001Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for being here. A regular school board meeting of the Board of Trustees of Far San Juan Alamo Independent School District will be held on Monday, June 1st, 2026, beginning at 6 p.m. PSJA Early College High School Lecture Hall, 805 West Ridge Road, San Juan, Texas. Okay, I'm not going to call the meeting to order because we don't have a quorum yet, but we are going to start with the recognition of all the students that we have here. Yes, Mr. President, we'll start with the record. Well, first of all, I don't know if we want to do the pledge and the invocation first. Because it wasn't called to order, we can still do it? Yes, we can still do the pledge and the invocation. Please rise and face the flag.
002I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Go ahead. I love everybody. Dear Lord, as we get ready to deliberate on all the agenda items for tonight, and each of them being as important as the other, we ask you that you help us maintain the quorum that is in the meeting. Thank you. As expected of this board, that our sole purpose here is to recognize our students, to discuss very important other items, and that we ask for your guidance, that we make the most sound decision, and for the best interest for the board is that we take care of our district, take care of our staff, and most importantly, that we take
003care of our students. We ask for this, in your precious name, amen. Amen. Okay, because we have a quorum, I'm going to go ahead and call to order. Going to number three, Mr. Elias, recognition. Dr. Elias. Yes, Mr. President, we are going to recognition, and the following recognitions will be presented by the counseling director, Ms. Saenz, and Dr. Rivas Garza, and we will start with the PSJA Early College High School. Thank you, Mr. President. Dr. Elias and members of the board. Tonight, I am honored to recognize the PSJA ISD Class of 2026 valedictorians and salutatorians from the District 6 high schools. These exceptional students have distinguished themselves through academic excellence and leadership. Graduating at the top of their classes, they represent the very best of PSJA family and serve as an inspiration to their peers
004and their community. At this time, can I have PSJA High? Parents, principal, students, this way. Okay, at this time, our salutatorian isn't present today, but our salutatorian is Jalyn Lee Morales, daughter of Julian and Veronica Lee Morales of San Juan. Jalyn is a recipient of the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Scholarship, an AP scholar with distinction, and served as the 2025-26 PSJA FFA President. Through the PSJA Early College, she earned an associate degree in mathematics from South Texas College. This fall, Jalyn will attend Baylor University, where she plans to major in medical humanities. Our valedictorian, Alejandro Rodriguez, son of Hector and Clara Rodriguez of Pharr. Alejandro has been recognized by the college board as an AP scholar, serves as president of the National Honor Society, and was named the Blood Cancer United States Student Visionary
005of the Year. Through the PSJA Early College program, he earned an associate degree in mathematics from South Texas College. This fall, Alejandro will attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he plans to major in finance. He is now in his late forties, where he will take the post-doc degree program, which is a private program. Patient 1 Patient 2 Patient 8 Patient 9 Patient 9 Patient 11 Patient 12 Patient 14 Patient 11 Memorial Early College High School, we have salutatorian Deja Leja. She is the daughter of Cruz and Yolanda Leja of Alamo. Deja earned recognition on the South Texas College Vice President's Honor Roll, competed at the state level in the search and rescue law enforcement, and participated in the bilateral dual language program. Through the PSJA Early College program, she earned an Associate of
006Arts Interdisciplinary Studies degree from South Texas College. Deja plans to attend the University of Texas, Rear Grand Valley, where she plans to pursue a Bachelor's of Science in Health. Valedictorian Celeste Miquela Mora is the daughter of Ruben and Patricia Mora of San Juan. Celeste is the recipient of the UTRGB Luminary Scholar Award, an AP Scholar, and a recipient of the Hispanic Heritage Youth Award. Through the PSJA Early College program, she earned an Associate of Science degree in Mathematics, from South Texas College. This fall, Celeste plans to attend the University of Texas, Rear Grand Valley, where she will pursue a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Political Science. Claudia, can we have a picture of the salutatorian, and then that way it's two separate pictures. One, two, three, four. Thank you. PSJA North, the student, parents,
007and principal. Dr. Williams. Yes, go ahead, Ms. Gutierrez. Yes, I say a few words for the students. Since I'm not in person, I just wanted to congratulate everyone. Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Yes, Mr. President. Dr. I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're going to wait until after all the students have been presented. Yes, but the reason, the reason I'm asking you for permission is because they may leave, and I will not be able to see them at graduation. So I want them to know, I just want to say a few words, because if they leave, I will not have another opportunity to see them. So Mr. President, I humbly ask for the opportunity to address them, because they may start leaving and they will not hear me. Dr.
008Well, we'll wait until after. Dr. Okay. Dr. Okay. After all the salutatorians and valedictorians are presented, I'm going to let you make some comments. Thank you. So from PSJA North Early College High School, we have salutatorian Alejandro Rodriguez. He is the son of Yanira. He's been recognized by the college board as an AP scholar, a recipient of the South Texas College Presidential Award, and three times UIL state solo and ensemble medalist. Through the PSJA Early College program, he earned an associate's degree in computer science from South Texas College. This fall, Alejandro will attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he plans to major in computer science. Valedictorian Julian Covarrubias Favela is the son of Lorena Favela and Eduardo Covarrubias Zafar. Julian earned a top ten placement in the Great Plains International Marimba competition, was
009recognized as the TMEA All-State Percussionist and First-Legs. Julian was the first chair in the Sinofineta Orchestra and received a Gold Seal Award at the TEA Visual Arts Scholastic Event competition. Through the PSJA Early College program, he earned an associate's degree in mathematics from South Texas College. Julian will attend Rice University, where he plans to major in architecture. Julian earned a floral Jerri Reeves Award for his work at the grew restaurant都okie for his dance live, a р ск�리 나오że Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. neden I'm so happy for you. Great, great. Southwest principal, student parents, please come on over. From PSJA Southwest Early College High School, we have salutatorian Leslie Esmeralda Bustos Ruiz. She is the daughter of Antonio and Teresa Bustos Afar. Leslie is a dual language graduate, served as student council parliamentarian, and is a
010member of the National Honor Society. Through the PSJA Early College program, she earned an associate's degree in interdisciplinary studies from South Texas College. This fall, Leslie will attend the College of the Holy Cross, where she plans to major in engineering. Valedictorian Daniela Guerra is the daughter of Daniel and Luz Guerra of Hidalgo. Daniela has been recognized by College Board as an AP Scholar, was nominated as a... and was named the 2025 Softball Best Offensive Player of the Year. Through the PSJA Early College program, she earned an associate's degree in interdisciplinary studies from South Texas College. This fall, Daniela will attend Texas A&M University's College Station, where she plans to major in animal science. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Thank you, sir, for all that you do. TSTEM students, parents,
011principals. From PSJA TSTEM Early College High School, we have salutatorian, Gabriel Alexander Mata, He is the son of Melissa Joanna Mata of Pharr. Gabriel graduated summa cum laude from South Texas College and is a BPA state qualifier and is certified as an IT specialist. Through the PSJA Early College Program, he earned an associate's degree in computer science from South Texas College. This fall, Gabriel plans to attend the University of Texas, Rear Grand Valley, where he will major in cybersecurity. So, valedictorian Camila Coronado is the daughter of Julio Corona and Adrian Prado of Pharr. Camila is an AP scholar and magna cum laude graduate of South Texas College and a recipient of the College Board National Recognition Award. Through the PSJA Early College Program, she earned an associate's degree in biology from South Texas College. This
012fall, Camila will attend the University of Texas, Rear Grand Valley, and she plans to major in cybersecurity. She will also be a professor of biology. Congratulations. Collegiate high school? Principal, students, parents. From PSJA Collegiate School of Health Professions. We have salutatorian, Hevy Joslyn Chavez Guillen, is the daughter of Juan Chavez and Teresa Guillen of Edinburgh. Hevy is an AP scholar, a dual language graduate, and a registered dental hygienist, I'm sorry, dental assistant in the state of Texas. Through the PSJA Early College Program, she earned an associate's of science degree in interdisciplinary studies from South Texas College. This fall, Hevy plans to attend the School for Kingdom. She will also be attending the School for Kingdom Evangelizers, where she will major in ministry. Valedictorian Guadalupe Portillo is the daughter of Alfonso Portillo and Laura Barrera Afar.
013Guadalupe is an AP scholar, a dual language graduate, and served as the BPA treasurer and state qualifier in health insurance and medical billing. Through the PSJA Early College Program, she earned an associate's degree in biology from South Texas College. She will also be attending the School for Kingdom Evangelizers, where she will major in ministry. This fall, Guadalupe plans to attend the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, where she will major in biology. One, two, and three. One, two, and three. Thank you. Once again, congratulations to our valedictorians and salutatorians. We are so proud to celebrate you as part of our PSJA family. We wish you all the very best in your future endeavors. I want to speak on behalf of the board and then Ms. Gutierrez because she's joining us virtually. I'll let her say
014a few words. First of all, I want to commend all of the valedictorians and salutatorians and want to thank and commend the parents for all their support. I'm very grateful for that, very thankful. And I'm very proud of all our valedictorians and salutatorians because of their hard work. I know it wasn't easy to get to where they're at. And also, again, thank the parents for their support and joining them on the road to that success. Okay. And Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Ms. Gutierrez. Yes. Ms. Gutierrez. Are you there? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes. So I just wanted to address all the students. I won't be able to attend the graduation. I want to congratulate you on this major, major achievement in your life. You're graduating high school and you're not only graduating,
015but you're graduating top up 10% with all these accolades and all of this. And I just want to thank you for all the activities that you had during the years of schooling that you had. So I just wanted the time to tell you that I'm very proud of all of you. I'm very proud that you're able to graduate with an associate, with certificates. And I also wanted to congratulate the parents, the parents, the grandparents, the tutors, the tutors who for many years have been making sure that the students, the parents, the students at school, that they have everything they need. I want to congratulate them, parents, because I can't be present for the censorship that they did to me. But I wanted to make sure that they knew that I'm very proud and that if
016it were up to me, I would give them their graduation certificate and I would applaud them together with you at the stadium. Congratulations. May this be just the beginning of your success and your career. And I thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Muchos exitos, students, let this be the first of many, many accolades and go out into the world and make us proud. Go Bears, go Wolverines, go Raiders, go Southwest, go Titans. All of our schools, we're proud. And if I missed one, it was not on purpose. I'm doing it very quickly. But thank you so much, Mr. President, for allowing me to address them. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Ms. Gittles. Again, I want to commend to all our students, very proud and very for making PSJA shine. Because
017of all your hard work, you know, you're getting recognized all over the place. So I want to thank you again. Thank you, parents. Moving on to the next item. Yes, Mr. President, we move on to districts fine arts programs. And we're going to skip the first one, which Mr. Taylor, fine arts director, was going to present. And we're moving to items two and three. And then we'll go back. Two and three will be presented by Mr. Murray. If we can have our UIL academic state qualifiers, please come and join me at the podium. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, members of the board, we are proud to recognize a group of students who earned the distinction of advancing to the 2026 UIL academic state meet. UIL academics is one of the most rigorous and competitive academic programs
018in the state, requiring students to demonstrate exceptional skill, discipline, and dedication across a wide range of academic events. Qualifying for the state meet represents the highest level of achievement in UIL academics. These students have competed through the district and regional levels, advancing against the top competitors from across Texas. Their success reflects hours of preparation, commitment, and perseverance, as well as the strong support of their coaches, coordinators, and campuses, and of course, their families. This year, PSJA is proud to have students representing multiple campuses. And competing in events such as persuasive speaking, essay writing, ready writing, social studies, and calculator applications. Notably, our PSJA early college high school calculator applications team all qualified for the state meet, as well representing a strong team accomplishment in addition to the individual success. These students traveled to Austin in
019May and competed against the best of the best. At this time, we're going to recognize our academic state qualifiers and team qualifiers and winners. Students, when I please say your name, if you can please raise your hand. And also, we're going to ask the audience to just hold the applause until we finish all of the students' names. So our first student, and some of the students may not be present, but I will recognize them. Our first student is Mariana Martinez, PSJA Thomas Jefferson T-STEM Early College High School, and she advanced for persuasive speaking in 4A. We have Isabella Vera, PSJA Memorial Early College High School, and she qualified in the essay contest. We have Denzel. Denzel Mireles, PSJA Memorial Early College High School, ready writing in 5A. And Denzel came out fifth place overall in
020ready writing in the state of Texas for 5A. We have Marcial Ponce, PSJA Early College High School, social studies in 6A. Then moving on to our PSJA Early College High School team, we have calculator team. We have Tristan Garza from PSJA Early College High School calculator applications. He qualified individually and as the team. Also members of the team from PSJA Early College High School. We have Franco Silva, Ethan Salinas, and Nathan Lopez. If we can please give all of these students a round of applause. One other accomplishment that we would wish to announce right now is that at the UIL State Academic Meet, the PSJA Southwest Early College High School team earned the title of UIL Academic State Runner-Up in Conference 5A, finishing second in the entire state of Texas. And also the PSJA North
021finished fifth in the Conference 5A. These points are accumulated by academics. They are also awarded with academic, theatrical design, film, and one-act play. So we're very proud of these achievements for all of our students. And we sincerely congratulate all of our students, coaches, coordinators, principals, and families for their dedication and support in achieving this astounding accomplishment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sir, thank you for all that you do. Next we will be presenting our Destination Imagination Global Qualifier. So if we can have our two teams join me here at the podium. We can have their coaches and sponsors as well and principals if they're here also. They're carrying a lot of blame. You can hear it. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, members of the board, we are proud to recognize a group of outstanding students
022who have earned the distinction of advancing to the 2026 Destination Imagination Global Finals. Through their exceptional creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving skills, these students have earned the opportunity to represent PSJA on a multinational stage. Today we're proudly recognizing two teams that competed at this prestigious, prestigious event, the Levis Elementary School team and the Raul Izaguirre Middle School Destination Imagination teams. Both worked diligently to develop innovative solutions to complex theme challenges while strengthening their problem-solving and teamwork skills. Both teams competed at the South Border Bridge Regional Tournament in February where they advanced to the state level, where they took place in Arlington, and then they finally advanced to the global finals. They represented PSJA in Kansas City, Missouri in May. We're extremely proud to announce that at the global finals in Kansas City, the Raul Izaguirre Middle
023School DI team, under the direction of team managers Valeria Huerta and Rachel Ramirez, delivered an outstanding performance where they competed against 21 teams from around the world and earned an impressive second place globally. And this truly showcased their dedication, teamwork, and creative excellence. The team also received the prestigious Renaissance Award, which recognized exceptional creativity, innovation, and outstanding execution. Judges highlighted the team's imaginative storytelling, innovative engineering, and impressive craftsmanship, making their presentations a true standout among global competitors. At this time we're going to recognize our global qualifiers and winners. And students, if you can please raise your hand when your name is called. Thank you. And we ask that you hold applause until all students have been called. The Mind Shift Bears team from Izaguirre Middle School, under the direction of Mrs. Valeria Huerta and Ms.
024Rachel Ramirez, we have Sofia Diaz, Giovanna Rodriguez, Hector Tijerina, Jesus Muñiz, Andre Garcia, and Ana Pena. The Aquanauts team from Levis Elementary, under the direction of Mrs. Erica Ramos, and Mr. Rodrigo Hernandez. We have Nicole Banderas, Delilah Rogers, Autumn Villafuerte, Raven Hernandez, Brooklyn Hernandez, Luciano Flores, and Anthony Sanchez. We extend our congratulations to our students, coaches, coordinators, principals, and families for their dedication and support in achieving this outstanding accomplishment. Our DIA qualifier teams are proudly supported by our gifted and talented department, and we are proud to be a part of this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. One, two, and one. Yay, I gave it. Thank you. Here we are. Who's going to do that? Art students, please. Art
025students. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, members of the board, thank you for giving the Fine Arts Department this opportunity to recognize the outstanding achievements of our fine arts students. Thank you also for your continued support of our fine arts programs. Art students from all five high schools competed at the Texas Art Education Association Visual Arts Scholastic Event. Five students representing PSJA Jefferson, PSJA High, PSJA North, and PSJA Southwest advanced to state base. All five earned exhibits. They received exemplary state medallions and were named All-State Artists. Those students and their teachers are, if you'll raise your hand when I call your name, from PSJA North, Alyssa Trevino and her teacher, Tanya Viveros, from PSJA Jefferson, Jonathan Alamilla and his teacher, Raul Cabrera, from PSJA Southwest, Natalia Torres and her teacher, Armando Garcia, from PSJA High, Sofia Rodriguez
026and Jocelyn Guevara, and their teacher, Celinda Hernandez. Congratulations. All-State Artists and their teachers. Nilesh Sh боzähyz, Phung Krie, and Apa Goven, Pol点 Fovci and Overton Goven. Don't forget to like and subscribe to Metro Business class. See you at School of Art. Back Hermie. Work. Work. Work. которые 2 One, two, and three. One, two, smile, and open your eyes. Thank you. Fair one-act play. PSJ High one-act play. Oh, boy. Here they come. Here they come. This year, four PSJ ISD high school theater programs advanced in UIL one-act play competition, with four competing at district, three advancing to bi-district, two advancing to area, and one advancing to regionals and then on to state. PSJ High Theater advanced through district and bi-district to compete at the UIL 6A Area One-Act Play Contest, where they were named alternate to
027regionals. Cast and crew are Alice Betancourt, Antalia Rubio, Brisa Rodriguez, Cassidy Hill, Debony Alvarez, Elora De La Cerda, Franco Silva, Giselle Valdez, Grace Bautista, Hayden Lujan, Isabel Bazan, Isaiah Martinez, Israel Frias, Jessica, Tahir Bolanos, Jasmine Avila, Christine Garza, Miguel Rodriguez, Natalie Alaniz, Samuel Garza, Sarah Olivares, Sarai Alvarado, Sean Trevino, Serena Dueñas, and Victor Salinas. Theater directors are head director Jacqueline Benavides and assistant directors Sabrina Soto and Hector Nunez. Selena Soto also assisted with the show. Congratulations, PSJ High Theater. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Southwest, one-act plague. Mario, can you bring... There they come. I was just waiting for these guys. Come on in, guys. Try not
028to make so much noise, but come on down. Anyone? Yeah. There's a big trophy right there. Please raise your hand when I call your name. PSJ Southwest Theater advanced through zone, district, by district, area, and regionals to advance to the UIL 5A State One-Act Plague Contest in Austin. This is Southwest Theater's fourth performance in state. In Austin, Southwest was named UIL State One-Act Plague second runner-up, earning a state trophy and bronze medals for each participant. Cast and crew are Augustine Macias, Alexandra Guerrero, Anaí Cuellar, Anaya Hernandez, Benjamin Alonso, Camila Cortez, Dabani Martinez, Edgar Rivera, Eduardo Aguilar, Felipe Llerna, Fernanda Macias, Germán Guzmán, Jessica Acosta, Kennedy Silva, Luna Espinosa, Noemí Molina, Rafael Carvajal, Remy Izaguirre, Santiago Martinez-Alvarez, Saeidi Garcia, Steven Sauceda, and Summer Silva. UIL combined state film, state theatrical design, and state one-act play results
029to determine the state champion theater team. This year's 5A UIL state champion theater team is PSJA Southwest. Theater directors are head directors Sergio Salceda and assistant directors Charlie Palacios and Megan De La Rosa. Dance director Selena Elizondo also assisted with the show. Congratulations PSJA Southwest Theater. Thank you. One more. Just in case you close your eyes. Thank you. You want to make a comment? After the one that you're in. State theatrical design, we get involved in the state theatrical design at the same time, please. State theatrical design medal winners. Thank you. 25 high school theater students representing PSJA High, PSJA Jefferson, PSJA Memorial, PSJA North, and PSJA Southwest advanced to the UIL state theatrical design contest. Results were announced at an award ceremony held at the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 16th.
030PSJA earned 28 UIL state medals, including 12 UIL state champion medals. The following students earned recognition. In 4A competition from PSJA Jefferson, Aliyah Cantu, Mariana Martinez, Erin Puentes, and Lea Trevino were awarded fourth place in group design. Head theater director is David Amador. Congratulations PSJA Jefferson theater students. In 5A competition, eight state UIL champion medals are awarded for the whole contest. PSJA ISD earned all eight of those UIL state champion medals. Thank you. Thank you. From PSJA Memorial. Christina Diaz came in fourth in hair and makeup design. Theater directors are head director Gabriel Ramirez and assistant directors Julissa Alaniz and Christina Vela. Congratulations, Christina, and her directors. From PSJA North. They're not here tonight. They're at their banquet, but we're going to pretend they're here. Sophia Salazar placed sixth in hair and makeup design. Isaac
031Gonzalez earned the third place bronze medal in set design. Megan Flores. Ana Rios. Paola Salazar and Matthew Suarez received second place silver medals for group design. Sophia Guerra is the UIL state champion gold medalist in costume design. Aiden Gomez is the set design UIL state champion gold medalist. This year's 5A UIL state first runner-up theater team is PSJA North. Theater directors are head director Brian Hono and assistant directors Jackie Cepeda and Fatima Flores. Congratulations, PSJA North theater students and directors. From PSJA Southwest. Ana E. Cuéllar placed fifth in hair and makeup design. Brittany Rodriguez earned the third place bronze medal in costume design. Briseda Ruiz Iriqui received the second place silver medal in set design. Summer Silva is the UIL state champion gold medalist in hair and makeup design. Kennedy Silva is the marketing director.
032She is the marketing director of the UIL state champion gold medalist. Ana E. Cuéllar, Agustin Macias, Fernanda Macias, and Summer Silva are the UIL state champion gold medalists in group design. Directors are head director Sergio Sauceda and assistant directors Charlie Palacios and Megan De La Rosa. Congratulations, PSJA Southwest theater students and directors. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. Elora De La Cerda earned the second place silver medal in marketing design. Natalie Alaniz, Debany Alvarez, Kristen Garza, and Franco Silva are the UIL state champion gold medalists in group design. Theater directors are head director Jackie Benavides and assistant directors Sabrina Soto and Hector Nunez. Congratulations, PSJA High theater students and directors. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In
0336A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. In 6A competition from PSJA High, Sarah Olivares placed fifth in hair and makeup design. Dr. Garcia, you're hiding. Who else is hiding? There. In front of the computer. Now you're in the morning. Ready? Smile.
034One, two, and three. One, two, and three. And last one, increase the size. One, two, and three. Thank you. Thank you. You can make a quick comment. Thank you, sir. Wow. Congratulations, all of you. I'm extremely proud of all of you. You continue making PSJA shine, not only value-wide, state and national. So I commend all of you. And I want to thank the students. I'm very, very proud of you. And the sponsors, thank you very much for all your hard work. Mr. Taylor, thank you for your guidance and support. Because of all you, all this hard work that the sponsors and teachers do, the students continue to excel. And we're just very proud of all of you. Good job, and congratulations again. Do you want to go to the solo? Yes. Yes, Mr. President. We'll
035be moving to item six under letter B. UIL State Solo and Ensemble Gold Medal Winners and Outstanding Performers. And this will be presented by Fine Arts Director, Mr. Taylor. He'll be bringing in the students right now. Every year, they go in very well. We're very proud of all the students. T-Stand and Memorial. T-Stand and Memorial. You need a bigger room. Here they come. Just raise your hand when I call your name. Right after this. Right here. On Saturday, May 23rd, and Monday, May 25th, the UIL Texas State Solo Ensemble Contest was held in Austin. 424 PSJA ISD band, choir, and orchestra students representing PSJA High, PSJA Jefferson, PSJA Memorial, PSJA University, and PSJA University. PSJA North and PSJA Southwest qualified for this competition and earned a total of 314 state medals. Tonight, we are presenting
036the 110 students who earned first division state gold medals. We are also presenting the 11th students, that's a PSJA ISD record, who earned the Outstanding Performer Medal, which is comparable to a UIL State Champion Medal. PSJA Jefferson T-Stand, Memorial College High School earned nine gold medals. They earned nine total state medals. Titan Orchestra gold medals were Adlemi Uriegas and Jacob Ochoa. Orchestra directors, Efrain Munguia. Titan Choir gold medal winners are Daniela Alvarez, Javier Alvarez, Ileana Padilla, and Nalil Rodriguez. Gold medalists, Duane Lozano and Esmeralda Torres, also earned the UIL Outstanding Performer Medal. Choir directors, Liliana Lopez Pacheco, and Daniela Pacheco. Congratulations, PSJA Jefferson UIL state gold medal winners, Outstanding Performers and their directors. Congratulations. Oh, that's good. That's fine. We're done? Please. There's too many of them. PSJA Memorial Early College High School earned 62
037total state medals. Wolverine Orchestra gold medal winner is Sofia Paz. Orchestra directors are Martín Trevino and Diana Reyes. Wolverine Choir gold medal winners are Daisy Abrego, Liana Paredes, Fatima Puente, Jacob Rangel, Andrea Rodriguez, and Yasmin Zabala. Choir directors are Marilu Manzano-Niño. Choir accompanists are Francisco Rocofuerte. Wolverine band medal winners are Ruth Cabrera, Valeria Valenzuela, Raymond Murray, Cadence Murray, Jalyn Gallegos, Luis Rios, Jocelyn Martin-Flores, Derek Ibarra, Angel Luna III, Valeria Diaz, Fernando Gámez, Kevin Moreno, Mauro Martinez, Felix Gallardo, and Ivan Garcia. Gold medalists Oscar López and Valerie Ornelas also earned the UIL Outstanding Performer Medal. Band directors are Ozzy López, Richard Castillo, JC Alvarado, Nicky Castillo, Eric Gómez, and Elmer Rowe. Congratulations PSJA Memorial UIL State Gold Medal winners, outstanding performers, and their directors. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations.
038Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Southwest, come on down. So this is the big medal. This is the UL Outstanding Performer Medal. PSJ Southwest earned 66 total state medals. Javelina Choir gold medal winners are Casey Duran, raise your hand, Sarai Garcia, Alisson Jimenez, and Ximena Olvera. Choir Director is Vanessa Rodriguez. Choir Accompanist is Aaron Sanana. Javelina Orchestra Gold Medal Winners are Alia Duque and Mateo Garcia. Orchestra Directors are Joseph Benura and Urban Castillo. Javelina Band Gold Medal Winners are Daniel Chapa, Adam Estrada, Emilia Flores,
039Camila Garza, Rosemary Garza, Orlando Guerrero, Yoseline Lugo, Uriel Medellin, Samuel Resendez, Martin Santillan, Kaylee Trevino, Fabian Vega, and Valentin Villarreal. Gold Medalist, Joseph Duran, also earned the UIL Outstanding Performer Medal. Band Directors are Tony Flores, Vince Cantu, Willie Cavazos, Roxana Huereca, Chris Peña, and Diego Torres. Congratulations, PSJ Southwest, UIL State Gold Medal Winners, Outstanding Performers, and their Directors. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir, for all that you do. Again. Thank you. Don't worry. Don't worry. Okay, everybody find your window. And on the count of three. One, two, three. One more. One, two, and three. Thank you. Find a place to sit. Students are leaving. Find a place to sit, students, please. Thank you. Mr. Taylor, before you continue, Mr. Rodriguez, the board president is going to
040comment on these, and then we can dismiss, because I don't think we'll fit with the rest. Okay. First of all, I want to commend all of you. Extremely proud of you. You continue putting PSJA on the map. Everybody is noticing you all. That's all your hard work. I want to thank all the sponsors and the teachers that helped out, the parents that supported them all those days and nights, all those hours. So I want to commend all of you and congratulate you. We're extremely, extremely proud of all of you. Congratulations. The musicians that are already being presented can go ahead and leave. Thank you. Two more. We're going to run out of space. That's why. Thank you. Thank you. I did leave out one Southwest student. I mean, Eduardo Salas. I apologize for that. Here
041they come. All the way down to the end. PSJA North earned 70 total state medals. Raider Orchestra gold medal winners are Leonardo Caja-Lopez and Noemi Ortiz. Raider Orchestra directors are Maria Echeverria and Dolores Bartolo. Raider Choir gold medal winners are Jose De Luera, Alexis Garcia, Janelle Hernandez, Vanessa Rivera, Belinda Suarez, and Cielo Tienda. Raider Choir directors John McLeod, Raider Choir accompanist is Luis Gonzalez. Raider Band gold medal winners are Joshua Benitez, Alessandro Campos, Jonathan Cisneros, Romeo Garza, Jesus Gonzalez, Elias Hernandez, Jonathan Hernandez. Noah Herrera, Andres Huitron, Adam Lozano, Aiden Molina, Edwin Narvaez, Hiram Negrete, John Olivares, Alejandro Olvera, Elijah Rodelo, Aiden Salazar, Dana Tirado, and Sofia Villarreal. Gold medalists Julian Covarrubias-Favelas, Cesar Hernandez, Brandon Hill, and Caleb Quinones also earned the UIL Outstanding Performer Medal. Raider Band directors are Jeremy Rowe, Pete Guerrero, Justin Adame,
042Michael Barrera, Lucio Diaz, Cindy Guerrero, and Miranda Martinez. Congratulations PSJ North UIL State gold medal winners, outstanding performers, and their directors. Thank you for all that you do. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. It's so amazing. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. We can see you're good. Ready? One, two, and big smiles. One, two, and three. Thank you. Go Raiders. Wait inside here. Go ahead and have a seat. Go ahead and have a seat. Go ahead and have
043a seat. P.S.T. Hi. One more good. One more good. One more good. One more good. One more good. Keep going. All the way down. Let me get next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. Next one. PSJA Early College High School earned 81 Total State Medals. Their Orchestra Gold Medal Winners are Trinity Flores, Franklin Brown, Noah Castillo, and Fatima Muñoz. Their Orchestra Directors are Albert Garcia and Adriana Olivan. Their Choir Gold Medal Winners are Mero Centeno, Jose Franco Cruz, Liana Gallegos, Kayla Ortiz, And Deandra Paredes, Bear Choir Director is Lori Ortega. Bear Choir Accompanyist is Aaron Torres. Bear Band Gold Medal Winners are Jose Aguilera, Luis Alvarado, Samuel Barrera, Jesus Bastian, Evan Bautista, Micah Cano,
044Isabella Castillo, Isaac Enriquez, Valentina Espinosa, Daniel Guardado, Emily Lozano-Alaniz, Zach Mendez, Andrew Mendoza, Albert Munoz, Alondra Romero, Sebastian Santoyo, Juan Vela, and Elier Zuniga. Gold Medalist, Abdiel Vargas Cantu and Sebastian Nava also earned the UIL Outstanding Performer Medal. Bear Band Directors are John Garza, Steve Gutierrez, Danny Garcia, Marco Guzman, Jennifer Hernandez, Amanda Paz. Maria Pereira, and JJ Rodriguez. Congratulations PSJA High UIL State Gold Medal Winners, Outstanding Performers, and their Directors. All the Best! As soon as the picture is done, find a seat. All Board Members will be seated. Thank you. There we go. There we go. Okay. Ready? On three. One, two, three. One, two, three. And one, two, three. Thank you. Do you have a seat? I was trying to. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to add to my comments from before from the
045other schools. I'm just extremely in awe with all the medals, everything you have been accomplishing, all the awards you've been getting. I'm extremely proud of all of you. Like I said earlier, you all continue to make PSJA shine with all your strong performances, great performances. So I want to commend all of you. I'm very proud of all of you. And congratulations again. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President, as we move on to Item C, District Athletic Programs, and we'll have a director for athletics, Orlando Garcia, who will be presenting starting with the tennis program. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, and members of the board, we'd like to give you a moment to reflect on the work that you've done and the work that you've done in the past. Thank you. Thank you for giving us this
046opportunity to recognize our student athletes. Tonight, we're going to recognize multi-sport athletes, athletes in different levels from individual sports to team sports. It's been a great spring for us this year. And our first sport, we're going to start off with Southwest High School tennis. If I can have Ashlyn Garcia and her coach please join me. Ashlyn Garcia made history. Ashlyn Garcia made history during her freshman year, becoming the only freshman, male or female, in PSJA Southwest history and possibly PSJA ISD history to earn a varsity tennis district champion in singles this year. Her remarkable performance and competitive consistency set a new standard of excellence within the district. Ashlyn then went on to capture the 3158 District Tennis Championship, further solidifying her history, and her historic accomplishment as a freshman. Since then, advanced to the UIO
047Region 4 Tennis Tournament, where she competed at an elite level and finished as a regional quarterfinalist. Ashlyn's accomplishments during her freshman year reflect exceptional talent, dedication, and competitive drive. Her historic achievements brings great pride to PSJA ISD, PSJA Southwest High School, and sets the tone for an outstanding high school career. Congratulations, Ashlyn. For head coach slash dad, Moses Garcia, assistant coach Kevin Torres, and assistant coach Deanne Sanchez. Sir, congratulations. That's such a... You know, it just comes from the heart. Oh, that's so awesome. Congratulations. Oh, sir. Thank you, sir. Over here. Yeah, that's a big one. There you go. One, two, three. Thank you. Moving on to powerlifting. If I could have our powerlifting athletes and our coaches please come stand behind me. It's an honor to recognize a group of outstanding student athletes who
048have demonstrated exceptional dedication, discipline, strength, both physically and mentally. These athletes competed at the state powerlifting meet, representing our school district with pride and earned recognition as state medalists. Reaching this level requires countless hours of training, perseverance, commitment, and excellence in both academics and athletics. Tonight, we celebrate their hard work, their achievements, and the example they set for their peers and their entire community. We are proud to honor these state medalists for their work and their achievement. We are proud to honor these state medalists for their accomplishments. Starting out with PSJA North High School, Senior Althene Nicole Guerrero. She competed in Edinburgh, Texas this past month at the Texas High School Women's Powerlifting Championships, competing against 18 other lifters from across the state. Her best effort of the season earned her fourth place and placed
049PSJA North History as a place in PSJA North History as she continues a strong legacy in girls powerlifting at PSJA North. Congratulations. Congratulations. Senior Juan Mendez competed in the 165-pound weight class in Abilene, Texas this month, this past couple of months, at the state high school powerlifting meet, competing against 25 other lifters from across the state who qualified at their respective regional meets. Juan bested them all with a combined total of 1,565 pounds. He is this year's state champion and the first male state champion across any sport in the state. He is the first male state champion in the state's sport at PSJA North High School. Coaches are Edric Pacheco and Michael Levins. PSJA Memorial Lady Wolverine's Powerlifting would like to recognize our powerlifter, Yaretzi Balzadar. She hit a qualifying total of 935 pounds at
050the regional meet in the 242-pound division, where she finished in fourth place and earned a bronze medal to advance to the state meet. At the state meet, she finished fifth place and earned a bronze medal with a combined total of 935 pounds. Congratulations. Head coach, Mateo Garcia, Amanda De Leon. PSJA Southwest High School, J.D. Mendoza. Congratulations for his outstanding achievements in powerlifting. J.D. is a dedicated three-year letterman on the powerlifting team, qualified for the regional and state meets twice during his high school career. At the state meet this year, J.D. competed in the 123 weight class and had the following lift to finish in third place. He squatted 415, benched 300, deadlifted 440 for a total of 1,155 pounds. Congratulations, J.D. Jose Escogido, PSJA Southwest, congratulations for his outstanding achievement in powerlifting. Jose is a
051dedicated three-year letterman on the Havalift and powerlifting team, qualified for the regional and state meets all three years during his high school career. At the state meet this year, Jose competed in the three, the 308 weight class and had the following lift to finish in third place. He squatted 750 pounds, benched 550, deadlift 600 for a total of 1,905 pounds. Congratulations. He is coached by Tommy Soseta. Not here, but I'd like to recognize him because he's on a college trip right now. We'd like to recognize PSJA Bear Senior Marco Minas. Marco Minas competed in Abilene Tech, this March at the Texas High School Powerlifting Association, competed with 22 other lifters from across the state. Marco stepped up with his best effort on the season, earning fifth place and a spot at PSJA's World History as
052he continues a strong legacy and tradition for Bear's powerlifting program. Marco, total weight lifted was 1,480 pounds, hitting 1,550 on squad, 455 on bench, 510 on deadlift. Marco, after this season, also set a new record holder for bench press in the region. Coach Brian Garza and Miguel Minas were his coaches. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Again. At least on a state of the dog is I don't think that I was happy just to meet you. I learned that you all don't get to sit down or to talk so much. Oh, my goodness. Yes, we'll stay with you once again. I see. It's okay. Talking . Sure. Everybody find your window. One, two, and three. Thank you. We're going to continue with track and field. If I could have the PSJA Bear athletes please join
053me and their coaches please join me. We'd like to recognize PSJA Lady Bears, Mary Jane Coca Davila. We'd like to recognize this outstanding student, Mary Jane, a senior member of the PSJA Lady Bear track team. Mary Jane has demonstrated exceptional dedication, discipline, and competitive excellence throughout her season, representing our district with pride at every level. Her accomplishments speak for themselves. Mary Jane earned the title of district champion in both the 100 meter hurdles and 300 meter hurdles, showcasing her strength, technique. and consistency. She continues her success at the area meet, finishing as a runner-up in the 100 hurdles and claiming the area championship in the 300 meter hurdles with a remarkable time of 46 seconds, setting both the PSJA ISD and PSJA Bear record. Through her hard work and determination, Mary Jane has qualified for
054the regional meet, placing her among the elite athletes in the region. She embodies what is meant to be a PSJA Bear commitment, resilience, excellence. We are incredibly proud of her achievements. Her head coach was Coach Willie Martinez. PSJA Boys Bear track, the Bear Boys 4x400 meter relay, delivered an outstanding performance to capture the district title in the 4x400 meter relay, showcasing determination, teamwork, and resilience. Each member of the team executed their leg with precision. Their collective effort was not. not only secured the win, but also reflected months of discipline, training, and commitment. This achievement is a proud moment for our school, highlighting the excellence of our student-athletes and the strength of our athletic program. Members of the 4x400 meter relay district champions, when I call your name, please raise your hand. Angel Guerra, Sam Pena,
055Isaiah Garza, Jonathan Soseda, and Head Coach Oscar Torres. Thank you. I want to congratulate the tennis program, powerlifting program, and the track and field programs. Good job. Really proud of all of you. You all continue, like I said, you all continue to make PSJA shine. Everybody's looking at you. And so just thank you again for being, showing that the excellence, we have excellent athletes here in PSJA. I commend you all again and congratulate all of you. Good job. Next, I'd like to recognize our state semifinalists. Lady Bears softball team, if they can please join me and their head coach, please join me. The PSJA Lady Bears softball team completed a historic 2026 season, finishing with an outstanding 36-3 overall record and establishing themselves as one of the premier programs in Texas class 6A softball. The
056Lady Bears began this year in dominant fashion, capturing first place championships at both the Border Olympics. In Laredo and at the Brenda Marshall Tournament in Corpus Christi. Building on that early success, the team went undefeated in district play with a perfect 10-0 record, earning the title of the 26A district champions. The Lady Bears continued their remarkable journey throughout the postseason, achieving unprecedented success. They claimed their third bi-district championship, their second area championship, regional final championship. They also won the region four championship, advancing them to the state semifinals. Most notably, the Bears advanced to the UIL 6A division two state semifinals, becoming the first softball team in school history to reach that stage at the state playoffs. Throughout their postseason run, the Lady Bears swept every opponent they faced before ultimately falling to the UIL at
057the UIL state semifinals to a talented Katy High School team. They were the first team to win the state championship this weekend. We are very incredibly proud of our Lady Bears, not only for their tremendous accomplishments on the field, but also for the way they represented PSJA ISD, our community, the entire Rio Grande Valley with class, determination, and excellence. This historic season will be remembered as one of the greatest in PSJA athletic history, as they have set new standards for future generation Lady Bears. Congratulations to the 2026 PSJA Lady Bears on an unforgettable season. When I call out your name, please raise your hand. Junior Astrid Reyes. Senior Amory Vega. Junior Aubrey Garza. Junior Nina Guerra. Junior Ariana Lugo. Senior Nikki Jo Hernandez. Senior Kaylee Lopez. Sophomore Amaris Garza. Freshman Julian Lopez. Sophomore Ivana Salas.
058Sophomore Jada Salinas. Sophomore Leanne Gallegos. Junior Emma Escamilla. And a note on Emma Escamilla, she was named to the All-State Tournament team this past weekend. Sophomore Mia Rodriguez. Batgirl, can't forget the Batgirl, Ivy Vega. Our managers that helped us, Alyssa Cortez, Jada Morales, Karen Garza, Emily Reina. Our managers. Our team, our head coach, Alyssa Garza. Assistant coach, Mike Garcia, Natalie Rodriguez, and Corey Cantu. And ladies, thank you for the run. It was a special run. If you notice, we have a lot of the same kids coming back next year. I know they're setting standards, high goals. I think this is the first program in a long time that has ever gotten to the semifinals. Probably going back to that football team they talk about. I think you guys had a tougher battle getting there, so
059congratulations on everything you accomplished. I'm so excited. Thank you, miss. Come be safe. Hi, fellas. Can you hold the mic? Can you get in that room? Ready? One, two, and three. Thank you. Just want to say a few words. I also want to express how extremely proud I am of all of you. I was hearing about... We've got a whole bunch of you all coming back next year, so I'm looking forward to seeing you here again next year with the championship. No pressure. No pressure, okay? So again, congratulations. I am very proud of you. Keep up the good work. Coaches, thank you for all your hard work. I appreciate everything you do. Thanks again. Moving on to PSJA Bear Baseball. If I could have the Bear Baseball team and their coaches please join me. Yes,
060slide down. Slide down. We got a little more. There you go. Right there is good. Right there is good. They're all still doing a whole bunch of... Right there. Here we go. I'm going to clip you. Interesting. Tonight, it's a tremendous honor to recognize the truly historic accomplishments by the PSJA Bear Baseball team. This season, the Bears finished with an outstanding 9-1 district record, an impressive 31-10 overall record, establishing themselves as one of the premier baseball programs in the entire state of Texas. Most notably, the PSJA Bears achieved back-to-back UIL Elite 8 appearances and a milestone that places the team in a rare company. Reaching the Elite 8 once is extraordinary. Doing it consecutive seasons is historic. None of this success happens alone. We want to recognize Coach Guajardo and his coaching staff for their
061leadership, commitment, and belief in these players. Thank you to the parents and families for their countless hours of support, encouragement, and sacrifice throughout the season. And a special thank you to our fans for the tremendous support all year long. And while this season brought tremendous success, it also marks the closing chapter for 10 outstanding seniors. To our seniors, thank you for your leadership, your dedication, and your commitment to this program. Thank you for helping establish a legacy that future Bears will strive to uphold. You will no longer wear that PSJA uniform next season, but your fingerprints will forever remain. You will help build something special. You help make history. Thank you. When I call out your name, please raise your hand. Junior Sebastian Galindo. Junior Devin Hernandez. Junior Matthew Azuara. Junior Jonathan Sosada. Senior Zeke
062Garza. Junior Caleb Cavazos. Senior James Casino. Senior Ethan Olivares. Junior John Reyna. Junior James Casino. Junior James Casino. Junior James Casino. Junior James Casino. Junior Jesse Garza. Senior Jose Santos. Senior Jonathan Flores. Sophomore Nathan Peña. Sophomore Gael Zambrano. Sophomore Albert Piña. Senior Joaquin Ayala. Senior Diego Alvarado. Sophomore Max Gamboa. Junior Andy Leal. Senior George Castillo. Freshman Brandon De La Garza. Junior Enrique Espinosa. Senior Andy Leal. Senior Eddie Barra. Senior CJ Gallardo. Head coach Marco Guajardo. Assistant coaches Luis Peraza. Jacob Rodriguez. Gabriel Murillo. Aaron Santamaria. Trainers Valde Cantu and Erica Garcia. Congratulations on a great season, and let's go back to the semifinals, baby. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Take a group for you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
063. . . . . . . Great season. And I'll be seeing you again next year. No pressure again. Mr. President, we move on to the next item, item D, HEB Excellence in Education Awards. And this will be presented by Dr. Marquez. Good evening, President Rodriguez, members of the board, and Superintendent Dr. Elias. What a great night of celebrations. It pleases me to close out the early start of our evening with this final celebration. Tonight we are here to celebrate a very special recognition for our district through the HEB Excellence in Education Awards. As you may recall, in February, we presented to the board that PSJA ISD as a district, along with two of our teachers, were named state finalists for this very prestigious and highly competitive award. An honor that places PSJA ISD and
064our teachers among the very best in Texas. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Cebu, give yourself another round of applause for you today. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning, everyone. Keep the room well, everyone. Good morning, Mr. President. And I'd like to invite you to join us here on the front by our school board for a special recognition of
065this prestigious honor. And for a picture. And you as well addition to the production. Ms. DeAnda Treviño. Congratulations. Ms. DeAnda Treviño. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations, Ms. DeAnda Treviño. Good to see you. Congratulations. Congratulations. The youngestizer. Thank you for coming and funk. Before we conclude, we'd also like to recognize the district team that represented PSJA ISD in Houston and supported this process. This time, I'd like to invite our leadership team and district committee members who joined us in Houston to please stand and come forward to be recognized by the board. If you served on the committee that represented us in Houston, if you are part of our district leadership team, please come to the front. That's you, Mr. Montaner. Also, our leadership team are executive officers. Directors. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, miss.
066Congratulations. Thank you, miss. Congratulations. Thank you, miss. Right now, yellow through the right. Thank you. Mr. Cabrillo. Mr. Cabrillo. You're part of the leadership team. Thank you. She's over there. Claudia Lemos. And Miss Lemons. Come on. We need to retake because we didn't. Claudia. Claudia Lemos ran in there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to just come in and congratulate Ms. Carolina De Anda and also Tammy Badae I hope I said it right I just want to thank you for always
067putting students first and you rightly deserve this recognition I'm extremely proud of you thank you for representing PSJA in such an excellent way so thanks again for all your hard work and the leadership team also thank you for everything yes Mr. President we move to public comments council before I call the speakers up I'd like to say that the PSJA Board of Trustees welcome members of the community to speak on agenda items that will be voted on during the meeting members who sign up before the 5pm deadline will be asked to speak in the order the form was received if individuals signed up but are not present when their name is called the submission will be voided the PSJA School Board permits each person to speak within an established 3 minute window please remember that
068only items on the agenda may be addressed by the individual speaking before the board individuals intending to speak on items not on the agenda will be directed to the superintendent or designee as part of the agenda we will be addressing the public's concerns to the board there will be a process part of the process specific factual information or recitation of existing policy may be used in response to inquiries presented but keep in mind the board will not deliberate or enter into dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting if a member of the public causes disruption by his or her words or actions during the meeting and continues to do so after at least one warning the presiding officer may request assistance from law enforcement officials for the individual to be
069removed from the meeting the legal the person person signed up for comment is Maria Quintanilla. Ms. Ligo, I have a question for you before they... Ligo? Thank you, Ms. Quintanilla. It'll be three minutes. Okay. Good evening, board members and superintendent. My name is Maria de Jesus Quintanilla. I asked my husband to be here as my bouncer. I'm sorry, as my support. I will provide some background. Ligo, I have a question before they start. Her time has already begun. Ms. Trustee Gutierrez? I'm going to go ahead and let her continue speaking, please. Okay. Okay. Just... I'll finish... When you finish with this one, I need to make a comment. Thank you, Trustee Gutierrez. I will provide some background to consider my comment. I have been serving PSJA for over 20 years, about 24, as an educator,
070mostly in the sciences, but currently I'm an inclusion teacher in math. So analyzing data has been a specialty for me. I was raised in FART and at school. I'm also proud parent... We are proud parents of four PSJA graduates from PSJA North and one soon entering high school. My family and us, we volunteer in school activities with the city of FART and our parish. I was part of many committees in the past, from 2002 to 2000, probably 11, 12, grading policy committee, disciplinary committee, and then I was part of a number of other committees in FART, including the subcommittee reaction committee, commission of commission finances, different characters from hältand, and member management committee, I wonder if they wereetes of the committee, their contributions to understand what med algorithms were, their contributions as to над, or
071do net unlehen purposes, etc. I their contributions, their contributions remaining, their contributions, and so on. From docs and equivalents and summaries, satisfaction before and after entrance examinationентиplines.t, committees for voor proposal of calendars, committeeed I got lost here. I was going to mention, like in sports, when you understand rules, you better understand the referee's calls, and it helps reduce disagreements and misunderstandings. So my reason for making this public comment is to recommend that there be more opportunities for stakeholders, students, parents, teachers, staff, consortial staff, any employee who want to offer their input and participate in decision-making processes, particularly in proposals of bids involving the district funding to be considered. I understand that participation should be structured and include appropriate representation rather than being open to unlimited involvement. However, I believe that there should be transparent process,
072such as application, sign-up opportunity, that allows interested stakeholders to be considered for participation on committees or advisory groups, but it should be directly communicated by the district and made broadly available to ensure transparency, consistency, and equal access for all interested stakeholders. Before the public comment, I would like to thank the board for their support and for their support. In addition to the proposals of the insurances, I attempted to reach out to several suggested people from central office through email, team's messaging. I believe I made some calls, but I didn't get any return calls or replies. And my hope is that by speaking tonight, my voice may encourage communication and open opportunities for others to become involved because I care deeply about PSJA, and I believe every proposal should reflect collaboration. I appreciate the opportunity for
073your time and allow me to speak. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Jermaine Ayala. Take your time. It'll be three minutes when you're ready. Okay. Okay, I'm ready. Good evening, superintendent and members of the school board. My name is Jermaine Ayala, and I'm speaking tonight as a concerned parent. My daughter, Kiana Wright, attended Southwest, where she was fortunate enough to be taught by the three dedicated law-enforcing teachers who were recently placed on administrative leave. I'm here to speak to the board about the suspension. Ms. Ayala, I'm sorry to interrupt you. So the board will entertain comments on items that are before them on the agenda, but I do want to note that they will not entertain comments regarding specific allegations or specific employees. The process for that, the proper process for
074that, would be through the grievance process and not public comment before the board. So we do invite you to follow that process, and if you want to continue to use your time to speak on the agenda item, you're welcome to do so. These three law enforcement educators consistently displayed extremely highly... Ms. Ayala, I'm sorry to interrupt you again, but I'm going to reiterate that if you're going to reference specific incidents and specific employees, we are going to have to ask you to conclude your speech. If you want to speak on the agenda item, please feel free to continue to do so. She has not said anything specific. I'm just cautioning. And it's regarding personnel. Oh, she has not said anything. Let me break him. Go ahead and continue. You made me mess up my thing.
075I'll pause your time while you gather your thoughts. Well, basically, I just want to say that the teachers at Southwest were very well influenced. I mean, they were... They guided my daughter, and I think they were unfairly punished. I think that teachers should have a way to make sure that they're not being punished. I think that there's a way to speak up about injustices with them not being punished, like, anonymously. I think the teachers, all of teachers, PSJA, should be given random drug tests, an alcohol test. Point of order. If we can go ahead and allow her to continue her comment. Counsel, there is... This is not an agenda item. The presiding officer, Mr. President, it's up to you. I think as long as the comment is generally related to hiring practices, we can allow
076her to continue. But, ma'am, if I can ask you just to keep your comment... Legal, at this point, I would like to be... President, I would like to be acknowledged. I've been trying to speak for a bit. And I'd like to remind counsel that they are there to advise. It's... I think it's... The job of the counsel is just to give us advice. I want to know why we're calling parents to ask them not to speak if the item is not on the agenda. Obviously, the last time I voiced this concern, I spoke with legal, and the item was on the agenda. Whether it was discussed by us or not, it was there. I think we need to take this opportunity to be more transparent about the issue. Thank you. And just allow the parents
077to voice their concerns and move on. And whatever decisions... I also want it on record that it was not her decision. Whatever it was... The superintendent was... is given authority to make those decisions. But I don't want misunderstandings... First of all, Ms. Gutierrez, you did not give me... You did not give me the permission, Ms. Gutierrez. I didn't need the permission from you. This is getting out of hand. You need to be more professional because this is still under investigation. No, she's not my boss. I have seven bosses. We did not make the decision. The decision was made by administration according to governance. We didn't make the decision, and the community out there is thinking that the school board is... No, that's where you're wrong, Ms. Gutierrez. We didn't... Because it's still under investigation, and
078you're interfering into an investigation. Let it be on the record. Ms. Gutierrez, please. Thank you, Mr. President. Okay, look. Did she really go over the time limit? She probably did, and she wasn't being interrupted so much. She has a few seconds left on her time, and she still has the floor. It's sad how students are being used in this district when they're still... It's still under an investigation. Students do matter. Students do matter, but it is sad. And you over there, don't be pointing fingers because that's a threat. Okay, now, if you want her to keep on... If you want me to allow her to keep on talking, you all need to just not talk over back there. No accusation, no pointing, no nothing. Is that understood? Or I'm going to have to ask you
079to escort you out. Is that okay? Do you understand that? Okay, we got a few minutes to talk. Okay. Go ahead. I think the priority in the district should be the safety of the students regardless of what activity they do. I know my daughter was an athlete. She traveled, and the stuff that you hear, I think it just makes sense to be able to give tests to the teachers and the faculty that are transporting our students back and forth. Because it should be about the students and not who, you know, can cover up what somebody else does. I don't think it's right, and it should always be about the students' well-being. I agree with you. It should be all about the students. All right, thank you. Thank you. Mr. President, just to make a quick
080comment that, you know, it's still under investigation. So, to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea. So, to be meddling with something that's under investigation, and then a lot of it is confidential, I keep hearing rumors and things being put out there, but yet the district cannot defend itself because it's confidential. The district can end up in a lawsuit very quick, and to me, I'm here, one, is to protect the students, two, it's also to protect the district. But at the end of the day, a lot of this is confidential under HR. Am I correct, counsel? Yes, that's correct. So, I cannot discuss a lot of the things that people don't know that happened behind the scenes. So, this is all, again, under confidential. Law enforcement was involved. So, at the end of
081the day, the district will do what's right for the students, but also we have to do what's right on behalf of the staff also. All right, thank you. Mr. President. Right, Ms. Fieras. And I'm going to speak directly to the students in a very positive manner, hopefully. Okay. Some of you sometime in the future might be sitting here. We govern through a set of rules, bylaws, and governing principles. We know as seven board members, or we should know, that one of our standing rules is, and we've been following it for years, if it's not, like counsel says, an agenda item, we are not, permitted to discuss it. I think that this is not suppression of speech or suppression of discussion. Unless it is an agenda item, you can't talk about it. But maybe a different
082forum where you can go ahead and lay out your concerns by scheduling something with the president and with our superintendent. They have an open door policy and they'll listen to you. At this point in time, the only thing we're doing is saying, well, we say you can't speak on it is because we are governed by policy. If it's not an agenda item, it's not suppression of your speech. Not, not, that's not it at all. So thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, if I may. Go ahead. I do want to applaud your efforts because advocacy is part of the agenda. And advocacy is part of our job as board members. And I understand the frustration that you may be feeling. I have to agree with Trustee Villegas. There is a process, but I do have a
083feeling that that process has failed you. And I do want to, you know, put it back on us, the board, because at the end of the day, we are ultimately responsible for the safety. It's one of our jobs, you know, student outcomes. It's how well you do academically. But we also have to make sure that we provide you that environment where you feel safe and you feel taken care of. So I do, I know that it is kind of causing, you know, a scene here at our board meeting because, you know, we don't, we have certain procedures that we have to follow. But regardless, I still applaud you. And I think that parents deserve to be heard. Students deserve to be heard. And I believe that the time that last, at the last boarding, at
084the board meeting, I have to apologize. I don't think that those parents and students were treated fairly because there was an item on the agenda. There was an item on the agenda. So I do want to let everybody know that we do have a president. He is our presiding officer. And Mr. Williams, Mr. President, I am calling on you to use that authority that you have to allow the parents or the students who need to speak to do that. And I think that will be a step in the right direction, maybe to start taking care of this situation because I think from what I have heard, and it's true what Dr. Diaz says, there's a lot of rumors out there. Well, the rumors will continue until the district takes the right steps and addresses the
085actual situation. And it seems to me that because there is a pending investigation, the parents or the students may not be getting the information they want to hear. But I think that we need to make this process a lot easier on them. So once again, students, thank you. Thank you. And for those, this is, it's very powerful. I will tell you. Some of us here may not agree with that, but it's very powerful, and I applaud you for that effort because it does take courage to do that. And don't let anybody on the board here threaten any of you for that matter because that is a reflection of us. Thank you, Mr. President. Next. Mr. President, may I speak? Yes, ma'am. Students, I am an advocate. I am a student. I've been in education all
086my life. There is a process, and I encourage you to follow that process, a protocol to be listened to. It's not that we're against you. It's not that we don't care. You do need to follow protocols in place and so that we can continue conversations on whatever it is that needs to be resolved. But I want you to know that all of us here, we care about you. We care about the families. We just went through over more than 100 students that were recognized. We are here for you, but we do need to respect that there is a process and a protocol to be followed, and so I encourage you to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Bales? We have another... Oh, yes, we still have two more public comments. I'd like to continue
087with Ms. Flora Martinez. Is there a Flora Martinez? Just before we start, I want to make sure that you know that this is under the Section XA3A of the Employment of Instructional Professionals. Okay? All right. Good evening, members of the board. Superintendent, my name is Flora Martinez. I am speaking tonight regarding the employment of the instructional professional personnel. I'm sorry. Our number one priority when hiring educators must be the safety and the academic excellence. Right now, our current hiring and administrative process, practices expose this district to severe liabilities and put our children at risk. First, we must address the clear conflict of interest regarding nepotism. The district frequently hires individuals related to board members and the superintendent. When family members of leadership are hired, objective accountability breaks down completely. This breakdown is most evident in
088our vetting and disciplinary actions. The district police department is also failing to conduct thorough background investigations on these applicants. Worse, when these politically connected individuals engage in misconduct or wrongdoing, administration covers it up. Who is holding the district accountable? They are. Right now. Right now, you guys are not. This administration is routinely failed to take disciplinary action against favored employees, hiding their actions, while exposing students to physical and emotional danger. Furthermore, it is deeply concerning that the district does not require drug testing for any instructional staff. Educators are trusted with the lives of minors every day. This mandatory drug screening policy for new hires is a standard safety measure that this district completely lacks. When we hire and manage instructional personnel, the process must be blind and strictly focused on safety. Personal relationships should never
089shield an employee from administrative consequences. I urge this board to immediately implement three policy changes. Number one, establish an anti-nepotism policy that bars immediate family of leadership from instructional hires. Number two, increase the number of employees who are not eligible for the drug screening. Number three, mandate independent third-party background checks and misconduct investigations that cannot be influenced by district policies. Number three, implement mandatory pre-employment drug testing policy for all personnel. Our students deserve safe classrooms and our community deserves transparent leadership. These kids, a lot of them were law enforcement, along with my son. Where's my son? They took my son to state. And my son brought home a state championship for the first time in his life. And my son brought home a state championship in law enforcement because of them. And now you're punishing
090them for being great teachers. And that is not fair for them. And it's not fair for them and the ones that are coming in behind them. Thank you. Is Ruby Delgado? Go ahead, Mayta. Good evening, President, trustees, superintendent, and members of the community. My name is Ruby Delgado and I am a proud former PSJA student and current PSJA ISD voter. I'm here tonight to speak on the agenda items concerning 12A and B, employment of instructional and non-teaching professional personnel. Students should feel safe, supported, and protected in our schools, parents and trusted districts with their children every day, and that trust must be earned and maintained through strong hiring practices, accountability, and a culture that always places students welfare first. Every employee, whether a teacher, administrator, counselor, coach, supports staff, or any other professional working with
091students has a direct impact on the well-being of the children they serve. Because of this responsibility, I urge the board to ensure that thorough investigations and screenings are conducted before personnel are hired and that meaningful evaluations and accountability measures continue throughout their careers with the district. A background check at time of hiring is important, but protecting students requires more than one time review. Ongoing monitoring, peer reporting procedures, regular training on ethics, and professional conduct and swift action when concerns arise are all necessary to maintain a culture of safety and trust. At the same time, we must protect the educators and staff members who do the right thing when student safety is at risk. Teachers and employees who report concerns and advocate for students should feel confident that they will be supported, not ignored, intimidated, or
092retaliated against. A strong district is one where employees can raise concerns in good faith without fear of professional consequences. When staff members know they will be protected for speaking up, students are better protected as well. Students deserve adults who are loyal to the mission of education, respectful of students and families they serve, and guided by strong moral and ethical principles. When personnel fail to uphold these standards, there must be accountability, investigation should be thorough, transparent, and focused on protecting students. As a former student, I want future generations to attend school where they can focus on learning without fear and that every reasonable measure has been taken to ensure their safety. The decisions made regarding personnel today will help shape the reality tomorrow. I respectfully ask the board to prioritize student safety in every employment decision
093to support policies that ensure our personnel are held to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity. I also want to thank the board for supporting the work of the district and to protect those employees who courageously advocate for students and report concerns in good faith. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the students of the district. Good job, Ruby. Thank you for all the public comments. Okay. Can we go move on to item five? Yes, Mr. President. We move on to the minutes of school board meeting and the workshop also. So we're seeking approval for regular school board meeting minutes of March 30, 2021. We're also seeking approval for April 1, 2026, April 1, 2026 workshop and workshop for April 2, 2026. Any motion to approve all three? Mr. President, if I may?
094Go ahead, Ms. President. Yes. So on the minutes we're approving some of the, I'm speaking on some of the comments that were made by Dr. Elias at the time. I spoke with him about the TIA. Staff are asking when it's going to be TIA. And so I would like to, you know, touch on that. And also I, several staff in the past month or so have reached out and I know there's no solution, Dr. Elias, but they explained to me how they were, some of them were expecting to move up from one level of the TIA to the next one. And with the expectation of the previous year's protocols or the requirements. And then some teachers were expecting to be, to have the first time that they were on TIA this year. For reference, in
095the past they used a composite of both the categories and this time they changed it. Both the student growth and the observation. So it was a composite, so you could have four and five and as long as you had a 4.5. This year, it's going to be 4.5 on each in order to move up. So I'd like if you can please to, some of the, two other board members that I spoke with today also have questions about when this is going to be paid and how. And also, you know, if the protocols, if Rebecca Garza can explain what happened to the students and how they were able to get through the process. Thank you. Nothing has changed. We have student growth measures and T tests and there are cut points. However, something that we review
096that is done annually is we review all the data and the data has to be validated and I explained the last, the last time and this is completely allowed by TEA so that we upload all the data using the two standards that have been approved by the district, our designation system which are the scores for T tests and the scores for student growth measures. But then when all the data is uploaded it's compared to statewide data. So we work with TXE to evaluate all that data and based on those standards and looking at what the state is when they're comparing that data TXE will make some recommendations to us that you say these are the ones that you can move forward. And the reason why we work with TXE is because they have statisticians and
097obviously it's been in our favor to be able to reach an 82% of our teachers getting designated. So it's not done you know where we pick a teacher. Overall the data is uploaded and then using the cut points of the standards that have been that are published you know for the district to see then looking at the statewide data that's how designations are made. There isn't there isn't where we pull a teacher out. Data is all the teachers data is uploaded. And then looking at the it's plotted and I believe I showed you the last time how this data is plotted and then based on the greater opportunity to pass the validity with the state that's how designations are made, are submitted. Nothing has changed and all of this is allowable by TEA because they
098want us to keep designating teachers. I have a comment. Well the question remains. Previous years you could have composite between both the student growth and the observation. So for example you could have a 4 and a 4.5 and a 5 as long as it added up to the 4.5 that is required. But for example on the highest. But this year they have to get 4.5 on both in order to get that 4.5 or higher 5 or 5 or whatever. So it's no longer composite. You're required to get the same on both in order to pass. So that's a question they have and that's what I also have a question on. I think we ran out of time. And I did have a comment to add but I see that we did we overlook a speaker
099a person for public comment? Yes. I'm sorry we don't have a sign up form to be sure that I wasn't told that I didn't sign up. And I have a photo of a check mark. I'm sorry we don't have it's up to the board president if they want to allow. So I just want to say that a lot of the parents that wanted to come and speak tonight were silenced. They were called and they were told that they needed to explain what it was that they had to say and they were silenced. And I don't think that is appropriate. I don't think that is right. There's people that have issues that they want to discuss with you all and you know I know it's nice to have award ceremonies and make it look like everything's
100you know fine and dandy but it isn't that way. And so parents want to let you know what their concerns are and for you to call them and some of them were even laughed at by somebody by the name of Gina who claimed that she was an attorney or I'm not sure. Okay. I mean that's a separate question. But for the next meeting go ahead and sign up. I did. I signed up twice sir. Because you were not signed up for this one. I did sign up. Well go ahead and sign up for the next meeting because I want to hear what you want to talk about. And I can sign up under the same thing as the agenda this time because it's going to change and then I might have difficulty. We're in a
101different item right now. We're not in public comment right now. I understand because I was skipped sir. With all due respect I was skipped. And I think it was intentional. Just like people were. Mr. President we can allow. I mean all I'm saying all I'm saying right now. Step up to the podium. Go ahead. Okay. So all I'm saying is I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to disregard what I had to say. But I'm saying that the way you are handling the situation for public comments is very unfair. It's unjust and I'm sorry that this situation makes you uncomfortable. But it has made us uncomfortable as well. I have worked for the district for 10 years and I've dedicated myself to these students. And they're here because I did right by them. And
102I feel like the district betrayed us. I just wish you all would do the right thing. Come election time these are the citizens that are going to remember. They're going to remember what you all are doing. And they're going to vote because guess what? Our kids are 18 years old and over now. And they're the ones that are going to show up at the voting polls. So I just want to let you know that you all need to do the right thing by these kids if you really, really care about them. Thank you. Okay. Going back to the board minutes that Mr. President. I was going to say was your question answered? No, but I'm going to move on. Somebody is texting me. He's on the committee. So he's going to meet with me and
103explain. Okay. So I have a different item. I just want to clarify for the the call for workshop April 1st and 2nd. I did not attend. It was a Lone Star governance. And the reason I didn't attend, I put it in writing to our attorney and superintendent because I think that not being able to attend in person to a to a meeting or a training or workshop that is supposed to help us focus on student achievement and get along to be able to reach that and not being able to attend in person defeats the purpose. So I just wanted to put that on record. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So go ahead. On the going back as I'm looking over the minutes. Which one? March 1? I'm still. I am. I'm still on the
104March 30th. Yes. So as I'm looking over the minutes and going back to quoting Dr. Elias, it says that, okay, 42 million is what the district is going to have to pay out and that money comes from TEA, the money we don't receive until September. Our teachers deserve it ahead of time in the summer. We're going to make sure that they get it. It doesn't mean the district is going to be in a deficit. All it means is that we have to take it out ahead of time and we'll get it in September, but we'll deserve it for all our staff. So my only question is, is that still accurate? Are teachers getting their TEA money? When are they getting it? That will be administrative and I'll let the teachers know and we'll put out
105a letter to the staff. Okay. So as of right now, this is not accurate? I mean, the minutes here are not accurate? I guess they are accurate as it is. That's what you said at that time. But it wasn't an action taken. I understand that, but they've still your words. I just wanted to confirm that because they heard that and going back to what Trustee Gutierrez was saying, because they heard that, we're getting calls and I hate what... It's still not decided yet, but yes, those are my words. And I always stand by the teachers to get their money ahead of time. Even though it's going to cost the district the first rating and Ms. Gonzalez, can you explain how it's going to cost the district the first rating? So that it can be on
106the record. The particular rating that Dr. Diaz is referring to is our cash balance. At the end of last year, we had 60.5 days. With the increase in designations and number of teachers that are receiving the TEA, we will not make the 60 days of cash again because we don't receive the actual money from TEA until September, which for us is a different school year. That didn't seem to be a problem last summer when I had the same question and the answer that I was given at that time was that if we lose the A rating, it was fine. So now it's because we don't have the funds. No, we don't have... The requirement is that we pay it out before August 31st. Okay. So there's no way of us recording cash that we can't
107receive until September. So Dr. Diaz is just referring to the fact that we are going to get a B rating because the cash has to be paid before August 31st. For us, our new school year starts September 1st. So we're appealing with TEA, asking them to reconsider that for the July 1st school districts, this rating doesn't affect them. And when you go from a $15 million to what we're going to now, we're doubling in the amount. So of course now it makes an impact on the general funds. And at the same time... I'm sorry to interrupt you. So just so I understand, this is what I'm trying to understand. So this money, this cash payout is coming from our fund balance. Correct. So then because our fund balance has been going down, that would leave
108us without the 60 points some days. Not that it's going down because it fluctuates. It's like a checkbook. So if we have $110 million, we pay out salaries monthly. You don't get the salaries reimbursed back until three weeks, four weeks later. But you're paying out $28 million. So if you have $110 million, now all of a sudden you went down to $90, maybe about $90, no less, about $82 million. So then if we pay out another $42 million, or let's say right now we just got the estimate $35 million actually that we're going to pay out. So you add one month of salary plus $35 million, now you just put your $110 million at what? We're going to end up with about $50 some, $60 million and you don't get all of it back. You
109get some of it in September, some of it three to four weeks later, which is the salary. I know that we had our first budget workshop and we haven't had one. It's going over a month now, Mr. President. And I believe that because of this type of things that now we teachers asking, and I have questions about the budget as well, and I voiced my concern at the budget workshop. We need to have... We're going to have a budget workshop at this when at the later time when we have all the information so that we can make a real good decision on that. We just don't want it to be to where the point that it's too late. Just like it's been in the past. Where we as a board, who at the end of
110the day we are accountable, we are responsible, that we don't have any input. I just don't want it to be something that is just presented to us by administration. I want to be able to take a look at that data. Thank you. Ms. Gonzalez, just to make a comment back, can you explain that way they can grasp the idea that we're not efficient the way they're putting it and how the monies are there, but we cannot go below the 75 days that the state requires, and that's what I'm fending for right now. And even though we can pay out and go down to 60 million instead of having our 110 million or whatever it is that we have right now in our fund balance, which is a healthy fund balance, but at the end of
111the day we're losing interest on money that the district could be gaining. And not just the interest, but also are we putting our district in a jeopardy by doing something like that? Even though we are going to do it, because to me it's the right thing to do for staff. I'm always going to fend for staff and teachers. And to me it's the right thing to do. And if we are a July 1st versus other districts who are June 1st, can you explain what that also means so that the board can understand? So a deficit is revenues minus expenditures. The TIA money does not affect the revenues minus expenditures. We're allowed to recognize the revenue to offset the expenditures, so the TIA will not cause a deficit. The rating that Dr. Elias is referring to
112is actual cash. It's a different rating and it's only affected by first. A school district who is July 1st, they have the same requirements that we have which is the TIA has to be paid by August 31st, but for them it falls in the same fiscal year. So we've been sending emails to TEA. We have some people helping us talk to TEA that this rule is unfair to September 1st districts like us. So revenues minus expenditures would cause a deficit but TIA doesn't affect those. We're allowed to recognize the revenue and offset the expenditures. The rating is just a financial rating and we're going to fall below the 60 days because of the increase in designation and the increases of the teachers that have got designated. So it doesn't affect revenues minus expenditures. We do
113lose interest though, Dr. Elias is correct. We can wait all the way up until August 31st, but we haven't historically waited until then. Go ahead, Mr. Villegas. Hearing all of this, we understand exactly where we're at. One of the safeguards for the district has always been that we're going to protect our staff in terms of employment. We don't want to get ourselves into a situation where some year we're going to have to tell somebody we don't have a job anymore because we've had to have a reduction in force. If we're not violating any TEA policy and they can recognize that we are putting the money back and it's okay with them, and I agree with Dr. Elias looking at making sure first that we have a commitment to our staff, but he's also saying, like
114PSJA has been all the time looking out for staff, I want to see it paid at the earliest possible date. I think it's a reward for our staff and if TEA allows us to do it, that's fine. We've recognized that we may lose some rating, but if we can live with that as a board, the consequence is not as bad as telling our staff, we believe in you, we're giving you our money early, or TEA's giving you your money early, and we should consider all of that. So let's wait on Dr. Elias and you, Becky, to give us some more information for where we're at. I think that we're going to be at the threshold that allows us to do it. Maybe at the latter part of June, and then, but we'll see. Unless Dr.
115Elias and you bring us some information that completely forbids us to do it, then we'll have to come back to our staff and tell them otherwise. But I'm certainly pushing for an early release of the money. Mr. President, just a quick comment, and you're correct, Mr. Villegas, on all that. I agree with you that the staff does deserve their money so that they can have a good summer break, and that's what we want for them to get to enjoy with their families. But also, we are the largest TIA district in the RGV right now, currently, with 35 million. The closest one that comes to us is 22 million, and that's Brownsville. So for us to be able to pay out such a huge amount that's going to contribute to the communities around us, but yet
116it gets misconstrued like we're in a deficit, we're this, we're that, we're this. I mean, to me, it's such a huge positive thing to have the amount, 82% of our staff members. It wasn't meant for that many. It was only meant to be incentivized for a certain amount of people, but now everybody expects it. The state did not give it as a salary raise. They gave the $5,000 as a raise. This is an incentive, of course, that teachers can get based on their performance. And we do have a system in place. It's vetted by TIA, vetted by TA, vetted by Texas Tech, and even TEXI that comes into play that we have as a consultant. So there's all these components. There's a committee. How many are currently in the committee, Dr. Garza? Presentation from every
117campus. Every campus. And they get to vote on how it's going to be implemented. Am I correct? Yes. So the staff that are in that committee are the ones that choose and they get to vote how it's going to get implemented. So it's not HR, it's not the district, somebody up in the district that makes those decisions. It's made by a committee based from representatives from each single campus, correct? Yes. So those are things that people need to understand that PSJA, one, is the highest, two, we can pay it out, but three, as the superintendent, I'm always going to be here to try to protect the district. And you always have. And that's my job. My job is to protect and see that this district continues to succeed. But I haven't run out of my
118two minutes, so I think I've got 30 seconds. Do I have 30 seconds? You have ceded your time, sir. I did? Yes. That's too bad. Mr. Romero, go ahead. Well, I agree with you, Dr. Elias. Thank you. Ms. Monsalves, any indication, I know you said you had people helping you. We've already sent an appeal. Any indication of when TEA might be able to give us an answer? Their answer has been consistently no, they're not going to change the rule. But we've reached out to a couple of other people to see if they can ask TEA to reconsider that the rule is only affecting September 1st school districts and not July 1st. Okay, thank you. But they've consistently said no. Go ahead. I have a question. I've been listening to all these conversations all evening, and
119I consistently keep hearing that staff are calling us, or the teachers are calling us. But I just heard Dr. Garza say that there's representation from each campus. So those teachers from those different campuses, why aren't they not opening up and asking their questions through the committee member? I'm not certain if there's lack of communication or they just don't know who are the members of those committees. We might have to open up that so that those questions do not come to board members and that they're answered locally at their respective campuses. So I just thought I'd add that. A lot of the questions are answered by our TEA department. There's a lot of questions that come directly to us, and we respond to them. I wanted to just add something else Dr. Leas mentioned earlier regarding
120our 82% of our staff. He mentioned a while back, he was sharing with us Houston. Houston has over 10,000 teachers. We have here under 20, a little over 2,000. They have, their award is $26 million. Our award is like $10 million more. They have over 10,000 teachers. They probably have maybe 18% of their staff. We're on the flip side of that. And every time that we, the data is uploaded, it's always intended to move teachers forward. Up or new designations. Never is it ever done to manipulate, extract, delete. That is far from what we want. The goal is to reward high performing teachers. And there's a lot of them in this district. So we look at the designation system that we have, and then we move forward all that data taking into consideration the fact
121that we are going to be compared to the state. So we welcome the questions to come to our stakeholders or directly to us. So that we can answer them rapidly and quickly for them. Thank you. And just so that I can I'm not up through. Just a little bit more. I just wanted to include that we do have that recognition of TEA members and those that are on TEA and stuff at the stadium. So we had plenty, a lot of teachers there from different levels. So I think they can even answer their own questions at the campus level. If they so reach out to that. So I just feel that if there's teachers out there that need clarification on that they can reach out to you, but more so their next door classroom. I mean
122that are there. Okay. Mr. President, I still have another question regarding the workshops of April 1st and April 2nd. I'm sorry, Trustee Kishina, your time. It's a different, there are three different items. I have two minutes on April 1st and I have two minutes on April 2nd if I really want to push it. Are we done with the previous item? Do we want to move on? We're already done with the March 30th. Okay. Now we're moving to April 1st. April 1st. So I'm looking at the minutes and it does state that there was a Lone Star, well actually it's misspelled, it says Lone Star, but it's Lone Star governance training. And I just want to clarify because I did not make that did I make it to that training? I made that one up last
123week that in fact we did not get the Lone Star governance training. We got some other type of training. I don't know if that can be is that a general statement on the Lone Star government training because we didn't actually get it because there was no quorum. All seven board members need to be there plus the superintendent. So I just want to clarify that in fact just to let the community know we did not get the team of eight training. We ended up getting something else. And again I think we still have two board members that two board members that still have not completed that training and going back to an email received that was sent that I received from Dr. Elias saying that anybody who does not attend these trainings and it says here
124good afternoon board members to adhere to the board policy and the local training orientation you're currently ineligible for district funded travel to out of district, out of town, out of state conferences. In order to comply you must complete the LSG training which entails two days. So I just want to make sure that those two board members and I know one of them is censured so she can't go anyway but that in fact we follow through with this and that those that are not in attendance better not be allowed to travel anywhere else because this is put on all of us and board members those that attended on April 1st and April 2nd I attended April 29th along with Ms. Robles April 30th so we're done but just want to clarify make that clarification that it
125wasn't I guess it's a piece of the Lone Star governance and there will be more workshops in the future but just want to make sure that we adhere to that. Okay. Okay we'll move on to April 2nd it's the same thing right? Same thing. Day 2. Go ahead Ms. Barron. I'd like to make a motion that we approve minutes for March 30th, April 1st and April 2nd, 2026. Second. I got a motion by Ms. Barron, I got a second by Ms. Quintanilla. All those for the motion, second by the right hand. Motion passes. Aye. Thank you Ms. Gutierrez. Yes Mr. President we move to curriculum and instruction letter A presentation of library books order process and the list and this will be presented by Ms. Marquez. Thank you Dr. Elias, Mr. President and members of
126the board. Tonight I'm presenting the proposed library materials for acquisition for the 26-27 school year. Before I begin I would like to publicly recognize and thank our district librarians and my library strategists for the extensive work that went into this process. These recommendations represent many hours of research, review, discussion and careful consideration. Our librarians take this responsibility very seriously and we are grateful for their dedication in providing high quality resources for our students. Are you advising? Okay, thank you. As you know Senate Bill 13 established specific requirements for the acquisition of new library materials. As outlined on this slide, districts are required to hold a public review process, post proposed acquisitions for a 30 day comment period and obtain school board approval before purchasing new materials. In addition all materials must comply with standards established
127in our state law including provisions against materials that are sexually explicit, vulgar, profane, indecent or harmful. The proposed acquisitions will be funded through local funds and are intended to support students across grade levels. These books help us expand access to high quality age appropriate materials that support literacy development, independent reading, research skills, curriculum needs and a lifelong love of learning. You can see here on the timeline it reflects an extensive process followed by our library materials review committee. Beginning in February librarians across our district reviewed recommendations, evaluated materials, we met as a committee, we posted lists for public review and we allowed a full 30 day public comment period before bringing these recommendations to the board tonight. I would like to also highlight the expertise of the committee members involved in this work. Our district
128librarians are fully certified educators who hold masters degrees and have classroom teaching experience. Collection, development and materials evaluation are core components of their professional preparation and ongoing practice. The librarians listed here carefully evaluated potential titles against state and national awards lists, professional review journals, district priorities, campus needs, student interests, curriculum alignment and age appropriateness. You can see that we have representatives from elementary, middle and high school levels and they collaborated to create the recommended list in accordance with school board policy and the school board policy and the school board policy and the school board's recommendations. I would also like to point out that all librarians had the opportunity to share which books they were recommending on the list. So not just the committee members but all librarians had a voice. I want to especially recognize
129our librarians for their thoughtful approach that they take when building these collections. They work to ensure a balance of fiction and nonfiction resources, Spanish language materials and books that meet the needs of students at all grade levels. The proposed lists were publicly available on the PSJA library services webpage from April 6th through May 5th and community members were invited to review and provide feedback. No public comments were received during that period. Ultimately our goal is to ensure that PSJA students have access to high quality, age appropriate library resources that support academic achievement, literacy growth and student engagement. At this time I would respectfully like to request the board's approval of the proposed library materials for acquisition for the 26-27 school year. Thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions you may
130have. Go ahead and continue. Thank you Mr. President. So you said there was a public there was a time flag for public feedback or review and it was on the library services webpage? Yes. How did this information initially get, was it just placed there or was there anything separate? I think it was a public feedback or review that was on the library services website. Okay. So was it sent home, any communication sent out to parents, to the community or was it, how was there a two-way type of communication? The requirements of the legislature are just that it needs to be posted on the website. So that's what we did. That was the process we did last time as well, posting it to the library website. Okay. Because two things. One of course there is no
131direct access to the library. So we don't know if it exists. Second, to some of the parents may or may not have access to internet. And I know that the district provides a service or provides internet. But I'm pretty sure it's not 100% of our students. The other thing is the books that are being approved, are we talking about hardcover books or are these books also available online? Like the books that are being approved, are they also available online? How do the students, how can they get a hold of these books? Yeah, those are good questions. So it's a variety. What we post is a list of titles that are being recommended and the different formats they come in. So it could be e-book, it could be library binding. Traditionally the majority of what we
132purchase is library binding, which is binding particularly made just for library to withstand like heavy usage. But the titles, it does have in there specified that it's for any format of that title. Okay. Thank you. Mr. President. Just a quick question. We can check all the boxes from Senate Bill 13, right? I looked at the information or the backup and it looked like we're doing what we're supposed to be doing according to Senate Bill 13. But just an observation that I had and something that I want to ask. Do we collect any data that shows us usage of these books? We do? Yes. Okay. Is there something that we could possibly see? Absolutely. Versus how many books are out there? And I'm sure we cycle through them, get rid of some and add, right? Yes,
133definitely. So we do have library standards in the state of Texas that require us to aim for a certain average age of the collection, a certain number of books per student, circulation, and all of those things. So our librarians run annual reports every year. We run a report also as a district and I would be happy to share that. Good. Thank you for the information. Mr. President. Go ahead. Along those lines, my question is, I know that we have online, we provide books online as well. Yes. And my question to you is, do we have any data as to what students are, what their preference is? Are they reading more online or are they reading more on the actual hardcover books? And then, are we spending less due to that? I don't know. What? I
134can definitely provide that data for you. I don't have the numbers in front of me. However, our students trend towards the physical books. They use our e-books a lot less, significantly less than our physical books. And when you talk to our students, in general, they'll tell you. It's because I love feeling the book. I love holding the book in my hands. Of course, we do have the e-book usage and I can get you those numbers, but it's not nearly as much as our physical books. That was my question. Thank you. Okay. Can I have a motion? I have a question. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yes. Thank you, President Rodriguez. So, Dr. Elias, the last time we talked about this that I'm about to ask is on the Internet that the City of Pharr provides the
135contract that we have for the City of Pharr. And you told me this was probably a year ago, maybe less. I just don't, I can't remember exactly. But if you can please bring us a report on where we're at. I remember that at the time you voiced concern about raising the price of what we had originally agreed. And also, I hear concerns that there's really not much control, not on our side, but on the City's side, about which families still have children. So, I want to make sure that we're providing services to the families that have children that attend PSJA and if their kids are graduating, that we finish that contract and it's not counted. I don't know how you're working with them to ensure that, but I know a couple that are no longer,
136they're no longer qualified and they're still getting internet. So, the purpose of us paying for this service is for the children. So, I would like to get a report and I'll get somebody else, some other board member to maybe on the next one have a report on this. But right now, what is the status of this, Dr. Elias? Currently, we're at about 1,400 households. So, it's based on household. So, they have to have a student with an ID that pertains to PSJA in order for us to pay. And the contract, actually the MOU of the agreement that we signed with the City of Pharr was actually for 6,400 households. But currently, there are about 1,400. Maybe a little bit higher currently, but it's not more than that. Okay. So, not a big impact. And then,
137on our side, who is keeping track of these families? Do we have anybody? Yes, we have an employee that's what they do. They keep track of the students. If there's duplicates, if there's more siblings in one house and we're only paying by household, not by student. So, we have somebody that checks on all that. Okay. So, then I retract. I don't need a report. I think this is enough. Thank you. Thank you. Is this for approval or a presentation? Board approval. Board approval for us to be able to purchase these books. Motion to approve. Second. Moved by Trustee Gutierrez and second by Ms. Quintanilla. All those for the motion signify by raising your right hand. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Next item. Thank you, Ms. Vazquez. Thank you. Yes. The next item,
138Mr. President, is Letter B, approved at 2026-2027 Dual Credit Programs Interlocal Agreement between PSJA ISD and South Texas College for students to earn college hours. And this will be presented by Dr. Uribe. Good evening, Dr. Ilias, Board President, and School Board members. I'm excited to bring our STC MOU to you. The STC MOU offers students the opportunities for higher ed and workforce. The purpose is to outline the roles and responsibilities between our district and also South Texas College. And it covers all of our dual credit and all our designated high schools and academies. The timeline is for August 2026 through August 2027. And the budget is our CCMR 167 and Local 199. One of the things that I wanted to point out the next slide is the impact that dual credit has for all of
139our students and how it really transformed their lives and also our communities. So I wanted to just point out the fall 2025 enrollment where we had district growth, right? We had 6% overall growth for fall 2025 when it came to dual credit. And it really reflects the collective efforts of our campus leadership, our counselors, our early college staff, and our college and career readiness department, as well as our partners, South Texas College. In the next slide, you're able to view our spring 2026 enrollment. We had about 12% growth. And so this is really just a testament of all the different opportunities that we bring to our students and also the success, recruitment, and retainment that includes advising and system supports to make sure that we don't just get the students in the college seat but
140that they're successful. Thank you. We have a couple questions regarding we have overall increase but it surprised me that we had about an 8% decrease for T-STEM in the 2026 spring. Traditionally, that's the campus where we do get a lot. Any indicators what the decrease was about? Well, they do have less enrollment this year, a little bit less. And so that was one of the factors. But I know that they have a plan in place to make sure that we get more students. Okay. And Southwest, the previous year, 2025, had about a 6% decrease. Both lost like 27 students. Yeah. I mean, if it's a decrease, enrollment is going to affect everything across the board. And one last thing. I know when I was here and I said I hate to use that phrase again,
141but we're working on getting our staff, PSJA staff, to be the dual credit instructor or the adjunct professor. Have we made any strides the past three, four years to increase the number of teachers that belong to us versus the number of teachers that belong to STC? Yes, we have. I think with the strong partnership that Dr. Elias has formed with STC, we've been able to make a lot of strides. We have more and more teachers getting approved, right? And we've also learned a lot in the process. So now we're very strategic to make sure, for example, if we're trying to apply for a teacher to teach, let's just say biology, that the teacher is actually teaching that during their high school prep. So really also meeting with the teachers and providing them support and job
142shadowing opportunities. So we have made strides. Same as well as the certificate programs? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to approve. Okay, I have a motion by Ms. Quintanilla. Second. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, 6-5 are raised in the right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you. Next item. Yes, the next item, Mr. President, item C, presentation of class of 2026, South Texas College and career readiness highlights. So again, this evening we just want to thank you for your support of our early college program. And we're really here to celebrate the success of the class of 2026. And all of this has been again, collective efforts. So I just wanted to point out a couple of highlights that really do make PSJA stand out. And so in the next slide, you're able
143to see this is the commencement ceremony that happened May 8th at 9am. And like I mentioned previously, the majority of the students at that ceremony belonged to PSJA ISD. And we take a lot of pride in that. Being able to afford these opportunities for kids to graduate from college before they even pass the high school stage. In the next slide, I also wanted us to celebrate our industry certification projections. I do want to stress that we currently still have students testing. And we're even going to have some students testing through the summer because of the different criteria that's in place. I want to thank our CTE teachers, our CTE advisors, our CTE director, and of course our coordinators and the entire department because this is really a collective approach to be able to celebrate all
144of these students. So far, we have a total of 1,210 industry certifications earned. And we know that more is to come because like I mentioned, kids are still testing in over 22 areas. There is so many great things happening in PSJA when it comes to CTE and their industry certifications. I'm only going to be pointing out a few. I'm going to highlight some of the programs that have 90% or higher pass rate. And it really gets us excited because some of these scores, our students are doing such an outstanding job that I would venture to say that they're probably even outscoring some of the technical schools that are out there. So for example, for culinary arts, food and safety, 100% of our students have passed. It's the previous slide, sir. You were in the right
145place. There you go. For law enforcement, 100% of the students have earned their 911 dispatcher. For welding, 100% of our students have earned structural steel and sheet metal welding. For plant science, 100% of our students have earned areas in that as well. I also wanted to point out animal science. 100% of our students have earned certifications in that. For HVAC core and HVAC level 1, 100% of our students have passed. Graphic design, 100% of our students have passed. We have a couple that are still in progress, but I still wanted to point them out. For our cosmetology school, 92% of our students have passed the written exam. 100% of our students are now dental assistants. And just a couple of other highlights, 80% have earned their EMT certification, their CompTIA and information technology, 88%. Phlebotomy
146technician, 81%. And we're so proud of all of our teachers and all of the industry certifications that we've offered. I just wanted to point out a few, and you have the rest there. In the next slide, we're real excited to show you the trends since 2022 with our college certificate attainment. So in 2022, we started with 100 students earning college certificates. Today, in 2026, we're at 260 students. That's a 160% increase of students earning college certificates, and we take a lot of pride because this is really something that we've been working on in the past two years to really ensure that we're pushing our students into industry certifications and also college certificates because we know how important the skilled worker is here in our country. In the next slide, you're able to see our associate
147degree achievement, and the growth and completion trends continue with a lot of success. In 2022, we only had 338 students earning associate degrees. Today, in 2026, we've climbed all the way to 512. That's a 52% increase, and again, I attribute this to your support, Dr. Elias's vision and making sure that we have opportunities for all students. The next slide is just a combination of students who graduate from college in PSJA, and this includes our associate and college certificate kids. In 2022, we had 438 students earning an associate and college certificate. Today, these are projections, and we're waiting to get the final verification award status, but we're projecting 772 students. That's a 76% increase of students graduating from college. That's a huge success, a big win for students and their families, because they have up to
148two years under their belt, and most of our students who earn an associate degree are entering college as juniors and finishing very, very quickly and continuing their studies. The next slide really does encompass what PSJA is about, right? We're always talking about a PSJA family, and with these opportunities, you see the pictures, you see the love, the celebration, the families are so happy. Many of these kids are first generation. We are really changing lives and transforming our communities with these different opportunities that are given to our students. And so we take a lot of pride in being able to make an impact in the lives of our students and their families, because we all know that when a student graduates, it's the whole family receiving that diploma. The next slide is really what I just
149went over in the previous presentation where I'm just showing the momentum, right? The momentum with our young students, and we're able to see that we continue to climb with dual credit opportunities for our kids. Next, this is extremely exciting. This is the class of 2026, and I want to say money is still coming for these kids. So this is just the information that we captured for this meeting, but for the class of 2026, the scholarship awards is $159,477,550. Our STC enrollment savings, because all of this dual credit, our families are able to save money. That's $9,910,520. And other awards and grants is $44,786,391. A total record of $9,910,520 for the class of 2026. So this is record breaking. $214,174,461. All this money is going to our students, and it's such a huge, huge celebration for
150them and their families. The next slide really shows you how much we've increased. So from class of 25 to 26, as far as the awards, for scholarships, that was an 8% increase. The STC dual enrollment savings, 8% increase. Other awards and grants, a 10% increase. Overall, a 7% increase. And I just want to highlight that more money is to come for our students as they continue to get awards. So we're really, really proud our students are first class when it comes to getting all of the opportunities that our districts offer and also getting ahead with their college and career readiness. I wanted to share a quick glimpse of our students at the commencement ceremony so you could see for yourself. I'm proud of myself, all the work I've put in since freshman year, and I'm
151honestly just grateful that I was able to have this opportunity. The STC experience was great. I met a lot of great teachers that pushed me to really strive for the best, and I think it's really going to prepare me for something bigger in the future. It feels rewarding. Four years in the making and with THJ allowing us to have this opportunity to not only graduate from high school, but with an associate's degree, it means a lot. What a beautiful celebration of our students, and we want to congratulate the class of 2026. This wouldn't be possible without your support with Dr. Elias's vision and of course all of our leaders at our campuses. So thank you administration, staff, parents, and families for trusting PSJA and allowing your students to take advantage of these opportunities. Thank you
152Ms. Elliott. Very good. That was just a presentation. We don't have to vote on it. Can I make a comment Mr. President? Go ahead. I want to congratulate all the principals, all the staff, everybody that has worked towards meeting this goal. Also because we do have as a board, we have a CCMR board outcome goal. We are supposed to be at 98% by the end of this school year. I don't know if obviously there's been enough growth, so maybe we have even surpassed it, but I know we're not at 100% yet. According to this, our target goal for 2026 is 98%. The reason is that I would like to have this information sent to us. The progress measure one is the percent of graduates earning an industry based certificate will increase from 61 to 91%.
153I'd like to know by the end of 2020 if we're reaching that goal. I think by the end of 2026 we should be at 79%. I just wanted to know if in fact we're reaching that goal. The progress measure number two, the percent of graduates earning at least three hours in ELA or math or nine or more hours in any subject will increase from 47 to 70 by June 28. 2026 we're at 62%. That's our goal. I'd like to know where we're at with that as well. Measure number three, the percent of special education graduates who are CCMR ready will increase from 90 to 100. Our goal for 2026 is 97%. I would like to ask Dr. Elias that if we can just get an update on where we stand. I'm thinking that we're probably
154doing pretty good. But because it is one of our board goals, I would like to know where we're at in that area. Thank you. I can get that preliminary update to Dr. Elias. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Ms. Oleg. Thank you. Moving on to the next item. Student Services. Mr. President, we move to Student Services. Letter A, presentation for approval of the optional flexible school day program, the OFSDP. And this will be presented by Dr. Nayola. Good evening, Mr. President, Dr. Elias, and members of the board. I'll be presenting tonight on the optional flexible school day program. And I should be getting the PowerPoint. You might be asking, you know, what is optional flexible school day program? So what it is, on the second slide, what it does is we place students that
155have shown a history of excessive absenteeism. These are for the other students that are not coming to school. So what do we do? We place them in after school activities, also on Saturday tutorials, to make up the lost instruction time in attendance during the regular school year. So that's what we do. So what we also do during the summer, we place the students in order to make up instruction because they lost attendance during the regular school year. So the summer allows them to recover it. And they can recover their credits and they also need to comply with the 90% attendance law. Next slide. Now you might be asking, you know, who is eligible? Actually, all students. That's why we put all kinder through 12th grade students that have 10 or more absences during the school
156year. So we run a report. We find out who is doing all of this that are not coming to school. Also students that failed two or more core classes. Also students that failed the STAR, the end of course, or even benchmarks. And we also run a report for at-risk criteria. These are students that need to recover their credits that they've been retained in previous years. We also look at, you know, are they homeless, DAP, emerging bilingual, and every other subject area. And we also run a report for demographics. Thank you. This is just what we run a report. We run it up to the fifth six weeks. We looked at the number of K-12 students that are not meeting the 90% attendance criteria. And we're actually looking at 18 days or more. The reason is
157because we look at the school calendar and that's what gives us that number. So what we looked at, we had 1,110 students in the elementary that did not meet this criteria. Also 840 in the middle school. And then at the high school we have 2,005 students. So these are for the ones that did not meet the attendance. And then we also look at how many are failing two or more grades from their core classes. Elementary, 876. Middle school, 423. And then the high school is 2,050. Go to the next slide, sir. This is just to give you an idea what we look at is the attendance, because that's part of this. According to the TAPER report, two years ago we had 95.60%. And if you look at last year's, we had 96%. So with this
158program and placing the kids or students in these programs, or this program, we've seen an increase. Our attendance is getting better. Not only that, for this year, of course up to the fifth, six weeks, we're looking at 96.8 or 96.48%. So it is improving. If you go to the next slide. Another item that we look at, how many are graduating? Because these students, of course, did not meet the attendance. They're failing a class. And this is also preliminary because we have summer school coming up this month, actually, in June. But these are the possible graduates for each high school. You know, you're looking at the high school. So we can get all these graduates. Let's go to the next slide. Now, how do they make up the time? So, in this case, you're wondering, during
159the school year, if they come in after school or even on Saturdays for four hours, the state allows us to replace the day that they were absent. And that's why it says they're completing four hours weekly of after school or Saturday tutorials during the regular school year they can make up a day. Now, if they earn four hours daily of summer school, because we're going to have summer school as well, it allows them to complete any of the days that they were absent throughout the entire year. So during the regular school year, they can only complete those days within the six weeks. However, at the end of the year, the summer, they can replace all of them even starting all the way going back to August, September, October. And this is what that is talking
160about. And so, with your support, of course, we're asking for all of you to please approve the OFSTP application that we submit actually every year. It has to be brought up with telling you how our attendance is doing, how we're doing with the students, do we have graduates graduating. And that'll be it, my presentation. And if you have any questions. I do have a question. I don't know if it's you. Yes, Mr. President, I'm sorry. May I be recognized to speak? Yes, go ahead. Mr. Nayala, good evening. I don't know if you're the person to ask this. Or if it's Ms. Linda Uribe, Dr. Uribe. I heard you mention the graduate rate, graduation rate. So something concerning that if you can please look into and an email to respond is fine. I just met some
161students, very young people. One of them, they are all all three of them graduated high school already, different high schools. So one of them has a license, a realtor license that we provided the education, he tested and he passed. What was concerning that he was candidly telling me that there were over 100 students that had signed up at the same time he did for the program. And then out of those 100, only 20 some stayed for the program. And then only one passed. Well they all 20 graduated. This was probably last year or two years ago. And only one passed the realtor exam, which is him. So I don't know if this is accurate. Does this comment pertain to the optional flexible school day program? Excuse me? I just want to clarify whether this comment
162pertains to the item that's before the board, the optional flexible school day program. Yes, it was. He mentioned the graduation rate. Correct. And now we're discussing a different program. I just want to caution the board to please stick to items that are on the agenda with your comments and questions. He just mentioned it. It was Dr. Noyola. I know that Ms. Linda Uribe talked about it and I missed it. But right now, Dr. Noyola mentioned it as well. He talked about that something that was on his presentation. And I think it was about the number of graduates. This is what the preliminary number of graduates that will be graduating this school year. And these are the numbers that we are saying that will be graduating. But I'm not touching on realtor, but I think Ms.
163Well, Dr. Linda Uribe would be able to answer that question. Correct. And legal, the reason I'm asking is because it's part of the graduation rate. That's why I asked at the beginning. I'm sure you're aware, Dr. Noyola, that it may be for Ms. Linda Uribe. And if she doesn't have the information, she can, Dr. Elias, an email will suffice. I know I cannot direct them to do. But if you can please look into it, I'd like to know, you know, our graduation rates for the programs that we're offering. You know, how many people sign up and, you know, and how we're doing in that arena. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question, Mr. President. Go ahead. How does this, or can this be used to, like for students that are signed up for like
164the ILEARN? Is there some kind of attendance? How is that handled? I guess that's my question. The students that are in ILEARN, we place them in there, and every day that they're logging in, that's counted as present. Because that's the way the guidelines have come down from TEA, and that's what we abide by. And yes, as they're logging in, every day, they're counted present. Of course, the teachers give them work through Google Classroom. That's how they're completing it. And sometimes it's one-on-one also, that they're having instruction being done. So then, they have to meet the same amount of hours, like we were talking about hours? Or is it different? It'll be different. The regular ADA, this is actually the flex. We call it flex because it's optional flex. We place them on this schedule because
165they're not students that come every single day. Or they're not present. And when we see that they're at least 10 days absent or more, we start talking to them, talking to the parents. There is a form that they need to sign saying, yes, I would like my son or my daughter in that program. So ILEARN is voluntary? The parents, we have them sign a form. That the parent needs to sign and that they can go into ILEARN. The principal signs and I sign. And that's how we know who's going in there. But everybody knows that they want to go into ILEARN and we get all the signatures, which are required by the state. But what I'm saying is that they're being held accountable for attendance as well. Oh yes, most definitely. And if for any
166reason they fail to, let's say they just get really sick and they fail to log in for five days, this option of coming through in the summer if possible, summer enrichment. They can come in during the summer to make up the days, exactly. Okay. Mr. President. I have a question, Dr. Noyoala. I know we call it Saturday tutorials and we're making up instruction on the days that they missed. So my question to you is do you collaborate with the principal or the teachers so that that instruction is aligned to what they're learning when they are attending these classes? Right. And what we do is we hire teachers during the year to stay after school and the teachers already know what they're missing or what they need. Because they do that on a daily basis, right?
167They know what they're lacking because they've been absent so that's what they review with them. They also assign them different apps so they can catch up. So all of that is being done strategically so that way they can do better on the start, the end of course, also what we said, all the testing that's going on. So it is intentional. It's not just to make up the days that they missed but also it's aligned to whatever they're missing in their classroom or in their learning. That was my question. Thank you. Just an observation, Dr. Noyoala, and I do have a question at the end. So you know about 7300 kids district-wide, which represents about 25% of our population, fall into one of these categories. So this would suggest to me that we might need some
168intervention because why try to take care of it at the end when we can try to correct it at the beginning of the school year. So to me it would be a lot simpler to go at it from the beginning of the school year as an intervention as opposed to a recovery effort at the end of the year. I kind of know the way that works, you know, the recovery effort. So my question to you is how many students who are eligible, because I know we open it to everybody, but how many students who are eligible, and I apologize I'm not real familiar with the elementary end of it, but how many of those that are eligible are participating? Because if they don't come to school during the school year, it's kind of hard to
169make them come during the summer. Nobody wanted to go to summer school. Right. And I don't have all the numbers, but we do have official days, and I say official because we had like five Saturdays during the spring to get them ready for the testing that was going to happen. And we were running in the elementary, since you mentioned, like 4,000 students more or less. 4,000 students that come in on Saturdays, about 1,000 middle school, and then another 1,000 or a little bit more over 1,000 at the high school. So we get overall on those five Saturdays, we had like about 6,000 students that come in. And this program allows, to answer your other question, it starts from the beginning of the year. In August, we started. Or September. And every three weeks or every
170six weeks, the principal, there's a committee at the campus that looks at all these students that are missing days. And so they are the ones that start talking to their parents to not to wait until the end of the school year, but as we're progressing. And that's the beauty of this program, that you can start from the beginning. We don't wait until the summer. It might look like that. Maybe my presentation wasn't too good. But it starts from the beginning and it goes throughout the whole year. That's why there was a, do you want to go back a couple of... Yeah, I just had... Yeah, right there. It says completing, and it says during the regular school year. So it starts from the regular school year, but we also have an opportunity, this program allows
171us, for even the summer that's coming up. There's some graduates in your community that need to finish, so they'll have the summer to finish. There's other students that need to be moved on to the next grade level. So a lot of this is happening during the summer. And during the summer we have about 6,000 or more students to come in as well. Okay, but those that are eligible. That are eligible to come in, exactly. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Noyola, Dr. Noyola, a lot of information is well taken, and I think you all are doing a great job. It's proven by the attendance measurements you've shown us. I agree with Mr. Rodas in that we need to go and make sure, and you're telling us that we are. It's a yearly process, and not at
172the end of the year process. How much of the community liaisons are we integrating with your campus committees to target these kids as a preventive measure? I know what the community liaisons do, and I know that we've provided more resources in terms of numbers, but is there any integration as far as battling this situation here? Yes, and as a matter of fact, they're the ones that help us to recruit them to come in because they're the ones that are that's what they're looking at. I'm going to say their daily job. To take attendance, start looking at all the students that have 10 or more absences, they go out and do the home visits, make the phone calls, they send out the warning letters, all these things, and then they're looking at where do we do
173we have them come in on Saturdays, or do we have them come in after school? So they're a big part of it, and also to put them in ILEARN, since you mentioned ILEARN, they are looking at what is best for the student. They're looking at this is an intervention, and let's utilize it so that the kids or the students can take advantage. Not only that, we want them to succeed. Okay, thank you for that information. Yes, sir. Yes. That was just a presentation. No. No. Oh, I'm sorry, presentation for approval. Can I have a motion for approval? Motion by Ms. Castillo, second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion, signify by raising your right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Ms. Gutierrez? Okay. Just to make a quick comment, Mr. President, on the OFSDP, it's something
174that not every district does. Not every district takes on it, because it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of involvement, a lot of data, and looking at a six weeks report, submitting through PIMS. So it's a lot of work, and that's why a lot of districts don't do it. I could tell you from here, from the region, there's probably maybe about seven to ten districts out of the forty-some districts. You're talking about the optional? The optional FLEX, which is the ARC, the Attendance Recovery Program. The reason we do it is because, one, it helps to increase with the instruction, so it transfers into the accountability. Two, we are one of the highest districts with attendance, because of this flexible program that we do. And it's not because just the funding that's coming
175in, because you're looking that if a student missed twenty days, he makes it up every six weeks, and he makes up ten days, well that's ten extra days of weighted ADA that the district is going to pick up, versus losing that funding. Once you add a thousand students doing that, you're picking up millions of dollars back into the district. Yeah, no, and I get the recovery aspect of it, but the point I was trying to make was why put ourselves in that position? It's just the nature of the beast. I guess we're going to deal with those, you know, elementary kids, they get sick and they're out a lot. I understand that, but I go back to the days where, where's your phone log? How many parents have you called this week? And are we
176doing those kinds of things? Yeah, especially through liaisons. Yes, and before we didn't used to have liaisons in the elementary level, so that's something that got implemented, you know, three years ago, so we have liaisons that now, yes, it's only one liaison for maybe about six campuses, seven campuses, but it's a lot of work, but at the same time that's what's helping our attendance, helps our finances, because more funding is coming in, so to be at a ninety-six with the, with the attendance recovery, you know, hardly any district is out there doing what we're doing. They're probably about a ninety-one, and you can check through their taper reports, and most of them are at about a ninety-one, ninety-two percent attendance, maybe ninety, but to be at a ninety-six, we're practically recovering most of our funding
177through that. Thank you. Good job, Dr. Roy. Thank you. We're approved to the IRS? Yes. Yeah, okay. I wanted to confirm. Okay, next item. Yes, Mr. President, we move to item B, discussion of the district-wide intruder detection audit findings report. Dr. Nayula. Thank you once again, sir. I just want to let you all know that PSJA ISD's top priority is keeping students and staff safe every single day. And since the beginning of the school year, the Texas Education Agency has been conducting intruder detections at several of our campuses, and these audits test whether a campus is accessible to an unauthorized individual. Now, these audits also help districts to identify how campuses can improve the safety for students and staff. You know, I'd like to say that we work very closely, the student services, with Chief
178Garcia, Dr. Borrego, Dr. Davalos, Mr. Rafael Gonzalez, Ms. Zulema Solis, and also their departments, to ensure that all of our faculty and staff are trained in making our campuses safe. And we appreciate the school boards and Dr. Leah's continued support in this initiative to make everybody safe. Now, whenever they come to visit us, these are the four things that they look at. First of all, phase one, what we call intruder access, is are all the gates around the campus locked? Are they all locked, except the one in the front? The front is the only one that should be open, that's why it says intruder access. Are the other gates available or open? That's what they're looking for. Phase two, exterior door audit. They go and pull on all the doors around, I'm going to say,
179the perimeter of the building, all exterior doors, they go and pull them to make sure that all of them are always locked. Number three, they look at, they check for our classroom doors, or our classroom doors when the teachers are teaching the TEKS, always locked. And I'll get back to that in a few minutes in one of the slides. And then also, what they come in and they check the weekly sweeps. There's a committee at each campus. All campuses have one. It's comprised of the administrator, it could be the head custodian, and also it can be one of the securities or guardian at the elementary. They get together and they start checking all of these things. Are all the gates locked? Are all exterior doors locked? Are classroom doors locked? They log it in, they
180keep it in there from the beginning of the school year to the end. Every week, every week they have to have it in a binder. When the TEA person comes in, they go to the front office and they ask, where's the binder? And they want to look through it to make sure that none of the weeks are missing and that we have it in place. And we're supposed to keep this weekly sweeps door logs for three years. And so they check for that as well. Could you go to the next slide? This is, again, intruder access. What they're looking at is, did they come in through a different gate into the building except the one in the front? And if it's green, this is like the report that the campuses get, if it's green, that
181means everything was locked, everything was secure. And that's what they want to know. Okay, and then the second question says, were you able to gain unsecured access to the building? This is for the intruder. And if it says green, if it's green, it says no, we're in good conditions. Phase two? Phase two, they're checking for all the exterior doors. Is everything locked? What they'll do as well, they'll go back and check inside the building, they push open the door, and it has to close by itself and lock in place. If it doesn't do that, then it would be red. But in this case, I'm just showing you that this is the way it should be. It should be a no. Everything is working properly. Go to the next slide. Classroom doors. Of course, it is
182our in, I'm going to say in-house policy that we're supposed to keep our locked, our classroom doors locked at all times. Even if they're conducting it, let's say in the library, it should be locked. Cafeteria, like at the high school, sometimes they hold class there, cafeteria doors need to be locked. We do not have a board policy per se, an official one. That's why we will never get, I'm going to say, tagged on this. We're not asking you to do this, not to vote for one, because it helps us for the safety of the students. But anyway, we still practice it. When Dr. Borrego and the supervisors go to the campus, they make sure all the doors are locked. If they're not locked, they let the principal know, they send us emails to let us
183know that it should be locked at all times. Let's go to the next slide. The door sweeps. Once again, I already explained, they're supposed to keep it in file for three years and they look at the logs. Next slide. If one of these things are not in order, these are the corrective action steps we're supposed to take. First of all, there's an in-person training on intruder access. We go to the campus, we let the campus know. Everybody has to be there. Teachers, custodians, cafeteria ladies, substitutes, crossing guards, everybody has to be there when we're doing the training at that campus. Usually it happens after school. There's an in-person training on exterior door audit. That's what we're going over with all the staff. Also, the classroom doors. What the principal needs to do is, we have
184a district safety and security committee presentation. The principal of that campus goes to the committee and presents to the committee to tell them this is what happened and so forth and so on. Then there is a school board presentation, what I'm doing right now. Let's go to the next slide. Basically, that's it. I wanted to say, I want to assure our parents, our community members that I know that sometimes they might say, I would like to know which schools and all of this. If we do that, then in the best interest of the students, of course, we cannot share this information. Not out here. Because it could lead to compromising important campus security information. We would like everyone to know that PSJA ISD is committed to providing safe and secure learning environment for our students
185and staff. If the school board would like to discuss specific details of the intruder detection audits, then we can, when you have your executive session, you can ask us some questions there. Okay? So, that's basically it. Yes? I would like to see that information in executive. Okay. Yes. All right. That was just a discussion. That was it. Thank you. Yes, Mr. President. We moved to school operations. Approved change order number two for recoding existing dome roof at PSJA Auditorium, the Oslo Dome. Renovations and additions project for $314,000 with $50. And it's a 60 days to complete project. And this will be presented by Rafael Gonzalez. Good evening, Dr. Elias, board president and board members. I'm here to request the approval of change order number two, which is to recode the dome roof. And as part
186of the change order, we are adding 60 days to the substantial completion. As we moved along through the project, as we saw the dome initially when we did our inspection, we felt that maybe some minor repairs and a wash to kind of get it where it needs to be. But what we did as we dug in and we did core samples, we noticed that there was a lot more blistering on the foam. It's got like a foam acrylic finish. And so what we don't want, right, as we move along, is to have any roof issues with, and I know that I've already come over here to ask for approval on all the stuff that's going to go inside that's very expensive. We want to make sure that we protect everything inside. And this material does
187add a 20 year warranty to our roof. So I think it's a good move for the district to re-coat right now that we're in the middle of the renovation. So at this point, if you have any questions or Mr. President. Mr. President. Yes, thank you. So, Mr. Gonzalez, good evening. I have a few questions. Yes, ma'am. So, I'm going to go to the second change order that we get. And it's for the covering. Dr. Elias, would this be not something that we have to go out for bids? I understand that it's, but it's for, at this point, for the two change orders that we've had, we have 539,000, a little bit more than half a million. And so with this changes, we've already gone above. So, with this change 221, I'd like to have an
188explanation. There's at the bottom something that says note. And it says that this does not include changes to the original, you know, for the highest price or something like that. And also, why are we adding a 10% for profit and overhead? So I don't know if you want to take all those three questions separately. So on the... Don't we have to go out for bids for this amount? So because it's part of the work that's being done by the SOPA, what we're doing is the current scope right now is to fix and paint. And so what we're doing is based on our observation, it's best to reseal so that that way we can prevent further blistering of the material. So it's part of their scope, but we're changing it though, and that's why we're asking
189for the change order. So we're kind of going above and beyond. And the 10%, so anytime you go outside the contingency, because the contingency already has their profit and their overhead factored in, anytime you go outside the contingency money, then it's not... So 10% is their profit and their... overhead and profit. Yes, ma'am. So to... So the 285, the 20 something that they added is their overhead and profit. That's how much they're making. On the 10%, that's what that is. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And don't we have to go out for bids, Mr. Gonzalez? For something like this? So again, so part of their... part of the contract is that they fix or repair and paint the roof. So we're going kind of above and beyond that. So we're kind of changing their scope. It's not
190something that we didn't plan to... It was discovered. Right. So it wasn't something that we planned not to touch. So for example, if our contract didn't include anything to do with the roof, and we're doing this separate, then yes, I agree we would go out for bids. But because it's already part of their contract, we're just doing it we're just going above and beyond what we initially said we were going to do. Okay. Those were my only two questions and concerns because it's already $40,000 above... higher than half a million. So it's a lot of money. It's brought the project much higher than expected. So... Right. And then they changed to January 24, 2027. Right. So... Yes, ma'am. So as part of the change order, we're adding 60 days. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that
191we're taking those days, right? Or that the company's taking those days, but they asked for those days to ensure that... In case. Right. Just in case. Right. And now we're working diligently to ensure that we move along with the project. I'm not sure if you guys have driven by there, but we're finally... I can't. Well, if you're driving by Veterans, you can see there that they've already moved along with their... with the erecting of all the steel. And so we're making headway there with that project. And I will say, Ms. Gutierrez, that we are... This is one of the things that we talked about at the beginning that being that the building is old, as we knock down walls, we find stuff that you know, that they did in the 60s that we don't practice
192now. And it's not... They're not... And it doesn't fall in code. So yeah, we have... You know, we're doing the best we can to manage. You know, we do have a history of always managing our contingency monies. You know that we brought back a lot of different returns with contingencies. And so we're on the contractor, but we will continue to do that. But I do believe that this is the best value for us to go out and ensure that we protect the roof. And again, like I said, that gives us an additional 20 years. And so I think that it's the best value for our taxpayer money. To just do it now. To just do it rather than waiting. And so on the original contract, there was no allowance for any contingency? Yes, ma'am. We
193have a $200,000 contingency. Mm-hmm. So... I'm sorry, that is Trustee Gutierrez's time on this item. The note says if this is not to be paid from the allowance, the 10%, then it's charged profit and overhead. So we're going to charge it, or are we getting it from that extra $200,000? Or is that 10% going to come out of those $200,000? Okay, no. Well, I'll go ahead and answer her. So the 10% is... So the money that's being asked for in this change order, we're not taking it for contingency because then we would go over contingency. So... Okay. The contingency, we're trying to save that. So for example, if it's in the contract that we're going to address a wall, and when we break the wall, there's a pipe there that we break, then we'll use
194contingency to fix that. But what we're doing here is we're adding... Okay. Or if it rains and... Right. If it rains and you delay more and all that. Right. So right now all we're doing is just, we're adding to the scope from the original contract. Where we see fit that, you know, that the dome needs it. Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Gonzalez. Absolutely. Okay. Mr. President. Go ahead. Go ahead, Mr. Go ahead, Ms. Dede. No, you go ahead. What do they teach us at? I'll go ahead. So kind of going back to what Trustee Gutierrez was kind of getting to. So if we're not using contingency funding or funds, then where is this money expected to come out of it? I don't know if it's a question for you or a question for finance. Where
195is this $314,000 coming from? That's a great question, Ms. Gutierrez. I mean, Ms. Grisky-Quintanilla. Thank you for addressing me, though. So we would have to make some adjustments on our budget to be able to transfer that over to the project of the El Sodom. So this is money that would have to... Are we expected to take it out of fund balance? Are we taking money away from another department to go ahead and take care of this? How are we transferring? Hopefully. It's a good amount of... It's a good chunk of change. It is. Eighty-five percent of our budget, though, is salaries. So we hope that maybe through some vacancies that are there, we can find some funds that are available to transfer over to this project. It wouldn't be cuts to the departments. Yeah. I
196don't know. I don't like that answer, but so then, in other words, it's not like we have the money sitting somewhere. I guess in a sense it is. But we're hoping that eventually we're going to do the math. And the reason I go to this is, again, budget, because we have been spending more than what we have approved. We've gone over budget. And one of the areas that I know that we were... received a deficiency rating, excuse me, a control deficiency, it's been on fund balance and transfers in and out. What was noted was the district did not record transfers between funds in a timely manner. Capital projects, health insurance, and print shop required a transfer to cover the amount of expenses exceeding revenues in the year. The suggestion is the district should monitor expenditures
197and fund balances regularly to avoid a deficit fund balance at year end. Also should ensure that transfers in are recorded in a timely manner. So I just want to make sure, and it's not to say that I totally agree that that building needs a roof. But I just want to make sure, again, that we don't have to take too much out of fund balance because it seems that for the past two years at least we've been having to take out of fund balance. So that's just the point I wanted to make. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm going to go ahead. I did see him. So I don't want to run out of my two minutes. So, you know, this is a significant change order. The second one, I mean,
198part of it's my fault because I wasn't on the board then, so I wasn't up to speed on everything that happened before. But I do have some big concerns because we're talking about the roof of a structure which is probably one of the first things you look at. And, you know, why we were not able to evaluate it at the design and planning stage, it seems to me that that would be the first thing you would do to protect the inside, the integrity of the structure. The other concern is that I have is that the way I read it, it said that PSJA is requesting the re-coating, the change order. You keep talking about it gives us an additional 20 years. An additional 20 years from how many years? Well, so when I talk about
199the re-roofing, it's not so we're not talking structure though. This is just strictly coating. I got it. But if your roof leaks, the structure doesn't matter. It's leaking on carpet, it's leaking on chairs, it's leaking on everything. Right. So when we initially looked at the project, we looked at the structure and number two is the coating. So initially the coating, it appeared to when we went up there to when the architect went up there to look at it, it appeared that we only needed at the time repair and some paint or some cleaning of the material. Well, as we went up there and for, because we did start seeing some little stains here and there that we hadn't seen before, we opted to go and do core samples. We want to see how much of
200that coating is still good. Now, the last I remember, I think it was re-coated maybe about 12, I don't know, I think it was anywhere between 12 to 15 years. Don't quote me on that, but that's about the time that it was re-coated. And so because it was left without air condition, it was just left vacant, there was some more blistering that developed that initially the 10-year warranty on that material didn't, it's not going to help us. So we either fix it and paint and leave it as is or again, based on the recommendation of the architect and the contractor is that let's reseal it, right, re-coat it to ensure that we get longevity off of it. And right now is the time to do that. Now, like I said at the beginning, all we,
201in our assessment, it was just to fix and paint and clean. But again, based on some of the blistering that happened, additional blistering that we found, we just thought this is the best way to go. Okay. Mr. Chairman, because I'd like to have some informal discussion on this matter, I'm going to move to table this item. It'll move to the next item. It'll move us down 30 days. Second. Second. It'll move us down 30 days and I think if we're asking for 60 and we may not use 60, another 30 days wouldn't hurt and we can come back next meeting and take a vote on this. But I'd like to have some informal discussion where we have time to figure things out. Because we're talking about half a million dollars in two change orders. Right.
202Well, and I will say that on the first change order, I don't know if I can go over all the changes in the first one. So on our first change order that we had, we did have, again, as we knocked down walls and we started looking at things that are not up to code, we had to make some decisions. And one of them was mezzanine. That was one of the ones that kind of had a big dollar amount. And so in that mezzanine, with the existing floor that it already had, if we were to knock down the walls on the bottom and make the restrooms that are necessary for ADA, then those walls were the ones that were holding up that flooring structure. Which, that's not typical. Typically you have your footings and your pillars.
203And so because it was a wall that was holding it up, we either, okay, we knocked down the walls to put the restrooms, we have to redo the mezzanine. So that was one of the ones that kind of had a big dollar amount that we didn't see coming. Because again, the architect didn't think that that's what they did back then. But because the walls are built with concrete, right, they're not your typical sheetrock. That's how they held up the structure. So again, we had to redo that. We had to redesign the ramp in the back of the dome. And we had a, one of the retaining walls that were failing, so we had to redo that. And then the other one was a floating, another floating floor, so to speak, that's on the closest to
204the stage. We had to create structure on the bottom to hold the weight of the new ramp that we were going to build on the top. So it's those little things that have been coming up. This is at the first change order that I would say is something that we kind of assessed and felt that this is the right thing to do for the dome. Some of the other ones are really just unforeseen things that came up that unless you put a hammer to the wall, you would see. Mr. Gonzalez. Yes. Question. If... Well, I seconded the motion. Yeah, hold, okay. I'll be with you in a minute. Okay, so if they, you just go with the painting and cleaning, what would be the longevity of the roof for that? We would... I mean, I
205wouldn't be able to tell you that. I don't think any of the contractors or the architect would certify work that was already done, right? Of course, they're just going to go and repair some of the blistering and then, you know, washing it off. But I don't... If they just do that, it's a possibility that the roof might be leaking maybe five years down the... It's possible, yes. Okay. Okay, so I had a motion for... No, no, but I have... Okay, go ahead. I just want to make sure that we're not going to be catching ourselves doing patchwork. I know we're caught in a dilemma, but we spent or appropriated enough money on this project that I know $314,000 is not a small amount, but in order to fulfill the obligation to having the auditorium that
206we wanted, patching it through painting and that sort of stuff is not going to work. I'm more concerned because of the blistering and you're finding out that it may have some mold areas and some other stuff. So I would think that you know, you're talking about... They're also asking for an extension past now it's January of 2027. Dr. Elias, I would ask you because there are areas that we can tap into to recover the $314,000 and lend it to the project without affecting staffing. But since it is for 2027, can we get some of this money through the new budget? We could because it could be a project for the new budget, but you know, at this point I would also like for Mr. Gonzalez to share with you all the cost savings and I
207want to thank our maintenance department because they have been very instrumental. They ran the sewage for the dome and they've been doing all that. You're talking at a cost savings of almost $150,000 that our maintenance has done themselves. They've done several projects there where it's been a cost savings, but you know, to me, if we have to put this on hold, we can put it on hold and maybe come back two, three years down the road. I don't know. Let me finish what I was going to say. I agree with Mr. Robles in that I think going forward for projects in the future, we do a complete assessment of what it's going to cost us, taking into account what repairs are going to need to be done. Maybe we miss this one, I don't know,
208but my stance on it is that we can't have a project of the magnitude and the size that we're bringing that auditorium back to its life and not take care of the roof in the right manner. I don't think that painting is going to be a solution for it. I just want to say that, again, when we sit down to look at this, and Dr. Leal is right, we're doing everything we can to try to save the district money because that's just what we do. There is some work that we're doing on our own so that we can save ourselves some money. The good thing is that contractors is working with us and a lot of contractors don't like for you to put your hands in the cookie jar, so to speak. But we have
209been able to work with them and again, save money where we can. I just think that for the investment that we're making in the dome, I think that and I agree, it is a big, I mean, I'm not trying to downplay the amount, but I do think that, again, it is the best value for what we're protecting, which is the investment in the building. Yeah, but, you know, an oversight of that magnitude, you know, we should take in four samples if we had any questions. I know you noticed something different. I'm not saying that I'm against the motion. I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Robles, but all trustees except for Trustee Castillo and Trustee Barron have spoken on this item, and if there are no further comments, there is a motion and a second. I have
210a comment, sir. You said we could wait three years. So what are the risks involved if we don't approve it? I mean, what's the major concern at this point in time? Can you wait three years? Can you wait two years? We don't know. I mean, to me, this was a project that was supposed to have been done ten years ago. But, of course, a dome sitting there for a long period of time without use, buildings deteriorate. And the roof was done, I want to say, about eight years ago. So, it's deteriorated, but I mean, we can move on, and the investment that we're doing in this dome, it's a huge investment. And, of course, the community deserves it. Our students deserve it with the fine arts. We're about to venture with San Antonio University to
211open associate's degrees in the fine arts area. So, I'm foreseeing that this is going to be something that, you know, the whole Valley's going to look at as a fine arts area for events that our students are going to have there. The community's going to get to enjoy it, mariachi, all these other fine arts. But if we are investing $5.7 million, $5. whatever million in there, and let's say that roof will only last us six months or three months, and we invested all this equipment, technological equipment, and it gets wet, well, we're at a loss as a district because we have to rebuy it because we didn't invest in resealing this roof. But, I mean, we can wait, and let's see what happens and see where our investment goes then. And I understand, sir. I
212mean, we want it. And I see what you're saying. But I am concerned when you're saying we hope that the money's not there. So, when we say we hope, you know, that's a... Well, the money can be there. Because it depends how we budget ourselves. So the money can be there. There's always an allocation for construction. And that is always going to be there. That allocation. So we can always use it out of our fund balance. We can always use it from somewhere else. So there's always an allocation where we can pull from. But, to me, it's, you know, it's a huge investment. And yes, we want to reseal it. But at the end of the day, if you all as board members decide that no, let's put it out, you know, we can wait.
213But by then, let's see what happens with that roof. And I think the concern is you know, if we can budget, and it's there and you can find it, you know, then I guess can you assure us of that before we are able to approve? And it's like everything else. We want to, you know, we keep talking budget and budget, and we want to look at, you know, can we even afford to give races? Can we afford to do this? You know, you look at $314,000 to help a roof get resealed, and then we're looking at, you know, we want to give races to our teachers, which is well deserved, but that costs the district about $7, $7.5 million to give a race. You know, that's something that from there on you allocate. This is
214something that you don't allocate every year. It's only a one-time expense versus that other one. So what is it that we want for the district? So those are things that the board has to decide. You know, do we want to finish off this project and do it correctly, or leave it on hold with the roof and finish off the rest? Or do we want to allocate and, you know, based on what we're doing, because enrollment is going down to 28.5. We're losing about 500 students. Every district statewide we're losing close to 80,000 in enrollment because of the birth rates that are going down. So do we want to allocate monies where we don't have to, or do we want to allocate monies where we see it as a need? So I don't know if you
215all see this as a want, or do you see it as a need, and that's what the board needs to decide. Well, I was going to make a comment that if we do not take action on that and we just do the minimum. I also foresee that a little bit further down the line we're going to have a problem with that roof, and a few years from now it's going to cost even more. Yeah, correct. So, I mean, you're going to have to be paying double to fix the roof, because we need to get it fixed, because it's leaking or whatever, and you have everything brand new inside, and we're going to damage all that. So that's why I just feel that it needs to be taken care of right. And again, this is just
216my recommendation, and we've put in a lot of time and effort in looking at options. Obviously, always looking at the district's interest, always. But at this time, when we sat down with the contractor and the architect, we just felt that if we were going to do it, this is the time to do it. We are redoing all the gutters around the dome. We're installing a new portion of it, like I said, that steel that's being erected. You've seen the pictures. You know, so we want all this to be seamless, right? As we're working with these things now, we're not coating the roof tomorrow, right? That's something that's going to be done once we start roofing the addition, right? So that it can all be seamless when we start working on all the drainage that's around
217the dome. But my recommendation is that we make that investment now. I will say that when we got a proposal, when we first started this and we went out for bid six months later after the design, I mean, the proposal came in at 3.2 by the time we went out to contract because of steel, we were at 5.2. I mean, and I'm sure you guys know this, right? I don't need to tell you that, but again, at the end of the day, you know, this is something that possibly could wait. I just, I can't give you an answer as to, you know, we put in, you know, you guys approved $400,000 for lighting and curtains and you know, so you know, I would hate for us to have, and again, it could be somewhat of
218an oversight, but this is again, if we do what we scope, we had the original scope, I'm sure we'll be fine and we'll get some color out of that, you know, some white. But again, after core drilling and seeing how much that, because what it has now, it's kind of like a, it's like a foam, a compacted foam. It's almost like the insulation. And so once you paint that, but some of that dirt and mildew has kind of penetrated that foam that it's, you know, we won't get that shiny white that we, you know, initially think that we're going to have. And aside from the aesthetics, it's some of the stains that we, once we're working on that fire system, because we had to finish the fire system that's real close to the ceiling, you
219know, you start looking at little stains that initially you don't see, right? And so we just think that right now, like I said, for the value, I think it's recommended that we do it now. If you want to have a discussion or have, maybe have the contractor come and say, kind of give their assessment and what they think, we can do that and do it in the next board meeting. And that's all I'm asking for. Mr. President is to table and possibly put it on the agenda for next, but I think there needs to be some informal discussion to find out what's going on. Yeah, Mr. President, I feel that I think I would feel better voting on this at the next board meeting, maybe after we have an actual budget workshop. Right. Okay. Go
220ahead, Ms. Barano. Just a thought that as I hear all of this, we have to think literally, I mean seriously, that it's like building a house, you know? You come across and you're building a house and all of a sudden, I mean, you run out of money. You expected to spend this much. And then all of a sudden, you're trying to figure out if now you go half price on the stuff. And you don't end up getting quality stuff at the end. You don't get a quality home that you really initially wanted. So I keep thinking back that in the near future, our students, a lot of students are going to be going in and out of that building, you know? And for us to just be thinking about is it going to collapse? Is
221something going to happen? Is it? I mean, we don't want to have to be worried about that. And I agree with Ms. Quintanilla that maybe in the near, we need to talk a little bit more of this to get all our questions answered. And then come out here and know exactly what we're going to get for those 114. So, I mean, I just thought that maybe it is, because it's a big thing. When I saw it, it was a big figure, you know? A big figure that we normally don't go after just immediately without enough thought. And so... And I will say, Ms. Barron, that we don't want to bring big ticket items. Like I said, we've done, you know, the guys, we've done a great job of managing that and making sure that we
222do the best we can with what we have. So, yeah, this is not our first choice and this is not something that we're sitting there saying, you know, what do we want next, you know? This is something that a discussion that's had and I mean, this was presented to me back in, about a month ago. And we've been back and forth about with it for a month. You know, what's going to be the best first product? What's going to be the best approach? And then at the end of the day, the question's always, is it the best value for taxpayer money? And so... I want to commend you and your department for doing a lot of the work in-house. So, you have been saving a lot of money for the district, so I want to
223commend you for that. I want to thank you for that. Thank you. Mr. President, I have a question for legal. There's currently a... All the board members have used up their time on this item and there is a motion in the second room floor. Right. Well, let me ask you, Mr. President. Can somebody ask is this structural? Because Ms. Ramona said that this could collapse. So I don't want to mislead the public. Maybe that's something that Mr. Gonzalez can answer. Thank you. It's not structural. No. This has nothing to do with structure. The structure of the dome, we went out of our way and did an extra study and assessment on the structure because we wanted to make sure that that first and foremost is safe. The dome is structurally super solid. But unfortunately, all
224the bells and whistles are not there, right? The bells and whistles have deteriorated and caused a lot of additional work that normally, you know, in a normal build you don't have unless it's a one and say, well, I want to design it different. I don't want the TV here. I want it over here. This one here is, this is again, going with the basic of what we wanted and what we wanted to get out of it. And like I said, we did do some extensive assessment on it and what was the best value and so this is where we're at. Thank you, sir. Okay, so I had a motion for, um, to table. Table. And I had a second by Ms. Gutierrez. All those for the motion. Second by raising the right hand. One, two,
225three, four. All those against? Mr. All those against? Ms. Castillo? You voted for or against? I voted for. Four. Okay, so motion passes to table. Can we move on to the next item? Yes, so Mr. President, we moved to finance and these are the catalog bids, solicitations for vendors. And number one is approve awarding bids for maintenance department equipment, installation, repair and services and supplies. Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Ms. Gutierrez, second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion. Six in favor, raising right hand. Motion passes. Next item. Yes, item two is approve awarding bids for T-shirts, screen printing, embroidery equipment, services and supplies. In motion. Mr. President, I know that we approve this motion. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Groble, second by Ms. Gutierrez. All those for the motion, six in
226favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Next item. Yes, number three, approve awarding bids for instructional material and office equipment, services and supplies. Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Mr. Villegas, second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion, six in favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Item four, Mr. President, is approve awarding bids for trophies, plaques and medals and equipment. Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Gutierrez, second. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion. Six in favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Aye. Next item. Yes, Mr. President, item B. Approve the renewal of the existing interlocal cooperative agreement between PSJA ISD and McAllen ISD for the regional day school program for the deaf for the 2026-2027 school year. Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Quintanilla, second by
227Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, six in favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Next item. Yes, Mr. President, item C, approve awarding a proposal for employee health insurance, TPA, PBM and stop loss insurance for the school year. Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Castillo, second by Ms. Castillo. Aye. Second by Ms. Castillo, second by Ms. Castillo. Aye. Motion by Ms. Castillo, second by Ms. Castillo. Aye. Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Ms. Gutierrez, second by Ms. Quintanilla. All those for the motion. Six in favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Okay, item D. Approve life insurance for the 26 through 2029 school years to the highest rank vendor, Dearborn Life Insurance Company. Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Quintanilla, second by Ms. Gutierrez. All those for the motion, six in
228favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Next item. Item E, approve awarding a proposal for employee term life insurance for the 26 through 2029 school year to the highest rank vendor, Dearborn Life Insurance Company. Motion to approve. Second by Ms. Gutierrez. All those for the motion, six in favor, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. All right. Executive action. Okay, Government Code 551.071 through 551.084, if during the course of the meeting, discussion of any items on the agenda should be held in a closed meeting, the board will conduct a closed meeting in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Court Chapter 551, Subchapters D and E, or Texas Government Court Section 418.2, and 193F. Before any closed meeting is convened, the Presiding Officer will publicly identify the section or sections of the Act authorizing
229the closed meeting. In all final votes, actions and decisions will be taken in open meeting. CPSA IIT Board Policy, BEC, local. We are going to executive session at 10.39. We are going to executive session at 10.39. There's us. The first to arrive, the calm before the energy, the heartbeat of the district. Every student's journey begins with a hero, a real one, the kind who shows up every day, no cape, just purpose. This year we rise stronger, we lead louder, and we show the world what PSJA heroes, because not all heroes wear capes. Hello PSJA team, our district works hard every day to protect our students and ensure the safety of everyone on campus. Your role as teachers and staff is just as important. We rely on you to monitor your surroundings, stay observant, and do
230anything unusual or concerning immediately. Your partnership is essential in maintaining a safe environment. In the event of an emergency, know that we have protocols in place to address it. The most important things you can do are remain calm, follow our safety procedures, and stay informed through official PSJA updates. Panicking and spreading rumors or unverified information only creates confusion and can hinder emergency response efforts. Sharing false information, whether intentionally or unintentionally, can also have serious consequences. In this process, avoid sharing unverified information and keep open lines of communication with your colleagues and leadership. Together we can ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff. We're back from executive session at 11.33 pm. Yes, Mr. President, we move to the item to approve recommendation for a one-year contract for professional personnel non-teaching for the 26-27
231school year. So moved. Motion by Mr. Diaz. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, second by the person raising the right hand. Motion passes. Next item is approved recommendation for a two-year contract for professional personnel for the 26-27 school year. Motion to approve. Second by Ms. Gutierrez. All those for the motion, second by the person raising the right hand. Motion passes. Next item is approved recommendation for a two-year contract for professional personnel for the 26-27 school year. So moved. Motion to approve. Second by Ms. Gutierrez. All those for the motion, second by the person raising the right hand. Motion passes. Yes, Mr. President, we move to letter F. And council, can you... Yes, Mr. Board President, members of the board, if you are reviewing the record, it's the advice of council that the
232board uphold the level two decision. So moved. Second. Moved by Mr. Villegas, second by Mr. Robles. All those for the motion, six-five, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Next item. Next item is letter G, discussion and possible action regarding the level three grievance of the school year. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, second by the person raising the right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you. Next item. Yes, Mr. President, item H, consideration and possible action regarding the level three grievance of the school year. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, six-five, raising right hand. Aye. Motion passes. Aye. Okay, one abstention. One abstention. Thank you, Ms. Gutierrez. Next item. Next item in litigation, letter G, discussion and possible action regarding the non-renewal of the chapter 21 term contract of RP.
233All those for the motion, Mr. Castillo. Second by Mr. Rove. Aye. Okay, next item in litigation. Letter A, council. Yes, Mr. Board President, members of the Board, Dr. Elias, with respect to item A, consideration and possible action regarding possible resolution of cause number C-2823-19J10, R-San Juan Alamo ISD versus D. Wilson Construction Company, et al., Robles, all those for the motion. Second, Piper, raise your right hand. Motion passes. I'm sorry, go ahead, Ms. McKillis. I was going to say motion to adjourn. I was about to ask you. Thank you, Ms. McKillis. I have a motion to adjourn. Can I have a second? Motion by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, per adjournment. So this, I'm sorry, I voted for adjournment. We already voted on the litigation. Yeah, but that was on the one that we
234discussed regarding the $1.2 million? Yes. Okay. Yeah, that's the last one. All right. So all those for the motion to adjournment. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Good night, everyone. Good night. Thanks, everybody.