Edgewood ISD- Regular Board Meeting: 4-21-2026

001Good evening school board members, superintendent, district staff, and community members. The time is now 6:00 p.m. on April 21st, 2026, and I call this regular board meeting of the Edgewood Independent School District School Board to order. I'm very pleased that you took the time to join us this evening. In compliance with the State Government Code 551 for Open Meetings Act, tonight's agenda has been appropriately posted. This is a meeting in a public entity, not a meeting of the public. As our guests, you are welcome to observe and listen. These proceedings are being video and audio recorded and will become part of Edgewood ISD's permanent records. To ensure the recording accurately reflects these proceedings, please silence your mobile devices and refrain from talking while others are speaking. Since it is legally mandated that these proceedings are

002recorded accurately, I may have to ask for your for order periodically should I notice that disruptions are interfering with our recording capabilities. Once again, I extend to each of you a sincere welcome from the entire Edgewood ISD School Board. Next is roll call. Ms. Martha Castillo. Here. Mr. Fred Casminosa. Present. Mr. Richard Santoyo. Here. Mr. Rudy Lopez. Here. Mr. Michael Valdez. Present. Mr. Sergio Delgado. Here. Uh Dr. James Hernandez is present, myself. Let the record show that the quorum of the Edgewood uh that a quorum of the Edgewood Independent School District School Board is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Next, we have our the Pledge of Allegiance to the US and Texas flags, uh led

003by Ms. Lauren Blevins, Director of Marketing and Communications. Will everyone please stand for the US and Texas pledges. Good evening, Mr. President, Dr. Hernandez, trustees, Edgewood ISD stakeholders, families, students, and everyone here to join us tonight. Please join me in the pledge to the 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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. All right. Okay, next is our Goals to Greatness recognitions. Ms. Lauren Blevins. Thank you, Mr. President. It is an honor and a privilege to be with you this evening as

004we celebrate the outstanding work taking place across Edgewood ISD. During tonight's From Goals to Greatness recognitions, we will highlight the individual and collective achievements of our students, our staff, our community partners, each of which are aligned to our district's strategic plan goals, and the categories and competencies are within our leadership definition framework. Together, these recognitions reflect what makes Edgewood proud. Strong leadership, collaboration, and a shared commitment to ensuring that people matter, growth matters, and goals matter. To guide this work, we've developed the Edgewood ISD Leadership Definition Framework. This is a reflection of our shared commitment to our core values of professionalism, accountability, and communication. The framework is built around three key pillars. The people matter, growth matters, and goals matter. Together, they define how we lead, how we collaborate, and how we hold ourselves and

005one another accountable in the pursuit of excellence for every student. Okay, so Senator Menendez is on his way, but he is stuck in the rain. So, we will uh we will get back to him uh as soon as he gets here. So, at this time, I would like to invite Rick Galvan, our city councilman, to the podium. Well, good evening, everybody. Good to see you all. Thank you so much for having me here tonight. I um can't express how honored I am to be recognized tonight. Uh you know, I there's a lot of common sense in politics, and it's not one that I necessarily enjoy. I like to be a part of that work. I'm someone who likes to get into the weeds of it all. I think many of you all have seen or

006know. Um And so, it's it's a little shocking to me, to be honored today within our first year of being in office, just because of how new we are, but how committed we've been has been uh it's been a real big focus of mine. Understanding that the district that I represent is a sliver of Edgewood, but that there's enough uh focus that needs to be had that needs to be had here. Um there's plenty of work that we have to do, and so we must make sure that we're always uh working toe-to-toe and in line with our schools and with uh our school board. One of the first things we worked on is working with Staff Elementary uh in District 6, making sure that we're supporting them in their work. Uh I will never forget

007the kind of feeling I have when I saw some of the news about things going on at the schools. I wanted to make sure that I could be helpful in any way I can, not as a critique, not as someone who wants to add more layers of work to do, but because we know that our state just continues to do uh certain actions that requested that our city our school boards um do more with less, frankly. As a city, what do we do to make sure that we're still working with our shared constituencies to understand and support the efforts that you all are doing and taking every single day, and support the community every single day, too, that we overlap with. Again, there's a lot of work to be done, and I'm still very focused

008on continuing to do that every single day that I'm here. Um and it just means so much to me to be able to be here today with you all. So, if I can talk about that work that we have to keep doing on, right? Uh I appreciate all the conversations I've had with many of the board members here with Dr. H and many of the staff as well. Uh I'm delighted to be able to walk in and see the principal, someone who's very special to me in my life, uh just behind me, so that's very nice to see as well. Um it's a community that's close and tight, and I'm proud to be able to represent a part of it. And while I may not be a product of Edgewood myself, um my grandfather uh

009grew up around Santa Rita Street in West Commerce, and I remember uh not only walking to Peter Piper's across the street, um but also uh cruising down the street on Old Highway 90 in his in his old cruiser, and thinking about the ways that we can continue to support our community. You marched in the solidarity march in SISD uh during the Edgewood lockouts, and so there's always been that kind of spirit of uh service here. And I hope that I can be able to serve you well uh the way that we he would have wanted to, and the way I believe you all deserve. Thank you so much. Could we get a picture? Mr. Galvan. Let's get a picture. Let's get a picture. I can have you in the center, councilman, and Thank you, councilman.

010Thank you so much. Okay, while we are waiting on our state senator, at this time we have the honor of celebrating a dedicated leader who has given so much to our district and our community. Tonight, we extend a heartfelt thank you to retired trustee Louise Gomez. Mr. Gomez, will you come forward, please? Please come forward. While he makes his way up, I'll tell you a little bit about him. Mr. Gomez served on the board from 2020 through 2025, bringing with him a deep commitment of service and a genuine passion for Edgewood ISD, its students, its parents, and its community. As a graduate of Edgewood High School, Mr. Gomez embodies the spirit of this community. A proud Marine. He continues to give back now as the president of the Edgewood District Veterans. Mr. Gomez's leadership, integrity,

011and unwavering dedication have made a lasting impact on our students, staff, and families. Please join us in expressing our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Louise Gomez for his outstanding service and commitment to the success of Edgewood ISD. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Gomez, for your years of service. Now to an exciting recognition, the leader of the pack. These are exceptional members of the Edgewood ISD family who truly live out our core values of professionalism, accountability, and communication. Each of these honorees reflects the categories and competencies outlined in our leadership definition, and they show us what leadership looks like in action. Our first honoree is Ms. Charlotte Calhoun Porter, fifth grade teacher at Perales STEM Academy. Ms. Porter's dedication to students student success shines through how she motivates, challenges, and inspires students every

012day. She is a wonderful example of how goals matter. She pushes her students and lets them know that with hard work, there are no limits to what they can achieve. Our second honoree is Roxanne Ruiz, the director of the Edgewood Child Nutrition Department. She demonstrates every day that people matter and goals matter. She works tirelessly to ensure that our students receive healthy, balanced, and nutritious meals to give them the fuel they need to learn and succeed. She is always ready to step in, whether that means working on a serving line, helping in the kitchen, or simply being an extra set of hands. She also collaborates across departments to find solutions to strengthen district-wide support for our students. Our third honoree is Brooklyn Medina, a senior at JFK High School. Brooklyn was nominated for her outstanding

013leadership on her campus and beyond. An active member of the Business Professionals of America, Teen Ambassadors, and the JFK Student Council, she truly shows that how people matter by volunteering her time with school and community organizations that support and uplift others. As a four-year letterman in both volleyball and softball, Brooklyn clearly understands that goals matter, too. We are also proud to share that she recently signed her letter of intent to play college softball at the next level in college. Brooklyn, congratulations on that. >> [applause] >> Before we invite our honorees to the front, let's take a moment to hear directly from them and learn more about why they are so beautifully representative of what it means to be a leader of the pack. There was no question if they cared about me. Relationship building was

014always, you know, key. And so now, being the teacher, it feels amazing to have that same thing happening in my classroom, pouring into my students, showing up for them every single day, and letting them know that, you know, they're capable of anything that they put their minds to. I believe in them, and I'm ready for them to have that same belief in themselves. >> [music] >> My name is Brooklyn Medina. I'm a senior here at John F. Kennedy High School, and I've been with Edgewood for 14 years. So, my name is Charlotte Calhoun Porter. I have been in Edgewood for 10 years. I'm at Perales Elementary, currently been here about 4 years. My name is Roxanne Ruiz. I work for the Child Nutrition [music] Department. I am the director, and I have been back at

015Edgewood since the 20 school year. When [music] I decided I was going to be a teacher, I knew I wanted to be in a place that was going to be home, going to be family. So, [music] I came back to Edgewood. I wanted to start off, and this is where I've been, so I'm thankful. As a senior, it's definitely um hard, uh definitely getting all the scholarships together, like thinking about my next next steps in life, but [music] definitely staying focused in my classes, trying to keep my grades high. They can't, so my GPA is pretty good. [music] I've been playing softball for about 11 years now, so it's been hard. It's been a lot of dedication, time-consuming, but [music] I mean, I wouldn't change it for the world, especially high school is definitely a

016different experience than outside league, but I love my team. I love my coaches. Um Sorry, I'm getting all emotional. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I just I love my team. I mean, a lot of people say stuff about Kennedy, but [music] Kennedy's a family. We are a family, and like, we always talk to each other outside of school, like, [music] it's never just on the field, it's always outside of the field, and checking up on each other, making sure we're [music] doing what we need to do to stay close and keep the bond that we have. >> Edgewood was the reason I wanted to become a Child Nutrition Director. >> [music] >> Um I started as a cafeteria manager in 2000, and uh it was a little difficult getting up so early and all the responsibility,

017[music] but once I started learning more about the federal meal programs and uh the communities that they serve, I became very interested in learning more. That settled it. I I went to school and continued on until I got a a master's in organizational development, and it does help me with the department. Um I had the nutrition part kind of down and learning uh about the guidelines, and it still fascinates me all the time. Um although it's rigid, we still uh serve a very good purpose. To [music] be selected as leader of the pack, it's definitely I guess surprising in a way, um to know that there is people that recognize like what I'm doing, and but it also makes me feel like I'm doing what I've always wanted to do, which is serve a purpose,

018[music] and I just want to be that motivation to those people that are obviously coming to high school or just like have the same journey as me. I want to be [music] like a leader to everyone. It's such an honor. I mean, I I always look each month at, you know, at those who have been selected, and I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, they're a great teacher. Yes, they're a great [music] person. And I see that they're very much deserving of it. And for someone to see me and to notice my teaching, [music] or whatever it was that had me nominated, is such an honor because it's a big thing. Like, when I look at it, I'm looking at this like, wow, that's such an accomplishment out of the entire district [music] to have that

019honor, and somebody thought I was worthy of that. So, it's [music] very it's very almost surreal to to reach this milestone. I would call it a milestone, but it feels great. It feels [music] very, very nice. And upon accepting an award like this, to be recognized for doing good and putting good out into our our schools, but in community, is very important. I am rooted in this community. Both my children attended Edgewood, and they're very far apart in age, so it was two different eras. And so, there's always um room for growth, and >> [music] >> to to voice that and to be a part of it, to see it happen in action, um has just been uh very rewarding. Like I said, I'm I'm very honored to have been recognized by someone for this

020award, Leader of the Pack. >> [music] >> I choose Edgewood because it's a family it's a community where I feel like I belong and even though I didn't grow up here [music] like living here, I've been at school here in my whole life and I >> [music] >> it's a community where everyone belongs and I love it. I needed a teacher in Edgewood back in the day [music] and so I'm here because I'm ready to pour into them. I want them to see what I can see. I want them to see that [music] they can be anything that they can be. It doesn't matter the community, it doesn't matter what our surroundings look like, it doesn't matter what our lifestyle is. I [music] tell my students all the time it's not how do you start

021but it's how you finish. And so I started in Edgewood, I was able to finish and be successful [music] and I came back to let them know that this can be your story as well. The people in this community and this district are amazing. [music] I have worked in several places, several districts, but none that work as hard as the people here. There isn't any position that I know of that kicks back, that has time for anything but the present focusing on work, reaching their goals and >> [music] >> I I believe I speak for every single employee in this district that they're they're very hard workers. Everyone here. So I like to be a hard worker and so I feel like I fit in here. Finally I have found a home. Ladies and gentlemen,

022I'd like to present our April Leaders of the Pack, Charlotte Porter and Brooklyn Medina. Mr. Reese is not available to be with us tonight but the other two are here. Ladies >> [applause] [applause] >> And now I understand traffic has eased up and the rain has lightened up a little bit and I would like to invite State Senator Jose Menendez to the podium for a special presentation. Good evening. Thank you very much and what an amazing group of honorees that we just heard and saw the videos of and so it is fitting that at this time if it pleases the board superintendent that I'd like to present a a resolution that we passed in the state senate that is signed by Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of the Senate and myself. Is this the right time for

023us to present this resolution? Okay, great. So without further ado before I get into this historic I I just want to tell you Edgewood not just because it's 75 years old but because of the places where it has been the leader in the state. And just like I wish I could remember her name but the lady who was the nutrition specialist that had the master's degree in nutrition said nobody kicks back. Tell me Mr. Reese. Like Mr. Reese said nobody kicks back. Everybody works hard. Everybody pulls in the same direction. And sometimes it what it it reminds me a lot of how when Bear County and the city of San Antonio and Austin fighting sometimes you have to to defend yourself against people in the interest of Harris County or Dallas County or Fort Worth

024or Travis where sometimes the pie is just not that big. Edgewood has always shown us what you can do when you have the ganas. That's what I saw in every one of those videos, the ganas. So you have shown us and led our community. That's why it's with a lot of pride when we go to Austin, Texas to represent you in the state. Not just because of the historic 75 years history but because you represent so many families who work so hard day in and day out do a lot sometimes with not everything they have. So without further ado the Senate of the State of Texas Senate Resolution Number One. Whereas the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio is marking the 75th year anniversary of its founding in and whereas Edgewood Independent School District

025traces its origins to May 1905 when Bear County Judge Robert B. Green purchased an acre of land just beyond the city limits of San Antonio for the purposes of constructing a school. The surrounding community later came to be called Edgewood. And the Fray School opened in 1910 as its first schoolhouse. Three years later the area school district was subdivided and the Fray and Lake View schools were subsequently consolidated into a three-story brick building named the Edgewood School. And whereas over the course of the ensuing decades the area saw a population boom in tandem with residential development around the Edgewood School. In 1931 the Stafford School was constructed to accommodate increasing enrollment numbers and the Edgewood School graduated its first class of 12 high school students in 1937. During the period of continued growth that followed

026the Edgewood School District was created and it went on to purchase land for expansion of its campuses. And whereas in 1938 the Edgewood School District issued $40,000 in bonds to finance the construction of Edgewood High School and four additional rooms at the Stafford School. The projects were completed in 1940 with assistance from the Works Progress Administration and the district documented a record enrollment of almost 1600 students in the same year. During World War II Edgewood's proximity to several major military installations spurred further growth and additional state funding for the district paved the way for new elementary schools to be built. Whereas in January of 1950 Edgewood Edgewood Independent School District was officially established following a public vote. It came to encompass more than 13,000 students by the end of the decade. Approximately 20 additional schools

027were constructed during the 1950s and 60s and an eight and a half million dollar bond was issued for the renovation of its 12 buildings in 1984. Today the district operates 18 campuses on the west side of San Antonio serving nearly 10,000 students. And whereas for three quarters of a century Edgewood Independent School District has provided generations of young Texans with a strong foundation on which to build. It is indeed a privilege to join in the marking of this important milestone in its history. Now therefore be it resolved that the Senate of the State of Texas 89th Legislature first called special session first called session hereby commemorate the 75th anniversary of Edgewood Independent School District and extend to its administrators, faculty, staff and students sincere best wishes for continued success. And be it further resolved that

028an official copy of this resolution be prepared for the district as an expression of high regard from the Texas Senate. And many times when we're not in session we can't get these official ones. This one has the official wet signatures of the elected officials in the Senate. Um This was the first resolution passed out of that Senate session. I I'm sorry it took so long. Obviously we were in session during session. We've had a lot of things that have come up. But nevertheless it is an honor and a privilege to represent you and stand here before you. Not just because you're the policy makers and the leaders of the district but because you represent thousands of families, thousands of students. And so many families who are working hard every single day just to put food

029on the table, make ends meet. And and many times a lot of these young students they're were foreign not for the leadership that you'll bring in to help them, they'd be on their own sometimes. Sometimes and I say that from experience. You know, now I'm going to age myself filling out a college application, writing it out with a pen so at the paint pen and writing the essay by hand and coffee table at the breakfast table in the what used to be a garage that was transformed to a breakfast room. And my mom all she could do is give us one cafecito and that's all you could do. And and that's who we represent. You know what? We do it with a lot of pride. We do it with pride. Because no one gets to

030determine where these kids end up in life but them. Nobody should define them but them. They get to define their future. And when people believe in them, they start So that's what I believe you do for them each and every day. So thank you very much for this honor and privilege to come and present this to you. I look forward, I stand ready to help you in anything that we can do, work together for the future of all the children of Edgewood Independent School District. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Senator. All right. Let's get back to the students that he was talking about. That's who we're here to celebrate right now. Right now, we're proud to recognize students who keep the beat and have set a very high bar. Please join me in welcoming Captains

031Xavier Cruz, Luis Rivera, the MHS Insurgents Drumline, the 2026 TECA State Champions. >> [applause] >> And joining them are Color Guard Captains Maddie Mendez and Leanna Morales. The Guard finished second in the state, so they are also state champions. Give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> And the students are joined by Band Director Dr. Esteban Montalvo and Color Guard Director Cassandra Dotson. And they are also joined by Edgewood bus drivers. Come on up. Come on up. Erlene Garza and Anthony Gonzales. These drivers not only helped the students get to the contest, but when they were short-handed and couldn't get all their stuff where they needed it to be, these drivers stepped up and became honorary band members, if you will, and pitched in. >> [applause] >> Thank you to both of you and

032congratulations, minute. And we are very proud of you. You will stay turn and shake hands with the board. And as we recognize those two drivers who went above and beyond for the drumline and the color guard, we'd also like to say a big thank you to all Edgewood drivers, bus assistants, and staff. School Bus Driver Appreciation Day is next week, April 28th. So when you see them, please be sure to give them a big thank you and a high five and snacks. If you have snacks, they love snacks. So be sure to give them some snacks. Yeah, give them a ROUND OF APPLAUSE. BEING A SUCCESSFUL STUDENT ATHLETE IS NOT AN easy lift, but these next students do make it seem easy. First up, JFK senior Ariel Cazares and Memorial senior Kendra Pochado, I think,

033was not able to be with us. These young women placed second and fourth, respectively, in their weight class at the 2026 Texas High School Women's Powerlifting State Championships. We also want to recognize two other members of the Memorial women's team, Sharon Diaz and Eva Diaz, who also qualified for the state competition. In the men's competition I don't believe they were able to be here. Memorial senior John Elizondo placed second in his weight class and junior Felipe Peña Choo placed fourth in his. As a team, the Memorial men's powerlifting team placed 16th in the state. A big round of applause for all of our powerlifters. AND THEIR COACHES, Brad Anderson, Luis Davila, and Ewan Palomo. Thank you for being here tonight. Heels. Congratulations, Ariel. This Fiesta in the Memorial High School men's soccer team has made

034school history. Joining us now to represent the team are Captains Christopher Membreno and Javier Rocha, Head Coach Leon Alaman, and Assistant Coaches Rolando Castillo and Rene Rodriguez. On the heels of a very hard-fought regular season, this team won the bi-district, they won the area, and then they made it to regional finals for the first time this century. These athletes juggled academics and soccer to show that they are a force to be reckoned with, and we know great things are in the future for this team. Please join me in congratulating them. Each Fiesta season, the Texas Cavaliers celebrate creativity through the Texas Cavaliers Art Contest. Please help me welcome Roosevelt Dual Language Academy and District 5 finalist Mia Aguilar and runner-up Valentina Isarres. Last week, King Antonio and the Cavaliers made a visit to Roosevelt, where

035they presented Mia with a check for $8,000 for her school. Yeah. And as you're driving around this Fiesta season, be looking for her poster on the side of a VIA bus. It will be making the rounds all in our area. We've also learned that this is the first time that there has been a winner and a runner-up from the same school in the same city council district. So congratulations, ladies. One of our new Fiesta traditions in Edgewood is the Edgewood Education Foundation Fiesta Postcard Contest. Students are asked to create a festive postcard, and then professional artists from our area are brought in to judge them. Elementary winners this year include Isabella Regosa from Roosevelt Dual Language Academy. Second place is Mia Hernandez and Milo Montoya from Loma Park. Third place, Julissa Rubio, and honorable mention,

036Marisa Flores Martinez, also from Roosevelt. High school winners, Ariel Garces, third place, Rey Ali, and honorable mention, Juliana Espinosa from the Fine Arts Academy. Second place, Emily Valdez, and tie for third, Clarissa De La Garza from Memorial. is JFK student Joe Carillo. Joining him this evening is JFK art teacher Christina Benavides, Beverly Lozeski from the Edgewood Education Foundation, and artists Marty Liao and Mario Bayona, this year's judges. All of the winners in this year's postcard contest will receive gift cards to HEB, courtesy of the Edgewood Education Foundation. CONGRATULATIONS. >> IF THERE'S ONE MEDAL OF ALL the medals for Fiesta, if there's one that you want to get this year, it's this one. This is the Edgewood ISD medal. This is the official pothole patrol medal created by Edgewood Fine Arts student Adrian Jimenez. Joining him

037tonight is Sandra Garcia, our teacher at the Fine Arts Academy. And this is the second year that he has won this contest to design the city's official medal. So, more applause for that. Congratulations, Adrian, on your dedication and creativity. We can't wait to see what you design for next year's medal. And it lights up. Like it's not a regular medal, it lights up. Rosalie Aris, an eighth grader from Gus Garcia Middle School, is a shining example of our key pillar in our leadership definition that people matter. As a member of the mayor's fitness council, she started a service project to provide toiletries and hygiene products for girls on her campus. She earned a $750 grant to help fund this project. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Rosalie, for your ingenuity and desire to help others. This

038next recognition is one that I'm extremely proud to share with you tonight. As I do this, I'm going to ask Frank Villarreal and Laney Perez to come to the front. The Edgewood Marketing and Communications Department recently earned 10 star awards at the Texas School Public Relations Association, the majority of them gold star awards. The awards were photography, logo design, writing, and informational video. This year's five award-winning photographs and one from last year will be proudly displayed here in the DCC. You can see a few of them behind me. They're already up. So, those are three of our award-winning photographs. Please join me in congratulating my team who I am so lucky to work with. >> [applause] >> All right, back to work, you two. People matter is one of the key pillars of Edgewood. We've

039talked about that a lot because it is so true. Augustine Trevino, Ryan Martinez, Nate Ochoa, and Jaden Hurtado took this to heart when they helped launch the Fellowship of Christian As- Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at John F. Kennedy. Tonight, we would like to recognize them and their sponsors, Counselor Daniel Aschiano and Mr. Robert Griffith, for creating a place where students can learn, share their faith, and feel supported. Thank you all of you. And if you are a member of the FCA at JFK and you are here tonight, please stand. Hold their award. I'll stand up. Okay, thank you for coming. Now to our CTE spotlight. Each month, we highlight a wide range of career and technical education opportunities available to students across the district. This evening, we're turning our focus to the criminal justice

040program at Kennedy, a program designed for students who are interested in a future in law enforcement. Students get hands-on training in careers that involve law enforcement, courts, corrections, and security. The program exposes them to topics like criminal law, forensic investigation, and policing tactics. Here now is a look at the criminal justice program at JFK. My name is Alyssa Ortiz, and this is the law enforcement program. I ain't doing anything. ME, NEITHER. >> [music] [music] >> AND IF YOU OR YOUR STUDENT IS interested in learning more about this unique program, contact Danida Lozano or Briana Delgado at Kennedy. And for more on our CTE programs, contact CTE Director Javier Uribe. Another great program in Edgewood is helping fill teacher vacancies within our schools. It is one more way that we were helping put our students first.

041At this time, I'd like to invite Mr. Cameron Madkins to the podium with more on our teacher pipelines. All right, good evening. The purpose of this presentation is to inform you of the current talent pipelines we have here in EISD. All right, here's the agenda for today. We will begin by discussing the district of innovation teachers, and then we'll go to the grow your own. From there, we'll talk about the residency, the mentorship program, and finally we'll conclude with the paraprofessional recruiting program. All right, here's the road map of the journey we're about to take. I'm so glad to be part of this Goals to Greatness series because as we go through this, we're not only going to learn about the different programs and pipelines we have, but we're going to take this opportunity to

042celebrate the people within them. All right, let us begin with the district of innovation. In 2017, the Edgewood ISD Board of Trustees approved the original district of innovation plan. This allowed us to hire uncertified teachers to address the growing shortages of teachers in the state. Now, as we hire these teachers, we provide them with resources and support to help them grow into certified teachers. All right, part of that support, this spring we developed a partnership with the Learning Liaisons, and we presented a series of three, and we have one more on May the 2nd, of in-person training programs where they get test preparation to help them pass their certification test. Now, for all the uncertified teachers that attend these trainings, they get free access to the online tutorial sessions, which allow them to prepare for

043all the tests they need to be certified. Currently in our district, we have 76 foundational BY teachers. 19 of these teachers have gotten certified this year. 16 of these teachers are TEA teachers, and 32 of them only need one or two tests, which we expect them to pass this summer before the start of the next school year. All right. Now, let's talk about our grow your own. Oh. All right, the grow your own program. Purpose of this program is to grow our teachers from within. Studies show and all the data shows that when we invest in our people and grow our teachers, we retain our teachers. Investing in our people, because people matter, is how we build strength from within. On this slide, I'd like to highlight Ms. Janie Delgado. She is a TEA recognized

044teacher who went through the grow your own program. She is currently working at Cisneros Leadership School. And for our grow your own program, we have two distinct pathways. We have partnerships with Grand Canyon University and the top educational certification program at Region 20. We also work with Indiana Wesleyan University and the Teach Worthy program for them to get their certification. All right. Here are the key elements to our grow your own. We started in 2022-23. We had a cohort of four paraprofessionals that were trying to get their bachelor's degree and move to get their certification. In 23-24, we grew it to five. And in 24-25, we only had three. All right. So, in 2026-27, next school year, we're starting our recruitment this month. And we're doing the interest surveys and we'll start interviewing teachers to

045hopefully get a nice cohort for this year. Of our grow your own teachers, two of them are TEA teachers. There's one right there. That is Ms. Linda Rodriguez. She is at Stafford Early Childhood Center, and she's TEA recognized. And next to her is Elda Romo. She has gotten her degree and is now working on her certification. All right. Now, let's talk about our pre-service residency program. This is a program where students in college come and work for a year for us in a pre-service manner, where they're paired with a host teacher. And there, they learn the true meaning of what it is to be a teacher. All right. In this program, they spend this year, and when they graduate, they get what's called an enhanced certificate. And this enhanced certificate allows them to not have

046to take their PPR test. So, that's one less certification they have to take. And studies have shown that teachers that go through this program, when they become regular teachers, they are well ahead of people who are in their first year of teaching. It's like It's like hiring a fifth-year teacher, third, fourth, fifth-year teacher. So, they have their teaching voice, and they're better better able to serve our students. Now, on this slide, we have Ms. Arisa Cervantes. She is a recent TEA recognized teacher at Loma Park. And on the other side, we have Ms. Alexandra Manzano, and she is a TEA recognized teacher at Perales STEAM Yeah, Perales STEAM Elementary. All right. Here's the impact of our residency program. In 2022-23, we had a T-Class grant, and we were able to get 31 residency teachers. And

047being the first year, we only retained about 34% of those. This next year, 23-24, we had 26 teachers. We retained and hired 50% of those. Last year, we're getting better at what we do and refining the process. We only had 10 residency teachers, but we hired 70% of those. So, seven out of the 10. And this current year, we have eight residency teachers, all from UTSA. And we're anticipating hiring all eight of those teachers. Now, for the future, we got the LASSO allotment. It's approved by the state. And we can get up to 40 resident teachers, but we can only get the ones that the preparation programs can provide us. What we've done is we've created partnerships with three universities here in San Antonio. UTSA, Our Lady of the Lake, and Tamusa. And we're anticipating

048getting 20 resident teachers this year and spreading them across six campuses. All right. On this slide, I'd like to recognize two more former residency teachers that are TEA recognized. On the right, we have Alyssa Apaius. And in the middle, we have Alexa Ortiz. Both of them are at Perales STEAM Elementary. All right. Now, let's talk about the mentorship program. The mentorship program is new. This was the pilot year for that. And we only had 14 mentor teachers. And it's called THRIVE. It's done through a partnership with UTSA. And it piloted the model that the state of Texas just made available to everyone through the new LASSO 4 allotment, where they expect all zero to two-year teachers to get mentors. Uh we applied for that, and we able to get 40. Is it capped at 40?

049We're allowed to get 40 of those mentor teachers. And next year, we have plans to fill all 40 slots to meet the needs of our teachers. All right. On this slide, these are two of our mentor teachers. On the left over there is Norma Zamora, and she is an exemplary teacher from LBJ. And on the right is is Celia Ramon from uh from Loma Park Elementary. I'm sorry. Lost my spot. All right. And last but not least, is the paraprofessional recruiting program. Uh when I took over, I saw the need that we needed to recruit more paraprofessionals, because they're the unseen educators in the room that help reinforce what the teacher's trying to do. I partnered with Ready to Work San Antonio, Alamo Colleges, and Region 20. And we had a paraprofessional expo, where we

050invited all the paraprofessionals all the individuals in the district that were interested in becoming educational aides and paraprofessionals. Now, as you can see, we had 71 people register for the event. But we only had six people that were cleared by the process to actually attend the training. And this is the kind of thing you run into when you run a pilot program. You see where the kinks are, and you improve and get better. We did hire 67%. So, four of those six, we did hire here in the district. And we're planning to have our next expo here in June. And we're reducing a lot of the paperwork requirements and things like that, so we can capture more of the people that are interested in becoming paraprofessionals. All right. And before I end, we have a

051testimonial video I'd like to play. It's It's a first big step, you know, and and they're just so happy. Like, you should have seen when then they're like, "Ms. Kim, like, you have a job." Ms. She's like, "Ms. Kim has a job." And all the kids were excited, and I was just like, "My kids love me." >> [music] >> Hello. My name is Eugene Kim, and I'm with UTSA year-long clinical teaching with fourth grade LBJ. Hi, I'm Fedora Vega, and I'm currently a resident teacher at Cisneros Leadership School. >> Hi, my name's Hannah Rinkle. I'm currently a student at UTSA, but also doing my student residency at Edgewood ISD. I remember going in uh to my first day [music] at the residency and feeling a lot of emotions. Some I was very overwhelmed, especially like

052knowing the fact that >> [music] >> um there was a staff full of many years of experience. Right away that they're going to be very supportive. I could tell [music] that the environment was very positive, and I was just really excited to be at LBJ. They were very [music] They were very knowledgeable, and I was just really excited to start. There's been a couple surprises that I wasn't sure how I'd handle before, but having this residency allowed me [music] to experience that before I stepped in the classroom of my own. And um a couple of those things have just been at interacting with parents, learning students different teaching style uh learning styles, [music] learning my own teaching style, working with others, working with the team. I was able to go to after school tutoring programs,

053and attend after school events like family [music] engagement night. And it was just so really engaging to see what the students know in class and show their loved ones [music] what they learned. Throughout my coursework at UTSA, you can only learn so much. Um though everything I have learned has been very valuable, and I can apply a lot of it to my year-long residency and in a classroom, um nothing is comparable to actually being in the place inside the classroom. >> Throughout my clinical experience, I'd [music] say that I learned a lot about classroom management. I definitely gained confidence in teaching, and I learned a lot about behind the scenes of becoming to be >> [music] >> They don't really talk about these things at UTSA, so I feel a lot prepared taking my first

054big step as a teacher. I've been able to experiment different teaching strategies to see, okay, what best meets my child or like my children. I've been able to actually apply the things that I learned at UTSA [music] through the teaching residency. It's a small district, but I think that adds to the sense of family. There, um, since day one at my placement, I have felt [music] like I belong there. I would recommend Edgewood because the environment and the culture is so strong and just the staff has been amazing and so supportive. >> I know [music] that they have really good people and they really care about their staff members and their students and it shows >> [music] >> that they really care about their education and their well-being. And so, overall, I just want to

055say Edgewood has a really big heart. You know, even through my observations and my pops, like teachers will pop in and be like, "Good luck, Ms. Vega. You've got it." And then like my heart is like so full. Um, like they just care so much and [music] you can definitely feel that, um, compared to the other districts. Now, I know that the presentation was titled talent pipeline, but I challenge you to consider this people pipeline. People matter. Their growth matters. Goals matter. Thank you. So, so where are all the middle school teachers? Um, no one want to teach middle school? Okay, we're working on I did. That's one of our, hey, that's one of our goals. Secondary. Yeah. Thank you, sir. We do have candidates already signed up for the pre-service residency program in secondary

056school. Awesome. Thank you, sir. Awesome. All right, back to the kids. STAR testing is underway. We all know this. The campuses are encouraging our students to be creative and interesting ways. While Las Palmas had a music-themed pep rally, Cisneros Leadership Elementary said it was game on tackling sports and the STAR. HB G turned into mission control to encourage students to aim for the stars and Brentwood STEAM kicked off this week and last week with a cheerful welcome with the drum line and the cheerleaders at the gate to welcome students to school. And Roosevelt Dual Language Academy celebrated having 100% of students present for the RLA STAR test. So, 100% of kids were there for the test. And to celebrate that, they held a raspa party. As you see, the kids love that just as much.

057We want our students to know that they are we we are behind them and we support them and we know that they will do their best on all our reading tests, which I believe continue through all next And around Edgewood, Roy Cisneros recognized students who showed up every day with nachos for nacho average attendance party. The HB G Mighty Eagles are this season's PALs basketball champions. The fourth and fifth grade team won their season on a very big win. Loma Park Elementary held a father figures event, which focused on the important role that fathers and father figures play in students' lives. There was a lot of painting, a lot of laughing, and of course, a lot of photo taking. The San Antonio Book Festival brought author Greg Foley to Roosevelt Dual Language Academy and author

058Myra Quevas to LBJ to read to students, answer questions about their characters, and talk about what it takes to become an author. At Memorial High School, students in the culinary program held their restaurant showcase. Students created a restaurant from the ground up, building a menu, layout, marketing, uniforms, all the things, and then put it up for a taste tester in the showcase. Look at those pictures, they had some, we'll call them celebrity guests come and sample their their food. Edgewood students and teams from across the city put their best robots forward during the annual Edgewood Robotics Invitational Challenge or ERIC. We want to congratulate the teams from Brentwood STEAM, Perales STEAM Elementary, Las Palmas, and HB G on their big wins at this year's ERIC. Edgewood Early Childhood, truancy, family engagement, and the police department

059joined forces with the Good Samaritan Center this month to help distribute food at the San Antonio Food Bank. We are happy to see that their efforts provided relief to more than 115 families. Finally, our employees took an important step towards safeguarding their health during the annual district wellness fair. Thank you to everyone who came out and to our HR department for putting it on. As a reminder, enrollment is underway for next year. You can find enrollment information on the enrollment page at eisd.net and throughout the social media pages. We do want to encourage you to be on the lookout for the new enrollment outreach, which includes our street banners, which are up at Buena Vista and 21st, and you may have seen one on your way here tonight at Old Highway 90 and 40th. Our

060new ads are up and running on the HEB receipts at Culebra and 24th Street. You'll see that there. And there's new information flyers making a colorful splash on social media. If you see them, please share so we can reach additional And here is my contact information and all of our Edgewood socials. I I encourage everybody to give us a follow and help share Edgewood. Dr. Hernandez, trustees, and Superintendent Dr. Hernandez, that concludes Goals to Greatness for April. Awesome. Thank you very much, ma'am. Okay, with that, we'll move to our next agenda item, which is communication from citizens. Uh, Mr. Espinosa. Our next item on the agenda is communications from citizens. This is the time for community, staff, and students to provide their comments to the school board. To have your comments heard tonight, your name

061and specific agenda item must have been submitted in person or signed up online with the board operations manager. Each speaker will have 3 minutes or less, depending on the number of people who have signed up to speak. Non-English speakers who require a translator may receive up to 6 minutes to speak. The presiding officer of the meeting may modify or waive these time limits as appropriate. In accordance with Edgewood ISD board policy BD local, the board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the audience. Speakers or others who engage in disruptive behavior may be ruled out of order by the presiding officer. Disruptive behavior and action include, not limited to, racial slurs, insulting, profane, threatening, derogatory, or abusive language, making violent or threatening gestures. Public comment is not intended for the speakers to

062make allegations of employee or student misconduct, requests for employee or student discipline, personal attacks on individuals, or disclosing information about district employees or students. If an individual makes a complaint, the presiding officer will interrupt you, ask you to stop, and direct you to seek resolution of your complaint through the district's appropriate formal grievance policy DGBA for employee complaints FNG for student or parent complaints and GF for public complaints. If, after at least one warning from the presiding officer, any person continues to disrupt the meeting by their words or actions, the presiding officer may request assistance from law enforcement officials to have the person escorted from the meeting. By law, the Edgewood Independent School District Board of Trustees cannot lawfully discuss, deliberate, make comments, or make a decision on any matter raised in the public comment

063period that is not included on the agenda posted with notice of the meeting. Specific factual information or recitation of existing policy may be furnished in response to inquiries, but the board shall not deliberate or make decisions regarding any subject that is not included on the agenda posted with notice of the meeting. Signs, placards, or banners shall not be allowed in the boardroom. If you have any handouts to distribute to the board members, please hand All right, thank you. Uh, we just have one tonight. Um, let me see. Mr. Eddie Rodriguez, speaking on item 5R, TASB policy update 126. You have 3 minutes, sir. So, good evening. My [clears throat] name is Dr. Eddie Mosqueda Rodriguez. I reside at 188 Northwest 34th Street. And I am one stop sign away from the main office. Board president,

064members of the board, I come before you quite reluctantly. Today is no longer myself, but I feel that I compelled to come and talk to you, especially about this item which is up for board approval, which is the approval of the TASB policy code 126. According to the policy and the attachment that is found for citizens to look at, it states superintendent priorities are to focus on student success, focus on students, families, and community, focus on operational ac- focus on employees and organization organizational improvement, and to focus on financial. Those are his priorities. Those are the priorities listed in order. They have which is first student success. I'd like to mention to you that as board members, because I was a board member here in the Edgewood Independent School District, I'd like you to kind

065of reflect back as to how I addressed you. To Mr. Board President, members of the board, and Mr. Superintendent. If that is the order of priority, and that is the order in which the people who run this district the board president responsible All of you have one employee. Just one. And that is the superintendent. You tell him what you need to have. He is not your employee. Therefore, if you have ideas, if you have plans, if you have organizations that can come and assist, it is your job to tell him that what he's doing The board president and the board secretary secretary are responsible for meeting with the superintendent to set the agenda. Nobody else. Not the superintendent alone, or his staff. It is you who do this. I was a high school teacher here

066at Kennedy High School. Then I opened schools. I opened the total case in academy here. It was so successful that the university is bringing German people, people from Italy, people from all over the world. Another school district called me and said, "Come help us." I went over there, super successful. It was unbelievable what we were doing. I had special ed students, ESL, GT, regular kids, everything. Very successful. To the point that our schools were so successful that some of the staff that are in leadership positions in this district and not necessarily in the schools, but in district positions, had their students at my schools. For those who have an open head. Then I was called by another school district and they said, "Open a school for us." I said, "Sure." So, I went and I

067opened the school. And what we did was we dealt with policy. And today, I want you to really understand that of all the meetings you ever have, today's meeting is the most important one because of policy. You are going to be a part of policy. Please read the policy carefully. Because it has to do with accountability for your If you need help on how to have someone held accountable, call me. Thank you, sir. Okay, now we move to our next Uh thank you, speaker. Our next agenda item, which is four, the uh superintendent's report, sir. Go ahead. All right. So, let's go ahead and move into our superintendent's report. So, um I do have a few items that I want to talk about tonight, uh but I do want to, before I start, uh towards

068the end of the presentation, you're going to see that what I've done moving forward is that I've added in the resource page the information that the board receives in preparation for this evening. Uh it is typically the same information that I've been presenting every month, but I want to make sure that I at least highlight that information. I'd like to spend more of my time this evening highlighting the board uh for a lot of the time that they're spending in preparation not just for this meeting tonight, but also to to the number of hours that they're volunteering uh to the work of the school district. So, I want to move us into that. Uh I do want to start out by saying that this is autism awareness month, so I want to make sure that

069we do not forget those things. This is uh the national month for autism awareness. Uh it is also national child abuse prevention month. I don't want to lose light of those things as well. And then this was also our national school librarian month, and so uh we do want to make sure that we elevate those things because as you heard through most of our evening, most of the work that we're doing is based on the outcome of making sure that all students uh get to graduate college career military ready by their expected date of graduation. But of course, all almost 8,000 of our students come with different backgrounds, and so we want to make sure that we are respectful of those backgrounds and that we highlight those. Uh with regards to tonight for the community,

070please note that the agenda is attached. What you'll see in the blue link there are the questions that the board has asked, whether it was at a workshop, uh at a recent board performance planning meeting, or any particular question that a board member has given me. Uh these questions are here. Uh that is part of the work of the board as to ask questions about what's being brought to them. And so, the community can find that there. Uh as usual, we do have our monthly cadence of information that's provided to the board. Uh for your observation there, you'll see the two meetings we had this month, the 7th and the 4th 21st, and then of course the also board updates that are provided to the board as well. So, as we begin tonight, I really

071want to My comments are really going to be restricted to just a few things. Um I want to thank the board for all the work that they have been doing um not just in our school district, but also away from our school district. Um at the beginning of the school year, I can recall board president Dr. Hernandez talk about that one of the things that he wanted to make sure that the board was doing was that the board was learning. Uh that the board was learning to become a better board member and to also be able to serve and support the community that they serve in. So, I do want to highlight the work of our board president for uh participating participating as a member of leadership chasm. Uh I know he's gotten an opportunity

072to now visit multiple school districts across the state. And I know in our follow-ups, he shares with me a lot of the information that he is uh receiving when he's visiting these school districts. I know here recently, this is probably the most recent one, uh Dr. Hernandez was uh in Texarkana ISD uh visiting with the rest of the cohort that you see there. So, I do want to thank him for that work and what he's doing. [clears throat] I also want to thank other members of the board for a lot of what they're doing to enrich themselves in terms of the work that they bring to the community and what they're doing to promote uh the well-being of members of the community. As we know, students can only be as successful as their community successful,

073if the parents are successful, if their guardians are successful. So, it's important that we highlight again the work of our uh various board members, whether they're out presenting across the country on different uh primary care summits. I know Ms. Castillo was recently in Portland, Oregon presenting uh with UT Health System on that particular topic. Uh and or presenting here locally and making sure that we are again elevating uh other factors. I think Ms. Castillo refers to the social determinants of health uh with regards to things like cardiovascular risks and things that a lot of times our community still lacks information on how we can get the most appropriate information to help ourselves, right? And so, I want to thank her for that work. Um and I also want to thank her also because she might

074I forgot now, but a couple years ago we also talked about other ways that we could support the work of our of our parents in the community. So, I want to first and foremost thank George Cardona and his group. Um they have now elevated our anxious generation book study um across the the school district. As you see, you probably see one of our prior board members, Ms. Stella Camacho there, uh working in groups on how they can better support their students on social media and things like that. So, this has been a really good um book study that that group has elevated, and the turnout at these meetings has been really good. And so, we want to thank George. I know he's not here, but we want to thank him for all the work there.

075And then again, just continuing with our board members and the work that they're doing, whether they're walking schools again. Uh this was last week, actually. We were at the Roseville Dual Language Academy uh visiting classrooms. Also talking about tonight's agenda. Again, um having that discussion on any follow-up questions that the board may have. But I want to thank Mr. Espinosa. You'll see other board members here, Mr. Lopez and others that participated. I know Mr. um Mr. Valdez, and then of course Mr. Ledezma also participated with us that day. And then just other groups, whether it's the neighborhood association and presenting to them, and or also participating. Both Mr. Espinosa and Mr. Valdez were able to uh join us at our counselor and social workers come and go breakfast. Again, these are important things that are

076happening in our district that we want to make sure that we are elevating and taking care of our people. Uh continuing on with that spirit of service, again also Mr. Santoyo for participating uh when we went over to Henry B. Gonzalez, and of course you see other board members there again, walking the schools, going in classrooms, uh making sure that the work of the students and of instruction is happening in our school day, and that of course any investments that the school board has made on behalf of our community are also appearing in the classroom, whether it's equipment or material that the students are using. The goal is for the board members to actually get to see those in action, right? Uh that's always important. And then again, of course, we also visited Stafford Elementary

077in prior dates. But again, just continuing to thank the board for all the work that you're doing in our schools. Again, just continuing with our recent visits. This was at This was at RDLA as well. Mr. Mr. Lopez was there with us. But also for the student luncheons that we've been having. Thank you, Mr. Lopez, for participating uh recently at JFK. As you can see by the various pictures, these meetings are meetings with the students and of course with their parents as well. And so, you see other members of our district leadership teams that are coming to present to our students about social um mental health and an array of other factors that students have been asking to discuss as well. And so again, whether it's that or helping out with the ribbon cell. I

078know Mr. Lopez uh also contributed a lot to that. Uh again, thank you for the work that a lot of times people don't see, but that is increasingly important that you do. Continuing on with the contributions, uh this is Mr. Valdez and who recently also attended with us at Gus Garcia University Middle School for our student leadership network luncheon. And so, a lot of times when we're visiting schools, I know a lot of times Mr. uh Valdez shares with me that at some of our schools, these were schools where he attended as a as a young man, as a student. And so, it's important again that board members get the opportunity to intermingle with the students and hear from the students firsthand what is and what isn't happening in our schools. So again, uh thank

079you for that amount of hours that you guys are donating to us. And then again, continuing on, Mr. Ledezma as well. Again, this was from our recent visit at RDLA. Uh both Mr. Valdez and Mr. Santoyo worked uh with us that day walking classrooms, uh Uh, actually getting to see students working in I think that was in the hallway in that first picture. Uh, but again, the amount of time that they're donating is important. So, I do want to thank our board members for that. Uh, and then of course, and or being at other schools like Brentwood where Mr. Not Sontag, Mr. Delgado and Ms. Castilla also presented on Lone Star governance to our parents who attended there. So, that's something that the board added this year is actually presenting and attending these meetings. And

080so again, I'm going to close out with that. Um, you saw earlier our Councilman Rick Galvan who was here. Uh, thank you to Mr. Delgado who attended that meeting. I know we've had other board members, Ms. Castilla, Dr. Hernandez, Mr. Espinosa. Uh, we're rotating them through as we're coming through, but thank you to our council people who are coming through and listening to our parents' concerns. This is the parent advisory uh, group that I have in the evenings. And so, this was a great opportunity for them to actually speak to the councilman. And then that brings it to a close. So again, uh, this is our board meetings for next month. You'll see more information in the PowerPoint. It'll be ready. That is our board services manager who's here on my left. And with that,

081I will close this out and uh, turn it over to you, sir. All right, thank you, sir. All right, next is our consent agenda. Um, Mr. Cruz, are you there? There you are. I have a question for you real quick. You ready? Um, if we pull an individual item and we discuss it in closed session today even though it's not in closed session. It would have to uh, be allowed in closed session. It would have No. Security. Um. Real property. Okay. So, it just doesn't doesn't allow us to do it in closed session. No. Yeah. It's within the closed session. Okay. Does policy go under that? Did you mention policy or not? Okay. I just wanted to double check. Remember to go into pull something out of consent, you need a motion and a second

082and a motion. Majority Just can't pull it out of consent. Motion and a second and a majority >> and the majority approve it get it out of it. Okay, thank you, sir. Wait for Frank. I'm waiting for Frank to come back. If the item needs to be discussed in open session, that is allowed, right? Yes. Okay. >> Is it under consent right now? Yes, it's policy 126. >> Somebody Yeah, somebody make a motion to pull it remove all items except that one and um obviously the majority There has to be a motion taken to pull it out of Okay, thank you, sir. All right, so now we move to our consent uh, 5R. Yeah. Is that what you want to make a motion to pull it out of consent? Let uh, I'm going to do

083the paragraph and then and then we'll do a motion. So, as per board policy local I'm sorry, as per as per board policy BE local, unless a board member makes a motion to withdraw an item for individual consideration and such motion receives a second and is passed by the majority of those present, all consent agenda items shall be acted upon by one vote without separate separate discussion. At this time I move to our consent agenda item. Uh, so I want to make a motion um to remove 5R um, from the consent agenda item and and discuss it for individual consideration. That's a motion. Is that Is that proper? Yes, proper. Somebody needs to second Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. Um, myself, Dr. Hernandez motions, Mr. Delgado seconds. Um, do we have any discussion?

084Uh, yes. My question is uh, why would you like to remove the item from the consent agenda? Uh, just based off of the the communication from citizens. I mean, I think we we just need to clarify a few things from that policy. Uh, what do we need to clarify? That's why I'm pulling it for individual consideration so that way they can we can ask questions. Well, we as board members had had ample time to review the the agenda. This has been posted for days. We also have a policy review committee that two of our trustees reviewed this. So, I just don't understand why we need to uh, remove this item from the consent agenda. Mr. President, I want to call the question. Okay, the question has been called. Uh, so now we move to voting.

085Okay, all those in favor, raise your hand and say I. I. I. Keep your hands up. Keep your hands up. I. Richard, okay. Okay, all those against, raise your hand and say nay. All those abstaining, say abstain. Abstain. Okay, so Mr. Valdez abstains. The motion passes. So, we're going to remove uh, 5R for uh, individual consideration. So, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through S um, except R? Mr. President. Go ahead. I move to approve the agenda items consent agenda A through S with the exception of R. Okay, thank you, sir. Mr. Valdez motions. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Delgado seconds. Is there any discussion? If there's no discussion, all those in favor, raise your hand and say I. I. I. I. All those opposed, raise your hand and

086say nay. All those abstaining, raise your hand and say abstain. Okay, motion passes. Go ahead. Go ahead, sir. All right, sir. So, um I think >> Well, uh, I the uh, R Can we have a motion to approve uh, and then a second and then there'll be a discussion in the superintendent's Um, thank you, sir. All right, is there a motion to approve item 5R? Just Just 5R. Uh, I have a motion. Okay. Mr. Delgado motions. Is there a second? Approve 5R. I'll second. Uh, Mr. Mr. Delgado motions, Dr. Hernandez, myself, seconds. Any discussion? Um, can we Yeah, I'm going to turn it to Dr. Reyes that way we can clarify. All right, so board members, I think there's a few questions that may be had. Um, so I'm going to ask one member of

087my team to come up. Uh, Mr. Williams, if you'll come up to the podium in the event that we have any uh, uh, questions, but I'll open up the floor for any additional questions and or statements uh, with regards to how this item was all was brought to the board. I think there was already some comments with regards to board policy committee, but um Mr. Williams, can you run us through that process? Let's open Let's open with that and then we'll open up in case there's any questions. Yeah, I know that you might have not been as prepared, but I just want to make sure we ask questions if we have any. Good evening, uh, students, staff, stakeholders. Dr. Dennis members of the board Dr. Dennis, the superintendent. So, basically the policy committee composed of

088um the board uh, chairs which came from the board, which is Mr. Delgado and co-chair by Mr. um Lopez. Policy committee was also composed of district administrators from various departments that function within the district. Myself being one of them. Uh, I would like to name those other folks and the departments that they work work in. Ty Greenhouse, technology. Lieutenant Jose Gonzalez with the police department. Then Zeke Sotelo, technology department. Dr. Mary Mary Miller Bagwell from academics. Uh, Mr. Travis McElvain, office of school school leadership. Daniel Pena from transportation. David Abundis, federal programs. We have Ellie Mojica from HR. We also had Jonathan Torres from operations. Jennifer Benavides from sped and Daryl Leonards from the finance department. We met several times. We went through uh, TASB update 126 uh, over the course of several months. Made

089sure There There are a lot of policies there. We had both legal and local policy. As the board understands from the uh, legislative session, uh, different laws were were uh, implemented that took took effect on September 1st. With that being the case, legal policies were drafted from that law from those laws. Uh, as a board, you are required to accept those, but you don't act on them as saying that you're going to approve them. Uh, we kind of have no choice. That's the law. Then you have next our legal policy. Those legal, I'm sorry, local policy. Those local policies are kind of what we do as a district uh, in practice that does not usurp or negate any uh, violation, if you will, of a of a law or legal policy. So, we can kind

090of edit those again as long as they don't break the law. And so, we took a look at those as a committee. And we had those subject matter experts from those various departments to look at that, take it back to their teams, bring it back to us, take it back one more time for a second look, and now we presented that at the board workshop, and we bring those to you tonight for action. And so, that's where we are, sir. Thank you, Mr. Williams. I want to I just want to make sure we shared the process. I know that was shared, to be clear. That process was shared at our board workshop. Um, it was also shared through uh, various follow follow-ups through board updates and other information of that nature. Um, but I appreciate

091you sharing with the committee as a whole. Um, all the different individuals that were part of this process so that we can clarify that. Board members, did you have any follow-up on any of this? Any questions from the board or comments? Sir, I just want to being part of it, actually seeing it first time first time on it. I appreciate the way everyone was there being professional, handling everything uh, in a timely manner. They, you know, like you said, subject matter experts, they took the information, they came back. There was one that said, "Hey, we need to change this one." And you know, they again, if we didn't have subject matter experts there, who would have caught that? So, I appreciate you and your team for doing all that. So, that's it. Any other comments

092or questions? I have a question. Uh, you said that uh, the policy review committee met over several months, but where can we find out like the dates that y'all met or what was talked about at those meetings? I'm at a disadvantage. I don't have those dates with me, sir. I can get you the date of of the actual meetings. Um, those meetings were held in here in this in in the Garrison right here in this very room. Uh, when I say over the course of several months, we met the first at that first meeting, uh, we set the table for the expectation and gave marching orders on what should be done. A lot of those folks had not been in a policy review committee type setting before. We made sure that we set the table

093in that in that aspect. Uh, again, those folks uh, took took those policies that related to their area, for lack of better term. We broke that down and gave that to them, and they took that back kind of like homework. They took that back to their teams. So, for instance, Darrell Darrell Leonards, if it had something to do with finance, he and Mr. Bonis, who works in federal program, he took that back to uh, finance team. They met, went over those policies. Mr. uh, Delgado just mentioned that there was a policy that we had to we had to tweak. It was a HR policy. Uh, Ellie Mojica, he was the representative from HR. She took that back to her team, and they looked over it, and they didn't just look over it like on a

094weekend and came back the next We We told them to take their time. It was over the course of several months. Uh, they made and once we got those that information back, cuz we were making edits to that one policy, uh, we sent that to TASB. Their attorneys looked at it, they signed off on it, said, "Yes, you you may edit this and still be in compliance, legal and with law." We brought that to the workshop and uh, presented that. And uh, that was the only one that we actually made a tweak or edit. There were two other policies that were uh, on 126. They're a brand new policies for our policy online. So, we highlighted those just to bring them to the board's attention. Uh, but they're they're new. We accepted them. And other

095policies, I forget exactly how many more of y'all might policy. We had no subject matter experts ran them, reviewed them, their teams came back, no change. And I guess one of my follow-ups to that question is like, are there publicly accessible minutes for these these types of meetings that we can access? No, no, sir, we didn't Well, I'll say it like this, uh, we we didn't uh, we didn't take minutes, we didn't have a secretary. Not like like the board has a secretary. kept minutes. So, the answer that, short answer is no. And uh, my second question is if you can just walk us through the process, cuz I know like TASB does recommend policies, and they help write the policies, but um, what what is that process like? Cuz I also know that there's

096like a person with a TASB that we work closely with. I think their name is Eric, but how that relationship is built. Yeah, you're talking about Mr. Eric Narcisse. He's our contact person at TASB. That's who I work closely with with these. We did a policy review last summer under the guidance of at that time with Mr. Chavez and working with Mr. Narcisse. I was a part of that as well. Uh, with this policy update 126, all districts in the state uh, get this update, and they're to look at it again, make those edits to local policies if they see a need to do so. Uh, so that's basic That's basically uh, how you do that, sir. I don't know if there's another way to do it. Uh, I do maybe our attorney can answer

097this question, but I guess I'm just curious on how this um, we don't have to like have a board policy uh, like posted on BoardBook. What makes that different than our our other policy committees like the the safety committee? Can you restate your question? Um, my question is um, just because we have like two trustees on this committee and that they uh, review the policies and policies are proposed to the board, uh, why this doesn't have to be posted like uh, on BoardBook. Yeah, that's a good question. So, if the decision or the recommendation from that committee is a mere rubber stamp by the board, then it should be posted in compliance with the Open Meetings Act. If it that recommendation by the committee that Mr. Williams refers to is not simply a rubber stamp,

098there's, you know, changes and stuff that could be made at the board level, like tonight, right? You can postpone an item or whatever, then it doesn't have to be posted. So, it's it's whether or not the recommendation from the committee is just subject to rubber stamping by the board or whether it's a subject to discussion, revision, modification by the Board of Trustees. That's the Open Meetings Act question. Thank you. Those are my questions. Some Any last questions? I do want to ask you Okay. I'll add that um, that is very similar having board members on various policies uh, policy committees and or other committees uh, is no different than um, other school districts that also exercise this practice. So, I just I do want to put that on um, on the official minutes, too. I'll

099turn it back over to you, sir. Thank you, sir. Yeah, and I really just wanted to I I was getting the impression that you know, people thought this this just came >> up you know, yesterday or today. But we I know I we know the process cuz we have board members on that committee, and I remember you and you presented at our workshop on this on this policy. So, I just wanted to let the let the public know that this is not something that just came up. This is something from TASB um, that we've been working on for months, I guess a few months at this point. Since since December. Oh, wow. Okay, since December. Uh, the the the co-chair has been working on it since December. I've been working on it since September, sir.

100Since September 2020? Or no? I was waiting on the policy update to come out since September, but Right. I've been I'm going to say that, but October. So, y'all been working on it since October, then and then our board members since December. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. All right, so we have a motion and a second. Uh, we had our discussion. Okay, all those in favor, raise your hand and say I. >> I. I. How did you I. Okay. All those opposed, raise your hand and say nay. All those abstaining, raise your hand and say abstain. Abstain. Okay, Mr. Aldridge is abstaining. Motion passes. Thank you all for that. Um, so now we move into the next item, which is closed session. The time is now 7:36 p.m., and the Edgewood Independent School District

101School Board will go into closed session as authorized by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapters 551.071 and 551.074. The board is now in closed session. >> Mhm. >> All right. The time is now 8:13 p.m. Is that correct? Says 8:13 on my computer and the Edgewood Independent School District School Board reconvenes from closed session. Is there a motion regarding item 7A? Oh. Hold on one second. Open session should be Is it 7? Okay. It's 7A. Mr. President, I move that for item 7A, I move that the eligible Edgewood ISD Board of Trustees approve the travel to Austin, Texas April 30th through May 1st to tour ASB 1882 campus. As discussed in closed session. Okay, Mr. Espinosa motions. Is there a second? Second. Who's that? Mr. Lopez? Mr. Lopez seconds. Uh is there

102any discussion? I would like to discuss. Joey, can you can you start the clock? Can you put 2 minutes? Thank you, sir. It should be 3 minutes. Two. Yeah, we're doing two. But the public gets three, but we only get two for this meeting. Yes, sir. All right. Starting now. Go. I want the public to understand what happened. The board banned me from travel. I was told by completing governance and ethics training that that would be the path to restore. I took it very seriously. I did training, yet I'm still banned. The board had a discussion to keep the ban. Uh it's just a blank ban. Um Mr. President, it is simply a blank censure >> Hold on one second. Hang on. Yes, sir. Can you stop the clock? Yeah, we'll remind the board >>

103session we can't Exactly. Thank you, sir. No, he can go. He can He can say his comments. Okay. >> Mr. Valdes can say his. All right. Go give him Can you put 1:45? Do a few seconds. You know what? Just go ahead and we'll start in about a few seconds. This is based on the fact that a lot of the board members are angry and don't want to be accountable. Uh I have still believe this is retaliatory. I reported that I was sexually harassed by President Hernandez and I came forward and instead of addressing complaints and holding him accountable, this board just keeps focusing their anger on restricting and disciplining me. The ongoing travel ban even after I completed the training as a reflection. And I think it's ironic that our own attorney said the

104board cannot handle an investigation here, but yet they're handling handling the same type of board member conflicts and investigations at Judson. Um some members are enforcing the ban and some members don't even take their own state mandated training. So, I just don't understand why we're restricting me, but many of y'all still have not done your state Board of Education mandated duties. Uh it's just ironic how we just keep pressuring me and just keeping the face on me, but there's no consequences for board members being sexually harassed. Um and how is this about governance? You know, we're coming to look at a school that we approved. You couldn't even give the dignity to let all your board see a a school that's going to be for the next 3 years. Like that's very ridiculous, especially that

105we have this this type of policy and it's very restrictive, but it's like who's being held accountable? Just one person? Uh why isn't everyone being accountable? So, yeah, and I think I saw like 15 seconds, but it's just very disappointing. Like tomorrow's the time to talk about this. >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> talk about it because you don't want to because the superintendent said not to. >> ahead. We'll turn the seconds. But it's disappointing like there's no way to remediate this. I can't even see a school that the board voted on last board meeting, which is very disappointing. So, where's where's where's the public? There's no public. All right, sir. Thank you very much. Any other comments? 2 minutes. Uh Mr. Delgado. Go ahead. Uh yes, sir. Uh was there a time frame

106that you were supposed to get done? Simply yes or no. Was there a time frame? Uh we're all busy people and there's time frames for State Board of Education travel, but it's still not done by >> on my time. I just simply yes or no. You don't want to answer that, that's fine. Um if any of us, anyone out there, didn't meet a certain timeline, a deadline to do something, I'm pretty sure everyone would get in trouble, or maybe fired, or something. Maybe. There was a timeline for you to get it done. Whether you chose to or not to get it done, that was on you. I don't know why we're having [clears throat] this issue now. We talked about it already. That's it. There's a timeline for SBOE >> is done, Mr. Valdez. Any

107other comments? Yes, sir. Uh Mr. Lopez, go ahead. 2 minutes. >> I would like to remind Mr. Valdez that he was censured um last year. Part of that censure was that he was not going to represent the district as a delegate, as a voting delegate in Houston. I was the alternate for that delegation. Mr. Valdez still showed up in Houston with no remorse at all. He never mentioned to the TASB officials that he had been censured. So, that I was asked to leave the table. I let Mr. Valdez take my place. So, when you're talking about accountability, it's it's a very small word for you because you weren't being accountable. Instead, you embarrassed me. You embarrassed the district. And you embarrassed the people with TASB because they had to go down there and they had

108to take care of the situation. And then they had to come back and apologize to me. Then they had to go to your table at the voting session, pick you up from the table, and throw you out. So, don't talk to us about travel when you can't respect the rules that are placed before you. I was not thrown out of that meeting. >> Sir, your your time is up already, Mr. Valdez. Any other comments? I was not thrown out of that meeting. I walked out. Mr. Valdez, stop talking so other board members can share. You had 2 minutes. You had more than 2 minutes. Stop talking. >> did walk out, but I walked out >> Any other comments? Mr. President, I call the question. Okay, the question has been called. We're going to move to

109vote. All right. All those in So, we have the motion, the approval. Can you Can you reset the motion, Mr. Espinoza, please? I move that eligible Edgewood ISD Board of Trustees approve the travel to Austin, Texas, April 30th through May 1st to tour a SB 1882 campus. As discussed in closed session, sir. Thank you, sir. So, there was a motion and a second by Mr. Lopez. Uh discussion's already been had. So, all those in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, raise your hand and say nay. All those abstaining, raise your hand and say abstain. I would like to abstain. Okay, Mr. Valdez abstains. All right, motion carries. All right, is there a motion regarding item 7B? There's no action on that tonight. Oh. All right, that one. Thank you,

110sir. Is there a motion regarding 7C? Mr. President, I move that the Edgewood Independent School District Board of Trustees approve the renewal of personnel contracts for the 2026-2027 school year. Okay, Mr. Espinoza motions. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Lopez seconds. Is there any discussion? If we have no discussion, all those in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, raise your hand and say nay. Anyone abstaining, raise your hand and say abstain. Okay, motion carries. Moving on to item 7D. Is No action on that. Oh, no action for 7D. Okay, if that's the case, we move to our next agenda item, which is adjournment. The time is now 8:22 p.m. Do we have a motion to adjourn this meeting? I move to adjourn today's board meeting. Okay, Mr. Valdez motions

111to adjourn. Is there a second? I second. Ms. Castilleja seconds. Do we have any discussion? If we have >> I have a discussion. Okay, start the clock. 2 minutes, please. All right, go ahead. Uh there's an education code or education law that if you would like to have something on the agenda, but there's no way to get the data on the agenda that we can discuss only about putting an item on the agenda. Um so, I would like to put an item on the agenda to remove the travel restriction bans for good governance. Mr. Cruz, can you help me understand that? >> It'll be noted. We'll follow up. The board uh the the board of of policy take take two two two Really that you would have a motion on to adjourn. Thank you, sir.

112Okay, if we have no more discussion, all those in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed, raise your hand and say nay. All those abstaining, raise your hand and say abstain. Okay, motion carries. Thank you. Have a good night.