001time is now 5:45 on this 26th day of March Yes And this this special meeting of the El Campo Independent School District Board of Trustees is now called to order Let the record show that this meeting was duly posted and we have a quorum of members present If you please stand I'll say prayer and have the pledge of allegiance Dear heavenly father we give you thanks and ask that you guide us and bless our efforts during this meeting We pray that the decisions we make will be pleasing to you and those that we serve In Jesus name we pray Amen Amen 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 Board members thank
002you for uh being here for this special called meeting This is a public hearing Um Mr Wells has been working um excessive amounts of time and you should have uh some information at your table in front of you Um that is from the Texas School Safety Committee and it is our emergency operations plan Um because we are continuing to work in collaboration back and forth I wanted Mr Wells to just kind of give you an update on where we are Um we didn't want to have a special called meeting uh on April 13th so we thought we would just combine combine it with today's meeting and let Mr Wells give you an update on our emergency operations plan Uh uh basically what we were doing or what we charged with was making sure that our
003plan was actually updated and that you guys were informed of any of our deficiencies Uh for example one of our deficiencies was as minimal as something with the superintendent statement and the uh his signature and my signature and the emergency management coordinator signature not all being on the same page because it ran to the to the next page So that that basically uh was out of compliance We've actually corrected that Uh prior to this meeting this evening I was actually on the phone with our actual auditor We actually went through the plan We updated all of the uh things that actually had like dual roles like we had a cyber security coordinator IT director since it's the same person However that basically is not allowed on the plan You can only have one person listed
004So it has to either be the IT director or the cyber security And like on other things that we had multiple roles where it said like the HR director and the uh principal uh you can only have individual roles assigned to anything with safety uh and security concerns Uh we also updated some of the stuff Instead of it saying basically local law enforcement it has to say El Campo Police Department It has to say uh DPS and it actually has to have the El Campo Volunteer Fire Department That's pretty much the gist of it Uh we've uh we've we've presented all of our audit findings in previous meetings all through last year whenever we were doing the safety and security updates Uh we always kept you a breast of anything uh that we found to
005be uh an issue and everything is actually being addressed on the safety and security concern for the district and for the betterment of the school safety of our kids The only thing I would like to add uh that we have had four schools that have had their door audits All four had no findings which is a good thing That's that means that everything was found to be locked and secure and I think Ms Couey's campus is the only one that has not been audited yet Is that not correct Ms Couey that is correct And so we expect Myatt to have their inspection sometime in the month of of April which makes sense because her campus won't be testing So anytime they do the audit they won't be coming in and disrupting the testing environment And
006one other addition you'll actually start to see all of our exterior door labeling actually going up maintenance is in the process of actually installing that uh because we have to be in compliance with every exterior door being identified on the exterior of the campus and also on the interior of the classrooms so that actually patrol or security people can see those numbers from from the street So we're actually getting all of that stuff actually put up right now so that we can actually be in compliance because we're probably expecting a big audit sometime from the state here It could happen next week or could happen next month but I I feel that we're going to probably get chosen Remind me again who what state the department is auditing business auditing Uh so our door audits
007are actually monitored and done by region 3 who basically puts it in the the system and they they they put that in the system for tea Now our vulnerability assessment is actually done by the state of Texas by TEA where they actually send people down and well they don't it's just it's this is going to be our first year to actually probably experience one if we actually experience one That's one of the new things that they brought about since the Uvalde situation Okay So does anybody have any questions about our safety and security i can assure you that uh all of the items that we have discussed um in the state required closed sessions that then we came out into open session and made motions Those have all been implemented uh how we keep our
008students and our staff safe and secure districtwide Um so we continue to work with the El Campo Police Department and uh the Wharton County Sheriff's Department um on certain things We are continuing with our guardian program Uh we will have another class that we are working on the next phase of their training and our our present guardians have completed all training um at the lower Navidad River Authority Is that correct no Lavaca Navidad River Authority Um so all of our present guardians are in compliance and up to date On page 38 you have David down as a member of the district board of trustees other than president Yes we'll make sure 38 just making sure my name is not on there Yes this is a this is a public hearing so we're we're you're more
009than welcome to review the the materials and then um When you're completed we will go to adjournment and get ready for the six meeting Need a motion to adjourn Good choice Okay Good You can gavel us out then Mr President You want to hit that you want to hit the G time is now 6:00 Think about that on the same day of March and let the record show that the meeting was duly posted and we still have a quorum of members present and I will say a prayer Dear heavenly father we are thankful for your presence in our lives and ask for your continued blessings and grace as we do the important work that we have before us here tonight Guide us to make sound decisions that will benefit our students and community In Jesus
010name we pray Amen Amen 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 Well Mr Dorotik I just uh spoke with um Miss Garza and we have no one signed up to speak at the beginning of the meeting in the public comment uh we will have a a public comment that will happen on uh during the right pres right prior to uh the presentation item of 5C2 So we can move on to the next item of action which is recognition Sure That's the part we like So who's first miss Fellers First So I'm very honored to introduce one of our teachers Holly Guthrie Holly sponsors a an organization uh called TSA Texas uh
011no excuse me technology student association and she's brought a group of students today to honor them because they have advanced to the state level in their respective contest It's more than one contest that they competed in This is actually a really cool club um to get to have at the middle school level Not all schools get the opportunity to have this Um we have a pretty big group of kids that are moving on and I'm just uh I just feel very blessed that we have a sponsor who's willing to put in the time and the effort after school to make this thing make it happen for the students So Holly I'm going to turn over to you where you can introduce the individual students All right So back at the 1 of February we did
012regional competition and we took quite a few students um I want to say around 15 or so and 10 of them have actually advanced on to state competition So Um Eric and Morgan Prader They are competing in challenging technology issues It's a speech event They placed third in their event Guys go all the way across Okay Then we have uh Zoe Barrera Vivian Daniel Emry Lemons and Jack Wortham Eric and Morgan You guys can come right back in here and we'll just play start lining you right up here Children's stories So they had to uh develop a story They had to create the book They had to do the illustrations the whole nine yards And this is really exciting because we haven't made it to state before in a while with that one Um then
013we have Vivian Daniel and Noah Santiago and they placed first in coding So I'm very excited We might have a chance to make it to nationals this year It's very exciting And then I have Kaden Baldwin and Liam Vosquez they placed first in their event of electrical applications and then Vivian and Emory placed second in forensics So they had to take a test over forensics information and if they advance to semi-finals at state then they will have to be uh understanding some other key elements And then finally we have AB York She is advancing to state in the area of career prep She had to look at a theme create a resume and a cover letter and uh submit that to the judges and they were very excited to uh advance her onto state So
014um if she makes semi-finals then they will do a mock interview with her uh resume So very excited Miss Coffman could you help arrange those individuals and Miss Miss Guthrie Yes sir Are there any parents here that I I think it'd be nice if we could recognize their parents they are back here in the back There you go Vivian here last year Yeah I think we had three or four last year to be busy at the school Jacka and Ava Congratulations All right Here we go guys Stand up tall and look this way In there Don't worry about your Just hold your your folder down for We want to get all your faces Yes That's all right One Okay Keep smiling So y'all stay there because we got a few parents that are going to
015They almost have to be straight in front for their photograph Keep smiling for the paparazzi All right Very good All right Great So we leave on Wednesday to head to Fort Worth Good luck Miss Guthrie I am certain that uh the newspaper is going to want to get your picture So that's where you're headed right uh no I was just going to communicate with her about emailing her name We do all the things we need to do Yes sir Okay Coach Reeve Powerlifting left Yeah I know I'm just You can feel the silence with your Well I'm going to feel the silence Something not powerlifting for just a second So got a chance to go to the soccer both of our soccer games last night Epic battles Uh the uh the girls won um after
016going into not one overtime two overtimes not one set of five goals shootout but then a second set and um had a big win and it was awesome Uh it really was So really proud of them And then the boys um followed that up Was down one to nothing at halftime Come back they win two to one So uh the girls that's the first time in school history uh it was my understanding that the girls have been to the third round of the playoffs um in in soccer Um and uh boys are obviously going to third round playoffs Girls are going to play uh at 6:00 at Prien Stadium in Cypress on Friday against Hamshire Finette And the boys are going to play at um 7 no 7 o'clock I believe Um I'm going to
017check myself now that I'm sitting here in an official board meeting I should have known this Um but uh um yes 7:00 Friday night at Mercer Stadium playing against Brookshire Royal So um congratulations to our soccer teams The other thing that I will say real quick is I was informed today So our our boys golf team has been on a roll They've won every golf tournament we've played in this year with the exception of one where we got second place But um yesterday we scored a team score of 309 which is a very low score and and we are looking into this but maybe a school record for low score in a tournament So um they're they're doing well and got a lot of good things going on But we're here today to talk about
018powerlifting had a great powerlifting uh season on the boys and the girls side Uh had several uh boys and girls that went to state uh in powerlifting Several of them are repeat achievers uh so to speak is going to the state meet This is coach Matthew Vera's first year here with us uh in ElCampo Uh he's our head powerlifting coach and then uh Bryce Hail is our assistant coach They've done a great job Uh but they're here to recognize our kids So I'm going to let coach Vakara do that Yeah So what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of give you an overall of uh the year from the beginning to where they ended up I think it kind of gives you guys a great image of what they kind of came
019up with and um so I'm going to start with the girls and then I'll go with the boys That way they get their individual recognition Um so Aliqueta u just kind of raise your hand say hello Um so overall she got second place at regionals Um we placed uh second place as a team you know we kind of last year we had we were in a regional championship It was a great fight between us and Vider again Um but Ali Speeda she increased overall 50 lbs from her beginning to the very end Um she placed 11th place at state with the 445 total in the 97 lb weight class So that's that's our smallest girl She's 97 Uh her biggest lift was 205 on the deadlift which was we were not expecting She did a
020very great job Um Adrien Rodriguez um she is a regional champion Um she placed 14th at state with a 600lb total Um over the from the beginning of the year uh to the very end she increased 70 lb Um her best lift is the one that we care about the most is deadlift as well She deadlifted 290 lbs in the 114 lb weight class Um Bethany Huggin um is our other regional champ Um she placed ninth at state with an 895 lb total Um her biggest lift was squat Um we also had best squat at regionals as well Um with a squat of 355 pounds Um our next one is Scarlett Martin Um she play she was a regional champion Um her list goes on a little bit more She has she's our only senior
021on the team Um she totaled she owns the total record at 905 lbs Um she also owns the squat record at 385 lbs Um and we had a great chance to Oh wait Bethany increased 110 I don't want to miss that Um and Scarlet played seventh estate with a 920 total and she increased 100 pounds over the year Um these ladies did an amazing job from the very beginning I mean you're talking anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds that we increased Um and in a year which not even a year it was two months I didn't know if y'all knew that We we did our season in two months and we increased about 50 to 100 pounds That's I mean that's amazing And we ended up finishing with the second place total So I just
022want to congratulate them Give me a chance I know we're probably going to take a picture at the very end but come on with the boys Sure will I sure will Ally ma'am Adrian Adrian Bethany Anthony Congratulations Yeah Open them up so we can see your names Hold it there All right One two three If you have parents here who want to take pictures now is a good time Yes Now is a great time Come on boys Okay All right our boys this year um we placed third as a team Um we had a chance to win it Uh which I I don't know how long it's been done I know it's kind of a new program I know it kind of came back kind of left and came back Um but we placed third
023Um so I'm going to start with Dallasa which is right here in the middle Um Dallas is a regional champ He owns the bench the bench record at 310 pounds Now something that I'm going to tell you Dallas weighs 123 pounds Okay and I'm gonna say that again Dallas benched 310 lbs And that's because we did more at state We did 315 at state So we actually rebroke the record but it doesn't count um because we're at state but um he he reset that record Um he increased overall 90 lbs over the season Um he plays 15th at state with a 975 total Um Isaac Mendes Isaac Mendes placed second at regionals Um he was 10th place at state Now Isaac this is going to be sound really great Isaac increased over the year from
024the very beginning to the very end at 320 lbs Um so that's very very impressive Um Isaac's best lift was 590 in the squat which I think we could have got better I know he wants me to mention his deadlift We got 560 so I'm going to go ahead and mention it for him Okay Uh Aiden Garcia Aiden Garcia is another regional champion Um he was a third place at state uh this past year with a 1545 total We had a chance to win it Um things didn't kind of go our way Um but we could have had a state champion walking in here today and I mean it was very close There's a like a 40 lb difference between us I mean there's a couple of lifts Um so he increased over the year
025100 lb Um his biggest lift was 590 and we should have got 615 We definitely would have got it I know we would have Um and his was a 14 154 45 lb total Camden Phillips Camden Phillips is a regional champion Um he also owns the bench record at 465 pounds Uh he set that at regionals Um he was second place at state which is our highest state finisher Um we were now we couldn't catch the guy in first That guy was crazy crazy 800 lb squat But I'm going to tell you an interesting story about um Cam cuz he's our senior on the team and so is uh Aiden But um Cam finished with second place with 1710 total Um an interesting thing that happened we were at state I I bumped to 675
026on squat Cam looked at me like I was crazy and he said "Coach I want to do 700." I said "Cam I don't know man." And I said he thought he he thought I didn't believe in him He said "Now give it to me." And sure enough I said "Sure enough let's go do it." And we squatted 700 that day which is our highest squad of the year Um and he did a great job Great job Um and so that's it I just want to commend you boys You had a great year Great Dallas Aiden Congratulations Take a picture Make sure you get a picture Open up your name so they know who you are All right One two three Thank you Perfect Congratulations Thank you You're up Mr Fleiner I'm up So um when
027I came three years ago uh we had a lot of different people that were complaining And I don't know Mr Brock how old is the uh that old marquee right there at Avenue F in Norris how long has that been there longer than me So 2000 Yeah 2000 Been there since 2000 Yeah People were complaining about the letters falling on them It just wasn't working real well So uh Mr Fchek and I went around spoke to a couple of businesses Um and through their generosity um Prosperity Bank you know uh we spoke to Blink Mr Almond and we've got uh two representatives um Stephanie Jansen and Carol New York that are here um to represent them But they wrote a check for over $57,000 to put in that marquee which is uh been outstanding and
028help us with the communication and it'll look real nice when we get the new building over there too right yes Ladies come on Thank you regular All right One two three Thank you Well thank you guys for your business and we're always here to support you Thank you We appreciate it Make sure Link knows we're glad you two showed up rather than him I will make sure to tell considering disinvited from Okay Thank you all Thank you Thank you very much All right board members On to the consent agenda Right Yeah Okay Everybody knows what the consent agenda is It's a re uh according to local policy BA consent agenda is provided that includes items of a routine and reoccurring nature grouped together under one action item Everybody's been furnished with background material on all
029these items Is there anything out of the consent agenda that someone would like to pull out no I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda then Kathy by Rich Any discussion all those in favor say raise your right hand How about that anybody opposed motion motion passes unanimously move on to we'll move on to the presentation items and we have our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning which is Alicia Stari and her first item is going to be the presentation of the capturing kids hearts implementation Yes ma'am I'll get it for you Thank you Is the projector on yes Where did we go so um you've heard us talk about capturing kids hearts over the past few years It's something that we've really put a lot of heart and soul into time commitment to
030Um and so I wanted to kind of share with you how it's impacting our schools and where we're at in implementation So um first I want to tell you you know what is capturing kids heart so it's basically a process that is trying to create positive relationships with students and with staff and in enhancing their communication skills their accountability a culture of respect on all the campuses Their mission is to win the hearts and lead them to their personal best The campuses follow an Excel model We follow it across the D district It's not just on the campuses but basically we we look at how can we engage students So this is when we want to greet them Um we explore So we're asking them to share good things We want to get to know
031them better We communicate and by doing that that's how we deliver our message whether it's our lesson or anything we want to uh tell people about or uh information in a meeting Um then we empower and that's basically what is our next steps what are our expectations of what we're talking about and then we end with a launch and this is how we close a lesson or close a meeting Um and so this is the model we follow anytime we can uh across the district Um so far as far as training goes we have over 80% of our uh professional staff has been trained in capturing kids hearts Um Matt and middle school have both been trained in capturing kids hearts too And that training actually allowed them to do some kind of leadership things
032where they got to know themselves um as individuals better so that they can better do a better job at building relationships with kids Um and then we also have training set for June 4th and 5th um for in this coming up summer um for any staff that we have not trained in any new hires that we get So that way we can continue to train and have um everyone on board with this process Um we're at a point now where we'll probably do this training every other year instead of every year as we had done before So the biggest celebration I have to tell you is all five of our campuses have been officially nominated for National Showcase School And this is a huge big deal Um as Mr Callahan shared a little bit earlier
033um a national showcase school is it's there's not not everybody gets this honor Um and so for all five of our campuses to be nominated to do this um is it's just it really says um what they're doing on these campuses So what I want to do now is kind of share with you a little bit about each campus Um I'm going to read from my notes here because I don't want to miss anything So I pardon that but um we're going to start with the high school Our high school campus makes intentional connections with students each day with strategies of greeting and affirming each other An example of this is every student knows and comes to expect Mr Pish at the gate every morning delivering a handshake and a friendly good morning This year
034the campus established a principal's leadership court which consists of approximately 20 students These students attended a better than good conference this year They had the opportunity to discuss what they want their campus to be and how everyone can work together to accomplish these goals Last school year the the campus started the implementation of the leadworthy character lessons and have continued them this year These lessons have a specific focus such as courage perseverance and teamwork and give students the opportunity to discuss and relate this in depth The campus has done various activities throughout the year that provide opportunities for students to reflect in a positive way They engaged in a one-word activity in which students wrote down a meaningful goal for themselves using just one word So an example of this would be like patience If
035I need to work on patience then I would just write the word patient because that's a goal of mine In a in addition the campus did a gratitude project where students wrote why they loved ECS on a heart and then displayed them all together creating a large heart allowing others to see what they wrote And then our middle school as you know was currently is currently recognized as a national showcase school Um the campus continues to build and maintain a culture of respect They start each morning by greeting students in the entrance areas of the school as the students enter the classrooms Affirming others is an important part of their daily culture One example of this is students writing a positive note to their teacher on a hand to give them a high five The
036campus also did grateful turkeys at Thanksgiving in which students were asked to write feathers on four of their teachers for four of their teachers then attached them to the turkey on the teacher's door so that the turkey just grew over time In order to promote a Wii culture the campus intentionally creates team building activities An example of this included playing a bingo game schoolwide At the end of the day students could be heard saying "We almost won." or we only needed one more number which shows how they connected with their with their class and their teacher Middle school uses a campus current currency system called bird bucks to acknowledge students who demonstrate the characteristics set forth by CKH The administrators issue paychecks at the conclusion of each grading period design with designated dollar amounts for
037A's B's or C's and bonuses for attendance discipline and participation in other activities On paycheck day the students collect their earnings to which they can cash them with the bank or hold them to use in the store save up or use for event purchases Events happen once a month Some examples from this year are snow cones and kickball day a VIP lunch ice cream Sunday bar hot chocolate bar picnic in the park and teacher versus student volleyball So that's our highlights for the middle school At North Side the use of Capturing Kids Hearts has fostered relational capacity among colleagues and cultivated strong bonds between students and educators They start each week with students engaged in leadworthy character lessons Consistently emphasizing core values such as respect responsibility and kindness has cultivated a shared sorry a shared
038understanding of expected behaviors and promoted a sense of community among students and staff The lessons have not only improved student behavior behavior reducing instances of bullying and conflict but also enhanced stu students social emotional skills such as empathy self-awareness and conflict resolution Northside also focuses on affirming and celebrating others Staff members have created a norm in the classroom to celebrate students and while in their PLC's they explore each individual and gain a deeper understanding of students needs and learning styles and the needs of their content teams The use of the Excel model on the campus has empowered students to become more active participants in their own learning journeys One example is allowing them to use their own voice to create their social contract This allows them to establish ownership of their behavior and how they
039want to be treated Because of the trust that is built within the classroom students are willing to take more risk actively participate in discussions and collaborate effectively with peers in the classroom And at Hutchkins they engage students and staff daily through a variety of interpersonal interactions and intentionally designed activities All are greeted and welcomed with sincere positivity and and and attention at the start of each day in class Teachers model the use of affirmations to build self-confidence and praise others for committing to and following agreed upon expectations Students in turn have been empowered to affirm each other using a variety of activities facilitated by the teachers Positive phone calls to parents about their children being affirmed by classmates or evidence of the way the of the processes I'm sorry of these processes that are also
040engaging the families Social contract expectations follow students throughout the school day where they are used to maintain engagement and accountability Students serve as class raiders and affirmers demonstrating their abilities to determine if expectations are being met to make course corrections and adjustments as needed and to thoughtfully praise one another Staff are encouraged to in affirm each other by writing positive remarks using happy mail that they can send each other and through the Friday high- five where those remarks are added up to the weekly rap email for all staff members to see at Matt Matt uses the capturing kids The use of capturing kids hearts has truly become the culture of the campus campus It is the way that they do business from staff to students themselves You will feel the welcoming environment when you are
041on campus Teachers on the campus embed the social contract into daily lessons to create a foundation of respect ownership and comm community For instance the three-year-old early childhood special Asian education class uses the social contract to practice learning their names and take ownership of classroom expectations This early introduction fosters a sense of belonging and accountability There is also a system that allows students to recognize and affirm their peers when they are following the social contract allowing for ownership and accountability of behavior at that young age To foster the meaningful relationships among the staff optional CKH socials are conducted throughout the year One recent example of this is the opportunity for the staff to play an education educator edition of Family Feud These events allow teachers to spend time together and make connections that they would
042otherwise not have the opportunity to do so The culture of care continues within the staff with the use of verbal and written affirmations At my a spirit stick is passed around where the recipients of the stick are publicly acknowledged by a colleague in a meeting or a gathering of the campus I could go on just a second Yeah because I know you put it on there but I just wanted to make sure that you recognize Oh yes I'm sorry Matt is correct Yes Matt is our other nationally uh recognized national showcase school currently right now Yes I apologize for missing that No I just know you Yes I could go on and on like like this this is just in fact I'm fixing to hand you a copy of their um evidence of impact that
043they submitted um which just gives you more details about what they're doing so you can read at your own pleasure but the campuses do a great job and I want to commend the uh teachers the staff all staff members the principles for their efforts and their dedication to this uh process because I believe it is making a huge impact on our culture Does anybody have any questions about it does it help also with your discipline yes we they have seen a drop in discipline numbers Yes Yes And outside of the the great work that Alicia does leading this we do have several of our principles in the audience and some of our assistant principles So if any of you want to make any comments I think now would be a good time to do so
044You you said it is making a difference in discipline Yes Is there a metric that that we could see they I I don't have their their Well is Sandy still here did she she stepped out I I do know that this was part of Sandy's um information and Patrick's here Patrick do you have any cuz I know you've been in meetings where they've talked about that and they presented to the Yeah they presented at TASSP last summer about a drop and I I'll be I can't tell you the specific numbers from last year that they we can get them Yeah If y'all wouldn't mind like sure I think we'd all like to see Sure Yes See it's I mean you say it's is working and and I I would believe that and but if we
045could see the numbers it would really make a difference Well and I know Paul was keeping because he left There's you know we put quite a few dollars in this program and and absolutely and I think if you'll we'll I wish Sandy or Paul were here I thought they I mean I saw them earlier so I um but I do know that they have data to show a drop in student referrals etc So they do and that data had to be part of what they presented to even be nationally showcase nominated So I do know that they have the data I just I don't have that that number So how long have we been doing this um well we really got back focused on it after co Okay So um prior to that we'd been
046doing it but not as um so like 2021 Yes Somewhere right yes I I would say 21 I know I went years ago I would say 2122 Yes Hi Sandy We're not trying to put you on the spot but we're gonna put you on the spot Okay I know you presented it to the board was asking about the impact on discipline from CKH Oh yeah I wish I had the numbers for you We presented that at 2024 summer workshop for principles and um we did everything like the reduction of DAP placements uh out of school suspension in school suspension teacher referrals and I believe that we saw I think it was 16% reduction in DAE placements 26% reduction I believe it was 26 of uh that was our highest reduction in teacher referrals Um you
047know by the second year of using it we saw that that's what we'd like to a quarter a quarter less of teacher referrals So it's really good And also too like you see a lot of evidence like so once we kind of got it rolling to like we had a substitute teacher that said "Well I made a mistake today and the kids corrected me." And I I thought "Oh no." I said "What what what happened?" And they said "Well you know I got started on the teacher lesson." and they said "No no no We do good things first." And the te the sub did it You know that was her first introduction to it And so she said "Well I don't know what to do." And the kids said "We know what to do." So
048they let it And then um I was interviewing somebody in u January or February for a a long-term sub kind of position Anyway and there's somebody who's relatively new to our community And I was going through like what our processes are things to do And I usually do capturing kids hearts and what that means is and I started describing it to her and she said "Oh my first grader is talking about this at home." And she said "Now it makes sense." Because the first grader came home was like "You know what i shared at school today or my good thing today was and so um uh you can see the evidence of it districtwide like people are are parents are seeing it stuff are um it's really interesting to see the parent surveys and stuff
049too but yeah it it has had an impact in middle school discipline and if it's going to have an impact in discipline at middle school it probably have an impact everywhere um and I know Sam has only been there a year but Mari and Elizabeth have been doing it for a lot longer Do you all have anything you wanted to add um one thing that's really neat uh for us is you create a process champions team on your campus So it's um composed of um staff on your campus and so they really do a lot of leading as well So it's not just the principles you know trying to make all of this happen right so um they meet monthly Uh they plan things they um get things going remind us of what we could
050be doing what our focus is for the month And so um they they send out resources and things like that for the teachers to use in their classroom And so it's really something that everyone believes in They've seen what it does you know they've seen that kids act different um when they use these processes And so it's really just become a way of life on the campus It's not something that you have to you know really work very hard to do It just it works and it makes sense And so um the kids they want to lead I mean it's hard to imagine but there are first graders who lead like the rating in their classroom They come back from specials and they said "Well we're going to give our class a three today because
051we had to be reminded in PE of what we do when we play this game." And so this is what we think we could do better next time And so um that's an example of rating if you heard that um in Alicia's presentation And so a lot of um students recognizing others and affirming them for the good things that they do and that they notice And so it's not just the adults having to do the work And everyone wants that from their peers right and so it's just a great way to recognize um the good things that the kids see and that we see and um the staff just really I mean they just they see all the the great things that have come from it So it's been wonderful Glad to hear it Okay
052Okay Anybody else have questions okay So before we go to uh 5C2 that I think we have a you have a sheet right there Thank you We have someone that wants to address the board of the comment Miss Her I did but I just decided to withdraw my request for comment I'm just going to listen to Alicia I've already had a meeting so I'm just I'm not satisfied I'm just going to listen Okay J you're up Let me show you Do you need this still you still need No I don't I don't So if you want to let me do that before speak before you start speaking cuz this noise will drive you nuts Oh I do I'll pass these out to you So just as a reference for you Yes Yeah We're not to
053stick together today Thank you Thank you again All right So what I want to share with you today is just um basically um how the district uh is planning to review the blue bonnet curriculum um because of the um concerns out there regarding the uh religious uh remarks and and references in it So basically the plan is to first we need to get the materials in our hands and uh our goal or or shipping based on what we know in the past for shipping we anticipate to have these materials in our hands by May So that is kind of when we want to start this process or get a get a timeline set in May uh the process may not be able to start till June because I do want to include teacher leaders in
054this and um I don't want to pull them out of the classroom and so um to do that we're going to have to probably wait till school gets out to do this but basically in a nutshell what we want to do is take the materials I want the teacher leaders they are the content experts they know their tees better than anybody but I want them to take their units and review their units for anything that they feel meets uh this religious reference references um note it mark it highlight it whatever they need to do and then establish a team of people that are going to come in and say "Okay this is the things that we see How are we going to address it?" And there's different ways that we can do this Um what
055I've given you is some examples of how we can solve some of these or possible solutions to it So um what I have previewed so far and what I have seen is a lot of this is just unnecessary text So basically it's it'll say something and then there's a blurb in there that is just referencing Christianity in some a way or the Bible in some way and it's not necessary to what's being taught So an easy way would to be just to remove that line or that remark in there and keep going on with your lesson Um another way is a lot of this information is also in the teacher background So it's in the teacher manual and it just tells the teacher to remind students that this is a biblical story Remind students this
056And again it's not necessary for what's being taught So it can be we just we redact it they tell the teachers this is something that you're not going to share Um there are cases where it's um like a picture card and so the student looks at the picture and the teacher is explaining what the picture is and and the history behind it or whatever they're talking about maybe a historical figure or something with science but the card maybe the picture is not appropriate or the references that it's the text is not uh appropriate So we can easily remove just that card and that text and again the lesson can can continue without having a huge impact in the whole thing Um there is an example of removing just a whole lesson So these units have
05710 to 15 lessons in them So you're talking about over the course of a year they have 9 to 10 to 11 units and then within those units there's 10 to 15 lessons in each unit And in some of these cases the unit the lessons although they they all compile at the end to remove one in some cases does not affect the whole unit Um there's an example in first grade Um it talks about the creation talks about the books of book of Genesis Um that's an example to me where if we remove that whole lesson it has no impact on that whole unit or any of the unit assessment at the end because they're doing some writing with it And so that's an example of how we could do that Um there Let's see
058I'm just trying to make sure I hit all the different options here for you Um the lesson portion um removing the text Um so those are basically examples of how we could do this So the goal would be again have a team We go through it grade by grade see what needs to be changed adjusted removed left because there could be cases where it is like written in a factual way about history So it may need to be left for that reason but that's the determination of the team And then come back to you in July with a basically a blackline outline master line of here's the things that we addressed and here's our here's how we're going to fix it I would like to have at least the first semester at a minimum done
059by then I the goal would be the whole year but I also have to consider that teachers are off contract and I'm going to be asking them to come up to help me do this So I've got to be uh considerate of their time as well So minimum per semester done hopefully the whole year we've we've gone through the whole thing Did you say that region three was going to help region three also is giving us support on this too as well Yes And this refresh me um K through five curriculum K through five ELA It's the it's the um RLA units Yes It's it's we're not we haven't found anything in the skills part of it Uh K2 has skills Um we haven't found anything in the skills but it's mainly the it's mainly
060the RLA but we're going to look at math too just to make sure we're covering ourselves because we're doing math in one two three But so we're going to we're going to check it all We're not going to miss any pieces But did you say ELA English language arts so no science no social no no no But a lot of this is the the content that's being taught is a science concept right we're teaching the RLATS with a science topic or with a history topic So that's where the a lot of this comes in So is your plan for the teens like first grade would have their own team second grade would have their own team Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Do you feel like you'll have enough teacher support during the summer to get
061this done i do I do Yes I do I understand we're not wanting to teach creation and such Correct Correct Kindergarten but like we're concerned about Da Vinci's work So the last supper is the is the that's an example in uh the fifth grade unit they it's about the Renaissance period and it talks about the art and uh it does talk it has the last supper and it does reference there are some some pieces of text in there that probably is not necessary Um could you still use the art possibly but take out the references of there's text basically there's I wish I would have quoted it more specifically but there there is But yes that is one example of it in fifth grade All right So any other questions sounds like y'all got some
062work to do Yes Feel like the curriculum itself is worthwhile i do because because when you look at it as a whole that's kind of what I was wondering is it why did we choose this one so So one well one the the way what we're doing right now is not working Okay Our our reading scores are we do not have we have too many students not reading on level So we need to address that We also teach a lot of things in isolation We also spend a tremendous amount of time amount of time teachers having to find supplemental resources to supplement the basil that they have because it's just really outdated It really is not meeting the needs of what we needed to meet This teaches more thematically So it's basically taking those teaks
063and we're teaching them over and over and over again um over and over again Um so it's cycling back through them So it's not like we're teaching one thing at one time and then we don't teach it again and then we move on to something else So this is a way for us to constantly circle back to all those teaks and teach them basically in an application way versus just in isolation So that's that's a very important thing And I will also say that looking at all the units and everything there are many units in there that don't have anything like so while there's a lot of reference it seems to be isolated in certain places Who put this curriculum together um well it started as a version of Amplify Okay And then TEA purchased
064that and then TEA made its revisions to it So TEA this is one of their So TEA owns Amplify Now this is of the amplify tree Correct Okay Correct But it's but what we are seeing is a lot of these changes are in this blue bonnet version that weren't necessarily in the amp Has TEA made any effort to address any of these uh my understanding is they had public hearing and listen to public comments and everything prior to them approving this in November Okay And actually the state board of education approved this Yes And Alicia I just handed Alicia She's got it It's got all of the approved curriculums coming out That's that was my next question So we have amplify or this is the amplified version of four prek whatever What are the other
065like I know we have some other options like math So there's let's see uh SAVIS has uh Texas my view literacy That's not owned by TEA though No No Blue Bonnet's the only one owned by TEA that I'm aware of Right Yes There's not many as I've looked through and of course Alicia is the expert so I'm going to give her a chance to look through that while Well that's pretty much it Um well that my point to you is that when you look through the ELA approved models from the state board of education there's not much other choice No Now they do have some in math but and they do have they've got like three or four pages but many of those are for ESL only or there's not a whole lot of options
066that um is on that sheet And yeah it's pretty much Savis and Blue Bonnet for ELA That's the Spanish version Then there's some phonics Um amplify phonics Um let's see This is Curriculum and Associates uh Texas Magnetic Reading Foundations um Just Right Reader So that's a reading horizons but these are these are just phonics programs There's a couple more but they're not um they're not the and they're not all K curriculum No no no they're not Interesting that they they had to throw in religion I I can't speak for for their reasoning for it obviously but um why now what is there something coming down the line is our goal to take out all aspects of religious information in there in any way that it is appearing to be in an indoctrinating way or it's
067just not necessary to be in there So you're going to y'all are going to put teachers will look through that Yes Present that to us and we'll get to say this is indoctrination Okay So do you want to tell them kind of about how we're doing the um internalization now with amplify because I think that helps to um so it doesn't seem so overwhelming like so much work because we already are doing the work so to speak Yes So currently the teachers already are what they do they call internalizing their lessons So they're expected to have already gone through their whole lessons before they meet weeks of lessons at a time before they meet in their PLC's and in their PLC then they discuss any concerns they have any misconceptions that might come up uh
068things that they feel might need to be changed or adjusted Um so they're already doing that um every week but they don't have this in their hands They don't they do not have this in their hands No No So they're already kind of used to to doing this to some degree And as I shared with Mr Callahan this approach not to this depth but teachers no matter what they're teaching are constantly looking at their their resources before they teach it to see if it's appropriate or not and what they need to change So so to to do that beforehand is a very common practice um for teachers So okay And we pay we already pay planning time in the summer that kind of stuff to do this Um well that's we haven't said it on
069the we haven't said any of that yet but that's the plan to do Yes But we have day I mean we have then we build a calendar with quite a few days before school starts Yes But we I'm hoping to have this done way before that All right Yes Good luck You ready to move on anything else okay We're going to move on We're going to discussion and action items Yes 6B1 Thank you Yes No we're good So uh board members um if you'll look on there um there's an agenda item to consider and take possible action to to select a construction delivery method for all 2025 district bond projects I need to be clear to the newspaper the radio everyone out there who's listening This process the construction delivery process is probably a six
070week long process If we wait to set this process up until after the bond passes then we're looking at the middle of July before we're able to start any process any projects of any of any scope All this is doing is setting up the process to go out and look for RFQS for architects and engineers RFQS for construction managers at risk This by no means requires the district to dedicate any funds or dedicate any monies or choose anybody This just goes out and provides people an opportunity knowing that there's no financial incentive for them to submit They just will submit this information to us so that if the community decides that a bond is the direction they want to go then we will already have that process complete and then we can begin to act
071on the the community's wishes So I want to make sure that everybody's aware that this is nothing other than setting up the process Notice it says to select a meth a delivery method not to select the deliverer of the method but to select the delivery method that we would choose to use Okay Any questions no Everybody know what we're doing So the motion would be I think there's a motion in your uh motion would be to select twostep construction manager at risk C procurement for the district 2025 bond projects as providing the best value for the district and that would we'd be uh authorizing the superintendent with the assistant district council to prepare and issue a request Well that would be the Yes So the first the first motion would be to select the two-step
072construction manager at risk process That would be the next one there Okay Everybody know what the motion is now is to select two-step construction manager at risk I'll make I'll move I'll make a motion to accept a two-step CR as the construction process or construction delivery method I'll second We got a motion and a second Is there any discussion all those in favor raise your right hand Anybody opposed motion passes Okay we can move on to the Well the next one just it just gives me the authority to go out and tell Mr um Wells to set up newspaper advertising to go out and do a request for qualifications for architects and engineering design firms Again there's no commitment on the district's part Again there's no money being spent This is just for us to
073identify the process that if a bond were to pass we would have these processes underway and then be able to go forward If the bond does not pass there's no money owed exchanged anything And all of the architects and engineers are well aware of this process They do it frequently They just put out their request for qualifications and I'm assuming that most of you like Rich you've probably done this before and Mr Canel you probably been a part of this as probably has Mr Irwin at some point Can you all see the request for qualifications for AR architect and engineer you got that i got you here Okay I move to issue a RFQ for architectural engineering design and construction administration for the 2025 bond project and for the superintendent to establish a process for
074evaluation to receive and evaluate the proposals including appointment of a committee for such purpose and bring the ranking of the I didn't see all that I want it all there's a committee the record okay everybody got that yes sir the motion I move as presented James got a second there But Mr Mr Drock you have been on that committee before So is there any discussion everybody understand this a motion all those in favor raise your right hand Anybody opposed motion passes And the third one is to u move to accept the Davis Bacon wage rate And you've you had the same process back in December right everybody remembers back with the turf we had a similar motion and I'm going to read that that the board adopted prevailing wages wage ra wage rates published by
075the United States Department of Labor in accordance with the Davis Bacon Act and it subsequent amendments excluding fringe benefits in connection with the construction of the 2025 bond project Got a motion got a second Any disc made a second Your hand went up first James made a motion Is there any discussion all those in favor raise your right hand Anybody opposed motion passes And to be clear again I just want to make sure that all the board has authorized me to do is to go out and look at these proposals these RFQS etc This is by no way committing the district to anything or committing any district funds Understood Okay we're moving on now to go govern governance And we have consideration approval to take necessary actions to declare the May 13 25 board election
076unopposed and candidates selected That's correct So we have uh three positions Position three which is Mr Cannell position four which um I think Mr Ryan is here Clayton Ryan stand up Clayton So Mr Ryan is the uh unopposed candidate in position four And then Mr Russell will be position five that he's taken over for Mr Erwin and Mr Ryan has taken over for Mr Vallejo and so the this this motion allows us to declare all three positions elected without having to go through an election That's a good thing We don't have to have an election Got a motivated move Good job Mr Erwin Second by Kathy Is there any discussion all those in favor raise your right hand Anybody oppose motion passes Okay last one Last one is 6C2 which uh I apologize to the
077board profusely in one of the resolutions I mistakenly condensed through working with the legal council to name the people for the early resignation as chapter 21 contracts thinking that that included everybody But in fact I should have just said professional contract employees because we do have a small number of individuals who are professionals who have contracts but they're not qualified as chapter 21 So I recommend what we've done the previous two times we have done the early resignation It was for professional contracts It does not require a resolution We can simply amend it through board action And that's what I'm asking the board to do tonight That motion and it would retroactively impact anybody who's turned in the resignation that met with our intention at least what my intention was for the early resignation Motion
078second Either one Any discussion all those who favor raise your right hand Nobody post Okay Got any review items no sir Closed session Close session Yes sir And then when we come out there will be only one um item on there which is to uh look at administrative contracts So if any of the administrators want to stay you can stay and hear it If nobody wants to stay I guess we'll I don't think it's going to be a big deal time is now 7:01 and we will adjourn into close session