October 27th, 2025 - Regular Board Meeting 5:30pm

001Elizabeth Yates, Shirley Jordan, Priscilla Vela, Eleanor Gonzalez, Elmer Rodriguez. As the record shows, the theory is a form of board members. We're going to move on to agenda item three of there is no public participation. We're going to move on to agenda item number two of disability justice. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, invisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and invisible. There is one color for this. Moving on to the report, the recognition report. Action items 4A is the recognition of community partner fish for life. We're going to start off with a video presentation. For those of you that don't know about Fish for

002Life, I've got it on the video, but in a nutshell, it's an organization, a faith-based organization that was founded in 2009 by Mr. Chuck Goodwin. And so tonight we're honoring Fish for Life and showing appreciation, but we're specifically honoring his memory. He passed away in August, August 8th, is that right? 20 just this last August. And so I don't want to say too much more because you'll see from the video and a lot of you in here has touched your heart in different ways. You'll see some people. One thing I'll say while Byron's setting this up is there's three people that are in this video, which is Alex Garcia, Jalito Gutierrez, and this Judy Gonzalez-Rodriguez that were in other roles when they were in this video. But now they're all with their three people that.

003I met through Chuck, basically, and along with a lot of other people. So, yeah, let's start off. I have heard of the stars. Many more. So I think part of the Fish for Life 4 team will come up. Sorry, we'll get back to that. So Piper is Chuck's daughter. It says, in loving memory of Chuck Goodwin, Corpus Christi, Fish for Life, with gratitude for your Christ-like dedication and service to the West Oso ISD students and community. And it has that scripture, Matthew 25, 40, whatever you do for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do it for me. We know that she's always speaking hard, but, you know, there's no question. I think we have no question in any of our minds on August 8th. Well, that's good. Do we put you

004together? Okay, sure. Yeah Thank you for our lives. And again, that's beautiful. Yes, it is. The music. When they first came, I was working in the state. I was working there at the time. So even at that time, we went so much for it. Mr. Villanueva. Great man. He took many lives. Being a member of this committee for so long, it was beautiful to see over the years the tremendous blessing that Fish for Life was to our district and to our students. So we really appreciate all that you've done. We're definitely proud of you. Well, thank you for continuing to support our school district. People like him, he's a big difference to me with the needy. He's been kids. Every dollar stretch, we would use that coupon and all that. So he can do more

005for other kids. And we went over the limit, he would always see. So he can't be replaced. So his memory and his works here on earth will continue on and we really appreciate everything you've done and continue to do all these years for us. So it's going to the need, the really needed. So thank you. Board members have wrapped it up. We are very grateful that he came into our lives. I never had the opportunity to meet him. I know I've talked with Ms. Moore when I would go and talk to Ms. Moore. Well, they have given so much to our students and we are really grateful. Thank you so much. We are going to continue. Absolutely. Yes, this is what you let me do. Thank you so much. So we're going to move on

006to agenda item 4B, the presentation of the West Coast ISD Education Foundation Annual Update. Ricky DeLeon and Ms. Diago. These are the two co-chairs of this foundation. Thank you for having us here. I would like to acknowledge Board members here on these two board members. There really Davis came to our price president marketing Hello, everybody. Okay, hello. Okay, hello. And over to Ricky. Yeah, hello, everyone. Happy to be with you. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Great. And that was beautiful, the fish for life, to witness that as well. So that was a bonus being able to witness that. But tonight we're here to give you an update on the West Oso ISD Education Foundation. And we did present a PowerPoint that I think might be displayed now. Great. Thank you. So this is the

007start of the PowerPoint. We can go to the next page. A little bit of background about the foundation. We were established back in 2024, so not even two full years yet. Our fiscal year mirrors the school district's fiscal year, September 1st through August 31st. We have completed one full fiscal year, and we're starting our second fiscal year, which will be 26. We have 24 board members and we're fortunate that we have the three folks that are in the room. More would have been able to come, but just couldn't make it because of conflicts. Oh, plus those that are part of the administration, of course, that are in the room. So we have 19 voting members and five non-voting members. We have four key committees. The Programs Committee run by Anna. The Development Committee run by

008Jasmine. The Marketing, Anna Jimenez. Development is run by Jasmine Escutia. Marketing is run by Beverly Cage Davis, who is in the room. And Finance and Governance is run by Brenda Woods. We do have an ad hoc committee for the nominations. As we roll over the board, we will be looking for new board members to come in and the nominations committee will be working on that. The next slide speaks to our major events. And there are four major events that we are holding every year. The first one is partnered with the school district. That is the state of the district. And it's coming up in just under a month as the second co-sponsored one. though of course the school district had had them in the past. The Heart of West Oso is a picnic that we

009have there at the park in front of the old elementary. Basketball tournament, we're going to have our first one this coming winter. And the gala, we had our first gala this past June. I think a few of you were there and it was just a huge success. Everything that we've done thus far, we've been really fortunate that we've had good success. And at each one of the events that we've had thus far, the reception has been so positive and people already signing up for the next one. At the gala, we had 200 plus people there and pretty much everyone that attended was, you know, when's the next one? And I'm going to tell all my friends to come. And we want these to be bigger and better every single year. On the next slide. We'll

010see the types of revenue that we have. We have unrestricted revenue, which is the monies that we would raise from the events that you saw on the prior page. And then donations. We are always asking for donations. And our big selling point on our donations is that 100% of the funds that we raise go to the school district. Now, it's very clear, and that's a big selling point. There is only one reason for the Education Foundation to exist, and that's to support the school district. Those are the unrestricted revenue. On the restricted revenue, these again are 100% passed through to the school district, with one exception that we'll speak of. is that in our first year, the Ed Rochelle Foundation gave us $30,000 that was specific to starting the foundation. But everything else on this

011list, the Kennedy Foundation, the Porta Corpus Christi, HEB, Valero, Contreras de Leon Travel Fund, Texas Pioneer, HEB, and any other ideas that we come up with. The idea is that we will be making requests of these foundations, of these grantors, specifically to fund projects for West Oso. If we go to the next page, we'll see that on unrestricted revenue, so on the events and on donations, in our first 15 months of existence, which was fiscal year 25, and the two or three months prior to the start of that fiscal, we were able to get net income of $107,070. That was our net income after expenses for the gala, the state of the district, donations, Heart of West Doe. So all of those things together, we were able to net $107,000. For our fiscal year 26,

012we approved a budget a couple of months ago where we are targeting for fiscal year 26 to raise $97,000 that would be monies for use for the school district. We think the monies will be a little bit less because we will have some higher expenses, but still $97,000 coming out of these events and donations would be really helpful. On the next page, these are the restricted revenues, and you can see who participated in fiscal year 25 and who we're targeting for fiscal year 26. And so for fiscal year 25, we had the Ed Rochelle grant, and we got those $30,000. We had the Contreras de Leon scholarship funds of 20. We had the Kennedy Foundation, which... gave us a grant through Marcy Davis for the playground, and that was 10,000. And we had the Valero

013STEM grant at 15,000. So we raised $75,000 from these four organizations in fiscal year 25. Most of those were for the school district with the bullet there that the Ed Rochelle was the one grant that was specific for startup costs as a one-time grant. For fiscal year 26, you see that we're targeting pretty much everyone all over again. And the idea here is that we're working with the school district, working with Superintendent Moore and her staff on what are the projects that we would put forth to these grantors to be able to get funds for the school district. And for fiscal year 26, we're targeting to raise $105,000. from that would be restricted and would be 100% passed through to the school district. So you see the revenue and the cost are the exact same

014numbers and all the money goes to the school district. If we go to the next page, this kind of shows where, you know, how it goes to the school district. And in fiscal year 25, we gave $4,000, $4,005 to be exact in teacher grants. We gave $6,000 in scholarships and we gave $5,600 in school support. These were supply rooms that we funded for each of the school districts, each of the school campuses and some new teacher gift cards that we were able to fund. And then we also gave $4,500 for student group support. And these were two different groups that were looking at trips outside of the city and came to our board and asked for funds. And we awarded them $4,500. So for fiscal year 25, the number there in the bottom, 65,105 were

015the funds that the foundation raised specifically and granted, wrote the checks directly for the school district and or any one of those programs that are listed there. For fiscal year 26, You'll see that we are our programs we're projecting to spend $75,000 in programs and when you take the program work that is listed on this page plus the restricted work that was on the prior page we anticipate that we will be able to raise $155,000 for the school district in this fiscal year. The one item that I'll talk a little bit more about here is that the school district wishlist, which is the very first item on here, we've been working with superintendent Moore on identifying all the different projects from all the different campuses that could be items that would be on our grant

016request list. So that when we look at, and Rochelle, when we look at Kennedy, when we look at H-E-B, when we look at Valero, when we look at Porta Corpus Christi, that we would pull ideas off of the wish list in order to populate the grant request to make sure that we are raising funds that are specifically what the school district is asking for, what the school district needs. The $50,000 that is already funded on here um the education foundation voted on it last meeting that fifty thousand dollars will be for a reading specialist that would be for the junior high that would help those students that are that are needing extra help in learning how to read If we make this budget, we anticipate again that there will be $155,000 that we would be

017raising for the school district in fiscal year 26. And the two-year total, adding fiscal year 25 and 26, would be in our first 27 months that we would raise $220,000 for the school district. On the next page. Above and beyond raising funds and how we do this, we do have some initiatives that we're working on. We do want to expand the grants. You'll notice that the grant number did increase from fiscal year 25 to 26. And we do want to expand the events. The events were very successful and we got very positive feedback, but we want to make them bigger. And we want, as an example, the gala. We want like every single class who is celebrating a class reunion. We're hopeful that they would schedule their class reunion around the gala so they don't

018have to go do their own big dance. They can just come to our gala. That would help sell tickets. That would help drive West Oso pride. I know the theme for this year is about building our legacy, that this would be people. living out their legacy, coming back to West Oso, identifying with West Oso and giving back to West Oso. We found that part of the draw at the gala was the Hall of Fame. And after 20 some years of not having the Hall of Fame, we did reinstate it last year. And we're going to continue to do three to four nominees or I'm sorry, inductees a year. And we're working on a proposal to come back to you on how these could fit within the wall, the existing wall at the junior high. I'm

019sure many of you are familiar with other schools and their Hall of Fames where the wall actually does mean something. If you go to the Delmar campus, you go to Flower Bluff campus, you go to Tolosa Midway campus, you'll see their Hall of Fame. And we want to be able to continue that tradition as well. Now, above and beyond that, we are working on a website and the website should be live in the next month or so. And we are, you know, one big initiative is actually going to be turnover because we do have these first 25 board members and we did lose one person between fiscal year 25 and 26. But thus far, everybody will be on two-year terms and we know that's not sustainable. So we are looking that we will turn over

020one third of our board every year and bring in new folks to be able to keep the legacy alive, keep people involved and bring in more people to drive that loyalty and drive that recognition to West Oso. So those are the initiatives that we're working on on fiscal year 26. And in all, you know, we really do see this as a win-win where everything the foundation does with the 100% intent of funding going to the school district would be a win for the community. that there would be no one in this that would not be 100% behind the school district. That's what keeps the 24 board members active and giving their time and their effort and their money behind this effort. So that's the whole presentation that we have prepared in advance. Now we can

021have Q&A as you wish. And to the extent that Diana, Beverly, Lisa, any one of the other board members in the room would want to add anything or at Healthfield, any questions, that would be wonderful. And of course Marcy and Superintendent Moore and Oscar and Velma and everyone who's on the board. Okay, we're going to go ahead and start with the board member. Ms. Vela? No questions. Mr. Villanueva? I'm good. Ms. Gonzalez? No questions, but y'all are doing a great job. Mr. Adenaldo? I think you filled the mention that a lot of the people who are involved are alumni. So they're coming back to pay it back to us also. And you're driving that effort more and more as we get better recognition out there in the public. I know that when we first started,

022we just started with a handful of us with an idea. And then we had some professional guidance on how to set it up and all that. And it was always a challenge saying, Are we going to get the right people? Are we going to get people that are going to be dedicated to this cause that are going to stick around, that are going to entertain the time of volunteering, their time and effort and all that? And Ricky and, I'm sorry, Diana, have done a tremendous job in keeping this. actually organized in going forward without falling apart. So I think we have set a great foundation for this foundation to continue. I see more people that are stepping up and I hope that that continues and it's all gonna, like you said, it's gonna benefit 100%

023back to the students, the teachers. and the community. So you spend it here, you raise it here. So it's a win-win for everyone. So I just want to congratulate everybody that's involved, Beverly, Ms. Loyola. Y'all have done a tremendous job with all this. And I hope that we have other people behind us that'll fill those big shoes that you're putting forward. So thank you for all y'all have done. I'll leave it at that. Mr. Grace? Yes, Mr. DeLeon, I'd like to thank you for getting this all started. And I wish you nothing but luck on it. Thank you for supporting the West Oso ISD school district. And I hope that you continue. I am not a graduate of West Oso, so I just want to stay away. But I support you on what you're doing.

024And I thank you for everything you and your family do for the students of West Oso. Mr. Jordan, I'll get over it, Danny, that the board has said, and I just want to say thank you to the alumni and Mr. Galeon for what you all have done for the district. We really do appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Arigolo and I are members of the board, but we are non-voting members of the foundation. I'm sorry, members of the foundation, because we wanted to see what's going on so that we can also get a feel of, well, to let our board know also. And I can vouch for they are doing a tremendous job. I mean, and what... 95% of your foundation is made up of alumni. And each and every one of them come in every

025meeting prepared and ready to go and ready to give what's next. So we are grateful. We needed this. Ms. Warren and I have been talking about it. We've needed it for a very long time. And for a while, Ms. Cantu-Querrero had it. Randy, the other one, what was it called? The association? Oh, I didn't run it, Miss Rodriguez. Remember, I was on the board. Oh, Mr. Castanon. It was Mr. Castanon. Yes. And then, like you said, it was 27 years later. So we are grateful for all the work that they've done. And, like, everybody's reiterated. These are alumni. They're coming back to our school and to give back. So hopefully, and I'm sure they're going to set the example for our future alumni that want to come back and hopefully join our other foundation. So

026we do give you thanks. And I think you've seen the products and everything that has come forth from that, you know, our students. We go to college with the Contreras de Leon scholarships. Our students get to go on trips that weren't normally funded by the school because we didn't have the money to fund them. So it has been a great help. And if anyone here wants to join or wants to be a part of it, you are more than welcome because they have given back. And like you said, 100% of their funding comes back to our schools. so we are grateful i don't want to leave out marshy because she's been helping out a lot also oh yeah not only running your school but helping out with a lot of the stuff so i didn't

027want to leave anybody else but i behind the scenes there's a lot of stuff that goes behind the scenes in the money seats and no i've had a conversation with them once it's like everybody else yeah definitely they're out there in the trance So, thank you so much Ricky and Diane for being the co-chairs and hopefully, you know, I know you said, you know, we want that turnover and I'm pretty sure it's success because people do want to follow in those footsteps. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Do you have anything else? No, just extremely super encouraging and we do have our state of the district in the first event of the year three weeks from Wednesday and we'll be reaching out if you haven't reached out to a lot of the people

028in this room to for invitations and it's the Delmar College has been incredibly gracious to us. Dr. Escamilla is supporting that state of the district in a statewide so it's gonna actually be at the south of the creek camping also creek campus yeah um beverly cage has been our amazing liaison to make all those logistics work for that um everything the logistics to have that event menu um yes i do want to thank personally thank your memory for opening it with delmar because they have been so gracious to us and really have just stepped it up. Thank you very much. And the president. Yes, of course. Good evening, I'm Beverly Cage. I'm the director of student leadership in campus. campus life at Del Mar College. I've been there for 25 years. I'm a proud graduate

029of West Oso High School, class of 1975. And when I moved back to Corpus in 2002, I think it was, I got involved with the old association with Lee Castillon. And my old teachers, Dr. Cortes and Ms. Satterwhite was my fourth grade teacher. And I saw her at the post office, told her I was back. And she said, what are you doing for this community? You know, you need to get involved in this community. So I did and here I am and I advocate for West El So every day at Del Mar College because I know what the needs are and I know that we have great students because I was a great student. And so I know that we have students that we can help and I have a couple other things that I

030am working on that I will be sharing with Ms. Moore soon. So if you guys need anything, the foundation is here to support. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming on out and Monday evening continuing to give give give we really great Hard-working lady every day. All right. We're gonna move on to agenda item 4c the recognition of the outstanding stamp initiative of school board members for the Latino equity. Ms. Gutierrez you want to come on down? Why don't you come on down? So um On October 3rd, which happened to be the same night as homecoming, the Mexican American School Board Association, which is now called the Latin, read it again what it's called? Latino Equity Association. Both of them are on their website, so it's interesting. So there was an application for outstanding STEM

031initiative for the state of Texas, and they kind of tried to get us because they wouldn't tell us whether we won or not. And so we didn't know if we won. And so therefore, it was in San Antonio. And Ms. Gutierrez went and was there whether we won or not for the conference. And so we did win. And so that's super exciting. And so here's the award. And I invited a couple of our STEM teacher and students to kind of be, because that's where we got it because of. Not just yet, but definitely man just salinas has been part of the stem robotics program and branched out to technology student association technology technical honor society technical National Honor Society and to connect things when the foundation supported travel, right? They helped them out to get

032to Fort Worth, which then would help them the next step to get to Nashville. And so Mona and Rochelle were able to go to Nashville in, right at the end of June, early July of last year. So I want, did the three of y'all come up? Rebecca, you said you've done some, you've done some, no, she didn't want to come up. She's going to come up next. The three of y'all come on up. So Mona told me, But a week ago for her for TSA right that she had to attend a board meeting because the technology student association isn't just about learning about technology, but it's also leadership and service. So she asked me, she's like, when's the next board meeting? I'm like, oh, this is perfect. We'll honor Ms. Salinas and honor you. So

033here we are. So if you wanted to. Yes, up to the last. Up to before we got to the award ceremony, I kept asking, did we win? Are we getting anything? And they kept saying, we don't know, we don't know. And then to find out that it was our own Bill Churchwell that announced that West also had won the award for the stamp. And I was just joyed because, you know, I've known Mr. Churchwell for a long time. I never do this, but I jumped out of the seat and I was like, wow, yes. And everybody was like, you've never done that. But it's exciting to know that, you know, this, I'm going to say it just got started, right? I thought it just got started, but yet you went to. to nationals, which is

034great. I congratulate you all so we can keep getting these awards for you guys. Thank you so much. Yeah, one more little thing about Mona. So I don't know if it was somebody else, but I know Mona, the TSA, Technology Association, actually, you can participate as middle schoolers. So Mona said, well, why not? So she went over to the junior high school and recruited a whole bunch of kids to start a program there this year as well. And there really was, when we talk about student led, student centered, this organization is doing that. So that's super cool. And we really didn't know until Liz told us that same day she was at the home. She was our designated member. She went and the rest of us didn't because we were like, no, we're going to

035spend all of it. Well, actually, because we just had enough funding for two, not out of state, but two Texas streets. So thank you very much Liz for being here. So now we are moving on to agenda item O. So we did C. Did we announce Gary Garza? I'm sorry, so yeah, we definitely had two other people, but they, it was kind of my fault because last week was kind of a whirlwind, so I invited them at the last minute. With Greg Garza from Westchester Elementary, kind of starts that STEM pathway. I put the submission, I wasn't going to go through the PowerPoint. of time but yeah i just wanted to recognize yeah yeah so greg garza does the robotics at west elfrid elementary and then he also works um that's during the day so

036you see all the students right are getting robotics and then he actually helps with junior high robotics and then this year this past year and i guess this upcoming year dr rivera they're going to be working with the unified robotics so he does that actually at the high school level right So he's working with all the different levels. So that was a new thing we started last year. And then Ms. Esquivel works with all the STEM things at the junior high school campus. She does a whole lot. So yeah, they were invited, but it was very last week. So I'm sorry about that. It's good to know that each campus level is still all working. Oh, I know who's going to share. I know some of you have seen it. I'm not sure if all

037of you have seen it. A week and a half, two weeks ago, they did a feature article, a news story about Kane Odom. And so that was super cool because Kane definitely started, I'm sure Greg taught him at the beginning at West Vista Elementary. He attended that coding camp, which was the Del Mar Connection, for several summers and was a mentor at that coding camp at Del Mar that they did for us for free. He continued doing STEM at junior high, and now he has his own business doing 3D printing. So that's super cool. It's sort of his pathway. He's an eighth grader, and he's starting to have this business where he's selling 3D printing stuff all over the state of Texas. So that was incredibly cool. It just happened. It just kind of got

038so much to know. Yeah, that was amazing. And I know we've talked as kind of a STEM team with trying to get, we're going to order some nicer 3D printers for the campuses. And they want to maybe do some business stuff, kind of combine STEM and business as well and make some money. They have goals. That's right. The students making the things with the 3D. They were making the caps. With the 3D, they made like, say the West Coast. The logo? Yeah. They make it with those 3D screens. I don't know what they are. It's really nice. I hope you all get it. Me too. I'm coming one of every year. Lots of learning going on. All right, so let's move on to agenda item 4d the presentation and discussion regarding the Ballot scorecard the

039priority one report ensure student success and well-being We're going to go over D1 the summer CTE grant Are you doing both, Ms. Garcia? Yes. Okay, so Ms. Garcia is going to do the Summer CTE grant and the academic. So I will start with the Summer CTE grant. This grant, we're awarded by TEA. It ensures that students have the opportunity, experience, and credentials to pursue meaningful career and educational pathways after high school. This grant runs from mid-July to mid-December. Each student chosen can work 100 hours. They earn $15 an hour, so they can earn $1,500. We have two students here who will be presenting. There are 22 total students. Three are from Robstown and 19 from West Doso. The reason we partner with Robstown is because you get extra points on your application if you partner

040with another school district. So they have been partnering with us for four years already. Hi, I'm Caitlin. I'm a senior at West Coast High School. And at the Garcia Arts Education Center, they had the interns sort, organize, package, greet, design flyers, monitor students, and this helped them with time management, learning safety, and learning customer service. And this went along with the education pathway. Hello, my name is Rebecca Biss. I'm a senior at West Coast High School. This slide's about Buster Propane. The duties we learned there were inventory, customer service, spreadsheet creation and entry, and team building. The skills that were learned and taken from this were billing prospects, assessing profit and loss, and basics of running a company. This pathway was business. At the Coastal Bend Love Center, they did inventory, sorted, organized, market development,

041donation supply prep, cold calls, and they learned better communication, time management, organization, confidence, and this goes with the health science faculty. The Corpus Christi Football Club, the duties that they did there were inventory, roster creation, field prep, content creation, community outreach, and the skills that are... During their time management, reviewing profit margins, business pitches, and the ability to this pathway was also at the business level. At International Consulting Engineers, they did sketches, studied drones, site visits, software edits and imports, and they learned land surveying techniques, new software, organization, efficiency, and this goes with the engineering and business pathway. Was this, is this that? the foundation board member? Yes, exactly. So this is her business? Uh-huh. One of our foundation board members, that's her business. It's ICE. It's not that same ICE. We were like, no,

042no, no, no. I work directly with the West SLO ACE program. The duties were creating class lessons, conducting lessons, monitoring students, call parents, data entry, and this helped me with time management, customer service, communication, and this was part of the pathway of education. Kaitlin, can you tell us a little bit about what you actually did? I worked with the Summer ACE program and I worked with the little girls who were interested in learning more about cheer. I helped them. They had a lot of fun with that, learning all the fundamentals. And then I worked with Ms. Dawn Marshall here at Central. I made some phone calls, which helped me become more comfortable with my speaking skills, and also made spreadsheets, which was cool. So, yeah. The YWCA, the Do You Think That They're More Swing,

043Organizing, Privacy, and Communicating, Community Outreach. We monitor students and the skills they learn were communication, organization, collaboration, and event preparation. This went along with the education pathway. Alright, we're going to call Rochelle up. Come on, I didn't call you up. Come on, have a good show. She was not part of the presentation, but she also happened to have a summer CTE job. So, I worked as an intern at the elementary school, so I helped them set up the school year. I helped unpack books, organize them, give them out to teachers. as well as decorate. I guess if I had to say other day's skills, it would definitely be organization and communication. And it was really fun to just learn how much effort goes into preparing for a new school year. yeah so these students we

044did add a lot more internship opportunities different companies that agreed to partner with us lots of the students and did get offered a job so they are also working I know some got offered with the Corpus Christi football club so they finished their hours but now they're getting a real paycheck so this is a great grant Do y'all have any questions for them? Ms. Jordan, do you have any questions? I'm impressed. It was represented so well. Thank you. Ms. Gutierrez? Yes, I'm going to say y'all did a great job. One thing I'm going to tell you is don't be afraid to speak out. Use your voice as long as you can and speak out because that's what's going to get you places. And I'm glad that y'all did a great job in your communications as

045well. Congratulations to both of you. I hope you all continue. Congratulations to all that participated. I know it was eye-opening, especially earning your own money. I know you don't want to spend your own money, but it's hard work. It takes hours to earn that hard-earned money. So I hope that not only was the job experience that you're getting, so good luck in the future. And this is only a little bit of a taste of what's going to be after high school. Congratulations. Would you recommend this to other people that have gone to the program? Great experiences and you recognize those experiences and that's a great thing. It was great to see this awesome opportunity being taken advantage of by our students. I know we're truly growing some extraordinary leaders in our students and just looking

046forward to continuing with this program. Definitely. So do we have it in the work store the following year? I mean, we'll apply again. Yes. Because I mean, I keep having this conversation with Ms. Moore. The more exposure our students get, the more that they're going to realize there's a lot out there and not just, you know, I mean, not to say that any of these jobs are just regular, ordinary. But besides being a teacher or an engineer, there's a lot of other opportunities that some people might just say, hey, I never thought about doing that. So yeah, that's a great grant for our students. And hopefully, we will apply and we will get it again at TIRS. Yes. Thank you to the students that participated. I didn't hear you. Oh, mid-July to early December. What

047they do each year is they call it a summer CTE grant. We had to submit fairly early, but we've done it four years. Only one of the years did they actually let us know, like, way early. This year, what was in June that they told us? So it's supposed to be a summer ending in August, but I think every single year they've had to extend it because they didn't let us know until. And we were kind of scared because that's when they froze all the money. They're like, no. Yes. Yes. They apply. And they're teacher recommendations. Right? So they... Oh, they all have to. Yes, we have to receive, we have to go out to the job site and meet with the managers or owners. And they have a form, like an evaluation they have

048to give on each student. There's timesheets they need to turn in. I mean, it's a real job. And then all that information gets reported to TEA. Several of the students, a bunch of, several of the students were also athletes, so there's volleyball practice going on, and there's football practice. Some of them have jobs after school now. Anyway, so a lot of them have extra commitments after school hours. All right. So this is just a... Just a quick update on how well our teachers and campuses are doing. This data is from our beginning of year assessment to the first nine week assessment. So all campuses are doing amazing. Our teachers are working really hard. interventions have begun. They've already looked at their data from the first nine weeks summative at every campus. So now they're being

049strategic on their interventions, even more strategic than what they were the first nine weeks. So I feel everything is going very well. For anyone that needs support, everyone is here to support from campus admin to central office. So do you want me to go through each grade or? So third grade ELAR, you can see the approaches at VOY was at 18% and it went up to 63% just in the first nine weeks. Our math went from 8%, well, 9% to 82% just in the first nine weeks. Our fourth grade, 38% to 97%. What's the attribute from 37% to so low to so high? Because the beginning of the year, they don't really know. This is a new grade level, so you're tested on that new grade level. Okay, not what you learned in the past.

050No, no, it's like if you're going into fourth grade, you're taking a fourth grade. But we see such a small number at the beginning. We're going to let her finish and then write your notes down. The only reason I asked because I wanted to see. Oh, yeah. Fifth grade. 41% approaches are now at 87, 88% on reading. And then math was at 20, and now they're at 80. The next page is we're keeping track of extended constructive responses, which is writing. That is our target this year. You can see when they took their B.O.Y. assessment, the number of zeros was 81. And then now we're at 25. I can say I did attend at a PLC for fifth grade. What they are doing is amazing. And they're doing this at the elementary, at all campuses.

051But I did see it during fifth grade. They cut out all of their responses. The teacher cut out all the responses. They put it in their journal and they received a rubric. How could you make this writing better? And they could really see a difference in their writing from the B.O.Y. to the summative exam. So even the students notice it and they're like, I can't believe I wrote like this. You know, so there's good things happening in classrooms everywhere. Sixth grade, our E.L.A.R., our English, was at 33, sorry, 35 percent. It is now at 64. And for math. From 24, they're at 61%. The sixth grade constructive responses, they did have a few more zeros. However, they're getting, we're working on that. That's target. I'm not going to lie. That is a target. So we're

052working on that. Seventh grade, ELAR was at 30%. They are at 48%. And math, you'll see two VOYs. It's the same test, however, taken on a different date. But they went from about, I would say, roughly 33% to 50%. The constructive responses, the number of zeros was 85 for VOY, and it was 72. So we're getting better. We're getting a lot more ones. Moving in the right direction. Eighth grade, they were at 23%. They are now at 67% in English. And for math, they were at 25%. They're now at 44%. Eighth grade constructive responses, they are doing amazing. You can see the improvement in their writing. One thing I want to say is our math. They are part of the MoTC grant, the Strong Foundation Implementation Grant. So they are coming and supporting our teachers.

053Our math teachers are working very, very hard. So we're really proud of them. Like I said, all the teachers, but those math teachers are really working hard. Our high school, English 1 and 2. English 1 at the beginning of the year was at 31%. They are now at 77%. English 2 was at 39%. They're now at 75%. And here's the breakdown. Their writing has really improved tremendously. And our Algebra 1 data. Of course, we have Algebra 1 in junior high and high school. The high school started at 23% and they are now at 100% approaches and our pre-APs at 97% and junior high started at 64% and they're at 100% approaches right now. So here's just a quote by Maya Angelou, you can't really know where you're going until you know where you have been.

054I'm going to go ahead and start with Ms. Vela. Any questions? Can I have a pen? We used to have tons of pens. I'm just saying, we still have this. You have a new pencil. Okay, Mr. Villanueva? Okay, Ms. Gonzalez? Yes, campus principals have already made plans to, they're already, all campus principals are already in the classrooms. I mean, they are really in those classrooms. So we are supporting all teachers. Ms. Rodolfo? Explain to me what an extended constructive response is. That is the writing portion that they need to do on STAR test. Even in math? In math they have a short constructive response. Okay so and also when we look at the ratings when you get a zero rating does that mean you had... No points. They didn't respond to the question. Not that

055they didn't respond. They may have not answered the question. They might have left it blank. Well, no. They could have written 600 words but did not answer the question. So every teacher on every campus, they're stressing them. I mean, it's only the first six weeks. First nine weeks, so. Our middle of the year is this month. That'll be the middle of the year. You're gonna compare it to these numbers also, right? Yes. To see if we're still on track. Yes, sir. So that we don't have any surprises at the end of the year. Yes. So as you're doing that, you're targeting what specific, because you can tell what teacher, what student is struggling in what specific area. We have the data for that. Right. And that's what the teachers are doing. Okay. So that's where

056we target our... after school programs and all our tutoring based on what their weaknesses are. Yes. So we met with- We had targeted data, we had targeted tutoring. Yes. Thank you. Well, I just wanted to, we did get that academic update, we'll know. Yeah. I didn't know. It was a skip. Yeah, we thank you. We made one for everyone. It was kind of hard to read, but I'll kind of go over that. Ms. Gutierrez? Nope. And Ms. Jordan. Yeah, I was kind of concerned about, I'm always concerned about the middle school. And I was just wondering how are we targeting the ones that are not included. Are we doing special things going for those who are not? Yeah, so I met some of these kids and some of them are just not there. And I

057was concerned, you know, in some of my conversations with them. And I was just wondering how are we addressing the need at the middle school? So we are addressing each individual. Dr. Castillo started the Renaissance, the AR at junior high. So all the students have already done that. We have their levels. So now we start targeting the students who are not on grade level. And those will begin, we're gonna start testing them, so they will begin getting intervention, reading interventions probably within a week. And we also met with ACE on different programs to target those students as well. So we have identified them? Yes, yes ma'am. When you say you started the Renaissance, is that, we didn't offer that in junior high? Not that I was aware of, no, no. we haven't ever offered that

058in junior high? Maybe one year or something, but no we haven't. We haven't. Yeah, we haven't. So that was one of Dr. Cuscio's initiatives. Because the thing is, and I guess what we're looking at is you have kids that are below grade level. So within the low grade level, because the star testing is only going to tell you are they at a sixth grade breeding level, are they at seven? But this will say, let's target it to are they a year behind, are they two years now? We have. You got here, what, two years ago? Yeah, we needed that. And I mean, I think we're looking at it from all the angles. So like we had a conversation, you shared the AVID conversation you had today. Oh, yes. So Ms. Moore and I met with

059our AVID representative. She's going to come in and give some professional learning to the junior high teachers on. And how to get constructive feedback how to do peer-to-peer and feedback So she she is meeting with those teachers during PLC Specifically on writing because we're still trying to figure out and you know this year I think what a lot of the students are still doing is they're summarizing or they're writing something about the passage Zero acts like okay. They're not writing anything. It could be well written But if it's not answering the exact question. Yeah. To the prompt. Right. Yeah, all those are good interventions, which we do need because, you know, I mean, it is what it is. And I'm sure you inherited a lot of this, Dr. Heskey. So, you know, we are concerned

060about it. And I did talk to Ms. Garcia before the meeting. Yeah, I talked to Ms. Moore that all hands need to be on deck for the junior high. I mean, this is not a matter of, oh, you know, she sails alone. All hands need to be on deck because we do want it to be successful. I know our kids can do it, but we have to have the best implementations out there. So thank you for doing what y'all are doing because, yeah. And on part of that, that's where the grant from the Educating Foundation is going to come to try to help the students. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. So can you elaborate on that? Because I did want to know. I haven't heard that part. So what happened was we spent

061a lot of time. And those wish lists are still going to be useful. We haven't forgotten those wish lists because those will be for future grants. But when the subcommittee of the foundation met. Mr. Arradondo is in that meeting. Lance Harper, who's a special education teacher. Carmen Tadeo-Bogato, of course, is a professor. myself was there one maybe that was it and Oh and Ricky was there right and they you know we talked technology and stuff but he said you know we want to make a measurable focused difference and what do you think make the most measurable focused difference and I said you know I thought a reading specialist because we have these people you know we have advisory going on we have tutoring we have especially but someone that And what we talked about a

062lot is we don't want to just get anyone. We want someone dealing with like a master's. More tutors aren't going to do it because we need someone that can really. Think through okay. We have X number of we're thinking through but that will be there Yeah, day in day out do some modeling for teachers But also working directly with these students that have those expert skills on Okay, they're reading in a third grade reading level What what are they struggling with is just that even they're just a third grade reading level you've got to work with students to know what? Specifically they are struggling with they're not going to be assigned other tasks. Their main focus is are we doing it right? And one of the things that really is stressed is that SEMA works

063this year and you're not going to turn this around in one year. So he was even forecast that we probably might need to do this another couple more years if it's successful. So they're willing to, if we can show that the numbers are changing in the right direction. They might even invest another $50,000 next year. Honestly, that was the indication that he gave us and maybe beyond that because if it's working and it's helping the students, then... This can see it is it it continues to help them more and that's what we want We just didn't want somebody just being there like a tutor somebody that specifically is going to just be doing that and nothing else alone So the other thing that we have to him is what about the students that were in

064junior high that are not going to the high school That may have lost some of that knowledge that we didn't provide for them so I think that he has that maybe in the back of his mind. Well the good thing about it is that Ricky who is the co-chair of the Education Foundation he was an educator before he went now he runs like a $150 million foundation but before that he was an educator so he knows what we're going through and I'm so glad that You all gave him those ideas because he can run with that and that foundation can really help us. I'm ecstatic. I did not, I missed that meeting. So I didn't have to do that. Well, we need chapters and we need this and we need that. Right. We need to

065turn the junior high around in that specific area. So he wanted to get the most bang out of the money. But it's all going to be up to us to show those numbers are improving and if we do I did get the sentiment that we might try to fund this next year. Absolutely. That was a concern. Yeah. And to be honest, reading and writing go together. So it's a writing passage. You have to read the passage, right, understand the passage and then understand the prompt in order to be able to. So we can we talk about it separately. Okay. Oh, I miss you All students at the junior high have been interested in reading and you know what There's 11 students that they are still testing because they were absent or whatever. So those 11

066students, the librarian is bringing them in to get them tested. I know Dr. Castillo wanted her to do that immediately so that, you know, we can share. What are your numbers as far as, okay, sixth graders, how far behind are you? How many are behind? Seven graders. How many are behind? Eight graders. I can get those numbers for you. I don't have it memorized right now, but I can get that for you. I'm sorry. I'd like to know, because we keep hearing that they're not reading, even at the high school. You know, I can hear there's students that can't read at 3 o'clock. I don't know if you know numbers. Moving forward, that's why we put some things in place for that. You know, how can we support those students? And as far as the

067reading renaissance, are y'all having incentives in place? I know that that really got them going in the elementary. Like, you know, oh, you've read so many books, or you're at an 80% passing level. Is that... on there right yes we're working um our librarian miss martinez she's overseeing that but we do have a small budget for incentives that we want to um reward them if they meet their ar goal at the end of every grading period and that could be that could be you know take from that 50 000 to increase that budget i could do a little bit because we're at least this year we're starting so late in the year realistically by the time we hire someone so I was thinking the same thing. Yeah, because he did give us the foundation so

068we need to talk to Miss Moore, see how much she can get because we really do need to build on that. I know that got the elementary excited for reading. Oh I need to go check out another book because I already read my three books. And I think that would definitely help, especially your sixth graders that are just coming out of elementary. That's good to hear. Any further questions? Ricky, remember when we were doing the initial wish list, I did bring up the how are we going to reward the kids. with either like a laptop or something that he completed. If you, at then, do you remember that conversation? And part of it, he went back after he granted the $50,000, he says he wanted to do the idea of rewarding the students at the

069end of the year that completed the course and that they did improve. And one of the things that I recommended that we tie it in with attendance. And then that. So he is looking at some kind of reported being because what's the character for this? So he's a very big thing. Or me. There shouldn't be a character. Okay, well. Wait, wait, wait. I'll take it. You know, your opinion is your opinion. But if you're going to do something hard, if you report them, it might give them that extra incident to complete. the task to meet the court to come to attendance. If I know I'm gonna get a bike at the end of the year, I'm gonna try extra hard to get this pulled. So whether you agree with it or not, a child's a

070child and when they see a reward, I think it pushes them a little bit more. And that's all we're trying to do. I mean, reward them at the end of, thank you for all the hard work that you put into it. Maybe we can do a little bit something for competing. So we went to bring rewarded every time you pass through You know if we look at the past and we look at what happened in the past. Why don't we look at the future? What are we trying to be positive? It's always about the negativism and we always try to pick up the negative out of every program. So I don't want to be I don't want to go down that route. That's okay. If that's going to be a report, it's a report that's

071going to be a report. And they are looking forward to that. Well, it's it's done in the end and as a employer to the phone is this hey you I'm more than sure of it right now. You're right. These are kids and yes, not everything should be rewarded Get that little bubble burst when they get their first stop because not everything is going to be rewarded but for right now We really need an incentive I mean I talked to one of the little boys that you're working with the football game is Jordan and I said oh you miss Jordan's working with you and he was just beaming and I have not gotten trouble since I promised to her and I don't know if it's so much a good thing, but it's like a human being

072investing in them personally, it makes a difference. And this young man, he was a little bit of a sassy kind of guy beforehand, and watching him... You know know that miss Jordan is is watching him I didn't meant a lot and I wasn't even drawing running as I'll drill video I just heard that this Jordan's working with you and he said to me and I haven't gotten in trouble I'm gonna try not to get in trouble. She's been doing it that stint if she's filling in for the parents and that since also And we all need that extra mentoring if it's available and going to do it. Thank you for mentoring us. Okay. And you are done, Ms. Garcia? Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. I know. We still have a quorum.

073Let's proceed before we don't have a quorum. We're going to move on to the consent agenda. No, I'm sorry. Oh, yes. agenda 5a approval of the board meeting minutes 5b the approval of the monthly investment report for 30th 2025 and 5c the approval of the general fund financial report for 30th 2025 if i don't hear any objections do i have a motion and a second for the consent agenda 5a b and c i'll move that we accept the hsa agenda as presented All right, a motion has been made by Mr. Arredondo and seconded by Ms. Gonzalez to approve agenda item 5A, B, and C. Let's go ahead and vote. Yes, it is. Sherry Jordan. Yes. Priscilla Vela. Aye. Albert Medea. Aye. Jolene Gonzalez. Aye. Oscar Arredondo. Aye. Dona Rodriguez. Aye. This motion passes 5A. All

074right, we're going to move on to agenda items. 6. The items for discussion, deliberation, and or action. 5. The discussion and possible action on approving an agreement of financial advisory services with TRB Capital Markets, EDA, Escada, and Hosa. Mr. Hosso, Ms. Mendez, and Ms. Moore. Thank you for your patience, Mr. Hosso. Sure. Good stuff, believe it or not. It's nice to get to sit through and find out what's going on. I don't mind at all. But thank you all. And I guess for the purpose of the record, my name is Tony Caso. as the board president said, with Estrada Hinojosa. And we've been honored to serve you all as financial advisor for some years now. And so as it happens, from time to time, our agreement comes up for reconsideration. So really, that's the purpose

075of what we're here to do tonight, is to ask you all to consider renewing that. But I also thought since we're here, what a good time to maybe just kind of go over the bond portfolio and figure out kind of where we stand as of October 2025. So with that, I put just a few sheets in actually all spaces there in hard copy. We can just kind of dive in. And forgive me, I didn't think to mail something electronic so it could be put up there. I'll do my best to remember to do that the next time I show up. But in slide one, what we have here is just kind of a dashboard of the district's bond portfolio. In tabular format, we show that you have five series of bonds or five loans outstanding.

076The amount of, the principal amount of all of those series of bonds total $21,765,000. Now, of that $21.7 million, 18.4 or 18 million four hundred fifteen thousand of that are callable so what does that mean uh that just means that those that's the amount of the total amount of bonds that could conceivably be refinanced uh at a certain point and that certain point is located in the in the column to the immediate right you have that column title, call date, that's really when you're able to refinance that specific series of debt. So as a rule of thumb when the district or really anyone for that matter in the municipal space goes out to issue a bond, you typically allow the bond investor 10 years of a time period to recruit their principal and interest. And

077once that 10 years is up, then typically the bond issuer, or in this case West Coast or YSD, would have the option to refinance that debt if it was economically beneficial. And so that's why we track that. And so part of our duties as financial advisors is to kind of keep tabs on that and look at what interest rates are doing. So for example, and we'll touch upon this in a few slides, but you'll notice we have one of your series highlighted there in a gold rectangle. And that's because that specific series is becoming callable in August of 2026. And so we're monitoring that. Thankfully, you know, we've seen rates, we saw rates for a while do nothing but go stay up. And now they're starting to come down ever so slowly, maybe not as

078much as some of us would like, but they're trending in the right direction. And so we believe also. this week that we might get another cut by a quarter of a percentage point. So we're, I think headed in the right direction. All that said, God willing, by the time we hit August, we'll be in a little bit of a better interest rate environment. And so this might look a little better than it does now. And we'll show you in some slides forward what our initial analysis. projects for refinancing but that's kind of the purpose of that and again another one of our functions as your advisor. Some of the other data that we've listed for you is the assessed valuation over the past years of the district and as we can see that's steadily growing.

079Then also the tax rate data that you all meet annually to set the tax rate. We have that history too. And so in a tabular format, we listed all of your debt. In graphical format, that's what's taking up most of that first slide, is the principal and interest, the dark blue representing the principal amount and the gray representing the amount of interest. So as you can see, bond payments are relatively stable, or at least within a certain range from 2026 to 20... let's call it 2031 and then they start to decline and then decline notable beginning in 2035 and so that you know if we had to add on any new anything new, we would certainly want to try to structure that in that 2035 and beyond space. You know, another strategy that the district

080took advantage of last year and is looking to do this year is to maybe take some excess money that you have and pay off some debt or retire some debt early. You know, similarly, I... Kind of heard this example recently. I thought man I gotta say that that's really good, but it's like you know We all have our homes that are paying on and sometimes you know we're able to Sock away a little bit of extra money, and so we make an extra mortgage loan payment to help pay that down and so that's what the district you know is will attempt to do this year and we will be looking at as we did last year the series 2019 because that gives us the most bang for our buck. So if we flip the page

081onto slide two, you see a very similar graph on the top of the page except it looks like, you know, I like to call them little Legos. And so the different colors represent those different series of bonds. And so... The 2019 is the darker gray. And so, as you can see, that really stretches quite a long from 26 to 2047. And so we've last year. Pay down a little bit of that and then this year we're going to attempt to do that a little more just to help kind of create some capacity if it's needed. But also, that's just, again, if you're going to make an extra payment, that's the series that gives you a little more bang for your buck. Now also looking at this so we have in the previous slide we had

082that rectangle drawn around the series 2016 bonds which is represented by those green blocks that go from 2026 to 2034. So as the year moves on and we get closer to your August call window, we'll be certainly looking at that to identify how much savings we can squeeze out of that. If it makes enough sense then we'll come before you and recommend maybe a bond refinancing. And the graph below that, that's something that, it's a graph that I really like because it's more helpful to me. It lets me know when your opportunities for refinancings are coming on. So what we were able to do in years past is structure these call dates so they can happen in successive years or as best we could. And so when we're doing debt for clients, that's something we

083try to be mindful of and where we can stack those sequentially because it does offer a district or a bond issuer flexibility. If something happens and we might need to look at restructuring debt, having them come in various years or subsequent years does provide you some flexibility. So again, We're going to have approximately $5 million coming, callable in August of next year. Let's call that roughly $3 million in 2027, almost $6 million in 2028, and then about $5 million again in 2030. So there are certainly opportunities for you to lower your debt surface in the years to come by considering bond refinancing. So the final slide that we present to you here is just as a refunding monitor. So we say, OK, if we ever really look at refunding that debt, and if we were

084able to, we're actually not able to because it's too early. We're not close to August yet. But this is where we are today. And that C option or what we've highlighted there, again, in the gold rectangle, we show that currently that opportunity, wanted to refund it and could refund it today, it would only produce a net present value savings of $74,243, or on a percentage basis, 2.29. GFOA or basically the government finance officers set a standard of when does it make sense to do a bond refinancing for a municipal insurer. That typically will happen or the threshold, the minimum savings that you would hope to achieve would be 3%. So we're not really quite there yet. We're at 2.29. Again, as we move forward, as we get a few... more rate cuts hopefully that that

085would hope to improve and again to highlight that so like let's assume rates drop by another quarter of a percentage point which is what we hope will happen later this week by the Federal Reserve that savings would go from 74,000 to 43 to 118,000 570 and savings on a percentage basis would get above that threshold at 3.67. We would hope to do better than that by the time we come to you in the summertime. So, but again, that's just something that we'll be monitoring and, you know, I stay in touch with Ms. Mendez more frequently. And so that's something that will definitely alert you to that fact. That really concludes my part. It was going to be brief, but again, it's nothing, you know, well, I'll tell you what, before I end, I have a

086little craggy to do. So it was mainly, gosh, that was a few months ago now, that Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Mendez and I were able to visit over the phone with the rating analyst from Standard & Poor's. And forgive me, but on slide one, one of the metrics in the top, I guess it's the top right corner, I put your bond rating up there. And so it's an A rating, solid investment grade rating from Standard & Coors. We visited with Standard & Coors, and of course, not because we were doing a bond transaction, but just annually or every year and a half, let's call it. They like to... review and sit with their municipal issuers that they rate just to just to do a review they they are cognizant of the fact that sometimes bond

087ratings can go stale if you don't visit frequently so at the time the rating was a with a negative outlook and then what does that mean that means that there was a potential for when the review was done the next review is done rather, there was a potential if conditions persisted that the rating could be under pressure to be lowered. So we met a few months ago over the phone. They came back. They affirmed the A rating, which means they weren't going to change it. The rating was the same. But they did remove the negative outlook, and they changed it to stable. And so for that, I say congratulations to everybody because I know it takes a lot of hard work. There's a lot of tough decisions that have to be made. How do you

088stretch the dollar? And you all certainly are doing that. And I have told the analysts over the years of working with Mrs. Mendes, I can tell you, I just told her, I said, look, I can tell you, I've seen it firsthand. They have their hands, you know, deep in the weeds. You know, they are really growing up their sleeves and getting after it. And, you know, I imagine it's really tough to make some of those decisions. They're not fun. They don't make you popular. But, you know, it's doing what needed to be done to get this house in order. And people are noticing. So congratulations. With that on the quiet and I'm available for any questions. So, on the refund monitor, you're saying we're on scenario C, but not until August 2026. Could we be

089in that scenario? Correct. If friends keep moving. So, for example, again, if if in the unlikely case. that the Fed lowers by 50 or a half of a percentage point, that savings could jump up to the 157. More than likely, they'll just only decrease by a quarter of a point, which would jump or increase that savings from 74 to 18. But yes, God willing, as rates come down and when we just get closer to that call date. the amount of savings should increase. Right. And you would definitely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Mr. Adelambo. I believe we're hoping for two big tips this year. I have a question about, let's say going up for a bond because we had a new for the last time. Are you responsible for telling us what paperwork needs to be filed,

090when it needs to be filed, and all that? I know you know us with the finance, because one of the things we had last time was we didn't need a deadline, I believe. or we didn't have the right people, nobody knew? I believe that was for the voter-approved tax rate increase. Right. Yes, sir. So do you help out with that or just with the bonds? Just really with the bonds. We do work with folks. So, like, for example, you all typically, when you undergo a bond transaction, work on the legal side with a bond counsel firm. You know, I know the specific firm that is retained by the district. does also have those two bond attorneys typically don't do that because of the tax rate election stuff. That's an area of expertise. They do have

091folks in their firm that do that. There are other, you know, like for example, maybe that the firm that's that serves as your general counsel to just advise you on normal legal issues. We may have attorneys on staff that specialize in that. There's a firm that I believe you used last time, Casey, that does help but to an extent because they're not attorneys and so unfortunately. I mean, that's what we used and we kind of wanted to link to them. We need to know exactly for the next time that they only handle so much. Right? Yeah, and I guess if I had to offer any advice, it would be like, maybe. You know, getting someone from the legal side that that that does do that, whether it's general counsel or bond councils under colleagues that

092do that. Intent working in tandem with Casey just to maybe say, okay guys, if here's our process, who's who's responsible for what? And we can certainly be present that enforces just not our area of expertise. In that situation, it kind of worked for our benefit after we saw what happened. So I have a question for you. Give me an example of when this would apply so that I didn't have an idea. It says, this is on your, I guess, your compensation, okay? Okay. It says, for any financial assistance, either grant proceeds or loan proceeds obtained from a state or federal agency, it is understood and agreed that we will charge the amount shown on your table plus an additional 40% charge. Yes, so in the past, and again, it's highly unused, but there used to

093be a type of funding called qualified zone academy bonds that would involve working with other state agencies. It's in there just in the in the event it happens a lot of that stuff quite honestly in the school district space is Highly unlikely, but it's just it's there in the event. Okay, I just want to be treated a high-tech any bond over a certain dollar amount No, sir. No, it's just a you know again in the past to The legislature used to do something called instructional facilities a lot and that was whether or not you were granted monies from the instructional facilities often was based on a wealth calculation that TEA would do. And so for some of our clients who were not property wealthy, I guess, they would qualify for some of that assistance and

094that would involve other work with the agency. And so that's really why that's put there. But again, in the normal course of things, and to my knowledge, our history of working with West Oak Show, that particular provision has not really ever come into play. It's just kind of the straight fee schedule that's there. And that fee schedule is the one that's been in place since we've been hired. It was just a big number and I said, when would that ever, would that apply? And then so under what circumstances would that even apply to us? So we're going to do the question. Sure. Mr. Gonzalez. Mr. Villanueva. No question. And Ms. Beller. Yep. If there are no further questions, that's all we have for today. Yes. Thank you so much. So we need to vote. We

095hear a motion for agenda item 6A, approving the agreement for financial advisory service. with PRV Capital Markets, DBAs, is there a monetary amount on here? No, it's only because typically the compensation is dependent on the amount of bonds issued. Oh, okay. So each one you're tending? Correct, on that, the tending, that's the standard fees, that's correct. All right, I need to hear a motion and a second for agenda item 6-8. I'll motion that we approve the agreement for financial advisory services with TRB Capital Markets, doing business as Estada and the PULSA. All right, a motion has been made by Ms. Charlie Dunlop and seconded by Ms. Gonzalez for agenda item 6A. We'll go ahead and vote. Chair McCormick? Ms. Della Bella? Aye. I'm going to move on to agenda item 6b discuss and consider taking

096action on the college hour requirements for a behavioral unit doctor good evening Today, we're requesting we had previously come to the board in regards to our professionals, the college hours that are required for the title 1. Previously, it was approved for adaptive education professionals in. to lower the hours or for them to go through that certification program, whether it be through the TOPS program, ESE2, or the parent project. We have had success with being able to hire staff now at a higher rate and have them applying and going through the program and they've been doing really well. So the quality of our staff is still very high. We've been very fortunate to hire some great paraprofessionals and where the area that we're seeing the need at now that we aren't having as much applicants is

097within our behavior intervention classrooms. Those are areas where our students do have behaviors that we're working on with those positive behavior interventions. There may be a need for different interventions or supports to go in. So it's really important that we do get staff that work with them that have that empathy and patience and are able to work with the students in that positive manner. So in effort to support and try and have more people apply for the positions we would like to move forward with moving the hour requirements the way we did for those other positions just because we know that there are great applicants out there that may just not have the college hours but they would be well suited for the position and to support our students so we're requesting that that same

098adjustment for behavior intervention classroom paraprofessionals be considered all right miss bella um your questions How long do they have to complete the coursework? time for the certification, do you have a set? Yes sir, so if they go through the TOPS training we'll just look to see when the first one, next one being offered at the service center is. If not, through the online program, the modules. Typically it takes them about a month or two to complete it. We've had success rates with that. We haven't had anyone not meet the standards and it goes through explaining all the information. and upon completing they do get we do get the certification and then miss gavin's assist in getting their certificate through tea mr adler i guess we're seeing more and more of this throughout the state yes

099sir so what is the difference between what this we're saying there's they're already certified but we can't find them certified So what is occurring is currently they have to have 60 college hours. However, we have some great applicants that might not have those college hours. And through TA for the Title I, one of the requirements is just have... either a program that they go through such as that pair project where they go through the models to show proficiency within that math and English areas or they can do the CHOPS program treasuring our professionals there at the service center. So it's just showing that they do have that competency completed and unfortunately, sometimes we're not getting applicants that have the 60 hours or they may only have 45 or 30 or so. So we wanted to

100open it up so that we could get more. It is a need that we're seeing, especially within our behavior intervention classrooms, and having those strong people in there to support them is very important. So what you're saying is once they go through that program, they get certified? They're certified to be paraprofessional, yes. So have you seen any interest in getting hired with the other programs where they want to continue the education and maybe get those 60 hours? Yes, we actually have. I don't know. Do you have the exact number? We've had multiple paraprofessionals start out within the position and then have a passion for it and continue to go to school and end up being teachers. And some of them even got through the Grow Your Own program. And we have seen where they stay

101within the district and we just continue to grow with them. So it's been an opportunity and a win-win for both because once they do that, they realize that it is their passion and now it's their best interest in this. So this is the best answer for them to grow, therefore they want to make more money also. Yes. So you've had some success? Yes, we have had success. Okay, I took the course, I'm certified, and I'm happy with where I am, and you're seeing some of the people that are actually doing it. I want to continue the education. Yes, we have had that. And there's another round, the LASSO IV grant came, the LASSO III didn't, but the LASSO IV grant comes with another Grow Your Own Opportunities. We'll be applying for some funds for individuals

102like that that would be for the 26-27. So this is probably people that we may have never, if we had not given them the opportunity, they wouldn't have said, I want to continue down this path. Yes, sir. okay thank you well i think so uh but at the same time because we've had criticism to where you're not hiring certified standards yeah and that's my only uh question here because If you're bringing in somebody and they have the 60 hours and that other one doesn't, let's say they have 15, they have 30, like you said, they have a cash report, you've interviewed them, you are pretty sure they're going to be a good fit. But they came in, I guess, going through the ESC too with the top trade. So where is the, as far as

103the financial part goes? Where do we lie there because here this person came in with 60 hours and then you have your tops training one not necessarily 60 hours, but it is a certified program through ESC So regardless of their background whether they have the college hours or not we do provide Professional development we go in and coaching since they do work with the specifically So at this point we go to the salary scale and the para positions are in different categories. If you're an instructional para, you may be at the first pay grade. If you are a self-contained para, you're at the second pay grade. And then if you're a VI, which requires more, there's different pay grades. And so it all depends. I want to tell a success story about this. A few

104years ago, probably two years ago, Mr. Avery recommended a young lady to be a tutor. He, not knowing that the young lady did not have 30 hours, so he wasn't able to hire her. But because you all have so graciously just approved that position for the self-contained or the special needs students, we hired her as a special ed instructional aide. Well, today she has completed over 60 hours and is well on her way. And so that's a success story that I wanted to share with you all. We just had this conversation today with Ron and I. But I want to know about that person that came in and then you have in the same position the person that came in with the POTS training from ESC2. Well, we take into consideration if they have experience.

105So along with, I understand what you're saying, but they're in different pay grades. Like a young person who comes in. With the to serve in the second grade or below they are not going to be at the same category So they're getting less money. So in that's in the paper. Do we have a great was it 101 102 103? So we have different pay grades that you see on the pay scale Regardless Well No, it's statewide but there's still that discrepancy that we told I think But a paraprofessional who comes in with 60 hours or more qualifies for those jobs in the pay grade three. And so a paraprofessional who has, does not. Right. But I think, I mean, we moved our, we moved the salary up to $15. So, I mean. We're competitive there.

106I know. I'm not saying we're competitive. We're not competitive. But if you're coming in with the 60 hours compared to that same experience, compared to the one that is coming in with the top strength, same experience. So where are the pay grades? We have not. We have not. Because a lot of the ones that are coming in without, like you said, the college hours, that they still also might have a lot of experience. I mean, they would come at the very bottom of the pay scale. So you have never had where the person with the same experience with the person with the top training? No, this is new, right? This is new. Well, it's been two or three years. They started on that same, basically. I mean, the ones with the low hours would start

107at the very beginning of the scale. done it um these are high demand because these are highly difficult i get it i just want an explanation okay so right you're right we have not we have not exactly that's what they're you know that's that's the criticism that that i'm hearing that you put in all the 60 hours you know and so yeah they're going to apply for this higher pay rate because I can because I have 60 hours. But then that's when y'all come in and look at where they're at, where you're able to offer them in the middle or the beginning. Yes. Yeah, and the COPS training is really good because we did have, we had that from ESC too. So that's what you're going by. If there's... Tops available then we will do

108that if not we'll do the online program the online program is free So that one we don't have to pay anything for and they still get the same credentials if the top program does have it opening Well, it depends because then we offer at certain times of the year, so if they don't have anything for For a long time then like last year if I'm not mistaken there was only two throughout the year that was offered and then Before I looked and I hadn't seen anything recently right now. So just as it comes through is that it comes up? Because I remember the Paris That didn't have it could come in with the top strength, but they were under like mr. Viadela was alluding to but they were under that Oh, you're working towards your

10960 hours. That was in the past. That's no longer. No, ma'am. Okay. All right. That's what I wanted to hear. There are no further questions. We're done. Thank you very much. So this is an action item. I did hear a motion and a second for a just item 6B discussed. to take action on the college hour requirement and how many of these positions is this just one that we have to so currently we have behavior intervention classrooms at JFK, WOE and junior high so they have paraprofessionals there but we do have two openings right now two openings that we're still trying to fill W. E. And junior high and these were people that one of them started with us and got transferred to another position. And then the other one decided that this job was

110not for that. For the current year, it's going to be for two positions. That's what we currently have. Yes. So. And junior high, so we don't need one for the high school. Right now we're fully staffed at the high school. and this will help them get, I mean, we don't have to go looking, we already have a group who just wanted to get this to get that done. And I think it'll be great. All right, so I need a motion and a second for agenda item 6B. I'll make a motion to take action on the college audit requirements for approval for behavioral and unitary professionals. Okay. The motion has been made by Ms. Bella and seconded by Ms. Gonzalez for agenda item 6B. We'll go ahead and vote. This is the data is straight. Jordan.

111Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Let's move on to agenda item 60. First reading on the following. What's the local policy? According to your policy. Well, you will say all of them, right? No, I'm not. I was looking for, see if she was going to turn the video. Do you all want to watch the video or the PowerPoint? Okay. It's okay. We have this one. We'll just do the PowerPoint. Oh, I thought you just said video. Which one do you prefer? We watched the video. Right, yes. Okay, let's do the video. Yes, it's very... Well, there's one thing that I'm not sure. We did speak to testing. Why don't we go over that? Byron would have had it. You can go on. Yes, ma'am. Okay, so update 125, we're going to begin with BDB. This

112policy has been revised in coordination with BDF local to clarify the difference between board committees and advisory committees. Accordingly, the subtopic of this code has been changed from internal committee committees to board committees and new provisions are recommended to establish how board committees are formed and outlined their purpose. Text addressing dissolution of board committees is also recommended for inclusion. The language previously as special committee has been moved to BDF local. Moving on to BDF local. The new policy is recommended for inclusion to coordinate with the changes at BDB. The sub topic of this health has been changed from citizens advisory committee to the advisory committee. The advisory committee would include staff, parents, community members and students. So they want to give a fair opportunity for everyone to participate. The language has been moved from here

113from BDP local and updated to clarify how advisory committees are formed and how the parameters of the responsibilities. EI local. at partial credit recommended revisions we paste the phrase combined grade or with average of to more accurately reflect the determination of awarding credit when a student earns a passing grade in only half of a course. So in other words if I made a 75 the first semester in biology the second semester I'd do it with a 60. The student will only be liable for making up the second semester. If we combine them then they're going to fail the whole class and that's not really very so that's that recommendation. FDE local at safe schools data, bullying is recommended for inclusion as an offense for which the district must collect and maintain data. The revisions align

114with the unsafe choice option guidance in handbook. A student who is a victim of bullying is eligible for a school safety transfer. And so not only do we collect the data on bullying, if it's sexual harassment, any crime that takes place in the school, the school must collect this data. And whether it's ongoing, regardless of whether it happened once or twice, 3 times, if the data must be collected. So, whether it's the assistant principal, the council office, we have to make sure that that data is. Accountable. FEC local attendance for credit revisions throughout this policy are recommended for clarity. The information, the first sentence of the policy has been incorporated as absences considered for improved readability. Rather than directing the board to establish attendance committees, the policy now authorizes the establishment of these committees by

115the administration. A parental notice of excessive absences specifies Regarding petitions for credit are recommended for deletion in favor of reference to administrative regulations. The district is not required to assign seat time equivalent to the time the student has been absent. So the student has been absent, it doesn't mean that they have to come in and make seat time up. FFAC local. Revisions of the 25th Administrative Code, including a requirement for written notifications to parents after administration of an unassigned respiratory distress medication, prompted recommended revisions to this code. Prompted by the new rule adopted by the Department of State Health Services, the rule advises for school districts that decide to maintain and administer unassigned medication for respiratory distress must contact the parents. You need to be accurate, Steph. Today is the first reading on October the

11627th. We will have a second reading on November the 17th of 2025. Is there any questions? Mr. Adubato. What did we see from it? I'm not comfortable with page 145 on there saying any speech plan that is still reporting to be reported in the data. It says 145 in our book. So name the... Is this continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual? I'm not comfortable with the . So I checked with, we did check with TASB on Friday, October the 25th. We spoke to TASB policy consultant Eric Narcisse regarding the local policy update of FDE local, referring to continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual. Mr. Narcisse provided the following clarifications. FGE local pertains only to the submission of data and information related to the penal code. This policy

117does not address the reporting of child abuse and neglect. By law, we are obligated to make those calls to involve CPS, whether it be CPS, law enforcement. Board policy FFG governs the reporting of child abuse and neglect. And that's by board policy. We are responsible. FDE local focuses solely on data information reporting with FFG outlines the procedures for reporting abuse and neglect incidents. So basically if we have a student who sexually assaulted another student, so we automatically take action in that. We take our data, we submit that to the police department. Conduct a complete investigation say the student is removed from the campus based on an alternative disciplinary State Placement we have that data this child may come back a year later and this happens again. Well, we've accumulated that data so we'll in other

118words. We don't just Raised it and said, oh, well, it never happened or it happened last year. Now that data is accumulated. So it's only on the data and on the day that we have the meeting, we were all very concerned because. You know, we had questions about it as well. So I was. Diane and I immediately called Tassidy the following day and this is the guidance that he made. So, am I reading the statement wrong or interpreting wrong? Because. I'm still not comfortable with the continued sexual abuse. Well, my opinion is, who we're reporting to. We have to constantly continue to report it if it should have been bitten the first time. I think that what she's saying is FTE is about reporting to TEA versus, that's what I was reading, reporting to CPS.

119I'll be reporting the same thing over and over. I don't know how to interpret this. Well, it's not that we're repeating the same thing over and over because the first incident may have been not as severe as a second incident. We are just there just making sure that we are reporting. If this is some sort of a pattern, they need to make sure that all this is being reported. We are liable for the students and the minor students that come into our campuses. And so we are reporting each and every time we're reporting to children. So sexual abuse is... Oh, you only did a little bit here for us. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

120No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. You're not, you're not necessary. I get what you're saying. I think the word continue is just like, because it should be nicked in the bud. Why are you continuing to report another abuse? Well, maybe you're right. Our job is to report it. We're not the law enforcement. That's a question to ask. Why would you have that in

121there? And why is it law enforcement? Let me give an example. Now they're saying you're reporting, you're reporting, you're reporting. So let's say. Within 48 hours. So let's say Rihanna, let's just clarify. Let's say Rihanna makes reports to her teacher that her friend or first told her she was being sexually abused, right? For harassment. Harassment, right. We've reported. There might the police CPS to sign there's not enough evidence to action on it So then we're on reports it again. They're saying every time you get that sort of Report you can't you don't say oh well, they're not going to do anything. I reported already You need to report it again every single time Somebody makes an allegation you are to report it But I guess because we're so fixed on it, it's like, yeah, but

122why is it being continued? Well, that's not. But there's times with an investigation, you don't have enough evidence to act on it. I mean, that's the reality, right? Sometimes something's happening, or sometimes what happens, right, with an investigation, and Arjun can tell you that, is we go talk to Rolanda's friend, and she said, oh, I didn't say that, and nothing's happened. Right. They just need to, you know, address the wording like, you must report each and every time. Right. But not continue because it's like, gosh, they're being abused every time. But you did ask that question. We asked that question. I asked if she gives clarification before we can do the speech. And this is what they gave us. Well, this is what the notes that we took. Yes. And so, yeah, we took the

123notes as we were speaking to him. So he was basically telling you that's not that's not what we're referring to. You're saying where you have to make sure that you're reporting the data each and every time. We did. And he understood where we were coming from as far as the concerns that we had as we were discussing this. Maybe it's just a continuous reporting of the sexual abuse instead of the continued sexual abuse. Or of every incident. Because like she said, in my case, that says yeah they were and we respect it rightfully so the only one i had was on here when you said that the hours weren't counted or you don't have to count the hours well that's basically like the student has an a in the class but they've been absent so

124many times so they have to come in and do seat time because they have the academic grade they're missing what they're missing is the attendance And so the district does not have to take seat time. You know, my interpretation, let's say the child goes for seven hours to school. He doesn't necessarily have to make up to seven hours. Right. He could do it in three hours. Right. So the district doesn't have to take seat time. Seat time. So the campus principal may say, okay, you owe us 10 hours. If you come five hours, we'll go ahead and grant you. You had that question. Right we did and obviously other people did because what they I think what they were saying is this is Everyone in practice didn't make them Make up each and every hour.

125So we're gonna actually match the policy statewide policy So what it says you need to do, the shift is going to be, we made some guidelines last year, but what this actually says is you're required to have an attendance committee, just like you have any other committee, like our committee. And so you can't, attendance, it's tricky, right? Because we don't want 17-year-olds in ninth grade, but we don't want them to say, well, it doesn't matter if I come to school because the committee is going to say. They see what they realize is not it's not black and white but they it's going to be done by committee that dr. Castillo or you know miss Davis or They won't hold sole responsibility for making that decision. It's going to be a committee of People from maybe

126a teacher maybe a counselor maybe a principal, you know, well obviously it's not parents or anything. It's good staff, but the parent would Give me another word is gone. This isn't gonna make a decision about whether or not or Rivera. You know who is not her child So it used to be well wasn't clear It was a bit in say one way or the other and never said it had to equal see time, but it just wasn't there Right so now it is actually there and this is it does not equal and now it's saying There would be one if a parent appealed that a committee would come together, but now they're kind of saying in all these situations where somebody has passed the grades, but they fall below the attendance, committee must come together.

127Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Thomas. Okay. We're going to have an update. Ms. Moore. So we have lots of fun activities coming up. Wednesday we have reading under the lights and then we have our literature parade. We have a toddler story time. Our last home game is Friday night. And we do have Veterans Day. We're going to do the all day progressive party like we did last year. So we're going to be hosting the time for all the campuses that they'll be breakfast and then mid morning and then lunch and then afternoon to you. So all the students can invite whatever for each campus. And then of course the State of the District is three weeks from Wednesday on October, November the 19th and it is out at Del Mar. You have the calendars, board

128members to look at, and your athletics to get into the 25, 26. Time is 7.52. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you. everybody's scheduled