001Good evening. I want to welcome you and call to order this meeting of the Forzel ISD board of trustees for the date of June 25th, 2025 at 6:30. Let the record show there is a quorum of board members present. Myself, Steven Shadrock, Mr. Marshall Fleer, Mr. Jason Sabotto and Dr. Joel Odum. Furthermore, let the record show that this meeting has been duly posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. This is an open meeting and we and we welcome members of the public to observe. Please note that the public comment should be reserved for the public comment portion of the agenda. We kindly ask that no no comments or questions be made outside of that time. Should you have comments or questions, you're welcome to contact the administration directly. Thank you for your cooperation.
002Dr. Odin will now lead us in prayer follow. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for our school district, our teachers, our staff, those, Father, who work behind the scenes. Uh Father, we thank you for our bus drivers and those who clean our schools, who, Father, take great time in investing in our students. And so, Father, we thank you for each one. We thank you, Lord God, that you put us in a school district that uh strongly believes in you and uh practices, Father, what you've told us in your word. Thank you for all your blessings. Thank you, Father, for these who have gathered tonight. We pray that you'll give us wisdom and guidance and direction and all decisions made. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
003Amen. 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. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state and indivisible. [Music] Mr. Sabotto will now recite our FISD vision and mission statement. The FISD vision statement is character, knowledge, confidence. Our mission statement is FISD is committed to the development of innovative lifelong learners who possess character traits to achieve personal and professional success. I will now recite our FISC goals. The FISC goals are excellent student outcomes, superior workplace environment, exceptional customer service and community engagement, and strategic resource management. We will now do a roundroin of the board recital of the FISD core beliefs. Our FISD core beliefs are in FIS in
004IFSD. We believe all students feel safe and supported in a developmentally and academically challenging environment. We believe families are welcome partners in the children's education. Faculty and staff are compassionate, dedicated, adaptable individuals who are student centered. Campus leadership is fair, equitable, and clearly communicates and engages with stakeholders. Superintendent and central administration lead with integrity, transparency and clear communication to provide a wellresourced educational environment. Trustees provide student centered and physical physically responsibly leadership and transparent ethical support of all stakeholders. Dr. Odum will now recite our overview of the good governance and a code of ethics. Each month we highlight one of our good governance indicators and code of ethics that the FISD board of trustees follow to promote the best interest of the district as a whole. This month for the code of ethics, we are
005highlighting commitment to service. I will focus my attention on fulfilling the board's responsibilities of goal setting, policymaking, and evaluation. I will diligently prepare for and attend board meetings. I will avoid personal involvement in activities the board has delegated to the superintendent. I will seek continuing education that will enhance my ability to fulfill my duties effectively. Our good governance indicator for this month is the board has a plan in place to actively strengthen community partnerships to improve overall performance and stewardship of public resources. Thank you, Miss Petri. Do we have any public comments? Yes, sir. Thank you, ma'am. We will now continue with the public hearing over the proposed 2025 2026 budget presented by Miss Angel. Good evening, Mr. Shut, Dr. Gilstra, and board. Um, this evening we will be holding holding our public hearing on
006the 2025 2026 school year. This is a public hearing, so um we do welcome comments or questions from the audience. So, here we go. Um just to remind everybody of our vision and mission. Again, the board cites that at the beginning of every board meeting and that is what what guides us in our in our uh mission here in our development of the budget. Sorry. Okay. So, sorry about that. Um our goals again just to remind everybody of our goals again what guides us in our budget development and what we do everything we do here at the district. So this really falls into the resource management and being fiscally responsible with with our budget and and what we do here. So the budget process our Wilson and uh Bear County appraisal district preliminary values which
007we received on August 25th um required by law. Um, we held a board workshop last Monday, a notice published in the Wilson County News, which was published in the June 11th um, edition, public hearing, which we're holding tonight, final budget approval, and then the tax rate for 2025 tax year will be set at our meeting on September 8th. This is just a copy of the uh, proposed budget and proposed discussed bud budget and proposed tax rate that was posted in the paper. Taking a look at our tax history from tax year 22 through tax year 24. You can see there that our tax rate has gone down from about a$111 in 2022 to 90 cents approximately in 2024. So that's a decrease of about 21 cents over the course of the last three years. um
008factors influencing the budgeting process for 2025 2026 we're looking at an enrollment of 450 and that should say 2526 ADA of 3720 that's maintaining an attendance rate of um 94%. So, we're hoping, we were at 93ish this year. We're hoping to increase that a little next year. And also the big one, House Bill 2. Um, looking at our average, uh, daily attendance and enrollment history over the last 10 years. Um, you can see there, it's kind of hard to see. It's dark. I'm sorry. But the line at the top is going to be our enrollment. The maroon line, the black line is going to be our ADA. Um you can see how it's kind of fluctuated there, especially when we hit COVID um 2122, but we're slowly regaining that attendance and coming back up. Um
009looking at our preliminary values that we did receive this year from the two taxing entities that that are our district uh involves, we're looking at a little over $2 billion worth of property value. That's a increase of a little over 1% from our certified values from last year. um tax collection collection rate of 98%. And again, I just left the tax rates there because we will not get those tax rates until the beginning of August. When when do those those are preliminary property values? When do we get the certified? July 25th. Okay. The the taxing entities are required to give us certified values um by July 25th. By law, because they're currently handling the protest right now. Yes. So July 25th. Sometimes they'll get we'll get them a little before then, but by law they're
010required to get them by July 23. So for the 2526, the the budgets that the board approves are the general fund, the food service fund, and the debt service fund. Um so we're going to look at revenues, appropriations, our debt obligations, and our tax rate history. So looking at our general fund revenues, we're looking at uh 13 almost $9 million in local revenues. That's our local taxes. That's um gate receipts from athletics. That's facility rentals. Anything in that that realm that's locally generated, that's going to be in your maroon there. So that's about 31.3% of the budget. Our state revenues, we're looking at $30.3 million this year. So that's going to be your black there at 68.4%. Federal revenue is very, very small at.3%. Um so we're looking at a total revenue for our general
011fund of $44.33 million. Is that does that include the new homestead exemption? Yes. So, yes. Okay. So, yeah. So, our t our local tax revenues are going down a little bit, but that's the state should make that up. On the flip side, it it definitely illustrates how the state has a big influence, right? Because our our our last year, I think state was about 63 64% of the total budget. So, um yes, it has gone up and that's because of that more compression, more homestead exemption. Looking at appropriations for our instruction, we're looking at $24.7 million. Instructional and student support, 6.2 million. Administrative support, 1.5. Operations and support services, a little over 11 million. Debt service, $200,000. Other operating costs, $623,000. So again, our appropriations are set there at 44.33 million, resulting in a balanced
012budget for this year. Any questions on on uh that's that's big. A lot of districts are not balanced and shutting down schools. Yes. Any questions on the local or the 199 budget? If not, we'll go on to fund balance status. As of June 30th, we were at 11.3 million. TEA's recommended fund balance is three months operating expenses, which for us is about $10 million. And I think that's something to point out is previously up until this year our rule of thumb was $9 million but our increased cost every month have gone up. So our three-month operating cost now we've got to think in our minds it's $10 million just short of that. So we were operating about 11 before years back but then we had to cut into it. Yes. Compens. So yeah, looking at
013simple math, I took the audit last year, just divided our total expenditures by 12, and that's times three. That's what comes to about $10 million. So just looking at the general fund by object code, meaning payroll cost, contracted services, um supplies and materials, our oper our payroll costs are they're at 78% of our entire budget. So there you that's that's where we spend the most of our our funds on. That's where we invest the most most of our income. Um contracted profession professional services 11.2% of the budget supplies and materials 4.3 operating expenses 3.4 um debt service very small at half a percent and that's for our maintenance tax notes by the way and capital improvement capital outlay we're looking at 1.7% of the budget. So the operating expense that's what we would call lights
014water. Um correct. Okay. Yeah that would be any of the 6400. So yes, anything that the contracted services are they like for example our food service is that part of the contract? They're not in the general fund. They're in the child nutrition fund. Okay. So they're in another another Okay. Yes. All right. But a lot of professional contracted services, anything we would contract out um we do a lot of sped contracting out right now because we don't have the personnel um things like that. So again, it comes back to personnel just in a different way. shift it over to contracting services. So, now looking at the child nutrition fund, um, as you can see, this one is different. Um, local revenue about $600,000. State revenue very, very small at 10,000. Um, and federal revenue at
01510 uh $2 million. Again, that's where we operate our NSLP, our national school lunch program, um, where those funds come through. So, that this program, you can see, is mostly fedally funded at 76.6%, local revenue 23%. Again, that's kids paying for lunches and state revenue at point4%. So for a total revenue of $2.6 million and this one, operation support 3.1 million, debt service for 4 point or 4,500 for a total budget appropriations of 1 uh one 3.11, excuse me. In this fund, we are looking at a at a to reduce our fund balance by $500,000. TDA, Texas Department of Agriculture does require us to do that. Our our fund balance here is large. Um, we do have to submit a plan every year saying how we're going to spend down that excess fund balance and
016it's very hard to spend that money down because you have to spend it on something in the cafeteria and it has to be for the kitchen. You and it's it's very difficult to spend that money. It has to be approved and it has to be approved by TDA. Yes. So again, we didn't submit a plan in February of 2025 to spend down that that was approved. So that's why this one is showing showing the decrease in fund balance, but that's not a bad thing. That's good. And because we do have a positive fund balance, we do not have to go up on our ch our uh lunch prices. Correct. So we can leave those as they are. Now going into our uh debt service fund, this is the debt obligation for this fiscal year. We're
017looking we've got three bond series that are out there. the 2015 at 330 $330,000. The 2026 we're looking at $3.2 million. 2027 series 700,000. And that 2024 that we um did last year uh for 279 interestonly payment this year. So our total principal payment is 3.1 million. Our interest is 1.4 million. So a total of almost $4.6 $.6 million in debt obligations, bond obligations for the district for this year. Looking at our tax rate history over the last 10 years, um you can see where we've been. 2019 was when uh House Bill 3 was passed with compression. So you can see how it's decreased there by almost 55 cents over the last 10 years. We've decreased our total tax. So looking at our debt service fund on the revenue side, we're looking at 4.4 4
018million in local revenue, which is our taxes. Um 155,000 in state revenue for a total of 4.58 million in revenue under the debt service fund. Um look at appropriations, same all goes to debt service. So, looking at the combined three funds that you guys will approve this evening, um we're looking at $18.9 million in local revenue, so 36.7%. State revenue, 30,465,000 for 59.1% of revenue. Federal revenue 2.1 for 4.1% of total revenue. So, we're looking at total revenue for the three funds of $51,520,000. Again, this is just a recap of what we looked at before, combining all the three funds. So again, at the bottom, it's going to be the half a million dollars difference for the child nutrition fund when you when you compare revenues to uh appropriations. So looking at 2025, 2026, and
019beyond, potential enrollment growth, again, we've been very steady around that same area. Um property value growth, property tax legislation, and the impacts and sustainability of housing. Sustainability. sustainability and they continue to unpack it. So, I mean, there could be something else in there that is interpreted differently than everybody else is interpreting it right now. Um, it's just hard to say, which is why we didn't have our meeting till last week. Um, upcoming timeline, July 25th is when we'll received our certified property values from Bear and Wilson County. Um, August 2025, TEA will provide our MCR, maximum compressed tax rate. That's on the M side. That's they give us the rate, we have to adopt it. Um August um September 8th will be our tax rate hearing and the tax rate adoption. Are there any questions?
020Any questions? Great job. Thank you. Can you go that again? One more time. I think it obviously us being in July one, we're having to adopt the budget and with some unknowns. property values are not, you know, finalized. We don't have tax rates until August and adopted in September. Um, but obviously we know, we feel very strongly about what's going to be out there. So, kudos to the business office and Miss Angel. Thank you very much for your hard work. Yes. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Next, we will have the superintendent report by Dr. Gilstra. board members. Um, as you are well aware, we had the TASBY SLI earlier this month. It was a great opportunity for board members to hear about relevant topics. Uh, received some inspirational uh, speeches and from some outstanding
021speakers as well as networking with board members from across the state. Uh, this year all seven board members were able to attend. So, thank you for making time in your calendar, your personal calendars, uh, to take care of that and get your continuing education hours. All board members are current on their required hours with the exception of the legislative update which we will provide uh in August. So we we're going to host that for other boards around the area uh in August. So we we'll get that taken care of. Provided in the packet this evening in the is the board meeting calendar for 2526 per policy. Regular board meetings will take place the first Monday of each month at 6:30 with two exceptions. September due to Labor Day holiday and November due to the election
022canvasing requirements. So those two days will be the second Monday. Additional meetings uh may be called and changes may be made with appropriate communication in a timely manner. Also included are the regular meeting agenda calendar. So we have a list, a running list, a list that keeps up with that. That way we don't miss anything that's routine or required for the board to take action on. Uh so we have that calendar for you as well. Uh we are in the process of posting information regarding the 2025 bond election. Uh which requires which is required by law. Sir Oh, the board election. I said bond, didn't I? Board election. Board election. We do this. We're not doing that one. This year we will have an election for two single member districts. Uh district two and six.
023Applications to file for a position are available on the district website along with additional election information. Uh we encourage anyone that's interested to get on our website and uh review that information as needed. Applications are due by Monday, August the 18th by 5:00 p.m. Election day is Tuesday, November the 4th. A list of current professional openings has been included in your packet. These positions are posted on the district website as well as other professional organization websites. Uh thus far, we have been able to hire certified teachers. We have not hired had to hire a DOI or an uncertified teacher to this point. Uh with the uh approval of the compensation plan this evening along with the calendar that was previous adopted, we hope to continue this practice. However, we do have some difficult positions to
024fill and so I don't know we're going to be able to do that in the end, but we are definitely making a lot of moves for that. I will also add that we were looking at new teacher orientation doing our plans for that, we currently have one new to the profession teacher. We out of all the hires we've made, only one is coming to us with no experience. So, we are recruiting experienced teachers, not just certified, but experienced. So, uh I think that's a combination of um the compensation plan as well as the the calendar and so hopefully that that is uh making a dent in that. So, we really look forward to that. Just a reminder uh we will not have a regular meeting in the month of July. However, a policy subcommittee meeting
025will be necessary as we prepare for TASBY update 125 as well as uh other policies that are affected by legislation. uh per the DEC or DC local uh August through uh excuse me, April through August, the board delegates to the superintendent the authority to hire personnel contracts. Included in your packet is a list of those that we have um we've received resignations from as well as uh the ones we've offered positions to. We do have some upcoming dates out there. Please mark your calendar. Wednesday, July the 23rd, we will have our Mission baseball game. Uh Monday the 28th is new teacher orientation. All of you are invited to attend uh and meet our new teachers. Uh Monday, August the 4th, we'll have our regular board meeting. And then the next day on Tuesday is our
026back to school bash. A time for our community to to get geared up and ready to go for another school year. We have district convocation on Thursday, August the 7th. So all the board members are encouraged to attend that with the rest of the staff from around the district. We'll have that at the event center once again. And then uh in big bold letters there, first day of school, first day of school is Tuesday, August the 12th. So we can make sure we're we're gearing up for that. Are there any questions? Thank you, board. Thank you. We will now have a DIP summit of review by Miss Brooks. Good evening, President Shadok, Dr. Gilstrap from board of trustees and tonight I will provide you with a very brief summary of our summitive review of the
027district improvement plan from 2425. The district has four goals that drive our district improvement plan. Each quarter, Dr. Wade provided you with a short formative review of the progress on these goals. The district and campus leadership team has also evaluated our progress in June and completed a sumitive review for each performance objective. You have the complete summitive review in your board packet but we will I will just provide a brief overview tonight for the 2425 school year. The FISD plan has a total of four goals and 14 performance objectives. Performance objectives are summatively evaluated as exceeded performance, met performance, made significant progress toward performance, or made no progress. For FISD, four of the 14 performance objectives, 57% met performance, 36% had significant progress, and 7% had some progress. Zero had no progress. In the final
028quarter of the review, strategies are also evaluated as either accomplished, meaning 100% of the strategy was successfully implemented, continue and modify, meaning the strategy will continue as written with modifications, or discontinued. Of the 35 strategies, of the 35 strategies, 57% were accomplished, 43% will be continued or modified into next school year. The continued strategies revolve around these themes. improving student attendance, improving our student outcomes for math and reading and the implementation of effective instruction. To do that, we want to make sure that we're supporting our special group or our special population such as special education and GT, continue our efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified staff and planning to meet the facility needs of the district. Here are a few of the data indicators from each goal that we've been monitoring. Our discipline referrals
029are down from 2,994 which exceeded the baseline and the goal from last year. Student attendance was at 93.05% that was a little bit below our target of 94 but still above last year's rate. CCMR accountability is a lagging indicator. So when we receive our 2025 CCMR accountability, it will be based on the 2024 graduates. But our current estimates with our efforts um indicate that our current class is at 88% which is well above last year's rate of 76 and above our goal of 80. Kudos. Yeah. Very good. Um the STAR data is preliminary and we will receive our our final numbers later this month. There are three levels of performance on STAR approaches, meets and masters. All of those levels indicate the student is ready for the next grade level. However, this year we focused
030on the MEET's grade level performance, which is a higher standard than just passing the test. Our RLA performance improved from 49 to 51%. And our three through eight math meets level increased by 1%. And I will explain a little bit more on the next slide. Both the English one and English 2 and algebra 1 performance were close to last year's rate, but still low by 3% from last year. These numbers also do include our retesters. We also did see marked improvement in our dual credit success from up to 94% compared to last year's rate at 73. And getting a little bit closer look for our math performance again at the meets level of STAR. Here's a breakdown of our 3 to8 preliminary meets level performance. As you can see, in grades three to six, we
031did improve on our meats level performance with fifth grade even improving eight percentage points. The change for seventh and eighth grade math was impacted by the fact that we actually had almost double the amount of students in seventh grade taking the eighth grade test this year. So, previously we had 66 kids take the eighth grade test that were in seventh grade. This year we had 117th graders actually take the eighth grade test. And so that's um has to do with Senate Bill 2124. So our students who are performing well on their fifth grade STAR test are automatically enrolled in an advanced math track. Um so those those roughly 40% would be your high achievers. Yes. Yes. So, our higher performing students are on that advanced math track so that they can take algebra in eighth
032grade and continue to take advanced math in high school, which means we have fewer students taking the seventh grade exam and fewer higher performing students taking the seventh grade exam. One of our data points for goal two is teacher attendance, which was at 93.5% last quarter, which is below our goal of 96%. But this rate does include employees who are out on extended leave. Here's some data points for goal three. Our student attendance data is shy of our goal of 94% but again above um baseline from last year. And our average website and app downloads is also above our baseline because we've seen spikes in engagement particularly on our HR website when the hybrid calendar was announced. Another piece of data that we look at for goal four is the percent of orders that are
033completed through May. Our completion rate was over 99%. We've also received a first financial rating of an A+ superior on our budget and finance operations. I saw this slide at the beginning of go back. Okay. We've already taken steps to develop the district improvement plan for next year by including input from various stakeholders and I'll bring recommendations to the board in August to approve our 2526 district improvement plan. Board, do you have any questions? It's definitely great to see the increases in those numbers. You know, everything from CCMR to the to all the other scores was great to see and appreciate you breaking out that seventh and eighth grade because you look at those numbers, you don't realize that. But it's great that we had 117 kids do well enough to thank that that advanced
034class. So that's great news. Yes, we definitely have some momentum that we're gonna try to continue. Thank you, Miss Brooks. Thank you. Good job. Next on the agenda is item number four, action items. Uh first action item is a consent agenda by Dr. Gil. Uh board members, uh we do have the minutes from our regular June board meeting on June the 2nd, as well as the minutes from our budget workshop on June the 16th. And there is a trip request that's been included. This is for our students that are traveling out of state for the national taffy contest. So that would be the only other addition other than the minutes to the consent agenda. If there's no questions, administration recommends approval of the consent agenda as presented. Mr. President, I'll recommend and uh make a
035motion to accept the administration's recommendation. I'll second that. Okay, we have a we have a motion by Dr. ODM and a second by Mr. Sabotto. Uh any further questions or discussion? If by show of hands in favor, four to zero. By the way, that's that's a second year in a row they've been Yes. That's the second year we've had to approve a trip request to I think it's in Florida. They're on their way right now. Yes, Florida. Orlando. Glad you approve the trip. Yes. I'm excited for him. Good. We will now consider the approval of the final budget amend amendment for 202425 by Miss Angel. Good evening once again. Um I am bringing you a budget amendment to increase revenue um local taxes, state revenue, and a decrease in federal revenue which was our SHs
036funds that we've spoken about in the past. Um, so we're looking at almost $ 1.9 million increase in revenue to this year's budget and then we're uh parsing that out between the functions um on the other side. So you can it's a it's a neutral budget amendment. Um revenues equal expenditures. So, so this also called includes moving the uh bonus that we gave at the end the I the appreciation statement the the $400 stipen that was given at the end of this. Yes, sir. This includes that. So, um again you can see it is the revenues equal the expenditures again. Therefore, it's going to can keep us at the the balance budget for this year on the budget side. Um again the audit will happen in August so we will get that in October usually
037or beginning of November. So are there any questions? If there are no question questions and administr administration recommends the board approve the FISD 2425 final budget amendment as presented. Mr. President, I move to accept administration recommendation. I second. We have a motion by Mr. Sabota and a second by Mr. Flitter. Is there any further questions or discussion? Show of hands in favor. Four to zero. Thank you. Next, we will consider the approval of the 2025 2026 budget and compensation plan by Miss Angle and Miss Donnish. I will turn it over to Miss Donnish and let her go over the compensation plan for this year. Good evening, President Shadrock and board members. Dr. Gilstra. Um, thank you. So, we're going to review the the compensation adoption proposal that most that was presented last week in the
038budget workshop with some updates and additions. And just to review, in the past five years, um we've tried hard to um give raises and different other benefits and compensation um additions to our staff. Um all of the past five years, we've been able to give at least a 3% raise with the exception of last year where we did a 1% along with some other benefits um that added to the benefits package for our staff members. Like in 2223 we were able to add the five local days um for our bus drivers and um things like the bereavement leave and the sick bank were implemented as well as various other um insurance contribution um additions as well. This is along with the over the past five years, we've been able to give a $3,000 um in
039those stipens um the forms of between $300 and $600. Over the past five years, that would equal to uh $3,000 in addition to the benefits package for all staff members. So, we're h really happy about that. Um Yeah, like these are technology keep. Okay. Okay. So, so that that $3,000 over the last few years, if you equate that over that, that's $1.8 million, isn't it? Yes, sir. Um, and that we're really proud that we were able to do that for all staff members. We didn't break it apart. Um but that just it we did have some guidelines like you had to be present that um you had to be hired by certain date or you would be had to be returning say if we did it in November you had to return for the next
040school year. Um but uh I think um our staff really appreciated those and and uh a lot of the times they were surprises so that was a little um added bonus. Right. Well, I have um I have my notes. I can talk but nobody else. Keep talking. Yeah, you're good. Um, so just to review, we did just recently have the passage of HB2. Um, and so HB2 did two things. It initiated the teacher retention aotment as well as the um support staff aotment which were two pots of money given to that'll be given to us specifically with the intent of passing that on to teachers and support staff. And so it's still it's still new, but we're learning new things every day about it. Um so what is the teacher retention aotment? the teacher retention
041aotment. Um because we have 5,000 or less students. Um for every teacher that has three to four years of experience, they'll be given um we have to increase we will we get to increase their salaries by $4,000. And with teachers five years or more experience, um the increase to them is $8,000. So overall, um, that's an average of a 13% uh, raise that our teachers will be looking at. You're all right. Yes. Um right where we So teachers um we've learned a little more but they are teachers teachers will be defined as classified in ps. So this is looking at our teacher pay scale. Our teacher pay is we're also introducing our um our steps. So the teacher will receive either their 4,000 or their 8,000 if they're three to five years and three five
042years plus. Um and all teachers will receive their step to move to the next um level. So it will go caddyy corner. If you were at three years, you'd move to the four years. So, so what we're proposing is the $8,000 plus the teacher step that they would traditionally get. So, just the teacher step increase um is about $116,000 um impact on the budget and the average step um it varies, but the um average is about $430 between steps. And that wasn't mandated by the state. That was not mandated by the state. And I do have um I am going to show kind of a summary um of what was mandated and what was not um to show the difference. And then the other race proposals um they have in we've increased these percentages since
043you saw them just last week. We feel more comfortable and confident with House Bill 2. They continue to unpack it and there's a lot in there, but um no big changes since No, no, no big changes, but we're just starting to feel more confident in our numbers, what we what we feel about House Bill 2. Okay. So, that's why we're recommending even bigger increase than what we did. So, we've um increased these percentages by 1 to 2% on all the levels um and also increased the bus driver um from $2 to 250 an hour plus the 6% that they will receive um for all with the all auxiliary staff. And this is just broken down a little bit more. Um we're really happy that we could we're we've been able to do a um over
04430% in raises over the past 10 years for our bus drivers, but we just wanted to do more. Um so we're going to do the 250 um we proposing the 250 an hour plus the 6% rate. So that's plus the new midpoint with the added 250 an hour. So that's um comes out to $180,000 or so in bus driver raises and also increased the guaranteed from 5 and a half hours to 6 and 1/2 hours a day. So there at the bottom in orange, our old start pay for bus drivers was 1650 an hour. The new start pay will be 19 and the average pay for our bus drivers was $1851 last year. Um, and we're predicting an average of 22.37. That's just an average depending on how many years experience you have for this
045year. Yes, sir. That's with the raise. So, that's the 250 plus the 6%. Oh, awesome. So, it went from 1851 last year to 2237%. Okay. And starting 19. Any questions on Other additions to the benefits proposal. Um we are our current insurance contribution is right now $350. We are proposing to increase that to $400 per month. Um along with our substitute pay, we're proposing an increase by $20 a day to the daily rates. Well, the orange at the bottom would be the um new rates. um 100 no degree of 110 degree and 135 certified. And that's not the long-term rates, that's just the daily the daily sub rates. So that'd be a total of 257,000 um proposed increase just to benefits. So, here's a summary of the proposal of the raises al together along with
046the benefits. And that comes out to about one a little over a million dollars um in benefits and raises uh for all staff. I'm sorry. Those those numbers were not not funded by the state. Those those are all all in yellow. That's all our local all in yellow is is us. And so to uh that's come from the M. Y. Yes sir. And then here's a summary question. She did this. Here's a summary of the raise and benefits of our expenditures versus what we've received in the aotment. Um here at the top which is what is funded by the state. The 1.6 uh $1.69 million. That is the money the state's giving us that has to go directly to the teachers. So those 231 teachers um that is um that's not discretionary. It goes it's
047a flow through right to the teachers. So in green the support staff aotment that is what we were given by the state 145,000 for our other 326 employees. Um so that's what we have to give um per HB2 to our other staff members. So in the bottom in the blue is what Laurville ISD is locally funding um above and beyond what is um not discretionary from the state and that comes out to $929,484. Um so this is what I like to do to you know to give to give that money away to uh to our awesome employees and to rec recruit even better. So really excited about that number. Any questions on that? So just to be clear, the the the teachers, the brand new teachers until two years, they'll get a step, but nothing
048from the state. Yes, sir. Three, three and four get 4,000 from the state. Yes, sir. And their step. And then anything after 5 years, you get 8,000 plus the step. Yes, sir. They get their step. And of course, you know, it's a recruitment tool as well. And and I think that's some of the purpose of HB2 is is to get teachers and to get them to stay. Um so um that's exciting to see what that holds for the future. And that's for two years until the next house session comes out when Dr. Gilstrap had mentioned uh that uh recruitment's been good, right? I mean up to this point getting new new folks to come in, the teachers. Yes, sir. And um well, today or tomorrow is a a resignation deadline. So, we're hoping uh between
049over the next day and you know, over the coming weeks, we don't have any more great teachers resign. Um however, we are pushing out our you know, our new salaries and we have seen even some movement from um people that work in San Antonio, the big districts. you know, they're not getting as much uh they're getting half the amount of the aotment for the experienced teachers as we are. Um so that's helping to recruit some recruit back some local people that have been driving to San Antonio all this time. So we got one yesterday. And then our bus drivers, you said 250 an hour plus the plus the 6% and that two the the 6% will be the midpoint of the pay scale, the new midpoint, the higher midpoint after that 250 increase 250 and
050then depend on the pay scale. Yes, sir. Is there any more talk with the house bill if they're going to be if we're going to have to start implementing these raises say beginning of the year, what are they going to compensate the state going to compensate? Is there anything come up to the extreme? They haven't provided any additional detail on their funding payment class too. So we get money in the fall mid year and then March, April it ramps up again through August. Again we don't get money we don't we get a big portion of our money July August. Our year ends June 30th. So I've got a The biggest question that everyone around the state has is that coding of the 087 procedure. Yes. because we code them in our fall team themes which
051is in October and then of course they review it to verify it and somewhere around March or April late tea comes out and verifies that it's accurate or not. What we code teachers as will determine what we get funded for on those the the teacher raises. So we may code somebody as an 087 but if it doesn't meet their definition then that's that's the big question. They haven't really said they have not provided that if we've got that same code. What we've done on our compensation, we were we were ahead of the game because our compensation manual has a teacher pay scale and then it has pay grades for all the other employees like counselors, librarians, nurses, those are all on pay grades. Other districts include counselors on the the teacher pay sheet. Well, they
052specifically said counselors are not eligible for this because they're not an 087. So, we're we are going with the assumption that everybody that's on this pay scale is is an 087. So, that's like said a little ahead of the game definition. Yeah, we we've we had already split them out whereas other districts had the counselors and instructional coaches and people like that were already included in that pay scope and they're having to go back down and pull them all out. So, I've also provided for you for the employee compensation plan for 2526. There's your seats. Not many changes other than those I've reviewed. On page six, you'll see the new um bus driver pay grade added. We added a subsection 5A. Um page nine includes the new sub rates. Page 10 has the insurance contribution.
053And then page 11, we did also update those hourly increments um to our hourly employees for to calculate their leave time. So are there any questions about the compensation plan? And in part of the transition to the our hybrid schedule, we we kept all the employees whole. Is that correct? Yes. And that that represented about a 5% rate approximately. So if you if you took those nine you took those nine days that we will have school on Friday um and times everybody's daily rate which is unique to you. Um that ranged anywhere from a 3% to a 5% raise because you're getting paid for those days that that's awesome. And then do we know when this will be posted if it's approved? I don't want to jump the board. It's ready to go. It's ready
054to post. You just give me the go ahead. Yes, sir. I'm looking at blank. Excuse me. Okay. Now for the big part. Big sheet of paper that you have. Okay. And the in the um you have the proposed budget comparison there from last year to this year. You've got it with one fund 199, fund 240 for food service and fund 599 for debt service. Um you can see they're broken down as the board approves it by function level. Um you can look there for revenues versus expenditures at the top to the bottom and you can see that our general fund budget is being increased by approximately $4.4 million for this year over last year. That does include the raises. That does include the flow through from the state. Um it also includes the benefits that
055we have to pick up. The state gave us the eight and the four and the 145, but that doesn't include benefits. So that's again an unfunded mandate from the state that we must pick up TRS all the compensation because it is TRS eligible compensation. So there's 199. If you look at 240, you can see there's an increase of $40,000. Pretty stable. Same thing with the debt service fund. Pretty stable at an increase of $5,000. So, were there any questions on the budget or compensation plan? If there are not, administration recommends the board approve the 2025 2026 budget and compensation plan as presented. Uh, I'd like to move and accept administration's recommendation on the budget plan. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion by Mr. Fleer and a second by Mr. Sabot on the 2025
0562026 budget compensation plan. Any further discussions or questions? Show hands in favor. Many many hours just in the past few weeks have gone into and Lindsy. Yeah, thank you. Y'all did a lot of work. Great job. There you go. Thank you. Much deserved to our staff. Um, House Bill 2 has done a lot. The state is is backing that up now and so we want to, you know, take advantage of that and pass that on even above and beyond what we're required to do. It was a little easier this year to pass on than last year. Much more. No, we can do a white pill. [Laughter] Uh now and I'm sorry now we will consider the approval next of the discipline alternative education DAP and the interlocal agreement with participating IST for the 2025 2026
057school year by Miss Angel. Um so this evening we are uh going to approve the DAP agreement with both. Um we approved Fall City and K City earlier this month at the regular June meeting. Both apparently they approved theirs in May. They just never sent it to me. So I had to reach out and say hey and they sent it to me. So um here's POT's agreement again. It's the same as false cities and K cities which is the same as last year. Um so are there any questions on POT's agreement? If there are not administration recommends the board approve the DAP interlocal agreement with POT ISD for the 2526 school year as presented. Mr. President, I'll make the motion to accept the administration recommendation. Okay. I'll second that. We have a motion by Dr.
058ODM and a second by myself regarding the DAP agreement. Any further discussions or questions? All in favor, show of hands. 40. Next, we'll consider the approval of the interlocal cooperation agreement with K's Wilson County Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, JJ AAP, for the 2025 2026 school year again by Miss Angle. So, this agreement is different, drastically different from what we've had in the last bunch of years. Um, we've always, it's always been a buy into the program of $10,000. all the districts that agree to participate buy in at $10,000. That buys you 180 seats, which is 180 days. So, you can have one person there every day and you don't have to pay any extra. Um, if you have over the 180 days, it was $56 a seat. Um, so a lot of those placements
059are not district placements. They would be court-ordered placements, mandatory placements. So, we met with Judge Hartman, Judge Whitman, um, kind of talked to them about that. They met with the KS County uh judges and they have decided to uh enter into a new agreement with us where they will cover all mandatory and court order placements. So instead of any buyin base fee um it's a $100 per day for any student that the district places in the in the JJ AP. Um, also because they're funding everything, usually we come to you with a shared employee agreement, um, where we pay $32,500 from that program to KMS Wilson County to pay for half of an employee since they are funding the whole thing. There's no need for that agreement this year. So, um, this agreement, we like
060it. We think it's going to be really good. I hope Mr. Rios likes it. Mr. Rios looks like he likes it. So, um, it it the program is still going to be housed, same place it was housed before. Same program as far as I know. Um, it's just going to be funded differently. So, are there any questions? If there are not, administration recommends the board approve the interlocal cooperation agreement for KS Wilson County Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, JJ AAP, for the 2526 school year as presented. President move to accept administration recommendation. I second it. We have a motion by Mr. Sabot, a second by Dr. Odum. Any further discussions on the JJ AP contract? Show hands in favor. 4. Thank you very much. Y'all are done with me. We will now consider approval of
061the optional flexible school day program application uh renewal by Mr. Rios. Thank you. Okay, good evening board of trustees and Dr. Gilstra. Thank you for the opportunity to share a brief update on the FAST program. As we wrap up our second year, I'll highlight student progress, program impact, and plans for next year. We are also seeking renewal of the optional flexible school day program application to continue fast for the 2025 2026 school year. So, uh, the fast program was launched in July 2023, and now as we close our out our second full year, um, it's important to pause and reflect on the real impact this program has made. Beyond the data and graduation rates, we've seen personal transformation, students gaining confidence, finding direction, and building meaningful relationships in a supportive environment. One student from the
062cohort of 2026 had this reflection. My time at FAST has been incredibly rewarding. I've grown both personally and professionally and I'll always be grateful for the relationships I've built and the positive environment I got to be a part of. It's definitely an experience I'll look back on with appreciation. And that's exactly what FAST is about. You know, helping students succeed not only academically but in life as well. So, our overview and our goals. Um, in the FAST program, students have the benefit of a flexible school schedule. This means we can adjust the days and hours they attend to better support those who are behind in their core classes, having trouble attending regularly, and are at risk of dropping out. Our main goal is to give every student a real chance at academic success by creating
063a schedule and support system that fits their individual needs and their circumstances. So, our EOCC successes, I'm excited to share that all students in the FAST program have now successfully passed all their required EOCC exams for graduation. That includes a three out of three pass rate on the most recent star test. This is a major achievement and really highlights the effort and commitment these students have shown. Our success in CCMR requirements. Currently, four of our five graduates have successfully met their college career in military readiness requirements. The fifth student is in the final stage of earning their certification, and we anticipate full completion very soon. This reflects strong progress and a commitment to post-graduation readiness. Our achievements and graduation outcomes. This year, five students successfully completed the FAST program and graduated. We have four returning
064juniors plus two students continuing from previous cohorts, one from last year and one from the spring of 2024. One additional student has been accepted and will begin in the 2025 2026 school year. So, our two-year comparison um in uh 2023 2024, 13 students enrolled and 11 graduated with three continuing into the next school year. In 2024 2025, we enrolled 11 students and had five graduates. Looking ahead, we expect growth with seven students identified for the 2025 2026 school year. The program continues to show steady progress and impact. So, what's new for the coming year? As we move into the 2025 2026 school year, we're introducing a couple of important updates to strengthen student accountability and family engagement. First, we'll be implementing attendance expectations that align with each student's academic progress. This means students will be
065expected to attend based on how they're progressing through their coursework, creating a more personalized performance-driven approach to scheduling. Second, we're excited to launch Egeneuity progress monitoring access for parents. This will allow families to track their child's academic progress in real time, helping us build stronger partnerships between home and school. Together, these updates are designed to keep students focused, families informed, and academic goals on track. So, in closing, the FAST program continues to demonstrate strong outcomes in alignment with FISD goal number one, excellent student outcomes. Over the past two years, we've seen consistent progress in graduation rates, EOCC performance, and student re-engagement, all while providing a flexible structure that meets the unique needs of our learners. The flexibility offered through the optional flexible school day program has been critical to the success, allowing us to tailor
066instructional time to student progress and need without compromising academic standards or expectations. Are there any questions about the program? So these are the students that are falling behind and it's hard for them to catch back up. They're they're not dropping out. We're catching them before they fall, right? It's alter what's holding them up just going in. We're seeing some success. It looks like some good numbers. Absolutely. Good. That's very encouraging too, Mr. R. I mean that just that just shows you the the concern for the students. I mean, trying to get everybody on the same level and that's very that's a very encouraging report and whatever is taking place is has been good and the fast program obviously it's working and so we're we're thankful for that. We really are. That's that's a good report.
067Yes, sir. Appreciate it. It's a great it's a it's a dynamic approach the district's taking to make sure that they we talked about since we started this is not the number, it's the percentage. I want 100%. I don't care if it's five kids or if it's 20 kids. Main thing is it's catching all the kids. They're that actually needing that help. They're not just being lazy or anything or say have other issues going on and before they drop out or completely fall off. Then you know if it's like you said if it's five or two I don't want it to be 20 or more. No. If you think about it, five kids represents 1.6% of the graduating class. All right. So that'd be that'd be almost 2% of the graduating class that doesn't graduate. No.
068And just the numbers you gave were great. I was thinking in my head too, like you have kids that want to be there and do that fast program. I bet just seeing the look on their face to have that fast program, it makes them more mo more motivated to want to be there. Absolutely. Yes, sir. You are correct. Well, at this time, administration recommends that the board approve the renewal of the optional flexible school day program application as presented. Mr. President, I move to accept administration recommendation. I'll second. Thank you. We have a motion by Mr. Sod and a second by Mr. Flitter. Is there any further discussion or questions regarding the flexible school day program? Show hands in favor. Four to zero. Thank you. Next, we will consider approval of the shared service agreement
069for the San Antonio Regional Day School program for the deaf uh by Miss Brooks. Good evening again. This is the contract for the regional day school for the deaf. This program serves eligible students ages 0 to 21. Any student who has a hearing impairment which severely impairs processing linguistic information through hearing even with recommendate recommended amplification and which adversely affects educational performance shall be eligible for consideration for the regional day school program for the deaf. Next year we will have two full-time students that will attend the day school in San Antonio ISD. Board of trustees, are there any questions? So we provide transportation to these two students. Yes. Daily? Yes, they are transported um to the day school um as we have had previously students every year who are transported who meet the requirements. That's
070a part of our white fleet. That's what we're trying to do with that. Um the other one is since I've been here, this one popped up and I was like, why why are we doing that? We haven't done this since I've been here. There were some changes that San Antonio made that weren't they weren't affecting us, but they were changing them on their side. So that's what prompted this and obviously based upon we only have two students it doesn't make sense to st have a full-time teacher on staff for something very specific like that. Yes. Be transporting them to again contracted service contracted contract but at the state school they can receive all of the services that are required and needed by the students. Yeah. And and also these are the severely these are not
071just the ones that have a a small hearing problem. These are the ones that are severe hearing loss. If there are no further question, administration recommends the board approve the shared service agreement for the regional day school for the deaf. I'll move to accept administration's recommendation. I second that. We have a motion by Mr. Fleer and a second by Dr. ODM. Any further discussions or question regarding uh the uh agreement the SISD or San Antonio regional day school program? Okay. Show of hands in favor 40 to zero. Thank you. Now we will consider approval of the right school contract by Mr. Controller. Good evening, Superintendent of Schools, Board President, Board of Trustees. As you are aware, the district has adopted a 4-day hybrid calendar for the upcoming school year. Included in your packet is the
072services school facilities license and building use agreement for for your approval. District leadership has met several times with representatives from right at school to finalize an agreement for afterchool care and child care on Fridays when Florida's Independent School District is closed. As a result of these discussions, Ride at School will provide child care services at South Elementary on the 18 Fridays when there is no school. With that said, Write at School offers enrichment programs at no cost to the district. Uh these these programs support academic standards in math, ELA, literacy, fine arts, and social emotional learning. All aspects of program administrative administration are managed by Riot School. reducing the operational workload for campus staff. The program offers families flexible and affordable child care options, including a 50% discount for our district employees. Additionally, right at
073school may provide child care during Christmas break, spring break, and summer of 2026 contingent on a minimum enrollment of 15 students and the availability of of our facilities. Uh right at school shares a portion of its revenue uh with Floro ISD. The staffto student ratio is a 1:17 ratio. After school program uh programming will operate on school days from the end of the school day until 6:00 p.m. During the 18 non-school Fridays, child care will be available from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on those Fridays. With that said, board of trustees, do you have any questions? You said the 15 students, that's just for the summer or those days off. You said it says 15 students available, a minimum enrollment. So, if that if they're going to do it during the regular school year, not
074Fridays off, they'd have to have a minimum of 15 students. So, they I guess they'd have to make their they need their minimum. Okay. Yes, that's their minimum. Yes, sir. And we we haven't had that problem. The minimum we always get about 15 easy. We get 50. Yeah, 50. We in the after school program they run about Miss Brooks. More than that, right? 50 to 60. 50 to 60 per campus. So, one at South and one at North. Okay. We've been well over 100 for the four or five years we've had this. Yes, sir. Good question. No, the uh Friday program once we start the Fridays off, that'll be at South Elementary. That is correct. Yes, sir. Yep. uh breakfast or a snack and a meal, breakfast and or lunch will be provided for our
075students. No transportation will be offered. Is is this the same provider that's doing it for another school district that may be on a on a 4day schedule? I I I don't know that. Um that that's a good question. Uh they're they're national. I do know that. Uh they've been around for a long time. When we first went with them, we they utilized Alamo Heights and Medina Valley. I did research them there. I know whenever we started talking to them about the four-day coverage that plan, they were having to really think outside the box. So, if they do, it seemed like they may do it like in Arizona somewhere, but it was the first one in Texas that writing school had to have to do with. So, we really work with them to feel like we
076have what we need. financially, what does this do for the district? What do we what's our uh so responsibility? So, we uh we're budgeting $100,000 for it because it's going to cost us $35 a day per per student. The minimum we'll have to pay is about $20,000 $21,000 because we have a minimum number that we guarantee them to be exact. It's a,19 show. We still have to pay that. Yeah. But we feel like the budget we built for it was um based on an average attendance of 100 students on all those Fridays. Um the numbers I've seen from other districts, they don't get they start off higher and then by the end of the year they're they but we are aotting money in the budget for this. Okay. Now the after school program Monday through
077Thursday that the parents pay for that separate correct yeah it's a whole separate just a Friday Friday if there are no further questions administration recommends the board approve the right at school contract as presented this evening. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to accept administration's recommendation. I'll second that. We have a motion by Dr. ODM and a second by Mr. Sabotto. Any further questions or discussion regarding the motion? Show of hands in favor. Four to zero. Much appreciated for Thank you. Our last item to consider for approval of the local policy update FNC local regarding personal tele telecommunications electronic devices by Dr. Gilstro. Board members included in the board packet um are proposed updates for policy FNCE local. This policy update addresses concerns regarding the use of devices capable of being remotely activated
078to provide one-way and/or two-way communication outside of the classroom. This creates a right to privacy concern under FURPA and for students and staff. uh on the advice of our attorney uh we are re recommending this policy update and change. I do include the policy there. We have the strikeouts in red, the new language in blue. Uh the new language would read a student tracking safety device with recording or listening capabilities that is remotely activated at school or at school sponsored events is prohibited. So it no longer is at the discretion of the administration or district due to the due to the privacy of of an uninformed student that could be recorded as well and because the HIPPA that's what we're concerned about correct and I move to accept the administrator's recommendation. I'll second that. We
079have a motion by Mr. Fleer and a second by Mr. Sabot. Any further questions or discussions? Show a hand in favor. Four to zero. Thank you'all. The board will now convene into executive session first to the Texas governmental code section 551.074 personnel. No voting will take place in close session. Any action that the board wishes to take as a result of discussion in close session will take place after the board reconvened in open session. We will do an executive session at 7:40. Okay, it's 9:23. We're going to reconvene back from close session um on June 25th at our special meeting. Uh we'd like to do a little house cleaning to clean some stuff up real quick. Uh back on agenda item I uh we did not have a full motion so we'd like to take
080care of that right now. Uh board members agenda item action number I was regarding policy FNCE local and the adjustment to that and update to that. Administration recommends the board approve the update to policy FNC local as presented. I move to accept administration's recommendation and I'll second that. And we have a motion by Mr. Flair and a second by Mr. Sabot. Any further questions or discussion on that recommendation? All in favor, show of hands. Four to zero. Thank you, board members. Thank you. We got to introduce the got to introduce the item. And now, next up on the agenda is agenda item uh 6A. Uh consider approval of items discussed in executive session. Mr. President, I move to approve the superintendent contract as discussed in executive session. I second that. So, we have a motion
081by Mr. Sabota and a second by Mr. Odum. Any further discussion? Show hands. Four to zero. Okay. Go back to my script here. A lot of papers today, a lot of contracts agreements today. We now have included our agenda for this meeting. Is there any further business? Hearing none, this meeting is adjourned at 9:24. Thank you, board members. Thank you. Thank you.