001The time is 6:38. I call this regular board meeting of the Edcow Chelsea Independent School District Board of Trustees to order. Today is Monday, January 26, 2026, and we are meeting in the Edcowsa ISD administration building boardroom at 920 West Santa Rosa Avenue, Ed Couch, Texas. As we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being conducted in accordance to the Texans Open Meetings Act. Roll call. >> Let the record show that a corum board members is present for the quorum established. We will now begin with the pledge of allegiance and the prayer. >> Uh Dr. Ibara, Mr. Gabriel Ernnandez will be uh reciting the pledge of allegiance that Mr. >> Mr. Grandandez uh Mr. Gabriel Hernandez is a petty officer first class uh for specialists in for 16 years. He is
002a graduate from Ed Couch Elsa for the class of 1994. Uh, Petty Officer Atlantez has completed five deployments and seven annual training readiness assignments to support fleet and joint operations. Petty Officer uh, First Class Fllandez. His deployments include the Middle East uh, where he was there for over a year. He's been deployed to Washington DC, New Orleans, uh, Louisiana, and uh, several other states. He is a graduate of the University of Texas where he got a bachelor's in psychology and where he got his master's at the Utrgv as well in counseling. Petty Officer Nades leadership echoes uh is rooted in integrity, accountability and service to others. His personal awards include petty officer of the year at personal support detachment bim in the Middle East and two letters of of commendation from commanding officer Jones while
003assigned to Navy support at the unit uh unit reserve in Harlem. Thank you for your service, Mr. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And we also we also have jelly bean. stand for the honorable 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. >> Thank you. >> We have a special token of appreciation for all your service and all you do. >> [applause] [laughter] >> THANK YOU EVERYONE. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your support. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you much. >> [clears throat] >> sir. Start. [applause]
004>> Let's bow our heads. Our heavenly father, be with us this evening as we carry out the deliberations that are important to the district's operations. be our strength and our guidance by giving us patience and understanding so that the issues may be resolved justly and fair fairly for all. We ask this in your holy name. Amen. >> Public comments. I believe we have one person that signed up. >> Mr. Torres, >> just as a reminder before we begin public comments, each person will be allotted 3 minutes to speak. We do ask that you uh keep your comments courteous and professional, respectful of the environment. Um once you're ready to begin, sir, we'll we'll begin your time. >> Good afternoon. My name's uh Conso Rodriguez. Uh I'm a single parent of five kids in the in
005this district and I have some concerns uh regarding policies. I mean, it's been going on for quite a while and I'm just here really requesting solutions and change and enforcement. You know, as it stands, uh, we have, uh, Turan, you know, it's crowded there because I had to be closed down for whatever lack of money or whatever it is, and it's crowded. You have bikes, drugs, uh, vapes, you know. Now, Duran is very strict about uh, uh, dress code. You can't even go with a I mean a little hole on your pants cuz soon as you cross that door I mean you have somebody there screaming [clears throat] at the kid. Hey, you know your dress code go straight to the office, you know, instead of finding a solution for one, not screaming at the
006kid, you know, for one, you know, they pull him on the side. Maybe he's with his friends or girl, whatever it is, you go what happened, you know, she don't know, he don't know if the parent had time to wash the clothes or works overtime or whatever, you know. Now you go to uh high school, tights, Crocs, you have everything, you know, and everybody knows it. I mean, what's is it a different district or or what? I mean, the whole district should be in conjunction people, everybody. The kids look at this, you know, every day these kids look at this. That's one main thing, you know. Another is that uh when a minor or child or daughter or son whatever it is gives him a problem uh they don't not notify the parent. They don't
007believe me I I uh on December 15 I submitted five different incidents to Miss Olivares regarding this issue and they're all on my kids. You know, the last incident was my daughter getting assaulted in the cafeteria while she was eating eating her lunch. I wasn't notified. I was notified by the parent of her best friend. Ambulance ambulance wasn't called, you know, for conjunct uh head injury, whatever she had, you know, and that's just one. I had four. I have four more. The first week of uh August of this school year, my daughter was already in in ISS or whatever you call it. This event, you know, the first week or the third day and the same third day, they called me to see if I had dropped off my daughter in school. She was already
008being punished. I I wasn't even notified and they were looking for my daughter. This is not acceptable. Sir, you've got about 30 seconds left. >> This is not acceptable. I I want I want solutions. I want to make a difference for my kids. You know, I ask and request. They look at all these little minor things that makes uh difference for the kids. Then you don't know how they're treating their home or whatever. You know, let's be equal with everybody, please. You know, and uh I believe there's a committee. I like to participate because I have uh I mean I'm not perfect but I do have solutions. We need to work together you know I mean these are our our future you know uh hopefully I mean you guys can uh take into consideration all
009these you know all these little minor things that you might think is minor is not you know uh and take action. I won't I won't change. I I see it every day. Every day, every day, every day. You're screaming at at kids. That's not acceptable. Be professional. Professional. That's what you need. I mean, like any other trade or whatever, you need to be professional, especially when dealing with kids, miners, you know, and thank you for your time. Uh, have a good day. >> Thank you. >> Next item on our agenda are recognitions. We'll be recognizing the elementary and secondary campuses with the highest student attendance percentage rate for the third six weeks. There'll be recognition of the campus classroom with the highest attendance rate uh percentage rate for the third six weeks. Recognition of the
010Edcow Elsistd board of trustees. Recognition of the city of Elsa and the city of Edcouch law enforcement. Recognition of the advanced placement scholars. recognition of EE high school cheerleaders UIL spirit state qualifiers and recognition of EES E high school buzz the be mascot cheese it citrus bowl we could all go down there for wicket >> [clears throat and cough] >> Whatever you want. Don't leave them all. Is he always at home? >> Okay. This evening we have for the Thursday street elementary campus highest attendance ring we have >> [applause] >> Right here. >> Yes. >> [applause] >> And next we have for the third week secondary campus highest attendance rate goes through middle school. [applause] Praise. I'm going to [applause] Okay, next we have certificate of recognition in the third six weeks with the highest
011rate of attendance and we have Miss Martinez [applause] from J here. [applause] There you go. There you go. >> [laughter] >> Going over the billboard. [applause] And next we have Miss from John Kennedy. [applause] Happy [clears throat] Oh yeah. [clears throat] >> Oh wow. 1 2 3. [applause] Next we have Elizabeth Garcia Elementary with the highest percent attendance for the 13th Street. >> [applause] >> 100%. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. One more joke. There you go. >> [applause] >> And next we have Miss Ana Science Science from our video STEM Academy with a 96 57 attendance [applause] rank. HEAT. HEAT. She's got it. All right. Ready? One, two, and three. One more. One, two, three. [applause] Next, we have this Maria. All >> [applause] >> right. 35. [applause] Uh, next we have Victoria from Junior
012Middle School. Sorry, Victoria had 100% attendance with HIS THIRD SEAT. >> [applause] >> THAT'S WHY WE have with 96% attendance for the third week. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you. All right. Ready? One, two, and one, two, and three. >> [applause] >> NEXT, we're going to recognize our board of trustees. Um, we've got a couple of videos to show and then the campuses campus principles are really happy month from JRG. Health and Science Academy. >> Hi, I'm Nina and I am the student council president and this is Pettis and I'm representative and this is you are the best. Yeah. Heat. Thank you all for our members for their leadership and service creating a positive and safe learning environment. We have opportunities to learn [music] and our future where the students of JK app. We want
013you to know how much we appreciate you. We know you were kind to our students, staff and teachers. Because of your leadership, our school be safe, caring, and how to be. Thank you for supporting our students, teachers, and JP community. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> On behalf of the law student council students, we would like to sincerely recogn all that you do. We appreciate you. Yeah. [applause] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Oh my [music] [music] god. [music] [singing] Yeah. [music] Heat. [music] Yeah. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [applause] >> Thank you campuses and thank you Jo. Um at this time we can start with the uh presentations for the board. Um if you can please start from high school and if you want to share a
014few words please you want to share. So the board members we're recognizing are Dr. >> OH, [applause] we also are recognizing Mr. [applause] Thank you so much for all your help. Thank you. >> [clears throat and cough] >> So CMT is blessed. We have three board members that we would like to extend our appreciation to. First is Dr. >> Thank you for your for your leadership and for everything you do for our community. Thanks Mrs. As Vasquez helping us events, helping us bring back our our pepper rallies and everything. And Dr. OA, thank you for your generosity for our students. We greatly appreciate everything. [applause] >> One, two, three. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. You're welcome. [applause] 1 2 3 1 2 and 3 [applause] We have the honor of
015recognizing Mr. Fernando. Thank you so much for all YOUR [applause] WELCOME. All right. Ready? 1 2 3 [applause] Thank you for joining us today for our lunch and the kids think you're a rock star now. [applause] One, two, and three. [applause] We're so lucky to honor Miss [applause] All right, ready? One, two, and three. [applause] Thank you so much JRG Elementary. Thank you for all the board members that we have. [applause] >> [applause] >> Last but not least, our CCC um attend Oh my god. Thank you to all the board members and we're here to honor Dr. Char and we want you to know this gentleman. He's always the biggest part always. So we definitely love you. [applause] Let's see. >> [applause] >> So, one last thing that I wanted to do is I wanted
016to bring in uh Mr. Leroy Garcia, the uh CCC uh director. He he brought something in that's 3D. He made it himself. But I wanted the board members hopefully you've got iPhones and you can test them out here because this is one of [clears throat] the initiatives that with the help of M. Garcia, we're going to be uh introducing it to students who also do at the campus level. So you will need your iPhone. Would you do any instructions? >> So, you just tap it with your iPhone camera. The little >> [clears throat] >> We tried it. It worked. >> We tried it first. >> Do it. And it takes you right to your to the Facebook. >> Yeah. So take this little keychain will take the tap and it takes it right to the
017Facebook page. So these are some of the things that are 3D that we want our students to start um practicing and being innovative with. And then um he also made some 3D uh uh thank you Mr. [applause] >> Yeah. Hello. Are you ready? >> [applause] >> At this time, we would like to recognize uh both the city of Edel, the city of Elsa law enforcement. um they now are helping us at our high school and our uh Guan middle school just to continue to enhance our safety features. But I have to say that um the the officers sign up but this is not because they signed up to come to the campuses. It's because they are very all-incclusive. They have both cities have helped us so much with events, with trainings, um shop with the
018cop, uh reading to the students. There's so many great initiatives that are going on and it could not be done without the collaboration of both the city of Edo and the city of Elsa. And I really want to just take the time to give my my sincere appreciation to Chief Yad and Chief McInness because they really are on speed dial uh and they're always a phone call away and always ready to help us with things that are even unrelated to what they do, but just to uh really give a positive message of what the police officers can do, not just about safety, but how they can, you know, promote programs light you know with with with education on uh fentinol on our camp just a lot of great initiatives. So thank you. We can start
019with the city also. [applause] Father, Can I say you I two and three. One, two, and three. Thank you. [applause] He's going to say right now. Worst ever. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 [applause] We are recognizing this evening our agent scholars. We're so proud of them. Um I have here but let me uh let me tell you about has um been named at high school scholar by college. Lucian has earned the distinction of being a scholar with honors for successfully passing four AP exams. He passed English environmental science is extreme and extreme. I don't think he's here. [applause] >> And I would also like to recognize John is here. [applause] So, John has uh successfully passed three APA exams. English language, environmental science and world history. [applause] has recently been accepted to uh
020UT Austin [applause] major in radio television and film. [applause] picture. Uh the honors is awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding college level achievement in AP exams and we'd like to acknowledge your hard work AND [applause] you want to squeeze in or you want to go for a There you go. Smile. One, two, and three. Smile. One, two, and three. Thank you. [applause] At this time, we're going to bring in our varsity cheerleaders. Heat. [applause] Heat. Where is coach? >> Would you say a few words, please? >> Where do I go? Denver. >> Um, so the cheerleaders made history this season by qualifying for state. Um, for the first time, uh, they compete against 78 different teams, five teams, and they came in 30th place out of 78. UM, [applause] the dedication and hard work of
021the athletes while setting a strong foundation for the future of the program. So, we just want to thank our superintendent, our beautiful superintendent, all of our school board members, our principal in the past, our athletics coordinator who's sure for all support. We could have done this without you. And thank you. Thank you. [applause] All right, everybody over here. Ready? One, two, and three. One more. Ready? One, two, and [applause] >> [applause] [laughter] >> Thank you. but not least, our amazing buzzy division who has represented Edelsa with so much pride and enthusiasm the last 2 years. I also want to thank um thank mom for providing us this beautiful portrait of Buzzy that will be hanging in our boardroom. [applause] I have to share that on Christmas Eve there was a toy drive going on and
022I don't know how Buzzy found out but she showed up in uniform >> and she was passing out um the toys and just taking pictures with the kids and just bringing smiles to every child that showed up and we had a lot of child show a motorcycle um she does have something that she'd like to read My journey is my journey is one of the best years. They knew if I had known how special this would be. I thought about it then. But being intimidated, I decided intimidated. I decided not to. And I consider fear. But my junior year I wasn't even the rest of my all I wanted to be on the side the opportunity I fel where there was no moment I will never forget trying for the first time just a few
023days later I made a beautiful late Friday morning on a on TV station I was terrified my heart was racing and everything felt overwhelming. But after the moment he was but after that moment being resulted becoming easier especially with the guidance with the guidance of patience and support of my cheer when senior year I knew I wanted to coach myself even further. I attended camp with one goal in mind to try to help American with coach encouraging. I worked hard for on my dance team. Buzz China for jazz cowboy cheer team was me. When when my name was called and I was announced as an all-Americ best for my life. It wasn't just that award. It was that stepping out of your comfort zone. Stepping out of fear can lead to something incredible. Throughout camp,
024I was wanted to receive the following awards. Day one, spirit stick and red rhythm for excellent crowd. Day two, spirit stick and blue rhythm for a outstanding performance and spirit. Day three, spirit stick and selected as day four character expert award trophy and mushy award. The motion work is favorite award given to the top mascul that recognizes the mascul demonstrates the most energy and dedication. Being named all American all American also meant something I never imagined would be possible. Attending the teacher. Thank you to my parents who made this dream a reality. I cracked those and took the heat I had to get [laughter] stepping onto the field for the for Texas was overwhelming in the best way. The city was massive. the lights for Friday. And to top it off, the Texas government standing
025there representing Eda and taking me from being too spirit to try out to performing on the national stage. When Buzz appeared on the jungle trunk, everything else faded away. All I could see was performing. Every moment of fear I had ever felt to the exact moment I knew was worth it every single second. The performance wasn't just about dancing or spirit. It was about growth, courage, and believing that dream can come true outside. I wanted to sincerely thank me and always pushing me. Yes, I also want to thank the rest of ISD and board members for the opportunity to represent our district and for always supporting me. Please taught me confidence and [clears throat] power of living outside my comfort zone and I will carry those blessings with me forever. This is blessing [clears throat]
026and SOMEHOW [applause] >> [applause] >> Where are we? >> [laughter] >> She also represents has so much pride as a softball player and a great two and three. One, two, and three. >> [applause] >> I don't know. [snorts] Heat. Heat. No You're out here. >> [clears throat] >> Next item on your on our agenda are presentations beginning with presentation of the Counters Script Counters Script HQ, a website/game that was created by Miss Bash Ozo to help incorporate literacy and critical thinking in a classroom setting. >> Oh, there we >> Good evening. Um, my name is Bash. Um, I want to keep this as brief as possible. Over 60% of our kids in the US are reading at below a grade level. Um, it's epidemic. >> No, no, >> we can't close this off of me.
027Yeah, >> we're good. >> Um, it's really an epidemic of illiteracy. And so I've been working with Dr. Canales a lot. He's helped a lot. Um, but we've developed a game uh called Counters Script HQ. It's a software program. Um, it's a a tactical writing based game to increase literacy where voice determines control. Next slide, please. Um, so like I said, 60% of students in the US are reading below grade level. Uh, weak literacy doesn't just affect low test scores, but it also affects emotional intelligence, lack of communication, and self- advocacy. If they don't know how to speak it right, it's hard for them uh to speak up for themselves, to stand up for what's right, to understand what's going on. It's easier for them to be manipulated. So, we want to fight back against
028that. Silence and eraser thrive in gaps left by illiteracy. It's very important that we combat that. Next slide, please. Okay, so uh the mission uh this is uh just a screenshot from the website, but we have [snorts] three things going on. We have the academy uh is training simulation based on uh it's like a tactical theme where they learn how to write thesis statements, hooks, evidence. They learn how to find citations. They learn how to search for these things. Uh what's credible, what's not credible, searching the Library of Congress, things like that. I've seen it firsthand in my classrooms. Um how they struggle with finding credible sources. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Uh the goal basically is um teaching students to use their voices deliberately and effectively in any environment. So develop this uh software not
029just for use in the core classes but in the elective courses uh where writing may not be the primary objective. Um it works for everything. Next slide please. So this is the game. Um it's the data hub that's hosted on CounterScript HQ. Uh so a tactical writing game where voice determines control. Uh next slide please. So these are just a couple screenshots of the dashboard. Um the goal is the class is broken into four groups factions. They get to choose their name. Um the teacher will control it. It is um smart board um compatible. Um they can also hook up to it through their laptops and their iPads as well. Uh so they choose their their factions, they name them. um they roll a dice and you would either write a hook uh thesis or
030evidence based on the prompt. The teachers are allowed to create their own prompts. However, we are developing prompts uh prompt packs that uh is based on the TEICS based on the STAR testing um that's safe for K through 12 and beyond. We want to go all the way up to 16 with this especially for our AP students. Next slide, please. So this is just um some things from the game. Uh here is the prompt here. Um they are writing a thesis. Uh so for example, why was Zoro Neil Hursten dismissed by critics during her lifetime but reclaimed later as a literary icon? They would have to write a thesis based on that. They have 10 minutes to start the breach. Once they start the factions they write. So they use their uh textbooks, their notes,
031anything that the teacher will allow them to at the end or whoever uh finishes their thesis first will raise their hand and claim the note. Uh once that happens uh develop this uh software so the teacher will go over and snapshot using their phone uh the students paper and it uploads directly onto the Smartboard. Um nothing is saved for the safety of the students. uh everything is deleted once uh the X is hit, but students then have about five minutes to gather intel. Gathering intel means seeking vulnerabilities based on the writing. Um is your grammar uh correct? Um is your evidence strong enough? Is your thesis laid out properly? Um and then after that, that starts the breach, the counter script. That's what we call it, the counter script. So once they claim the node,
032that's not the end of the game or end of the round. these uh other factions, they would look for vulnerabilities and then they would challenge that in the counter script realm. So say that my faction feels like we can get a stronger uh thesis than yours. This is a strong version of a peer review. Um we learned this in college. We learned this with our masters and our doctorates. So they're actually gaining a lot of um I guess college education from this. A lot of peer review. Um, if I can dismantle your evidence completely, we will use something called a um an override. A comm's jammer is another card that we can use where if I think that your paper cannot stand on its own in its written form. Um, then we would challenge that.
033So, they're not allowed to speak. They have to defend their writing. This helps and strengthens their articulation. Um, what what else is there? Recon check. Recon check is your citations. If you're using weak sources, if you're getting your sources from Tik Tok and not the Library of Congress [clears throat] or not JSTO, we would challenge you on that. Uh what is this? Override. >> Oh, in a syntax strike. Syntax strike is with um grammar. So if you have a lot of typos, my class played this. There's a lot of typos. Um but that was one of the easier ones, but it really helps them go back and make sure that there's nothing missing. They're allowed to use dictionaries. Dictionaries are very important. Um in that training uh section we're actually developing a small course where
034actually teaches them how to use a dictionary. A lot of students don't know just because we have Google now. Um next slide please. So uh Counters Script HQ is currently in beta testing right now. Um it's free for everybody. Um we really would love feedback from administration and from our students and from teachers on how we can make this better for our district and really push this. we're developing. We want to go uh big with this, but we want to start within our own district first. We want to have class against class. Uh we want to have maybe school against school, things like that. Um we have a scholarship program where we're actually going to give away some supplies, $100 worth of supplies to the teacher, to the classroom that wins to really get everybody
035involved. We really want to fight back against illiteracy here. Uh next slide, please. The last one. This is the logo. So with the broadcasting, voice is power and writing is power. We really want our students to understand that writing isn't a chore. It's um it's strength, right? And its power and its control. So writing is more than just an assignment. It is the ultimate form of preparation. Let's ensure our students are never erased ever. Um and it's literacy by any means necessary. So thank you. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. >> [applause] >> THIS WAS ACTUALLY BROUGHT UP BECAUSE AT THE beginning of the year I tked all of my fine arts to actually figure out a way into to incorporate right literacy into the class itself. And Basha came up to me and she started saying
036hey how about we start doing this and I said sure why not. So we start developing this game and hopefully again like what she said it's going to go big. So we're looking at it to go nationwide as well too. So she'll be the first, right, to actually develop the game that'll get you. >> That is awesome. [applause] >> I want to also take the time to uh thank the fine arts department, Miss Baja. Um she's actually the one that is creating um our our videos on uh drug prevention and she creates them with her students. So um she does a lot more than just uh the art class. So, thank you for all you do. >> Thank you very much. [applause] >> Next item on the agenda is presentation of the Coca-Cola Company. >>
037CocaCola. >> Well, good evening everybody. How are you all this evening? Sting warm. >> Yeah. >> Yes. [snorts] >> Good. Um, so yes, my name is Keon Carson. I'm uh with Coca-Cola. I'm from San Antonio. And this is Robert Moya. He is my peer down here in uh the Mallen area. So yeah, we just wanted to kind of go over what we can propose as far as a school district contract for vending or beverage vending units. Next slide, please. So as you can see in this summary, uh we've been working on adapting to all of the USDA rules and the AVA compliances. Um, we are partnered with the American Beverage Association and so we make sure that all of the zero sugar products are for students, not for staff. And so, yes, we will make
038sure that all your staff members get their their cat food. Uh, next slide, please. This is also just the standards that we that we go by. Um, it's for your high school students mainly. Uh, like I said, zero sugar products, all hydration products, waters, power zeros, possibly code zeros if that's something you guys will be interested. If not, we totally understand. Next slide, please. So, here's our proposed. So, as you guys can see, this would be for a three-year exclusive contract. Uh, this would just be for the beverage vending units. This would not be for your uh booster clubs or your uh concession stands or anything like that. We don't want to be on any other money that you guys are making about that. This is just incremental cases and incremental position checks. Um year
039one, you can see we do start at a little higher of a rate. We do have to keep up with the market standard. Um if you go down to a gas station, it would be closer about 315 325. So, just a heads up on that. As you can see, we do have a 15% commission structure for your soft and your reason why we go about that way is because those would be your top sellers. Everything else is your 10% and this is what you would be selling within your teachers lounges and areas like that. No student access. Next slide, please. So after we ran an economic analysis, this is what we have been able to come up to or come up with. Um as you can see the commission structures, year 1, year 2, year
040three. We took a very similar school district that we currently service and we based it off the same commission structure that we currently have. And so this is how we got these numbers. This is a projected vending commission structure. So, it really just depends on how well the units do live within each location. Um, you can see that in year two and year three, you do see a slight dip, but we do take into consideration the 10% drop uh in sales due to price increase. Most of the time that doesn't happen, but it could possibly happen. So, we're planning for worst case scenario situation. So next slide please. And then this is kind of just a layout of your total amount invested that we would provide you guys. So at the top you can future
041your commissions year 1, year 2, year three which go out to 16,694. Like we said it is it is a projection. It's not guaranteed. With the equivalent investment in year one it's $28,821. That is just for the the new machines that we're bringing in. So, I know you guys have se machines throughout the district right now, but we're going to update them. We're going to upgrade them. We're going to make it look nice. We're going to put them back within this, not two decades. Um, so as the total value for year one, you have $34,459 invested from us. As you can see, in year two and year three, I did not put any official price tag on those because we do We do run into issues with our units and so I didn't you guys
042don't get charged for our maintenance fees, anything like that. We take care of all of that. If a unit breaks down, we'll replace it free of charge. You got nothing you guys have to worry about. All you have to do is give us a call. We'll make sure. And then at the bottom, you can see these are our new these are units. Um the coingo unit is probably our newest up to-date unit. And so it's it's a grab and go pay unit that we would like to put in some of your teachers office just [snorts] to see how it goes. It's totally cashless. It is a cap to pay card everything that you guys can possibly think of our units. Next slide, please. And that is the end of our presentation. We're quick, we're sweet,
043we're going. Um, we really appreciate y'all's time today and congratul congratulations to all the award winners. I know the rest of the left and it was awesome sitting sitting here all the thank you for your time. >> And one question is there a minimum consumption rate that you guys have to achieve in order to be as far as give these benefits back. So yeah, so model one commission rates are here. So if you sell a one model at 275, you'll get 15% off of that level. Now to maintain our level that we like to keep just because if you if you fall under this threshold is when you start running out of date issues and stuff like that, we try to go for at least 65 cases per unit per year. We understand that you
044guys have a giant gap in between your semesters and so that's not a big issue because his team will come in, they'll empty it out and you start with fresh product in August or at the beginning of January. So, and his his guys are the ones who come in and he'll check it every every week, every two weeks. It really just depends because we have trackers within our units that notify him to get them scheduled. And so you guys should never run into your piece of >> How many units does this represent? How many >> right now? >> 10 right now. >> Yes, sir. We have to start we have to start with 10 units, but we can always expand. >> Are they meant to serve students or staff? >> So both. So we can
045put like classrooms within your high school. And to be transparent, that's where the that's where you guys will make the most money is for your student event in your high school. But we also have staff as well. So >> thank you. [applause] Next item is presentation of additional days school year by Mr. Eric was down. Um, good evening members of the board of Dr. um here to present a proposal for for us to consider a digital day school year also known as and here with me are two ladies from region one. There are missing and miss. They represent the state department from region one. So basically uh this is something that we would like to uh see um if possible for the next school year for the next school year calendar. So it's a TA
046initiative allowing districts to add up to 30 days as additional instructional days beyond the 175 day calendar. Uh this will support the scattered learning time, enrichment and acceleration for prek to uh eighth grade students. This was basically uh it was a for prek to fifth grade. Uh the year before last year it was added up to 83. Uh it generates state formula funding based on approve additional days. So that's the that's the opportunity for us for the upcoming school year. Um next slide. So in order for us to be able to uh receive this additional funding uh we as a district must uh 175day base calendar uh days are separate and cannot be um double counted. So this will be something that we can incorporate uh before the instructional uh days during or after. Um
047so that's one of the three models that we can incorporate within the AIS uh system. Uh funding level depend on total uh access date and instructional minutes. So for days 1 to 25 you can get a half state funding or for 26 and up 30 uh 34 state funding and like I said before it can occur before during and after the traditional school year. Next slide. So what are the benefits of us incorporating this um uh initiative? Well, it reduces summer learning loss and increases targeted academic support for our students. Uh provide structure, enrichment and intervention opportunities. Uh creates additional funding to support student programs. Uh what will be the next steps? Um basically we'll have to review the preferred model and the calendar design and that is something that we are already starting to
048decide to start working on the calendar to have options of how that will look like for the following school year. Um this uh plan staffing for days outside regular teacher contracting. So this is not something that will be doing um let's say teachers uh days or work days. It will be something outside school. Okay. And that's it. Any questions? >> So these 30 days replace I mean well basically these extra 30 days we're talking about summer school. I mean is that what I heard? I mean that's >> potentially be summer school. It could be before the beginning of the school year. It could be um second semester on Saturdays or Saturday. >> Okay. >> How long is there that part of the instructional day? >> How many additional days are we talking about here? >>
049Uh 30 days. up to we don't have a definite yet. >> Well, yeah, but one through 1 through 25, you said we get half day credit, right? Anything above 25, we get 3/4 of a day credit. Correct. >> And staff gets compensated for additional [clears throat] days. [laughter] >> The the formula itself is just to refer you all to generate funing. um aside as how you compensate your staff that will be >> so I so what I'm looking at is it's additional days for staff so they should get additional funding right >> the funding comes from the attendance from the students >> right >> so the funding uh aside from the teachers that would be a district decision >> so this is a presentation when are you going to come back with hard numbers next
050month. >> Huh? >> Next month. All right. >> So, the reason for this presentation is a couple of things. Um, currently uh for some of the grants, you have to have at least 175 days, which we do not. Um, we have run into issues um where you see other districts have 3 weeks off, you know, in Christmas and the full week off um and they have mental health days embedded. our current contract doesn't allow for that. Our current date calendar, I'm sorry, does not allow for that. Um, and then, um, with the ADA issues and our scores, we're trying to find a a way of meeting a balance so that we don't get, um, uh, left out of grants because we don't meet the days and then at the same time giving a balance to
051staff, some options to staff. So, um, there can be some mental health days in there. there can be some PD days in there. Um because right now it's a very tight crunch. Um it it was presented before we even brought it here. It was presented to the site base uh because we thought if it dies there, there's no point in bringing it to you all. Uh they seem to like what what the calendar would represent, but this is just a presentation. The numbers would have to be crunched. Uh but again, it it it can be up to 30 days. does not have to be. It could be 175, >> but at least it gives another option to what we currently have. >> The the only thing I'd ask is that we make a concerted effort
052to talk to staff because I know in the past we've tried to adjust the calendar. I'm talking about I mean the last 6 years we've tried to adjust the calendar and we've gotten a lot of push back. So, we can just please be con I mean go get out there, talk to staff because and and and some of us up here can attest to the push back we've gotten. I mean, it's been it's been been a lot of push back, but uh we can just please get out there and and just educate our staff. And I think that's where we start. >> Mr. Losano is right and we have we have an amazing staff here at Gala, but sometimes communication's been lacking. >> So, you guys could ensure that that they get the message and
053any questions that they might have or answered just so we could make a better decision. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay. So, the first presentation um >> uh next item on the agenda is superintendent report starting with EISD enrollment attendance audit report followed by the substitute report. Mr. Chairman, before we jump to that item, could I just ask a question on one of the presentations? So, could you I was just thinking right now on the presentation from the Coca-Cola guys, what do we have currently right now? What kind of savings do we have? What is the expense? Is it a soft savings, hard savings? Just to get an idea of what we are currently before this >> I think it's very small. >> Okay. >> So, we reached out to them and >> how
054how big is the footprint? Do they not have a footprint here or >> we have a co machine on campuses? I think we had about uh 15 of them or less between 12 and 15. Um but we'll really start with only 10 to begin with. Um but um I know that uh a lot of times they don't come out to service or the folks stay in there, especially the one here in our office. Um, >> I hope I'm not. >> So, um, I think it's been our other vending machine. >> Is that due due to lack of contract or [clears throat] >> um I don't I I'm >> okay. >> I I had a couple of questions in relation to that as well. So then they are a different company that would replace uh the
055service of a company that's here right now. >> Yes. >> Um well for the for right now we're going to put out 10 of those but we they did tell us we keep on we can keep this one until uh we're able to um join >> and where would the revenue go? That one we are bringing everything into the general fund. Uh and we want to bring it into one major account where anyone in any campus or any department will be able to utilize it or for we have maybe uh something you find a budget for something purchase we can certainly do that. But for right now what I'm doing is putting it all all in one pot. >> And the the current machines right now they they're the revenues collected into one one pot.
056>> Yes. Yes. the the they're all brought in into our office here and um I know some of the um machines at the campuses might the snacks I believe are going into the campus or if they have some type of collection of fundraisers like that. I know sometimes they do something like that but um most of the revenues that do not >> okay I'll probably ask some more questions though and I'll probably contact you just to get an idea. I just want to see what kind of savings. I mean, it sounds good, but you know how those Coca-Cola guys are [laughter] >> just the recommendation. Next time we're black and gold. [laughter] >> Thank you guys. There you go. That's all my questions. >> So, the first slide is the one that you all are
057accustomed to seeing which is uh the enrollment at ADA. Um I just want to highlight uh some numbers there. Um you can see right now that we have a difference of 161 uh for the first semester 161 uh difference in our enrollment. Um then I want to just bring attention to the difference for the ADA part which is 107.19. But the area that I really want to bring attention to is the bottom. So as you can see at the the ADA goal which is created for budgeting purposes was 3,76 for the first semester ADA we were we ended up with 3,65 56.15 for a difference below the goal of 49.85. So, what that calculates into, which is what you all need to know because of the budgeting purposes, is a uh difference of $39,818. The
058next slide, please. So, as I said, the previous one was um enrollment, the district 88 attendance count. That is basically um trying to be very deliberate in looking at our ADA. As you can see in the first semester, I'd like to call your attention to the yellow section where it's got um You've got the wrong slide. Joe, can you please change the slide? There you go. Thank you. Uh for the first semester, we had [snorts] uh a total of 21,167 absences counted districtwide. You've got the breakdown by campuses um for what's considered ADA. I was able to go back to the previous year for the first semester and that number was 23,911. So, we're doing a little bit better, but nowhere where we need to be to meet uh budget numbers. Um I did request
059that an audit be done and I want to thank uh Miss Vela for uh spearheading [snorts] that. Um, so an audit was done just to make sure because we have a lot of students that that go to events, extracurricular events, um, or or pulled out for assemblies. Um, and so I wanted to make sure that we didn't have any kind of issues there for the first semester. Um, the principles were involved, the attendance clerk was involved, uh, Miss Bella and her team were involved. They found a,05 errors >> and and and what what do you attribute those errors to? >> There were different things. It was for example, they had a medical excuse um and the parent had either yet not turned it in or instead of uh coding it as an M for the
060medical, it was just counted as an absence. And so th those matter because of the the ADA. Uh >> so when you put an error, it adjusts >> it. Yeah. Well, they did the adjustments. Yes, ma'am. What what does the audit consist of? Is it is it like a double-checking of Yes. >> voting? Yeah, they liter Well, they went one by one um for to make sure that they met with the um the principal, they met with the the pings clerk, they met with the attendance clerk, and then when they had questions, it was like, for example, it's odd because they showed that they were there the first period, then they weren't there the second period, or they showed that they were absent the entire time. They had a medical excuse for one day, but
061not the previous. So there was like different things that they were looking at that if it looked like there might be errors then they went in and they um they investigated it further. So um again so it was a 105 um throughout the district that were corrected. I want to call again attention uh where this is still concerning. We had a 21,67 um unduplicated absences. Now this could be duplicated students um but we had a total of 983 home visits from the community aids and 390 for from the truency officers for the second semester. I'd like to call attention again to the yellow number. Um from the first day back which was January 6 up to it stopped this report we I stopped it at January the 16th we had 2,604 absences. I will attribute
062that you know there was some hardcore flu going on and a lot of medical issues at that time. Um they did do an attendance audit again and they did find 301 discrepancies that were fixed. Uh the visits at that point for the district you can see the breakdown uh for the different campuses but the community aid visits was 95 and for truency offers it was 7 uh 70. So there was a total again to reiterate 1,36 uh attendance errors that were fixed. Uh but if we just looked at first semester those 21,67 absences that is an approximate of 1.7 million that we lost out in funding. And I say that that's a baseline because if a student, for example, uh uh is identified as getting special education services, they're weighted more. So uh or if
063the student is uh coded as bilingual, they're weighted for more. So this is just a projected 1.7 million loss with just a baseline. So attendance absolutely matters. >> So according to the data, you're saying that our we're lacking in our home visits. >> Yes, sir. Because of the whole district, we're saying that we had 95 visits. No, no, I'm sorry. 70. No, >> but I think that's >> No, we had districtwide for the first semester, 983 by the community aids and 390 by the truency officers. Those were like the warning letters. >> But but in the last 10 days >> Oh, yes sir. In the last 10 days, since the 6th through the 16th, in 10 days or two weeks of school, >> we've only had 70 visits >> and 95 visits. >> Yes, sir.
064>> Are they not turning in their excuses or there's >> in terms of I'm sorry. >> Say the if they go to the doctor and how what what time frame do they have to turn them in? Cuz I know a lot of them don't turn them in. So right now the issue is that it is now being before it used to be in July uh when they would do the um the submission for the funding purposes. Now it's every 6 weeks. So one thing that that that they are being aggressive is with the thrillshare. If you're a parent here, I'm sure you're getting those calls and your child is absent. Um and so they are being very um very deliberate about that. If we don't catch this in the first six weeks, it's a red
065flag. So basically right now uh what we're being told by the state is you really the most you really want to give them is 3 days to bring in that excuse because it's it's it's something that can be audited and then if they do bring it a medical excuse and it it turns from an absence to a medical and we get the funding. >> How are we comparing to other districts? I have I apologize. I have not done that comparison that could >> I could call and see if he'll give me the information but that's not available until um next [snorts] December in taper but I can definitely call >> since looking at the numbers I guess it shows that in the first period we had about 7% of the absentism get checked I guess
066is the word. So I guess maybe doctor if we could maybe put a goal set a goal and tell them there's a minimum home visits that we expect from our group. [snorts] Uh cuz right now we're basically hitting seven less than 7% of the visits and obviously that's costing us money. I guess maybe there's a target that needs to be accomplished. I I think so too but I'm >> Miss Bella I I don't know what the target was that was set but there has been a target set. Miss Bella, are you here? >> Yes, I am. Yes. So we did ask the community studies, you know, to start uh taking attendance early and try to get those kids in. So they basically start their home visits about after 9:45 10:00. So I know that they
067do get at least a minimum 10 12 a day. 10 12 a day. So like the weekly target I I guess 10 a day maybe 50. Although sometimes of course they they have to cover certain areas. They're out. Uh they've been working on tennis on for a while. So those numbers are a little low. Yes. But usually about 10:15 a day. >> Yeah. Cuz 10 or 15 >> per Well, per campus. >> Per campus. >> Yes. >> But I don't think the data is telling us that though. And I guess maybe it could be a timing issue, but I guess if there's a set target, what is a target? Is it 10 to 15? And what can we do to drive and I understand there's peak times there's peak periods where you know after a
068holiday people have a tendency to you know or they travels don't come in I understand that part I guess understanding the data when are people most likely not coming to school is it on a Friday Monday Tuesday after a holiday after a sporting event after something just to get an idea so we can try to predict the future and see what we can do to to man up for that. So, I've already started looking at before the the holidays um or even like today. Today, we had 57%. >> Yeah. >> Attend uh before the holiday. Last year, I looked at um I can't remember which one it was, but uh we had 80%. >> Thank you. >> God bless you. >> We had 80% and it was right after a holiday and we didn't they
069didn't have the day off and so we dipped to 80% districtwide for attendance. So that's one of the things that I know that um I had discussed with uh with Miss Bella about let's look at that very carefully and look at what it was last year when it's before a holiday. >> I I was going to say and kudos to to you all for doing the audit. Uh because it's happened I'm talking about personal experience. It's h it's happened with both my kids when they're at the stock show. I got a call every day that they were absent. I'm like, "Okay, we're there to participate in the school event. Why are they being counted absent? When we were at Special Olympics, same thing. I got a call every day that why were we why are
070my kids absent? So, it's a we've got to get the lowhanging fruit. And I think the lowhanging fruit is just put those modifications in there that because if if we don't if we don't input the information properly, then that the child is counted absent. So, I think the lowhanging fruit there is to go back and kudos to to the team for doing that because I know and I' I've discussed this with Dr. Sandy before. I I think it's really important that it's coded correctly because if it's not coded correctly, we're missing out on money when our kids are actually out at school function. And that's what I don't understand that that that that one I can't I I can see the home visits and people not answering their doors and you know that's a task.
071But if we cannot even code correctly, then we're missing the boat. Is that one of the most common errors, Dr. S? >> It was one of the most. And so what one of the that one and the medical >> the 1,36 attendance errors. Are those from first semester? >> Yes, ma'am. >> No, it's a total. I'm sorry. It's 1,05 was first semester [clears throat] and then the 301 was second semester. >> It really sounds like it's a communication issue. >> Well, so one of the processes that that I have put in place [snorts] because they bring me the the travel forms. So one of the things that I've said is I will not sign unless I have the names of the students and then that uh the principal has signed the the director has signed
072the the attendance person has signed basically everybody signs so that that way we ensure that that list was provided and then the other thing that is now in place is every Friday uh uh Miss Vela is going out there and uh I've injected Miss uh uh Olivarees as Well, and they're sitting and doing the audits. >> Trust me, what were you going to say? [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Are the are the the attendance clerks, they know what they have to do? I mean, that's a lot of mistakes to put in uh the unexcused. Remember the attendance clerks um are given that information by the teacher. >> But but do they get them at the same time all the time every day or >> it's by period? >> By period. Yes. >> So then they should
073be up to date every day by the end of the day. >> So correct. But but if there's any kind of errors um so let's say there's a change that needs to be made. The attendance [snorts] clerk cannot make the change on her own. It has to come from the the the let's say it's it's an issue with the the student was late. You've got 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after. So let's say for example the attendance was submitted already. So then the teacher needs to submit a form, right? So that they can legally change it because we're talking about money. So you have to document that that that it actually got changed. That's the first thing. The second thing is that it's period by period. But again, if if a child is absent,
074but then they take, you know, a week or two to bring the the the unexcused the the medical excuse, then they have to go back and change it. >> Well, that's why I'm asking, is there like a time frame for the excuse? >> So, so one of the things that TA is recommending is no more than 3 to 5 days, and that's what we're doing because now you get monitored every 6 weeks. So now if say that they take it out they take it two weeks later too bad it's unexcused >> not necessarily not necessarily but if you want to speak to that >> on on on that issue it would become an excuse absent not a medical >> not a medical and we can lose money >> medical the student has to attend school
075some part of the day >> for it to be a medical otherwise it's just an excuse medical gives us money an excuse >> but it helps in the truest So they have to go charge so that you do get towards her attendance. [clears throat] But for moneywise they have to for medical the student has to attend school that day some beginning of the day or the beginning of the day. >> And then we have to be hyper vigilant with how we're changing this again because this is monies. And so if someone has took 2 weeks to bring it in, you you you have to be vigilant about that because again if they bring it in after the TA has already captured the data, you can be subject to an audit and what if they don't
076have the proper documentation? >> We have an upcoming LSG training. Could you prior to that training have a presentation and can we bring in staff Eva? I just so the board can understand the processes, right? because I mean this is not what we do but I think we all want to know because it's it's affecting our finances and just to just to get a is the board okay with that if we just bring I' I'd like to know what the process is you know if we could sit down >> and if there's a problem let's try to fix it because if some attendance clerks are doing it and others aren't why why can one do it and another one cannot And lastly, I cannot unfortunately I tried to find whether there were any audits last
077year and I couldn't find any. So I cannot speak to whether it was actually the numbers were better or not because I don't have that data. And then the last presentation is on the OBN sub. So here I also wanted to give you information because again uh this affects learning and it affects uh funding. So, um, what you have on the first section is the first semester and you can see the breakdown by campuses as far as how many substitutes uh, we called in, but we also have how how many we used uh, throughout that time frame of the the teacher assistants that became part of the subpool. So you [snorts] can see here that for region one where we're actually where we were paying region one directly it was 756 substitutes. Um and for
078uh the district pool we used um a total of uh well I don't have the totals there. I'm sorry it wasund it's by campuses but the total here was 3,152 substitutes um in January from January 6. This one went through January 20th. Um, again, you can see the breakdown from the OBNY subs for the campuses and then the district subs. The total from that time frame from January 6th through January 20th was 413 substitutes. Um, I do have a monetary comparison. um in 2024 2025 there was for the first semester okay it was $59,916 that was paid out uh for subhub expenses uh for this year for this semester it was $368,48 I'd like to attribute it to the fact that now we've got um our in-house te uh teacher for assistance. Uh but also
079the fact that now we are really honing in on if you have an athletic event, you you need to wait to leave until the and we're not calling for substitutes. In other words, >> so we had that budget about what a million dollars less amount. >> We went a little over a million, >> right? That's what we budget. So it's actually a hard savings. >> Yeah. But even on top of that, I mean student instruction to me is even more important than the dollar amount. I mean, just not having a teacher there and the lack of student instruction to me, I I couldn't put a dollar amount on that. I mean, that we need to I I don't know what we're we need to figure this one out. >> Because it's it's true then also
080because we don't know if the second semester is where Last year we had the highest absent overall. >> Yes. Yeah. >> So, it's coming. So, Okay. >> That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next items [clears throat] are consent agenda items. We will now move to the consent agenda. All items under consent agenda will be acted upon in one motion unless a trustee requests to have a specific item removed for a separate discussion and action. Are there any items that trustee would like to pull from consent agenda for individual consideration? >> There's not. I'd like to make a motion to approve consent agenda items as presented. >> Second. There's a motion made by Mr. Losano, seconded by Mr. Torres. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> All those against. Motion
081carries. Next item is executive session. We will now convene into executive session pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act, chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code. The board will meet in close session under the following provisions. 551-074 for personnel matters. 551-071 for cons consultation with legal counsel. The time is 8:16 and we're in executive. The time is 9:05 and we're back in open. At this time, we'll proceed with any action items discussed in close session that require a vote. A uh 551-074 for the purpose of discussing personnel. I will entertain a motion on employee A. >> So move second motion. >> Well, it is a motion. >> Oh to >> Oh, this is sorry. Go ahead. >> No. Well, my motion is to approve as we discussed in executive session on uh employee a second.
082There is a motion made on the table by Mr. Losano, seconded by Mr. Torres. All those in favor sign by saying I. I. >> All those against I. >> Motion carries. Next item is also personnel employee B. Need a motion. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve as discussed in executive session. >> Second. >> There's a motion made by Mr. Losano, seconded by Mr. Torres. All in favor say by saying I. >> I. All those against? >> Nay. Motion carries and there is no item under consultation with legal. I will entertain a motion for journal. >> We got one more. >> Well Andy I asked >> final the final employ personnel issue. >> Oh there's one more uh personnel issue. Entertain a motion. >> So move >> second. >> There's a motion made
083by Mr. Losano, seconded by Mr. Torres. All in favor >> motion. Sorry the motion is >> to accept as discuss in executive session. Sorry. [laughter] As well as my second. >> Yeah, >> there's a motion to second. >> We need the nay. Every need the eyes. >> I need the Naz. >> Motion carries. Next item is a journ. >> Mr. Chairman, could we just thank everybody for participating today and helping with everything that they did for us? I want to thank everybody on my side. >> Thank you. [applause] >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the adjournment. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mr. Osano, seconded by Mr. All those in favor sign up by saying I >> I meeting is a journal.