001Good evening. I call to order the special meeting of the Conroe Independent School District Board of Trustees to order. It's Tuesday, January 13th, 2026. The time is 5:04. A quorum of the board is present and this meeting has been duly posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. Tonight, Trustee May will lead us in the invocation followed by the pledges by myself and would everyone please stand. Dear heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing us here tonight. Thank you for bringing all our students and our staff back to work um this past couple of weeks. Lord, I pray protection and safety over our students and our employees as they enter into the second part of the school year. Lord, I pray peace over um our our meeting tonight.
002I play pray a special blessing of gratitude to our um candidates tonight. Takes a lot of bravery and courage to do what they're doing and I just pray a special blessing of gratitude over them. Thank you for all you do for us in our district and in our families and in our lives and I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, I pledge to the American flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now the Texas flag. I pledge I honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. That's what happens when you don't do it often enough. All right. Thank
003you all and if you're standing, you may be seated. We will now move in to the citizen participation part of our meeting. Public comment is conducted in accordance with board policy BED, but seeing we have none signed up this evening, um we will move forward with our closed session. The board will enter closed session under the following provisions of the Texas Government Code Section 551.074. The board will call in individuals as necessary and excuse them once the presence is no longer needed in the interview process. We would like to thank all that submitted applications and had the willingness to serve. We were blessed to have so many community members participate in this process. To the candidates here for interviews, you have been provided a cell number and and contact in case you need to step
004outside, take a call, or if you should prefer wait in your car or in a hallway, you will be notified by the contact that contact when it is your turn and be escorted back for your interview. The time is now 5:05 and the board is in closed session. The time is 9:26 and the board is now back in open session. We will now take action on any items discussed in closed session. Item up is consider and take possible action regarding the appointment of a trustee to fill vacancy position one on the Conroe Independent School Board of Trustees. Do I have a motion? I can make a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we um accept or vote in Agueda Gambino for position one. Did I say that okay? Okay. Second. Okay, is there
005any discussion? I personally I I I would like to take a minute and just thank everyone in the crowd that waited here until almost 10:00 tonight. I want to thank you all for participating and for everyone that applied. I want to say this process was done um impeccably and I'm very proud of what we've done here tonight in meeting with these applicants and interviewing these candidates and um I want to thank my fellow board members for the time we've put into this decision and uh what this means for the district to have a complete board again. Thank you. Anyone else? I just want to say >> like to >> uh >> go ahead, go ahead. Just want to say that I am I'm struggling with this because of the lack of transparency that I saw
006throughout the process. When I reached out to the president and the legal counsel, I am and it was at one point told that I needed to fill out a board member request for information. I don't feel like the process was consistent or transparent and I have nothing against the candidate and I would look forward to working with her, but it was the process I was concerned with. Anyone else? Yes, I'd like to say uh thank you to everybody who applied. We had candidates whose qualifications were absolutely exceptional. Many community leaders volunteered their time, old board members and I deeply appreciate it. I know the district does as well. Uh sadly, I don't think the process our board used clearly demonstrates qualifications were the primary factor in determining which candidates moved forward. Um when qualifications are
007not clearly driving decisions, it creates the appearance appearance that personal relationships are influencing outcomes and I'm very concerned about that. Um I think that we need to focus more on what our district needs. We deserve a transparent merit-based process and the most qualified candidates available. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Uh yes, I I want to thank all of the candidates came forward to um with a heart to serve our district. I know it's not easy to put yourself out there. Um I genuinely appreciate that. I disagree. I I believe that the the the process was incredibly transparent, much more transparent than the previous process. That's for sure um of another board that recently set a precedent and you know, appointed behind closed doors without making it public. We made it very public um through
008our socials and um our district did a great job. Uh Dr. Vincent and our communications department. I think that the the I think the process was incredibly transparent. Um I would like to share why I am voting for Ms. Gambino to be appointed to position one. Um I first met Ms. Gambino during the 88th legislature when we had advocated together for improved identification services for all Texas dyslexic students. I listened to her testify before the Senate Education Committee where she provided provided compelling and persuasive testimony that moved the committee members and certainly helped the bill HB 3928 move out of committee where it ultimately passed and became a law. I then worked with Ms. Gambino during the 89th legislature when we both advocated for improved special education funding for all special education students in Texas.
009Ms. Gambino has served locally on multiple Conroe ISD committees including the cell phone committee and the community community collaborative committee. Most recently, Mrs. Gambino is a founding member and the chairperson of the newly formed special education parent advisory council for Conroe ISD. Mrs. Gambino also volunteers on her student booster club. All of these roles I have listed are ways in which she has already serving the students of our district. Professionally, she brings a wealth of professional knowledge that includes a strong skill skill set of improving business outcomes through a positive culture of change which is truly perfect for where we are as a district. Once the list of candidates' names went out publicly, I was contacted by many community board community members sharing their support of Mrs. Gambino as well. And again, I want to
010thank all of the candidates came out. It takes great courage to do that and I I am grateful that that you have a heart to serve. I just wanted to make a few statements about the process and my um my thought process for what I was looking for. Um I think the process has been extremely transparent, but um as you have six people on a board, um you have six different opinions of who is qualified. And I will speak for me and what I was specifically looking for in the spirit of transparency that we're talking about. So, the first thing, uh we had 20 candidates apply. Six of them did not submit everything that was required as part of the application. Um they did not submit their resume or references. If you can't do a
011basic application, then I don't trust you to have attention to detail on a $760 million budget. So, that was one, six people automatically cut from my list. Number two, trust. Community values matters to me. Um we this is not a a typical job. Um it's about representing our community and I want to know that the person that I am supporting represents our community values. That's important to me. Um but the most important thing is understanding the role of the job, which is to support student learning outcomes. That is why we exist as a board, that's why we exist as a district. Um we're going to get back to that this year. I'm really excited with Dr. Vincent at the helm. There's been a lot of transition last year happening. We are now on a stable
012footing. We're putting processes and systems in place where we can monitor student learning outcomes more accurately. And so I want someone that's coming in with a vision laser focused on our children and supporting these structures that help our children. And in my opinion, Ms. Gambino hit the nail on the head. She represents that and so many other amazing qualities. So I am I am proud to second that motion. Okay. I I wasn't going to go through all this because of time and all, but um as we went into tonight, I'm really proud of this board. We have gone above and beyond what is typically done in the state of Texas. We are based on the calls that I was able to make to people across the state and to asking some attorneys and so forth.
013Our board is the first that I could find to conduct a trustee replacement process, put one in place with the level of transparency that and thoroughness that we did. Specifically, we used a public call for applicants. We issued a public call for applicants. The notice was published in an article in the local newspaper. The district posted in social media and on our district website. The process, dates, and access points were publicly announced during our last board meeting. Several trustees shared the information through personal social media platforms. A robust and thoughtful application was developed and utilized. The list of potential candidates was made publicly available. That was not even in our process, but I felt that that was important that we put it out there who applied. Aside from narrowing to the three recommendations that we
014wanted to put out as trustees, everything was very transparent. And to have that be questioned and the integrity of what this board has done in a level that has not been seen. We've Even our own Mr. O'Hanlon who has done this for how many years, Ms. Baloo? A long time, 50? 50 years has said he has never seen something. Even our interview questions were done independently outside of us. We've tried to do everything we could to bring us to this moment tonight. So I just wanted those data points to be put out there for this and and I just I do truly think and we're never going to agree on everything, but I do truly thank every single one of these ladies up here for their passion, their desire to see our district grow and
015be better. But again, as has already been stated numerous things that we we represent the people of our community and we were trying to also listen to them. Okay. Do I have um Are we ready to vote? Sorry, I'm trying to turn this off so I can get it out of my way. Yes. Okay. Did I fall out of my chair? Um that would be great for the news tonight. Um all right. So I have a motion on the table to appoint Agueda Gambino to trustee position one. Um it's been seconded. Do I Please show by the uplift of hands all in favor. Okay. All those opposed? The motion carries four to Hearing no further business, this meeting is adjourned and the time is 9:37.