001I now call this special meeting of the Condro Independent School District to order. The time is 402. It is Tuesday, August 5th, 2025. 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 551. The first item on the agenda is our invocation that will be led by Trustee May and Trustee Horton will lead us in the pledges. Dear heavenly father, thank you so much for bringing us all here today. Um thank you so much for the beginning of school. We're all anxious and excited to welcome the kids back in. Lord, just take care of all of the staff members and everybody that works in our district. Take good care of our families as they get their kiddos ready for school.
002Get our kids ready, Lord. And just um just give them peace about coming to school. Um give them joy about coming to school. I pray a special prayer over our new um facilities that are getting ready to open up and for those teams that will be welcoming students for the first time. And Lord, thank you for all that you do for our district. We are so grateful. I pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. >> Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance 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. >> Now for the Texas pledge. >> Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one
003and indivisible. >> Thank you both. Um, we are going to go on to agenda item two, discussion and take action on the naming of the executive director for communication. Um, executive director for communication, Dr. Landry. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um it is uh it is it is my my uh privilege to be able to um to recommend the candidate for executive director of communications for us. Uh candidate has been with the district for about 8 years now. Um but uh but has well over a decade of uh commercial and school uh experience in communications and uh has been a dedicated very trusted member of our team. And it is my privilege to be able to recommend uh Andrew Stewart to be our next executive director of communications. >> Thank you, Dr. Landry. Any discussion?
004Okay. All those Oh, do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. >> All right. Those in favor of accepting Andrew Stewart as the next new executive director of communications show by the uplift of hands. Seven. And that is vote carry 70, [Applause] President Odiner, members of the board, and Dr. Landry. First, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to serve as the next executive director of commi communications for Conra ISD. It has truly been an honor to be a part of this district for the past eight years and I work aim to work alongside so many amazing people. I want to extend a special thank you to Dr. Shelley Winkler for showing me that Conrad was where I needed to be. To Dr. Sarah Blakelock for her years of dedicated leadership
005of the communications department to Tally Stout, thank you for your constant support and guidance. To Robert Davidson, your tech tech expertise has been invaluable over the years. And to Celeste Brown, my wonderful team has kept me grounded and on track over the years. And to my family, Mandy, my wife, thank you for your unwavering love and support. You're my biggest biggest cheerleader, best friend, and your worth is truly far above jewels. I love you. To my daughters, Aninssley and Addison, thank you for your love and patience, even when I do not deserve it. To my mom, thank you for always pushing me to do my best and believing in me. Before I express my final thanks, I just want to say how incredibly excited I am to begin this new chapter. Dr. Landry, I am
006deeply honored that you have placed your trust in me to lead the very talented communications department in order to tell this tremendous the sorry the tremendous and worthy story of Conor ISD. Under your leadership, Connor ISD will continue to be known as the premier school district in Texas. Finally to my dad who was uh both a communications officer in the Air Force and the director of uh communications for the te Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Thank you for being the absolute best granddad to my girls, a Christian leader to my family, and your advice and guidance in helping me become the man I am today. Although I took a very different path from you, with me being in the superior navy and you in the air force and your work with TDCJ and mine in
007education, it has not escaped me that your our journeys were very similar. That is because I've been chasing my hero all these years. Thank you and I love you. Got to make us cry at the start. Congratulations. So, Mr. Stewart, >> no, I'm teasing with you. I just want to say he got the joke on you this time. So, anyway, um, thank you very much. We look forward to working with you and your team. You've got a really outstanding team and we're very thankful as a board for them. Um, all right, moving on to our next item. It is now 4:08. The board will now adjourn into close session to consider item 3A under the authority of Texas Government Code 551.074. No action or votes will be taken in close session. It is now 6:23
008and we are now back in session. No final action was taken in close session. We will now proceed with the rest of the agenda. Okay. And there's since there's no action, we'll go on to citizen participation. Per board policy beed and Texas government code section 551.07. Any citizen who has signed up may address the board regarding only topics for items posted on tonight's agenda. If a citizen has signed up to speak on any matter other than today's posted agenda items, he or she is welcome to make comments to the board at the board's regular meeting scheduled for August 19th when the board hears comments about both posted agenda items in non and non-aggenda items. Each speaker will be given two minutes to present their comments to the board. Screens around the room will display the
009speaker's time. When the countdown timer reaches zero, the next speaker will be called. Miss Spurlock, please call our first speaker, >> Destiny Milton. >> Good evening, trustees. Seeing that today's meeting is to discuss the upcoming budget and proposed tax rates, I wanted to talk about financial transparency. Let's start with a simple number, $25,000. $25,000 is what this board has spent on outside legal representation for the months of March, April, and May. You are currently on track to spend over $100,000 of taxpayers money on services that were previously covered by the Conrod Legal Department. Our district is being charged for every email your lawyer sends. All foyer requests that mention the board and every single private call you make to your representation, Jackson Hewitt, during your closed meetings. This is money that should be going to
010our kids, our teachers, and our staff. This spending is careless and wasteful. In March, Missy was granted sole authority to hire outside legal representation for this board. She signed a contract with Tim Davis from Dallas, which brings me to question Misty's ethics, integrity, and competency. Because not only did she not share the agreement that she signed with the rest of the board immediately, she chose a lawyer who was previously entangled in scandal with Keller ISD when he advised their board members to break the OP Texas Open Meetings Act. In addition to De Davis's questionable history, he also charges $500 an hour. This is almost double what comparable Texas law firms charge for the exact same services. Board members have requested that Missy cancel this and other contracts like TEE. Yet our board president refuses to
011add this to any upcoming agendas. So since you will not listen to them, I am here today as a concerned parent, former teacher, and a concerned community member. And I demand that this item be immediately put on an agenda. The terms of the client agreement that I have here in invoices should be shared with the community, re-evaluated, and terminated. You will not hold our district hostage any longer. The community is going to be not going to be left holding the bill for you questioning the legality of your questionable policy. And if y'all want to see it, it's right here. All right, moving on to agenda item seven, consent agenda. There was one correction to the minutes which we were all notified on and I have looked at those corrected amendments is or is do I
012have a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented with the correction that we were given? So moved. Second. >> All right. All those in favor show Oh, is there any discussion or anything that we need to Okay. All those in favor show by the uplift of hands. Four, five, six, seven. And the motion carries 70. Moving on to our next item. Item eight, administration, discussion, and potential action to name the Conroe Virtual School. Dr. Dr. Lantry, your department, I mean your team has brought this forward. Would you please inform us? >> We have. So, this is uh, you know, an item that we've been discussing for a while and uh we've had some public participation um requesting that we finalize um the naming of the Conro Virtual School. So, we have uh we have
013presented you with a couple of options there um uh that for your discussion. >> All right. And Trustee May, you asked at the last meeting for us to put this on. would you like to start any discussion that we have? >> Um, well, I'm grateful that we've put this on and moving forward with um developing the the Conro Virtual School um since the bill is passed and I look forward to this school really developing in the future and I think it is such a unique um opportunity for a lot of students in our district, especially considering um ESAs that have passed. So I think the more we can do boutique style learning like this. Um so I would like to make a motion. Yes. Or go ahead. >> Let me figure finish with it and
014then bring your motion. Okay. Any other discussion? >> Okay. Well I sorry my mic was off. I would like to for us to consider. There were a couple of um names brought forward and one of the ones that I was concerned about naming it the Conro uh naming it Conro Virtual School, but I like the idea that we incorporate the like we have with the Woodlands High School, the College Park, and it could be and we heard from people before in previous meetings, the Condro Virtual School, TCVS, um as an option. So that's that's one that I would like to throw out there. >> I like TCVS also. I'm a little bit worried about it being called being called CVS people going to a pharmacy. So yeah, I think the tea helps and it also
015aligns it with the other schools. >> That's what I thought. >> Yeah. >> Any other thought? >> Okay. >> Do you have anything, Miss May? >> Anyone might want to make a motion? I'd like to make a motion that we uh name the virtual school the Conroe virtual school. >> Okay. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor show by the uplift of hands. Five. >> All right. And the motion carries 70. Um I would I'm I'm just going to state could we get the um communications department starting to work on branding for it now? >> That's that's those are the next steps is we're going to look at uh you know branding and mascots and school colors and so that we'll get right on that immediately. >> Okay, great.
016Thank you. Um all right, moving on to agenda item number nine. Uh we will now open the public hearing to discuss the proposed budget and proposed tax rate for the upcoming 2025 2026 school year. The public hearing is required by the Texas Education Code and the Texas Tax Code to allow members of the public on an public an opportunity to comment on the proposed budget and tax rate before the board takes action. And we are now going to go to Dr. Landry. Are you ready to move forward with a public hearing? >> Uh, yes we are. Well, good evening, President Odin Weller, members of the board, Dr. Landry, and community members. It is my pleasure to be here this evening to provide information regarding the 2526 proposed budget and tax rate. It has been an
017eventful budget season, as is typical in a legislative year. Um these are some of the challenges that we were facing coming into this budget season earlier this spring. As with any legislative year that always brings challenges as we're trying to project um revenue for the upcoming year as bills are making their way through the process in the legislature. Um we were working our way out of a deficit budget. There was no funding mechanism in the current formula as it existed to provide raises for employees or address inflation. And then as always, supporting our growing special education population is continues to be a challenge. And then the unknown impact of possible savings accounts, education savings accounts, sorry. So for the most part, the legislature did make some meaningful progress towards addressing um many of our funding
018challenges, although some not to the extent that we had hoped. Um but we are continuing to to work on that and we will look for future growth in some of those areas. One of the one of the areas that we were most I guess disappointed with was the special education funding that we received. It did help to close the gap somewhat, but certainly not to the extent that we had hoped. But um we will look for future sessions to possibly see some additional funding in that area. And as I said, we are thankful for any funding that is coming our way um out of this legislative session. 89th session recap. The 140day session ended on June 2nd. There were over 9,000 bills that were filed. The governor's last date to sign bills was June 22nd
019of 2025. Some of the major initiatives that we saw this year that impacted school funding was of course teacher compensation and school finance bill, property tax cuts continues to be um a concentration of the legislature and then education savings accounts. So, kind of a 90 foot view of the the House Bill Two, which is the major school finance bill that came out of this session. and an additional $ 8.5 billion was allocated to school districts across the state as a result of House Bill 2.4 $4.2 billion of that was allocated specifically for salary increases for teachers and support staff. $2.6 6 billion to address funding gaps related to special education, school safety. And then a new aotment for basic costs was created to address some of the inflationary challenges that districts were facing resulting from
020increased costs for utilities, um procuring supplies, all the things that come along with inflation. And then some targeted program adjustments, $1.7 billion for CTE, teacher prep, and early learning. Property tax relief continues to be a major priority for the legislature. They allocated nearly 51 billion dollars of this budget for the bianium to continue commitment to property tax relief that was enacted in pre previous sessions and then to provide new relief. There are two Senate bills that passed that are both pending constitutional amendment that will make changes to the homestead exemp exemption. And the first one is Senate Bill 4. That would increase the homestead exemption for homeowners from H 100,000 to $140,000 at a cost of $2.7 billion. Senate Bill 23 is for our over 65 residents. That would increase that homestead exemption to 10
021from 10,000 to 60,000 at a cost of $1.2 billion. The district will be held harmless for any loss in local revenue as a result of these increased exemptions. And both of those are going to require constitutional amendment and will go to the voters in November and we do anticipate that those will pass. So this is an overview of what we're estimating House Bill 2 to generate in terms of additional funding for Conro ISD. $41 million estimated. We saw somewhat of a change in philosophy and how the state allocated funding this year. They they used a much more targeted approach and created several new aotments that were specifically designed to send costs to specific areas. And you can see here the ones with the asterisks are the new aotments that were created. And of course, teacher
022retention aotment being the largest one um that makes up the $41 million. 19.6 million of that 41 is designated specifically for providing raises for teachers. As we know, that was a huge priority this year for the legislature. And then they also rec created a staff support retention aotment to provide raises for other employees. Then you can see the other um categories there. We did see a slight increase in the basic aotment of $55 that generates about $5 million in additional funding for us. So estimated increase $41 million just as a result of House Bill 2 changes this year. So significant funding um coming our way and we are thankful for the legislature for what they did in terms of funding. So budget assumptions moving into 2526, we are using projected enrollment of 73,500 students. Our
023average daily attendance percentage at 93%. We did receive certified values from the property tax um division in July and our value is at 56.5 billion. That's a slight growth at 1.87%. And then our proposed tax rate will remain the same at 9496. So this is just a 10-year history of our enrollment and attendance data. I'll draw your attention to the bottom row. That is our 2526 projected enrollment and attendance. We are using 73,500 students at 93% enrollment would generate ADA of 68,355. Our special education student count, just wanted to share this to to show the tremendous growth that we have continued to see in our special education department over the last several years. Over 2,000 students joined that program in 2425. A 22% increase in students. And you'll see the priority that was given in
024terms of staffing to support this growing population of students later on in the presentation. Our tax rate history over the last five years. We are projecting no change in the tax rate for next year. N496 will be our proposed tax rate. This is a breakdown between the maintenance and operations tax rate and the debt service tax rate for next year. 6696 for maintenance and operations and 28 cents for debt service. So, our overall projected revenue increase for next year, that local property tax revenue increase of 1.87 will generate roughly $6.7 million in additional revenue. Our House Bill 2 increase of $41 million. Other state funding increases for hold harmless and and student growth, $9.78 million. Our teacher incentive aotment program continues to grow. This is essentially a pass through as this revenue is passed on
025to the teachers that earn designations through that program. We're adding an additional million dollars for revenue for that program. And then we're starting to see a slight decline in interest earnings. We're going to remove $ 1.5 million in interest revenue from the budget. And then TRS on behalf is another pass through item on our budget. We are required to record an entry to record the state's contribution to the TRS program at $4 million. So total estimated revenue increase for next year of 60.98 million. This is our approved teacher hiring schedule for next year. This was approved at the July regular board meeting. We are very excited about this starting teacher pay $63,500. And then this is our approved compensation plan for 2526 that was also approved at the July board meeting. Teacher pay scale starting
026pay 635. Average teacher increase for all years of experience, six%. For teachers with five or more years of experience, the average increase was a roughly 8.2% at a cost of 21.49 million. Administrative support, instructional support, and auxiliary will receive a 6% increase on the midpoint. Police and technology 4% and then our administrative business and administrative education staff 3.5 for a total cost increase of 33.1 million. Some of this was supported by those two new allotments that were created by the state. The teacher retention aotment at 19.6 and then the staff support aotment at 2.7. This is our proposed personnel changes. As I mentioned earlier, our special education population continues to grow. We are recommending additional staff of 142.75 FTEES for next year. 95 of those are special education positions to support that growing population at
027a cost $8 million total. Five million of that is special education. Our projected expenditure increase for next year, that additional personnel for growth of 8.07 07 million. That employee raise that we just talked about 33.1 million. A slight increase in substitute pay at 38 million. An adjustment to summer school of.5 million. And then this is the offset of our teacher incentive aotment increase on the revenue side costs and other expenses such as utilities, fuel and insurance. And then the offset to our TRS on behalf brings our total estimated expenditure increase of 49.08 million. So putting this all together, our beginning revenue for next year, 700.07 million. With those additional revenue amounts, 760.98 brings our total estimated revenue to 761.05 million. On the expenditure side, beginning expenditures 711.97 million. Additions of 49.08 brings our expenditure estimate
028at 761.05 to present a balanced budget. This is the format that we will ask the board to adopt the budget um at the August 19th meeting for the general fund, the child nutrition fund and the debt service fund. And then this is just our budget by major object payroll 89.3% contracted services 34.3 million supplies and materials 31.8 and then equipment and other 15.4 4 million for total combined expenditures of just over 761 million. So what's next? We will have another public hearing on the 19th and then at the board meeting we will ask the board to adopt the budget and the tax rate for 2025 2026. Okay. At this time, we invite members of the public who wish to comment on the proposed budget or tax rate to come forward. Seeing no further speakers, we
029will close the public hearing. The public hearing on the proposed budget and tax rate is now closed. The time is 6:42. The board meeting will now proceed with the regular agenda. Okay, Dr. Landry at this time before we start the item number 10, this would be a great time for you to introduce um our newest member at the other end of the dis. >> Madam President, thank you very much. Um yeah, it is my uh it's it's my pleasure to be able to introduce um you know, we have since the retirement of uh our general counsel. We've we've been looking for a solution to that and we think we have at this point um we've contracted with a law firm Ohanland de and Castillo. Um Mr. Kevin O'Hanland is in the audience today as the
030founding uh founding uh partner in that firm and they have over 40 years of exemplary Texas public school law um history and um we think we're very confident that they will be able to provide us the legal representation and uh trusted legal representation that we need. Um sitting uh at the dis with us is uh the partner in that firm Miss Carrot Belaloo who will be representing them on our behalf and probably see her around at the board meetings. Um and they will be you know available to us for consultation when needed. >> Thank you. So, just to be clear, right now we're just using them until we make a decision regarding general counsel and then we'll um and right now we're about to actually address a possible uh to consider and possibly adopt revision
031to the board policy local. So, um >> that is that's correct. >> So, I just want to make sure we're clear on that. Yes, ma'am. Um, so in our discussions regarding our hiring of general counsel for the district, we determined that our current policy didn't provide us with any flexibility on what we might need and want to do as a board regarding our representation. So would you like to share your recommendation? >> Certainly. So it is the the the current policy BDD uh which we have um called for a very specific course of action in regards to our general counsel. So it is our recommendation that we uh we amend that policy at this time so that it does give us the flexibility to um to to find the the best legal representation that we
032can uh for our students of the school district. >> Any discussion? Does do do any of you have any questions? Want to clarify anything? All right. Then do I have a motion to accept the revision to the board pol Oh, I we're not motioning. Sorry, it'll come up next meeting. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, seeing no further discussion, we will move on to our next item, which is agenda item number 10, and that is to consider and possibly adopt revision to the board policy CH local. One of the things that has come up since we put our agenda out is that we have um a policy that's coming forward pos at the next agenda. I mean, at the next meeting, Dr. Landry and um so it it involves language that could conflict with
033this language in CH. So I'd like to ask that we table this CH policy uh discussion and revision until next meeting on August 19th where we can see it in and make sure we're in alignment so we don't pass one policy or have a potential passing of a policy at the next meeting that's in contradiction to new legislation. Are you good with that? >> Certainly. Absolutely. >> Okay. All right, moving on to item 11. EM legal item EMI. Um, this is also another one that we will I I would recommend that we wait on and table until the next meeting. There's some hearing there's a hearing going on on August 15th that we probably ought to hear what's happening there before we start making changes on our end. So, um, I'm going to ask that
034we table that item also. No, I agree. I I agree wholeheartedly on that one. >> Okay, >> that was legal 10. >> Yes. You said 11. >> Oh, I'm sorry. No, legal 10. I'm so sorry. No problem. >> All right. So, uh, moving on to our I'm looking for that piece of paper is what happened. Did it get stuck with something else? because I am looking for the language that we need for going into closed session. Well, I apologize for this. I think that when I move things around that I misplaced that piece. So, let me turn. This is a prime opportunity for us to use Miss Belaloo to make sure I read the right. She's already working hard over there. I see her. >> So, I apologize for that everyone. I had it right
035here, but it sometimes pages stick together. So, >> um, >> We're going into close session pursuant to Texas Government Code 551071 551074. Thank you. All right, we are going into close session. The time is 6:47 in pursuant to codes 551.074, 551.074, and 551.074. Um, items A, B, C, and D. And like I said, the time is 647. The time is 9:42 and we are now back in open session. No final action was taken in close session. We will now proceed to with the rest of the agenda. Are there any future um board agenda items to be added to the next agenda? The deadline is tomorrow. Okay. Um seeing none, then there being no further business before the board, I declare this meeting of the Conro Independent School District Board of Trustees adjourned. The time is
0369:42.