Oct 20, 2025 at 5pm Special Called Board Meeting

001It is now 5:00 pm on Monday, October 20th, 2025. This meeting of the Clean Independent School District Board of Trustees is now called to order. The following trustees are present and participating. Susan Jones, vice president. Brenda Adams, secretary. Marvin Rainwater, board member. Oliver Menz, board member. Tina Capido, board member. Rodney Gilchrist, board member. and me, Brett Williams, president and presiding officer. For the record, a quorum has been established and is present. As a reminder, anyone wishing to speak at public form must submit their signup sheet at this time. A recording of this meeting is being made and will be available to the public at a later date. We're also streaming this meeting on our cable channel 17 and on the district's web page. Agenda item number one, public forum. The board will now hear comments

002from those who've signed up to speak. Per board policy, each public comment is limited to three minutes. I will ask audience to please refrain from any public outburst and to maintain decorum. Parents, employees, and citizens are encouraged to utilize the district's grievance process to the fullest extent possible. Related polic policies are available on the district's website or upon request. For the record, we ask that all public form participants begin by stating their name in the city in which they reside. Once complete, your three minutes will begin. Signed up to speak, I have Kiotti Anderson. Welcome. Name is Kad Anderson. I stay here in CL. Um, good afternoon board. Like I said, my name is K Anderson and I'm here tonight as a concerned grandparent, a disabled member in this community. I'm also someone who still

003believes in the power of schools to build trust and respect between families and educators. But lately, that trust has been deeply shaken. After my grandson, mother made her complaint, she faced retaliation. He did also. No family should be punished for their speaking up for their child. We should be partners with schools. No targets of hostility. As for me, I'm disabled waiting a trip organ transplant. Even simple test was not easy for me. Yet when I came to the school which is Reese Creek Elementary, instead of being treated with compassion, I was harassed and belittled while going through the metal detectors. I was made to feel like a threat rather than a parent and a grandparent who simply wanted to support my child's education. And then I received a trespass warning later for what? For showing

004up and carrying. I'm not standing here because I want the board to hear what it I want I'm standing here because I want the board to hear what it feels like to be on the receiving end of this that treatment. But something I want to say as a parent, I'm a good parent. I have a daughter. She graduated in 2024. She gets her associate. She graduated from Ellison. I have a child now, a senior at Ellison. She graduates. She also get her she graduates and get a associate. The grandparent of this my grandson, she has her bachelors and she's trying to get her masters. This is expected in my household. respect. Do what you told. I challenge anyone of y'all go to any of my past kids, teachers, and ask them what kind of child

005they are. But to get belittled like I did was unacceptable. And for the board, y'all board members to sit and let good parents like myself be done like that. We voted for y'all. So we can vote y'all out. That's how I see it. Nobody don't nobody want to do the job. Find somebody else to do it. That's how that's how I see it. But hopefully we can move past this because I did my job as a parent. Y'all, I need y'all to be y'alls. Thank y'all. >> Thank you. As we have no one else signed up for public form, we are closing public form. Now move to agenda item number two, which is team of eight training. And I will turn it over directly to Dr. Moses. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening,

006everyone. It's good to be in today. Beautiful day. I was sitt Very nice. You appreciate you do this. David Thompson. I need a mic for this. >> Will that pick us up? Okay. Uh, some of you met my traveling companion today. my wife wrote down with me today and so she is the insurance that this will not go too late uh because she's right around the corner there I think where Diana has put her and uh are we okay >> does this work so I can't I don't need to walk around too much >> okay >> if you're not on the mic >> okay well let's see I'm see I'll try to I may sit down I got to be able to kind of see the see the slides, but we'll see how this works.

007Is that is that okay? >> I promise you that I'm not that it it will not be something that it's missed that anybody will be real concerned about. Uh this is a team of eight training session. If you're wondering, well, what is this about? Some of you y'all already have done this before. You're an experienced board. Uh but there was a time when we used to do board training when board members would go to TASA, TASB and they would have all these breakout sessions and one board member might go to personnel training, one might go to school finance training, one might go to asbestous removal training. Uh one might go to something else. And they had a pretty goofy commissioner of education once upon a time that said, "Why are we doing it like this?

008Why don't we have people trained to work together instead of just everybody go out and do their own thing? And so if you're wondering why are we doing this team of eight training, well, you're looking at the person to blame for it. uh because we uh we had a part of the statute passed that said we'll do team of eight training so the board can talk with each other and work on things that are of mutual interest to you uh instead of kind of just out here in silos uh shooting uh arrows all over the place. So that's kind of how we got into team debate. I don't know uh are we going to be able to look at a video? We ready to roll? Just let just just just bring up that first video.

009This is just to keep us from getting bored here. >> Imagine the awesomest thing you can like an automatic grilled cheese maker or a time machine or a time machine with an automatic grilled cheese maker. Now imagine who's going to invent it. Him? Glasses here, whoever they are, or maybe her. But how do kids like these become the types of people that do things like this? Maybe we should ask this guy. Knowledge is heavy. Sometimes it's a limit to to have new ideas. That's the problem with the old schooling because they were teaching answers. I believe questions are probably more important today's than the answers. >> Ernos's cube is a question waiting to be answered. And when the right person finds the right question, something amazing happens. They start seeing the world as it truly

010is. Not a place to be memorized, but a place to be figured out, flipped, turned, twisted, and ultimately made better forever. Today she may be an octopus, but help kids like her fall in love with problem solving. And they will embark on journeys to become scientists, artists, engineers, designers, inventors, or something no one's ever been before. But you can bet we're going to need. That's why moments like this go >> and this and this and especially this are so important >> because there are companies to found, planets to walk on, time machines to invent, a future to be made amazing. We may not know what it's going to look like, but we know who's going to do it. That's all our volume. Is that right? It's all we got tonight. Okay. I don't know if

011you could kind of get the get the drill there. It's it's it's when I I introduced this for you to think about the future for just a minute. Think about your impact. Think about this board's impact. Think about this board's legacy. Um kids today. I got I've got five grandkids. Uh one of them's five. Uh he was born in 2020. Life expectancy 79 years. That means he's he's gets to gets lucky and gets to live a normal life. He sees 2099. He sees the end of this century. I think about what are his teachers teaching him? What are they training him for? What are the principles doing? What's the superintendent? What's the school board doing? What are they thinking about? What are they thinking about? What are we thinking about the kids? Over five million

012kids, almost 5 and a half million kids in Texas and the 42 43,000 44,000 that you have. And I know everybody's losing students and in our state, but what what are what are we thinking about and what is the the future? And I always submit to board members, you you do you do make a difference. You're making a difference. And you may not know until you've even given up your trust. You are trustees put in trust of this system and trust for this community. And you will give that trust up probably at some time. I've had some trusted positions and given those up. I did notice after I left tea and after I left Dallas ISD and after I left ISD, those places are all still having school without me. They they went ahead and

013they're still they're still functioning. as some would say maybe better. But but that the trust your trust that you've been given is important in the lives of the kids and the lives in their futures is a is a big deal. And I always like to look at that little video from Texas Instruments because it kind of gets a gets a little reminder that uh this is this is a big impact deal. Um >> imagine the awesomest thing you out of here. In a word, how you feeling, Aubrey? How you feeling tonight? >> Right now, a little tired, but overall good. >> All right. Great. >> Tina, in a word, how are you feeling? >> All right, good day. >> All right. I saw a guy today, 85 years in assisted hold today in a uh

014assisted living. And I went to see his birthday today, this morning in Dallas and out in Plano and he said, "It's a great day to be alive." I thought, "Good for you. What are you thinking, Brent? What's your word? >> Endurance. >> Enduring. >> King. >> Inspire. Okay. >> Grateful. >> That's a That's a good word. >> I'm excited. >> Excited. >> I like that, too. Energetic. Excited. Enthusiastic. >> I'd say frustrated. >> Frustrated. Little frustrated. Yeah. >> Okay. work on. Maybe we can work on that a little better. Uh, how y'all doing? What do you think about the role of the board? How do you think the board's doing right now? How do you think y'all as a board, as a corporate board are doing? Anybody? Anybody want to share with me? >> Evolving.

015Okay. I guess I probably should >> passionate about is I think it's a board that is extremely talented, but talent only takes you so far. You've got to be positioned and everybody's got to understand the assignments in order to achieve what you what is your maximum potential. And I think that That's what what we're going through. >> Okay. Anybody else? >> I think it's a time of redefining I think it's a time of redefining our roles and our goals as a board. Okay. All right. Well, we're about to sometime here in the near future. I don't know when. not assuming or presuming anything that you're you're going to have a transition. You've been making a transition. So, yeah, there's a little bit a little bit of that going on. U dreams, aspirations. What are your

016what are your dreams and aspirations? Some of you have been working on this board for a while. Some of you may be a little newer to, but what what are your aspirations? What do you what are you hoping to see happens in the school district? It's okay to think two or three years, five years for me. Um, >> yeah. So, for me, it's all about the performance of our students. But I think back to and it's been several years, you know, as a majority minority district, you know, I want us to be the top rated district in the state of Texas for the performance of minority students because if you're a majority minority district, that means if you're leading the pack, it can't help but to lift up everyone else. I mean, overall, I want

017the entire district to excel, but it's a it's a numbers game in terms of you've got to take care of the majority in order to be successful. I don't think y'all always about charter schools and things of that nature and and I I've always been of the premise that we need not worry about them. We just need to be the best choice. Um and we need to have the programs that are available to students that are going to elevate them in their careers in the next generation. uh giving them the opportunities that you're not going to always get in charter schools that you're not going to get necessarily in small country schools. We as a district are large so our break even uh point is a little bit better than most places so we can

018offer programs of innovation and uh early college high school and the career center which is just bombdiggity. um those kinds of things. We just have to be aware and and re research, I guess, and just be open-minded to what the possibilities are. And then I think what my goal would be is that we increase our graduation rate. Uh and I hate this fiveyear, six year graduation rate thing. I want to know how many kids graduate at the end of four years in high school. Um and from that benchmark increase it pro you know x you know a few points every year uh until we can have 98% of our students graduating at their fouryear mark. Uh that would be what Susan Jones's goal would be. >> I like the aspiration. I'd also like In today's

019industry where everything's moving so fast, you're only as good as your last decision yesterday. >> Absolutely. You want to say something? >> To realign their focus from the boardroom to the classroom to produce the things we've just talked about terms of excellent student performance and quality of teaching and those kinds of very important things. It's a big hurdle. run. You want to give me something else? Okay. All nine of them have to run next year because we've redistricted. We had redistricting. So, everybody's got to run and we're just going to get nine new members. I told the board we had I said it doesn't have to be that way and we I would say got our they more than me got their act together got a lot of things accomplished got business got businesslike with

020their meetings got their meetings more crisp. Uh a year later they were all reelected. All nine were reelected. all had opponents and and we got a lot of momentum and they moved the ball and we passed the nation's largest bond issue. We remodeled 237 schools and we built 20 new schools. So, I've kind of seen some some pretty tough circumstances. I've seen chaos in the boardroom and it can be and it and what happens in the boardroom does does go to the classroom. Chaos in the boardroom. And I'm not saying y'all had chaos. Dallas had chaos. But if you've had things that you think have contributed to the wrong messaging, then you got to think about that just a little bit. You got to think about because teachers, principals, school people do follow the board

021and the board's lead and the superintendent lead. They really do. They key off of the leadership. The key off the district leadership and if the the district leadership is organized, thoughtful, plan, and stays at the policy level at some pretty high level stuff to make the district better. People will get behind that and momentum will be gained. you will get traction on that. What are you doing right now? What are you what what's the district doing right now that really pleases you? What is it this boy? We are we are knocking it out of the park on this. What What comes to mind? Anything that you just I don't know if it's anything early childhood or what? Yes, sir. I want to say our district is trying very very hard to present the correct curriculum

022that our students need. >> Okay. >> So I think that's exciting to me. >> Great. Yeah. standards matter learning and the commit this commissioner of education is big on what is the uh what's in the content what are the standards and that's probably a good place to focus and to stay tuned into what else what else do you think we're really doing well here Tina >> um I think that we are really doing well at recruiting more certified teachers and getting our classrooms filled but also the robust amount of programming that we have, not just sports, but fine arts and different um the career center and just different programs that we have to offer um our students. And so I think we're doing well with those. >> That's super. You know, that that teacher availability

023and that battle for talent. Did I give you the numbers? Have I given you the numbers before? We we have about 370,000 teachers in Texas, maybe 380 every year. We used to lose about 40,000 teachers a year. When I was chairman of the Texas Teaching Commission in 2015, that was the first year that we have more teachers that we hired through alternative certification than through traditional teacher education programs. And my dad was head of the school of education, Stephen F. Fson State University. So those programs were pretty important to me. I got to eat separate now because he was working on those. Well, those that that teacher availability issue is so big now that the number of teachers we lost last year was closer to 60,000. And guess how many we used to to turn

024out a lot of teachers. Guess how many teachers we turned out last year in teachers in colleges of education in Texas. Lost about 60, graduated 20. So, if your staff is keeping up with that, hooray. That's a victory. I would say that's going to continue to be a big challenge. Uh the battle for talent, particularly in special education to some degree in in bilingual education, math, science, and special education are huge areas. The interim superintendent's nodding his head, so I'm not too far off, am I? >> Yeah, I think I think I'm pretty close. But I'm glad if you're seeing progress and seeing movement in that area, and that's that is so important. That's what will make you a winning district is getting those great teachers. They will they will you want to be known

025for it. And you've got districts around here that you have to compete with in the central Texas area. And I know who's up the road and down the road and I know who your neighbors are. You're competing with them and you want to be winning competition, but I was in love. We had a lot of small districts around love. And I only thing I asked the board, I said, "If we don't make ourselves the highest paying school district on the south plains, we had 33,000 kids and we had people that wanted to get out, we had flight and people looking to leave." We have it has to the the perception has to be that we get the best teachers. Our kids are challenging, but we love them and we're going to meet their challenges, but

026we have to we have to do and send the message that we are working to get the best teachers. But that's that's a great goal if you're What else anybody else pleased about? What what are you thinking you're really pleased about, Brenda? I'm pleased that we are striving to recognize and highlight, celebrate student success, student participation, student involvement across the spectrum, not just academically, fine arts, you know, and all the different ways of social media. So, we're keeping the focus on the main thing, which is kids excelling at what they like to do and what they're good at. >> I saw some of your recognitions at the meeting at the last meeting and we were and I watched one watched one of your meetings uh one night on on whatever they were on the stream,

027whatever. But yeah, I think y'all are doing that. I think you want to be sure you're focusing again on excellence. Uh, you know, I I want to honor teachers and especially honor students, but you want to make sure it is it is really noteworthy for it to come to the board. I'm going be kind of we'll get a little off here, but we used to have teacher of the year programs and it was kind of it's my turn to be teacher. It's your turn to be teacher. This next one's ter and everybody gets to be teacher of the year and everybody gets and and then the board needs to recognize everybody. Let me tell you what your meetings ought to be. Your meetings ought to be reserved for really really really big stuff. Big stuff.

028It and there ought to be recognitions, but it ought to be if it's everybody. And again, I'm not passing judgment on what you've done or who you've done, but but I would hope your meetings are such that this board, the clean ISD board recognizes somebody. Everybody says, "Wow, that was really big stuff. They somebody really knocked it out of the park." What else are you anybody else really happy about? Excited about? Okay, flip it over. What do you what does it say up there? What's the concern? What what are your what are your concerns? So, I think I'm kind of kind of listening to kind of formulate some thoughts on it. And there are things that I am that are kind of the same sides, different sides of the same coin, I think. And I've

029heard the word here and I've definitely heard it twice and it was excellence. And we I feel like we we start we're having conversations about teachers and these kind of little things, these subordinate ideas, but I think and I've always thought since this is going into my fourth year that we this district has lacked an expectation of excellence. I've heard the word excellence and that's the word that it's always been. Well, we're clean. We've got poor kids. We've got minority kids. We've got a transient population. we have the military post next to us. You know, congratulations, you're special and you got problems just like everybody else. >> So, um I think when I first came on the board, I just felt that it was there was never any kind of questioning and we just kind

030of were rolling along and there seemed to be again no dissatisfaction with something that was far opposite from excellence. Um, so this board and I think, you know, and I understand my role and I do a lot of it is kind of being a little bit combative and pushing back and asking questions and having a part in board meetings that go to 1:00 a.m. Um, I think we're at a point now where we're starting to kind of come around the corner of the circle where change is okay, >> conflict is okay, we respect each other, but but we've got to have that, right? we've got to have have that tearing and and kind of wrestling with ideas. Well, now I think we're coming around a corner where we we need we've kind of got to

031get back to what's norm a norm and what's what's healthy. We need some leadership that's going to make that happen. But I think structurally we've done some of the groundwork to allow us to grow and I never felt that that was happening before. So I'm pleased that we're doing it. I'm concerned that it's not happening as fast as I would like, but um but I understand that that >> that takes time to do. So >> I hear you. And I would I would concur that you probably have to have a little uh a little bit of difficulty, maybe some pushing and and and shoving. I don't think you can sustain that for a long time because I think people will leave. They think understand that the boardroom can't ever find a place to settle out.

032I think it's hard to keep teachers, hard to keep principles, hard to keep leaders. I think I think you do have to have some tough tough courageous discussions sometimes, but I think you have to be very thoughtful and very picky about what it's going to be about. >> I think too you said kind of keeping the the big problems right. So I I wrote down three things the border, you know, policy, attitude, and climate. I don't really like the word attitude. So, I think we can just stick with policy and climate. What kind of climate do we want? A climate of constant conflict is not good. And then you kind of you go down to the next level with the soup. Well, the soup should kind of mirror what the board is trying to accomplish,

033right? And if the board is constantly in conflict, that puts the soup constantly in conflict and then that puts the subordinate staff constantly in conflict. So I think what we, you know, the board and I think we're trying to do it is get these meetings tighter, stick on the high level things, talk about problems before we get into the meeting so that we can work that stuff out. Um, and I think with that say calming, but with that kind of steadying, right, holding the rudder steady, we have a leader that can do that. Um, I think that kind of begins to trickle down. But we've got to expect, it can't be the board going you know, you're going to be excellent, be good, damn it. Like, you know, and that doesn't work, right? So, I

034think we've gota we've got to kind of build that culture that the board is working hard, that we have leaders that reflect that and that we should expect that. I mean, I was in the army units. It wasn't like, oh man, sorry, can't do that. Well, you got to do that, right? And you're going to figure out a way to do it and do it well. And I just I hope that we we get down that road. I think y'all can, but but I do think you have to work at it in a again and have some maybe tough discussions, maybe as I say, courageous discussions, but they have to end up in a constructive place. Can't stay can't stay destructive. I I do worry and and I did when I was in Dallas. I

035did when I was in love. I wanted to I wanted to have frank discussions. U but I wanted to make sure that uh what our teachers saw, what our our staff saw was that we we wound up we might have some disagreements, but we wound up at a place where we were going to where the district was going to move forward, where we were going to get good things done. Um and you have this, you know, I don't want just promote group think that we all got to come together and all got to thank together. We all got to raise our hand and vote, you know. Um there's always this debate should our board are anonym I mean not anonymous but are uh unanimous votes desirable uh another Dallas more news editorial board second largest

036newspaper in Texas called said hey Mike come down here I knew him I knew him from when I'd been commissioner so I went down there to see uh Hank Tatum and uh Burl Osman was publisher and saw all these people. They got out there and said, "Hey man, this board is keeping us from having economic growth." I said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, we were in competition for a two billion dollar company with about 2,000 jobs with Atlanta and Atlanta, Georgia took their chamber of commerce took videos of our board meetings and used them in a video to show the company and used them against us. and we lost the company and we lost all those employees and you guys are terrible and go you need to go down and get with the

037board and y'all need to get your meetings pulled together. Need to get them better organized. You need to get them in get them where the public doesn't see constant strife and you need to to bring people together, Mike. Well, we rocked along there for about two or three years and we have nine members on that board and we got we got a lot of 90 votes after a lot of discussion and good discussion. We got a lot of 90 votes. Every now and then we had 81's then a 72. It was okay. And sometimes the board members even call me and say, "Hey, Mike, I I need I need some more discussion on that item tonight. I want to put that on consent agenda. I need I need to hear what the rest of the

038board thinks about. Okay. Thanks for letting me know. Appreciate it. Or hey Mike, I just don't think I can get there on this this recommendation. Okay. But most of the time I'm going to get there. Dallas War News Editor Board call me. Come back up here and talk to us. Mike, all you got down there now is a rubber stamp board. I said, "Come on, guys. Come on. You were here. We were in here two two and a half years ago and you were fussing that they weren't working together and you were losing economic opportunities and economic growth and now they're working together and you want you want to fuss about it. Were we selling newspapers or we trying to work together to try to educate kids? What are we doing here? I think I

039think tough conversations are okay. But there there has to be a coming together. >> Yes, Brenda. >> I think one of my frustrations also going into year four is uh dealing with our time as a board on task and sometimes I'm feeling frustrated that we don't have enough time to talk about things. And the time that we do spend in a meeting, I just feel like it needs to be more efficient. It needs to be more effective. And I'm not sure how we get there because there's so many challenges. You look at an agenda front and back. And we're moving towards gathering more consent items, which is good. But I just think we need some more norms or structures that might help us um so that our me our meetings are more organized. They're more

040timely. And then the things that are really urgent for us to talk about, I think everything else squeezes it out. We don't get a chance to talk about those things. And are y'all having two business meetings a month or or >> we're going to say two business meetings meetings as of right now it's a workshop followed by an actual meeting but I kind of consider it two whenever we come together as a body I consider it a business meeting but for the purpose of voting right now it's every other meeting. Well, I didn't notice and so did other people that watch the district. Y'all had 46 meetings last year. Those included special meetings. Some were brief. It included your workshops and included all your regular meetings. That's that's almost a meeting a month. If you

041take away two weeks at Christmas and two weeks in the summer and two a week or so at Thanksgiving, I'm not opposed to meetings, but I do think you have to think about how much time does the staff spend preparing for meetings and is that what do we want? How much time do we want the staff working on things that are for the board as a room as opposed to the classroom? Now, this is a big district. This is a complex district, multi- high school district. I called y'all a consequential district when I first met with you. So, I'm not to say this has to just be done. There's got there's got to be some thoughtfulness, especially when you're dealing with some performance issues, especially when you're dealing with enrollment issues. Um, so I know

042you have some big ticket stuff items to talk about. I don't you might want to just look uh at some other districts comparable to you in size and complexity but what I see more often than not not is a meeting that is usually the longer meeting of the month which is a is almost akin to a workshop mostly discussion items very few if any action items it's mostly what are the major items we're dealing with right now. Is it attendance boundaries? Is it money? Is it finances? Is it teachers? Is it personnel issue? What are the things that need to be that require some board discussion and some board perspective that the superintendent can hear the perspective of the board and then try to bring recommendations to the board that reflect that perspective. But I

043think and again you're you're in the midst of a search and working toward the selection of the superintendent, but as you go forward in that, I think you might want to look very carefully what does our meeting structure need to look at and do we look like and do we want to spend the business meetings? I would hope are your are your meetings where maybe you do some recognitions that are big big big stuff and where you also you take action and you take action that's been formulated around the discussions you've had in your in your workshops. Just a suggestion. I'm just here as a lowly paid suggesture as a no as a no paid suggestion actually. Uh but that's okay. Uh I'm so you can say well we didn't get much out of that.

044Just try to remember what you what you paid for it then you know. Uh but I I think you you might want to think about that that structure with your new superintendent and think about how do we really want these meetings to work and how do we get to the big ticket items in a thoughtful way so that our perspective as a board is that we really have the time to discuss it and don't feel rushed. Now, I'd say those meetings that we used to work on those, we might have those last two and a half, three hours, but when we got to the business meeting, we the board had usually knew where what it wanted to do and was ready to take action. Might be an item or two every now and then that

045we needed to spend more time on, but it was it was going to be pretty crisp and we were going and and we were going to present a very professional board, a very crisp board. Another comment, >> um I think that part of my concern is we do have a lot of high ticket items right now. We have a superintendent search. We have um optimization, possible school closings. We have um teacher shortage like everybody else. But I think my concern really is the perception of our community in some of this when some of it is a Texas wide thing. It's not necessarily just a KISSD issue and many school districts are closing schools or cutting budgets and having teacher shortages and so some of these big ticket items I think my concern but I'm thankful

046this board makes big bold decisions kind of like the um yonder pouch they brought it to us to do um pilot two pilots a high school and a middle school and this board said nope let's do every single high school and every single middle school and we did it all right then and there. So, we're willing to make those bold decisions, but there's going to be a lot of hard decisions that this community is not used to um because of school closures or reasonzoning or teacher just things that are going to have to happen. Not that anybody has to lose a job because we are short teachers. We got plenty of jobs. We need you. We need everybody. Um but it's just that perception and I think even for the staff as well, these are

047education problems. Um, yes, KIC has unique problems, but a lot of these big problems are educational. >> Well said. And and I would say you also point out this is a very very difficult time to be a school board member and a very difficult time to be school superintendent. It's why we have a lot of turnover. We averaged about 125 turnover a year. We turn over about 175 now, which doesn't make your job any more or less arduous trying to the right leadership for your district. I'm going there. I just want to say this about the courage that it's going to take for you to visit some of the subjects that you're going to have to visit. And I again just another little war story and I went to Richardson ISD and they had had

048a lot of problems with culture wars in their district with CRT with all kinds of issues and they had a superintendent separation and social media was really really difficult. The board had lots and lots of unkind things to say and they asked me to come over and talk to them. I went over. I said, "Okay, so let me get this straight. You're getting your evaluation of your work as a trustee off social media. That's where you go get see how you're doing." Said, "Mike, what do you mean?" I said, "Well, let me ask you this. How many of you got a job?" All raise your hand. Family, all raise your hand. hobbies, bridge, golf, sports activities, vacations, church, clubs, everybody's raising their hands. So, if somebody comes up to you and says, "You cannot be

049a school board member anymore." And I told my son this when he was on the Round Rock School Board, "You can't be a schoolboard member anymore. We're taking this away from you. You're going to quit doing all those other things. No more vacations. No more hobbies. No more family. No more grandkids. No. No. No. No. Mike. We're going to do more of it. Then read the agenda. Ask questions. Discuss with your colleagues. Get the perspective. Hear the recommendation. Vote. Go home. okay with and if you know someday as I said my trust I handed back the trust the trust that I had you may decide to hand your trust back somebody may say well I want to run against you okay you know I told Mason if they say that's what they want you need

050to say we need good we need good public servants but don't get Don't get evaluated on social media. Look in look at yourself and say this this is what is best the district whether it's facilities optimization student performance finances. I'm okay. I studied. I read. I asked questions. I listened to my colleagues and I voted. And I'm okay with my vote. I'm sorry if somebody's not That may just have to be the way that it is. And I my finding has been over 40 plus years, people that say they're going to come do something about it normally don't because they don't know what you have to do, what it takes, and they don't have the information that you have that usually the staff's presenting to you. But if they do, okay, we hope people are

051informed. We hope people know what's and we'll help inform them. If they want information from us, from board or from the superintendent, that's our obligation to furnish it, make it available. If they want to second guess decisions, okay? But if they take this away from me, if somebody said, "Mike, you can't be commissioner of education anymore. Mike, you can't be okay. I got some grandkids and I got some hobbies and I got stuff I like to do. And my wife in there is my supervisor and she'll come in here and say, "This is what you're going to do now." Okay. But how do you get fulfillment from this? How do you get gratification from this? How do you get satisfaction from this service? How do you get that if you don't I don't you know,

052and I' I've been on some boards of Traml Crow Company, the third largest real estate company in the world. I've been on the board of Southwest Securities. I've been on the board of a publicly traded company in California and let me tell you it's a lot harder being a school. I told the chairman of the board co I said tell you what let's just open our meetings up to the public and set our salaries of all our execs and everybody out here and set our budget. You mind we can't do that? I said well the school board has to do every time they they know I got called about that one time too. guy called me up and said, "I got elected to the board. Dr. Moses, I'd like to know where when do I

053start getting paid." I said, "Well, I got a little bad news for you. That's that's not in the cards." And and I know that this stuff gets close to us. You're pulling for the teachers. You're pulling for the kids. You're pulling for the schools. You want them to do well. You want to be successful. you want and and this and and when you see the sweet stories I used to tell in Dallas ISD, you know, we had 166,000 kids and 21,000 employees. We had a lot of sweet stories going on every day, but that wasn't what made the news. First thing that made the news was something else. It usually wasn't a sweet story, but that's the gratification, satis satisfaction, and fulfillment that I think you have to look for and find to to enjoy

054this service. and and then be okay, you know. And I told Mason, Mason, don't live on social media. You're not gonna there. Where is the accountability? At least I knew you. And I see you sitting back there, too, by the way. I knew with newspapers, they had accountability. They had there is accountability. There is such a thing as slander and liable. And they at least with social media, I haven't I don't know. Maybe y'all educate me. Where where's the accountability for social media? So I I just encourage you I'm sure you have people here school district that monitor that communications office and if a response is needed that okay but as far as you getting into that I hope you're able to avoid that. Uh I got a roll here by the way. We're going

055to take a break. Then we're going to come back finish up. Yeah. And we're going to take a break in a minute and then we'll come back and take about another hour and then I've got you a reading assignment is going to be part of and my my assistant will send Dina your my training number. So you'll get your three hours credit for your team of eight training. But anyway, I just want you to know all that kind of stuff's taken care of and we will take a break and we will Yes, sir. Rodney. I um I I I want to just speak from my perspective sometimes and um I'm I'm confused about discussions because I my perception of most of our meetings is we get lectures to and we have very little time to

056discuss amongst the board. We don't talk, we listen, we receive and we vote and I we prep for the meeting. So, we have some stuff that we've already kind of internalized. We know what we want to possibly discuss, but we we do very little discussions. And I I I hear you're saying that's important that we get opportunity. The board should discuss and I I told you before that I got a little frustrated with this process of >> we don't do a lot of discussion. We do a lot of listening. >> I would say that's a good subject. How's the board perspective going to be Phil? That's the reason I think meeting organization is important. What do you do at those meetings? Do we have some workshops where that's what we do? We get to offer

057a perspective, the board perspective. Now, you know, that's the reason I don't want to do all the talking. I'm asking y'all questions because listening is still pretty important. I drove down here took two hours and 15 minutes today and I did I got to do a lot of listening. >> But it it was it was needed. It was needed. I needed it and and and she was nice about it. Very sweet about it. She's a former teacher, former second grade teacher. A couple of y'all met her. She's a pretty sweet gal and I love her to death. But she does like she will coach me and that's okay. I need it. But but yeah, but listening is is is important. I'll just give you example. We had those focus groups and y'all had good focus

058groups. We had good people. Hope you got to read some of the notes, some of the things they said. But we asked four or five questions and everybody got to speak at least four times and I think we had 16, 17, 18 people in each group as I said to them. So 64 comments were made in each group and so everybody got to make their four comments, four or five comments four or five times during that hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes, but they had to listen to the other 50 some odd. So listening it's it's it's okay for us to listen and we should get to speak. Everybody should get to speak and get your perspective. But I think Rodney, I I hear your frustration. And I would simply say there's a

059there's a learning opportunity, a learning moment, a teachable moment here for the board and a new superintendent to set up a structure that allows for the superintendent and staff to hear board perspective. Now, I also will tell you, I heard board perspective a lot, and sometimes I had to say it in the most loving way that I could. I don't think this is could be good for our district. But I respected the board. I also made a deal with my board members. I won't tell you how to vote ever if you don't tell me what to recommend. I'm going to recommend what I think is best for our kids and best for our community and best for our schools. You then vote what you think is best. And when we walk out, it's done. I'm

060going to do what the board has voted to do. I hope hope my recommendations are going to be solid enough. your your approval and your blessing. But I understand that may not always be the case because there is also a theory that I live with that all of us know more than any one of us. That includes me and the superintendent has to be that way that that's why we have a board that collectively offers a judgment and a perspective. But I think I think and think about that a little bit. It might be might be helpful. But I' I'd also encourage you talk with the new superintendent about how do we get how does the board perspective? I also hope and I would encourage new superintendent. I met with every one of my board

061members once a month away from the boardroom either at breakfast or at lunch or at a separate meeting just to hear their thoughts, hopes, their their concerns and sometimes I got to offer what I thought might be a reasonable solution. But the communication is really important and that communication between the superintendent and the board and this this team of eight it works so much better when there is some of that going on. Again, that doesn't mean we just come together and all we just agree on everything. But sometimes we have good disc. Okay, I understand better. All right, I get it. I didn't get it before. Now I get I get a I got a better sense about what you're thinking and what what needs to happen here. And And and you know, I hear

062the press that that you need to be pressing for excellence. I I think all of you want that. Oliver has articulated that. But I hear every I don't hear anybody saying now talking it and walking is two different things. Sometimes that means hard decisions and a superintendent may make recommendation to assign someone, reassign want to do something and you say I don't know about that but if excellence is what we're pursuing that may be required that hard decision may be required now it's okay to again ask questions and understand but there's a time then to gather up and say we are all moving this district we want clean clean ISD we want this to be a noteworthy And to get there, we can't just tolerate a little, well, let's just kind of hope we get

063this right. Now, we we are going to have intent. This is all intentional what we're working for. And and then you have to also trust somebody. Y'all are striving to select a leader. Trust is big people. You give your perspective what you're really striving for. It's kind of like, you know, the piling the airplane. The board tells the superintendent, "This is where we want to go. This is what we want to achieve." But the board doesn't tell the superintendent how to fly apart, where to set the brothers. Board has to take a step back and say, "This is this is our target. This is where we want to go. Your job is to get us there. You see that we're running low on fuel and we need to talk about that. Bring that to us.

064But you don't you don't go in and try to say now watch that rudder. Watch this. Watch this uh measurement here. We're not not in there doing that. There'll be a time for accountability particular if we plan the plane where we want it to go. Anybody want to say a word about legacy? >> This isn't about the legacy. >> Okay. It's just kind of a collective statement. We started having um two board meetings a month. Um we started doing that. Um Brett and we all tried to work really hard to do that. But we started having four meetings a month when we had a couple board members come on who have a lot of questions. Um and we can't I think dialogue is very very important amongst us because we act collectively uh not Susan

065by herself or Rodney by himself. So I need to understand Rodney's perspective on things. I need to understand Tina's and sometimes when Tina says something about special ed, it helps me evaluate or change my opinion um or come to more of a center um area to be able to vote seven to zero. Um, and so I think it's important that everybody has the opportunity to be heard, but they also have the opportunity to ask questions. That always hasn't been what I witnessed. Uh, and so I think we have a great board in regards to respect for each other and listening to each other. Sometimes our conversations go on for a while. Perhaps that can be lessened by uh superintendent directly reaching out to a board member who might have questions or or a presenter uh

066for that particular subject. But it's important for the public to understand and everybody else to understand as an elected board, we are really restricted on how we can have those conversations. And it's not like I can call up Marvin and say, "Marvin, as a principal at Ellison High School, how did you handle this?" "Hey, Tina, what did you think about this?" "Hey, Brenda, can you tell me about your perspective on that?" Now, we have a walking quorum. Uh if I want to hear those three people's perspective because they're the educators in the room and I value their opinion. So those discussions have to happen here in this boardroom. >> So is Mike Harper telling you not to talk to each other? >> No, he's not. No. And nor has anybody else told us not to.

067But we still have walking quorum issues. Um you know, if I call up her and him and her all about the same topic, >> I think you have to be so >> Well, it's a slippery slope. And if you know, if you're the person who wants to make sure you stay on this side of the law, um you're always going to be hesitant about that. I think I think questions may fall in a couple categories. Y'all y'all have to to be the judge of that. There's there's not any not anything I can give you on that. U >> Mike, let me add one thing. One one of the things that I think u has happened in Cassidy is I think we went from a small system to a big system really really quick >> and

068I don't know that the operations of the system kept up with the growth of the system and I think now it has come full circle uh that the next you know superintendent of the district has to be you know everyone talks about cadence uh but there's another thing to really have a true cadence and I think that's what the district lacks because as big big as this thing is. I mean, we've got to know this quarter of the year, here's the here's the attack plan. This quarter of the year, here's the attack plan. And we've never really had that because then that allows us as a group to know, hey, in this quarter of the year, this topic is coming. So, that's when I need to have all my thoughts prepared in advance for that

069in some cases to have conversations in advance of what I call real time uh live fire action. And it's to me, it's just not been a really good cadence uh to the work. >> That's just how I view it. about that just a little bit >> the work of the board for the year. You can't you want that that won't include things that are going to come up but but a board calendar that kind of these things happen in in uh January, these things happen in February, these things happen in March. And that includes some evaluations, some accountability uh contracts, that includes things that that the board needs to to take action on. might might consider a board calendar to get you where you want to go. >> Do you have a sample one or

070one that kind of has an outline that aligns with, you know, hiring and superintendent evaluations and just basic things that happen throughout the um state. >> I'll send one to the board president and let y'all can evaluate that and decide if that's something helpful to you or not. But I think >> I think it might be that you kind of have an idea what are the big ticket items we need to be focused on. There will always be some though that can't be anticipated. >> So you will Yes. >> So we we've also been working on boarding um book if you will be online as well as in the book which we feel is going to be more beneficial for new board members as well on timelines uh feeding them in feeding them the data

071um on how to come into the boardroom with a successful plan. um at the very beginning and I think that makes a difference too as to board meetings and things >> new orientation board members is essential >> and I would hope we're present the rest of the board particularly the super I brought new board members in and I had them usually spend much time as they get half day a day and I'd usually introduce them to the cabinet I give them probably 30 minutes with each cabinet member then I' we had an or we had a orientation I would encourage strongly encourage you to have that operating board. Is it in there? >> We've added some of that recent recent years. >> Let's do this. I'll be here about an hour. start again. >> Okay,

072>> we're going to recess now at 6:13 p.m. and we will come back at 6:23 p.m. Now it's 6:23. We're coming back from recess and Turn it back over to Dr. Moses >> here. If you want to stop me and say, "I want to say something about that," then you can. But some of this is going to happen pretty fast. Board challenges. I I just what I've listened to, I've I've heard I've heard facilities optimization, teacher retention. We've talked a little bit about social media, and I and I hope that I wasn't being flippant. I wasn't trying to be flippant. I just think you have to get to the point with that that you can you can move on without without spending too much time on that. Email communication is is really important especially before

073you hit send. I don't know how many times I get calls from superintendents board members usually weekly. Uh Dr. Moses, I hit send before I should have thought about that. I said, "Yep." Uh, and you have to assume everything you're saying and everything we're saying in here, everything I'm saying, I know is subject to public information. So, you want to be thoughtful about about emails and email communication, board dynamics, officers, and committees. That's really important to a high functioning board. I'm okay with committees. If you think they are really, really I we in Dallas, we went to two meetings a month. We had the big meeting which was a committee that we call it the Committee of the whole meeting might last three hours and on a bad night it might ask lost last longer

074but not long much longer than that. But that committee of the whole meeting was when all the items for discussion that we wanted the board's perspective on we we did that. Our other meeting of the month was a business meeting. That's where we were going to take action. If we weren't ready to put take action, we didn't put it on the agenda. We needed more time for discussion and we had took more time for discussion. Sometimes you say, "Well, we ain't got much time for discussion. The state's fixing to do this or we're fixing to be or the appraisal district's fixing to do this or we're fixing have to do." Sometimes then you just have to the time requires you to go ahead and do something and you act accordingly. But hopefully a calendar, a

075board calendar will help you give you as much planning and time and time to think ahead and you're still going to get some things that are going to come up, but hopefully a board calendar would help you know this is what we got to deal with monthto month to month. Um, the trust factor is everything. I I I tell I assume everyone here lives in the clean ISD. I assume that everyone here wants what is best for clean ISD whether it's clean harker heights or where where and which high school district is. I assume we are all here because that is what we are we want the best for. So therefore I may disagree with any one of you but I trust you that you would you care about where we live and you want

076it to do well. You want this school district to do well. >> What's that? I think we have that >> good. >> I mean like trust I think that part isn't our problem >> and it does require sometimes sticking together. >> Yeah. >> And the internal attack and working together and are you are you a broker for the system for everybody else or are you a community volunteer? I hope that you're a ser person giving service. I told Mason, I said, "Mason, if you try to become the broker for all your friends that want to call you up and tell you what they want the system belonging, you're going to be a very unhappy. You don't help them learn how to access the system. This is a system has a superintendent, has assistant superintendent, has

077directors, has other people, has principles. the system. Now, when people would call me, I say, "I don't mind you start with me, but if you start with me and I give you a decision you don't like, you only got one place left to go. That's the board. Why don't we try to get you to the teacher or the principal or to the right place and get your and get the situation resolved if we can?" Oh, okay. Sometimes I know you have to maybe ask people, "This is where I think you need to go, what you need to do. You got all these relationships with other board members, superintendent, civic leaders, other elected officials, teachers, journalists, vendors, decisions, parents, district employees. Those are important. They're important to you as trustees. Uh not so much that you

078seek them out. They're going to seek you out from time to time. That's okay. But again, if you're seeking them out, then that's that's a little bit different deal. You are the elected official. You're the person put trust in the system. The one I'd be most concerned about that I look when I look up there that I had to deal with when I was in Austin were board members that got involved with vendors and got too close to vendors. It's not a good thing. I would encourage you to let your business office competitive bidding RFPs, RFQS, have your policies that what you require apply to vendors. Curtis, thank you for your interest in our district. Thank you for wanting to work with us. Thank you for your your service, but we have a procedure. This

079is what we do. It's a big this is we have a large business here. Our budget is how much? >> Half a million dollars. So, we run it like a business. Steve said, "No, you don't." Yes, we do. Sorry if you don't see that, but that's that's what we we this board strives to do that and that's what we're going to continue to do. Uh dos and don'ts for healthy relationships. Do ask questions. I've already said that. Do listen. You should be able to ask the questions. You should be able to also listen. Respect your group. Obviously, these are these are pretty straightforward. >> What's that keep it in the family mean? What's that talking about? >> Social media. Come on. >> There are things that are going to come before y'all that are just

080and they're going to be personnel related related. Could be real estate related. could be student related. Those are confidential matters to be kept where here keeping in the family has to be. And then we're about the business of looking. We're going to disagree. I may see it a little bit different from all far from Brenda. I may but but we're going to look for common ground for common actions for common good. We are we live here. We want good things here. We may need to have some tough discussions, but we're going to get to a point where we're going to move together as a board and we're going to send a signal to the super, but you're not only sending a signal to the superintendent, you're signaling a signal to your staff and to the

081community. This is the direction we want this district to go. It's and if it's about and you're never going to go wrong and I I'm not trying to patronize you here either by the way, but you're never going to go wrong focusing on educational excellence. I've had boarders that got into other issues and the public what are you doing? It's about it's about education about educational excellence. We don't have time for all the war stories on that. Uh we don't attack each other. We don't talk over each other. We don't go solo. I'll take care of that. I had a board member I loved. His name was Roy Grimes. He was a naval officer. Uh and got on the school board. Love him. He was Gosh, he was great. But he decided, you know, he

082had some uh parents that got to him and he decided Mike's busy. I I I like he did he would he was such a good board member for me and so cooperative, but he decided I'm going to help Mike out and I'm going to go down there and handle this. I'm going to go get involved with it with the principal and the teachers. At about 11 o'clock one morning, I started getting calls and he showed up in my office. I said, he said, "I think I've done something bad." I said, "I think you've done something bad, too." And I said, "I'm gonna handle it. I got to handle it." And it's teachers are mad and parents are mad and the principal everybody's mad. He said, "Yeah, I know." He said, "I messed up." I said,

083"I know you're trying. I know you're trying to help, but don't do that. Let me do my job. You do your job." He said, "I got it. I'm okay." And he he did. He was he was a he was a great guy. But I worry people that, you know, I've had him for this. Everything's bad. Conspiracies. These teachers, they're just they're just they just don't want to teach the kids. They're trying to dumb them down. I don't you know, my mother and dad teachers. My mother-in-law, father-in-law teachers. Why? Debbie in there as a teacher. My brother a teacher, principal, superintendent. His wife's a teacher. We they're all they've all made mistakes. I've made mistakes. But I don't know many people. And I go to church and you do too with a lot of teachers that

084intentionally set out to mess up. There's people make bad mistakes. No doubt about it in any profession, but conspiracies there is worry and I hope you can I hope you can not spend a lot of time on on that. And once you've made a decision, even if you even you think, gosh, I I hope we've done the right thing there. You know what? Sometimes you might want to come back in a year and visit something. And that's okay. Sometimes there's a moment too to say we voted. This is what we've done. We need to be I'll be there and be supporting this. There may be a time when we need to ask superintendent board president. Let's revisit that. But we're not going to undermine. I don't know if you get involved in constituent services or

085you get asked to for this lot. I think I've already touched on it. Uh there's a right way and a wrong way. People are going to ask you for your assistance sometime. But I hope you also know the difference. helping them get the the assistance they rightfully deserve and need to access the system. Uh but not not cross into saying and this is what I'll tell the superintendent to do. That's that's the danger area. Uh if you prescribe the action that needs to be happening, then you know what that means that you're kind of you know I I've asked a board member told me I want to name the high school principal at this high school. I said, "Okay, you if you do that, talk the other board members into it. You're you're you're willing

086for us to let you be the person accountable next year when the performance comes out for that school." Well, no. I said, "Well, hold up just a minute then. Let's do this the right way. Let's let's do what we need to do. There's the right way to get the constituent service that you want to get supporting improvement, get the democratic expectation, and also make sure you're doing your role and you get to do your role in terms of board oversight management. That is a legitimate role that the board has. Uh I think I've hit that one. You have to evaluate that. What do my constituents want and are they always right? You want, again, our natural inclination is to try to help people. I didn't say please people, but I said help people. And if

087you get to the point that I have to please them, then that's that's usually not going to help you. Trying to help and listen and and point them in a direction is usually the way to go. can you think re that number second bullet you don't if you recommend the response there is a time for you to hold the superintendent accountable for the operation of the district but if you prescribe the responses when that time comes then that accountability is a lot more difficult so I think you want to be careful careful. Again, I would, as I said to you, I told asked my board members, I said, I'll never tell you how to vote just just please don't tell me what to recommend. And then you evaluate the recommendation and you make the decision

088for the recommendation. And I will respect that. uh superintendent needs to have a system set up and I hope you you have a board policy I'm sure on complaints and on grievances and hopefully the it's set up in such a way that a a speedy resolution can be found. Sometimes if somebody wants a lot of time an investigation that may take more time but obviously we want to we want to be sensitive to speed. Uh if there are patterns of complaints that that superintendent has seen report those to the board so you know we we kind of know what's coming on this you know where this is headed. Uh here's the big here are the big ticket items that I think all boards need to know and I think the superintendent has to be be

089responsible for making sure. First one is safety. My dad used to tell me, Mike, parents will forgive you if you don't teach their kids enough reading and writing arithmetic, but if you let something happen to their child in school, they're never going to forget. safety of our children, safety of our employees, safety of our guests, safety at school. And you you have a right as a board to know is do we have the safety protocols, the safety policies, is everything in place. You know what I see in terms of safety in this building looks good? You want to be sure that it's the same place, same way everywhere. Uh are the district's assets secure? You are the steward. you are the stewards of the district. Stewardship is critical and you don't you don't want to

090be embarrassed. You want to know are these assets secure and it's fair for you to know that. Um what do you think your biggest protection your biggest protection in knowing where the assets are securities? Would anybody like to offer me a follow on that? >> Your biggest you as a board member, what is your biggest assurance or security that the assets are safe, secure? Well, I would submit to you that it's your annual audit done by your external auditor. When I was on the travel pro board, say I was screwed to the board of the board, I was, you know, I first I want to know when I got appointed, did y'all have an Arizona missions policy? Attorneys understand that, don't they? And am I covered? And the next thing I I want to know

091uh you know we have a external auditor and when do they report to us and that's when I wanted to know are our assets secured are there any material weaknesses if there are that's bad not looking for material weaknesses I want to know do we have a strong audit is it strong and and our assets secure that's how I know if district's assets are secure laws policies policies being followed couldn't. That's that has to be that has to be true. It has to be in place. We follow our own policies. We follow the laws of the state. Does fairness prevail? Are our systems efficient and effective? Dr. Davis, as interim superintendent, you see anything up there that I've left off that It's not fair for the board to know. >> I think that's those are

092high level issues. Safety, finance, fairness or follow our own policies and laws. To me, that's that's big stuff that the board of trustees if you said what what should we really be sure we're about? I could probably put what else up there and put student performance and I'm going to assume we know that's our mission and our sweet spot. But that's that's pretty vital. All that stuff's pretty vital at least in my mind and in the I think in the minds of a lot of people. Uh management oversight. Um, if you attempt to manage or get into management, you disempower the superintendent. You you want to you want to have the board perspective, the board discussion, board thoughts. Superintendent will make a recommendation. You can vote it up or down. You also can vote it

093up and then evaluate it in the superintendent's evaluation in the conduct of these these recommendations in personnel, recommendations on finance, recommendation on school closures and and it and I would say there are certain items like that one I just mentioned, redrawing attendance boundaries, closing schools, raising taxes, high stress issues that probably do require your time and discussion. But eventually after your all the perspectives have been heard then a recommendation has to be formulated and hopefully it's one that you will all be able to support but it's going to be you don't want to weaken yourselves by disempowering the superintendent as you go through those processes. Oversight is reviewing the results of management decisions, guaranteeing the integrity of major management decisions. It's not trying to influence the decisions before we make them or even reviewing them

094after they're made. There's a time and I call that time the evaluation time. When you review and if you again the board calendar, I'll reflect when is there going to be accountability? When is there going to be an evaluation? When is there going to be review of performance? Followed by any other considerations that may be necessary. Hopefully, you're going to continue to be concerned about the whole system, all the activities in the system and not individuals in the system. If you It's plenty fair to report concerns to the superintendent about individuals, but I don't know that you want to try to get involved in any other action. Again, you evaluate the superintendent on how personnel is handled, how personnel actions are are resolved. Little bit up there about oversight management. We talked a little bit

095already about board workshops, superintendent reports. Do y'all have board committees? >> Two. We have a legislative uh a legislative committee. I think there's three standing. >> Again, information. It's not you get to do as you please. We did we went to committee the whole instead of individual committees because we had found that people on the finance committee might know things that people didn't know or people on the personnel committee knew things that people didn't know or that people on the facilities committee knew things that other board members didn't know. I wanted all the board members to know know everything that we were considering and contemplating and needed to be once you go rely you get information silos if you overrely on committees that's y'all's call all the way it's just something for you to think

096about in terms of how you wait you may want to strive as you move forward if they work for you think that's the way to go uh a lot of committees that's fine but I I think that Um many districts have found that that committee the whole makes sure that we see everything that and everybody sees what they need to see. Um those board workshops that you may have you may call them board meetings work but you're signaling you're sending signals uh you're preparing you're reading you may have discussion but you don't necessarily have to take action. you may want to say, "I don't think we're quite ready for this yet to take action. Let's let's see this on another agenda. Let's talk about it some more." Now, if you're if you're and again, you

097get into time constraints sometimes you you know, but the superintendent needs to help on this and certainly the board needs to be watchful. Let's watch our calendar. Let's see what's coming at us and let's try to get as far in front of it as we can. So, we're Not we're not into surprises. I'm flying right now because I've already said about board committee is what I really want to say to you about that two most complex problematic issues for governance team. There they are. how you can work with each other and how you work individually and collectively with superintendent. Y'all are good people. I think you have a really desire to make this a really really great district and clean has a wonderful history and legacy. I've been coming around here. I've told some of

098you before 50 years ago CFO was a guy named Mark Bolton. Mark Bolton and his wife Phyllis lived here and he worked here with several superintendents and he lived in the he and Phyllis lived in the apartment right by my mother and dad at North Texas State University. So I got brought to Colleen starting when I was a little kid to see the Vultans and I don't know how many times I've been in your district and how many times y'all been kind enough to tolerate that but this is a you have you have a excellent community and I know want good things. How you do this together, how you work collectively together, it's it's important. It's important to your community. It's kind of important central Texas and I would suggest it's with the military base

099here. It's kind of important to Texas, too. So, uh there's your, you know, your areas of possible conflict. Uh you want to try to be thoughtful and mindful about your role as a policy maker as you think about those. Uh we don't disrespect one another. We listen. Unanimity is unanimity is not required but courtesy is surprises. I say this Dr. Davis to all superintendents, interim superintendents, and all people. Our job as leaders is not to surprise the board. And we hope the board won't surprise us. That we're all trying to do good things for kids, but it's this is not a gotcha game. This is this is trying to be very thoughtful and also very uh professional. You have three great levers of power. The first one is the super selection of your superintendent. That

100is the moment that you are you entrusting someone to lead. And again leading is requires humility. Humility that's with confidence take you a long way. The board also wants to be trusting. Trust factor is important. Once it's lost, it's hard to ever get it back. Maintaining trust requires my finding was always if I don't surprise the board that element of trust remains. I have to give sometimes I had to tell the board bad news or news I would prefer not to have given but honesty and and being able to be trusted if the boards you know we had a board one of the boards I sat on we had a couple board members didn't never want the CEO to come in with anything other than our stock price went up stock price went up stock

101price went up that's the only news they wanted to hear well eventually that that'll get you on a collision course because stock price wasn't always going to go up. So, you know, and I've seen boards that every month, every month, Mike, uh, bring us a win. We need a win every month. We need a big win every month. If we're going to have a board meeting, we need to have a big win. Not have a win every month. We're gonna try. We're gonna we're going to try real hard, but if we have to have a win every month so so the board can look good and everybody can feel good. Sometimes it need this is it may require hey this is hard and we're working at this. This is this is not where we want

102things to be but we're going to work with superintendent to get them where they need to be. Your policies and your public engagement. Those are big levers. Those are your big big levers that you have as a board. Say, "I don't know. I I don't get to do anything." No, no, no. Where you It's where you go and look for where you I'd have board me say, "I I don't like the way we're doing this." I said, "Let's get the policy book out. Let's look what you want to change this policy." Okay, we need to have need to have we need to have a discussion with board president and then we need to put it on the agenda, have a discussion about it, and then move it to action. That's that's your lever. You got

103you got a big lever there. Now, if somebody says, "I want it right now, instantly, this minute." Well, how big a system is this? And is this system going to respond to instantaneous movement? I would I would say doubtful. And I'm an impatient person, by the way. Fortunately, I'm married to a very patient lady, but I'm I'm a person that I found I better have a sense of urgency. I suspect King has found that too in his job. You better have a sense of urgency. Now, that doesn't mean though that everything responds to just a jerk. That doesn't mean, and I that doesn't mean that because I didn't jerk the system that I wasn't impatient about getting improvement in the system. A strong school board makes a superintendent much more effective. Maybe powerful is not

104the right word, but I'll say and a strong superintendent makes a board power more effective. We don't want want to be strong with each other as we work together. This team this team doesn't always again doesn't always require perfect agreement. But it requires striving to find the place that that we're moving the system where we want it to go. Trust, trust, trust, trust, trust. That's the that's and the trust. And as I said, and I I tell and I think King, you know this and superintendents know this, you can lose if you lose that trust, it is a hard thing to get back. So it requires requires us to make sure there are not surprises. Now is it possible that you could get surprised by something the superintendent didn't know? Yes, it is. In a

105system this size, it's very possible. But the idea is we strive to not have surprises so we can maintain that trust. But but I've gotten calls before and I'll dare say it'll happen in this district. It's probably happened to you as board members and happen where did you know that? I didn't know that. Then my next you know question usually is I'm talking to you know about that and could you tell me what's happening? I'm not making a re I'm not telling you what to do. I'm not making a recommendation or action for you to take. I just would like to know are you aware? Are we working on that? >> Can we show the other video or you think we can I know the volume is not I I I don't think my volume's

106broken but I think this room may have a little bit of but there's a video I want you to watch. It was about seven minutes >> and that play I I nearly passed out. It went Ginobi Mills Duncan Dial in that order. Genobi threw a no look pass to Mills that is still fooling me. That play is everything that's right about the NBA. >> It is beautiful to watch and that play should be an NBA commercial like this is NBA basketball. >> We practice that. We have a drill. We take two dribbles pass two dribble pass and we do it like 10 15 times. We had a timeout. Coach Prop was like let's do the 10 pass. I want somebody to overpass. That's the beauty of our game. They constantly sacrifice for the guy next

107to them. Their offense is such poetry emotion. >> That's beautiful offense. I hope the kids at home and their youth coaches just take that possession and show it on an endless loop. >> You know, they call the Spurs game the beautiful game >> because they're not doing this to a bad defensive team. We're talking about Miami being one of the herald halfcourt defensive teams in the league and San Antonio is running a clinic. They can't do anything about it. They cannot stop it. >> Parker Jolie for three bang. >> How good has this Spurs offense been? 29 assists. Mark Bars Dia has put on an absolute clinic on how to pass the basketball. >> San Antonio's bigs pass the ball so well. Splitter Duncan and in particular D out. Look how everybody touched the ball

108there without it going to the floor. >> Mills not that time. Leonard on the follow. Kawhi Leonard. >> Coach, was it anything that you said to Kawhai or anyone else said to Kawhai going into this game that led to this performance? >> We talked to Kawhai. >> And what did you tell him? >> That's family business. Man, they're a high oil machine and they uh they move the ball extremely well. >> I don't think the ball hit the deck on that. That's right. Beautiful movement. >> They put you in so many difficult positions. You know, if you're not right on right on time, right on target, then they're going to make you pay for it. >> Duncan hands to Janoli >> inside. Duncan out to Parker for three. Bam. Because every time you see your

109superstar, the franchise being so unselfish, it makes you want to be like that, too. You know, Timmy is a great example for me. He was a model for me to follow. He's been so good for so long. And I think a big cube of success is we never let our ego, you know, me or Timmy or Manu be ahead of the team. The Spurs might be the best passing team we've seen since the Celtics of the 80s because of the way they just find a better shot every single time. >> The Miami Heat, as much as I respect what they've accomplished, they can't beat this bird. >> Patty Mills puts it in. Patty Mills huge off the bench. >> The longevity, the sustained excellence to me of Tim Duncan just mindboggling. >> Oh, Duncan on

110the follow. on the finish. Flushes it with the left hand. >> I love Mano Janobi. I've enjoyed watching him play in the NBA as much as any player. Listen, he would be in my Hall of Fame anywhere, anytime. >> Another beautiful pass from his 10th assist of the game. The ball movement once again. Unbelievable. >> No, we got four more to win. We'll do it this time. San Antonio Spurs. You showed the world how beautiful this game is. >> Chris Bosch described the Spurs as the best basketball team he's ever played against. How would you characterize what you ran into in the finals? >> I would agree. That's what team basketball and that's how team basketball should be played. You know, it's selfless guys. Move, cut, pass. You got a shot, you take it. But

111it's all for the team and that's how team basketball should be played. Hawaii Leonard, you are the 2014 Bill Russell MVP. Seven years, man. >> We're back. >> Back such old guys. I've never been uh more proud of a team, nor have I ever gotten as much satisfaction from a season in all the years I've been coaching. Uh to see the fortitude you guys displayed coming back from that horrific loss last year and getting yourselves back to the position and doing what you did in the finals, uh you're really to be honored for that and I just can't tell you how much it means. What' you say there? >> Selflessness. What else? >> Teamwork. >> Practice. >> What's that? >> A lot of practice. Yeah. >> Anything else? >> Basketballs. Yeah. Saw you saw a

112lot of basketball, didn't you, Sue? >> Yeah. >> Positioning other people. >> I think they ended up with five superstars because nobody wanted >> letting other people get the credit >> to get the credit. to get the credit. Get the credit. You brag on your teachers. Get the credit. Y'all do recognitions and and again I I like that. I just say that make it count. Make those count. Make those make those meaningful. So people are saying you do good stuff for kids and clean you will be recognized. You will get credited with that. That's but I think that kind of that message of teamwork, selflessness. I got a shot, you got a better shot. I give it to you. I got an idea, you got a better idea. I thought I had a good idea,

113but I think your idea is better on this policy. on this practice. I don't have to have my way because of who I am or how long I've been on the board, where I live or anything else. I just want a good outcome for kids for our district >> and that can I make a comment? >> Yes, sir. You know, I think as I kind of look at the board and just kind of jotting some things down, listen. I think one of the things I think has make this board, I'm not even going to say successful. I think one of the reasons that this board has potential is because there's a I'll say a lack of ego, right? And it's like when you get um I don't know if my wife's listening or not, but

114like when you get into a dispute or when you give in a in an argument with your spouse, like if you each agree to take 50%, it's a bad deal. Right. It's either 100%. It's always 100 to zero or it should be, right? And and I screw it up basically on an hourly basis, but it's it should be a 100. It's it's a give, right? It's just a give. It's not a take. It's just a give. And sometimes you're on the receiving end of the give and sometimes you're on the giving end of the give. But I think here why we have potential to to fix a lot of these things that we we are doing wrong because that's really what we're talking about is trying to fix make ourselves better. Um, I think that's

115that's kind of how we get there and I think we're well positioned to do it. And I think that, you know, that video is a pretty good and and Rodney, you put it. What did you say? Just say it before. I think it's, you know, you had five five superstars that didn't want to be superstars. Yeah. I think I think that's a great way to put it. So, I feel we've got potential. We just got to work on some things. >> You You have your own gifts. You have You were put on this board. You were put in trust again because you're tr you are trusted. You're trustees who are trusted because of the abilities you have. That does not make any one of us more necessarily more knowledgeable. But but you do have great

116potential and you're learn and I think if you continue to work, continue to to to learn, you're going to do well. I want to run a few of these little scenarios to you just make you think for a minute. Anybody want to read number one? >> I have a question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Can you change there? >> Yeah, we'll do that. We get to that. Uh that board member Jones makes a superintendent goes to her office sits down says, "Madam superintendent, I've been hearing a lot of complaints from principles and parents about the performance of the area superintendent in my part of town. I think you need to move her to another part of the district or to into central office because there's so much discontent about the job this person's doing. Is this

117a management scenario or a governance scenario? Now, if we had stopped, if if maybe the trustee had stopped and said, uh, instead of saying what we should do, I'm hearing a lot of complaints from this person about this person and I'd really I'd like to call it to your attention. Okay, it's now in your it's in I've given it to you and there will be a time when and I don't you don't say this but you know we know it's when there will be a time of evaluation on how personnel issues are handled but goodness gracious who wants to take someone that's performing poorly and say go to another part of town work for somebody else or go better go to central office put them in central office and let them work the whole district

118the only thing I think the trustee did wrong was prescribe the solution, not necessarily the issue. Board member Jones calls the superintendent one day and says, "Mr. Superintendent, I want an update on the contract negotiations that are going on right now with the main street property. What is the status of officers and how are the negotiations going?" >> Governance management Real estate generally belongs to the board, but in this particular case, you were you kind of being tricked by and and by the way, a cadre of trustees looked at these scenarios and this was interesting. This really happened in a school district in Texas. The board member had a friend who wanted to get the be the low bidder and wanted to know what the negotiations were. In other words, what have I got to

119beat? What have I got to beat to get the bid and there was a prosecution on this particular matter. If that person had said the board needs an update and you're the president put an item on the agenda to give the board, not me. I want an update right now instead of we need an update on how negotiations are going and what the status is. So this is this one really it's kind of a kind of a trick one I guess you could call it but it kind of is remind everybody we are the board together not I I want I want an update from me right now that's a little that that's really not what we're about member goes to board president says Mr. Mr. Chair, I would like to put an on the

120agenda an upcoming agenda to reconsider our policy on not naming schools after people who are still alive. Would you please do that? Management or governance. >> Key word up there is what? key word that I see there's policy >> where you are the policy makers of this school district >> and fair game I I'd like to there's policy that concerns me it might be naming of schools it might be something else I'd like for the board to consider and look at sometimes I might just want a conversation about it to make sure that I understand it or we're on the same page or it may be that we need a board discuss discussion at one of our meetings. What's what's this about? Very very much a governance matter. Board member Beasley during a regular board

121meeting says, "Mean, I have a suspicion that we're spending too much money to build our schools. What is our cost per square foot? How does this compare with the cost for neighboring districts? surprise. Don't you know all the cost of how much we're spending and how much everybody's spending to build new schools? How do we compare? Don't you know what the cost are in all the neighboring districts? Maybe I would ask for a report on that. Could we get a report for discussion or information? But that's a little bit that that might fall in the some some members call that an ambush. I don't know that I'd go that far, but I'd say little bit of a surprise because if you know you want that information, it's okay to call up board president or superintendent

122and say, "Mr. Superintendent, could we get a an update on what we're spending per square foot on the cost of our schools and maybe how that compares to our neighbors? Fair enough. >> It and and it's arena. It's also maybe cadence. I like that word by the way you use. Uh yeah, I think I think that could be handled better. It's the information. No sweat. the time and the place maybe a little bit different. School board member Catchman announces arrives unannounced the school one day, steps in the principal's office and says, "I want to tour the building." >> Y'all do y'all address that in your board operating rules? I bet you do. >> I I think you're going to get invited to Christmas parties. You're going to invite PTAs. You're going to get invited to

123all kinds of stuff. and you should go. I think trustees should go. Uh an individual private tour is usually why don't you call the superintendent and say hey and my dad told me hey if you want to go to school call me I'll meet you there we go walk around look around. If you're hearing parents well parents saying the air conditioners aren't working. Well let's let's go look at it or and let's take somebody with maintenance with us you know but let's do it the right way. And by the way, >> okay. Well, y'all get to do it how you want to do it. It's your board. >> I'm saying, >> yeah, >> it's a good one to have. >> I think I think there is people people know in your district, staff members know

124who you are. They know board members. They do. And I think you want to think carefully about what are the what do I want to communicate? Uh again, if it's if it's I hope you want to communicate that I'm brokering the system and I'm going and checking on the system because I don't trust trust with verified. If I want to go look, you know, I call the superintendent, say, "Mr. Superintendent, Mr. Superintendent, I'd really like to go visit the school." Okay, let's go. Let's go. And if there's a concern, I hope you tell tell me about hope you'll tell me about it. Give me a chance to work on it. That's what that's what I think we we really need to see. Six board member calls up superintendent say, "I just breakfast with a group

125of civic leaders. There's a lot of anxiety about your upcoming recommendations to the board regarding the timing of a bond proposal. I just want to share this information with you and give you a heads up in case you haven't already heard this. >> I like it. >> It's the best eyes and ears that a superintendent has are you. You're the best eyes and ears. you you are the representatives of the community. If you if you you come to me and tell me that the first thing I'm going to do is tell us that hold it we're we're gonna have to put a hold on this. We there's some obviously some questions out there we got to we've got to go address and we haven't addressed them. So I don't I I like that kind of

126information. I think board members being the eyes and ears for the district and superintendent is helping the operating judicial capacities need to hear a grievance from a teacher with a medical problem requires her to use bathroom often. The teacher has filed agreements because the principal has assigned her to a classroom far away from the bathroom despite her request to be near one and agreements hearing. Board member Shilling makes a motion to sustain agreement and require the principal to reassign the teacher to a classroom near the bathroom. Shilling's motion is approved by the board. Contextual note, state law gives principles the right to make teacher assignments. The district has no policing teachers consideration >> on a grievance like that any I mean well we don't vote on grievances like that they ask for something either with

127>> you you uphold or sustain you answered the question >> Schilling decided to prescribe the solution if he wants to uphold the teachers agree it's okay make the motion does it. >> But he went one step further and said, "This is the prescription for the solution. Superintendent principal, we're going to pass you. You you we're going to uphold the grievance and we're also going to go further and tell you what to do with that." First of all, I would I've said to several superintendents, if you let this get to your board, I'd shoot you. This this should never get to your board. This should be something that should the superintendent the principal should have if it if it got to but if it got to the board the board in your judicial capacity normally Tina

128you were correct absolutely uphold or reject the grievance if you start getting into the well I want to do this with it and I want to do this and we got to do this with it I think that's a slippery slope to head down think you you uphold or you reject during regularly board regularly monthly board meetings. Board members smither question. >> Yes, sir. >> I got a question. >> Okay. >> All right. I agree with you about holding or there are some situations which just ain't right and they get to us >> and we don't we we can you know say the reject turn it back but there's some remedies that need to be addressed that maybe we know after the grievance is handled we turn around as board and say hey Mr. Superintendent

129Superintendent. Hey, can you look into that situation? >> I don't have a problem with that. >> Okay. >> I don't have a problem any of you. You grab superintendent after me. I I voted to but I but I've got a concern and I hope you don't. >> Yeah. But I also, you know, I mean, superintendent gets to they and the board can make their own calls. I used to even on grievances sometimes like your circumstance I had usually somebody in the back one of my staff members usually in the back to usually talk to people and and tell me a little more about your circumstance. Tell me a little more about what you're dealing with here. At least let let me know what's going on. Uh, and I noticed that, you know, Susan spoke to

130the gentleman that was here tonight. I think that's fine. But I think what's really the right thing to do is always we always had somebody in the back. I had somebody two or three people sometime in the back of our board me room just to say and if I if I did that, they were supposed to give more information. And sometimes you have to say, "Hey, wait a minute. That that's just not that's not legitimate." But If there's something that we need to look into further, then we had a little way of getting somebody after the after they what we don't do what y'all did correctly. I appreciate applaud you don't you don't get into the the specifics there's someone that might follow up say could you tell me a little more about the circumstance

131where this happened who's involved blah blah blah blah let me get some more information there may be that may be completely correct and there could be a different side to the story too so but I have no problem with that but sometimes you just have to say wait based on what we know and what we have here we have to either somebody say I'm I'm I'm not voting to I'm going to vote for the plaintiff. I'm gonna vote. But more than likely, you like have a reason for doing it, though. There's also one other thing that I've done before and I hope whoever you hire does. I've learned something after the fact and I've brought it back and had it reversed. And that's legal, too. And it's okay. In fact, I'd rather somebody say, "We

132made a mistake and we're fixing it. We'd like you to help us correct it." Um, scenario eight. During his regular monthly meeting, board member Smithers raised hand says, "Mr. Superintendent, I'm very concerned about bus safety in our district. I'm hearing stories about reckless driving, buses not being adequately maintained. I want to know what your perception is and what are your plans to deal with this? Maybe we could have put this on the agenda. Maybe it could have been a discussion item. Maybe it could have been an item or information item about our uh buses. How many miles are we driving? How many citations have been issued? Uh how many collisions have we had? Maybe we need to know a little more about transportation. But just to say right now, I want to know this. Give

133it to me. here in workshop. Board member Jones, board member Smith, I'm sorry, says board member Smith uh says, "What do you think of our district policy on nepotism?" >> It's okay. Fair question. You pay the superintendent for counsel advice, comment. Now, on that one, you know, I think Super N can say, I think we can put that policy on the agenda and let you revisit it. If you see something that you're concerned about that we're not doing or should be doing, then let's let's put that policy on the agenda. If you if you have a specific concern, but as far as state law is pretty clear on nepotism, and your policy, I suspect, follows that, but if it doesn't, you want to look at it, no problem. It's a policy. superintendent needs to be

134ready to talk about it too or say I will be glad to put that on the agenda and be glad for us to discuss that t board member Hazard we're almost finished here meets with superintendent one day and says I think we should consider launching a major district initiative around Senate pay for teachers I wish you would start educating the board about this in preparation for eventual action Well, what's that? >> They met. I mean, you didn't do it in the middle in front of everybody, I guess. >> You know, I didn't really have a problem with that until I listened to the discussion about how it came about. And then it was board that were four or five people had give the board voted to give teachers a pay raise because you don't know

135all this obviously they voted to give teachers pay raise and didn't necessarily think the timing was right and weren't really weren't sure they wanted to get into merit pay. Five or six of the board members weren't sure they wanted to get into merit pay but this board member wanted to go ahead and let's get into it and let's go ahead and have you go ahead and give us all a report which will signal that we're considering it. >> Oh, that was great. Now, it may be that we're not considering it, but maybe you're just saying, "I'd like to hear a discussion u and let the board's perspective on merit pay be heard." Now, there may board may say, "I don't know, Mr. President. I don't know if I really want I'm I don't know if

136I'm ready for a discussion on that this year." But that's usually if one board member says this is what I want instead of what we need or can we have a discussion about this. It's usually it's something to think about. Board member GR is known for grilling staff during board meetings asking them tough questions about various state data or various data and practices in their departments. I I don't have much of a problem other than I if it's grilling might not if if if you're asking questions and you're looking for information and the superintendent has agreed that these are people that I'm putting st these people on staff in front of the board to either present or to answer questions, then okay. And I've had people that have given poor answers to the board and

137I knew it and the board knew it. We're not going to chew them out though in front of everybody. I'm going to do it in my office and I'm going to say, Curtis, you didn't do well out there tonight. Weren't prepared. Now, we usually had dress rehearsals in my district. I had dress rehearsals with staff if I was going to let I will also tell you that a lot of times when recommendations were made, I made the recommendations and I answered the questions. If you answer me, ask me a question I couldn't answer, I might ask a staff to help me or I might say, I tell you what, I think I'm going to ask that that item be pulled from the agenda tonight and come back and let us revisit that with you and

138be more prepared to talk about. Sometimes that's Dr. Davis, you ever seen that before? Which have there's a moment. There's sometimes there's a moment, but I can't I can't let people I can't let the staff that we count on be belittled or be diminished. They may make mistakes and they deserve and at that time I'll deal with it. But as far as if you're unhappy with a response, fair enough. Tell me. I need to know. I may be unhappier than you are, but as far as our taking people to task, and it's okay to say, Mr. President, Mr. Superintendent, I think it might be helpful if we could have a little more information on this next month. That's your nice way of saying I'm not ready really to vote on that based on what I've

139heard tonight. You figure it out. superintendent knows what that means, don't we? We know what that means. So, uh, I'm not but but sometimes now I did do this to sometimes if somebody didn't know their stuff and they should, I went ahead and let the I might let the board ask them some take a shot or two and then say, "Well, now now that you've learned, you know, polite polite shots, polite shots >> and that Y'all been nice to me tonight. Thank you for letting me be here. What have we not talked about that you really said I hope Mike talks about this tonight. What have I not talked? I think that you do have much potential. I think you I'll be honest and I looked at a lot of your meetings and I looked

140at your agendas and as we thought about the search, we thought about what you needed, what would really work well for you right now because you have a lot going on. You have a lot of challenges. You can meet them. You can get where you want to go. I know you're considering very carefully what you want to do and what the next step is you need to make. Uh but I think you've been I think you've been thinking well. I think you had to also ask think about what I asked you to asking how are you perceived in the educational marketplace and and what will serve your community and your district the best right now in terms of addressing leadership. I think you've been thinking about that and I think you're in a good place

141on that. Uh, and I I want you to be successful. Many people do, but I think you had to you have to take stock of a lot of things that are happening. And I know that there's there's been a desire to see some some change in this district. That's okay, too. Orderly change, change things that's well thought out and well described. And I think you're you're on the path to get where you want to go. But having let me ask one more time. Is there something I didn't talk about tonight that you said before you got here? Man, I hope he talks about this. And you may be saying, I just wish you'd hurry and get out of here. And I'm going to get out early because you're not you're you're not getting three hours.

142You're by the time you read these two articles, I'm going to leave here with Diana on boardroom mistakes superintendents make and mistakes. in transition which I hope you'll find helpful you're going to get your training but what else your full three hours credit but anything I hadn't talked about you want to visit about Susan >> with all the new changes for the state legislative updates and things what would be your advice what which of those do you see as being problematic for us or that we need to be paying really really close attention to as we go through uh trying to target our improvements and to guide our district through those changes. >> Just make a couple of observations. One, I think you uh always have to be mindful of the open meetings law, the

143open records act. You got to be very mindful of those. You have to pay attention to those and make sure you're uh you're hearing they change those change when you can meet when you can uh conduct your meetings and so forth. U I just think it's somewhat disrespectful your time you don't get paid u and wish you that was not the case. The other thing is I think given your students performance challenges that you're going to need to pay very close attention u to what some of the remedies may be that are proposed by the Texas education agency. I don't I having worked at the agency and led the agency I don't necessarily believe they always have the answers. I always worried and the reason I was not a big fan of school takeovers, I

144always thought that takeovers, the threat of a takeover was was actually greater than the takeover itself. The leverage was the threat of takeover. But but I will say this, I think now the circumstances are such and certainly you can disagree with this and Dr. Davis can dis u with some of the examination that agency is making of school districts and their efforts toward addressing low performance. I would be I would probably get in pretty close alignment where they wanted to be what they thought need to happen because I think there is some seriousness u at the agency about interventions. You call them interventions take you like But I I would pay I would be paying very close attention to their recommendations and the things they're asking. I thought, you know, again, I said this to

145y'all last time with Dr. I thought she did a good job of what the information she had presented to you kind of what some of the options were going to be, what some of the alternatives were. I think your new superintendent is going to be look at the agency expectations because they are using the code the education code and accountability and assessment rules in a stronger fashion stronger than I've seen. Now, it may be and I don't want to say it couldn't be good for kids. Um, could be harsh for some school districts. I think it may very well be harsh. But if I were recommending anything to you, the board, your team, the team of eight, I would say be mindful. There's a level of seriousness I'm not seeing the agency. Uh and again

146I think the agency has every right to insist upon higher levels of performance. You all want higher levels of performance. I want higher levels of performance. Having said that, you also don't want to lose teachers. You don't want to lose staff. You want to be able to do what needs to be done. We can throw money at a problem. Um but that doesn't fix the problem. It seldom fixes the problem. Um and >> No. No. So, >> so at some point in there, we have to get parents engaged as well because education um and I heard a retired NCO say this the other day who uh has now written a book and did wonderful things in the military and he said when he was young he didn't take education very seriously. he was a high

147school dropout and then even as a leader in the military he didn't necessarily push education and now as an older gentleman he looks back at that and says dang I wish I had done better and so um for parents um it's for them to see the opportunity uh that KISSD has for their children and how we embrace it how do we bring those parents into the fold because we we can put some of the burden we can put the burden on the teacher in the classroom. We can put the burden on the school district uh to educate the child. Um but it's it's a three-legged stool. Uh so uh how do we fix that short leg if we have a short leg? What are we going to teach? Who's going to who going to teach?

148Who's going to teach? Who's going to pay? Parents are such part of the equation. But you know about giving y'all the 70 707 70 deal too. 70% of our students in all the Texas public schools are minority children. 70% of our teachers teaching all those kids are Anglo or white teachers and 70% of the adult taxpayers in Texas do not have school age children. So that 707 7070 thing I use that a lot of speeches I've made that's a big dynamic in Texas but in answer your question I don't say we did this with great success although we had better than success than I thought in Dallas we had Saturday school for parents we had Saturday school parents and we had We had breakfast, we had food, we had to get people would come for

149food sometime, but we had Saturday school in the mornings to help train parents of how to help their kids and if they couldn't help them with their homework, we tried to train what to look for and also the subject of student discipline conduct was a thing. We did it at middle schools and I'm not we were the but it's amaz I go to those on Saturday mornings and I was always amazed that we would show up and of course our we had parents of all ethnicities because our school district at that time was 92% of children were minority children in Dallas so and even my even my wife was involved in in training parents and teaching parents but it wasn't Again, part of it was the ones who wanted help in terms of uh helping

150their children with learning to do that. We had we had second language parents that could but needed to understand, you know, what was being asked, what was being expected of their children and we had also again student conduct training, student conduct classes, what's expected, why why it's now There's there's an expense with that, too. But but we made we made the decision that that was an investment that had to be made. So, I'll just offer the offer that as something to think about, not as a magic bullet, but just something to think about. But what it also said to our parents is we're not leaving you behind and we're going to offer you something if you really care. Here, here's your opportunity. So, so per people say, "Well, what are you doing? What are you

151doing for us to help us understand what we're dealing with? What you're dealing with here?" Well, we got we got four Saturday we got four middle schools that have Saturday schools. But I ask people sometime I said, "Why why' you come? Why' you come?" Because you fed me fed us. >> Public education is free to consume. sad. >> It's no doubt. But you know that that 70770 dynamic is one that we gota we got to be ready to address. I mean that's why I say get ready to have a b bond issue. you getting ready to go find, you know, we we passed the nation's largest bond issue for about a billion eight when I was superintendent Dallas and everybody said editorial board Dallas news said not going to happen. You're not going to pass

152it. North Dallas voters for all the private schools aren't going to vote for this. I said we're going to give them an opportunity and the largest vote number of votes we'd ever had people vote in bond election in Dallas was 28,000 and that 70% that don't have school age kids. I did find out where they all were. They were First Baptist Church, First Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church, the temple, uh Catholic church. They were they were in all the churches. And so everybody that would hear me on Wednesday night or Tuesday night or Thursday night or Methodist men or wherever they were meeting, they got they got the school deal, which was basically you don't have kids in school, your property taxes are frozen. And by the way, your property value has something to

153do with muchity. That day on the bond election, no big deal. But we had 33,000 most people ever voted. We had 105,000 people that we got 65% with absentee voting. I think we got 74% and built 20 new schools about 230 schools. But those those people again, the parents talked about and then the ones that don't have school age kids. >> Y'all, y'all already know the fastest growing parts of the population over 55 >> and the under 18. And the under 18 are more minority. So here's the big question. We got to make it so they understand how how important this is. You can do it. You're going to do you're going to do it. You're going to do it. You're going to get you're going to do some good things. Get get good leadership.

154Then you'll trust. You'll trust. You'll verify. No surprises. Ask your questions. What else? I'm already over time since I told y'all get out here. Y'all got other things to do tonight, but Dr. Davis, anything I didn't talk about? You said you thought, "Man, this guy needs to say something better." You said, "I'm sick of this. Get out of Get out of here." >> No, I've been very fortunate. Anything else we hadn't said? I was surprised when I was learn,000 to run the campaign >> that's in and that that's in the district I live in, two or three of the districts. There's it's not true in all the districts, but there are a couple there are there are probably three districts in Dallas that do require um and I'll say this, the Dallas board has has

155really really the Dallas is and I'm I wouldn't have said this 10 years ago, right? 15 years ago, we we had some success while I was there. They kind of had some other things happen as urban districts do. But if you went and looked at their facilities today and you looked at Dallas's performance, their B-rated district, they're not only the best urban district in Texas. They may be the best in the United States. Their new their new schools, new South Oakliff High School, the new Thomas Jefferson, these are schools that 60 70 years old that have been replaced that in in the communities and the city has built new libraries and new fire stations and the community. It's it's it's really it's really interesting to see what's happened there. Um but you you know what

156that my wife and I were driving around here. We came in here today and we you know we drove down to Young. We just kind of drove down here and went back and looked at some of the churches and just looked at some of the this is this I mean there's a lot here. There's a lot here to to build on and and and I know that y'all are trying hard. Um, but I think if you can make it a team deal, you make it a team deal, you're going to do really really well. And and and I know you get you get get pressed sometimes maybe by some of your constituents and and that social media can be a real it can kick you. Uh, I've never been on I've never been on Facebook.

157I've never been on X. I don't do I just can't do stuff when there's no accountability and I'm just not gonna do it. And I and I urge you to think about it. Do it. Use it fine. Be careful with it. Don't let it be don't let it become what evaluates the work that you do as trustees. Mr. President, thank you all very very much. I've enjoyed it. And uh Peggy Peggy will send Well, Dr. Moses, we appreciate your time uh coming to Colleen uh today to help us and just on so many fronts, just not the team of eight training, but also through our search process. So, on behalf of the board of trustees, we thank we want to say thank you. Uh, and you got my don't need it anymore. >> Well, trustees,

158we're to agenda item number three. >> And I've got a motion by Madame Capido and I have a second by Mr. Gilchrist to adjourn the team of eight training at 7:42 p.m. on Monday, October 20th. We are journed.