001like to call to order the regular meeting of the Harris County Board of Education. Our mission is ensuring an excellent education for every child in Harris County. Our vision is one community to the well-being and preparation of every student for lifelong success and society. At this time, we ask that you stand and join Miss Bella Tarver, eighth grade student from Harris County Middle School as she leads us. 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. Thank you, Mr. I will take us to item C on our agenda that the Harris County Board of Education approve the May 8th 2025 monthly regular meeting as Oliver second by Mr. All in favor? That will
002take us to item D, special recognition portion of our meeting this evening. And at this time, we're going to call the Harris County Middle School by arts department up Hello, I'm Sarah Slappy and I'm so excited to share some of the achievements of our HCCMS theater um accomplishments this year. So, each year we attend the Georgia Junior Thespian Conference where students have the opportunity to learn theater and life skills from professionals in the theater industry. This year, our school was chosen to perform Oh, the thanks You can thank a musical number from our spring musical Susical Jr. in front of the entire conference. We had over 30 students participating in this event. We also had 10 students participate in thespies. This event is a competition for small groups that can either perform a scene, monologue,
003or musical number, or present a technical design. Our superior ranked Thesby at the Georgia Thespian Conference was Stepsisters Lament from Cinderella. Olivia Aids and Gabby Thomas performed this in the musical theater category. [Applause] We also had two more superior ranked thespies that were also chosen to uh as the top six out of all participants and there were over 50 submissions. These students had the opportunity to perform live in front of the entire conference. Showoff performed by Bella Tarver in the musical theater dance category as well as Yeah. as well as the telephone hour from Bye-Bye Birdie performed in the musical theater group category by the following students. Olivia Aids, Gabby Thomas, Christopher Ascu, Ethan Edwards, Bella [Applause] Tarver, as well as Adakus Taylor, Kagan Busy, Micaia Walker, Kinsey Hiller, and Isabella Jano. [Applause] Thank you
004for your continued support of HCCMS theater. Uh Tony Orsini Tharp, our HCCMS band teacher, could not be here tonight, so I will also be reading off some notes for her as well. Um and her students accomplishments for this year. Thank you'all. [Applause] It has been a tremendous year for the HCC. CMS band. In addition to our traditional football pep band, we launched a new basketball pep band, which was both highly successful and an incredible experience for our students. This year, 12 of our students auditioned for the District 3 Honor Band, and we are proud to share that six students were selected for the band and four were named as alternates. A significant accomplishment that speaks to their talent and hard work. Students are assigned chair numbers that reflect their ranking within the district. as well.
005Our district 3 honor band participants, Isabella Hernandez, second chair [Music] flute. Veronica Van Vulenberg, first chair, [Music] obo. Jack Sullivan, eighth chair, clarinet. [Applause] Malia Stockdale, second chair, bass [Applause] clarinet. Richard Darlington, second chair, baritone [Applause] saxophone. Benjamin Roll, fourth chair, percussion. And on our honor band alternates, Rayan Stetcher, first alternate alto saxophone. [Applause] Carter Bowers, second alternate [Music] horn, Kayn Simmons, first alternate [Applause] trumpet, and Ben Mainri, second alternate trumpet. [Applause] Additionally, we are thrilled to announce that the HCCMS band earned an overall superior rating at this year's large group performance evaluation, which is an outstanding recognition of our students musical growth, dedication, and excellence. Thank you all for your continued support of the HCCMS band program. [Applause] Hi, I'm Gina Hunt. I'm our middle school art teacher and this is just a small
006sampling of our amazing art program. I am tremendously proud of these students, not just for their exemplary artistic merits showcased in these regional and state exhibitions, but more for their dedication and commitment to creating amazing artwork throughout the year. And again, this is just a sampling. Um, starting in September and October of this past year, we have the Georgia National Fair, which is a statewide competition recognizing some in first, second, and third place. We have Katie Magrical, third place in colored pencil. Elena Thompson, second place in charcoal drawing and second place in pen and ink [Applause] drawing. Katarina Farber, first place in watercolor. [Applause] Lexi Water, second place in altered photography and second place in clay sculpture. And Haley Cosma, third place in altered [Applause] photography. Uh, moving into November of 2024, we had the
007Houston Medical Art Competition, which is statewide, and we had two special awards given to us. First off, we have Leila Green for the Dr. David Rehack best handpicked purchase award. And secondly, we have Ava Valdez for the careers in medicine award. [Applause] Then we skip on to March for another regional competition and this the Ottabon Art Exhibit and we have Ali [Applause] Whe was not over yet because just recently in May we had our Creative Youth Art League exhibit at the Lraange Art Museum and we had oh many there we have some repeats. So we have once again Elena Thompson first place in drawing Once again, Katarina Farber, second place in [Applause] painting, we get Ava Valdez. Once again, third place in [Applause] painting, we have Josie Jansen. First place mixed media. [Applause] We have
008once again Alli Whe second place mixed [Applause] media. And finally we have Otis Lloyd third place in mixed [Applause] media. Thank you very much. Super proud of these students. [Applause] All right. My name is Kenneth Boyin. I am the chorus teacher at Harris County Carver Middle School as well as our department chair for fine arts at CTAE. Um the Hera County Carver Middle School chorus has done a lot of great things this school year. Um specifically, um we had three students who got to represent our school at the um GMA District 3 Honor Choir. Uh one being Tasia [Applause] Brown. We also have Natalie Johnson and we also have Emily Mountain. So, round of applause for those two as [Music] well. I will also say growthwise, the middle school choir has done a lot this
009year. Four years ago, we only had 17 students enrolled in the class. Uh for next school year, we are projected to have 100. And we are very proud of [Applause] that. And one shameless plug for next week. Next Monday, our middle school band will be having their concert at the middle school at 6:30. Next Tuesday, the middle school choir will be having our spring concert at 6:30. And we hope to see you there. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Valerie Longshore, Sergeant, and in addition to being the theater teacher here at the high school, I am the fine arts department chair. Um, each of our groups are going to introduce themselves, but we are going to go a little bit of out of order because, um, our wonderful band students are actually doing double duty
010tonight because their banquet is, uh, going on in the cafeteria. Um, Dr. Dr. Libby is um doing an assignment with the the military and so we have had a long-term sub and we have had lots of people um to help make sure that our band program is is still sustainable um when Dr. Libby returns. But I'm actually going to introduce um a wonderful senior um by the name of Kaden Peters who um sometimes I forget that he is a student um instead of a colleague because although he wants to be a music educator, he's not quite there yet and I have to keep reminding myself but he has done I just want to publicly say that he's done such a great job of leading literally writing compositions. um he has been just an incredible uh
011mentor to the students and makes Harris County High School proud. So, senior Hayden [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Peters. The first group that we're going to recognize today is going to be our District 3 Honor Band participants. Um starting with Abigail Johnson. [Music] [Applause] Gus Schaer, Savannah Ludy, Jasmine Steed, Hayden Peters, James [Applause] Gatewood, Sarah [Music] Huff, Isaac Gaggel, Shanti [Music] Patel, Rachel [Applause] Figel, Alex Ste, Elelliana Gaggel, Bella Burroughs, Jack Sers, and finally Ted Mlanahan. [Applause] This next group of students um went and performed and got judged at something called solo and ensemble. And actually, every single one of our students got superior ratings there. So, let's get a round of applause just for that. Our first ensemble to perform there was our percussion ensemble. They got superior ratings. Percussion quartet. We had our flute choir.
012And now our soloist. We had Elelliana Gaggel, James Gatewood, Kayen Peters, Olivia Pope, Abigail Johnson, Grace Steel, Savannah Ludy, and Tyler Rzok. All right. And on top of that, with our outstanding year we've had so far, we had our indoor drum line go compete around Georgia, which is like a marching band style competition, except it's only percussion instruments. And they went around Georgia, mainly in the metro Atlanta area. And they actually placed first out of six groups in the Georgia Endo Percussion Association novice [Applause] [Music] class. And that's all for our band. So, thank you. Careful. Good evening. I am Tammy Bailey. Um, I am the sponsor, I guess is what you call that, of Page One. Um for those of you who may not know what page one is, um it is a competition
013amongst the um valley area high schools in several categories. There are 12 categories and for this it's broken down into subject areas. So each student here that you see um competed, if you will, in a particular subject area and the main thing that page one looks at is a well-rounded resume that has to do with community service. They're looking for students who have a heart for service, serving their school and their community. Um, each one of these students had a particular project that they worked on the whole year. Um, these kids have worked so hard. This is the to me I think the group I've had that's worked the absolute hardest. Um, they had to, you know, do the actual project, submit a packet, and then go through a several levels of interviewing that I
014put them through. But I think they come out better the other side. At least two of them told me that they interviewed for things that had to do with college that they felt like was a piece of cake because of their page one preparation. So that makes it all worth it. So tonight we have in the category of athletics, Tinsley Riggsby. Tinsley is an ace in shotgun. Um in the c new category of business, we have Randy Williams. in career and technology. Ava D'vor in citizenship. Addison Lel in drama. Kirsten Ning in English literature. Kendall Marker. I'm gonna let y'all switch rows back from my front. in the area of foreign language. Nia Rivera in math. Bella Zerner for general scholarship. Connor Archilla. Science. Sarah Mallister. She's on here. I just realized that. Science is
015Sarah Mallister. Um for social science is Lane Miller. And um art is Ian Ho. And I did know that she could not make it tonight. And then you guys have already met. Guess what? category we have for music, Kayen Peters. So, please give all of these students a welldeserved big round of applause. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Jeff Wheelis and I'm a assistant principal here at Harris County High School and it is an honor to get to present several groups of students to you tonight that have made a positive impact not only on Harris County but the Harris County community. The first group tonight is our Science Olympiad team. Science Lipiad is a nationwide team-based competition that challenges students to apply science, technology, engineering, and math skills through hands-on events ranging from building structures
016to conducting experiments. This year, this group of Harris County High School students made history by achieving their first ever appearance at the regional competition, earning multiple top placements in STEM events and placing in the top three and region. Um, and the team members are Connor Archilla, Lawson Killow, Sarah Mallister, Oliver Guerrero, Takaya Marshall, Neilie Carroll, Charlie Albrat, Grace Wilkinson, [Applause] Destiny Bess, Shabb, Bella Burroughs, Carsten Gibson, Camden Burns, Autumn McCroy, Lorenzo Mussolino, Ava D'bor, and we would like to say thanks to Mr. Jones and Miss Jennifer Rollson, the coaches of the Science Olympiad team. Congratulations, guys, and thank you for what you've done. [Applause] This next group is our academic bowl team. Their hard work has qualified them for the national tournament. To qualify, a team must place in the top 15% at any regular
017season tournament. This year, this group achieved two first place finishes and recorded an overall record of 11 wins and three losses. They will compete in the national tournament in Atlanta the weekend of May 23rd. The team me team members are Connor Archilla, Tate Williams, Will Drew, Oliver Guerrero, Parker Hicks, Oscar Jones, Oliver Kate Brooks, Blair Childers, Bella Burroughs, Bray Jaylen Dunn, Kale Belelfford, Preston Hall, and we would like to say thank you to Coach Aaron Ward and coach Tara Wingard for taking this group on. Guys, congratulations and good luck May 23rd. [Applause] This next young lady made a positive impact by representing Harris County High School as an attendee of the 2024 Youth Advisory Council of the Georgia School Boards Association. She spoke to more than 700 board of education members and superintendents from across
018the from across Georgia on how on how board members and community leaders can better help prepare students for life, school safety, and mental health. Addison Baker. Addison, thank you for representing Harris County High School and working to make a positive impact. [Applause] These next two I don't believe are here, but I want to recognize them anyway. Um, we had two students participate in the Special Olympics, and they brought home state championships in basketball. Their dedication and hard work and sportsmanship have set high standards for other student athletes, Haley Garcia and Braden Johnson. [Applause] At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Long Shore for fine arts. Hello, me again. Um, so the first group that uh we'll recognize now is actually um members of our literary team. It's not the complete literary
019team. Um literary the best way to describe it is uh an academic and fine arts track meet. Uh there are multiple events and not only can you win your individual event but the points are accumulated and the team can be recognized. Well, our team was recognized as region champions. Um [Applause] yes. So among the things that got us there are um our duo literary interpretation which was done by Emily Steele and Leila Jenkins. Region champions, our humorous literary interpretation by Kendall Marker, also region champion. our extempiraneous speaking domestic um our region champion Ava Wise who had to get back to the band banquet and uh region champion argumentative essay Ava Castleberry. Now, this other region champion that I'm about to recognize, um, yes, is a region champion, but I should also mention that she is
020a fourtime region champion, and that is Miss Allison [Applause] Everson. So, the region champions move on to the state competition, which is held in Warner Robbins, Georgia. Um, again, points are accumulated. uh wanted to recognize Ava Weise for finishing fourth in the state in domestic and extemporaneous speaking. Um thank you. Um Ava Castleberry again is not um with us right now, but she is state champion in argumentative essay. Um it it's especially impressive because this is her first time competing in the event. Um so yeah, she did she did pretty good. that I would say and solidifying her legacy um is Miss Ally I Everson being state champion in Girl Solo. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Um this is a huge undertaking and I just want to give a huge shout out to Mr. Bray. He and
021I are um co-coaches of this event. So, congratulations to you all and congratulations to the team and to Mr. Bray. [Music] [Applause] So, I'll now officially talk about theater. Um um we have lots of things that go on throughout the year. Some things are measurable, some things are not. Um we do multiple shows every year. Um, I could go on and on about that, but some of the things that are measurable, um, are we compete every fall in the region one act, well, the one act play competition. This year we were region runner up with our show, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And I know that a couple of the cast members went to sit down, but it it is recognized by all. Um, just like sports, we recognize allstar cast members, like an all-star
022team. Um, recognized for being an all-star cast member are Leila Jenkins and [Applause] sorry and Payton [Applause] Clover. Um, moving forward, uh, throughout the year, we go to what we affectionately call TheScon, uh, our Georgia thespian conference. If you've ever tried to go downtown Columbus the first weekend of February, you've probably seen us. Um it is 6,000 of your most dramatic high school students um that you can imagine. Um so schools, private, public, all over the state and even a couple from Alabama come to our conference. Um, one of the things that we are so proud of is that they recognize what they call honor troops. And the highest level of an honor troop that you can get is gold. And you have to prove that you're a gold level honor troop based off of,
023yes, the shows that you do, community service, outreach, advocacy, um, you name it, we we do it. So, for the eenth year in a row, Harris County High School Troop 6575 is a gold level honor [Applause] troop. Um, within some of the competitions, uh, we wanted to recognize um, there is an improv competition. Yes, those do exist. She is not with us tonight, but Jamaia Rome is champion from our school. And then yes um and we have what's called I hate this word they are called thespies don't like it but it is our competition the students can compete in academic or excuse me performing or technical or design or film competitions. Um we had many many students to um compete but we had two superiors and I wanted to recognize them. one Khloe Matthysse for
024her costume design. She could not be here with us, but um also for our set design, Emily Steel. It was a great year in theater. Thank you so much for your support tonight and all throughout the year. Thank you so much. Please now allow me to introduce our choir director, Mr. Antoine Bray. Hi everybody. It's been a great year for choir. I feel like this past week we've just been having performance after performance and then we have another one next Saturday because we're singing at graduation. Um but the first thing I would like to share is in the fall the choir got to attend Barry College for a choir festival, an opportunity to build community with other high school students from across the state. We also took two groups to our large group performance evaluation
025this past March and both of our groups received straight superiors in performance and site reading. [Applause] Happy to report that this past Monday, all seven Harris County Schools music programs participated in our inaugural performance of a celebration of sound music extravaganza with over 500 performers from the fourth grade up to seniors and standing room only audience of over 1500 in our gym. Music is alive and well in Harris County. And we had four students participate in our GMA Allstate Chorus. So for all state chorus, they have to pass two auditions where they have to sing a solo, site readad, and sing three scales. And they get to participate in a choir of over 300 of the best singers in their grade. The following four students attended this past February. Jeremiah G, Kaylee Rivera, Allison Everson,
026and Colton Camp. Thank you so much everybody. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Kate Barnett, the visual arts teacher here at Harris County High School. Um, visual arts students in the high school have entered their work into many contests and exhibitions. I am joined by those who have been awarded the highest awards and accolades this year. Entering their art in the Perry Fair Youth Art Contest are Jacqueline Warner. Her earrings won first place and best in category in the jewelry category. Georgia Beck winning third place in sculpture with her book sculpture. [Applause] Capitol Art Show Exhibitors, Summer Night, and Riley Orstein, who is not here this evening. Um, but they're the only two students who are chosen to represent our school by showing their art in the Capitol building in Atlanta. It is a very hard decision
027on my part, but these two girls exemplify fantastic talent and dedication in many art mediums. Also, just last week, I found out Georgia Beck, her painting won first place and best in show at the Reynolds County Strawberry Art [Music] Contest. Thank you so much for supporting visual art in Harris County. Um, we're hoping to make it bigger and better every year. [Applause] [Music] Good evening. My name is Dr. Justin Finey. I'm the proud superintendent of the Harris County School District. And you may not, well, you might mistake some of them for uh students. These are our aspiring leaders for the Harris County School District. And to give you some background on our our program here, we believe that in Harris County, um leadership is key to the success of our schools, to support our teachers,
028to support all of our families, all of our students, all of our parents. And we have started a program this year and this is our first first year to do this where we had aspiring leaders from across the district apply to be in this program and 12 were accepted. Uh teachers who aspire to either be teacher leaders in the district or aspire to be assistant principles in the district. This was a ve fairly rigorous program that we put them through this year and it was a year-long program. This cohort was we covered everything from school law to school operations, human resources, student support services, curriculum and instruction, uh district operations and we had some very good discussions and we hope that it was a very eyeopening experience for them. I'm proud to honor them tonight
029for being the first ones to complete this cohort and I look forward to working with each and every one of them as um they have demonstrated their leadership skills and capabilities during this program. So, it's my honor to give them a round of applause and recognize [Applause] them. So, we will first start with Jenny Bridges. [Applause] Colton [Applause] Cox, Kelsey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Grant, Chelsea Johnson, [Applause] in front of me. They don't need to see me. Dr. Lean [Applause] Lloyd, Valerie Longshore, Sergeant [Applause] Gina [Applause] Railford, Jennifer [Applause] Scandal, Lane Tyus, [Applause] and Freddy Vasquez [Applause] Sores. One more round of applause. [Applause] as they're going through the receiving line there. Next year, we'll be doing another cohort of aspiring leaders uh for teachers who are aspiring to be uh assistant principles or teacher leaders,
030but we'll also have one for assistant principles that are aspiring to be principles as well. So, I want to thank the board of education for the support in this program and um thank you All [Applause] right. At this time, we're going to pause the meeting for just because I know you don't want to sit around meeting. So, we're going to give you all an opportunity to let your families in. You're encouraged to stay. Oh Let's us on our public participation. [Music] So that will take us to minutes. Uh, I trust that everyone reviewed those and did not seem right. That will take us to our action agenda and item G1 education 2025 calendar that was presented at the meeting last week. All right. So at this time I'll enterain motion second. All in favor that
031will take us to item G2 that the board of education approve this first draft budget. Um I just like to take the opportunity to thank finance all the folks level all of our principles everyone that contributed to getting budget together and providing discussion to see all that information. So this time I will enter a motion first That will take us to item G3. Yes, I do have one update that we received today. So that's getting us a lot closer. We still have a liability right there. At this time I'll enter a motion we approve item. discuss approving approval. Yes, that's so motion made a second. Any other discussion? All in favor? Thank you for your question. All right, so that'll take us to item G5. uh that the Harris County Board of Education approve the
032recommendation attached to service contract. item G4 list. All in favor of the County Board of Education approve the attached recommendation for service contract. Yes, we have [Music] contract. Basic cost for this would be about $200 forms depending on season. during the winter and things like that. [Music] discussion. That will take us to item G6, the Harris County Board of Education Harris County High School. As we discussed, we build those tennis courts, the water coming down off towards the back. So, we want to increase the height of that wall in the back. Put some do some grad rocks there to slow that water down. Right now, it's coming down. This is just one of the work that we're going to be doing. I'll entertain repair. Um, I think people access All right. So, motion's been made
033and seconded. Um all in favor that will take us to item G7 County Board of Education contract. So this is on the front side of the course where we did not be starting to see that seat. So we tried to fix it twice. So we are proposing that we put a wall that will match the one on the other side of the staircase. All right. So this time I'll enterain all favor. That will take us to item eight board of education attached high school board. So we discuss this week question. This is the resolution that says the board of education contract not as an individual I'm also gated contract gives a lot more information to you all also includes parts that Mr. which he has questions about. All right. So, this time I'll enter a
034motion for proposal. All in favor. That will take us to our consent agenda and item H1. Yes, sir. H5. Okay. All right. So, Mr. Green has made a motion that we can take the consent agenda items H1 major purchases report item H2 financial report item H3 reports and H5 minutes by the second discussion all in favor so at this time I will entertain a motion that we approve uh H1 H2 H3 H4 and H5 second call. Any discussion? All in favor? That will take us to item H6 board of education. You approve the exact school nutrition report for April 20. There's a line. Are we anticipating any purchases coming down the road that you're going to need? Not quite. At this time, I'll entertain a motion that we approve item H6, the school nutrition report
035discussion. All in favor? All right. So, that will take us to item I, which is the portion of share information with that school board might have. All right. I guess I will say I'm just a lot of our artists always recognition. almost there to the end and I will want to thank last app First of all, appreciation. Father Million dollar. Well, I just want to especially at this time wish all teachers out there appreciation app this week [Music] everything have high expectations the very bestation for all the kids really came to me the other night when I was up here on the stage for the award cere I don't have a lot of high school experience. So if you see this many kids being recognized really massive high school for these students not just shout
036out to all the teachers but all across the district what you do is important and we are thankful for what you do every day. do want to echo the sentiments of everyone spoke before me. Um it's great to see these young students come out here and let us recognize them for their success inside the classroom outside the classroom competition. Um there is something in this school everybody all the um so it's great to see all those all those young students out here tonight. Um I I too want to say um all the teachers out there I greatly appreciate I'm the father of a teacher son of two teachers. So um I uh that hits home for me. So all of our teachers, you're greatly appreciated. And lastly, I just want to say to all the
037mothers out there to celebrate a we wouldn't be here. Um so celebrate them on their day. So at this time I will entertain a motion that we be excused session deliberate or discuss upon the appointment employment compensation hiring disciplinary action or dismissal or periodic evaluation or rating public officer or employee interview authorization purchase dispose of or lease property. Authorize ordering and appraisal related to the acquisition real estate into contract to purchase, dispose of or lease property subsider a matter involving disclosure of personal identif information. All in favor be excused to executive session.