001I now call this Brian Independence 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 notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. The time is now 6 o'clock. uh wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone. I ask that you please turn off your uh the line, turn off the sound on your electronic devices and please stand for the pledges. The pledges will be recited by American flag Kip Carver and Texas flag Henderson Jones. Hi, my name is Jordan Moore and I'm in fourth grade from Camp Carly Ever. >> Hi, my name is Guadalupe Pon. I'm a fourth grader at Camp Carver Elementary. Hi, my name is
002Rebecca Hernandez and I'm a fourth grader from Kim Carver Elementary. Hi, my name is Brooklyn and I'm a third grader at Kim Carver Elementary. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, one indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you all. Hello, my name is Gigi. I'm a fourth grader at Anson Jones Elementary. >> Hello, my name is Andresposa and I'm in third grade and I go to Anson Jones Elementary. >> Hello, my name is Sophia Velasco. I'm in third grade. I go to Anton Jones Elementary. >> Hi, my name is Leah Hernandez and I go to third grade and my school is Anthony Jones Elementary. Hi, my name is Samuel and I'm in fourth grade and
003I go to Jones Elementary. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. >> That was so good. [Applause] Thank y'all very much. >> Yeah, it was so good. >> Now have our uh spotlights. Um first will be the elementary teachers of the month. Uh we have uh Kemp Carver and Allison Bogen principal will introduce Hello. Um, as proud principal of Kim Carver Elementary, it is my honor to recognize Miss Lindy Warner, fourth grade math teacher at Kim Carver Elementary. Miss Warner strikes the perfect balance between structure and love in her classroom. She is a datadriven teacher, always challenging her students to set goals, monitor their own progress, and celebrate growth along the way. For Miss Warner, growing students is more than a job. It's her mission.
004She builds strong, lasting relationships with her students while modeling a positive attitude that inspires everyone around her. Lindy might also be the most competitive person I've ever met. I consider myself to be highly competitive, but I don't have anything on this one. Okay. Whether it's a little friendly competition between teachers across the district on who has the highest math scores on assessments or a staff basketball game while dressed in an inflatable costume. Lindy Warner knows how to have fun and crush goals. This is one of the many reasons we love her at KC. If the world had more Lindy Warers, it would be a great place. We are so proud to celebrate Miss Warner who is proof that when pause in all winong [Applause] All right. Congratulations again. [Applause] And our next teacher is Abigail
005Medina and she is from Jones and she will be introduced by Principal Alma. >> Good evening everybody. As mentioned, my name's Alma Veles and I'm the proud principal at Jones Elementary and I'm honored to present um to you our amazing teacher of the month um Abigail Medina. Abby teaches second grade bilingual on my campus. Um, and it is my honor to recognize Miss Medina this evening because she is a dedicated educator who consistently strives to do her very best in all that she does. She approaches teaching with great intentionality, carefully planning instruction that meets the di diverse academic and language needs of her students. Her thoughtful design ensures that every learner has the opportunity to succeed. Beyond the classroom, Miss Medina places a strong emphasis on building meaningful relationships. She models this daily by going
006above and beyond um with her colleagues for her colleagues, always willing to lend a hand or share her expertise. Her commitment extends further as she is both a student and teacher advocate, fearlessly speaking up when she sees a need and ensuring that all voices are heard. Mustafa Kamal Adaturk once said that a good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others. This fits Miss Medina so well because she is the kind of person that pours herself into both her students and her colleagues. Always giving of her time, energy, and heart. Abby embodies the qualities of a true educator. Dedication, intentionality, collaboration, and advocacy. It is with great pride that I present her to you this evening and we are truly blessed to have her at Jones. Thank you Abby
007for all that you do. [Applause] Congratulations. [Applause] Okay, next we have we're going to honor uh our auxiliary employee of the month and that's the transportation department employee is Marilyn Mitchell and the campus is is Ruby Hallebertton. Uh and the she will be introduced by Bryant Washington. Hello everyone. Tonight I'm honored to recognize Mrs. Marilyn Mitchell. Um she's been with Brian ISD Transportation for over 45 years. Um for four decades, um Mrs. Mitchell has been the steady voice on the radio and phone, keeping our drivers informed, our parents notified, and our buses running safely and on time. Many times, her voice was the first reassurance drivers heard when trouble hit the road, giving them the confidence to keep moving forward. Mrs. Mitchell is more than a dispatcher. She's a listener, a problem solver, and a
008friend who has shown patient kindness and genuine love to everyone she serves. On behalf of Brian ISD, we thank you, Mrs. Mitchell, for your loyalty, heart, and incredible impact that you have had on students, family, and transportation. And personally, I would like to thank her. She has helped my transition out a lot with 47 years of historical wisdom and knowledge. She's the go-to person. Um, and so I'm I'm I'm just honored to be able to present her tonight. So, please join me in honoring Miss Marilyn Mitchell. [Music] [Applause] picture. [Applause] That's it. [Applause] Okay, we're not done yet. We've got uh National Merit semi-finalist recognition. This is a a big deal in case anybody in the audience didn't know that. Uh and the presenter is going to be director of advanced academics, Dr. Christina Richardson.
009>> Good evening. Uh tonight we are proud to recognize two of our outstanding students who have been named national merit semi-finalists. This distinction is awarded to less than 1% of high school seniors across the country and is based on exceptional academic performance and high achievement on the PSAT in their junior year. These students represent the very best of Brian ISD, demonstrating not only academic excellence, but also dedication, determination, and perseverance that it takes to achieve at this level. Um, so tonight we want to recognize both of those students as well as our campuses where they came from. Um, you don't become a National Merit Semi-finalist overnight. It didn't just happen. It started when they were in elementary school. So, I'm going to uh call their names and ask that the representatives from their campus come
010up with them as well. So, first we extend our congratulations to Michael Farnsworth from Ruer High School. [Applause] And he began his educational journey at Houston Elementary, Rayurn Intermediate, and SFA Middle School. [Applause] Just real quick about Michael, he's also a very well-rounded student. He's competed in the varsity gymnastics program at Rudder. Um he last year Skills USA state competition won the programming and has already uh achieved his cyber security industry based certification as our computer uh science track at Rudder for his graduation. So he is excellent at all that he does and we are so proud of him to be from Ruer. We'll uh >> Yes. for for a photo here. How about we do that? Go down. supposed You're about three steps in the reach. [Laughter] One, two, three. [Applause] Stay in place.
011>> We got one more, so just hang tight. All right. Next, we want to extend our congratulations to Katherine Kaiser from Brian High School. [Applause] and she began her educational journey at um Bowen Jane Long Davala and finally Brian High School. Congratulations What you doing? >> Thank you. some water. >> Water. There's no more water. All right. Our next item is fine arts recognitions. Director of fine arts, Jacob Justice, has a presentation or some several presentations. Good evening. Good to see you all. Uh you'll see we have some art teachers lining up here behind me. Uh, I am thrilled to get to recognize some of our amazing students and teachers and work that was displayed at the Texas Association of School Administrators and Texas Association of School Board Convention. Um, so this is part of
012the Tex Edcon and it showcases work by preK through 12th grade students, their works of art from across the state of Texas. The level of student and teacher achievement evidenced in this exhibition is a direct reflection of the amazing art teachers and the support of our district and our board. We could not do the things we do without your support, without our community support. Uh congratulations are in order for the following students. Their artworks were displayed. I'm going to call their names. And as I call their names, we're also going to uh call the names of their teachers and their teachers are going to give them their certificate. We're going to get a great picture and we're going to celebrate these amazing students. So, first, Ava Alvarado from Crockett Elementary whose teacher is Miss Leticia
013Garcia. [Applause] >> And you guys can step over for a picture together. Benjamin Gerick from Mary Branch Elementary and teacher Miss Laura Becker. [Applause] [Music] Ariana Herrera from Anson Jones Elementary and teacher is Melissa Williamson. [Applause] Jesus Rodriguez from Stephen F. Austin Middle School teacher is Miss Tara Davis. [Applause] Hudson Stone from Bowen Elementary. teacher, Miss Terry Clark [Applause] and Ariel Valiz from Bonum Elementary, teacher Miss Jessica Horvath. [Applause] Thank you very much. We are very proud of all of our fine arts students and I look forward to seeing you next month with some more great information. So, thank y'all. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> Where's the Facebook picture? >> Okay, we now have we have a >> public comment. We have one speaker, Roy Flores. Uh, and I think it's about the bond. Roy
014Flores, I have to vote no on Prop A. And uh you're only as good as your weakest link. Looking for the best solution building new schools in the area where children already live. not speculating on where growth might be. A new high school in on the neglected west side would bring a sense of pride to students which could reduced tardiness and certainly expensive fuel cost, bus routes and wear and tear on vehicles. This would also increase attendance and reduce the cost of building a new high school without incurring the cost of having to tear the existing one down just to rebuild it. This would be an opportunity that their classmates on the east side have taken for granted. Currently, thanks to the short-sightedness of previous BISD boards, are 450 square miles of district contain four
015high schools, two of which are each located about half a mile away from the Brian High campus on the east side of town. and MC Harris, the disciplinary high school located one of our oldest buildings. This causes huge traffic problems every morning and afternoon for parents and buses from the west side to travel to the east side campuses. Brian Collegiate's reputation was earned by the students on the very campus you now want to tear down and rebuild. All of All of this during the worst economy and inflation taxpayers have seen in years and tariffs surely going to be higher cost of next year. And let's not forget vouchers coming in next year. It all sounds like a big gamble. Out of 16,000 students, collegiate makes up less than 1%. Our true strength comes from supporting
016the weakest link to become our strongest. You have about 30 seconds left. >> I beg your pardon. >> Just let you know you have about 30 seconds left. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, can you stop that time and give me those few seconds back? >> Sure. >> Thank you very much. It would be prudent to wait and save millions of dollars by building a new high school on the west side without having to tear a high school down. Together, let's ensure that the 99% of our students are supported to reach their fullest potential. Greatness is in every student. Let's focus on bringing out the best in the 99. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. And as a reminder to everyone else, anyone can uh make a public comment on agenda items
017at our main meeting that's normally on the third Monday of the month and on our other meeting which is also going to be in the evening now uh which is considered our workshop uh only on agenda items. Uh but there are in any case there for uh you have approximately three minutes to speak. All right, moving on. Uh we have our call to order of public hearing and I'm now going to recess this uh meeting of the Brian School District. The time is 6 6:25 and again I call this public hearing of the Brian School District to order. Records show that a quorum of board members is present that this meeting has been duly called that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act Texas Government CHO chap
018chapter 551 and the time is now 6:26. Uh purpose of this hearing is to discuss information pertaining to the 2025 tax rate. Following this presentation, we invite members of the public to make comments regarding this topic. Presenter is our chief financial officer, Norma Fri. Good evening, Mr. President, board of trustees, Superintendent Carbine, and members of the public. Tonight's public hearing is required under the Texas Truth and Taxation and is designed to give our community a clear look at the district's proposed tax rate. We will explain how the tax rate supports our budget, separating the M portion, which funds day-to-day district transa district operations, from the INS portion, which funds for voter approved bonded debt. After this brief overview, we'll invite public comment before the board considers formal adoption of the tax rate. Thank you for
019your engagement and your partnership. Sorry about that. Okay. Student success is at the heart of our work as a public school system. We honor that mission by making sure that every dollar is aligned to student achievement. We strive to manage our resources wisely so that we can strengthen instruction, improve student outcomes, and provide a safe and supportive learning environment for all of our students. This tax rate timeline illustrates the full cycle of the budget and tax rate process. It begins with the early planning stages of the budget and continues through the point where we receive preliminary values. At that stage, we update revenue projections based on those values and then build a framework of expenditures to move forward with adopting the budget. Once certified values are received in July, we verify that our preliminary revenue
020estimates align closely with what was originally adopted before the board takes action on approving the tax rate. Now, before moving on to budget assumptions, I'd like to take a moment to address any confusion and misisconceptions regarding the tax rate. Contrary to popular belief, school districts cannot set tax rates arbitrarily. Tax rates are highly regulated and districts have very limited authority to adjust them without either TEA approval or direct voter approval. Let's take a look. So as you can see here our tax rate up our tax rate is made up of two main parts M and the INS maintenance and operations interest and syncing. The M portion is divided into two tiers. Tier one is set by TEA and is based on property value growth. This isn't something the district decides. It's determined entirely by the
021state. The second part of the M rate is called tier 2, and this is where our enrichment pennies live. These pennies allow districts to generate extra funding above the state's basic rate. By law, voters have to approve a rate increasing through what's called a voter approved tax rate election. In other words, the community gets the final say on whether or not additional pennies are added to support enrichment. And the final portion of the tax rate is the INS rate. And this is used to make payments on school bonds. Much like making payments on a home mortgage, the district cannot raise this rate on its own. It only changes if voters approve new bonds in an election or if the board makes the decision to keep the tax rate the same in order to pay off
022debt early. Even in those cases, the state law caps the INS rate at 50 cents per $100 of property value. So, as you can see, tax rates are not set arbitrarily. They are formuladriven and tied directly to voter approval and state law. The following slide represents a few assumptions we use in the budgeting process to determine the tax collections that factor into the state funding formula. As shown above, student enrollment is to project it to remain flat as property values uh increased only by about a tenth of tenth of a percent. And this is after accounting for the additional $40,000 in homestead exemption that will be on the ballot in November's election. You can also see here the anticipated M and INS portions of the tax rate that were incorporated into the budget along with
023the estimated collection rate. And here is a summary of all of the required board adopted budgets that were approved back in June. As we know, the general fund is in a budget deficit. Our debt service budget is expected to remain balanced after making the required debt payments. Food service is also in a deficit position. However, that is by design. Federal law limits the amount of fund balance that school districts can can retain. We currently have a spending plan in place to bring that balance down in order to stay in compliance with TDA requirements. And here is our tax rate history since 2016. As you can see, the rate has steadily declined over time and it's projected to remain the same as the prior year. Here we have a summary of our estimated revenue for the
024district's debt service alongside our projected debt payments which also reflects the anticipated hold harmless state revenue associated with the increased homestead exemption. Just as a reminder, these figures are estimates and may change based on actual tax collections received and any future legislative action. This is an example of a tax bill for an average home value in our area, showing a comparison between last year and this year. As you can see, the homestead exemption has increased by $40,000. That means that the same tax rate is applied to a lower taxable home value. The result is less tax owed on this property. A common misunderstanding is that school districts arbitrarily raise their tax rates and are the primary driver of rising property taxes. That simply isn't true. If your tax bill goes up, it's usually because the
025appraised value of your home increased, not because the school district raised its tax rate. And remember, the school district is only one of several taxing entities on your bill. So, it's important to review the bill uh entirely and carefully. To summarize, we recommend leaving the tax rate unchanged from last year and that is 9469. At this time, I'd be happy to take any questions. >> This is a public hearing, so it's primarily for the purpose of uh presenting to the public and answering any questions that the public might have. We're not going to be taking any action at this point. Uh we do have an agenda item later in the budget regarding this same topic. Uh anybody? There being no further business, public hearing is adjourned at uh 6:37. No, excuse me. 6:32. And I
026will now and thank you by the way uh Norma. And now we will reconvene the regular meeting of the Brian Penn School District at 6:32. Uh we'll start with superintendent report spotlighting student and staff celebrations. Miss Carabat. >> Thank you Mr. Sazzy. >> Just want to get that clicker real quick. Uh Clay brings that forward. We're going to start with a spotlight on the month of September. We blinked and it's almost October. Uh but we celebrated September with the essential eight. Our our monthly uh term for September was all about kindness. And you can see in these photos right here uh we went around asking all of our kids um what does that mean to you when you think about the essential aid and character development? What does kindness mean? And this is just a
027small sampling that um they said kindness means holding the door open, standing up for others, u making feel people feel happy, you know, kids that are might maybe sad or mad. So, we had a really great uh moment and uh educational opportunity to talk to our kids about character development. Again, all about kindness for September. Moving on, uh this recognition bears repeating. We just celebrated our two National Merit finalists. And I just want to say it one more time. These kids represent uh less than 1% of all high school seniors. So, this is quite an honor for Brian ISD. And I think it's amazing that Katherine came from four different schools than Michael. Brian High School, Davila, Jane Long, Bowen, Ruer High School, SFA, Rayburn, and Sam Houston Elementary. Uh, and I think Mr. Leightton
028said it best. It does not start their senior year of high school. Starts in kindergarten. So, this is quite the accomplishment, and we are very, very proud of our two students. Speaking of proud, Miss Waller and I had the good fortune of attending the 47th annual Burgess Hall of Honor. Uh this banquet was extra special for us because we shined a light on our very own. Uh that night uh Rod Bernstein was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame. Rod graduated Brian High School back in 1983, went on to play for Texas A&M University and then had quite the career in NFL. He played for the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. Uh Miss Waller and I may or may not have rushed him when he walked into the room to get
029autographs on a football and a jersey. we uh he uh took a lot of pictures with us and has a connection to Miss Waller because she was a coach at Rudder I mean I'm sorry at Brian High School when he was a student there. So he uh was very proud to return home and to uh indulge our autograph session and just uh represented Brian ISTD in all the the best ways. Miss Baller, did you want to add anything to the slides? his sons were there and they were taking tons of pictures with Ginger and I and him because they had never had anybody or they had never met the Brian High people. I mean, they'd met his friends from Brian High, but to think that we came and were just so excited to see him
030and his son sons thought that was really, really neat. They're very proud of him as we are. And I have to tell you that there's probably almost 700 people at the Burgess banquet. all these famous Aggies and famous coaches and u of course we make reservations and we were there to represent BISD where Rod graduated but the MC introduced five real VIPs and it was RC Sloum Jackie Cheryl uh who are the other um oh my gosh I can't think >> I know where you're going with this >> two two real famous uh athletes that were there and then Ginger Carbine, superintendent of Brun ISD. So, I thought that was really really neat that of all the people that were there, uh Miss Caribine got introduced. It was >> Thank you, Miss >> She didn't
031expect it. I know. I did not expect it. >> Yeah, >> it was a lot of fun and um his family was very um proud of him. they knew him as an NFL player or you know playing for the Aggies. So they did not ever get to experience what it was like of him growing up in Brian, Texas playing for the Brian Vikings. So it was a very special night for all of us. So good time for all. Uh finally uh we are very proud that Brian ISD participated heavily in the recent uh destination Brian's Fiestas Padre parade in downtown Brian. In fact, we joked walking away saying that it's kind of turned into the Brian ISD parade because we had over 15 different schools and departments represented. Our kids and our staff and our
032families showed up in full force. Uh and it was just a great day again for Brian ID shining a light on um another really incredible day. Um and then the final slide of all this just happened this past weekend. As you know, we have a strong partnership with Read by Third led by Mr. Daniel Hernandez, a local community member. And uh in recent years he had been partnering with Jones Elementary. Well, with Miss Mononttoya's leadership, we have expanded the program to include not only Jones Elementary again, but Henderson, Navaro, and Fannon. And you can see in this photo because we expected the turnout to be um large. Uh we moved it to the boardroom for that Saturday. And the the photo speaks a thousand words. Those are family members and students and some of our
033staff volunteering their time on a Saturday to to show up and to to uh partner with Brian IST. Uh not about just reading and reading by third grade, but involving our families. This is the epitome of family and community engagement and making sure that our families understand all the resources we offer in Brian Dd and not just in our school district, but resources in our community. uh we are all in for the the community here and uh we could not be more proud with the turnout and we have more meetings planned throughout the year. So we hope that uh others can join us over time. So any questions Mr. Stazzy? >> Anybody? >> No, that was a great event. I was there for a little while and then I had to go to another another
034uh meeting but uh it was it was a great turnout. >> Thank you. >> U next item is the committee reports along with one that's not technically a committee. Education Foundation update and we'll start with executive board committee report by Mr. Bryan. >> Thank you. The executive board meeting took place on September 3rd here um at 3:30 p.m. Mrs. Carabine, Dr. Merrill, Mrs. Friddle, Mr. Stazzney, Mrs. Benford, and myself were present for the discussion. Um the a lot of the discussion at that meeting um pertained to the topic of insurance premium adjustments which will be on the agenda this evening. Um, in addition, uh, there was, uh, an update on discussions with freestanding emergency care facilities in in our community, uh, in terms of their relationship with Brian ISD, and I think we're working through
035some things there and making some progress in terms of how that relationship is, but overall, it was an update on uh, that situation as well as the impact uh, this has on our budget and overall fund balance uh, for the future. And then there was a there was a few items related to uh conduct where identities couldn't be disclosed. So that was that was kind of the the majority of that meeting. >> Thank you. Any questions? And next committee is intergovernmental committee report. Uh Miss Benford. >> Yes. Good evening. We met September the 15th at 12:00 pm noon. The meeting was attended by myself, Miss Waller, and Miss Carabine. Um the meeting was mostly led by the acting judge Kyle Cassell. He gave us an update on some things that the county um now are
036doing. They have taken over the parking garage that is downtown. It now belongs to the county. They talked about the building that is going to go across the street where the old Bryant ISD building was for years. And they're going to add another floor to the parking garage. and they're going to add another floor to that building that they're going to be building. Um, totally the price with the sky bridge and those buildings somewhere between 60 to 70 million. And that is also going to create new positions for that office um that will be in those buildings. The expo center will be updated. They're beginning with that now because of the growth and the usage of that facility. They needed to add, do some additions, some remodeling, renovations. So, that is in progress right now.
037We did talk about the medical examiner's office. Due to the rain, they got a little bit behind, but now they're back up. They did announce a female medical examiner and she was in the news, I think a day or two ago, coming from Travis County. Um, really looking forward to partnering with her. She has created a gaming system that's going to be something very positive for our students. And when we go to intergovernmental, anyone that presents, that's the first thing we ask them. What can you do for our students? How can our students join in on whatever it is that you have going on? And so really looking excited um at that gaming system and how we can get on board for that. The opening will be June 2026 for that building. And just a
038lot of plans going forth. They're planning to have a blood lab in the future. Uh rolling bridge is getting a new facelift. Precinct 2 getting new roads and they're trying to use more local businesses when they start doing these projects. They want to use local business instead of trying to go out. So, just a lot of exciting news going on in Brad County. >> Thank you, Miss Benford. Next on the list is Education Foundation Update by Miss Walder >> and I am a member of that committee. So, um since August, we uh welcome back with excitement kicking off the new school year uh with Brun ISD convocation. Thanks to Mitch and Donna Morehead, the Education Foundation has been able to give away $5,000 in cash prizes. And that occurred at convocation. And it was a
039special day announcing the pause program which has received so much positive feedback about this new initiative and can't wait to welcome puppies into some of the school buildings as friends and soft calming friends for the students. August brought hometown reunion and a sellout crowd of excited Brian ISD supporters. Our staff and board worked extra hard to ensure the night was a success, which it was. We're still finalizing numbers and paying final invoices, but we're extremely pleased with the support of the community and all the community for helping Home Tower Union be a success again. We don't have a bottom line on the money raised yet. Definitely not uh one we're ready to announce, but one of the highlights is that we had 900 guests and that $79,000 was raised during our call to action moment
040alone. In August, we welcomed Katie Stober uh our team to the team as a new development and events manager. We're entering our third week of our employee give back campaign where employees can designate part of their paycheck to go right to the foundation which in turn typically goes back to that employee school. Uh and listen to this. The foundation has raised over 48,000 through that give back campaign this year for the school year. We will do one final push and try to hit $50,000 goal. And all of this money goes back to the teachers and the students. We're blown away by the generosity of our Brian ISD staff and their willingness to support our programs and initiatives. Reminder, teacher grants applications are due September 23, so Wednesday. Just a reminder. Um, and they've had just
041a wonderful, wonderful, uh, turnout for applicants for the teacher grants. And that's it for right now. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Walden. And we have one more committee. We're back around to Mr. Brian for the city school committee. >> Thank you. City School joint committee meeting occurred on August 19th here in this room um at noon. Uh it was a well attended meeting um with three board members from Brian ISD in attendance, three council members in attendance from City of Brian as well as uh Brian ISD staff as well and city of Brian staff. Um, it was an opportunity for us to come together and and have a good productive discussion about things that are that are current and uh and ways that we're collaborating together. Um, Mrs. Carabine sh um shared a state
042of the district including highlights from convocation, community pep rally, hometown reunion, and also about some of our upcoming opportunities for family and community engagement. Um, Dr. Merryill and Mrs. Carabine also shared a factual highlevel overview of the 2025 bond and um introduced u the proposition components um and there was a discussion around those items. The city of Brian shared an overview of the success from the games of Texas u where we had the privilege of of collaborating with the city in in terms of use of our facilities which was exciting to see. I don't know if anybody saw some of the scaffolding and seating around um >> Brian Aquatic Center, but it was a massive structure which was really cool to see. And uh that was one thing that that I came across. Um and
043also the city of Brian shared a road construction update for Mumford Road and the impact on the CTE complex. Um Mr. Bryant Washington, director of transportation, was in the meeting and had an opportunity to get that information firsthand, and I know he'll be processing um how that uh we should address that for the district. And um there was a discussion with council member Arrington uh regarding clarification about uh the Brian ISD bus transportation. Uh but overall it was a it was a great discussion, a great opportunity to get together and I was excited to be a part of it and and uh look forward to our next time to to get together. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Bryant. Again, it's uh been great to be able to get together with the city folks and
044and uh learn learn about what's what's going on and and especially how we can work together. That's great. Okay, the next uh item uh four board members in and Miss Carabine were able to make it to the uh convention that was in Houston. the was mentioned earlier the Tasa Tasby uh convention that basically most of the of the districts uh in in Texas uh send representatives and it's another opportunity to learn and also celebrate success and uh a lot of that uh was was very uh very uh positive and and uplifting some good speakers. I I this is an opportunity once again to share a little bit of what was learned without necessarily spend a lot of time on it. I've got a few notes. Is anybody else who was able to attend have any
045anything they'd like to comment on? >> Well, I know that uh we did a legislative update with our um attorney several weeks ago. Um it was a very long uh training and I did attend another hour of that at the conference because um you know there just continues to be so many things coming out of Austin and um one of the things that I learned in attending uh this particular one is that there's still a lot of ambiguity about many of the laws that were passed that are contradictory that are confusing Um, and it it's really difficult for all school districts to navigate. So, part of the the good part of that is that we learn that we are not alone, that others are dealing with that, too. Um, as we wait for clarity on
046on much of those discussions. Um, school safety is still really important, as is budgeting. I attended a couple of sessions on those kind of things. And what I left with is nothing I heard was new to me, which was good because that meant we are exactly where we need to be, if not ahead of the curve. So, uh, much appreciation to our staff and to our superintendent for all the work that they do to keep us on track. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> This is a picture of us pointing to our students artwork. too. >> I know. I wish we'd had it up, but the students that were recognized earlier, it's so neat. There was a beautiful display in the middle of the U exhibit hall. And so all we had to do was
047we're Brian, where are all of a sudden the lady said, "Oh, Brian, you're over here." And so all these pictures are our students. And we're so very, very proud. >> Get it up. >> Yeah. Yeah. What >> is it up there? Oh, good. There it is. Yay. >> I wish we Yeah. So, the students you saw a minute ago, these were their display. >> Yeah. >> So, we had our students with us in Houston. >> Yeah, that was cool. All right. Anything else, Mer? Not Warner. Ruthie Walker, excuse me. Anything else, Miss W? I'll get you right in. Anything else? Um, I agree with Julie. You know, we we went to learn and we found out that we're pretty much ahead of the curve on a lot of things. It shows how much our cabinet
048and our administration is on top of things and getting us information as soon as we can and u that we're not in this alone. you know, every every school district has the same issues that we do, but it was it was good to be together and collaborate. Well, my yeah, my notes kind of reinforce that as well because and I talked a little bit about M. Caravine about this that one presentation I went to was from New Bron Falls and it was about how the budget process worked and they had gone from the board that was basically just uh getting information sort of when when it was ready to approve and and uh and they kind of they felt like kind of rubber stamping. And so they've uh they've started uh really trying to uh
049uh involve the board uh throughout the year in the budget process. And my understanding is that uh to the you know we've done some of that in the past but I think we're going to kind of double down on that and with uh uh MR we're going to uh be getting more information during the year so that so that it's uh not anything is going to be uh certainly a surprise. Not not again that that's what's been going on. I think we've been doing a great job. Uh I'm thrilled with with the way we are handling things financially in our district and we have so much to be proud of. But it it certainly won't hurt for us to be more involved throughout the year to kind of know things uh how how they're developing,
050what we might be looking at before we get to the to the final numbers. Now, of course, that's all made more difficult by uncertainty in in legislative years when we don't even know what we're going to get, you know, moneywise from the state, but we have at least a little more uh ability to plan for this uh this this uh upcoming year. uh with the uh legislature meeting only once every two years. Uh so that was that. Uh also, uh I I went to a couple of sessions on CTE and once again it pretty much reinforced uh what we're already doing which was comforting uh because there was a lot of emphasis on partnerships and and that uh if you don't have good partnerships with businesses and and professionals out in the community, then then
051you're probably not going to have uh do as well as you could be doing with CTE and what is called workbased learning. That's a term I wasn't really that familiar with, but it's just another way to talk about uh what we're teaching kids who maybe aren't necessarily looking to go to college. U so lots of positive news there. It's a lot of talk about how that's where the future is. There was quite a bit discussion about AI and how that's going to be part of CTE and I don't know if I'm excited about that or not but but they were certainly excited about it and just saying that's something that you know you got to deal with is uh they're a lot of uh a lot of uh businesses want students to know how to
052you know how AI works and they're not always looking for college grads. They're just looking for really smart kids that are able to handle that. And and one somebody asked a question about what what do you well what are you supposed to train them in uh and said part of a lot of it is soft skills. And I I know that's what what a lot of businesses look for is the ability uh in our day and age to communicate to uh uh learn how to be respectful of others and if they're not already but but it's certain that's it's a skill actually that they look for in the business community now and that that was critically important to a successful CTE program. Um let's see. Uh also went to advocacy in the interim presented by
053uh TASBY uh GR in government relations Dr. Gonzalez. He's been with them for many years and some of some of y'all may know him. I've certainly known him for many years. Uh uh he was saying, you know, when when do we start talking about the next session? He said the time is now. And part of it was about just really doing what we already have a head start on with with the uh strategic planning and and what has turned into the bond committee uh to make sure that uh we have people that are not just uh Miss Carabine or board members uh advocating for our school district. We need community members to do it just like we need for the bond. And so they even had these printed up said, "Hey, take as many as
054you want. We don't want to take them back to uh back to Austin. So, >> I've got one for everybody. Toolkit for community advocacy. Don't don't leave without one. Uh and it's uh you know, you go ahead and just hand some down. And >> let's see. How have I given you any? >> This is good. Thank you. >> That way. Uh so, so it's it's something that uh we need to take seriously. Uh if somebody if we don't have the community parents and and students and others telling our story uh then we're probably not going to have the influence that we'd like to have to make sure that that we are treated as as we feel like public schools are justified be in being treated since unfortunately we all know about the negativity that has
055been out there and and uh I'm I'm one of those people and I know just about everybody in this room probably is that way is that we we believe that that we've got so many people that are not overpaid that are working very very hard to to accomplish almost what amounts to a miracle with some kids because of and and this is just again you got to tell that story or it's unfortunately a different story will be told by others um and I think that's pretty much all that I will uh address again it was a u it was a good uh a a good opportunity and and also just an opportunity to see other people that that that I know every time turned around Miss Carabine was seeing somebody that she knew and uh
056it was a good good opportunity to interact with others. Well, I will mention one other thing. There was a I went to a session about the HB uh teacher survey was Charles but teacher survey and that's out there you can look it online. Surprise, surprise. Some of the main issues with teachers, student discipline, interacting with parents in the community, listening to teacher opinions, meaning they want to be heard, and a non-instructional task. Uh m m much of which is nothing that we can necessarily fix right away. We can certainly work on these things, but some of them we are, you know, we need the legislature to to uh open their eyes. Uh we are I know as a district we're working very hard on student discipline and and and we're doing I think an incredible
057job with interacting with parents in the community and we do surveys and some districts don't do that. We're doing the surveys that we are listening to teachers. So so again what this does is reinforce that we're on the right track. All right. Well let's move on. Uh we have another we have anformational item and this is uh requested by board member about possible you know district use of or how we're using uh legal counsel and we have a a presentation u by Dr. Ibara and uh our chief financial officer Norman Friddle. >> Thank you Mr. Stasnney. All right good evening everyone. Um this evening we've been asked to provide a high level overview of legal services for the district, how they're utilized and what price and point we utilize to kind of move forward with
058it. So uh just quickly as a highle overview as a part of governance and I know I'm I'm talking to those who probably know this best than better than anyone else in the district but in Texas public schools the legal council represents the district as an entity not the individuals within the district. So the sole purpose of the legal council for the district is to represent the board of trustees and to protect the district's interests. Um and we look at that in terms of compliance with laws. We look at it in terms of representing us on legal matters and providing advice when we're developing agreements with other entities. There are a lot of different reasons why you would engage in legal counsel. Um so over the course of the years um Brian ICD has had
059various approaches to working with various legal partners and councils much like many other districts. Um so there are two approaches at least. Uh one is that you can hire an in-house legal counsel that works with your outside council partnerships. The other is to simply work directly with those outside council partnerships and law firms. Um and there are pros and cons to each entity or each approach to legal representation. So I'll go through them very briefly. Um right now as a district we've tried both approaches. Um currently we are under the the one there on the left retain outside uh law firms based on specialties. Um as you might expect there are a number of topics that come across both the superintendent's desk and of course each of your desks as a board member. um things
060from easements to special education to employment practices to student issues all all of the cabinet there and I think we mentioned earlier the legislative updates that have come through um from the A9 legislature. So all of that comes together in in needing various specialties. Um if you outsource to all that gives you that great breath of expertise where you can be flexible and you can scale on what you need in that particular moment. Um for example, Texas Association of School Boards provides all of our legal counsel and guidance predominantly for our board policies. They produce them all for the state of Texas as well as for our school district and they give us guidance on the local interpretation of the policies so that they stay in alignment with the legal statute of the policies. This
061is oftent times seen as more efficient because you don't have that middle person in as an in-house counsel working with the outside entities. Um but it also means there are various people working directly with those law firms. Um, and there's not a single point of contact that's coordinating all of it. It's by expertise and need. For example, Mrs. Friddle will be working with all of the financial advisors where I would work with perhaps special education or student issues. Um, and it also gives us an access to a broader network of law firms. On the right hand side, you have all the benefits of the outside legal council, but then you have an inside legal counsel that works as a liaison with all of the outside entities. and we have had that previously in the district.
062Um, you still incur the costs of all of the outside entities in addition to the salary for the in-house counsel. Um, but the in-house council typically has a deeper knowledge of the district. Um, in some respects typically more available or more immediately available um to district staff to deal with quick issues where we wouldn't have to go out to a legal counsel who may be on retainer. Um, and of course those aren't typically charged, but at the same point it'd be quick access to that information. Um, so again, both options are are certainly viable depending on the scope and scale of what a district needs. Um, most districts that are midsize or smaller tend to do what we're doing now, which is work directly with outside law firms. Uh, larger scale districts with higher populations
063typically go with an in-house counsel or a team of them in addition to their outside counsel. um depending on the needs of those districts. So what are the different categories and the specialties that we're talking about? Uh in general, comprehensive school law services, it's the whole umbrella. It's personnel, it's student issues, special education, which by itself is its own entity. Uh facilities, business, all sorts of things. Uh board policy services, as I talked about a moment ago, is the Texas Association of School Boards. that comes with our our membership to TASB. Um, and they do provide counsel, but even they will tell you, "This is our advice. Please run it by your legal counsel." And so, they want to make sure that you're double-checking against another entity. Um, for public school bonds, I'm going to
064turn the rest of these over to Mrs. Fiddle. This is her area of expertise. Go ahead, Mr. Riddle. These are u kind of straightforward here, too. So, uh, public school bonds, um, we have, uh, services from Norton, Rose Fbright, Fulbright, I'm so sorry about that. And we use them, um, to secure bond counsel whenever we need any kind of information. They're actually, um, helping us, you know, with all the dos and don'ts with, uh, implementing a bond. U public school finance, we also use Oh, Hanland, Death, and Castillo. Uh, they help us with our, uh, 313 agreements, our Jedi agreements. So anytime we have any questions related to that, we go ahead and reach out to them. Um, and specialized employment situations, work visas, we utilize Wesley Matthysse Law. So if we have any HR
065issues, uh, or any type of employment, uh, questions, we reach out to them and then we use Ray and Wood for property value audits. So um, about every two to three years, we conduct property value audits with the state. uh so if there's any changes uh with uh state values that has a direct impact on uh funding for school districts. So we work with them to make sure uh that we are constantly updating that state funding template and getting anything that is due for the school district uh current year and prior years as well. >> So again this was a very very high level overview. Are there specific questions that we can answer for you um as the board or Mr. Gonzalez? >> Thank you if if I may and I appreciate y'all. I'm the
066one that as you all know asked for this to be put on and I thank uh Miss Carbine and Mr. Stazzy for allowing this to be on and so quickly and I just really did kind of want an overview. I really what I have a question about and I probably should have asked you want to catch you off guard. >> How big of a difference when we did have in-house counsel? Is there any cost savings with having in-house counsel? You know, and I realize as an attorney that we all have our special areas of expertise, and I think it would be virtually impossible to find anyone that would we couldn't afford them if we could or her if if we could find someone that had a complete grasp of all of the the topics that
067are shown here. But is there any cost savings to having an in-house attorney? or since you said they're all on retainer, is it is it just the extra 100,000 150,000 and we're still having to go to the to to our our specialty attorneys anyway? >> Sure. So, back in uh in the past when we did have it actually works out in in some ways both ways. So, certainly there are some opportunities for savings where we're not doing the quick calls for retainer or perhaps um a memorandum of understanding or a lease agreement. the inhouse depending on the expertise of particular in-house counsel they can handle things like that. Should we hire an in-house counsel who has expertise in special education it may reduce the need for that kind of outsourcing. Um by and large it's
068relatively the same. Um but you will see some savings in terms of those moments depending on the expertise of the council who is hired. Um but mostly we're still outsourcing to those other areas and that person serves as a liaison. >> Okay. But there's not a hu it is not the full >> which is why we went the other way and we went back to just working directly where I'll work with mine and my Mrs. Caribine and likewise >> and I know that that previous boards have looked >> part. Yes, that's a great way >> into this. So, um, and as far as like my concern, you I'm on different with with the city on different commissions and we always have attorneys present for our close sessions and we actually we don't really have any
069close sessions. We have an attorney present for every meeting. Now, I I don't know is it cost effective or is it something that would be considered under any kind of retainer where we could have maybe like a phone someone on the phone with us in the boardroom when we are speak you know we >> that's a great question. you know, if that's something we could do, I think that would be, you know, we've done a good job. You know, we're Mr. Sazzy keeps an eye on us as well. So, we're, you know, we don't we don't stray. We don't But >> it does help having two attorneys on the board. >> It does. And, you know, and that's really helpful. But, I think, you know, especially with everything that we're going into, I think it
070would be helpful to have I think if any of us have questions, you know, hopefully this bond goes through and we're going to have lots of questions about that and it would be nice to have somebody there so that the public knows, hey, here's what we're doing. We're asking how how do we do this? and everybody knows that that we are doing everything the way we're supposed to. So, I would like to see, you know, I don't know how we get it on the >> If I could just explain for a quick moment um the You're exactly right. There are opportunities for legal counsel to come into close session or into board meetings as the board deems necessary and we do post for those. Um, it's actually why you'll see various people on the agenda
071or sometimes waited in the audience and they wait until close session because we're posted for legal counsel or legal advice in close session. Um, Dr. Harling, you mentioned it earlier when our legal counsel was here to provide a legislative update. That was actually legal advice regarding the legislative update, which is why it was conducted in close session. Um, they can certainly always be on a phone call, but you do have to post for the actual purpose for that attorney to be on a phone call. Otherwise, you would need to pay them to drive in, be here for the evening, and then drive back, which could be very costly. >> So, it's so we can't just tell them every time we have a meeting, we want you on the call as if they were. >> You
072have to post for the exact reason why you want them on the call. Legal counsel or legal advice on what have it be and and you certainly could do that and we could certainly investigate that, >> but but it's not okay. So, and that was that's what I thought would be a good solution is just have counsel >> say the travel >> when we go Exactly. if they're going to drive down and go back there with us. I didn't think there'd be any difference with them being on a call. >> Well, we can certainly look into that and bring you that information, put it before the board of >> trustes. And if I can just jump in, um I was on the board, well, I've been on the board nine years now and so have
073observed these different scenarios. So, when I got here, we had in-house counsel that was here who had to call for specialty things. And the answer typically was I think maybe not sure. Let me check with the specialty area. Um so it was never immediate answers that way either. They would almost always want to check answers because I'm not an attorney, but that's my observation of many attorneys. They like to make sure that they're getting things right before they say it. Um so when we had that person when they left to go to another district uh we hired another in-house counsel and when they departed this the board at the time evaluated those options. Do we hire another in-house counsel or do we uh use the model that we're using now? And as Dr. Ibara so
074eloquently shared there are pros and cons to both. Um but uh having also been board president, one of the things that we do in consultation with the superintendent is look at the agenda items to determine what might we need counsel for. Do we have them on standby for the phone? Um or do we post for that? Um do we have them drive in? And there have been times where we do all of those things depending on what the needs are. So, um I'd say that that's probably something that's done if not at the executive committee level, it's done with, uh the president and the superintendent making those decisions. >> Let me kind of add to that a little bit. I I think that that it one thing that that is always a good idea is
075to air on the side of at least checking with the attorney to see is this okay? is this not just maybe making our own evaluation of course but and I think that's what we do if we think that I think we have a good history of of the administration and and whoever's working with the superintendent or president is is is again air on the side of being careful and say well are we sure that this is okay uh to do in you know something in close session or not and and I mean that's one of the things of course that that is very important to the board is is that issue and then of course uh you you need lawyers for lots of other reasons but but uh but but it is a it's a
076tough question. I think it's it's worth it's certainly worth discussing. It's a tough question because the quality of your if you did hire somebody to be full-time, which I don't I don't know that that's really being necessarily advocated. It's not it I'm sure you know works for a lot of districts, but but uh but but but then I assume the better that attorney is at doing things, the the more they're going to cost. So expensive. >> Uh and and I guess I guess the only other comment I would make is that we if if we totaled up all the time and and and yes, and maybe we spend we could spend less time in close session if we sped things up a little bit uh somehow, but but but if we you know, if if
077we uh uh had somebody all the time, uh I expect that the hourly rate being what it is for good attorneys would probably be pretty substantial. So, we'd have to take that into account. Uh, this is an information item and, uh, I think we've had some good discussion. Anybody else have any more questions? Uh, I think you were asking for some specific information and and we need to try to get that >> and and I appreciate that very much. The the reason another reason I think it would be good since I speak to the whole board is the way it is now, it is the whole board doesn't have access to legal counsel. you know, I've disagreed sometimes with our board, our president, and I don't have, you know, I don't think any of us
078can just talk to an attorney. You know, it's it's only the the executive council. So, if we had somebody on all the time, that would be another advantage is if we had a question, if there was a disagreement, it's kind of nice to have an arbiter there that that can say, you know, both of you are wrong, you're both right, or you know, this this is a non-issue. So that is the only other thing is that the way it's set up now we don't have direct access to we can't ask a question. So if we had a council here council here we could ask during our meetings hey this is this is my concern this is my concern. We don't have that ability and like Mr. Stazzy said that decision is made for us whether
079we might need counsel at a meeting. So you know I but I don't want I obviously don't want to burden us with any more expenses right now. You know we're we're doing everything we're tightening our belt everywhere. So, I'm not trying to advocate for spending another 100 or 150,000 if it's going to be needlessly spent, but I would like to at least visit visit that and see if it's something that might be uh might be worthwhile and if if there is some cost savings by having an attorney on on on and like you said, part-time might be another option as well. So, yeah, >> doing this so quickly, Barbara, and and I appreciate y'all very much. which I know y'all didn't have any time to get this together, but it is something that I've been
080wanting to ask about and I sincerely appreciate the hard work on it. >> And it's certainly fine for if you have any questions like any other board member, email them to Mrs. Carabine. We're happy to give those to the lawyer and then provide the response to to all the board members as well. >> Okay. >> Happy to do so. That way, everyone still has access and has transparency with the information. >> Happy to do so. I don't want from this conversation I don't want anybody to leave here with the u idea or thought that in close session we go back and have arguments or disagreements. It's not like that. Um so I just I >> Yeah, it's not that much fun back there. We get along. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry if that's what I if that's
081what I said. Yeah, we it's not that much fun. I I thought it was a lot more fun before I got on the board. I saw all kinds of brawls, but it it it is not like that. We certainly understand the complexities of public education. All of the questions, no problem at all. >> Yes, ma'am. I I don't know. Uh just one more comment on on what what you said just a moment ago. I'm I would want every board member to be able to say I think we have a legal question here and whether it would be well, you just on your own just call the attorney. That's that's one way to approach it. Another way to approach it is say let's just let's just do the be in on the call. I'm I'm not
082opposed to that other I don't know how others feel. Uh I'm not I'm not real comfortable with the idea that we have this attorney and any one of us is just without anybody else just start calling the attorney up and because attorney for one thing is going to get kind of like oh who am I who I answer to am I supposed to take sides here? Uh so if there's a disagreement but but I do think that it's not a matter of of just oh well it should be only the board president it should be whoever has a legitimate legal question uh that needs to be presented and not not necessarily with the entire board being involved because that takes a meeting uh but but that you know that that's something that we need to
083we need to explore. It's it's not uh you shouldn't be shut out from getting good legal advice. TA TASBY I think is really available to all of us and they can be of some help and they're not they don't cost us anything for the most part at least I don't think they do if we use them. So unless it's some kind of specialized thing that we ask them for. So that that that is also another option. So let's continue that discussion another time and thank thank you for presentation >> and we do want to make sure everybody's comfortable with with our legal advice. So >> okay, where are we? Let's see. We we now have I think we're up to the consent agenda. So, uh if you haven't already looked that over, see if there's
084anything you would like to remove from the consent agenda for a separate consideration. And if not, then >> Mr. Stazzy, I move approval of all the items listed on the consent agenda. Sorry, miss. >> Second. >> Sorry, Felicia. >> All right. Motion made by Mr. Gonzalez, seconded by Miss Benford. All in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. It's unanimous. Moving on to action items. Consider all matters incident related to the issuance of the sale of Brian Independent School District unlimited tax refunding bond tax series 2025, including the adoption of an order authorizing the issuance of such bond living on advalorum tax for the payment of such bond and resolving other matters in connection therewith. Everybody get that? Okay, come on up. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Superintendent Caribine. This evening, we
085are joined by Mr. Steve Adams, our the district's financial advisor, and he is with Specialized Public Finance. He will be sharing the bid results uh with us and provide an update on the district's refunding transaction. >> Thank you. I'd also like to introduce Paul Jason with our firm and outside council, the bond council who wrote your agenda item. Bob Grantsville and Kristen Savant are here with Governor Rose Fulbright. So, we did um take bids for the refunding that we've been discussing for the last several meetings. We received three bids. The winning bid was Frost Bank at 3.99%. Recall that we showed the board 5.25%. It was higher. We knew we had some uh room in there, but the Federal Reserve Board lowered the discount rate in the interim. So to the benefit of the district.
086So we showed the board uh savings cash flow savings of 11.2 million. We in fact will have 11,353,280 and cash flow savings, present value savings of $356,000, a little bit more than that, or 2.3% of what we refunded. If you approve this tonight, uh we will close on October the 15th after Norton Rose Fulbright and their team has all these documents approved by the attorney general's office. just as uh kind of we sent this out to to 80 banks which are on our list. This is a little bit big for most of them and it's a little bit specialized as well. But we did get three bids which we were very happy with which which were with you know larger banks because of the size of this. And you can see we got a bid
087from Texas Capital Bank and PNC Bank as well. But you can see that Frost Bank won. So, we're happy to get that bid from Bank and they're happy to do business with the district and wanted me to say that >> PNC's legal counsel must be really good. >> Yeah. Well, we take that into account. So, anyway, you don't we don't have to pay that. >> Yes, sir. >> They did not win. Um, just a reminder, this refunding is moving debt to this tax year that was in line with the hearing that you just had for the INS tax rate of 27 cents. And I think an agenda item a little later on. Um, this just shows the savings, the 11,353,000 and interest that we're saving by doing this transaction. And the present value of all
088of those savings is 23567 $798,000. Uh just the sources and uses of funds and we are paying 118,000 of cost of issuance out of this as well. And then finally or almost finally this is the calendar that we've gone through. We had the September 8th meeting with the board. uh we distributed the documents for the banks to bid on. We received those bids on Friday and then tonight is the award and then again the delivery on October the 15th. With that, we are recommending that the Brian ISTD board award the 15,364 864,000 general obligation rebund funding bonds taxable series 2025 to Frost Bank and we're here and bond council is here if you have any questions. Thank you. >> Well, thank you for um getting us a better deal. That's exciting. >> Thank the Fed,
089but we'll take credit. >> Yeah. No, it's exciting. >> If any anybody wants to make a motion, take a deep breath first. And I just want to tell you, >> I'll take a stab at it. Yes. >> I move to adopt an order authorizing the issuance of the Brian Independent School District unlimited tax refunding bond taxable series 2025 specifying the terms and features of such bond. Levying a continuing direct annual advalorum tax for the payment of such bond and resolving other matters incident and related to the issuance sale payment and delivery of such bond including the approval and execution of a paying agent registar agreement a purchase letter and an escrow agreement providing for the redemption of the bonds being refunded and providing an effective date. Second. >> That's a good job, Mr. Dr. Harlland.
090I will do the second real easily. >> Thank you for writing that so well. >> Motion made by Dr. Harlland. And >> it was a second. >> Leo. >> Mr. Gonzalez. Okay. And seconded by Mr. Gonzalez. Uh, he got the easy part. Okay. >> A group effort. >> All in favor say I. I. >> I. All opposed. >> It's unanimous. Okay. We got one more piece of the puzzle. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next item is discuss and consider approval of group benefits risk pool plan design changes and employee medical and dental plan premium recommendations for 2026. So this this is something that we're dealing with now, but it will be if depending on what we do tonight uh will will not go into effect until uh the first of the year. Correct.
091Once again, good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Superintendent Caribine. Tonight, we are reviewing the proposal uh for our benefits plan for 2026, which includes changes specifically to our medical and dental plan offerings. At our last meeting, we discussed several reasons why these changes are necessary, with medical inflation being one of the most significant pressure points of the plan. It is evident that we cannot remain on the same path without jeopardizing the long-term stability of the fund. Tonight, we bring forward changes to protect the plan and most importantly to preserve the benefits that our employees and their families depend on. Here's what we'll be covering this evening. We will uh begin with a quick look back at highlights from our last board meeting. Uh then we'll review the proposed uh renewal rates for our
092health and dental plans and then talk about what those changes could mean for uh employee paychecks. After that, we'll highlight the resources that are shared and available to employees such as newsletters, flyers so that our staff are always uh always have a way to check on their benefits throughout the year. And finally, we'll wrap up by revisiting the timeline that we shared at our last board meeting. As you recall from our prior meeting, one of the recommendations we are bringing forward is to discontinue the HMO plan. Because of its restricted and limited nature, this has been the most underutilized plan that we currently offer. By moving to two plan options, we'll be able to keep the same quality of care that employees rely on. They will continue to have access to all of their current
093providers, so there will be no disruption of care. And on top of that, they'll benefit from the expanded services from our employee health clinic. Another recommendation for this evening's discussion is the proposal to streamline our dental offerings by comp by consolidating three plans into two. This consolidation uh would simplify choices for employees while creating significant savings and efficiencies. With the proposed structure, employees would experience lower monthly premiums. But most employee most importantly employees and their dependents uh would not experience any disruption in care when using in network providers. In addition, administrative costs would decrease and the structure would promote greater in-et network utilization. The primary difference between the current and proposed structure is the out of network is how out of network providers are currently reimbursed. Currently, plans pay a percentage of the average local
094cost, which in our case is tied to the Houston area rates. Uh, under the proposed plan, out of network services would be reimbured at a fixed dollar amount, meaning that any costs above that amount would be the employees responsibility. Now, we before we move on to discussing premium rates, um I'd like to remind the board that Brian ISD contributes significantly more toward employee health insurance premiums than what the state currently requires. The state requires districts to contribute a minimum of $225 a month. As you can see, over the past two years, the district has increased its contribution to the health insurance fund by 12%. bringing the monthly contribution to $545 per month per employee, which is $320 above what's required. This reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting employees while helping them manage the rising cost
095of health care. These are the proposed 2026 PO Gold Choice premiums by tier, which would go into effect in January. For example, most of our employees choose the employeeonly plan tier. The proposed increase is $14 per month, which breaks down to about $7 per paycheck. You can also see the remaining employee tiers, how much they would increase, and the cost per paycheck. We've also included a comparison with nearby districts, and Brian ISD still offers the best rates. This reflects our strong commitment to supporting our employees and keeping our benefits competitive. And these are the proposed highdeductible plan premiums by tier, which would also go into effect in January. Once again, the employeeonly tier is the most popular among staff. The proposed increase for that tier is $2.80 per month, which breaks down to about $1.40
096per paycheck. You can also see the remaining employee tiers, how much they would increase, and the respective cost per paycheck. And we've also included a comparison with nearby districts here as well. And Brian ISD still comes out ahead on every plan and every tier. And here we have the proposed premiums for our dental plans, which also take effect in January. At every tier, you'll see a decrease in cost for both the updated platinum plan and the silver plan. The chart shows the savings broken down by month and by paycheck. As a part of our insurance analysis, we wanted to give a real life example of how these changes affect a paycheck. Here you see a teacher with 12 years of experience showing last year's salary compared to this year's. Even after the new health insurance
097take um take effect in January, the raise the employee received is not taken away, the increase in pay is still greater than the increase in premiums. We also ran this same analysis across other employee groups. And to be thorough, we even applied the most expensive insurance plan to the lowest paid employee. When you factor in the $500 stipen that hourly employees will receive in December along with the $50 weekly attendance stipen available to bus drivers, the results are clear. Even the toughest scenario, even in the toughest scenario, take-home pay is still higher. And as I mentioned earlier, here are some of the benefit resources that we provide for all of our staff. We share newsletters and flyers and we make sure that every employee um knows about the employee health center and how that's available
098to them. During new hire orientation, we go over benefit information in detail and we continue to share updates throughout the year. We also have an onsite Blue Cross Blue Shield representative available daily to help answer any questions. We do everything possible to communicate benefit information and keep our staff informed on a regular basis. And once again, here is the benefits timeline that we shared at the prior board meeting. As you can see, today, September 22nd, is the board meeting where we are asking for your consideration and approval of the medical and dental plan changes. Uh just as presented, beginning tomorrow, we will start holding campus and department informational meetings and these will run through the end of October. Open enrollment formally begins November 3rd and runs through November 21st. December will be the administrative month
099where we're where staff enter all of the elected employee changes into the system so that everything is accurate uh and ready to take effect in January 1st. on January 1st, which is when the new plan year begins. Be happy to take any questions at this time. >> May I Mr. Stas, M. Norma, I would like you just to go back uh to what we contribute with the district, the 545, I believe, is what you said it would be. So, we're only required to do the 225. Again, I don't want to do math. We have what, 3,000 employees. How many employees do we have? >> About 2500ish. So, if we're paying an extra 250, what is that like $600 700,000 that we are paying to help our employees? I'm just trying to talk about when we
100run a deficit budget, there are things that we could do to get closer to balancing that budget, but it those things come at the cost of our employees. So, I like for people to realize that this is why we we do make a conscious decision sometimes to run a deficit budget because we, as we've all said multiple times, we our employees are must be at our at the front of all of our decisions that help our students. And so, I just wanted to point that out that there there things we could cut out that we don't. And people ask me sometimes, well, tighten the belt. Tighten the belt. And before I was on the board, it was easy to say, yeah, I don't know why they don't just tighten the belt. And when you're here,
101you realize tightening the belt has consequences for employees and that is not something that we would want to do. So, I just wanted to point that out that I'm really proud that we contribute more than double the state requirement on them for our employees. Thank you. >> That is certainly something that we are proud of as well, sir. Thank you for pointing that out. >> I This is always a tough time for me because when I quit thinking like a teacher, I need to get off the board. And you know I was a young teacher just married. I was a young teacher with one child then two children then three children and went through all the stages of health care and and everything that you know we now have to make choices about. And I
102always hate when we're able to squeeze and squeeze and give our employees um our loved employees any type of pay raise and then a month and a half later we're upping the insurance premium. You know, it's and and I know most districts have to do that, but I hate it because we want to give our teachers everything we can and then we it's it's not like throwing this at them, but it is something that, you know, they're they're busy teaching right now. I mean, they're just keeping their heads above water and and then all of a sudden we say, "Okay, your premiums are going up." But I know because you and I have met, you and Ginger and I have met and I' I've met with all our insurance people because before I can feel
103good in my heart that there's nothing else we can do, there's nothing else we can squeeze like what Mr. Gonzalez just said on suck it up on our part. And as much as you know I hate that we are having to raise the premiums anything um I think you've done a really good job um I think you're doing a really good job in the communication that we're about to do and have been doing about um how to choose your your plan right it's you know I was those I was one of those teachers that okay I like this plan click Every year I would just click same plan, same plan. And there's so many changes that are going on now. I think communication is huge. Probably as much as what we do for for staff
104development. Anyway, I just know that it's what has to be done and um we have a great product for our staff. Um, so anyway, I just had to say that >> the education that you talked about is not just about this is why we're doing what we're doing and why we're doing it, but it's to make sure our all our employees understand that there are things that they can do without jeopardizing their health that can make a big difference on the bottom line for the district. And if if the if things can be improved on that end on on our the funds that are are having to be paid out uh for claims uh because some things were maybe they could have gone to a place that was very very good high quality but wasn't
105near as expensive. And I'll just word it that way. then then that's going to reduce the district's cost and we're going to be able to maintain this level and not be looking at at another uh increase down the road if we don't kind of get get control over this a little bit. So again, this isn't about depriving our employees of of care. This is about just making some decisions that they may not have even realized had an impact on the bottom line. So, I know y'all are including that in the education process and that is incredibly important. And >> may may I ask I won't be as politically correct. I won't be too bad, but as far as our urgent care facilities that have increased our costs exponentially. Have we had any luck? Can we
106discuss that now or is this not the proper time, but have y'all I know we were going to try to reach out to them and and have have we made any progress. Can we discuss that right now or do we need to post that for something separate to to address? I I think it is part of this discussion. I don't know if they're prepared to say anything or if this is still kind of an ongoing thing and you'd rather delay it for another to you guys. But >> we did meet we did meet with Physicians Premiere um and we did have some good conversations about mainly just around the copay and just having an awareness for that, making sure that their staff are aware of what the rules of the game are. You know, whenever
107you go to an to an emergency room, there there is a co-pay. So, we had discussions around that just to make sure that we were all on the same page. Um, so they're going back to their staff and making sure that they're following everything that they're supposed to be following. >> Some of the head honchos apparently were shocked that this was going on. >> We we have not reconvened. We did have an initial meeting. Uh wasn't an urgent care freestanding ER. That's out of network and the cost associated with that. Uh that's part of our plan as we go out to meet with every single campus in all of our departments is to create an awareness starting with we are a self-funded insurance um you know user. So there's a lot of misconception and confusion
108around all of that and the rising health care healthc care costs are not unique to Brian ISD. So, we have a a pretty methodical plan to go out and educate our staff so that they can make informed decisions when Michael's team goes out for open enrollment, including where you go for non-emergency uses. For emergency, I I plan to say our entire team plans to say go wherever is best suited for you and your family. If it's an emergency, by all means, go and and get the best care that you possibly can. for non-emergency uh visits. We plan to spend a lot of time in having that particular conversation, but the the entity that we met with, we've not reconvened. We feel optimistic. >> But that that was my question. They were open to >> discussing
109we had great conversation. Great. And uh we have a really healthy partnership with them and we look forward to um a good outcome. Uh but the the key to immediately the immediate next step is communication, awareness, education, and informing our staff so they can make the best decisions possible for their PL plan. It's literally our plan. We can control the narrative as much as possible. And to Mr. Stazzy's point, if we can write this ship and get where we need to be on solid ground, we would like nothing more than to ask the board to consider putting that money back into the paycheck of our of our staff. is right now that we have competing priorities. We're spending a lot of money on health care that uh comes out of the same pot of money
110that we use for compensation. So, it would be a wonderful thing to put that money back into everyone's paycheck. >> Well said. Yes, ma'am. >> And and thank you, Ginger and Norma, for going to them, going out and advocating on our behalf. And a lot of time it a discussion can go along a long long way. You think you're on opposite sides of something and you can if we can reach something where we're all happy, it's it's at least worth a shot. So, thank y'all again for making that effort. >> And Norma, I think when we go out to educate our staff, >> we have to realize all staff aren't from this area. And so, maybe they might need a little help with um names and addresses of where they can go. Um because at
111the end of the day, I'm everybody's here for a dollar. I can't say that company's going to do the right thing because if they're losing money, that's going to hurt them. So, and they don't care that they're what it's costing us as long as we're putting in their pocket. That's just the truth about it. And so, these are our staff and we need to make sure we take care of our staff in order to get what we want from them. And so, even for the ones that are from here, everybody might need a little education on where where can I go? Where's the proper place for me to go so that they will know because I I'm just going to go to one place, St. Joe's Emergency. I don't know about these other places. I
112have no clue. And I'm from here. That's just where I'm going to go. And I know I'm not going to have to pay any money when I get there. So, I'm happy about that. But maybe the other staff need to know where is a proper place for them to go that is not going to put them in a bad situation later on or put the district >> put the district >> in a situation later on. >> Yes, ma'am. That was an excellent Miss Miss Bentford. Actually, you just hit the nail on the head. Mr. tires, would you walk that paper up to Miss Priddle right now so she can reference what we plan to start distributing tomorrow? It's exactly perfect segue. >> Does it show Does it show what what it costs the district as
113well? Well, this is the list of all the entities that are available for >> So, what I was going to ask before we get into that is do we do we show each individual employee or do we have something that shows them like Felicia says, you know, we're I understand you have out of family you're worried about out of pocket. But I think also if we were to educate them and show them if you use A, B, and C, here's here's the cost of the district. Here's the cost if you use this one. It's out of network. It's, you know, there's no deductible to you, but it costs the district. I think if we got that out and people realize that we are a team that that we are self-insured. So, do we do we
114give them that information? >> We do. Yes, sir. Great. Yes, sir. We do. And we are fully prepared um as Miss Carabine said to go campus by campus and speak to every single employee. Um we we have this information available. We're making flyers. Great. >> Um just again, just to reiterate, we have lowest cost options, reasonable cost options, highest cost. We're going to be sharing with um with all of our employees um what the co-pays are, where you go, what the cost is to the district, making sure that everybody knows the difference uh between those freestanding ERs versus going to an urgent care and what the cost is to the district ultimately to all employees. Um so, no, we we have amazing flyers. We have lots of other information, too. We we are ready to
115go on a road show. Um and it's going to be team education. So, we're going to go out and we're going to educate our employees um on on where to go, when to go, um how to get there, so that way they understand just they have a whole 360 view on on on how how the program works. >> And see, that's the beauty of being self-funded. >> Exactly. Yes, ma'am. is when we're talking to them, they're talking to the company. You know, when you're talking to them, when y'all are educating them, it's not like Blue Cross Blue Shield is in Chicago or wherever Blue Cross Blue Shield is. And so that and and when we're giving them the address to a certain doctor group of doctors and things like that, that's the greatest thing about
116being self-funded is it's all personal. >> Very because it's us. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And doesn't go much higher than everybody sitting right there in the super. Well, I guess us, but so that the being self-funded and y'all doing your road tour It's like the biggest people in Blue Cross Blue Shield coming and visiting directly with our employees. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And you know, Miss Waller, to your point, one of the unique things about Brian ISD, and this is something I haven't experienced at any district I've been at, we have an onsite Blue Cross Blue Shield representative here, not here today, but that she's lives at our district and she's able to answer questions and um so it's it's nice to have that one person here in case there's ever any questions uh
117just, you know, deeper into the um you know, Blue Cross Blue Shield specific. So, it's nice to have that benefit of somebody here on campus. >> Yeah. I just want to reiterate um the the health and well-being of our employees is a top priority and if there's ever a true emergency, we we implore them to go wherever they see is best fit for themselves or their family. Uh but for non-emergent, to your point, Mr. Gonzalez, we're going to spend a lot of time on awareness because I was new here nine years ago. To your point, Miss Benford, I didn't know where to go or what to do. So, the flyer is going to be uh very helpful to help people make good uh decisions. >> And I've appreciated your openness when you you know, you
118said you went to some of these clinics that that charge more and cost us more in the long run and and you didn't realize it. >> When you're when you're brand new and you don't feel well, you're just looking for a place to go and uh so we're going to help our employees understand the best place possible to take care of uh themselves and their families. >> If if you don't understand it, then I'm sure everyone across the board doesn't understand it. So, thank bear that burden and we are committed starting tomorrow road show begins. >> Road show. I like that. Thank you. >> I just want to make an additional comment. Um this process has been educational for me. >> Um understanding fully insured versus self-insured as a district and as a small business
119owner. uh every year our health insurance premiums go up and I have to pass those along to my employees and that's I don't have a choice in that and every year since I've had this plan in place um it's increased over time and so this all this conversation has been interesting because the the amount of deliberation and concern over these decisions and how they impact our employees was taken uh into great into great detail. scale and um but I also understand that the you know there's there's a there's a financial need to um change the trajectory of our fund balance and and the overall impact of all these decisions on our district and you jumped quickly from the slide of comparable districts. Um and I I think that that's one that you know where not
120only are we cont the contribution is higher from a district from our district but also just what the landscape of comparable districts and how their premiums um look compared to ours. I I think there is a constant effort to try to put more money into our employees pockets and I appreciate that and and also on the flip side of the coin really taking matters into under great detail of consideration in terms of what's what will benefit the district long term in terms of our financial stability and success. So there's a there's a number of things happening here that are greatly under consideration. And I think the effort and the compassion of everyone here is to just do what's best for the employees and these are difficult decisions and and times for for these uh for
121um you know all of us to make these decisions. So um thanks for your hard work. I appreciate it. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yes sir. I cannot take the full credit Mr. Styrus and his team work really hard behind the scenes. Um lots of spreadsheets, lots of Excel workbooks, lots of analytical work going on behind the scenes. So, um, I I can't take the full credit. I I >> You have a great team. I've I've seen I haven't seen everybody's work, but I know Mr. Styers is always on point. I mean, he has I've been so impressed with when when we've asked for information, the detail, and he always is ahead of the questions I'm going to ask. So, I'm do a great job, sir. All of y'all do. Thank you all very much.
122>> Thank you. We try to anticipate as much as we can. Um, and I I just want to reiterate, Miss Carabine said it best. The same pot of money that we use for compensation is the same pot of money that's that's um funds our health insurance plan. They really are interconnected. One one talks to the other. One feels the impact of the other. So um so yeah, that's something that's really unique uh to Brian ISD. But uh to Miss Waller's point, it it is a position, a good position to be in because of the flexibility and the design and the flexibility that we have to be able to uh move the plan around, change the co-pays, change co insuranceances, change the out- of-pocket. So, um I think that's a better place to be than being
123fully insured where you have Blue Cross basically telling us what to do and and there's not really much, you know, you're just kind of in that straight jacket and you have to just accept what the you know, what the increase is and and and move on. So, um, I still believe we're in a good place. >> All right. I'll entertain a motion. >> Mr. Stazzy, I move approval of the group benefits risk pool design changes and employee medical plan premium recommendations for 2026 as presented. >> Second motion made by Mr. Gonzalez and seconded by Mr. Benford. >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. All oppose. Unanimous passes. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh it's great to get the story out so that it's not just sounding like an arbitrary
124decision. It certainly was not. Okay. The next item is discuss and consider something that's a little m more mundane. Uh $50,000 over $50,000, excuse me, for the purchase of of buses. This is like deja vu. But anyway, that's okay. Well, we're we're going to talk about buses again. for good reason. What do y'all do with all these buses? >> Good evening. Think uh we we're asking for three additional buses to add to our fleet. Uh I know we we had just done this last month, but uh that was the third third day of school. We now have uh increased our writership by approximately 800 students. So we've added four additional routes. So, we're we're in in need of a of these three additional buses to our fleet. >> Make sure Miss Maryland gets one of
125those new buses if she ever has she ever has to drive. I move approval of the purchase of two 77 passenger buses and 59 passenger special needs bus from Longhorn bus sales in the amount of $453,751 to be funded by the internal transportation service fund as presented. >> Second >> motion made by Dr. Harland, seconded by Miss Waller. >> All in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Unanimous. Passing. All right, that was short and sweet. Uh, moving on, we've got uh the consider approval of resolution setting the tax rate, which >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Consider resolution setting the tax rate for 2025. This is the subject of was the subject of our public hearing and now it's uh up for possible action. Uh so you can give us the really quick quick uh uh
126summary of what we heard earlier. >> We've got a little summary slide coming right up here which was our final slide for the public hearing. Um at this time I would be more than happy to take any questions. Uh I I did go into some detail talking about the differences between our M rate being that um it was divided into two tiers. I'd be happy to take any questions uh if there's any questions on the TEA's MCR or the enrichment pennies or the INS, but at this time our recommendation is to keep the tax rate exactly the same on both the M side and the INS of 9469. I'm happy to take any questions if there are any at this time. Uh, I move approval of the property tax rate for 2025 to be set
127by the attached resolution at 6769 for maintenance and operations and 27 cents for debt service for a total tax rate of 94 cents uh 9469 per $100 valuation as presented. Second. >> All right. >> They have to take it out to the fourth. >> We did say we set them up for you. >> Motion made by Mr. Sennis and seconded by Miss Benford. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. >> It's unanimous. Thank you. >> What grade was that? >> It's not that easy. >> Third grade. What's that like? >> 69. >> Miss Waller, can you have like a little class for them? decimals. Best to use decimals. >> All right. Now, we have consideration of approval of the 202526 campus improvement plans. And we're going to at least start with Miss Mononttoya. I
128don't know if you're going to do it all, but anyway, you're up. >> All right. Good evening. Uh this evening I'm going to share some information about the campus improvement plan process. I have four principles that will be joining me as well. So every year campus principles uh lead a team from their campus uh through the campus improvement uh process resulting in the end in their campus improvement plan for their campus. They start this program or this process in uh February and it goes through the remainder of the school year. Um but they start off with each of their plans has to be aligned with the board goals. So that's where they start is with the board goals and as they go through this process then at the very end they have to the the
129plan has to be approved uh by their CPIC uh committee which is their campus performance improvement committee. So there are some required elements by both the state and federal government. Um and some of those elements include a comprehensive needs assessment. So that's looking at a lot of data. They look at assessment data. They look at demographic data. They look at um survey results. They pull together a lot of data. Um they also have to have measurable objectives uh for student performance. They have to include the strategies that are going to be used. Uh they have to include uh the budget that's going to be used and timelines. And then like I said each plan has to be approved uh by their CPIC committee which is their campus performance improvement committee which includes uh community it
130includes parents that are a part of that committee. So some of the activities and all that we share with the campuses. So district and campuses share um as part of this and you'll probably hear some of these things in their their plans. They're going to share some things with you. So uh district and campus staff work together to do what's called curriculum and instruction support walks. Uh these include our campus or our curriculum coordinators walking classrooms with our uh campus administrators. Uh we do this each six weeks with each campus. We also have our foundations trend data walks and this is looking at the implementation and effectiveness of our safe and civil schools uh program. So we pull a lot of data from that. We also every Monday we do campus support uh team meetings
131at at campuses. And the purpose of of this uh walk is a a dedicated team of people from um the district to include our uh CNI staff as well as school leadership. Uh we provide onampus support and partner with the campus administration by focusing on student achievement and school climate and culture. uh we we review data during those visits. Um and we also do learning walks. So we visit classrooms, we talk about strengths, and we talk about areas that where there may be more support needed. This year we're also involved in the uh Texas instructional leadership. This was through the funded through the lasso grant and the focus on is on grades five through eight. Um this This uh process provides training and coaching support uh to campus administrators and it takes them uh through
132the uh instructional coaching cycle. So it they're learning how to support teachers through the coaching cycle. So four campuses are going to join me um to talk about their key focus areas uh from their campus improvement plans uh in the area of student achievement and growth. So there'll be four principles that are going to come up and share um and I will name all four of them and then each of them will come up. So Dr. AlmaZ will come up to talk about uh Anson Jones Elementary, Mr. Michael Gibson from Jane Long Intermediate. Uh Mrs. Becky Luna from SFA Middle School, and uh Dr. Greg Bo High School come up from Brian High School. >> We we might have been a little uh resistant to having all of the principles come. So, this this this
133strategy is to try to give us a good cross-section from top to bottom of the district. And then I guess at some point if there's something different that might be occurring, we may find get that at a later date or or you can even bring that up today. But but uh I just want to make sure everybody understands. Well, why do we just have these? Uh it's to give us at least an example at each level. Correct. >> Yes. At each level. That's correct. Thank you, Mr. Stasney. So good evening. So our priorities at Jones um center on improving and closing the gaps in student achievement in the areas of reading and math as well as on um Telus which is the measure on English proficiency of our emergent bilingual. So that being said, these
134are just a few of the strategies that we are hoping will help us achieve um these priorities. Um so you'll see the two main bullets um are centered around instruction as well as professional development of our teachers. So we are entering into year three of AVID implementation schoolwide. Uh we are one of two Abbott elementaryaries here in Brian and so we have definitely broadened our scope of implementation focusing in on uh what happens during professional learning communities when they're planning for instruction focusing on specifically academic vocabulary as well as just increasing the average strategies that we're implementing in our classroom instruction. Um along with trying to ensure that English proficiency is a focus. Um and so we are holding teachers accountable uh through Summit K12 which is a digital platform that mimics the Telus assessment
135and so therefore provides our students opportunities for listening, speaking, reading and writing. Um and since we have a over half of our population is emergent bilingual. This is definitely a strong focus for us. Um and then we all know that instruction alone um will not help us achieve that. We also have to make sure that we're capturing students hearts that we're building those connections and establishing a strong culture um school culture that focuses not just on studentto student connections but staffto student connections. So that with that we are um proud I'm proud to say that we are year nine now as a national showcase campus of capturing kids hearts. Um so that's taken a lot of work and established a huge trust between not only our students and our staff but also our community that
136surround us. And then recently we began implementing the Ron Clark house system on our campus to help improve the school connectivity. Um so we have a lot of fun with this. It's one of our positive behavior support systems that we have. Um every student and staff member is sorted into one of eight houses and we focus on recognizing students for um demonstrating essential aid as well as um just excelling in class. And we come together to award top scoring students. And so the top picture you'll see is our first round of students that won their their house hoodie. Um so they're one of the select few that get to wear the house hoodie. Everybody else just wears house colors. Um so um with that being said, I'm going to wrap up inviting you all to
137our house spirit rally on October 30th at 1:45 where we will be awarding u more students um as well as participating in some fun team building activities. So thank you. >> Would you send us an email? I think some of us if you sent us an email because I forget, I would be happy to go. >> Yeah, thank you. I will. >> That's a good point. It's uh I'm I'm I'm hopelessly uh probably not actually not going to remember or know, but but the reminders are great. And of course, we have >> we have our assistant somewhere. She we'll get we'll get some help. >> It wouldn't hurt to send us one. >> I will. Thank y'all so much. We we we can't go to everything, but we sure like to go to uh some
138a lot of stuff as much as we can. >> I just got confirmation juries on it and she will add it to the >> Okay, great. >> So, will the the kids stay in those houses? >> Yes, they remain in the house the entire time that they're at Jones. >> That's that's really >> it's really neat. >> So, will they have uh counselors and administrators that work? >> We're all sorted at custodial staff, cafeteria staff. We're all sorted and we award we all get to award points. Um and so you know we everybody is is working hard to make sure that they're doing the right thing because everybody's looking. >> That is that's great. That's a real house. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's been a game changer for us. So >> that's great. Thank you. >>
139Swallard's like the was it the chalk I was a chalk when I was at Anson Jones where the had all the Cherokees. We had the Did you have this at Anson Jones? >> I go see. Sorry. All right. Good evening. So, I'm going to talk about long intermediate a little bit here. Um, some of the things you're going to see are going to be kind of common across different schools, but couple of things that we're going to focus on this year is schoolwide AVID implementation. We also have it on our campus. Uh, and it's something that had gotten kind of spread out, but we've kind of refocused and brought it in a little bit tighter so that we can be a little more um effective with it, do a little more justice with it, and
140it's kind of centralized through a specific teacher. And then we kind of share those AVID things across our campus. We've implemented planners. Um our students have those things both with our students and our adults trying to teach uh the adults how to plan and try to work with our students and how to um focus on those things in class that are important uh and give them a central spot uh to do that. Also with progress monitoring, teaching kids how to monitor theirel, how to look at data theirel, set individualized goals uh so that they can become more effective in their learning and know where they're headed as well. U we've also tried to to look at reshaping our instructional strategies on our campus. uh teacher lesson implementation uh really trying to push more to the
141focus of internalization of the material instead of just having a PowerPoint that's sitting in front of the classroom and and teaching from that but really internalize and and spend our time in planning a little more effectively and looking at data uh which is what we're trying to restructure our focus and how we do our planning. >> Would you would you mind go and just tell us >> sorry >> what some of these uh acronyms stand for? I don't know if you meant I don't think you said why core >> uh wicker strategies so writing inquiry uh collaboration um organization >> reading sorry I know that >> okay stat put you on the spot >> yeah right so basically >> and we have a hard time with numbers so there's no no judgment being passed over
142here we make a good team though you know >> only if it has a decimal >> those are just strategies students use in the classroom in the Abid framework >> oh entertain >> um and And uh we recognize on our campus are very similar to Miss uh Valz and Anson Jones. We have a very high EP population on our campus, emergent bilingual campus on our students on our campus. And we understand that we struggle in reading, writing, and speaking um with the being a not a first language that they're used to in English. And so we with coordination with the district um we were able to hire a bilingual coach on our campus full-time. and she is taking some of those things that help those learners and we are spreading those things across the entire
143campus because it's good teaching. It's not just for EV learners but it's good teaching and good strategies and so that's something that we're focused on as well. Uh we also use summit K12 and then different silent strategies. Then also throw in there the Texas instructional leadership things that you know Dr. Montoya already spoke about coaching admin to coach teachers to help them u be more effective teachers in the classroom. May I ask a quick question? How effective the bilingual instructional coach I know they're obviously focused like you said on here targeted for the EB students, right? But how has that translated in test scores and every I mean it has to be an improvement if you've got that kind of one-on-one. >> So it's it's brand new this year to have a full-time person on
144our campus. What I will tell you is in PD week whenever we had her present to the staff, we had teachers from all content areas across the campus um coming to her talking to her about the strategies that she was already talking about. uh and we've seen it in planning, we've seen note-taking, we've seen uh things in PowerPoints, we've seen word walls, things that are just good teaching across the board u across our entire campus. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I quickly checked my slides for acronyms because I wasn't sure by pass that test, guys. But um I'm here representing SFA. So, one of our top priorities this year is improving math and reading achievement. Um, so we're focusing on raising performance by strengthening daily instruction. And you'll see those embedded strategies
145listed on the screen. Um, that looks like regular data digs with goal setting. And that's individual goal setting conferences with students in each of their core classes. A stronger focus on academic vocabulary. And then I feel redundant saying this, but AVID is the common theme tonight. And so just the emphasis on those note-taking strategies, planners, um independent reading, and making sure that we're not AVID isn't just a class, but it's a campuswide culture. Um moving on, we are spending a lot of time this year working on closing the achievement gap for special populations. Um and you'll see that we have implemented some programs and some strategies to close that achievement gap for our English learners um our atrisisk students and our special education students. And then most importantly, none of this happens without strong teachers.
146So we know that we have to have the best people in the classroom. So making sure that we have highly qualified professional staff and that means a 100% of our staff being certified are actively enrolled in a certification program. Um, so we're committed to growing our staff um in their content areas as well. Thank y'all. >> Good evening. Um, so at Brian High School, one of the first things that is up on our board is to meet the educational needs of every student and that is that is a key focus for us. Um, in order to do that, one of the roles that we did add this year was we took an assistant principal position and made that our dean of instruction, which is Brandy Mley, and she's really stepped into that role and is
147working closely with all of our our star tested subject areas um during their planning time as well as the kind of work that's going into their class so that we're meeting their needs to to see those STAR scores really grow. Um, our atrisisk students, we've got opportunities for them, whether that be the egeneuity classes for credit recovery. Um, we work pretty close with Dr. Casper at MC Harris to identify the correct students to get to MC Harris if there's a need for that. And then we do have our night school that will be starting soon for our students to have the opportunity to catch up. And we're working with our staff right now to prepare them for the type of strategies that they need to have in order to get those students the education that
148they need to catch up. Um, one of the things that we do want to continue to do is build our culture. That is extremely important at Brian High School right now is not just at Brian High School, but as part of the district as the overall hole. And so we've got quite a few things that we're going to be implementing on top of the foundations aids and champs that we have. Um we're working with our students to be creative. Uh we've got an attendance committee with students that we're hearing from them what is it that's going to make them come to school. And so we've started a few new strategies with our students um such as a certain number of days that they attend consecutively can earn some of the time back. So, one of
149the things I had heard from our students when I first began was, "I get into such a hole that I lose credit. What's the point of coming if I can't get out?" And so, we asked several of them, "What if you came five days in a row and could earn several hours back a week by just coming consecutively?" And so, I talked with one young man the other day and he hasn't missed school yet this year because he said he knows he owed enough time that it was not possible for him to come earlier than the bus or to to stay late. And so, he earned 12 hours back of his time that he had owed previously. And so we're seeing students that are attending at a higher rate because we're giving them an opportunity
150to earn it at a pace that works for them. Um and then increasing our parental involvement as well. Uh we do have our community pep rally which will be the homecoming pep rally for Brian High School. Um I don't know how big it's going to be yet, but we're working to make this a pretty special event. Um we've heard from a lot of our students and a lot of parents and they wanted things to come back to Brian High School as well as introduce new things. So we've got Satie Hawkins that parents are helping us organize that. We're going to have um items like talent show. We're going to have powderpuff is coming back. We've got a powder puff which is a boys volleyball. And so I I've reached out to to Miss Leighton a
151few times as well to see what are they doing at Rudder to increase that involvement and what kind of ideas. So really hearing what's already going on in the district. We want to make sure that we're doing that at Brian High as well. Uh lastly, it's equipping our students with knowledge and skills for post-secary success. One of the things that I wanted to make sure that we were doing was getting ahead of the game. And so with our college career and military readiness rate, waiting till their senior year to make sure that we're hitting those numbers is a little too late. And so this year, we're working with our students that we're going to start TSI testing um for that college readiness their junior year. We want to make sure that we know if our
152students are ready for college and career as they're going into that senior year so that we're hitting those numbers early on. That way we can identify the correct students and get them into this courses that they need. if that's a college prep English or a college prep math, are we getting them into the correct CTE pathway? Are they in an um an opportunity to earn IB or AP credit so that they're hitting college and career? And so our goal is to increase at a substantial rate with our students for college and career because we're we're addressing it earlier than that senior year so we can see those numbers jump up pretty well. I >> I would just like to say thank you for bringing things back. I spoke to Miss Leighton. I always give her
153such a hard time. I said when she was here, I was going to ask her what she's doing, but speaking to her, she's had a lot more engagement and she said, you know, it's amazing. That's what we've always talked about is getting the parents involved, but I would like to thank you for taking the initiative to think outside the box and bring back the old box and everything else. I think that's really important as as a Brian High graduate. What you it really does mean a lot and it it's it gives us a a sense of culture and that's what we need. So, thank you. That's the support that I felt from coming into this district and Miss Leighton is the reason that I applied and I came here and then the support I have
154from Dr. Hol Camp without that it's every day I know I can turn to her. So it's the community around you and that's it's a close-knit community. I tell the kids when they're coming in in the morning like hey smile and they're like why? And I'm like today you can meet your spouse. Half the district seems to have met their spouse. So it's like you've got an opportunity today might be the day. And so >> how do you argue with that Dr. How do you argue with that? It's a good place and it's it's become home very quickly. So I appreciate that. So thank you all >> and I thank you Mr. Bohigh for you know in high school, middle school, intermediate sometime along the way we lose that thought plan of get to know
155the student. We know it's in elementary but when they get to high school we just want to educate them. But if we don't know the child we can't educate the child. And so I've heard a lot of um great things, a lot of parents, you know, I'm in high school parents complaining and my kids complaining, but they have not. They've said that you've made an effort to get to know the children and they see that in the staff. They're getting to know the children and um I think that makes all the difference. We think as they get older, we just have to educate them. We don't have to know them. Wrong mentality from prek all the way till they walk that stage. We need to know these kids, people that interact with these kids, teachers,
156whatever. You need to know who's on your campus. You need to get to know those students, where they come from, and what's going on with them. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And that helps them to be what we intend for them to be as a board, productive citizens when they leave out of this school. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Well said. And I mean, you got the reader's choice award after a couple months on the job. I mean, that's just impressive. That's >> it was the national merit. I mean, it was just all sorts. >> It's amazing what you can do in a couple of months. Dr. Moses thinking >> in the Bible it says high school has to be fun. >> It does. >> So you have to >> Well, and I taught elementary, so I'm
157bringing that up a little bit. So there's some of that, too. >> Whatever it takes, sir. >> That's right. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Do you have any other questions for either myself or the four principles? >> I just wanted to make a comment, not a question. And um one of the things I did hear last week at the text edcon as it relates to school safety and you know lots of schools are considering all the things from detection systems whatever those may be to more cameras and all of that. Um but what came out as the most impactful piece for school safety is relationships and the adultto student relationship is absolutely critical. um and having those trusted adult relationships with children. So um I'm glad to see that embedded in all of
158these as a thread. So thank you so much for that. >> Agree 100%. >> All right. So we would ask um that the board uh consider approval of the 2025 2026 campus improvement plans. >> Well, and we we'll do that. I do have one one quick comment slashquest more more of a comment I guess and that's I know we we do to an extent but but we need to we needed the board to hear updates on how things are going and what is really working and what maybe didn't work as well and especially if we're in any position to do anything about it uh if there are some obstacles that are that are causing a problem because this sounds really great and And I and I I think it's going to work, but at the
159same time, I would I would love to know as we progress through the year, the school year, you know, what really is working and and what what what does is is are we still struggling with? So, >> uh that's my only comment is is just that we can absolutely >> I don't know to the extent we've done it in the past, but I don't always remember getting a lot of, you know, good updates during the year. So, please please y'all try to figure out a way to do that. That would be great. >> I agree, Mr. Stats. can't fix it if we don't know there's a problem and if they need help then I think we're all more than willing to do whatever we can absolutely >> I move approval of the 2025 2026 campus
160improvement plans as presented and authorize the administration to make adjustments as necessary to meet the needs of students >> second see that's how it's done >> thank you motion made by Miss Benford seconded by Mr. Brian. All in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Unanimous. Okay. Uh I think we are to close session. The board will now convene in close session to discuss the following items as allowed by the Texas Government Code. Chapter 551. 0821. 0074 and 00761. No voting will take place in the closed meeting. Any action the board wishes to take as a result of discussion in close session will occur after the board reconvenes in open meeting. The time is now 8:20. Okay. Uh, the board reconvened and opened session at what does that say? 8:50. >> 8:50. Yes, sir. >>
161Okay. 8:50 p.m. No action was taken in close session. There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 8:50.