001Well, man, we had some celebrations last night and there's a lot of kids, all boys. It was all boys last night. But soccer, I was actually at the game. It was the most exciting game I've ever seen. You know, we went into, you know, penalty kicks and it was really cool and the first state championship that College Park has ever won as a team. That was amazing to learn we all kept going, "No, really?" >> you you asked and we checked and the thing is we worked through it. It's been great. They're proud and let me just tell you it was a great day and a great time for them. And those power lifters. >> The power lifters, I always think of collectively. You're 121 lb and you can what they say you can win
002I think he said five times or three times his body weight. That was just insane. >> would I could do that and I would go to the hospital. So you yeah. I would be too of us. >> And you know, and the thing too is that we had a chance to to bring in bring in a new new principal after retirement and he's he's going to be he's a real special one. He is. I'm really looking forward to it. Last night the picture you took and posted though made my daughter says I look like an aunt next to him. Yes, ma'am. You know, we played at Butler from from Florida been here seven years with us and Marcus Cartwright is one of those guys that just is universally That he is. And so the thing
003is we had some consternation and you actually got over and it wasn't consternation. That was we all embraced it when we had a opportunity to kind of rethink the mascot junior high the mascot for Cartwright junior high. Yes, when we named Lynn Cartwright the the school name, the family immediately requested that we consider something related to horses based on the family background in it. And I was and I wanted to accommodate, but we always open it up to the the school families to and community to participate and it didn't come back as the number one pick and as a board I didn't want to override them. So I was so thankful when we found out the numbers were so low that for us to make that reconsideration and please and honor the family that meant
004a lot to me. >> Welcome Cartwright Colts. And so we had also had a opportunity to review our Well, actually it was it's an obligation of us from the agency or in the law to say that we're not going to adopt our our, you know, actually having seat belts on every three-point seat belts on every bus and the thing is is that it's 50 plus million dollars to get that done ultimately and it's just not feasibly practical and one of the things that we said next year is what we're going to work towards legislation that will actually fund all the transportation that we have because it's there's a pretty big gap there. There is and the fact that there were there were several things that stood out besides just the financial part. It's getting the
005items, getting the seat belts, getting the buses. It was besides the feasibility, it's just or the financial part of it. Feasibly we just couldn't even get them all. >> Yeah, getting it Well, you have to wait for a year for a bus is a long time. >> And the buses are very safe transportation in general and so we've got to keep moving. No pun intended. >> [laughter] >> So one of the things too is that it was one of our it's probably probably the most our most comprehensive presentation was about but adding a asynchronous option to virtual school and you know, I appreciated the questions. I appreciated the presentation. It was thorough. I think we're good understanding. I agree. It was very thorough. Lots of questions answered and I think there's a lot of confidence
006in it now. Yeah, and the thing too is that if we concluded our staffing plan, staffing out of we concluded our climate culture audit and then we really concluded our our curriculum audit a couple of weeks ago that came back in and they and we really took all of those that data and we organized what we call our district staffing plan that's going to better serve our our our teachers and that are going to better serve our kids. It's going to provide a much part more powerful mechanism from the district's office to support that and to provide, you know, the kind of manageable and and and really concrete change I think it's going to be good for us. I would agree. The the board's desire is to drill down on support for our people and
007directly into our classroom and you've assured us that that's where this plan is headed and I love the term that you all came up with that and the the whole analogy of the Chick-fil-A uh Absolutely. >> viewpoint on it. What was it? Uh >> The need we're going to >> Fanatically support, yeah. Fanatical support. >> Yeah, and the thing is is that when we look at that, you know, you go to Chick-fil-A and you get a quality product every time. We want to deliver to our teachers. >> I agree. Everything that we can do to deliver relief, extra support and help in those classrooms will directly impact what the educational experience and outcomes. >> Yeah, and it really supports your board goals. That's the most important. Yes. The next thing is is that when we
008talk about that in the follow-up was one of the things that you've really not had a board board goal, but a real board focus is special education and you just we just talked to a teacher a principal today that said, "Thank you for doing this. It's going to be the best thing for us." The thing that we're going to focus on that we may be able to improve our communication on this whole process. We've made up for that. The communication they know it's fair and it's focused and balanced and the kiddos are going to get to stay at their home campus. I think that's the most important thing. Our students in their feeder in their home school is very important. >> And we just got finished delivering more character actually Texas Standard words and we
009had a great opportunity to completely review our plan for next year. That was very exciting. There was definitely as I sat in the board room last night a palpable feeling of peace and and direction and hope and excitement and that was for me I I know the board walked away stating that it was an amazing experience to see the all of the presentations come together and build on each other to understanding the Texas standards >> Well, for next year and discipline has been a central focus >> Yeah. to retention of teachers. We had a an ISS teacher last night Miss Dupo Dupu that came in and expressed I can't even remember how many years she said 20 something 30 years of doing this and she said discipline is just not the I mean kids don't
010behave the way they used to and we are setting standards across our district that will be implemented from campus to campus and giving our campuses the resources and the support that they need in order to set those goals and expectations for our students and not put more on our staff. Yep, and the thing too is that I think that everybody really loved it and teachers are going to get more support in that whole process. Good. So the last thing is we talked about budget and really we layered all these things in and that's why the board meeting took so long, but from the idea of what we did from the Texas Standard, from the idea about what we're doing for staffing, all of these things led up to our budget and there's been some fact
011and fiction and even shared on social media with regard to what our I think it's not that people are just they were not lying about it, it's just they don't understand it. We Our goal that with that was to lay out our plan and the fact of the matter is is that there's a lot of school districts well, that are in really bad shape. We're not. We're financially stable. We're going to be okay. This point in this in the in the in the in the in the plan, we just need to make sure that we're supporting you know, a fiscal budget that's going to be financially responsible. Our taxpayers depend on that and they expect it and they have a right to. And so a balanced budget is what our board has tasked the district
012with and with that comes sacrifices and choices and they are very hard, very hard. And the thing is what our job is to not impact the classroom and that's what we we tried our best to do that. And I really believe you all did an amazing job of trying to balance that and prioritize that core student as the focus of everything that we made decisions on. It was a lot. And so that's it and you know, next month we'll be refining those kind of things and I look forward to that next conversation. It's been a long couple of days, hasn't it? >> Yes, it has very much. But it's been good. Oh, it's been fantastic. Do it serving these babies our community, it's worth it. It's the most important thing we can do. Absolutely.