001Welcome everybody to our board meeting October 21st 2025. A little after seven o'clock. Call to order, declaration of quorum. All seven of us are here. Welcome everybody. Thank you all for being here. Welcome to this meeting of the College Station Independent School District Board of Trustees. We are elected at large to represent the interests of our community and our state in educating our students. Our mission for our students in this district is success each life, each day, each hour. We adhere to all pertinent laws, policies, and procedures in posting agendas and conducting our meetings. The detailed agenda information was made available to us at least three business days in advance and we've all come to this meeting informed and prepared. We've just completed a workshop session where we heard reports and discussed much of the
002information needed to make decisions in either this meeting or in upcoming meetings. This is a meeting of the seven trustees in a public setting rather than a public meeting. As such, public comment is included on the agenda at a specific time and requires us to listen rather than take action so as to abide by the Open Meetings Act. We're pleased that you've taken the time this evening to join us. We're very proud of this school district and we thank you for your interest in and support of our students. We will begin with recognitions from all three of our high schools. I pledge allegiance. Good evening. I am Chris Sutter. I'm the very proud principal at College U High School and I've got a couple members of the Wolfpack here to help us tonight. I'm going
003to introduce you to Chris. I'm going to introduce JJ and Kinley and let them tell you a little bit about themselves and our school. Hello. My name is JJ or Jonathan, whichever you prefer. I am part of the CTE programs over at College U High School and as well as taking just my regular high school classes. I am very excited to be here with you guys tonight. Also very nervous. I do apologize. I'm a part of our construction program over at College U. Twice a week we bus out to the Blinn-Relis College and we learn skills and trades necessary for jobs and workplaces where those skills are necessary and required. One of our most recent certifications is basic HVAC. So heating and air conditioning. We love it. We're in it right now. It's awesome. Super
004important. So that is one of the big things that we have recently learned and overall, overall, our programs over at College U are awesome and they're giving me all the skills and experience I need to go into the workforce. Hello. My name is Kinley Barrington and I am a student at College U High School. I am a sophomore and I'm a part of our... our digital arts and animation pathway. It helps us learn different things that we'll need for like photography or Photoshop, things like that. I'm secretary of our skills USA team and I'm also the secretary for NHS. Howdy and good evening. Justin Grimes, proud principal of College Station High School. And I have two of our Cougars here tonight, Sam Aguirre and Isabella Viscata. They're going to introduce themselves. Hi, I'm Isabella Viscata.
005I am part of the first ever all female major team of College Station High School Cougar Band. Yeah, I'm the I am the head major for the Cougar Band, and one thing I love about CSHS is the open culture that we have the very positive culture that we have and that gives us opportunities to talk about anything and improve on anything, especially leadership, which is something I'm very passionate about. And I also want to say, I love our... our teachers including my mom CSHS teacher there so yeah I love CSHS thank you. Howdy my name is Sam Aguirre I'm a senior at College Station High School and my mom is a second grade teacher at Forest Ridge Elementary. One thing I like about College Station High School are the cougar qualities and how the teachers
006and staff work hard every day to embody those and instill them into the students there. At College Station High School I'm involved in FCA, FFA, and Gen Now and NHS and yeah. Good evening my name is Gwen Elder and I'm the proud principal of A&M Consolidated High School. We do have two tigers that will come up and introduce themselves. Hey y'all I'm the student body president at Consol my name is Ava Sutherland. At school I'm involved in NHS National Honor Society and environmental photography as well as my track team and after high school I really want to study astrophysics hopefully at TU sorry guys. Um...but my favorite thing about Consol would have to be our student body like we are just so passionate and driven especially if you've been to any of our football games
007or PEP rallies you will see at like the CSHS game this year we are a loud crowd. We show up and show out so yeah. Hi my name is Amiah Daly I'm currently a senior at Consol um I'm involved in a couple해�es currently a senior at Consol um I'm involved in a couple I'm involved in a couple I'm involved in a couple couple different activities. I'm a part of the varsity basketball team as well as varsity track and field. I'm a part of NHS National Honor Society, Thrivers, Anchor. I'm the captain of the step team and there was one more. Brass Valley Promise. After high school, I plan to go to college to study nursing, hopefully at Texas A&M to become a labor and delivery nurse. One thing I like about Arkansas is just the
008opportunities that it's given students academically, athletically, and skillfully wise. And now for the pledges. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now for the Texas pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And now for the pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And now for the pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And now for the pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And
009now for the pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And now for the pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And now for the pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, indivisible, and skillfully wise. And now for the for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may now be seated. We're just making sure we're going in the right order of the agenda here, folks. Mr. Horak, members of the board, as always, it's an honor and privilege to be able to recognize students who have achieved significant accomplishments at the state or national levels, and tonight we have several groups to recognize. The first, as
010you can see on our agenda, is our National Merit Semifinalists. Eight CSISD seniors representing A&M Consolidated and College Station High School were confirmed as semifinalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. The recognition allows these academically talented students to continue in the competition for approximately 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million. The eight semifinalists are among more than 16,000 students throughout the United States that represent the top 1% of students who entered the merit program by taking the National Merit Scholarship Program. The other eight semifinalists are among the most successful in the program, and the top 10% of students who entered the merit program were among the most successful. The pre-SAT or National Merit School Qualifying test during their junior year. To qualify as a National Merit Finalist, students must maintain high academic performance,
011meet all program requirements, complete the application and essay, confirm their PSAT scores with the SAT or ACT, and be endorsed and recommended by their high school principal. Students, as I call your name, if you'll come and receive your certificate from Dr. Harkreiter, make your rounds tonight. I will now ask you to shake the board members hands and if you'll stand off to the side over here so that we can take a group picture. First, from A&M Consolidated High School, Eunice Caraman. From A&M Consolidated High School, Kate Kavanagh. From College Station High School, Sarah Liu. From College Station High School, Soo Liu. From College Station High School, Jaeden McMurray. From A&M Consolidated High School, Neil Pang. From College Station High School, Shixian Dao. From College Station High School, Megan Wagner. Next, also a part of the
012National Merit Program are commended students. 33 CSIC seniors have been designated commended students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in recognition of their outstanding ability and potential for academic success in college. These academically talented students are among more than two-thirds, approximately 34,000, of high scores on the pre-SAT and National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. The National Merit Program honors these students by sending letters of commendation to them through their high schools. And although these students will not continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, some may be candidates for special scholarships offered by corporate sponsors. We'll start by reading names from A&M Consolidated High School. Murray Deckers. James Ellison. Elizabeth. Elizabeth Gregory. Alicia Gu. A.J. Gundana. Margaret Huffenberger. Jaden Guach. Madison McCauley. Christian Mogford. Rachel Moran. Joshua Shannon. Harrison Smith. Evelyn Walker. Berkeley White. Derek Yochum.
013From College Station High School. Maya Diacheva. Layla Faraj. Olivia Fagan. Mary Gomillion. Jerry Shea. Katerina Humphries. Dongio Li. Serena Li. Victoria Ozarava. Jonathan Perryman. Sriram Shankar. Bakh Tran. Carson Ulrich. Eric Wang. Edward Yang. Lucas Young. Cynthia Johnson. Avery All right, congratulations. You guys take a seat. All right. Now the last student recognition for tonight is from Pecan Trail Intermediates Theater Program. Pecan Trail Intermediates Theater Program recently earned exemplary status in the Texas Educational Theater Association Awards of Distinction, honoring the program for raising the bar for theater education in their community. The Award of Distinction honors schools, schools, and individuals who take part in the work of the Pecan Trails that are able to learn and stimulate Hokkaido's education and contribute to the community, and the University of Kansas. that make outstanding contributions to theater education
014by excelling in achievement, resource development, diversity, and advocacy for the arts. Earning exemplary status is the highest level of the award's tiered system, which ranges from recognized to exemplary. To achieve this status, schools must annually submit a detailed application demonstrating their dedication to theater through multiple avenues. Points are awarded based on a range of criteria. This recognition celebrates the passion and hard work of Pecan Trail's theater program, led by Mr. Roy Rodriguez, its students, and the community supporters who ensure that the performing arts remain a thriving part of school culture. With strong backing from the district's fine arts department and the whole CSISD community, programs like Pecan Trail's continue to provide students with high-quality opportunities to learn, perform, and grow in the arts. And as a quick plug, Pecan Trail's theater will perform Puffs, a
015one-act for young wizards, a fast-paced, witty, and heartwarming story that offers a new perspective on a familiar wizarding world at the CSISD UIL One-Act Play Contest on Friday, November 14th at 4 p.m. And we have some of the cast here with us to receive this honor, along with Mr. Rodriguez. We have Reggie Hill. Come on, Reggie. Caroline Probst. Bridget Gettler. Evan. Keely Durkowski. Emily Bishop. Mr. Walt Parkerson. Adeline Worthy. And of course, Mr. Roy Rodriguez, theater director over at Pecan Trail. Please give him a round of applause as well. Give everybody one more round of applause. They came to you guys in costume, so we're very appreciative of that. We're going to take a quick picture, guys. All right, next we'll bring our principals back up to recognize our staff members. Okay, guys, I have
016a couple of our... Wolfpack members here to honor tonight. Let me get your flowers first. I don't know if I hold these. So I've got Ms. Tamisha Jenkins and Ms. Chandra Farms, who they run our cafeteria at College U, serving all of our kids on the College U side and also at the DAP side. And so what I love about these two is that they will not allow any of our kids to go hungry. They show up late. They go, they do everything they can to get them food, whether, even if it's just a bowl of cereal or finding some fruit for them to eat. They want to make sure that our kids are taken care of. They're well fed. They're ready to start their day and also the lunches. And then they help us
017out last year for 50 men that can cook. They helped me warm up all the meat that we serve. By the way, we won that. Good job, ladies. And so they just do an outstanding job. They really embody the service part of our school, and we're very proud to call them members of the Wolfpack tonight. Okay, I'm back again. So one of the things that we talked about as my admin team, we met last week. And of the 140-ish employees that we have on campus, it came down to, these are the people that we're going to be serving. These are the people that we're going to be serving. These two groups of people. So I'm going to ask my head track, I mean, cross-country coach, Coach Branch, come up. And then my department heads, if
018you ladies will come up. So I'm going to start with Coach Branch. Coach Branch is one that has never met a stranger. I think he will talk to that wall if that wall would talk back to him. He's always so upbeat. He is just a ray of sunshine on our campus. He came, we hired him three years ago. And not only does he, he mold our student athletes on the track field, he does a great job of molding those athletes in the classroom. Coach Branch, we appreciate your dedication. We appreciate all that you have given us in our cross-country program. He's been on our campus three years. And of the three years that he's been on campus, he's gone to state every single time. Talking about raising that bar high. And so we thank you
019for everything that you do. And so as a token of our appreciation, we know you love Hershey's chocolate bars. And so we have you an arrangement of chocolate bars. So thank you so much. And so next we have our department heads. We have Kayla Holmes. We have Emily Crossweight. And we have Lindsey Zahn. Michelle Jelica is also a department head. She's away. I think she's with a student on a competition. And so Jed, if you're watching, we're recognizing you. Thank you. Thank you, too. She was kind of bummed that she couldn't be with us today. And so I want to recognize the ladies here, mainly because they wear many hats. They are department heads. They are instructional coaches. They mentor new teachers. The reason they wear these many hats is because they wanted to wear
020these hats. I know last spring when we were looking at maybe possibly separating out the instructional coach position from the department head position, they said, nope, we want to keep them together. We want to make sure we're able to have one foot in the classroom where we're working with teachers. And then also we want to continue to learn and help grow teachers. And so I do appreciate our theme on our campus is all in for success. And they live that out day in and day out. You guys only collaborate with your teachers, but you also collaborate outside of the department. And so as a token of our appreciation, we want to present you with a bouquet of flowers because you know you're all that and so much more. So we thank you so much. Thank
021you. I'm going to ask Ms. Tina and Ms. Connie to head this way. But while they're walking up here, I'm going to tell a little bit about them. Raise your hand if you're responsible for feeding your family at the house. Like you're the person responsible for cooking. Okay. Raise your hand if you're responsible for cleaning your teenager's room at your house. Okay. So this should resonate with a lot of people in this room. This is always a really hard night for me because there's so many people that I would love to bring up here. But I wanted to make sure that I recognized two very, very important people to our Cougar family. And that is Ms. Connie Castaneda and Ms. Tina Hawkins. And I'm going to talk about each one of them very, very briefly.
022But that does not mean that I don't have a lot to say. So Ms. Connie Castaneda is our cafeteria manager. And I'm going to tell a quick story about her. We had an event recently, not long ago, where we lost our major gas line to our building. And it was a big gas line. And it was a big gas line. If you haven't already figured it out yet, the gas line runs all the ovens that it takes to cook for 2,000 kids. So I want you to think about the household you're responsible for. I promise it's not 2,000 you're trying to feed. All of this happened within about a 20-minute window of our very first lunch starting. I will just get to the end of the story and say this. Out of 2,000 kids that
023day, not a single student went without a hot meal. And her and her team made it happen. And I just want to say how much I appreciated that. I really appreciated that day for you. That happens every day on our campus, breakfast and lunch. But that day was really, really special. And there was a lot of people in this room that made that happen. But this lady right here quarterbacked it. And so thank you very much, Connie Castaneda. Now, if you've ever had to clean up for your teenager, all right, think about your house. It's probably four-digit square footage. We have a six-digit square foot that she's responsible for, 450,000 square foot, three stories, actually four stories, including outbuildings. And she's responsible for that. Thank you. She's responsible for her team. And every day our
024building is clean. It is safe. It smells good. And our kids are very, very lucky to have Ms. Tina quarterbacking our team of custodians and making it happen every day, cleaning up after them in the restrooms, cleaning up after them in the classrooms. And I tell you what, she makes it happen. And I don't know where we'd be without her. And I can't say enough about Ms. Tina Hawkins. Thank you. And, ladies, you have five Cougar coins that I will present to you tomorrow. And they know what that means. All right? Thank you all very much. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. My name is Chuck Longwell. I'm the driver supervisor at transportation. And making his way up here is our, what month is this, October? Employee of the month, Mr. Jimmy Luther. And I want
025to read something that Ms. Shannon, who was not able to be here tonight, wrote out. And, yeah. So we're delighted to announce that Jimmy Luther has been selected as our employee of the month. This recognition reflects his outstanding dedication, reliability, and exceptional service to our transportation department and the students we serve. Jimmy has been a valued member of the CSISD transportation team for 12 years. Throughout his time with us, 13? 13. 13 years. I'll correct Shannon. Throughout his time here with us, he has consistently demonstrated the qualities that define what it truly means to be a bus driver. Maintaining composure and reliability is his key. Thank you. He has always been the best driver in all conditions and circumstances. Jimmy is the type of employee you can always count on. He shows up ready to
026work and never bavers in his commitment to excellence. Jimmy doesn't simply transport students. He invests in their lives. He looks for opportunities to make a difference and takes on additional responsibilities without hesitation. Many children have stepped on Jimmy's bus daily and benefited from his steady presence, kind demeanor and genuine care for their well-being. understands that he plays a vital role in their development. Jimmy is a dependable colleague who supports and uplifts those around him, strengthening our entire transportation team. We are honored to have Jimmy as part of the CSISD family. His hard work, dedication, and positive influence on our students exemplify the highest standards of our profession. He represents the best of what it means to be a bus driver. Please join us in celebrating Jimmy Luther's outstanding contributions to our school district and our
027community. And I have worked with Jimmy for all of those 13 years. And I can tell you that it has been an honor and a pleasure working with him. Every day we come in and if I'm ever in a bad mood, he just comes up and, well, are we having fun yet? Yes, sometimes. But no, it's, every time I see you, it really makes my day better. So I'm presenting you with a certificate of appreciation and a gift card provided by the Education Foundation and E3. Thank you, thank you so much. So, thank you. And look at Austin. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Congratulations, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Simak. So I am here today to honor Mr. Longwell, who's usually here doing the honoring. And so Chuck doesn't know this, but he played
028a critical role for Ms. Wilson, our CFO, in gathering data, being readily available for her, many nights working late, many weekends working, pulling data, running bus routes, learning new formulas, and applying all of that to help her throughout the process of what went on with redistricting or rezoning, if you will. And so Chuck, your attitude's been fantastic throughout this process. Can do, will do attitude. It doesn't go unnoticed. We greatly appreciate all that you do. So you get a certificate and a gift card from, yeah, congratulations. Okay, real quick. I know we've had a lot of recognitions, but I don't think there's anything better. No offense to things you approved during a board meeting, however, announcing and celebrating kids, as you know, is a great thing to do. And so I'm really excited to be
029here today. I'm really excited to be here today. So this is, I think, a great thing to be doing, in terms of the number of kids and staff members is awesome. So our last group, October, every year in the state of Texas and public education is Principal's Month. And so we want to take a quick opportunity to thank the men and women that lead our campuses. I tell them this quite a bit. They've got the toughest job that I've ever had in the business, and I do not regret being back at a campus level. I'm not sure I could handle it now. So they do a wonderful job. I tell them all the time, our retention rate in this district's great because of the work that they do. They build great cultures where kids thrive,
030adults want to be a part of. It's a very difficult job. Their job mirrors the superintendent's job more than any job in this industry because they're responsible for every facet of that particular campus. So we thank you guys. We love you. We've got a little gift for you that we think you will find useful. And we just want you to know you're appreciated and value 365 days a year. However, we get to draw special attention to it today. So thank you. Southwood Valley Elementary, Allie DeLuna. Greens Prairie Elementary, Donna Barrington. Pebble Creek Elementary, Amanda Allen. Sorry, I got a term. Rock Prairie Elementary, Don Newton. College Hills Elementary, Katie Allen. Spring Creek Elementary, Mindy Choppa. She's not here. Forest Ridge Elementary, Teresa Cott. She's unable to be with us this evening. Creekview Elementary, Mike McKeever.
031Southnoe Elementary, Laura Richter. She's not able to be with us this evening. Riverbend Elementary, Heather Sherman. Cypress Grove Intermediate, Piper Cameron. She's not able to be with us this evening. Oakwood Intermediate, Rocco Grande. He is not able to be here with us this evening. Pecan Trail Intermediate, Brittany Kane. College Station, Amy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. College Station Middle School, Josh Ryan. AMCMS, Omar Espedia. I didn't see him. He was able to be here. He was able to be here. I just didn't see you. I was looking. Okay, Wellburn Middle School, Jeremy Stewart. Consol High School, Gwen Elder. College View High School, Chris Southard. And last but not least, College Station High School, Justin Grimes. We'd like to thank you guys for all. We're going to let you do, like Dr. Harkright has said,
032365 days a year. You're always on call 24-7. All right. That brings us to item C6. We want to recognize the artwork at the back of our boardroom from the Head Start program in recognition of Head Start Awareness Month as well in October. Also from our students at A&M-Casade High School, College Station High School, and College View High School. So quite a bit of artwork here at the back of the board meeting, boardroom, excuse me. That brings us to item D, D1. I'm going to let you do that. I'm going to let you do that. I'm going to let you do that. I'm going to let you do that. I'm going to let you do that. I'm going to let you do that. I'm going to let you do that. Board reports, who would like
033to go first? I'll start. Ms. Ege, Mr. Horik and I are on the Community Advisory Committee, a newly formed committee. Just want to thank Austin and Melanie for their energy. It was a fantastic, and for Dr. Harkright, for us getting this new committee together. We really just kind of got to know the fellow committee members. We kind of outlined some expectations for what this committee is going to accomplish, and then kind of got into the nuts and bolts. We got to know the district's doing well, what we could do better, and kind of our next steps. So it was a lot of fun being on that committee and getting to interact with some community members. I also had the privilege of going to the Special Education Committee, which is another newly formed committee. Ms. McAdams
034and I were on that, and that was just a fantastic experience, the collaboration with just parents in the room, just above and beyond what was on the agenda, just sharing resources and stories. And parents meeting parents that had been in the programs for a long time. So really looking forward to seeing what Ms. Grande does with that committee. And lastly, Ms. Wilson and I were on the Head Start Policy Council, and I, do you want to talk about that? Oh, that also is a new committee for me this year. Really, really interesting. Kind of didn't really know what they did. They really are getting these young kids school ready. But they do so much more. They're really, really good. They're really, really good. They're really, really good. They're really, really good. I learned that, I
035think we had 60 kids get glasses last year. They facilitate getting eye exams. All kinds of health stuff. Help families with nutrition. That committee also had a lot of parents there, and it was great to hear the success stories and for them to share ideas as well. And Shelly Rice and her team do a fabulous job, and just really looking forward to serving on that committee. We met with Education Foundation. We've been reviewing grants, grant patrols around the corner. It has moved from the 12th to November 18th. So we had a record number of grants, about 139 submitted. So quite a few from new teachers. So that's exciting. They're so enthusiastic. Also as Brazos Valley gives today, and the Education Foundation already surpassed their goal. So we're super excited about that. Excited to celebrate them.
036And they've raised over 70K right now. So this is also just an amazing opportunity for our community to get the awareness with all these different organizations. So just be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that. I guess I'll do for myself. Ms. Iggy, yesterday we were at the Intergovernmental Relationship, Intergovernmental Committee meeting. And the agenda item was Todd McDaniels, who's from the City of Bryan, and he was doing the Bryan Economic Development. So at first I wasn't thinking. I was thinking, well, what's the agenda? I was thinking it would be necessarily a lot that would impact us in College Station. But he started halfway through his presentation really talking about the job skills needed for a lot of the companies that are coming in to Bryan and to the greater Brazos Valley. And he
037started talking about the CTEK Center at Bryan and how most of the job skills that they need are not job skills coming out of Texas A&M. They're job skills that can come out of our CTE programs. And so I think that's a great opportunity. And so I think that's a good reminder to me of the opportunities with our great CTE programs that those students are going to have in our local community, whether it's in College Station businesses or Bryan businesses. Okay. Dr. Payne and I also attended DEIC meeting. That was back on October 8th. Similar agenda to last time that we got the kind of next step update on the CTE programs. And the next step update was the CTE program. And that was the first step. I think it's in the district. I had
038one note that right now I have 68 percent or almost 69 percent of all our high school students are in some CTE program, which is quite a lot. And then the other part of the update was the construction update for the new center, which is well under its way. And that's going to be exciting. Can't wait to get out there and see all the new programs that converge on that site, which is part of the purpose of it, right? is that programs that sometimes folks had to take one in high school or the other, they can now take at the CTE Center. And then the other agenda item, similar to last time, was about the calendar discussion. And I guess two things to share. One is we talked about kind of the criteria around developing
039the calendar. And I think one important one for this summer specifically, because of all the work that Mr. Simak over there is doing with the construction, is the admin team is really asking that we give them a little extra summertime on the calendar, like another five days, so another week. And so I think that that's going to be the goal of the calendar team to develop one that meets those needs for all the construction going on. Okay. And then I guess two things to share. I guess last thing, there's the survey is out there that Mr. Mann has done, which is also a great thing to get feedback right now from teachers and parents on how they think the calendar went in this first nine weeks, so that we can use that information in developing
040for next year. I get it all? All right. Is that it? All right. Superintendent update. Yeah, just a few things going on. Our two bands, Cougar Band and Tiger Band, will be in the area competition on November the 1st, down in New York City. And Channel View here next Friday is Halloween. We will be hosting two football games in College Station. It's also the end of the second six weeks, as well as our UIL snapshot date. And what that means is they take a picture, basically, of our enrollment at our two high schools and decide our classifications for the upcoming biennium. It's also what the state uses in funding us on our different programs for our financials for the remainder of the year. Okay. So, we're going to be hosting two football games this year.
041Both of our volleyball programs have clinched playoff berths. I believe College Station High School is in first. Consol is in third. Both football teams are in great shape heading into the last three games as well. Our campus visits by our teaching and learning department are up to 525 visits so far this year. And a big focus for us this year was also classroom walkthroughs. And our elementary and secondary coaches and administrators have done a wonderful job. We have 642 classroom visits at the secondary. We have 643 at the elementary level and 636 at the elementary level. So, a lot of great support and watching teachers do good things with kids throughout the school day. All right. That will bring us to item D2, receive a report on board member continuing education credit. Since 1986, the
042State Board of Education rule has required that a public announcement be made each year of the names of the board members who have completed the required continuing education hours and who are deficient. The annual required continuing education is a basic obligation. It is an expectation of a sitting board member under State Board of Education rule. The president shall share calls, the minutes of the local board to reflect the information. Senate Bill 1566 is the bill that passed this. It changed the reporting board training hours from the last regular meeting of the calendar year to the last meeting held before an election of trustees. Board member or trustee Dr. Darren Payne, place one, exceeded. Trustee Kristen Wilson, place two. Exceeded. Trustee Josh Benn, place three. Completed. President Jeff Horak, place four. Exceeded. Trustee Kimberly McAdams, place
043five. Exceeded. Vice President Kim Eagie, place six. Exceeded. Secretary Heather Simmons, place seven. Exceeded. All College Station Independent School District School Board of Trustees have met or exceeded the minimum number of required continuing education hours, with the exception of Trustee Benn, who will complete the legislative update. Trustee Kite, place two. Con Java 2, Pass 2, 3, 2X, 1X, 232, 1X, 4X, complied Subject, 0Z, 0C2, 0C2, 0C2-先- Voor, 2X, 1X, 7Z, Q acoustic, 1078, 157, 2051, 939, 216, N95, make sure you're where you need to be on that so I appreciate that. That will bring us to item E, hearing of citizens. During this time we will hear from citizens who registered to speak prior to the meeting in accordance with the board operating procedures. The Open Meetings Act prevents us from responding to speakers regarding
044items not on the agenda. Comments related to the items on the agenda may be discussed during deliberations on that specific agenda item. Public comments are limited to three minutes per person. Those needing an interpreter may have up to six minutes. Each person has one opportunity at the microphone regardless of minutes used. Unused minutes may not be accrued by another speaker. The executive assistant will time the comments and alert the president when time has expired. The board asks that those addressing the board refrain from derogatory comments. And our speaker, we have one tonight, is Miss Betsy Pickett. We're gonna use the microphone right up here. Good evening, my name is Betsy Pickett. I'm the proud parent of five students in CSISD. Four of my children, two of my children, and three of my children are in
045the CSISD. I'm a member of the CSISD board of directors. I'm also the president of the CSHS band boosters. I'm here tonight to raise awareness about how budget cuts and changes are being communicated to our fine arts staff. These changes are being made by Heather Wilson, CFO, and communicated via Mr. Eric Eakes, Director of Fine Arts. CSHS band received a significant budget reduction due to changes in state funding. This was communicated after our booster budget and student band fees had already been set. I'm here tonight to share my thoughts on the changes that have been made to our fine arts staff. I'm here tonight to ANKesteem and our own fundraising while athletic programs benefit financially from ticket and concession sales our band booster program does not. Continued district budget cuts to band programs will force
046us to raise band fees placing a burden on families. We do not want to price kids out of participating in marching band. Secondly, we are weeks away from qualifying for the state marching band contest on October 2nd the Central Office drastically cut funding to feeding bannors that are in violation of the 2000 standard ofOhASA. This grant grant Queenfish funding is required to feed band students from both high schools who will be attending the contest. After several budgeting issues in August, Heather Wilson stated via email that future budget changes would be communicated in a more timely manner to help with planning, and that post-district expenses would be budgeted separately to keep them from being a financial hit to general operating budgets. Our band boosters cannot cover these expenses on such short notice. When students experience great
047success, the result should not be a financial burden placed on families. Thankfully, the district revised the student food budget when we pushed back, but the way it was communicated was untimely and created undue stress and frustration for both our staff and parents. Receiving proper funding for band programs should not require an uprising from parents. Lastly, a director in our program has taken on additional administrative duties and oversight of Color Guard due to staffing changes made last year. A financial stipend to cover these responsibilities was verbally promised at the end of last school year. Recently, this stipend was taken away for the fall semester because, quote, they'd be working there anyways, and no extra work was being done during the marching season. From what I have personally witnessed, this director has handled the additional administration and
048oversight of our Color Guard on a daily basis for five months under the guise of receiving a stipend. Failing to compensate staff for work and communicating in this manner shows no regard for the tireless effort of an outstanding music educator. We understand budgets are tight and cuts are necessary, but those need to be communicated in a timely fashion and in a way that honors our dedicated staff. To remain a district of distinction for fine arts, there must be continued financial support for band programs. With the current method of communication on financial decisions, we can't help but feel uneasy about where the next shortfall will be and when it would be communicated to us. Thank you for your time. Thank you. That'll bring us to consent agenda, so I need to let y'all know, Carrie and
049I were talking. And in the legislative update, Senate Bill 413, meeting minutes and recordings. So when we vote during motions now, we have to do one of two things. Board meeting minutes must include each member's vote. So best practice is to call for a raise of hands or a roll call vote. I would say raise of hands would just be easier instead of me going trustee by trustee. If y'all are okay with that, we're going to roll with that. But that is Senate Bill that just passed from this legislative session. So going forward, you know, all those in favor say aye, but then you got to raise your hand with it. So just kind of how that goes. Also, we had a request this morning from Ms. McAdams to pull J1 from the agenda, consent
050agenda. And so we have done that. And I believe Dr. Harkrider and Mr. Mann have been able to do that. So we're going to put together a presentation that should suffice and make sense. So we're going to hear that. So that one will be pulled. So if you want to make note of it. All other items are item G, I1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J6, and J7. I motion that we approve the consent agenda. Second. I have a motion by Ms. Ege. A second by Dr. Payne. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you all very much. That brings us to item J1. Consider approval of the purchase of professional development services from Solution Tree through TIPS Purchasing Cooperative Contract number 220601 in the amount of $236,861.80 utilizing
051the Title II funds. Mr. Mayen. Right. Good evening, everybody. Thank you, President Horak, Dr. Harkrider, trustees. I'm very happy to come to you tonight and talk with you about the work we've done with Solution Tree. And so let's just jump right in. There's two major areas that I'm going to talk through the timeline of the work. And then I'm also going to talk through at a high level the expenditure processes that we've used in this work. So jumping in the timeline from 23-24 is where we begin with the topic at hand. Um. Okay. So. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I would be remiss if I didn't just remind the folks that are watching at home, especially that don't always tune into our board meetings, that all of this came out of the work of our strategic
052plan that was rolled out and developed in the spring of 2021. And whenever we got to the spring of 23, because it didn't happen immediately, we identified it's time for us to start working on our professional learning community work. And so then in February of 23, our two executive directors had made contact with Solution Tree, and others about possible partnerships. And then we began to evaluate the different proposals from the different companies on the possible partnerships in April. And then in July, we brought to the board our first proposal, excuse me, our first proposal, selecting Solution Tree at the time. It ended up being over Corwin. And it's because of the reasons listed here. These were things that we found were very important for us in the proposals. And it is about building collective capacity
053of continuous improvement. Improvements for our district and campuses, clarity of purpose in the work, being able to cast a common vision for what we want to accomplish for our students, establish collective commitments, and create and achieve agreed upon goals. And it's because we want to elevate the academic achievement of all of our students. And so just to walk down memory lane, this was the first proposal in July of 23, came to the board. And then we started in with training. Who was trained year one? We started with thinking about our campuses, and we decided to divide them into cohorts. And the reason for this was really two reasons. One, were our campuses ready to start the work? Where are they on the level of readiness? And then two, funding sources, because we started this work
054at the time that we did, and we had to utilize the funds we had available to us. And so in year one, all of our campus principals were trained, regardless of whether or not they were a cohort one, or a cohort two. CNI staff members were a part of the training, and then our cohort one campuses, and I'll show you those here in a moment. The training that our campuses went through is what Solution Tree calls PLC at work. And so they do this in what they call an academy model. And so they are three two-day sessions, and campuses have their guiding coalition teams come to the trainings. And so the principals identify their folks that are on the staff, and they're anywhere from six to 10 or 12, depending upon the size of the
055school. And then of course we purchase whatever associated supplies, materials, books, and whatnot for the training. And so over the course of the year, so starting July 23 through May 2024, we had eight days of district team trainings, and so that's our central office staff. We had seven days with our principals going through training, and then we had our cohort one campuses go through their six days in total of training. So three sets of two days every time they came together, and you can see the cohort one campuses go through their six days in total of training. So that's the cohort one campuses that are identified here. And then that led us into the summer of 2024. And we had two cohort sets of campuses. We had our cohort one that had gone through six
056days of PLC at work training, and we had our cohort two that their principals had had some training. They've had all the principal training here, but their guiding coalitions had not gone through training. And so for that summer, we made the decision, we want to send our cohort one campuses to high impact team training. And we want to send all of our cohort two campuses to PLC at work training, because that's the training the cohort one campuses received over the course of the year. And so that summer, the cohort two campuses, which you see listed up here on the screen, were given the opportunity to pick which month they wanted to go, June or July, and they sent their guiding coalitions to the summer institutes, whether it was in Fort Worth or San Antonio or
057Austin, wherever it was. So the majority of them picked June, as you can see, and then we had one campus in July. And we had, you know, a sort of district staff is the best way I know. We had SPED staff and CNI staff go to both, depending upon availabilities of those staff members. And also for our cohort one campuses, they had the high impact team training, and that was only offered in July. And so the teams from those campuses went to that training during that time. So that's the bulk. That is the work. That we contracted with Solution Tree or that we sent people to from the district level during that first year. And so then if we look at 24-25, which is the previous school year, we continued the PLC at work. We
058also introduced the instructional coach training and development with our instructional coaches. We also introduced behavior solutions work. And then we had individual campus coaching sessions provided for our teams as well. So let's dive into each one of those. PLC at work. You can see in July of 24, we brought it here to the board. We again received proposals from Solution Tree and Corwin, and we again went with Solution Tree because we felt that they best meet our need. And also it was the lower price, which worked out very well. We had our two different cohorts of campuses. And so in conversation with Dr. Harkrider and CNI, so we need to slow down and get everybody on the same page. It's hard to maintain this level of work with having groups, groups of campuses in different
059places. So we slowed it down. And so our cohort two campuses participated in their PLC at work academy trainings. And then the cohort one campuses just worked on the work. The things that they had learned, they started to really put into motion at their campus. And so these cohort two campuses that are listed on the left side of the screen, they went through the same sets of two days, so six days in total, that the cohort one folks went through the prior year. In addition to what they went to over the summer. And then our cohort one campuses, they really worked on the work at their campus. And every time that we came together, we did work at the district level with all of our principals. But that's where we were with that work. The
060instructional coaches, we had K-8 instructional coaches. And so for them, their training was a mix of in-person and virtual training sessions with a Solution Tree associate, and it was ongoing throughout the year. And those were scheduled, depending on the year, depending upon the pace and recommendations of Solution Tree, with also the work that we were doing with the ICs. And we purchased whatever associated supplies and materials for that work. This expenditure wasn't brought to the board for approval, because it was under the $50,000 limit. So it wasn't something that we called out like we do for these other bigger purchases, because they were over the threshold. But we always made sure to share updates and information through the transmittals. Our behavior solutions work. Started last year. So 24-25 school year. And this is because Dr.
061Harkrider had said that, you know, the board had expressed feedback that there's some concerns about behaviors at campuses. He said, I've gathered feedback myself about behaviors at campuses that we need to be addressing these things. And so we brought in behavior solutions as a part of the work, because they're a part of Solution Tree, number one. And the big piece with that is we use the same systems and structures. The model is the same, just as it is with PLC. You have a guideline. You have a guiding coalition. That's your behavior team. You have the same types of meeting structures, similar types of agendas. And the advantage of this is you're not teaching a whole new system and a whole new structure to your teachers every time. It is all in line with the work.
062Really, the topic is behavior or academics. We don't even mix the two when they come together. We keep it very clear. Okay? Can I ask who's getting the instruction on the behavioral side? That's picked, the campuses pick their, they have their coalition of folks that they bring. It's specific for the behavioral side? Yes, ma'am. Now, there may be some overlap. That's where they've got it. They're MTSS coaches, counselors, principals, APs. But they also could bring other people that they identified they wanted to bring. Right? We tried to accommodate as many folks as possible as we could in the training pieces. We had two in-person sessions and we had four virtual sessions. And the virtual sessions were spaced throughout the year and there were some virtual sessions that we had to do. And we had a
063lot of Q&A opportunities for staff. And again, this was not above the 50,000 threshold. So it didn't come to the board for the public presentation of this is the work that we're doing. But information was included in TransMentals after we had big events related to behavior solutions. And then toward the end of the year last year, we were able to provide individual campus coaching work for our staff. And I was very pleased that we were able to do this because we had done a lot of work. We fully recognized. We were able to do a lot of things. And so whenever we had the opportunity to be able to say, hey, let's get our solution tree associate to be able to come to the school. We can divide this associates time to where they spend
064a half day at each of the campuses. And so she comes in and she works with that principal. They set the agenda ahead of time with whatever the principal wants to cover. It can be whatever they need. They set it with her. She comes. And then at the end, she meets with us at the district level. gives us the high-level overview of what she's talked about, and then makes recommendations for us and the next steps in the work based upon what she's seen across all 19 campuses. So she gives us that input and feedback. And again, this wasn't above the 50,000 threshold, so that's why it didn't come into the board, but it was communicated the work that we were doing with her. And so then the timeline for this school year, 25-26, we are
065continuing the on-site coaching, RTI at work, Beyond Labels training, and then we're continuing with behavior solution work. And so the individual campus coaching work, the feedback from the administrators at the end of the year last year was like, I mean, this is the best thing because she's here with us. She's talking to our people. Our people are talking to her. They get to ask her direct questions, and it's very tailored to what we need. And so, great. This is lovely. This is what we want. And so with the approval of this purchase request tonight, this is going to allow us to do this for the campuses this fall and... next spring, so that we can provide that ongoing coaching piece for them with that outside consultant. And the power, and this is just me and
066my opinion, but the power of being able to bring in someone that is well-versed in this work as a consultant is they're going to be that mirror that we need to really help us see where we need to get better. And that's where I think the value comes in with having someone come and sit with us in the campuses, one-on-ones in small settings. So the RTI work, 25-26, this school year. This is what we discussed in May whenever we came together. And it was on the agenda there and again between us, SolutionTree, and Corwin. And SolutionTree is the vendor that we continue the relationship work based upon everything that we've got going and the models that they both offer. The RTI work, is for all 19 campuses, and all 19 campuses have been able to
067participate in that training this year. All of them have completed at least two days. There's some of the campuses, their final two days are going to come in November. But then that training will then be complete and it's a similar model format to what we did with the PLC at work. In that it's three two-day sessions and they have their guiding coalitions and they bring those and then whatever associated supplies, materials, books, all those things, we purchase those and provide that as well. And this is very solidly tied to goal number two, our MTSS. And we talked about that the last time I spoke with you. And so this response to intervention piece is a very critical component for us helping all of our students find the success. And as a result of our individual
068coaching work with our Solution Tree associate, she had made the recommendation to us based upon what she is seeing consistently across campuses is a training that she said is called Beyond Label. And so she had told us that last year, hey, I think Beyond Label's training would be beneficial for the majority of your staff because it's a mindset. And so the training is centered on the belief that all truly means all and it challenges educators to remove labels from students and focus on their individual strengths. And so principals were able to bring whoever from their guiding coalitions, their whole guiding coalition if they were able to get it done, they certainly did that. And we had lots of our special education staff in attendance with those meetings. And so we had provided that for them
069earlier this year. Pardon the interruption. A little dry mouth allergies today. And this is very much in line with 1.3 because this is about if you go back and you see it's about focusing on the individual strengths of students. And this feeds into the individual goal setting and progress monitoring that as adults, we need to really believe that the kids are capable of the goals that they're setting and help them set appropriate level goals. So and this was an expenditure that we had. It wasn't anywhere near the $50,000 threshold. And so again, it didn't come to the board for a big discussion on it. But we've certainly shared information about this in Transmittal. And then behavior solutions training. The slogan for this year around our behavior work is year one, tier one. Last year was
070our learning year. We spent the entire year working with the Solution Tree Associates on building our knowledge and foundation. And we started creating the fundamentals that we needed to implement this year. And part of the expectations coming into the summer and summer, our SALI, a Summer Administrative Leadership Institute, was for campuses to put together their PD plans for August based upon the work that they had done over the course of the entire year. And so that's where we are now is we are time to implement the tier one work, which is our campus wide systems and processes for behavior management. And so with the approval of purchase tonight, it's going to be able to get them to get their education, get them additional onsite coaching, Zoom sessions, and all the work that we needed to
071continue the work that we've established as something that's been a need for us and been beneficial for us. So that's the high level timeline from 2003 to where we are today. And then I'm just going to do the same thing with expenditures related to Solution Tree. And you notice it says 2002. And that's because whenever Ms. Wilson was asked for, hey, can you pull us our Solution Tree expenditures? Boom, we'll get spreadsheets. Got a lot of them. And then we're like, well, let's take a look. Right? And so what you're looking at here is what she was able to provide. They got into the depths of our e-finance program, I guess, and pulled this information out. And what I want to draw your attention to, for those of us that are not accountants, right, is
072there's those numbers across the top. That's the funding source code. And I added on to the bottom underneath there where they come from. Chris, I hope I did right. If I did wrong, tell me later. Okay. But I put it here on a chart because those of us that don't speak accountant language and certainly not public ed, it's all Greek, right? So 199 is general funds, and general funds are our local and state taxes. Okay? And this is important for us to keep note of. 205 is Head Start funds, and that is federal funds that can only be used for the Head Start program purposes. 211 are Title I, Part A funds, federal funds that are only able to be used for the Head Start program purposes. 224 are IDEA or Special Education Programming funds,
073and they're federal funds. 255, those are Title II, Part A funds. That's one of the programs that I oversee. And that's for professional development of teachers and administrators and or the recruitment and retention of staff. That's all we can use those monies for. 263 is Title III, Part A. You received a report earlier tonight from Ms. Nordsworthy. This is what she oversees, and so this is what she oversees. And so this is what she oversees. And so this is what she oversees. And so this is for our English language learners, immigrant students for English proficiency and academic achievement work. And then 282 is our Good OS for funds that we don't have anymore. But we had lots of flexibility to use those, and so that's what we utilized whenever we sent folks to the summer
074training for Solution Tree because that included staff professional development was an allowable expense. And then 461 are Campus Activity funds, and that's local and state tax funds. Okay? So I'm not going to quiz you later, I promise. But I did break this down, and this is on-site professional development. And so whenever you look at the totals of all the monies that are expended, on-site professional development, that's the largest amount. And it's because that's where we get the largest bang for the buck because we can bring the associate here, and we can bring as many people as we can bring to the training versus sending folks, we've got to pay for food, we've got to pay for travel, we've got to pay for lodging and for registration. And so we try to bring them here as
075much as possible. And so you can see the funding codes on the left, where it came from either local fund or it came from the IDEA SPED fund, Title I fund, and Title II Part A. And you'll notice I put the yellow arrows on there because the 199 and the 21s, that's campus-driven. Okay? All the district-driven are the 224, 255s. Okay? And so that means that the 211, Title I schools, they said, we're going to use our Title I funds to bring an associate to our school in the future. We're going to do work at our school. That's what they chose to do. The 199, campus said, I'm going to pay for an associate out of my allotted funds to bring an associate to my school. That's what they did whenever they put that in
076there. This is attending the conferences. And so you can see here, just like I said a moment ago, the 282 code, this is the ESSER funds. This is the bulk of where we paid for us sending folks that summer to those different conferences. But you can see 461. This is the campus activity fund. 199 is a local fund. Again, 211 is our Title I fund. So those are campus-driven funds that sent people from their campuses to conferences, above and beyond what the district provided for them to be able to do. So they said, we want to send more teams. And they used their funds to do so. And then online and virtual PD. And virtual PD is what it sounds like. Whenever we code purchases, we have to allocate the money even if it's of
077the same contract. If we've got two on-site days and three virtual PD days, it gets coded that way so that we can tell the state, this person did it through Zoom or this person came to CSISD, just how they make us report it. The online PD is this is we use a program from Solution Tree. It's called Global PD Teams. And it's our online professional development platform. And it's where we house the videos from Solution Tree. So whenever our associate comes in and works with us and she shows us all the stuff, we can't look it up on Google because it's not on Google. But it's in Global PD Teams. Campus administrators can take that and then turn around and use that in their campuses. And that's where it's housed. And so we pay for
078campuses to have access to that resource. And then finally, I have highlighted here the books because there's always books associated with learning. We're public education. We have lots of learners. They love their books. And so you can see here, I just again, I highlighted out what district paid versus campus. It's just a part of the training. Anytime that you have any of these types of trainings, you're going to have books and resources. And we're talking about buying books in quantities of 120 to 150, depending upon the sizes of the academy. So but this kind of breaks out the prices that we spent for all of it. So big summary, all of it, because I'm also the data guy. Numbers are great. I also like the percentages. And so you can look across the bottom. But
079whenever you look and see with the 199, your local funds and your campus activities, and your campus activity on the far end didn't even make up a full percentage. 3% of the money that we've spent with Solution Tree since the district has done anything with them since 2002 has come from local funds. 97% of it has come from federal funds. And we're very mindful of our funding sources. And that's one of the big reasons why the first year, our cohort one was the size that it was, because we're trying to utilize every fund that we can that didn't come out of our general funds. So that is what I have. I'm here to take any questions you may have. We were an overachiever. That was above and beyond what I had requested by a long
080shot. But it is good to see that obviously just all the different courses that have happened over the last three years. And there's a whole lot of pieces to the, what? It hasn't been happening every year since then. Not every year since 2002. But particularly the program. The program. The courses you went over starting in 2023 with the PLCs. And it is more than just the classroom PLCs. I mean, yes, the behavioral part is to me a welcome addition. But it is part of why I asked for the overall money spent was just the fact that we see little bits at a time. And I wanted to be able to see the overall spending of it and where it's coming from, which is federal funds. For instance, what else could you say about that? What
081else could you spend this Title II funding on? Or some of the other federal funds besides professional development? Yeah, that's part of what we evaluate every year. And we do it based on our needs assessment. That's one of the things you'll see in either May or June, depending upon whenever they decide to tell us when they're going to give us funds. We'll bring it to DEIC with our list of these are the things we propose to spend it on. But depending upon the fund source, it depends on the areas. And we don't make any changes anywhere from PD to whatever supports or supplies that we're allowed to buy. There's so many rules that we just have to be in compliance with them. And Title II particularly, majority is professional development? Is that? Yes. Yes. For
082this particular conversation, the majority of it, you can see Title II has been the major lift for this. But we've also received and, I mean, every year we've had the same or steady increase in our Title II fund allocations from the federal government. So we're trying to maximize everything we get. And just so you know, we were able to provide the on-site coaching. That was a surprise because the way federal funding works is around spring break every year, they say, OK, you're going to get this extra set of money. And so you have to spend it before the end of the year. And sometimes it's really hard to spend $120,000 or $150,000 at the end of the year. But we do our best. We work hard. We ask principals. We do these things and we
083say, OK, what can we do? We buy whatever resources, whatever supplies. And so anything related to onboarding, we're able to do that. Anything related to teacher development, principal development, two of our principals are not here this evening because they're at N2 learning training. And so we fund that out of Title II funds. I mean, we have a whole list of things that we use Title II funds for. So just to be clear, because I think sometimes too, like a lot of us that don't know a lot about school finance, you can throw a number up there and we can also hear that, you know, we have budget cuts in other areas and things like that. And so it can be concerning. But just to be clear, we're talking about spending a pot of money that
084is designated specifically for professional development. Yes. The exact kind of things that, you know, we're trying to do with Solution Tree that is supporting our teachers to help them to be able to do some of the things that we're asking them to do, right? Correct. So it's not money that could have gone to cover band buses or, you know, whatever else it might have been, teacher raises or things like that, right? Correct. Yes. OK. I just wanted to say, I really appreciate the time. I appreciate the timeline because this started before I got on the board. And quite frankly, it started this program and the need for it started before we hired Dr. Harkrider, correct? If I'm understanding the timeline. Yeah. If you go back and see, the month he was approved was the month
085of the first contract. So the prior administration felt like this was an important program. Yeah. We were rolling in this direction. Do you know why Solution, and I don't know if we will get that. Do you know why Solution Tree besides just looking at between the two proposals? Mm-hmm. Why was Solution Tree the one that we went with? I mean, I will speak for myself and, you know, as a part of all the conversations with them. One of the things that was important to us, especially coming out of COVID, was we didn't want virtual. We wanted to have somebody come here. And at the time, the others were still only doing virtual. The majority of the other proposals have folks that come from out of state. Solution Tree has a lot of virtual. Solution Tree
086has a lot of associates in the state of Texas. And the one that works with us in particular is a retired Texas educator that's been in Texas her entire career and is very well versed on what we do with them. But they've been in this game for a long time. Richard DeFore, if you read anything about anything related to PLC, you'll hear, oh, it's DeFore and his four questions. That's what this is based off of. It is decades. And that's the thing. This has been in place since the 90s. Like, I hate to say it, but we're in 2025. This is not new stuff. You can research it. It has been like since 97. This stuff has been out there. And Solution Tree adopted it. They put it into schools and put it into actions.
087And we're here. So to answer your question shortly, they have a solid system and structure in place that resonates with us. And they have Texas educators or familiar Texas educators that we want to hear from them because they know our struggles. So this is going back a little way. But back, I guess, myself, Ms. McAdams, Mr. Horak were probably the only ones on the board at the time. And Mr. Martindale was the superintendent. And the school board, community members, the administration put in a lot of work to develop a strategic plan for CSISD. And one of my main concerns when we did that in 2021 was that so many of our students were going to be in school. And so we had to do a lot of work. And one of my main concerns was
088that so many organizations create strategic plans and then it falls by the wayside. And that was my concern. We're going to spend all this time, this money to do this. And then what's going to happen? And the number one goal from that that our community put together for CSISD was that CSISD will enhance instructional practices by implementing innovative and personalized learning experiences. And that goal was that we would elevate the academic outcomes of historically underperforming student groups. And when you look at the six years that I've been on the board, that goal number two has been something that we have drastically needed to do something different to improve those outcomes. And when Mr. Martindale and his administration, beginning in 21, 22, up to now, we've been able to do that. And that's what we're going
089to do. That's what we're going to do. And if we're going to do the same thing that we were able to do in 22, up to 23, started using solution tree and started using these types of programs more commonly, the board was all on board with it. Because it was, I think in the workshop, Dr. Payne made a comment about being innovative, doing something different. And that's what this does. And so, and then when I think that was negotiated. And it was. in the spring of 23, Dr. Harkrider came on in July of 23 and has continued that program. And so I think, you know, obviously $200,000 is a lot of money, but for us to continue on this process that our community started in 2021, I am absolutely in favor of doing this. Mr.
090Mitt, your expertise and the comments that you've made, I think are important. At the same time, as I'm leaving the board, you know, innovation is good. Doing something different to try to achieve a goal, whatever our strategic goals were, is good. But, you know, we do need to, in a couple years or whenever, you know, for those of you that are on the board, evaluate. And hey, has this helped us reach the goals that we've been working on? Thank you. Right now, I think we have to, we should, and we have to continue on with what we started in 2021. And so I think that continuing on the solution tree this year is a great idea. Just keep in mind, you're leaving, you can't tell us what to do anymore, Josh. I love that, Josh.
091The whole fact that we did when we put specifically that goal number two on there, say, I mean, I remember distinctly saying that we can't just keep doing the same thing and expect something to change, right? So we are doing something different. We've always done some level and types of professional development, but this has been a very focused effort over these last couple of years. And yes, it was with solution tree chosen from back in early 2023. So I do think the other key is then how do we continue? And I think that's where we need to measure the success, right? And I think we are starting to see some of that maybe academically, but I think we also need to make sure, are there other ways that we can help gauge that that success
092is happening? That's just something we don't have to answer that today, but the behavioral sides of things. I know the other piece of it is not only have we invested a lot of money in it, our teachers and staff, they've invested a lot of time into it as well, both all the... You know, the training as well as the PLC effort. So we gotta make sure we're getting the return on all of that investment, again, both financially and time-wise. I think we've seen it when we'd go do our trustee tours. I mean, we've gone through quite a few schools and we've seen these PLCs at work and there's some recognized schools. I mean, we've even had some, you know, a school or two recognized. So I think it's something you have to buy into. And
093this isn't gonna happen overnight. So I think I can appreciate the fact that they're continuing to analyze and see how these plans and PLCs are growing. So I think, you know, it's not something that's just gonna happen overnight. But as trustees, we have been right there in the room with them and we have seen the success. So, and it is helping kids. We've seen the numbers this year. Systemic change is at least a three to five year process. Everybody's chasing the next step. So I think it's something we've gotta buy into. I think it's something we've gotta buy into. I think it's something we've gotta buy into. I think it's something we've gotta buy into. What's the next great thing? What is the new package? There's nothing that frustrates administrators and teachers more than the
094next new thing that you roll out every August and you have zero consistency in your program. That's why we had folks push back the first year because I was new. What's the next new thing? And we made the promise that this is it. We're gonna do the same thing next year. And so we're starting to get buy-in and trust because it's not a fly-by-night scenario. The beyond labels, the RTI, it all goes together. We're all speaking the same language. So it's not really that teachers are having to learn new things to do. They're learning to do things differently. And that's why we saw, and I told you guys when we got results this last year, gains were much higher than I anticipated just because it was year one. Which tells me the teachers are bought
095into it. If you look at some of the information that Jeff put up on campus expenditures, we're not telling campus principals, hey, you've got to go hire solution tree and bring them into your campus. They're seeking that out. They're having those conversations. Why? Because they see the value. They see the value. They see that their teachers are learning. They see that their kids are doing better. And so that's when the process gets going. And as we get better in some of these areas, we don't need the services anymore because our team leads the services as we move forward. So it's a method of, it's self-sustainable. When your staff is trained and bought in on it, it's not something you have to continue to do. We move forward into the next step. And so Jeff, you
096did a great job on the presentation. Our campus administration and instructional coaches have done a wonderful job of leading this process. And our teachers have done a great job of working hard through some of the ups and downs and getting comfortable in a new way of thinking and planning. And the results speak for themselves. They're doing a great job. Thanks for doing all this. I have two other real quick questions. One is, speaking of that people are doing it now, do you have any idea on what we foresee in more solution tree training and investment, like in future years? I mean, at some point will this taper off, I guess is what I'm, yeah, soon or? Yeah, that's basically what I just explained. Yeah, that's what you just said. It will. It also will, based
097on the needs of our campuses. And some of our campuses may need continued on-campus training. Yeah, that's right. And some of our campuses may need continued ongoing. So it's not a, this is not a one size fits all. Okay, none of this is. Each campus is at a different spot. They're supposed to be at a different spot. They're not ever going to be identical. And that's not, we're not trying to clone campuses. The work's the work. They get there at different pieces in time. And we'll taper off as we see fit and we'll keep going if we think we need to. What we judge it on, plain and simple, student learning. Are we continuing to raise the bar and moving the needle? Is the staff bought in? And what we see right now, there's momentum,
098there's enthusiasm. Kids are growing, kids are learning, and teachers are getting more comfortable sharing, talking, planning, and working together. And that was my second one. The last one was the staff buy-in. I think as we, we're talking about doing some kind of meaningful survey in the spring that making, getting some feedback on that. And are, you know, have we really got this done? Are we going to be able to get the staff where we want them and need them to be? I think that would be helpful as well as including there. I can answer some of that. My wife just did some training and they were using tactics that they use with students to make them get up and move around and engage. And the teachers were like, oh, there's, oh, wait, we do that.
099So she caught on to that and was like, don't use my tricks on me. So good job on the training. Everybody good? Jeff, I appreciate you getting this together on short notice, I think eight hours. It's very informative. Obviously on the financial piece because obviously as trustees, we are upheld to be fiscally responsible. So the detail on it, I've got quite a bit of notes here, very informative. So I do appreciate you putting in the effort on it and getting through that. But yeah, we will need a motion on this one. Motion to approve as presented. Second. Motion by Dr. Payne, second by Ms. Wilson. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. Motion carried. Motion carried. 7-0. I think that's it. That will bring us to the end. Everybody wish Ms. Wilson
100good luck. I don't know if we'll see her in the next few weeks, but we wish you the best of luck in your next endeavor. Y'all have a great night. Thank you all for being here.