School Board Meeting: February 23, 2026

001Good evening, everyone. I want to welcome everybody. I'm going to call this meeting to order at 6.02 p.m. A regular school board meeting of the Board of Trustees of Farson-Alois Independent School District will be held on Monday, February 23, 2026, beginning at 6.03 p.m. P.S.A. Early College High School Lecture Hall, 805 West Ridge Road, 701 Texas. I'm going to ask Mrs. Barron for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Ms. Castillo for the prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight with a humble heart, grateful for the privilege to serve our community, and for the privilege to serve our community. We thank you for your grace, your

002mercy, and your love for us. And the students entrusted to our care. Grant us of your wisdom so that every decision we make, it may reflect fairness, justice, and the love that we have for our staff and our students and our community. Give us clarity of mind, patience, and the courage to act with integrity. Help us remain focused on our mission to provide a quality education for all, remembering that it is our duty to serve our community. And we thank you for your grace, your mercy, and your love for us. And we thank you for your grace, your mercy, and your love for us. We pray that each student's future is shaped by the choices we make. Dear God, bless us with open minds so that even when we disagree, may we be able to

003listen with respect. May we be able to work in unity and seek solutions together. May your mercy guide us, your spirit lead us, and your light shine upon as we continue with the devilish life. deliberations that we are to be engaged on tonight so that every action honors the trust our community has placed in us. We ask this in your holy name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and start with recognition. Dr. Elias. Yes, Mr. President, we move to recognitions letter A, PSJ Southwest Early College High School Mock Trial Team, and this will be presented by Mr. Murray. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, members of the board, thank you for allowing the Advanced Academics Department to recognize an outstanding student achievement this evening. The PSJ Southwest Early College High School Mock

004Trial Team recently computed at the regional mock trial contest held at the Hidalgo County Courthouse. Mock Trial is a competitive academic program where students simulate a real courtroom trial. Teams take on the roles of attorneys, witnesses, and a courtroom artist and present a fictional case before volunteer judges who are often practicing attorneys as the judges. This contest emphasizes legal reasoning, critical thinking, public speaking, teamwork, professionalism, and visual communication. The courtroom artist is the newest addition to this contest. This evening, we are proud to recognize a sophomore, Mariana Artesano. She is a graduate of the School of Law and Law, and she is a graduate of the School of Law and Law. The courtroom artist from PSJ Southwest Early College High School, who placed first at the regional mock trial contest, and is advancing to the

005state mock trial contest in Dallas, where she will compete amongst other courtroom artists from across Texas next month. This achievement marks the first time in PSJ history that a student has advanced to the state mock trial contest, and we are excited to see Mariana continue to excel this year and in the future. She's here this evening with her mock trial sponsor, Mr. Jose Alaniz, and she's also holding a copy, proudly hand it, she's holding a copy of her state advancing courtroom sketch, which showcases her incredible talent and the work that earned her first place at regionals. Please join me in congratulating Mariana and her sponsor, Mr. Alaniz, for this outstanding achievement. One, two, three. Thank you. On behalf of the school board, I want to congratulate Mariana. Congratulations, we're very proud of you. Continue the

006hard work. Thank you again for everything you do. This sponsor also, thank you very much. We're very grateful for everything you do. Thanks again, congratulations again. Mr. President, we move to item B, PSJA Thomas Jefferson T-STEM Early College High School. Robotics Team University, and these are the state qualifiers, and it'll be presented by Mr. Murray again. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, members of the board, thank you again for allowing us to present another outstanding student achievement this evening. The PSJA Thomas Jefferson T-STEM Early College High School recently had two robotics teams compete at the UL State Robotics Contest. Both teams delivered exceptional performances and represented PSJA ISD with excellence and pride at the state level. The Mecca Titans Robotics Team 39541A earned a prestigious spot at the UIL 4A State Championship in the RECF VEX Division,

007ranking 15th out of 24 teams. These students showcased exceptional engineering design, teamwork, and dedication to qualify, among Texas' top 4A programs in this highly competitive robotics event. The Mecca Titans Team 395141X proudly earned a spot in the UIL 4A State Semifinals in the RECF VEX Division Robotics Competition, demonstrating outstanding skill, innovation, and perseverance. These students battled through an intense competition to secure a top place among Texas' elite robotics teams. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, members of the board, and these are the state qualifiers for the PSJA ISD Robotics Elite 4A programs in the state championship. In addition, this team earned first place in the Robot Skills and was named Robot Skills Champion, outperforming every school in attendance. Members of the Mecca Titan Robotics Team 395141A and students, when I call your name, if you can please

008raise your hand. This is the 39514A team. We have Rogelio Martinez. Camelia Guerrero. Yandel Torres. Juan Almaraz. And Aiden Cantu. Members of the Mecca Titans Robotics Team 395141X include Amanda Martinez, Kiyoshi Ito, Alia Cantu, Angel Torres, and Adrian Hernandez. Now both teams are holding the robots that did compete with us and of course are with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And the winning team, our dayfunners are holding their plaque that they did as a state semifinalist. The sponsors for the Titan Robotics Team are Mr. Victor Salinas and Mr. Adan Salinas. Congratulations to students and sponsors on this remarkable achievement and for representing TSTEM and PSJẩISD at the state level. We are incredibly proud of you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. It's an awesome project. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thanks, Mr.

009Robinson. Thank you, sir, for all that you've done. Well, congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. That's an awesome project that you all did. Good job, ladies. And congratulations. Thank you. Over there. Over there. Over there. Hi there. Congratulations to you. Congratulations. Put the tight . Yes. Put the tight. Yeah. This one. This one. Thank you. On behalf of the board, I want to congratulate again the Mecca Titan Robotics Team. Awesome job. Really proud of you all. I know it's not an easy task to work on these robots, and I just want to commend you for all the hard work that you did. Thanks again. Congratulations. Mr. President, we move to Item C, PSJA Early College High School, PSJA Memorial, Early College High School, and PSJA North Early College High School Swim

010and Dive Program, and this will be presented by Athletic Director Orlando Garcia. Mr. President, Dr. Elias, and members of the board, we'd like to thank you for giving us this opportunity to recognize our student athletes. Today, we're going to recognize district champions, and eventually we're going to recognize some state qualifiers. If I could have the PSJA Bears boys and girls district championship swim team please join me. Boys and girls. There we go. Group. You going to slide through? The swim team program is really good. We are proud to recognize our swimmers and divers who have represented our district with dedication, discipline, and heart. Our swimmers and divers have spent countless early mornings and long practices pushing themselves to improve, and their commitment has led to remarkable achievements this season. We're going to start off with

011the Lady Bears. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations to the PSJA High Lady Bears on their ninth consecutive district championship. The Lady Bears were the 3168 district champions and continue to show their dominance in the swimming and diving. The Lady Bears also had a great showing at the regional meet in Laredo as they qualified many athletes to the UIL state meet. When I call your name out, ladies, this is our team. Please raise your hand. Senior Madeline Wolney. Senior Paloma Soto. Senior Bridget Gardner. Senior Leah Munoz. Junior Xenia Valdez. Junior Ana Elizondo. Sophomore Pamela Sosa. Freshman Zoe Mendez. Freshman Miranda Ellis. Freshman Amary Rodriguez. Congratulations ladies. Next, moving on to the PSJA Bear Boys. Congratulations to the PSJA High Bears winning the 31-6A District Championship. This is their fifth straight District Championship for the

012Bears. When I call out their name, please raise your hand. Senior Giancarlo Cárdenas. Giancarlo was the 31-6A male swimmer of the district and district champion in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle. Isaac Trevino, sophomore district champion in the 100 meter butterfly. And 100 backstroke state qualifier. Junior Isaac Tamez. Isaac was the district champion in the 200 individual medley and 500 free. Chris Hernandez, senior. Chris was the district champion in a 200 freestyle. Junior Sebastian Guerra. District champion in the 100 meter breaststroke. Part of our recognition is to recognize our district champions. So the rest of the team, that, that, that, that, that, that, that helped contribute to our district championship. Junior Rudy Bocanegra. Junior Kevin Tovar. Junior Santiago Vargas. Sophomore Ronnie Cantu. Sophomore Alvin Rodriguez. Sophomore Frank Silva. Franco Silva. Freshman Jacob Smiley. Freshman Donovan

013Tejerina. Freshman Mauricio Ibarra. Freshman Gabriel Nava. Freshman David Nunez. Freshman Jose, Josue Valdez. Freshman Juan Vela. And the head coach for the boys and girls team is coach, head coach Pedro Cerrada. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. It's awesome. Thank you, thank you. Awesome. It's so awesome. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. We can do the rest. Put some back here. We'd love to see the trophy and the flanks when we appear. We don't mind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Want to continue? Yes. Are you going to? Yeah. He's going to make a comment. First of all, congratulations. Girls, nine times. That's awesome. Boys, five times. That's great. Awesome, awesome. Congratulations on all that, on your wins. I need a favor. Can I have all the parents of the kids that we have here, the robotic kids

014and the swim team, can I have their parents to stand up, please? Can you stand up for me, please? Those of you here, thank you. I want to thank you for your support. I know it takes a lot of work getting them to their practices in the morning and also in the afternoon, getting them ready to go. So I want to thank you for your support and your dedication to your kids. And because of that, look what they're doing. So I want to thank you, the parents, directly. So thanks again. Moving on, I'd like to recognize our PSA and ISD swim and divers that are state qualifiers. If they could please come join me up here, please, from the three high schools. We would like to recognize our individual district champions, individuals who rose above

015tough competition to claim the top spot and to our state qualifiers, whose hard work has earned them the opportunity to compete with the best in Texas. Their accomplishments reflect not only personal excellence, but also the strength of our program, our coaches, and our community. I'll tell you what, these kids, like we said earlier, they spent a lot of hours in the pool. The investment our school district has made in our facilities is paying off dividends to our community, to our district, and to our schools, and to our district. And I greatly appreciate it. And this is everything we've recognized today is telling you what our swim programs are, some of the best in the state of Texas and some of the best in South Texas. Starting off. Okay. Okay. When I call your name, please

016raise your hand. We're going to start off with PSJA Memorial State Qualifier, Joaquin Garza. Joaquin was the district champion in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. And at the Region 8 5A Championship, he placed second in the 50-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard freestyle, which qualified him to the state meet. He's the first PSJA Memorial swimmer to qualify to the state meet. PSJA. PSJA North, Daniela Prado, 10th grade, district champion in the one-meter diving. And she finished third at the regional meet, qualifying her to the state meet. Junior, Joshua Garcia. Joshua was the district champion in the 100-yard breaststroke and regional champion in the 100-yard breaststroke. He is the first swimmer in PSJA North history to represent the school at the state meet. PSJA High boys swim. Isaac Trevino, 10th grader. Isaac was the

017district champion in the 100-meter butterfly, 100-meter backstroke, and state qualifier in the 100-meter backstroke. Lady Bear Swim. Paloma Sosa, senior. District champion in the 200 IM and 100-meter breaststroke. Region 8 6A champion in the 100-meter breaststroke, state qualifier, 200-meter relay, 200 free, 100 breaststroke. And 200 free relay. Southmore, Pamela Sosa. District champion, 200 IM, 100-meter backstroke. Regional champion, 200 free relay. State qualifier, 200 medley relay and 200 free relay. Junior, Ana Elizondo. District champion, 500 freestyle. And regional champion, 200 free relay. State qualifier, 200 medley relay and 200 free relay. Madeline Woning, senior. Madeline was the 31 6A and Region 8 6A Female Swimmer of the Year. If I'm correct, I think she did it three years in a row? Region Swimmer of the Year? She was the district and regional champion in the 50

018and 100 freestyle. To the state qualifier and the 200 medley relay, 50 free, 100 free, 200 free relay. At the state meet, swimming the 50 free, Madeline became the first PSJA female and one of the top two female medalists to medal at the UIL swim meet by finishing in third place, earning her a bronze medal at the state meet. Good morning, everybody. Joining us today are the head coach for the Bears, Pedro Severda. I've got Hector Guzman. Leslie Martinez. And I'm going to introduce you to the team. Leslie Martinez, Dyer. Daniela Santos. Daniela Santos. I went blank. And our quarters director, John Landero, is here joining us also. Let's go shake it. Daniela Santos, I went blank. Congratulations. Good job. Thank you for inspiring our students here. Thank you. Can we get to different Congratulations.

019Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Sir, thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . . . . . . . . Thank you. Congratulations to all of you again. the state qualifiers. We are proud of all of you. I want to recognize the coaches also. Coaches, thank you very much for everything you do, all your hard work. We are very grateful, and you all continue bringing and championships. So thanks again for all your work. I also want to commend the parents again. I commend you all for everything you do for your child. And again, I want to thank you for everything you do. I appreciate you. Mr. President, still in recognitions, we move to letter D, the 2025 Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas, the Crest Award.

020And these are the counselors that have received this award. And this will be presented by Ms. Gina Saenz, Director for Counseling. Good evening, Mr. President, Dr. Elias, and the members of the board. Tonight, I am honored to recognize 21 elementary campuses and their counselors for earning the prestigious Crest Award, Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas, presented by the Texas School Counselor Association. This award recognizes exemplary comprehensive science and educational services, and is a part of the school counseling programs across the state. Campuses receiving the Crest Award have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing the Texas model to improve student outcomes in academic achievement, career readiness, and personal and social development. This recognition is truly a testament to the dedication, collaboration, and student-centered focus of our counselors and our campus leaders. Our Crest recipients were

021also recognized this year for their commitment to the school, and for their commitment to the state of Texas. At this year's annual TCA conference held February the 1st through the 3rd at Fort Worth Convention Center, these are the campuses that earned this distinguished honor. So as I call your campus name, if you can please come, counselors and principal, to the front. First campus is Aida Escobar Elementary, the counselors Stephanie, the principals Catarina Espinosa. To the front. Allen William Arnold Elementary. Counselors are Esmeralda Hernandez and Elda Valdez, and the principal is Ernesto Duenas. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and announce the rest of the elementaries if you want to hold the applause first. Amanda Garza-Pena Elementary. The counselor is Gloria Arizmendi, and the principal Judith Canales. If you could please come forward. The next elementary

022is Cantu Elementary, Eva Cardenas and Nelly Gonzalez, and the principal is Navidad Hernandez. The next elementary is Guerra Elementary, and the counselor is Crystal Leal and Martha Aguilar, and principal Rowell Fass. The next elementary is Berta Palacios Elementary, the counselor is Sandra Gonzalez, and the principal is Berta. The next elementary is Velma Verreal. The next campus is Carmen Anaya Elementary, counselor Crystal Garcia, and principal Anna Smith. Chavez Elementary, counselor Crystal Cervantes, and principal Erica Garcia Reyes. The next campus is Daniel Ramirez Elementary, the counselor is Claudia De La Cruz, and principal is Yadira Galvan. The next elementary is Dr. William Long Elementary, counselor is Christina Rodriguez, and Marcia Ramos, and the principal is Heather Pena. The next campus is Edith Carmon Elementary, the counselor is Betsabeth Garcia and Rowell Luna, and their campus principal is

023Vianney Villegas. And Geraldine Palmer Elementary, the counselor is Cynthia Alaniz and Martha Gomez, and their principal Nadia Aguirre. Garcia Elementary, and principal Maria Garcia. The next elementary is the Cesar Cruz Elementary, the counselor is Jessica Aguirre. Garcia Elementary, the counselor is Debbie Lopez, and the principal is Dr. Jennifer Burden. The next campus is Henry Ford Elementary, the counselor is Denise Flores and Christina Mercado, and the principal is Ms. Jessica Villanueva. The next campus is McKeever Elementary, counselor Diana Lucio and Ana Ortiz, and principal is Mrs. Jessica Zuniga. The next campus is the Cesar Cruz Elementary, the counselor is Ms. Raquel Gerberne Guerrero, and the principal is Jorge Castilleja. Longoria Elementary, counselor Melissa Casanova, and principal is Elisa Aguilera. The next campus is Santos Levas Elementary, the counselor is Amanda Esqueda, and the principal is Rodrigo

024Hernandez. Sergeant Leonel Treviño Elementary, the counselor is Marisa Rubio, and the principal is Rose Hernandez. And the next elementary is Vida Clover Elementary, the counselor is Maria Lara, and the principal is Dr. Christine Garza. And our last elementary is Farias Elementary, the counselor is Ruby Olavarrieta, and the principal is Leticia Rodriguez. And I just want to say congratulations to our outstanding counselors, the principals, and the students they serve for this remarkable achievement. And thank you, Dr. Elias, for your continued support, and for our counseling department and its mission to serve every student with excellence. What I want to say is that this was the very first year that 21 schools applied and 100% received the award. And this year we are the first school that has received the award. So thank you, Dr. Elisa, and

025to all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Olavarrieta. Thank you, Dr. Blanco. Thank you, Dr. Olavarrieta. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Blanco. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know where you're going. We're going to go in the front. We'll go in the back, then. We'll go in the back, then. We can squeeze a little water. And you have to be like this. Everybody, open your eyes. Everybody open your eyes. Everybody open up. I'm back. I'm back. One, two, three. One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you. I have a ring. But they look good. Don't worry about it. It's a donation. It's a donation. Yes. Thank you. Counselors, can you all please wait for a comment from the board president, please? Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Counselors, before you leave,

026I just want to commend you, congratulate you, thank you. This is a great honor, and it just makes me feel real proud on behalf of the board. We feel very proud that we have 21 out of the 12, 26 campuses that got recognized, so that's a big, big deal. So I want to thank you for all your hard work. Ms. Sines, thank you for your leadership. I'm very grateful for your guidance and getting all the schools recognized like that, which they deserve all this recognition. Thanks for all the hard work that you all do for our students. And again, thanks again on behalf of the board. Dr. Elias has a comment. Yes, just a real quick comment. I want to thank the counselors. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the principals for giving them

027the time, because I know that this award is something that not very many campuses or districts out there get. They applied, but it's because of everything that they do, from the social-emotional part that they do with the students, to advising the students, to helping with creating their schedules. I mean, they wear so many hats, and to me, the counselor is the heartbeat of the school. So again, I want to thank the counselors. Thank the principals also, because I know that they are like your right hand also for you all, sometimes right or left hand, but they do help a lot at the campuses. So they're like another administrator. So I truly appreciate the work, and I truly appreciate that you all were selected, and I really think that this coming year, our middle schools will

028be applying for it, our high schools will be applying for it. It's a high expectation, but again, congratulations and well deserved, because I know that you work so hard at the campuses to make sure that our students are getting that peace of mind, and that the parents have peace of mind due to the counselors and the work that they do there. So again, thank you and congratulations. Parents, if you want to, you can, your excuse with your child. Thank you again. We didn't have that, but now we're doing it. We want it to be fun. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay. Mr. President, we move to public comments. Counsel? There are two persons signed up for public comment. Before we begin, I'd like to say that the PSJA Board of Trustees welcomes members

029of the community to speak on agenda items that will be voted on during the meeting. Members who sign up before the 5 p.m. 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 three-minute window. Please remember, only 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 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. If a

030member 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 removed from the meeting. With that said, we'll begin with Ms. Christina Young. Good evening, trustees and Dr. Elias. I am here to speak on agenda item 10A regarding possible action on SB 11. My name is Christina Young. I am president. I am the PSJAFT, a teacher in this district, a parent, a taxpayer, and a proud member of this community. AFT understands that districts must take action on this item before March 1st as directed by the state. Several neighboring districts, Weslago, Ed Couch, Elsa, Edinburgh, and Brownsville have already opted out. McAllen, like us, will be

031voting this week. Because this is a deeply sensitive issue with strong opinions on both sides, our organization sent a poll to all staff on Thursday to ensure we accurately represent the state's opinion on this item. We will be voting on this item on Thursday. politiciancaptainsgames.com The impersonators represented their voices. We received 111 responses. 7% were neutral, 36 support adopting a resolution, 58 oppose it, and favor opting out like our neighboring districts. While opinions differ, what stood out most were concerns and questions surrounding implementation. Those opposed raised concerns including the importance of maintaining separation of church and state, lack of specific language of any proposed resolutions, short in instructional time when we already are required to teach bell to bell. Student supervision. If this is not on students' official schedule, how do we ensure accountability and

032prevent hallway loitering, the logistical strain when we already have a moment of silence? Those who identified as neutral focused primarily on logistics. Would this extend an already packed school day? Would it be an elective? How do we suddenly have additional time when elementary teachers have been repeatedly told there is no time for a second planning period? With limited coverage for state arts and required paperwork, where would staffing and supervision come from? Would this occur daily or as needed? Would separate spaces now be provided to respect different faiths? Those in support expressed that it could provide students with purpose, offer stress release, and reflect the belief that the world is in much need of prayer right now. Many members also asked how this would affect activities where prayer already occurs, such as FCA, prayers at games,

033school board meetings, campus meetings, and even events held during the school day. If a consent waiver becomes part of a policy, would it apply to those settings as well? Could we? We would like to see unintentionally disrupt practices that are already happening without issue. Students and staff already have a constitutional right to pray. The concern is whether formalizing this into policy creates unnecessary logistical challenges and potential legal implications. So our request is simple. If you choose to opt out and be aligned with the majority of staff who responded and with several neighboring districts. If you choose not to opt out, we respectfully ask that you do so with clear guidelines, defined procedures, and a structured implementation plan, not a case-by-case approach. We recently saw how quickly action can be taken on complex issues such as

034in regards to SB 12. Let us ensure that this decision is thoughtful, proactive, and carefully planned. We must respect all employees and students and must provide creating confusions, additional grievances when we are already backed up with cases, or unintended consequences due to lack of clarity. This is an extremely sensitive issue. It deserves careful planning, transparency, and full consideration of all it entails. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ms. Evelyn Trevino. Good evening. I am speaking tonight as a parent and active member of the school community and member of PSJAFT. Public schools exist to educate every child equally, not to elevate one belief system over another. Public schools must remain religiously neutral in order to serve all families equally. I am a firm believer of separation between church and state and freedom of religion. Religion

035should not have any involvement within the public school system. It is a tax-free entity and does not contribute any funds to education. Therefore, it should not be included within the school system curriculum or government education. It should be included in the school curriculum and education system in general. If parents or guardians want their child to be taught any religion, their options are to transfer their child to a religious-based school, have their child get involved with or start a club such as FCA, or participation within their own church community. I understand that it is not a violation of freedom of religion exactly, but rather what this insinuates for our student population. We are taught about freedom of religion and about how you have the right to choose what you believe in. If we as a district

036were to accept this idea of introducing organized prayer and devotion readings, the message comes across, in my opinion, that we should be more open to the idea of freedom of religion. I understand that. In my opinion, yes, you can believe in the religion you choose, but we are giving this time to those who believe in a certain religion. This brings up the question of fairness. If time is given for one belief system, equal access must be provided for all, which is unreasonable and unworkable in a public school setting. This risks sending the message that one religion is privileged over others. Simply put, religious discrimination or indoctrination, public schools are not structured to serve as a religious authority. Students that believe in a different religion would be forced into a religious system. This is not a

037religion. This is a religious system. This is not a religion. Within a different religious system, there is no legal requirement for payments to be provided in any way to learn about a chosen religion. Students with other religions will slowly start to feel excluded. Some might even switch religions—not because they believe in it, but to feel a sense of kinship with their peers, especially if the majority of students in a class period are actively participating. This added sense of peer pressure to accept a religion just because of peers is another issue. I'm a parent myself with two kids in the school system. because I want them to explore a question and discuss the idea of religion in a safe, uncoerced space, so if they choose to, it would be from their understanding and acceptance rather than

038a forced family tradition or outside influence. Therefore, I believe faith formation belongs in families, churches, and voluntarily student-led clubs, places where participation is chosen freely, not structured by school authority. Public schools should be places of unity, academic focus, and equally belonging for every student, not as a religious authority. Thank you. That concludes the public comments. Yes, Mr. President, we move to item 5, the minutes, and seeking approval for regular school board meeting minutes of January 26, 2026. Can I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by Mr. Villegas. Second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion, second by raising up your right hand. All those against, same sign. Abstain. Abstain. All right, motion passes. And I have a comment. Go ahead. The comment that I have is in reviewing the

039minutes for the last board meeting, we did go over a lot of policy, and I have checked online, and it seems to me that some of the, especially some of the policies for our parents regarding FNG, DGBA, and the other, are not up to date with Texas Educational 26A. So I think it needs to be reviewed just to make sure that we're fully compliant with the rules. And that also that the parents do have that access online for their complaints, or whether it's to the district. I have seen the page. I know that it is there. But I believe that it lacks some direction, especially to our parents who have never used it before. Also, as it regards to the board operating procedures, I know that we adopted, there were some corrections that needed to

040be made. I know it has been uploaded, but there is a comment at the end of the board operating procedures that says that local policy. Supersedes legal policy. That is incorrect. And I have legal here. If they can correct me on that. Local policy cannot supersede legal policy. So when there is a contradiction, obviously the legal policy will control. However, local policy is allowed to further clarify or specify additional policy to what's in the legal policy. So the question is, does local policy take precedence over legal policy? No. If the local policy adds to the legal policy, it can do that. Your non-answer is enough. Thank you. Mr. President. Go ahead, Mr. Villegas. Yeah, and in clarification, I'd like just to submit to the board that when we operate with local board procedures, we're not

041violating policy because we know we have to comply with state policies. We work within the framework and the parameters of what the legal policy is, and then establish a board policy in that framework. Thank you. Thank you. All those that are ahead, I mean, motion passed. Next. Going on to the next item. Yes, Mr. President. We move on to item six, superintendent of schools, and we have letter A, educational results partnership, honor roll, and this will be presented by Claudia Gonzalez, Dr. Claudia Gonzalez. Good evening, board president, trustees, superintendent, Dr. Elias, Alejandro Elias. It is with great pride that we announce. That we have seven Far San Juan Alamo Independent School District schools that have been selected to the 2025 Texas Honor Roll Schools. This is presented by the Educational Results Partnership, the ERP, which

042is businesses. The schools that are being recognized this evening, and if we can have the principal please stand up behind me as I call your name out. The first school is Ida C. Escobar Elementary School. The second school is the Ida C. Escobar Elementary School. The third school is the Ida C. Escobar Elementary School. With principal Katarina Cinosa. And I will name how many years. So Escobar has received this honor for six years already. We have also in addition, we have Allen and William Arnold Elementary, who has received this honor for two years. We have the principal Ernesto Duenas. In addition, we have Berta Palacios Elementary, who has received the honor for three years. The principal is Ms. Velma Villarreal. The next school is Carmen Anaya Elementary who has also received it for three years.

043And principal is Anna Smith. In addition, we have Cesar Chavez Elementary who has also received it for three years, this recognition. Ms. Erica Garcia Reyes. So we have five elementary schools who received this honor. In addition, we had two high schools. The first high school is PSJA Collegiate School of Health Professions who has also received this honor for three years. Principal Ms. Marisa Saenz. We also have PSJA Thomas Jefferson T-STEM Early College High School who has received this honor for eight years. Principal Dr. Sandra Garza. So the Texas Honor Roll recognizes schools that outperform their peers in closing a day. And the second high school is the Texas College of Education. The Texas College of Education has a high level of achievement gaps, particularly among higher poverty and historically disadvantaged student populations. This distinction is

044based on the star performance data from the 2023 through the 2025 school year. And identifies schools demonstrating, first of all, consistently high levels of student achievement. And then the third high school is the Texas College of Education. The Texas College of Education has a high level of achievement gaps. So this year, we had only approximately 15% of schools that were statewide that earned this distinction. This recognition affirms the exceptional leadership of our principals, the dedication of our teachers and staff, and the hard work of our students and families. Most importantly, it reflects our unwavering commitment to ensure that every child is prepared for a career and life. So we congratulate these campuses today, this evening, for this outstanding achievement and thank them for representing PSJ ISD with excellence. Congratulations to all of you. I know

045we have some of the staff members, and if we can have the staff members also rise, please. And I think we're going to take a little bit of an easy step. Okay, we were, we will have everybody now line up for a picture. picture this way if we can have and along with your the staff members if you can please join us from all the campuses executive officers principal congratulations some of y'all can come up here if you want to come over here have the students line up in the front here and you can come up here and have a good time and have a good time and have a good time and have a good time and have a good time and and stop again and and open your eyes thank you thank you

046thank you and I have two glasses here. First of all, I want to recognize or really congratulate everybody on this distinction. And very proud of all of you, all your hard work. And some of you had several years, so I wanted to commend you for that. Good job. And like I said, on behalf of the board, we're very thankful and really appreciate everything that you all do for the students. Mr. Elias? Yes. I'm going to make a quick comment also. I want to thank you, thank the principals, the administration, thank the teachers, the staff at these campuses. That's the whole goal of any district, I should say, out there. And the educational system is to make sure that we're closing that achievement gap at the campuses. And that's what y'all are doing. You're closing that

047gap, so that means that the students are the ones that are succeeding. So I thank you for that. To the students, thank you for making PSJA shine. Truly appreciate it. Again, congratulations to everyone. Yes. We move to the next item. And the next item is National Board Certified Teachers. This will be presented by Mr. Carrillo and also by Mr. Carr from Human Resource. Good evening, board president and board of trustees and Dr. Elias. The Human Resource Department respectfully presents for recognition two educators who have attained one of the highest distinctions in the teaching profession. National Board Certification. The certification is widely regarded as the most rigorous, respected professional credential available in education. Established to advance the teaching excellence nationwide, the certification process is designed to recognize accomplished educators, strengthen instructional practice, and promote continuous improvement

048in student learning. In the state of Texas, there are fewer than 2,000 educators who have achieved this National Board Certification. Within the Rio Grande Valley, only 26 teachers. That's a lot. Currently hold this distinction. Underscoring the significance of this accomplishment. National Board Certified Teachers earned a recognized distinction under Texas Educators Certificates and are acknowledged statewide for meeting the highest professional standards. These credentials reflect demonstrated expertise in content knowledge, differentiated instruction, effective teaching practice, and reflective analysis through the successful completion of three portfolio components and a comprehensive computer-based assessment. PSA. The National Board Certification. The National Board Certified Teachers earned a recognized distinction under Texas Educators Certificates and are acknowledged statewide for meeting the highest professional standards. These credentials reflect the professional dedication and perseverance, but also exemplifies PSJA's critical skills. Straw hat. The National Board

049Certification. The National Board Certification in our context of Take Some Time,charged teaching and grammar, and various other credentials. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of the board, congratulations. And thank you very much. We're very proud of you all, all the hard work that you did to get this achievement. And thanks again for always thinking of our students and working hard for our students. Thank you. Yes, Mr. President, we move to the next item, item C, finalist of the HEB Excellence in Education Awards. And this will be presented by Dr. Arredondo. Good evening, Board President, STEAM Board, and Dr. Elias. Tonight, it is my honor. To recognize the HEB Excellence in Education Award for PSJA Family. This award recognizes outstanding achievement and commitment in Texas public education at both the teacher and the district levels. For

050teacher levels, it honors exceptional classroom teachers who demonstrate instructional excellence, leadership, innovation, and a strong commitment to student achievement and community. Now, for the district level, it recognizes school districts that show overall excellence in student performance, innovative programming, leadership, board governance, fiscal responsibility, and meaningful community engagement. This program celebrates best practices in public education, and it highlights educators and districts making a significant impact on student success. 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. Thank you. Thank you. It is our honor to recognize exceptional educators

051from the Farr-San Juan Alamo ISD who have been named finalists for the prestigious HEB Excellence in Education Award. But the success and the celebration doesn't stop there. We are honored to share with the PSJA community that we, as a district, have also been named for the first time in history a finalist for this year. And we are honored to be nominated for this award. Recently, HEB representatives surprised two PSJA teachers after they were named state finalists for the 2026 HEB Excellence in Education Awards. I'm going to call their name, and if they can please stand along with their principal. Carolina de Anda Treviño of Carmen Anaya Elementary, Anna Smith, was selected as a finalist in the Rising Star Elementary category. And we also have Ms. Tammy Boudai of Cesar Chavez Elementary, who was named a

052finalist in the Lifetime Achievement Elementary category. Like we mentioned earlier, we are also very proud to announce that PSJA ISD is also a finalist. And a couple of things to share. From the Rio Grande Valley, PSJA is the only district that was named a finalist. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are waiting for the final recognition against Northeast School District. So we're very excited for that. This incredible recognition places the teachers and the district to be the very best educators and school districts in Texas. It is a testament not only to their unwavering dedication, innovation, and passion for student success, but also to the culture of excellence. we cultivate across PSJA. Their leadership in the classroom, commitment to their students, and impact on their school communities

053exemplify the very best of our district. We are immensely proud of their accomplishments and grateful for the way that they, the two teachers, and our school district represents not just PSJA, but the Rio Grande Valley with distinctions and heart. Tonight, we celebrate everyone's commitment, professionalism, and the lasting difference that we make in the lives of our students. Please join me in congratulating these outstanding educators and, of course, our beloved district. I'm going to invite them to go and take some pictures. Mr. Marquez, you want to? Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. We can have our cabinet and executive officers join us on the picture. This is... The district effort also. The district part. Thank you. The cabinet of the district. Thank you. Thank you. One, two, and three. One more. Smile. One, two, three. Thank you. Thank

054you. Congratulations. Congratulations to the recipients and their award. I'm really proud of all of you. I wanted to share that, especially because the district is getting recognized for this award, and I want to just recognize all of the cabinets, all the CEOs, and all of you all for your hard work and dedication. It's because of you all's hard work and dedication that PSJA continues to shine. So I want to thank all of you for all your hard work, and thank you for keeping us in the spotlight. So you all did a great job, and I appreciate all of you. Thank you. Mr. President, I'm going to make a quick comment also to the teachers, first of all, for the Excellence Award. It's not... easy even applying, because I know to even... to apply, it's a

055long application, and it's something that... really, it's so competitive out there. It's very competitive. You're not competing against the region. You're competing against teachers from throughout the state of Texas. So to even be a finalist, it's a huge thing for those that do not know, because you're competing in the state of Texas. There's about... 1,200 districts. So teachers, there's hundreds of thousands of teachers here in the state of Texas, and to get recognized, it's huge. And sometimes we don't recognize the work that you all do, but I truly appreciate, and I know I made it a point to go out there and to make sure to be out there and help to recognize you all as teachers. And I truly saw... how you change lives. The students, they were ecstatic when you all received this

056award, and to me, that's the difference that you're making in the classroom. So again, thank you for being part of PSJA, I should say, because to get this award and be part of PSJA, it makes all of us proud. All of us proud to have you here and be part of the PSJA family. And also, as a district, to receive... to receive this finalist, it hasn't happened here at PSJA, and to me, it's the pride, the family that we are here at PSJA, and I say it because every staff member out there contributed to it, and every staff member is deserving of being part of the finalist. And again, like I mentioned, there's so many districts out there in the state of Texas, and we're going to be going out there May the 3rd, they

057sort of do it sort of like a pageant style where we're going to go out there. It's supposed to be a very nice, luxurious dinner and the presentation and everything, and to me, it's the pride and joy of PSJA that our teachers get to go, the district gets to go, and we get to go out there, and God willing, we get to come back with the winning award, and that's going to say truly who PSJA is with the teachers and as a district. And again, we owe this to all our employees, all our teachers, and all our administration, and even our operational staff, because it takes everybody to help a student to succeed. It takes everyone to create the story that we submitted as an application, as a district, and it's the students at the

058end that matter, that our students are successful, that we're succeeding. And our board president, Mr. Rodriguez, can tell you he was part of that interviewing committee. I mean, these are judges that came. They're ex-superintendents, ex-CEOs, and they came from throughout the state, and these judges come, and they're going to question you and drill you, and we had students there as part of the committee. We had teachers. We had a board president, myself, some of the CEOs. I mean, this is very rigorous, but at the end of the day, I feel very proud that we made it to the finalists, and we're just going to wait, and God willing, we get that award. And again, it's because of our staff here at PSJA. We truly are family, and you're truly deserving that we get this award.

059And again, our students. It's all about the students. That's why we chose to be educators, so thank you all. Just one more thing. Just being a finalist, it's a big deal. It's a tremendous deal, can I say it? Tremendous deal to just being a finalist. So thank you, everybody, for all your hard work, and because of your all's hard work, PSJA continues to be in the spotlight because of all our staff. So thank you all again for everybody out there, and PSJA land, thanks for everything. Moving on to the next. Yes, we move on to the next item, item seven, student services, and approve the low attendance waiver for PSJA ISD, and this is for the day that we selected as the late day, right? Exactly, yes. Okay, so Dr. Neola will be presenting on

060this. Well, good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Elias. Thank you for allowing me to present on the low attendance waiver. And a low attendance waiver may be requested, and that's what we're doing when the school has been held, which we did have. However, our attendance was at least, 10% points below the overall average attendance rate for the district for the prior year because of inclement weather, health or safety related issues, and we are claiming or saying that it is for the inclement weather. And what happens is that the district may apply for a waiver to have the day excluded from our regular ADA or and FSEP funding calculations. Next slide. Now, the documentation of low attendance for the day, including the reason for the low attendance rate, that is the documentation

061that is required, and I'll show it in the next slide, but prior years attendance report showing the overall average attendance rate for the year for the district. So if you go to the next slide, this was our district average attendance percent for last year. It was at 94.98. That is very, very high for us as a school district, and that is the average again for last year. If you go to the next slide, this is the district average attendance rate for the year for the district. This is the district average for January 26. That's when it was delayed, and we had attendance of 67.32. So because it is 10 points or more right below, we can claim it. So if you go to the next slide. Now, this is what we need to do as

062a school district. We need to gather all the data. We have to submit it to, we gather the data and submit it to student services department, and then we are supposed to present it to you, and that's why we're here. The waiver and documentation is submitted to TEA via TEAL, and that is Dr. Wahardo. She's the one that submits it for the district, and then responses required from TEA and disseminated to designated MIS staff. Once they let us know what happened, then we will give it to MIS department, and they will code it in PEMS. Go to the next slide. If the day is approved, it will be changed to a non-instructional, non-constructional day. And what does that mean? Well, those minutes will be switched over to waiver minutes so that they will count towards

063the 75,600 required minutes for the school year. So that's what will take place, and we're supposed to submit some articles or reports. This was one that was by the National Weather Service, and this was on Saturday before that Monday. Freeze and extreme cold watches, continue and new coastal hazards issued. The next slide. This was on the following day by the National Weather Service again, and it was a news update. And freeze and extreme cold warnings, cold weather and marine advisories are in effect, and beach hazards have been extended. Next slide. And this was myRGV.com is the one that reported this on that Sunday before the Monday. It gave a list of all the schools, the shelters, everything you need to know about the freeze. Next slide. Then the National Weather Service also had another update

064on that same Monday that cold weather will continue on Tuesday. And then the next slide. This was what we got from myRGV.com, and it reported that there's a new freeze warning, but on Tuesday, we didn't have the 10% or less. So we had good attendance. That's why we did not bring it up to you. It's only the Monday. Next slide. This is... There was a flyer in there, I believe by the district. There it is that we were going to have a delayed start. So we have to submit this as documentation to the state as well. And it gave the time that the school's level was going to start and everything else was in there. And of course, because of all of this that occurred on that day, on January 26, we're requesting the next

065slide is for you, the board to please approve the low attendance waiver for January 26, due to inclement weather. And that's it. Yes. Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Quintanilla, second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, 6-5 by raising right hand. All those against, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Yes, Mr. President, we move to the next item. Item B, approve the contract agreement between FAR-San Juan Alamoye ISD and the Boys and Girls Club of FAR-San Juan for the 2025-2026 school year. This is a contract for $125,000. Thank you. Dr. Neola. Tonight, we have Mr. Alfredo Mata and also Mr. Cantu that are here with us tonight. And they will be presenting and informing the board about the Boys and Girls Club of FAR-San Juan. Welcome. Good evening, board, Mr. President, Superintendent, and

066all of our PSJA family. It's a little difficult to come after all these people that are receiving all these awards, but it's kind of a good thing. Thank you. It's kind of what we do and how we work together. Boys and Girls Club has now expanded. We now have four locations in FAR-San Juan, which we're real proud of. We're about to have our fifth, which is in San Juan. We have the most Boys and Girls Clubs of any city, any community in the Valley, and we're really proud of that because we're able to work together with our students that we both serve on a daily basis. On a daily basis, you can go to the Boys and Girls Club and we have a thousand kids show up every day. Not all those kids are PSJA

067kids, but in total for a whole given year, we will support 2,500 PSJA kids. So we're really proud of that and we feel we're an extension of what everything that you guys do. For everybody that may not know, when kids get there, the first thing they do is eat their hot meal, then they do their homework, and then they play like kids play. And they have a safe place so that their parents can stay at work and continue to do what their parents do and not have to worry about their kids. Until the parents come home from work. We've even expanded into Marcia Garza. It was something that we really wanted to do because we feel that that part of our community is really kind of like in a desert with not a lot of

068activities. And so we felt it was something that we really need to do. We don't have a presence in Alamo yet, and we're continuing to work on that. One of these days, they'll join the five other clubs that we have, but we're super proud that we're able to be in Marcia Garza. I think we have 60 kids, which is, when you compare it to these other beautiful locations we have, usually they have 120, 150. 60 kids is a lot. And so we're super proud to be able to provide services there. We want to continue the partnership. We never say no to kids. We never say no to expansion. And as you all know, that that costs money. And so the partnerships have been great. We've been able to serve more kids because of you all.

069And we wanted to continue to be part of everything that happens here, everything that you saw before us. That's what we wanted to continue to do. If you have specific questions, we're glad to answer any of those questions. Any other questions? Oh, there's no presentation? Is there going to be a presentation? Freddie Mata can present some of the things that we've been doing with 125,000. Hi, good evening. Dr. Elias, a member of the school board. My name is Freddie. I'm the CEO of the Boys and Girls of Afar. Every year we come before the board to ask for the contribution. Your contribution helps us bridge that gap as to why we charge so low fees. So a student, any student, can go to a Boys and Girls for $30 for the entire school year, $30.

070So we make very, very, very little bit, if nothing, for the membership fee. How are we able to provide all these services? It's to the contribution, the $125 that we're asking for for the PSJA school board. We focus the results for PSJA students only. Like Mr. Cantu stated, we do serve other school districts, but the results that we get for this presentation is for PSJA school students only. We do follow PSJA's academic school calendar because mostly we serve your students. So when your doors are closed and it's during the week, we're open 730 to 530 every day for the entire day. When you do have school, we're open after school. We're open from 3 o'clock to 8 o'clock. One of the bigger things that we do is provide homework help. You took all of our

071fans out here from the audience, but a lot of them were Boys and Girls Club kids. Many of us were Boys and Girls Club kids. And there are some future part-time employees while they're going to college. And they're going to UTRG or STC, whatever it is. They're going to be going to the Boys and Girls Club, working there. But we've been around for over 50 years. We provide transportation to 12 of your school systems. We provide transportation to all of your sites. Every year we ask if we can get help, but that's okay. We don't get help. That's okay because we get financial help to be able to offset that cost. So 12 schools, we do every day. Today, we picked up students from 12 of your schools and brought them to our Boys and

072Girls Clubs. Which is, we charge $15 for the whole month. Which, that doesn't cover gas or the driver or the maintenance of the vehicles or the insurance of the vehicles. But how do we bridge that gap? Through funds. Through the money that PSJA provides. So that's how this works. The contribution that you make helps us bridge that gap to serve PSJA students. Any specific questions that you may have? I think I have Ms. Gutierrez has a question. Go ahead, Ms. Gutierrez. I have more of a comment or a suggestion. Good evening, Mr. Cantu and Mr. Carrillo. Yes. Yes. Mr. Martin. But this goes to the board. I'd like to move this. Move this item, if possible, to after the presentation for the budget for our district and see how we're doing. I have said in

073the past, my brothers, myself, are product of the FAR Boys and Girls Club. And I'm all pro supporting. But I also think we have a fiduciary duty to first look at our finances and see how. Sorry. And see, you know, how that goes, how those look. And then maybe we can make a decision after, if that's okay with the rest. We haven't seen the state of the finances in our district. So I think it would be a good idea to first look at that and then make a decision based on that. Thank you. Mr. Board President, a quick note, if I may, before moving on. If there are trustees who are participating virtually, the Open Meetings Act does not require that. I'm sorry. The Open Meetings Act does require that they have their camera and

074audio on in order to be counted present at the meeting and be able to participate. So just a note before we move on. Thank you. Okay. If you hear barking, they're my dogs. Quintanilla, you had a question? No. My question to you is, is she making a motion? No. What is she saying? No. She was making a comment. She's coming to just. Mr. Board President. I have two questions. And one is, Dr. Elias, do you know, how do we measure performance of those kids that attend the Boys Club and those non-participants? Or do we have something as such? We don't, per se, collect data as to, because they don't, they're not in charge of instruction or any curriculum that we provide. It's more that they perform the service of the school. They perform the service

075of helping our students by providing a safe zone, a safe space where the student can go, use their facilities. I don't know how many of you board members have been there, but the facilities there have computer labs. They have actual teachers that are helping there also to help them with their homework. So it's a lot more like a resource area, and that's what they do to provide for our students. And that's why I'm asking, because I've been there. And I've seen the computer lab. I've seen how they have personnel to assist with homework. And that's why I ask. And my second question is, is there an evaluation tied to the agreement? Evaluation? No, there's no evaluation. But I do know that we do request from them data as far as how many students they service.

076And what they're mentioning, the 2,500 students, that's about correct on the number of students that we serve. That they serve. But these students without this program or us providing the help, they would probably not be able to get those resources. And then again, we're looking at all these parents that work and have late work. So we would be contributing to where the students would probably not have that success of having a computer at home. Now they can go there, use the computer. So to me, it's crucial for our students to have a safe zone. Plus an area where they can ask questions and be provided that resource of the work study area. And I agree. As a matter of fact, I think that it's the fact that they have a warm meal right after they

077get out of school. It's already a huge plus. No, no, no. I know it's a service. And I was just wondering if there's any evaluation tied to the agreement. And I understand. I mean, there's a huge need. And I appreciate that you all serve those students. Because like you mentioned, they're working parents. And then you provide it. I think that the curriculum that they offer is aligned to what we already do in the classrooms. So that's why I was wondering, is there any correlation? And I understand that it's not as structured. And I get it. But those were just, I was just wondering. It sort of works like the 21st century. Yes. Correct. It's sort of like that. But of course, you know, the 21st century comes with funding from the state. And it comes

078with a good amount of funding. Because I know that now we're moving into it since we got the grant also. But again, what they provide for the services and for the amount that they're asking is really, you know, it's very minimal. Because if you look at even 2,500 students being serviced throughout 170 schools. And that's in 70 or more days, I should say. I mean, that's. No, no. And I understand. Once you divide it, it's very, very minimal. And I think, you know, that, you know, the comment that was made earlier that let's look at our budget. There's more money being spent in other things that I don't see fit for the district to be spending on. And this I see fit because it's for students. Correct. And when it comes to students, students come

079first. Correct. And I understand. I understand. I get it. I was just wondering. I have a couple of questions. When we talk about the $125,000, I notice, I think on the attachment, it said something that it was for supplies. For supplies. Now, and we also heard just right now that we have staff within, I mean, helping the kids. Are those staff? Our staff. Your staff. Are they paid staff? Are they volunteers? Are they? They're all fully paid staff. And a portion of those funds pay for the staff. And the supplies, they use for either in the arts and crafts room or in the power hour room where they do the homework education, homework help, or in the gym where they're doing hula hoop or football or basketball where we're training your future swimmers and divers.

080And we're training your future band members. Whatever it is we're training, they're starting at $5,000. So those are some of the supplies that we use that go straight back directly to PSJA students. Thank you, sir. Great. Mr. President? I want to echo a few things that Ms. Castillo said and also Ms. Barron. But like Ms. Castillo, I have visited your center. And congratulations because I attended your ribbon cutting in San Juan. And I think that's going to be a great experience. And I'm going to be a part of your community. And I'm going to be a part of your community. Thank you. You're going to be, I believe so wholeheartedly in what you're doing. The more we expand, the more that we're contributing to helping our parents like was mentioned already. It's a lot of

081help. These kids have an outlet until 8 o'clock at night. They've got a warm meal. They've got computers. They've got physical activities that they can go out and engage in. It's a great thing. And I think that, Dr. Elias, you look at the forecast for the budget to include $125,000 from meaningful things like our Boys and Girls Club. The parents that I talk to, I was there one time when the bell rang at Liberty Middle School, and they flocked over here to the Boys Club. It was just an amazing sight to see. And those kids, I think, are going to have an edge on everything they do in life after all because somebody gave them something to engage in and look forward to. So I want to commend you for everything that you guys are

082doing. Thank you. And with that being said... Can I make a motion? I've got a miscommunication. Okay. Yes. So I have a couple of questions, I guess, kind of along the lines of the rest of the board members. And you picked the night when we're going over budget audit, right? So now we have budget in our minds. So you're saying that it costs $15 per student to provide a service. You're asking the district $125,000. That is to serve, and I know a new center just opened up. So are those $125,000 for... Students from Pharr, San Juan, and Alamo? And in addition to that $125,000 that the district provides, what other funding do you receive? Because from my understanding, $15 is not enough for staff and equipment and everything. What other resources do you have? And

083I heard something about 60 students at first, and now I hear that you serve 20-some-hundred students. What is the correct number? And at the end of... At the end of the school year, because I know that you come to us once a year, how does it compare from one year to the next? The budget's everywhere. The costs are increasing. So how will it look for next year? How did it compare to last year to this year? Will this amount serve the same amount of students from prior years, or is it going to be less? And then my final question really is to the superintendent. Is to what expenses do you think that we're spending on that are not as important as paying for the Boys and Girls Club because we approve whatever you bring to

084the board. So if you could clarify, what are those expenses that you feel that are not as important as this one? That I'm not going to mention right now because that's not part of this line item. This is right now we're talking about the Boys and Girls Club. Oh, okay. I'm only asking because you brought it up. I'm saying that we spend money on items that are not as important. So just wanted for you, because in that line of questioning, you're basically saying that the board is approving items that are not as important. I never mentioned the board. But go ahead. If you could answer those questions. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Coutinho. I'm going to do my best. There was a lot of questions. For the most part, so 2,500 kids, you're probably talking

085about 2,000 families. And we're the only club that I know of, maybe some clubs up north that actually go and pick up their kids at the schools, which is a big help. You're talking about on a daily basis, 600 of our kids are picked up. What does that mean? That means mom and dad don't have to worry about leaving their work and going to pick up their kids and then going back to work and having their boss upset with maybe all that interference throughout the day. So 600 kids get picked up. When I started 20 years ago, just so you can see, give you some perspective. Our budget was $350,000. It is now $3.5 million. So we really need the 125 to contribute to everything that we do. The 125 isn't 20, 50. It's not

086a big percentage of what we do, but every dollar counts because most of what we get are grants. Most of our employees, they're all paid employees. Most of them or all of them or most of them, 90% of them are covered. So as we continue to expand, these guys do an amazing job getting grants and they do an amazing job of never letting our community say no to their kids. We're able to bring all these kids to our campus. Nobody does that. And so when he talks about $15 a month, the reason we're able to do that is with partnerships like this because it doesn't cost us $15 a month. The reference to 60 kids and 2,500 kids, 60 kids go to Marcia Garza only. 2,500 kids go to all our clubs. You have the

087main unit here by the swimming pool, Las Milpas East, Las Milpas West, San Juan over there on Olana, and our fifth location here pretty soon, our Teen Center on Veterans. I think I answered all your questions. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clinton. I'd like to make a motion to approve the contract. Motion by Mr. Clinton. Motion by Mr. Clinton. Motion by Mr. Villegas. Can I have a second? Second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion, second by the person in the right hand. All those against, same sign. I'm going to abstain. Mr. Villegas, yes, on the basis of the status of our finances, I'm going to abstain. Abstain, okay. I support the Boys and Girls Club, but I'm going to abstain based on our finances. Okay. Thank you. We got the motion passed.

088Thank you, everyone. Thank you all. Thanks for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good job, guys. Yes, Mr. President, we move to the next item. And we move to item A, under Finance Letter A, Bids and Proposal Contracts Agreements and the MOU to be awarded. And this is for approved bids for the trophies, plaques, and medals, equipment services, and supplies for continuous solicitation. So, the motion? No presentation? That was a list of vendors that you were sent. Yes. It's a list of vendors that you were sent. It's a list of vendors that you were sent. It's a list of vendors that you were sent. Yes. So, we added a vendor. We do have a short PowerPoint. Go ahead. That's

089what I thought. Okay. She's just going to show one vendor. Okay. So, we have continuous solicitations, which make it easier for our vendors to meet the requirements. And we do not... select every single vendor because it does have to be a competition. And so tonight we're awarding one additional vendor. It's a Laser Magic 956. The rest of the vendors had been previously approved. Any questions? Can I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Ms. Quintanilla. Can I have a second? Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, 6-5, I raise it up to the right hand. Thank you, Ms. Gauthier. Motion passes. Yes, Mr. President, the next item, item 2, approve awarding a proposal to ASO for workers' compensation insurance for the 2025. And this will be Ms. Gonzalez presenting. We're self-funded for workers' comp.

090We have an echo because of Ms. Quintanilla. She was told to keep it on. Yeah. She was asked to keep it on. Okay. Okay. So we're self-funded for workers' comp, and we were notified by our previous third-party administrator who reprices our claims and uses their network that they were no longer going to be in this business. So we had to go out for RFPs. Three proposals were received from CAS, TriStar Claims, and TASB Risk Management Fund. The committee members were Rogelio Guzman, Jacqueline Garza, Ralph Mendez, and Maricruz Gonzalez. Tonight we're awarding to CAS. They were the lowest vendor per claim per month. How does this compare to the one we had previously approved? The one that was previously approved was approved in about 2012. They went out of business. So CAS, compared to the other

091two vendors that submitted, was the lowest. So in other words, what I'm saying is that I know they're the lowest, but are they comparable to what we were previously had last year, let's say? Oh, I would say they were lower than what we previously had. Yes. Okay. And no compromise in services, customer service? They represent close to 100 school districts in Texas, so we believe that that's a pretty good reference list. Okay. Motion to approve. Second. Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Motion by Ms. Quintanilla. Can I have a second? Second. Second the motion. Second by Mr. Villegas. Yeah. All those for the motion, take the five raise up your right hand. I can't hear you, Ms. Gutierrez. Oh. Are you? I guess she's raising her hand. No. I have a question. You

092can't hear me. Okay, go ahead. I can hear you now. Can you hear me now? You have me muted. We can hear you now. We can hear you now. It's because there was an echo. That's why they had to. I can hear you. Okay, go ahead. Okay, go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, it's because you guys blocked me and then it's really hard. Before there was a motion, before Ms. Quintanilla spoke, I was asking too. I have my microphone open, so I think it should be open on that side. So I have some questions for Ms. Gonzalez. Go ahead. Yes. Yeah. Ms. Gonzalez, so we had a committee who approved this. This is the committee that approved this bid, correct? Correct. How many people were in this committee? Four. Four.

093Is this the practice that is usually followed with insurance contracts going for RFPs? If we're talking about health insurance or voluntary products, that committee is usually larger. Larger. Okay. So we do use committees and we go for RFP for insurance, correct? Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you, ma'am. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you. Okay. Do you vote with a four against Ms. Gutierrez? No, I vote four. Okay. So I have unanimous on motion passes. Next item. Next item. Yes, Mr. President, we move to the next item. Move to the next item. And it's approved the cooperation contract between Farr San Juan Alamo Independent School District and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for the Texas- Free Freshman Engineering Program, TEXT-PREP, and this is for middle school students for the 2627 school year, and

094it's for 37,825. And Dr. Uribe will be presenting on this. Good evening, Dr. Eliaz, Board President and Board Members. So the purpose of this MOU is to establish the partnership with UTRGV on the TEXT-PREP Program for students pursuing successful careers in math, science, and technology and engineering. engineering are able to participate and provided several opportunities to succeed in pre-college performance and higher education pursuits. Throughout this, students get to engage with guest speakers, curriculum in STEM, project-based learning, and also different orientations with the University of Texas, Pan Am, sorry, UTRGV. And so this is during the summer from June 8th through July 10th from 1 to 6. We do have two chaperones that attend with the students and currently recruiting students from 6th through 8th grade. We're looking at about 50 new recruits at $425 per

095student funded through the college and career readiness department. The next slide. This just shows an overview of the students that are currently participating. So we have returning students. We have 39 of them. That are still part of the text prep program. So we're really excited to get an approval to be able to include the new recruits. And again, this just shows the 50 new recruits, the 39 that are returning, and the total is 37,825. Thank you. Ms. Barron? Are you finished? Yes, ma'am. I guess my only question was because I was reading through the material and there is a non-refundable $200. Can you explain a little bit on that? Yes. So once the students commit, they're expected to participate, right? And if they decide to not do it, then we would have to pay a

096fee. But one of the things that we've done is as we recruit the kids, the parents are part of the orientation. So there is a true commitment for the kids. Now, if something happens over the summer that the students not be able to not able to participate, that's when we would lose it. Oh, they're non-refundable because they're not able to for whatever reason. Yeah, if they're not able to for whatever reason. Yeah, if they're not able to for whatever reason. Okay. To make it. Thank you. My only other, I guess, other question. I had that same question with Ms. Barron. If you can just tell me what is it, what is the difference in curriculum between the, like the new recruits and the returning recruits? Like what, why are we paying again for those returning

097students as opposed to possibly adding 39 new students or something to that effect? So with the new recruits, right, they start from ground zero. It's going to be their first, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're going to be, you know, they're returning recruits depending on what year they're in. Their curriculum does differ, right? So like if it's year two, they might be doing something very different than they did when they were first recruited. So as they're going, it's progressing. And once they get to high school, they have the opportunity to

098gain high school credit. So after they finish the program, they can go ahead and maybe skip a class? Is it the entire, a whole credit? Does it replace a graduation credit or is it an additional, It's a CT elective credit. Okay. Yes. And that's after year one. Okay. My question, Dr. Olive, so how many of these kids actually, when they graduate, channel their way into engineering? Into STEM? I don't have that data readily available, but it's something that we can get to you. We can look at the cohorts. That would be interesting. We can get that for you. Okay. I have a motion to approve. I have a motion. Motion by Ms. Castillo. Second. Second by Ms. Barron for approval. All those for the motion, signify by raising your right hand. Aye. Motion passes unanimously.

099Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Oliveira. Next item. Yes, Mr. President, we move to item four, approval awarding proposals for AV production system for PSJ Auditorium, the Osodome, and it's for $408,000. And this will be Dr. Davalos or Ms. Gonzalez? Yep. Well, Mr. Barron. Ms. Gonzalez. Good evening, board, Mr. President, Dr. Elias. So as we continue to chip away at the project there at the Dome, we continue our work in the infrastructure. And so we've kind of gotten to that juncture where we need to make some choices and procure companies to come in and start setting up for all the lights and all the stuff that comes with a production. So this one here, we don't have a presentation. Most of it really is just a slide with a overview of the process. But I'm not

100sure if anybody has any questions or. If you could just walk us through the process, that would help. Yeah. So right now, since we have. So just kind of imagine when you were working at home, you take all the walls down and you have all the wires behind that. So we're at that stage now where all the walls are bare. And so we want to do. All our wiring, all our run, all the things that we need to to to run a production there at the auditorium. And so before we continue building anything up right now is the time to kind of build up that infrastructure. And again, this is all to set up for everything that has to do with audio and visual. And so can you explain why there's there's two? Yes, sir.

101Monetary. So when we went out to for proposals. We broke it up into audio and visual. We had three companies that that send us a proposal. One of them specifically was for audio only. The other two bid out everything. So what we decided to do was take the company that gave us the best, you know, bang for our buck, so to speak, for for audio. And then we picked the company that was going to also provide the best audio. And then we picked the company that was going to also provide the best product. And so we picked a different company for the visual side. Yes, sir. And really, if you when we looked at the numbers, this provided the best deal possible. So we're from initial from initial proposals that we got by going this

102route, we're actually saving them about $100,000. Yes, sir. Good. So we did bid it together then. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. And then we did bid it together and combined. This was still the better. Yes. Yes. So we just picked we kind of picked and choose the companies that gave us the best deal. Better deal. Yes. Okay. Can I have a motion? Yes, sir. I have a question. Okay. What is your substantial completion date approximately? It's it's originally it was supposed to be towards the end of the summer. But again, like anything else. Right. With. A building that's erected in 1960. You know, every time we kind of turn a corner, there's some other things that we need to address. And so that's going to be pushed back. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, a good amount.

103But, um, uh, I'll keep you kind of abreast of of any of those changes and how much days we're we're looking to deviate from the original plan. Okay. You have to update according to the current codes. Of the city ordinance and codes and everything starts to be up to date. Absolutely. So that building that was there from 1960. Yes. Is some real, real code. So now you have to make it according to curtain code. So I understand why there's a delay. Yes, sir. I understand. Mr. President. Go ahead. I'd like to make a motion. Okay. Moved by Mr. Vegas for approval. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion. Six and five. I raise up your right hand. Both again. Same sign. Thank you. Mr. Patera. Motion passes

104unanimously. Thank you. Next item. Yes. Mr. President. We move to item B. Under finance, approve the nomination of an individual for the Hidalgo County Appraisal District Board of Directors. Mr. Rufus. I'd like to make Vegas. I'd like to nominate Mr. Pete Garcia. Okay. I have a nomination for Mr. Pete Garcia. I have a second by Mrs. Barron for that. For Pete Garcia. All those from the motion. Six and five. I raise up your right hand. Okay. Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Unanimously. So that's for Pete Garcia. Next item. Yes. Mr. President. We move to item C. Approve the district's audit report for year end. 31st 2025. And this will be presented by our current rigs LLC. And this is Mr. Jonathan will be presented. Yes. Good evening. Board President. Dr. Elias. And members of the board.

105CFO. Becky Gonzalez. Thank you for having me. My name is Jonathan home a partner with courage. Nigram. Give me just a moment. I'm going to pass out the final copies of the report. I believe you received a draft in your in advance. But I'm going to provide you with hard copies right now. Presentation. This year. Okay. That's the point. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize for that. I'll wait until you all have the final copy there. There's really nothing different from the draft that was provided compared to the final that's being passed out now. There are some minor corrections, wording updates, but the numbers and everything in the report is the same as what was provided. As I'm going through it, I see that I have the draft on the screen. So I'm

106going to be indicating page number. it may not be the same page number that's on the screen in the PDF. So the first page I want to go to is page seven. It's titled the Independent Auditor's Report. There, that's the page. So I'm going to kind of just talk through what it is that we do as an auditor and in contrast with what management does for production of the financial statements. And then I'm going to do some financial highlights and talk about some of the other things that came up during the audit. So on page seven, the Independent Auditor's Report, we have at the very top, we have it says report on the audit of the financial statements opinions. Our objective as auditors is to render what we call an audit opinion. And that means

107whether the information is fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting standards, accounting principles. And management's responsibility. Our responsibility is to prepare the financial statements to maintain internal control over financial reporting. And that would involve preventing and detecting errors or fraud or anything like that that could come up during the year. Those are all management's responsibilities. Our responsibility is just to produce this, to produce the audit opinion. So the opinion says we have audited the accompanying financial statements of the governmental activities, business type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the FAR, San Juan, Alamo. Independent School District as of and for the year ended August 31, 2025, and related notes to the financial statements, which collectively comprise the district's basic financial statements as listed in the table of contents. In

108our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects, the respective financial position of governmental activities, business type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the PSJA Independent School District as of August 31, 2025, and the respective changes in financial position and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. So that's what we call an unmodified opinion or a clean opinion. That's what you'd want to receive. And so that just means that we don't have any concerns about the information in the report being materially misrepresented. For us to render that opinion, the next paragraph is a basis for our opinions, we have to maintain our professional standards, professional ethics. We have to collect evidence and

109really that's what an audit is, is a collection of evidence and we believe the evidence we've collected is sufficient and appropriate for us to render our audit opinion. The next paragraph talks about responsibilities of management and I mentioned that at the beginning management is responsible for the financial statements, responsible for the accounting of the district and maintaining internal control so that the financial statements are fairly presented. Our role is just to do the audit, right? So when you look at what's in this report, there's a lot of information in it. Us as auditors, it's just the independent auditor's report that's ours. The rest of it is management's. Go into the next page. You know, there's a lot of stuff here, you know, I'm not going to read all of it but it goes into greater

110length about what are the auditor's responsibilities for the auditor of the financial statements. You know, we have to engage in some risk assessment processes and professional judgment because we can't audit 100% of all the transactions in the records of the district. It would be impossible, right, to actually conclude an audit by doing so. So this just goes into what are the limitations of an audit and what it consists of, right, that we have to do. The rest of this independent auditor's report. I'm going to go ahead and close this. I'm going to go ahead and close this. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So the independent auditor's report talks about required supplementary information and supplementary information and other information, right? There's, if you go to your table of contents, you'd see that there's, you know, in

111addition to your financial statements, you have something in there called management's discussion and analysis or otherwise known as MD&A, right? That's required supplementary information. You also have general fund budget comparison schedule and pension information. Those are all required supplementary information and that information on the bottom of page eight. And top of page nine, we say is not audited, right? It's not part of our audit opinion. The supplementary information referred to on page nine is, includes your schedule of expenditures or federal awards. You're combining fund statements and certain other schedules from TEA. And we do include those in our audit opinion. So we believe those are fairly presented. At the bottom of page nine and going on to page 10, it references that. Your school district, your government. So this audit is done in accordance with

112government auditing standards. So we refer to the fact that that is the standard under which we executed this audit. And there is a report that's also in the back of this bound report that we issue in accordance with that requirement. And it's just making note of that to you. I'll go over that later though. So there's a quick, a quick update. If you go to page 11, that's the beginning of management's discussion and analysis. And that goes, all the way to page 19. So page 11 and 19. The MD&A is a good, it's a good section of the report for you to read to get an idea of what are the things that happen during the year. It has comparative information. And just to give you a quick kind of summary of the comparative information

113that you can see there and what it means. You go to page 14, table A1. So it's your district net position. And your governmental activities column there on the left there, that's, this is essentially the balance sheet of the district for all your funds and all your activities, including your long-term debt and including your long-term assets from 2025 and 2024. You can compare them side by side, right? So you don't, you know, throughout the year, you're looking at your general fund. You don't normally look at it in an aggregated form like this, but this is kind of just, you know, good information to be aware of, right? Your total assets are $841 million at the end of 2025 compared to $885 million in 2024. And then you have deferred outflows, which is something related to

114pensions. Same thing with the deferred inflows further down. Your long-term liabilities are $505 million versus about $515 million from prior year. And your liabilities are just going to... You know, go down as you continue to pay your debt. And so your net position went from $368 million in total to $337 million in total. Keep in mind, this includes depreciation and all these other kind of things that you might not normally be seeing in your fund schedules throughout the year. If you go to page 16, table A2, this is a comparative look at the district's financial activities during the year for 2025 and 2024. So you... You can see that, you know, revenues went down about $512 million in the prior year and about $490 million in the current year. And that's primarily because of the

115drop in... You can see the operating grants there, which is some of the federal revenue declines. But expenses also went down, right? $523 million in prior year and $509 million in the current year, right? So it's still a decrease in net... Right. So it's still a decrease in net... So it's still a decrease in net position. And in a minute, I'm going to take you over to the fund financial statements. You'll see kind of the underlying, you know, the fund results that drive the overall change in financial position. Let's see. Before I go there, go up to page 17, table A3. And this is just an interesting, you know, analysis chart that you can look at the cost of your instruction. Your... Your... Your instruction and school leadership, some of the top functions that you're

116expending dollars out during the year. And the cost is, you know, the actual, you know, raw cost and then the net cost is after some of the grants and things that fund those things directly before general state aid and property taxes and things like that. So other things in the MD&A, I'm not going to talk about them too much, but on page 18, you have a summary of your capital asset. information and your long-term debt and the changes that occurred during the current year with regards to those. You finished one thing just to highlight on capital assets. You finished a lot of your capital projects during 2025 fiscal year. So you had $38.6 million in construction and progress that now is substantially less because those projects were completed and transferred to essentially the building category.

117If you flip over with me to page 24 and 25, the balance sheet for governmental funds, this is, you know, you live and sleep and breathe in the general fund throughout the year. So, you know, the general fund is probably what you're most interested in. And so this is the balance sheet as of August 31, 2025. It's going to show you your total assets here, $138,000. $138.7 million. You know, that's different than what I just mentioned because those tables I mentioned before were for the district as a whole and included your fixed assets such as all the buildings and everything. This is the fund's focus on your current financial resources. So your cash, your receivables, things that would essentially be converted into something spendable within a year. And liabilities are $39.7 million and your fund

118balance is $39.7 million. So your total fund balance for the governmental funds on page 25 is $104 million. So now if you go with me over to page 28, Exhibit C3, you'll see how you get there. So I'm just going to focus on the general fund column. The general fund column has $432.7 million. $432.7 million in revenues for the year and $444 million of expenditures for a decrease in fund balance or deficiency of revenues under expenditures of $11.7 million. Then you have other financing sources and uses, which includes some transfers in and transfers out. The transfer out, as you can see, it's $5.2 million there. And that went up to the Capital Projects Fund to fund some of the projects that were being funded during the year. So all told, your net change in fund

119balance for August 31, 2025 fiscal year-end is a decrease of $16.5 million. You had beginning fund balance of $110.7 million, ended with $94.2 million. So that's the overall change in fund balance was a decrease of $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. $16.5 million. If you look at the debt service fund column, you're generating enough revenue there to cover your expenditures. So you had a positive change in your debt service of $868,000. You're paying $22.4 million in expenditures on payments of principal, on debt and interest, $7 million. All told, for your governmental funds, bottom of page 29, you have a decrease of $15.4 million in change in fund balance. So that's the decrease that you had in your governmental funds for the year. The

120rest of the financial report, there's footnotes that go into at length a lot of the other information this year. Information about your receivables, your payables, your fixed assets, your debt, your pension. And all of those types of things. And so I'd encourage you to look that over if you feel so inclined. But it is good and useful information for you to read. And so there's a lot of other details in the footnotes on all these numbers that I just kind of went through at a very high level. I mentioned at the beginning that there's a report that is the government auditing standards report. We also call it the government auditing standards report. We also call it the government auditing standards report. We also call it the yellow book report. This is on page 119. So

121if you're on page 119, this is a report that we issue anytime we do an audit under government auditing standards. And in this report, we report on whether we had any findings related to internal control or on compliance with laws and regulations in general. It does not include an opinion, so we're not giving a positive affirmation. Like we did in the independent auditors report, so you complied with all these requirements. It's too broad for that. But we do our audit in accordance with these standards. And if we have findings to report, we report them. And so there is a finding in this report that in the bottom of page 119 is item 2025-001 that we consider a material weakness. And if you go to page 120, we also consider... a matter of noncompliance. And I'll

122go to what that is in a moment. Before I go there, I just want to point out, if you go to page 121, there's another report that we've issued. And this is the independent auditor's report on the uniform guidance. And so what we call the uniform guidance is the requirement for your federal grants. So if you go with me to page 125, I apologize. So we have an unmodified opinion on your federal grant awards, which are... You know, we... On page 125, you see two-thirds of the way down, it's Title I and Student Support and Academic Arrangement Program. We audited two of your federal grant programs. We issued an unmodified opinion on compliance, which means that you complied in all material respects with the requirements for those programs. And we didn't have any findings of

123internal control. Further up the page, we mentioned that... Material weaknesses are identified, yes. And noncompliance material financial statements noted, yes. That's not related to federal awards, but that's related to the finding I mentioned earlier. If you go to page 126, this is the text of the finding. And this is about... The finding is about excess expenditures over appropriations. And Exhibit G1, which is your budget schedule... I haven't pointed out yet, but... The total expenditures exceeded the total budget by $12,799,000. And the draft there... I have some updated wording here, right? The expenditures exceeded the budget in five functional areas, which was instruction, pupil transportation, food service, general administration, and facilities, maintenance, and operation. Right? And so... That's just to keep you aware of what that finding is. If you go back with me to page

12481, that's where the finding is being driven from. And this is the budget to actual schedule. So you can see that for your general fund, your total revenues were $432.4 million actual versus $426.5 million budget. The final budget column is what we compare to. And then... On expenditures, your total actual expenditures were $444 million and $431.3 million final budget. And then for the total budgeted change of a drop of $4.8 million compared to a drop of $16.5 million. But our finding is focused on the expenditure side of it, right? And not anything else. Not the revenues or anything else. It's focused on that. Right? Because the requirement is that you have expenditures within what has been appropriated in your budget. That's the only finding we had that's reported in this report. Before I conclude, I

125just want to point out that the other letter that was handed out is the required communications that we're required to provide to you as members of the governing board of the district. Right? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. At this point, we would conclude that we're required by professional standards to communicate with you certain matters. This would include everything that I've talked to you about tonight. The standards that we conduct the audit under, the findings that we've had, what are your responsibilities or management's responsibilities? What are our responsibilities as auditors? And then, of course, other things in that communication would include whether we had any findings of illegal actions or fraud and we didn't any

126disagreements or difficulties in dealing with management, which we didn't. It's a lot of hard work to get everything done that has to be done to complete not only the financial statements but the whole fiscal year. I want to thank Ms. Gonzalez and their team for working with us on the audit. That's about all I have. We did have some other advisory comments in the back of that stapled letter that we've reviewed with management. They didn't rise to the level of findings in the report. Any questions? Any questions? Plenty. Bottom line is that we are in a deficit of $11.7 million. We overexpended our approved budget. Correct. Can you turn to page 11 and review the financial highlights, please? Yes. These bullet points on the top here, the financial highlights, the district's combined total net position

127was $338.4 million for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2025. After adjustment of $11.5 million due to implementation of GASB 101 compensated absences, this amounted to a net decrease of $30.5 million from last year's total of $368.9 million. This is referred to Exhibit B1. That's the one that I pointed to earlier. I think the exhibit is incorrect there. That's A2 on page 16. That's the one that changes in net position. These financial highlights are talking about the district's net position, not the fund balances, just to be clear. Those are... So it's not referring to your general fund, but to the district's change in financial position as a whole. The second bullet point, during the year, the district's expenses were $19 million. That's about $3,000 more than revenue generated in taxes and other revenues for governmental

128activities and business-type activities. Prior year expenses were $9,944,974 more than revenues. The general fund reported fund balance of $94.2 million with $37,431,000 of this amount unassigned. And actually, that's a good... That last bullet point, if you go back with me over to page 28, there's... If you have $444 million of expenditures that you're incurring throughout the year and your fund balance ending as $94.2 million, there's one way to gauge your fund balance is how many days or how many months of fund balance do you have. And so you're right at about two and a half months of fund balance there with $94.2 million. That includes, of course, some items kind of siloed in for inventory and things like that. How much of it is unassigned? How much of it is actually unassigned and it can't

129be used for emergency purposes? So if you go back to page 24, it's $37.4 million is unassigned. So $37 million is all we have available in case there is a freeze in funding. Is the $37 million enough to run for two and a half months? No. So that would be about a month, roughly. Yeah, a little more than a month. So in other words, we only have $37 million unassigned to be used in the case of an emergency or a freeze of funding. Yes. Based on the unassigned number, yes, that's correct. I mean, there's within, if you're on page 24 and you're looking at your general fund column, fund balance is just, the answer to your question just as a straight answer is yes, that's correct. But I just want to point out that your

130fund balance categories, you have different categories of things there. Right? So you have non-spendable just means it's things like inventory and prepaid items that are on your balance sheet you can't spend. On page 17, it might explain that better. Under the financial analysis of the district funds, could you review that for me as well, the bulleted points? Sure. So the bulleted points is you have $37 million is a non-spendable item for inventories and deferred expenditures. $935,000 is prepaid. And what that means is that portion of your fund balance is kind of tied to, you've already paid for those prepaids or you've already paid for the inventories. So you can't use that portion of fund balance to pay for anything else. It's not money you can spend. So that's to kind of point that out. Then

131the $21.7 million is restricted. And that is primarily driven by federal grant restriction. Child nutrition is aggregated into your general fund. So that $21 million is going to be part of the child nutrition piece of that. $5 million is committed for construction. And $1.4 million is committed for capital expenditures for equipment for schools and buses. $8.3 million is committed for sick leave payoff. And so some of those amounts, so committed amounts, are normally items that is because the district has already committed to it through some contractual obligation, a purchase order that's yet to be fulfilled, things like that. So you have, you can take action to decommit if you ever, that would have to be taken by the board. And then assigned $7.9 million is assigned for E-rate computers to be purchased and other items.

132And that's just pointing out. That portion is going to be related to that activity. So it's not really restricted. It's just, it's kind of identifying it as accurately as possible. What portion is truly unassigned that you can use is $37.4 million. So on page 47, you turn to page 47, because what I've noticed is that we went from the year ending in 24 to nine some million that we exceeded, expected. Expenditures and now we're up to, was it 11, 12 million that we've exceeded expenditures, even though we were supposed to have followed a some kind of monitoring. So on page 47, expenditures exceeding appropriations. Could you go over that please? Yeah. So on the about a third of the way down, for the year ended August 31, 2025, district had expenditures exceeding budget by 6,943,978.

133Again, that's the four-year-old in the question. So you're talking about. So we're talking about. Facts. Facts. Facts. So they're talking about expenses. Okay. And, and we also had Rain plus one million in the run of our first two years of this year, our last year, our last two years, and then we had, I think we had three or five, transfers out of the general fund as well. That's not an expenditure, but it was, if you look at your budget, it wasn't, there was no budget amount for that. So, that is Trustee Quintanilla's time. Are you still up by two minutes? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Quintanilla. Anybody else have any questions? Ms. Gutierrez? Yes, I'm going to continue, and I'm going to, I want to speak layman's terms, so that the public understands what's

134going on. So, out of $503.5 million, $94 million approximately, $94.3 was, it's our fund balance. It's the money that we're, that we should have for three months of operations in case of a rainy day, emergencies, etc., which is what's recommended, about three months. But the reality is that all these expenses have lowered those three months, which are what they were calling assigned or unassigned. So, assigned means, that they're already committed, that we already promised those monies. So, we actually have $37 million unassigned, and that's roughly 7% to 8% if we go by the expenses of this year. Now, the recommendation is that we stay with three months of operations for, again, a rainy day. But we are at 7% to 8% of that, and so that was for a rainy day. of that, and so

135that was for a rainy day. of that, and so that was for a rainy day. of that, and so that was for a rainy day. And so, and so that was for a rainy day. That was a concern earlier when I said we should have waited until now, not because I don't support programs, but also right now Ms. Quintanilla mentioned or was talking about those expenses that are already assigned. Those $5.3 million that were transferred out, what was the function that they were transferred to? Was it to construction or where did they go? Those went to the capital projects. So if you go to page 28, that's the statement of revenue, expenditures, changes of fund balance. The second column next to the general fund is capital projects. Okay, so it went to construction. It went

136to the construction, right, which most of that is the capital outlay for that fund. $6 million was spent there. So $5.3 million of our fund balance went to construction. With that, Dr. Elias, did we, the board approve it or can you please provide us information after this meeting? Because I don't want to waste time. And then also, Dr. Elias, I am concerned at the comment you made earlier that there are some expenses that you would rather not be, you know, having. So I'd like to get a report on that because you're the, you have the authority and you're the one that makes the decisions on how those are made. And so, okay, it's a time. That's two minutes, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else have a couple? Yeah, I guess. Yeah,

137and just to clarify for the public, you mentioned that we have about two and a half months, I think, of operating expenses as a balance. Correct, yeah. Based on the total fund balance of 94.2. And usually we're supposed to be at around three months. Correct. I mean, three years. Or three months. Three months. But my concern, and Dr. Elias, maybe you can delineate a little bit on this. So we have some expenses that we have taken care of ahead of those funds being transferred or provided back to our budget. Is that correct? Correct. And just to clarify also, TA only requires 75 days, not 90 days. Yeah. So it's not three months. Right. That's correct. So I'm just trying to clarify that. Yes. So if I'm not mistaken, my question to you is, it's not

138as bleak as a report is. It's going to be painted out to be. We're solvent in regards to taking care of our district in regards to staff, just like Dr. Elias just said, but there are some accounting requirements that we have to make that haven't been taken care of. For example, the buses are prepaid and some other areas. So that's what I was trying to get at. Yes. Yes. Does anybody have any other comments? I'm going to chime in with you. Sure. Beautiful move there. This one? Administration. It looks like that. Is it showing already? Go ahead and click to the first one. And what I'm going to share right now is based on the expenses that the district had. And when we look at those 11.7 million that we are currently... We are currently...

139That we are currently supposedly deficient. But let me clarify how this came about. So here we're looking at two charter buses, 788,000 that was paid out. And of course, this was paid out in the 24-25 school year. Then let's go to the next page. This is the next one. We ordered 20 buses, and these were ordered... Ordered in 22. So these are buses that, again, buses that we received in 24-25, and this expense, we're also looking at 1.4, almost 1.5 million here in buses. And this was approved by the board. And then again, this is to answer Senate Bill 546. We are moving towards having all our buses to have seat belts. The expense... Can you mute? Can you mute? Because it's echoing, Dr. Davalos. Are we good? Okay. So the expense that we're making

140here is to comply with Senate Bill 546. And if we don't continue to purchase buses, then guess what? We have to rehabilitate those buses that we still have. And each rehabilitation is costly. We're looking at anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 per bus. So why not continue to purchase new buses that are going to meet the requirement? And yes, it's an expense that comes out of the fund balance, but at the end of the day, are we complying with what TEA wants? Yes, we're going to comply. It's student safety that comes first always. And then again, this was approved by the board. Let's move on to the next item. Here we're still looking at... We're still two buses out of 10 more that we ordered. Two are still pending. So those will come... Those will come

141in and be paid in the 25-26 school year. So again, that's going to come out of our fund balance for $301,000. The other eight school buses we paid for, which is almost $1.2 million there. And then it adds up to $1.5 million. That's another expense that we did in more buses. So to me, we're doing the right thing. The board is doing the right thing by approving these expenses. We still have... We still have the 75 days and we meet TEA requirement. Let's move to the next one. The SHARS. Everybody knows that we charge Medicaid. These are services that are provided through the district for our students. Now, SHARS is not reimbursing. And this is across the state of Texas. Everybody is in the same situation where we're not getting reimbursed. Last year, we didn't

142get reimbursed almost the same amount, almost $2.4 million. This year, we're looking at $2.6 million that we did not get reimbursed. So one of the things that we're taking action in the finance department is that I've talked to Ms. Gonzalez that we're not going to count with this money anymore. To me, we're not getting it. But yet, we have to provide these services for the students. We're doing the right thing as a district. But then again, it has to come from somewhere. This is money that is well spent because, again, it's going back to the students. It's not that it's going into a project or anything like that. Let's move on to the next one. Now, the sale of the property. The property, the $7.3 million, we could not record it in this past year.

143Even though the board approved it, everything was approved, but the closing was one week short. We closed September 7th. The actual year for Snapshot closes. It closes on August 31st. So by one week, we missed it. And rightfully so. The auditors are telling us this belongs in this school year. So this is where it's going to get recorded. So we're $7.3 million short in last year. So once you add the shards, the buses, and this, let's go on to the next one, we're looking at fund balance expenditures with the buses and the shards. That's $6. million right there. And then the property that we were not able to record, but yet we accounted with expenses, but we were not able to record it. Now it's going to be recorded in this coming year. That's $7.3

144million. That if we would have added that, once you add them together, really we're looking at, we could have put into our deposit and to our fund balance $1.5 million. But because we couldn't record the land, we couldn't deduct. We couldn't deduct that from there. So these are factors that come into play. But as a district, I can tell you we're still healthy. We're still in a good situation. This year, now you're going to say, no, we have $7.3 million extra. We have an excess. That's what everybody's going to say. Let's give X amount now or do X amount of projects or let's do, no. Because this was from the previous year that we accounted with. And that's the reason that, we're there. We're in the picture that we're in right now. But if we

145go to the next one. This is just to give you all a snapshot. Snapshot of August 31st. That's when the accounting, the accounting that they do is for a full year, but they close it August 31st. That's where, when our fiscal year ends as a district. So we ended up with 94, 94 million. If you look at February 20th, our fund balance had $115 million. So were we short or were we okay? But then again, now you look at it, we just paid out. We paid all our staff. Payday, of course, started today. So as of today, our fund balance is not showing $115 million. It's actually showing now $92 million. Why is that? Well, now we got to wait for the state to reimburse us back. And then we do the following pay the

146following month. So it's like a debit card, or we should say like a checkbook where money comes in, money goes out. So the fund balance is never going to dictate what a district is. As long as you hold the 75 days that TA wants you to hold, then you're okay. The district is okay. But the expenses, it's fluctuating. One week we could be at 90. The other week we could go drop. When we pay TIA, guess where it comes from? TIA, $32 million. Where does it come from? It comes from the fund balance. So when we pay out those $32 million, and we have a payday, a payday is $23 million for this district to pay our staff. So you add those two up, and it lands together. Well, guess what? You're just almost, it's

14723 plus the 32. So that's 50, 55 million? 55 million that we pay out in one day. Guess where it comes from? The fund balance. And then guess what? We pay it early in June. We're cutting ourselves short because if we want to pay it out early for the sake of the staff, we want them to enjoy their summer. Then come September, that's when we get those $32 million back. We'll get reimbursed for the payday by TA, which is $22, $23 million, but not the $32 million. That's till September. So guess what? It's a whole quarter that we're cutting short on interest that we could have earned as a district. But we're always going to do what's right for our staff. And you all have selected to do that as a board. So again, we're

148always going to do what's right for our staff. And yes, it's a fluctuating system. But at the end of the day, do we still hold the 75 days that TA wants us to hold? Yes, we do. And probably a little more. So we are, in all cases, we're not in a good situation. We're not. And yes, the picture is painted differently. But when you look at those numbers, we bought buses, we paid out shards, which we have to, because those are services that our students need. And then this year, we record the 7.3. So we're in an okay situation. We're not. And then this is to show you a picture. Yesterday, as of Friday, we were at $115 million. But now, you're minus $23 million of pay that we just did today. So that gets

149minus from there. So it's always fluctuating. We pay out something, comes back, gets deducted, and it's like a checkbook. That's what it is. Thank you. Mr. President, since this item was not on the agenda, do we have an end? He was allowed to speak. Do we have the same? I'm speaking to the board president. It's not the same item. I did not receive any of this information, Mr. President, in our board packet, which we should have. We didn't. You did? Because I did not. No, nobody did. Okay. Thank you. So that's what I'm asking you. Because I had not seen this information. This was a presentation to explain what we're in right now, which I think was very needed. We cannot ask questions. What I'm asking is, so we're not going to be able to

150ask questions about the budget that impacts our entire community and is of interest to our entire taxpaying community? I'm simply asking. Because this is brand new information that was presented to us. Okay. Thank you. It's on the... I'm speaking to the board president. I'm speaking to Mr. Jonathan. Is it all in here? Well, if you're referring to the slides that were just up there, right? The fund balance, is it all in here? Am I correct? Up to August 31st. Yeah, for August 31st, 2025. Yes. Correct. All right. Thank you. Okay. So no questions, Mr. President, regarding the new information that was presented. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. You're a speaker. We can hear you. Well,

151it's because you guys, can you hear me? Yes. We can hear you. We can hear you. Yeah. If you need to unblock me, because then I am being discriminated. It's not fair that I cannot participate. I was not making noises or anything. If they're static, it's not my problem. I don't have anything here that's making noise. But I agree with Ms. Quintanilla. We cannot have a presentation out of the blue and talk about this. If these buses were ordered in 2022, where's the money? You know, we have questions about this. I appreciate the clarification, but obviously, Dr. Elias, you were prepared to present this. So I think it's only fair that we get the opportunity to ask on behalf of our constituents. It's not fair. It's not fair also that you block me when you're

152having a discussion and I cannot participate. Ms. Gutierrez, if I may, please. The reason that you were muted was because there was an echo here in the meeting here. So we were hearing double voices, and that's why. But it wasn't because to cut you off. By law, you're supposed to provide me with every accommodation because you made the situation happen. You guys voted on a vote. You guys voted on a vote. You guys voted on a vote. You guys voted on a vote. You guys voted on a vote. So I'm supposed to get every accommodation. You block me. Sometimes I'm here like a clown going like this, trying to get your attention. I'm knocking. I have to call Dr. Davalos. And I can't hear. Sometimes this freezes. I cannot see the images. I'm not getting

153the same experience as every other board member. So that's discrimination. And also, again, this presentation came out of the blue. And we should. We should all get an opportunity to ask questions and make comments. Thank you, Ms. Gutierrez. Mr. Rodriguez. Go ahead, Mr. Rodriguez. You're allowing him to speak again? Again? Well, you just did. You're allowing him to speak again. If you allow him, then you can allow me. We are still on item C. The only board members who still have time to speak are Ms. Castillo, Mr. Rodriguez, and Ms. Fadon. Every other trustee has already used their time on this item. Bye-bye. Ms. Castillo. So I'm assuming in order to the charge last year, we have people assuming that you're not going to get period. Period, yes. You have a comment? Oh, I can.

154I can make a comment. From what I understand here, basically, I mean, there was a presentation. And I guess how we interpreted, based on your presentation, sir, was that we were in a deficit. And I think having gone to the public to explain, you know, so that we don't leave bad vibes out there, that we are in a deficit like some of the surrounding school districts, that I think that was something that needed to be done. You know, understandably, we did not get that. But there was an explanation. So I don't see that that had any wrong to it. No, because our community needs to know that we're not in a deficit. We don't want anybody to go out there scared and trying to figure out what's going on. You know, so that explanation, I

155think, if we needed to see it, then, I mean, we did not see it. But we understood. I mean, after this presentation was made, you know, we understood. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Exactly. Absolutely. It was very clear to me where it was coming from or where this report had us thinking it was going, and it wasn't. So that was my comment. I don't see anything wrong with it. All right. You do have a $94.2 million fund balance, positive fund balance, right? So, yeah. We're healthy right now. Right. So. All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your presentation. If I may, there's a board certificate that I think Ms. Gonzalez, has that will need to be signed, but be taken care of at some point

156later in the evening. Okay. I need approval for the district's audit report. Also moved. Moved by Mr. Villegas. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion take the paper raised in the right hand. All those against? Motion passes. Next item. Yes, Mr. President. We moved to school operations and it's approved the master open-end vehicle lease agreement between PSJA, ISD and the commercial vehicle leasing and this will be presented by Mr. Rafael Gonzalez from operations. Hello again. We didn't again. I don't have a presentation. It was more of a summary, but again this agreement is for us in an attempt to to renew our or bring up to par our vehicles or white vehicles. This agreement specifically is for us as a district. So that's any department to be

157able to engage in a lease with this company. We did have again for the best value. We had a DNM as the company that we chose that gave us the best value for what we were getting in vehicles. And so we're going to continue to continue to do that. If you have any questions. I have a question, Mr. President. What is the estimated annual cost compared to purchasing vehicles? So right now and I'll speak specifically to maintenance because this agreement is for any department, but an average of truck is anywhere between 40 and $50,000. With this agreement, we are looking at leasing 10 vehicles. At an average of $40,000. So that's an annual cost of about $94,000. So it's about if you break it break it up monthly. Now, I will say that these vehicles

158are already retrofitted to what our staff needs. So it could be cargo vans that already have ladder racks, you know, trucks that have lifts, trucks that have utility boxes. And so that's already included. And of course, the maintenance of these vehicles for the term is also included. So that's already included. So that's already included. So that's already included. So that again is a savings to our district. But yeah, right now vehicles... So it's worth it? Absolutely, yes. So my second question is, what is open and lease? What does that refer to? So I know that it's an agreement with the district so that again any department can use it. Now, because we're a district, we're also able to get out of the agreement. And I know that there's some terms in there. I want to

159say it's three to six months that we have to give them ahead of time. So we have an out, right, in case the product is not what it promised to be. I see. Thank you. Anybody else? I'd like to make a motion. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Villegas. I have a motion by Mr. Villegas for approval. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Barron. All those for the motion, 655, raising the right hand. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Next item. Yes, Mr. President, we move to Human Resources, Letter A, Discussion and Possible Action regarding Texas Senate Bill 11, 89th Legislature on Prayer and Procedures for the 25-26 school year. This will be presented by Dr. Garza for me. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the Board, and Dr. Elias. So tonight before you, we have

160Senate Bill 11, which is focusing on daily prayer time. And this is part of the if you could go to page, keep going, that one, thank you. So this is part of the 2025-89 Texas Legislature. It passes Senate Bill 11, which authorizes school districts and open enrollment charters to create a period of prayer, reading of the Bible, or other religious texts for students and employees. And the requirements of the Senate Bill is that it contains an entirely optional framework for periods of prayer. School boards may choose to adopt a period of prayer or not, and the students and the employees can attend a period of prayer if they sign a consent form. There's no penalty for not adopting a period of prayer, but there is one part of the bill that is not optional for

161school boards. And that is to make the choice itself. So section 3 of the Senate Bill states that the school board must vote on whether to adopt a period of prayer policy or not by March the 1st, 2026. So the law does not specify the penalty for not approving, but it does stipulate that you must vote on this. So if you should decide that, you would want to approve this. And obviously, there's no time limit. We would work with TASB to create this policy. But we do need to have you adopt or just make a vote on this. On the Senate Bill. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion. I have a motion. I'd like to make a motion to opt out of Senate Bill 11. I have a motion by Ms. Barron, second

162by Mr. Villegas. All those for the motion, second. I have a question. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ms. Gutierrez. Go ahead, Ms. Gutierrez. Okay, there's a lot of static. What is the motion for? To approve it, that we're going to opt out. To opt out of Senate Bill 11. Okay, then we're going to opt out of prayer, correct? Yes. That's my motion, Ms. Gutierrez. Yes, but I can't hear what the motion is. Yeah, the motion was to opt out of Senate Bill 11 on the prayer. Yes. Okay, so we stay the same way we are. People have the freedom to pray before our deer with clubs. They can form clubs and all that, correct? Exactly. Just like it is right now. To be in compliance, we have to do a vote. Right. That's what we're doing,

163to be in compliance. But to answer your question, yes, the only way we can opt out is that you essentially would keep the same policies and procedures that you have in place regarding prayer in the school district. Yes. Thank you, you answered my question as well. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you. Okay, I had a motion and a second. All those for the motion, second by raising right hand. I'm sorry, you are required to take a roll call vote on this item, so rather than a second, I'll take a second. I made the motion. I seconded Capo Villegas. No, they're saying the vote yes or no. Yes, so they've made the motion in the second, so everybody else needs to state yes or no on the record, one by one. One by one.

164With our names too? Yes, so you can just call Mr. Board President each board member by name, and they'll state yes or no on the record. Okay. Ms. Quintanilla? Yes. Me, yes. Mrs. Gutierrez? Ms. Gutierrez, yes or no? Yes. Yes, okay. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay, next item. The next item is letter B, and this is approved ratification of the employment of instructional professional personnel for the 2025-2026 school year. Okay. So, what we're doing is we're ratifying the professional employees that the board had given me authority to hire during the summer and during the span that I was given, and this is just to ratify them again, even though they're already on board, so we're just going to be bringing them every six months and getting them ratified. I have a question, Mr. President. In

165approving this ratification, does that include if there are any other issues that we need to address, or is there any other issues that we need to address? Members of the superintendent or board members, families of the board members, is that what we're ratifying their hire? Yes or no? I don't have a list of the names, but I don't know. I have one in mind if I can bring it up, if allowed. No, purple. So, council. We can do council. We can take it to executive session and then they can look at the list there. My suggestion is going to be if there are specific names that want to be discussed that we would take that into executive session. I'm in agreement with that. Okay, so I need a motion to move this item to executive

166session. So moved. Moved by Ms. Barron. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those in the motion, six and five, I raise up your right hand. Nay. Motion nay to move it to executive. I'm sorry, yes. Okay, motion passed to Ms. Gutierrez. Not there. Okay, she's not there. All right, so we're moving that to executive session. Okay, next item. Next item, but before the session, that's for this. Oh, okay. Just want to let you all know that before we go into executive session, Mrs. Diana Serna wasn't able to be here today because of illness. So she is not here today. She went down the record. 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 close, in

167a closed meeting, the board will conduct a closed meeting in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Texas Government Code Chapter 551, Subchapters D and E, or Texas Government Code Session 418.183F. Before any closed meeting is convened, the presiding officer will publicly identify the section of sections of the act authorizing the closed meeting. All final votes, actions, or decisions will be taken in open meeting according to the PSD IED Board Policy, B.C. local. Okay, and we are going to executive session at 9.07 PM. Good, good. Okay, we're back from executive session at 9.50 PM, and we'll run into our item. Council, we just read the item line again? Yes, the item under human resources item B that was taken to executive. You'll start with that one. Okay, so human resources item B, approved ratification of

168the employment of instructional professional personnel for the 25-26 period. So moved. Moved by Mr. Villegas. Can I have a second? I second the motion. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion for approval, signify by raising your right hand. Aye. All those against, same sign. All those against, same sign. And one against. I'm sorry, how about Dr. Gutierrez? Oh, she's not online. And she was just on the phone right now. Mr. Davalos. We don't have Ms. Gutierrez online. She wasn't. Yeah, she just texted. She's technical. Can you hear us, Ms. Gutierrez? Yes, I can hear you. Okay, we just voted on the approval of the ratification for the ratification of employment of instructional professional personnel. Lost her again. You got it, Mr. Davalos? Oh, okay, we're waiting to reconnect with Ms. Gutierrez. We just

169needed her yes or no, right? Can you hear us, Ms. Gutierrez? I can. Okay. I don't know why it's dropping. It went off and then trying to get you back. We were voting on the approval or the ratification of employment of instructional professional personnel for the 2025-26 school year. Okay, we needed your yes or no. Nay. Nay. Okay, so it's a no. Yes, it's not against the staff the fact that it's ratification. Okay. Okay. Okay, everybody voted that motion passes. Next item. Mr. President, the next item is the athletic coordinator head football coach for PSJA Early College High School and seeking approval for the recommendation and it's Horacio Garza. Sir? Do you have a motion for approval? Motion by Mr. Chiviegas. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Barron. All those for the

170motion signify by raising your right hand. Aye. All those against, same sign. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Okay, motion passes. That's it, right? Okay, I need a motion for adjournment. Motion to adjourn. Moved by Ms. Quintanilla. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Castillo. All those for the motion, signify by raising your right hand. Motion passes. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Is Horacio?