001order. Let record show that a corman board members is present. Uh that this meeting has been duly called and the notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. The time is 12:03. I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present. Please turn off the sound on all electronic uh devices. Uh we give the opportunity for citizen to citizens to make comments on topics relevant to district business. Uh we do not have any uh requests uh for this meeting. So our first uh item, our next item is information items update on the budget development status for for the 2526 school year. And we have Kevin Bau and Norma Norman Fiddle. Thank you, sir. Uh as we continue to progress through the through the
002budget season, um we are uh continuing to monitor uh the legislature as they as they move forward. I believe uh today is their uh last day. So uh we'll hopefully know something sooner rather than later. But of course the governor has uh don't remember exactly the number of days, 20 or 30 days to sign anything that that he's has in his possession at this point. So, we'll be quick today uh just doing an update of a little bit of the uh information that uh has changed since the last meeting. Uh, of course, we'll always remember our budget goals. Um, you know, high quality instruction and resources, retain our high quality workforce, healthy fund balance and safety and security. And then just the little bit of the update, the really only update on this one, uh,
003this slide is the legislation, House Bill 2 is currently on the governor's desk. Uh, and as of the last few minutes, I've not heard that he signed it yet. So, we're still waiting on that to see if if that's really going to come to fruition. Um, we we assume it is, but you you you never know. Um, and again, there's the the things that were added in there. Uh, you know, the basic aotment went up, it went down. Um, just point out that uh it was $55 is where it ended. And we'll talk about that a little bit more, but just to remember to combat inflation, it was estimated the districts would need around $1,300 uh to uh increase to be able to match the uh inflation number since 2019 when the last time the
004basic aotment was increased. Uh bas included in there is teacher retention allotments. Uh they specify classroom teachers. So that's it's a little bit different than uh we're understanding than what we have usually done with our teacher salary schedule. counselors, librarians, nurses, those things are not included in that. Uh they they have been in the past, but that's uh taken out as is our understanding at this point. Uh again, 2500 for each 3 to four year experienced teacher, 5,000 for uh 5 years and more. Uh and some other items there. Uh they did add 5 million for state school safety and security. We'll talk about that one a little bit more. And then this this slide was in the last one, but it has changed just uh ever so slightly. Uh you'll notice uh down at
005the bottom uh on the right hand corner, it's a calculation between the current law and then what House Bill 2 uh has in there. And so it it shows our title one tier enlotment, our tier one title in a lotment is uh $8.6 million. And we'll go through a little bit more of uh how that breaks down. But uh it's it's a like I said the slight increase in basic aotment but there is a a large uh targeted uh sections on this. So it's targeted as to where we need to use it, how we can use it and different things where the basic aotment would be more discretionary and allow us a little more flexibility. some of the things that uh that came out in this one. One of the things we wanted to point
006out um the projected increase in basic aotment as we said was $55 per ADA which calculates out for us about 629,000. But a couple of the things that the the Senate added in there when they had the bill the uh prek uh funding and the early education aotment which is which is uh combined how they did it. They adjusted that formula. So that really reduces our funding on that by 186,000. And they specifically said that they funded the $55 basic aotment by freezing the golden penny. Uh for us that uh instead of increasing uh I believe it was $1.29 uh per golden penny uh to supposed to go to 132 I believe this year and then next year was supposed to go tound around 140. So that's been frozen for the uh 2526 year. that
007would reduce our funding about 384,000. So our real increase from the projected basic aotment of 629,000 calculates out to about 50 I believe that's about 55,000. Um so it it's it's not not not a lot when you get right down to it. Um the other thing a basic costs aotment uh that actually is $1.7 million. They called that the ABCot. It's supposed to cover everything as as they said. Uh one of the things that it will have to cover is the benefits for the teacher retention allotment. Uh the teacher retention allotment as we said the 2500 for three and four and 5,000 for five year plus that's for salary only. So the TRS uh Medicare any any things that the district portion has to kick in that's not covered. So that would have to come
008out of the 1.7. Uh also, you know, a property insurance increases, utility cost increases, uh security aotment shortfall. We've talked about our security aotment. Uh you know, we we spend uh quite a bit more than than they had done, even though they've increased it some. Uh it will not quite quite get to uh cover 100%. It will give about 50% of our SRO's and our armed security. So, you know, that aotment has to cover some of those costs. Um then we see on the right side there the teacher retention aotment portion. Uh and then they threw in uh something that was added a staff retention aotment. Uh so the teacher retention aotment our portion calculates around $4 million. Um and that's essentially uh how it's structured. It's it's really a pass through uh similar to
009like a teacher incentive aotment where the district or the uh TEA funds the district based on the certain amount that goes to the teachers and then we pass it through. This is going to be the same kind of thing. Uh we'll receive the funding. It will go through to the to the teachers. The difference between the teacher incentive aotment is we're allowed to uh reduce the the payout by the TRS and all of those kind of things. So the district actually isn't out money additional money. This one is not that way. We would have to use that other aotment to cover that. And then staff aotment that's uh to take care of uh the additional staff. Uh that's basically everybody that's not on covered under the teacher aotment and uh it excludes administration from that.
010So campus and uh uh district admin are not are not included in that. Can't be used for that. Um and then I guess look down below there. to meet these challenges. Again, we're still continuing um through attrition reviewing all positions uh for potential consolidations, cost savings. We're refining a skyward position control. We've talked about that a little bit. That's been a valuable tool and we're at a point uh we feel that's very valuable for us. We can analyze vacancies and refine master schedules a little bit more uh actually quite a bit more than than we have in the past because we have that capability with this with this system. So we're actively uh looking at that um even this week as we go forward. Um consider reducing eliminating the retention stipens that we have done
011in the past. Uh if there's no funding available for that, it's going to be difficult. And then just considering all options uh to reduce expenditures as we go through. And then this is the of course the budget development timeline. That's we've had that um for you in the past uh past meetings and of course we are at the June 2nd right now final update. Uh basically, uh what we've talked about, we've we've discussed, we've had phone calls, Norman and I, with um Amanda Brownson of Tasbo and Amy Campbell of TASBY, our our consultants in that area, and they are strongly uh suggesting that our especially the July one fiscal year uh districts adopt budget on current law and wait for all of the dust to settle on the new changes in that. So not to
012adopt, try to try to adopt based on the new changes since there's so many unknowns. Certain things like uh just the definition of of what they say classroom teacher is. Uh if you jump out there too fast, you you know and give raises based on our interpretation. If that's different than their interpretation, we could give raises that then you would either have to take back or you would just have to fund them if if you'd already done it. Things like that. there's there but there are a lot of things that need to be defined uh by them before we actually uh would feel comfortable moving forward with that. So the recommendation by them is to adopt uh on current law and then uh amend as we are able to uh July and August is is
013still pretty pretty good times to amend. Uh the teachers have not started yet. their their um uh pay runs through August 31 for their current year. So their new contracts and and pay would not start until September one. So there is a little bit of window there to do that. But uh this is one of the one of the things you know we adopted the June 30 uh year end last year uh to uh you know buy ourselves a little more time and and bolster our fund balance which which it did that. that uh one of the drawbacks to the to the June 30 uh fis excuse me fiscal year end is the uh legislative sessions when they get to the end of the session like this and if they are making significant changes it's
014difficult to prepare the budget and and move forward um adopting uh on time unless you use current law and then make amendments which is fine we can do amendments as often as necessary so that's that's not really an issue um I think That's really what we were going to update on. Can you can you go back a couple of slides there? And and um yeah, on this one, I just want to make sure I understand. It says basic cost a lotment must cover benefit cost for teacher retention allotment, raises, property, etc. And then over here on the right, it says teacher aotment 400 thou 44 million. Uh, so is this 4 million in addition to the 1.7 or Okay. Yes. All right. So, yes. So, the four million Go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead. No, you
015go ahead. No, I was going to say the 4 million is allocated that will be based on the number of teachers uh that we have uh in those certain categories as defined by TEA. Once they once they roll that out, then that money would basically be a pass through. will be funded uh on that particular amount and then that will be passed through to to the teachers uh in their certain categories but that's that will be all there won't be funding for um uh the TRS part of it the Medicare any other benefits that the district has to pay on that money uh would have to come out of then the 1.7 Mr. Baw Mr. be so what if you had to make a guess right now if everything stayed the way we what we're
016looking at that has been proposed what is our net change do you have a ballpark are we lower than we were last year will we be higher we have a little bit more money do you have any idea I don't know if y'all and I know it's hard because they're all moving targets that we're trying to hit but if they were to settle on everything as has been proposed where would that leave us yeah I mean we talked about that this morning in fact just to try to iron that out and you know of course we're still looking through this skyward Um, we've got uh vacancies uh that we need to look at and iron out uh through those uh see if those positions are are are real at this point yet or necessary. Uh
017different things. But it's it's going to be difficult with this bill as passed uh to get to get much better than we were last year with the $6.2 million deficit. Um I it's going to be very very difficult to to do that. there's going to be some major cuts or things that that I mean we've talked about other districts are doing but that's that's kind of where we would at some point you don't have a choice and it's a hard decision to make. So you're saying if everything's the same we would still be the 5 million short or or whatever deficit that we were in last year. That's what we did last year. Yeah. And that's, you know, I mean, other than that, you're going to have to start looking at, you know, schools, programs,
018different things that that uh um you know, class sizes, all those kind of things that we've we've already looked at and we've already done some some of those tweaks and things, but uh you know, we would maybe have to start looking at at more uh more drastic. Thank you. Um I have a question. You mentioned it a couple of times and this may be something for Barbara or somebody else, but you said that we're waiting on the true definition of certified teachers and classroom teachers. classroom teachers. Um so some of this money that would be going to classroom teachers if our if if we have which of course we do we have wonderful non-certified teachers that are working on it or non-certified teachers are they going to be affected negatively in this if they're non-certified
019or even if they're working on it? I don't I don't think it specifies certified. I don't as far as I'm aware they you want to elaborate the definition typically is defined uh as in the number of hours they serve students in the classroom. Okay. Like four hours. I mean you want to elaborate on that? I just don't want from it. It triggered a little question mark in my mind when you said that and I don't want any of our teachers that aren't on vacation and are listening to this board meeting um to worry about that. Yeah. It's a and and we were, you know, Friday when we were looking at this as it as it was coming out, we we had the um uh we look had the uh code out and we're looking at
020you know what how does that define a classroom teacher? It's number of hours that they actually teach. I believe it's four four hours. um you know with the children and and that it's it's clearly defined in the education code. But we want to make sure before we uh go forward with funding on that that that is the definition that the the Senate means and TEA interprets and you know there's a few steps that have to be go through because our in our in our uh you know past and and what's what's been the case in in uh uh before was the the teacher schedule our our teacher salary schedule included counselors included our regist nurses included librarians and that was pretty standard. But in this case, they've they've um peeled some of that off is
021our understanding. And so it's it's going to be defined as as a classroom teacher, which we could make an interpretation of what they mean. But again, that's, you know, we're getting out on a limb and if you know, we we start funding areas that maybe they didn't intend or it's just it we just feel like it's a better situation to wait until they definitively say define that where that where that goes. So, it's not the definition of teachers being certified or uncertified. It's the definition of teachers versus counselors and librarians and some other things. That That's my understanding. Yeah, they they've they've defined it as just classroom teacher. So, our teachers certified, working on certification, uncertified are okay to we'll know for sure once we get the true definition. The the thing that we're all
022shocked in every single school district is the amount of people excluded from the compensation package, right? They've made it abundantly clear that the zero to twoyear teacher will get nothing, which is alarming. And then uh to Kevin's point, they typically when we talk about the teacher pay structure and that scale that almost always includes uh registered nurses, certified and certified counselors and they have all been excluded as well. So uh every district is less left contemplating how to best address compensation with all the exclusions. So it's um that's why they're saying determine our budget based on current law that is clearly defined. Uh there's a lot of unknown still. So we're we're hoping for the best. One thing we've heard too about um on that it's a little bit of a change on this the
023basic costs allowment that $1.7 million. Uh I've heard it talked about in fact on our you know locally that u and Miss Caroline has talked about this a lot uh that it would be good if the district was or all districts were funded on enrollment not necessarily average daily attendance. Well so in this particular instance this allotment is f is funded on enrollment. That's the only thing I mean we got some nothing else changed but it's because Miss Waller talked to him that day. That could be that could be. She got she got through to Yeah, but I I've heard it talked about out there and it they it's it's come across as oh well now you're all you're getting funded on enrollment. Well, only on that particular allotment, the basic aotment, all the other
024aotments, everything else is still on on average daily attendance. So, that's but that's another change that they threw in to complicate things a little bit, I guess. But, um and and muddy the waters for everyone else out there that's listening to to all of this. and the uh star test going away that they were holding over the heads of the people that wanted that died. So, Senate Bill 4. Yeah. Yeah. Was it the previous slide where it showed the difference had the Yeah. And that's not $571 per So tell me again what what is this per Yeah. So th So this is a comparison a comparison to uh from current law to the house bill. And so that is that's that's um a $571 uh increase in revenue per ADA is what that what that
025says. But again, you go back to the biggest part of that is the 4.5 million. Uh, and actually that's combined with the staff aotment, but the teacher aotment is four million of that. So basically half, which we're we're grateful for that funding for our teachers and and all that. But when you saw basic aotment and then they reduce the basic aotment by those other items, they a lot of it is tied up into areas that we um are restricted or uh it's targeted to certain areas. We don't have discretion on on what if you go to the next slide. So it looks like maybe we got a 571 increase but because they made these other adjustments, right? Right. And we have to still pay for uh you know I started to say social security but
026uh medicare TRS and all the other things. Yeah. It's not included in that either which means we have to figure out how to pay for that too. Right. So really not much of an increase. Yes ma'am. One of the frustrations is they tout what a big increase it is when it was nothing last time. So it's kind of And and that's why I did want to get that out that even though they were saying we get all these increases and they found out 55, it's really the net is nothing. Yeah, it's it's they had so much to make up to get back to zero really anyway. Right. All right. Any other questions? Thank you very much. And we'll move on to uh strategic plan and bond steering update. Dr. Merrill, Miss Friddle, now you know
027why he decided to retire. Miss Friddle. I said, "Now you know why he decided to retire." Yes, sir. I've got a team joining me. We're going to tag team the slide deck. We appreciate the opportunity to come back. I truly have lost track. I think this is fourth or fifth time we've been in in the boardroom. So, I appreciate the opportunity to to sort of address it. And I've got um just for introductions, Mr. Griffin beside me and you obviously know uh the two sitting to my left. They just presented. So, uh, we're very, very thankful for the opportunity and we're just sort of doing recaps. We'll be back in the boardroom, uh, whenever you ask and, uh, just kind of moving into the future, but we're excited to share a little bit of the
028work that the committee's already done. Just a quick reminder of the purpose, and I clearly won't read it, but the slide may look a little different, but the priorities and the purpose is still the same. uh we're engaging the broader community and soliciting feedback to inform our work and then obviously developing options and sound recommendations to uh to share to the board of trustees. And so we started with bond steering. We're going to get through that. It started with strategic planning and a few weeks into it, it moved to bond steering and we'll walk through that calendar here shortly, but just kind of a a jaunt down memory lane. The goal was to truly look at keep the big picture in mind and uh we were thankful to bring Mr. Griffin on board and he'll
029talk just in a second about the facility assessment and what that looked like and um that facilitation and that uh deep work that we did there. So again prioritizing student needs developing a fisc fiscally responsible plan keeping the big picture in mind and then obviously as we moved into bond steering hopefully serving as ambassadors as a proposed plan. You'll see pictures there of sort of the work that's been uh discussed and um that is continuing to be uh moving forward. Where are we? This is kind of an outline of the nine weeks worth of work that we've been doing. It was a kind of a bold request to ask our entire community to come together for nine straight weeks, eight straight weeks, which they wholeheartedly got behind, which we're so appreciative of. And it started
030with that work of uh the committee purpose, alignment, and then it quickly moved into current and future needs and assessments. And it got to be that sixth week where it really moved from, hey, this is strategic uh planning conversations to I think this is a bond steering. And it it was sort of gradual and organic as it moved through those coming weeks. And you could just hear in the questions and in the comments about like, well, what are we going to do with this? We've got all this information. We've got our a demographer. We've got our facility assessments, which we're going to talk about in a second. We've heard from our departments. um we've seen the financial uh implications what that looks like as far as uh what's happening in the in the legislature and
031they just started basically asking what are we going to do with this is this moving towards something more concrete in the sense of are we moving towards a bond uh conversation and that was at week six where we really stopped and we transitioned the group asked if they were comfortable transitioning from uh strategic planning to bond steering and then began uh the exercise of really looking at that buildup on and that discussion of what um could could be and what would be proposed. And again, we're meeting on week nine. Um and again, we're we're into the work very deeply, but we're getting to that consensus membership. And again, we agreed early on in meeting one what consensus would look like. And for our group, it was 75%. So, the group um of our community members
032would would come to a 75% consensus for each of the projects and then that would make the recommendation. again obviously understanding all along the way that the board is the one that ultimately would call for any type of bond referendum um in conversation. So when we look at the major potential categories of need uh there there really were three that kind of um just surfaced. One is general purpose and these could potentially be even the referendums if in November if in August you called for it that would make for that voting um in November. But the general purpose which MEP academic that's kind of the the larger typically the larger category where you'd see representation from a bunch of different campuses if not all of our campuses and the MEP work is uh the mechanical
033engineering plumbing and technology engineering and then obviously academic and this is a lot to maintain our buildings to keep our keep them um sound and secure and then moving forward uh with a lot of those things that you see listed there and then technology was some infrastructure things that would be a separate referendum And the third one would would be athletics is where we believe um the work of the committee has led us to those three major subcategories that would be up for for election. Now facility condition assessments we got into a lot of work and this is obviously um a lot of things on a screen. You'll see to the right there we did a a prioritization exercise where they put green and yellow and red dots and we talked a lot about that
034MEP stuff. But I'd ask Mr. Griffin just to talk a little bit about what that uh facility condition assessment looked like and what that information gave us. So the reality is we're we're constantly trying to streamline and improve. Obviously the presentation I had just prior to this shows you that we've got to do more with less on a regular basis. Uh it's it's been mentioned many times that we have an amazing staff that's done a incredible job of of facilitating and keeping this stuff running and keeping it in operation. Um the problem with a lot of this information is locked in people's heads and so we've got to do a better job of actually using our tools here locally to get some of this information documented. But the the facility assessments is something that we
035should keep up with 365 all the time, non-stop. We made some recommendations to use certain tools that we had already previously used uh only because it was to expedite and get that information that they had, but uh I'd like to see us move forward with with getting that information localized, getting it uh invested in our technology system so that we've got a better quick glance as as our district and the age and the availability and stuff. So, uh, we're always going to be looking for ways to improve and we've got amazing people that we just have to give them the green light and let them start helping us out there. Yeah. And speaking to that, like life cycle replacements, those types of things are really um, I think very healthy um, exercise and one that
036Mr. Griffin is obviously we've got it in some places and kind of in our own heads, but we want to put it down on paper so that we we can see it and we know exactly what it is. And that's part of the work of the committee and that's what we've done. At the same time, when that's come up like, hey, it's it's at its life expectancy. It needs to be replaced. That's where the committee really stepped up and said, "Hey, I think we need to consider coming to a bond referendum." And and we'll show you financially sort of why that made sense and why even three or four years ago we said this is the timetable. uh we knew uh back when we did 2020 that that at some point within the next four
037to five years this this was going to be a conversation that came back. Now we talked a little bit uh Kevin talked about and Norma talked about that unfunded mandates. U this was based on old legislation but it still highlights a very just sadly true uh reality is that we have a lot of unfunded mandates and you'll see the negative4.7 million and negative -2.9 even though they may have closed the gaps in some of those with the aotments we're still on on um an underfunded mandate. And so that's where you take the the money that was given for our maintenance and operations and we're having to spend it in areas that you know we might not have wanted to that if we were properly funded we would be able to spend that in different um
038areas. And so this is just an example of what it looks like. And again we talked to our departments uh safety and security, transportation, athletics, CTE, fine arts. So on top of the facility assessment we talked to all of our departments and they brought needs out. They said, "Look, this these are things that we need. Um these are things that we think would take our district uh to the next level that would really bring um needed uh change." And so they got an opportunity to present. And then those are items uh that made it to the committee for them to be able to select as potential consensus items that would make a bond referendum. I'll let Kevin and Norma talk a little bit about the finances and what that looks like. Correct. And and we've
039we've seen this slide of course many times just to make sure and everyone's everyone's uh clear on that the uh the general operating fund the maintenance and operations budget is completely separate from uh the INS or the or the debt service fund. And so what we would be talking about here is the INS fund uh which which basically passing a bond if if if that were the the choice of the decision of the board. And then how we uh fund that, that's completely a separate item, a separate uh tax rate. Uh on the uh Mr. Beast, so I'm interrupt real quickly. I just want to make clear to everybody listening as well that we can't pass a bond to pay our teachers more. Is that and and I don't I get asked that a lot,
040but why don't you just pass a bond? We would happily vote in favor of a bond to get our teachers more, to get everybody else. So I just want to make it I'd like you to explain that to us that that is not an option for us. Yes, sir. That's our mainly um our operations uh maintenance and operations side there that you see the salaries, utilities, supplies, repairs, fuel, those kind of things. Our day-to-day operations, we cannot um use bond funds for that. Bond funds can only go for uh paying off the debt that's passed by the voters and that will be defined by by a resolution that would be passed by the board uh to be voted on. But it's basically uh generally almost uh always for facilities, infrastructure, um you know, major major
041uh purchases of that nature, not day-to-day operating expenses. And since Mr. Gonzalez brought that up. The flip side of that is is that we also hear that uh why don't you be more frugal and why don't you save save uh you know some of your money that you get from M and use that for striping parking lots or whatever it is that you are trying to pay for out of bond money or buying buses or whatever. And yeah, we could we could do that and pay our teachers less and that because that's what it would boil down to. And not just teachers but everybody works for the district. We talk about teachers all the time, but but we never want to overlook all the other folks that uh we have working for us that have
042contact with students or part of their lives. Part of what makes us a good school district is is all our staff. So, so it's it's uh uh frustrating when people think, well, you know, I didn't borrow money to buy my car. I saved up and bought paid cash for it. Well, that's great. We could we could we could try to do that, but again, the way we're set up, uh, it would be impossible for us to compete fairly with regard to salaries. Yeah, and I would I would add to that one. Brian, go back to that slide. So, we see the state aotment on the old law was 521,000 for us. You might have noticed in the slide we just presented, it's a little over 600,000 additional funding. So, that's going to put us at
0431.1, a little over that. So, you can see there though, we're still our cost uh for the year was 3.4 million. just our SRO and our SEC armed security for the elementarymentaries and and secondary campuses is uh is almost two million in itself. So even the additional funding that would come from from the new bill if that if that is additionally is actually signed would still only be half what we what we need just for our uh security officers on our campuses. Kevin, can you repeat what you said on the two bucket slide about what was defined by board operating procedure? Um what so when when we go out for a bond uh the the our bond council will draft up a resolution uh calling for the bond and so it will be defined in
044that uh resolution which is becomes the referendum. It'll be defined in there what we are asking the voters to approve on that bond. So uh generally it's you know it's going to be those kind of items the uh facilities um we have put buses on there um and renovations major expenditures not you know you can't put salaries on there you can't put uh just day-to-day operation items that uh would would generally be kicked back by the attorney general and they would not allow us to to go forward because that will have to be bond counsel will write it up. It'll be approved. That has to all go to the be approved by the attorney general before we can we can send it out. These are right these would be the three things. So um typically
045the general purpose is the largest uh because of the various things and then obviously underneath that would be um different different line items. There were several bills introduced to try to make it harder to pass bonds quite frankly. Uh did any of those gain traction enough to get out to the legislature? We don't believe so. No sir. I don't believe they now. Yes. There were many. But we could expect those in the future. We hope not. Yeah. Yeah. Don't know. That's a great point. All right, Kevin. Yeah. Right. And so then this is the our our cup uh analogy of uh our district funding and of course the um maintenance and operations. You know the TEA basically sets our tax rate and and our revenue for the year and then the uh tax local property
046taxes fill uh that revenue cup to the certain amount and then whatever's left is made up by the state. when our property uh values go up uh they'll you know they compress the rate but they've basically compression has been done to the point where I mean pretty much every district is at the floor that they'll allow you to but then if if we get uh more property tax revenue then that just fills the cup a little further but the cup doesn't get any bigger the state just reduces the amount that they would that they fund us with. So essentially we get the same amount of revenue. It just comes uh in different proportions from property taxes and state funding. And then this one we we've talked as we've gone through this this whole process uh
047and and the uh committee started looking at you know the cost of these items and some of the things that uh you know they they were proposed or wanted to look at and consider. Uh the question came up well I mean how much you know what is our capacity? How much can we do? Of course, we had uh a couple of discussions about that, but essentially um as we look at it, the maximum tax rate for uh INS purposes that is allowed by the state is 50 cents. We're currently at 27 cents uh on that. So, we're considerably below the the maximum that that is allowed by the state. Of course, between 27 and 50 has to be approved by the voters. That's that's the criteria that uh that's required by them. But at this
048time what we're estimating we could uh without a tax rate increase though still stay at the 27 cents. We do have capacity because of paying off bonds early because of the way we've structured the debt as we've gone uh in past years. We can go roughly to about 400 million uh without raising the tax rate. Now it still would be more more debt. of course you're going to take on, you know, if it's if it was 400 a million, for example, it would it would be additional debt, but you would just pay it off using the same tax rate. So, it would just be a longer longer payout in that regard. Um, and of course, the ballot language, no matter whether there's a tax rate increase or there's not a tax rate increase, that's going
049to have uh this is a property tax increase on the ballot. So, uh the attorney general's been very strict on that. When they first came out with this in two sessions ago, I think they uh the districts tried to put different things on there saying, well, it's a tax property tax increase, but then say this is not a tax rate increase and all kind there's examples of all kinds of things, but the attorney general has been very strict on that. Really at this point, nothing else is allowed to be put on there except for that statement. So, um, just just as a example of, you know, what that will say when we when we get there. And of course, there's a there's a packet that has to be put together, voter information packet, the bond
050council would help with that. All of those kind of things to explain uh all of this. It gets a little bit complicated, but as most things do, it seems like with the state anymore, but and these are the next steps, key dates, and deadlines. We wanted to just make make y'all aware. Obviously, uh we've got a meeting coming up on June 23rd, which is meeting 10. I'll be here in the boardroom. Meeting 11 if needed, would be July 9th. And then the last day for uh to order a general election would be August the 18th. And then we've got the dates there for voting and early voting, applying for mail ballots. Um and then obviously election day would be November 4th. And this is all in statute. So we're just kind of backing it up
051from election date. And that's where we get the August the 18th date. So if if indeed you did want to call something um you know we that would be the dates that we would need to do so any questions? All right we appreciate uh the opportunity to come and present. Thank you so very much and for us to do the work and we look forward to seeing you in future meetings. Thank you very much. Okay, our next item is teaching and learning annual purposes of supplemental educational support and operational software solutions. Dr. Ibara. Thank you, Mr. Stasnney. So, we are here again today um for the annual review and renewal of software purchases and uh supplemental supports. Um this is something we come to the board every year and ask for um and look for
052those purchases that are over $50,000. Most of these are funded from federal grant money or um some a little bit here are from local because of the rules tied to those grants. Um but overall these are the purchases that we bring back each year for various purposes. So tonight is just for or today is just for information and then if the board um would like we can add them to the evening meeting for action and consideration. Uh but just two big categories of purchases. One are operational things, things that we need to do business from an instructional lens. And then the other side over there is supplemental support, things that we do to supplement the main curriculum or the main resources in the district for certain populations. And at the bottom, those are various funding
053sources that are used for these purchases. Um, so on the left, I'm going to go through these very quickly, but please know I'll be happy to go back and answer any questions that you might have. Um, we have MAP by NWA. Uh this was previously utilized in grades K through 12. Um but in the coming school year we are recommending a reduction of that um particular software and assessment package to to be just grades K through one sorry and then also keeping the lit or K through two rather and then but keeping the literacy piece of it through fourth grade which is assesses the reading level of a student. Um, so this is actually a reduced cost over the prior year. The prior year was roughly $220,000. Um, so this will be a reduction to
054$86,000 um for the coming year. Packaged with that, I'm going to skip and go back. Packaged with with that is edge of an increase this year. Typically that's about $60,000. It is increasing to roughly $100,000 because we are reducing MAP. We are picking up test banks through aware and through edgehoria and also assessments through there. So because of that that one will be increasing in the coming year but it will allow us a lot more flexibility and data tools as well. Um so just wanted to be really transparent with while MAP is decreasing this one is increasing as a result of that but still a cost savings overall. Branching minds is utilized to track student interventions um both academically and behaviorally. Um, it is required by law to track all of these things and have
055that data go from one teacher to the next. This software package allows us to facilitate that transfer of information from one school to the next and one teacher to the next so that we can coordinate services to support a student. Um, it does a lot with writing the communications for the the families and tracking the data as well as providing ideas for interventions for students that will help support them both behaviorally and academically. It is a timesaver for our teachers. Um so while it is expensive, it is funded out of title and state compensatory education. Um and it is a great resource for our faculties. Frontline Eastbed. This is a compliance piece that can only be funded out of the local budget because um it is required to have the AR paperwork, the u the
056review and dismissal committee paperwork. But it is also something that um allows us to keep very tight controls over what's transpiring in our meetings. Um without it there they're there simply you have to have a software package. You can't go back to the paper pencil version of these types of means. I think Dr. Warren uh might uh have a stroke if we did that. Uh but at any rate uh this is this is priced per student. So we always say up to $65,000. We don't expect it to be that much, but because that number fluctuates within students are identified, it has to have a little bit of flexibility in what we're asking for. And then similarly, oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about this one. This one is one we brought last year. It was goal
057book. It was to support the AR process and to help write those goals that have specific requirements from the state and the federal government. We believe now, Dr. Warren and her team, that we do not need to ask for renewal of this software package. while it was wonderful, we have other free versions that we can utilize now that have become available. And so we're shifting to those types of supports rather than purchasing um $160,000 um for Gold Book this year. So that's a cost savings as well. I was looking at the songs, wraps, and chants. I just had to point that out that that's you hate to lose that, Barbara, but I you know, we we give where we can. And the last operational software package is Elevation. Just like for special education meetings, those
058students who are English language learners have ELPAC meetings. And this software facilitates all of the required documentation for the federal and state government for each of those meetings for the students and for the families. All right, so that's all the operational. So supplemental services are next. Uh, HMH read 180 is a supplemental software package and resource and curriculum that we utilize in our classes. is it is the actual curriculum for the read 180 course which is to support students who struggle in reading. Um and you can see there um it shows a great deal of growth over the years with our students who are struggling to acquire ongrade level reading skills. Um it is utilized by teachers who were specifically trained in that curriculum. Uh without this software we would still need to purchase a
059curriculum for that course. So this serves as that curriculum. Read Horizons. This was originally funded through a grant. Uh Brian ISD was awarded a a $2 million grant plus um for dyslexia intervention and this was a part of that package. The software was fully funded by the grant um and got us all of the materials to go with it. The part that we now maintain um is the online resource and library for teachers. It's roughly $120,000 and it's utilized in grades K through three and it is utilized daily. Um I think Mrs. caravine when she goes to check in with the soup. This is one of the teachers favorites. They are very thankful to have access to reading horizons for phonics curriculum and support for their students. Summit K12. I put this one on here.
060I want you to know that you will likely see a change in this recommendation. I last year we held it as well. It was a new software package that supports the acquisition of English for listening, speaking, reading, and writing for our English language learners and provides it in a way that is simulated for what they would experience on the state assessment for that test, which is Telpas, and also helps with writing skills. Um, it's a relatively new software to the district. This is only its second year of implementation. Last year, we waited until we had results in from Telpas before we made the recommendation. initial results showed that it was a stronger support perhaps at the elementary level. Um and so we gave it another year to see how um the data is shaping up.
061Dr. Moore has just completed um the analysis and we're reviewing those results right now. So you might see a different amount before we come to the board at the evening meeting based on that data. it could possibly be less um perhaps maybe not the middle schools and intermediates they schedule they struggle to get the number of minutes of use into the system where it would actually help the child. So in that sense it's not truly helping the child. There's not a a larger evidence of impact there. Um but at any rate we do see some correlation at the elementary level that there's merit in this software helping the students be more successful on those assessments. uh but we'll bring more to you at the evening meeting uh for this particular software package. Um the last
062one on here is CESI specialized educational services. Um this is the one that we introduced last year for the first time. Um we the board approved it in April and we implemented over the summer and bringing into the school year. This is the Sierra school for students with differentiated needs for behavioral supports and interventions. um it has a maximum case load or student enrollment of 20 students. That number has fluctuated throughout the year. Um it's becoming more stable that there's about 15 to 20 students there regularly. Uh Dr. Warren is looking at applying for high cost funds to help offset some of this uh incur this expense to the district. in this first year. We don't know how many of those dollars we'll actually see because students have to be there a certain number of
063days for it to meet that threshold. Um but that would potentially help offset some of the funding that's going towards this. Um that comes directly from the state of Texas and would not come out of the local budget. Um so far we are seeing an an improvement for these students and a reduction of referrals and missing school days due to behavior. So in that sense it has been successful. their attendance is also up because they're not being removed from school. Um, so we're glad to see that. And we've even had students return back to the general education setting after spending time getting the help that they need from this particular service. Um, that being said, this is one the district continues to review and to watch the data on because it is quite expensive. Um,
064and also why Dr. Warren's seeking out those high-cost funds to help offset the the actual cost for it. Would you explain the graphs? So the total number of referrals is that for those individual students my gosh. Okay. Yes sir. From the prior year to this year. Yes sir. So the what Dr. Warren is looking at has to do with their attendance and days in the seats to be able to justify writing the grant for the high cost. Yeah. For the high-cost funds, a student basically the district would have to show that it spent upwards of $36,000 plus on a student in order to qualify. I'm I'm overly simplifying a very complex process. I I apologize, Dr. Warren. Um and so because they weren't there for the whole school year, maybe just a part of the
065school year, it doesn't mean that threshold yet. And so the more the students are there receiving the supports, the more likely we are. It's by the individual child, not children moving in and out. you can apply for the high-cost fund offset for individual child circumstances and we have a few that do meet that threshold and so we will attempt it. It's never a guarantee that you will get those funds. Um and the the application process is anything but clear or ordinary. Um but we are seeking those funds. We won't know until July if we qualified for the ones that we are putting forward to help offset the cost. So we had a total of 23 total for the use. I know you said it's kind of going is is that 20 20 seats but unique
066students um over the course of the year. Okay. There were 23 Dr. 23 over the hook. So we spent 850,000 on these 23 kids plus high school. Yes. There were more than 23 unique students though I believe. No 23 for sure. Okay. My apologies. See when I say it like that sounds like a lot. It is. And that's why we see those high cost funds. You're absolutely right. But if they had not been there the whole year to hit that threshold, then it would not qualify. When we heard about this last year, we talked about uh some of the staffing requirements that the Sierra school would offset as roughly half of the cost of this. That's a great point. Uh Dr. Warren, if you'd like to come on up and explain that, but yes, sir,
067we did we did reduce staff at the high schools and middle schools in particular in these same settings um because this service now offset the that cost of um staff members. I don't know the number, but I'm betting Dr. Warren will know that number. Good memory, Joel. That is a good memory. So when we looked at the staffing at the high schools especially, but also the middle schools and how many staff, not just teachers, but instructional assistants, special ed counselors, all those types of related services that are going to be poured into the student services. Once we entered into a contract with Sierra School or CESI, they brought in a lot of that support for for the students. So we were able to reduce several positions, especially at SFA and Bront High School. So those
068positions were vacant most likely and were uh moved over to other campuses that may need have the need or went into excess and so we didn't even fill those positions with that need. Um, what we're seeing this year is a very consistent enrollment moving up from this past year to this coming year, which means we're not asking for additional staff at middle school or high school for the students coming up because those positions have already been dissolved and the students are being supported well through Sierra School. So, we're not seeing an increase, but we've already reduced them. So, you're not going to see that reduction again. So, this 850,000 is salaries also. for the Sierra school staff that's brought in. So the $850,000 is a total package of what they offer. So it's going to
069be the teachers, the teacher assistants, their social worker, their climate manager, and their director that they bring in. So that's that explains a lot of the cost. But when you see the number I mean I can close my eyes and vision the exact students we're talking about. But the when you see the number of referrals and you're talking about the students that walk the halls, the students that kind of escape and takes manpower to find them. that type of child. You go from 457 to 106, including the manpower it takes to keep those kids um in class learning, studying, um you know, from I can understand the 800. I know it's an exorbitient amount, but I can certainly understand everything that goes into that 850,000. And and we've had children in my kids classes, you
070know, one disruptive child can the the rest of the kids learn nothing. So, I do understand that. I'm you I'm not saying it's not worth it, but it can absolutely keep the other 20 kids from learning anything because you have one that is disruptive. So I I do see that it takes so much manpower and pulls SRO's and monitors and all kinds of people in to deal with that and to know that there is staffing included in that 850 is easier to understand. Several students that came to Sierra School with a IEP that stated that they needed a one-on-one aid or transitioning services in the hallway to escort them from one place to another. and through their success at Sierra School, we've been able to remove that from the IEP. And the way that the
071contract is written is that that one-on-one support would still be provided by Brian ISD and we no longer have to provide that for those students because of the success that they have experienced. And then additionally, what you'll see with that, especially the well both the numbers in blue up there for this school year, the bulk of those numbers were before the even though they're for this school year, it was before the student actually enrolled in Sierra School. maybe they enrolled mid year and then it significantly dropped after that. So that number most of those numbers were still before they enrolled at Sierra School. I'm glad you brought that up. And the last question I have and not to be the naysayer here, but you were saying, and again I think it's a good program, but
072Joel was mentioning that we were saving on the other positions, but those were actually not being paid anyway. Is the majority of them not being utilized? Is that what you're saying? Like at SFA, you said we had vacancies. So if we have vacancies, yeah, we would always have a substitute in that position because we do have Okay. Okay. So it was still it was still a cost period. Exactly. Or in most cases we were actually pulling a specialist, a spec counselor, uh someone who was highly trained in our behavior support to fill that role and then they were no longer that district support which okay could cause other issues. So I just want to clarify that we were still paying just because they were vacant. We we were pulling people from other positions. So correct,
073it's not like they were we didn't go we're not making magic numbers here. We we were still paying back. Okay. No, we were paying it through likely ESS and contracted service. Okay. Thank you. Are most or all of these students special ed? Is that that is a requirement of the program? Well, the legislature came up with something and maybe it was briefly addressed. I don't know about some sort of customized funding for special ed. Is do can you have any anything you can tell us on that? is are we going to is that going to help us or not with this kind of issue because this is all out of local funds. So, we're not going to see any benefit of the special ed changes and funding for this coming school year. It's all slated
074for the 2627 school year. Uh but what I'm seeing uh an immediate benefit of is uh on the evaluations when we actually evaluate students and qualify or disqualify for special ed. But as far as the weighted funding moving from the way that we fund special ed now into a in service of intensity uh model, you're not going to see the benefits of that funding this coming school year. One thing you mentioned um and I my slide clicker is not working. Mr. Falls, if you'd go back to the table at the very beginning, the first we need to up our battery budget again. There we go. Uh, one item that we didn't cover that is also on here is what she just discussed, which is contracted services. And so last year when we came to the
075board of trustees, we said when we have vacant positions for diagnosticians, for school psychologists, for speech therapists, we'd like to take the the amount of money set aside for those positions and do contracted services with these entities that can provide it. So basically, it would be a neutral impact to the district. Um and in fact we came to the board and said rather than us saying we want to use this particular provider we gave a list of providers that we would like to utilize because those positions go very quickly and each of them is always going to be over that threshold of $50,000. So that allowed Jennifer to move forward with getting the contracted services in the particular area of speech pathologists. That's a struggle. Yes. Um, and that is certainly one that um, we
076know is is difficult to get to. If they have the person, we want to interview that person and have them under contracted services as quickly as possible. It's a to be determined up there right now because we're looking to determine exactly how many vacant positions we anticipate so that we bring a netneutral recommendation to the board of trustees. Um, and always with those contracts, we have the opportunity to pivot if we have an applicant that we're able to find. We no longer have to continue with those services if we're able to hire instead. One of the great benefits of that for this coming school year is that we have actually been able to hire on as BISD staff from some of those that we contracted with last year. We had a we didn't have to
077buy them out, but we had to contract with them for a certain amount of time. And for us, we almost got to practice with them to make sure that they were that h high quality candidate that we would want in our district with a contracted service. And then we were able to offer them a full-time position. And we're moving into this next school year with some of our positions filled that we've never seen filled uh across a a program. For instance, our school psychologists right now were fully staffed in all of our positions for school psychology and for educational diagnost diagnostician. All right. Any other questions? Thank you all very much. Thank you. Now move to uh consent agenda. Several items are on this consent agenda. As as y'all know, any any board member can
078remove an item from the consent agenda and it can be acted on individually. If anyone would like to do so, please say so. If not, then I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Mr. Stazzy, I move approval of all the items listed on the consent agenda. Second. Motion made by Mr. Gonzalez and seconded by Miss Benford. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Unanimous. Passed. Action items. discuss and consider approval of contract renewal with kickstart kits program for the 2526 school year. And we have Mr. Baw and Mr. Rush. By the way, I just throw this out while they're coming up here. When we were first considering this, I went to uh Oh, crap. Now, I forgot his name. You know, uh Chuck Norris. Huh? Chuck Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris's. Yes. Yes.
079Chuck Norris's ranch. And we all had a good time and met. Yeah. Yeah. And even got So that was quite a few years ago, by the way. Well, I don't think we can approve this until you guys check it out again. If Mr. Norris is listening, would you kindly contact? Well, they were calling. They were good salespeople on it and and it's done well. Okay. Good afternoon. Uh currently the kickstart program is being offered at the three intermediate schools in the middle school and so uh we're requesting to renew those programs for the upcoming school year. Uh uh Daba currently right now is fulltime. Jay Long, Sadbury are are also uh Raven Sam Raburn is also full-time in Jay Long and Sadbury uh because of the increase in numbers uh of participants there uh we're
080looking to uh make that program full-time this upcoming school year. So, u any questions? So, Derek, yes. What would it take to get the program at SFA? Because I know you remember that parent came to the meeting that night and um after that I saw it on the social media and there were a lot of parents right concerned about having support of having it there. The carrying issue had at at uh SFA right now is space. You know, as we all know, SFA is landlocked. Uh as far as having space there, uh to be honest with you, right now as far as the increased numbers in athletics and fine arts, uh we barely do have enough space to uh facilitate those kids right now. And so, uh it's landlocked and that's our biggest issue at
081SFA. Could they use this room? I'm just saying, you know, we got to think outside the box. Yeah, they have to have areas to change clothes, right? No, that's have to have locker room. So, my question is looking at the numbers like it looks like there's really good numbers at the intermediates. Um, can you explain why there's only 40 at Davala? Uh, that just seems low given the number in the intermediates. Unless maybe that's a type of I don't know athletics. Well, and a lot of times when they hit middle school, they start thinking about athletics and they uh in all the fine arts, band, orchestra, choir, etc. So, they start having to pick and choose. Right now, in intermediate, it counts as their PE requirement. Yes, correct. So, they're often happy to go in
082that route. But what we see, and this is uh very common in other school districts, once you hit the middle schools, um it competes with the athletic periods and some of the other extracurriculars. So it may not even be that big of a Well, I mean, that's why I'm I'm asking about that because it looks like numbers are really strong at intermediates, but we ha I can remember being the one that really fought to get that at Davala uh when we moved to 78 campuses. Um, and so I'm disappointed to see those numbers. I don't know what it's looked like over time, but that feels lower than what I would anticipate. So again, it also goes back to what Mr. Carbine was saying as far as once they leave the intermediate, they've uh started seeing
083other interests in fine arts and also athletics. And so uh at at the middle school level and so that kind of uh shows you the the uh decrease in interest. But back to that, you know, what's the justification for expanding to um uh middle school programs if students do have the option to do that at Davala and are not taking us up on that at the same rate? And on that same note, is is it worth having it for 40 students for $78,000? You know, I mean, these schools that have 400 kids in it and, you know, even 150 kids in it is one thing, but if we're only having 40 for $78,000, that's a lot of money. Well, right now, as I just got these numbers as far as the the double numbers will
084double next year as far as between 75 and 80 kids. Okay. So, maybe it was an anomaly. Yeah. Okay. So, when we have these numbers um like this, Derek, and you say when they get to middle school, it sounds like we're making them have to make a choice. Either you do kickstart or how they not working together. I thought that was something we had as a board decided that whatever the child wanted to be in, we'd make some kind of way. So, if they wanted to be in Kickstart and play the drums, we'd accommodate that. Um, so they could do both because they might decide they want to try to kickstart, they might try, they want to try the drums and they might not like one of them, but then they're they're locked into this
085one. So, how can we ensure that's not a problem and I want to be in Kickstart, but I have to pick between Kickstart or the trumpet. I can assure I can assure you as far as when it comes to athletics, we encourage all our kids to participate in whatever uh athletic event or fine art event they want to participate in. Uh since I've been in this role, I haven't seen that uh uh uh interpretation as far as controversy between a kickstart uh uh person wanting to participate in athletics and it been been a controversy uh from that standpoint of it. But again, at the end of the day, we encourage them if they want to play athletics, uh we're going to encourage them to do that. And same thing at Kickstart and we'll work out
086a way where they can uh that can uh fit into their schedule. Okay. I don't want us to make kids have to decide choose and then we're paying all these money for these programs and then the kids are are even though you understand that, I want to make sure your staff understand that that is what um we want for the children. Sometime it might not fit that oh historic quarterback. I don't want him uh doing this other stuff. No, don't worry about what he doing. Worry about your program. He want to do two or three things. That's what we want. Especially if we're paying this kind of money, you know, for the programs. We It's for the kids. Yes. We we agree, Miss Bford. We we want them to do it all, especially younger ages.
087Uh but but what we see again, and I've seen this in other districts, is the kids start self- selecting out of it. you know, they're narrowing their focus because a lot of these kids, fortunately, are very involved in other things outside of the school day. They're playing, you know, little league and uh all the all the things happening in our community. But we do encourage them. We want our coaches and fine arts directors to work together to give kids every single opportunity possible. But the older the kids get, the more they start to just sele self- select, specialize, they start specializing. One additional um item that probably has it's actually remarkable that Dobble's numbers are increasing so much in the coming year. Um remember this year was the year that we switched from an eight
088period day at middle school to a seven period day at middle school. Um it gave teachers more planning time and kind of normalized a seven period day schedule for these students which means that's one fewer choice in their schedule and yet the numbers are still going to be doubling at Davo. So that is good news in terms of built the program being built. um and working with um that Kickstart instructor out at Davala and they still have the opportunity to particip participate in the afterchool program for Kickstart if I'm not mistaken. So, can we ask that um you say space and we figure 78,000 is not in the cards right now, but can can you look and see what the odds are of us putting it into SFA in the near future uh and all
089that's involved because like Felicia said, I you know, it may start with 30 and then the like double may double um And because I'm sure the lady and uh that spoke and her daughter are speaking for several if not many and it's such a good program. Do we get a break for more schools price-wise? No. No. My gosh. And they don't even get to visit the ranch. So yeah, I think because it's actual staff. It's like they help underwrite part of Oh, really? Yeah. I think I feel like it's it's kind of I think they offset about $59,000 a staff member. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Withdraw the question. Well, all right. We uh I I move to authorize district administration to enter into a contract with Stark Kids for the 2025 2026 school year. Second.
090All right. Motion was made by Dr. Harland. You still go by Harland, don't you? Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. We know who you're talking about. And I'll I'll I'll go with Ruthie on the second. And so we've got motion, a second. U any further discussion? Yes, sir. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Unanimous. All right. I think we have one more action item. discussing consider approval of purchase requests over 50,000 for Skyward Enterprise Software annual support renewals for the 2526 school year. We have Jennifer Lemons and Julie Johnson. Hello. Good afternoon. Um I wanted to give you guys just an update on our Skyward transition and migration. Um so just to kind of recap what what is Skyward? Um there are two parts. There's our business side which is all things kind of
091back of house finance, payroll, human resources, warehouse, fixed assets. And then what we are in progress with right now is the move to Skyward for our student information system which is as you can imagine all things about the student and family information, grades, attendance, their schedules, discipline. Um, so we have been really busy um, working on all of this over um, really the last year and a half. It's gone by like in the blink of an eye. So, um, just to kind of help paint the picture of what we've accomplished, um, we are fully operational on the business side. January was our one-year Skyward versary and um we took a little bit of time to just reflect back on all that we had accomplished and it was um absolutely a team effort and um when
092we looked at you know statistics and things of that nature it was amazing what the team accomplished and I'm very proud of them. Um so right now we are in progress with migrating our student data and we are in the thick of training. We have many training sessions coming up this summer. We're trying to document processes. um you know we had used our previous software for 20 plus years and that becomes very ingrained in your mind and so this has afforded us the ability to kind of peel back the layers of we've always done it like that and so we want to make sure that we're kind of seizing the opportunity to document how we do things the new way um that hopefully promote lots of efficiencies And then our go live date um actually
093that will happen um about July 1st. Um all of the migration will be done and we will be fully on Skyward and so we're anxiously awaiting all of that data to come back so we can get busy. Um one of the things that we're really proud of is some of the cost savings that we have realized by moving to Skyward. Um we spent the last year moving over 1300 employees away from time clock plus to the skyward time clock system. Um then our plan is to begin using the skyward attendance letters. Um so that will reduce the need for another piece of software raw and then also um just beginning to learn all of the different data tools that Skyward offers. Um, one of the things and I've um gave you just a quick picture
094of what kind of a Skyward desktop can look like. It has live tiles and users can create those tiles to watch all kinds of data points. I can monitor the enrollment and you can see I can configure them to meet my needs and they're live. So, the numbers that you're seeing there, for example, in the top um left corner, that blue one that says unrecorded attendance, this is out of a a you know, a sandbox database, but that would tell me there are 25 teachers at that campus that have not taken attendance for that period right there. So, um it kind of puts the data at your fingertips and is really, um changing the way we think about it and and work. And so it's really exciting and um that was like a really fast
095drive through skyward. What's what's the reaction that's still I know I've asked occasionally but is it still positive overall? I know you said people are used to the old old way and it's always change is not easy. It is it's hard and you know it's it's I'm seeing lots of um growth in that like where in the beginning it was stressful um it's very different and now I see problem solving happening. Oh, well, let me check this. And um of course with like you said, new things sometimes it can be a pain point, but um we're also realizing lots of positive comments like, "Oh, I didn't know I can just real quick get to that piece of information." Well, and Kevin was saying earlier about position earlier earlier when Kevin mentioned position control and how
096much we're using that to help us make sure our budget numbers which we weren't able to do previously. So, yes, it's made a big difference and and the overall cost is lower than we were with the with the peace meal that we had before were about the same. It is lower. Um and it's hard to argue with that. I I know. And so, um, that's why we're really looking at, you know, like for example with the time clock, we we could have kept along, you know, and $21,000 savings is definitely not going to balance the budget, but um that helps. It helps. And our view was it would be worth the the time and the effort and, you know, the frustration as you're learning um to kind of get everything under the umbrella that we
097bought. And that was part of the purpose of it was to streamline and become more efficient. So, it's been really good. Ginger, have you I know you used this previously. What is your impression? I was a Skyward user in another district on a less sophisticated model. We have the upgraded version and I can tell you I like it and I appreciate the board's approval because it has minimized inefficiencies and more importantly it's minimized uh human error with a less sophisticated uh system. So the position control alone is uh critical for us to to determine our budget. We have to know where we stand and the data as far as student information as and employee information uh has to be accurate. And I also think it's user friendly. My opinion is more user friendly than what
098we had. And I personally like having the app on my phone. I can go in on my phone if I'm at a meeting or something and approve an absence or a time clock etc. Uh since I'm a a manager of sorts. So, um it's uh I think once everyone gets used to it, they're going to realize this is a better better platform and then we will reap the benefits with efficiency and accuracy. Um I'm glad you mentioned the the phone app. Um for example, with a teacher um who may also be a parent and of course they're an employee so they could in that one app they can do employee related things, request a day off, things of that nature. Um, as a teacher, uh, let's say I'm out on the tennis court with my
099tennis team and it's time to take attendance. I can do that from my phone. And as a parent in that exact same app, I can do all the things that a parent would like to do in an app. Check my grades and attendance and, um, see events coming up and and so, um, we're excited to kind of get to rolling all of that out for still remember the old days. Remember they'd hang up the attendance and the special kids could go, you know, you had to go to the office and take those. You must have been an office age. you I wasn't. No, no, they I wasn't trusted going down the halls with that. My I knew people. Yeah. So, we're we're very grateful for the board's approval. Uh we believe it's a a good
100platform and the migration, the transition of all of our data, the the training, the implementation, etc. has in my mind been seamless because of these two people sitting out there at this table. I commend them for the work they've done uh with the training piece of it. Thank you. Well, on that I move approval of the contract to Skyward in the amount of $253,239 for Skyward Enterprise Software annual support renewals as presented. Second. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Gonzalez, seconded by Miss Benford to approve the renewal. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Sounds like it was unanimous. So that is passed. Thank you'all. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Uh, all right. Board will now convene in close session to discuss the following items as as allowed by
101the Texas Government Code. Chapter 551 074 5510821. We've got uh appointment evaluation reassignment uh duties discipline etc. public officer employee and so discussion related to public school student whereas personally identifiable information will necessarily be revealed and consultation with attorney regarding uh financial terms of Jedi tax incentive program and possibly issues related to purchase exchange lease or value property and we might discuss t-shirts also that's really allowed here. So, when we come, is there a way for me to 22 23 Board reconvened in open session at 2:33 p.m. No action was taken in close session. Now consider uh approval of the recommendation to hire director of transportation. I move approval of the superintendent's recommendation to hire Bryant Washington as the director of transportation services. Second motion made by Miss Waller, seconded by Miss Bedford. Uh, any
102discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Unanimous. Now consider approval of the recommendation to hire a principal of Johnson Elementary. Mr. Dazznney, I move approval of the superintendent's recommendation to hire Laura Delar Rosa as the principal of Johnson Elementary. Second. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Gonzalez and seconded by Miss Benford. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Approved unanimously. There being no further business, the meeting is adjourned at 2:34.