School Board Meeting: August 18, 2025

001A regular school board meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Far San Juan Aloha Independent School District is being held today, Monday, August the 18th, 2025, beginning at 6.02 p.m. at PSJA Early College High School, 805 West Ridge Road, San Juan, Texas, 78589. Welcome everyone in attendance and welcome to those at home via the live streaming. We'll start off with Trustee Yolanda Casib. You can lead us in the pledge. And Trustee Secretary Ramona, lead us in the prayer. 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. Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to be present today. As we begin a new school year, we ask you, Lord, to protect

002and bless our students, teachers, and staff. Lord, today we also ask that you guide us through each item on the agenda and that our approvals or disapprovals today be based on what is in the best interest of students, teachers, staff, and our Tri-City community. In your mighty name we pray. Proceed. Yes, Madam President, we have under item three recognitions, we have PSJA North Raider Band Advances to State in Honor Band Competition, and this will be presented by Mr. Tater. Madam President, Dr. Leis, members of the board, thank you for giving the Fine Arts Department this opportunity to recognize the outstanding achievements of our fine arts students. Thank you also for your continued support of our fine arts programs. In the spring, the PSJ North Early College High School Raider Band submitted an audio recording in

003Texas Music Educators Association Honor Band Competition. After being named the Valley Honor Band representative, the band advanced to the area competition where they came in first place among all of the bands south of San Antonio, which entitled them to advance to the state competition. The state competition was held in San Antonio in July. The Raider Band placed among the top 18 5A bands in the state. This is the first time in over 40 years that a PSJA ISD band has advanced the state in honor band competition. Representing the Raider Band tonight are drum majors Julian Covarrubias, Adam Osano, and Edward Narvaez, accompanied by head band director Jeremy Rowe. Congratulations PSG North band students and directors. To the PSJA North Raider band, congratulations. Mr. Taylor was just sharing with me that he did mention that it's

004been 40 years, but he shared with me that the last time PSJ got this was when Pete Cisneros was the band director in the late 70s, I believe, in the 70s. So that is amazing. There's no words. Your hard work, your efforts just pay off. Are you coming back? Are they seniors? Are they coming back? Okay, good. So yes, just congratulations and know how very, very proud, I can't see them. Know how very proud we are of you. I know it takes a lot. Band just takes a lot, a lot of practice and a lot of determination. It just takes so, so much strenuous effort. So again, just, we are so, so proud of you. I don't know how else to put it. Ms. Diaz, I'm sure you are. Thank you so much for representing

005PSJA so well and for once again putting us on that state map. Thank you. Yes, Madam President, we move to public comments. Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Elias and members of the board. At this time, we are on the agenda item of public comments. We do have several public comments. Before we invite the people to come and speak forward, I do have something to say. The PSJA Board of Trustees welcomes members of the community to speak on agenda items that will be voted on during the meeting. Members who signed up before the 5 p.m. deadline will be asked to speak in the order the form was received. If individuals sign 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

006the 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 his 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 that the Board of Trustees will not deliberate or enter into a dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting. If a member of the public causes disruption by his or her words or actions during the meeting and continues to do so after at least one warning, the presiding officer may request assistance from law enforcement officials for the individual to be removed from the meeting. The first person

007is Josefa Martinez, who will be speaking on the budget item on the agenda. Yes, ma'am. Good evening. My name is Josie Martinez and I am honored to speak tonight on behalf of our PSJA CTA president Velma Sanchez and the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, the largest teacher organization within PSJA ISD. We come before you not to grandstand nor to seek recognition for any race that may be granted. Our intent is simply to express our sincere appreciation and unwavering support for the leadership you continue to demonstrate in service to our educators, staff, and students. As members of TCTA, we advocate for the professional dignity and well-being of classroom teachers, fair professionals, counselors, coaches, CLLs, and nurses in our district. And here in PSJA ISD, we are proud to serve in a district where those values are not

008only acknowledged, but actively championed. Your actions over the years have consistently reflected a deep understanding of the essential role that teachers and staff play in shaping the future of our students and our community. We recognize that compensation is never just about numbers. It's about respect, acknowledgement, and the value placed on the work we do. Your past decisions regarding pay raises have been generous and thoughtful, and they've made a tangible difference in the lives of those who serve this district with dedication and heart. You've shown us that you see us, that you hear us, and that you believe in the importance of investing in the people who make our schools run. As you consider future decisions regarding compensation, we want to affirm our trust in your judgment and your commitment to doing what is right. We

009know that you will continue to prioritize the well-being of teachers and staff, just as you have done in the past. Your leadership has fostered a culture of respect, collaboration, excellence, one that makes PSJA ISD a place where educators feel empowered, supported, and proud to serve. On behalf of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association and the many educators we represent, thank you. Thank you for your continued support, for your thoughtful consideration, and for making this district a place where teachers and staff feel truly valued. We look forward to continuing our partnership with you as we work together to ensure that PSJA ISD remains a beacon of excellence, equity, and opportunity in public education. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Martinez. The next person is Ms. Emily Marroquin, who will also be speaking on the agenda item of the

010budget. Good evening. My name is Emily Marroquin and I'm honored to speak tonight in support of the board and superintendent's decision regarding teacher and staff raises. We know that leading a school district requires thoughtful consideration, careful planning, and a deep understanding of the needs of the entire community. We trust that once again, You will do what is right for our teachers, staff, and students. Your leadership has consistently reflected a commitment to fairness, compassion, and excellence, and we are grateful. We appreciate the time and care you've devoted to this matter. Your willingness to listen. evaluate and act in the best interest of your employees speaks volumes. It's only one of the many reasons we are proud to work for PSJA ISD, a district that not only prioritizes student achievement, but also values the people who make

011that success possible. The Texas State Teachers Association, along with the staff members we represent, wholeheartedly acknowledge and appreciate the support shown by the superintendent and school board. Your recognition of our work and your commitment to equitable compensation are deeply meaningful. It affirms that our voices are heard and that our contributions matter. Your past decisions have shown fiscal responsibility and strategic foresight. You've managed resources wisely, ensuring that both students and staff benefit from a well-balanced, sustainable budget. That kind of stewardship builds trust and stability, and it allows us to focus on what matters most, educating and supporting every child who walks through our doors. When teachers and staff feel seen and appreciated, morale rises. And when morale rises, so does the quality of our work. Your acknowledgement of our efforts through fair compensation and public support

012fosters a culture of pride, unity, and belonging. It creates a familial atmosphere across campuses and departments where we lift each other up and work together toward a shared mission. We are proud to be a part of a district that takes care of its own. We feel valued. We feel supported and we are confident that your continued leadership will keep PSJA ISD moving forward with strength and integrity. Thank you for your consideration and your unwavering commitment to the people who serve this community. Thank you, Ms. Marroquín. Thank you, Ms. Marroquín. The next person signed up for public comments is Mr. Hernan Cortes, who will also be speaking on the budget. Good evening, Madam President, Trustees, Dr. Elias. My name is Adnan Cortez, and I'm representing the Texas Classroom Teachers Association. On behalf of our members, I

013want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the incredible work being done across PSJA ISD. This district has consistently demonstrated what it means to be fiscally responsible while still prioritizing the well-being of its staff. PSJA has maintained high standards and ensured accountability through a balanced budget, an achievement that reflects true excellence. We understand that in any organization, there may be voices that seek to sow dissension or spread misinformation, but we believe and we know that the overwhelming majority of our staff at every level deeply appreciates how PSJA takes care of its family. Let's look at the facts. While other districts are struggling with declining enrollment, PSJA continues to serve approximately 30,000 students year after year. That stability is a testament to the trust our community places in us. When it comes to compensation, PSJA

014sets the bar. From competitive salaries to holiday stipends for hourly employees, this district has consistently led the way. Our turnover rate is unmatched. This year we welcomed only about 18 new teacher hires. That's nearly unheard of and speaks volume about the culture and commitment within our schools. PSJA is where educators want to be. We also want to recognize the outstanding work of our human resources team. Their efforts in providing leadership training for administrative development have strengthened our district from the inside out. Their persistence in securing teacher incentive allotment funds has brought in approximately $50 million. That's not just impressive, it's transformative. And let's not forget our academic achievements. PSJA earned a TEA rating of 87, placing us well above many surrounding districts. That success is driven by incredible teachers and staff who go above and

015beyond every single day for our students. So tonight, let's reject negativity. Let's stand tall and proud because we are PSJA. And that means excellence, unity, and heart. Congratulations to us all. Thank you, Mr. Cortez. The next person signed up for public comments is Mr. Michael Sweet, who will also be speaking on the budget. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Elias and community members. My name is Michael Sweet, and I'm a retired member with PSJA ATPE Local. I want to begin by saying that I had some reservations about coming forward to ask for teacher pay raises. Because the truth is PSJA has consistently done more for its staff than other districts around us. Time and again this board has surprised me with how much you accomplish while still protecting a balanced budget. You have proven

016that you will always put staff in the best position possible within what is allowable. While other districts are struggling with unbalanced budgets, reducing staff, and consolidating campuses, PSJA stands strong. And that is something we should never take for granted. The facts speak for themselves. PSJ has never had a reduction in force. Our leadership team and Dr. Elias have worked tirelessly to maintain equity across all campuses, protecting jobs and ensuring stability for our families. Year after year, PSJ sets a standard of accountability, operating with a balanced budget while still moving forward. Taxpayer rates have gone down. Our bond rating remains strong. And now with the upcoming 60 million bond where the state will pay nearly half, PSJ is not only positioned to strengthen our schools, but to potentially lower the tax rate. That is a win-win

017for our students, for our staff, and for our taxpayers. But more than numbers, what sets PSJ apart is leadership. Under Dr. Elias, the district has shown compassion for staff, resilience through challenges, and the wisdom to know that a balanced budget is not just necessary. It is essential to building a strong future. That is why PSJA continues to be a leader across Texas. And so I say this, negativity does not build schools and doubt does not educate children. Hope does. Leadership does. Unity does. PSJA has proven time and again that we are not just any district. We are the district others look to for an example. So let us stand together, informed and confident. Let us be proud of what this board, this superintendent, and the community have accomplished. And let us keep moving forward, not

018with fear, not with doubt, but with faith, resolve, and pride. Because PSJA just doesn't prepare students for the future. PSJA shapes the future. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sweet. The next person signed up is Ms. Chris Sanchez, who will be speaking on item 10A, a level three grievance. Madam President, Dr. Elias, my name is Chris Sanchez. I am a former employee of PSJA School District. I am speaking on agenda item XA3C. It concerns my level three grievance appeal regarding two grievances that were consolidated for tonight's agenda. I understand that the board has made a policy to prevent me and my advocates to present my grievance appeal to be reinstated to my previous position with the school district. My grievance is to be heard in closed session without myself or my advocates to present why I

019should be reinstated to my previous job with the district. Also, I am requesting that my hearing be held in open public under the Texas Open Meetings Act that I have the right to do according to the Texas legislator. When my grievance is called for tonight's agenda, I request that the board will allow myself and my advocates to present as the majority of the school districts in this state allow the employees to do. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. The next person signed up is Miss Christina Young who will be speaking on the budget. Good afternoon. PSJAFT, along with other local affiliates and our statewide affiliate at Texas AFT, fought long and hard during the 88th legislative session. Specifically, our union pushed to add the $500 million to HB2 designated specifically for support

020staff, paraprofessionals, and non-classroom employees. We made thousands of phone calls, mass email, letters, and sent members to testify. Many of our PSJA family members, including our custodial staff, and Paris spent their spring break on a bus to the capital to advocate for more money for our public schools. We did our part. Today you have the opportunity, nay, the responsibility to do yours and value these hardworking hourly employees through actions and not just words on social media posts. As president of PSJAFT and a staff member myself still in the classroom, during my conversations with state legislators, I remembered my coworkers who transport our most precious cargo home, not only daily, but during the most stressful event of last year's historical flood. I saw the most patient, caring faces of my coworkers, paraprofessionals who work in our

021life skills units, providing care to our most vulnerable students. My coworkers who worked all summer moving teachers' classrooms, waxing floors, getting our schools ready for the years ahead. Our office staff who were the first faces our community sees, welcoming them as they walk into our schools. Our security guards who stay late to ensure our schools are safe during extracurricular events. During last year's budget approval, in an unprecedented move, our school district leadership came before this very podium to stress and remind the community of the importance of a balanced, responsible budget. As a taxpayer in this community, I agree and I appreciate the sentiment. However, the board then turned around and passed the highest wages increase to our top earning salary holders, not those in the trenches, say our teachers or our lowest paid employees, which

022did not seem to align with the message presented to the community. Additionally, last year's 3% across the board was concerning as the data showed that two years prior, PSJA Central Admin were already making 7% more than they were in 2010, while support staff was at 7.79% less and paras were at over 8% less. Again, let me reiterate, this was two years ago. The gap has since grown with the continuation of across the board wages. And yes, the state has given our district certain alarmants. up to 5,000, the state. As I'm sure you've seen, neighboring districts have gone above to compensate staff. As we've seen, class numbers have increased. CTE leaders worked has increased. Counselors worked has increased. 500 million we pushed and fought for include fair wages for all. We trust the board will make

023a decision which reflects an all-in approach. We just wanted to stress the urgency of the inequality amongst the hourly staff and ask you to provide them with the higher... percentage increase rather than a flat across the board, which results in leaving our most beloved members of our PSJ family behind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next person signed up is Ms. Belinda Alamia. However, we are asking her to specify which agenda items she wishes to speak on. Her form does not state Ms. Belinda Alamia. Okay, pursuant to the statement I provided at the beginning, her name was called and she is not here so her submission will be violated, voided, sorry. And then the last person signed up for public comments is Ms. Sarah Cabrera. However, our deadline is 5 p.m. before the meeting starts.

024Her public comment submission was submitted at 5.06 so she will not be allowed to speak for the policy. And that concludes public comments. Thank you. Yes, Madam President, we move to item five, consent agenda items, and sticking approval. Mr. Yates? As I understand it, were there any requests to withdraw any item of consent? I would like to request... to remove, even though I did speak to the superintendent about this, there were some questions that were left unanswered or people that did not get back to me in addition to some information that I've just been provided. So if allowed, Madam President. That's what I was asking. We know what the protocol is, as I understand, if it's not submitted by five o'clock. then we can't accept it. That is correct. Pursuant to your board operating procedures,

025if any trustee wished to pull an item out of consent, they were required to contact Dr. Elias by 5 p.m. on Friday. So I did contact Dr. Elias, and he did not provide the, at the time, he didn't have the information available. So I believe that if it's not being provided, I mean, if y'all just want to keep me from talking, that's fine. Council. Well, that is correct. Correct. Uh, madam president, this is not up for debate. The board, the board operating procedures are clear that you had to contact Dr. Elias by 5 PM. At that point, contact was made with Dr. Elias. At this point, um, we would be violating policy if we pulled anything out of the consent agenda. Well, then proceed to that rule. I'll make a motion to accept the consent

026agenda. I raise my hand. Okay. Go ahead. Yes, so I just want to say, Ms. Shelby, legal, if you're going to follow protocol, then Ms. Serna needs to be the one making the decision, not Mr. Villegas. So he asked his question, and it is up to Ms. Serna to be the one doing that. And like Ms. Quintanilla said, if you want us to keep, you know, from questions, we can still discuss these with the community. Well, based on council's advice, I did say, then we're not going to have it. We're going to move on. And then a motion. So there has been a motion by Mr. Villegas. We would need a second. There's a motion on the floor to accept consent agenda items. Is there a second? Seconded by Ms. Bazan. I'm sorry, Ms. Barron.

027And I do want to comment that... I wish to vote for all consent agenda items except one, which is, as I've done for almost three years now, I abstain from item VA1F4, trophies, plaques, and medals. So those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Aye. Four in favor? One against. And yours? I already said again. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I cannot hear you. Trustee Gutierrez to be present pursuant to the open meetings act. Your audio and video does have to be on the entire duration of the meeting. Okay. Your vote. I already voted four times. No against me. Okay. So two, against four in favor and one abstention motion carries. Yes. Madam president, we move on to item seven under superintendent of schools approved the delegate and alternate to the 2025 ASPE delegate assembly. Do I hear

028any nominations? Yes, according to to the readings on this item I understand that in the past and I don't know if we're gonna continue to practice that that the president and the vice presidents are the nominees Okay, you accept sir? Second that as president vice president mr. Rodriguez and I will represent the PSA in that test be all in favor, raise your right hand. All opposed. I don't see her. One opposed. Six in favor. Motion carries. Yes, Madam President under item B discussion and possible action to name the new press box at the PSJ stadium. A discussion. Can we open up the discussion? I have my hand raised. Go ahead. Yes. I would like to... i would like to have more discussion in this i mean i can either make a motion after the discussion

029but i would like to recommend that we get uh the uh the input of the community i understand the policy that you so kindly highlighted so that we know that the superintendent has the freedom to choose somebody uh to name it but i would like to have the input of the community or the uh mr villegas provide his resume his education um and what uh her policy what is the what did he bring to the table what is his um what we're giving the name to this press box for. So I'd like to get more information and if possible, Dr. Elias, allow the community to nominate themselves. I understand why you're doing this, but I think it's always good and transparent to allow the community to nominate people that have worked very hard and have

030lived. and impact lasting impact and education. Perhaps the background of Mr. Villegas where he has worked. I understand that he was a veteran or something like that. So, you know, all those things so that we can, so that they can be brought to the table and discuss. So that's all I wanted to say. If I can add to this, as far as I would like to hear Dr. Elias find like what, in addition to what was, what we read, what was the process? How did you get to this nomination? It's the first time I hear of it again, you know, and I hear of it right here. Obviously Mr. Villegas knew because he submitted his own nomination and I assume Dr. Elias is just. you know, they're proposing it to us. So I would like

031to know, Dr. Elias, what was the process? How did you come to nominate Mr. Villegas? And kind of reiterating what Dr. Gutierrez said is what is the lasting impact? I personally don't know Mr. Villegas' history, so I would like to know what is the impact? Maybe there are scholarships that I'm not aware of. Maybe he's... Run some food back up some sort Contribute stuff to our Athletic Department. I don't know. So if you could just share with us your your process for nomination The policy is stating it very clearly. Mm-hmm and it's right there that the superintendent has the discretion to nominate So at this point, because we did remodel all our press boxes and we don't have many people that have sat up there and given their time to be announcers at that press

032box for 30 years. So to me, this is something that somebody has to work hard at. And I know that Dr. Cynthia Gutierrez mentioned about other educators, but they're not announcers. This is about the press box. We're not naming a school. We're not naming a building. We're naming a press box, not the stadium. Ms. Gutierrez, you have already commented on this. In order to be solicited for this press box naming. you had to have been an announcer or done something with the press box for X amount of years. So to me, the right choice is to have somebody that has announced and done a lot of free pro bono for the sake of our district. And to me, that says that Carlos Villegas has done this for over 30 years. Would you like to comment,

033sir? Well, it's kind of embarrassing simply because I, First started announcing when 1989. It came as a surprise at that time to me because I was sort of thrust into the press box to announce because our announcer had left the district. And I remember it was Gil Goss telling me at that time to just come over as head coach for the Bears and ask me. Would you like to take over announcing duties? And I said, that's a joke. I said, yes. Lo and behold, come Friday night and the Bears are playing, but he calls me at 12 o'clock, make sure you report to the press box by 5.30 or so. I said, for what? Because I thought all along it was a joke. But nonetheless, he convinced me in 1989, and 30 years later, I

034was still announcing. And I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of fabulous matches at PSJA, worked with a lot of good people in the press box, because it takes a family to operate the press box in the public announcement. I did it with about six superintendents. my tenure is 30 years, so I'm real proud of the work that I did. But I must refute something that one of my colleague board members just said here that I nominated myself, which is absolutely incorrect. You're very mistaken as far as I'm concerned. It's good. Dania. I did nominate myself. I saw that it's not up for debate Do you have your time? He's he's got his he wrote it in first person So mr. Villegas time has expired. Okay, miss Quintanilla has already spoken on this agenda

035item So now if there's another trustee who has not spoken they are available to discuss this agenda item. Thank you I will I just have a comment I think that the name has to reflect the unity, tradition and excellence. And I have no problem with your nomination. If Dr. Elias and you spend 30 years doing this, I don't have a problem. I will support it. I appreciate that. Do you have anything to say? Actually not. I used to go to all football games and I remember him constantly doing the football games. So other than him, I don't think that maybe the one that's doing it now is the only one I know besides him. So like Ms. Castillo said, I don't have any problems. I think he served his purpose. I think he did his

036job very well. And I think he should be nominated. And approved. I also agree because I went as a teacher and administrator, I was always going to the football games to support my campus or support any family members, whatever. And I was, I heard his voice. I always look forward to hearing his voice. So I don't have a problem with that either. Thank you. I need to comment that. When he said 89, I was surprised because I really thought it was even further back. I just remember my kids being very, very young and Mr. Villegas was already announcing and he did it with such class and he did it with such poise and more than 30 years is a long time at one type of service and I applaud you for it because that's a

037long time to serve and I wholeheartedly agree that we should. Go with this. Thank you. So I hear a motion. Can the superintendent finish explaining the process? It was cut off. We're ready for a motion. I motion that we accept the nomination of Carlos Villegas Jr. And I second the motion. I'm going to add there's an initial right. Carlos G. Villegas Jr. Carlos G. Villegas Jr. There is a motion on the floor to name the press box in honor of our board of trustee member Carlos G. Villegas. Do I second the motion? Yeah, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Two noes and five yes. I just want to thank all of you. I appreciate it. It means a lot. You've earned it, sir. Yes, Madam President, we move to

038item C, approve resolution authorizing membership in the South Texas School Board Association. Questions on that? Go ahead. I received a letter from Region 1, and I want to make sure... that Mr. Cortez, Ruben Cortez is a good friend of all of us. He reached out to us at the island. But I have questions on that. Region 1 obviously has concerns, some concerns when they send us a letter stating that it's not associated in any way with them. And also it's not associated with TASB. It's separate. It's $20,000, and it's very significant. I want to know, what are we getting in return? What is it that this association is going to do for the school district, especially for the students, which is the purpose why we're here? I want to know who the board members of

039the organization are. And I just need more information about this item. So I would like to have those things clarified before we move forward so that we can make an informed decision. $20,000 per year is a lot, and I have no problem voting for it. It's just that we have to make sure that... we clear those parts, especially because we received a letter from Region 1, which is the region that we belong to. The other floor. Anybody else? Yes, I mean it's I don't know is anybody gonna reply to Dr. Gutierrez. What are we getting for the $20,000? We'll let you do your thing and because that way when everybody's done, you know, you can comment that we all get our two minutes Okay, so that's what I'm saying What what is membership to this

040South Texas School Board Association is and why is TASB? I think I had asked at the last board meeting And according to the superintendent, TASB is providing all the services and all the guidance that we need. So I'd like to know why are we now paying additional membership to South Texas school board association? Okay. Anybody else? Any other questions? I don't know if Dr. Elias wants to comment on that. Well, do you have anything you want? No, I don't want to say anything. This is a newly forming association. And of course, It's going to represent just like TASP represents throughout the state. This one will be representing the South area. So it would be a voice for all of the Region 1 area and actually not just the Region 1, but it extends a little

041further what we call the South Texas area. So it's a newly forming association that would have a voice for us, a voice for... Everybody down here in the Rio Grande Valley area. I know many districts have already joined and Right now it's you join in but it doesn't necessarily mean that they have a board already set that's why when you go out there to this on September the 11th through the 14th, I believe that there's a Conference that board members are going to that's where they're gonna be able to vote and it would be the president and the vice president that represent once we initiate into it and then they would be the ones selecting the board members there. So we could actually have some of our own board members representing and being part of

042this board also. Council, I don't know if you wanna add anything to it. No, I believe that covers it, Dr. Elias, you did a good job explaining the benefits of the South Texas School Board Association. It is my understanding as well from from mr. Cortez that bylaws and articles of incorporation have already been done and SS as weeks goes on I think different board words throughout the South Texas are putting it on the agenda because it's gotta be and so that is already in line. And so I don't think at this time they can tell us exactly how many school boards because I mean, are already in because they are doing the same process as well. I just want to say that South Texas is very different from the rest of the state. And like

043you said, Dr. Elias, we will have a voice and we'll have representation. I think it's about time they listen to many of the concerns and issues that we face here. And so I am in agreement in speaking to Mr. Ruben Cortez. I really feel a need to be able to be heard because... A lot of people do not understand a lot of the programs and a lot of the challenges that we face in education in South Texas. So this will give us an opportunity to be able to sit on the table and be able to advocate for our students and our staff in our community. I do want to say a few words. Just to support what... My colleagues, Ms. Castillo and Ms. Barone were talking about, you know, it's always like the squeaky wheel

044always gets the grease. And with so many unknowns as far as our state legislator is concerned and so many dynamics shifting and putting pressures on school districts, I think that... What they're saying is that it would reflect a voice from South Texas that we so badly need and $20,000 is minimal to pay for having that kind of representation. So I support it. I'm in agreement with all of you. I do feel we need to, just as we participate at the state level, and I don't, we don't participate anymore. We don't belong to the national doing. So we we do belong to the state and I too would like to join this out in South Texas I Also want to add I want to echo what miss Castillo stated that we do need a voice because

045our area here population than North Texas. So we, I, I agree on joining this so we can have a voice like Ms. Casillas said, because we do need to get attention towards the different programs that we need to initiate here and maybe having the being in that committee and having a voice for our area here, they will be beneficial to us. I was going to make a motion. I will make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing membership. Second. All those in favor. I don't see you and I don't know how you're rolling. So the vote, please note the time that she's locked out. And so the vote is unanimous. All in favor of six people. Thank you. Yes, Madam President, we move to student services item 8A, presentation for approval of the amended school

046calendar for the 2025-2026 year. And this will be presented by Dr. Noyola. Madam President, members of the board, and also Dr. Elias, I just want to preface it before I do the presentation that we're going to be discussing the school calendar that was brought to the board and we have already... You've already approved it. However, because of the 89th legislative session, it made some changes. So that means that we can do some changes to our calendar. So if we go to the next slide. Just wanted to give you some information about We the reason we have 180 school days for students It's because we are part of the ad see and the ad see is additional day school year So how's bill three several years back? allowed elementary schools to add up to 30 days

047beyond the regular school year if the district has 180 days of instructional school in our calendar and That's what we have. We call them enrichment days. We have several Saturdays we have and other days in June, and then just August. We just finished last week on Friday. So those are the extra 30 days. And, of course, the goal of having all of these enrichment days is to mitigate summer learning loss because in the elementary, a lot of the students lose their learning, and, of course, to boost academic achievement. And then, well, the ADC takes place after the regular school year, which I already mentioned the days, and the school district receives additional attendance days for these. additional days that we add. Next slide. House Bill 1209 changes the school year. And so what happens is

048that this year, House Bill 1209 establishes a new minimum school calendar requirement of 175 instructional days. So instead of 180, they're allowing us to have 175 days. And these instructional days already include the 75,600 required minutes by the state. So it's already included. We'll be fine. Let's go to the next slide. House Bill 2 this year passed to allow middle schools to be part of the additional day school year program. So we would... We will be getting additional school days. We used to get for elementaries, but now this year it'll be middle schools as well. So we'll be getting additional school days. So now the elementary, what they were doing, they were coming at 8 o'clock in the morning until 2.30, and the middle schools would come in at 8.30 to 12.30. So because of

049this new house bill, now the middle school can come in at 8.30 until probably 3 o'clock because of the time. So they will be able to now have that many hours just like the elementary. So this is what this house bill is telling us. So it used to be the focus only on the elementary schools, but now it'll be middle schools as well with the ADSI, the additional days school year. Let's go to the next slide. This is the calendar that was approved by you, the school board members. So remember that we have 180 instructional days. However, because of the house bills that were passed, now we can have 175. So this is what we are proposing. Go to the next slide, sir. The difference is if you look at September 1st, usually this is

050labor day. Our attendance is very, very low. A lot of people will. Adults have that day off and then they leave their kids at home. They don't bring them in. So because we have five additional days, so we thought that September 1st could be a staff development day. It only means for the students, remember, not for the teachers. So the teachers, we still have to have them in the 187 days. But the students, they don't have to come in five days. So one day that we're asking is September 1st for the students. Another day is December 19th. If you look at it, it's right before the Christmas holidays. This is also a day when there's bad attendance, very bad attendance for the district. And then the third day of staff development would be January 6th.

051In our regular calendar, the one you all approved, we only had January 5th, but we would be adding January 6th, a second day. That also helps the teachers, which we've heard the teachers saying, you know, one day in just a... on staff development. Then the next day kids are in kind of when you get two days, it gives us a little bit time to settle in again, right after the holidays. And then the last two days of June 4th and 5th would be work days. So the students last day would change from June 5th to June 3rd. If you look at June. So those two last two days would be work days for the teachers and faculty and staff. And so this is the one that we're recommending and proposing. Again, the students do not

052have to be in school 180 days. Now it's 175. The teachers, they still need to work 187 days. So we put in more staff development days and work days to help us out with that law, to apply that law. If you go to the next slide, one of the things that we wanted to do is... I'm sorry, can I have a question? You want me to wait? I was going to refer to the calendar. Okay. You want to go back, sir? You won't get to comment after. Since it's one item. All right. We'll go back to it. I can continue? Okay, thanks. We wanted to define where the workday is. State law requires teachers on a 10-month contract to work 187 days. I've been saying that. Within these days, teachers must be given 450 minutes

053of planning time every two weeks. And there's a statute. And then a 30-minute day duty-free lunch each day. And then other than these guarantees, because that's what the law... The administrator may call for meetings and assign teachers daily duties and assignments which are delineated through district policy and the teacher's contract during the 187 workdays. So we wanted to just be explicit to let him know this is what we're getting, workdays. And basically I think that's it. The recommendation is to approve the amended calendar, the one that was introduced. But you had a question, sir? Not anymore. Our vice president just... Clarified your form. Okay. I have a question. Go ahead. Dr. Noyola, did you say that January the 5th and the 6th were work days? Yes. I'm sorry. Those would be staff development days. Okay.

054And you said, you stated the teachers are coming back. They need time. Right. Could we change it? to a work day on January the 6th instead of a staff development day? Or are we fulfilling a requirement that it needs to be a staff development day? Well, the reason we have the work days is because that's our graduation days because the kids finish on the 3rd, right? Can you go back to the calendar? They finish on the 3rd and then our graduations are Thursday and Friday. I'm talking about January. Right. January the 6th. Right. And so... we have staff development on the fifth and on the sixth, correct? Yes. Okay. And, you know, being that they're just coming back from the Christmas holidays, that's what I'm proposing, but I don't know whether it is a mandatory

055that we need to have a number of staff development days. That's one of them, too. Well, it's not, like you said, a state requirement how many staff development days we should have, but because of those five days, that's what we plugged in. Three staff development days and two work days. Okay, so we already have Thursday and Friday as work days. June, yes, June 4th and 5th. Those are what, work days? Work days. Those are work days. Yes. Okay. And then which is the other which is the other? Yes, are you done? I'm sorry. Yes. I okay. Thank you. Okay. Did you want to learn? Yes, please kind of continue what what? Miss Castillo was saying so then June 4th and 5th our work days, right? But September 1st, October 13th and January the 6th will

056be staff development. Yes, that is correct Okay, and my other question I have started down And just to, Madam President, so that I can intervene a little, because I'm just trying to see what Ms. Castillo was trying to ask. I know that as workdays, we did give in August, of course, when they're barely coming in, the 22nd, and then Thursday and Friday of June, those are the three workdays throughout the whole calendar. But professional development... To me, it's one that it's more based on looking at scores, looking at curriculum, and looking at what else does the teacher need to go through as far as development so that they can continue the year versus a work day. It could still be considered a professional development day because it's still within the 187 contractual days. with the

057workday most of the time we want to respect it more towards the teacher being able to do work on the classroom, fixing their classroom or et cetera. Students. Okay. Anybody else? If I could continue, because I had not yielded the floor. Well, before Dr. Elias started responding. One, you interrupted, then we gave you the floor. You commented, somebody else spoke, so that was done. Am I correct or not? I had not yielded the floor. No. Go ahead. Yes, you are correct, Madam President. Somebody else spoke and that ended your turn. Just like yours was gonna end hers, okay? You don't have to speak to me that way, Madam President. I'm not, I'm not. I'm just trying to... What I'm saying is that... Council is giving us the advice and telling us that that's the way

058it is. Yeah, okay. Anybody else? I'm just saying that I had not finished and you did not ask me if I had yielded and I let the superintendent speak. I just wanted to finish my comment. But for now, let it go by just letting you know that you're asking people if you yield the floor, but you didn't ask me. That's fine. We can move on to the next item. The only person I asked was Gutierrez because she's not here. She logged in again. She's back online. Note her back online. Go ahead. I am. I'm listening. It's not taking care away from me. Ms Gutierrez, do you have a question? We couldn't hear you. When I do, I'll ask it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, at this point, do any other trustees who have not spoken

059have something to ask Mr. Noyala? I do. Mr. Viega. In comparison to last year's holiday schedule, how does this calendar compare? Well, holidays is the same. We're talking about December, and they let out on the 22nd, but now we're showing they come back on the 5th. The teachers, yes. That's what I'm talking about. Vacation time does not change at all. It's just adding more staff development and the two work days. So the time they were off for the holidays last year, it's the same time they're going to be off for the holidays this year. Yes, sir. That was my question. Thank you. Okay. No other comments. Does anybody want to make a motion? W said, I'd like to make a motion to approve the calendar as presented. Second. Is it moved by Mr. Villegas? Seconded

060by Ms. Barron. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Unanimous, 7-0. Yes, madam president we move to item C presentation of the family and community engagement report for the 2025-2026 school year this will be presented by I believe we skipped item B for the student court of conduct. Okay, so going back again, Madam President, I will be presentation and approval to adopt the changes to the student code of conduct for the 2025-2026 school year. And again, this will be presented by Dr. Nayola. Hello once again. Because of the legislative session, there are some changes. So if we go to the... Let's see if it moves here. These are some changes in the student code of conduct for this coming year. Under general conduct violations, it says mistreatment of others. It's on page seven. It's to

061engage in any behavior that violates the student code of conduct and is motivated by anti-Semitism. So that is being added now. And I know that there was a question like, do the people know what anti-Semitism is? It's in the glossary. At the very back of the student code of conduct, it'll be there for the parents, both in English and Spanish. Now, page eight, possession of prohibited items. They added a short barrel firearm. So just wanted you to note, you know, the changes that are happening. Go to the next slide, please. General conduct violations. This is possession of personal communication devices. And what we are... Adopting is that students shall not use a personal communication device, of course, or cell phone. Any personal communication device cannot be used on school property during the school day, and

062they shall be stored in accordance with the method of storage established by the district, whatever we establish. The next slide will tell us, but before I go there, go back. The only... Exceptions could be if a student is, there's an IEP for that student, so maybe it comes from a doctor telling us what the student needs, his personal communication device. If it comes from a... Texas physician, somebody in Texas saying he or she needs it, that's fine. If it says they're for safety purposes as well, imposed by the law, we can. So the last bullet says inappropriate use of personal communication device during the school day will result in disciplinary action. So if you go to the next slide, sir. This is the flyer that we are going to be sending out after today that

063we do approve it. It tells the parents what the law is, what they can and cannot do, what the violations are. We have violations one, two, and three, and four as well. As soon as the kids come in, they're supposed to turn off their device. They store it. either in their backpack or wherever the teacher tells them to place it so there'd be a choice and then on the other part of that slide it is only part of the sign document or agreement between the parent the student and the school so we're gonna give it to all the students there's gonna be a student agreement parents signs the student signs and that way we we know that everybody is aware of the new policy so That's what the state is telling us, that they really

064should not be bringing any personal communication devices. And if they do, they need to be turned off and stored. Basically, that's what the law is saying. So we want to make sure that everybody knows about it. That's why we want them to sign the agreement. Okay. Let's go to the next slide. Discipline management techniques, first-time offense of possession of use of nicotine delivery product or e-cigarette. There was already a law two years ago that said everybody that is caught with nicotine must go to Buell. We know Buell or our district alternative. Well now they changed it to say that they could, it may. And usually when we see this, we think of the student that is on campus that is distributing, they've caught him with money, several devices, and then we can send him to

065Buell. If not, we can place him in ISS and it says there for a period of at least 10 school days. So we can do either one. That's on page 12. Go to the next slide. Removal from regular educational setting. This is a formal teacher removal. We've already had it in the past. However, there are some changes. The teacher may initiate a formal removal from class if a student's behavior repeatedly interferes with the teacher's ability to teach the class or with other students' ability to learn. That's always been there. Number two, a student demonstrates behavior that is unruly, disruptive, or abusive toward the teacher. That's the little change right there. another adult or another student in the classroom. Number three a student engages in conduct that constitutes bullying This is new that they added as

066defined by Education Code a teacher or CBC in other words CBC is a campus behavior coordinator or other appropriate administrator must notify a parent or person standing in parental relation to the student of the formal removal which we already do that's already practiced a Teacher may remove a student from class based on a single incident of behavior and I highlighted that because now it's one behavior Usually it was because it was continued So this is the new law that comes into effect and that's on page 17. Next slide. In-school suspension is also a change. It's on page 19. And now what it's saying is that in-school suspension is not subject to any time limit. They can be placed there. If you look at it, it's the whole year. They can be in ISS for the

067whole year. However, the principal needs to make sure to review the student every 10 days. In other words, every two weeks. If a student is in there with special needs or anything like that. The special ed teacher goes in there, 504 teacher goes in there. The mental health, let's say a counselor goes in there. Administrator goes in there to watch him, to see how he's doing. Is he progressing? How is he doing? At any time, the student may be allowed to go back into the regular classroom if the administrator feels that they can, or if they want to keep him in ISS, they can. So that is on page 19. Next slide. Alternative assignment, this is out of school suspension. On page 21, whenever principals decide to suspend a student, a parent now has the

068right to put it in writing, give it to the administrator to say, I cannot take care of my son or my daughter during these days that you are suspending them, but they must provide the information and documentation stating why. you know, is the parent not going to be at home because he's going to be at a doctor's or he'll be in the hospital or things like that. And so the administrator can reassign the student instead of out-of-school suspension. Next slide. Oh, that was it. That's my recommendation, but if you have any questions on any of them. Yes. Ms. Castillo? I have a question on... on the phone. Okay. Will you be assigning a security guard to... a certain wing of the school, especially close to the bathrooms. And the reason I'm saying this, I had

069a parent that called me last year. Her child was being bullied and she couldn't get out of the bathroom because other kids, other girls were bullying her. And so she called home, she called the mom, the mother called the office, the secretary, the clerk. So my question is, Who's going to, do we have enough security guards to monitor the hallways, especially close to the bathrooms? I don't know if you're talking about like elementary, middle, or high school. I'm talking about middle school. Middle school? Middle school and high school. Okay, middle school basically has two security guards, and one of them is in the front, and the other one is out in the halls. So they are monitoring the hallways, the restrooms, but the way you're asking me the question is like to situate them there

070or keep them there at the restrooms. There are multiple restrooms at the middle schools, but not only do we have security, but we have teachers and paraprofessionals and even administrators that are out in the halls to monitor, right? We can let them know to do a better job. like what you're asking of monitoring restrooms because if you wanted like a security guard station there that would be quite impossible especially at the middle school and I understand I understand but someone needs to make sure that we're monitoring those hallways especially close to the bathroom okay what and we can remind the administrators to have more people out there more teachers uh you know and parents are scheduling on duty if okay yes we can do that Anybody else? Let me just add that, Dr. Noriello, we're

071not giving the board packet on our computers. Okay. So therefore, when you were asking, you can look at page 10, page 12. We could not see it. So I'm going to see if I can kind of remember some of the things that... that you mentioned. So Mike, I'm glad that bullying was added. Can you tell me if there's anything that may not have been covered here that we are doing as whether within a campus, as a district to kind of assist those students that are being bullied? What kind of services, if anything, are being provided? Was anything outlined? For bullying, there was not many changes. At all, right? We're still doing what we do. Whenever there is an outcry or somebody is saying that there's bullying, the counselor usually gets involved. or the administrator, and

072then we have bullying packets that need to be done with the parent and the student, and we start tracking them. There's a check-in, check-out with the counselor, with the student, letting them know, is this boy or this girl still bothering you? The law does say that if it continues and we have the documentation, we can get rid of that student from that campus and have him removed to a different campus. So that is the law, that we're supposed to remove him, but what they do, they'll send that to me. look at their documentation. If it warrants that, then I need to tell those parents, you need to be removing your student, your child to another campus. So that is the process. It's been established by the, I'm going to say TEA. There's also David's law,

073which is more. severe cases, those, when that happens, we also move them out from a campus. But there hasn't been any change on the bullying. They added it on the teacher removal. That's what they added on that now if the teacher feels that that student is bullying someone, then they can let the principal know, and then the principal removes the student from that class. Exactly. Thank you. Yes, you're welcome. Okay. Anybody else? Thank you, Madam President. Dr. Noyola, are you going to be expecting the different campuses to have their own way or system of collecting the devices? Is it going to be consistent across the board? All the campuses need to follow the same? And then... If there is a mishap of sort that we didn't comply with the rule, is it because the security

074guard didn't catch it? Or a teacher allowing, for example, a phone to be used, an administrator knowing that they're one? How are we going to be consistent throughout this? The plan delineates it that as soon as they come in, they need to turn it off, right? Put it in their backpack. And as soon as they come into the classroom, if the classroom, because when we had the committee of administrators that came together, some of them said, we already have it. We already have that type of policy in our school. And some of them had the pockets. So as they were coming in, they were turning them off, putting them in the pockets. That way the kids or students are not. distracted in that classroom. Yes. And so as before, before they leave, then the teacher

075would allow them to come and pick it up and then they can take it with them. So that would be the process. And that would be for all students. They had the choice. If the teacher does not have the pockets for right now, it will be in the backpack, but they already know they have to turn it off and turn it back on. And the, Where they have to sign, that's where it says, the process. So everybody does it. Who can take it away? Teachers, administrators, security, anybody. If they see any violation of it, anybody can just pick it up, turn it into administration, and then we follow the violations. Okay, thank you. That's what I needed. Okay. Madam President, I don't know if I exceeded my time. This is on another topic. It's the

076same agenda item, Trustee Castillo, and you already yielded your time. Okay. I will ask Dr. Elias. Go ahead. I'm not sure how to address this one, but as you guys, as I'm hearing all this, you know, I know that we've tried to secure schools and as much as we can, we've got all these security doors and all that. But other school districts have been unfortunate, you know, unfortunate. So if this is a state law that they have to put all their devices away, especially phones, would we be one of those unfortunate? Has the state even considered the fact that kids will not have the reach of phones immediately to call someone? And because we've got them in cubbies or whatever. What we've done is we purchased some telephones for all the classrooms. And on there,

077it has a red button that they would be able to press for an emergency immediately. So it's in the classrooms. It'll be there for emergency purposes. And immediately, everybody is notified from our police department, fire department, all the 911. It's automatic. something that can be taken. Not only that, let's see if there's a shooter intruder. Then we have what we have here also the... We call it the night lock, right? The night lock that I can just block it. So that's also, we have that as security. And not only that, every year we are visited by TEA representatives. They come in and we always do very well. We spot them. We know our procedures and we're always safe. Everything is working. Like you said, the doors, the safety doors. We've been improving since last year.

078And that's what I can say. We have emergency things in place. But yes, for security purposes, we have everything that the state is requiring. Emergency telephones, night locks, shadow-resistant film on the windows. We have a police department. We have so many other things, right? Thank you. Yes. I was going to say that. When I was at administrative school, I would ask the counselor to give a mini presentation to the students, especially the, because I was a junior high, so when we had the sixth graders come in, I would ask the counselors to give them a little session as far as, okay, what are the do's and don'ts, and also to address the bullying also. So to let the students know, look, there is help, there is things that you can do to get help if

079you're being bullied. So I don't know if that's still being done or not. Yes, yes it is. And they have a curriculum for the whole year and they go ahead and do those sessions, elementary, middle, and high school, all three levels. Yes, sir. Dr. Noela, when the... administrators of the campus administrators the principals met did they meet by grade levels it's like all secondary together we had secondary with the cell phones yes it was secondary more than anything because since they change classes and the elementary is a little bit easier because they have them basically the whole day But we're going to follow the process, the same process, as a secondary. Turn off your phone when you get here, put it away, and then no distractions. So I guess my question is, if it was

080secondary, then all middle school principals and high school principals met at one time? Not all of us did, but we did meet as a committee. What is it, like 16? No, we didn't meet. Well, we did go over it a little bit at the principal's residency at the beginning to let him know that this was coming. But the ones that actually made the plan were a committee of secondary, which is middle school and high school. And they were pretty much on the same page? Yes, yes, they are. Okay. Madam President, just a quick comment. Because I know that this has been a topic with many parents and I know we always think of the safety for the students that it's always number one. So that's the reason that we decided to go with, you know,

081pretty much as a district, we're being very lenient, yet we're still following the state law where we're allowing the students to just keep it in their backpack. They can keep it off in case of an emergency. they can always pull it out. It's not like they're going to get in trouble during an emergency. Or let's say like the example that Ms. Castillo was giving that, you know, if they're being bullied and they go into the restroom, then... you know, they can take out their phone and use it because they're gonna be calling somebody either from the campus or somebody that can give them help. So in those situations, we're not gonna penalize the student, but we are saying keep the cell phone in the backpack and keep it off, but you always can turn it

082on and utilize it during an emergency. So that's, you should, you need to. So that's where we're being flexible with that situation. Adopt, yes. Okay, we need a motion to adopt the 2526 student code of conduct. Moved by Mr. Rodriguez, seconded by Ms. Barron. All those in favor? Aye. None opposed. 7-0. Motion passes. Yes, Madam President, we move to item C, presentation of the family and community engagement report for the 2025-2026 school year. Again. Hello again. We just wanted to share or make a presentation of how involved our parents are. Not only that, what the things that PSJA does, not only for students, we just don't educate students, we educate parents as well. So with that, I wanted to show you some of the statistics or numbers. You want to go to the slide? This

083is a year-to-year comparison of parent meeting participants. 23-24, we had 7,454 parents at all the meetings throughout the whole district. But this past year, we had 13,708. So we had doubled. So whenever there are some requirements that the parents educators need to do at each campus, and this is what they do, and this is how many parents they bring in to educate them on attendance on accountability standards on almost anything, security, safety, even like student code of conduct, the calendar, any topics. Let's go on to the next slide. This is some of the volunteer hours that they do at the campuses. Last year they did 64,355. The year before that, 43,000, which is an increase of 20,000 more. So they're very proud, these parents, that they're there with their children sometimes at the campus, and

084if any emergency happens, they're there to assist as well or to help out. Region 1, we have a MOU with them. They do give us some vouchers. And in the spring, it's delineated there by month. In the fall, they spent 108. And then October, it was 2,000. This is how many vouchers they're giving to the parents to go and take their GEDs. November and then, of course, December, a total of $9,000, which was given to the parents. It's free of charge by Region 1. And then, of course, in the spring, it was a total of $4,000. A total, not only that, what happens with these parents, sometimes they say, I'm going to take the test, but they don't show up. And so they're losing. So they're also trying to tell us here that this is

085how much they saved because they actually tell the parents you need to show up. And they do. These are some of the GED participants that graduated. Last year we had 36. The year before, 31. We also have certificates. This is via... STC here at Ballou Learning Center. Thank you for your support, board members, and Dr. Elias as well, that we're offering these classes to the parents, as I'm trying to say students' parents, and they were taking ESL classes slash welding, and there were 12 parents that finished it, and of course, when they take the test, six of them earned their certificate. And then for forklift, there were eight of them, and all eight of them passed. And then for ESL only, 61 finished the course. And this is, again, through STC. And then... The phlebotomy,

086they took also, there were seven completers, five passed it, professional truck driving, the CLD license, five of them finished, and then five completed it, and then they entered to welding, eight finished it, but only one got a certificate, and then phlebotomy in the spring, 14 completed it, and only 12. got their certificate. Of course, welding is very difficult. It's not an easy test. So that's why you can see that a lot of them did not pass, but the other ones are pretty good. Again, this is, we're educating our parents as well. And so they appreciate that. Another thing that we also do in the, under community engagement is. They provide certificates either through BALU and also the Learning Center and the Bowie Parental Center. They did CPR classes. 73 of them took the class, and

08773, of course, got their certificate. Food handlers, 96 of them, and then 96 earned a license. Substitute teachers, and that's through our district. 79 finished the... the sessions and then 79 were also certified. Then for OSHA 17 and 17. I just want to mention that a lot of these parents that when they get the food handler, the substitute, they substitute for our district food handler. They open their own little business, especially those trucks. What do they call them? The truck service, the food trucks. There you go. They're opening all over in PSJA. I like to eat, so they invite me and I go and I test their food. And I just want to tell you that we're not only educating the students, we're educating the parents. And they're starting their own little businesses or side

088businesses. And, I mean, they're very appreciative of anything that we can give them, ESL certificates, anything. Just want to let you know that this is what's taking place. Go to the next slide. Region 1 courses, again, via... Baloo and Bowie 11 courses and then 252 students or parents I'm sorry enrolled in they completed the courses and this is of course through region one next slide And basically this is a presentation or report that everything that you support or do, not only students is, are you doing it for the students? We're also doing it for the parents and thank you for your support. And really it's just to let you know that they're very appreciative of anything that you do. And we have a lot of parent volunteers. Sometimes they themselves have finished a test like,

089or got their GED and they come back in gratitude to say, I'll be, I'm volunteering my time so I can help the other parents to pass their GED in English or Spanish, whichever. So they come back to us. And I think we did that as, you know, when I was a student here from PSJA, I left, came back in gratitude. And when I said, I'm going to teach, I think most of us did that. In gratitude, what PSJA gave us, and that's how the parents feel too. In gratitude because of what PSJA is doing, then they come back and they are serving as well. for other parents. So thank you so much for what you do. And that's the presentation. Ms. Castillo? Sir, how are we catering to the working parents? And so my question

090is, how many of these meetings are held after 5 in the evening so that we can give those parents that are working an opportunity to attend? And when you're saying the meetings like at the campuses or at the campuses and including Elementary middle and high school. I know that they do offer the classes. I've not this is the first time that it's under my I guess supervision, but I will make sure that it does happen in the evenings if it's not happening right to inform them. I thought we, um, because I know we do have meetings, but it's for the classes like GD, ESL, all those other ones are also offered in the evening. I thought that's what you were going to ask. Well, I, one, and the other question that I have is, do

091you evaluate? Is all this or now that you're in charge will you be evaluating? How can we make it better? Are you I don't know maybe through a survey Asking the parents. How are we serving? What do you recommend so that we can create future? Strategies to serve them better How do we evaluate our programs? Is it working? Is it not working in comparison to last year? What are we getting the feedback so that we can, we're always looking on enhancing what we're already doing. So how can we serve our parents better? I know that we do surveys that are required and that's what they do because that used to be part of the, even the surveys that we used to do for the students, the parents, and also the teachers. But to be precise,

092like how can we service you better like at my campus? Let's see, by campus? Because the other surveys through the district? But I'll check on that by campus. Please, by campus. That way we need to make adjustments so that we can work with them and really create a relationship so we can serve them better. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Two questions. The first one is because obviously from 23, 24 to 25, I mean, there was a lot of difference. Yes. What did we do different to get that high number? My second question is on the GEDs, those completed and those with license vary. What did we do with the ones that did not license out and are we still working with them or they just slipped? And that's what we're doing for those that did

093not pass because this was last year. Then they continue to come to the same classes so we can get them to get those certificates. Exactly. And to show what we did different, I know that... I spoke to the one that was in charge and he was saying that he would go to the campuses to make sure that the meetings were being held and the parents were in there. So that's how we saw the huge jump of parents participating. And it wasn't happening before. I guess not. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Are they still having like a. celebration for all the parents that got the ones that got a lot of hours for the parent volunteer do they still have their recognition yes they do uh every year they do it at the end of the

094year to recognize the the volunteers the parent volunteers the ones that got the certificates they do many um even luncheons uh to appreciate everything that they do so yes and i think they even did it for the ones that graduated they did a little graduation ceremony at all Middle school cafeteria. I was there as well. So, yes, they do recognize them and have food for them and things like that. It's ceremony. Exactly. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes. And to answer Mr. Rodriguez's, yes, I attended both those ceremonies. It's done during the time when we're being stretched super thin at all the functions. On the graduation. Yes, I was at the graduation. I don't know, I was rushing from somewhere and then I went to also the one where they recognized the parents depending on their hours

095and everything. It was really nice. So yes, I saw that that was being done and thank you for organizing that. I do have a question kind of following up with both Ms. Barron and Ms. Castillo. So we have parents that complete, right? And then parents that the ones that actually earned the certification, do our completers test? Yes. They all do test and then only, okay. So then they try. Sorry, I was thinking maybe it was, what was. maybe language barriers were keeping them from testing. So they all did test. They tested. Okay. And then the other, I wanted to know since now it's a, under your supervision that. we, I know we closed two parent centers, right? So how is that going to affect? I know we had great numbers, you know, obviously the improved

096from the prior year. Um, how do you see moving forward having closed those two parent centers? Um, you know, how is that going to affect accessibility? You know, are we providing transportation? If it kind of, what are we doing to target those high need areas, uh, or high need schools to be in compliance with title one? I know that, uh, Are you talking about like Carnahan going to Baloo, right? Because they were brought over to help encourage the parents to get involved in the STC classes. That was the purpose, but they also were teaching. The same teachers that were over there at Carnahan moved over to Baloo. So they're still there. About transportation. I'm not aware of that yet, but if we do, then we can maybe look into that so we can help him

097out to move him over here. But I don't know. I haven't heard that yet, but if I do, we'll work on it. Okay? Thank you. Yes, Madam President, we move to Finance, Letter A, Public Hearing on Budget for 2025-2026. proposed tax rate and this will be presented by Ms. Gonzalez, our finance assistant superintendent. Good evening Dr. Elias, board of trustees. Tonight we're going to discuss and hopefully approve the 25-26 budget. Some of the budget challenges we saw was our revenue continues to decrease, inflation continues to increase, our interest revenue is also decreasing and health insurance costs have also increased. For the 2526 recommended budget, we've included the following. An enrollment of 29,613, an ADA of 28,124. Taxes and property values, we're expecting a collection rate of 96 for current taxes and 25% for delinquent. Our

098certified values were received from the county. of a net taxable value of $6,796,000. This is an increase of 3% from 2024. We no longer have the lag in property value for state funding. For maintenance and operation tax rate, it remains at 7.869 with no compression by the state. And there is an increase in the homestead exemption, or we're expecting, I'm sorry, we're expecting an increase in the homestead exemption from 100,000 to 140. One of the major changes for 25-26 was HB 2 The language is as follows for school systems with 5,000 or fewer enrolled 4,000 for each classroom teacher with at least three years and less than five years of experience and a raise of 8,000 for each classroom teacher with five or more years of experience We fall into the second category, which is

099for school systems with more than 5,000 enrolled students. The state is requiring a $2,500 raise for each classroom teacher with at least three years and less than five years, and 5,000 for each classroom teacher with five or more years of experience. So I know that sometimes you'll see a school district that's giving out 8,000. That would be because they have an enrollment of less than 5,000 students. What's included in the 2526 recommended budget? We've balanced a budget for 2526. It includes a starting teacher pay of $59,300. $1,250 pay increase for teachers not covered by HB2, which is your year one and year two teachers. And these teachers have to be coded 087. All other professional campus positions not coded 087 will receive 3% of the midpoint of their scale. 3% of the midpoint of their

100scale increase for other exempt employees. 4% of the midpoint of their scale increase for non-exempt employees. An increase in health insurance from $750 per month to $825 per month per employee. This is a $4 million cost this year. No cost health insurance will for employee only basic coverage and the workers comp rate will be 0.99% We will continue the $350 winter discretionary pay for 2526 These are the medical rates as you can see the employer cost is 825 per employee per cost per employee per month. Excuse me The 25-26 compensation increases. The teachers, this is the amount that the state will be funding, is $9.157 million. For professionals, $2.027. It is not funded by the state. Paraprofessionals, $1.1. Manual trades, $2 million. This is a total 25-26 compensation cost of $14,320,000. Every increase in the

101cost for each additional percentage in any of these categories would be 675,000 for professionals, 372,000 for paraprofessionals, and 672,000 for auxiliary staff. Our 2526 budget by function, as you can tell, over 50% of the budget is instructional. That's the big yellow block. The next function is building maintenance and operations. After that it's child nutrition and school administration is the fourth largest expenditure by function The rest of them at the bottom are really small, which is your general administration your curriculum and instruction professional development That's the 13 that you're seeing there and 53 is data processing Because I know a lot of people might not understand when we're talking about school administration gray area for the biggest expense and you explain or elaborate which administration we're talking about because that's not central office. No function 23

102the state says we have to code our principals, APs and the office staff at any campus so that gray box school administration would be all your office staff and they have to be located at a campus. After that, it's guidance and counseling. They look pretty close to each other. For our 25-26 sources of revenues, our local revenues include taxes, interest, donations, and rent. Our state revenues include state compensatory funding, bilingual funding, special education funding, college, career, and military, career and technology funding, dyslexia funding, and GT funding. We also get a basic regular program instruction funds from the state. Our federal revenues... include charge revenues and indirect costs. As you can tell, the majority of our revenue is state revenue and most state revenues are funded by average daily attendance. Next slide. This is our average

103daily attendance trend, which is what generates the majority of our state revenues in 22-23. We were at 27,000 662 2324 we grew to 28,000. Oh, so far we improved I should say we improved our attendance to 28,000 073 for 2425 We expect to end at 20,000 124 for 2526 we are taking a conservative approach and we are expecting the same 20,000 124 Our 25-26 budget by object, as you can tell, 84% of our budget is salaries and benefits. The next highest category is 6,200. 6,200 for contracted services is mainly utilities. After that, you have 6% of supplies and materials and then utilities. And after that, they're pretty small, the other categories. For 25-26, our federal fund entitlements, these are preliminary amounts. For Title I, Part A, we are seeing a significant increase of about a

104million dollars, although this isn't final. Title I, Part C is seeing a small loss down to 498,000. Title II, Part A is seeing about 400,000 more. Title III is increasing about $20,000. Title IV Part A is seeing a decrease of about $50,000. Perkins is seeing a decrease of about $10,000. Idea B is seeing an increase of about $300,000. And Idea B Preschool is about $50. This is a required slide, accelerated instruction. This occurs in the summer, and $1,630,798 has been budgeted for 25-26. For our tax rate adoption for 2025. This is also a required slide. It just says that prior to HB 3 we were using lower values so we were using the state money and then once HB 3 changed that we no longer saw the the use of the state values we have

105to use current values and so we're getting actually It was kind of like a lag so that was kind of like a loan from the state and now we no longer use the state revenues we use actual revenues Our property value trends, they've slowed down a little bit in 23. Before 23, you're seeing about 8%. From 23 to 24, it's about 3%. And from 24 to 25, it's another 3%. Our tax rate trend, we have significantly decreased the tax rate from $16.17, it was at $1.40, to what we expected to be for $25.26 was $1.011, which is a half a cent less than $24.25. So we will be decreasing it by half a cent again. There's two parts of the tax rate we have the maintenance and operation and we have the interest in sinking

106on the maintenance and operation for 2425 our total M&O rate was point seven eight six nine That will remain the same for 2526. There is no compression for PSJISD this year by the state. On the interest and sinking side, we proposed last year, well, we passed actually 2425.2291. We're proposing a half a cent less at .2241. So our total tax rate will be decreasing from 1.016 to 1.011. This is our property taxes based on our compression We've gone from 52 million all the way up to about 57 and now we're down to 49 that 49 million 600,000 and that's due to compression This one is not affected by the half ascent because this is only on the M&O side There is additional taxpayer relief The bill increases the current homestead exemption from 100,000 to 140

107So an average homestead of 160,000 will see 140 thousand dollar exemption the taxable value for district taxes school district taxes will only be 20,000 348 this bill would require voter approval in November. However, we do feel it will pass So tonight we're asking the school board to adopt a balanced budget and to adopt the proposed half cent lower tax rate Madam president. Yes, ma'am. Can you elaborate on the golden penny? You mean the 17 cents, right? We have all of them. We've adopted all of them. So we're at what they call full capacity So we don't have any pennies available not gold or copper Yes, Dr. Elias, I know that last year it became a big reason of contention and confusion. This year, for clarification, teachers will get $1,250 of pay increase. Everyone else gets

108percentages. As to not be accused of trying to unbalance the budget, I would like to recommend that in the future we use a percentage as well. As I stated last year, the problem with a $1,250 increase just as the $1,500 last year, the problem is that... Beginning teachers will get $1,250 and veteran teachers get the same, giving the impression that we're not grateful for their loyalty to maybe not only PSJA, but to the profession in general. So I just wanted to say that I disagree again this year with giving a pay increase in amounts rather than... percentage also because I feel that some of the midpoints that get 3% already make twice as much, three times as much as our teachers. So it doesn't require an answer. It's just a recommendation for the future. Thank

109you. Yes, Madam President. Yes, sir. What you're talking about is for the one and two years, the teachers. Well, since I can't answer it, well, I haven't yielded. That's the $1,250 for the one and two years. Anybody that is three years and up to the five-year mark, those will be getting the $2,500. The teachers that are getting the $5,000, it's the six years and above. Okay, so then we have a tier. Yes, correct. And that's why we showed the previous slide where a small district can give up to what the state gave, and then the state as a big district gave us $2,500 or the $5,000 for the six years and above. Okay, so this year then the new teachers will get... less than the teachers that we have and as they go up in

110years of experience and their salary is going to be or their increase will be higher than the new teachers. Correct. And the state did not supply any funding for the one or two years. And then we are taking the salary of a starting teacher to $59,300. And so that should put us already as again for another year the highest paid district for teachers. Okay and what was the previous one Dr. Elias? 59,300 what was the previous one? 58,300 and this would be for a teacher at zero. It went up a thousand dollars. The address's time has expired on this agenda. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification Dr. Elias and for correcting me. Ms. Becky, I think it's important that we mention that. The increase in health insurance went up also. And I know we

111don't count that as part of a raise, but it does take quite a hit on the budget because now it's $825 per employee for 12 months. So we're almost at 10,000, correct? Yes, it's significant. And that we don't see. That is kind of like sometimes forgotten. We did take a big blow on the increase. We did. Because a lot of employees and insurance went up. Right. We've been able to pay 100% of the employee portion. Most school districts are already asking for a cost share from the employee. Yeah, and that was my next comment, that many districts around us ask for half and some don't give any health insurance. So I think we're in a good place when we can provide. I don't know who around us. Is there anybody around us that provides complete

112100%? That I can think of? No, no. We're doing good anymore. Madam president, another comment, because I know you mentioned going from seven 50 to eight 25 and that's a $75 increase per month that really in any other district, that would be the employee having to absorb that cost. But here, once you look at it, $75 times 12 months, that's $900 that the district has been absorbed this year per employee. Additional. So it comes to like $9,900 or something like that. Well, it's... Like I'm saying for 12 months at $825. It's like $9,000. Okay. Anybody else? Yeah. Mr. Villegas? I only have two minutes, so I'm going to try to time myself right here. I'm going to start my clock so I know I'm not going to run out. Is that all right with you?

113That's okay. Okay, what I want to say is in a capsule, and several of you all have already talked about it, but I am extremely proud of all of the work the board has done collaborating with Dr. Elias and his administrative team in trying to find the right set for employee benefits and employee pay raises each and every year. And it's not only for the employees, but it comes as a benefit to the... to the students that comes as a benefit to the community. We're talking about a resolution we just passed for the bond. It's a win-win situation like was mentioned earlier. We're going to get half of that money back and we're going to be able to go ahead and reduce the tax rate. The community is going to love that. It's a no-brainer

114for us not to do that. But as far as when it comes to employees, we got to recognize... how everybody from the very top, assistant administrators, executive officers, directors, coordinators, and then all the way to our maintenance and our nutrition services. And then the campuses and the teachers, and especially the teachers, recognizing that we value them each and every year. We don't have a magic tree where we just pluck money out of the air, but because of y'all's leadership, we've increased each and every year on our benefits. We mentioned earlier $50 million in TIA money. 75% of our staff is on TIA money. We're number one or number two in the state of Texas. This is unheard of. We don't consolidate campuses. Because of the wisdom of our leadership and we don't have reduction in

115forces I am extremely proud of the work that PSJ has done each and every year and we still are number one and we still set the bar so I want to congratulate the board and all our administrative staff for Diligently working to keep PSJ on top of the tree. Thank you. I Get excited about this I just want to say to add to all that, and we also have a balanced budget. Yes. So I'm also extremely proud and echo what Mr. Villegas said, that with all the leadership that we have in the district, we also, I guess the employees don't... Understand that we're also increasing the amount paid for the benefit for their insurance and stuff. So that's kind of like an addition to whatever raise they get every year. So we want to make

116sure that we get them taken care of there too because that's very important. And the best thing is that they don't have to pay. They're basically getting their insurance free here in this district. And like they said, versus other districts who are struggling right now with that, they're asking employees to pay for their insurance. Some of them can't even afford that because it's so expensive. But I want to just commend all of you for balancing the budget and also being able to help the employees like that. Thank you. It's a team effort. So first of all, I guess looking at the positives, you know, that half penny savings is gonna, you know, goes a long way. Also the fact that we're covering insurance and there are other school districts that do cover insurance, you know,

117completely as well, the way, the same way we're proposing. So that's really good. From what I understand, you know, the budget's done, it's probably been already discussed and approved, whether they, but I would say, that a raise, you know, our teachers, kind of those that are in the TI already getting, and of course we do have a certain percentage of teachers that are gonna rely on this specific raise. A lot of that comes from the state, right? And we're just supplementing on that. I would like to propose that in the future. That we do Divide a little bit so that our vet veteran teachers do get a little bit more Because we're lumping our teachers that have worked for the school district 15 20 25 years and I think I heard somebody was in their

11830th year just recently and we know we have a lot of those and They're still getting the same as a six-year teacher. So I think that if we break it down And look at the budget because we're not We're not adding, right, but we're just, we need to work with it. And divide, yes, there's the one, two that we are, the district's providing for, the three to five, and maybe the five to 10, maybe 10 to 16, 17, 18, and then after that, you know, higher, kind of create that. Because I do believe that we do have a good number of veteran teachers that should be getting a little bit more, you know, just because of that dedication. Dollars per student in addition to anything else. $55 is very little considering inflation. So I think

119there was a school district out there that said the state spent it for us. I agree. I don't know why five all the way to 50 gets the same, but that was the state, yes. But we have, well, can't speak anymore. Right. But it was a little difficult to maneuver around with the state prescribed for every school district. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion, Madam President, to approve this budget. Trustee Gutierrez, this item is not an agenda item for approval. This part is just the presentation. The public hearing. The public hearing, yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm sorry, Shelly, a quick legal question or, you know, question for you. So then this is going to come back to be approved? Yes, ma'am. My name is Alisa Aleman. By the

120way, I am not Shelly. This is just the public hearing. The next item, item B, is to approve the 25-26 recommended school budget. Okay, perfect. Then I'll make the motion there. So at this moment, we're closing the hearing. Everybody's already done their comments. Yes, Madam President. Now we move to item B, approve the 2025-2026 recommended school budget. Motion to approve. I have a question. At this time, can I speak, Alyssa? Yes, this is a new agenda item. Two minutes to restart. What I what I want to just clarification is that I'm glad that we were able to provide our staff with an increase But I do want to clarify that other school districts were able To provide more than what the state a lot more than what the state I know you said that the

121state only gave us this much. Well Yes, that's the state. But in previous meetings, we've heard how, you know, how are we have a great fund balance that we can reach out to and so we can work with this. So I just want to say it's something that we can keep in mind that, yes, the state gave us so much, but the district can also do more and work on those different steps, if you want to call them that. Really ages me there but you know kind of steps and and break it down and if we have to reach to kind of make Make it eat as fair and equitable as possible And be able to work with our support staff. I mean, I really do think that for years we have yes We've increased

122it and no doubt and and I'm pretty sure they are grateful for any increase, but I'm talking I think we really need to take a deep dive into helping our bus drivers, our maintenance people, our custodians, grounds people, child nutrition, everybody that works hourly for the district. That's all I have to say. Is it correct to say that you got from the state, the state depends also on the enrollment? Correct. Can you elaborate on that? Yes, Madam President. The funding that we get one is based on ADA of course are refined. attendance and which we did very well this past year. That's why we were able to balance our budget because our attendance was the highest in the region with our students. And number two, it's the enrollment. Every district around us, of course, we

123know that they're losing enrollment. PSJA has managed to sustain the same enrollment. So again, that's where our budget comes in from. So if we are going to start looking at overspending and thinking that we can offer more. This is, I mean, this is not something that we are going to put out there for bid and who bids 5%, who bids 6%. That's not what it's about. Again, it's about one is what the district can provide and the most that we can provide based on the budget and the allotted monies that the state gave us. And two is that we need to always be considerate that I know one of the trustees mentioned that we as a district have not been in a situation where we've been in deficit and many districts around us have been

124several millions in deficit, but we managed to still maintain, not have to go through attritions or lay off any of our employees. We were always looking out because I always even think of any... employee that I've known throughout the district that everybody counts on their paycheck. We sustain our families. We're the biggest employer in the Tri-City area, employing over almost 4,600 employees. So I'm always thinking of every single employee that we're never going to lay off, at least while the state can supply the funding. We're doing our best to continue our attendance. Our enrollment is increasing. it's actually not going down we've already looked at it and you know with the building blocks academy that we built we're gaining with our pre-k-ers so that's an area that we tapped into a while back knowing that

125no other district was doing that and now we're seeing our rewards where we can maintain a balanced budget we can still count with the projections of Our budget is not, our finance is not going to go down. So those are things that, you know, we always have to consider. And yes, we want to give every employee. I know they're very well deserving of getting every penny that we can give them. But we also have to think of, do we? Give a high amount but at what cost at the cost of later saying throughout the year now we're gonna have to cut stuff No, that's not how I function. I'm always thinking we're gonna give the most we can but then at the end We're gonna end our year with the balanced budget and everybody is

126still gonna be able to say I still have my job That's the way I've always seen it and you know to me, you know, the board has been very gracious to approve our budget and previous years. And again, that's why we're seeking the approval now. And I think this is what we can do for our staff members. And I know we could do more by all means. I would have brought it to the floor. Thank you, Madam President. So, Dr. Elias, what I hear you saying is that these races are long-term sustainable. without jeopardizing other programs or future budgets. Correct. To me, this is sustainable. Now, once we start seeing that our enrollment starts to deteriorate or our attendance, then we've become a district that's going in trouble. And that's where a lot of these

127districts have had to make their cuts, their adjustments to staff. And of course, that's where it always has to start because you all saw that. The biggest square there was the employment of the staff members. So that's where I suffered. And that's important, sir, because certainly we do not want to mess with people's livelihoods. We want to make sure that our employees know that their job is safe. because we all know districts around us have released a lot of people, a lot of employees, and you know, you can't do that. That's not fair. So thank you, sir. I believe you've done your homework. And so I'm pleased that we are ensuring that it is sustainable. Thank you. My President. Dr. Elias, you mentioned something very important that I've been wanting to address. I'm going to

128take this opportunity very quickly. So I've heard complaints from the community since last year about students just going to schools to pick up their meals and then leaving others just going for a few hours. And then I heard about a... program or a something, I don't know what it is, maybe you can verify, have you seen them? That's what it's called, have you seen them? And allegedly, it's when a child just... walks into school, if the custodian sees them, if anyone from the staff sees them in school, it doesn't matter if they walk out, in and out, or they just go and pick up their food, that they're counted present. I just want clarification because I see we have great attendance, but I am hoping it's real attendance and this is not going on. And

129if you can explain what that, have you seen the means, because... Obviously, this would have a negative impact in the education of the children, because if they're not actually in school, you know, it can jeopardize our standing with TA and in general. So if you can clarify that, because I've had that doubt for a while now. I can tell you, Ms. Gutierrez, that... that is not one of our initiatives my initiative when we started it was the attendance matters but this is not an initiative i believe that's an initiative from another district i want to say it's one of our surrounding districts i won't name it but they do have that have you seen them so that's not our initiative and you know it correlates and i can tell you our attendance correlates with our

130scores you know to be right now rated by T a at an 87 we picked up in our scores or relates with our attendance being also at a 97 point something so that's where we know that our teachers are really doing their job and and the attendance of the student being there that Demonstrates that instruction is happening in the classrooms. So that correlates again to the 87 it correlates to our TIA So we're backed up with a lot of data to prove to TA everything Okay. As long as we have all that documentation, because like I said, I received a call from a community member last year and then after that, and I hadn't had a chance to ask you about it because if they're being directed by anybody, Dr. Elias, by email, that as

131long as the child just walks in, you know, because we get into the wheeze of... you know, we're borderline, I don't know what to call it, if the principals or teachers have those correspondents being told that as long as they see them to count them in. So I would like to... Two minutes have expired, Trustee Gutierrez. Thank you. Thank you. So if you can check that, Dr. Elias, I would appreciate it. Okay. So one of the reasons our ADA went up from last year to this year was, Dr. Elias, you remember the 23 days of ADSY? That was in 23-24. In 24-25, we went from 23 days to 30 days. So that was part of the additional ADA that we saw. Yes. Does require a motion and a vote. Okay, but before we do that,

132I need to read this. This is in reference to the no new revenue tax rate. And it just is worded a specific way and we have to read it that way because it requires a vote. So I move that the property tax be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 1.0110, which is effectively 11.6% increase in the tax rate. Do I hear a second? Second by Ms. Barron. Well, we have a motion we need to vote. Okay. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Okay. It's 7-0. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Quick comment because I know we have some puzzle books. Yes. Yes. And because it says increase, can you explain and elaborate a little? It's required statutory language and really the effective increase is not coming from the tax rate

133because the tax rate is being lowered from 1.016 to 1.011. The reason they call it it's effectively an 11% increase has more to do with property values than anything else. Okay. Thank you. So in reality it's going down. Yes. Yes. It will decrease. It's a little deceiving the way it is. It is. Okay. Yes. Madam president, we moved to the next item and it's a approved functional budget amendments. Have we increased? Go ahead. Have we approved the budget? Yes. The first one was just a hearing, right? Right. Okay. No, the budget was approved. Okay. Yes. Item a was just a public hearing and then item B, which was the motion you just took was the actual budget So at this point the budget has been approved for 2526 Are there any questions or Is this

134amendment address it addressing unexpected expenses I don't know about unexpected. We ordered, we're making an amendment from, one more slide. We're making a $3.8 million amendment from fund balance for buses that we placed, we placed an order one in April of 2023 and we placed another order in November of 2023 and we received them in 2425. We weren't expecting the cut in shards. So with that 3 million cut in shards, we don't believe we can cover the 3.8 million of buses that all came in together. But they were previously budgeted in the 22-23 school year and the 23-24 school year. What's the total amount of buses? It was 20 in November and 10 in April of 2023. So it was 30 new buses, yes. It just took a while for them to manufacture them. And

135without the cut in Shars, we probably could have done it without an amendment from fund balance. Thank you. That was my concern, my question. It takes that long. Yes, ma'am. And that was going to be following up on that. So the buses, the initial order was in 2023, and they just were barely getting them. So I know it takes time. Right. The initial one was April of 2023, which would have been the 22-23 school year, and then we ordered some more in November of 23, which was a 23-24 school year. So when the money that was not used at that time when it was budgeted, where does that money go? Into the fund balance? Essentially, yes. So then you can pull it back up. Right. Okay. Now the other is the changes in revenue, which

136is to increase the increase in total revenues of 9.2 million and then changes in the following functions. What what is that the nine point two million is mostly Tia? We don't know our amount until late late late April. I'm sorry I think this year I think we may have even received it in May so we don't know the amount So what we budgeted at the beginning of the 2425 school year was the 15 million that was given out the year before in April late April early May We found out our amount which was 30 million The reason you're not seeing an increase of 15 million again is the charge revenue that we decreased and a decrease in our interest revenue. Otherwise that number would be 15 million. Okay. And the changes in the following functions.

137So we're increasing it in all of those functions. And this is to finish off this school year or this is for next school year? It's to finish off this school year. So when we paid out the TIA in June, these functions all need to be covered now with the revenue that we're bringing in that we now know is an additional $15 million. There's also an additional recording that we have to make, which is called the TRS on behalf, which is what the state pays on the employees' behalf. So we have to increase to cover that as well. Okay. Because I'm looking, of course, in all these functions of which I know, I believe I had called you and I spoken to the superintendent about the maintenance one, because even though we sometimes cannot find the

138money to help our bus drivers or hourly people, but I do know that now we have a construction project supervisor whom I has a relationship with one of the vendors. I believe I addressed that with you and with both of you. And I just wanna make sure that as we're moving monies, that it's not because we are offering, we need to keep an eye on that relationship because I know I will, and I will be requesting that information from the superintendent to see how much this particular company has been getting from the school district versus the others that are on the catalog list, which were approved under the consent agenda. you know, why our enrollment has been tested. We've said before has been consistent. We don't show an increase yet. We are promoting or giving

139higher titles to a lot of people within our departments, which I think is something that as soon as we get the updated, um, administrate, you know, the, our, our chart, uh, organizational chart, we need to look at all of those, you know, um, I guess all these people that are being promoted. So thank you. Yes, go ahead. Exemption? So there's been an increase, did they hire? So how is that going to affect us? The state pays us what we lose in the exemption. So your CR state revenue get higher, which essentially happened two years ago when they went from $60,000 to $100,000. So we're going to get less money. Is that correct? We're going to get less local taxes, and the state will make us whole. Yes, thank you. I think that we need to

140be careful when we're bringing up anything that borderlines allegations, whether it's contracts, appointments, or anything like that. I think that those should be properly addressed with the superintendent, and then if the superintendent finds anything to be... not right, could go ahead and bring it back to the entire board so we can deliberate on that. Just to publicly throw it out there, maybe the community, the conception that we're doing something wrong. I know that we're not, but it still puts us on the defense when you casually... throw things out like that. So I think that we need to be a little bit more careful with just innuendos and things of that nature because it casts a black eye on possibly the way the community views that. If you have questions, address them with the superintendent and

141then maybe he can share them with us. Okay. If you're addressing me, I'd like to hear from the superintendent. No. Ms. Quintanilla, time has expired. Yeah. If Dr. Serna... Ms. Serna, I haven't spoken. Becky, this budget amendment is basically most of it going to the buses or is that taking the majority of it? No, there's an increase in revenue of $9 million, which is due to the TIA. It increased by $15 million from $23.24 to $24.25. The reason we're not seeing $15 million is because we included a decrease in SHARs and a decrease in interest revenue. So you're seeing the net increase in revenue. The amount that we're estimating, if we don't have to take the full 3.8, we'll only take what we need. But we're disclosing that it's coming from 30 buses that were

142ordered in 2023. Oh, okay. So what you're talking about those buses is that increase that's showing there is because of those buses that came in until now. Right, right. And if we don't have to take the full 3.8, we won't. But we wanted to be transparent and let you know that this is a very real possibility because those buses took so long to get here. Right. It's a conversation with Mr. Rivera. It takes about a year. And then also he's been trying really hard to get all of our fleet to be, you know, up to date and to retire any buses that are old, you know, so that we keep our children. safe, so I don't have a problem with that amendment. And so anything else that is worth noting, Becky, on this amendment from

143your point of view? No, I think you said it very well, yes, that they just take a long time to get here. Yes. Thank you so much, Becky. Thank you. All right. This does require approval. Yes. I'll make a motion to that. Motion to approve. It's been made by Mr. Villegas. Second. Seconded by Ms. Quintanilla. All those in favor, raise your hands. Aye. Aye. None opposed. Yes, Madam President. We move to item D, investment report for the quarter ending of May 31st, 2025. And we have... Good evening. Thanks for having us today. Perfect. We want to can everybody see the slides here that we were going over there we go perfect. Yes go ahead sir. Do you want to hear me okay? Yes. Perfect okay so do we want to go ahead and get started

144and head to the next slide great thank you so much. Again, my name is Nick Ficarri. I serve as the regional director of advisory services at the firm and oversee the Texas marketplace. A colleague, Phillip Jones, and I will be covering the district's account here. But certainly, I'm just going to go over a high level what we're seeing in the marketplace. You know, this is as of May, so certainly a lot has changed in the market since then. So I'll try to do my best to go over the information as it presents itself here in May, but also fast forward to where we stand today as well. But overall, the district is in a really good shape to continue to maximize interest income. And we'll talk about some enhancements that we think we can bring

145to the portfolio as we continue to move into the coming quarters. So the highlight here is the market did experience some volatility in April due to turmoil, specifically around tariffs. You know, the Fed... rate cuts continue to be pushed out to later on within the year. However, since then, we've seen some changes where the expectation is that the Fed will pivot and that we will see our first rate cut come in September with an additional and maybe even three rate cuts into the end of the year. With that, inflation still remains range bound and above the Fed's 2% target. And the labor market continues to be solid overall, but we are seeing some signs of overarching changes that, again, will warrant some additional changes to monetary policy. And this last bullet here, and we're going

146to look at it on a coming slide, as interest rates across the yield curve were higher for the month of May than where they were in April, that's reversed its course. And so certainly the fixed income market can change very quickly with actually rates today lower than where they were in May and April of 2025. And so with that, again, I touched on the Fed funds history here and, you know, looking at these different cycles. You know, I think the biggest thing as we look at the report here is that over these different cutting cycles, you'll see where interest rates tend to plateau and then they tend to drop. And so certainly the expectation is that as we are in that environment where interest rates are going to be moving lower and. As the tariff

147uncertainty starts to unwind itself, it's where it's really important now to continue to be very mindful of how much liquidity that we do have on hand. Because as the Fed continues to cut interest rates, that's going to affect the likes of the investment pools, our bank balances of the like. Going to change that very quickly, which will affect our interest income that we've been accustomed to receiving. So with that, if you could flip to the next slide, please. Thank you. So, you know, inflation, can we touch on this a little bit? But as far as inflation goes, you know, the historical target for the Federal Reserve has been, you know, 2%. And it's been a main objective here as we move across the board. It's, you know, hey, as we're approaching 2%, you know, we've

148fallen off of our peaks coming off of the pandemic. but not quite 2%. You know, there's some real talk in the marketplace that, you know, is 2% the real target or should it be closer to 3%? So it's still warning and weighing itself out, but certainly, you know, still above where the Fed wants to be, but moving in the right direction, even though we did see a little pop in the latest inflation reading. But the other thing we look at, you know, is labor force participation, you know, specifically those, you know, that are contributing to jobs in the economy, those 25 to 54 years of age. So we classify those as prime age workers. You know, that's been climbing since the pandemic lows. Again, a positive in the marketplace. But something to continue to watch

149is the increase of AI technology, young graduates coming into the marketplace. That rate of unemployment is actually close to, it's over 6%. And so these new entry-level jobs, technology is starting to take away from those positions. So something to continue to be mindful of as we move forward. Next slide, please. Thank you. So overall, looking at, you know, treasury yields. And so I talked about this a little bit earlier, you know, as we saw in May, which would be that orange bar yields being higher than where they were in April. And, you know, that's it's since reverse course where things have seemed to change. The expectation of rate cuts have been have crept back into the picture. Growth has started to weaken to the to the point where, you know, the market is buying into

150the notion of maybe in a little slower growth economy. And so for us, as we continue to be. mindful of all this information, trying to get a direction of where rates are moving, which still tend to tell us that rates are moving lower. So within PFII meeting the requirements of state statute and the policy signing off here from the finance team. And then getting into the portfolio here, you know, we can focus directly on the next slide if we want to move forward. So more so on the portfolio statistics, just to give everybody a feel of where the portfolio and how the portfolio is allocated. You know, moving out of May into the end of that, we'll call it the calendar year, the expectation is, you know, we know the district tends to hit lower

151cash flow points. And so one thing we want to help do and work with the finance team is identify where these low points are and what those low cash. points will be and trying to identify idle carryover cash. And so as you can see here, a large majority of the portfolios built up in cash is more so focused on overnight liquid like securities and that one day maturity distribution. So as we continue to work with the district, trying to push more securities out in that zero to one, two to three year, two to three year investment space, which, you know, credit to the finance team certainly have been open to that. looking at other options within the marketplace and under the policy so that we can hold on to that interest income that's been a

152nice budgetable item for the district over the last few years. And then as we look over the portfolio summary from a quarter over quarter standpoint, still being in line with PFIA specific requirements here, you know, the big thing as we look, investment income for the period of over $1.3 million, which is a nice number to be able to continue to compound and build on district balances. Real credit to the finance team continuing to work hard for us to continue to try to build in that budgetary stability as we move forward into the future. And so this is a more so generalized view of the change from a quarter over quarter perspective. You know, each the district has individual fund balances. Each one of these different fund balances can have different investment objectives specifically to it.

153And each of these has is classified with different interest earnings that are that make up that one point three million that I that I brought up earlier. And then again, just more so a granular view of the investment portfolio, getting into the different asset classes that are being utilized within the portfolio. And again, trying to be a little bit more diversified and enhancing the strategy. Again, credit to the finance team continuing to be open to new ideas and looking for ways to protect our interest income that we've been working hard to build up over the years. And I know that there's a lot of agenda items here today. So I'm certainly happy to go through line by line on all this. But for the sake of time here, I'm happy to open it up to

154questions to the group and allow us to keep moving on through the agenda. Ms. Edna? Yes, go ahead. Yes. So, Mr. Vassardi? Bacardi, yes, ma'am. Bacardi. Okay. So right now, the average maturity is only 29 years or 0.29 years. Are we intentionally keeping it like that, keeping that investment short term in order, or can we extend the maturity to get higher yields without being too risky? Yeah, great question. So under PFIA and the district's policy, we're able to go out five years with investments. Now, the yield curve is inverted, meaning shorter-term rates are actually higher than longer-term rates. And that's been the case for a little time now. And so as we've started to get more clarity in the marketplace that we expect... shorter term rates that continue to move lower very quickly. The goal

155is to try to push more out of cash, out of the one day instruments and to extend that weighted average maturity. My next question about liquidity and cash flows. The 76.5%, I think it was, maturing. Are we keeping that because we're having any large expenses coming up, or why are we keeping that much liquidity? Sure, yeah. And with school systems in general within the state, it's very common to see more cash build up over this time as we start to spend down to our low points within the fiscal year. So that's a little bit intentional. But in addition to that, there will be some more opportunities for us to pull from that one-day bucket and extend. We haven't been penalized for keeping our funds short-term and liquid. due to how attractive shorter-term rates have been

156compared to the market. So just to give you an idea, you know, an overnight investment pool right now, you're around a 4.4% compared to like a two-year Treasuries at a 3.76%. So it just gives you an idea of there's that inversion on the yield curve that I was talking about earlier. So it's trying to find the times to get into the market. We're not trying to time anything. We want to be in the market and have a plan. But the big thing, yes, to your point, we do want to see that weighted average maturity. extend over the next quarter as we continue to map out our cash flows. Yes, ma'am. Correct. And the last thing, in one of the slides, I'm not going to make you go back and forth, but talking about the tariffs,

157it's a conversation that's had every day. You know, it's been the conversations for months already. And, you know, how... in the next six months or a year? Will it affect us in any way? Because there's also conversation about inflation and a recession. I'm sure you keep an eye on that, but it would be great to hear from you and have that peace of mind for our community. Yeah, no, it's a great question. I'm sure, you know, like you, maybe many others in the room, I certainly do to some extent have terror fatigue, right? It's been floating around for so long, I think across the board. And, you know, there has been obviously this big push to... to allow us being able to produce more domestically here, right? I mean, that's the big thought behind that

158entire process. Now, we do know that that takes time to build that, to get that to move. And so, you know, one could expect that tariffs would increase prices. You know, however, you know... We do a lot of research on corporations and how they're allotting their budgets and looking at the true financials of these larger firms. And it really just depends on that company and how they assess that tariff. You know, are they passing it to the consumer or are they changing the way that they're doing business at the corporate level? You know, meaning, you know, are they not hiring as much, but they're keeping prices the same and they're trying to use technology more to their advantage? And so, you know, I think that still has to play itself out a little bit. You

159know, I think in the tariff news, things can change. They're changing daily. Right. So I wish I had a better answer for you, but, you know, tariffs are up in the air. Yeah, and I think it's going to depend upon the corporation. I think it's going to depend upon how they choose to pass upon that cost to the consumer. And then I think it's going to settle out. And our industry as well, our industry, education. That's exactly, and on the industry as well. So it's all, there's a lot of different variables that are moving. But I do think that... growth is a component to continue to monitor because if you're growing and you have heightened prices, you should still see some normalcy to the curve to that point. So that's something for us that we're

160continuing to watch as well too. But we haven't, yeah, you've seen some prices go up, but from the market doesn't seem to be scared of that at this point. Right. And then that's why I was mentioning the longer maturity, you know, to kind of... counteract the impact of that if it happened in the future. Well, thank you so much for the information. Absolutely. Thanks for the questions and participation. Thank you. Well, I'm glad Ms. Lucheres asked those questions because they're pertinent to... the outlook for stability and fund balances and where are we headed. So it kind of opened the door for me to ask this question, along with her question on tariffs and, like I say, speculation as far as that's concerned. So where do you monitor enough to know? Because we hear this constantly

161every day. It's on the news. How strong is the dollar? and the potential for the fight between the dollar and crypto, and how do we stand, and how do you monitor all of that? Yeah, I mean, certainly the dollar is going to affect trade, the imports and exports, and growth to some extent. You know, with PFIA, you know, we're not... Trading currencies, obviously, we're not buying cryptocurrencies, anything of the alike. But, I mean, there's still financial instruments that we certainly are paying attention to in the marketplace. But I think specifically around the dollar, the dollar strength, for us, it's continuing to just look at the global power still, where they're at, what's going on in the treasury market, which obviously is supply and demand trade, which is tied to the dollar to some degree. And

162so for us, it's continuing to watch. to watch all that. But when we look historically and with where we're at from a yield perspective, we are still at great entry points to buy fixed income securities that are out past the year. We all remember times of the financial crisis when interest rates went to zero or coming through COVID even before interest rates started moving higher where that budgetary interest income went to zero pretty quickly, and that hurt. And so that's the really goal here as we continue to work through the portfolio is trying to find opportunities that we can go through our cash flow. We monitor the strength of the economy as a whole, identify very safe, secure securities, buy those, lock into them, and preserve that interest income for the finance team and the

163health of the district into the future. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Baccaro. That's my question. Thank you, counsel. Miss Madam President. Yes. Go ahead. This question is for dr Elias Are there any concerns about liquidity that might that might affect that is disability? to me short-term obligations Right now it's like we mentioned a healthy situation and right now what we're looking at is just our investments and what we're getting as a crude interest. And I know that the reserve, the federal reserve is already talking about lowering. some of the interest rates so but this would not affect us drastically even if they lowered unless it was lowered drastically by a lot but i don't see that happening it usually goes in small increments of by quarters or at the most by a half but i don't

164see you know this affecting us as far as what we accrue in it thank you sir that was my concern okay then i believe we're done yes thank you so much thank you gentlemen thank you sir thanks Thank you everybody. Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye. Yes, Madam President, we move to the next item, and it's item E, approve the proposal for student athletic accident insurance and the voluntary accident insurance. And if we do have any questions on this one, I know we have Orlando Garcia and we have Jeff Tarr here that can answer any questions. This is just the insurance that we take out for liability for students I Know that we have medical insurance the medical on one side and we have voluntary products with this fall under voluntary products or Jeff can you

165can opt into that parents can pay for part of it. Dance being all of those students. So this is a set aside product that the parent can't go ahead, opt to buy or not. If the parents want to do that, they could do that. If they weren't, if they weren't involved in any of those other activities. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Doerr. Anybody else? events of voluntary product. Who's managing that voluntary project right now? This insurance. Who has the contract here? Albert Salinas, I believe, from Harlington. Pardon? Albert Salinas from Harlington. Oh, Albert Salinas from Harlington? And there's a voluntary component, like Jeffrey Dar said, but there's a part that the school district pays. There's two. Yeah, there's two different components. I think, but in awarding the bid, we're awarding just the two processes under this

166agenda item to that one agent of record. Right. We're awarding the one that the district pays for. And then there's a voluntary one that the parent can buy directly from the agent. And then there's also a catastrophic component. And the approval we're seeking is for all of them combined. Right. The cost is only for the school district portion. The voluntary product is the one that Jeffrey Dar spoke about, and that's a parent choice. And it can be... Yes, Evelyn. Yes. Yes, Becky. So for this one, this is not an ongoing pay. It's only in case of catastrophic events, correct? In case one of our students is injured or how can you explain a little how this works? It's insurance for the entire school year. Right, but is it only for catastrophic incidents, like meaning only

167they get injured and we are paying a flat fee? You know, how is it working? Is it an umbrella for the whole district? The catastrophic is $12,000 of the premium and the other $200,000 is to cover the other part, which would cover all students. And can you give us the names of the, well, first of all, the proposal. Did we have a committee? Yes, it was Orlando Garcia and Jeffrey Darr that made the recommendation. Okay. And how many members on the committee? It's a renewal, so I don't remember all the committee members. Do you remember them? Okay. And can you name the companies that they are getting or the agent of record? The agent that proposed this one when we awarded it was Albert Salinas from Harlingen. Okay. It's the one that you mentioned earlier.

168And that's the only one, right? Is there a company that's providing the services? Because he's the agent of record. Do we have an insurance company? Like insurance... Insurance services. Yeah. It's called student insurance. Student insurance services is the company that's... is the insurance company. Student Assurance Services? Student Assurance. Okay. Thank you so much. I'm satisfied with the answer. Madam President, I'm assuming it covers emergency... Correct. Emergencies. Yeah. It's basically a secondary plan. So if the student and their parents have... Private insurance, this would be secondary to that. If they have no insurance, this becomes the primary insurance. So if they get injured in, say, football or whatever, a sports, then this insurance would be primary if they have no other insurance. If they have Medicaid or Blue Cross Blue Shield or anything like this, this

169would be secondary to that. Let me ask you are the parents expected to pay a deductible? Not with this insurance. No rehab included There is there is yeah, it includes all that And we're talking about all different sports wrestling Okay school district activities It's a big umbrella. Good. Thank you. Okay. This company, do they have a very good track record? Yes. And that's why we recommended them. We have a local agent. One of the reasons that we like this company is because if you look at all these companies together, they all kind of offer similar product. But this company one of the things that we when we recommended them one of the reasons we recommend them is because they One of the benefits that they offer our students is say for example if they get

170injured they Like if they need a knee brace This company allows for us to get a knee brace Other companies they only do that if the kid has to go get surgery This one they'll get it when a knee brace if they're just injured and they go to the doctor just for healing and So this that's just some of the stuff we looked at Presentation and approval to award request for qualifications for agent services for group dent. Dr. I believe G notice to sell alcohol, alcoholic beverage requests for Brookhaven events center. No, that's on my agenda. I'm sorry. That was on my agenda. I apologize. Do you have a recommendation? We have a request for qualifications where we qualified the agents that had active life insurance licenses to sell insurance. And so if you go

171to the next slide. This is one of the allowable methods of procurement We can either select one firm or multiple firms can be rotated. We do this with architects and engineers The criteria must be based on the ability to accomplish a goal We checked all the licenses of the people that submitted and they all had valid licenses Since this is a single product. We will be asking for a recommendation for a single firm Agent Services for Dental Insurance. Ms. Serna? Yes. Yes, Becky. So I'm curious, just as in March 26, why did we go for requests for qualifications instead of requests for proposals? So every procurement method has advantages and disadvantages and one of the I guess concerns when we went with the request for proposals were the the allocation of the points. You know

172we could either allocate a lot of points to cost or fewer points to cost so we decided to try another method which we went with request for qualifications. And so then who determined, let me ask you, which company, before I run out of time, which company is being recommended tonight for approval? We're asking that the board either select one firm or you could select multiple firms, but with a single product, it wouldn't really make sense. And the reason we feel a request for qualification works is because we limited the commission on the product side. So the agent really can't negotiate with Blue Cross Blue Shield, who holds our dental. The agent is just going to get the 2% that was already negotiated with the product. Okay, so then basically we make a motion from the

173list that you provided, and if it passes, passes. If not, just like on March 26th. Correct. So then it's up to the board. The board can choose whoever, not a neutral party or a neutral committee, correct? Correct. We qualified all the respondents. Yeah, so just as long as they can do business and do not have a bad history. Okay, thank you so much, Vicki. You're welcome. Go ahead, sir. So right now we have basically two area firms that are handling our insurance business for our employees, one being the medical. And that's one agent of record. And then we have another agent of record that's handling our voluntary products for the most part. Right. This qualifies or identifies as a voluntary product as well. It does not. It does not. This is a separate. The district

174pays for the dental for employees. So it's not a voluntary product. So, and you still need an agent of record for this? We would need a recommendation, yes. Or we can stay with the incumbent if the motion fails. What company currently has the dental insurance? Carlos Tamez from West Laco. Oh, Carlos Tamez from West Laco. Yeah. We're not timing ourselves this time? Well, I am keeping time. I still have part of my two minutes, right? Yes, you have one minute and 40 seconds remaining. 240? One minute and 40 seconds remaining. Speak slowly. Let me say, I guess for the sake, I think I was going to... Make a recommendation. In fact, I am going to make a recommendation being that to me it's style flank a voluntary product Aside from the medical so that being

175the case. I'd like to keep it in the area also and make a recommendation that we award the Group did only share the Bob three we knew law firm. I mean the insurance company All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Ms. DeRencier? Well, no, I'm not in favor. Okay, all opposed? One, so it's 6-1. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Madam President, we move to the next item, letter G, notice to sell alcoholic beverages, request for Brookhaven Event Center. Now it's time for that item. Sorry. This one is a notification of an alcoholic beverage being sold close to Buckner. I believe we have a map. It's not really an action item, but we do need to let the public know that there's going to be alcohol being sold at a Brookhaven event center 300 feet from

176Buckner. It's not an action item? I'm sorry, what? It's not an action item. No, we just have to let the public know that there's going to be alcohol within 300 feet. It is an event center, right? Yes, there's the Brookhaven Event Center right behind Matt's building. For the majority of events, they are in the evening when school is out. Right, and then you have the two campuses that we have at Buckner. I actually... Don't think that's 300 feet. It's probably more, but better safe than sorry. So we're here presenting that there will be alcoholic beverages within 300 feet. What did the survey say? What's the compliance as far as the number of feet that we are, by law, supposed to respect when a water needs? It's actually a city ordinance, and it's within 300 feet.

177300 feet? Mm-hmm. That's the... minimum amount of distance between them that we have to respect before we can award or not award something. Well, you have, you know, you always have a gas station that's very close to a middle school or an elementary school. We just need to advise the public that there will be alcoholic beverages within that 300 feet of a campus. I'm sorry, Ms. Butler. Where does... What did you find? Did they meet the guidelines? The district doesn't have guidelines. It's a city ordinance. They had to apply for a permit with the city. The city says you have to advise the school district because you're within 300 feet. So the city is approving it or not approving it? The city is asking for us to notify the public that there will be alcohol

178served within 300 feet of our campus. So that means the city is approving it? Then I will tell you because the ordinance comes from the city. The city has not approved it yet, Trustee Villegas. They are required to bring it to the district and notify the district that alcohol will be served. It's not an action item. They're just completing the requirement that they let the district know the city has the final say and we'll take the vote. But at this point they have not voted. Yes. Thank you so much. No, there is no action. Right. We just need to let the public know. Yes. And that was my question because from what I understood previously, they go through the city and then come to the school. Yeah. So I guess now they're coming to the

179school to notify and then go back to the city? Right, they are requiring signatures of the board members, yourself and Ms. Sedna, that we did notify the public here at a board meeting. And then I guess they'll take that paperwork back to the city and then the city will probably give them the permit. What if we do not sign or disagree that it's... Close to the school. It doesn't matter because it's up to the city. Right. It's just we have to notify the public. It's up to the city. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Ms. Serna. Yes, Ms. Becky. So we have no say in this. Like if we do not agree with the... the permit, there's nothing we can do? Or can we vote and give our input? Or is there anything

180that we can do? Not at our board meeting. I assume you can attend the city council meeting and protest there. Yeah, as just an individual, as a member of the community. Right, individual or even as your capacity as a board trustee. But it would have to be at a city council meeting. Okay, I see. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Yes, Madam President, we move to item H, approve resolution delegating limited authority to the superintendent of schools or assistant superintendent for finance to reallocate appropriations between functions within the adopted general fund budget. And again, this one, counsel, can you elaborate a little on that? Yes, Madam President and Trustees, Dr. Elias. This resolution is made in accordance with Texas Education Code section 44.006 and Texas Education Code section 11.201D6 along with board

181policies BGA. and CE, what this is doing is giving Dr. Elias, and if he's not available, Ms. Becky Gonzalez as the CFO, the authority to make some transfers in the budget, like Ms. Becky just presented, she came and brought the budget amendment, this would give them the limited authority in unexpected state funds and local maintenance and operations. This would... It is in compliance with a recommendation that we got from the auditor. This resolution has been reviewed by Mr. Kevin O'Hanlon and Ben Castillo. If any transfers from function to function are made, it is required that they bring it to the next regular board meeting as an information item. This is not changing the budget in any way. If there's a budget amendment that needs to be made, that will still come to you for board

182approval. It's just giving them that authority. in case there's unexpected state funds or maintenance or operations or emergencies that need to be made. That way we don't have to call up an emergency or special called board meeting and wait for quorum and all of that. That gives the superintendent or in his absence, Ms. Becky Gonzalez, the opportunity. And like I said, it's not changing the budget in any way or giving them unlimited access. It's very limited through this resolution. And like I said, it is in compliance with the education code and your board policy. I have a question. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. And I'm all for it for expediting a lot of the times for, uh, we need to do, but does it have, would we have to have a ceiling or it

183doesn't have a ceiling? It's still what's within your budget, I believe, right, Ms. Becky? So there's whatever has been approved, you just approved your fiscal budget, it's still within those, you know, that balanced budget within those operations. But from one function to another, it doesn't matter as far as the seating is concerned. Correct, it's from one function to the other. Okay, thank you. Moving it. Okay. We need a motion? I have. Okay. I motion to approve seconded by Ms. Perron. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Aye. None opposed. Motion carries. Madam president, we move to item I approve the use of facilities for the upcoming November 4th, 2025th election. And if necessary for a possible runoff election in December 2025 polling location for the election date. Motion to approve. It's for what month?

184It's for the November 4th election and it's to approve our sites and really, I mean, we've always complied. It's get elementary Santos Levis elementary Dodine's Sorenson Buckner Liberty, but he has an after PSG Memorial and Kennedy middle school. Okay. Okay. And Ms. Good motion to approve with the other's motion to approve seconded by Mr. Rodriguez. All in favor with your right hand. Aye. Aye. Aye. None opposed. Motion carries. If during the course of the meeting discussion of any items on the agenda should be held in a closed meeting. The board will conduct a closed meeting in accordance with the Texas opens meeting act, Texas government code chapter five, five, one sub chapters D and E or Texas government code session four one eight point one eight three F all final votes, actions or decisions will

185be taken in open meetings. It is nine Oh nine Oh nine are returning to open session and it is 10 Oh six. Dr. Elias, can you please continue with the items? Yes, Madam President. We have under human resources, employment of instructional professional personnel. We have for Marcia Garza Elementary. The recommendation by the principal is Oscar Reyes. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by Mr. Villegas. Second by Mr. Rodriguez. For approval, all those in favor? Aye. None opposed. Is she logged on? Okay, continuing. Yes, assistant principal at Santos-Livas Elementary School and the recommendation by the principal is Susy Beth Elizarez. Moved by Ms. Barron. Seconded by Mr. Villegas. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Aye. None opposed. Motion carries. Yes, Madam President, for assistant principal at PSJA Memorial Early College High School.

186We have the recommendation from the principal Rebecca Youngberg. Move for approval. I move. Move by Ms. Castillo, seconded by Mr. Rodriguez. All in favor, raise your right hand, say aye. Aye. None opposed, motion carries. Recommendation by principal for PSJ, Thomas Jefferson. The recommendation is Veronica Flores. Moved by Mr. Villegas. We need a second. I will second it. Veronica Flores for T-STEM. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. None teaching professional personnel for principal at Austin Middle School. That one will be tabled, Madam President. Okay, we need to move to table, right? Yes. Okay, I need a motion to table this item. Done by Mrs. Barron, seconded by Mr. Rodriguez. All in favor of tabling this item, raise your right hand. Aye. unanimous, none opposed. Motion carries. Recommendation for director for

187property control department and the recommendation. I couldn't log in. I kept telling Dr. Davalos and sending you messages. So I did not, I was not able to vote on the previous one. And it was, I sent several pictures where it was not, I was not allowed to, to join. The link was not working. So I don't know what you have voted on. Right now we voted on the four assistant principals. And to table Austin. And to table Austin Middle School. Okay, I'm noting that you came back on at 10.09. Okay, next item. Yes, Madam President, for Director for Property Control Department, the recommendation is Melissa Flores. Motion by Mr. Villegas. Seconded by Ms. Castillo. All in favor, raise your right hand. Aye. None opposed. Motion carries 7-0. Yes, Madam President. We move to item C,

188discussion and action regarding level three grievance of KS pursuant to PSJA district board policy, DGBA local. Mr. Diaz mad president like to make a motion to deny the remedies requested for level three grievance of KS Is that word correctly? Yes, ma'am. Okay, that motion is correct Do I get a second I second the seconded by miss Castillo all in favor raise your right hand I abstain for the reasons stated in executive session. So I abstain. Okay. The vote is six, four, and one abstention. Motion carries. Motion to adjourn. We have motion to adjourn by Mr. Villegas, seconded by Mr. Rodriguez. All in favor? None opposed. Good night.