the middle and secondary level so we continue to expand tia but we have to make sure that we have a growth measure that will do that just to offer at a recent meeting that i was at um colleen isd and dallas isd have apparently figured out how to do it even for band directors for ap level for pe teachers like across the board to be able to have that opportunity for everybody to have some kind of measurable for them so and that is that is something that both hr cni and those departments are looking for at they're having those conversations the rollout of tia
044and the expansion of tia is is time consuming and difficult and then also some of those bills are expanding the designations of tia so then we have to go and rewrite everything again fun time sir but i off i am excited about the opportunity for our seasoned teachers to get reimbursed for their efforts and time in the classroom so i think it's an opportunity that we can continue to pursue and i appreciate that we're working hard on that yeah the excitement when we got tia approved was palpable and we want to continue to work as hard as we can to make sure teachers can get every dollar they deserve so this is a general operating fund under current law so if nothing changes and all those assumptions that i showed you with the gpi and
045the assumptions and additional personnel and everything is factored in here so if you approve everything we saw as an assumption based on the amount of money that i showed you that we were losing in revenues and our expenditure for the school district we're going to have to go back to what we forecasted we would have a deficit budget of 8.6 million dollars if nothing changed in the funding formula and you approved everything that we asked for we would have a deficit budget of 8.6 million dollars now initially that's like what are we doing but please know if you look at the bottom line of our days in fund balance even with an 8.6 million dollars we would still be at 129 days in fund balance because of the jobs that you all have done of
046financial responsibility, the bonds, the TRE, we have built up our fund balance to try to weather this storm if no funding changes happen. If you approve none of that, if you say, I'm sorry, we can't do a raise, we can't do any of the things you're asking for, we need to stay steadfast and freeze everything, the bottom blue shows you what the difference would be, and it would be a $4.1 million deficit. So if you approve nothing, if we add nothing to the budget, it would be a $4.1 million deficit due to the decrease in the ASF fund and our enrollment. The general operating fund current law, this kind of breaks it down again for you. I put up there for the House Bill 2, the Moken Casey run is $8.9 million. That would be
047the amount we would get in addition for funding, and the TASBO run is $11 million. So that kind of helps you factor in the math. This breaks down where we were talking about what it would look like and what we're asking for. The first column, the 2% GPI with adjustments, and that shows you what our margin would be under current law. If we only did the 2% GPI with adjustments, it's $8.6 million. If we came to you and said, hey, or if y'all said we want to do a 3% GPI for everybody with adjustments, that would be a $10 million deficit. But let's say, okay, we don't want to do a 3% for everybody, we want to do a 3% for teachers, and let's maximize their pay, and let's do a 2% for everybody else,
048that will be a $10 million deficit. I'm confused because it looks like an $8 million, $8 plus million deficit, whether we get an increase in our funding or not. No, ma'am. What these blocks are are current law. I put the House bill up there just to show you, if we get additional funding, you can do the math and see. Say, for example, if they pass House Bill 2 and it's Moken Casey is the right run, $8.9 million will come to us. If you do a 2% GPI and a 2% GPI, you're going to get $8.9 million. If you do a 2% GPI and a 2% GPI, you're going to get $8.9 million. If you do Moken Casey and a 2% GPI, you're going to get $8.9 million. If you do a 2% GPI and a
0492% GPI, you're going to get $8.9 million. If you only use the adjustments, the $8.6 million deficit, we would actually have a surplus, because we're getting $8.9 million with the additional funding, subtract that from the $8.6. So what we're trying to show is, this is current law if they do nothing, but to give you an idea, if the House Bill 2 does pass, this is the additional money that will be coming in. Do all three of these scenarios meet the 40%, 75% of the 40%? Yes, sir. Okay. That's where the equity adjustments come in. We start. taking care of our teachers above five years, above 10 years to make sure that they hit that 75% or 40% and we're focusing on the five year and 10 year teachers. So I'm just trying to understand, like
050the way the bill reads, you know, if they change the allotted allowance, but they dictate that a certain amount is four raises, are you suggesting that like, for instance, if the number holds true and they're allocated, we get additional 3.1 money in funding and that has to go towards teacher raises. So are you saying that we suggest we mandate a minimum before that so it would theoretically be a 4% increase? Are you saying that that would cover what we adopted? So if we adopted the 2% increase and then the state legislature comes through and says, all right, we're gonna give you 3.1, but it's mandated to go to teachers, we're still giving 2%? Because that just covered that. Yes, sir. Okay. It would either cover the 2% or cover a piece of the 3% or
051cover a piece of the 3% or 2% if the Moken Casey is the run. If TASBO is the run as it comes out, you will see that it would cover all of the options. And I do understand this is all conjecture. I have no idea what House Bill 2 is coming out, but I wanted to show you what our current, under current law, what our budget would look like based off of our knowns, what our projected enrollment is and what our decrease in state and federal funding would be, but also to give you an idea as you're looking at things, because we're gonna ask you to approve some additional personnel, and then we're gonna have discussions about compensation. So I want you to have what the reality is today and what it could be moving
052forward. And so this just kind of breaks down the fund balance, what it would look like. So if we do a 2%, a 3%, or a 3% and 2%, it gives you an idea of what current law would be, what the Moken Casey run would be, and what the TASBO run would be. So you can still see our fund balance maintains high. If we get no funding, we would be at 126 at the low end, I'm sorry, 125 at the low end. If we get the other two, you can see what those fund balances would be. So we are in a good financial position. We will be in a better financial position if we get that state funding increase. So can I ask one more question? Yes, sir. And regarding the days in fund balance,
053since the fund balance has probably looked better than it ever has. Has there been any discussion or talk, you know, probably not necessarily amongst the board, but regarding the capital improvement plan, or I'll specifically state that, you know, when we did the bond, we had to use bond money to finance the one-to-one devices, which was a $6 million cost, which we probably realize that in five years, those devices will be obsolete. So what are we doing to set aside that money now in order to write the check, you know, let's say five years from now? Well, one, we have the fund balance that the board wants to choose that they can take out of fund balance in the future. The other is, if the fund balance has been pushed forward, any surplus we have, like
054for example, the budget amendment we have today, if $10 million is that surplus at the end, the board has passed that 50% of any surplus goes to the capital renewal plan. But can the board also choose to move those general funds from the fund balance to capital? Or does it only have to be in excess? You could spend it from unreserved or unrestricted fund balance to do that, yes, sir. Right. So if we're planning, so if we're holding a, we're holding a 145 or 126 fund day balance and we choose to move that money over for capital improvement of laptops or repairs, we can do that. Yes, sir. Ultimately, the fund balance that's unrestricted or unstructured can cover any of those expenditures that the board approves. Well, and then also, if you're dealing with, you
055know, only being able to give 2% raises year over year, we always talk about how we wanna be able to do more, but yet we're seeing the fund balance grow at the end of each year, at some point, we have to sit down, sit back and say, okay, well, the piggy bank looks good. How do we go about sharing this out and paying teachers? So there might be a chance for us to, I guess in my mind, the way I would do it or work it would be to talk about what are we comfortable with with a minimum fund balance, like as a number of days, and then everything above that, allocating to the various different programs like teacher raises or bonuses or capital improvement or saving back for rainy day or whatever it happens
056to be. And yes, sir, and one of the things we want to do once we get more information, because in the House Bill 2, there is a multiplier or an adjustment each year of the fund balance, of I'm sorry, the basic allotment to our weekend plan out like we used to where you see fiscal year 26, and then what we're projecting for fiscal year 27. So you can have a better idea of, okay, it looks like the fund balance will maintain a healthy number for us based on decisions that we make. Yeah, it's hard every year when we do this, because it's like you're throwing a dart at a board that's floating on a balloon and you have no idea if you're gonna hit it or not. The most we can project, is two years
057because of the Biden legislature. And if I'm not mistaken, Chris, I think our policy dictates what we have to maintain and then our bond rating somewhat. Yeah, we have minimums, but I know we've asked that question before and I think we're well above those at this point. Yeah, very much so. And then this just goes over our debt service current law. You can see where we are for 24, 25 and 26. The payments that we're making in debt service that is projected per se, we're gonna have to go back and look at that. And then we're gonna have to go back and look at that. The percentage of expenditures, you can see how it is working from 40% to 30% to 27%. We feel pretty good about our debt service. If the law allows us,
058it may change. We may come back to the board for a defeasance to be able to save that interest payment for our taxpayers and for our debt service. But there is some legislation that may prevent that in the future that we're not allowed to defeas the bonds. One more question for you. Sorry on the whole conversation about fund balance. When we're looking at these fund balance days in reserve, just for clarity, does that include what's already in the capital improvement fund? No, sir. This is only the operating fund, the 199? I say that pretty quickly. I'm correct, right? I am correct. Yes. Okay, so, and is that, I mean, because we can use that for any kind of capital expense that comes up, we're not obligated with those funds, can we have also that number
059maybe reported with it and how many additional days that might have for us? Yes, sir. Does that make sense? I think right now in the capital renewal plan, we have just over $6 million. And then this is the food service fund. We want to make sure that we show all budgeted funds that we have. We have the general operating fund, the debt service fund, and the food service fund. Food service fund is very healthy, and we continue to look at ways to maximize our production, our quality. Nice pun. Yeah. Do you know why we have a projected or estimated $2 million shortfall for the food service fund in 2025? Food service was trying to bring down their fund balance because, you know, due to TDA's requirement, and every year we have been getting, I guess,
060a waiver to stay above the fund balance, so we're trying to work that down. By the question about food service, are we at all affected by any Title IX funding or federal funding out of that? Yes. We've had to do some adjustments. We had moved some of the food service indirect cost over to the general operating budget, and due to some of the maneuvering that's happening at the federal, we want to make sure they're in a good spot, so we have moved it back to the food service fund. Budget amendment today. I think Mr. Murphy just wanted you to talk. Well, it looks like you increased the expenditure by $2 million. I don't know if you just decreased the quality of food or put a Chick-fil-A in or something. I don't know. No, there's no
061Chick-fil-A, sir. Under federal guidelines, we are not allowed to go out to Chick-fil-A, but we do. Someone has to deal with payment of staff, upgrading of equipment, making sure that, you know, we're buying cafeteria tables and taking care of chairs and new ovens and warmers and all that stuff. All the things that food service is self-sufficient. Food service staff comes out of the food service budget? Okay, I was under the impression that that was actually, the staffing was separate, that that was $199. Okay. It comes out of food service. They are a self-sufficient, self-sustaining entity. That's why they have a different budget item. We can just increase all their pay. Yes, sir. We want to deal with market value, sir. Next steps are estimated certified values all the way down to tax rate adoption, so
062we'll come back to you, like I said, with that calendar for Budget Workshop 2. and 3, and then we'll have information on certified values, tax compression, bring you a budget to adopt when we have more information, but we want it to be clear on current standing, projected future standing for House Bill 2. We want to look at the compensation plans that we are currently reviewing, and then anything that comes from the state that we may have to adjust. Any questions of the board? Dr. Berger, thank you for this insight, and thank you for the preliminary findings of our budget. We look forward to more concrete information as the legislature progresses. All right. At this time, the Board of Trustees of the Independent School District, Pearland Independent School District, will now convene into a closed meeting
063to discuss the following items posted on our agenda this evening as allowed by Title V, Chapter 551, Texas Government Code. The superintendent will present for the board's consideration or discussion of the following matters, Section 551.071, 074, and 076. No voting will take place in this closed meeting. Any action the board wishes to take as a result of discussions in closed session will take place after the board's discussion. Any discussion of the board's discussion will take place after the board reconvenes in open meeting. It is now 6 p.m. All right. Apologies for the delay. Contract season is always a long exec session for us, so happy to be back with you. The board reconvenes at open session at 724 p.m. No action was taken in closed session, and we will have a motion after public comment
064this evening. So this is the portion. We're moving to public comment now. This is the portion of the board meeting where the board will be able to make a motion. Thank you. The board receives input from patrons. Each person who addresses the board will have three minutes to speak on his or her issue. Patrons addressing items not listed on tonight's agenda will also be heard, provided the total time allotted for public comments does not exceed 30 minutes. Because of topic posting requirements of the Open Meetings Act, board members will not ask questions of the patron and will not answer any questions posed to the board by any patron. No action can be taken on any issue presented during this meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
065you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And our public comment section of the board meeting. Patrons addressing the board will be notified when they are approaching the last 30 seconds of the đer allotted time to speak. And first tonight I have on my list is Mr. David Stokely. Mr. David Stokely. I'm sure you guys deserve you guys' budget. And you know, you guys got a lot of things going on. One of the things I'd like to point out is that this district has an opportunity to be able to bring in over a million dollars of revenue each year, just by adopting the Blue Bonnet curriculum, which would allow well over a million dollars to come into this district of revenue to help
066with the deficit and be able to really truthfully be able to give teachers some raises that you guys are looking at. So it might be worth looking at. But also I wanted to draw attention is that we have some books in your libraries that just doesn't fit academic standards. It actually violates the sexually explicit clause in your board policy, as well as educationally unsuitable that you guys also state in your board policy. Our team did probably about a 15 to 20 minute search and found over a hundred books. I know you guys have well over a million within your catalog, and you can't go through them all, but I can tell you that we're here to work with you guys to help navigate through a lot of these things. One of the books that I
067have right here in my possession, this is in one of your high schools, has over 50 QR codes. And one of the QR codes that you scan takes you to a link that says, how to fuck a trans woman. The other scan that you can take the QR code takes you straight to how to buy a dildo. Another one is to where you can type in your zip code right here, whether it's 584 or 581, and it'll link you to the nearest orgies within the area. Now, I can't tell you that if this is, I can tell you right now, this is inappropriate for our children, but why would our school districts be buying this? Why would this leadership right here approve any type of budget to allow people to be able to buy this
068within our school district when it violates so many things on so many levels, and we don't want this to be able to be in the hands of kids. So, and another thing I'd like to point out is, not just do we have books, we have books that shouldn't be in your libraries, but also we have books that we have found in this school district that is not allowed in Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It's banned for inmate adults, but you guys have purchased it and allowed it in your school district, which is absolutely disheartening, because this school district does great on so many levels. But I know that each of you will want to work hard to be able to remove these books. There's probably thousands and thousands that will take a team. Thank you.
069I know it'll take a team and possibly a committee. I know you'll fall on your shoulders and you'll have a lot to do. But at the end of the day, we gotta be able to protect the next generation the best we can and protect this district that we serve. Thank you so much. Mrs. Bonnie Wallace. Mrs. Bonnie Wallace. Dr. Scheffler, if you wanna grab those and pass them down, that'd be helpful. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm here to talk to you about the book, Crank, which is in all three of your high schools. This book is prohibited to Texas prisoners. And it's prohibited due to the graphic sexual content, but also information about drug addiction, drug abuse. And this is not what we want our children to be thinking about, focusing on.
070We don't want these demonic thoughts deposited in their brains. As you know, 28% of Texas public students do math at grade level. 38% of Texas, public school students read at grade level. So basically they're both failing. Both of those categories are failing. Crank by Ellen Hopkins, page 67. "'Been smoking pot since I was 13. Couldn't quit if I tried. The white stuff was a different story. He'd stay up all night eating zip, bowling and snorting line after line. Rent money right up the nose." Page 68. We used to do coke till just say no, put the stuff out of reach. Now it's crank, meth, the monster. It's a bitch on the body, but damn, do you fly." Page 69. You fly until you crash. Page 85. So when he asked about getting high, I didn't
071think, I agreed. We smoked some good California green. Took three tries to put me in the place he said I should be. I wanted to meet the monster. Page 87. I watched him pour powder, yellowish white. "'It will take you to heaven,' he said. Use the blade to chop the chunks fine. Draw two crooked lines. Make you fly all night." Page 102. Like an idiot, I took one too. There I was, snorting crank with my dad, my boyfriend, and my boyfriend's other girlfriend. Page 114. Hands covered my mouth, rough, held my arms, tore my clothes, vicious. Fear danced up my spine, jolted my brain, dripped onto the ground. No, I screamed into dirty flesh. Not this way. Buttons burst, zippers opened. I closed my eyes, braced for pain. Page 138. The monster rose up hard,
072then hard in her. She looked like an animal, crazy and diseased, spit in every word. She swore she'd get back at you, at me. Crankin', they said, and boy, she was. Thank you. Page 266. I mean, I said, I'm sorry. I thought about the monster, dreamed about the monster. Instead, for the monster, regretting knowing the monster. But I hadn't touched the monster in over a month. Hadn't even seen it. No mirrors, no blades. Chase reached deep inside a pocket, withdrew an amber bottle and a tiny spoon attached to the lid. Do we want your children at Pierland ISD to have access to books that prisoners in Texas do not have access? And I say no. God bless you. Thank you, Ms. Wallace. Mr. Daniel Rodriguez. Mr. Daniel Rodriguez. Dr. Rick Scarborough. I moved to Pierland
073in 1990, having been reared across the channel in Glenna Park and known Pierland all through my growing up years. It was the joy of my life to pastor First Baptist Church, now known as Parkway Baptist Church, but grew to love this community, as you can well imagine. During that time, we got to know each other, and we got to know each other. During that time, we got to know each other, and we got to know each other. We got involved in getting our people to run for the school board. And we eventually had four of our members on the school board, and then we had three out of five on the city council. I observed closely the work and the time that you put in, and I want to begin by saying thank you for
074your service to your city. I know for a fact that there's not a one of you that want the kind of books that we've found in your library. We've done a trip across Texas. We've been looking at different schools, and in every school that we've looked at, we've found, we've found books of this sort. I've got a four-page summation of a 399-page book that I'm not going to read because I've read it twice, and it's more than I can handle. I felt like I needed a shower when I got through. But it's all about a teacher taking a 12-year-old and grooming him for sex, and then using him as her sex toy. The name of the book is Boy Toy by Barry Liga. I've got a copy highlighted for each of you of some of
075the, you know, outrageous things that nobody wants their children to be exposed to. Once again, a book that's prohibited from selling to inmates, and yet they get in our schools, and they get in our schools not because we want them, but because somebody is just not paying attention. So we're here to help, not hurt. We're here to commend you for the work that you do, and to let you know that anything we can do, I'm a pastor, anything I can do to help you find these books, and get them out of our libraries, which I know is your heart. And I'm going to say this emphatically. I'm a part of a rather large organization. We also have a lot of lawyers on our staff and access to, and we're prepared to bring legal action if
076the school doesn't see fit to get these books out for the sake of the children. I mean, the Bible says it's better to have a millstone tied around your neck and cast into the ocean than to lead a little one astray. And these are the books that I'm going to be talking about. These books are designed to lead little ones astray. I mean, this is a 12-year-old young man that has no idea what sex is. In the last page, in the last pages of the book. 30 seconds, Dr. Scarborough. Thank you. In the last pages of the book, I need one of these every time I preach. I mean, you can't miss it. The last page of the book, he's talking to a counselor, and the counselor says, or he says, Eve was no longer
077my teacher, my confidant, my lover. When did you decide that? How far along did things get before you decided you were going to have sex with me, Eve? The day we met, Josh, the first time I laid eyes on you, I knew you were the one. So that's the kind of stuff that's in this book that we believe needs to be removed. I'd like to have each one of you have a copy of this material. Who should I give it to? Thank you. Mrs. Denise Ball. Miss Denise Ball. Bell, my apologies. Hi, my name is Denise Bell. I'm the chapter chair for Moms for Liberty Harris County. I'm also a mom of four, and I live in the Houston area. I'm here tonight to express my concerns about sexually explicit literature available to minors in
078your schools. I'm often asked for my thoughts on book banning, and my thoughts are that there is no such thing as a book ban in the United States. You can buy or borrow any book that you wish for yourself or your child. Nothing is banned. But when we're talking about public education, which is state-sponsored and taxpayer-funded, the materials that are put in front of our children must be curated very carefully. In addition to that, school districts have a right and a responsibility to not only make sure books are age-appropriate, but to remove any materials that are one, considered not educationally suitable, or two, pervasively vulgar. You as a board have the ability to remove books that don't follow EF legal policy, but you also have the responsibility to meet both the requirements set forth in
079the TSLAC guidelines as well as the law that was passed in the last session, House Bill 900. I'd like to read an example of the inappropriate material that can be found in your library and I ask you to consider if you are uncomfortable hearing this read in a board meeting, that I would assume you are probably twice as concerned about putting it into the hands of minors. The first example I'm going to read from is a book called What Girls Are Made Of by Alanna K. Arnold. It can be found in both Dawson and Robert Turner High Schools. This book is extremely graphic and troubling due to sexually explicit content that is blasphemous. It also contains 14 F-bombs. Because of the content, I would like to ask any minors present to please leave the board
080meeting for the remainder of the session. And that is all for the remainder of my public comment. I pull him out of his underwear and he's soft in my hands. I don't look up at his face before I open my mouth and pull him into it. I pull and I suck until he grows hard and he makes sounds that means he likes it. And I keep going and going and he says, I'm going to come, I don't pull away. The jet of him is warm and salty and tastes like thickened sweat. He breathes hard and his hands are tight as fist as his eyes. And then farther down it says, it's a real thing written by a religious mystic way back in the 13th century. She was talking about worshiping Jesus, but come on. She
081was talking about sex, right? Sex with Jesus? That's what she wanted, to give Jesus head, and I totally understood it. Another selection, my legs were shaking as I sat down on the edge of the bed, and my legs fell apart to make room for his mouth as he licked and he licked like a cat at a bowl of cream, and when the inside of me felt as wet as the outside, we tried again. The next selection I have is actually found in Pearland Junior East High School as well as Pearland High School. It's by Jennifer Nivens, it's called Breathless. That night my phone buzzes and it's Shane. I stupidly think maybe he's going to apologize. For what? Wanting to have sex with me? He sent a photo, and at first I'm not sure what exactly
082I'm looking at, but then I recognize it. Shane, naked from the waist down, and the caption, this is what you're missing. Let me know if you change your mind. There are a thousand things I could write back. Your dick is the last thing on my mind for starters, but instead I just decided to delete the whole thread. Thank you, please consider removing these inappropriate materials from your schools. Mr. Julian Herrera. Good evening. My name is Julian Herrera. I came here today to address books in the school libraries. Right now telling the board to come together and remove all child pornography and grooming material from this school district. Some of these books provide diagrams with explicit detail on how to have threesomes, gang bangs, and how to take a penis or dildo in the butt in
083details. These books can lead to porn addiction, depression, and especially the four C's, which include compulsion, craving, control, and consequences. So I'm telling you to take action and take responsibility now to remove all child pornography and grooming material. These wonderful students of this district deserve leadership leading with integrity, humility, and a servant's heart, prioritizing the needs of others and seeking God's guidance in decision making. Any board member or anyone in this room who disagrees is the problem and a pervert. This is grooming the children, and destroying their identity. And for the parents, each of you needs to wake up and get involved in what your child is learning and reading. Parents, you are the leaders. Take action, take responsibility, and create a godly foundation in your home. Thank you. Mr. Dwight Woods. Mr. Dwight Woods.
084Mr. Dwight Woods. This concludes the public comment portion of our meeting. All right, I will take a motion from exec session. I move we accept and approve the superintendent's recommendation from employment of personnel as presented. I have a motion from Trustee Scheffler. Second. A second from Trustee Francis. Any conversation about that topic? Hearing none, all those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries six zero with Trustee Kuhn absent. I move we accept and approve the superintendent's recommendation for the contract renewal of district and campus educators as amended. I have a motion on the table. Second. Second by Trustee Carter. Motion by Trustee Scheffler. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Motion carries six to zero with Trustee Kuhn absent. Have to be voted on individually, sir. I move that the board issue a finding in accordance
085with TEC section 21.210 and 19 TAC 249.14 that good cause did not exist for Anthony McKay, a dual probationary contract teacher, to abandon his employment contract and abandon his position with Pearland ISD. Second. Hearing any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Motion carries six to zero with Trustee Coon absent. I move that the board authorize the board president to send a letter to the Texas Education Agency Educator Certification Division seeking sanction of a dual probationary contract teacher, Anthony McKay, for abandonment of his employment contract. I have a motion and a second by Trustee Francis. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries six to zero with Trustee Coon absent. Thank you, Dr. Scheffler. All right, we're moving to new business consent agenda. Are there any
086items to be pulled from consent agenda this evening? Hearing none, I'll call for a motion. Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Dr. Scheffler. Second. Ooh, that was a tie. Trustee Francis gets the second. Not a new patent this evening. All right, all those in favor? Motion carries six to zero. All right, regular agenda, consideration and approval of additional personnel. Dr. Berger. Yes, ma'am. This is an additional personnel that we look at when we are looking at our needs for students, and so you have before you, we are requesting additional personnel of 8.5 classroom teachers. There are two title one instructional coaches. These do come from title funds, GO funds. There is one instructional coach that is from GO and that is a new position. And there is one CNI specialist position.
087While this is reflected on here, it is not a new position. As we have done with the board in transparency, we don't want to take FTEs and just change them. We inactivate them and then bring the new position to you to make sure everything is in a clean leisure. So this is just a renaming of a position we have. We have one special program aid, which is a new position. And then you can see the inactivated positions that show while we are adding them up, we are taking them away, the title funds, and then the total annual budget impact. Any questions on this item? All right. Hearing none, I'll call for a motion. I move that the board of trustees approve the recommendation of additional personnel for the 25-26 school year and subsequent years. Second.
088I have a motion by Trustee Scheffler and a second by Trustee Francis. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries 6-0. Wish Trustee Kuhn absent. We're moving to consideration and approval of nominating Dr. Larry Berger as TASB Superintendent of the Year. Parents and community members, imagine a superintendent who leads not from behind a desk, but by rolling up his sleeves alongside us. That's Dr. Larry Berger. He has made Pearland ISD feel like a family because he treats it like one. In fact, he's been affectionately dubbed as our district's own Captain America. He swoops in whenever help is needed. He is known to fill any gap, whether that means covering custodial duties, riding as a bus monitor, or even stepping up as a cheerleading coach
089when a sponsor was needed. When a group of middle schoolers misbehaved on a bus, Dr. Berger himself hopped on board and calmly support the driver and set things right. That hands-on spirit and courage exemplifies the servant leadership at his core. I've said before, Dr. Berger is a charismatic servant leader, the kind of guy who notices the need to be a part of the community, and he's a leader who is not afraid to share his skills, his skills, his skills, his skills, his skills, and demonstrates leadership by action. He never asks anyone to do something he would not do himself. Dr. Berger's warmth and personal touch are felt on every campus. He doesn't hide away at admin. He is a familiar face in our hallways, visiting a different school nearly every day. Whether he's chatting with
090our kids during lunch or popping into classrooms to encourage teachers, students know him by name and smile when they see him. He forges real relationships, not just with principals and teachers, but with every single employee. He knows even the maintenance and operation and custodial staff by name. The team he once led, making each member feel valued, no matter their ranks in this district. Colleagues recall that as a high school principal, he was ever present, extremely active, loved and adored by staff and students, and today as superintendent, he carries that same inclusive down-to-earth spirit district-wide. And I know he's hating this right now, so I enjoy reading all of his actions and actions. He's a great leader who's been a great friend to me, and I'm proud to be a part of his team. I'm proud
091to be a part of his team. I'm proud to be a part of his team. I'm proud to be a part of his team. Dr. Berger often reminds us that he is still an educator at heart, and it shows. To our kids, he is not a distant figurehead, but a friendly educator who listens to them. To our teachers and staff, he's a partner they trust, always ready to step in and help. Under Dr. Berger's leadership, Pearland ISD isn't just maintaining excellence, it's reaching new heights. He guided us back to the basics after a pandemic, focusing on strong fundamentals, while never losing the lessons that we learned by adaptability. He launched the vision of Build Pearland Proud, instilling pride and unity in our schools and in our community. In just a few years as superintendent, he's
092overseen tangible success. Pearland ISD was named top performing district on the Texas Honor Roll and earned an A rating for academic excellence, ranking among the top districts in the Houston area. But if you ask Dr. Berger about these achievements, he'll be the first to credit everyone else. Dr. Berger is a great leader in the community, and he's a great leader in the district. This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of our teachers, staff, and community. As he has said, when the district earns statewide recognition, that humility is genuine. As he famously put it, great things happen not because of me, but because of we. He believes in us, in our teachers' creativity, our students' potential, and our parents' partnership. Most importantly, Dr. Berger has earned universal trust. Our board of trustees unanimously chose him
093to lead the district's education program, and he's a great leader in this community. I'm willing to lead and call him a tremendous asset for good reason. Teachers, principals, support staff, and parents, every group in our district knows that Dr. Berger leads with integrity, heart, and unwavering commitment by doing right every day. He has spent 23 years in education, 15 of those in Pearland, serving in almost every role, teacher, principal, operations director, and now superintendent, always putting others first. He leads by serving by example and by the love of his community. I'm almost done. Tonight, we have the chance to recognize what we've all felt that Larry Berger is more than administrator. He is the heart of Pearland ISD. He embodies the values we cherish, humility, dedication, and genuine care for every child. When you see
094him high-fiving students, mentoring young and leaders, being schooled by students across our district, or thanking a custodian by name, you see a man living his values every day. Pearland parents, we know that our children are safer, stronger, and happier because of Dr. Berger's leadership. That is why he's the best candidate for superintendent of the year. In a time where we need true servant leadership, and it is rare, we have it right here in Dr. Berger, a superintendent who doesn't just wear a title, but lives a mission of serving others. So please join me tonight in supporting him and moving him forward and applying for the honor of superintendent of the year among Texas. With Dr. Berger at the helm, we'll be right back. We are truly building Pearland proud together. So board, I'll hear a
095motion. I move we approve the resolution nominating superintendent Dr. Larry Berger for the TASB superintendent of the year award. Motion by trustee Carter. I second nominating, I second the motion to nominate Captain America for the TASB superintendent of the year award. Motion by trustee Carter, second by trustee Francis. Any further? Any further comments or questions about this agenda item? No jokes, Trustee Sean Murphy. I was not going to say that might have been AI generated. Sorry. I think it's well warranted and good job. Sure. All I would like to say is everyone that sits in this room that works for Pearland ISD is the reason all that is true. I am fortunate, I am blessed to be the proud superintendent of Pearland ISD. And I'm proud because of what our employees do, what our teachers
096do every day in the classroom. And I'm proud of what our teachers do every day in the classroom. And I'm proud of what our teachers do every day in the classroom and what our students do. So if I am put forward for this award and I do win this award, it is definitely because of their work and their support of me and their support of this district. We work every day to get better. And every day we want to be better for our families, for our community, and always for the growth of our students. Thank you, Dr. Berger. Hearing no further discussion on this item, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries. 0 with Trustee Kuhn absent. Congratulations, Dr. Berger. All right. Now we're moving on to the approval of fiscal
097year 2425 budget amendment. So I know everybody is excited to hear me talk more about budget. This is a little bit easier. We have a tremendous business service department that has done a phenomenal job of making sure that we bring these budget amendments forward. This is really another budget amendment that is house cleaning. It is showing in the budget amendment that we have a tremendous amount of budget money, so that we can provide both the main one and the internal budget amendment, and the other one for the budget. And we also have a policy amendment for the additional revenue we have from our state. The revenue from our state is a small amount, as you can see, I won't go into detail on that today. But that is our basic budget amendment, and we are
098going to go through that a little bit further as well. But that is our budget amendment in the Excel spreadsheet. The settle up kind of amount, the additional revenue that we are receiving from the state, that is lost. There were some lawsuits that were settled by Rosoria County on some tax issues that were happening with our residents. And so when that is removed from our local values, the state steps in. So that's what you see in the first column is the state stepping in. And if you go down to almost the last column, you can see where the local is going out. All that to be said with some other TRS true ups. The budget amendment before you is showing that the projected surplus for the 25 school year is 10,056,98. I apologize, I forgot
099my glasses. But it's just to show that once again, as I said in the board workshop, the board has done an excellent job of monitoring these finances. Our community has done an excellent job of supporting us. And that's why we are in this sound financial situation. Thank you, Dr. Burger. Any questions about this item? Item to approve quickly. All right. I have a trust motion by Trustee Murphy? Second. Second, by Trustee Scheffler. Any further discussion or questions on this item? Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor? Motion carries six to zero with Trustee Coon absent this evening. I think we have a safety and security. We do have a safety and security audit review available for public review. But I do appreciate, Mr. Palumbo's work today in this area and getting
100through all these audits and working on maintaining our safety across the district. So thank you, sir. There's also an annual report for board members required training and continuing education, a bond report for those who are interested in reviewing, a financial statement report and purchases over 50,000. So if you wanna look at those, you're more than welcome to do so, but we don't have any further comments from. I did, I have a question for our CFO regarding the bond report. You can answer from there. I just was curious what the definition of the encumbrance on that bond report when it gives the budget versus what we've spent, is that? The encumbrance is just the outstanding POs. So that is the actual outstanding PO? Correct. As it goes across. Yes. Okay, thank you. But if I could,
101Mr. Murphy, we just had a bond review meeting with maintenance and operations. I'll be supplying both the board and the bond oversight committee, an updated of work that it's been done versus projected price versus actual price and then what projects we are going forward. We are a little bit behind on our bond projects just because we've had some issues in maintenance operation due to personnel health concerns. We are fortunate enough, Jay Murphy, if you are listening, that he is back in the office and we are full steam ahead. All right. So at this time, the board is gonna reconvene into closed session to finish a little bit of business but otherwise, there will be no further public comment after this part of the meeting is over. So we're gonna reconvene into closed session at 7.56
102this evening. So staff is free to go? Staff is free to go, thank you. The board will reconvene in open session at 8.31. No action was taken in closed session. This meeting is adjourned.