001The time is now uh 5:48 on August the 27th, 2025. And this special meeting of the El Campo Independent School District Board of Trustees is called to order. Let the record show this meeting was duly posted in accordance with section 551.043 Texas Government Code in regard to public meeting and there is a quorum of members present. If you'll uh please stand, I will lead prayer and the pledge. Uh let's pray. Lord, please uh guide us as we come together tonight to do the important business of the of the district. Uh let us be uh good stewards of the of the of the school district and help us to make uh the decisions that that please you. We ask these things in your name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
002America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Look at that. No sling. Look at these chairs. That's what I'm talking about. Way to go, Demetri. About time. There's the special. We need to check my emails out a little bit better. Uh this is the uh section of the uh this meeting is specially set aside for public comment and public hearing. Uh there's no I don't believe there's anyone signed up for public comment. Um so we will uh conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget and tax rates for 2025 2026. We have no one here to speak. So that is that will conclude our uh public hearing. Uh the time is now 5:50. I call this meeting adjourned with no further business. The
003time is now 6 pm on August the 27th, 2025. And this regular meeting of the Elcampo Independent School District Board of Trustees is called to order. Let the record show that this meeting was posted was duly posted with section 551.043 Texas Government Code and there is a quorum of me members present. Uh if you'll stand up, we'll Mr. Dr. Dub Brocker will lead the uh prayer and the pledge. Lord, thank you for this chance to come together to do the business of this school district. Help us to keep our priorities in line and to to to focus on the people and what we need to do to to grow and be better at what we're doing here. We thank you for your for all that you do for us. We just ask that you lead
004us and guide us through this evening and and all that we do for this school district. Thank you. And in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh at every meeting we set aside uh time for both public testimony and public comment. Has anyone signed up for either? There's with no one uh signing up for either public comment or public testimony. Just want to let the public know that we do open the floor for that. Uh and there's some stipulations uh that that go with how uh that process is handled, but uh we'll move on to uh we have recognition. No recognition. Just started school. That's right.
005Nobody's done anything rec uh to be recognized for. You probably do at this point. I tell you, I'll recognize the volleyball team last night. It was I was we went and it was a heck of a battle and it was uh really encouraging to to see the girls fight it out and win in five games. It was good. Great game. They didn't Victoria West. Victoria East. East. That's right. Victoria East. Uh and uh really uh really good support too. Great crowd. Good crowd. Um and great score, by the way. Thank you. Only one. Only one only only one uh only one time did I think. Oh man. Hope she gets to Hope she she hit the wrong button. I hit the wrong button. Reset. Reset. And it was it was a close game. Panic mode.
006Um the uh we'll move on to the uh item 5 C1, which is uh skip. I'm sorry. My my apologies. I'm I'm I'm getting ahead of myself. Uh that moves us on to our consent agenda. Get out of here. Yeah. Consent uh item number four is our consent agenda. According to local policy, be a consent agenda is pro is provided that includes items of a routine and reoccurring nature under one action item. Board members have been have been provided background for each of the m each of the items in the consent agenda. Unless a board member wants to have one an individual item withdrawn for for consideration, we act on those with one separate vote. Is there any item that anyone would like to see uh taken out of the consent agenda to be considered?
007I would like to pull the consideration of item E1. Okay, we'll pull item E1. Uh with the ex with the exception of that, are there is there anything else anybody would like to consider individually? Okay. Uh, we'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item E1, student code of conduct. I'll seek a motion. Motion. Have a motion by Mr. Cannell, a second by Miss Smith. All All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Uh, Mr. Ryan, I'll let you uh lead the discussion on item E1, consider approval of the 202526 student code of conduct. Before Mr. Ryan does. I just want to make sure board members, you have a packet at your desk. It's this. Okay. Yeah. I brought this into attention uh several months ago on the
008list of co violations by class and I was just trying to get everybody's opinion on it. I just wanted to hear. I know there was some maybe I didn't bring it out right. This was not a uh anything to do. I didn't consider administration into this when I brought this to Bob and some other people. I was making it this is a simple form so you can read it easily as a parent or as a student instead of reading the student handbook code of conduct as a legal form and this kind of just summarizes it brings it into a form that everybody can understand and read. That was my intention just so everybody knows that to improve the readability of what we already have to make it to simplify because there's nothing in this that's
009not already in the student handbook. Well, let's let's clarify just so for for language case. The handbook is one thing. The code of conduct is another. And so this is this is what No, no. I I just want people are watching in in the newspapers here. I want to make sure they know exactly what we're talking about. So, this is a code of conduct. Um, I will say I I need to applaud both Mr. Ryan and Miss Stari because I think they've both put a lot of time and effort into this discussion. Miss Star brought this in front of all the principles at the leadership retreat and then after the leadership retreat, we both met with Mr. Ryan again. And so rather than just have this go through the consent agenda where it typically goes
010because it's a state document that comes from a combination of TASBY and our legal firm um he asked for it to be pulled and so we did that. So what did and I'm not I don't I didn't look I haven't looked at our current one. I'm assuming our current one is similar to years past has a model WS Anderson signed off on it. Correct. Yes sir. Yes sir. So it's like other So this is just the same meat. It's just different. Just So what are you going to do with this? Well, let me let me I think I I'm probably the best either that or Miss Star. Either one of us. There are some districts and we we try to present this to the principles. There are some districts who put the general conduct violations
011by class in the beginning of the code of conduct and it varies. Some school districts do, others do not. For example, Katie does, Lamar doesn't. Um, as we discuss this with principles and I'm going to make sure that Miss Star because she really did the yman's work. I'm just kind of the the bystander. She uh put in a lot of time of effort with Mr. Ryan and now Mr. Ryan met with our principles. Um the issue comes down to from uh we have all the principles here. So please feel free if the board would accept any comments from the principles. Um question go ahead. Okay. So, what we have in here on in the board book, okay, where it starts on whatever page 64 and goes all the way through. Are we are we just
012saying that we're going to take that out and put this in place? Addition, it's a summarization of of infractions and punishments for each infraction. So, ours, correct me if I'm wrong, our our current copy of the student code of conduct, it does not define the class one, class two, class three, and the automatic and the automatic punishments consequences for those. Correct. Okay. For each class, it does not. It says as general violations and so they're general, but then it also goes into what has to be could be DAP or mandated EAP. what could be discretionary OSS ISS mandatory so it does go into those but as far as general violations it so our code of conduct has all the all the other parts to it just l it lacks basically in in summary it lacks
013the class one and the automatic and the automatic knee-jerk uh punishment for that and then if it's a class two class three class four that's the that would be the specific very specific detailed. It's more detailed. Yes. More detailed. So, what do the principles? They're the ones That's what I was going to say. The princ y'all happy with this? Well, the concern and I don't want to y'all can speak up, but the concern was about like having the options of what the consequence is going to be. if we put it in writing and we say this is what the consequence is going to be making sure that we're not looking at the situation individually. I understand the need for consistency and I think that was what Mr. Ryan was really looking for too was making
014sure we're being consistent across the district from campus to campus for the same violations. Um, so that, you know, that's something that we need to work on, but the concern was like you're putting it in writing. You're saying this is what you're going to do. You have other options. What does our code of conduct have in there? I thought it gives you it gives you it does give you like you can put them in DAEP you can put them in well I know the man I know that part discretionary placements and all that stuff but for like less severe behaviors for less severe we try to follow a due process where that we go with the least consequential behavior determination which would be some kind of a detention all the way through to a DAEP
015in a due process set random. But our code of conduct already has that in correct. So like it says conference warning conference with parent in schools or detention all. So it gives us like it has like techniques that can be used. So it does give some and then prohibited ones that we can't do. So that is listed in there for like general. But what I'm this this reading this doesn't say unless I'm just not getting to the part where it does it. This doesn't say what the consequence is going to be. It should say class one and then some possible. Yeah. No, but it doesn't doesn't say like I I've been boxed in a corner before with a code of conduct as a principal that said you do this, you get this. And that consequence
016wasn't always the appropriate consequence for whatever that action was, right? No, but I don't see either one of these doing that. I mean, this shows multiple options. So, is there a is there a chronic failure in the document that we we currently have adopted that that we're seeing inconsistencies across the board where we're losing our campuses because of that? Well, I think we need to let our principles address because I think you also need to discuss how you um now Paul's not here, but Sandy um probably talk communicates most with Paul about consequences and then the other three of you. So, explain to the board the process because I think they're trying to determine where where we want to go with this. So to answer your question, is there a failure with the current system?
017I would say no. Okay. Um uh inconsistencies that have happened. I would say um I would love some real examples where someone felt like there was an inconsistency that did not have to do with a student's IEP or special education. sort of we have to look at something um and make a determination on um how their disability may have impacted that behavior. Sometimes that creates what is viewed in the public as an inconsistency, but we have to adhere with laws and we have to go through those hearings. We have to go through the AR process on some disciplinary actions. Um, and so that could create a discrepancy that is viewed perceived. I love that word. Uh, yes, but it's there's nothing we can do. We couldn't possibly justify to the community. Oh, well, this student
018has this disability. We'll just go ahead and tell you why they can't. We can't do that, you know. So, it would leave us vulnerable sometimes to look inconsistent. But, um, I'm just going to tell you, u Mr. Fleer and I have spoken on the phone, I would say twice, maybe three times already. it's the third week of school and you know where I called to say like okay I just want to confirm when we find a student who has a vape pen and it's THC versus nicotine are we all still doing the same thing and you know um we also talked about sometimes you have to apply age so if I'm a sixth grader and I'm doing something probably probably for the first time um and I may have been caught in a situation with
019peer pressure or whatever we're going to apply certain standards to the middle level certain like layers of punishment versus if I'm in high school and I had the means I chose I brought this in my car it couldn't have been my parents it couldn't have whatever well you know maybe the consequences for them could be a little more stiffer but it's age appropriate um so as long as we're consistent if on my campus if if this is what it gets and it meets in line and I'm consistent then that's consistent I think u and thank I appreciate that. Uh I think that and I'll summarize and y'all tell me if I'm wrong here though. So our the board's view of the student code of conduct has always been to to develop a student code of
020conduct that reflected the the values of our community and then we sent that code of conduct to our principals and we we trust our principals and hire them specifically to make decisions based on complex situations because ver rarely things in that happen on a campus are cut and dried. try. But uh and we and that's one reason we evaluate our principles so hard is because we want to make sure that they're they're adhering in all situations to the to the broad umbrella of the student code of conduct, but also applying their professional knowledge to each sing each each situation. That's how that's why I kind of would lean toward the existing document. I'm not saying that I'm not saying that this these are bad ideas, but I do think that in a district our size,
021we're close enough to the fire, meaning we basically have, you know, a very small number of campuses where Mr. Callaghan and the leadership can can still really understand on a daily basis what's going on and and without getting too far out in the ditch and having a campus that man they're not doing anything that they're supposed to be doing at elementary school. I just don't think that that would be uh I don't see that that's what this is saying. I don't think I don't think it says that either. It still gives choices. It still gives choices, but I don't see I don't see what we're by adding more words. Are we adding more uh efficiency? That would be my question too on my question for Clayton, but just in general, I think a lot of
022a lot of this is already in there. It's a summarization of it basically. So, and put in layman terms where the everyday person can understand it instead of a legal document. So, we're not we're not getting rid of the existing. No, this is just an addition to this would be an addition to the code which is a summary. This is a summary of the code of conduct. This is a summarization of the discipline. Does anything in this I mean I'm just I'm looking at the code of conduct now. Does anything in this contradict? I have not compared the two documents since we've got the new updated one like to say that would be my that's my life. I would recommend that that's done before that documents. homework would be that if we have because this
023is the kind of stuff in my experience that causes problems when we get the least amount of a minuscule amount of contradiction in any part of this document gets twisted and and used. So that would be my concern about adding anything without us having looked at that because it's that I mean that's that's the only issue I have with it that it wouldn't I don't want to do anything to muddy waters any further and I have been in situations where the the code of conduct didn't match what the campus handbook had because of you know typos or just didn't get updated or whatever it is. And when you put things in black and white and it's a contradiction, you put our people, our principals , people have dealt with this stuff in a bad spot.
024That's my only issue with it. I don't have a problem. I I think I've worked in districts with very similar to this. Yes. And I don't I don't and I don't have any issue at all with breaking down the levels of behavior. Like class one is not what TASB calls it. I would imagine they probably level one. Well, it's general uh violations. Yeah. So, I would want the terminology to be the same and you could do that and still have these, but I just I would be hesitant to put this in there without saying this completely matches matches. I was trying to get anybody to to vote to put it into their way, right? Because it was just something I wanted to bring to everybody's attention, everybody's opinion, and talk about it. That That's my
025opinion. That's what I think about it. agree if somebody can look at one of us and interpret interpret it differently and you can have it can be I like the word like we use layman's terms because we don't use those in schools all the time and we use words that we make up sometimes for things in schools and I like that aspect of it but I just wouldn't want to feed them I don't I don't want to do anything to to make things more difficult than what they already are especially with our intention be we want to simplify this deal so we can read it. That's my thought on it. Well, let me try to summarize the issues. Number one, the student code of conduct is hot off the press because of the 89th legislative
026session. Right? So, we are trying to get it implemented two weeks after school started because it wasn't ready when school started. Right? When we presented this to the principals, they had the same fears that you have, which is they don't want to have conflicting data. Also, the concern is that most of the district, well, I shouldn't say most because I don't have that. It's more than 50%. There are many districts who use this that have multiple campus grade levels, multiple high schools, multiple junior highs, multiple middle schools, multiple elementaryaries, etc. And they're looking for consistency. Our principals felt that they were trying to gain consistency through interaction between the groups. The other concern that was brought up was when everything starts being outlined, someone says, "Well, it's not in it's not in your laundry list,
027so therefore, how do you punish?" We don't we don't know how to answer that today. Well, it's not in the code of conduct either. Well, but but none of them are laundry listed inside the code of conduct. Correct. when you do a laundry list, it does kind of give you so what what we would propose is to give us this year to look at this because many school districts use this. I will also tell you I've had many conversations with Walsh Anderson, Walsh Goss, they are not opposed to us putting it in there. I think what everybody's concerned about is the time when we're having to do this, right? And do we have enough time going into next year? We're not shouldn't have any more special sessions by that time of the year, right? Maybe
028they might code of conduct is every other year, right? Yeah. So, we would have a a year to play with it a little bit. I I'm I am solely in the less is more category. I think I I don't think it's I don't think it's bad to have some have things not bulleted out cuz having been on a high school campus not as much as bridge but but I know that in certain situations you need some leeway and at all the levels you need some you need some leeway for some real decision making that doesn't have a bullet point that either that is there or isn't there. It's kind of like I mean reading the an insurance contract or anything like that is if it's in there, it's a real problem. But if it ain't
029in there, you can really sol you can solve some problems using some some ways to to get around it. And and we're not looking to I we're not looking to to not punish or or something like that. I think what we're looking for is is the best way to solve real world stuff that happens on the campus without having to catch 22 and like oh yeah we would have put put a bullet point in there when if the if the goal is not to change the intent of the of the code of conduct if it's just to summarize the code of conduct I that's a whole in my opinion that's a whole another endeavor than what is in this it would be, you know, take what we already have and say in this section you
030will find and then maybe maybe that's a a way to approach this. But I I wouldn't I wouldn't be for anything that that lists out what this seems to attempt to do is list out a lot of the things that they think could happen on a campus and and it probably doesn't have everything and it probably and it and it you know may not describe it exactly as it happens and I think you need to not have that in there so that you have the leeway to say well here's what we see this as unless you put at the And this is some of the bullets, but it could be more or you know this is Yeah. What's that? I don't think that this like handcuffs anything. Yeah. I don't think this takes my I
031mean I have no like I really actually if I mean I think I've operated about 10 years under a code of conduct like this. It's not it's not an issue, but we have a code of conduct that is, you know, new and trying to to add this to it, I think could cause some confusion and problems for principles at this point in the year and really that's that's our concern. I I think realistically, folks, if this were an issue per se, there are a lot of school districts who haven't. I'm just I don't think it I don't think it's an issue, but I don't want to I don't want it and I would be willing to put some time into us like making things more user friendly, more layman kind of stuff for next year's
032code to conduct. Well, that's 100% for that. I was bringing this to everybody's attention. Yeah. No, I think before and I and I'm not I'm definitely not in love with TASB. Well, I will tell you I I mean I I've shared that I've already reached out to to Walsh GO, so we know that this is out there as a potential. I just will hate to I'm going to put people involved, right? I'd hate to put this on Alicia's plate right now. No, I agree. When she's already trying to do all of the other things that we find as far if it were next year and and we wouldn't, you know, we didn't get to code conduct last week. Yes. Well, I would be open to that for this year. For this year, what's in front
033of us is the consideration of the 2025 2026 code of conduct. Is there any more discussion on this, which seems to be a future endeavor? Well, I I was going to ask before I voted on the consent agenda, is there any major differences between this code of conduct and last year's? There's a few. Um, the personal communication device, as y'all are aware of, is now in there. Um, using AI for academic dishonesty or engaging in other prohibited conduct is now added in there. Um, the use of DAEP for a first time offends of possession or use of a nicotine delivery product or ecigarette is more spelled out in there. It's more spelled out as more as a as before it was a you had to. Now it's discretionary. Discretionary. Yes. But you can you can
034do it for first- time events. THC. Yes. Mandatory. Yes. But but the just the ecigarette in general. Okay. Um ISS is not subject to a time limit anymore. Um where it was before we were hand our hands are tied to 3 days. So but you must review every 10 days for any placement that's longer than 10 days. So if you're putting a kid in there for longer than 10 days, you have to review it at 10 days. Review with who? The the with the the committee. The the administrator has to review it. all students cuz I know it used to be it's this is for 10 day like for a sped student it's 10 days total this is 10 days one placement yes so if I'm going to put a kid in ISS for 15
035days for something I have to any student any student okay but they don't have but in this case it's talking consecutive where for a sped student it's not necessarily consecutive it's 10 days total so yeah those were the big those were the big changes okay thank you cuz I figured you could tell me that rather than me. Can we get how can we get a report on how our communication device how's it going? Progress is I've heard from several teachers that it's been wonderful with the children not constantly on their phones is what I've heard. Well, we've got four of them in there. Teachers from teachers. principals , you're being put on the spot. We've conv at the middle school, we've confiscated one phone so far, but the policy really didn't change for the middle
036school because that's what we were already doing. We didn't allow them to have it between classes or at lunch. And ironically, the one that we confiscated was a sixth grader, and I know they weren't allowed to do it at Northside. So, um, anyway, we have unfortunately had a few cell phones that have been stolen out of backpacks. I don't really know what that's about, but um all have been tracked down and um have been dealt with and in a couple of cases the police were involved because they were found, you know, off campus at a different location. But um as far as in the classroom, we haven't had any problems in the classroom. What about parents? Have you had any trouble with parents? Uh not yet. It's coming. It's not a matter of it's a
037matter of when. Yeah. When we have an issue, but no, not yet. I think the the from what I understand the high schools fairly similar to that. I mean, they haven't had they haven't had a time. Yeah. I think Paul told me 26 26 20ome that have been picked up. But at least half of those are multiple same person more than once. a little bit better. So, if you divide 26 by by three, you've only got about nine kids cuz several of those nine have had it twice. 1%. What's that? 1%. I'll uh consider a motion for the approval of the 25 26. Motion by Mr. DuBroc, second by Mr. Cannell all in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries unanimous. Uh that brings us to 5C uh one bluebonnet implementation update.
038So just wanted to give you an update where we're at on bluebonnet. Um everybody's rocking and rolling. We're still missing a few pieces from shipments, but they're coming in. Um right now we can really tell that um the teachers that were doing it last year with Amplify are starting this year. they feel a lot more ease. They're comfortable doing it. Um they are they're engaging more engaging with their lessons because they already kind of know what to do where the new teachers that are doing it for the first time are overwhelmed. Um we saw that last year because you got to think about like a lot of these teachers have been teaching a long time. They're effective teachers and we're basically saying here's something new, here's something different. So it's like being a first year
039teacher all over again. So they are feeling that. We've told them I've been very transparent with them. This isn't going to go away in the next month. You're going to feel like this for a few for through October, but it's going to get better. It's going to get better. So, if you hear that, say again, who are the great the who's been doing it? Who's So, all of Hutchins RLA did it last year. Okay. So, they're kind of rolling with it. Now, they picked up math this year, so the math part is new, but the RLA they did last year. And then we had a couple teachers at Matt that did it last year, but all of Northside is new, RLA, and then all of the rest of the kindergarten at Myatt is new. So,
040it's kind of a mix at Myatt. Yeah. So, yeah. Um, but as far as the um biblical things, references that were in there. Um the teacher leaders met this summer and sat down and went through it unit by unit, lesson by lesson and they've created an outline where they've seen those remarks and it's suggested solution to it. So in a lot of cases it's just take out this word, take out this phrase or replace it with something else. Um so that's where we see the most of it. Uh we do have a couple places where like I can say fourth grade's got a unit where they talk about the Romans and so there's going to be parts where we can't take it out because it has it's part of the historical part of it. So
041it's going to be taught that way not in a any way to you know do any kind of indoctrination of kids. But there will be pieces that we we have to leave in because it follows the history. But where it's not necessary for the lesson or necessary for the content of what they're being taught, we're taking those parts out. But, um, they're meeting with their teachers in their CTT time, going over the unit before they teach it, before the the lessons before they teach it, talking about what they're going to take out, what they're going to replace with. Um, so they're they're right on track. So, just wanted to share that with y'all. Okay. That'll uh any questions on that? We move on to the uh review and adoption of the campus at campus improvement
042plans and goals for each campus. This was in your uh board book. I I'm I know that the these are developed with obviously at the campus level and with interaction from our leadership team. Was there any questions about any of those that you uh had wanted to to discuss here? Just continuing the same things we've been focused on uh the culture with CKH, our academic growth um every year. Um communication. So, but they review it every year to make sure that the goals are still aligned to what they're focused on. And it has been really uh you mentioned capturing kids, capturing kids hearts. It's been uh really good to see the district focus on one thing and and stay on that path and uh start to see improvement in in the objectives that are involved
043in capturing kids hearts. So that's a good uh it's not I mean it's not the only program that's out there, but you need to pick one and and you know focus on it run your run your offense. Is uh any questions on anyone? Well, I just wanted to mention that as far from from the board's perspective, I think that the board needs to be aware that this is a collaborative effort, not only with Miss Stary and Miss Martin, but also their affiliation with Amanda Anderson and Rachel Dluhos and all of the special ed department and then in collaboration with all of the principles and then each campus improvement team. This is a long process. a lot of time and effort goes into it. And then we tie into that all of our instructional based learning
044that we've been doing this summer. Um, and everybody's been trained. There there appears to be a renewed focus on one pathway of trying to get us all doing the same thing. Not in the same way. Everybody's got to have their own, but we we appear to be focused is my perception. And so, and I don't know if Mando or Alicia or the principals want to say anything, but that's what I'm seeing. Seems to be a a greater focus on growth of kids. And it's hasn't not that it hasn't been, but you know, as we've been doing this for several years in a row now, it seems to be trying to work smarter. Um, any questions, comments? I'll uh entertain a motion to approve the 202526 district campus improvement plans. Have a motion by Miss Nohavitza,
045second by Miss Smith. All in favor raise your right hand. Oppose same sign. Motion carried unanimously. Uh that takes us to business and operations. Um, so we'll be discussing the consideration, approval of final amendments to the 24-25 general operating budget. Okay. In front of you guys, uh, you're going to see a page that looks like this. It's going to have a a green tab in the top leftand corner that actually says revenue. Okay. So, what you'll actually looking at right now and what we're going to basically be talking about is our 199, our general fund. Um, you'll see in the left hand column where it says approved, that's what we actually approved for our budget for the 2024 2025 school year. And you can see it broken down local, state, federal, other resources. So if
046you're looking at 199 general fund, we had uh expected to collect taxes in the amount of $13,462 462,219. Well, we ended up collecting 14,542,749, which was a million dollar more than what we were actually expecting. The reason we got that excess money was because uh there was uh more money put on the books by the CAD. Okay. So, we think hey, good deal. We're getting more money. However, that's a bad deal because the state has now given you too much money. Okay? So, the state has now given you too much money. And so, then later on, the state has to take their money back because they overpaid you because you're only allotted a certain amount. So, we get more when we get it on the tax side from our taxes. However, but when the state
047takes it back during the settle up, when they take it back, they take it back at that full rate. So when we're collecting, they're paying us, you know, we have a compressed rate of 61 cent. Okay. But we get enrichment pennies of about 13 cent. That basically takes our our local just M tax rate what we operate on up to this past year was uh 75 cent and some change. And so by us collecting more in excess in taxes, the state came back and took their money that they overpaid us back. Does that make sense? Can you can you please give it to them in layman's terms like we talked about with the student code of conduct? Okay. Please. Okay. In layman's terms, we collected more tax dollars. Why? because the CAD the CAD basically
048underestimated and then once they put the 13 or 15 accounts back in that they deleted it was is I think it was 13 or 14 13 or 14 accounts not just like regular like houses I'm talking about like commercial commercial accounts so it generated us more tax money like hundred and something million dollars $190 million of underestimated revenue that we that we did not have that because the CAD we can we can assume what all I'm telling you is that the through the CAD's underestimation the state the state overestimated what they were going to have to send us and then when the state send us their money The CAD's revalues, reertification, created a situation where we had collected more taxes from the CAD and then the state required us to send back money that they
049had already sent us and they took away our our golden pennies, copper. Oh, yeah. Your enrichment your enrichment pennies. Yeah. You don't get the So, we got less back then. So, all of that transpires and it's a net loss for us. It's a net loss for us on that that aspect. Also, we do have a declining ADA, which what we're paid on is the number of students that show up. Yeah. And uh we do have a declining ADA. And so with all that being said, we approved a budget that said that we were going to revenue-wise we were going to get 37.5 million. And after all of that, we got 36124. But the biggest difference is we have lower number of students is why we got that's that's one of them. But a bigger it's
050it's a bigger issue is really the cab. So that because they gave us history. Yeah. Like that it doesn't it's not a it's not it never a wash they took more they take more as Yeah. because you you get penalized for so the mistake. So the El Campo ISD is getting penalized for the mistake is made at the Wharton County CAD and it's been that way for a long long time those but that's yeah that's that's the way it works. So the state the state penalizes you penalizes the CAD for making those mistakes but they als No they schools that the schools get penalized the difference is really the difference is the 14 cents they increase the difference to us yeah because we don't get the we don't get the money correct on the 14
051cent. Yeah we don't get on the 14 cents though. What did they try to do to charge us 57,000 more to do the service? Yeah. So, and then our CAD contributions this year went up 57,000. So, um Wow. So, wait for CAD. I mean, that's us on the re that's us on We appreciate our representative to the CAD board. No, I mean really I mean really we hope we hope that every one of the taxing entities in the county takes it as serious as we do and that and and because that's This is what, year three of a screw-up. Major screw up. Major screw up. Yeah. That that penalize every every taxing entity in the county has to deal with their problems and and it makes it impossible to run a school district, which if
052you go over there and talk to people, they're like, "What's the most important thing?" You say, "Oh, our kids are the most important thing." Well, get the math right. Yeah. Because we're losing money. Go ahead. All right. three three years in a row. Then we'll look to our next page where it says expenditures and we'll look up at the uh general fund what we approved versus what we actually spent. We approved uh 37 538 857 and we spent uh 393389 which was an increase of uh almost $1.8 million on the increase in spending. Um you can if you go down and you Mr. Wells, I think before you go on, I think it's important for you to describe where some of that increased expenditure went, particularly in regards to the December decision because we were
053not able to provide raises. Yes, that's what I'm getting ready to go. Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if you look down uh in the 199 general fund, you'll see um on the far right hand side in 11, you'll see the increase due to retention bonuses uh in function uh 11. Um we actually in 13 you'll see we saved some money because we didn't have as much staff development. Um then you look down in 2123 a lot of that was uh due to increased uh retention bonuses. Uh because let's let's let's remember the retention bonuses came to us in a form of a payment that was owed to us the prior year. So once we got all of that money that money rolled into fund balance. Everybody follow me? Mhm. And so what we
054basically ended up doing was we ended up taking that like $750 almost $800,000 out of fund balance is where it ends up showing up at when you start looking at our at our books. Um we look down, you see, uh appraisal services uh CAD appraisal value stuff went up uh a little bit. Um has contributed to that. We did save about $235,000 um in the uh plant maintenance uh because once we figured out that we had passed the bond, we uh held off on some of our other projects that we would have normally done and that was money that we didn't have to scan because we were getting ready to redo those schools. Um then you'll see down a little further you'll see 1.15 million that additional was for the uh turf at the stadium.
055Uh you'll see on the very bottom so I can give you an explanation on operating transfers that 533 952 we had that ESSER audit that we went through and we also went through a food service audit. the ESRE audit, we ended up out of our eight.1 or 8.2 whatever million dollars, we ended up having to give them roughly almost $300,000 back. Okay. Um and on the food service transfers that remaining that food service that we paid back, we actually paid back to ourselves because we couldn't spend it on the local side. So, we had to put it back on our federal side, which shows on our federal side that we actually have a surplus. So, that's basically a wash. So, if you're looking at this, we basically uh went over uh by almost $1.8 million,
056but the big ticket items were retention bonuses and turf. Those are the big ticket items. Okay. Now, let's go to the final sheet. um general fund balance. Okay. Uh we are um I'm just going to go down to the bottom and our August 31st, 2024 fund balance. After we had gotten the money from the state, we were almost at $10 million. and we're going to be debiting and uh the decrease to our fund balance will be 2.99 8136 is what that will basically entail. So what that entails is the shortfall that we had meeting on revenue with the addition of the money that we added to with the expenses that we had over and above. Does that make sense? leaving us with a fund balance just shy of $7 million. It's part of the reason
057why in the consent agenda we increase the amount of money that the board contributes because of the increased costs in the turf and the fact that our previous turf had safety factors because it did not have a pad was built right on rock. Any uh questions on the final amendments to the 2425 operating letter? I will seek a motion to approve. Have a motion by Mr. Dorotik, second by Mr. Dubroc. All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries unanimously. Uh we'll discuss and consider approving the ordinance of adopting the 2025 maintenance and operations and interest in syncing tax rates. Uh we'll need we will have two motions uh on this. Is that right? Two separate motions. Okay. Okay. Uh you're good. You need some water? No, I'm good. What you'll see
058is uh you're going to see a a rate there for the O & M side at uh 7487. Uh and what that actually does is that's our compressed rate with our almost 14 pennies uh added to it. That uh the compression is actually dictated by the state. So we don't get an opportunity to do anything about that. But we do have the enrichment pennies that we can actually add to that to get us to a rate of 7487. Okay. And uh this is in line with with exactly what we discussed. I'll point this out. This is in line with exactly what we discussed doing throughout the the planning for the next the upcoming year, but also the bond and everything that this is this chives with that. Yes, sir. Yes. Um, I will uh What
059page is that on the wording? We have to get the wording right on this. I'm looking for it. Hold on. Well, it's not in packet. Your order is where is the wording at for the specific uh is it on there? What page is that on? Well, it's not in here. It goes from the budget. Oh, here we go. Yeah, here it is. Uh on page 146, your board packet is the uh is the wording. Uh, would you Okay. I move that we set the tax rate on $100 valuation for the district for the tax year 2025 at the O & M rate of 7487 for the purpose of maintenance and operation. I have a motion by Mr. Dorotik, second by Mr. Ryan. All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose, same sign. Motion carries unanimously.
060And for the We'll seek a uh motion for the principal and interest. I'll move that we set the tax rate on $100 valuation for the district for the tax year 2025 for the purpose and payment of principal and interest on debt at 3040. Have a motion by Mr. Dorotik, second by Mr. Ryan. All in favor, raise your right hand, oppose the same sign. Motion carries unanimously. And just to be clear to the board, that sets our tax rate at 1.0527, which has been that rate. How many years in a row is this, Mr. Wells? Four. Four. Yes. So, we did not raise We have not raised taxes. And in in effect, I think that um what was reported in the paper that um Mr. Primo called about the other day is that in actuality a
061property value will actually see a decrease if they're a homeowner because of the increased homestead homestead exemption. So they'll actually see a decrease in school district property taxes. Okay. Uh item number B3 that'll be the discussion and consideration and approval of an ordinance adopting the proposed 2526 general operating budget. Okay. You will have this form in front of you. Those other pages are just basically breakdowns. But our general operating uh budget uh for the 2526 school year if you look for the at the total at the bottom is 39,274,584. Okay. So that is an increase over last year's budget by $1.7 million. Of that $1.7 million, about 1.5 to 1.6 six of that will be given to us in the teacher retention aotment. Okay. So that money uh is going to be coming through us
062from the state for everybody that's coded 087. And so that money is actually coming directly from the state goes straight to the teachers. So anybody that has three to four years of experience got $4,000 uh on their salary and anybody five years or more got 8,000. So too, and that comes in in the state revenue. Yes. Yes. That's going to be coming in in the state revenue. Okay. So, in actuality, what we're really, if you're really looking at it, we're really only it's a wash on our budget. We're basically raising our budget roughly $200,000. And our ADA is is set at a decreased. So this projection is at a decrease of 50 students over the one prior. Okay. So I I I So it follows it follows what our recent trend is. Correct. But we
063still need some more kids to show up. And if we don't get more kids to show up, we need the ones that we have to show up more. And I think the board has been been getting the updates from um me through Miss Stary sends me updates from the campuses and I think districtwide we are down 39 students. 37 of those happen to be at Myatt Elementary in a in the in the prek and kindergarten. and Miss Couey is working hard to try and get um more students to come back to public schools of the lower ages. But this has been a trend since um since co do you have a do you have a tendency if I remember correctly that the that after Labor Day prek picks up we see I know it's across
064the district but we will have specifically there enrollment will go up a little bit after Labor Day. We will have some students coming back to El Campo but then out of the country. Yeah. I like that some folks just no matter what the calendar says, school always starts after labor day you just count. Uh we can uh go to the consider uh No, there's a there's a there's a Yeah. No, we're going to we're going to consider the I'm seeking a motion on that. Is that right? Okay. Um, I'll seek an ordinance uh a motion on adopting the ordinance of of the proposed uh 2526 general operating budget at the proposed uh numbers there in your uh in your board packet of 47 million19011. I'll move to approve as presented. Mr. Dubroc has the motion.
065I seek a second from Mr. Ryan. All in favor, raise your right hand. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries unanimously approved. Uh next is authorization uh for the redemption and defeasence of outstanding bonds. The board in in uh fashion that we've discussed to try and continue to take care of our facilities. Um, we continue to recommend that we defease bonds to open up an opportunity for us to continue to work in the future on a future potential uh growth of our campuses by, you know, five or so years down the road building a new structure for the early childhood in grades K1 and two, but thereby reducing our O & M side by going from five campuses to four as presented by the facility committee back in January. And this uh this resolution is largely I
066mean there's there it's largely symbolic. Is that correct? So basically what this resolution does is it gives us the ability to defease up to $1.95 million of the money that we're going to collect on the INS side. Right? So in our INS rate that uh 3040 that we've uh just just approved, we'll be able to generate enough excess on the I & S side to be able to continue to uh pay down the principal and defeat those bonds. There's there's no penalty to paying those bonds off early. No, then there's no reason. Right. I have a uh I'll seek a motion motion. I have a motion on Mr. Dorotik taking a second by Mr. Cannell u for the uh to authorize the redemption and defeasence of outstanding bonds. All in favor raise your right hand.
067Oppose same sign. Motion carries unanimously. Okay, we're knocking things out. U no review items. That takes us to closed session unless you want me to do real quick while Miss Stary is still here the 2425 accountability. Yeah, let's do that. We're going to skip down to item 10 D 1 and 2. Um, and she and I are just going to kind of uh team tag this if you want to get a couple. I didn't I'm sorry I didn't hand one to you earlier, Miss Stary. I apologize. That's three goes your way, four goes your way. Um, one for you, Miss Garza. You could pass it. So, board members, these are the 24 and 25 accountability ratings by campus. Page one and two are high school 25 and then 24. Pages three and four are middle
068school 25 and 24. Pages five and six are Northside 25 and 24 and page seven and eight are Hutchins 2524 since they both just came out. Um what I wanted you to notice about the high school because I gave you the district about at the last board meeting. So this is the campuses individually. Um, so high school is a an A-rated campus with a 90% overall score. You'll notice their school progress is a 91 and closing the gaps was an 89 and their stu student achievement was an 87. closing the gaps uh number. I don't think we've ever that's that's getting after uh so then on page uh three if you want to skip over because the 24 data is now enrolling and you'll notice that the middle school they have uh have an overall
069score of 78 which is an in an an improvement. Their student achievement was at a 74 which is an improvement. Their school progress is an 82 which is an improvement and they're closing the gaps is a little bit lower but um they improved in all the other areas swapped. Yeah, you have them swapped. I do have them swapped. Yes. Dang it. I'm sorry they're mixed up in the packet. Sorry I screwed up. Sorry. found the 25. There's one right behind it. Yeah, 25. It's there. It's just they're swapped in the order. Yeah. So, there are 77 overall rather than a 78. So, but they closed the gaps a little bit more %. And then if you look at Northside, they're an overall score of an 85. Um, student achievement was at a 74. School progress
070was at an 83. And you'll notice on closing the gaps, they're at an 88. And then Hutchins, um, their overall scale score was a 73. Student achievement was a 70, school progress was a 73, and closing the gaps was a 72, which is up considerably from the day from the year before. Yeah. So, at the next meeting, we'll bring you like the trends. We'll look at this data in more depth. Um, but we wanted to give you the overview tonight so that you could see where we're at. Um, dig a little deeper next next meeting. Yeah, we didn't have enough time to start school and and dig deep, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to share it with you. So, the high school had a celebration last Thursday. Um, Yeah, it was a
071really nice nice celebration of the of the gap. You'll probably notice we got headlines on the Yeah. newspaper. Front page of the newspaper. Did this right. Thank you. Very very proud of him. That's two years in a row. Well, we uh we appreciate the the hard work hard work and and the achievement that it's not uh it's not easy and especially when they you know you're working blind because this the rating for 24 didn't hit until the same day as the rating for 25. It's like what I don't know why they why they even bother putting it out if it's unusable. But uh anyways uh we can uh but we're we are going to bring back the more detailed look in in September. So that'll take us to close session. So uh and there will
072be there will be action after close session. So, uh, yep. Yeah, if you want to stick around, you can if you not, but Valerie, it's only about me, everybody. So, time is now 7:03. And we will uh move now into uh te closed session under Texas Government Code 551.074, Personnel Matters. Time is now 7:28 and we'll reconvene in an open meeting. Any actions coming out of close session? I move to approve an amendment to the superintendent's contract as discussed in closed session. Further move to authorize the board president superintendent to work with legal counsel as necessary to finalize and execute the contract amendment. Have a motion by Mr. Dubroc. Second by Mr. Ryan. All in favor raise your right hand. opposed, same sign. Motion carries unanimously. That takes us down to uh community and government
073relations, which we don't have anything going on there. And there being no further business to come before this board, at 7:29, we are adjourned.