001Brian Brian Independent School District meeting to order. >> Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present. This meeting has been dually called and notice this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Texas Government Code Chapter 551. I wish to I wish to extend a warm welcome to those who are who are present this evening. I ask I ask you to please turn off the sound on all electronic devices and let's let's have let's have the students from Sbury Intermediate School join us join us for the pledges this evening. Good evening. Good evening. Alfred Scott, proud principal Sbury Intermediate School. Before Before we get started, I do want to thank the school board for all of your support. We could not do what we do without the
002support we get from you guys. Miss Carine, I want to say thank you to you as well. Your leadership makes it possible for us all to be successful. So, I want to thank you guys and and now that I'm going to stop speaking because everybody knows that problem speaking. I'm going to introduce our student council sponsor as well as our ambassador sponsor and they will let the kids introduce themselves. >> Hi. Hi. Hi, my name is Brooks Sparks. I am the student council staff advisor at Sadbury Intermediate and I just want to give a shout out because my student council president is here. She'll have you get to introduce herself in a moment. That is they've been doing it this year. >> Howdy everyone. My name is Alice. I am the sponsor for the student
003ambassadors at Sadbury. Um they are going to recite the pledges tonight. But before we get started, they're all going to take a moment to introduce themselves along with our student council members. >> Hi, I'm Hi, I'm Leila Papam and I'm in student council. >> Hi, I'm Anna Lara and I'm student ambassador. >> Hi, I'm and I'm an ambassador. >> Hi, my name is My student ambassador. >> Hi, I'm Taylor McKay and I'm a student ambassador. Hi, I'm Hi, I'm Evan Pepper and I'm a student ambassador. >> Hi, my name is Hi, my name is Morelos and I'm a student ambassador. >> Hello, my name is Juliana Ter and I'm a proud student council member. >> Hi, my name is Sutton Nash and I'm a proud student ambassador. >> Now, will Now, will everyone please rise
004and join us in the in the pledges? I pledge I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the to the republic for which it stands. One nation one nation under God indivisible indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Please join us. Please join us in the Texas pledge. Honor the Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to Texas. One state under God. One and indivisible. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Great job. Thank you. >> Next, we'll move >> next we'll move into our spotlights. Uh >> our first spotlight is the the intermediate >> intermediate teachers of the month. >> Our first our first presenter will be again Mr. Alf Mr. Alfred Scott, >> principal Sadbury Elementary Intermediate. >> Soon you guys, you guys will learn to stop giving
005me a mic. I'd love to speak. Um um again I want to thank you guys for having us here tonight. Again, proud principal savior school and it just it just gives me great pleasure and joy to recognize creek sad teacher of the month. Miss Creek leads her aid classes with heart purpose and she consistently goes above and beyond to help students develop organizational skills that won't just help them this year but will stay with them throughout their educational careers. We truly truly what truly sets Miss Creeks apart is her commitment to collaboration. She regularly she regularly reaches out to other teachers building partnerships to ensure a student supported on track and pass and passing all of their classes. On top of that on top of that she brings personality to our campus keeping us keeping
006us laughing and contributing to the positive climate culture we've worked so hard to establish at Intermediate School. Miss Creek Mission, your dedication and the joy you bring to school each day and every day. And we are and we are incredibly fortunate to have you. It's a great It's a great honor and pleasure to present you with this teacher of the month award. Congratulations. Congratulations, Miss Creeks. [applause] presenting >> presenting our uh >> gift cards gift cards this evening is bank representative Alonzo Robas. So thank you. So thank you Alonzo. Uh, next presenter will be Miss Rebecca. >> Rebecca Ryberg, principal of Sam Raburn Intermediate. >> Good evening. Good evening, school board members. And thank you again to echo what um Scott said. Thank you so much for everything that y'all do for our students, for
007our families, and definitely for all of us as well. So I'm here to I'm here to celebrate one of the people that y'all work tirelessly for to support. This is Mrs. Miss Victoria Garza. And it is an honor to nominate Victoria Garza for teacher of the month. This past this past semester has presented extraordinary challenges for our sales program at Miss Garza has met every hurdle with grace, leadership, and an unwavering commitment to our students. At the start at the start of the school year, our second sales teacher received a well-deserved promotion. This left Miss Garza Miss Garza as a sole veteran educator in the department navigating a period where we relied on various substitutes to serve our students. During this during this time Miss Garza went above and beyond her own classroom duties. She
008took on took on the monumental responsibility by unifying our program. She successfully merged two groups of students into one cohesive unit. She served as she served as a mentor. She led an entire team of assistants training them to make fun and engaging while ensuring student safety remain top priority. and she and she followed all guidelines for compliance meticulously managed the rigorous documentation and compiance components required of special education ensuring ensuring that every student's IED and legal protections remain current and accurate working with students who have a vast range of academic skills and medical limitations and communication needs including those who are non-verbal requires a rare level of expertise however however Miss Garza offers something more than just skill she offers her heart she possess she possesses the unique perseverance needed when students become frustrated or
009anxious. Meeting those moments with calm and compassion. Just as importantly, she is a champion of the win. She recognizes recognizes and celebrates every achievement from the tiniest moment of breakthrough to the massive milestones that happen every day in her classroom. In my years in my years as an educator, I have always believed true happiness in a school building is one of one of two places. A kindergarten classroom or a sales classroom. Miss Gar Miss Garz's room is exactly that place. It is a sanctuary where children are accepted for exactly who they are. Encouraged to be whoever they want to be and celebrated celebrated for the progress they work so hard to achieve. >> Miss Garza Miss Garza is not just a teacher. She is the heartbeat of our sales program and an inspiration to our
010entire school. And I'm very and I'm very proud to serve this award. [applause] Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Uh spotlight spotlight for our employee of the month will be introduced by Mr. Corbett, executive director of operations. >> Good evening. Good evening. Today we're Today we're proud to recognize Maria Ramirez as our Brian ICD auxiliary employee of the month. As an ADA as an ADA school bus driver, Maria goes above and beyond to ensure the safety, comfort, and dignity of every student she transports. On many days, our drivers are the first interaction with our students have with school. So, her warm smile and genuine kindness sets a positive tone for each day by making students feel welcome, safe, and cared for. Combined combined with her reliability and professionalism, Maria truly makes a difference for our students, their
011families, and our team. Please join me in congratulating Maria Ramirez on this welldeserved recognition. [applause] Congratulations. [applause] >> Congratulations. Our next >> Our next spotlight will be for the Essential Aid Community Partnership Award presented Presented by Director of Counseling Services, Don Don Willlet. Good evening. Good evening. I am super super excited to hear and present a community essential aid award to onampus valley. The essential the essential aid has been going strong in our school for a number of years and we started recognition to community entities a few years ago. Our goal our goal is to recognize these community entities that have embraced the essential aid. This allows this allows our students to see the essential aid in action outside of the school setting. I am joined I am joined with >> Aaliyah Jackson collegiate and
012on represent representative Mr. Blake Jing Jenkins Jenkins the story of Aaliyah success was discussed at the December board meeting this former crocket rocket longboa Texas now colleically stronger and welldeserved of this scholarship but aliyah's life road has been anything but straight but every detour curve thrown her way. She has figured out a way to get past it and keep going. All of is super proud of you. >> On ramp is nonprofit that connects hard workers with reliable reliable vehicles to help to help them be self-sufficient. If you go if you go to the on website, it says it says I quote driven driven by hope to lift up to lift up our neighbors in need. Simple, simple but truly but truly lifechanging for any for any of these recipients. Aaliyah Aaliyah was nominated and chose
013to receive a chosen and chosen to receive a vehicle to help her in her next phase in her life. Congratulations. Congratulations to Aaliyah. Thank you. Thank you on our essential characteristics. Kindness kindness philanthropy and recognizing Aaliyah's courage and work ethic to get this far. Before we before we award the sign, I'm going to let Aliyah say something and then Mr. Jenkins. >> Good evening. Um, I'm a little nervous, so please bear with me. >> For most For most of my life, I faced significant hardships and things like owning a car or going away to college felt more like dreams than realities. Around Thanksgiving, I had an interview with Onramp for a car. And honestly, I've never in a million years I would actually be chosen. Then about month ago, I received an email from Hon
014that said, "You're selected for a car." I was in complete disbelief. And incredibly, that same week, I received another email saying that I earned a full ride scholarship to Brown University. In one two opportunities changed my entire future, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Onramp for this beautiful life-changing gift. It means more than transportation. It means freedom and the opportunity as I take the next steps into college. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me out here. It's a joy to get to serve your students on ramp exists to help people towards self-sufficiency. We look for applicants who are already doing everything they can with what we have and honestly Aaliyah was one of the easiest yeses we've ever had. So we view we provided a vehicle
015as a very small piece of what she has already brought to the table and those around her. So thank you foringwarding us but we really feel very secondary to what she has accomplished and what the people who love her have helped her accomplish in life. Hopefully we'll get to serve more of your students who are just as amazing as her. >> Thank you. Thank you for what you do and on behalf of Ryan ID we we award you um a character character partnership award. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] attention. You want to say Thank you. Thank you. [applause] >> Next on our next on our agenda is celebrate Brian Brian Collegiate High School. We're going to postpone that to a later date. Uh so stay tuned for an update on Brian Collegiate. Um so we'll
016move so we'll move to celebrating Brian High School and RER High School students. Director Director of Fine Arts, Jacob Justice presenting this evening. >> Oh, there we are. Oh, there we are. Good evening. Thank you. >> Thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to spotlight some of our amazing fine arts students tonight. Tonight I am proud to shine the spotlight on our phenomenal theater students who have gained the high who have gained the highest rank of superior at the state Texas contest. This contest this contest had over 12,000 students from all over Texas attendation. Prepation involves months of rehearsal and work in order to go into a room and have 3 to 5 minutes to showcase um in that moment their talent and their skill. Um um the students who receive superior represent the
017top 15% of students in Texas. Tonight I Tonight I am pleased to present to you students from Ruer High School. Go ahead and come up. Go ahead and come up high school. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And students from Brian High School as well. >> Uh their names their names are listed here on the screen. I'm going to invite all of you. We did this last meeting. If you all let me do this one more time, you're just going to stand up here right in front of the board. We're going to get a great picture with you all together. Extra exercise. >> Oh, you're good. You want to get them? >> Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. In addition in addition uh uh you guys can go ahead and
018walk in in addition to these amazing students. One of our one of our students is in the top three and a half% of the students who competed and earned a perfect score at the Texas competition in the area of solo musical. Uh this is Paige Peron. We have seen Paige on the Brian ISD stage and other stages with theaters in our area. We're very proud very proud of the work she does and proud that she is. and we're proud of everything that's coming next for her. Got a lot of work and a lot of talent. So, we see bright things for her future. If you want to see if you want to see her in your future, she is the lead in Brian Cinderella. That is next weekend January 29th through February 2nd. And all
019of these Brian High School kids are ready to go cuz they're missing rehearsal right now. So, Paige, congratulations on your solo musical. Lord, we thank you again for your support. We could not do it without you. We could not do it without their schools and the administration. And we definitely couldn't do it without our amazing teachers and the parents that choose Brian for their education. So, thank you very much. [applause] Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Thank you. >> We'll now we'll now move to public comment this evening. This evening, public comment can be on agenda items or non-aggenda items. Citizens citizens may make comments about topics relevant to district business topics topics should be limited to three minutes. Comments comments concerning specific student or personnel will be heard in close session. >> It appears it appears we
020do not have any comments this evening. >> So we'll we'll move to our board member reports uh this uh this evening. Our superintendent report will be presented by Mr. Ginger Carine. >> Thank you Mr. Brian queuing it up queuing right it up right now. So, I'll just jump right into January is school board appreciation month and as you can see by the back of the room look at the tables. Um the the all the campus department showered you with love and appreciation. Our governor Greg Abbott of the state of Texas has also released a proclamation to all public schools in the state of Texas. I won't read it all to you. the the most important part of it in which he declares that each year the month of January is set aside to honor the
021many contributions of school boards and to recognize their commitment to education at this [clears throat] time. At this time, Governor Abbott encourages all to acknowledge the more than 7,000 board members who service represent best in our great state. Therefore, therefore, Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, proclaim a resolution for January 2026 to be noted as school board school board appreciation month. So, put your hands together in the audience. We have staff members left. Much appreciation. And again, just a small token of sincere sincere appreciation from all of our campuses from the the bottom of our hearts for all that you do, for your leadership. And um the principal said it best. We could not do what we do without you and your leadership. I try to say it as often as possible that our vision is
022the board's vision which is children first always and we know you make the best decision you can in the best interest of children while supporting our staff and partnering with our families and engaging our community. Again, thank you. >> Moving on. We've had some big news in Brian as you all know. I just like for the community to understand how proud we are of coach Derk Rush, our executive director of athletics and the selection committee as well as three interview panels for for navigating the process to select our next high school coach for Brian High School and campus coordinator. We're pleased to welcome home coach Blake Joseph Viking Ryan High School class of 2005 graduate led led the Vikings to many many victories as a star quarterback and University of Houston Cougars recruited him to
023play quarterback for them. He later took his talent to Sam Houston University and from there he went right into the coaching world. comes from comes from a family of coaches, some of the some of the best actually in the state coming out of Kat ID and Port Groves. So, he has um quite the quite the the talent and resources readily available to him. We're excited because he's been an officer coordinator most recently at Denton. If you followed their program at all, you can see they are deep deep post contenders contenders. besides serving as an OC and a head coach, he's also been a quarterback coach at North Texas University. But we're proud we're proud to call him the leader of our Brian High School Vikings. And he and his wife Tori, who also grew up
024in the area, graduated from College Station and their four children are coming home to Brian as soon as we can get them here. And we have Brian Viking t-shirts ready for all the family. and we're planning a big pep rally and meet the coach night and we'll announce that as soon as everything finalized welcome home coach Blake Joseph >> moving on family and community engagement are on full throttle as usual. Thank you to Dr. Merrill and his team for leading us into our second annual spring community pep rally held at Brian High School. Really fun night. We packed the gym. We had kids and athletes and um kids kids fine arts students athletics you name it student leadership at coming from Brian High School Rer High School collegiate and even MC Harris I was in
025the crowd that night too lots of fun just another way to shine a light on the amazing things happening here so many choices and opportunities and uh just another testament to how invested we are in community and family engagement. And speaking of speaking of community engagement, several of us were at the Brazes center on Saturday night for the Brazes County Go Texan event. We are so grateful for this organization. I believe they declared that night that they were up to almost $2 million in scholarships for our students who are graduating. So that night, I think they're still tallying it up. Swaller is a member of this committee. Do you have any reports on the final outcome? >> They don't have the final outcome this year. this year but butually annually now their goal is I
026say they the committee's goal is $100,000 of scholarship every year for um students in our community and this committee has been going since the early7s so now there's kids the committee started in the 70s even have grandchildren that are working toward this. I can I can attest to the fact that every dime that is raised by this county go Texas which is a subsidiary of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo but every dime that is raised in our community stays here with our students the money goes directly turned around and goes directly to scholarships which I'd like to mention that Our county go Texas scholarship application applications are open right now. They open January 1st. They'll be open until March 15th. >> You just go to county, excuse me, excuse me, go Texan uh.com and
027find it's really easy. Find your way to the application and and um just just the real deal. Great people. um many many families many generations in this committee and u it's something it's something to be very proud of county go committee >> thank you miss >> thank you thank you miss baller I also recall them announcing that night that the brazes county group surpass all the other counties that contribute with the Houston livestock show and rodeo including Harris County so imagine that county surpassed Harris County when it comes to the fundraising effort the contribution the way the way they give it back to the students. It is a great night. It is a great night. Many of the people the people running the organization were once students in our school district who were recipients and
028now they know better than anyone about the importance of giving back. It's a really great night. We'll tell you when to save the date for next year. It's a fun evening for sure. >> And then finally and then finally yesterday many of us were involved with the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom March. Hundreds hundreds of people show up. The weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day to march uh to Kip Carver and have a program and I honestly think every single campus was represented in some way. Junior ROC there was in was there in a big way. We had the Neil bucket drummers from elementary performing. We had police department I believe the sheriff's department. Many many elected officials. We had board members. Lots of our staff giving up their time on their
029day off to celebrate a momentous occasion. So, it was a great day, a great day community event not sponsored by Brian, but I'm proud to say we absolutely dominated the event and it was complete success >> as usual. As usual, our students >> won all won all the >> awards in [laughter] every c every category. I think there was maybe [clears throat] maybe three or four we didn't win. The rest of the rest of them we took we took we took everything home. >> It was a great event and another way for our students for our students to shine. And of course nothing could be possible without our staff supporting the effort, our families partnering with us and unity making these possible for us. Another another great week in the books for Brian. Thank you,
030sir. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. >> Moving to moving to information items. Um, >> chief financial chief financial officer. Brittle will continue our budget development series. Tonight, we're focused. We're focused on district revenue. >> Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mr. President, I don't know if I can I don't know if I can hear. >> Good evening. Good evening, Mr. President, board member, Superintendent Caribine. Tonight, we are continuing our budget development series by focusing on district revenue. Uh in our in our last session, we broke down the tax rate and calculated tax collections. And we talked about how those tax collections are just one piece of our local revenue. >> Local revenue. Local revenue makes up about half of the district's total revenue uh with most of the other half coming from the state.
031>> Tonight we will zoom out and look at district revenue as a whole and we'll briefly walk through the different types of local, state, and federal funding sources within the general fund so that you can see how all of those pieces come together when we build the district's budget. Sorry, I could have could have tossed it to you. Okay. So, okay. So, here we are on January the 20th talking about district revenue. So, we are right on target. >> Okay. So, okay. So, for the purposes of tonight's discussion, we will focus on board approved budgets, specifically the general fund, food service, and the debt service fund. >> So, let's get started with the general fund. So here we have the revenue breakdown for the district's general fund at the local, state, and federal levels. In
032total, we have just over $178 million in revenue with a very close split between local and state funding almost half and half. Over the next over the next few slides, we'll walk through what specifically makes up revenue versus state and how those pieces come together to impact the overall funding picture. So, so local revenue >> local revenue was just under $88 million in total. The vast majority of that almost 85 million comes from our local tax collections. If you recall, if you recall from our last session, we broke down the tax rate and showed how property values are used to calculate tax collections and the rest of >> And the rest of our local revenue includes items like athletic gate receipt, interest earnings from our investments, facility rental revenue, insurance recovery, miscellaneous revenues and some
033donations. And next we have And next we have state funding which mainly comes from the available school fund and from the foundation school program together these make up about half the total general fund revenue and each has a specific funding formula. [cough] You'll also see you'll also see items like TRS on behalf DRS on TRS on behalf is when the state pays the district share of an employes retirement costsirectly directly to the TRS system. Medicare Medicare Part D works a little similar to that as well and both are considered paid for entries which simply there's a revenue and an expenditure recorded on both sides of the equation. So they do not have any impact on the district's fund balance. Now that we've now that we've talked about local tax collections and state revenue, this is
034a good this is a good moment to clear upcon the misconception that rising property values automat automatically mean more money for school districts. This is simply this is simply not true in this visual. In this visual, notice the notice the order in which school districts are funded by the state. >> Local local property taxes fill the cup first and the state fills in any space that is left in the cup. >> If property values increase, the state's share simply gets smaller. >> On that note, on that note, let's take our thinking to a deeper level. >> Tax collections are rooted in appraisal values. So it would So it would benefit the state if counties appraised at true market value >> because higher because higher values equal higher tax collections and higher tax collections equals less
035state aid. >> This is why this is why two appraisal systems exist. The county the county appraisal district and the Texas state controller appraisal system. The state >> the state controller also also exists as a mechanism to ensure that no district is over or undervalued in order to keep a level playing field and to keep the system fair for taxpayers school districts across [snorts] across the state. So to recap, >> so to recap, county appraisal districts determine the market value of property and those and those values are used to calculate local tax collections that go into the state funding formula. >> The state the state controller then reviews those values to make sure counties are truly appraising at market value and doing so fairly and consistently across the state. This matters. This matters because the
036more a school district collects locally, the less the less funding the state has to provide. >> And that's why and that's why the controller that's why that's why the controller's review is an important part of the checks and balances system and why two separate processes exist. >> Norma, just Norman, just real quick, don't mean to interrupt you. Um, >> who determines who determines the size of the cup? >> The legislator. >> The legislature does. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. There we go. There we go. And the last and the last funding category within the general fund is federal funding. >> We don't receive we don't receive much of it, but there is a small amount included within our local budget. The first type of revenue is revenue received or revenue that is generated from
037indirect costs on federal programs. What is that? What is that? indirect indirect cost revenue comes directly from federal programs to help cover the behind the scenes costs of running programs such as payroll processing, accounting and utilities and other administrative like functions. The second the second type of federal revenue comes from something called the Medicaid program. A medic a Medicaid program in school district allows districts to receive quarterly federal reimbursements for certain health related services such as speech therapy occupational therapy or nursing services provided to Medicaid eligible students. This reimburse this reimbursement revenue can be used to support additional student health programs. And the final and the final type of federal revenue comes from a program called SHARS which stands for which stands for school health and related services. It is similar it is similar to
038the Medicare program but it is specifically reimbures districts for approved medical services provided to eligible special education students. Unlike unlike Medicaid SH is filed on an annual basis and not quarterly. In addition in addition to the general fund, the board also approves the child nutrition budget. >> Revenue revenue from this fund comes from the number of meals served. The more the more meals served, the more revenue a school district receives. Brian Brian currently operates under a C district which stands for community eligibility provision. This allows this allows all students to receive free meals and the district is reimbured based on the percentage of students who are directly certified meaning students who receive SNAP benefits medicaid or some type of similar assistance. >> The child the child nutrition program also generates additional revenue from adult meal
039sales alocart sales and other special programs like snacks, summer meals and commodities. The program the program as a whole is highly regulated by the US Department of Agriculture and this fund is included as part of the district's annual audit. >> And the last and the last board approved budget that we have is the debt service fund. >> When it comes when it comes to debt service revenue, most of that actually comes from tax collections. If you if you recall from our last session, we broke out the tax rate into two parts. The M rate and the INS rate. The ins portion generates 27 for every $100 worth of property value. And that revenue is used to make our annual debt payments. This is a very simple fund with one purpose. We generate just enough revenue
040to cover those annual debt payments. We also we also talked last time about how how the state holds districts harmless when homestead exemptions increase the state the state makes up that different additional state for homestead exemptions. This is often called the asah so in debt service fund you'll see both local revenue and some state revenue tied to that holdless provision that school districts receive. And last and last but not least, these are not budgets budgets that the board approves, but approximately 12.4 million of district revenue comes from federal grants and special revenue sources. These funds are these funds are not board approved budgets, but they do supplement the general fund. Uh some of these some of these are grants like title one, title two as the funds which the district applies for every year. and
041other other examples include the education foundation, special education, visually impaired services and safety and security grants. >> Each of these each of these funding sources has a very specific purpose. They have their own rules, formulas, and timelines. They're distri they're distributed at different points during the year and they follow different budget calendars and have their own draw down schedules. >> One important one important thing to remember is that grant funds are intended to be used in the year that they are awarded. So what does that mean? So what does that mean? It means it means this year's money is meant for this year's kids. >> So while these So while these funds come with more requirements and red tape, they do play an important role in supporting and supplementing the overall district budget. >> All
042right. All right. So we have made it through the basic aotment. We talked about tax rates and now we have talked about district revenue. Our next our next information item will include a super exciting lesson. School bonds. So stay tuned. >> Be happy to be happy to take any questions at this time. >> I'm back in my school finance class [clears throat] days. Very [laughter] helpful. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Next information item is an update on progress towards board goal one academics. >> Academics and student achievement. presented by Dr. Bari Ibara, associate associate superintendent of teaching and learning. >> Hi, good evening. Good evening. Thank you, sir. So, this so this evening I wanted to do a follow-up presentation from the annual report that was provided the last meeting
043which was just last week. Um, so a little bit of a review and then a little bit more data for you to review regarding progress towards goals and in particular academic goals, student achievement and student growth. Um, as a general reminder, we've gone over this a few times now based on the board goals from 2025, which ran from January to December. Um, this update is referencing the that set of board goals. And knowing that all of those board goals are in alignment with the House Bill 3 goals for early childhood literacy and numeracy, which you didn't see in the annual report last week, college, military readiness, which we'll discuss a little bit again this evening, and basically drives all of the other plans in the district. campus improvement plans that principles have been coming to
044present their progress on towards to the board. All of the work that the board sets forth in the goals and the direction is what lead all of the campuses fall into alignment with those goals. And then and then lastly before we get into this evening content this also this also aligns very nicely with Texas strategic leadership program and just reinforces that the work of the board is in alignment with the work of the state and governance and in particular with academic oversight. The levers the levers that the state feels like are important are actually the levers you've already centered your board goals on which is handy and certainly insightful. So review as a review. Um last week during the annual report we talked a little bit about the district ratings from the past academic year.
045Those came out in August of 2025. Um those also showed on this particular graph our comparison to the state as well as the comparable group. Um, as a reminder, the comparable group is selected by Brian ISD, but it's using the same data points the state uses when they select the comparable groups for campuses. Each campus has 40 comparable schools that are identified by the Texas Education Agency that their accountability into their calculation districts don't have that same opportunity. We used those same metrics and went out and went out across the state and found the districts that have similar enrollment in terms of in terms of the number of students have a similar economically disadvantaged population similar students who are served as English language learners or emergent bilingual students and a similar population of students who
046are mobile. Knowing that our comparable district roughly is six to eight districts on any given year that we kind of compare ourselves to knowing that they serve students that are similar to ours and in similar circumstances. In looking at that on this particular graph, you can see the accountability overall ratings for campus for our district being the blue and then for the comparable group being in the green and the state that is statewide. what percentage of campuses fell in the fell in the A category, the B, the C, and so on. While we are while we are not all A's and B's as we would like to be, we didn't trend in the right direction this past year, more of our schools receiving A's and B's in the prior year, and that means that none
047of our students or none of our schools were identified as an F-rated school. So definitely progress in the right direction. We also talked we also talked a little bit about our graduation cohorts and I have two and I have two graphs for you. One that you saw last week and then a new one. This is one that you saw last week and it deals with the cohort of cohort of students is just what you would think. We all went to nth grade the first day together. So we're all nth graders which means we should all graduate in four years together. So the state looks at how what% of your students graduated in four years from the cohort that all started on the same year. So when we look at so when we look at our
048four-year cohort we can see for the class of 2023 on the right hand side it was 94% um 94.8 actually and for 2024 it was 94.0 zero both of those both of those graduating cohorts higher than the cohort of the comparable group as well as the state and that's great news and that's great news in that we're outperforming getting kids that postsecary moment this next one is the one I want to draw your attention to this has been this has been a long time work of passion for the district for the district in particular campus leaders and district leaders it was not >> it was not too long ago that district struggled with graduation ation rates. And in fact, in fact, if you go back a little further than this, we'll see that that graduation
049actually dipped into the upper 70s, and that was a 4-year cohort graduation rate. In our minds, that was absolutely unacceptable. We've worked for years to get beyond that moment, and you can see it steadily trending up every year since that moment. Um, to the point now where we are outperforming the state and the comparable group, and we're in the uh mid approaching mid to upper 90s. we want to get just a little bit higher um but certainly proud of the progress. So now the next piece is okay the students walk the stage but are they ready for life after graduation that is one of the most important measures that we feel compelled to be responsible for in partnership with their parents. So when we look at our college career and military readiness performance, um this
050goes to the House Bill three goals and and what the goal was and what we actually achieved. And while we did achieve higher than what the goal was, it's not at all where we want it to be. Uh one of the things that uh kind of compounds it, this is similar to the graduation uh graph that you saw a few moments ago. We went back in time to 2017. Uh CCMR was not always tracked by the state of Texas, not in the way that it is today. And so data has changed pretty significantly from year to year on what counts as college, career, and military ready. Um those indicators change very often. In fact, uh with some of the most recent changes um really impacting the outcomes that you're seeing on some of these reports.
051So when you look at one year to the next, um there's typically a higher threshold from each year to the next year. Um so the fact that the graph is actually going up is tremendous progress in and of itself given that that that threshold has increased every single year. Um again not where we want to conclude it is where we are today and where we strive to continue to move forward. Again making sure that our students not only walk that stage but know where they're walking after they graduate and after they walk that stage and they're ready for their post-secary life. Um, so some of the numbers you've seen, we've gone over the annual report, but more importantly, what have we been working on and what are we doing about improving academic achievement and in
052particular student growth regarding academic achievement? One of the main things we can do is make sure we're in alignment. Texas Strategic Leadership has afforded us that opportunity. We've been very fortunate to have been selected for this program to have been picked by region six and partnered with them because it helps us focus on the main thing. It helps us bring groups of administrators, groups of curriculum leaders, groups of educators together to focus on are we truly aligned? We say instruction is the main thing. How are we prioritizing that work? What does it look like to prioritize that work? and how does the day-to-day data show that we're actually doing that? That's what we're working on this year. Um it is not a one-year process. It is a multi-year process that when we ultimately get done
053um there'll be a monitoring oversight mechanism that will track how we're doing with focusing on instruction and keeping it aligned. If you look at that little graphic and you see the little kids over there on the right, um that's the end goal. We work from the end and we work backwards. We backwards design it to get to that end goal. What do we expect all students to experience each and every day in our district? And where do we want to see them when they walk that stage, they graduate and they enter into their post-secary experiences? What do we want for them to help? Along those lines, the district um administration and curriculum leadership all focus on how do we best help campuses? We best help campuses by coming alongside them. We don't go around and
054inspect them. We come in and we work with them. Uh the curriculum and instruction team does a fabulous job of walking campuses regularly, offering support to teachers, offering support to campus administrators and guiding them on where they see areas of strength and areas where we might include some additional professional development. We listen, we respond, they tell us what we need, and we respond with support. Uh we also have the foundations trend data walks. We talk about safe and civil schools and ensuring that the school is open but are the students ready to learn. Is [snorts] the classroom environment conducive to learning? Is it conducive to high levels of rigor? If we don't have that then we're going to struggle with getting to that high level of rigor. And so we monitor that data as well
055but we do it with them again not to them. Um, and in fact, the campus foundation teams are the main force of of of a team that works to gather that data. And then lastly, we offer a campus support team. Um, every day, every Monday, or today it was Tuesday, a group of about 40 staff members go out to a campus, two campuses in particular, a secondary and an elementary, and we walk classrooms with campus administration and the instructional coaches and the leadership. And then we will look over data with the campus administrators. Today we were at Brian High and Fannon Elementary. Had a great morning at Brian High walking classrooms. Um I was on the English one team. It was a fabulous day after a long weekend. They were working hard first period. Uh
056we we like to go early and swiftly at the beginning. Uh it was really it was a wonderful time to get to see how it's progressing and what the needs are of the campus. um constructive criticism what we can do differently what they can do differently and how we can come together because ultimately it's about what is that student experiencing whether it's a preIB classroom an online level classroom a support classroom whatever it is is every child experiencing a high quality of instruction that meets their needs um and what can we make sure how can we make sure that's actually transpiring each and every day um so that particular team has been going out in the fall semester and now has continued in the spring semester and we'll move all the way through um until
057the the schedule gets a little crazy with testing days. We don't want to be disruptive. Um but basically rallying support to where it's needed most on the campuses. And then lastly, I wanted to share an update on on how something um new and different has been going throughout the district. One of our main areas of focus has been the intermediate school model and the middle school model and supporting those schools in those middle years as kids move through transition, they move through life changes and and they their responsibilities for their academics. Um to help us with that, we needed to do some professional development with ourselves and with our teachers. So, we applied for the learning acceleration and support opportunities grant affectionately known as the lasso grant from the Texas Education Agency. We were awarded
058this grant for all of our element or all of our intermediates and middle schools. Um, and it gave us a dedicated support structure focusing on quality teacher feedback to grow students. So, we can if we don't grow the teachers, we're not going to grow the students. So, we have to make sure that we're really using our time wisely and using our support wisely that will actually impact the student. Um, this year it's been about teacher feedback and support and coaching teachers to get to that next level and we've certainly seen a tremendous change at the middle school level in particular. Uh, lots of good feedback from the teachers and from the administrators. Intermediate is also growing. very very pleased with their progress. Um so much so that teachers are asking when do they get their
059um it's called Texas instructional leadership till feedback. They they want to go through a coaching cycle with their assistant principal or their principal as well. Um so this is a two-year grant. The first year is observation and feedback. The second year is data driven instruction. We went ahead and moved that up and we actually did the data driven instruction training when they came back in January because they didn't want to wait. they wanted to move full steam ahead and get ahead of thati that system so they can best support their teachers and their students. Uh but some really tremendous work. We have a region six representative who's here probably two to three weeks a month um just focused on our intermediates and middle schools and walking with those administrators and helping support teachers. Um really
060worth the the partnership, the effort and very thankful for it. So much so that we're going to roll that out this summer to both elementary and to high school and expand that whole program so that it is a K12 focus and not just a middle school and intermediate school focus. So this summer uh elementary and high school principles will receive a similar training [clears throat] so that they can begin that same process next year. And with that I offer um any answers to any questions that you might have. >> Dr. Bar, I got a question on the 4-year longitudinal >> graduation rate. I'm just I'm just curious. I mean, >> you know, um that's a impressive I think increase from 2016 and I don't know if that had to do that I think that's when
061Felicia joined the board if [laughter] >> me, >> but I'm just curious. I mean, what what things do you think >> attributed to that >> contributed to that? >> Certainly, I can definitely speak [clears throat] to that. Um it it was actually like I said more concerning than the numbers even on the screen. Uh at that time one [clears throat] of the big shifts is we moved to an eight period day. What we found is that many students were becoming disengaged when they struggled with an EOC. This is when EOCC's came into fruition, right? And if you didn't pass an EOC, well then you could not graduate. It was before individualized graduation committees came about. And so the urgency on making sure our students were academically prepared meant that many students had to give up
062elective courses if they didn't if they were not successful the first time on an end of course exam. And so if you had to give up your CTE or your fine arts or your athletics, we started to see kids become very disengaged. And with that sometimes they did not come back to school. We know that many times a student comes because they're connected to something, an organization, a program, a team, a sport, a fine art moment, whatever it is for that child, they're connected. And so we had to ensure that they didn't have to give up that connection. And so one of the solutions at that time was to move to an eight period day so that if a student did stumble, they did not have to give up those electives. We could blend it
063into their schedule and make sure they still had enough credits to [clears throat] graduate. Um the big change really came with campus administration focusing on graduation plans. Counselors went through a whole training. We brought a counseling um group in to do an external audit of the metriculation pathways for kids um and making sure that we were making smart decisions with those electives in middle school. So they fed they fed smartly into their high school experiences. Uh but just making sure that we were talking the talk with the kids and had oversight and partnering with families. Um it's not that it was completely absent or void during that time. I think it was uninformed and just bringing clarity to that and and constantly focusing on where are you at now with each kid is all the
064difference. >> I want to add and and this is we saw this in other districts as well. Um along that same line uh of extra support for kids uh an emphasis on grade repair and credit recovery basically saying failure is not an option. >> True. >> So making sure that [snorts] kids were not denied credits. They were given a second chance. So back go back in and redeem themselves. even looking at attendance and not being so strict and we had latitude in the district [clears throat] of innovation. For example, if a student missed a certain number of days because they were ill or out of town or life circumstances or whatever, we're able to say, "Hey, let's take a look. You're mastering content, you're passing all your classes, you pass the end of course exam,
065we're not going to hold a kid back when their average is 92 in algebra." So, we had some innovative practices in play to make sure kids were still mastering content and prepared for graduation and beyond, but um just a lot of strategy [clears throat] and making sure that failure was not an option for kids. >> Absolutely. >> I wanted to bring that to your attention a lot of that diagnostic was when Dr. Whitbeck and Ginger got here right there at that very first bump. And so, a lot of the digging into to the house and wise happened when our leadership began to really come in and say like you you know this is unacceptable we have to think out of the box let's figure this out so I think a lot of to do with
066leadership >> absolutely >> and campus leadership for for sure counselors teachers principles everyone >> rallying the troops making this a priority >> um I just have a comment that's on the the visit y'all make to the schools which is that like weekly is that what you said pretty much >> weekly? Yes, sir. Okay. Well, the campus support walks are weekly, one day a week. The campus um curriculum and instruction walks are usually once per six weeks per campus. So, they're on a campus every single day. >> Okay. Uh that could have gone two different directions. one could have been a very intimidating and scary thing that would have uh not not been received very well by by staff but it but from what I've seen about culture climate improvements and also our our really impressive
067uh reduction in turnover I would say it's been very positive. So, I think uh I guess my comment is is that what could have come across is, [cough and clears throat] "Oh, oh my gosh, they're coming to to check me out and I'm scared to death." Uh maybe there is still some of that, but >> but I I have a feeling that y'all managed to turn that into uh a very positive thing and and I don't know uh all the ins and outs of that, but I just want to congratulate y'all on that. that that's very important that you turned it into or made it clear that it was uh not a gotcha moment. >> Thank you, sir. School leadership is phenomenal at that. The it is truly what can we do together to support
068students. That's that's the the only angst is how do we get there to help kids from all parties involved. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? Thank you much. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Moving to the consent agenda. The board can remove any item from the consent agenda if applicable. If there are none, I will entertain a motion. >> I move approval of all the items listed on the consent agenda. >> Second. [laughter] >> A motion was made by Mrs. Benford and seconded by Mrs. Waller. Um, let's see. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed say nay. >> Motion passes. Um, moving to close session. The board will now convene in close session to discuss following items as allowed by the Texas Government Code Chapter 551.074 and 551.0821. No
069voting will take place in close session meeting. Any action the board wishes to take as a result of the discussion in close session will occur after the board reconvenes in the open meeting. The time is now 7:02. The board reconvened and opened session at 10:02 p.m. No action was taken in close session. I move that the board of trustees finalize the superintendent evaluation instrument as discussed in closed session and authorize the board president to negotiate and finalize the superintendent's contract as discussed in close session. >> Second motion made by Dr. Harlon Wolf, seconded by Mrs. Benford. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed say nay. Motion passes. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:02 p.m.