Bryan ISD School Board Regular Meeting, December 15, 2025

001I now call this Brian Independent School District meeting to order. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 551. The time is 6:00 p.m. Uh, I wish to extend a warm welcome to our uh guest this evening. Um, it's a it's a pleasure to have you all here. I ask that you please turn off the sound on electric uh electronic devices. And to start our evening, uh we'll be uh having the pledges of allegiance to the United States and Texas. And uh the pledges this evening will be recited by students from Ross Elementary and Neil Elementary. Um, so I ask that you uh

002all come to the front [snorts] and we'll start with some introductions and then we'll all rise and and begin with the uh United States Pledge of Allegiance. >> Can parents get wherever you need to get to take pictures? Hi. >> Okay. Hi, I'm Davis. I'm the council at Ross Elementary. They are leadership on the on campus. They are also our welcome to welcome students and they also do volunteer work. So I'm going to go ahead and test. >> Okay. >> I'm Dandelin Garcia and I'm going I'm in first grade. >> Very good. >> My name is Matias and I'm in second grade. I am Arando Santoy and I am third grade. >> I am Magnolia Garcia. I'm in second grade. >> I am Franklin and I'm at Franklin Tolo and I'm in second grade. >>

003My name is Landrew Shepard and I'm in fourth grade. >> I'm Julia Collins and I'm in fourth grade. >> My name is Campbell Shepard and I'm in fourth I mean second grade. My name is Satie Wakefield and I'm in second grade. >> We'll go ahead and start with the United States Pledge. Please rise. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. my job. >> Hello, >> I am My name is Matta Riella and I'm a fourth grader from Neil Elementary. >> Hello, my name is Elena Hernandez and I'm in fourth grade from Neil Elementary. >> Hi, my name is Liliana Gontes and I'm in I'm in fourth grade at Neil Elementary. Hi, my name is Karen Selenos and I'm a

004fourth grader from Neil Elementary. >> Hi, my name is Hi, my name is McKenzie Bellamy. I made fourth grade at Neil Elementary. >> Yay. >> [applause] >> Thank you. We'll move into our spotlights this evening. Um we have Alonzo Roblace uh from Tourist Bank. We'll be presenting our gift cards this evening. And first up, we'll recognize our elementary teachers of the month. Beginning with Elizabeth Wright from Ross Elementary. [applause] >> Presenting will be Amy Thman, principal of Ross Elementary. >> She has no idea. This is a complete surprise to her. Of our explore program. Quiet strength. Two simple words, yet they so perfectly capture the heart of Ross' very own Mrs. Elizabeth Wright. Miss Wright teaches third grade explore and she showcases the strength that shows up every single day. Not for recognition, not for

005praise, but because the work matters. She has the kind of patience that answers the tenth question with the same gentle kindness and grace as the first. She is steady and radiates a reassuring presence that guides a struggling student through a difficult concept. Not by raising her voice, but by raising their confidence. Miss Wright doesn't push them from behind. she walks beside. Miss Wright never seeks an applause. She leads with humility, grace, and an unwavering belief in her students. And in that determination, there is a power that truly transforms lives one child, one moment, one victory at a time. Miss Wright's quiet strength doesn't just inspire us, it lifts us. It reminds us why we do this work. And it reminds every student lucky enough to sit in her classroom that they are capable of more

006than they ever imagined. >> [applause] >> Sorry, Mr. Stasney. I have to >> certificate. >> I know. We have to. >> All right. Are y'all ready? >> All right. We have this thing. All right. On the count of three, let's celebrate Miss Wright. One, two, THREE. [applause] >> And I'll stay during close session and vacuum. We don't have our certificate. >> Congratulations. Our next teacher, Latana Felder from Neil Elementary, [applause] presented by Principal Wanita Anttoveros. >> Yes. Good evening. I'm Janu, the proud principal of Neil Elementary. And today I have the honor of recognizing Latana Felder. She is our outstanding third grade English language arts teacher. Um, I was told I had to keep this short. So, really coming up with only three reasons for choosing Miss Felder was difficult. But first, she pours into

007both her students and her team with a genuine smile, creating a warm, welcoming, and supportive environment. Students and teachers alike appreciate the way she teaches and how she makes everyone feel comfortable and valued in her classroom. She sets high expectations for her students and they rise to them. Her patience, consistency, and commitment to excellence helps all learners grow, including those who need a little extra encouragement. And Miss Felder goes above and beyond supporting her colleagues and offering extracurricular opportunities such as leading the baking club, um, which brings students joy while building community and confidence. For these and many, many more reasons, I am so proud that Miss Felder is one of the Brian ISD elementary December elementary teachers of the month. [laughter] [applause] >> I'm gonna have our family come up here and take a

008picture. teachers. >> My goduc. >> Which one? The first one. Congratulations. [applause] Next, we'll have the recognition and appreciation of the Brian ISD Education Foundation Paul's program presented by our director of counseling services, Donna Willlet. >> Good evening. I have the privilege to introduce Miss Sarah Braden, the executive director of the Brian ISD Education Foundation. Miss Braden is here to introduce you to the two two newest members of the Neil Regal Eagles and the Ros families, Mochi and Ree. I was very sad I missed Mochi's introduction, but I did have the opportunity to attend the pep rally for Ree at Ross. I'm not going to lie, I might have teared up just a little bit. The excitement in that Ross cafeteria was amazing and it really touched her heart. So, Miss Brighton, come on up

009and introduce our new friends. >> I'll give a little disclaimer. Mochi and Reese grew up together over the last year and have been trained. And this is the first time they've seen each other since Mochi got placed. So, we're kind of having a hard time keeping them apart. So, >> they're best friends. >> They're just like kids. >> They are back together. >> Yes, they are. So, I'm excited to introduce Mochi and Reese to you. I'm going to let both of the principles share kind of why they wanted a comfort dog on their campus in just a brief story of the impact that they're already making in really just a matter of days or a couple of weeks. So, first we have Mochi over here. She's a 10-month-old yellow lab. She was trained by Interquest,

010as was Reese. And Mochi is with Sarah Doivera from the counseling department. So, she's the counselor over at Neil and um has already been bringing a lot of comfort and a lot of joy to those students. So, we also have Reese over here who is an 18-month-old poodle. This is the first poodle that Interquest has ever worked with out of literally hundreds of dogs that they've placed around the country. And they said why they chose Ree to enter their program is he has a special skill. He can walk into a room of 10 adults or 10 students and find the person that is struggling the most and will literally approach them, put his head in their lap and be like, "I'm here for you." And it's a it's a skill that they can't train for.

011So, they were like, "Re has got to be our next comfort dog." And we're super blessed that he got to join Brian ISD. So, Aaron Nighting is the assistant principal over at Ross and he is the handler for Ree. So, I'll let Neil come up. Miss Anttover can share a little bit more about Mochi. >> All right. Well, about 10 years ago, um, I ran across I came across a group that was, um, placing comfort dogs in schools, and at that time it wasn't a possibility. So, when Sarah shared her vision with us, I could not get my application in soon enough. Um, Moti provides emotional support that helps our students feel safe, calm, and ready to learn. Um, she is especially beneficial for our nonverbal and students who have experienced trauma because it gives

012them a way to connect without using words. Um, and she's only been with us for eight days, but in those eight days, she has stolen our hearts and just had such a huge impact on staff and students. Um, her training day, so even before her official come home day, her training day, there was a student who was escalated. He was screaming, crying, and in less than two minutes, he was smiling and laughing. Something that would have probably taken us about an hour if we're lucky. Um, and every morning, it really just makes my heart happy because she sits at the lobby and welcomes all the students and says, "Good morning." Um, and you can see them coming in, they're not feeling it. Some are pouting, some are unhappy for whatever reason. And immediately that frown

013turns upside down and they have set mochi has helped set the tone um for their day. And just me personally, it was a trying week last week and every day I had to go get my mochi cuddles and it really just turns your day around. So again, thank you. I've told you thank you a million times, but thank you again um for giving us this opportunity and we are just so grateful. Okay, next. Miss Thman's going to share a little bit about Reese. >> Like Neil and I'm sure Kim, the last few days have just been remarkable. I mean, you just can't describe it. Last week, we took our benchmarks and we had a fourth grader who was really anxious beforehand. And I went in his room and just said, "Hey, let's go take a

014walk." And not even knowing we would pass Ree. Reese went up to him and leaned in. It was the sweetest moment. and he after that few minutes he was ready to go conquer his benchmark and he ended up meeting his goal. So we we just love him and we just can't thank you guys enough for supporting um this and thank you Miss Braden and then Interquest Cares. It's truly a blessing. Thank you. [applause] So just the last thing I want to say is just a thank you to our community. So we um we already have funding for three more and the community just keeps pouring out their resources, their excitement and their time. So we are opening applications again in January for more schools to apply and Interquest will help us make those matches and

015our hope is still to place a dog on every single campus over the next five or six years. So thank you for having us. >> Thank you. [applause] Thank you so much foundation. [clears throat] >> Thank you. Next, we'll be recognizing our secondary teacher of the month, Mr. Justin Barrett from Ruer High School presented by Principal Rachel Leighton. [applause] Thank y'all very much. I picked Justin because he's taller than me and I finally don't look taller than everybody else standing by me. No. But tonight, uh, we're ready to recognize, uh, Ruter High School Brian ICD's teacher of the month, Justin Barrett. Um, Justin serves on our safe and civil schools committee. He's our campus data lead. Uh, he helps us make all sorts of surveys that really get to the needs of the students and

016our staff so that we can make Rudder better and do things that the kids uh, want and would like to see things. and he helps us with our school climate a lot with those uh surveys. And so he's also our AP computer science teacher and he does our AP capstone research classes. And so he's deeply committed to supporting the students in these rigorous classes and he helps prepare them for success on the AP exam and then helps them to become obviously the AP capstone graduates. And so we thank him for all the time he puts in uh helping those kids prepare. He's also known for his kindness and his servant leadership. He's always willing to lead a professional development, share his expertise and support fellow teachers. He always puts the needs of students and staff

017first through all the uh trainings that he delivers. He is also takes students to skills USA. Uh last year a rudder student won the state championship in computer science and was also a national qualifier. So we were proud of that. Most recently, Justin coordinated the regional career and technical education competition that brought together students from Brian College Station in Navasota ISD. Uh, this event was designed and led by Ruer High School CTE teachers and it provided students with authentic real world experiences and it was evaluated by local business leaders. And so that was a really cool competition uh that they put on and we're hoping to grow it and get more local business leaders to come in and help us judge uh the categories. And his leadership and dedication exemplify the high expectations and innovative

018practices uh that we value at Ruer High School. And so we thank Justin. We can't thank him enough for his time and dedication to our students. [applause] >> [applause] >> While you're taking the pictures, I want to give a shout out to Justin's parents who serve on our district educational improvement committee. long-standing community members giving back and supporting Brian SD. So, we appreciate you, too. [applause] >> Next, we'll recognize our auxiliary employee of the month. This will be Ma Lenor Torado from Neil Elementary [applause] presented by Rick Scott, assistant director of custodial services. Yes. Um, good afternoon. Uh, custodial services proud to recognize Malonor TD TD as a December 2025 Alterian employee of the month. Mario Tado have been working in the district for two years. At the beginning of the school year in August,

019Mario took the challenge responsibility as the head custo consistently exceeds expectation by keeping the new elementary campus clean and healthy. Ouchi is primarily responsible for the cleaning and disinfecting of new elementary. She often helps with providing custo when needed. She has a strong work ethic and keen attention to detail when it comes to ensure her job is done correctly. Marion out of standing work ethic and attention to detail has demonstrated that she maintains the new elementary campus in a simplary manner. Maron, thank you for everything you do to keep Brian clean and healthy. Thank you. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> Congratulations. Next, we will um we will recognize our Essential 8 Community Partnership Award for the Give Joy Foundation. Donna Willlet will be presenting. >> Good evening again. I have the pleasure tonight of recognizing

020the Give Joy Foundation. The relationship between Give Joy and Brian ISD has been going on for several years, but I feel like at this point we've hit our stride and developed a solid team and have plans for the various activities we have throughout the year. The Give Joy focus is at the intermediate level. By fifth and sixth grade, students have an understanding about being healthy and making good choices. So that is where the focus is and the push with give joy foundation is um activities that we do throughout the year is we start the year they donated over a hundred pair of tennis shoes to our intermediate students um with the goal of let's get active right in the spring we do um healthy snack boxes we work with our PE teachers at intermediate and

021they pair that with a healthy choices making good choices is activity. But what we're really here to talk about today um is the amazing event that we had on December the 6th with the huge monetary support from the Give Joy Foundation. 300 plus volunteers including many of our Brian ISD staff members and their families and our own ambassadors. Um we shopped, wrapped, and delivered gifts to 101 Brian ISD families. Uh we delivered gifts to everyday life and that included a total of 325 kids in in uh Brian, Texas. Additionally, each family received a meal courtesy of Give Joy. Participating in that day was so rewarding and there was so much excitement. Um but as you hear some of the stories of the families in our district, it really hits home and it makes it all

022worthwhile. Um, I was honored to be a part of the activity and participate in the event. It's truly kindness, philanthropy, and gratitude in action. There has been a there was a core team that worked several months preparing for December 6th. Uh, from the Brian ISD side, Dr. Barbara Yubara, Linda Montoya, Patricia Ortega, Tiffany Gifin, who totally took charge in all in stride when I had to be out when kind of life happened during that week. Um, and then there's the person standing right here, Miss Stephanie Kurs, our Give Joy uh partner from the foundation. She gave us direction. She kept us on task, and that was difficult sometimes, and ran circles around us like the Energizer Buddy. her heart is truly the foundation of the activity. Thank you. Thank you for the Give Joy Foundation

023and we're totally looking forward for our ongoing partnership um with Give Joy. Stephanie, [applause] thank you Donna. And on behalf of the entire Givejoy Foundation, I just want to thank Brian ISD. This partnership has been absolutely incredible. We began about 15 years ago and grew from about 10 families with grow and give back and like Donna said to over 101 today. So we're looking forward to growing this partnership. We have lots of ideas for for the spring and for the fall and and look forward to to working with you guys in the future. So thank you for this recognition. Stephanie, we want to give to you and the Give Joy Foundation um our Essential Aid Award. the things you do and what this foundation does truly exemplifies everything that we want to do with gift

024with the essential aid. Thank you. Thank you, friend. [applause] My granddaughter got she's an ambassador at Houston and afterwards I saw her on Monday and she goes, "Mimi, does this mean I had so much fun since I got picked this year? Does this mean I get to do it every single year? [laughter] >> She was Oh, it was just amazing. She had such a great time. Thank you. Shannon asked if she could go. I said yes. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Next, we will celebrate Stephen F. Austin Fost Middle School's esports Rocket League teams national rank presented by director of career and technical education Laura King. [applause] >> Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us here tonight to celebrate a fun and unique and amazing group of middle school students. Um

025actually, I'm going to bring up Mr. Parker Nudson to um the podium. He has been the number one supporter of this group since the very beginning. Um and I want him to have the honor of introducing them to you guys. >> Thank you'all for having us this evening. Excited to honor this team um and the coach here, Mr. Mcha. There are two other coaches that help as well. There's various teams that they have for their esports kind of league that they create. And um in particular though, we have the esports uh Rocket League team that is this their third year competing. And of course uh these are two seventh graders or no two eighth graders. One seventh grader here tonight. >> Two two eighth grade, two seventh grade. One student wasn't able to make it.

026So we'll have two go up to the high school which uh thanks to uh Coach Mcha's help here. The Brian High School team is now competing as well. Um Mr. Barrett who won a secondary teacher has a uh esports team as well that they compete and so um we're seeing it kind of all across the district. Brian Collegiate MC Harris and so um and Mr. Munch has been instrumental in kind of carrying out the message and kind of the how-to on setting up the leagues. So very appreciative of him and I will let him talk a little bit more about the team and their national ranking. >> Wow. >> Good evening. Um, so with our esports program, we participate in a game called Rocket League. Rocket League is basically um, soccer, but instead of actual

027players kicking ball, we actually are using cards for this. And so Rocket League is very popular throughout the esports um, as far as like professional competition goes. And so for our um SFA middle school Rocket League team, the players that are here with us today is David Keryoga, Gustavo Reyes, and Roberto Leiddesma. Unfortunately, our other one couldn't show up today. His name was Andrew Ducet, and so he's going to be here with us in spirit. So, um, just to kind of explain, we participate in an esports platform known as Vanta. Vanta recently changed their format this year. So we normally have participated in a Texas division, but this year we are now participating in a varsity circuit. So that means our SFA Rocky League team, they compete against schools all throughout Texas, but also throughout

028the US. For example, we play teams from Kansas, um Mississippi, Alabama, and they even had the opportunity to play a school from Hawaii, which was very interesting. And so, um, with this new format, there are four mini tournaments. And so, we just concluded our second mini tournament. And so, our SFA Rocket League team is undefeated. They are 14-0. And they are the split one champions as well as the split 2 champions. And so, we are incredibly proud of their hard work. And so based on their hard work, we're number one in the states, we're number one in the conference, and we are number one in the nation. And so, [applause] and so we are incredibly thankful for the community as well as Brian D for continuing to support us. So, thank you so much. We

029really appreciate it. >> Great job. So, [applause] this this means that this will go on their resumes, their bios when they apply for college. And by the time you guys are ready for college, there's all kinds of scholarships that will be given in esports. And so, I'm [clears throat] sure the grown-ups will, well, not that your kids, but the adults will keep keep like a bio for you all the way through toward your senior year. And when you start thinking what you want to do in college, this will just send you over the top as if you had straight A since you were in kindergarten. So, this is really a neat deal >> and I'm so happy that you brought that up because we've have a close relationship with Blind College esports and so one

030of the things that I've been talking with their coaches about is that they really want to start focusing within the Brazes County area. So, they want to recruit here. They they made it their initiative that they want to help and support us. And so, with Blenn helping us out, we're going to continue to gain this momentum with esports and we're going to carry it over to the high school. So, >> yay. >> Thank you. I really appreciate y'all for honoring us. >> Thank you. [applause] I've played that before. >> It's not an easy game. >> Congratulations. Thanks for being here this evening. We'll move to public comment. Um, as a regular meeting, public comment can uh be on agenda items or non-aggenda items. Citizens may make comments about topics relevant to district business. Topic should

031be limited to three minutes. Comments concerning specific student or personnel will be heard in close session. I don't believe we have uh any public comment this evening. So, we'll move into our superintendent report celebrating student students and staff. Superintendent Ginger Carbine. >> Thank you, Mr. Brian. I appreciate it. As Clay pulls up the slide deck, I just want to say thank you to the board for your support for this first semester and uh we appreciate all of our family and community engagement. It has been a terrific first semester. We blinked and it's uh December and we've got one week remaining. So, we're excited for our kids and our staff and our families to have a much neededed break. We are ending this semester on a strong note not note celebrating essential 8. The uh theme

032for the month is philanthropy and that's been happening on steroids. We started a new tradition and we talked to our students about what does this mean to you? So you can see in the sign uh the one little student says philanthropy means helping my grandma out. So that's super sweet. and our high school students. Uh she went into the definition and this is exactly what our students say as they live out the mission giving back through our community by volunteering, raising money, and collecting canned food items. You can tell she was talking about the KBTX food drive. So, we're very proud to live out our essential essential eight vision. Uh we have had philanthropy and uh lots of other things happening with the Give Joy Foundation. We are so appreciative of that support. again supporting

033over 350 children in our district um is just incredible. I think the people purchasing the gifts, wrapping the gifts, and delivering the gifts uh get just as much out of it as the receiving end. We're also very proud of our participation in the KBTX food for families food drive. Our district collected two truckloads, which is about 7,000 pounds, which included 22 pallets around 900 boxes of food. Uh KBTX is proud to tell us each year that we are the largest contributor. In fact, I feel like it's turned into the Brian ASD parade. We're very proud. And most recently, the downtown lighted Christmas parade was a fantastic outcome. Brian had 16 different student groups representing our school district, which is the largest number of students ever included. I think we um actually had to uh be

034turned away because we had more floats than we've ever had before, which is a good problem to have that so many people want to be involved. We're very proud and it was a wonderful night again with community engagement. Speaking of community engagement, it is the most wonderful time of the year with the Christmas season and all the holidays. Uh just a few uh spotlights include the Brian High School uh electric light orchestra performance. If you have not attended, it is a showstopper and a mustsee for next year. Also, the Roter High School Rangerette Extravaganza and Christmas Christmas Market has turned into the uh biggest uh event of the town. You can you can it's a one-stop shop and you're supporting the Rangerettes and u all of our young students who are dancing and participating. And

035then finally, we had elementary school family engagement meet the Santa night all throughout the district. It it it couldn't get any more magical for our students and staff. And just re most recently on Saturday, thanks to our partnership with our read by third partners, including Daniel Hernandez, we had the epitome of family engagement. This boardroom was packed, standing room only. And these are just a few of the photos showing that our family showed up in full force. We had uh moms, dads, grandparents, siblings, you name it. and they had a a family activity that included making a gingerbread house. So, we had resources from Texas A&M, from our city, from our county, uh staff members, student volunteers showing up to celebrate the importance of uh family engagement and uh connectivity. And then finally, this is

036a sneak peek with an academic spotlight in mind. Uh we are proud to say that one of our students at Brian Collegiate High School, her name is Aaliyah Jackson, was just uh notified that she is the recipient of the QuestBridge scholarship, which includes a full 4-year scholarship to Brown University. She has an incredible story. Again, this is a sneak peek tonight because it's about to unfold uh via social media. But um one thing that she had to say about this opportunity and when you hear her story as we tell it on social media, you will really appreciate this. But when when she was asked uh how did you get to Brown University? Because she has a few obstacles. Again, the story will will unfold soon. She said, "Education has always been my pathway to break

037the cycle." So, we are proud of Aaliyah and her students at uh her staff members at Brian Collegiate for helping uh to make this a possibility and it's just a huge huge celebration and a testament of anything is possible. So, stay tuned for more to come from Aaliyah's story. Thank you, Mr. Brian. >> Thank you. >> Board member reports. Uh we'll start with Mr. David Stazzy. City school joint committee meeting update. >> Thank you. uh city school joint committee met on December 1st here in this room. Uh we had all three of the committee members uh present uh from uh the school district as that was uh Mr. Brian and I believe it was Ruthie Ruthie and me. So those are the three uh that attended and we had Ray Arrington and Jared Savato from

038the city as [snorts] well as multiple staff from from both the district and the city. Uh our staff included uh Miss Caribine and Dr. Merrill and Norman Friddle and Bobby Griffin. U Miss Carabine presented on uh the the bond passage and uh our marketing programs. uh a few highlights on advanced academics. Uh we also talked about the bond and and what's what's next and including getting some uh information from Mr. Griffin on that about where we're going and what the steps are. Uh apparently a lot of people think that you know why why weren't they seeing any construction yet? So, uh, we had to, uh, make sure everybody understands, uh, that we have a lot to lot to do before we can actually start breaking ground on things. Uh, we also talked a little bit,

039u, Mr. Priddle, about the, uh, possible sale of property, uh, on on 21st Street, 20 highway 21, excuse me. U, and of course, that has moved forward. Uh and uh we uh also were introduced to uh a new parks, recreation, and facilities director uh for the uh the city of Brian. And we got some updates from the city uh also with regard to some park issues, things that they're improving at parks, including one that was particularly intriguing called Signature Playground at Travis uh Brian Midtown Park. Uh that's going to be pretty uh pretty lights out. It's going to be uh impressive and I think it's going to be also uh lean heavily towards being very accessible for all for all children regardless of of perhaps some disability. So So lots going on with the city.

040Uh the the thing that I'm most excited about about these meetings is that we are building a and we've always had a good relationship few bumps in the road but we're we're building a really strong relationship with the city and that is so very important for us to uh to have that because we when we work together we can do a lot more than than each uh entity by itself. So that's my report. >> Thank you. Uh, we have Brian ISD Education Foundation update. I think we're going to postpone this report until January. >> Yes. They're so busy with the dogs, the comfort dogs like you saw and with teacher grants. So, we're going to compile everything from October [clears throat] through the first part of January and we'll give a report on it. >>

041Great. Thank you. Moving to our information items. Uh the first is a campus improvement plan updates for Neil Elementary, Ross Elementary, Crockett Elementary, and Davala Middle School. Um executive director of school leadership, Linda Mononttoya will be presenting. >> All right. Good evening. So the uh this evening we're going to continue on with our campus improvement plan updates. So this evening you will hear from four of our wonderful principles. They will be presenting uh their priority focus areas. So you'll hear from principal Mrs. Wanita onto Baros. You'll hear from principal Mrs. Amy Thman from Ross Elementary, Mrs. Debbie Airheart from Crockett Elementary, and Miss Sarah Roua uh from Davala uh Middle School. But just a reminder before they come up, uh, our campus improvement planning process always starts uh, with our bold board goals and then

042our campus goals are aligned to those goals. And as part of the uh, campus improvement plan process, there are requirements. So, every campus improvement plan must have a campus needs assessment. So, we're Oh, sorry. You want >> Yeah, I'm trying to guess where you're at. So every campus improvement planner requirements they must have a campus needs assessment. So they look at a a lot of data before they start planning. They must have measurable objectives uh for student performance. They must include the strategies and they must also include uh the budget and timelines. And then they also have to so every campus has a what they call a CPIC commi committee which is their campus performance improvement committee and they must approve their campus improvement uh plan. Just a few of the things we do as

043a district uh as shared ownership and support for our campuses. So, we have a fabulous CNI support uh team who uh these include our campus coordinators or our curriculum coordinators who walk classrooms monthly uh to look at instruction, provide feedback to uh the principles at the campuses. We also have our safe and civil schools foundation trend uh data walks. So we're constantly uh collecting data to look at how the implementation effectiveness of the safe and civil schools is going and we provide uh principles with that data. We also have our campus support team. So we meet uh every Monday at a campus both at an elementary and a secondary campus. Um this is a dedicated staff of uh from the district who meets with staff from the campus. We do classroom walks. We provide feedback.

044We look at data uh just as an extra support for the campus. And then this year we've had our Texas in uh instructional leadership um initiative. This was working with grades five through eight with the principles and this is providing training and coaching support uh to our campus principles. So at this time we will go ahead and and begin to hear from our principles. So I will ask uh Mrs. Wanita onto start us off. >> No, it's all good. Okay. Um all right. Um so with our commitment to maintaining a B- rating, um we feel that these three areas will keep us on that path and maybe hopefully an A. Um so the first thing that we're focusing on is increasing the percentage of students who attain meets and masters. um that will guarantee our

045growth um for our the and our sorry [laughter] our student for our fourth graders. Um, and the way that we're doing this or focusing on this is our lesson design PLC. We're really having our teachers unpack the sees. Um, we're intentionally planning for retach and enrichment. And we're having data talks um and student goal setting. And we have been really focused on providing our teachers with timely um and high quality feedback so that we can ensure that our tier one instruction is what our students need. Um and of course after school tutorials um we again in order for them to learn they need to be in school. So as always we are working on increasing our student attendance um all the things and you know we have incentives for our students. Um we call every

046single day by 8:15 we call every family of students who are not at school. Um and are really we're really focused on our chronically absent students. Um and finally, um we want to strengthen the we want to develop genuine parent school partnerships because we want our parents to feel that they really are true partners in their child's education and um we started something this year and it's um Neil families forward. Um so it's a series of mini trainings. Um we do have our family nights but these are very targeted. Um so everything from all of the apps that the students use like how they use them at home, how they help um and the next meeting will be focused on um just how to help them at home with reading and you know just really

047star like how they're what STAR looks like and um just really working on that so that we can build those relationships. All right. At Ross Elementary, first and foremost, we're focusing on student achievement, specifically our student growth. And in order to do that, we are really pushing our tutoring in fourth grade and uh increasing the academic incentives. Uh we are doing constructive responses slam dunks for our ECR and SCRs. Uh just last week we hosted our very first beauty in the benchmark and then we did our ball and in the benchmark. Second we are truly uh wanting to continue to promote that positive learning environment. Um, in order to do that, just like um, Wanita said, we have to get our kids to school. And in order to do that, we are um, like everyone

048else, just really trying to be creative with our attendance incentives. And so, one thing we're doing right now for December, students who are perfect attendants for the entire month. Uh, they will uh, be in a drawing to have a New Year's photo session, professional photo session with Reese. So, definitely trying to be uh, creative with those incentives to get them in school. Um, second, we want to keep them in class. Uh, that's a huge focus. And so our goal is to decrease our discipline referrals or out of school out of class placements by 25%. And we are well on our way. This is a celebration. Last year at the end of the year, Ross Elementary had 164 referrals. Currently, we are at 12 referrals. So, we are definitely um huge celebration. And then finally, just

049continue to um strengthen relational capacity with our entire school community. Uh as far as our community, we started the year off strong with our great raccoon race. Uh we have a partnership, an ongoing partnership with Texas A&M Ross volunteers. We had a pen pal partnership with Blend College. And then we are also increasing incentives that bring our Brian High School students to the elementary school. With our families, we are continuing to host family engagement nights. We had a game night and then this Friday we are doing ornament holiday making. Um and then we are continuing to uh shine communication. So every Sunday I put out amen times just showing parents um celebrating what the week held and then looking at what's coming up in the following week. Um and then our employee and students we

050are honoring our teachers and staff not just for the month but each week through staff cash. We have daily student affirmations and um lots of awesomeness as you can see. And then my counselor, she is doing UNO with a counselor. So, lots of fun things happening and it's all going to go back to that number one goal of student achievement. [clears throat] Can >> I ask you a question? Yes, sir. That's a pretty phenomenal drop in referrals. So, uh would you have one particular thing that you attribute it to? I mean the most to or or what what what what happened? >> Sure. Mr. nighting which I'm going to give him lots of credit. He is truly enforcing the difference between tier one, tier 2, tier three behaviors and just uh really pushing uh strategies

051for teachers on how to deescalate students and um as you all know it goes back to that relationship. So by uh increasing the attendance incentives, academic incentives um they want to be the best version of themselves. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes sir. Great. >> Thank you. Okay, Aaliyah Jackson was a Crockett Rocket. I snapped a picture and I sent out a remind. And so now my phone is like to our staff. It's like ding ding ding. I'm like mental note, print bigger and don't send that out right before you come up. So hopefully I was I saw at the on-ramp before I came and then I didn't see the name and I was like, "Oh, that's our kiddos." So I'm super excited. I I'll have to read the rest when I get home. >>

052Congratulations because she has a story. So, thank you to this way. >> Some of my same folks had her a long time ago um at Crockett. So, that's exciting. So, I'm glad to see that. I'll read it when I get home. All right. Crockett is working for an A. We were a B. And you know what? There is nothing better than an A. So, we are working on that increased academic achievement. We're doing student goal goal tracking. One of the things that we've added this year that probably is my most favorite thing, um, we have a bell at the front. You know, we've seen a cancer bell, we've seen a service bell, and I got a bell off Amazon. It's in the front lobby. And kids set goals all the time. We give stuff, the

053pride they have to coming to ring the bell, anybody, if you're ever in the lobby and we have kids, we had benchmarks, so lots of kids come up. They come up, we chant and cheer, we circle up. They don't get anything other than pride and recognition. The Christian, our AC guy, he has cheered. The little ones coming to the nurse cheer. So, that's probably one of my most favorite things. And the kids really just relish that recognition and celebration. They get nothing but pride in their work. And so, that's a fun thing. If you're ever by, hopefully we're ringing the bell um because kids have met academic goals and behavioral goals. Um, we've implemented an Imagine Math challenge. I love a good competition. Um, so I've always done a third versus fourth in the spring

054and I said, why wait till the spring? We started in the fall. Um, so between um before Thanksgiving, those first four weeks, we had a big Imagine Math challenge between third and fourth and I thought that was fun. So I thought, let's challenge another campus. So we challenged another elementary school in Brian. Um, we did very, very well. So, a nice little friendly competition between our schools which um encouraged our kids. We use Summit K12. We've also had a big increase this year in our afterchool clubs. We have chess, we have robotics, we have UIL, we have a little new Crockett choir that's going to be singing at Carriage in on Wednesday night. They were practicing the today. They were doing instruments. They had um I have a substitute music teacher that's fabulous. he was

055playing his guitar and he's like, "I need more time to work on drums. All right, y'all can do it at lunch duty tomorrow." Like, we're going to make this happen. And so, um, it's really exciting to see how the kids are plugged in and some a really great substitute, um, that's helping with after school and philanthropy. Um, during we've redesigned our, um, master schedule instead of specialists teacher covering a lot of lunch duty, I designed the schedule where they cover intervention. Um so they certified teachers do intervention in the morning to help in our star grades which I think is a pretty um nice system to have and then our specials teachers also get to see their academic growth um as well as they see some of our academic strugglers who really shine in our

056specials classrooms. Um promoting attendance we have no tardy taters. Um if you've seen Mr. Potato Head um our classes work really hard to get their Mr. potato head and every day everybody's all there on time. They get another piece to the potato head. It's been a little rough lately. Flu's going around. Miss Bugleberg's class filled up their Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head. I think they had a mister this morning. Um so the class gets an incentive and just a good way to encourage kids being there. Um family engagement's always a big piece. We are a capturing kids um hearts showcase campus. We have been for many years. It's a huge part of our success and we continue that. Um, and other activities, rising rockets, um, tied to our guidelines for success and safe and civil

057schools and just really connecting our families, um, our teachers and our community. >> So, Miss Hart, when she was in U, Mr. Jackson when she was at >> elementary who would have ever imagined you were looking at for Brown typically a year is $100,000 to go there and so her scholarship is probably close to $500,000. >> I She was the quietest, sweetest I mean it's been a long time. I'm old. It's the week before Christmas, so my brain is on overload right now. I have one graduating on Thursday morning. I have one struggling at law school in Colorado at the same time. So, I I'm all over the place, but I can see her little face. She had little braces. I was like, "She doesn't look the same. I got to get my yearbooks out."

058She was the quietest, sweetest. She was a great kid. >> Yes, I imagine. But I can Who would have thought? I know. >> Um, our little guy last year that went to Yale was a Crockett Rocket, too. So I was like, "Oh, we have some great legacy." So I'm excited to go back and tell the kids tomorrow, "Man, this is one of us. This is what you can do." So super exciting. So I got to read up. That's my homework to have it for morning meeting tomorrow. But we'll do it. So exciting. I'm excited to touch base with her and her family >> at the Crockett Rocket. You go to Ivy League schools. So >> yeah, congratulations. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. They saved the best for last. So for Davala, we had huge growth last

059year, but our goal is to still get kind of continue and to push our new group of students that we have and our growth. So we have the three of the same goals that similar that you saw before the elementary. So like our improving our math and reading achievement. Um so we want to raise our student performance by strengthening the quality of instruction and expanding acknowledging the achievement growth. Um how we do this is that we have our teacher and student goals. So all of our students have goals that they try to achieve as long as our as well as our teachers and also we do the progress monitoring. So we progress monitor after each of our whether it's a benchmark, a CBA, a DBA or you know concept quiz. Um we're also of course

060trying to um close the achievement gap for our special populations. Um we want to close the achievement gap for like our English learners are at risk or sped and our economically disadvantaged. We're using the targeted interventions and instruction and also our specialized instructional supports such as um our summit K12 like in our knack classes and with all of our EB students. Um, and then as you heard before from the other schools, increasing student attendance. Of course, right now it's a difficult week to try to talk about that. So, we're trying to do anything that we can kind of creative. Um, we're having our six weeks attendance goal. Like, for example, today we had them um all during third period where we called out all of our students and kind of talked about, hey, it's December.

061What are we going to do from here in order to try to, you know, either recoup some of our days that we've been out and or you know, not cease from continuing. Um, we also have incentives for those that do have perfect attendance. Perfect attendance is difficult a lot of times, especially like with the flu, things like that going around. But we do have drawings like with gift cards and things like that. And then we also have our teachers then also calling after a student has been absent for three days. So yes, we do have some parents that receive then multiple phone calls, but hey, that's okay. They've missed three days in a row. So that's for us. >> All right. So thank you to our principles. Did you have any questions for them? Okay.

062Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for to each of you for coming in and presenting your campus improvement plans. Next, we have an update on progress towards B board goal number five, safety and security. Rich Hamill, assistant director of safety and security and Julie Johnson, executive director of technology services. >> Dr. Brian Merrill. >> Hey, someone left uh some bond paperwork here. I don't know who would do that uh from stage. Be me. So, sorry about that. Uh I'm very excited. So, good evening and thank you uh board president Mr. Brian, uh, BISD board members as well as Superintendent Miss Carbine, we thank you for the opportunity to review our progress towards board goals and it's ultimately leading into the summit of evaluation in January. So, we'll um get to the timeline. Y'all are

063familiar with this and we obviously had our team of eight training on December the 4th, 2025. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to review those five goals um and then obviously bringing even maybe a sixth one to the table. So we'll talk about that here shortly. Um as you can see the timeline that's laid out in front of you, we we are sort of towards the center uh moving into January. So what's going to happen is we are reviewing uh the goal five and four and then the next board meeting we will we will review three and two board goal three uh three and two and then finally in January when we get back or we'll finish up with board goal number one. So we're excited today to talk about those. Um obviously leading

064towards uh superintendent evaluation. Uh the levers that you see in front of you are what we reviewed. It was a wonderful opportunity to think about systems thinking. And as we talked about then and as we've we all know and have uh practiced as you move one lever, they all move. And so when you look on the left, you'll see the the five goals there. We're going to work from backwards starting with goal five all the way leading towards goal one. Again, you can see how moving one little piece, we just mentioned the campus improvement plan, and you can see how twisting that lever will obviously impact all of the other levers that are, uh, situated. And so, um, we appreciate the opportunity to write these goals and then obviously move forward through the school year,

065evaluating them and bringing, uh, success to our, uh, school district and to our students. So, we're going to start with board goal number five. And if you'll read it, it's ensure a physical and emotional safe and secure learning environment while while welcoming all students, staff, and visitors. And so when you hear safety and security, I think immediately you just go to like the physical safety and security, the many of the things like Rich will talk about, but uh this is a more encompassing goal and it's a lot more a lot more broad and I appreciate the opportunity to share and that's why Miss Willlet will be talking about all of the various features and uh facets. And again, as we look at the levers, you'll think about safety and security and how that drives things.

066Just simply even talking about the comfort dog, as we bring the comfort dogs in, you've heard that that directly uh went into academic success. Young man having uh just anxiety about taking a benchmark test, the dog walking up, which would fit under goal five, that safety and security, and then all of a sudden he's feeling more confident and comfortable and he actually met his goal. And so those are examples of how goal five is uh going to be represented in what we'll be discussing today. So with that being uh said, I'll bring up Miss Julie Johnson. So for uh technology services, our part of the goal is the three bullets you see on the slide is to implement our best practices, making sure we're doing everything to protect our students data. Um and following that

067Texas cyber security framework, which I present to y'all annually on kind of how we're doing. Um and then also providing professional development for staff on best practices. so that we're actually in the middle of it right now. Working through cyber security training for our staff, get to send reminders out to make sure and get that done. Um, and other things like putting in a two-factor authentication for our staff members to make sure they're make keeping our data secure. Um, and then providing lessons for our students. We do this every year through digital citizenship. um student during class time, our teachers are presenting these different lessons that are grade appropriate on what and how to use the internet while online. Um but we couldn't do all this without our partners. So some of the things that

068we do in the background, not only is that Neptune navigate our cyber security training for our staff, but it's also the one that houses all our students training materials, videos, those kinds of things. Um but then light speeded is also that filter for our students which we're always having to increase and tweak as our students become smarter. Um we have to be even more smarter about closing gaps that may happen as new sites come up. Um but Lighteed has been a great partner in helping us plug holes um as we get reports of any changes. Um, MSAC is also a national um, group that we partner with um, part of the FBI and Homeland Security. Um, but one of the ones that we've really been a lead in is our student data privacy consortium. Um,

069that is where if you want to be a software um, in our district, a vendor, um, we make sure that you're signing a contract with us specifically regarding how you're going to protect our students data. Um, so that along with some other things help make sure that we're doing what we need to do to protect our kids when they're online. And then next up, I think is Yeah, Donna, Miss Willlet. Okay, I want to talk a little bit about counseling services. Um, emotional safe learning environment is in the words in this goal. Students have to feel safe in that classroom in order for them to to be academically successful. And so we work really hard to implement a comprehensive guidance program. The state gives us directions on these are the components that you have. Guidance

070curriculum, responsive services, individual planning, system support. Um want to talk really the most about guidance curriculum. Um, it's got to be consistent and it has to sp keep spiraling through um to make sure we're building those skills in those kids that we're building skills [snorts] for students who are struggling maybe uh behaviorally, but we're also building the skills with students who maybe their issue is inate and what do I do to get the supports that I need? So our focus is really getting counselors into the classroom on a regular basis. We have a curriculum K through five called changemakers and the topics from K through five are all the same but the content keeps adjusting make age appropriate to help them understand how um it fits into their lives right now. And so that is

071our our primary focus responsive services that is that individual I'm really struggling talking with that counselor one-on-one. But to make the biggest change, it's consistently getting counselors in the classroom to help build those skills and sustain those with students. Questions? >> Thank you. Good evening. I'm going to explain a couple more examples uh uh for you of how we achieve goal five. Um if you take a look at your ID and flip over to the back, you're going to see a cheat sheet that shows you our uh our next example here. This is the standard response protocol, the SRP. Um it's the third year that we've been using this on our campuses. And this uh this teaches our administrators, our staff, and our students how to respond to emergencies uh or unusual occurrences that may

072occur on our campuses. It's simple. It's easy to learn. We reinforce it through drills that are mandated by law. Um and the schedule is up there. Uh we do two lockdown drills uh per school year, one per semester. Uh we do two shelter drills, one for hazardous materials, the other for severe weather. Um we do one evacuate drill, but we also do four fire drills, which are basically just evacuation drills um to satisfy the local authorities. And let's talk about our emergency operations plan or EOP. It always helps to have a plan to pull out when something goes wrong. And this is our EOP. Um, we write this, maintain it, uh, with the help and guidance of the folks at the Texas School Safety Center. Um, they review it every year. They'll they'll have us,

073uh, send them a portion of our plan to review uh, and ensure that we're in compliance. Those are the folks over at uh, the State University in San Marcos. Um hopefully this uh this illustration up here makes it clear to you how our plan works. We've got the basic plan, the big circle, and then it's surrounded by those six annexes, okay, that kind of drill down a little bit. We've got the active threat, severe weather, hazardous materials or hazmat, cyber security, communicable disease, and coupe. That's not about chickens. That's the continuation of operations plan. I guess they didn't want to call it COP, but they called it Coupe. Um, and then for those first three annexes, each of those has more specific appendices that you could see on the left hand side there. The active

074threat annex has an active shooter appendix. The severe weather annex has all of those there. It's got severe thunderstorm, tornado, winter storm, hurricane, and flooding appendices. So, they're we're drilling down on each specific threat. And then the hazardous materials annex has the train derailment appendices. So, we've got lots of plans to pull out if we need them. And uh if you need me to answer any of your questions right now, I can I can do that for you. Thank you. >> Any questions having to do with board goal number five? If not, we'll bring up Hugo, the community affairs department. >> Okay, Dr. Bar. >> Thank you. >> Hello everyone. We're gonna go ahead and get started. Just want to remind you that these are your board goals. One of the one of the jobs

075in our department consists of consists of translating uh whatever it is that we have on the appendices, the plans, the goals into tangible parts, easy to understand or as easy as possible. So um also I want to share a disclaimer with you uh while I talk about board gold 4. Um I'm part of a very uh small department but that is very efficient, has been effective, has room for improvement but also uh collaborates consistently with other departments and with each campus. Um so first of all uh I only have a few slides and you will see your board goal number four on top of the slide and then we have four different areas which is um where we're focusing where you are focusing. We also have uh consist uh different ways to measure. We have

076metrics that we acquire through surveys, but we also have um indirect or intangible measurements uh and indicators that we use to see if there are areas that we need to where we need to improve all of this so that we can enhance students experiences and their performance. Um so first of all the first area that we pay attention to is partners in education. One of the things that we did in preparation for this meeting is okay what why don't we why do we phrase the key performance indicator uh as a question it helps me at least to understand so what are we doing with this indicator so do families think they are actively partnering with the district to enhance their children's education and of course like I said we have metrics from the survey and

077we uh where we were very successful where the expectation was 92% uh of families will say they're they're satisfied and 94% of our families said they were. However, we want to focus on the intangibles, the indirect measures. For example, the bond, $397 million bond passed. Only four districts in the state of Texas in November. Only four districts with uh multiple proposals approved have all of their proposals uh passed by the community. That is um that is just testimony of the support that we have uh in our community. As uh Miss Fredle said the other day at one of the meetings that we had, uh it's a pattern of trust. 2019 we passed a bond. 2020 we passed a bond. 2025 we passed the largest bond in school history. So to us that is an indicator

078that the community, our families support our school district. We also have a plethora of family engagement nights and opportunities for our for our families. Uh I'm looking around. Several of you either have grandchildren or children or friends or spouses who work in the schools. We have been since over the last few years with Miss Car under Miss Caravan's leadership and your leadership very consistent, very intentional about family and community engagement in every way possible from sharing the schedules online on the website to opening the doors and um holding different types of sessions not just athletics fine arts events but also parent workshops like read by third and also the next steps. So where what what are some areas where we could improve? Well, we want to maintain the momentum. We also want to make sure

079that our families, all families at every school feel welcome and listened to. Second uh area, communication. Um are families and community stakeholders satisfied with the district's communications? Well, according to the survey, yes. However, what are some of the other indicators? Well, uh, just look at the blue rectangle on your right. It was mine, I guess. Just in the last five months, we had over 8.4 million views on social media, 155,000 plus content interactions, meaning people who liked, loved, shared, did something with our content. 1,800 new followers. And then interesting but over 172 people this is only since August 1st have searched for Bright ID on social media. So we have multiple metrics in this area where we uh we want to continue to share the good news. We we want to continue to enhance our

080student experiences because that translates into an informed community into a bond that is passed into better facilities better standards better everything for for our students and our staff. So um what are some areas where we want to keep improving? Again this is not an exhaustive list but for sure um have a unified calendar as much as possible and we'll talk about that one in the next slide. And then also in the uh improve overall communication not just from the district but from all campuses and departments. Okay. engagement. Again, the the goal is on top of the screen of of the slide. And then the question, are families and community stakeholders satisfied with the district engagements opportunities? Well, according to the survey, our goal was uh your goal, the performance indicator was 89%, we're almost there

081at 85%. Remember, this is we're closing the year. We still have an opportunity uh for improvement there. But I want you to think about what are some of the areas that are working that are not and perhaps that's going to be part of our goal to propose to you that we [clears throat] actually include some of the things that we are doing in our department as some of the indicators because we're already doing the work. You're already seeing it. You are very involved with all of these committees. We talked about them tonight. So, we might as well um capitalize on them and count them. Um what's working? We just talked about the give joy holiday drive. Uh Brian ID showcase pep rally community pep rally with Dr. Merrill and ambassadors his team breed by third

082all the athletics and fine arts events trunk or treat we have multiple opportunities for engagements [clears throat] with our families our staff and our community. So what are what are some of the areas that we've gotten feedback uh from families and community members? Well again this is not exhaustive. Help promote campus PTO's. Not everybody knows how to start one from scratch. Not everybody has the funding to start one. Also, uh help promote campus event. Uh this was the result of your feedback. Um like we were like I was saying earlier a unified calendar. Okay. We're we're taking baby steps. It's quite a challenge because we actually really have I think more uh campus and community events than ever. So, we're starting with the week at a glance, which is released every Sunday at 5:00 PM

083on social media. And also, if you don't like social media or you don't want people to see that you're on social media at that time, it's on the website. It's easy to find. We get a glance, just go to brighter.org and you'll see it. And then finally, um, community and research partnerships. So, is the district maintaining or increasing its community and research partnerships? So far we are this year alone with very tangible documented partnerships at uh 45. Remember, Miss Carbine has been meeting consistently over the last few years and you serve in those committees with parent leadership team, teacher leadership team, faith-based partners, superintendent advisor council and we also have uh partnerships with the boys and girls love brass valley junior achievement Brian Rotary and research partnerships with these universities. Of course, the majority of

084them are with Texas&M University, but also we have uh partnerships with Blink College, of course, University of Florida, Texas Tech, Sam Houston, um and a few other universities. Um so that is all I have for you. Do you have any questions? >> Hugo, I want to thank you and your team, your department. >> [clears throat] >> I know there's a lot of times we will think up something and we'll mention it, it'll kind of go through the right channels and poof, it it's done. I mean, with like that um week at a glance calendar, that's a big deal. But as soon as the board I think we talked about it, we mentioned it, I'm sure y'all were probably already doing it and all of a sudden it was there. And so, not that other departments

085don't do the same thing, but you Chelsea, uh, Clay, excuse me, Cali, who else did I did I miss somebody? [clears throat] >> That's it. >> Y'all are amazing. And I just I can't I know probably am speaking for the board. >> It's It's just y'all could be making a lot of money other places. We don't want you to I mean, we would love to for you to make a [laughter] lot of money, but we don't want you to go anywhere else. Um, but y'all are so talented. And you were an administrator. Uh, Cali was a student. Clay's been in the business a long time. Chelsea's been in the business a long time. Um, it takes one to understand what what we want. And because of y'all's background, man, you guys hear it and then

086it happens. So, thank you very, very much. >> I would agree completely. And I I went back to the slide and I joked about what was up here, but they designed all of this. And in so many cases, districts outsourced this for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. And this is a prime example of the way that um just the marketing team put everything together and really uh made it understandable which I'm so appreciative of. And again as you stated we come with ideas like hey we got an idea or this is what we're doing and then a graphics created a plans underway and um it led to obviously the 2025 bond which we're incredibly proud of and thankful for. So a wonderful department. Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good. Thank you.

087>> Next, we will move to our budget development series uh related to understanding the basic aotment presented by chief financial officer Norma Fertle. >> Good evening, Mr. President, board members, and superintendent Caribine. As promised, we're back this evening to continue our discussion on the budget development process. At our last meeting, I introduced a new series of budget and finance topics that we'll be walking through together over the next few months. The goal of this series is to provide clarity and a shared understanding of how school district finances work. At our last meeting, I left a TASBY resource on your dis titled a toolkit for strong budget discussions. Hopefully, you've had a little time to peruse the toolkit as as it will serve as a roadmap moving forward. Each of these training discussions is intentionally centered

088around that guide so that way you have something sim something familiar to follow along with. The first topic we'll be addressing tonight is understanding the basic aotment. This is a great place to start because the basic aotment is the foundation of Texas school finance. everything else in the funding formula builds on it. So with that foundation in mind, I'll walk you through what the basic aotment is, why it matters, and how it impacts Brian ISD. As a reminder, this calendar of topics was provided to you at our last meeting. This slide shows the schedule of budget topics we'll cover over the next several months leading up to budget adoption. The sequence follows the TASBY toolkit you received so it's easy to follow along throughout the process. Today is December 15th and our focus for tonight

089is the basic aotment and this is just our table of contents which aligns with the toolkit that you received. So the basic allotment is the state set dollar amount per student and serves as the foundation of the Texas school funding formula. It comes from the state's foundation school program, which is funded primarily through state general revenue and the state's share of local property taxes. The current basic aotment is $6,215, which is a $55 increase from the prior year. Prior to that increase, the basic aotment had not changed since the 1920 school year. So essentially, school district funding levels were effectively frozen for about five years even as costs continue to rise. The basic aotment is multiplied by using average daily attendance or ADA across several funding formulas. It drives most of our weighted program funding,

090meaning different programs receive different funding levels because it costs more to educate students with different needs. We'll walk through an example and see how those weights work in action on a real life aotment. So, at its core, the basic aotment is the primary funding mechanism for Texas schools and directly impacts the district's overall budget capacity. This slide gives you a visual of what I just mentioned regarding flat funding levels since the 1920 school year. According to the US Census Bureau, these are four these are the per student spending amounts for the 2324 school year um for public elementary and secondary school systems. The figures shown here reflect state and national averages and they include weighted funding so that that way we are comparing apples to apples. As you can see, Texas is just over $12,000

091per student while the national average is over 16,000 per student. This comparison helps show that even with weighted funding, Texas remains well below the national average. And this slide shows a comparison of per student spending across the nation and a few other selected states. According to Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit advocacy organization, Texas is about $4,000 behind the national average in per student spending. We do understand that some northern states have a higher cost of living and that is reflected here in this comparison. What stands out to me is Louisiana, our neighboring state. Louisiana spends over $3700 more per student than Texas, which helps put our funding position into perspective. So, a natural question is, why is Louisiana able to spend $3,700 more per student than Texas? The simplest way to think about it

092is this. Louisiana has a bigger glass than Texas. A bigger glass means more total funding capacity per student and ultimately for the school district. And the size of that glass or how much funding a state provides for public education is ultimately determined by the state legislature. Texas needs a bigger glass. So we already know that Texas is behind the curve in overall per student funding. The next question is what does the basic aotment actually generate in revenue and how does it translate into dollars for school districts? Through the foundation school program, the state determines how much funding each district receives using two main formulas. The tier one basic entitlement and tier 2 enrichment. The tier one basic entitlement is where the majority of district funding lives and includes most of the program aotments that you're

093familiar with. These include gifted and talented, CTE, special education, bilingual dyslexia, and several other programs. As I mentioned earlier, the basic aotment of $6,215 is multiplied by average daily attendance because districts are funded on attendance and not enrollment. With that in mind, let's took it let's take a look at one allotment you are familiar with and see how that calculation works in real life. Now, this is one of the easier a lotments to follow, but I think you'll find the results interesting. [snorts] Here's [clears throat] a reallife look at how our bilingual program allotment comes together here at our district. We actually have three different bilingual instructional program arrangements and each one comes with a different funding weight based on the instructional delivery. The state starts with a basic allotment, applies the assigned weight, and

094then multiplies it by our average daily attendance to determine the funding amount. So in this case, we have a total average daily attendance of about 4,900 in emergent and non-emergent bilingual students. When you multiply each of the ADAs by the basic aotment and the different weights across the instructional arrangements, it adds up to about $3.1 million in total bilingual funding. So the example I just walked through is one of the programs funded through the foundation school program under tier one basic entitlement. Now, let's look at tier two enrichment. Tier 2 allows a district to generate additional funding above its basic entitlement through a complex formula that includes golden and copper pennies. We'll dive deeper into these pennies in our next section in our next session when we cover tax rates. School districts may access up

095to a total of 17 enrichment pennies. Currently, Brian ISD leverages six golden pennies and zero copper. The first five golden pennies may be adopted by the board without an election. Brian ISD held a voter approved tax rate election in 2017 to access an additional penny. To leverage the remaining two golden pennies, the district would need to hold another VATRE or voter approved tax rate election. Now, based on the current estimates, these two pennies could possibly generate uh approximately $5.5 million in additional revenue. But because this funding is driven by weighted average daily attendance, projections must be conservative and carefully calculated. So in summary, the basic aotment is the primary driver of Texas school finance and serves as the core formula for generating revenue. The foundation school program supports district maintenance and operations by funding a

096basic educational program for all of our students. Because the basic aotment flows through every funding weight and program, even the smallest increase creates a statewide ripple effect. And for that reason, the legislature is very deliberate and cautious when considering increases. So, as a final parting thought on the basic aotment, I want to credit Dr. Ivara for her uh creative insight in helping me frame this message. When the tide rises, all the boats rise. And in Texas school finance, that means all programs rise. be happy to take any questions at this time. >> Mr. Fiddle, I have a I have a this is going to sound maybe like a very basic question. Um, >> you know, people are used to getting their paychecks once a week, um, twice a week, however that goes. I I'm just

097curious how, and I'm I'm looking at the the bilingual program example of of where, you know, the district would receive $3.1 million. I I'm just how do how frequently do we receive money is it because our expenditures that that till never stops >> ticking. Um and so I'm just curious how does money flow into the district? Do we get it and mixed in with this average daily attendance? I'm just curious of how all that works um if it's calculated based off an average daily attendance. >> Yes, sir. Excellent question. So, our FSP payments or our foundation school payments um we get paid three times a year. We get 80% of our funding in September and October and then we receive our last payment in August of the following fiscal year. So, the accounting can be

098a little tricky uh especially since the TEA fiscal year does not align with the district's fiscal year. So, there's a you know a few little accounting entries. is we got to book a receivable at the end of our fiscal year to recognize that revenue as received in the current fiscal year. But we do receive 80% of our foundation school program revenue in September and October and with one last payment in August. Now the reasoning for that we're considered to be in payment class three which is why we only get three payments. Um our wealth per ADA is what determines our payment class. So in other words, the state says you're wealthy enough per ADA, you will have enough cash or revenue when you start collecting your tax collections. So we get September, October's payment and

099then our tax collections November, December, January, February. So we receive the majority of our revenue when the state brings their payments in September and October. We collect tax collections uh late in the fall and that's supposed to carry us through the year. At least that's the state's methodology. So the cash flow is different from budget because cash is not budget. That's why cash flow should be uh kept separately and a cash flow statement which which I do um which is separate from budgeting altogether. Remember budget is just a plan. How much revenue do I plan to receive for the year? How much uh in expenditures do I plan to expend throughout the year? very different from cash flow. >> But back to the ADA question because I had the same question on that slide. If

100you can go back to that one where you use the bilingual as the example. So what how so our average daily attendance is different every day. It sure is. >> Okay. So is it the ADA from last year that impacts this year? And so if our basic aotment is the 6215, I don't think people realize like we don't get that. We'd have to have 100% ADA to get that. So it's always less than that. But is the ADA based on last year? So you are correct in that ADA changes and shifts every single day. Okay. So at the very beginning of at the very beginning of the budget process, I estimate what the ADA is going to be for the entire year. Okay? So what the state does is it pays you on the estimates

101that you submit in your PU per pupil projections. So that's how the state knows how much cash they're going to flow through your district because we give the state estimates. Okay? But and they pay you on those estimates and then they have this process called settle up at the very end. So they pay you according to the estimates that you as a district submit. So that way the everything flows right and then every day that attendance is different. That is why our PES data is absolutely critical and important for for it to be accurate because the state pays us on estimates throughout the year and then they shore up and they they settle up with us in September. So as a as CFOs do as they should do is they update the state funding template

102every six weeks. So, I'm always hounding either Jennifer Lemons or somebody in technology and saying, "Hey, um are are you know, how up-to-date is is this information?" Especially after a legislative year when they introduce new funding aotments, it's very important for those data elements to be included in our PES reporting because I am looking at that state funding template every six weeks to make sure to follow and track our funding and monitor that state funding. At the same time, I'm looking at tax collections because there's a there's a relationship between tax collections and state funding. So, um, in summary, we get paid um on on what we think the state's going to pay us and then they settle up at the very end on after the summer submission in September. the state looks, okay, we

103paid you 84 million, but you actually earned 86 because your ADA was higher than expected, so we're going to give you an additional $2 million. >> But it's why we're always doing those budget amendments. >> Absolutely. Things change throughout the year. And if you're a rookie CFO, you may have um highly estimated your ADA and then they pay you on that. And then by the time you get to the end in September after the summer submission, that's what you get paid on. So you it's possible that some school districts get overpaid throughout the year. And that's why another reason why you're supposed to be watching that funding template and that cash flow because it doesn't mean you you get to keep everything that they give you. They settle up with you in September. >> They

104settle up or they settle down. Well, and I think it's just hard for people to understand [snorts] because most people budget off of what what they think their income is going to be and hopefully most of us have, you know, a relatively stable income so we can do those pro projections. In this case, it's a moving target all the time. Every day is a moving target. Yes, ma'am. Especially when the legislature increases the homestead exemption or compresses the tax rate, it it it can be challenging to estimate those tax collections because there's a direct relationship between the state funding and estimating those tax collections. So, if I if I overestimate on one, it'll directly impact the other. So, it it it is very much a moving target. >> Thank you for what you do to

105keep us straight. >> Yes. Thank you. our um attendance say say it's 2024 or 23 and so our attendance for that year is we go in after the year is over. We correct mistakes. We have the whole summer to fix the attendance the way you know it should be hopefully to correlate with the students being there or not being there and then so is it so it's one year that we're reporting in September or is it two years ago that it takes us that long? I mean anybody any district >> are we one year back or two years? Okay. >> One year back. Yes. Yeah. For example, just using the current year as an example, we started school in August, right? We know we we see the daily attendance reports. Uh we get they they

106get sent to us so we can see um what what that attendance is right now. At the very end of the year of the current year, I look at that there's a one report and it's it's a district total and it takes every all the six weeks attendance. It's it's just days present divided by days taught. It's a simple formula for every single uh campus. And then there's this one report at the very end that gives me a district total so I can see what that percentage is. We hover around 94 95%. We're I mean it's all things considered especially after the postcoid phenomenon. Um our our district hovers around 94 95%. So, but it does get um we do have the opportunity to make some fixes throughout the year and then that summer submission

107is what is what TEA uses to actually fund the district on >> for the current year. So, one year, you are correct. >> And and I guess I'm just curious, you mentioned one thing. I just want to make sure I understand it. [clears throat] Our our fiscal year ends June 30th, >> correct? But we will get our final settle up in September >> sometimes early October. Yes, sir. >> So, do are you having to go back and almost kind of untangle everything after you get in in the preceding fiscal year >> from the September payment? Is am I understanding that right? Am I making? >> You absolutely are. And that's one of the challenges of of having the of being a July 1 fiscal year. So TEA's fiscal year begins September 1. We used to

108be September 1, so it was a little bit easier um to estimate those things. But but either way, if you are reconciling your revenue every six weeks, you know what your receivable is going to be at June 30th. So you're either they're going to pay you on an estimate on the front end and then they settle up with you on the back end. So even even [snorts] if our fiscal year ends on June 30th, I should still be able to estimate by that time, am I overpaid or am I underpaid and then I book there's some accounting entries that I book uh to shore up the revenues and the expenditures. uh a question on >> and that's what our auditors do are are are here to do. Yes sir. >> U it is important that

109we com look and see what other states are are receiving or how they're funding. when you were comparing states, uh, do you look are you comparing all of the income we get from the as far as our funding? And I guess we're talking about just state funding and not federal or I'm not even sure about that. But but I guess the main question is we're talking about basic aotment. And when we're comparing Texas to other states, are we talking about basic aotment? We talking about every dollar we get or what? Well, we're we're looking at weighted funding. So, not just the basic aotment, but additional revenues received for educating diff educating different student populations. >> Well, but but we've got also which they did some strange stuff this last time where experienced teachers got quite

110a bit of money. So, is that in there too or not? >> Yes, sir. Well, actually this the US, if you're referring to the US Census Bureau, that data was two, it's two years ago. So 2324 is the latest data that the US Census Bureau has. >> Okay. But if you were doing it for the current year, would you be including the 5,000 that the very experienced teachers would >> Oh, yes. That's what I was assuming that you would because that's very that's a lot of money. >> Correct. >> Okay. So that that clears that up for me because I would want to make sure we're doing our best to talk about apples to apples because when I get questions, I want to make sure I'm giving everybody good good answers on how we truly

111compare, especially if I'm talking to our legislators or not that I've had a lot of conversations with the governor, but if I ever have one, I want to be sure I'm accurate with him, too. So >> yes, sir. >> Oh, >> I'm sorry. Mr. Fiddle, would you remind the board and share with our community what we're about to do in January to verify the accuracy rate with uh data entry when it comes to weighted funding because it's critically important that we're putting it into the system per student group, if you will, because it does impact the dollar sign if they're special education, bilingual, etc. >> January. >> Yes. The review that we're about to do for it's a, you know, the financial review for auditing folders. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for reminding

112me of that. Uh we will be performing a PI's financial audit. Um so we are engaging services with region 6 and they're going to be doing what's called uh student cumulative folder audits which means for example we're going to pull 20 to 24 student folders from our elementarymentaries really from our campuses just across the district. and they're going to see if little Johnny if if he's receiving dyslexic services or bilingual services. They're going to go into the Skyward system and verify that they are coded correctly so that we receive accurate funding for little Johnny who's bilingual and also receiving dyslexic services. So that that's just a very basic example, but we'll be uh they're going to be sampling 20 to 24 student folders across each of our campuses. Um, so that way we again it

113it all goes back to the integrity of that PE's data that actually gets reported. So if we do uh find some errors, we can fix them and then we can take the necessary steps. You know, it may have been a training issue. It may have just been there's a variety of reasons. Sometimes just the turnover. Um we the the school district currently does uh what's called data validation testing. So we do our own little internal audits as well. Um, so this is just going to be one more layer of assurance, you know, just a different lens, different outside perspective, somewhat outside looking in. Um, and yeah, so they're just coming in with a different set of eyes and see what we can find. And you know what? If if it's all good, then it's all

114good. So, and then if there's any improvements that we need to make, we can implement those as well. And is it a true statement that if we find a mistake or two at any point in time this year, if we rectify it, we can recoup the uh weighted funding from the very first day of school? >> Absolutely. Yes. >> So, it's a very good exercise to make sure that we have coding where it needs to be to garner the appropriate revenue. >> Yes. Yes. So, we we we have there's uh submissions throughout the school year. The very final one is is the summer submission and that's where we go in and we reconcile anything and everything um from from all of the from all of the you know six weeks so that way we get

115final funding on on the last final submission and then we get settled up in September. >> Does does that audit include how we take attendance, when we take attendance, how we report attendance, all of that as well? >> Yes, sir. this this particular one we're only going to be looking at um student identifiers like you know different student populations like we said make sure the bilingual are coded correctly dyslexia and then a little bit later in the spring the attendance one will follow as well >> and the same with that if there's any error with any attendance we can uh correct it and then recoup the money back from the first day of school. >> Yes. So we don't expect big issues. It's just another set of eyes coming in to help us verify. Um

116so it's a very good practice. Thank you. >> Yes ma'am. >> When I um did worked truency and all things attendance um when Brian High was the only school in town >> um or the only high school I remember my office aids would see and hear everything we were working on attendance. And I had a young man one time and he was really interested and he said, "So, Miss Waller, if I miss three days, I'm costing us a desk." [laughter] I said, "Yeah, that that's kind of" He said, "So, so he was trying to figure it all out." So, he said, "If my friends knew that every time we were absent, it cost us another chair in the cafeteria or another water fountain. He said, "I think they do a lot better." And I said,

117"But we can't tell you that your value is a chair. You know, if you miss, you're going to cost us a chair." There's that thin line between, you know, the child thinking their worth has to do with something tangible in the right. But he got it. I mean, he understood what we were talking about. But it's also why we as uh school districts have advocated for so long about um having funding based on enrollment, not attendance. Uh >> because we staff on enrollment. >> Yes, we we have the costs either way. Um and yes, every student needs to be in school so they can learn, but um it's very challenging sometimes to help families and children understand. I mean, uh, you know, checking their kids out early or, you know, keeping them home or taking

118them on vacation for a particular week, whatever that is. Um, it has direct impacts on the district. >> Yes, ma'am. And that's really an education piece. So, we always, uh, you know, we look to the board if you're ever out in the community and anybody's, you know, the ever have a conversation, it's always good to educate um, everyone on on just the cost of attendance. It adds up. Well, and the last thing I'll just mention about it is that as much as I have learned about school finance, really as a board member, as a teacher, I didn't really understand that at all. I knew about weighted funding, I knew about ADA, I had no idea how complicated it all is. Um, but it's really hard when you compare it to business, as an example, business

119and industry. It's a completely different animal, and much of it we have no control over. It is it is definitely it's um a different language from from the corporate world. So especially with just acrruel accounting uh where we live and breathe in an industry where the majority of our employees earn their paychecks in 10 months but they get paid over 12. So just the accounting entries uh related to that can make financial reporting a little challenging sometimes too um as we talked about in our in our our our last committee meeting. So, so yeah. So, this is a different industry for sure, >> but I know our employees greatly appreciate being paid over 12 months unlike uh some places in higher ed&m uh who doesn't do that if faculty are on a less than 12

120month appointment. So, it makes it very hard to budget when you have months that you receive no paycheck. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you. I I also left another resource on your dis. It's it was a very good resource from Tasbo. It's called a school finance basics 101 something. So some reading material on your spare time. Thank you. >> We'll move to our cons 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. >> Motion was w made by Mrs. Benford, seconded by Dr. Harlon Wolf. Um all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> Motion passes. The first action item on our agenda this

121evening is to consider approval of the academic calendar. Director of counseling services Donna Willlet will present. Hello. I'm back. I feel like I've been up here all night tonight. Um, we're going to talk about the academic calendar. Hopefully, we will finish it up today. Um, again, the goal of all of this is to build an academic calendar to support the needs of students, staff, and parents in our community. Um, our timeline, we started late October. really the meat of the work was done through November and then now we finished it up um met with calendar committee um and DEIC last Thursday afternoon after the survey ser uh closed. These are the options that we put forth option one and option two. Option one is pretty similar start time to what we had this year. A

122little bit of adjustment in the spring with some professional development, but very similar to what we had um have now. Um option two is a little bit of a later start, very compact with less professional development um built in throughout the year. Um the actual survey itself ran from December 2nd through December 10th. Um as you can see we had a little over 2500 people complete um the survey. Um it included parents, staff, students and community. um with a majority being made up by the parents and the staff. Um in all areas, staff, students, community, option one uh was uh by far their biggest cho the number one choice for parents. It was nearly split. It was a 49 51%. Um it was a difference of 22 votes on parents between option one and option

123two. Um the overall percentage ended up with um the calendar option one having 58% while option two had 42%. Um again last Thursday afternoon met uh with both the calendar committee and DEIC. Um they review the results uh from the calendar survey and the committees recommend the school board approve calendar option one. Are there questions? >> Refresh my memory just I was looking at the early release that's actually coming up this year and it's in in the number one probably in number two also but it's you have an early release on on this coming >> again this I'm just saying this coming because it's the same thing for this year coming up on Thursday and then it's everybody on Friday. So >> what's the logic behind that? I just wonder sometimes if that's not a

124problem for parents to have to go and do deal with an early release and then a a later release for the younger kids is so I assume there's some strong reasons to do that. >> Um our secondary folks very much are for that when they make and build a final exam schedule. um if you are forcing like four exams a day as you're fitting out finishing out that semester is a lot for students to do. Um and so they try to break it up and so by having a set schedule where you can do three exams on Thursday, three exams on Friday and then have that early release. But it has to do with um kind of how intense and how much time you know for students in regards to final exams and can you

125really act you know prepare for four exams on one day >> doesn't it I'm going to guess it also helps our our teachers uh try to finalize grading and that kind of thing >> at that secondary level some of them are carrying between 150 and 180 students. So to allow them additional time uh to grade is also incredibly beneficial for them. >> Right. I move approval of the 2026 2027 district academic calendar as presented. >> Second. >> Motion made by Dr. Haron Wolf, seconded by Mrs. Waller. Any additional discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you very much. >> See, >> next we will discuss and consider updates to board policy. Um, presenting Associate Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Dr. Barbara Ibara. >>

126Thank you, sir. Uh, good evening. Uh, this evening, we'd like to bring to you an update to board policy. Um, this is a pretty elaborate and extensive update because it is reflective of the last legislative session. As a quick reminder, we uh recently visited about this. Uh, but there are a number of different ways that we maintain our board policies, specifically those local policies. But this evening, we're also going to be updating you on some updates to legal policies as well. This particular packet comes from the Texas Association of School Boards, and it is a numbered packet, meaning it is a full release. Um, they had to do this particular set of policies uh kind of rolling throughout the state because of the the extent of the number of policies that were impacted. took them

127quite a bit of time to customize to each district to make sure it was in alignment with our district's local policies. Uh, one more quick reminder, we have legal policy, which the board does not act on. That's what the legislature does. But the local policy is the board's governance on how we implement and the parameters we put on those local policies in re in relation to the legal. And then the administration takes care of the green section there, which is how we do it, operating procedures and those sorts of reg sorts of regulations on how that policy is implemented in action in the district. Um so this evening, what we'd like to do is give you an update um from a number of different cabinet members on what some of these policies actually looked like.

128Now, you'll notice um from the board attachments, the actual legal update with the explanatory notes is close to 1,400 pages. So, it's quite extensive. Um, that's the legal side of the house. There's another attachment there that is specific to the local policies and it's about 71 pages. Some of those are relatively minor in terms of their um their edits and their changes and they are marked up on the screen so that you can see what those changes were. Sometimes it's vocabulary that the state changed the vernacular for something and other times it's much more extensive. So again, we're going to bring you a highle update of what that looks like. Um, knowing that you've actually already heard a great deal of what's contained in this policy update. This was part of the summer training that

129was in response to the legal updates where we had um Joey Moore from Walsh Gyos come and provide a training specific to the board and provide legal guidance um on the last legislative session and all of the updates that came from that session. So this is just the implementation from the Texas Association of School Boards on what all of those changes from the legislative session look like in board policy. Okay. So some of these are going to be very very familiar to you. >> I'm going to apologize in advance and say that I didn't get to reading uh as much of this as I could till this afternoon. >> Uh and I do have some questions. Sure. >> Some of them are pretty minor. I hope some at least a couple maybe not quite but

130uh and and and I don't necessarily want to delay a vote on this and just in case some significant changes might be considered. Uh but I just want to at least bring them up because some of them do probably need to have some discussion. Uh and as I said, some are quite minor. Do you want me to just kind of address those as we go or would you rather go through your whole uh summary and then we could go back? So, we have a quick presentation, but maybe as we bring up a section of policy, for example, if one of the policies you wanted to discuss was in section B, when we get to section B, could you bring those forward at that time? Would that work for you? >> Yeah, it's it's whatever works

131best for you. >> Okay, it's no problem. We might cover it on our slides, but again, with 1400 pages, we just cherrypicked a few of them uh to bring >> these are all on the local Yeah. >> Okay, perfect. We can do that. Certainly, sir. Um so again much of this should be a review but certainly do stop us if there's something in particular that 71page document of the local policies those are the ones that certainly the board has discussion and governance over. Okay. Um so section A there's very little that changed in section A. Um of note they did update the goals for the state of Texas and pertain that pertains to academics. Um, and so this section was added under the educational philosophy section. And again, it's it mirrors what our board goals

132are already state, but now these are the state goals um, in response to core academics. But you'll also notice goals five and six, which I think are really aligned tightly to what our board of trustees has already adopted, skills and credentiing, and then also post-secondary readiness and coursework, so that when they leave, when our students walk that stage and they go on to post-secary institutions, they don't need remediation. That is one of the goals of the state of Texas and it has long been a goal of this board of trustees along with that credentiing and skills um from industry based certifications. Um but it's nice to see that tight alignment between um the work of of the the district and also that it's mirroring what the state says is their priorities as well. Uh local

133B or local governance under section B. Um there are several policies in this section that do implement several changes. Some I know you are very familiar with. Um, for example, the posting of board meetings is no longer within 72 hours, it's three business days. So, that really moves that timeline for posting. Typically, for a Monday evening board meeting, we must post by Tuesday. Um, anytime on Tuesday, it was post by Tuesday. And so, it just backs up that timeline. Previously, that would have been on a Friday. But business days, and if it there's a holiday break in there, we can't count the days on the holiday break. So, it needs to be calendar business days. Um, you'll also note um that we have a added the language for a roll call vote um that we

134as Mr. Brian just demonstrated, we have to know who voted and record that in the minutes for each meeting from now on. We've actually been doing it all semester already. Um, so that has been in place, but that is a new requirement of all Texas school districts that every board member's individual vote is recorded in the minutes for every action item. So, just um something I know you're familiar with, but it is now in our policy as well. Uh, the times of the meeting must all be after business hours. Um, thus the workshops were moved from noon until 6:00 p.m. and are now at the same time frame. That's all under be uh under board meetings. Are there any questions on that particular policy? Yes sir, go right ahead. >> Okay. Uh comments whatever it

135one of the things in here is is the deadline for submitting items for inclusion on the agenda is 10 days 10th calendar day before the regular meeting >> and that's due to the packing up of the posting of the agenda. So, if the meeting is posted on Tuesday um and or the meeting is on Monday and we don't post until we have to post by Tuesday, we need a few days to get the agenda items together. Now, that is something though that this board can change the timeline on. >> Well, I only reason I'm bringing it up is because anytime you're using calendar days, then it it's supposed to take into account holidays, too, isn't it? Uh or not. >> That's the discretion of the board. It doesn't mean we can't accept it. It means

136that if there was something that were causing it not to go forward or there was concern about it, that provision could be utilized by the board president to say we're going to hold on that until the next agenda. >> Okay. You can still u possibly violating it by saying calendar days because calendar days include holidays. So if you had I don't know a few days holidays whichever whatever we have holidays during the year uh would that throw it off? But if if you don't think it will, then I'm not going to worry about it. I >> It doesn't preclude us from accepting it if it's it doesn't stop us from accepting the agenda item if we're able to get it in on time. It just gives that safety net in terms of posting. But TASBY

137didn't make a notation on this particular policy that that is something that there might want to be discussion about um if it is a concern of the board. >> Okay. Well, and then and then beed >> public meetings or public participation meetings This is where um let me see if I can find it. >> They removed the moving the public comment to certain agenda items and put it all at the front. That was one of the things that was pretty different with ours. It says it says that um at regular board meetings that begin on or after 5:00 PM the board shall permit public comment on matters that are within the board's control or jurisdiction regardless of whether the topics on the agenda uh posted with the notice of the meeting. Okay, that that literally

138would apply to both of our meetings each month. It says unless you're going to try to say that our first meeting just because we call it a workshop or whatever is not a special meeting. I mean it's not a regular meeting. It's a special meeting which doesn't legal the wording. >> I'm sorry my lawyer's coming out. >> That's all right. >> Is is that's that's not a good wording. I think it it used to apply because we only had one meeting at 5:00 or later and now we have all our meetings at five o'clock or later. So that that wording just seems off to me. It it's uh at regular meetings that begin on or after 5:00 PM. So like I said, the only way that even works is to say our first meeting of

139the month is not a regular meeting. It's always a special meeting. And I think we've been calling it that, but it's not reality a special meeting. It's it's our regular first meeting of the month and we call it a workshop. >> Does that make sense? >> It does. Yes, sir. >> Uh so I think it could be easily fixed. Uh, but I think we'd have to be a little creative about what meeting we're talking about, which is like tonight's meeting and not our our first meeting of the month. >> There is another board policy um this this particular policy pertains to be just public participation, but there's another policy that further defines when a regular meeting happens. Um, and I can go look it up here for just a second, but that policy defines that

140it is typically the third Monday of the month after 6 or after 5:00 p.m. and that is the regular meeting of the board. >> So if it's So you're saying it's defined somewhere >> in another policy? Yes, sir. [snorts] >> Well, as long as we're consistent in calling our workshop meeting, then I suppose we're we're okay. Uh but that was a concern that we were perhaps using outdated language there because it used to make perfect sense because our workshop was at noon. >> You're right. [laughter] >> So let's see if there's anything else. Uh, and then I hope I think we've been told that we can do this on a regular basis, but we obviously have our our u showcase what we're you know anything we're we have like teachers of the month and so

141on. >> Yes, sir. Um before we have uh the uh public comment, uh it might be helpful just to add the term before beginning uh at the beginning of the business portion of the meeting because literally we call the meeting to order before we before we do anything and the meetings in we we are conducting a a meeting as soon as we call it to order. So, so I would >> beginning a business portion of the meeting. >> Yeah, I think the business portion of the meeting would would certainly be okay. And and we've been told by our attorneys that that's going to be okay. I just would like it to be literally correct. And and I I don't >> certainly >> I think when we have quite a few presentations and and recognitions that

142somebody could say, uh, no, it wasn't you. You didn't start. I I was here at the beginning of the meeting and you made me wait for 30 minutes or 45 minutes, whatever. So I just would like to be literally correct on that. >> Okay, we can add that language and update taskbies. It's again that's ex it's more specific to the language which makes sense to me. >> Yeah. And uh that's that was it on be. I have a little more complicated comment down further on but we haven't gotten to that yet. So we can move on. So no worries. >> I promise it won't take terribly long but I did want to bring that that to your attention as well. and then I it won't be uh just one more issue that I'm I'm a

143little concerned about. >> I appreciate it, Mr. Stasnney. Um the only other item on B that we might point out is that there is a new provision for close session regarding cyber security and infrastructure and it's you always were able to go into close section close session to discuss those confidential matters. Now there's just a new governmental code to site as you do so. So, not a big change there, but they're honoring the need to do so in this day and age that um it is certainly a very highly confidential um reporting mechanism that Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Himmel uh may need to come back and report to you on. So, cyber security in particular. >> Any other questions on B? >> Okay, we're going to move into section C and we have a number

144of presenters that will come forward. I believe Miss Johnson is first. I am. So the first two CQ and CQD. So CQ just there's no changes legally, but the local policy just talks about AI. It's kind of getting that into the policy now. Um it's talking about some training that's coming up. Um right now what we're hearing is going to be geared towards me basically the uh cyber security coordinator. Uh but we'll see as they're developing it. So it is still in development. Um, and that goes along with the CQD, which is they actually created the Texas Cyber Command unit. So, they're going to kind of oversee all of things cyber security. And out of that will also come those training requirements as well. So, that's kind of why all those House bill and Senate

145bills are listed there. Any questions about that one? Okay. And then I think >> we're gonna talk and then I'll bring Derek and I think Pat will come up. When you look at the first one with the CSA, the requirement to have at least one breaching tool and one ballistic shield. Rich brought that into the boardroom. Y'all approved that purchase. He got on that very early. In fact, many districts kind of didn't get on it as quickly and then there was a back order. So, we're very thankful for that. Um, and I know that that was run through our safety and security uh meeting as well. And so Derek, I think you've got the next one. >> Okay. When you look at the uh policy uh CSA and you look at uh local policy as

146far as the uh Senate Bill 8 where it refers to designation and use of private space, that's basically talking about locker rooms as far as uh keeping female locker rooms uh and fe and male locker rooms separate. uh from that perspective, but also when your coaches uh that are coaching opposite sports are not entering those uh dressing rooms when those students are present in those locker rooms. And like I said, we're already already compliant with those uh uh uh laws uh when it comes to our coaches entering those uh locker rooms at those times and also when it comes to uh using those locker rooms for meeting rooms, things of that nature, uh we're are complying with those as well. So when our I'll use soccer, girls soccer as an example. We have a a

147man girls soccer coach. >> Correct. >> So when he goes out of town and it's cold >> and he's in a locker room for another school where I know we've made concessions in our locker room for our coaches and students, >> but he goes to another school and we don't have those concessions. he's got to take those girls outside and meet with them because he can't go into that space. >> So, we've been proactive in that. We already have had a meeting with all our uh coaches that are coaching obviously sports, for example, soccer. Uh we we basically told them to uh be proactive and go ahead and reach out to their that opponent and and making sure they have a designated area for them to go uh uh from that standpoint of it. And

148I say I will be also reaching out to those ads as well to make sure uh uh that's not the case. >> I thought it might be complicated. >> Yes. >> So it's going to be something that architecturally we have to address for the future when we build locker rooms >> and Okay. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. The next uh item is uh >> policy CNC which re is regarding threepoint seat belts on buses. Uh this is pretty straightforward. By the end of May, I before the end of May, I will come to the board with a presentation of our our bus fleet, which buses have threepoint seat belts, which buses do not, and an estimated cost to either retrofit or replace those buses. We have to report that to TEA before May 29th

149of this year. So sometime in the next semester, I'll be coming back to fulfill this requirement. >> Question about that. I'm thinking little kids on a bus with a threepoint. See, how how do they even buckle it or is it just required they our buses have it? They don't have to wear it. >> They're required to wear them. Yes, ma'am. >> But how do we do that? >> It's a challenge. >> Okay. Thank you, legislator. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> So, whatever we do, since we always get ahead of other districts, we need to patent it or or get a a a copyright on it and make our district a million dollars off whatever that having to be able to get young kids seated in a seat belt in a timely manner. Okay,

150we're going to move on to section D, which is personnel. Um, so our first one to um kind of bring out is DVA talking about credentials and records. Um, so House Bill 2 of course uh began the reappeal and rolling back of our DOI provisions to be able to hire uncertified teachers. So that is just they're placing that into policy. Now, uh DBD, um this is conflict of interest. This is also called the moonlighting bill. um places restrictions and limits um outside employment for district administrators. So um the local policy impact is it added language because um administrators now require board approval um to do moonlighting and I think Mrs. Caroline has actually mentioned this before. Uh DC employment practices um this amends the amendment requirement for posting of vacancies. So it used to be

15110 days. Now the minimum posting is actually five days. Um and then DGBA is our grievance and employee uh employee complaints and grievance policy. So we have some language added in the local policy referencing our DOI plan as well as an added requirement to provide notice to the employee against whom a complaint has been filed um as part of the process. Um, so that employee has the opportunity to submit a written response as part of the grievance record. >> Back to the moonlighting one. We don't have anybody doing that. >> Not that I'm aware of right now. Yes, ma'am. >> We we uh >> if if if we do, we will find out and >> it get to you. >> Our policy is pretty much the same as it's been, isn't it? As far as

152DG uh DGBA. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh the legislature if I'm not mistaken came up with something that if you are not a district of innovation was very different. Uh we certainly weren't very excited about going to that. So that's why we're using our district of innovation opportunity to to keep basically what we had. >> That is correct. Uh there was some discussion back when all this came up the first time if nobody else I brought it up at least was that I had some concerns about uh the notice provision and the way it's worded it says you know that you got 15 days and that's all fine. Uh time limits strictly construed that's in there. Uh, and we've we've talked about how we really want people to try to informally resolve complaints. And

153by the way, the all these things that I'm talking about are not just in DGBA, but also NFG with students and parents and also GF with public complaint. >> Uh, and I think it wouldn't be that hard. Well, first off, let me just say that if if I were a parent or an employee or anybody and I was trying to in good faith uh act informally and not file a grievance because I'm getting some encouraging feedback and then I and 16th day or 17th day it's like oh well it all fell apart when I'll file a grievance well sorry too late you were you shouldn't have been trying to resolve it informally. I would hope we wouldn't do that, but it very it's very clearly says, well, you can't get more time unless the there's

154an agreement from the district. You can't they would have to mutual you would have to mutually agree that you're going to get more time to file your grievance. It's very harsh sounding and and I I I don't want to go to what you know completely what what the uh default rule is for if you don't have a if you're not a district of innovation, but it would sure be easy to say that once you form start an informal resolution process that you would have some ability to receive uh notice uh from the district that uh we're we're doing this, but if you we're going to give we're going to let you know when it's we're going to give you a new deadline on when to file a grievance while we try to work this out.

155So that then they would know, okay, if we don't get it worked out by this date, then I still have time to file a grievance. Again, that's the lawyer and me coming out. This this if this were in the legal system, it wouldn't it wouldn't look too good. This this seems awfully harsh. And maybe I shouldn't say that the legal systems can be harsh, too, but but normally you get all sorts of notices. you you get plenty of opportunities to make sure that that it wasn't just an oversight or whatever. Uh there's a lot lot to protect uh people in the legal system. So I I just want people to be encouraged to do an informal resolutions, not be push feel like they're pushed into uh filing a grievance because literally it says if you

156don't do it within 15 days, you're in trouble. >> Correct. And I just don't think it would be that hard uh to to add language as I said that would basically the district would say we're going to try to resolve this and we will let you know if we think we're reaching an impass where you know you're going to need to file a grievance because we're not going to do what you want. Uh I think that's a fair way to do it. That way the person is not going to follow the grievance because they know they're safe. They can file a little bit later. the district can decide when the deadline, the new deadline would be because that's clearly allowed. Uh but the way it is right now, uh basically it's just tough luck if

157if we wanted it to be tough luck. Now, again, y'all are good guys. We're good guys. We're all good guys, right? We can say, "Oh, sure. We'll let them have we'll go ahead and give them more." >> The only one thing that I'll tell you is since since being here, we have not um dismissed any any grievances for timeliness. >> Yeah. um the ones that have come to our attention again, lowest res level of resolution and we're still following through with the process if it if it comes >> and that's the way it should be, right? >> I just wish it weren't worded so harshly. >> So, uh because as I said, if it weren't you, uh we get somebody in here is not as nice as you then and I'm not on the board

158or whatever. The point of the matter is is that it it is a harsh it's it's worded harshly and that's partly what generated what the legislature did. So, so because they did see it as as rather harsh. Uh, and and you know, the legislature does things we don't like, but sometimes they make they make some sense. So, I guess I guess I don't mind leaving it like it is, but I would like to we can I guess we can change our policy at any time. I would like that to at least be studied and look at it to make it match what you're doing instead of well it's only by your good graces that they get they get the opportunity to move forward with it because because we do get grievances eventually. y'all have, I

159think, greatly reduced the number of grievances because you're you're acting in a positive manner with people and you're trying to resolve it informally, but sooner or later we're going to get grievances and or we're going to get people saying, "Okay, well, they told me that we could maybe we'll try to work this out." And then and then at some point they're told, you know, say, "Well, it didn't work, so I want to file a grievance." Well, sorry, you're too late. And again, if you always give them more time, then it's not a problem. But literally it it says I'm I'm reading it says the time limits are strictly construed. That that only means one thing. They're strictly construed. It doesn't mean oh no they're not. They're just sort of guidelines. So so I think it

160could be improved upon. I'm not going to spend any more time on it tonight and uh when we have a long meeting, but but that was something that came up when when they first uh initiated the changes in this at the legal level. uh that uh that that there was some discussion and and and I I I brought it up at that time and I thought, well, maybe we're going to at least uh take some of the better parts of that and use that uh in our policy uh that we have the ability to uh kind of do it however we think is appropriate. >> Use our discretion. >> Thank you, Mr. Sazzy. I just want to reiterate what Mr. Roberts shared. Uh so far we haven't had to dismiss anything based on timeliness. We

161do consider each one case by case and we take great pride in resolving all issues at the lowest level of res resolution. So I know in my nine years in the district as deputy and now superintendent I have personally heard as a hearing officer things that would be considered untimely um and still worked through the process. So, uh, should it ever become a problem, we will absolutely, uh, come back into the boardroom and seek your guidance and possible revision. But, so far, we feel good about it. >> And just to remind you how long I've been on the board, I have seen situations where we basically told people, "Sorry, too late. You can't file." >> And it and it and it wasn't necessarily just a frivolous claim. So, I saw it happen and that really

162bothered me at the time that that that we're basically shutting the door on it. And there was, I guess, a a feeling by the administration that, well, we don't, you know, we don't want to deal with these people anyway, so too bad. And it was pretty harsh. And that's a while back and it wasn't you. And uh but as I said, it it just it just seems to me if we're if we clearly are are going down that road anyway, then why not reflect it in the policy is that's all I'm been trying to say. So So if we don't do anything, we don't do anything. But I'm asking that at least be looked at. So that if there's something that could be done that won't >> upset the apple cart, then then I would

163love to see it. >> We actually did take a look at the language we could put in place for informal resolution. Um and and we came across a couple of obstacles to that. Um the ambiguity of informally resolving and the extent to which that looks. So, we went back over instead our current um grievances on file for the past several uh months, year or so, and we looked at, okay, if there's evidence that for example uh there's a student situation, let's do a hypothetical. There's a student situation and the parent disagrees with um perhaps a disciplinary action and the kid is given the consequence. Well, then the the parent goes back to the principal and and disagrees with it and says, "I disagree with this. Can you please look into it?" The principal says, "Yes,

164I'll look into it." Comes back to the parent and says, "This is firm." Well, the date of the complaint starts then, not from the date of the original with the discipline. So, there's different ways to interpret it. the parent is now grieving the administrator's final decision which was after the informal resolution process concluded and so I think it still can be applied to encourage the informal first and then the grievance the date of the grievance begins with the conclusion of that final decision from the informal resolution process and it does give you those extra days not from the original date of incident of the actual infraction I think that's how uh Mrs. Mrs. Carbine has encouraged us to interpret that policy and ensure that we are making sure we're listening to the parent and when

165was the like they tried and this is the moment at which they they disagree and and would like someone else to hear it. Um, so we we did actually go back and look at the policies um just to keep it as clear as as possible, but certainly it can come back to the board of trustees at any time for any revision that you would like to see for all three of those policies that you referenced. >> Well, and again, I the the the good part of all this discussion right now is that y'all are doing a great job. And as I said, I I I hope that continues and I hope no matter who's in your shoes or anybody else's shoes in the future, it'll it'll be uh graciously applied. Uh but literally it does

166say that, you know, you said, well, it's the way it's interpreted, but it says uh within this is for employees within 15 days of the date the employee first knew or with reasonable diligence should have known of the decision or action giving rise to the complaint or grievance. The and that's the first decision. That's not for the kid. it would be the penalty. That's that's it. That's what gave rise to it. And you're saying, "Well, no, it's not. It's it's it's something else. It's the decision to uphold it." I don't I don't see how that's a reasonable interpretation. Maybe that's the way y'all are applying it. >> That's how we've been interpreting it, sir. >> Yeah. So, so that's >> just to allow for the lowest level of resolution. >> So, I I just I

167don't want anybody to get a gotcha. And and that's what this is all about, this discussion about. And again, I'm not going to take any more time tonight. I I I think I've tried to make it as clear as I can. I'm looking at it from the standpoint of of our employees and and the parents and I want us to be uh fair. I don't want us to let it go hanging on and on. That that's not what what I'm asking for. I've already said it. You can just give and say, "Okay, we're doing this. We're going to do this informing. We will let you know, give you a fiveday notice or whatever if if we have decided that we're not going to extend your ability to file a grievance any further." and that way

168they're given a hard deadline and it's over. We don't have to let it go on forever. So, uh that that's the other part of it. >> Well, thank you for listening and uh if y'all can u maybe look at it one more time, I would appreciate it. >> Certainly. Um also, Mr. Stazzy to your question earlier, I verified that policy is be local. that defines when a regular board meeting is and gives the definition of when that trans when that takes place. What a regular board meeting takes place. The third Monday at 6 pm. >> Okay, good. >> I mean, we can move it obviously, but but it Okay. >> Um, so moving into section E instruction, this one's relatively brief. Um, I'm going to invite Mrs. Warren to come on down. On a more

169positive note, thinking about prek eligibility, uh we now have a new eligibility that we can consider when allowing students to enroll for non-tuitionbased prek. So, no fee to the parent, and that is when our teachers want to enroll their students with us. That would be an automatic eligibility for students for free prek. And that actually started for the 2526 school year. So we can now enroll students if uh their teacher or their parent is a teacher for the district for more than four hours of the day then they are eligible for free prek. >> And we have shouted that through the mountain top. >> Yeah, we have actually combed through uh our employees in the district to see who has uh identified that they have children uh that are preked and we have reached out

170to them and captured some of them and enrolled them. It's been great. [clears throat] Okay, we will continue to market that and recruit and hopefully retain our employees children. It's a great benefit for school teachers. >> Thank you. Uh the next one on here is a result of Senate Bill 12 and it is that each parent of a student will be afforded the opportunity for at least two in-person parent teacher conferences. Um the the the irony of this is I I think that that's been transpiring since um however a parent would like it. So um yes absolutely we will do that. Um it is not a stop drop and everyone have parent teacher conferences on a singular day kind of a moment. That's impractical for a high school. Um but it is the opportunity a

171teacher never refuses the opportunity to meet with a parent to discuss their child's progress. So it's just making sure that as a on the parent rights bill that that's included in the language. And so yes that is there now. Um but please know it was already in place and happening across Brian ISD. And then the last item there um they established the first week in April um as gifted and talent week. So that's you know a new thing to celebrate. Um there's a whole week for it now. We're very excited. And then uh next I believe is Mrs. Mononttoya with the student section of policy. Okay. We're going to first look at policy FFB. This is the student welfare and crisis intervention. And this just added the requirement that if we would have a threat

172against a campus, we must immediately uh provide to teachers and instructional assistants who may be directly affected uh by the threat a statement that contains the following. The existence of the threat, the nature of the threat, and any other pertinent details to ensure student and staff safety. We are already doing this. And then policy FFG, student welfare, child abuse and neglect. And this just is a a slight change. Reports of suspected abuse or negle neglect must now be made within 24 hours and in the past it's been uh 48 hours. Okay. Okay. And the final section of policy um is G uh dealing with community. And this particular policy references back to something that Mr. um Roberts mentioned a moment ago regarding the moonlighting bill. And it gives that specific language. and basically just says

173if the board were to allow um an administrator to moonlight and by moonlighting they mean an administrator um who does business is doing business with other districts that do business with our district and educational businesses to prevent a conflict of interest. So we can't go work for another ISD and provide professional development. You can't go work for a region service center and provide professional development. you can do other things but not for educational entities for which we do business. Um but should the board um determine that a principal has come forward or an administrator and they would like to go do contracting services with another district and they bring that contract to the board for consideration. Um that contract is public information and it can be released under the public information act. So it just

174ties it all kind of there together that that would be public facing. So, the administrator would need to know that if anyone requested it, it would be turned over. Okay. Any other questions about your 1400 pages of policy? >> What is the timeline for when these need to be approved and in place? Is it are we up against that time frame or >> uh legal automatically happens? Pardon me. Local is at the board's discretion and determination. It can wait. um they are already in effect um regardless of the adoption from the legal standpoint. Um but the guidance that it provides to the district on how to implement said legal policies is what is is waiting. So there is not a tremendous urgency to it. Um so if the board wanted to reconsider any of this

175um following the the holiday break, that's certainly not a problem. Yeah, I can weigh in to say anytime it's an update following a legislative session, yes, the timeline uh for us on the receiving end is um complicated because TASBY has to process all this. That's why if you recall, we brought in our attorney back in I think August and she u gave you a a high level overview of what to expect because she knew that it would be delayed coming back from the state. um a lot of things have to be processed and the commissioner's rules are forthcoming and um you may recall that our attorney said this update was unprecedented. It's the largest she'd ever seen in her entire career. Uh many many changes. Uh but to Dr. Ibara's point, um should you continue

176to review and have questions, we can bring this in and out of the boardroom at any time. Certainly. And for local, you can uh offer refinement or revision or discussion at any point in time. >> So is it if we go ahead and do the approval of these updates now and then we can bring things back to amend it later. Is that entirely up to the board? >> So, you're saying that's not really a problem is [snorts] what I guess is the issue that Okay. Well, and and again the parts I don't know that anybody would be concerned about adding that word business part of the meeting, but but >> and we can we can you could if you chose to I can with the note and how we've done that that would be implied

177in that and when you approved it that would go forward. >> Yeah. >> With that edit. >> Okay. David, I don't I don't I I understand where you're coming from on the uh as far as the grievance policy and and what what what starts that timeline, what triggers it. Um, and if there's language that we could put in there, I think that that would make sense because those situations are, you know, we need to be clear and, uh, families and and staff need to understand where they stand on things. And I certainly agree with you that we don't want to put them in a position where they feel, uh, we're trying to um, not do what's in their best interest and work with them through difficult situations. So if we need to come back and

178>> revisit that, I think that would be a good thing. And um >> certainly >> so those two those two are at least uh the ones where I think we make good points David make good good points in >> uh revisions. Are you suggesting because we could pull any one of these certainly uh we can approve you know all the others with the exception of >> DGBA FNG and GF the grievance policies >> right for continued review and discussion and we can bring it back at a subsequent meeting >> sure that would be right >> well I'm just going to throw this out so >> it's the law says what the law says so us not approving it because we want to tweak language what does that do in the interim if someone if something

179pops up >> policy just stays as it is right now it's already posted that way. The one thing we would have differently than that's currently in our local policy um is the notification to the person who's being who um the complaintant and honestly we already do that. We let the person know that there's a complaint against them. So that's no change in practice or procedure. Um it's just language in the policy um that would solidify that that's a requirement. Yeah, this is this is like this this minor change about when the public comment would be that's actually part of the new law, but we have it under under local policy, but it's so it's sort of a excuse me, a mixture of of that we have to do it, but I just all I'm doing

180is trying to clarify. We're not going to it's not going to be as soon as we call to order. It's going to be maybe quite a bit later. at least people would know that we're following our policy instead of not following our policy. So, well, that that's a very minor one. The other one is may may require some discussion if we're going to go any further with trying to uh uh consider encouraging informal settlement without putting pressure on people to feel like well except by your good graces, the staff's good graces, uh they're out of luck if they don't go ahead and file their grievance. So to make things simple, >> I'd like to go ahead and approve with the exception of what we're going to tweak because we got you. We have everybody on

181board. It's it's in our head. You don't have to reprepare anything. I think uh Julie's comment is that um we're not changing policy if we approve this as is tonight. Uh because it is the same as >> my recommendation would be to approve it all >> and then come back and amend the things that we know need tweaking because otherwise we're out of alignment with what the law says >> in our local policy. >> Yeah. And I'm fine with that. I just uh would like to have uh this obviously we got holidays coming up and all but sometime in the near future uh go ahead and and and let us let us know what y'all come up with and then if you want to >> present something great uh if you feel like just leave

182it like it is. We'll we can talk about at that time. So I'm I'm fine with that. Just go ahead and approve it as is. I move approval of the updates to the board local policies as presented. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mrs. Waller, seconded by Mrs. Benford. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. And we will bring those at its back. >> Now, don't take advantage of my lousy memory and not bring this up now. >> No, sir. I remembered. I brought it forward. But I promise you >> uh it >> next on the item list is to discuss and consider approval of board goals for 2026 2027. Uh Dr. Barbara Bar is presenting again. >> Thank you

183Mr. Bryan. Uh so this is a continuation from the team of eight uh training and development that board went through earlier this month. Um, at that time the board made some minor adjustments to the current board goals and added a sixth goal. As a reminder, this is for the next year. So, the board goals we're currently under that you're receiving updates on conclude at the end of this month uh with the summit of evaluation coming forward in January. So, the goals that are before you this evening would run from January of 2026 to December of 2026. Um the language is there and I have a copy for you at the dis. It's also publicly available online for anyone who's viewing. Um in blue are the additions and in red are the removals or edits. And

184I'll just open it up to you for discussion or any other things that you'd like to see differently. Uh I think they're good. I think these changes capture what our discussion was and they're more refined than what they were previously and I really like uh the new goal six about financial pieces and communicating of that. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments, questions? Still reading. I [snorts] move approval of the board goals for 2026 as presented. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mrs. Benford, seconded by Mr. Stennis. >> All in favor of the motion say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> Thank you, sir. Um, at this time, the board will now convene in close session to discuss the following items as allowed by the Texas Government Code, chapter 551.074 and 551.0821.

185No voting will take place in the closed meeting. Any action the board wishes to take as a result of discussion in a closed session will occur after the board reconvenes in the open meeting. The time is now 8:43. The board reconvened in open session at 10:14 p.m. No action was taken in close session. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 10:14 p.m. >> Good job, Joel. Your first meeting. >> Thank you.